Voices in the Ether

I lightened up today by watching the video of the Silm Film project's casting day. Casting episodes are always fun! This is a pie-in-the-sky 30+ year Silmarillion tv series (including framing scenes of LOTR-area characters)

The funniest this is that Timothée Chalamet was cast as Estel (young Aragorn) for the framing scenes. He was cast when he was 21! (Yes, this project has been discussed - and scripts written - for at least ten years.)

For pure excitement you can't beat pulling the boxes out from under one of my beds, dusting them, and putting them back. Most of these were boxes of photographs. (Vacation photos? Probably.)

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Re; AT&T.. I said they'd start billing me again. It was really 'start a new account' - there is no phone to attach the account to, and they know my old number. Old number no longer works. So... I'm not doing anything about it. It was a form letter, pro forma.

Today I got my hair cut at 9:30, then drove across town to St. Paul for 11-ish lunch with catsman.

Street repair continues everywhere - what a mess on Grand Avenue! I gave catsman a ride to his apartment after lunch, and I had to loop around Macalester College to get there. My main worry was how to get across the street to where my car was parked! Dig a hole. Fill it up.

It's more uncomfortable inside with a laptop on my (uh) lap than it is outside. It was 84F/28.8C - but with low humidity and a breeze. Yesterday was hellishly humid, you see!

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The always refreshing Fran Lebowitz. She cuts through the 'cloy.'

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The story of Mikayla's death has appeared nationwide, and probably farther. Unfortunately headlines call her an 'influencer and YouTube star.' Grr! She ran a rescue for foxes that were unreleasable. Almost all of her fund-raising was (and had to be) on social media, and she didn't enjoy the constant need to create new content.

I'm tagging SaveAFox here so you can click to view some of the SAF videos that I've posted over the years. Some are repeated - classics!

On a lighter note (she says), I was struck once again by how casually friendly people are in outstate Minnesota. Just someone on the sidewalk, or in a convenience store, right?

I suppose I didn't appreciate when I grew up there, being shy! What, I need to say hi to some woman in my home town who knew who my dad was (but I didn't know who she was)? Horrors! Heck yeah, some Americans are shy. :-) But there's a kind of social-lubrication chattiness that helps you get along here, especially in rural areas. It doesn't turn to interrogation of religious/political beliefs or asking how much money you make! LOL

(unless...of course there are weirdos all over the world... should I put that on a teeshirt?)

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I'm tired. Up to Morris and back: 366 miles/589km, with just a brief stop each way. Rain on the way back. Yeah, I'm tired!

Today I listened to the last two albums from my first project. Here's the full list:

( Read more... )

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It rained in the morning, steadily, not a downpour.

Lunch was at Don's Cafe, highly recommended on FB. I had a ham and cheese sandwich, on homemade bread, delicious! No fries - thankfully. (So says my stomach, after last night.)

By 3:00 it had cleared up, though the temp never got over about 63F/17.2C. We drove to campus, found some visitor parking, and stopped at the Welcome Center to get a map and chat with the student at the Welcome desk.

Although much has changed over the years, ordenchaz recognized buildings around the mall area - and also her dormitory. (It was new, she said. Student: It's not new anymore!)

She also remembered the music building, which is now the Multi-Ethnic Resource Center. This is the oldest building on campus. It was the boy's dormitory when the campus was an Indian boarding school run by an order of nuns.

The history of the campus land once being part of the Indian boarding school system was downplayed if not ignored, but it's acknowledged now. There is a touching statue of Nookomis (Grandmother) and a little boy in boarding school clothes, and a girl clinging to Grandmother, resisting. An explanation is given in the languages of the child 'boarded' here (taken), as well as English. The children were from the Turtle Mountain bamd/rez of Ojibwe in North Dakota, and the Sissteton-Wahpeton Dakota from South Dakota.

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My earlier mention of something I'd tell you about later? Here it is. I'm in Morris MN with sibs, spending a couple of days in this college town. ordenchaz is an alum of UMM.

It took the us about three hours to drive here from the Cities (Twin) - a bit longer than that because of an unexpected detour. We met bluesail_tobyx at our motel (inn), as he came down from Fargo.

So far it hasn't rained! It will, but I hope that we're on the light side of the front (heavy rain in southern Minnesota).

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I'm in something of daze after learning about the death of Mikayla Raines, founder of Save A Fox. Heartbreaking.

All I can say is, if you want to, go to YouTube and look up SaveAFox. I'm not going to link the video here.

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I was lethargic yesterday, and went to bed (or, fell asleep) around 9 o'clock. Happily, I feel much better today. It's still hot! 92F at 8 p.m.!, but should be a good 20 degrees cooler tomorrow. Rain in the forecast.

Here's something I ran across in a book about Byron, a painting of Percy Shelley that by an American artist named West. It is based on a sketch made by West only a few days before Shelley's death. I could see Timothée Chalamet playing him in a movie!



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