...and not to yeild.

Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round,
Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;
Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine;
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye,
Round the world for ever and aye?

Matthew Arnold, The Forsaken Merman (39-45)

Better poems will come with better pics--my own little incentive--Ullysses grins at me from the end of a very long tunnel. I was going to do some judicious trimming here, but everyone knows that ladies of legend always travel in packs of three. There's just no screwing with that number.

Cross, boss, moss. Damn.

Glad to not be a lone, petulant voice protesting the sneaky censorship of Lionsgate's 25th Anniversary release of The Last Unicorn. The widescreen format is delightful, and it's all been buffed to a pretty shine, but the removal without warning of the (four, mild, text-based) uses of profanity is senseless. Especially considering that there was no ratings change.

Rabbit in your headlights.

I suppose it's true love. The bastard was well gone when I entered, slumped at his post, carrot-standard slipping in his grip. Lidlessly staring at the glass Korean dragon perched on the dresser opposite.

"It's not meant to be. She's royalty. You're rumpled Americana. Besides she's got centuries on you, the coy bitch."

"We'll find a way."

"Come to your senses, Creepy. I've got a lovely Lybian bird-maiden preening on the bookcase, aiming no higher than modest local folklore. Much more your speed."

"I've got it under control. Go away."

Outside the core.

This dude plays Mitchum Huntzberger--Logan's father on Gilmore Girls. More importantly, he had a brief spot as a sheriff in the Firefly episode "The Train Job".

Tonight, he and Rory shared a bit of post-dinner banter while Logan took a call. Seriously, this gets good.

"Blah, blah, blah. You're good for my son. Blah, blah. Didn't mean the shit I said about you last season, blah." And then, "Blah, (something about a) firefly." "Firefly?" asks Rory. "Firefly." There could have been more, I missed a lot between handfuls of chips, but it was said. Thrice.

Now, I'm pretty sure there's minimal crossover between geek tv and the GG, so I'm not certain who, outside of my tiny universe of couch and Tostitos brand salsa, this was aimed at, but it can only be a signal. A signal that the CW is obviously looking to pick up where Fox tripped up. And that Mitch will be reprising his role as the gruff, diseased, and not wholly unattractive Sheriff.

At least a person can hope.

Broken branches trip me as a I speak.

Fuckyou, Tree Faces. fuck. you.

Nothing like a treeface to strain the ties between author and artist. The written word is biddable enough when it comes to the Green Jacks and the Old Man Willows, but aim to render a Treebeard visually and you're courting failure on epic, nursery-school levels. Trust me when I say that what you conjure will be no shepherd of the forest, but rather a thing of warped proportions and impossible angles. A perversion born of the unholy union between pipe cleaner and newspaper, reeking of clotted glue.

Don't follow where WETA falters. Leave Fangorn to your wordsmiths.

And, go.

...It was a picture, though, worth seeing--the princess sitting in the nursery...at a great table covered with her toys. If the artist would like to draw this, I should advise him not to meddle with the toys. I am afraid of attempting to describe them, and I think he had better not try to draw them. He had better not.

More from The Princess and the Goblin--though less princess than goblin.

A quick peek at the strange relationship MacDonald cultivates with his phantom illustrator. There's a smattering more of don't-evens, a handful of have-at-its, and endless smugness which essentially amounts to him triple dog daring any doodler wanting to try their hand. My own copy is illustration-free (Digireads--you get what you pay for), so who knows if his injunctions were obeyed. But I'm willing to bet they served only to goad any artist with even the barest of tempers.

Darkness in the Valley

Might just be the last to have stumbled on this. The pairing's a little weird with the video, but totally worth the new version.

Valkyrie elesion.

Which classical composer are you?

Richard Wagner
This German opera composer was unexcelled both in self-importance and in artistic ambition--he worked on a bigger scale than anyone else dared tackle.

Honey and gunpowder.

It baffles me that one of the most revered writers of the century is essentially a starving artist. Here's a copy of the letter of thanks for our recent purchase of the (SIGNED!) 25th anniversary (WIDESCREEN!!) edition of Peter S. Beagle's (DIGITALLY REMASTERED!!!) The Last Unicorn. If you're thinking of ordering, read this and go to the conlan press link. Help a brother out.

Thank you for helping Peter S. Beagle
by purchasing the new DVD of THE LAST UNICORN from Conlan Press, instead of from
somewhere else. More than half of what you just spent will go to support Peter
and his projects — but if you had bought it somewhere else, Peter would have
gotten nothing.Here's the situation in a nutshell:

Granada Media International (the English company that
owns the animated film of THE LAST UNICORN) has sold more than a million copies
on DVD and videotape since 1999. By contract, they owe Peter hundreds of
thousands of dollars in royalties, but so far they have refused to pay him a
cent.

Peter has fought
for three years to get his due, so far without success.
He still isn't
getting any royalties from the DVD you just bought, either (not as long as
Granada keeps stonewalling).

However, the people at Lionsgate
Entertainment (the film's American distributor) are great folks. To make it
possible for American fans of THE LAST UNICORN to finally own a GOOD version,
they are putting out this special digitally-remastered 25th Anniversary
Widescreen DVD. And to help Peter, they have agreed to let us sell copies via
the Conlan Press website. By purchasing here you have put money straight into
Peter's pocket and helped him in his quest for justice.

Please spread
the word. If you know anyone who wants to buy this DVD, tell them why they
should buy it here.Thank you very much! (And thanks to Lionsgate for caring.)

If you'd like to know more about the situation, and what you can do
about it, go to www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp.

And if you'd like to add your
own voice to the people from more than 34 countries who have stood up for Peter,
just go to www.conlanpress.com/html/fans_speak.html and follow the instructions there.Peter S. Beagle
needs support in the fight to get him his due for the animated versions of THE
LAST UNICORN and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

To learn all the details —
and find out how you can help — go to: www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp. Sincerely,The folks at Conlan
Press

And let's not forget about that ST:TNG episode. Sarek rocks.

Wherry-necked.

There were concerns regarding this particular tableau. Stalwart princesses have become almost as runnathamill as skittish ones, and I'd done with itchy fingered adolescents donning their jerkins and kicking robes and responsiblity under the bed. There's something crazy fascinating about a stony-faced Penelope.

And how does one lure a dragon anyway? And why? I suppose she'd exhausted every other option. The tree had regular trimmings, as did her hair. Her bedclothes were of the new thinweave brand ("Keep your daughters safe and cloistered with EasyTear"). The guards' ears were stoppered against lullabies, their noses against perfumes. And princes don't really quest for the sharptongued, boltish types.

So she'd steeled herself against the conventionality of it all, and the guaranteed speculation. Found a reedpipe and a promising wind. Lay her jewelry on the rooftop and waited for dawn. Once the pieces warmed they would begin to hum--no dragon within four counties would be able to ignore the unmistakable reverberation of sun-heated gold.

And then it was all a question of which reached her first. And then the agonizing interview, the haggling over ransom and flight fees, the matters of compatability, the packing, the weighing of the packing, the purchase of harness or comfy abduction sack....