Publications: "Touched by an Angel" & 21st Century Gothic

I just received a copy of the cover of the new collection 21st Century Gothic which features my essay on Graham Joyce's [AKA William Heaney's] Memoirs of a Master Forger. It was one of those projects that comes out of the blue and then -- typical for me anyway -- I forget all about it and am pleasantly surprised to be reminded again. I had actually overlooked the deadline in the midst of all the tenure folderol and was tempted to beg off the project, but Danel convinced me to give it a go and I have to say I'm very glad I did. I look forward to reading the rest of the collection.

Speaking of forgetting: most of you know how I hate to let anything go to waste, writing-wise. Ages ago (yes, years) I wrote a gruesomely funny little short story called "Touched by an Angel" that I had accepted for publication and then promptly forgot. Yes, the vintage is clear from the title; I'm hoping somewhere the show is still living on in syndication. Anyhoo, eventually I realised that it had not appeared, so I looked into it and found that the magazine had folded, so off it went elsewhere.

Lather, rinse, repeat. That's the nature of publishing. Almost everything can find a home eventually, I suppose. You just have to find the editor who wants it. It's always a tricky thing for me as I have an annoying habit of mixing together things that don't belong together according to conventional wisdom. So at last "Touched by an Angel" appears in Kalkion, an on-line publication. Do drop by and read it or at least tweet or Facebook it (even if you don't read it, it helps). If you like funny and gruesome, you'll enjoy it.

I need to write up the WONDERFUL backstage tour I had of the National Theatre and the production of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance I saw there afterward, but I have a matinée of Women Beware Women there this afternoon, so it will probably have to wait. I did finally get to the British Library to renew my card and do a little work, so more of that likely to happen as well -- it's not all idleness!

Review: The Real Thing

Wednesday I caught The Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, as I mentioned in a recent post.  Most of you know how I am enamoured of Stoppard's work and I had heard good things about this production. The bar was set high by the most recent production of his Arcadia, which was one of the most compelling productions I have seen despite an unbelievably hot theatre.

The cast included the wonderful Toby Stephens, Hattie Morahan, Fenella Woolgar and Barnaby Kay.  It's a surprisingly affectionate look at love, something I suppose most people don't associate with Stoppard. It does begin with a little bit of a trick that you do associate with him: the opening scene -- you begin to realise during the one that follows it -- is part of a play within a play, written by Henry (Stephens) and acted by his wife (Woolgar) and friend (Kay), whose girlfriend, we come to find, has begun falling for Henry.

Much of the play circles around Henry and Annie as they deal with happiness and their own insecurities. Henry wants to write a play for Annie, but finds that happiness is not very inspiring for good writing, that love and lust lead only to banalities and clichés.  Annie gets upset because Henry fails to be jealous of a love scene she has with an attractive co-star. Like all couples, they had divergent tastes that can't necessarily be reconciled. Annie tries to get Henry to appreciate classical music, but he's stuck on vintage pop songs (which punctuate many of the scene changes) which he finds the best way to express those 'banal' feelings of love.

The excellent cast inhabit their roles with real verve. Stephens manages to give Henry a down-to-earth friendliness that balances the sometimes knowing speeches about writing and the power of words that often infuriate Annie when she's trying to convince him of the importance of her cause celébre 'political prisoner's' play.  The famous 'cricket bat' speech -- where Henry compares good writing to the crafting of a bat in contrast to a similarly shaped bit of wood -- can easily sound pedantic, but Stephens gives it a kind of eager enthusiasm that makes it seem entirely inspired by a spur of the moment thought.

Morahan's Annie has a harder job because she has to be a bit histrionic at times, very much an actor, and occasionally her gestures seemed a bit too controlled for effect, but then again, it fits the role. With the slight hoarseness in her voice and some of the mannerism, I couldn't help seeing her as Felicity Kendal which was likely just my knowing the history of the playwright.  The wonderful Woolgar did so much with the largely thankless task of the discarded spouse, infusing   with such wit and intelligence that you couldn't help but wonder why Henry would have left her for the more emotional Annie, but the heart is an unpredictable little muscle.

Stoppard seems almost apologetic dealing with 'the real thing' here; it gives Henry and the play a kind of charming awkwardness, but it also offers a compelling meditation on the ways we learn to deal with the ebb and flow of love and the hunger to find it that makes us step out into the darkness time and again with a leap of faith -- and the hope that the next time it will be real.  As the strains of "Daydream Believer" ring out, you can't help but smile and wish the best for Henry and Annie.

Some wandering today along the Thames and back to the Tate Modern: on Waterloo Bridge I happened to run into Nigel Planer, who looked very good. I had just missed my bus and it began to rain.  A cooler day than the last couple -- hurrah!

Pelzmantel: Cover Complete

Interviewed at UnBound / BitchBuzz

The wonderful Adele over at the fabulous book review (and more) blog, UnBound has interviewed me and wormed many secrets out of me :-) and that's me laughing at the noodle restaurant the week before. It was such a pleasure getting to know in real life someone I had got to know over the 'net. I love the internet! So many friends and opportunities I would not have had but for it.

Yesterday I dawdled along the Thames near Millbank mudlarking. There was the usual assortment of glass and pottery shards, but I also found odd things like the front part of a telelvision set (no screen of course), a camera, a set of rusty keys with a Galapagos diving fob, which amused me (surviving all that diving and then losing your keys in the river? Then again maybe it was all a pose anyway). I went to the Tate Britain afterward. I'm still amazed at how much I love the new Turner section, mostly for his unfinished paintings which seem like precursors of the Impressionists. There's a new room of early Bacon works that include a painted screen and three rugs (!) from his interior design business in the 30s.

And my latest column is up, too, at BitchBuzz: a mad mash-up of the Stoppard matineé, the guy behind me on the bus, random musings about the Middle Ages and the usual weird stuff in my head. Enjoy!

Publication: Lachrymae Draconis

I have a new publication out in the latest issue of Realms. It's a kind of medieval mystery with a dragon called "Lachrymae Draconis" which you'll quickly figure out is Latin for "dragon tears" -- an entirely fake commodity that young Colburga has been dealing in with the help of the dragon she's got hidden away in a cave. No, the dragon doesn't cry. Colburga knows that's not possible -- but the dragon has other skills that help sell what they label "tears" and Colburga's knowledge of healthful herbs makes the concoctions effective. She's become quite a business woman because she doesn't do anything without making a profit. Her life may be lonely, but that's okay -- things are safer that way. Or so she thinks until the day a crying child appears at her gate with an intriguing problem...

I hope you enjoy the story. I had thought to include this among the stories added to Pelzmantel, but it got snapped up too quickly. I have seen the page proofs and the final cover and oh! does it look gorgeous. I'll see if I can make a reduced version so you can see. I'm still just gaga over Ruby's stunning artwork. Amazing!

I saw Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at the Old Vic yesterday. Wonderful! Review coming soon: yes, it's a play about love, but also the love of words, including this hopeful line every writer dreams of making real:

I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you’re dead.

Magus: The Alan Moore Conference (Day Two)

Here's another one of Adele's photos: just out of shot to Alan's left is me holding Melinda's glass. One of these days, I'm going to remember to take a picture with them. But don't they look sweet together? More on thee two later. I left London on the same train as I had the day before, but bank holiday weekend engineering works made sure that I was late. The cab dropped me off just after the time slated for panels to begin; fortunately, things were running slightly late, so Andrés was just introducing Gary Lloyd when I arrived, waving a belated hello to Adele.

Gary had worked with Alan on Brought to Light—not one of my favourites among the CDs, but an important work nonetheless. I was interested to see what he would talk about as his title "Moore and Music" could cover a lot of ground. It was fascinating to hear him talk about working together and how Alan has 'perfect pitch' but a voice so deep his falsetto doesn't sound like a falsetto. He was amusing, too, illustrating his talk with imaginary charts (all of which worked in an off-hand reference to SKIZZ), Homer Simpson eating a donut, and his six year old nephew's drawing of Watchmen, a drawing that showed superheroes like Spider-man, Batman and Hulk at the bottom of a cliff crying for help and Rorschak simply saying, "No."

Cyril Camus of the University of Toulouse traced the many ways in which Neil Gaiman had been inspired by Moore's work, often quite directly and how the friendship and influence of Moore helped shape Gaiman's career.  U Northampton's Jasmine Shadrack presented a lively discussion "V Versus Hollywood: A Discourse on Polemic Thievery" with a V mask hanging from the podium.  She traced her unexpected reaction to the movie version of V for Vendetta, which had been a singularly affecting novel for her on first reading it.  While the film changed much, there was still a great deal to celebrate.

I chose to go to the film panel after the break, perhaps perversely, because most of the films made from Moore's material have been so exquisitely bad. Stephen Keane, also from Northampton, covered "Watching the Watchmen: From Panels to Frames in Watchmen" which he warned us would be a loose presentation, more preliminary than final and it was, but he had a few interesting points to make from film studies approach.  Aine Young from Queen's University Belfast, examined "From Hell: The Adverse Journey from Page to Screen" and how Moore's carefully constructed Victorian landscape (among other details) was flattened and homogenized by the filmmakers.  The Hughes Brothers may have wanted to capture the grit and the slums, but in the end could not escape the Disneyfication of the project.  Ian Dawe of Selkirk College spoke about "The Moore Film Adaptations and the Erotic-Grotesque" as a way of measuring the success of the film versions, as he found those that removed that quality from Moore's texts were sure to render a bland product.  While it seemed an intriguing concept, I couldn't really agree with his declaration of From Hell as the best adaptation.

Then it was lunch and more chat with Adele and with Marc, whose paper I had missed (but it went well, he said). As I was getting yet another cup of tea, I suddenly found myself handing a tea bag to Alan. I wasn't sure he'd remember me, but he did and we chatted a bit as we made our teas, mostly about what a strange thing it was to have a conference all about one's work.  But then as he said, "I've had a weird life, so this is just one more bit."  Since I hadn't met Melinda before, he made a point of taking me over to introduce us and she's just as delightful in person as she had been on the phone (and gave me a nice compliment too, "We love your writing!"). Yes, I made sure to introduce Adele, who snapped that lovely photo. We all went in for the Q&A, which Paul Gravett was hosting. I brought my new Flip camera and managed to video most of the session, while Paul talked with Alan and then Melinda and then they both responded to audience questions. But the session went long (no one complained!) and my camera ran out of memory, so I'm missing the last bit.

I hope to put up the video on line, so let me just mention a few things that came up at the end, including Alan's comment that "art is a kind of possession" and that "I'm a very possessive person!"  Most people in Northampton seem to know him (and judging by folks at the conference, have stories to tell about him), except for some employee at Sainsbury's who threatened the "scruffy guy" with calling the police if he came in again. I loved how Melinda described how we should all realise we're mushrooms who seem to be separate, but under the ground we all share roots. Referring to some of the people who claim him as an influence, Alan suggested that all they had picked up was the idea that "more sex, more violence, be incomprehensible" was what created "that Alan Moore feeling." Subjects ranged form Lost Girls, Jerusalem, Dodgem Logic and Melinda's autobiographical project to upcoming appearances by Alan on Radio 4 with scientist Brian Cox and in the newly opened catacombs under Waterloo (with musicians in July – argh!)  They were both generous enough to stick around for a good while chatting with people and signing things, though Alan said it was really just an excuse to mow through the buffet table. I shared a cab back to the train station and the trip to London with some colleagues chatting about the conference. Everyone seemed delighted.

While Saturday had been rainy and grey, Sunday was gorgeous though blustery, perfect for cycling over to Battersea Park to check out the boating. Baby coots, ducklings and goslings abounded and an entourage of ducks followed the boat quacking loudly for the apple bits I tossed behind me. Pub lunch was a nice roast dinner—yum!  Monday coming back from shopping I got caught in the midst of the pro-Palestinian protestors who gathered at the entrance to Downing Street and lay down in front of the bus I was on. Good thing I didn't have any ice cream in my bag of groceries.

Today I'm off to see a matinee of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at the Old Vic with Toby Stephens. Can't wait!

Magus: The Alan Moore Conference (Day One)

Here's a lovely photo of me and Marc Singer snapped by the wonderful Adele, who already has her write-up of the Magus conference up over at her book blog, UnBound, and has pictures up as well. I was looking forward to this conference despite not quite having my paper done before I headed off to the UK. So many weird things happened while I was working on the paper that I decided to make that journey part of the paper, too.  I think I'll put the Powerpoint presentation on line with the paper as narration, so I won't detail everything here, but I had a lot of interesting coincidences arise from listening to Moore's performance CDs while sauntering through various museums in London and while lunching with my friend Roger Sabin in Red Lion Square (the site of the original performance of Snakes and Ladders.

I ran into Paul Gravett on the train coming into Northampton: I hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was great to have a chance to catch up on the cab ride to the campus, because he was busy right away as the keynote speaker. Adele was in the lobby with everyone else, so we had a chance to chat and meet other folks. I was pleased to see someone else I knew, Marc Singer, who was giving a paper on the Pog issue of Swamp Thing. I was a bit surprised to find that I had been moved from a later afternoon slot to the one immediately following the keynote, but it's just as well to have the paper done, so I didn't mind.

Nathan Wiseman-Trowse welcomed us all to the conference and talked a little bit about its genesis from a half-joking proposal to a serious academic undertaking (but fun, how could it not be?). He then introduced Paul who gave a lively presentation, "Something from Nothing -- Small Killing, Big Numbers: Comics Beyond Referentiality and Reinvention" which tied together some wonderful art exhibits of Moore's work (I especially yearned to see the Belgian one) and these less well known stories by Moore. I was glad Paul introduced the theme of the magic of art, creating something out of nothing, because I was going to be running with that topic, too. In a rather amusing moment as Paul talked about the giant diagram Moore created for Big Numbers, Gary Lloyd ran down with a facsimile so we could all see just how insanely detailed it was (four large sheets of paper with miniscule writing in tiny boxes representing each character and their storyline in all the issues. Wonderful!

I was on a panel with Rikke Cortsen from the University of Copenhagen. Antonio Venezia was supposed to be on the panel, too, but wasn't able to make it to our re-scheduled time and presented later in the day. Rikke's presentation, "Building Fictional Worlds: On the Construction of Place in Alan Moore's Top 10", examined how the variety of chronotopes employed helped map the complexity of not only the interwoven stories, but also the distinctly different time lines that overlaid the story lines.

My paper was a bit less formal and really became a performance about Moore's performances and the weird coincidences that dogged me as I wrote it. Most of you know that I enjoy a little theatricality in my performances and it seemed to go well. There didn't seem to be enough audible laughs at the right places (EL Wisty! Did people not recognize EL Wisty?), but afterward many people complimented me, so I was satisfied that it went well enough. The panel finished with a lively discussion, which soon proved to be the norm. So many people all interested in Moore's work gathering together, it was inevitable that people were bursting to discuss their ideas with folks who knew the score.

Lunch included a screening of Don't Let Me Die in Black and White, but most folks were too busy talking and eating to really take it in. After lunch, I headed to the panel "Chaotic Criminality: The Villains of Alan Moore".  First up was Geoff Klock, who appeared via Skype, which has a great potential for interconnectivity, but I can't help thinking he might have had a better presentation had he actually traveled to Northampton, for it was a bit rambling and had a few factual errors that irked. Mervi Miettinen from the University of Tempere presented "Past as Multiple Choice? Textual Anarchy in The Killing Joke" which explored the carefully controlled 'anarchy' of a dogged structuralist like Moore. Laura Hilton from the University of Birmingham presented "Reincarnating Mina Murray: Subverting the Gothic Heroine?" which compared the very different approaches between the film and the comics versions of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to the traditional passive Gothic heroine and both Moore's and Stoker's use of Mina as the powerful prototype of the New Woman. Yes, the excrementally bad film version destroys everything subversive about her.

The final panel of the day had Tony Venezia (Birbeck College) giving his presentation, "'A Sense of History's Patterns...': Mapping Northampton in Voice of the Fire and Big Numbers" which once again returned us to Moore's obsession with his hometown and its geography (and chorography). Our co-host Nathan gave us "Marvel or Miracle: (Re)Placing the Original in Alan Moore's Marvelman" which traced patterns within the history of that much troubled superhero. Deneb Kozikoski Valereto (Leiden University) offered a thoughtful study "Philosophy in the Fairground: The Killing Joke and Thoughts on Madness" which again focused on the deliberate interplay between insanity and Moore's careful and complex organisation.

We had a brief stop at the reception, but then Adele and I went to a pub toward the rail station so she could interview me :-D I'll let you know when it's up. I headed back to London and got ready to do it all again the next day.

BitchBuzz: Relax!

My latest column features something I know a bit about these days: relaxing!

The other night I joined my intrepid editor for the launch of Starbucks's new Discoveries drinks, who partnered with  Mills & Boon for the evening. 

The publishing giant apparently conducted a study that demonstrated that most women found it difficult to carve out time for themselves on a daily basis. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to few of us over-achieving, workaholic, multi-taskers. 

The importance of this for women cannot be overstated. Just look at the statistics about how heart attacks are climbing for women due to stress. I know all the excuses, but I don't want to hear that you are indispensable, can't stop now, there are just too many things to be done. Women don't just hold up half the sky, we hold up at least half the stress in the world, too.

Read the rest at BBHQ.

I have a new publication, too. More on that shortly. I've been busy writing my paper to give in Northampton Friday. Looking forward to the fun.Had a lovely lunch yesterday with my pal, Roger Sabin in Red Lion Square: yes, everything seems to lead back to Alan Moore.

Happy Birthday to the Joey Zone

I croak a belated happy birthday! Apologies. :-(

London on Video

Here's some quick videos (courtesy of my new Flip camera) just to give a flavour of my day Thursday, a quite wonderful day. I had lunch with Adele and Mark from UnBound, then Adele and I made our way from Victoria toward Soho, stopping at a couple of pubs that looked interesting and saying hello to squirrels in St. James Park. We met up with some of the book bloggers that Adele knows who were gathering for a big signing at Forbidden Planet.

I headed off to see Four Lions, Chris Morris' new film at the Curzon which was followed by a Q&A with Morris, one of his co-writers and a couple of cast members. The film treads an uneasy line between comedy and terrorism with a good bit of success. There's a normalising influence from the comedy of the story, yet there's no shrinking from dealing with the lethal nature of the bombing plans. Because I was hanging out with Hamilton and Hind, who seem to know just about everybody, we also chatted with Morris after the Q&A. In contrast to his edgy image, he's a real sweetie.

Afterward we (H&H and friends) went to the pub (of course) and had the usual post-film discussions and wandering of to all kinds of topics that nights like this generally involve. After the pub closed, we headed to Leicester Square and a late coffee. A fun day, but also long, so Friday has had to be a work day (writing, writing). Hoping to catch a matinee on Saturday. More news as I live it :-)

BitchBuzz: Poetry and Protest

In a rush, but here's a link to my column at BitchBuzz. Video to post later!

While it's faded a bit from the news, the Twitter joke trial (#twitterjoketrial) will have a lingering impact, not only for its outrageous assault on reason and human rights, but for its less immediate effects on humour. 

In case you missed it, the brief story is young man in love (or lust -- does it really matter?) is ready to fly off to see the woman he'd formed an attachment to via the net. If you're still snickering at internet match-ups, I'm sure you must be one of those folks lucky enough to meet fabulously interesting folks in drunken pub crawls or on blind dates set up by your friends (yes, that weird guy they thought was "perfect for you" is an indication of what they think you will settle for).

However, when Paul Chambers set off to fly from Nottingham to Ireland, only to be met by delays (anxiously watching the ash reports myself this past week, I can relate). Among the frustrated tweets he sent was the mocking, "Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your sh*t together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!"
Yes, it is stupid to make jokes about bombing airports. But is it really worth giving a criminal record (apparently killing his career) and a £1000 fine over that kind of stupid remark?

Read more: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/poetry-satire-the-twitterjoketrial.html#ixzz0oZ2AuoDi

Bike

What I'm doing in London:




I do feel a bit intimidated by riding in so much traffic, but it's certainly cheaper in the long run and sometimes, faster and more direct. And yes, good exercise. Yesterday cycled to the Tate Modern. Two new shows setting up, so a wander through the regular exhibits -- miss the Rothkos so much! -- and a pub lunch at the Founders Arms, Thameside. Never noticed before that their menu, which features the skyline along the river with buildings identified, points out that the BT Tower was destroyed by Twinkle 1972. :-D

Today lunch with Adele and then Q & A with Chris Morris after Four Lions. Yes, I am going to remember to take my new Flip camera along and take some video to post. No, not biking it today.

London

:-)


Jet lagged but here! More to follow.

Anxiously Waiting

At present, it looks like the flight is on. We shall see things develop as the day rolls on. I realise that I never got a new camera after breaking the viewing screen on mine last summer. Hmmm. In the meantime, here's my theme song for the flight.




Wish me luck.

At Elena's

My company in the bedroom at Elena's this weekend: the orange mannequin and the gorilla in the wheelchair. Never walked into the room once without starting at the mannequin, thinking it was someone sitting at the computer. We had fun last night, drinking Bubbly Bisons (prosecco + Zubrowka) and watching The Women, yakking and yukking. Miss Wendy is moving away to Mississippi and it's the last chance we would all have to share such a night for a while, so it was a bittersweet. But we had some fantastic pizza and lots of fun. Plenty of puppytime, too, with the Steier pack.

Happy Anniversary, Elena and Rod! Good luck apartment hunting next week, Miss Wendy.  Now let's see if that volcano will let me depart Monday (grrrr).

BitchBuzz: Hate Facebook?

My latest column at BitchBuzz.com:

It's the end of the world as we know it! Where's Buffy?! She's averted several apocalypses (apocalypseé? apocalypso?) already. Cameron's behind this somehow, or Goldman-Sachs, I bet. Oh, wait -- it's only Zuckerberg?

For a minute there, I was worried.

Yes, as the guys at Wired have warned us, Facebook has you in its sights on the path toward world domination:

"Facebook has gone rogue, drunk on founder Mark Zuckerberg’s dreams of world domination. It’s time the rest of the web ecosystem recognizes this and works to replace it with something open and distributed."

Yes, it's true: the forced public option is a bit of a bastard. Settle down, tea-baggers, we're not talking about that public option. But to hear some tech folk talk about it, you'd think we were. And yes, something "open and distributed" would be wonderful. Hop right on that, will you? On your own time, with your own funds and support, too, okay? Because I'm not paying for it. There's the rub, as someone once said. And until we do actually get some socialists in charge, we're stuck with the evils of capitalism...

As always, read the rest at BBHQ. I managed to work in a reference to both Buffy and EL Wisty, so I am pleased with myself. Loads of things to do and I am making my way through the (cough) hundreds of emails in my campus inbox and there are a few things that MUST be done before I go (like laundry, sob!). Yeesh -- back to it now.

As long as you're idling your time on the internet, go check out the video I made for The Women's League of Ale Drinkers: talking robots!

By the by: thanks Todd, for inadvertently setting me off on this column's idea by emailing me the Wired link just after I was watching an old Buffy episode and -- the rest is history as they say. This is what happens when you know a writer; we use everything! The world is our buffalo.

Jane Quiet Returns!

Elena's got a new comic up at our Jane Quiet web jam page. Whoo hoo!

This is the start of the second issue or arc, I suppose we ought to say as it's on-line. Where did this start? I believe it was me combining Elena's love of drawing dancing babes, my fondness for Johnny Vegas, and a peculiar haunting.

And um, a little John Donne -- but you don't need to know that.

Check it out and leave a comment at the site.

Byron by Way of East Cheam

Ah, Hancock! Not to mention Sid James and John Le Mesurier -- and of course, script by Galton and Simpson.

Busy busy busy -- so much to get done this week before I run away. Somehow it will all get done, right? Wait -- wasn't the end of the semester supposed to be the end of stress? Well, I have a paper to write and a lot of tasks to finish; yet I'm thinking about a book trailer for Pelzmantel and what it should include...

It's not until things are broken...

...that you realise what they mean to you. The wonky window just blew out and smashed off one ear and one foot of my wombat.

I could blame the landlord for never getting around to fixing the wonky window.

I can blame myself for putting the wombat there on the window sill next to Ganesha (who, being more wise, escaped harm). All things considered, it was a stupid place.

I could blame my attachment to material things that the Buddha would tell me is the source of all misery.

I am sweeping up the pieces.

Pelzmantel: Cover with Lettering

Very happy! Doesn't it just look wonderful? Even the lettering seems to capture the magical feeling of the story -- I love the way it swirls.