Ancient people...

This is all rather nice.... I wanted to get Mohenjo-Daro, but it's too much to expect it to turn up in a Net quiz. More's the pity.

Sumerians are the next best thing.



You are the Sumerians. The most under-rated of all
ancient civilizations, the Sumerians were a
highly organized and practical people who can
be credited with many "firsts" in
history, as well as many contributions to
civilization as we know it today. Their list of
historical contributions and inventions include
writing, literature, laws, organized religion
and government, city-states, agriculture, and
animal husbandry and domestication. As a
Sumerian, you are proud, adaptive, practical,
pragmatic, organized, intelligent, and
flexible. Your problem solving skills and
ability to think & act quickly & effectively in
the midst of a crisis cause most of your
friends to call you by the nickname MacGuyver.
You proudly boast that you can make a battery
out of a copper cylinder, a piece of iron and
some vinegar. (And you have also been known to
make a bomb out of a twinkie, a tampon & a
matchbook cover in a pinch.) You are more
focused on the "here & now" than you
are in the quest for immortality in the
Afterlife. You believe in reaping your rewards
and enjoining them now, later may never come.
While you are fierecly loyal & devoted to
family, friends and lovers, you're mischievous
and curious nature can often lead you astray.
However you are a quick learner, and you take
the lessons from your mistakes to heart and
rarely repeat them again.


What Ancient Civilization Are You?
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Those foofy French artists....

Yesterday I went to the National Gallery of Canada, to see their special exhibit of 18th century French art, The Age of Watteau Chardin Fragonard Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, which maboroshimaki so rightly calls "The foofy French exhibit".

My favourite of the artists in the exhibit was (and always has been) Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, and I had his wonderful picture of a young card-player on my bedroom wall for years. He was only recently supplanted by large portraits of Bodie and Doyle.





Chardin said, "One uses colours but one paints with feeling." ("On se sert des couleurs mais on peint avec le sentiment.") Oddly enough, I'd have said his paintings were fairly passionless: very real, very evocative, but also quite objective.

( Excuse me while I natter on about this fascinating exhibit.... )

Jen la vera drako.... kiu estas mi....

I got this from sffan:




You are DRACO!!! Draco, is the dragon
constellation. He is the "Lord of the
Skies". Odds are you are very social, and
have many friends. You also love being the
leader...and are great at it!!


What Constellation Are You?
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Yes!

Freedom

Title: Freedom
Author: fajrdrako
Author Email: azurite@rogers.com
fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Pairings: Jack/Will, reference to Jack/Anamaria
Disclaimer: Ownership: Disney's. Borrowship: mine. For story purposes only.
Warnings: slight het among the slash
Rating: PG
Summary: Anamaria and Will discuss Jack

~ ~ ~

It was clear, Will thought, that Anamaria didn't like him. He couldn't guess why, but knew better than to pester her with conversation. He was prepared to live and let live. Since coming on board the Black Pearl, he'd learned to leave pirates to themselves, but to remain open and friendly when the opportunity presented. Anamaria would eventually accept him - or she wouldn't.

On those terms, Will found he could work with her comfortably enough. She knew what she was doing. She taught him what she could, and if she was cool to him, he was careful not to react in kind.

She didn't talk to him of her own accord until one evening when he had the helm, and the sea spread out forever around them to a clear tinted horizon. Captain Jack Sparrow was standing on the quarterdeck, silhouetted against the sky like a figurehead, his gaze fixed on some distant dream. Will's gaze was fixed on Jack.

"So Will Turner," said Anamaria conversationally. She had crept up behind him silently, like a cat. The hostility in her voice was like velvet. "Are you the Captain's new fucktoy?"

( Read more... )

Feasting....

Yesterday my friend Tina was in town, and I went with her and Alayne to the Art Gallery for the French painters exhibit. The common denominator between us is Dunnett fandom, though Alayne and I are also in the same apazine.

I met them as arranged in the garden outside the Rideau Chapel - this is all inside the National Art Gallery of Canada. There are comfortable chairs in the garden, and I sat reading Jo Beverley's latest novel while waiting for Tina. I always think of the garden as a Medieval Garden because it is shaped, symmetrical and square, but it isn't medieval at all - it's a modern version of something rather like a medieval garden, where the geraniums are in a triangular shape complementary to the trees and the light shines down from a skylight far above.

It's one of my favourite spots in Ottawa.

After seeing the French exhibit, we went to a new exhibit (included in our ticket) of North European drawings from c. 1400. The 15th century is dear to our heart because it is the setting of Dorothy Dunnett's "Niccolo" series, and anything connected with art or commerce in that era has an inescapable Nicholas connotation to all of us.

It's fun to wander an art gallery with people who have the same mental references you do. It's as if the books give us a whole set of acquaintances in common.

But we didn't get much of a chance to wander the drawings, spectacular though they were - there were several pieces by Durer, a particular favourite of all of us. Unfortunately, we'd barely got to c. 1500 in our rounds when the guards announced the gallery was closing.

It isn't the first time that's happened to me.

We wandered to the restaurant for dinner, by way of a second-hand bookstore. Note: No group of Dunnett fans can meet anywhere, in any city, without a bookstore somewhere on the agenda. It's just the way Dunnett fans are.

At the restaurant we were joined by five other good Dunnett friends and a good time was had by all.

In honour of the occasion, I declared the day free from my Ayurvedic diet, and I threw caution to the winds. I ate whatever I wanted. Including Italian bread dipped in olive oil. Including lingine with a creamy clam sauce.

Including a pina colada. I didn't tell the others why I had to have rum: it was in honour of Jack Sparrow. If I was going to drink anything, it had to be rum!

We talked about the state of public schools in Ontario today (terrible), books we've been reading, Greek history, movies we've seen (I gave them an earful on "Tomb Raider") and other adventures.

I tried to explain my diet and got some blank stares - "What's a dosha? Tell us again why you can't eat cucumbers?"

Dessert: oh, this is where it becomes sinful heaven on earth. Creme brulee. No more wonderful dish exists. I shared mine with Beulah: half-sin for each of us.

More exciting movie news...

I just learned, thanks to chinae, that Jason Isaacs is going to be Captain Hook in "Peter Pan".

Jason Isaacs. Jason Isaacs. Jason-how-do-I-love-thee Isaacs. Woo.

Now, I have a long association of fondness for that story. The Disney animated version of "Peter Pan" is the first movie I ever remember seeing. I was four. I like J.M. Barrie's writing; I enjoyed the only biography of him I have read; I love the audio-tape of "Peter Pan" that is read by Samuel West. Samuel West, who played Lord Fucking Gorgeous, a.k.a. Lord Edrington, in the "Horatio Hornblower" episode "The Wrong War" a.k.a. "The Frogs and the Lobsters". *That* Samuel West, the one with the beautiful voice.

The only version of "Peter Pan" I have seen and disliked was "Hook". I didn't like it because I have a major problem watching Robin Williams in most movies, and this was no exception; and because I didn't like the premise. The point to Peter Pan is that he doesn't grow up. If he grows up.... Well, he's hardly Peter Pan, is he? This central contradiction annoyed me. It might not have annoyed me if it were not for Robin Williams, who knows?

Anyway... Jason Isaacs. My goodness. The man I love in everything and anything. In "Peter Pan", of all things. Life feels good.

You can check it out here.