Today, younglings, I will tell you the tale of the Little Japanese Woman.
There was once, in a land far away, a pediatrics Office of the name Mt. Airy, after the town where it resided. In this office, children of snotty noses and babies of screaming toothlessness came in and out; also, those of teenager-hood (thinking themselves too cool for exams), and those too old to come, who came anyway.
In this office worked a young maiden. Her heart was pure and her eyes mischievous, for always was she thinking of her life in another land; the land of Duval Street. It was there that she had her friends of yore and old, and those who guided her with sage wisdom were also there.
This young maiden sat at her computer, and verily and readily did she type and file papers all the day long, until she was weary and sore from her toil. Those around her were her friends, and with good cheer and laughter did they make their path across the lonely days.
One day, when the maiden was smiling in good humor at a harried mother of four, a Little Japanese Woman came in the door. With a jingle and a tiny wrinkled smile, this Little Japanese Woman came to the counter in her tiny Japanese self and crinkled her eyes at the madonna Sharon, who was sitting ready to receive her.
"Hi, hi," said the Little Japanese Woman, in a voice like wind brushing through chimes, "I am here, and for a fundraiser I am selling these." And the Little Japanese Woman took up a box of beautiful origami and placed it on the counter.
Both the maiden Sarah and the madonna Sharon looked upon with eyes that opened wide to see the beauty of these things. And the maiden Sarah took quickly to flight, and she ran up the stairs and pulled a secret fold of dollars from her bag. With these she ran back down to the Little Japanese Woman and said, in a voice breathless and eyes sparkling,
"I would like to buy two of those beautiful things!"
And the Little Japanese Woman smiled a grateful crinkled smile, and said in a voice like a cat thanking a benificent hand for its fish,
"Ah, ah, thank you, thank you."
The madonna Sharon bought one also. Then the Little Japanese Woman left.
But wait, younglings! That is not the end of the tale!
The chief of all these people, the manager Jennifer, who came many years ago from over the sea, did not see the Little Japanese Woman go. When told of all that had transpired, she ran to get her own money, and hurriedly did she press it into the hand of the maiden Sarah, and she said,
"Go, go now, before she is gone from us, and get me one of those beautiful origamis - a blue one!"
And quickly did the maiden Sarah run, but all in vain, for the Little Japanese Woman had disappeared, as a ghost into thin air, and was nowhere to be seen.
But then! The maiden Sarah happened to glance into the window that looks down into the maw and darkness of the evil Coopermanland, where they sell things that no man should buy. And in the jaws of that land of doom, she saw the Little Japanese Woman, looking up fearlessly with her wrinkled face into the hard eyes of the Owner of Coopermanland. And the maiden Sarah hurried to rescue the Little Japanese Woman from her fate.
"Can I buy another one?" she gasped.
"Ah, ah, yes, of course," said the Little Japanese Woman, smiling her wrinkled smile.
Then the maiden Sarah went back to the Office, and the Little Japanese Woman went on her way, with her box full of beautiful origami, and her little wrinkled smile on her face.
Jun 15, 2007
Shipwreck and Woman in Garden
Some poetry I've been working on lately.
Shipwreck
Upon the folded quilt of wrinkled hills
Into the creased and the dimpled hollows there
Where rusted lullaby drains in curved rills
Where crying cranes their mournful dirges share
Sunlight, the floating gold and fiery dust
Has now made this its last and gentle home
And in the brunneous moss-and-bracken crust
Seeks shadows in the mazes of the loam
The swelling and the felling of the sea
A mouth that weeps forth pale and foamy spume
Loping beneath sullen waves and debris
A ship into its dank, cavernous tomb
With all aboard from mastheads fore to aft
Clinging with all their lifeblood to their craft
Woman in the Garden
Like the face of a round, starkly dangerous clock
Opening wide to speak of times dire
Her eyes open now, gleaming white, gleaming black
Full of a dangerous time
Her lips are pale, blood-red her evening frock
Her hands are long and white like cranes
Her hair spills in rivulets down her arching back
Full of a dangerous rhyme
The clock, cruel and pitilessly looping round
Counting down the minutes, precious few
Until the bell of midnight must finally ring
Full of a dangerous chime
Looking out from beneath her torn gown
Legs long like leaping dolphins, she rises
And folds of crimson a hiding place bring
Full of a dangerous rhyme
The gate opens like a maw, wide, dark
And stepping forth a long-legged man
Strikes the lady; the red flower falls into the mud
Full of a dangerous crime
She knows now that her time has met its mark
She weeps like a late ocean, far too late
Alas, the tears are water not, but blood
Full of a dangerous time
The Last Post on Pirates (for this week)
Soooooooooo...
The first thing that I will say is that the movie was very, er, long. Also, I could not explain the plot to someone who had not seen the movie, not in a million years. It's one of those live-in-the-moment-do-not-blink-or-you-may-die movies.
The preface to the movie was Jason making googly eyes in my direction and intoning solemnly,
"And when you reach into the popcorn bucket at the same time - and your fingers touch..."
I snorted.
"Popcorn? At $45 for a bucket? Give me a break."
Miss Kristyn drove us there. I asked her if I should sit shotgun, or should get into the back.
"Get into the back," she said, "and Julien will sit there with you. I will be your chauffeur."
He got into the back seat with a questioning look in his eyes. I rolled mine.
"The chauffeur says that we should sit together, this being our first date." He nodded, with the look of one to whom all things are made clear.
MK also coached me firmly that under no circumstances was I to pay for anything.
"If my son takes you out, he takes you out."
As soon as J. and I got into the theater, we breathed out deeply and looked at each other with rather desperate glances.
"You think it's always going to be like this?"
I laughed, one of those sardonic ones.
"With parents like ours? Now come, come, don't be so dismal," I said, hooking my arm through his and batting my eyelashes. "This is, after all, our first date."
As to the movie, well... I'll have to do one of my famous lists.
1) It was full of slimy things
2) They took the biggest things that they could think of - and made them BIGGER (Calypso, the neirid-turned-sea goddess; the pirate meeting; KING of the pirates; KEEPER of the Code)
3) The code looked like somebody's vacation scrapbook.
4) Morgan and Bartholomew both resembled Dumbledore
5) Very impressed by the abstinence of Will and Elizabeth until AFTER they were married; a thing you don't see too often. I will not comment on their marriage's legality, because I'm not sure what the statutes are if the ship's captain who is marrying you has died once before.
6) Beckett's death was the BEST death of a villain, hands-down, that I have ever seen
7) Jack Davenport's death was most sad, though we knew it had to happen. Also, his kissing of Elizabeth shocked Julien thoroughly. He soon came round - the man was going to DIE. Though I must say, Knightly has gone around kissing strange people far too often.
8) LOVED the look on Jack's face when Will died. Perhaps the best part of the movie.
9) Elizabeth is an idiot.
10) Best wedding I've ever seen. When Will asked Elizabeth to marry him, and they have that stop-and-start conversation, J. and I both thought the same thing. I said it:
"They kept putting off and putting off that conversation. Now look what happened."
11) Never quite got the significance of the singing lad. Tra-la-la, and all that.
12) LOVED the eyeball. Absolutely adored the eyeball. Knew about the beads on the kerchief already; knew about the green stone on the string already. Knew, of course, that Tia Dalma was Calypso, though in real life, Calypso is only a neirid, not a goddess.
13) Making Calypso grow and grow could have been done much more imaginatively. Liked the crabs; both rock and otherwise.
14) I did stay all through the credits and saw the bit at the end. I don't know if it was worth seeing all those names - (Bob Wilcox is JOHNNY DEPP'S LIMO DRIVER! MY HERO!) - but it was pretty interesting (she had NOT aged ten years; no WAY)
Afterwards, Julien asked me if I wanted to movie hop and go see another one. I almost kicked him (this is at 10:00 at night, remember).
So we went and found the parental people and sat in the back seat of the car and were chauffeured and held hands and waited to see what Mom would do when she saw us (nothing; like I said, she's been planning our wedding for years), and rolled our eyes goodnight.
That was the end of the First Date.
PS: Speaking of holding hands, that reminds me of a story that I've never told you: on our way home from the Renaissance Faire, this must have been what, November or something, J. and I were holding hands. This was back when we cared what people thought, and when my mom looked back to say something and saw us, she looked like she'd been shot. Her face turned pale and she turned back around. At the time, I was mortified. Now I find it extremely funny. Just thought I'd mention that, because, I don't know, I'm bored and there are no encounter forms to bill people's insurance for....
Oh well, back to work.
The first thing that I will say is that the movie was very, er, long. Also, I could not explain the plot to someone who had not seen the movie, not in a million years. It's one of those live-in-the-moment-do-not-blink-or-you-may-die movies.
The preface to the movie was Jason making googly eyes in my direction and intoning solemnly,
"And when you reach into the popcorn bucket at the same time - and your fingers touch..."
I snorted.
"Popcorn? At $45 for a bucket? Give me a break."
Miss Kristyn drove us there. I asked her if I should sit shotgun, or should get into the back.
"Get into the back," she said, "and Julien will sit there with you. I will be your chauffeur."
He got into the back seat with a questioning look in his eyes. I rolled mine.
"The chauffeur says that we should sit together, this being our first date." He nodded, with the look of one to whom all things are made clear.
MK also coached me firmly that under no circumstances was I to pay for anything.
"If my son takes you out, he takes you out."
As soon as J. and I got into the theater, we breathed out deeply and looked at each other with rather desperate glances.
"You think it's always going to be like this?"
I laughed, one of those sardonic ones.
"With parents like ours? Now come, come, don't be so dismal," I said, hooking my arm through his and batting my eyelashes. "This is, after all, our first date."
As to the movie, well... I'll have to do one of my famous lists.
1) It was full of slimy things
2) They took the biggest things that they could think of - and made them BIGGER (Calypso, the neirid-turned-sea goddess; the pirate meeting; KING of the pirates; KEEPER of the Code)
3) The code looked like somebody's vacation scrapbook.
4) Morgan and Bartholomew both resembled Dumbledore
5) Very impressed by the abstinence of Will and Elizabeth until AFTER they were married; a thing you don't see too often. I will not comment on their marriage's legality, because I'm not sure what the statutes are if the ship's captain who is marrying you has died once before.
6) Beckett's death was the BEST death of a villain, hands-down, that I have ever seen
7) Jack Davenport's death was most sad, though we knew it had to happen. Also, his kissing of Elizabeth shocked Julien thoroughly. He soon came round - the man was going to DIE. Though I must say, Knightly has gone around kissing strange people far too often.
8) LOVED the look on Jack's face when Will died. Perhaps the best part of the movie.
9) Elizabeth is an idiot.
10) Best wedding I've ever seen. When Will asked Elizabeth to marry him, and they have that stop-and-start conversation, J. and I both thought the same thing. I said it:
"They kept putting off and putting off that conversation. Now look what happened."
11) Never quite got the significance of the singing lad. Tra-la-la, and all that.
12) LOVED the eyeball. Absolutely adored the eyeball. Knew about the beads on the kerchief already; knew about the green stone on the string already. Knew, of course, that Tia Dalma was Calypso, though in real life, Calypso is only a neirid, not a goddess.
13) Making Calypso grow and grow could have been done much more imaginatively. Liked the crabs; both rock and otherwise.
14) I did stay all through the credits and saw the bit at the end. I don't know if it was worth seeing all those names - (Bob Wilcox is JOHNNY DEPP'S LIMO DRIVER! MY HERO!) - but it was pretty interesting (she had NOT aged ten years; no WAY)
Afterwards, Julien asked me if I wanted to movie hop and go see another one. I almost kicked him (this is at 10:00 at night, remember).
So we went and found the parental people and sat in the back seat of the car and were chauffeured and held hands and waited to see what Mom would do when she saw us (nothing; like I said, she's been planning our wedding for years), and rolled our eyes goodnight.
That was the end of the First Date.
PS: Speaking of holding hands, that reminds me of a story that I've never told you: on our way home from the Renaissance Faire, this must have been what, November or something, J. and I were holding hands. This was back when we cared what people thought, and when my mom looked back to say something and saw us, she looked like she'd been shot. Her face turned pale and she turned back around. At the time, I was mortified. Now I find it extremely funny. Just thought I'd mention that, because, I don't know, I'm bored and there are no encounter forms to bill people's insurance for....
Oh well, back to work.
Jun 14, 2007
Pirates Again
You know, I think that I may actually post more about being excited about going to see pirates than I will actually write about the movie itself. Seriously, though, everyone can look up a movie review on their own. Not many people know what I think about actually going to see this movie.
Hannah, my friend who moved to Florida a couple of years ago, (and Hannah is pronounced the Jewish way, I'll have you know, Honnah) is coming for a visit tomorrow, and we are going to go and see the Blancons together - which will be quite interesting. When I mentioned that she was coming for a visit, Jason said,
"Well, that's it. You've never had competition before. She's totally going to steal Julien from you."
"No, I don't think so," I said, "though she does have this weird crush on him. Weird, because she's sixteen."
"Aha! He's practically her boyfriend already!" shouted Jason.
"[snort] Yeah, right," interjected my mother, "I don't think competition will be a problem for Sarah."
"Why, exactly, do you think that, Mother?" I inquired, but my question was never answered.
I never thought that it would be so much trouble to see this movie. We scheduled it for Sunday (baseball). We scheduled it for Wednesday (Blancons in Narberth). Now, after much whiffling, it has remained at Thursday for a little while. I am going to see it - if nothing ELSE happens - at 7 o' clock this evening.
Julien was supposed to look up the movie times on the internet, but looked up paintball gear instead. Miss Kristyn apologized mortifiedly.
"I'm SO sorry!" she said, looking puppy-doggish, "he really DOES care. But he's young yet." I went inside the house, fell over, and laughed hysterically.
Miss Kristyn is very concerned that Julien does not show me enough attention. She emailed me as pertaining to this issue, and I discussed it with the hapless J. It went something like this:
"Julien," I said, "you don't show me enough attention." A stare from the boy, who spends practically every spare minute with me.
"What?" he asked.
"Your mother says that you don't pay enough attention to me," I stated imperiously. "Here are my demands: flowers, chocolates, cards on Valentine's Day, little notes including the words 'love' and 'forever', and Public Displays of Affection."
He almost died of heart failure before a giggle gave me away.
"Seriously, though," I said, when we had finished laughing, "I'll be working on Thursdays and Fridays until 5pm all summer long. We need to figure out something, because going straight from seeing you four days a week to two days a week may kill me." (I didn't say it just like that, but along those lines.)
To my slight surprise, he acquiesced.
All that to say, I have to go. Work is calling.
Hannah, my friend who moved to Florida a couple of years ago, (and Hannah is pronounced the Jewish way, I'll have you know, Honnah) is coming for a visit tomorrow, and we are going to go and see the Blancons together - which will be quite interesting. When I mentioned that she was coming for a visit, Jason said,
"Well, that's it. You've never had competition before. She's totally going to steal Julien from you."
"No, I don't think so," I said, "though she does have this weird crush on him. Weird, because she's sixteen."
"Aha! He's practically her boyfriend already!" shouted Jason.
"[snort] Yeah, right," interjected my mother, "I don't think competition will be a problem for Sarah."
"Why, exactly, do you think that, Mother?" I inquired, but my question was never answered.
I never thought that it would be so much trouble to see this movie. We scheduled it for Sunday (baseball). We scheduled it for Wednesday (Blancons in Narberth). Now, after much whiffling, it has remained at Thursday for a little while. I am going to see it - if nothing ELSE happens - at 7 o' clock this evening.
Julien was supposed to look up the movie times on the internet, but looked up paintball gear instead. Miss Kristyn apologized mortifiedly.
"I'm SO sorry!" she said, looking puppy-doggish, "he really DOES care. But he's young yet." I went inside the house, fell over, and laughed hysterically.
Miss Kristyn is very concerned that Julien does not show me enough attention. She emailed me as pertaining to this issue, and I discussed it with the hapless J. It went something like this:
"Julien," I said, "you don't show me enough attention." A stare from the boy, who spends practically every spare minute with me.
"What?" he asked.
"Your mother says that you don't pay enough attention to me," I stated imperiously. "Here are my demands: flowers, chocolates, cards on Valentine's Day, little notes including the words 'love' and 'forever', and Public Displays of Affection."
He almost died of heart failure before a giggle gave me away.
"Seriously, though," I said, when we had finished laughing, "I'll be working on Thursdays and Fridays until 5pm all summer long. We need to figure out something, because going straight from seeing you four days a week to two days a week may kill me." (I didn't say it just like that, but along those lines.)
To my slight surprise, he acquiesced.
All that to say, I have to go. Work is calling.
Jun 8, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean (and sundry facts)
Curse of the Black Pearl:
Saw it at home on DVD in the den by myself. I was expecting to be scared, but pleasantly, wasn't.
Dead Man's Chest:
Saw it in theaters with Cole, Pascal, Thom and Jenny. It was really quite overwhelming (Pascal covered Cole's eyes for some of it).
At World's End:
Want to go see it with Julien on Sunday. See, that's the thing; everybody around me is planning our wedding. Kristyn has been totally on J's back to take me "out". Pascal has been encouraging this for years. Jenny and Aunt Martha call him my boyfriend.
Sob. It's just a movie, people. I swear by the sun god it is not a date.
Oh waaaaaaaaait... two teens going to see a movie.
Oh yeah! It IS a date!
But what will I wear?
Hee hee. Don't freak out. I was being sarcastic. Still, it will be nice to go see it with him, if he can take ONE afternoon off from baseball! Sigh. This is the story of my life: boys. I know, I know, it would be even worse if they weren't there.
Oh! I forgot to mention!
I got the boys the coolest presents in Seattle.
Thom: Pirate T-shirt that says "Same Ship, Different Day: Pillage and Plunder".
Cole: Pirate T-shirt that says "Hi, my name is Roger and I'll be flogging you today".
Julien: Pirate T-shirt that says "The beatings will continue until morale improves".
I like Seattle, but I'll be glad to be home.
Saw it at home on DVD in the den by myself. I was expecting to be scared, but pleasantly, wasn't.
Dead Man's Chest:
Saw it in theaters with Cole, Pascal, Thom and Jenny. It was really quite overwhelming (Pascal covered Cole's eyes for some of it).
At World's End:
Want to go see it with Julien on Sunday. See, that's the thing; everybody around me is planning our wedding. Kristyn has been totally on J's back to take me "out". Pascal has been encouraging this for years. Jenny and Aunt Martha call him my boyfriend.
Sob. It's just a movie, people. I swear by the sun god it is not a date.
Oh waaaaaaaaait... two teens going to see a movie.
Oh yeah! It IS a date!
But what will I wear?
Hee hee. Don't freak out. I was being sarcastic. Still, it will be nice to go see it with him, if he can take ONE afternoon off from baseball! Sigh. This is the story of my life: boys. I know, I know, it would be even worse if they weren't there.
Oh! I forgot to mention!
I got the boys the coolest presents in Seattle.
Thom: Pirate T-shirt that says "Same Ship, Different Day: Pillage and Plunder".
Cole: Pirate T-shirt that says "Hi, my name is Roger and I'll be flogging you today".
Julien: Pirate T-shirt that says "The beatings will continue until morale improves".
I like Seattle, but I'll be glad to be home.
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