Rain, Strangeness and Charm

Plans to tackle some more gardening were halted by today’s incessant soft rain. Instead I finished writing ch. 18 of Bethany Rose then had a book cull. I collect far too many books for the space available. Any non-fiction book that hasn’t been opened for five years might as well be consigned to the category of Outgrown Or Boring. Off to the charity shop with ‘em!

We watched a peculiar little film yesterday: The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes. Beautifully lit, and very surreal, the film used puppets and/or automatons as well as live actors. Basically, it’s a story of a piano tuner who is taken to an island-based mental asylum to repair a series of automatons. The asylum’s doctor seems to be madder than his patients (or at least that was my impression.) An interesting if rather puzzling film; it’s plot reminded me of something from the Twilight Zone or Tales of the Unexpected.

I’ve now finished reading The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) by Patrick Rothfuss, which took me a little effort to get interested in as the opening scenes are set in a tavern, and pubs hold no attraction for me. However, once over that little hurdle, I soon found myself hooked by this tale of how a young boy from a travelling troupe of entertainers worked his way towards becoming a man of legend and infamy. When the troupe is slaughtered, he’s left to survive on his wits until he figures out a way to enter the university. He soon learns that life in the highbrow world of academia can be just as dangerous as life on the streets. A very good read; entertaining, thoughtful and well-crafted. I have every intention of reading Volume Two.

My niece, Cat, will have three teeth removed today. Ouch.

Richard got the results of his blood test yesterday. His blood sugar is a cause for concern, and also his kidneys don’t seem to be functioning as well as they should be. The doctor expressed concern about his weight, too. All that will be done for now is that Richard will have another blood test in three months time to evaluate any changes.

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A Cure for Aging?

"All that we profess to do is but this, - to find out the secrets of the human frame; to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and to apply continual preventatives to the effort of time. This is not magic; it is the art of medicine rightly understood. In our order we hold most noble -, first, that knowledge which elevates the intellect; secondly, that which preserves the body. But the mere art (extracted from the juices and simples) which recruits the animal vigour and arrests the progress of decay, or that more noble secret which I will only hint to thee at present, by which heat or calorific, as ye call it, being, as Heraclitus wisely taught, the primordial principle of life, can be made its perpectual renovator...." Zanoni, book IV, chapter II, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first published in 1842. Oroboros keyring - Spooky Cute Designs The idea of being able to achieve an immortal life is probably as old as human life itself. Folklore and myt...

Remembering Richie Tattoo Artist's Studio

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist". I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri...

Falling Trees and Blue Portraits

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