march rains

[gurdonark]

This morning the rain came, not the miserable winter rain of as little as three weeks ago, but Spring-like warm weather rain, falling from dark, looming clouds. I love this rain, this hypnotized-by-a-novel-at-a-window-seat-we-don't-own rain.

I watched part of Children of Dune last night, after watching the entirety of the first part on Sunday night. This was yet another valiant effort at a fundamentally uncinematic set of books. Cinematic science fiction so often falls short of literary science fiction. I like a lot of science fiction and fantasy movies, but I rarely find them as rich and intriguing as the books. Of course, few books convert into films as good as the book. I believe perhaps only The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment seemed to me to add new ideas to the books. The sombre Silent Running may be an exception to the rule that sci fi doesn't film, the movie in which Bruce Dern is the caretaker of the last sample of Earth flora on a spaceship in orbit. It's a sad, dark satire, but the film effects enhance the mood of eerie depression, lost hope and despair. So many times, though, I wish to read the book, and then not see the movie. The movie in my mind is so much better made than the actual movie, because I tend to edit out fewer details and turn fewer characters into more photogenic young actors and actresses.

I'm not sleeping my usual pattern, but I'm getting roughly a night's sleep intermittently anyway. I found that crossing forty made a big difference in sleep pattern, although I may be subject to stresses I haven't realized or something similarly faux grandiose. I fill my time well, though--doing google searches on things that interest me; reading LiveJournal entries, and playing blitz chess at the Internet Chess Club. I'm glad I rejoined the ICC, and I'm particularly glad that my play seems about as strong as when I last played. I spent last night's insomnia in part putting books in a box to mail off to a fellow in PA. I'm glad to get those books mailed off.

My wife brought back some gorgeous quilts she got in rural Nebraska, which we'll use for family Xmas gifts next December. I'm very glad she's home.

I have one mail art exchange that has languished for weeks, half done, which I need to complete. I also have my music project, two recordings I wish to duplicate, one my own and a friend's, the other a friend's, which literally just needs placement in CD mailers,the drafting of a cover letter as to design, and not much more. I want to get these two things done, as they weigh on me the way procrastinated matters can do.

Comments

[laruth.livejournal.com]

I prefer reading sci-fi and fantasy books rather than watching, as I feel that a lot of the details is lost in the translation from book to screen.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. The details so often are the real atmosphere of a sci fi. One does not read Dune for the plot, but for the wash of ideas and cultures and characters.

[kelquestor.livejournal.com]

This may seem entirely unrelated to your post, but: what's your sense of smell like, and how are you affected by scents and odours?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'd say my sense of smell is neither particularly acute nor particularly deficient. My wife has a much more sensitive sense of smell than I have, but I do like nice scents and hate odors. I love the smell of rain, that "dust stirred up far away"--that's one of my favorite scents of all.

[kelquestor.livejournal.com]

I like that new icon. Or perhaps it is not new, I simply haven't seen it before. Anyway, I like it.

Appreciate your prompt response to my query. Would you believe I had a mail art inspiration the night before last, and was wondering if your nose was up to it?! That particular idea has been put on the enormous back-burner I have here, a vehicle parked, still redolent of what it has previously transported.