No update on the book

I might send a message to my editor in a couple of days... or should I wait until mid-August to make it a clean three months since I heard something? Maybe I will do that.

Tooth and Bridge News

I just had my second crown of the year put in.

$$$!!!

This time it was the lower back right molar which, already crowned, cracked.

The temporary that was put on after the dentist drilled around and prepared the tooth fell off last week and the nerve, exposed, got angrier and angrier. Anyway, after a fairly painful session yesterday, when the crown was finally put on (the anaesthesia deadened my tongue and NOT the tooth--- I tensed, I knew that cold air would hurt but I was tough... except I proved not to be!!! It hurt!!), things are getting back to normal.

In other news, the Ed Hillary Teams at Bridge (AKA, The Buttercream Disaster Pairs, as I call this event to you and to Timmy at home) are finally over. My team was weak and we did not outdo ourselves, performing as expected. I have not looked at the score once and have no plans to. That said, it was fun, MOST nights (and yes there is a story there--- a tawdry story of pushy kiwi women and a man who needs to learn not to speak his mind, even if he is provoked...)

Cool Volcano Image

Anak Krakatau erupting as the stars are beginning to come out (via the very fun Eruptions Blog).

Netrebko in Lucia

I found this from the HD broadcast from the MET that we saw here earlier in the year. The experience in the theater was quite something and this little youtube misses that but it is on the whole a most excellent souvenir:



This is, of course, the first-act scena. She is so glamorous and I love the security and clarity of her upper register.

PS: Sotto voce to friends and family members: still nothing on the book.

The Rondine Aria x2

[Dress rehearsal at the Detroit Opera House, April 2008. Pamela Armstrong and Victor Ryan Robertson sing "Chi ilsogno di Doretta," from Giacomo Puccini's La Rondine. Also featuring Kisma Jordan, Kimwana Doner, and Leah Dexter.]



She does a good job.

Here is a rather famous person:



I love this aria.

It's New!**

Liking this...try to hold on until 4:40.



[It's called Music Talking and it's by The Montanas w/DJ Roland Clark.]

**New of course is a relative term; compared to the stuff I usually post, it's effing hott off teh presses or, heck, it hasn't been released yet.

One more from Ze Frank

Nicely put and boy it hits close to home:



For more, go here: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/

Not Boring, Dirty

I have just discovered this guy. What fun.



Go to his site and try to watch only 5.

Here is the address:

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/

Is it just me...

...or is Sacha Baron Cohen overdoing it with the promotion of his coming (what looks to be highly naughty) Bruno film?

It is like too late for Father's Day...

...but this painting, to which Will drew my attention, is just so, well, it has to be seen:



[The soccer ball, omg, the soccer ball!!]

Happy Father's Day all.

Latest News

In case anyone is reading this, I still have heard nothing on the book manuscript. My editor is positive but the readers have been slow and hard to find. The work I do is interdisciplinary (gender + religion + late empire + lots of philology) and this has meant that my process has been delayed. I am frustrated and worry that this will not have a good outcome, but, that said, everyone who has read the correspondence from my editor thinks that I should be optimistic. In my intellect I agree but my heart--- it sure does like fretting.

On a more a positive note, I submitted a long article (13,0000 words) on the Emperor Julian and his friend Salutius to one of the major journals yesterday. That project is now out of my hands for the moment. Let's hope that this set of readers will move with more dispatch.

This peer-review thing is in need of work, quite frankly.

All for now. Ciao!

A Favorite

1980, baby (Italo-Frivalo Disco):



AND the remix!, which is pretty awesome too (with a killer bass-line--- it just throbs):



Still waiting for the publisher and those readers who are hard at work (and no doubt very very busy) to give word on the manuscript. La la la wait la la la wait wait and wait some more. la!

Latest News on the Book is...

...that there is none. Four months the manuscript has been gone and it has been in the hands of readers all this time. I am to hear something "any day now", which has been the state of play for a month. Sigh. In other news, I am putting the finishing touches on an article on the Emperor Julian so while the march of scholarship is bottled up in a big way in one spot, it at least is continuing elsewhere. At present, teaching is fun if a little insane. We are missing people and those who are still around have to take up the slack. I am sleeping well, that's for sure. Back at the gym now too and I am slowly but noticeably getting back into better shape. More later? Perhaps.

This is Fun

Some License Plates

Xmas shots... at home and out and about

Trip to South Island--- Final Photo Installment

Sergiu Celibidache Cake!!







Puzzlings.

























Moonlight (really!)-- maybe it just too lame a picture...



Lower tide--- we drove on this road to the west coast of the south island






and then we came back the way we had come and the tide was higher: