Tanka challenge 11/7/10

Rain on the shingles
Whispers in voices too soft
To discern meaning.
On such mornings it's tempting
To lie and listen to them.

Somehow between house cleaning and the Bal des Vampires, a tanka for yesterday just did not happen. For that matter, most of today did not happen. I must have needed the sleep, because I slept in quite late, popped in a Babylon 5 DVD and found myself nodding through an episode.

The ball was a semi-last minute thing. kproche and bovil  reminded me of its existence and I said, yeah, OK, I have no plans, then was stumped by what to wear. Final decision was spurred during living room cleaning when I found the back half of the hanhaba obi I bought on ebay, which is white and silver. The Japanese didn't exactly have vampires, however, they do have a dizzying assortment of demons and spirits. The guys came up to my place, we went out for a yummy pre-ball dinner at Kamakura, then back here to rotate in shifts at my bathroom sink to get made-up/dressed, though I did most of mine sitting on the living room floor working in front of my full length mirror. K wore his Titanic sailor outfit with three-days-drowned make-up, bovil did a 80's Adam Ant inspired outfit and I was Yuki-onna. We walked over to the Elk's Club from my place. Beautiful venue, just way too warm last night between mild weather and lots of bodies. sarah_bellem  got some good photos, the link to which I hope she does not mind my posting. That's her in the to-die-for little pink cocktail dress for the few reading this who do not know her. (I forgot to bring a camera!) And I do believe the hanao to my new zori are now properly stretched out at last.

Yuki Onna

Photo courtesy of Vivian Lee. For once, red-eye is a definite asset.

Media goodies

1. Thanks to a random FB post by JAF about a week or so ago, I was reminded how much I loved "Babylon 5" even though I was late to the ball on that one, so I acquired the DVD set, then splurged and got the one for "Farscape" as well, a series I never saw all the way through because they kept moving it around on me. I'm most of the way through Season 1 of B5. I recall when it first aired I watched one or two episodes and couldn't really get into it and didn't revisit it until some time in Season 4 because all my friends were ape***t for the series. Knowing it's a set-up for things to come helps, but it's clear a lot of the characters haven't quite hit their stride yet. (I could quite happily listen to the late Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) read a telephone directory, however. What a voice....)

2. HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" continues to keep me absorbed. Great storytelling, a strong cast headed by Steve Buscemi, and the details feel right, from the costumes to the great use of music from the period.

3. Ditto, Masterpiece Mystery's "Sherlock." I appear to have missed a week due to travel, but this Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century makes the recent movie with Robert Downey Jr. seem contrived. Definitely worth checking out.

4. I mostly got out of the habit of watching network TV over the past few years, simply because I'm finding things I prefer on cable and PBS (see above), interspersed with movies and documentary kinds of things. I watched one episode of the new Hawaii Five-0, just 'cause, and gave up. layla_lilah  had been suggested that I might like something called "Castle," however. So I gave that a look. OK, first off, it has Nathan Fillion getting to actual crack a smile (something he didn't get to do very often in the Whedonverse as captain of the Serenity) and be sorta romantic-comedy funny/clever/charming as a mystery writer who gets to follow around/get on the nerves of NYPD Detective Beckett (Stana Katic). It's got veteran actress Susan Sullivan as his mother and the girl that plays his daughter is just so darling you want to puke and I like the way the family relationships are being played. I also found myself playing Six Degrees of Generation Kill about a week or so ago as series regular Jon Huertas was in that miniseries and  Lee Tergesen who played the embedded reporter in "Kill" turned up as villain of the week. Kind of an odd mix of fluff and cop show, but it's not a bad way to spend an hour.

4. Connie Willis' Blackout let me crying, "WHAT?" with frustration when I turned the last page: I had no idea it was a cliffhanger when I picked it up as something to read on the plane. As with several of her previous novels, it's set in a universe where time travel is possible and history scholars go on research jaunts into the past, in this case to WWII Britain. I will have to look for the conclusion in a volume titled All Clear.