A Tablet From Vinlandia
Oct. 1st, 2005 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloUp here on the Wall I sometimes get to thinking that the Empire has forgotten us.
Last night I entertained the young officer who commands the reinforcements that arrived yesterday afternoon from Eboracum.
It was raw and misty. It usually is. The air had ice in it.
My cook had prepared ptarmigan. Ptarmigan in squid sauce. We drank wine from my family's vinyards on Vectis.
He is a cheerful young man, with metropolitan airs and graces, his thick, curly hair slicked up and perfumed with bear-grease. I feel sorry for him.
"So what did you think of Serenity?" he asked, chewing on a tiny wish-bone.
I eyed him blankly.
"You know," he urged, "it's sorta like the sequel to Firefly."
I shook my head. "The things that are the talk of the Empire take months to reach us here- years even."
"You mean you haven't even seen Firefly yet?"
I smiled sourly.
His face went pale. It was dawning on him just what it would mean to him to be stationed up here at the edge of the world- how much like exile it was.
Just then a noise like the torturing of a cat came squalling up from the vicus. "What in the names of all the gods is that?" he asked, appalled.
"That is a thing called the pipes," I drawled. "It is what the Picts do for entertainment." I let the enormity sink in. "They dance too," I added. "The Pictish men- in skirts."
Last night I entertained the young officer who commands the reinforcements that arrived yesterday afternoon from Eboracum.
It was raw and misty. It usually is. The air had ice in it.
My cook had prepared ptarmigan. Ptarmigan in squid sauce. We drank wine from my family's vinyards on Vectis.
He is a cheerful young man, with metropolitan airs and graces, his thick, curly hair slicked up and perfumed with bear-grease. I feel sorry for him.
"So what did you think of Serenity?" he asked, chewing on a tiny wish-bone.
I eyed him blankly.
"You know," he urged, "it's sorta like the sequel to Firefly."
I shook my head. "The things that are the talk of the Empire take months to reach us here- years even."
"You mean you haven't even seen Firefly yet?"
I smiled sourly.
His face went pale. It was dawning on him just what it would mean to him to be stationed up here at the edge of the world- how much like exile it was.
Just then a noise like the torturing of a cat came squalling up from the vicus. "What in the names of all the gods is that?" he asked, appalled.
"That is a thing called the pipes," I drawled. "It is what the Picts do for entertainment." I let the enormity sink in. "They dance too," I added. "The Pictish men- in skirts."
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 04:51 am (UTC)Over the heather the wet wind blows,
I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose...
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Date: 2005-10-01 05:39 am (UTC)There's a little Kipling in there too.
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Date: 2005-10-01 06:22 am (UTC)Bear grease--I am transfixed.
I am going to Serenity today.
Best to you on your faraway wall.
Bear grease! I love that.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 07:21 am (UTC)Like I said, over here we haven't even seen Firefly yet
I feel underprivileged.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 07:24 am (UTC)You'd love our new theater in Knoxville: it's the Regal Cinema flagship, state-of-the-art theater!
Digital projectors, wonderful rocking seats, art deco everywhere, great sound...
Oh, boy. Today!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 07:53 am (UTC)Our cinema- our last remaining Oldham cinema- just closed. It's been drummed out of business by the Manchester multiplexes.
I can't really complain. I used to bypass it to go to the Manchester muliplexes myself.
Still it's sad.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 08:03 am (UTC)There's a small old theater in a nearby town of 6000 people, and the theater's been redone just as in the old days. I've been there once, and the sound is wonderful! Those giant speakers--I'd forgotten how grand that deep, rich sound was.
All in all, I prefer the new stadium seating. Why didn't they think of that before, back in the old days?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 08:18 am (UTC)People complain of the prices and of fellow movie-goers behaving badly. Why bother to make the trip to the multiplex when you can watch whatever you want on your plasma screen at home?
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Date: 2005-10-01 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 09:17 am (UTC)I mean to look into it.
In fact, rather than talk about it, I'll do it right now.
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Date: 2005-10-01 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 07:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 08:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-13 01:26 am (UTC)The guys I'm aware of having been infected by are Kipling and Auden...