Puck

I’ve been a big fan of Tuvan throatsinging since the early 1990s, when my friend Jay turned me on to Ralph Leighton’s book, Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman’s Last Journey.

Leighton made a video of throatsinger Ondar and it’s pretty freekin awesome. (Thanks Boing Boing.)

(Adapted from consultations with the oracle over the first five months of 2008)

A turning point in winter brings nourishment. Obstacles are no problem for water.

Perseverance brings great good fortune.

The Marrying Maiden appears at the new year’s first thought of sex. How long has it been? Six years. The Marrying Maiden is either a matriarchal cosmic joy or an unbearable patriarchal yoke.

The ingenuity of innocence; the energy to bite through entrenched situations. He become single.

“Kings of old… fostered and nourished all beings.” Innocence makes a new life possible.

Wind above water. Dispersion is reuniting. Things are developing. He moves from a dark room into the light.

A slowly developing engagement leads to marriage. A gentle wind moves through the woods on Keeping Still Mountain.

A gentle penetrating wind comes from increase and follows in sequence from the homeless wanderer. The Gentle is a homecoming. The Gentle crouches and remains hidden.

Old wounds heal because peace is a shared desire.

Forgetting, he asks the same question two weeks later. Youthful Folly! “I told you the first time,” the Changes insists: long engagement; marriage. He asks for help in persevering.

“Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it.”

“See the great man” means ask for help.

An animal’s pelt changes in the course of the seasons: Revolution. The great man changes like the tiger.

In the sequence, Revolution changes to Fellowship. In the interest of community, great things may be accomplished.

Trust fate: a natural and mutual attraction is at work. Faith is the perseverance of a mare.

The wind over the water. The visible effects of the invisible manifest themselves.

A crane calls from a shadowed place and her young reply.

How could he ever set trust aside?

Curled Up with a Good DVD has just posted two new reviews I wrote.

“Maluala is a historical adventure film set in nineteenth-century Cuba with lots of parallels to contemporary events. The film’s action centers on a group of runaway African slaves, cimarrons who, after battling with their Spanish masters, hide in the rugged mountains of eastern Cuba in a region called Maluala. Led by the fierce Gallo and his lieutenant Coba, the ex-slaves demand freedom and land from the Spaniards.” Read more…

“Holland is flatter than a pancake, reclaimed from the sea, and always cloudy: that’s the recipe for Dutch Light. This lovely-to-look-at film is an artist’s meditation on the visual perception of sunlight, especially as perceived by other artists.” Read more…

The WSU student newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, has a nice feature on Nisi’s reading tomorrow at BookPeople in Moscow. Reporter Brandon Seiler interviewed Nisi, me, and BookPeople owner Bob Greene.

Feminist science fiction.

Without mention of an author such as Nisi Shawl, these words have about as much to do with each other as three balls dropped from a bingo machine. Her work is helping pioneer the capacities of the sci-fi genre beyond the cliches from questioning the most rigid social norms.

Defying any branch of mainstream storytelling, Shawl said her ratio of female to male protagonists is nearly nine to one and the women are rarely preoccupied with locking down a love interest. Yet, Shawl said she doesn’t feel particularly aware of trying to write feminist literature.

“It’s not a conscious or preachy thing, gravity is a part of my work too,” she said.

Nisi reads at BookPeople Saturday the 4th starting at 11 a.m.