You know you're in Australia when...

Three girls standing outside a university building, a perfect representation of the general insanity that is Australian autumn fashion:



Girl 1: in jeans, a long-sleeved top with a low-cut neckline and a woollen scarf



Girl 2: in a short skirt without stockings and sheepskin boots



Girl 3: in jeans and a leather jacket... and thongs on her bare feet.





The temperature outside is 19 degrees C during the day and 5 degrees C at night.



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is now up: "...And Speaks My Name"





Tango

---

Stronny and anyone else who is interested...

The first verse of the "Titanic" translation (two posts below) has been edited. I like it better this way.



Tango

---

Translation: No One Would Listen

This is what comes of procrastination... My translation of a the cut song from "Phantom of the Opera", entitled "No One Would Listen". The rhythm is the same, the meaning is the same -- but as for spelling and grammar, well, I did my best. In my defence I can only say that the original lyrics are nearly as bad as mine.





Никто не слышал

Проклят людской толпой,

Отшельник и изгой,

Я научился

Слышать музыку во мраке.



Я бы поднялся в свет,

Открыл им тьмы секрет --

Но никто не слышал

Песню, что лишь мне понятна.



Наконец,

Голос в ночи

Вдруг воскликнул: "Слышу!

И мне знаком

Твой страх, и сердца стон!"



Она услышала

Зов одиночества

Никто не слышал

Только она

Песню понять смогла...





And here is the original:



No One Would Listen

Shamed into solitude,

Shunned by the multitude

I learned to listen

In my dark, my heart heard music



I long to teach the world

Rise up and reach the world

No one would listen

I alone could hear the music



Then at last,

A voice in the gloom

Seemed to cry: "I hear you!

I hear your fears

Your torment and your tears!"



She saw my loneliness

Shared in my emptiness

No one would listen

No one but her

Heard as the outcast hears





Tango

---

"That Titanic song"

As requested by Stronny, my translation of "Titanic" by Nautilus Pompilius. Not to be confused with Celine Dion.



I'm sorry, I could not keep the original rhythm intact -- but I hope this is okay.





TITANIC



I've looked at the charts marked "secret",

I know where we'll end up;

Captain, I've come to say farewell

To you and to your ship.

I've been down to the hold,

I have talked at some length

With His Eminence Master of Rats;

The rats will be leaving as soon as we dock,

Hoping they will be saved.



Above, on the deck, the orchestra plays

And couples dance the foxtrot,

While the waiter pours fire into glasses of crystal

And watches the meltdown of ice.

He looks at the dancers who cannot recall

That their fate is the watery grave...

But nobody wishes to be concerned

While yet the Titanic sails.



Our sailors have sold the turbine

To an Eskimo for a barrell of ale;

Now a judge and a priest argue all through the night

The question of who is to blame.

The judge tries to prove that it is the Law,

While the priest claims the issue is Love,

But in the flash of lightning it's blindingly clear:

Each one's hands are covered in blood.



But nobody wishes to be concerned

With where the Titanic sails

Nobody wishes to be concerned

With where the Titanic sails



I have seen the sharks overboard,

The sharks were licking their chops,

Captain, the sharks have been well informed:

They know that we're going down.



Up ahead of us rears the cold

Sheer wall of Arctic ice,

But nobody wishes to be concerned

With where the Titanic sails...

Nobody wishes to be concerned

With where the Titanic sails.





Lyrics (c) Nautilus Pompilius, tranlsation by Tango

---

A Solo For the Living - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is now posted: Outside, Looking In



Tango

---

Let's hear it for the nice guys

If my reviews are anything to judge by, a major purpose of my Phantom story, "A Solo For the Living", seems to be to make all Raoul-haters fall helplessly in love with him (Raoul being Mr Nice Guy). This, even though my interest lies chiefly in the Erik/Christine pairing.



Obviously my real-life bias for decent, nice, uncomplicated people is making itself felt. I like nice guys. They are low maintenance. They don't drain you emotionally, they don't demand attention like spoiled children, they respect your family, visit their sick grandmother, understand when you're stressed and generally behave like adults.



Which is precisely why a nice guy can never be an interesting hero -- there is nowhere to develop him -- but he can be the perfect material for a tragedy. After all, nobody cares much if Mr Average gets dumped by some girl he kind of fancies. But if a truly good man loses the woman he loves... Ouch.



Well, perhaps that's not entirely true: in the end, it all comes down to how something is written. On a serious level, it really is incredibly draining and painful to chronicle the process of falling out of love, or of recognising that the person you love may not be the person you are "in love" with. The only thing more painful is writing the 'response' to this: the point of view of the person who is being left behind. I toyed with this once before, in my short Xenaverse story, "Into the Dawn", but this is the first 'realistic' attempt I've made at such a plotline, and it is more upsetting than I would have thought possible.



Which is fun, in perverse kind of way.



I do believe that in every relationship in drama there should be a sort of bitter shadow, a counterpoint to romance. In real life, one person's happiness often requires the sacrifice of others' -- even if it's small, even if it's temporary. It's an interesting idea to me.



Beyond all this, I'm actually very pleased that the way I wrote Raoul has been so popular with people who normally dislike his character. It indicates, or at least I hope it does, that something of my efforts has reached the audience, which is always a relief.



Tango

---

How the world sees biologists

From the US Department of Labor website, describing the working conditions of biological scientists:



Those who conduct research usually work in laboratories and use electron microscopes, computers, thermal cyclers, or a wide variety of other equipment. -- This is like saying that actors use shoes, microphones, toothbrushes and other totally random and unrelated pieces of equipment. I'd love to know just what this piece of useless trivia is supposed to convey. Possibly the fact that somebody at the US Dept of Labor has googled "biology" and "equipment".



Some conduct experiments using laboratory animals or greenhouse plants. This is particularly true of botanists, physiologists, and zoologists. -- Ah yes. I can see those zoologists now, working on those good old greenhouse plants... Might explain "The Day of the Triffids".



Biological scientists usually work regular hours in offices or laboratories --



and usually are not exposed to unsafe or unhealthy conditions. -- Absolutely not, heaven forbid! Now excuse me while I go put away my tube of carcinogenic ultraviolet-sensitive dye, wheel out the radioactive isotope bin and breathe in another lungful of fungal spores. Woo-hoo for safe jobs with regular hours!



Tango

@настроение: cynical

---

Real life farce

Last night, my sister got a phonecall from the bank: it seems that she was "selected out of 30,000 people" to participate in a free trial. They were offering her life insurance for a period of ... SIX DAYS. (What, after 6 days she would love her new life insurance so much that she won't want to part with it? )



My dad promptly parried: "Wonderful! We could pay off the mortgage!"



Which makes me think that this would be a fantastic set-up for a black comedy: how to collect someone's life insurance and make it look like an accident... in only six days.



My husband has a different (equally morbid) twist: a self-sacrificing individual tries to get himself killed in order to provide much-needed cash for his family. Since the insrance company won't pay if he commits suicide, he has to do thinks like crash meetings of the local gun lobby waving a "no guns" flag. Hm... The possibilities.



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is now posted: A Man Like Any Other



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living

Chapter Four -- in which Christine is invited to a ball and Erik invites himself somewhere else -- is now posted here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2364528/4/



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is now up: www.fanfiction.net/s/2364528/3/



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living - Chapter 2 (re-post)

The original message was eaten by the server, evidently, so here it is again.

A SOLO FOR THE LIVING

Chapter 2 – Life Continues

They regarded each other in silence, the disfigured man and ... continue reading >>



Tango

---

The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy (re-post)

One word: dull.



Sad to say, but even the funniest and zaniest of books can apparently be turned into a slow-paced, dim-witted retro adventure, with a weepy female looking all pretty and sad and spouting cliches about being a woman (Trillian?? THAT is not Trillian) and some slightly more energetic males spouting other boring stuff, all set against what looks like a mid-90s computer game crossed with my grandfather's transistor radio. I normally appreciate the "retro" effect, but it just did not work in this case. Although there are some great moments (the song at the start is hilarious, for instance), the entire film had the depressing effect of watching a lot of potential go gurgling slowly down the metaphorical drain.



Decent cast - wasted. (Especially Alan Rickman as Marvin: he seems to get about ten lines in total, at most).



Great novel to base the screenpay on - wasted.



Terrific opportunity for zany, energetic comedy - wasted entirely by a lot of people who look as bored to be up there as I feel bored watching them.



My verdict: save yourself the heartache and the money and re-read the books instead.



Tango

---

Arrggh

Sigh. This website decided to delete my last two posts, including a comment - I don't know who it was from or what it said or even which message it was for, because it just said "post deleted". So if it was your comment and you can still re-post it, I would be very grateful.



Tango

---

On this day two years ago...

... it was raining heavily enough to flood all the major roads, while 100 or so people in slightly rain-soaked formal attire, including one nervous bridegroom, awaited the arrival of Tango and her bridal party. (I can't believe it's been two years, time flies when you're having fun!)



The people at the reception hall, including my hapless fiance and his friends, had to move the set-up for the ceremony first from the flooded lawn to the terrace (plan B), and when the terrace also became flooded, into the hall (plan C). In the meantime, my bridesmaids (two friends, my sister and future sister-in-law) had spent the morning having our hair and make-up done and generally being relaxed. We clearly got the better end of the deal.



I remember so clearly sitting in in the limousine next to my sister, while the driver pulled over to the kerb and waited patiently for the rain to subside. 'Rain' is too weak a word for that torrential downpour of biblical proportions. The water level around the car reached halfway up the tyres, and the water churned all down the street, creating the effect of being on a river cruise -- of course, few people would choose to take a river cruise in a bridal gown complete with crinoline. Recycling boxes and random objects that had been swept onto the road were merrily floating along downstream while we sat in the car and waited, and the people at the reception hall hurried to get the last of the mostly-dry chairs into the hall.



For some reason none of this bothered me in the slightest. My sister, who was pale as a sheet and shaking with nerves, turned to me in the car and said, "How can you be so calm? You're a freak!" In fact, I don't think I have ever felt quite so calm and cheerful in all my life, with the possible exception of the day after I handed in my honours thesis (and for the same reason). It was an incredible post-adrenaline bliss.



Once we did manage to get to the hall, everything went pretty smoothly, including my speech -- which I hadn't had time to write and so made up on the spot. Nothing quite like delivering an impromptu speech in front of 100 relatives. I recall people laughing in all the right places, but for the life of me I can't remember what I actually said. I think there were a lot of thankyous. (I would like to thank the Academy...)



Ah, the memories... It was certainly one of the most fun days I've ever had.



Now, two years later, perhaps I can finally get around to putting all the photos into an album?



Tango

---

A Solo For the Living

The first chapter of my Phantom story is now officially posted.



I'm taking a gamble and posting it chapter-by-chapter, because that seems to be how it's done in this fandom, and also because it keeps me motivated. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get things done. Now perhaps I can finish the darn thing, get it out of my system and get back to focussing on my thesis. (Not before time...)

A SOLO FOR THE LIVING

Summary: In the real world outside the opera, two people struggle against themselves. Reality, of course, is no opera.

Rated: PG13 for sensuality and occasional coarse language.





To say ‘I love you’ one must know first how to say the ‘I’. –Ayn Rand

Chapter 1 – Only Almost Here

It was raining in Paris. The black asphalt of the grand boulevards ran silver with light, so that it seemed the entire evening was reflected and continued underground: the gaily lit cafйs-chantants with their bawdy songs, the carriages, the restaurants, social clubs, theatres, and the people, everywhere the people... They crowded under awnings and roofs to escape the rain, stood smoking in the dimly lit foyers or pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in packed salons. Paris was what it was; a party in full swing, cheerfully abandoning itself to the din, the glitter, the charming madness of champagne, absinthe and spring.

continue reading >>





Tango

---

"Dear Frankie" -- brilliant film!

I just got back from watching "Dear Frankie" -- I confess, I went mostly because it stars Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera) but honestly, that's just the cherry on top. I can't say when I last watched such a lovely, quietly heartfelt, heartbreaking but uplifting film.



The really wonderful thing about it was how underplayed it was. Everything happens and you know it happens, and yet it's hardly ever externalised. It's all inside the characters. The basic plot could have been really pat and melodramatic -- deaf boy's mother invents a story that his dad is at sea, the ship comes in, she has to find dad for the day -- but instead of being melodramatic, it comes across as human and profound.



Emily Mortimer, who plays the boy's mother, is fantastic. Somewhere along the way you realise that this story is about her fantasy as much as about the boy's (or more so), and the way she manages to convey her own life history without ever really giving it away is amazing.



The same is actually true of Gerard Butler's character, though we find out even less about him. His character development happens entirely on the inside, practically without dialogue and yet you're there for it all, and you catch all the little changes.



And of course, the little boy is superb -- it's such a great character, too. A clever, sly but thoughtful and loving boy, who doesn't feel sorry for himself. He seems to be straightforward at first, but in light of what we find out at at the end of the movie, you begin to reassess his actions and realise that he's just as "internalised" and deep as the adults.



Anyway, if you haven't yet seen this movie and you have the chance, run don't walk to the cinema and catch it!



Tango

---

The second-best feeling in the world...

...is to wake up on Saturday morning to see that the house has been vacuumed, the floor washed, and the entire kitchen scrubbed from top to bottom -- and it was done by someone else.



The best feeling is to realise that you are married to him.



Tango

---

So much for resolutions

After three years of battling my Xenaverse/Ancient Rome novel, "Fortuna's Champion", I swore to myself that under no circumstances would I EVER undertake another fanfic project of this scope. No way, no no no, never again.



So why, two years later, have I pushed aside my dusty volumes on Roman roads, Caesar's military campaigns, the history of the Republic and endless maps and sketches in favour of books on Paris in the 19th century? Why am I now surrounded by a pile of horrifically complicated articles on the manoeuvres of the Prussian and French armies in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, a book on the Paris Commune of 1871, a selection of sketches of women's and men's clothing from the period, and goodness only knows what other rubbish?



No, it is nothing quite so sane as a temporary interest in modern history -- I have never had the least interest in modern history and don't plan on starting now. It is merely the unfortunate consequence of my having decided to write another long story. Worse, a story nobody is likely to enjoy, because it is written for a fandom I have nothing to do with: the Phantom of the Opera. So why write?



Inspiration is a rare thing these days. To quote "Grease", I'll get my kicks while I can.





Tango