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It's just been unbelievable what has been happening here in eastern Iowa. Cedar Rapids, the 2nd largest city in Iowa, is 20% underwater. 25,000 people have had to be evacuated. North of there, the city of Waterloo sustained significant damage. Downriver, the Iowa City/Coralville area is just now starting to flood and the river is not even supposed to crest there until Tuesday or so. The University of Iowa campus is already partly underwater, despite valiant efforts to protect some of the historic buildings with sandbags. Parts of Des Moines, the capitol city, are now being evacuated as well. Numerous small towns have been flooded out as well. ALL NINE of Iowa's interior rivers are above record flood-levels.
I-80, the major interstate going through Iowa, has been closed east of Iowa City. I-380, a major road connecting northeastern Iowa with central Iowa, has also been closed, just south of Cedar Rapids. The traffic is being routed through Dubuque (where I live), which is extraordinary considering that Dubuque is about an hour and twenty minutes' drive north of I-80. That's one hell of a detour. But they have to do it, because the rivers are all flooded and most of the bridges are closed.
To make matters worse, a couple of evenings ago, a tornado touched down in western Iowa in the middle of a Boy Scout camp, killing four boys and wounding 48 others. These kids were only 13-14 years old. It's heartbreaking, although the stories coming out about how the other Boy Scouts took charge of things and started doing first-aid on the wounded and cutting through fallen trees to open the road to the isolated camp are very inspirational. People who bitch about bad kids today certainly haven't met these boys.
We're still okay, and so is Bob's family, who lives in the Des Moines area. One of his brothers has a house only blocks away from the evacuation area, but he, himself, is off doing Army service. The rest of Bob's family lives well away from the rivers there. Dubuque has seen a couple of landslides and some roads have been closed due to flooding in the northern part of the county, but on the whole, the most people have to complain about around here are perpetually wet basements. The Mississippi has flooded a bit, but it looks like the cities and town downstream are going to have more to worry about than we will. The biggest inconvenience is the traffic being re-routed from I-80, much of it involving huge trucks, since I-80 is one of the major roads that go through the center of America. The roads in Dubuque just aren't set up to handle that much traffic.
Iowa is normally such a dull place, but this year we've had a record-breaking snowfalls, killer tornadoes and now record-breaking floods. WTF? I'm not sure how much the national media is covering the story, because we've had non-stop flood coverage on the network channels for the past few days, but this is a huge, historic disaster. We've familiar with the areas affected, and it just hurts to see the damage the floods have caused.
A song for the moment: Iowa by Dar Williams
The plot involves a reporter, Kyoko, (played by Ono Mayumi) who specializes in fluff pieces, reporting on "rumors". Her boyfriend, a photographer, Nishina, (played by my boy Sakai Masato) has a nightmare about her investigating an urban legend called "The Wall Man". Strangely enough, the next day, a letter arrives at her office telling her about the legend, a letter with an address, but no name.
BEWARE: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!!!
Kyoko decides that The Wall Man would make a good story for her show, so she goes to the address on the letter, only to find that it's the basement of an abandoned shopping center. The place is creepy, but she finds nothing substantial. However, she keeps running into people who have heard the legend and have leads to follow, so she continues with the story.
In the meantime, her boyfriend Nishina has become intrigued with the Wall Man story. He picks up the theme of walls for his next photography exhibition. His previous one, Inner/Outer, was all pictures of faces and hands. In a flashback, it is revealed that the Inner/Outer exhibition is where he met Kyoko. She was there as a reporter, and he took pictures of her. He was especially drawn to her right hand, which was scarred. Walls, Nishina thinks, are neither "inner" or "outer", but somewhere in between.
As Kyoko investigates the Wall Man, Nishina takes pictures of walls and examines them for traces of the Wall Man. Kyoko, however, becomes afraid. The story that she has reported has set off a media frenzy. The few real leads that she receives are disturbing. A man is supposedly injured by the Wall Man when his apartment wall collapses. The taxi driver who gives her the man's address is later injured in a car wreck. And Nishina is beginning to act very strangely.
Determined to contact the Wall Man, Nishina gives up taking photographs and puts up post-its of alphabets all over his walls, not only kana (the phonetic characters of the Japanese language), but Roman and Greek letters as well. To each letter, he attaches a bell. Kyoko leaves him, and he spends all his time in his room, waiting to hear back from the Wall Man.
It turns out that the original letter about the Wall Man was a hoax, made up by one of the cameramen who works for Kyoko. But the legend has taken on a life of its own now. A disturbed fan goes to the basement where Kyoko originally searched for the Wall Man and threatens suicide if she won't speak to him. She goes there, but gets no answers as the man is captured by the police as they talk. Later, she admits to her cameraman that she was relieved that the crazy man in the basement wasn't Nishina.
The cameraman (who was the guy who started the hoax) is on the verge of confessing, but then asks if Kyoko wants him to go with her to check on Nishina. They go, and find him laying on the floor, his head bashed into the wall. While the cameraman goes to get help, the bells on the wall start ringing. The letters spell out that Nishina is already dead, and when Kyoko asks who is ringing the bells, the answer is the Wall Man.
And then there is the trick ending, but it's difficult to explain. Suffice to say, the urban legend dies down, but the Wall Man remains, and Nishina is waiting for Kyoko to join him.
Again, creepy rather than scary, but a very interesting movie. The director managed to make ordinary walls seem ominous. The acting was great and the script was rather deep for a horror movie. There was a lot of examination of the concept of in-between and media. Urban legends have been used for fodder of horror movies before, but rarely in such a thoughtful way. In some ways, Kabe Otoko reminded me of Candyman, although not quite as gory.
Yesterday seemed to be PBS day in our house. There were a couple of interesting shows that I recorded and watched.
PBS's Live from Lincoln Center had a performance of Camelot, one of my favorite musicals. Gabriel Byrne played King Arthur and a broadway singer named Marin Mazzie played Guenevere. Lancelot was played by baritone Nathan Gunn. I wish I could say this was a good performance, but it was horribly mediocre, the sort of thing I would expect to see here in Dubuque, and certainly far below New York standards. Usually, I like Gabriel Byrne, but he was horribly miscast in this role. The actress playing Guenevere had a lovely voice, but she flubbed her lines a couple of times. I mean literally, sang the wrong words and had to catch herself. WTF? I might expect that in a local small-town production, but certainly not from something in New York! I was very impressed with Nathan Gunn, however. First time I've seen the guy (looks like he tends to focus on opera, which I tend to ignore). Gorgeous man, incredible voice. I guess it helps that a strong baritone tends to make me weak in the knees. *fans self*
Since this performance was not a theatrical run (it was more to showcase the orchestra), there wasn't much effort put into the costumes and they looked cheesy. The dancers weren't bad, but the chorus was pretty weak. That may not have been their fault, however--usually in musicals, the orchestra is located in a pit below the stage, but since this was the New York Philharmonic, they were placed behind the singers and often overpowered them. Christopher Lloyd put in an appearance as King Pellinore and almost stole the show--it's the first time I've actually seen the role of Pellinore being funny, as opposed to tedious.
Honestly, I was horribly disappointed in this performance. I really was looking forward to seeing it and to see it so badly done...le sigh. Well, at least it was on TV and I hadn't spent however much a ticket to Lincoln Center costs. Not that I'd be able to travel to New York anyway. :-P
A bit of history here: I'm not sure when I first became aware of the King Arthur legend. I already knew about it in elementary school, so I'm assuming that it was in some storybook that my parents read to me as a very young child. It was one of my favorite stories. I do remember the first time I heard Camelot, though. I saw the Broadway Cast recording (this is back in the days of vinyl) at the library when I was in 3rd grade and checked it out. This is the one with Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. I absolutely fell in love with it, and begged my parents for a copy of the album, which I later got for Xmas. I wore it out, I listened to it so much. (Incidently, I also managed to get my brother hooked on the show because he'd heard me playing the songs so often.)
When I was in junior high school, Richard Burton revived the role and my father managed to get us tickets. They weren't great seats (my dad, as ever, got the cheapest ones), but it was magical all the same. I had caught the movie version (with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave) on tv at some point in the 1970s. Gorgeous (albiet historically inaccurate) costumes, but the production suffered from Redgrave's inability to sing and some of the supporting cast's bad acting. Harris as Arthur was fine, and actually Franco Nero did a pretty good job as Lancelot, considering he couldn't speak English at the time and learned his lines phonetically. Later, I saw a few local productions of the play. If someone is doing a version of Camelot, I'll usually make an effort to go see it.
And every single one of these productions was far superior to the dreck the Lincoln Center put out in their version. That's saying a lot.
The PBS show Independent Lens showed an interesting movie recently: Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula, following the story of one man and his hula school. There's a preview here on youtube if you are curious. Ya'll know me: I can't resist Hawaii. The Islands are Calling!
What I found most interesting about this documentary was the juxtaposition of what is perceived as a "feminine" dance being performed by men. Actually, a version of hula was always danced by men, but because of all the hip-swaying, it was perceived as lewd and was almost stomped out when the white settlers came to the islands in the 19th century. The tradition was kept among the women (I guess women swaying their hips isn't lewd at all, huh?), but very few men got involved until there was a great revival of Hawaiian culture during the 1970's.
Even now, there is a stigma attached to men's hula. It was interesting to see one of the dancers sitting down to dinner with his family, and hearing from his kids how they were teased at school because their father "must be gay" to be dancing hula. The man actually broke out in tears when his oldest son (now grown) confessed that he was very proud of the way his father danced. Several of the other dancers mentioned their initial resistance to learning hula because of the "gay" factor, but then, when they got into it, they got hooked.
When you see these men dance, "feminine" is the last word that comes to mind. They are extremely masculine, and also graceful, and yes, beautiful.
The film follows a particular school as they prepare for an annual dance competition. This school, one of the older ones, has a company of men who are mostly middle-age (although there were a couple of younger men in the bunch). They don't perform competition that often because of the intensity--(IIRC, they only show up to this competition once every ten years). There was some chest-beating going on about them being old--a lot of the groups they would be competing against were comprised of much younger men. But they go on and work to get in the contest anyway.
The film was very touching. The watcher really gets to care about these everyday men who are taking time from their lives to preserve a part of their native tradition. (And yes, as always, there is one "white guy gone native"--in this case, a man from Connecticut who came to Hawaii to visit when he was young, got hooked on the culture, and now teaches Hawaiian Studies at the University there. He blends in, though.)
Well-worth watching, if you get a chance. Check the local listings. There is also a version of the film out on DVD.
I scanned in these examples for my friend Rhiannon from the Taiga Drama Komyo ga Tsuji. These are examples of the "patchwork" kosode. In the drama, the heroine, Chiyo, had to piece together new kosode because hers were ruined in a fire. Saionji-hime also speaks a bit about the subject on her excellent Kosode page, with some extant period examples towards the bottom of the page. I'd like to try to make one of these myself!
My only question is that the styling on these taiga costumes doesn't seem as symmetrical as the period examples I've seen?
Here are the scans. All of these are from NHK Taiga Drama Magazine.
I just colored my hair again, so I knew Mom at least would want to see the picture. Please note, despite all the pictures I seem to be posting of myself on here, I really don't like having my picture taken. However, I only actually see my family once in a blue moon, so sacrifices must be made.
Also: Bonus cat pictures!
Tegan in her favorite spot. We put a blanket down so that she would be a bit more comfortable. Yes, we are slaves to our cats!
Or Satin, as the case may be, although in this case, the culprit was LINEN, and I succumbed without much of a fight.
In a couple of months, a neighboring SCA group here in Iowa is going to have a Vikings vs. Saxons event. Since Bob has a Viking persona anyway, and my alternate persona is Anglo-Saxon, I figured I would make some new garb for us for the event, which is at the end of April. With two tunics apiece, I figure that works out to a tunic every two weeks. Even with all the hand-sewing I do (my personal authenticity thing is to not have any machine-sewn seams showing), I think that's doable.
I did finally finish my new royal-blue cloak, as seen below:
It looks a bit wrinkled, doesn't it? Looks much better in person. It was completely hand-sewn, as shown here on the hem:
It took me about a month to finish, but is very warm and comfy.
As for the Evil That Is The Fabric Store, I only went in to get a few yards of a butterfly brocade for an Japanese outfit I made last fall. I messed up the sleeves and want to re-do them, but didn't quite have enough fabric, and brocade was on sale today. But while there, I saw that linen was also on sale and managed to pick up these beauties:
The ivory is a lovely color for undertunics and isn't that blue wonderful? It'll go with the cloak perfectly, too. Most of my Saxon garb is earth-toned (mainly browns and greens) so I was longing for either blue or red linen for a bit of variety. I didn't need to spend that money, but oh, sin is sometimes delicious, isn't it?
I've gotten bored with my red hair. Next up: dark ash brown. Yep, it's time to be a brunette for awhile, I think. ;-D
You know, I think there's a reason that I've been feeling so tired and out-of-it lately.
Yes, that's right. Evil kitties have been siphoning away my life-energy while I sleep!
Oh, the humanity!
So, yesterday, I finished reading the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy by Pamela Aidan. The books in this series are An Assembly Such as This, Duty and Desire and These Three Remain. They were recommended to me and I thought I'd try them out, as I do enjoy the occasional Regency romance.
My impression? Well, mixed. Ms. Aidan is a good writer, although she tends to get a little repetitive and could use a good editor. And why not re-interpret the novel Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's point of view? But upon reading the books, I felt that the idea fell a bit flat. The Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy was originally written as fan-fiction and reflects some of the pitfalls of that genre.
Mr. Darcy, for one thing, comes over as somewhat of a "Gary Stu." He's too perfect, and that in fact takes away from some of the appeal he has in the original novel. Let's not mince words here: Mr. Darcy is somewhat of a jerk in Pride and Prejudice. He snubs the heroine and her family (and just about everyone else in their neighborhood), he tries his best to separate his friend Mr. Bingley from the girl that he loves because he doesn't believe she loves him enough, and he's really, really full of himself. Which is half the fun of the character, and it makes it all the more sweeter when this priggish snob finds himself head-over-heels in love with the heroine despite his best efforts to the contrary.
However, in this trilogy, Darcy always has a reason for being the way he is. He isn't a snob, he's just devoted to his family and his duty to his estate. He's religious, he's nice to his sister, he helps out his friends and is kind to his overly-annoying relatives. He also dresses to perfection, fences like a pro, and generally is too perfect. And boring.
I think the mistake the author made here was becoming too enamoured with the character. She always wants to show Darcy in the best light, even when he's making mistakes. This does not make for good literature.
The saving grace of the book was the supporting characters that the author either made up or fleshed out from spear-carriers in the original novel. Fletcher the valet, Lord Brougham, Colonel Fitzwilliam all shine and are a heck of a lot more interesting than the moping Mr. Darcy. The added plot of Irish rebels was a bit overdone, but made me think that the writer might have been better off just writing an original Regency Romance and leaving Pride and Prejudice out of the picture entirely.
The trilogy was an entertaining-enough read, but I admit having to struggle to finish it because I was getting bored. I'd probably not recommend it, unless you are a very big Pride and Prejudice fan. As for myself, I'm passing the books on to my Mom to see if she might have a different opinion.
So I've cut and sewn the third zukin prototype. I think I may have the look I'm going for here.
First, I took a scrap piece of linen 32 inches long and 52 inches wide. (52 was actually the full width of the cloth). Then I cut it in a semi-conical shape as shown below:
This is half the shape--I placed it on the fold of the cloth. The face opening was at 17 inches, which is the length from the top of my forehead to the middle of my collarbone. The rest I curved out until I reached the edge of the cloth. Then I hand-sewed the curved edge (french seam) and hemmed both the top and the bottom edges.
Here is the result. As before, I'm wearing a headband (27 inches long, 2 inches wide) and the zukin is tucked beneath it at my forehead and pinned underneath. The folds took a bit of arranging, but stayed in place quite well.
The advantage this style has over the style the Hokkeji nuns were wearing in this picture:
is that this style (Eshinni-style, I'm calling it, for lack of a proper term, after the portrait of the nun Eshinni) hides the hair better. I did pin up a square of cloth to hang loose like the Hokkeji nuns, but it didn't stay in place very well and my hair kept peeking out.
So, for now anyway, this is the style of zukin that I will be wearing for my SCA persona.
Well, I sewed together prototype #1 and the result is as you see below.
It looks close but not quite there yet. The opening is still too near the face and there aren't enough folds. Still, not bad for a first attempt.
I found that the forehead part stays flatter (and in place) if the top is folded over in and pinned underneath (also the pins don't show that way. However, I'm going to need to put some interfacing in the headband to make it a bit more stiff so it'll keep its shape.
The next thing I thought I'd try is a rectangle shape, to see if that would give me the folds that I wanted. I took a piece of scrap cloth 17 inches wide and 28 inches long and pinned the sides together. Here is the result:
It gets it away from my face, and there are the folds I wanted, but it bunches up and is too narrow. I really think I'm looking for more of a cone shape. Not sure if I'll even bother sewing this one up--I can use the material as part of a belt I'm working on. I have another scrap of the same color that is bigger, so later this week, I'll cut it out in a larger cone shape and see if that works.
I have given some thought to yardage--Japanese looms make cloth about 14 inches wide and they wouldn't have wanted to waste any. However, until I can figure out the shape, I'm not going to focus on that aspect and just use the remnants of cloth I have on hand. Also, I need to take into account that I'm a lot bigger than period Japanese women were. My kosode is wider and uses more cloth, so it stands to reason that the zukin would as well.
