General update
Oct. 20th, 2011 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaHaven't posted much aside from fic and podfic lately, so I thought I'd post something else.
1) Today I and two fellow environmental activists and friends were out in the forest with people from a forestry company, arguing that a certain forest should be saved from logging. Confrontation makes me nervous. : ( But it was actually a pretty good meeting. Not that we agreed, of course, but there was an interesting and civil discussion. It's so interesting to see the differences in worldview. For example, one of them used an expression which I loathe: that making a nature reserve, or letting forest alone, is to put a "dead hand" over it. I don't know if this translates well from Swedish, but what it implies is that forest that isn't managed by humans will somehow go to waste or rot away. Arrrrrgh! What, do you guys think forests weren't around before us? Also, a lot of that "rot" you're so scornful of is done by fungi species that are threatened to extinction by modern forestry.
Er, sorry about the rant.
2) Have listened to two great audiobooks lately: Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (read by Lynne Thigpen) and Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet (read by Juanita McMahon). Great readings on both of them, and the accents of the readers really added to it, too. Have also discovered a new author: Molly Gloss. She seems to write a lot of historical novels with female characters set in the Pacific Northwest, and Wild Life, which I am halfway through, has won the Tiptree Award (there are some fantastical elements). I like it a lot so far, and am curious what she'll do with the last half.
3) Have some music links! I'm very fond of Karine Polwart, a Scottish folk singer. Here she is singing "We're All Leaving", which is a song from the Darwin Song Project (a set of songs inspired by Charles Darwin). For a complete contrast, have a male a capella group singing Pour Some Sugar On Me with appropriate choreography.
1) Today I and two fellow environmental activists and friends were out in the forest with people from a forestry company, arguing that a certain forest should be saved from logging. Confrontation makes me nervous. : ( But it was actually a pretty good meeting. Not that we agreed, of course, but there was an interesting and civil discussion. It's so interesting to see the differences in worldview. For example, one of them used an expression which I loathe: that making a nature reserve, or letting forest alone, is to put a "dead hand" over it. I don't know if this translates well from Swedish, but what it implies is that forest that isn't managed by humans will somehow go to waste or rot away. Arrrrrgh! What, do you guys think forests weren't around before us? Also, a lot of that "rot" you're so scornful of is done by fungi species that are threatened to extinction by modern forestry.
Er, sorry about the rant.
2) Have listened to two great audiobooks lately: Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (read by Lynne Thigpen) and Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet (read by Juanita McMahon). Great readings on both of them, and the accents of the readers really added to it, too. Have also discovered a new author: Molly Gloss. She seems to write a lot of historical novels with female characters set in the Pacific Northwest, and Wild Life, which I am halfway through, has won the Tiptree Award (there are some fantastical elements). I like it a lot so far, and am curious what she'll do with the last half.
3) Have some music links! I'm very fond of Karine Polwart, a Scottish folk singer. Here she is singing "We're All Leaving", which is a song from the Darwin Song Project (a set of songs inspired by Charles Darwin). For a complete contrast, have a male a capella group singing Pour Some Sugar On Me with appropriate choreography.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-20 06:27 pm (UTC)I didn't know she ever did audiobooks, i will have to look for some.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-20 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-20 10:07 pm (UTC)I totally get what you mean about the forest. It's taken care of itself for millions of years. It's not a garden. Really doesn't need us. Plus, certain birds and animals like to make their homes in dead trees. I wish forestry people would remember that. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-21 08:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-21 05:43 pm (UTC)a weird and wonderful children's game show. Despite having almost no talent for or interest in geography, I was as addicted to it as my kids were. And The Chief was the kind of Extremely In-Charge Woman that I have, urm, a weakness for. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-20 10:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-21 08:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 04:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-21 02:36 am (UTC)Glad to hear your update. I will look into those audio books. Lynne Thigpen is a great reader.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-21 07:46 am (UTC)I will look into those audio books. Lynne Thigpen is a great reader.
Yes, she has a lovely voice. But Parable of the Sower might be too bleak for you--it's set in a sort of post-apocalyptic US, although there's no sudden apocalypse, just a degenerating, resource-scarce society.
Tipping the Velvet is basically about a queer woman in late 19th century London. It has a lot of delightful bits (for example, it starts out with her falling in love with a woman who performs in drag in music halls) but I haven't quite finished it yet, and honestly I can't tell yet whether it's going to have a happy ending or not.