Trying to lessen my reliance on parentheses (and failing)

[cleolinda]

Lamictal, day 8: Reading's getting a little easier if I try really hard. As proof:

Do you ever find yourself wondering about really arcane, random things? Like, I was watching the Prestige trailer again. I'd just watched it streaming before, but I downloaded it this time so my mother could see it (I'm going to try to sell her on the new Bond trailer as well; she's still mad that they didn't get Clive Owen. You know, even though she can't remember his name half the time. He used to be "King Arthur," now he's "That Guy from Inside Man"), so I watched it again. And I find myself wondering... where did magicians in that period (the book is set in the late 1870s, I think?) actually perform? Well, I did a little digging, and I found out that they generally performed on the vaudeville circuit in the United States and in music halls/variety theaters in Britain. And then I started wondering... where do the performers live? It's not like a circus, where they're basically carrying their own accomodations with them. Some of them seemed to stay in one place, maybe performing at more than one theater, but probably staying in one city, but that seemed more London-based; American vaudeville (particularly from what I've seen in Gypsy, set some 60-70 years later) seems a lot more nomadic. Did ordinary traveling B- and C-list performers just live at the theater while they were there? In (cheap, I assume) hotels? Was it kind of a pain in the ass to find a place to stay every time you moved on to a new city (which is why I'm wondering if there was some kind of set accomodation)?

The obvious solution would be to read a biography of such a performer--Robert-Houdin turned up as an interesting possibility. Houdini is the obvious choice, of course, although he was more early twentieth-century. What I noticed was, once I'd gotten sucked into a daisy chain of Wikipedia articles, you see several classic magic tricks in the Prestige trailer: the bullet catch, the vanishing cage (you actually see the secret of how that works), the Aquarian Illusion (which I don't think actually existed until recently), a little sleight of hand in passing, and the big trick that's Real Magic Zomg looks like a dressed-up version of your basic teleportation.

(What? Two movies about magicians this year, and you thought I wasn't going to get sucked into the history of stage magic?)

Speaking of Bond a long, long time ago up there, if you liked the trailer: updated Casino Royale gallery. Also at the trailer link: a download of the Catch a Fire trailer I mentioned the other week.

(I'm going to stake my money on it right now: somewhere, somehow, someone will not like the Bond movie, and they will write a negative review, and it will be titled "Royale with Cheese.")

Still Life Takes Top Honor at Venice. More importantly (for our purposes), Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck take top acting awards. Start your Oscar betting... now.

Ledger on the Joker: I Wouldn't Have Thought of Me Either. Heh.

Rumor: JKR Says Book Seven "up to about 750 pages." Sweet fancy Moses. I'll remember to rent a handcart when I go buy the book.

First Glimpse of Kingsley Shacklebolt and More in New King's Cross Report.

Models Flunk BMI, Get Spain Fashion Boot. That's right, bitches. You gotta have something to work.

Jilted bride turns wedding into benefit. No, not for herself, either.

In other news, I just realized that Marie Antoinette and The Prestige come out on the same weekend in October, and I am feeling something like panic--moviegoer's panic? Maybe we could swing another double feature, but I don't know...

Comments

[etherealshores.livejournal.com]

That jilted bride deserves major props...very nice of her to try and make something good out of it. :)

750 pates? Egads. The thought of that is making my eyes tired right now.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck take top acting awards. Start your Oscar betting... now.


Now there's a sentence I wouldn't have believed if you'd said it to me it last year, and I'm usually the one that winds up defending Affleck.

The association said Friday it wanted models at the show running from Sept. 18-22 to project "an image of beauty and health" and shun a gaunt, emaciated look.

I &hearts Spain. :D

[zrath.livejournal.com]

"Royale with cheese", hee!!

And Spain does have its moments.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Models Flunk BMI, Get Spain Fashion Boot.

So.... do you suppose it's meant to be "ironic" that the picture accompanying that story is of a model whose shoulders are so skeletal it made me wince? Who on earth did they turn away?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

"Spain's top fashion show has turned away a slew of models on grounds they are too skinny an unprecedented swipe at body images blamed for encouraging eating disorders among young people."

Where are the copy editors? Did they fall asleep at the wheel? I'm sorry, but that is not a sentence.

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

I believe it lacks a comma between "skinny" and "an unprecendented" but it could definitely use some plastic surgery.

Also? I too love Spain at this moment.

[bexone.livejournal.com]

Well, if I remember correctly from my shallow dabble into the history of music halls and vaudeville a few years back, at most smaller theaters the managers had deals with landladies at one or two (or more) nearby boarding houses for their performers. Since most acts stuck around for a while, that was feasible, and cheaper than a hotel. In London there were whole neighborhoods full of boarding houses for theater rats and vaudevillians.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I THOUGHT SO! Sorry, I must sound insane. I just didn't want be all like, "So, boarding houses, you think?" and have everyone agree with me just because--independent verification, if that makes any sense.

(I think a story about a boarding house for theater performers is bubbling up from somewhere, which is why I started asking in the first place.)

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

It's fiction, but extremely well researched: Carter Beats the Devil. This is one of my all-time favorite books, and if you want some scoop on magicians of the era before going to see The Prestige, you should read it. Well, you should really read it anyway. I love that book. Love. So much love.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

HEY! I remember hearing about that one now! Shit, that's another one to put on my Christmas list.

[xlearntoflyx.livejournal.com]

This may be a silly question, because I can probably find out how on the site somewhere, but I just checked and couldn't find it. So...

The buttons that you put in every post, for The Hunger Site, The Breast Cancer Site, and The Literacy Site. My mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, has had another mastectomy, and is going to be getting chemo relatively soon. This matter is obviously very close to my heart, and I while I make it a habit to click these buttons whenever I get a chance, I'd like to include the Breat Cancer Site button on my posts as well.

So how did you get it onto yours, is there a way I can as well? Thanks in advance!!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I actually paste the code manually into every. single. entry. I haven't found a way to embed it into the actual journal setup, because I are dumb. The code I use for that particular button is

< A href="http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/" target=_blank>< IMG src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/cleoicons/breastcancersite.png" border=0>

Except take out any spaces in/around the brackets, of course. You'll want to save the image to your own Photobucket account, also.

Some Movies About Backstage

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

There was a great movie about backstage life called The Dresser (The Dresser), but it was set during WWII. Also, check out the mini-series Tipping the Velvet (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/tipping/) (available on DVD), which chronicles the life of a lesbian musical hall performer.

Re: Some Movies About Backstage

[squid-uxia.livejournal.com]

I second Tipping the Velvet -- the book, anyway, I haven't seen the series. The novel is awesome, though, and very useful if you're interested in the slang and backstage life of music hall performers. Come to think of it, Cleolinda, you might also want to check out Affinity by the same author. One of the major characters in that novel is a spirit medium, and there's some interesting stuff in there about the show business-y aspect of it. If you're not up for a depressed and suicidal main character, though, pass on it.

[lily-radcliffe.livejournal.com]

750 PAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More space for lots and lots and lots of H/G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[syneblue.livejournal.com]

I might be the only woman on Earth thinking this, but Spain doesn't really get points in my book for taking a stance against judging women's bodies by...mathematically judging women's bodies. I mean, yes, there's going at it from the other end of the scale, but they're still esentially rejecting women who don't look the way they want them to.

[tabbyclaw.livejournal.com]

This is what I said.

[andromeda-77.livejournal.com]

Sweet fancy Moses
*laughs hysterically* I've never heard that before. Oh, the pain in my side is most welcome.

;)

[meandstuff.livejournal.com]

Not that I don't think that Heath will pull off the role, but I always thought Bradley Cooper (http://imdb.com/gallery/granitz/4453/Events/4453/BradleyCoo_Mazur_7823347_400.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Cooper,%20Bradley%20(I)/) would make absolutely the perfect Joker. He's even got the right bone structure.

[redmapletree.livejournal.com]

That's a really wonderful story, about the ex-bride-to-be. Gives you a little more faith in humanity.

[flyingichthyo.livejournal.com]

Is anyone else thinking that Rowling's attending Rupert's premiere because she may be killing his character omg?!?

::hides::

[gaueko-izar.livejournal.com]

*comes out of lurkdom*

Models Flunk BMI, Get Spain Fashion Boot. That's right, bitches. You gotta
have something to work.

Go Spain! The ironic thing is, all the girls I went to school with in sixth grade (in Spain) were anorexic. But I still love how they can turn down the worst ones. XD That country never ceases to amaze me.

[megmatthews20.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Daniel Radcliffe's clip for the new season of Extras on mugglenet.com? It's second story down at the moment, and the video is funny as hell, with very adult humor. I believe it's funny specifically because it is Harry Potter we're all seeing insinuating...well...you'll see if you watch it.

cheers

[princessstarr.livejournal.com]

750 pages? Geez. I know she's said that it's gonna be big, but the optimist in me is hoping it's still being edited.

Said optimist is also very, very small.

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

I feel like an ingrate because there's all these great movies coming out this fall that I'd normally want to go see, and yet I'm devoting all my energies to try and get SOMEONE to show Das Parfum locally, sometime. Even if it means badgering the indie theatres with a dozen emails a week.

[3hours.livejournal.com]

http://www.zokutou.co.uk/wordmeter/

dunno if you've used this? saw it on my flist this morning

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

In England, touring performers stayed in theatrical lodging houses. Still do, a lot of them.

[yarha.livejournal.com]

I...uh...liked the original 60's Casino Royale James Bond parody (David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers). *sigh* It has something to do with the concept of 'imprinting' during one's youth. One see's crap, is imprinted, then is controlled by 'superlative' crap throughout one's life.

Yarha, Like the US, Led by Crap

[anna-sinistra.livejournal.com]

FYI, Focus on the Family has caught on to the "get stuff free" scheme, probably due to the high traffic.

We are unable to process your request online as the amount you've chosen is less than the suggested donation. We may be able to complete your request, but you must first contact us directly at (800) A-FAMILY (232-6459) in order for us to assist you.

A friend did a bit of research and says legally, since they are a non-profit organization, they can only deny service if you refuse to give them information (probably basic shipping information), and by calling you may still be able to get the free stuff.

However, they're not open on Sundays so I haven't been able to test it out. And it may be more hassle than your readers would like to go through.

Re: parentheses

[ailaes.livejournal.com]

Believe me, you're not the only one who does it (almost every entry I've ever made has them, and it's usually several lines long).

See!

LoL

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

Belatedly, is there a betting pool anywhere on how long the seventh Harry Potter book is going to turn out to be?