More on Aelita: Queen of Mars

The official blurb:

"Aelita: Queen of Mars"

Before Buck Rogers and "Metropolis," this lavish 1924 Soviet production imagined delirious cubist-futuristic space adventures with cruel overlords and oppressed masses. A mysterious radio message echoes around the globe, and only a visionary Soviet engineer with a Mars fixation speculates that it's a communication from space. He embarks on a rocket trip to Mars, where capitalist Elders freeze workers and keep them refrigerated for later use. The 1924 film, shot within a brief window of ideological relaxation and freer expression, has a distinctly individualist, anti-revolutionary feel about it. The expansive Martian sets and evocative costumes influenced science-fiction films for decades to come, and the hallucinatory plot device that concludes the story could have inspired "Total Recall."

Check it out on youtube:  I think... 

Pride Sunday

Relaxing now, listenig to L.P. sing and eating chicken tacos.  Corn tortillas and lettuce from the farmer's market, chicken I grilled Yucatan-style with orange juice ans garlic, and cucumbers from my garden, with Minneapolis garage brewed beer.  Can't get much better than that, especially after a long sun-soaked day.

The lackluster was gone and the energy palpable at Pride today.  The GF and I ran in the 4k Pride Run.  She was fastad and headphones on, while  I took it easy, and was told I was headed for a hip replacement, which may be truer than they know.  But the dudes who said I sucked need to get a life.  Going to Pride to heckle?

The No on the Mandatory Discrimination Amendment people were out in force, raising money and awareness.  My friend J rocked a pair of, shall we say "open air" chaps carrying the Leather Pride flag, and Seimone Augustus and her lady were regal in the Grand Marshall vehicle.

Then we went to see "Aelita: Queen of Mars" at the Walker, a rare print of a Soviet silent movie from 1925, apparently the first Russian science fiction movie.  The live music, with Theramin and electric organ synthesizer, and an electronic gadget that worked with sticks waved on X and Y vectors through the air was truly fabulous, particularly when the projector had issues on its maiden voyage.  (The Walker renovated its cinema.) 

They had not shown this movie since the '80s, which is a shame, because it was fascinating.  Great views of Moscow in the 1920's, the old clothes and boots, and so many hats.  Lots of snow.  Crazy costumes and sets for the Mars portions.  And a true Soviet-style ending.

Events

Brandi Carlile rocked the full house at the Zoo last night, the second of two sold out shows. 

She made a little speech about the Marriage amendment and gave space to the  Minnesotans United, which was cool.  I was wondering if she'd mention it or Pride weekend.  Especially since the crowd was very straight.  Not as much preaching to the converted as with Amy Ray's audience.

It's a little weird seeing a lesbian performer with a very Minnesotan, not very gay audience.  Made me nostalgic for women's festivals and Melissa E, which happens very rarely.  Coincidentally, or not, I have to wax nostalgic in the novel I'm working on...

The chiro seems to have fixed me up good enough to run in the Pride Run, so now we're pondering costumes.  Tjinking queer geek pride, and maybe advertising  Gaylaxicon. 

Too cute

Happy Pride!

The Championship-winning Lynx... 

Seimone Augustus and and her fiance LaTaya Varner, photo by Carlos Gonzalez...

Clarion West Write-a-thon

I got off to a slow start but am making progress in my goal of one hour a day, five days a week actually writing.  A guy in the coffee shop I went to before work yesterday was talking super loud on his phone, which didn't help.  He was organizing a demonstration, though, and was very, very excited that things were coming together.  Since I was writing about a civil disobedience action in the 80s, it was simultaneously inspiring.

The new battery I got for my old laptop is allowing me to be more mobile.  Ubuntu is working great.  I have no more excuses...

I am going to have to allow myself to make up the time within the week this week, due to a wonky schedule and slownesd in revving up.  As long as I get at least 5 hours in.  However, I will donate to classmates each week, with more for that kind of "cheating" and double for failing to meet my weekly goal.  Though it ain't gonna happen...

Anyway.  Time to write.

The Dark Wife

I'm reading this, and found out it just won a Goldie award.  Well-deserved.  The best thing about this is author Sarah Diemer's tireless promotion for her self-published work is paying off.  Here's a brief but inspiring interview.

"All of my life, I was told by peers that what I wrote was far too niche to sell. I challenged that--there's nothing niche about my writing other than the fact that every single main character is a lesbian. I write about zombies and unicorns and clockwork worlds and fairies and monsters and gods and goddesses and angels and demons and werewolves and vampire hunters and straight people enjoy my stories--which range from hardcore fantasy to speculative fiction to biopunk to mythic punk--and love my characters."

Quote of the day.

Trying to get up the energy to work at an increased pace and then go home and write 5 *more* pages.  Of fiction.  Changing gears is going to be hard.  But that's the plan. 

Write-a-thon Day 1 for me.  Yesterday was get out of work early to go to the chiropractor only to find out he had fled to the hospital where his wife was in labor early day.  I wandered around Uptown running all the errands I've been saving up, and thinking about world-building.  Cheapo Records was playing old school British punk, very helpful.

Lesfic

Speaking of shapeshifters, here's a good selkie story by Laurie J. Marks available on the web: How the Ocean Loved Margie.

I'm excited to learn that Lethe Press is releasing Point of Knives, a follow-up to Melissa Scott's novels with her partner Lisa Barnett (who passed away several yeara ago).  Here's a blurb:

"A welcome return to the vividly realized city of Astreiant with its intricate magics and deadly politics. Point of Knives takes place in the interval between the widely praised earlier novels Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams. A fantastical mystery and a rousing adventure, Point of Knives also reveals for the first time the beginning of the romance between Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and ex-soldier Philip Eslingen."

I love this series- supernatural and sleuthy, with a gay touch.  Just have to wait until July...

Arisan

I'm watching this Indonesian gay movie from 2003, distributed by Water Bearer films.  So far it's pretty interesting.  An Arisan is kind of like a women's meetup, from what I can tell...

Tired today.  I spent the week off running and visiting the chiropractor to deal with back pain and massive tightness.  Yesterday I overdid it a little at a convention and am paying for it...

I was on a panel about lesbian werewolf and shapeshifter fiction at the Golden Crown Society convention, which seemed to go ok.  Jewelle Gomez, of The Gilda Stories, was the con GoH, and on the panel.  There was a bit of squee on my part when I found this out, and it was not disappointing.  She, as well as reviewer and writer ME Cooper and Silver Moon author Catherine Lundoff, had many interesting things to say about werewolves and, of course, vampires.

I would have attended more, but even just the panel, some relaxing in the bar with folks, and dinner was too much.  They got a good turnout, and everyone was dressed to the nines for the Goldie awards when I left.

I had to get organized for the  Clarion West Writeathon as well.  I've set a goal of one hour five days a week of writing, which is a big jump.  Though not being able to run is freeing up some time.  :(.

Hopefully I can make some progress on this novel thing.  Rewriting can be hell.

Tor goes DRM-free

I'm not all EFF libertarian, but  Yay.  I hate ebook restrictions.

Cool!

 Cliff Chiang's take on how female superheroes rock.

Venus crosses the sun today

We don't have a good vantage point here, but I will surf for photos. 

"...as Venus leaves the evening sky to enter the morning sky, this brightest of planets will pass right in front of the sun, to stage one of the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena: a transit of Venus across the sun’s face. This upcoming transit of Venus will be the last one for the 21st century. ... During the transit, Venus will appear in silhouette as a small, dark dot moving in front of the solar disk. This exceedingly rare astronomical event –a transit of Venus –won’t happen again until December 11, 2117."

At Minnehaha Falls

It's spring.  The water is not frozen. 

Hour wait at Sea Salt to order tasty fish and things.  (Adam from Eight is Enough says they have the best gumbo ever, but I like the tacos and fried fish.  The walnut burgers are killer though.)  Vaguely affordable Saturday night fun in the 'hood with the chance to overhear a range of MN accents.

Woman: "He went to get beer."

Guy: "I like beer."

The woman behind me and I both laughed at the same time.  It was the Homeric delivery in a western MN accent...  I guess you had to be there.

Ten Thousand Saints

The book that kept me up too late all week and almost  made me miss my lightrail stop was the recent novel Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson.  It's her first novel, and wow...  Really beautifully written but fast-moving.  Lots of little but building conflicts and secrets, some real suspense, despite being a small picture literary novel.  The main protagonist is a teenage stoner boy with ADD, or maybe FAS, stuck in smalltown Vermont with his pot dealing dad and pipe blowing artist mom.  He gets hooked into the NYC straight edge scene of the late 80s, and the homoerotic side of its aggro homophobia and gender exclusionism is explored heavily. 

A welcome development, cos that scene was so...  heavy with angst and denial.  The politics of AIDS in late 80s NYC and the Tompkins Square riots figure in, but the small town seediness under the bucolic facade is the real well-captured highlight here, IMO.

Future Project

Reading an old book on feminist literary criticism (Making a Difference, edited by Greene and Kahn) in the context of analyzing fiction about lesbian werewolves and shapeshifters I strayed to read some reviews of The Second Sex.  I haven't read Simone De Beauvoir for a long time, and not in full since college 20+ years ago (ack!).

I'm writing this note to remind myself to try it in the original, because the English translations have many flaws.  El Leon, La Bruja, y El Ropero is on my non-English language reading shelf (for when I have more time to read) and would be an easier read, but the other books are not likely to get done any time soon.  (Like Borges and some French thriller, plus the Russian vampire novel I'm not competent enough to read in the original.)

It might be interesting to try my hand at a translation (of parts - it's long).  I'm a fluent reader if not communicator in French still.  Hmm...