没办法的事

[nnozomi]

For most of this month my work has been in a state of bicycle operation, a Japanese expression meaning that if you don’t keep pedaling ALL the time you go smash; in this case, that it’s been less “when is my next deadline” and more “how many deadlines do I have today.” As a freelancer I am obligated to be grateful for having work at all, and I am, especially since at least some of it has been genuinely interesting (and I’m not even talking about the machine tool parts catalog which included the model number SEXC), but I am really badly in need of a happy medium.

Given that I am most grateful indeed for all the conversation around here that I'm able to share in, for some reason I have been feeling kind of sad about…I’m not sure what the right phrasing for this is…how little presence the kind of music I like has in fannish circles? People make character playlists and vids and things and use song lyrics for fic titles and so on, and the vast majority of it is music I don’t know and that, when I do listen to it, isn’t really my thing. Truly not a value judgment, it’s not a question of better or whatever, just preference, but—I wish someone would make a Guardian vid set to Rachmaninoff or Brahms, or a Lost Tomb one set to Kurka’s Good Soldier Schweik Suite (that came to me kind of randomly but I think it’s one that would work), or character playlists with Bach and Gershwin and Messiaen and Tom Jobim on them, just because I would like to be able to consume fannish music-related stuff using music that gets to me that deeply.
(It’s not a strict issue of classical vs pop—there’s popular music in the wider sense from various countries that affects me just as much—I wouldn’t spend time listening to Zhu Yilong sing if I didn’t genuinely like most of what he sings, for instance, and there’s Dreams Come True and a fairly eclectic assortment of individual Western pop songs that I like a lot, not even counting jazz and bossa nova and musicals, but most of that doesn’t come up much either.)
Content-related, it would be fun to be able to grumble in company about the things that the large quantity of MDZS/CQL orchestra AUs get wrong (an orchestra has more than one first violin, just to start with). Or even music as a fandom, as it were—Solo and a couple other people are kind enough to chime in with this once in a while, but I want somebody to quarrel with about which symphonies make our personal top ten list and why, or boggle with me at M from orchestra’s professed LITERAL PHYSICAL allergy to Bartok, or swoon together over Seong-Jin Cho and his absurdly amazing piano playing (not to speak of cute Korean cheekbones and pleasantly low-key affect), and so on. Oh well.

Photos:
The other day I passed two cats having a vicious argument, entirely human-style—not raising a paw to each other, just standing there face to face screaming, ears pinned back and tails lashing. Their yowling was occasionally interrupted by long silences and sort of plaintive cooing, making it sound all the more like a dysfunctional human couple having a quarrel.
As for the rest, I was impressed by someone who can grow a full-sized cauliflower in a tiny urban front yard. The little leafy flowers are 沈丁花 (I had to look up the English and Chinese: winter daphne and 瑞香 respectively), which are only middling pretty but smell sweet and spicy; the other pink ones are more plums, maybe even with peach or early cherry thrown in, I’m not sure.



Be safe and well.

Comments

[luzula]

Bicycle operation, what a useful term. That does describe my week also...

the large quantity of MDZS/CQL orchestra AUs

OMG, I guess that's what being in a large fandom is like! Er, sorry I latched onto that instead of your music wistfulness...I am lucky to have people to talk to about old folk songs. I hope you find people to talk to about your music.

[nnozomi]

I hope your week has quietened down by now...

and thanks for kind words! The thing about MDZS is that it has a lot of music canonically, so it tends more than the average fandom to give rise to orchestra AUs and similar. Not that I'm complaining per se, just terribly tempted to nitpick.

[philomytha]

Bicycle operation is such a great phrase, I am going to introduce that here now.

My cat and my neighbour's cat have long vocal arguments, made more entertaining by the fact that my cat is almost completely deaf and has no volume control, so he's screaming and she's mewing.

[nnozomi]

lol! Your neighbor's cat probably goes home and tells her owner "you wouldn't believe what the old guy next door said to me today..." I felt I was missing out on a lot of cat four-letter-words.

[tree_and_leaf]

That's a strange term, because that is not, in fact, what a bicycle does - if you've built up a decent head of steam you can stop peddling for quite long periods at a stretch, or indefinitely if you're going down hill - but it does fill a useful gap.

I hope things calm down soon.

[nnozomi]

You have a point! Stopping at the bottom of the hill might be a problem, though. And thanks for the kind words.

[naye]

As always, your pictures are a delight.

[nnozomi]

<3 <3

[naraht]

Content-related, it would be fun to be able to grumble in company about the things that the large quantity of MDZS/CQL orchestra AUs get wrong (an orchestra has more than one first violin, just to start with).

LOL! Although I don't read MDZS/CQL fic specifically, I love nitpicking orchestra AUs, so I would totally be up for sharing some grumbling!

And yes I know what you mean about the position of classical music in fandom. I do know some other classical fans, including nineveh_uk and seekingferret (both mainly opera I think), but it's not a big thing. I went through a period of trying to turn Britten/Pears RPF into a thing, but apart from Britten's obvious problematic points, it was always doomed to failure. (Those love letters, though.)

[nnozomi]

Ha! I'll see what I can come up with in the way of grumbles. I think music in general for me is a bit like your space program things (which I always enjoy reading), it's not that I want to write fic for it etc. so much as I want somebody to enthuse with ;)

[clevermanka]

machine tool parts catalog which included the model number SEXC
If only it was from Snap-on Tools (I'm assuming not tho).

Bummer about not being able to connect with fandom via music. With how important music is to you, that must be difficult. Hugs.

[nnozomi]

If only it was from Snap-on Tools
:D If memory serves, it was for something called a Small-Diameter Boring Tool, which...could have been better thought out?

*hugs back* and thanks. I mean, I enjoy music and I enjoy fandom as they are! I'm not deprived! It would just be fun to be able to put them together sometimes too.

[chestnut_pod]

Bicycle operation, I quite like that!

I can't entirely relate on the music portion, but the problem of inaccurate orchestra AUs seems quite related to the epidemic of terrible ballet AUs. Concert art solidarity!

[nnozomi]

Oh wow, I never thought about the ballet AUs! I like reading those when they come up, but I wouldn't know what they were getting wrong...feel free to complain any time ;)

[trobadora]

bicycle operation, a Japanese expression meaning that if you don’t keep pedaling ALL the time you go smash

What an excellent expression!

And your pics are lovely as always,

(I am, alas, completely music-illiterate, so I'm of no use on that front.)

[nnozomi]

thank you! and don't worry, you provide plenty of good musical content by way of mutual swooning over ZYL and his songs ;)

[umadoshi]

As a freelancer I am obligated to be grateful for having work at all

#Relatable, as they say. ^^;

things that the large quantity of MDZS/CQL orchestra AUs get wrong

Ohmygosh, I can just imagine!

for some reason I have been feeling kind of sad about…I’m not sure what the right phrasing for this is…how little presence the kind of music I like has in fannish circles?

That sounds totally understandable to me, FWIW.

I often wish I connected more readily with more music/musicians; there are plenty of types of music I don't at all mind listening to, but things I actually bond with or seek out are much more limited. (I want to say "mostly lyric-driven songs that mainly involve pianos and acoustic guitars and not a lot of heavy production", but between Metric and Dessa that's not strictly true anymore.) For all that I discovered a few favorites from other fans, I don't tend to really bond with most fanmixes either.

[nnozomi]

yup, I think your job and mine are adjacent to some extent (although I was surprised to find out a while back how different the manga translation process is from anything I work on).

there are plenty of types of music I don't at all mind listening to, but things I actually bond with or seek out are much more limited.
yes, this. I feel like I should be more active about listening to different things in a way, but...I like what I like!

[umadoshi]

I was surprised to find out a while back how different the manga translation process is from anything I work on

I'm pretty sure the manga process is just deeply weird and atypical. ^^; (At least when my job description is involved.)

[nnozomi]

(sorry for the late reply, I've been drowning in work lately...)

The one manga-translation trial I picked up involved the translator needing to use Photoshop or similar to put the translation into the bubbles, which is probably standard? I don't know? Only I was taught that translation and DTP are two absolutely different professions, so I couldn't get my head around it. My loss, obviously (someday I might try again when I have more mental energy to spare, especially since manga translation seems likely to hold out against MTL longer than technical work).

I'm pretty sure the manga process is just deeply weird and atypical.
I think translation in general is an industry with so many little sub-fields that almost all of it is deeply weird and atypical from some perspective ;)

[umadoshi]

The one manga-translation trial I picked up involved the translator needing to use Photoshop or similar to put the translation into the bubbles

Um. That sounds weird to me, actually. I've worked with four publishers at this point, and I've always gotten a translation in text format (usually .doc[x]), with lettering getting done after I've sent my script back and after it's been edited. I do feel like I've heard of one publisher (who I haven't worked for, and very possibly the one you did a test for) doing the lettering much earlier in the process, but based on my experience, I think it's safe to say that's not the standard.

I think translation in general is an industry with so many little sub-fields that almost all of it is deeply weird and atypical from some perspective ;)

*g* There is that! I just always remember a polyglot friend, who doesn't work directly in translation but comes in contact with a LOT of it, being utterly appalled that my role exists at all. And I can see her point, much as I'm glad it does exist, since I like and am good at what I do.

[nnozomi]

ack, I missed replying to this! sorry.
It's good to know that manga translation formats vary! Thank you for the info. Maybe I will try jumping back in at some point. At least the sentences would be shorter than in academic papers in the humanities, sigh...
and yeah, a lot of my job wouldn't exist either if, for instance, everyone was successful at learning languages. Somebody like us has to fill in the gaps!

[umadoshi]

It's good to know that manga translation formats vary!

Things vary wildly from one company to another in all kinds of ways, really. The good news is that they all need translators! (Whereas only a handful use adapters at all. ^^)

[tinny]

I have different tastes in music than you do, but I would assume that a lot of people share your love of classical music, and with the rise in popularity of kdrama and cdrama, there might be an overlap? Are there no classical music comms on dw? (Probably not. But hey.)

Love the screaming cats, and the cauliflower O_O, and more plum blossoms! \o/

[nnozomi]

yeah, I should look for other classical music people both on DW and in real life. It's a thought!

Now I'm tempted to grow cauliflower on the veranda this year... <3