Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 122
February 18, 2019
Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow
Sherwood and I are snowed in! We had intended to depart today, but yesterday the snow piled up six to eight inches, and and we are at the end of a steep, half-mile dirt road. Hopefully we can escape tomorrow. We would not actually mind being snowed in, but I am expecting Layla to fly in and stay with me in LA on Friday, and there is more snow expected on Thursday.
Layla is coming in from Alaska. She had hoped for sunny warm weather in LA, not for ME to get snowed in!
Previously, on the very few occasions when I experienced snow, it was also bitterly cold and though I enjoyed looking at it from inside, I couldn't spend much time outside as I quickly got so cold that it was no longer fun. This time, it hasn't been all that cold, so I could take long walks in the snow and feel like the weather was no more than crisp and pleasant.
Yesterday I indulged this by hauling my parents, Dad's dog Heidi (carrying her beloved Squeaky, a blue rubber ball), and Sherwood to walk the entire length of the dirt road. It snowing lightly, but we were bundled up. Then, right before we hit the end of the road, we got hit by a mini snowstorm. Snow started pelting down as very tiny balls of ice crystals, like teeny hail. We then walked the whole length back with snow pelting down on us and piling up on our hat (Sherwood) and hood (me). And then escaped to my cabin, where we lit a fire and dried off.
I am staying at the cabin, which is downhill from the main house, so I walk back every night. Normally nights in Mariposa are pitch black due to the lack of light pollution. In snow, light reflects off the snow and makes it bright as day, though the light is blue-white rather than yellow-white. You can see easily, though colors are washed out - I can distinguish brown and yellow, but dark green leaves seem black.
The snow is fluffy, like cake flour that sticks to itself. My feet sink in way past my ankles.
My cabin outside...
And inside.
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Layla is coming in from Alaska. She had hoped for sunny warm weather in LA, not for ME to get snowed in!
Previously, on the very few occasions when I experienced snow, it was also bitterly cold and though I enjoyed looking at it from inside, I couldn't spend much time outside as I quickly got so cold that it was no longer fun. This time, it hasn't been all that cold, so I could take long walks in the snow and feel like the weather was no more than crisp and pleasant.
Yesterday I indulged this by hauling my parents, Dad's dog Heidi (carrying her beloved Squeaky, a blue rubber ball), and Sherwood to walk the entire length of the dirt road. It snowing lightly, but we were bundled up. Then, right before we hit the end of the road, we got hit by a mini snowstorm. Snow started pelting down as very tiny balls of ice crystals, like teeny hail. We then walked the whole length back with snow pelting down on us and piling up on our hat (Sherwood) and hood (me). And then escaped to my cabin, where we lit a fire and dried off.
I am staying at the cabin, which is downhill from the main house, so I walk back every night. Normally nights in Mariposa are pitch black due to the lack of light pollution. In snow, light reflects off the snow and makes it bright as day, though the light is blue-white rather than yellow-white. You can see easily, though colors are washed out - I can distinguish brown and yellow, but dark green leaves seem black.
The snow is fluffy, like cake flour that sticks to itself. My feet sink in way past my ankles.
My cabin outside...
And inside.
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February 16, 2019
Through the wardrobe
Sherwood and I at my parents' place in Mariposa (near Yosemite) for an impromptu writing retreat prompted by Dad sending me snow photos. Snow has been incredibly rare in my life, so I grabbed Sherwood and rushed up in the hope that we'd get more. And sure enough, it snowed again! Snow is falling outside my window even as I write!
Sherwood is staying at the main house with my folks. I'm at the cabin with my cats, which is a 5-minute walk down a hill and heated by a woodturning stove. So to get to the main house, I must hike uphill and in the snow! (You can't drive up the driveway when it's snowy, as it's icy and treacherous.)
It looks like Narnia outside all windows, and is wonderfully silent when I'm in the cabin or can convince Dad to turn off the TV.
I have been busy making winter treats, such as hot cider and apple turnovers, and non-winter-specific ones, such as frozen Thin Mints dipped in whipped cream and lavender-blueberry cocktails. (Lemonade infused with blueberries, lavender vodka.) We are just eating what we have in the house, as we can't drive anywhere due to ice, but as you can see this is not exactly a hardship.
Before it snowed, the koi pond overflowed and went over the dock and the lawn chairs. Then, snow. Those are floating snow-covered lounge chairs!
The views outside the cabin window:
Alex materializes on my shoulder via dimensional portal:
Alex was very excited by the snow, which he's seeing for the first time. He darted through my legs when I opened the door to fetch wood and began leaping and prancing about in the snow, leaving a trail of little kitty paw prints. I retrieved him with some difficulty. Guess me and my cat are two of a kind.
Also I got four wonderful stories for Chocolate Box! I will do a rec post later today, hopefully. Meanwhile, go enjoy the archive.
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Sherwood is staying at the main house with my folks. I'm at the cabin with my cats, which is a 5-minute walk down a hill and heated by a woodturning stove. So to get to the main house, I must hike uphill and in the snow! (You can't drive up the driveway when it's snowy, as it's icy and treacherous.)
It looks like Narnia outside all windows, and is wonderfully silent when I'm in the cabin or can convince Dad to turn off the TV.
I have been busy making winter treats, such as hot cider and apple turnovers, and non-winter-specific ones, such as frozen Thin Mints dipped in whipped cream and lavender-blueberry cocktails. (Lemonade infused with blueberries, lavender vodka.) We are just eating what we have in the house, as we can't drive anywhere due to ice, but as you can see this is not exactly a hardship.
Before it snowed, the koi pond overflowed and went over the dock and the lawn chairs. Then, snow. Those are floating snow-covered lounge chairs!
The views outside the cabin window:
Alex materializes on my shoulder via dimensional portal:
Alex was very excited by the snow, which he's seeing for the first time. He darted through my legs when I opened the door to fetch wood and began leaping and prancing about in the snow, leaving a trail of little kitty paw prints. I retrieved him with some difficulty. Guess me and my cat are two of a kind.
Also I got four wonderful stories for Chocolate Box! I will do a rec post later today, hopefully. Meanwhile, go enjoy the archive.
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February 10, 2019
The Summer Birds (Aviary Hall # 1), by Penelope Farmer
In this children’s fantasy from 1962, a mysterious and birdlike boy approaches the children of a small school. One by one, he teaches them to fly.
Simple yet deep, beautiful and bittersweet and very very magical. The flying scenes, especially the very first one in which he teaches twelve-year-old Charlotte to fly by flapping her arms, capture the intense longing for magic that some of us felt as children, along with the sense that it might just be possible.
I have a recurring dream in which I can fly, in a manner that is very much like the one depicted here. In the dream, it’s something I used to know how to do but had forgotten for years, and only just remembered. Always, I memorize how to do it, so I won’t forget again. Always, I wake up and find it almost impossible to believe that it was only a dream, that I can’t really fly, and – by far the hardest part to believe - that I have never been able to fly.
This is the first book in a loose trilogy about the sisters Emma and Charlotte Makepeace; I think all three books are standalones involving the same characters. The second, which I own but haven’t read yet, is Emma in Winter. The third book, Charlotte Sometimes, is by far the best-known of the three and is the only one still in print and easily available. It’s been a while since I read it but I do recall it being more literary and complex. That being said, I like this one more. The Summer Birds captures a very specific concept and mood, that you once could fly and could again if you can only remember how, better than anything else I’ve ever read. If you too dream of flight, you have to read this.
Used copies are very expensive on Amazon but cheaper on Abebooks and other used book finders. Or your library might have it.
The Summer Birds
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Simple yet deep, beautiful and bittersweet and very very magical. The flying scenes, especially the very first one in which he teaches twelve-year-old Charlotte to fly by flapping her arms, capture the intense longing for magic that some of us felt as children, along with the sense that it might just be possible.
I have a recurring dream in which I can fly, in a manner that is very much like the one depicted here. In the dream, it’s something I used to know how to do but had forgotten for years, and only just remembered. Always, I memorize how to do it, so I won’t forget again. Always, I wake up and find it almost impossible to believe that it was only a dream, that I can’t really fly, and – by far the hardest part to believe - that I have never been able to fly.
This is the first book in a loose trilogy about the sisters Emma and Charlotte Makepeace; I think all three books are standalones involving the same characters. The second, which I own but haven’t read yet, is Emma in Winter. The third book, Charlotte Sometimes, is by far the best-known of the three and is the only one still in print and easily available. It’s been a while since I read it but I do recall it being more literary and complex. That being said, I like this one more. The Summer Birds captures a very specific concept and mood, that you once could fly and could again if you can only remember how, better than anything else I’ve ever read. If you too dream of flight, you have to read this.
Used copies are very expensive on Amazon but cheaper on Abebooks and other used book finders. Or your library might have it.
The Summer Birds
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February 9, 2019
Free Solo (documentary)
Free Solo, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, documents Alex Honnold's ropeless climb of Yosemite's El Capitan. (Spoiler: he's fine!)
It's absolutely spectacular to watch, which was of particular interest to me since I've been to Yosemite often and seen climbers, but only from a very long distance away. Watching someone climb close up - free solo at that - was amazing. It's extremely suspenseful even though you know the outcome. Vasarhelyi and Chin do a great job of making specific points of difficulty comprehensible to non-climbers, so you're not just thinking, "Will he fall?" you're thinking, "How's he going to do on the Boulder Problem?"
But what's just as interesting as the climbing is Honnold himself. The movie is as much a character portrait as a document of an extraordinary physical feat - in fact, it's largely a document of why that particular person is attempting that particular extraordinary feat. At the beginning, you can't imagine why anyone would try it; by the end, you can't imagine why Honnold specifically wouldn't. It's all of a piece of who he is.
By profiling someone who takes what seem to be extreme risks, but from his perspective are both not all that risky and absolutely worth taking, it raises questions of what we owe others, what we owe ourselves, how we balance risk and benefit, and how we weigh glory against length of days.
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It's absolutely spectacular to watch, which was of particular interest to me since I've been to Yosemite often and seen climbers, but only from a very long distance away. Watching someone climb close up - free solo at that - was amazing. It's extremely suspenseful even though you know the outcome. Vasarhelyi and Chin do a great job of making specific points of difficulty comprehensible to non-climbers, so you're not just thinking, "Will he fall?" you're thinking, "How's he going to do on the Boulder Problem?"
But what's just as interesting as the climbing is Honnold himself. The movie is as much a character portrait as a document of an extraordinary physical feat - in fact, it's largely a document of why that particular person is attempting that particular extraordinary feat. At the beginning, you can't imagine why anyone would try it; by the end, you can't imagine why Honnold specifically wouldn't. It's all of a piece of who he is.
By profiling someone who takes what seem to be extreme risks, but from his perspective are both not all that risky and absolutely worth taking, it raises questions of what we owe others, what we owe ourselves, how we balance risk and benefit, and how we weigh glory against length of days.
comments
February 8, 2019
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Kitty Friday
Alex is interested in my phone:
Alex is very interested:
Alex loses interest, howls at the moon:
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Alex is very interested:
Alex loses interest, howls at the moon:
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February 7, 2019
Life's Pleasant Surprises
Yesterday I went to TCM Chinese (Graumann's Chinese) to see Free Solo, the spectacular documentary about climber Alex Honnold's free solo of El Capitan in Yosemite, and was delighted to discover after the movie that he was there to talk about it! I will review the movie later, but wanted to post this photo separately so my hair doesn't distract from discussion about the film. ;)
Afterward, while trying to find the parking garage, I came across a gallery housing this is MANGA – the Art of NAOKI URASAWA. It's free and very impressive - check it out if you're in LA and it's of interest.
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Afterward, while trying to find the parking garage, I came across a gallery housing this is MANGA – the Art of NAOKI URASAWA. It's free and very impressive - check it out if you're in LA and it's of interest.
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February 5, 2019
Dollhouse bathroom and kitchen
As promised.
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She's Like A Rainbow
Yesterday I got my dyed in a style called "oil slick," which is a type of rainbow hair that brunettes can do.
I love it. It came out even better than I imagined. It's prettier in person than in the pics - the colors are both more delicate and more visible, and you can see more of them.
I asked the stylist not to try to cover up the gray in my hair, but to keep it as is so it (I hoped) would become another color accent. I say "gray," but it's actually a bright, glittering white. I like it and hope to have a streak rather than just individual strands some day. Anyway, that worked very nicely - it adds to the sparkly/metallic effect.
Even more photos, in different light and showing how changing my part reveals different colors. ( Read more... )
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I love it. It came out even better than I imagined. It's prettier in person than in the pics - the colors are both more delicate and more visible, and you can see more of them.
I asked the stylist not to try to cover up the gray in my hair, but to keep it as is so it (I hoped) would become another color accent. I say "gray," but it's actually a bright, glittering white. I like it and hope to have a streak rather than just individual strands some day. Anyway, that worked very nicely - it adds to the sparkly/metallic effect.
Even more photos, in different light and showing how changing my part reveals different colors. ( Read more... )
comments
February 4, 2019
Russian Doll (Netflix TV)
2019 has barely gotten started, and it’s already a great year for TV. This intricate, original, funny, and moving show, which I never heard of till it was released, is wonderful and likely to be of great interest to many of you. It’s complete on Netflix in eight half-hour episodes, and could easily be marathoned in a single day. And while there’s way more to it than twists, it has a lot of them and the less you know going in, the better.
You might want to stop reading this review right now and go watch it. In fact, if at any point I sell you on it, you should stop reading the review right there and go watch it. If you’re not immediately grabbed by episode one, I would keep going through episode three or four; there’s a fantastic and unusual relationship at the heart of the show, and it’s not immediately obvious what it is.
Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) is a brassy, very New York woman celebrating her 36th birthday in her friends’ loft, which was once a yeshiva. She picks up a pretentious man for a one-night stand, then goes out to search for her missing cat, Oatmeal. [Don't worry, he's fine.] She’s hit by a cab and dies.
And she wakes up back at her birthday party, exactly where we started the show, with her staring into the mirror in a bathroom with a light installation that looks like a vagina-shaped rift in the space-time continuum. She goes back into the party and carries on with her life. Until she dies. Again. And wakes up back at her birthday party, staring into the mirror…
Russian Doll shares aspects of its premise with Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow. But there’s way more to it than immediately meets the eye. Very mild thematic and genre spoilers below cut. ( Read more... )
I might just go back and rewatch the entire thing from the beginning. It’s a marvel.
The entire creative team was female, and it’s amazing how different that makes the whole show feel from almost every other TV show I’ve seen. It really highlights how few women are TV creators and showrunners. I’m not talking about any "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus“ bullshit, but how many both big and little moments involve the lived experience of being a woman in America in a way I just don’t normally see. (It doesn't help that many male creators seem to believe that men are from Earth, and women are aliens from another dimension.)
There's a lot of diversity in terms of race, religion, and sexual orientation. I particularly enjoyed the parts that involved Judaism, which felt true to my own experience in a way that, again, I have never seen on TV before.
If anyone’s already seen Russian Doll, or sees it later, let me know and I’ll put up a spoiler post so we can talk about it.
comments
You might want to stop reading this review right now and go watch it. In fact, if at any point I sell you on it, you should stop reading the review right there and go watch it. If you’re not immediately grabbed by episode one, I would keep going through episode three or four; there’s a fantastic and unusual relationship at the heart of the show, and it’s not immediately obvious what it is.
Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) is a brassy, very New York woman celebrating her 36th birthday in her friends’ loft, which was once a yeshiva. She picks up a pretentious man for a one-night stand, then goes out to search for her missing cat, Oatmeal. [Don't worry, he's fine.] She’s hit by a cab and dies.
And she wakes up back at her birthday party, exactly where we started the show, with her staring into the mirror in a bathroom with a light installation that looks like a vagina-shaped rift in the space-time continuum. She goes back into the party and carries on with her life. Until she dies. Again. And wakes up back at her birthday party, staring into the mirror…
Russian Doll shares aspects of its premise with Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow. But there’s way more to it than immediately meets the eye. Very mild thematic and genre spoilers below cut. ( Read more... )
I might just go back and rewatch the entire thing from the beginning. It’s a marvel.
The entire creative team was female, and it’s amazing how different that makes the whole show feel from almost every other TV show I’ve seen. It really highlights how few women are TV creators and showrunners. I’m not talking about any "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus“ bullshit, but how many both big and little moments involve the lived experience of being a woman in America in a way I just don’t normally see. (It doesn't help that many male creators seem to believe that men are from Earth, and women are aliens from another dimension.)
There's a lot of diversity in terms of race, religion, and sexual orientation. I particularly enjoyed the parts that involved Judaism, which felt true to my own experience in a way that, again, I have never seen on TV before.
If anyone’s already seen Russian Doll, or sees it later, let me know and I’ll put up a spoiler post so we can talk about it.
comments
