Beach, Words, Art, Books

Ten and I went for a little walk along Nantasket’s seawall yesterday morning. That it was warm (upper 40s!), sunny, Friday AND low tide meant that all the beach walkers were out. Yes, we were the only masked ones BUT there was actually enough space to keep a safe distance between me and the unmasked. Yea.
After we got home, we went for another wee stroll on our own seawall. Between the two, I managed to walk a full mile. More yea me.
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I recently read Mary Robinette Kowal’s sci-fi mystery The Spare Man. It was, essentially, Nick and Nora Charles in space which would be cool BUT there was way too much kissy face, romance novel level nonsense. I tried Kowal once before (I forget which book) but it didn’t grab me at all. Because John Scalzi (whose work I'm wholly addicted to) often promotes Kowal's books, I figured I’d give her another try. I don’t believe I need to go for a third round.

It was an unhappy surprise to open my Kindle only to find a bodice ripper centered on two obscenely wealthy people, honeymooning on a cruise ship to Mars. Mars? Cool. Cruise ship travel? Trapped on a ship for weeks on end with strangers? No. A story about people rich enough to buy their way out of any problem? Double plus no.

I can’t help but think that this would’ve been a fun, tight thriller of a tale had it been authored by Martha Wells or Kate Racculia (less sexytime, no recipes and more adventure).
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Nouns for the day:

Kleptoparasitic
     noun
A form of parasitism wherein an animal takes food or objects collected, caught, prepared, or stored by another animal.

The Republi/Fascist Party is kleptoparasitic. They lie to and steal from their stunningly delusional voters to line their own pockets.

Nomophobia
     noun
anxiety caused by being without access to a functioning mobile phone.

I believe many of us experience nomophobia on the regular.

Bombazine
     noun
a twilled fabric with silk warp and worsted filling

Cloth with “filling?” Is this the sartorial equivalent of dark chocolate covered cream bon bons (mmmmm)? Twill? Warp? ‘the fuck are they? The definition gives me no clear idea of what this fabric looks or feels like but all the fashion forward types in steampunk novels seem to have outfits made of it.

Honestly, bombazine sounds more like a periodical aimed at explosives aficionados

Caravel
     noun
a small Spanish or Portuguese sailing vessel of the Middle Ages and later, usually with triangular sails that allowed for tacking upwind.

Ah…no. Simply everyone knows that the correct spelling is Carvel AND this is an ice cream cake manufacturer (AKA Big Cake. NOT to be confused with Big Pharma). Carvel is to ice cream what McDonald’s is to food.
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I’ve just discovered Atelier Sisu and it’s official—I’m in love.

Atelier Sisu is a Sydney based design studio lead by award winning artists Renzo B. Larriviere and Zara Pasfield.

The pair work with a multi-disciplinary team to create experiential environments, installations and sculptures. (source)

One of the things I like about installation art (specifically the work done in the past 20 years) is that a lot of it is fun, engaging and beautiful. 20th century installation art always struck me as dull and self-referential to the point of being mastabatory. You know, aren’t-I-clever-and-deep without the benefit of actually drawing in the viewer. The artists were mostly talking to themselves and their fellow naval gazing buds.

Okay, time for me to suit up and go for a big walk. Happy Saturday!