Personal Log 20230726

Personal Log 20230726

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Updates and things. Personal Log 20230726 Distractions! Well, partly. The other part is that I tend to use my Chromebook to write on this website, and other work had me working on the "real" laptop. Yeah, I know, that sounds lame, but hey, it's one of those things. So, the bag with the Chromebook sat as I used the Ubuntu laptop, and Personal Log 20230726 had to wait. Trivial Tacos One of the reasons this smaller laptop stayed in the bag was the romance novel, Trivial Tacos. My authoring software, Scrivener, requires Windows or MacOS. So, that means I have to run it in a virtual machine. That's not exactly something the Chromebook can handle. There are times when I...
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Personal Log 20230705

Personal Log 20230705

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Stuff happening in Personal log for Wednesday, 5-July-2023. Personal Log 20230725 Can sum up things this week simply: things are happening, nothing overwhelming, but still, well, stuff I would rather not be happening. Family medical situations aren't going away. While these aren't my stories to tell, they still have an impact. The Crescent #20 just passed by here at the coffee shop. The trains provide continuity. Things keep rolling along. Distractions I blew up my Mastodon accounts on mstdn.party. They were sort of starter accounts, experimental. Now that I've sorted out what I want to do on Mastodon, I started my own instance. So far so good, but it takes patience. Since Mastodon is "federated," it takes time for other...
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Restructuring Mastodon accounts

Restructuring Mastodon accounts

It’s time for restructuring Mastodon with new accounts.

restructuring mastodon

Restructuring Mastodon

Back when Musk was forced to actually complete the Twitter sale, the kvetching over the future of the bird app was extreme. Lots of folks ran to various alternative platforms, such as Post and Mastodon. I chose Mastodon, and set up a couple of accounts as fall-back positions.

When it became clear that Da Twittah wasn’t immediately imploding, folks disengaged from the grand exodus. Da Twittah returned to its sort-of usual self. While there were some folks, particularly prolific political users, left for Mastodon, inertia kicked in. Count me in on that. Friends stayed, the teevee and other journalists stayed, and most importantly, the weather people stayed. (And in New Orleans, those weather people are important.)

Toot neglect

So, tooting (what one does on Mastodon, as opposed to tweeting) fizzled for me. I even investigated various mobile apps, in the hopes that a cool UI would bring me around. No luck. Some of this is on me, because I followed too many political types too quickly. There’s a lot of anger out there. While I may agree with most of what someone writes, negativity can be overwhelming. The other thing that became problematic was local folks who followed my history account. I followed them back, but many of them were all-politics-all-the-time.

Fixing the toots

I knew there had to be a way to make the elephants work properly. The best approach for me was to start over. This included starting my own Mastodon instance, nolabooks.social. I set up a basic hosting account and created a few users. They are (so far):

  • @edwardbranley@nolabooks.social – no real activity yet. This will be the books/booksta/bookwyrm account
  • @nolahistoryguy@nolabooks.social – Da History Stuff. my @nolahistoryguy on Da Twittah is a hot mess. I intend for this account to be more concise.
  • @yatpundit@nolabooks.social – My @yatpundit account on the bird app was my first. I use it now for non-New Orleans political stuff and Arsenal FC banter. That continues with the toots.

Ongoing stuff

While I set nolabooks.social on a hosting site, I plan to set up an instance in my home office. I’ve got a spare PC and a Raspberry Pi 4 to play with. Weill keep you posted on that on the Linux blog.

Personal Log 20230628

Personal Log 20230628

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A lot of stuff going on that I don't want to talk about in a Personal Log. Personal Log 20230628 Gotta fix the truck for El Gato Metairie. Not like Arwen's going to do it, as you can see. She's a sweet kitteh, but often lacks motivation. Unless she's chasing a twist tie, that is. Nala's doing well, too. Ever see a video on the TicTacs where you draw a box on the floor with masking tape and a cat will sit in it? That's Nala, but with sunshine. A sunbeam creates a box on the floor, she sitz. They still come supervise me when I'm in the study, teaching via WebEx. Arwen even jumped up on the desk the...
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Stay in or go out – what’s your morning routine?

Stay in or go out – what’s your morning routine?

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What impact does your morning routine have on your writing? In or out morning routine OK, it's not great, but you get the idea: Yawning, she sat up in bed as a giant grey tabby cat nuzzled her. She slowly planted her feet on the floor and made her way to the coffee maker in the kitchen. Within minutes, she held a steaming cup of chicory coffee between her hands, allowing the warmth to course through her arms and into her body. Time to get the day going. Most of us have a typical morning routine that involves struggling to get out of bed, make coffee or tea, and placate a hungry familiar. (Doggo people likely have the added step...
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Historic Images Research

Historic Images Research

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Details on the Presbytere are an example of Historic Images Research Historic Images Research Historic fiction, be it romance, literary fiction, even fantasy/paranormal, requires a bit of background research. While genre readers forgive a writer for many things, but blatant inaccuracies blow up the moment before it happens. Attention to detail OK, it's not likely that readers would be upset if a writer mentioned the cupola on the Presbytere when writing a story set in 1934. A hurricane blew the cupola off the roof in 1915, and wasn't replaced for decades. It's going throw me off, but, it's a venial sin. Thing is, it's an easily avoided sin. Sure, you have photos from your walking tour of the Quarter...
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Status Update

Status Update

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This status update section will keep patrons abreast with the projects. Edward's writing status update This will be a regular thing, hopefully weekly, to establish some organization to my fiction thoughts. I have a tendency to get all over the place on stuff, and Covid didn't help any. So, let's start the list baseline in this post and build on it in the future. Projects detailed: Trivia - romance Talents 3 - continuation of magick/urban fantasy universe Vampires - combination of historic interludes with a murder mystery. Dragons 3 - continuation of Dragon's Danger and Dragon's Discovery. Trivia I've finally got a working title for the romance novel. Trivial Tacos is a (at this point) twelve-chapter romance novel set in...
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Become an Eloquent Profanity Patron

Become an Eloquent Profanity Patron

Eloquent Profanity is now on Patreon.

noodler's ink

Support the work

Eloquent Profanity is now on Patreon. This is a long time coming, and this summer’s the kick-off. I’ve been writing fiction for a while now, with four novels, to be precise. While the marketing of those novels has been (relatively) primitive up to now, we’re moving to more online/guerrilla style.

How it works

If you’re unfamiliar with Patreon, the concept is simple. You sign up to be a “patron” of a “creator.” As a patron, you support the creator financially. Some creators ask for a flat montly fee (a dollar or five dollars a month). Others establish tiers, maybe a dollar for basic content, blog posts, and five a month for podcast episodes. My suggestion for now: if you’re new to Patreon, go to the main site and sign up. Subscribe to creators as you go along.

Eloquent Profanity tiers

For now, this site operates with two tiers.

  • Open/Free – No charge for some posts. I like to write little scene snippets. I usually share those on the Book of Zucker. I’ll be posting some of these here, as free content. Among other things.
  • $1 Content – Essays, short fiction scenes (longer than a snarky snippet), images. This may expand as we go forward.

Eventually there will be a $5 tier, as we serialize longer short stories and novels. More on that as this develops.

Not NOLA History Guy

NOLA History Guy operates under a different philosophy. While the history blog contains a lot of patron content, it’s much more flexible. There’s only a dollar tier, BUT, patron content is visible to anyone who has been a patron at any time in the past. Example: I tell teachers, sign up over there. Pay the dollar. Next month, cancel the subscription. You’re on the list as having been a patron. When I post history content, I set the visibility to “any patron.” So, even if you’re not a current patron, thanks for your dollar and keep reading. (Also? If you catch me at the PJs, say hi, I’ll buy your coffee. So, you get your dollar back.)

Eloquent Profanity operates with a tighter model. It’s my fiction, not history material I feel should be open to anyone. I’m no Stephen King or Isaac Asimov, but I still like to get paid.

The Bottom Line

I like to use that phrase, btw. Go to NOLA History Guy for the old stuff. Come here t0 Eloquent Profanity for the fiction. Support my writing. Let’s all have fun.

 

 

“Molly by the Sea” by Milo Manara

“Molly by the Sea” by Milo Manara

One of my favorite/regular wallper images is “Molly by the Sea” by Milo Manara.

milo manara

Molly by the Sea

This drawing depicts a woman watching as a British ship of the line leaves port, heading off to war. She wades out into the water, raising her skirts. The image originally appeared in the magazine, “Heavy Metal.”

“Molly” wears a dress with a ruffled collar. The sleeves are unbuttoned, revealing a white shift underneath. Her shoes are likely back on the beach. Clearly she’s not wearing much under her shift. It’s a breezy day. Molly’s tussled hair and the soaring seagulls convey the feel of the wind.

The ship is a two-decker, “Third Rate” ship of the line. Third rate ships carried between 64 and 80 guns, with most of the British third rates carrying 74 guns. So, Molly’s man was part of a crew of 500 to 650 officers, sailors and Marines. The ship flies the Red Ensign at the stern. The red flag flying on the main mast may be the flag of a Rear Admiral. Ships of the line derive that designation from their ability to stand in a line of warships. Squadrons of wooden ships approached their enemies in a line. This limited their attack profile. As they closed with the enemy, the ships turned. They presented a “broadside” to the enemy, hopefully bringing as many guns as possible to bear. Hard work and discipline enabled Royal Navy ships to defeat their French and Spanish foes in the Napoleonic era.

Realism versus fantasy

Manara is a fantasy writer and artist. His art is often erotic and tantalizing. It’s no surprise he sees Molly as a wife or lover who wants her man to return safe from the wars. While so much of the grand and epic art of the Napoleonic period avoids eroticism, Manara offers it to us. Since so many Royal Navy sailors served involuntary, their women struggled to make ends meet. Press gangs snatched men off the streets of port towns. All Molly could do is hike up her skirt and remind her man what he has waiting for him.

 

 

Jesus Christ Superstar at the Saenger

Jesus Christ Superstar at the Saenger

Jesus Christ Superstar is a blast from my teen past.

Jesus Christ Superstar at the Saenger Theater, New Orleans, 14-January-2023

Jesus Christ Superstar

We saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the Saenger Theater last night. It was the first time I’d seen the opera live. That made for some interesting thoughts on my part. Andrew Lloyd Weber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics) wrote and scored a wonderful show. I can see these two having drinks or some such, talking about the success The Who had with “Tommy” just a couple of years earlier. The libretto was easy and well-read: The Gospels. It’s no surprise that they couldn’t find financial backing to do their opera as a stage production. Albums are cheaper, so off it goes. Sound familiar? Think Hamilton and oh so many productions in between.

Catholic school teens

By the time I got to Brother Martin as an eighth-grader in 1971, Superstar wasn’t on my radar. New Orleans was one of the cities presenting an unauthorized/unlicensed production of the show. Still, as an thirteen-year old, my focus was on the Fab Four/Wings, and a lot of Mowtown on AM-pop (WTIX). I can’t remember which of the girls from St. Angela made a pitch to base the music for a Mass around Rare Earth’s “Celebrate,” but that was as controversial as things got.

While “Superstar” exploded with the release of the album and opening of the production on the West End, another “Jesus” musical, “Godspell,” opened off-Broadway in 1971. Now, Stephen Schwartz was no slouch, going on to create Pippin and Wicked. Godspell also had the appeal of being “more Christian,” if you will, than Tim Rice’s lyrics. So, you saw Catholic high schools producing Godspell more and more. I bought both albums in the summer of 1974, when I worked at the Breaux Mart on Severn and had disposable income. That was when my Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) phase kicked into high gear, listening to Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer nonstop.

Later years

By my UNO years in the late 70s, Superstar was pretty much off the radar for me. Local high school productions of Godspell were commonplace by then, and I knew folks who did that show. That continued all the way to my band-parent days, when Dominican did the show and several of my kiddo’s friends were in the pit. When Superstar came to town, we usually passed, saving the money for other shows.

2023 tour

So, this season for “Broadway Across America” included the 50th anniversary production of Superstar. It’s part of the subscription. Why not? At this point in time, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations or demands from the production. My biggest curiosity going to the theater last night was, how were they going to handle the music? I kept coming back to Yvonne Elliman’s beautiful singing in the original cast album, and the strings kicking in on “Everything’s Alright.” They made it work.

Go see the show. It’s fun.

(Side note: For having never seen the show live, this soundtrack stuck with me lo, these fifty years. When the Magdalene sang “Everything’s Alright,” I had to remind myself I wasn’t at a Jimmy Buffett concert, and singing along like a Parrothead wasn’t appropriate.)