(no subject)

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain by way of spam. That was nice of the spam to give me Twain quotes, wasn't it? I ought to try to read something of his beyond Huck Finn, now that I'm out of school. Maybe some of his essays, despite the Jane Austen hate-on, or maybe Letters from the Earth, now that the psychic scars from that creepy-as-hell Claymation special that was partially based on it have faded. Does anyone remember that? I know I didn't hallucinate it, because both my brother and my brother-in-law remembered it too, but it's one of those things like the Disney version of the The Black Cauldron that elicit "Oh my God, I remember that!" from the initiated and tend to astonish and startle the unwary. Or, more likely, cause them to ask "so you smoked a lot of crack as a child, didn't you?" And it's like, well, yes, but this was real!

The Mark Twain deal was a very peculiar thing based on the fact that he was born and died in Halley's Comet years, and the premise was that he took a zeppelin up into the stratosphere... um, so he could die? I just remember the airship, and weird skits, and some kid stowaways that he was ranting at, and one scene where he was playing the organ and it had a caption or something saying "The Damned Human Race," and Mom made us stop watching. He kind of scared me. It was 1986, so I was all of seven. And easily alarmed. Pinnochio scared the crap out of me, too. That part with the boys turning into donkeys while yelling for their mothers? Egads.

Now I want to see if I can rent it. The Twain deal, not Pinocchio. Or at least find out its title. IMDB claims that Fat Albert movie is doing well. Leave my childhood ALONE, movies, yargh. A search for "Mark Twain" finds me this, which... sounds about right. The cast thing includes voices for Adam and Eve, which rings a bell too. It's not out on DVD, though. Sux0r.

Locke x Terra doujinshi online! You might even be able to read the text, if that helps you any. All G-rated. So you're either reassured or let down gently, I suppose. The art on one of them is kind of... special, but this one is really pretty.

Currently reading From Hell and trying to remember how much other Jack the Ripper fiction I've read. Enough that the Masonic content, the "maybe the royal family was involved" element, and a few unsavory details about the life of a Victorian prostitute are familiar. And the name Mary Kelly. The sketchy art style took some time to get used to, but works for the subject matter. The annotations are interesting in their own right, and include the unsurprising but funny tidbit that Neil Gaiman "has a dirty mouth in at least seven centuries."

yay!

TWELVE KINGDOMS VOLUME NINE IN MY HOT LITTLE HANDS RIGHT NOW. FINALLY!

All is well in the universe. Mostly. I haven't resolved the class thing, but I've done all that I could after office hours on a Friday. I've consented to see Sideways with my mother, which seemed to please her, and I ought to be a good daughter since she'll be feeding the cat for me next weekend.

Note - if you watch this series and have not already laid hands on this volume, do not look at the back cover before watching. Make your roommate, a family member, significant other, or random passerby open it for you if necessary. I mean, they've done spoilers on the back cover before, but this is particularly egregious, the more so as it's so late in the series. It's too late for me, but you can still save yourselves...

No matter. Spoiled or not, it's still the best series in the history of ever. And the cover image looks like it might be skinnable!

Now to stop rubbing my face up against it by way of marking it as my turf, and actually go watch it.