My translation of “Bodyhoppers” by Rocío Vega, published at Clarkesworld Magazine, has been nominated in the category of the Best Translated Short Fiction for the British Science Fiction Association Awards. The annual awards are voted on by members of the BSFA and will be presented at this year’s British National Science Fiction Convention, called Eastercon because it takes place over Easter weekend, April 3 to 6.
I’m honored to be listed among such talented translators, and the full BSFA Awards shortlist is a great reading list. Congratulations to all the nominees!
We briefly had a Tornado Warning in our area, which fortunately was quickly downgraded to a Thunderstorm Warning. Not that we had to be warned about that, it was in fact happening, and it brought with it 80mph winds. It was those winds that just now took out our porch railing.
We’re fine and everything else is fine, minus the power being out, which is a thing happening all over town. If this is the worst that happened around here because of this storm, we’ll count ourselves lucky.
Lise Davidsen sings ‘Vissi D’Arte’ —’I Lived For Art’ — from Puccini’s Tosca
You have probably heard by now that Timothée Chalamet said some ignorant things about opera and ballet last week.
“I admire people — and I’ve done it myself — who go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. You know, we gotta keep this genre alive,’” he told fellow actor Matthew McConaughey in a town hall conversation hosted by CNN and Variety. “And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it.”
He then added, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.”
Regular readers of this site likely know that I care very, very much about opera. I am a member of Chicago’s Lyric Young Professionals and I make it a point to see every production I can every year. It’s something I’ve loved since childhood — one of the first CDs (technically two CDs) I ever owned was a recording of Leontyne Price in Verdi’s Aida, which my mom got me for Christmas along with a copy of the children’s book version of the story written by Price.
Incidentally, Vanity Fair’s defense of Chalamet’s comments begins “Did you have a marvelous time at Verdi’s Aida this weekend?”
I didn’t. I saw it last year and I did have a marvelous time, thank you very much. But last month I saw Salomé and Tutti Fan Cosi in one weekend, which I think makes up for it. But I get it. Not a lot of people are into opera the way I am into opera — it’s a significant part of both my artistic life and my social life and honestly it’s my whole heart. But that doesn’t mean we are all desperately scrambling to save something that “people don’t care about.”
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When you go to the opera, when you go to the ballet, you are seeing people with an incredible amount of skill and talent do something that only a very small number of people are able to do. People who may never be famous, never be fabulously wealthy (a corps de ballet dancer in New York City makes about $40K to $70K a year), who dedicate their whole lives to being amazing at an art form just for the sheer love of it. That’s how much people care about it.
In the Vanity Fair defense, writer Chris Murphy argues:
Once upon a time, opera and ballet were indeed popular entertainment. But it’s undeniably true that in contemporary American culture, they’re both propped up by wealthy patrons and donors, rather than the general public. (And certainly not the federal government, which has been slashing budgets and arts programs left and right.) One viral TikTok highlighted how ballet and opera tickets are expensive—while movie tickets are cheap. In the poster’s view, this is a good thing. “The average person can go see your fucking movie,” said @arbacn.net. “But not the average person can go see the New York City Ballet’s ballet performance or a beautiful opera.”
Most of the time, tickets to the opera and the ballet are actually far less expensive than going to see a popular singer or band. There are also a number of affordable options for seeing these productions. I belong to Lyric Young Professionals and pay $100 a year for $40 tickets to every production, along with happy hours and other social events. (If you are under 45 and in Chicago, check it out! We are all super nice!) Most of my friends also belong to the Overture Council, which is a similar thing but for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There are options and groups working to keep the younger generations interested in these art forms and to make them feel a part of things, and I think that’s awesome.
There also are companies like the the Chicago City Opera that put on very affordable productions. I saw their production of Carmen in a cemetery last summer and it was packed full and an absolute jam. There are other affordable (and even free!) options in most cities.
One of the things you will notice about the Lyric in Chicago is that it does not have the traditional “U” of opera boxes around the seating area. This was done on purpose, as, from its very beginning, opera in Chicago was meant to be accessible to all. They didn’t want a place for the elite to “see and be seen,” they wanted a place where anyone could go and enjoy the most beautiful music in the world. And there really isn’t a bad seat there (though if you’re all the way in the back, maybe get some opera glasses at the coat check — or just get them anyway because of how you’ve always wanted to use opera glasses).
The first home of the Chicago Opera was the Auditorium Theater, built in 1885 after the Chicago fire destroyed the city’s first opera house. The plan, from the beginning, was inclusivity and making the performing arts available to everyone regardless of class.
Since the theatre’s beginning, it has aimed to create an inclusive space, and this principle is reflected in the arrangement of the Auditorium’s seating and layout of the theatre. Traditionally, box seats occupied the best space in theaters around the world such as the Metropolitan Opera House. Instead, the Auditorium adopted a seating model that would be less class divided and thus the theatre was originally designed without box seats to remove the privileged seats that were normally reserved for the wealthy (the box seats were eventually added to the blueprints before the theatre’s opening after receiving several requests). This intentional design encouraged equality amongst Chicagoans by giving the middle and working class the same rich and elegant experience that would otherwise be only accessible to those who could afford it. Additionally, thanks to the incredible interior design by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, the theatre is known to have near-perfect acoustics and be visually pleasing in every seat.
It’s true. There really isn’t a bad seat in the house there either. I just went there to go see Patti Lupone (you may die of jealousy now) and the sound was incredible.
Hint hint hint!
The idea that some art requires donations to “survive” doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. Hell, this site require donations to survive, and you love us!
Throughout human history, most art has been funded by donations, solicited and otherwise. How do you think we got the Mona Lisa? How did we get all of these operas and ballets in the first place?
While I don’t like the idea of separating high art and low art (and absolutely will go on about how opera and Shakespeare plays were originally for the masses), there is and always has been a difference in how various forms of art perpetuate themselves. Opera, ballet, visual art, classical music, live theater often don’t support themselves through commercial advertisements, but through ticket sales and donations from people who love those things and want them to be around for others who love them, and that is just as valid as an art form that supports itself through product placements for laundry detergent and Subarus.
The idea that the only art that matters is the art that is currently part of the cultural zeitgeist is a deeply depressing one. One of the best things about all the access we have now to music, to movies, to television shows is that we get to create our own zeitgeist in a way. We aren’t stuck only with whatever is popular at the moment.
At the same time, community is incredibly important, too. This is one reason, surely, why people do advocate for seeing movies in theaters (apart from wanting to make money from them). There is something to being around other people who enjoy the same things you do that you just can’t get at home.
The fact is, it’s getting increasingly expensive to go out and do anything these days. Drinks are more expensive. It’s kind of funny that we talk about how “kids today” don’t go out like we did, but we had $1 PBRs or 2 for $5 fuzzy navels depending on which crowd you ran with, and they have $20 cocktails. Hell, some places they have $20 mocktails. Even my regular dive bar now charges $5 for a well drink! Chicken wings are somehow now more expensive than oysters. Concert tickets are expensive — I can afford opera, but I couldn’t afford Rilo Kiley. Sports tickets, I am told, are also quite pricey these days. Movie ticket prices, too, are crazy expensive compared to the “nothing” we pay to watch them at home. They can’t hang out at coffee places because half of the coffee places close at 3 p.m. now.
The fact is, at this point, we do need to conscientiously “keep things alive.” Because if we keep going the way we’re going, there’s not going to be anything left for us but lying in bed and binge-watching Law and Order SVU. It’s not just opera, it’s not just ballet, it’s human contact and community in general. I truly believe that a very big part of the reason we are seeing so much extremism and hate these days is because of the lack of in-person community building and socializing. It’s a whole lot easier to develop crazy ass ideas about the world and the people in it when you are not of it, which is why we see so many these days gravitating towards an incel-like viewpoint. These things take effort, both financially and personally, but we’re hurting without them.
I believe in keeping opera and ballet alive, not because they are a part of the current cultural zeitgeist, but because the people who come after me deserve to see them as well. They deserve the opportunity to see that side of humanity, to see people doing beautiful, incredible things with their voices and their bodies. There’s so much ugliness in the world now and if keeping beautiful things in it is a fight, it’s one hell a worthy cause.
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The Apothecary Diaries light novel vol. 4 by Natsu Hyuuga: this is due on Libby in like 3 days so I gotta read like the wind
盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: I'm noticing I'm (finally) getting a bit faster, and I feel like I'm understanding most of it. I might yet be able to catch up to my "1 page a day" plan (I should be at page 70; I'm actually on page 66. so close!)
2. What have you recently finished reading?
Lout of Count's Family vol. 7 by Yu Ryeo-Han: this volume was mostly scheming, so had less action than the previous one, but yum, that delicious Cale whump. I love how everyone around him is now very obviously like, "oh. so he's full of shit. well then we'll just have to take matters into our own hands." Like, they were already like that but now it's been dialed up to 11.
Love and Gravity by Ari North: this was fine, but it touched on some heavy stuff (like eating disorders) and then like. didn't actually engage with them at all? It was weird.
SHWD episode 3 by sono.N: this moved on from the previous two main characters to focus on two new people and still had all the same weirdness as the other three in terms of plot jumps and stuff... even tho there's only one episode left I decided I don't care enough to bother.
Imitation Play by Ann Homare: I rather liked this single-volume smutty modern BL.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 9 by Fuse
Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 1 by Tsumuji Yoshimura: interesting start to a high school story set in a world where people pick gender and the main character has opted out of that. The reviews are full of people who make me despair for reading comprehension, though, they're all like, "ugh this was so awful for reproducing the same gender essentialism as the real world has" and like THIS IS VOLUME 1 and if you can't see that criticizing that essentialism is clearly going to be the entire point then why did you even pick this book up in the first place uggggh why. "This long series didn't disassemble the thing it's critiquing in volume 1 so it failed" wut.
The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea by Yuu Minaduki: I don't like kidfic and had low expectations for this modern BL AU but it was surprisingly sweet.
A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow vol. 6 by Makoto Hagino: I'm dropping this series. This entire volume was zero communication, pointless jealousy. Whyyyyy do so many HS GL manga titles lean in on jealousy this is annoying and exhausting.
3. What will you read next?
Novels: Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi
Graphic Novels (physical): I really need to knuckle down on these books from the library. Sleepless Domain vol. 1 by Oscar Vega and Mary Cagle is still next, oops.
Graphic Novels (Libby): I got through all of last week's "oh no, this is due imminently" titles but now I have new ones: Yuri Espoir vol. 1 by Mai Naoi and How Do We Relationship? vol. 3 by Tamifull.
In general, I'm trying to reduce the number of things I have in loan and lean more into a "I borrow what I feel like reading that day" model, but I have holds and those keep coming through and messing up my intention to change. Oops? You'd think this would lead me to stop putting holds on things, and yet... (but genuinely I do have fewer holds than I have had in the past...)
"In America - At This Restaurant Only One Person Is Served,” Yuliy Ganf, Krokodil magazine (USSR), 1953
War, what is it good for? Billions and billions of dollars! Conflicts of interest? If there’s a conflict, this administration’s passel of corrupt, selfish pigs is interested! Imagine the chain-rattling laughs the war-profiteer ghosts of Dick Cheney and Rhett Butler are having at the audit-free Pentagon from the ceiling of the Lincoln Bedroom right now!
The Pentagon burned through $5.6 billion in just munitions in only the first two days of the war; it would have been literally cheaper (and surely gotten a better result) if the US bombed the country with a million one-ounce solid-gold coins, roses, and boxes of Godiva chocolates. And now, just 11 days in, the Wall Street Journal is fretting that the US is already running low on Patriot missiles and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors and could run out of munitions. Trump denies that, and says there are enough munitions for the war that is both over and also could go on forever, and maybe we’ll have boots on the ground too, why not! But the US reportedly already reached out to Ukraine last Thursday to ask for their help supplying drone missile interceptors, and Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said Ukraine sent them and also a team of drone experts to help protect US military interests in Jordan.
Holy shit so many levels right there. Ukraine’s entire 2025 defense budget was a record $71 billion, and Russia’s was estimated to be about $149 billion. Meanwhile the US’s was $839 billion, nearly four times the both combined, representing about 40 percent of the entire military expenditure on the planet. And Trump has moaned he wants even MORE, to get up to $1.5 trillion, though he and Sec. Def. War Pete Hegseth have no idea even how to go about spending that much.
Wonkette is up to the Evil Brewsters Million Challenge. Send us all your (extra) money.
And not even two weeks into the war the US is already begging its war-torn ally for interceptor drones! Ukraine! You know, that country Trump has been gleefully threatening to abandon if they wouldn’t just go ahead and surrender some land to his buddy Putin, while also telling Putin and the world that only he could convince them to surrender (and failing). And oh look, on this one thing he finally followed through.
And yet, in spite of all that flagrant backstabbing, and Ukraine’s own desperate need for munitions to save lives at home, they came to the rescue of the US anyway. And Trump and Marco Rubio et al. are not even saying thank you. They won’t even comment on the report, and Fox News even oops-mislabeled the Ukranian drones as US-made ones in spite of a visible label on the tail.
Longtime-Iran-ally Russia has also reportedly been passing its gathered intelligence about US targets to help Iran strike. Watching the US already at the limit of its capabilities is surely not lost on Putin, or China either.
And Reuters has reported China may sell Iran anti-ship missiles that could target American aircraft carriers and destroyers. There will be no winning this war.
And so how did Big Tough Man Trump respond to these threats from the east? Why, by calling up Vladimir Putin, and then immediately announcing he was considering easing sanctions on Russian oil! You know Putin has all those Epstein files, and surely even more than the US even knows about, given that (at least) one of Epstein’s closest young-lady assistants went to Russian spy school.
And so anyway where the fuck are all those unfathomably massive piles of money going, since it is obviously not towards making enough munitions to fight a war in the Middle East that lasts longer than a week?
Here are some! Behold the boondoggle of record-breaking $93.4 BILLION fiscal-year-end dump-spending on grants and contracts at Hegseth’s Department of WAR documented by Open the Books spent in order to continue to justify the massive Department of WAR budget, some of which make Nero’s dinner parties sound like a Mennonite pie bake:
Included in this spending was $2 million on Alaskan king crab last September alone, as well as $6.9 million on lobster tail and $1 million on salmon. The Defense Department also spent nearly $140,000 on doughnuts, $124,000 on ice cream machines, $26,000 on sushi preparation tables, and a whopping $15.1 million on ribeye steak.
[…] $1.8 million on musical instruments, such as a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, a $26,000 violin, and a $21,750 custom handmade Japanese flute.
And,
The Pentagon found a way to spend more than $12,000 on fruit baskets, as well as a total of $3,160 on stickers featuring beloved children’s characters from Dora the Explorer, Frozen, and Paw Patrol. The department also spent $5.3 million on Apple devices, including purchasing 400 of the more expensive 512-gigabyte edition iPad Air M3s rather than cheaper models with less storage.
Does Pete get a Paw Patrol sticker from his third wife every time his peepee goes into the potty and not his big boy britches? Was it a rare miniature Samurai fighting flute, impervious to everything but water?
Also $225 million spent on furniture. In one month! And yes, a literal sad and wildly expensive violin to play for the masters while the prolitaristy outside beg for food, medicine and enough kopeks to buy fuel for their winter fires! Only Tolstoy could make it up.
Meanwhile, there have been eight US service member deaths during the conflict so far, and the US and Israel have continued war criming by attacking residential buildings. Iran says the bombs have killed more than 1,255 people and injured about 10,000, and 11 countries have been hit in retaliatory attacks so far.
Throw in South American regime change, Trump setting a “peacetime” record for striking in the most countries in a year (eight), and welcome to Trump World War Everybody. Oh, and now Australia says it will give missiles to the UAE and deploy a military surveillance aircraft to the Middle East and send missiles to the UAE too. Every hemisphere is getting in on this thing because of interests and alliances there, plus the US is fighting itself by proxy on two sides via Russia, holy armageddon clusterfuck!
And for all the financial advantages Russia has still not conquered Ukraine and the US still does not have air supremacy over the skies of Iran.
So what next, boots on the ground and a draft? Trump crying WAR EMERGENCY and canceling the midterms? War goes on until Putin gets his oil trade back and tells Trump he can stop? War goes on forever? That’s the thing about dictator regimes, all you can count on is that there will be lots of nasty surprises for the little people, and lots of graft, corruption and lobster for the platters of the fatcats above!
Just finished: Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. Naturally, this was great, and surprisingly uplifting at the end. I don't have a lot to add after last week—if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.
Currently reading: Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay. This is a kids' book about technologies and traditional knowledge systems used by pre-contact Indigenous peoples. I'm reading it for work but it's been on my radar for awhile. It's quite good and informative, if you can get past three things that I find cringe: 1) the kind of writing for children that includes lines like "Do you think you would enjoy being creative?", 2) a certain exuberant reiteration of "gosh, weren't Indigenous people SMART and RESOURCEFUL" as if they're not that now, and if we need to be constantly reassured, and 3) it's pretty American-centric, though it does mention Nations on the land currently known as Canada as well. But very useful overall, and the problems I find with it are largely centred around my own dislike of how books for children are written and fairly significant but subtle framing between the US and Canada as to how we talk about Indigenous civilizations and sovereignty.
Good morning good morning, who’s hungry for steak and lobster?
Buy Wonkette steak and lobster, please and thank you. Also: payroll.
Pete Hegseth and the $2 million in king crab in just one month … three times. Plus the $7 million in lobster in a month (four times) and the $15 million in ribeyes and hundreds of thousands in Steinway pianos and oh hell, there’s just so much. Who’s doing his shopping, Ronald Reagan’s “young bucks”?
Plus!
Musical instruments cost $1.8 million. That included a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, a $26,000 violin, and a $21,750 custom handmade flute from the luxury Japanese brand Muramatsu.
If the terror threat gets elevated because Iran wants to fuck our shit up worser now that we’ve killed all their leaders and hundreds of schoolgirls, should the White House block us from finding out, Y/N? (Daily Mail)
The “SAVE America” act won’t just stop your Old Mom from voting, Trump told Congress to stick in “men in women’s sports” too. Obviously this is full speed ahead in the House and DOA in the Senate … unless the Senate decides “delete ALL voter registrations in the country and make everyone start from scratch, in person” even beats their beloved “filibuster.” (So far, John Thune says they do not.) (Democracy Docket)
Kristi Noem and the Case of the Landlocked Coast Guard Training Facility. (Joyce Vance)
ICE killed a first US citizen before any of us were paying attention, and you are not going to believe this, but the body cam footage doesn’t show him hitting the agents like they claimed, shock shock shock. Not to sound crazy, but I sure would like to know more about the separate car crash that killed Ruben Ray Martinez’s passenger/witness before he could testify. (Texas Tribune)
Democratic senators, please don’t vote for Markwayne Waynemark :( (The Fucking News)
Sorry I can’t read this interview with Rebecca Solnit, I’m too hypnotized by the fucking GORGEOUS pix, my eyes won’t move down! (Gift link New York Times) More from the artist. (Devin Oktar Yalkin)
The sad creepy weirdo incels of the “looksmaxxing” movement aiyeee. (New Yorker)
Almost as gross? The ranch milkshake with celery, carrots, and chicken nuggies. (MyFox8)
Please enjoy this delightful item on long lunches and thank me after you wake from your eternal martini nap. (Gentleman’s Journal)
Yes I’m going to be shilling this fundraiser all month. Support the girls’ Detroit public elementary school and buy some pizza (pizza). Little Caesar’s will ship the incredibly convenient pizza kits right to your home! Swear to god it is worth having these in your freezer, I was sad when we finally ate all ours last year. (Pizza Pizza)
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This is an 800 year old play based on events 2,500 years ago in China, the first Chinese play to be translated into any European language (about 300 years ago). The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned James Fenton to adapt it for a production about 13 years ago, and a student theatre group are putting that adaptation on at the ADC in Cambridge this week.
I went to see it last night with Charles, and also Olivia, one of my friends from Womens Blues. (We then found two of my Huskies teammates in the audience so it became an accidental hockey social.) We saw a little first-night talk beforehand from the director and some of the actors, about why they chose this play and some of their favourite lines and aspects of the characters they play. The play itself was very good, very gripping, a revenge tragedy with a very high body count and an ending I didn't quite expect.
The kind of evening that makes me remember how much I like living in this weird little city in the fens.
(and, in further "wow I love living in walking distance of the ADC" news, here's what I'm hoping to get to between now and early May:
Into The Woods (famous musical)
Olympus Unscripted (improv show on greek myths theme)
We all started out this morning, but Chris had to leave early, so I met only U at Jewel Lake. She got there first, which I don't recall happenning before, but Lower Packrat was wonderfully active and I stopped to listen and look many times. The California Towhees were "singing", which I love though it's not melodic. I heard several Allen's Hummingbirds' diving wing whirr and watched one flying their display pattern, so that was a treat. The Wilson's Warblers have arrived! One was reported yesterday so we were expecting them, but it still took me a moment to recognize their song after so long. ( The list: )
Biggest surprise of the morning: when I got to the Lake U told me there was a Common Goldeneye! We used to get several species besides Mallard on the Lake in Winter, but now it's unusual and exciting.
It's late, and I'm tired, but I couldn't resist the hunt for a song that had a long title (and Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious doesn't count). My brain is better wired for short titles, although I've more than occasionally indulged in long titles for my stories, so figuring out music that met this requirement took a bit of thought.
The first one I settled on, REM's "How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us" didn't feel right to me, although I love the album it's on, "New Adventures In HI-Fi"
Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" was nowhere near as long, but I think it fits my particular bill.
Then again, I feel rather odd this evening - must be the extreme weather outside earlier this evening, so I just wanted to share this. It isn't a song, nor does it have a lengthy title, or at least not as lengthy as other classical symphonies have, but in my tired mind, it fits the bill again. I have no idea why.
Perhaps I can say that, while the title of this isn't long, the piece itself is satisfactorily un-short. I used to love putting this on on Sunday mornings back when I was younger, and listening to it again might be in my future as well.
As always, you can interpret the prompt literally or figuratively, in whatever way works for you.
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