New JibJab! [link]

I just finished watching Chess in concert.

That is not my Chess.

IOChessNews, I got a kids book and a cheap set to teach the kids.

Cool, Cash!

Decapitated and partially amputated rabbit on my inside doormat this morning. It's a bit . . . larger than the usual fare. I think maybe they might be working their way up to taking down a deer. Or me.

I just came downstairs to a thoroughly eviscerated box of kleenex.

Loki has issues with paper.

Ha! I love the Loki stories.

So my thesis adviser just rejected my general idea around assisted reproductive technology. Told me that the topic is outside of the scope of humanities. Isn't humanities general enough?!

I had to then begin to rework my idea which is now something like this:

My previous thesis idea was to look at early modern cookbooks to figure out what it said about women's literacy. They were very personal books, because women used those books to "transact" literacy, either by what was written in the book (handwriting practice/notes/etc), or how they were used and adapted (changes women made to advice/recipes etc.)

In some ways, looking at what women are currently writing about their experiences with assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a modern day equivalent. The difference is the that women are primarily writing blogs now and not notes on in the margins for how to salt fish.

My interest in their writing is multifold: the topic is interesting to me because I have a personal connection. But also, what I'm most interested and perhaps what is most humanities-related is how women are writing about their experiences, what it says about their conceptions of their own "femaleness" or their own role in their own families, and why they are using this specific medium to express their ideas.

Sound more convincingly humanities related?

Also, previous post totally TLDR!

I fell asleep with the baby on his bed and now I'm all discombobulated. I need to stop doing that.

I just came downstairs to a thoroughly eviscerated box of kleenex.

I woke up to a turned over, excavated trash can in the bathroom. (Luckily I took out the trash recently, so there wasn't too much to scatter.) I went back to bed and Leifur came with me to snuggle and purr and get pettings for killing the evil trash can.

It had been looking shifty.

I'm kind of glad that Leifur doesn't go outside without a leash, though. We have all too many rabbits around here (and deer, for that matter). And he's quick when he wants to be.

That is not my Chess.

Aw, I'm sorry, Perkins. Apparently, it's Sir Tim's ultimate version of Chess. It's really interesting reading his notes on this production-- he talks about all the different productions of it he's seen over the past twenty-odd years:

[link]

Chess lasted a mere eight weeks on Broadway. Normally, that would be that for the long-term future of a humiliated show, but for some reason this one has refused to roll over and die, even in America. The reason was of course the songs, which even our misconceived Broadway escapade had not managed to destroy. Actors and singers still wanted to have a bash at the wonderful melodies, especially in auditions, and directors felt that they could put up with the confusion of the plot (a) because every few minutes another great tune turns up and (b) they could re-write chunks of the story themselves as no-one allegedly in control of the show seemed to know what the official version was anymore.

I certainly didn’t. During the past 20 years I have seen Chess on dozens of occasions in many different countries, and no two versions have been the same. Sometimes Freddie wins, sometimes Anatoly wins. Sometimes the whole show is set in the Tirol, sometimes entirely in Bangkok. One (rather good) version was set in 1960s New York, and another backstage at a Chess concert in which the actors played actors putting on a Chess concert. By far the best and most successful foreign production (not surprisingly) was the Stockholm show in 2002

I'm going to watch it this morning-- first chance I've had. I'm excited even though I was surprisingly underwhelmed by the little I heard/saw of Idina's interpretations.