I love Ursula Le Guin’s writings. I have The Latheof Heaven on my shelves and as soon as I’m done with The Revenger series–any day now– I’ll be re-reading The Lathe.
In the meantime read this fabulous review by Sam Matey, and his reminders of how much ‘we’ (humanity) have/has progressed since the 1970s … And even though we’re trying to get used not progressing, not using more resources, these kind of progressions are needed.
The season has been very busy in these climes for most of August, somewhat earlier than the calendar announces it.
This delightful show of gold along the verge at the entrance to the complex.
One of the flowers … vaguely funnel-shaped with an extra fold in one of the petals. I picked it up from the ground, so it’s a little battered.
It’s the third tree flowering along that verge, as if they calculated the sequence to put out their blossoms. The first was mauve-pink, then a pink, now this yellow.
From my balcony, it’s possible to hear—if not see—the scraping complaints of young Torresian crows waiting to be fed. I suspect the Carindale crow ‘murder’ calls the trees in in the Carinya grounds their home.
I hope that I get to keep this bit of my view … yesterday we (residents) got an email with the map of the soon-to-be-begun demolitions in prep for the fourth building to be started.
I wondered where they (construction company) would get the fill to extend the flood bulwark. Last night had the thought that possibly the digging out of the basement carpark will give them enough. Time will tell.
The poor cat, she’ll have conniptions. She’s still very skittish.
I’ve been here a month now and thought I knew the old woman’s habits pretty well. At 9 p/m she says “Bedtime!” And shuts me up in the shed. I’ve struggled but so far she has won. That could change today.
See me lying strategically in front of her on the couch? Right where she can see me at all times, to remind her that she hasn’t filled my kibbles bowl. What she usually does after cleaning my litter tray?
Before she sat down she set three bowls each with three kibbles in them as far apart in the unit as she could find, it seems like. Huh?
Oh wait! Last night when she caught me up trying to escape the bedtime routine, she said, “You’re getting to be quite the heavyweight. Is it possible for a cat to put on a kilo in 30 days? Guess you don’t get much exercise!”
I bet the new kibble bowls are a strategy to get me to walk more. I ate the ones in the kitchen. She did not leap up to give me more. I’ll just go and sit beside her on the couch. Maybe I’ll get some action then.
I was astounded after five minutes watching and listening to discover this is out here … in the public domain … for free! Or more to the point, whatever you’d like to pay!
Both sound and visuals are impressive. I’ve enjoyed about twenty minutes of it, so far. While I’m listening to the gorgeous soundtrack interspersing the songs, I’m studying (enjoying!) the visuals.
An amazing amount of work has gone into them! It’s possible of course there some AI involved but so what? There’s such detail in each frame as to have required a great deal of work by the humans involved … cutting and pasting, detailed and intricate prompt engineering if any, hours upon hours in the workshop designing the different elements, composing the frames, researching the stories. And that’s just the visuals.
‘Page ends’ are a narrow strip between frames, and bear at least six little vignettes. The page ends do repeat every so often, but not frequently enough that I got bored seeing them again.
The ‘folk’ being extolled here is, I assume, the Old English/European Celtic culture. All the symbology points to it including Joan of Arc, The Green man, Wood Witches and stags. The European landscapes are varied with farm land, hills, forests, valleys and villages. The skies change from rain to stars to clouds and sunny gloamings. The ‘real’ rain drops that spill and spatter down the still frames slowly passing right to left are another creative strategy that help to tie everything together and set a bright tone.
With the pictures resembling high class black and white woodcuts, the ambience could be darker than it is. I think the gorgeous background soundtrack–of bird song, rain, and other natural sounds–does a lot to ameliorate the visual darkness. I can’t get over the bird song … seldom have I heard birdsong complementing vocals so well!
It’s obvious there is at least one very creative human being at the head of this production, though I would expect there to be more like a dozen creatives involved in this work of art. And my hat off to them! I’m a fan from this minute!
Thank you, Ogden Fahey for alerting me to this amazing production!
Have just added in the left front leg. This knit has got to be one of the most challenging knits I’ve attempted so far … and I began knitting when I was nine.
Juffrouw Krauweel taught me and about twenty other 9 year olds when we were in Grade Three.
Juf stood in front of the class with her big knitting needles calling out the steps for each stitch … insteken, omslaan, doorhalen, af … (I can’t remember the last word in Dutch, maybe later)
I was an independent hussy where knitting was concerned and knitted without patterns most of my life.
This time however I’m following the directions stitch by stitch.
Rita de Heer 