Asuka's Three Arrows

as Soryu Langley

this hommelette

Japanese and German

bless'd by gods

with biting wit

and lithesome form

has seen the mirror

fused the fragments

and fled the forest.

now she stands

near green ocean

under blue sky

outside a cave

aglow with vitality.

just above

the mass of hair

red and tangl'd

Aphrodite's son

shoots three arrows:

one to Zeus

wellmuscled thunderer

one to Poseidon

wielder of Tridens

one to Hades

brooding in darkness.

as each is struck

they come, and see:

glancing eyes

glistening shoulders

swell of breast

curve of waist

mincing feet--

all of which

now may be

theirs to win

if they dare!

MeAsuka sigh--

arching back

smiling like him

who drew to near

in crafted form

the brilliant sun

losing his wings

falling to earth

in blazing ruin.

Christmas Anime Gifts

Had a wonderful Christmas! While I am still struggling with Proclus' On Timaeus, a present from last year, this Christmas I got ANIME! Hooray! Saw the Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11. Love the new and re-done scenes, but I don't know if this edition is a good way to bring in new fans. Or maybe I am just too stuck on the original 26 episode TV series. Slower pace, more time for character developement. EVA is very deep, and yet entertaining...it stands as a classic.

I also received the ADV edition DVD set of Sailor Moon, which includes the first 89 original Japanese episodes, minus episode 67 for some strange reason (maybe they don't like dinosaurs?). I have seen all of the old DIC dubs, except for the Nurse Venus episode, so I jumped right in to watch the ones which were never broadcast in the US. We looked of course for the reasons why. Our upstanding student Melvin (海野 ぐりお) turned into quite the stylish delinquent in one of them. American children could never have resist the dark side if they had seen that. I have a lot of happy memories of watching Sailor Moon, so this will be a fun series to watch during the coming year. And now, since DADT has been repealed, perhaps we can finally get a US edition of Sailor Stars.

Life is miles ahead of me...

Ever get the feeling that life has moved miles ahead of you? Back when I was religious, I had a library that was equivalent to a monastic library from the middle ages. Then I got a Christian Book Distributor Catalog in the mail with a CD which held 40 books! At that moment I knew that the world had moved right past me into another century! It was shocking and depressing at first, but I pulled myself together, got a computer, and...well I still love real books, and I just can't read online books, but I feel better about where I stand. Sometimes I feel that I am with or ahead of the curve, like with Utena (!)...I loved Utena from the start, Toradora, and Marimite too. But then when a cultural reference comes up in media that I don't get...like Aqua Buddha, Snookie, or "the Situation," then I feel like I am back to square one again. But...no despair! I just dig out my laptop and Google to get back in the know. *sigh* But I really don't want to know ALL of this, do I? Someday I must forget it all, then forget that I have forgotten. Only then will I be able to smile the smile of insanity and be truly happy!

Prioritizze, dammit!

There are just too many things I want to do just now, and too many that I thought I wanted to do that still cling to me. I am reading through the Oz books...all of them I can find, anyway. Hope Shanower & Smith finish as many as they can for Marvel Comics. Ozma and Dorothy will meet this fall in Marvel's version of Ozma of Oz. I'm in the RPTs now, and to me they have their own unique charm, just as the LFBs did. I love little kingdoms with their little courts, and I wish that Germany and India were still full of them :)

Am trying to get through Proclus' On Timaeus too, but it's Thomas Taylor's almost 200 year old translation, so it is a struggle. Damascius' great work will be out this year, in a modern translation~~I hope to have better luck with that; it is a foundational work of 6th-7th century thought, I believe. I want to find the time to watch Wagner's Lohengrin again, and to finish Tannhauser at last, esp. after reading Baudelaire's essay, but when will I have the time? Watching all this anime is eating up my free time...Persona, and Toradora, then on to Spice & Wolf and...and...

Have I had enough of history? I would like to find a good home for some of my books, but not if I will be filled with regret about it 5 years from now. The church fathers can go, I have had enough of them, but am I really ready to give up on William Blake, and Tolkein? Joyce went away, and I don't miss him...well maybe just that one passage at the end of Portrait of the Artist.

Aah! Help! I have really got to set my library in order...where can I find the will power.....