HE’S SO “MISUNDERSTOOD”
Bwahahahaha, I love this so much! I was feeling down about autumn when I stepped outside this morning and felt how chilly it was, but when I came inside I opened up Tumblr on my iPhone and this was the first thing I saw. I scrolled down and cracked up, and the whole rest of the day ended up perfect!
I am excited! I just stumbled across a post on Metafilter and discovered that next week, for the first time in 22 years, PBS will be airing Wagner’s entire Ring Cycle—a.k.a. Der Ring des Nibelungen—over four nights on Great Performances at the Met! It’s a new production directed Robert Lepage, and there’s also a behind-the-scenes documentary called Wagner’s Dream, which will accompany it.
Of course, I looked up what Richard Croft, who plays Loge (= Loki) looks like. :) Not bad… he’s got that magic fire hair thing going on, at least! His outfit kind of resembles a straight jacket… but, then, this is a Wagner production; of course it’s going to be weird.
The timing on this is very strange and serendipitous, as I got the entire 14-disc Sir George Solti version on interlibrary loan a week ago!
Loge and Wotan / Loki and Odin. I went on a mini Arthur Rackham binge tonight, for some reason. I have always loved loved LOVED how Rackham depicted Loge’s magic fire hair.
I’m at So G. trying to finish up my Gods and Heroes from Viking Mythology book because it’s overdue at the library, and I keep cracking up and grinning like a loon because the descriptions of Loki’s trouble-making are so hilarious. The other coffee shop denizens probably think I’m insane, but I don’t care.
equals this:
(aka this:)
So, basically, the “I DO WHAT I WANT!” meme means Loki is a success according to Bob Dylan.
So, I received a mysterious and underhanded package in the mail today. I was warned about this package, but could not wrest any details from the giver, other than that it was something Loki would like (I asked about this directly), it was from Asgard, and there were definitely no snakes in there. Naturally, I was on tenterhooks wondering what it could be. YES. It is Loki’s scarf. As we well know, Tom Hiddleston expropriated this scarf from Loki after Thor, so apparently my benefactor purloined the scarf from Mr. Hiddleston. That’s the only possible explanation, right? It’s a chain of thievery. It will be challenging to wear the scarf as well as Loki and Tom have done, but I shall do my best. Naturally, I made some immediate attempts.
BTW, Wagner (Das Rheingold) is pretty good sitting in the car waiting for pouring rain thunder and lightning to abate music.
Also, some of the lines about Loge (Loki) are hilarious. Wotan (Odin): “You slyly evade the point: take good care how you betray me in my trust. I, your only friend among all the gods, took you up when the rest mistrusted you. Now speak and counsel well!” Poor Loki. Of course, he does kind of deserve it.
I listened to Tetrishead eight times in a row today, and it’s all June’s fault. (There’s something about cello that’s strangely mesmerizing, I think.) Then I listened to “Loge, hör! Lausche hierher!” (magic fire music!) from Die Walküre a couple billion times (the Hans Hotter/Sir Georg Solti & Wiener Philharmoniker recording is my approved version).
And then, THEN, I thought about “Der Erlkönig,” and that led me down a very deep rabbit-hole. I couldn’t find the song on my computer or in my CD collection (did I not have a copy, except on tape? is that even possible? was I never able to find the version?? or is it buried on the bottom of a unpacked box over there?) but I downloaded it from iTunes and now it’s mine. It has to be Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, just as “Ich Grolle Nicht” must be Fritz Wunderlich. In my mind, it is forever linked with “Ich Grolle Nicht” as the most powerful and memorable thing I took away from my music appreciation class in college. I’ll post a video link + translation in a separate post.
Oh God. I’m too tired to think or move tonight, so I was doing a lot of mindless Tumblr-ing, slumped in my chair, only lifting one finger to control my mouse. Click click clik. At last I managed to tear myself away from the marvelously brain-melting gifs/jpgs, and I’m innocently listening to an on-the-fly Genius playlist based on the 8-minute version of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Good” whilst folding laundry. It ends, and the next song comes on my iPod, and as soon as I hear it my Loki’fied brain completely implodes:
“It’s just your jive talkin’. You’re telling me lies, yeah.
Jive talkin’, you wear a disguise.
Jive talkin’, so misunderstood, yeah.
Jive talkin’, you’re really no good.”
Hahahahhahahahahaaaaa….
“Oh, my child, you’ll never know
Just what you mean to me.
Oh, my child, you got so much;
You’re gonna take away my energy.
With all your jive talkin’, you’re telling me lies, yeah.
Good lovin’ still gets in my eyes.
Nobody believes what you say.
It’s just your jive talkin’ that gets in the way.
Oh, my love, you’re so good at treating me so cruel.
There you go with your fancy lies,
Leavin’ me lookin’ like a dumbstruck fool.
With all your jive talkin’, you’re telling me lies, yeah.
Jive talkin’, you wear a disguise.
Jive talkin’, so misunderstood, yeah.
Jive talkin’, you just ain’t no good.
You know now, love talkin’ is all very fine, yeah.
Jive talkin’ just isn’t a crime.
And if there’s somebody you’ll love till you die,
Then all that jive talkin’ just gets in your eye…”
Aswdijwoijerfwelkjflksnmgvlfskvfdsvj. HELP. I’m pretty sure I’m going to think of “Jive Talkin’” as Loki’s theme song from now on.
Eheheheheheeee…. yes. Yes, it does.
“Loki must be punished.”
To find his hiding place, Odin mounted the High Seat, the Lidskjalf, and looked over the world. Far in the distance, beside a waterfall, a strange little house with an open door on every side caught his eye. He looked closely, and saw Loki sitting inside by a fire, tying strings into loops and knots.
The Aesir stormed off to catch him, but Loki was keeping watch through the four open doors and saw them coming. He threw what he was making into the fire, jumped into the waterfall, and changed himself into a salmon. “They will never catch me on their hook,” he sniggered. Loki did not worry about being caught in a net because no one had ever made one yet. Indeed that was the thing he had been inventing, and he had just burned it.
Listening to Shawn Colvin’s cover of “Viva Las Vegas” over & over & over today in the car. Not for the content, but for the sound. Also, singing along (badly, natch).
I must have played it at least 10 times, probably more.
…This nail color looks blue or black, but it’s actually really dark green. :-)
I saw lightning bugs blinking in the wetlands across the road while we were taking out the trash! It was very exciting. And then when we went out with a flashlight to bag up the horrible landscape fabric we’d pulled out of the Bela Lugosi/Nosferatu daylily area (so we could cram some in the top of the trash can), I saw them in our front yard, too!
Laura, giggling: “You know who would like lightning bugs!”
Dean, groaning: “Loki? Oh, Thor.”
Laura: “Look at that big patch of vetch! That’s Vetchheim. The vetch should stay in Vetchheim instead of invading all the other realms.”
Dean: “You and your realms.”
I also think Snakey really should help with the invading vetch army. He slithers around in the front bed all the time where it likes to sneakily grow in the middle of the creeping phlox (pretending, but ultimately failing, to blend in with the phlox), so you’d really think he’d be able to lend a hand fighting it off, instead of just lolling about in the sun all day. Oh I forgot, he doesn’t have hands. But still.
