Naoko's news, views and shoes thread

[oggbashan]

You're too much of a gentleman and I'm thoroughly ashamed of my lack of Netsuke knowledge

You don't need to know anything about Netsuke if you see genuine ones.

They are tiny carved objects with intricate detail, often produced with a sense of fun. Real antique ones are expensive.

These are pictured about four times larger than they are:

 

[stickygirl]

I've been to Chatsworth
.. they had a some nice mugs in the gift shop
and the Museum of Asian Art in Bath Spa: plenty of nice crocks in there too. I was taken to Sudeley Castle when they had a display of BBC costumes that were beautiful. ( ETA wasn't that keen on cod-pieces - bleargh )
But yes and little knowledge goes a long way
science museums for me

 

[NaokoSmith]

Oh! That looks lovely!

Do have some! the salmon and cream cheese sandwich? Perhaps I may pass some of the little cakes?


How lovely, I've come back to find the thread full of netsuke and Japanese teasets. I think Ogg's story White Scut (review here) is like a netsuke. Tee hee hee! sorry, it just makes me larf so much even thinking about that naughty story!

My grandfather once went to the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony is not about tea, but an artistic meditation and my grandfather wasn't actually of the class who partook of tea ceremony. He was nervous but he carefully watched what everyone else did and tried to imitate them as best he could.

Afterwards, they delicately said how beautiful it was that he had turned his cup three times, in the wrong direction. They thought it was an exquisite act of art in itself - properly in the spirit, although he got it wrong in the detail.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have a book on the tea ceremony, somewhere.
It was quite interesting.

 

[stickygirl]

Afterwards, they delicately said how beautiful it was that he had turned his cup three times, in the wrong direction. They thought it was an exquisite act of art in itself - properly in the spirit, although he got it wrong in the detail.

I wonder if they turn it clockwise, like you do walking round Buddhist temples?... I think

 

[sheablue]

Guys, thank you so much for all the links! which I will work my way carefully through.

I am just popping back to post some tea for Shea and me. Yes, yes, you can all come along too.

Now that I get a day off piglet management per week, I sometimes go into town to do shopping and have light refreshments. I like this bar as it’s so expensive I don’t expect to be chatted up in it. When I saw they were doing afternoon tea, I had to give it a go!

I ought really to have booked, they were a bit: “Hmmm, madam,” when I just showed up off the street and asked for the afternoon tea. I don’t think that many people go for the afternoon tea, so they said I must have it in the bar. That was fine by me as there are comfortable benches to lounge in there.

That is a Mercier champagne. When I saw they had an Oolong tea, I simply had to have it! Oggbashan will remember ‘a cup of the finest Oolong’ from Georgette Heyer novels. This one was even more irresistible as it was called Iron Goddess of Mercy. (I've met one or two of those in my perusings on Literotica.)

Because they wanted to show off, they brought me the tea without any milk or sugar but I know better than to ask for milk with ‘the finest Oolong’ so I was just like, “thank you, dahlink.” It was truly delicious and a beautiful translucent golden-red in colour.

There were finger sandwiches (including a crustless cucumber sandwich of course!) and a scone (a bit bread-y; if they baked that on the premises I will eat the chef’s hat) and a Welsh cake – which was a nice touch. I ate the Welsh cake with jam and had the scone with jam and cream. I do think the French macaroon might have come from the Marks and Spencer’s across the road, however it was really delicious so who cares. That little cone thing was jolly nice. However the pièce de resistance was the little square of chocolate something-ti-something. It may have had cornflakes as an early bottom layer, there was something vaguely crunchy. Mostly, though, it was thick rich dark chocolate which clung to my lips and when I wiped them on the napkin, left a brown kiss.


Then I had a floral martini and caught the bus home with my shopping.

I did have a nice relaxing hour there, nibbling my sandwiches and little cakes - aahhhh!

Ooh, thank you for the tea! It looks so lovely, and I dream of the day I can sit there with you and wile away an afternoon. Yum.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I wonder if they turn it clockwise, like you do walking round Buddhist temples?... I think

I have a book on the tea ceremony, somewhere.

Will you look it up for us, HP?

Ooh, thank you for the tea! It looks so lovely, and I dream of the day I can sit there with you and wile away an afternoon. Yum.

It was lovely! although there is an even better one not far from here. One day I will get the train up and have that afternoon tea - which is supposed to be the best in Britain. I shall have to plan it as there are lovely walks in the area too and my idea is to go on the train, have a good long walk, then go and snarf the tea up. We must do it together! and go to the beaches, where there is another tea place, and have tea in the city centre where there are two or three places ...

 

[RedStarFic]

While I do occasionally drink tea that can be described in genteel terms, generally my life is fueled almost exclusively by "builders' tea", ie, leave the bag in for a while until it looks like coffee then just a spash of milk.

The kind of tea that stains mugs and scares those of a delicate constitution. I make no apologies for this working class tea habit. Except to my dentist - who doesn't really mind because I pay him a lot of money.

 

[Handley_Page]

While I do occasionally drink tea that can be described in genteel terms, generally my life is fueled almost exclusively by "builders' tea", ie, leave the bag in for a while until it looks like coffee then just a spash of milk.

The kind of tea that stains mugs and scares those of a delicate constitution. I make no apologies for this working class tea habit. Except to my dentist - who doesn't really mind because I pay him a lot of money.

Ye gods, I'd almost forgotten that.
What stopped me was the rising price of good Toothpaste.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I usually like my tea reasonably strong with milk and sugar. I use Twinings English Breakfast:

(That mug says: I'm not bossy, I just have better ideas. My cousin says: "But you are bossy!" and I say: "Yes, but I also have better ideas.")

I have finally found a decent teapot! It's a small Orbit, it has a pleasing ovalish shape and a ceramic mesh in the spout which is designed to stop teabags going down the spout confused: why would you make teabag tea in a pot?). That helps stop the leaves drifting down into my cup.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Tio wrote me a great email about my blogpost reviewing the Disney Princess films eek: - yes I did! ). I thought about asking him to put it in a comment on the blog, however as it's quite long and erudite, I felt people here would appreciate it more. I love how he talks about the 'pre-text', LOL.


(BTW, Ogg has written a typically thoughtful comment on the actual blogpost.)

Tio says:
Eco was being interviewed here on the CBC some years ago, and was challenged about post-modernism. "Isn't the author's intent of greatest import in interpreting a text?" challenged the interviewer. "Only if you want to perform the work the author intended," Eco explained.

He went on to point out that for readers, a story is a "pretext" in two senses. It offers the reader the "excuse" to make her/his own story in reading it, and it serves as a "pre-text," the prologue to the text the reader will "write" from it.

Looked at that way, post-modernism is, of course, what readers have been doing all along.

I remember back when I was first teaching here, I upset a colleague from the English Department by declaring "Brideshead" to be a tragedy. "But Waugh wrote of Julia's heroism in subordinating her life to a higher value." "Funny, but I saw a person whose inherent flaw - a belief in superstition - destroys the meaningful life she might have led and denies those who would have lived it with her.

(I never considered it was about Charles; he was merely the narrator/artist painting the portrait of Catholicism in a number of guises).

 

[Handley_Page]

I'm staying out of this; I don't pretend to understand stuuf like 'post modernism'.
I'm not has clued up as Ogg.

Now, if you want to discuss the merits or not of nuclear fuels, I may be able to offer a few thoughts.
Or Ham Radio.
Or painting the shed.

And I've not read Brideshead, and missed most of the Radio 4 programme of it.

 

[RedStarFic]

Or painting the shed.

Brush or spray? Paint or woodstain?

 

[Handley_Page]

Brush or spray? Paint or woodstain?

Sadolin
Wood Preservative/ varnish, with any luck.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Sadolin
Wood Preservative/ varnish, with any luck.

I'd have thought it more fun to paint the town than paint the shed, HP.

And Ham Radio...the original democratization of cyberspace, the first peoples' wireless. If radio were modern, then Ham is most asuredly PoMo! And with crystals, yet! More New Age than Enya. Let's talk the cultural construction and critically analytic deconstruction, in a purely Foucaultian mode, of course, of Ham Radio, HP!

 

[Handley_Page]

I'd have thought it more fun to paint the town than paint the shed, HP.

And Ham Radio...the original democratization of cyberspace, the first peoples' wireless. If radio were modern, then Ham is most asuredly PoMo! And with crystals, yet! More New Age than Enya. Let's talk the cultural construction and critically analytic deconstruction, in a purely Foucaultian mode, of course, of Ham Radio, HP!

Foucault ?
I thought he did something with a Pendulum in 1851 (ish).

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Foucault ?
I thought he did something with a Pendulum in 1851 (ish).

Different Foucault, HP. Michel. This one's more like a whirling Derrida than a pendulum.

Have you read Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum," HP? I think you'd like it. Great endings in two technical museums.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Hullo dahlinks!
Ugh, I was stricken yesterday with a 24 hour tummy bug. I just lay in bed all day reading Tennyson's The Princess and smut. Luckily the Fella is much better these days, and even though he'd had Piglet for a long weekend, he was happy to keep her another day. I felt bad for Piggles, as she has the national tests in school this week and I did want to make sure she got good food and early nights, but it's better she didn't have to risk getting this horrid bug.

Anyway, before I was stricken, I started blogging about audio smut. Don't worry, HP, you can skip the postmodern bits. You can tell I was poorly, it was the Audio Smut blogpost Tio was talking about, not Disney Princesses at all!

Audio Smut - talks about different sites where you can find, and post, recordings of stories.
Hurry Home! - HP, dahlink, I feel you had better not listen to this one. It would lead to you coming back here with all sorts of questions about humblers and chastity cages. (Not for the faint-hearted! A seriously triple X story )
All That Jazz - First Time - delicious music teacher/student lesbian romance .

Still feel a bit feeble. And it's very blustery here today (40mph gusts forecast), so I will think about the garden shed tomorrow.

 

[Handley_Page]

I'm glad you explained that, Naoko: I was beginning to get bothered.

To be honest, I have trouble with even the word Fem/Dom, feminist, structural and all these Gucci terms for something of which I know asbsolutely Zip; de nada; Zero.

What really bothers me is that, even when I have read the damned story/ book or whatever, I often seem to find myself at considerable variance with the reviewer.
It's as if there's only one way of looking at a piece and you have to learn a new language to do it.

Now then, where was I?
Ah yes, find the drill and switch on the soldering iron . . . .

 

[CyranoJ]

Different Foucault, HP. Michel. This one's more like a whirling Derrida than a pendulum.

Although in fairness, Michel would likely not have cared to be compared to Derrida at all. The continental philosophers were very bemused by all this "postmodernism" business -- largely a North American invention -- that they ultimately got lumped in with. One of my fave Michel quotes: "What are we calling 'postmodernism' now? I'm not up to date."

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I'm glad you explained that, Naoko: I was beginning to get bothered.

To be honest, I have trouble with even the word Fem/Dom, feminist, structural and all these Gucci terms for something of which I know asbsolutely Zip; de nada; Zero.

What really bothers me is that, even when I have read the damned story/ book or whatever, I often seem to find myself at considerable variance with the reviewer.
It's as if there's only one way of looking at a piece and you have to learn a new language to do it.

Now then, where was I?
Ah yes, find the drill and switch on the soldering iron . . . .

Now, that's very post-modern of you, HP. And yes, there is a good bit of nonsense in deconstruction, but free-for-alls can be fun.

Although in fairness, Michel would likely not have cared to be compared to Derrida at all. The continental philosophers were very bemused by all this "postmodernism" business -- largely a North American invention -- that they ultimately got lumped in with. One of my fave Michel quotes: "What are we calling 'postmodernism' now? I'm not up to date."

Just a play on words/theoreticians, Cyrano. Pendula go back and forth; PoMo goes in circles. Derrida was merely a PoMoesque substitution for Dervish. The Continentals, with a different sense of history, never realized they were in the period following the moderm. Geez, they didn't even understand the arguments at MoMA as to whether they should acquire any "contemporary" art, since it was past the era of "Modern Art."

 

[NaokoSmith]

One of my fave Michel quotes: "What are we calling 'postmodernism' now? I'm not up to date."

I just popped back with a review of Hysterical Literature.

I couldn't help thinking, that the whole idea of a Victorian doctor (male of course) applying a vibrator to a delicately nurtured female suffering from 'hysteria' would make a great story! Anyone written it yet? Please give links.

Ignore the article I link to in the review, which says the Victorians actually had very fulfilling sex lives, in a most spoilsport-y way. Although I was reading The Princess by Tennyson while mulling over this review, and I was surprised how feminist it is.

 

[Handley_Page]

"This isn't strictly audio erotica, it's video art. "

Erm. . . . . Is this some new definition of the word 'Art' ?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Erm. . . . . Is this some new definition of the word 'Art' ?

What do you mean?!! It's very delicate , most artistic <snerk>.


I've got some more reviews of audio:
A bit of real Classic smut: reading of a dirty Latin poem, and a super song celebrating science fiction writers: Fuck Me Ray Bradbury. Many thanks to Tio for drawing my attention to that one.

 

[glynndah]

What do you mean?!! It's very delicate , most artistic <snerk>.


I've got some more reviews of audio:
A bit of real Classic smut: reading of a dirty Latin poem, and a super song celebrating science fiction writers: Fuck Me Ray Bradbury. Many thanks to Tio for drawing my attention to that one.

Care for some Elvis sung in Latin?