The Aviary

Things:

- A patron came in and told me that she was glad I was here because she had just heard an interview with Anne Rice where people who practice IRL vampirism were talked about and she figured, if anyone knew anything about that particular subculture, it would be me. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about that. (For the record: I have read about people who practice IRL vampirism - there is a chapter about them in David Skal's The Monster Show - but I've never personally met any. Also, YKINMKBYKIOK and all that.)

- Last night was movie night at Bainbridge and we watched The Scarlet Empress. About which three things. 1) Hey, wow, pre-Code film. There are totally naked ladies in this movie. I did not expect that. 2) One of the really neat things about the film is the way that it's so clearly a transitional work between silent movies and talkies. There are long stretches with no dialogue and much broader acting than you get later, and there are intertitle screens every five minutes or so. Often hilarious intertitle screens. Even though it was made years later than, say, Frankenstein, it feels older because of that. 3) I kinda want the entire Imperial Russian palace from this movie. Not quite as much as I want the castle from Son of Frankenstein or Hjalmar Poelzig's house from The Black Cat, but the furniture is just amazing.

- We have a sub today - one I've worked with a lot - who was not around while I was reading Les Miz. (Which, no, I still haven't finished. Someday!) And somehow, we ended up talking about it. Apparently, my sales pitch for getting people to read Les Miz is totally the wacky dead nun shenanigans. I think this is because I figure that everyone knows the book is sad but no one ever told me that it was also occasionally really really funny.

- So, I am currently listening to an audiobook of Clash of Kings. It is not a bad audiobook, so much, as an audiobook in which the reader makes decisions that I do not understand. For instance: Tyrion is inexplicably Welsh. I understand that with a cast that large you have to do what you can to distinguish characters but none of the other Lannisters are in any way Welsh and so it throws me out of the performance every time Tyrion talks. (On the other hand, the reader has at least remembered that maybe Stannis and Renly should have similar accents and thus is one up on the show.)

- Starting next Thursday, the parentals are going to California to visit my sisters. And I have that Friday through Tuesday off. I am counting down.

Today, I went to see Les Miz again. It's possible that I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which of Les Amis was supposed to be which. (I mean, besides Enjolras and Grantaire, because they're easy.) Also, I bought books for learning French, because I am slightly ridiculous and fannish obsession makes me want to learn languages. However! Buying books is considerably easier for French than when I wanted to learn Russian, Portuguese, or (gods help us) Icelandic*. For French, I can buy a reader. It's pretty great.

Also, I bought new sneakers. Because they were $15 and were sparkly. Oh gods, the number of things I am willing to purchase if you cover them in glitter!



*I still want to learn all of these things.

I think I may have some sort of Victor Hugo-induced Stockholm Syndrome. I just finished the digression on the Paris street urchin (and how Paris is the best city ever, did you know?) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am also thoroughly enjoying how ridiculous Marius is. Oh god, he is so absurd! He has just fallen madly in love with Napoleon (who is dead, let me point out) - it is hilarious. He had new calling cards made, giving himself a title that Napoleon gave his father and thus Marius would have inherited if not for the whole return-of-monarchy thing but Marius has no friends and no one to give calling cards to, so they just sit in his pocket. Oh, he is so terrible, it is amazing.

Also amazing - the wacky nun-related shenanigans of the previous book. Valjean has accidentally entered a convent and needs to sneak out of the convent in order to come back into the convent when he has permission to be there. Fortunately, one of the nuns has just died and wanted to be buried under the altar, which is against all kinds of health and safety laws. But the head of the convent does not care! She should be able to bury nuns wherever she wants! So they bury the nun under the altar and the gardener sneaks Valjean out in the empty coffin that they have to bury in the municipal cemetery, pretending the dead nun is in it. And Valjean is almost buried alive! They must have cut this out of the abridged version I once had because I think I would have remembered Valjean almost being buried alive. Because it is awesome.

I love reading this one my kindle, because I feel no qualms whatsoever about highlighting or leaving notes in an electronic book and so my copy of Les Miz is now covered in highlighted passages, just because I thought they were neat. It's pretty great.

Things:

- Still reading Les Miserables. Here is the thing about Victor Hugo: so, Fantine has died, Valjean has admitted his identity but has managed to slip away from Javert, the chapter ends with Valjean fleeing into the night on a nice little cliffhanger and then...let's talk about the battle of Waterloo! You wanted to talk about Waterloo, right? So let's talk about it! Forever! I mean, it's not that the writing about Waterloo is bad, it's just that I would like to get back to the plot sometime this week.

- For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I have acquired the Canadian cast recording of Phantom, which has Colm Wilkinson in the title role. I don't think I have ever heard Mr Wilkinson sing any role other than Valjean, so hearing him as the Phantom is alternately kinda neat and freaking me out. Partially because I keep picturing him as Valjean in the Phantom mask and partially because I am just not prepared for Valjean in any sort of romantic role. It's bizarre.

- Just had my first ever conversation with a patron who doesn't want a new Kingston library. He was all "But the current library works just fine!" Sir, the library may work okay, but in the past 18 months or so, this building has caught fire twice, flooded twice, and had to close for a week because the furnace was spewing noxious fumes. We manage to keep it reasonably warm in the library with space heaters (though we can't turn on too many or all the lights in the building go out), but the hallways and the bathrooms are frigid because the rest of the building gets no heat and has no insulation. In the summer, we have occasionally had to close because it is too hot to be in the library. We need a new building, I promise. And then the library will be bigger, so you win too!

- My least favorite patron ever - who a couple years ago turned in his card and cancelled his account with us because of some obscure grudge against the library system administration - has returned and opened a new account. And is just as creepy and superior and condescending as ever. And still calls me "young lady" and "a gentlefem and a scholaress"*, which wasn't funny the first time. I am really not pleased to see him again.


Good things, bad things.



*We have another frequent patron who calls me "a gentleperson and a scholar" quite a lot. That isn't funny either but also isn't objectionable, being wholly gender neutral rather than calling attention to my gender in a snotty and unnecessary way. Also, he isn't a condescending jerk.