Katrina and other things

Katrina is certainly horrible. But so far, it hasn't hit home with me the way that 9/11 did. I remember walking around in shock for days after 9/11, unable to get much of anything done, and finding comfort in comfort reading and Marian's hugs. Maybe it's because it doesn't feel like something that could happen to me -- yes, I know that natural disasters could hit Boston, but not the exact sort that hit New Orleans. (Our house is 80 feet above sea level, after all, and there aren't any large higher bodies of water around here, so it would take a Waterworld-scale disaster to totally flood us out.) And I'm less likely to personally know anybody caught in the disaster there. (The more involved fighter types in the SCA will know fighters from Meridies, but I don't.) I know plenty of people in New York, and it was certainly possible that some of them would have been in the World Trade Center. As it happens, none were, though a couple of morris dancers from western Massachusetts that I vaguely knew were in one of the planes.

Of course, it may be that the impact just hasn't caught up with me yet. There have certainly been times when disasters didn't hit me for days.

I tried to fix our Laserjet 4 printer today. When I was done with it, things were even worse than when I started. The basic problem is recurring accordion jams. But now it says "paper jam" when I turn it on, and it won't even try to print anything. I'll have one more look sometime, but I also have a couple of requests for quotes in with companies that fix these things.

I think I'll watch some football tonight. Real football, that is, not the American sport. Mexico and the US are playing a qualifying game for the Copa Mundial tonight, and it's on Telemundo. It's also on ESPN Classic, but we're not cabled or dished; besides, the Spanish announcers are so much more fun. Except that it's 0-0 right now, so nobody has gotten to shout Goooooooooooolllllll! yet.

Trash Sex Magic, etc.

It's a book title, the first novel by Jennifer Stevenson. I first saw it at Readercon, at the publisher's table in the Bookstore (their name for what most conventions call the Dealer's Room, but it really does only offer books). I was tempted, but ultimately passed on the grounds that it wasn't really my sort of thing. But the book continued to haunt me, as I ran into copies of it again and again; at Boskone, at Readercon again this year, at Interaction. (Those guys from Small Beer Press are remarkably well traveled.) I finally failed my saving throw against it on a recent buying trip to Pandemonium, a science fiction and fantasy bookstore in Harvard Square.

I'm happy to report that I enjoyed this book immensely. It's a fantasy set in the modern world, but it can't be described as an urban fantasy, as the setting is rural and the main characters are trailer trash. (Rural fantasy isn't exactly a well-established genre.) As you might imagine from the title, sex does indeed figure prominently in the story; there are sex scenes (not very explicit, but definitely steamy), body parts are named, and so forth. (So this isn't a book to pass along to your squeamish parents. Nor to your preteen readers; it won't do them any harm, but they'll probably be bored.) I found it magical and captivating. Stevenson has a deft touch with language, conveying a wealth of feeling about the setting without bogging down the story.

On another subject, an equivocal recommendation for The Brothers Grimm, the latest movie by Terry Gilliam. As usual, lots of dark atmosphere from Gilliam; the production design is excellent. He works bits and pieces of the fairy tales into the story, usually twisted up a bit as if we are seeing preliminary versions, rather than the completed fairy tales. The story doesn't always quite come together, though, and certainly doesn't seem to have much connection with the actual life of the real Brothers Grimm. (To be fair, Gilliam himself admits that on the web site.) Gilliam fans will certainly want to see it; others should use their judgement depending on their level of interest in the story. And make sure to visit the web site, but save most of it for after you see the film.

Los Estados Unidos ganaron a México, 2-0. Germany, here we come! It's likely that México will be in the Mundial as well; they'll just have to win some more games to qualify, whereas the US is now guaranteed a spot.