Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 43

writ in water

Wakanomori went for a bike ride beneath high-tension wires and took this photo of the wires reflected in a little stream.



The water is rippling and moving, so the reflection is broken up. It looks ...



... like calligraphy



The very calligraphy that Waka spends his days deciphering and teaching--as in this example, an essay by an 18th-century female scholar, writing on the Kokinshū, an imperially commissioned poetry anthology of 10th-century Japan.



If I can get Waka to read me the water calligraphy, ...

Oak, elm, pine, cedar ... maple?

I will joyously post if my cat comes home, so in the meantime ...

Well, here is something I loved on Twitter: Answer the question (link takes you to a one-minute TikTok video on Twitter).

I love this guy generally; his little videos are always hilarious, and the interactions between the two characters are so perfect, and oh the question!

So ... WHAT WOULD YOU BE?

On Twitter I said "I think I'd like to be as heroic, beautiful, and liminal as a red mangrove" --to which one of my Twitter friends repli...

polls, surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires

Sometimes little online quizzes and things can be fun--things that tell you which character in XX show/book you are, or whatever. But as you've probably all experienced taking those quizzes, they reveal as much or more about the assumptions of the quiz creator as they do about you.

That's one of my huge--sometimes insurmountable--problems with health questionnaires or political polls, too. (With political polls, another huge problem I have is who the hell is actually answering them. I *never* res...

Caves!

Yesterday we went to visit the healing angel, who lives in an apartment nestled up against a steep hill topped by impressive towers of rock in which are ... the Sunderland Caves. We didn't actually know there would be cave-caves. We thought it would be mainly things like this overhang:



But then we rounded a corner and felt a sudden breath of cold air ("Wow, this is ... very Lovecraftian," said the healing angel). With a little exploring, we found an entrance.

Here the healing angel looks into the...

Shūbun/Scandal (1949)

Wakanomori and I watched this early Kurosawa film just now, and wow--what a story, what actors, what cinematography. There's a scene in the middle, where the tired down-and-outers at an all-night bar start singing the Japanese-language version of Auld Lang Syne, that shows a love of humanity that brings tears to your eyes--it's as stirring as when everyone sings the Marseillaise in Casablanca, though for completely different reasons.

It stars a very young Toshiro Mifune as an artist (Ichiro Aoi ...

A song, and some thoughts

Here's something you can play while you do whatever you do during the next, oh, let's say a week? That's probably optimistic...



( cut for politics )

comments

advance readers

Melanie Nelson, my publisher at Annorlunda, is looking for advance readers for LAGOONFIRE, people who will post an honest review on their blog or other site in return for a copy of the book. If you'd like to do that--or if you know someone who might-- here is where you can sign up, or you can email info(at)annorlundaenterprises.com and ask for a copy.

comments

2020 jack-o-lantern

The jack-o-lantern I carved for my storytime with the girls next door decayed before Halloween arrived, so I made another.



That photo was from October 29. October 30, we got snow:



It was supposed to be Dave, the bug character from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, making this face:



But the mouth glows almost too bright in the jack-o-lantern.

I love Dave! He cycles through the stages of his life. Fortunately for his friends, he's mainly at the adult stage:



But eventually he falls into old age...



And th...

"A Ghost in Brazil"

As the translator of this Japanese short story says in the tweet that brought it to my attention, "I won't blame you for not knowing you needed an Olympics ghost story in your life, but at least now you do." ( source )

It begins promisingly...

I was ever so keen to visit the Aran Islands, but unfortunately, I died before ever making it out of Japan.

And continues that way!

And yet. In the months just prior to my death the idea had been mooted among the members of the neighbourhood association to go a...

friendship rock

All neighborhoods have these little landmarks. This broad, flat rock at the edge of mine has become very popular during pandemic times:



I see couples sitting here all the time. There's a woman who comes with a blind man; sometimes women-who-walk-for-exercise sit and chat here. Yesterday it was these girls, who said they didn't mind if I posted their picture--so I am!



Bless you, friendship rock.

comments