Tuesday, 31 December 2024

New Year’s Eve-2024

I will make a break in posting my followups, as 2025 is coming: will do the rest later in January (no, I won’t hesitate anymore, I promise!).
Happy upcoming year, people.
2024 was tough for many, and there is only hope that 2025 will be better (contra spem spero, I know). Please, don’t give up, and I’m saying it earnestly: I really mean it. You are a great bunch, and I appreciate you all. May you be merry, and lucky, and loved. The rest is important, but lesser than that.
Have a wonderful celebration! Yours truly, Lena



New Year’s Eve tutti quanti

Saying farewell to 2024 in a traditional Slavic way:



A followup: Armitage Symposium (Day 2)

Another day—another bunch of fabulous presentations!!
Panel 4. Towards Horror and Weird: Lovecraftiana in translation / national literatures (comparative discourse)
1. Gus Kraus “Cosmic Terror ‘Crystallised’: A Lovecraftian Episode in an Indian Epic”
2. Carlos Gonzáles “Mariana Enriquez's “Under the Black Water,” “Dirty Kid,” and “The Cart” as homage to Lovecraft”
3. Eric Williams
“Translating Weirdness: Farnsworth Wright, World Literature, and the Creation of Weird Fiction”
Panel 5. “The surpassing despair which flows from a loss of identity”: Postcolonial historiography and race in Lovecraftiana
1. Christopher DeRosa “Reclaiming Lovecraft from Lovecraft: The Evolution of the Genre of Cosmic Horror”
2. Daniel Holmes “Rhode Island in 1912 AD: Immigration, Catholicism, and the Nativist Grotesque”
3. Melissa Stewart “Lovecraft’s racism and eugenics”
Huge thanks to Session Chairs, Fred S. Lubnow and Joshua Shockley IV!


A followup: Providence, RI tutti quanti

The views are splendid, and the foods are magnificent:



A followup:“Alice i Underlandet” by Tove Jansson

There are classical illustrations of Carroll’s Alice (Tenniel and the Master himself), excellent illustrations and there are those of Tove Jansson.
“Alice i Underlandet” (1966)



A followup: a new poster by Sarah McMenemy

“One simply cannot visit Cromer and come back with empty hands,” said I to myself, when choosing another beautiful work by one of my favourite English artists and illustrators, Sarah McMenemy. I was introduced to Sarah’s art in Cromer Art Gallery several years ago and fell in love with her vivid imagery of beloved landscapes immediately. Her artworks portraying the Pier, East and West Cliff walks, the Promenade and Hotel de Paris are sublime and incredibly versatile: this one that shows the East beach during the low tide, full of gulls, is especially close to my heart.



A followup: new Art Nouveau tiles

Ok, “it is happening again”: just before our Providence trip we passed by one our favourite antique shops (on Gwydir St) and spotted these two Art Nouveau beauties in the window display. We were lucky enough to fetch them next day, and then there was a bit of a saga of ordering the oak frame for them: as it had to be a specific one, adjusted for tiles, ours was customised, but not entirely (the colour was completely off), so it took us another few days to find a wood stain of the right cool-toned “ashy” shade, and so we did.
Long story short: we finally assembled it and put it next to the Lovecraftian map of Providence, and you simply cannot find a better place.
So, the one on the left is a majolica floral tile by the John H Barratt Company of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, circa 1907, and on the right is a Lea & Bolton gem (they are quite rare, as the company since its registration in 1906 patented only 16 designs) made around 1910.
Love them both dearly.


Monday, 30 December 2024

Post-Stollen Chronicles: Pavlova (En)

After making stollen a few days ago, we were left with several egg whites, and it was L.’s idea to transform them into Pavlova again. It turned out pretty decent (we experimented with brown caster sugar, and also Greek yoghurt added to whipping cream, as one of the recipes recommended, and it gave the final result a bit of a tarty touch). We managed to try the tiniest scoop, as it’s too late for a proper feast.



Stollen - 2024: Magic in the making (P.2; En)

And here we are: the best way to ignore the ghastly weather (it’s getting worse towards the end of the day) is to make not one, but two stollen (of course, with marzipan inside), then to place them in the centre of the table, sprinkle with a generous scoop of icing sugar and then wrap them tightly until the festivities.



Stollen Chronicles-2024 (En)

Magic in the making (P.1):



More of King’s Lynn: Rupert the Bear and a flea market (En)

A brief disclaimer: there will be a bunch of additional posts (as usual, at the end of the year, before posting Christmas Tree, I try to catch up with all the unfinished stuff).
***
Coincidentally, while we were in King’s Lynn, there was a flea market at their local Guildhall, which occurs every first Saturday of the month. And while there, I fetched this adorable guy, the legendary Rupert Bear, a very well-loved character from Herbert Tourte’s comic strips that were published daily in the Daily Express for many years (starting in the 1920s) and then turned into a book series about his adventures.
The world knows Milne’s Winnie the Pooh (and rightfully so), but Rupert was an inseparable part of the English childhood’s lore, too.
On the way to the exit I spotted an old guy who was selling the Rupert books and bought one of them, from 1949. He told me that it would go with my Rupert fairly well.


Ну, итоги-2024 (...и немного грустно)

На фоне схлопыванья всех соцсетей (по множеству причин, и не только политических) итоги года молчаливо пишутся сами собой, и чаще всего незаметно — и независимо — от нас.
Год был разным, и в очередной раз продемонстрировал несостоятельность всех предъявляемых под предыдущей елкой запросов: все, что получилось, снова получилось не благодаря, а вопреки. Научная работа была вариативно-плодотворной — вытанцевалось сделать Армитадж симпозиум в Провиденсе (впервые в качестве главного организатора, что отрадно: подготовка стоила мне многих усилий, но ныть по этому поводу неприлично, поэтому не будем) и выпустить к нему монографию с некрономиконовскими статьями двухлетней давности; в апреле съездила в Саффолк на отличную джеймсианскую конфу. Однако ж список того, что не получилось или не срослось по тем или иным причинам, гораздо внушительнее всех успешных успехов, вместе взятых: очень мало качественно написанного, еще меньше опубликованного (статус «в печати», признаться, нервирует), не очень много прочитанного (мое цундоку уже размером с Австралию, и вероятность возглавить Всеевропейскую Комиссию по Прокрастинации выглядит теперь вполне реалистично), ну и очевидный минимум того, что удается удержать в профессиональной памяти, тоже не радует (борюсь с bye-лингвализмом как могу, а что делать?..).

Saturday, 28 December 2024

Возрастное-настроенческое

Внезапно поняла, что во всех винтажных романтических комедиях я бы с удовольствием сыграла ворчливую старую бабку-траблмейкера, какую-нибудь усадебную Шапокляк или вудхаузовскую тетку Агату, которая вставляет всем палки в колеса и лорнирует окружающих ко всеобщему неодобрению.
А если все роли противных леди кэтрин де бург зарезервированы, я согласна и на пьяненького пожилого дворецкого, который с некоторым усилием подмигивает почтенной публике, пока идут завершающие титры.
Короче, приглашайте, если что.

Friday, 27 December 2024

Brief (and grumpy) cinematic Christmas reviews

Tried to watch Burton’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass” for the second time (the first was right after the premiere 8 or so years ago): God, is it boring, and sloppy, and messy (not in a good way), and nothing could save it—not even the quirkiness of Burton’s previous Muse, Helena Bonham Carter. Also, CGI has killed cinema for youngsters, and at this point there’s no coming back from it.
***
(Yet again—an unsuccessful attempt to watch “Tenet”)
Never understood the whole appeal of Nolan’s movies (Interstellar wasn’t bad, or rather less mediocre at most): they all are the same. A convoluted plot, pseudo-deep characters’ arcs, lots of CGI.

Thursday, 26 December 2024

Christmas Chronicles:...and a pudding (En)

So, we weren’t the only people who decided to go on a brisk walk today: at least half of Cambridge did the same, as the amount of food that was eaten yesterday was obscene. We walked through the misty grey landscapes of Trumpington and Grantchester (12 or so kilometres isn’t too bad, I guess) and when came back, it was already dark.
It was also the time to consume the Christmas pudding, which we didn’t manage even to unpack yesterday, and it was waiting for us somewhat desperately. So, we flamed it (for the first time ever!), and after the light was gone, we tried its post-flambé deliciousness with brandy cream. Not bad at all! (Although, I am feeling tipsy right now)



Christmas-2024: the Feast (En; photos)

While making the very last preparations to the feast, we watched (with one eye only) “Some Like it Hot,“ “North by Northwest” and the new “Wallace and Gromit,” and all the characters somehow mixed up in our minds, as it should be, I guess. The rest was cosy and indeed merry.