Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 72
January 11, 2011
Philadelphia Mummers 2011 Part 3
Saloon girl!
A pirate float!
You can't have a parade without a Stormtrooper.
My favorite float had a circus theme.
And finally, I leaned over the police barrier for this view up Broad Street towards City Hall.
January 10, 2011
Philadelphia Mummers 2011 Part 2
As promised, more pictures from the Mummers' Parade on New Year's Day.
That is one sexy French maid.
Grandma Gaga is doing her best to compete, though.
And then–ELVIS!!!
The Buccaneer Bakers! Pirates and baking, my kind of group.
Their pirate flag.
I'll post a few more pictures tomorrow.
January 9, 2011
Siegfried Sassoon, "The Rear-Guard"
The Rear-Guard
(HINDENBURG LINE, APRIL 1917)
Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare
From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know;
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw some one lie
Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug,
And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug.
'I'm looking for ...
January 8, 2011
Siegfried Sassoon, "Glory of Women"
Glory of Women
You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,
Or wounded in a mentionable place.
You worship decorations; you believe
That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.
You make us shells. You listen with delight,
By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.
You crown our distant ardours while we fight,
And mourn our laurelled memories when we're killed.
You can't believe that British troops 'retire'
When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,
Trampling the terrible corpses—blind with...
January 7, 2011
Philadelphia Mummers 2011 Part 1
Check out this lovely review of The Duke & The Pirate Queen at The Discriminating Fangirl!
On New Year's Day, a friend and I went to the annual New Year's Day Philadelphia Mummers' Parade. I took a ton of pictures, so even a selection is going to take me a couple of posts.
Supermen!
Note the Superman curl.
There goes Clark Kent!
A few of the floats.
Who Dat Froggy Carr?
These Frogs posed for me. The brick building behind them is the historic Academy of Music.
Still more Frogs!
Still Life Between...
January 6, 2011
Kindle Field Test
A few days ago, I returned from a two-week vacation that involved a lot of traveling, both in airplanes and in cars. I brought along my Kindle (which I bought in late November), one trade paperback novel (Cold Magic by Kate Elliott), and the most recent issue of the SFWA Bulletin (the size of a slim magazine).
I still enjoy reading paper books a bit more than reading on my Kindle; it takes more effort for me to ignore the flash of a page turn on the Kindle than it does to simply turn a paper ...
January 5, 2011
Betty Neels, Outside of Time
I am not nearly the connoisseur of Betty Neels' 134 novels as the gracious hostesses of specialist blog The Uncrushable Jersey Dress. But, having read about a half-dozen of her novels, I now venture to have some general thoughts on the contemporary world Neels portrayed.
So far, every Neels novel I've read features a young English woman who works as a nurse and is overlooked and underappreciated, particularly by her family and by men…until she meets an older man, distinguished, Dutch, a...
January 4, 2011
Sexy Pirates
This post was originally written for The Smutketeers; I've expanded it here.
Why did I want to write about pirates? Well, because they're sexy. It's the outfits, you know. All that silk and tattered finery! The amazing tattoos. The cutlasses. The way they grab hostages and lock them in cabins for their own pleasure. And finally, the isolation. Being stuck on a ship together is like the traditional "trapped in a lonely cabin" story, only with the possibility of being eaten by sharks....
January 3, 2011
Life in the Freezer
I really love David Attenborough. He's so interested in everything, and he communicates his interest through a television screen. Which is a writing lesson–putting yourself and your interests into what you're saying or writing gives those words more energy.
I recently watched the documentary he did on Antarctica, Life in the Freezer. It wasn't specifically for research; I was just interested! Also, I shocked myself by how little I really knew about Antarctica and the animals that live...
January 2, 2011
Chris Boucher quote
One of my favorite quotes ever:
"There are no good guys. There are no bad guys. There are only better guys, and worse guys."
–Chris Boucher
I post it at the start of this year because one of my goals is to learn to write better villains!
