Verdi

Another opera night. I’m starting to believe that I’m really going to do this, that I can fulfil one of the dreams I’ve been exhuming from the wreckage of my twenties. The singing is more difficult than I’d expected, though – it’s not just getting the (very) high notes, it’s coming in for just a few syllables here and there, without having the build-up to a note. It’ll certainly give me a new perspective when next I listen to opera.

When it flows, though, there’s something about singing that seems to clean out every dulled corner of my being, even when I’m reeling from lack of sleep, leaving every psychic nerve-end tingling. It’s been far, far too long since I’ve done this.

Tonight was one of the few times I’ve (almost) wished I were a man. The parts they sang were so achingly beautiful – even against the thumping rehearsal piano and the orange walls of the church hall – that it hurt just to listen.

*ahem* Public Service Announcement (s)

Erm, if there happen to be any Jason Isaacs-as-Lucius aficionados reading this who don’t also read gmth’s LJ (and who are able to download 237k pictures), they might want to head over there…

---

And while I’m posting, welcome to anyone who’s found me through mctabby’s friending frenzy. I hope I don’t bore you!

I find the way people have listed themselves over there to be quite strange. All those lists of ships… it doesn’t necessarily seem to be a good way of finding people with compatible interests, unless people mainly want to squee together? Not that I’ve anything against squeeing per se, and I’m certainly not averse to finding other rabid Lucius-fans (and especially Lucius/Hermione writers and readers - we’re a rare breed), but while anyone reading this has to put up with (or skip over) a moderate amount of Lucius-squee (oops, can’t say that – he’s frowning at me), what I write here tends to have a wider scope and a different tone from my fic. More of me, and less of Lucius, Cornelius, Hermione or whoever it is, I suppose.

Which is a very long-winded way of saying: despite what I said on friending frenzy, I’m more than happy to have non-Lucius fans dropping in. Although I mainly write Lucius, I read a hell of a lot more widely than that, and anyhow, in my experience it’s the people with whom I disagree from whom I learn the most.

---

And thank you to everyone who commented on my ‘Transfiguration’ post. Monday-Wednesday are RL-heavy days for me, so it’ll take me some time to get my head round all the physics and chemistry and all… in order to reply, but I’m really enjoying reading the theorising, and really, really grateful for some of the insights you’ve shared.

---

PS: Does anyone else out there use ‘Opera’ (the browser this time, not the art form) to post on LJ? I thought I was on to something when the edit post page wasn’t as scrambled as it is in IE, but every time I pressed ‘update journal’ it just took me to the preview page. Bah.

A rec or three

I second curia_regis’ rec for scatteredlogic’s The Best Revenge. It’s a must-read for anyone remotely interested in Lucius/Hermione, and even for those who aren’t, the Lucius/Snape/Harry/Hermione conversations are priceless. Rated NC-17, but that’s a short and minor part of it – I’d have probably rated it R.

There’s a fic on adultfanfiction.net that started with a similar scenario, but alas has never been updated past Chapter 1, so I was doubly glad to see this one. If we get many more additions of this quality to the Lucius/Hermione ouvre I’ll have to start using two hands to count the good ones! ;)


While I was browsing round her site, I came across a very short fic entitled Making a Difference, centring on Neville and his Mum. Call me sentimental, but it made me want to cry. If I were a Niffler, I’d probably Niffle it.


And for something completely different, if you want to laugh instead of cry, check out shadowycat’s Duelling with Dolts. As she put it: Have you ever wondered why it fell to Professor Snape to assist Gilderoy Lockhart with the Dueling Club instead of Professor Flitwick, who was apparently a champion dueler in his youth? ;)

;) indeed.


Anyhow, here’s my review of The Best Revenge ( Spoilers: Go read the fic first! )