Live-Action Nemurubaka Film Heads to Netflix on July 20
Jul. 6th, 2025 10:00 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
animenewsnetwork_feedFilm based on Masakazu Ishiguro's manga opened in Japan on March 20
animenewsnetwork_feedHIDIVE Debuts English Dub for Flower and Asura Anime on July 16
Jul. 6th, 2025 09:00 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedAnime premiered on January 7, aired during winter anime season
Ghost Quartet (Green-Wood Cemetery, 7/28/25)
Jul. 6th, 2025 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeeandinkGhost Quartet is a band: Dave Malloy on keyboard, Brent Arnold on cello, Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford on various instruments, and everyone providing vocals. Ghost Quartet is a song cycle, a concert album performed semi-staged, a mash-up of "Snow White, Rose Red," The One Thousand and One Nights, the Noh play Matsukaze, "Cruel Sister", "The Fall of the House of Usher", the front page photo of a fatal train accident, and a grab bag of Twilight Zone episodes. The ghost of Thelonious Monk is sometimes invoked, but does not appear; whisky is often invoked, and, if you see the show live, will most certainly appear. "I'm confused/And more than a little frightened," says (one incarnation of) the (more-or-less) protagonist. "It's okay, my dear," her sister/lover/mother/daughter/deuteragonist reassures her, "this is a circular story."
Once upon a time two sisters fell in love with an astronomer who lived in a tree. He seduced Rose, the younger, then stole her work ("for a prestigious astronomy journal"), and then abandoned her for her sister, Pearl. Rose asked a bear to maul the astronomer in revenge, but the bear first demanded a pot of honey, a piece of stardust, a secret baptism, and a photograph of a ghost. (The music is a direct quote of the list of spell ingredients from Into the Woods.) Rose searches for all these ingredients through multiple lifetimes; and that's the plot.
Except it is much less comprehensible than that. The songs are nested in each other like Scheherazade's stories; you can follow from one song to the next, but retracing the connections in memory is impossible; this is less a narrative than a maze. Surreal timelines crash together in atonal cacophany; one moment Dave Malloy, or a nameless astronomer played by Dave Malloy, or Dave Malloy playing Dave Malloy is trying to solve epistemology and another moment the entire house of Usher, or all the actors, are telling you about their favorite whiskies. The climax is a subway accident we have glimpsed before, in aftermath, in full, circling around it, a trauma and a terror that cannot be faced directly; the crash is the fall of a house is the failure to act is the failure to look is the failure to look away.
There are two recordings available. Ghost Quartet, recorded in a studio, has cleaner audio, but Live at the McKitterick includes more of the interstitial scenes and feels more like the performance.
In Greenwood Cemetery, there were three slightly raised stages separated by batches of folding chairs, one for Dave Malloy, one for Brent Arnold, and one for Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford, with a flat patch of grass in the center across which they sang to each other, and into which they sometimes moved; you could sit in the chairs, or on cushions in front of the first row, or with cheaper tickets you could sit in the grass on the very low hills above the staging area, among the monuments and gravestones, and, presumably, among more ghosts. The show started a little before sunset; I saw a hawk fly over, and I could hear birds singing along when the humans sang a capella. It was in the middle of Brooklyn, so even after dark I couldn't see stars; but fireflies sparked everywhere.
Dept. of Grammar Strangness
Jul. 6th, 2025 05:40 pmkaffy_rI use semi-colons; you?
Anyone who reads anything I write, whether fictional or non-fictional, knows of my love for semi-colons. When I think about why that's so, the one thing that leaps to what I laughingly call my mind is that I use them to reflect the same patterns I use when speaking. I find them extremely useful to demarcate thoughts, observations, realizations - that could reasonably be considered "in process," rather completed. (Protip; don't use quotation marks quite as liberally as I undoubtedly have. That leads to bad grocery window displays; almost as much as apostrophe misuse.)
WRT that last sentence; see wut I did thar? But I digress.
I read this WaPo article* this morning and have grumbled about it all day. In part that's because it's not that well-written a story - it's apparently predicated on the assumption that cleverness is preferable to writing a story with a point, or at least preferable to having to prove you can write such a story.
In larger part it's because I'm part of an apparently shrinking number of English speakers and writers who have sworn off this kind of proscriptive grammar pedantry, in favor of punctuation that has a perfectly understandable and effective use, if used properly.
So I must ask my friends, for whom the acronym AKICOTI (all knowledge is contained on the internet, for those who don't trust the internet) was undoubtedly coined:
* I cancelled my subscription months ago, but was told I was still a member until sometime in November. Most likely they hope I'll resubscribe.
Anyone who reads anything I write, whether fictional or non-fictional, knows of my love for semi-colons. When I think about why that's so, the one thing that leaps to what I laughingly call my mind is that I use them to reflect the same patterns I use when speaking. I find them extremely useful to demarcate thoughts, observations, realizations - that could reasonably be considered "in process," rather completed. (Protip; don't use quotation marks quite as liberally as I undoubtedly have. That leads to bad grocery window displays; almost as much as apostrophe misuse.)
WRT that last sentence; see wut I did thar? But I digress.
I read this WaPo article* this morning and have grumbled about it all day. In part that's because it's not that well-written a story - it's apparently predicated on the assumption that cleverness is preferable to writing a story with a point, or at least preferable to having to prove you can write such a story.
In larger part it's because I'm part of an apparently shrinking number of English speakers and writers who have sworn off this kind of proscriptive grammar pedantry, in favor of punctuation that has a perfectly understandable and effective use, if used properly.
So I must ask my friends, for whom the acronym AKICOTI (all knowledge is contained on the internet, for those who don't trust the internet) was undoubtedly coined:
Poll #33330 Semi -colons: Threat or Menact
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4
I use semi-colons
View Answers
All the time; if it's good enough for Jane Austen and Lincoln, it's fine by me.
4 (100.0%)
When I deem the time is right. Which isn't all the time, damnit!
0 (0.0%)
Occasionally; that's because it's only occasionally useful.
0 (0.0%)
Rarely; I mean, I think that's what the WaPo writer meant ....
0 (0.0%)
Never! *makes warding anti-semi-colon sign*
0 (0.0%)
Other, which I'll explain in comments
0 (0.0%)
* I cancelled my subscription months ago, but was told I was still a member until sometime in November. Most likely they hope I'll resubscribe.
Daily check-in
Jul. 6th, 2025 08:36 pmmecurtin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, July 6, to midnight on Monday, July 7 (8pm Eastern Time).
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Poll #33329 Daily check-in poll
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 9
How are you doing?
I am OK
7 (77.8%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now
2 (22.2%)
I could use some help
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single
1 (11.1%)
One other person
5 (55.6%)
More than one other person
3 (33.3%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Tougen Anki Anime's Trailer Reveals English Dub Cast
Jul. 6th, 2025 08:00 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedSeries premieres on July 11
HIDIVE to Simulcast Hero Without a Class TV Anime in Fall
Jul. 6th, 2025 07:00 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedFirst episode premieres worldwide at AnimeNYC
animenewsnetwork_feedFrom Bullied to Brawler: My After-Hours Education with the School's Tough Girls' releases begin on Monday
AI revives classic microscopy for on-farm soil health testing
Jul. 6th, 2025 07:00 pmphys_breaking_feedThe classic microscope is getting a modern twist—US researchers are developing an AI-powered microscope system that could make soil health testing faster, cheaper, and more accessible to farmers and land managers around the world.
animenewsnetwork_feedFrom Bullied to Brawler: My After-Hours Education with the School's Tough Girls' releases begin on Monday
animenewsnetwork_feedYuzu Aoki, Nana Mori, Mai Kiryu, Aoi Miyazaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka join cast of October 10 film
'Marry Me, Let's Have a Baby!' AnimeFesta Anime Reveals English Dub Cast
Jul. 6th, 2025 05:00 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedDub for anime based on Hiroyoshi Kira's dōjin adult manga debuted on Sunday
Fantasia Int'l Film Fest to Screen N. American Premiere of All You Need is Kill Anime
Jul. 6th, 2025 04:25 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedFestival takes place from July 16-August 3 in Montreal
Curation Entertainment Partners Announces Partnership with Manga Publisher DouDouDoujin
Jul. 6th, 2025 04:00 pmanimenewsnetwork_feedCompanies aim to expand global manga through B!JuKu platform
vital functions
Jul. 6th, 2025 10:20 pmkaberettReading. ( Burch + Penman, McMillan-Webster, Wells, Davies + Jones, Hwang Carrant, Keynes + Aidley )
... all of which adds up to more pain-related reading than I felt like I'd managed this week, huh, I thought I had tripped and fallen entirely into Murderbot and EatYourBooks indexing but apparently not!
Writing. A response to the EHRC consultation, which was... several thousand words. A very, very brief response to the Pathways to Work green paper consultation ("I am too disabled to manage doing this properly. These charities are speaking for me. Please fucking listen to them.")
Watching. The first half of Fantasia, with the toddler, with my hand held through all the scary bits to reassure me, apart from the bit that was SO scary that we had to get up and distract ourselves until it was over. Which had absolutely not been flagged as one of the scary bits, and which was the deep-sea-origins-of-life section.
(I had not watched the film since primary school, I don't think? And between then and now I have played a bunch of orchestral music, for most of that time on the violin but latterly as a French horn. It turns out that when I'm not distracted by playing a completely different part, I have incredibly intense sense-memories of several of the pizzicato sections early on...)
Another Murderbot episode. (I continue Indignant.)
Another Farscape episode, this one Taking the Stone (S02E03), which I think was firmly back to early season one levels of incoherence.
Tragically we have not managed The Old Guard 2, because I have had too much migraine and there have been SO many things Happening, but... maybe this week???
Cooking. Several new things! Four from East, leaving me at 41/120 recipes still to make (two of which are "probably won't happen" for reasons of "grapefruit" and "matcha"); of those this week's meal plan includes two (aubergine larb with sticky rice; Vietnamese coconut pancakes). I appreciated the reminder that fried new potatoes are tasty, and A is notably into the chargrilled summer vegetable salad, though I was not a fan of the faff and think I prefer smitten kitchen's charred corn succotash.
Approximately zero faff was salt lassi, and A is now aware that this Special Treat is available; low faff was a cherry clafoutis with fruit from the plot, which I overcooked a bit but, hey, I do in fact like caramelised crunchy bits.
Eating. FIRST BATCH OF DESSERT GOOSEBERRIES ARE RIPE. A tiny handful of Sugar Magnolia sugarsnap peas. Misc jostaberries. RASPBERRIES. And also supermarket strawberries, because we have hit the stage of the summer where they're down to £5 per kilo :)
Growing. I have been doing small bits of harvest and failing to get support structures in for the beans and tomatoes. The outdoor tomatoes have tomatoes on. The squash are coming along; I put more squash seeds in, on the grounds that they're super late but might still do anything; I have not managed to kill all of the chillis; the pepper has flowers.
Harvested lots of dried peas for sowing next year. Am attempting to develop Plans that might actually let me have a full bed of broad beans and a full bed of peas in the interests of getting Reasonable Quantities of them. If the council doesn't tell me I'm not allowed the abandoned plot next door--
I could get so much done if I could coax myself out there for even an hour a day but the agoraphobia is saying No, annoyingly. Gonna try to get A to chase me out more this week.
Done This Week
Jul. 6th, 2025 02:10 pmscrubjayspeaks*lolsob* Okay, so, I went to queue up the July posts for Lewisia on Saturday. I only needed to write one more for the week as well. The first things I always queue up are the Monday demifiction posts, because those are written for specific dates. Aaaaand...there weren’t any for July. Because I had lost track of what week it was and hadn’t written them yet.
Now, a sensible person could think, well, write one of them to finish out the current week’s pieces, then write the other three on Sunday. You’ll have all the July Mondays covered and be ahead of the curve for the coming week.
Friends, I am not a sensible person, but for once, it’s working in my favor. I wrote all four of them last night. And a fifth general one, just because I thought of it. So now, if I write two pieces this coming week, I won’t have to worry about it at all over the weekend when my club’s show and sale takes place. Which is great! But wow, I went about it in the weirdest way possible.
It has been an exceedingly foolish week at work, with a bunch of leaks and breakdowns, a short week, and a holiday party. I helped with the grilling and food prep for the party. Two of the other guys on the team normally handle it, and I am nosy and insist on getting involved. It’s just more work for me, when I could be sitting around doing nothing, because I am Just Like This. And then I volunteered to stay late with the outside vendor fixing several of the leaks.
Lewisia: 7 new pieces written
Day job: 36.5 hours, with Friday off
Cooking: Tang pie from Tasting History with Max Miller (kept frozen, it’s a creamcicle pie, simplistic but tasty, like the cheat lemon pie, probably not worth making again but no regrets)
Reading: Strangers in Paradise #17
Watching: more Murderbot :3
Listening: Transformer by Lou Reed (a quick detour into the classics)
Clock Mouse: 1097 words
Now, a sensible person could think, well, write one of them to finish out the current week’s pieces, then write the other three on Sunday. You’ll have all the July Mondays covered and be ahead of the curve for the coming week.
Friends, I am not a sensible person, but for once, it’s working in my favor. I wrote all four of them last night. And a fifth general one, just because I thought of it. So now, if I write two pieces this coming week, I won’t have to worry about it at all over the weekend when my club’s show and sale takes place. Which is great! But wow, I went about it in the weirdest way possible.
It has been an exceedingly foolish week at work, with a bunch of leaks and breakdowns, a short week, and a holiday party. I helped with the grilling and food prep for the party. Two of the other guys on the team normally handle it, and I am nosy and insist on getting involved. It’s just more work for me, when I could be sitting around doing nothing, because I am Just Like This. And then I volunteered to stay late with the outside vendor fixing several of the leaks.
Lewisia: 7 new pieces written
Day job: 36.5 hours, with Friday off
Cooking: Tang pie from Tasting History with Max Miller (kept frozen, it’s a creamcicle pie, simplistic but tasty, like the cheat lemon pie, probably not worth making again but no regrets)
Reading: Strangers in Paradise #17
Watching: more Murderbot :3
Listening: Transformer by Lou Reed (a quick detour into the classics)
Clock Mouse: 1097 words
My cat has a secret cat life which has nothing whatsoever to do with me
Jul. 6th, 2025 09:47 pmhunninghamI do not know what my cat has been up to, but last night was clearly very exciting & maybe stressful.
Today he did not come in until about 11am, and then he came up the stairs very tired, very disheveled and very very wet. And then collapsed dramatically into sleep. No wash & brush up. No catfood. No loud demands for attention. Just thud. Sleep. In the middle of the hall. He got up about mid-day, ate a sachet of catfood with a minimum of fuss, had a little wash and straight back to sleep. And that's been it all day. This afternoon I applied flea treatment to the back of his neck and he did. not. move. (Normally Himself & I do this together because cat is uncooperative)
I really don't know what he's been up to.
Harry Potter (Prompt # 87 - Madonna songs) Houseguest 2
Jul. 6th, 2025 02:10 pmenchanted_jae posting in ficlet_zoneTitle: Houseguest 2
Author:enchanted_jae
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairing: Dean, Neville (background Neville/??)
Rating: PG13
Word count: 100
Written for:
♦ JMDC No. 233 - live, love, life
♦ Gift for JMDC No. 232 winnerdigthewriter, whose prompt was dirt
♦neville100 Prompt No. 568 - legend
♦ficlet_zone Prompt No. 87 – Madonna songs. I chose Like A Virgin
Warnings: Suggestion
Summary: Dean tries to get Neville to spill the tea.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic/drabble was written for fun, not for profit.
Houseguest 2
Author:
enchanted_jaeFandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairing: Dean, Neville (background Neville/??)
Rating: PG13
Word count: 100
Written for:
♦ JMDC No. 233 - live, love, life
♦ Gift for JMDC No. 232 winner
digthewriter, whose prompt was dirt♦
neville100 Prompt No. 568 - legend♦
ficlet_zone Prompt No. 87 – Madonna songs. I chose Like A VirginWarnings: Suggestion
Summary: Dean tries to get Neville to spill the tea.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic/drabble was written for fun, not for profit.
Houseguest 2
Squidge's Summer Sleepaway Camp Fundraiser
Jul. 6th, 2025 06:48 pmsquidgestatusWe started our Summer Sleepaway Camp Fundraiser on the first day of Summer 2025, and I'm proud to say that we have managed to reach - and surpass - our goal!
Over the last three weeks, generous donors have stepped forward and together, we have raised $2,187.46 - almost 10% above our goal! We should be in good form for the next year, but the fundraiser will continue in case anyone wants to donate, with the chance to get either a sticker (with $10 minimum donation) or a t-shirt (with a minimum $100 donation).
Thank you to everyone who has donated, ensuring we can cover our expenses for the next year. And for those of you who have donated, we will be in touch with outstanding questions like addresses and shirt sizes.
Over the last three weeks, generous donors have stepped forward and together, we have raised $2,187.46 - almost 10% above our goal! We should be in good form for the next year, but the fundraiser will continue in case anyone wants to donate, with the chance to get either a sticker (with $10 minimum donation) or a t-shirt (with a minimum $100 donation).
Thank you to everyone who has donated, ensuring we can cover our expenses for the next year. And for those of you who have donated, we will be in touch with outstanding questions like addresses and shirt sizes.
…"wasted little time VERB.ing"…
Jul. 6th, 2025 06:38 pmlanguagelog_feedCommenters noted the ambiguity of this sentence quoted earlier today in "Rococo":
When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he wasted little time redecorating.
From Bob Ladd: "I was genuinely uncertain when I read the sentence about 'wasting little time' whether Trump had in fact gone right to work redecorating or rather had decided not to bother.
Nearly all the examples in COCA of {… wasted little time VERB.ing} or {…wasted no time VERB.ing} have the "went right to work" meaning. There are a few examples like these:
The story goes that while Thomas was laid up with flu, the printer slipped in a phony prediction for July and August of 1816: snow. Hey, it was only a joke. But when Thomas discovered it, he wasted little time laughing. He pulled all the copies he could find and substituted a corrected forecast.
Ormelius wasted no time making threats he couldn't carry out; he simply told the aliens that U.N. forces were inadequate to deal with widespread social chaos of the type we were beginning to see, and pleaded with them to lift the Baby Ban, as the sole means of avoiding a complete breakdown of international order.
But the vast majority — in fact nearly all — are like these:
Sonics coach George Karl wasted little time establishing a new set of rules within the locker room. After Shawn Kemp missed the team charter and an evening practice later that night in Orlando, Karl benched the second-year forward for two games.
On the offensive side of things, the Giants wasted no time getting runs up on the board. They nearly batted around in the first inning, the big hit coming off the bat of Hunter Pence, who doubled to drive in a couple runs.
You can see similar results in a Google News search for "wasted no time" or "wasted little time".
A good homework assignment for a semantics course would be modeling the ambiguity in terms of formal logic. And a good assignment for a discourse-analysis or pragmatics course would be explaining the difference in relative frequency. I wonder whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok can provide sensible answers to those questions? I don't have time to check today, but I'll give it a try at some point if readers don't beat me to it…
Update — several commenters feel strongly that the dominant interpretation of these phrases is a logico-grammatical error. It wouldn't be the first time that we've documented standard quasi-idiomatic meaning reversals — see "Why are negations so easy to fail to miss?", 2/26/2004, and/or some of the other posts in the list at "No post too obscure to escape notice", 11/27/2009. But I'm not convinced — I think that the "got right to it" meaning is logico-grammatically valid, though I don't have time today to provide a detailed argument.
Culinary
Jul. 6th, 2025 07:32 pmoursinNo bread made for reasons.
Friday night supper: I was intending having penne with bottled sliced artichoke hearts, except did not appear to have these in store cupboard: did a sauce of blender-whizzed Peppadew Roasted Red Peppers in brine instead.
Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 50:50% strong white/white spelt flour, turned out nicely.
Today's lunch: diced leg of lamb casseroled in white wine with thyme with sweet potato topping, served with buttered spinach and what really were quite tiddly juvenile baby leeks vinaigrette in a dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar, and wholegrain mustard.