azdak

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/18/on-the-side-of-the-underdog-always-and-everywhere-2/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71342

"'If men would behave decently the world would be decent' is not such a platitude as it sounds."

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/18/on-the-side-of-the-underdog-always-and-everywhere-2/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71342

I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It's like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
      full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

************

Link

I am just brimming over with excitement.

*************************************

( Read more... )

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/17/my-dear-wormw-no-just-stop/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71321

Laura Robinson on why Screwtape is so good and its imitators are so bad. Plus some grave visits and that discussion of Pentecostal historiography you've all been waiting for.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/17/my-dear-wormw-no-just-stop/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71321

...and the person I reported it to didn’t seem too concerned Content advisory: ableism, and also sexual harassment. ( Read more... )

gift link (with three other questions answered)

My husband and I moved into an apartment complex recently. We befriended some of our new neighbors while sitting around the swimming pool. We have discussed politics with some of them, having been given hints that we are all on the same page. But one couple — whom we like a lot — has provided no information about their politics. We have no idea where they stand! The state of the country is very important to us, and we are willing to socialize only with people who support our beliefs. Should we continue to see this couple whose politics are a mystery, or should we tell them where we stand and see how they react?

NEW NEIGHBOR

( answer )

Rec time! Did you read/watch/listen to something you really liked and would love other people to know about, too? Don't have the time or energy to make a full promo post, or think such a small thing doesn't merit a separate entry?

Here's your chance to share with the class! Just drop a comment with a link and maybe a couple of words in description. No need to overthink things, it can be as simple as Loved this! or OMG, look at that!. (You don't need to keep it short, though, write as much as you want.)

Check out the previous entries, too!

Four years ago on this day, I created and opened this comm for business.

I've said it before in past anniversary posts, and it's still true: This comm provided some much needed distraction and fun, and I'm very grateful to all of you who made it so. Comments, discussions, fanworks, resources - thank you for participating and keeping this community active.

I've found new friends here, and lots of interesting things to watch and read and listen to, and I'm hoping this will continue for another year (or longer)!

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Wishlists are tagged for fandoms and media (previous years' tags are labelled with their respective years, so check the plain fandom and media tags at the bottom for this year's), and there's also a spreadsheet for your convenience.

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Rules/FAQ/schedule | AO3 collection | Fandom and media tags | Spreadsheet | Promo text and graphics

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/16/a-brief-encounter/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71312

In which I regret never getting to ask our old family friend Missionary Bob about his potential connections to the Romanian Revolution.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/16/a-brief-encounter/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71312

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/15/no-donny-these-men-are-nihilists/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71300

Walter Sobchak was right to find nihilists deplorable, but he was wrong to think they're not dangerous.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/09/15/no-donny-these-men-are-nihilists/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=71300

In Bath for my birthday, which was a whole two weeks ago now, nineveh_uk  and I went to see As You Like It with Harriet Walter in it. Harriet Walter was playing Jacques. I was pleased to find there was more of Jacques than I remembered. I just remembered him coming on lugubriously every now and then and eventually glumly producing the Seven Ages of Man speech. This is very probably because the only other time I have seen a performance of As You Like It, Jacques was played by Alan Rickman. In 1986. 

I did As You Like It for A-level (and Hamlet) and I loved it. It's fun. They all go off to the forest and find out stuff and it all ends happily and people disguise themselves as a boy like in Twelfth Night except they aren't all ganging up on Malvolio. At 18 I mostly read it as the story of the devoted loyalty (definitely loyalty yup) of Celia for Rosalind, going into exile with her and everything. In later life I realised that a lot of this came from having seen it with Celia played by Fiona Shaw.

Here are some photographs from the 1985 Adrian Noble production. I feel third along top row does nothing to dispel my teenage view whatsoever. It was just a pity that when they got into the Forest of Arden, Juliet Stevenson as Rosalind had to wear white trousers and braces and at times a bowler hat that made her look like a mime artist. I had also totally not realised until now that Phebe was played by Lesley Manville as an 80's punk shepherdess.

Anyway, back to 2025. Here is a Guardian review with pictures.

This Forest of Arden was conveyed by projections of actual trees on curtains. I liked the trees being real and not metaphorical. It also picked up on the "sweet lovers love the spring" bit at the end and everyone being cold when they arrive by making it clear that at the start of the play it is winter and the Duke's exiled court all had chunky outdoor-wear jackets, scarves and hats and carried rucksacks, which they sat on and handily carried off with them again. 

Gloria Obianyo and Amber James had great chemistry as Rosalind and Celia but less so with Orlando and Oliver respectively. This is partly the play's fault, especially for Celia and Oliver who only have about 5 seconds to fall in love after Oliver's had a personality change after encountering a lion, but there could have been more sizzlingness between Rosalind-as-Ganymede and Orlando in the wooing-practice-while-dressed-as-a-boy bits. They had it at court but there was a missing layer of "shit I really really fancy this boy what the fuck is going on" from Orlando in the forest and Rosalind revealing herself as being Rosalind at the end just by wearing different trousers didn't help the suspension of disbelief that no-one had recognised her before.

The Guardian reviewer thinks Dylan Moran as Touchstone was a weak link but honestly so much of Touchstone is just not funny that I think having Touchstone played like he's still Bernard Black in Black Books was a plus. He made it funny. Well done Dylan Moran.

Everyone was good, especially Harriet Walter, obviously, who managed to do All the World's A Stage while eating an apple, but I want to mention Imogen Elliott as a perky, modern Phebe in her first role I think, because she was great and if she turns into Lesley Manville, I want to remember I saw her here first. 

I nearly forgot the music. I liked it all being turned into folk songs and Rosalind getting to play a guitar.  

...After a Family Death. ( Read more... )

guardian_wishlist sign-ups are still open on the 15th (any timezone). If you've been thinking of signing up, you have one day left until sign-ups close! Your wishlist can be as brief or as detailed as you like. You don't need a Dreamwidth account. (If you're signing up without a Dreamwidth account, we ask that you provide a current email address.)

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