My halloween costume epic
16 October 2008 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3rdragonI wasn't planning on making a Halloween costume this year. While I love costumes, they don't celebrate Halloween in Spain, so it seemed like it would be a bit of a wasted effort, not to mention difficult since I don't have anything to make a costume out of. And then I discovered that the program is hosting a Greek and Roman themed Halloween party. And between Greek and Roman and the need for an affordable costume, I was reminded of the costume that Gentian wore in Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, which I had decided was cool, but which I probably wouldn't ever actually use: she dressed up as one of Sappho's poems. White garment with the poem written on it, and rents in the fabric for the missing bits of the poem.
Since I don't speak Greek, I decided to do a bi- or tri-lingual poem. I found a translation I liked by a Middlebury prof, and since his translation is technically his intellectual property, I figured that I'd ask before using it in my costume.
From: Me
To: Prof
Subject: Sappho's Poems and Halloween
Hello,
I'm writing because I'm planning on dressing up as one of Sappho's poems for Halloween (long story short, I got the idea from a book and thought it sounded cool but like something I was unlikely ever to do, and then I found myself in Spain with a need for a costume in which to go to a Greek and Roman themed Halloween party, and it seemed like the ideal thing). I'm planning on being a trilingual poem (Greek, Spanish, and English), and like your translations. I don't have a clue what the intellectual property laws on poetry translations as relates to Halloween costumes in Spain are, but I thought I'd ask: do you mind if one of your translations is used in my costume? (I'm looking at "Some say an army of horsemen" and ""I ..... really wish I were dead;"" I'll decide after I figure out which of the Spanish translations I like best.)
Cheers,
Me
From: Prof
To: Me
That sounds like fun, and you are certainly welcome to use anything from ym
site forn your imaginative process.
But I wonder if these short and pithy poems of Catullus might be a better
base for a humorous presentation. I jkust looked in on that file and some of
these are pretty lively, which mioght be what you want. Or the others....
anything.
website/Translations/Catullus.html
You do multimedia at Smith? In my time long ago we thought that two slide
projectors with inverted images, or tuned pocket radios for a group prompt,
were the new way along with improv poetry against changing color lights. We
had nothjing of the equipment and skills everyone has now. But the faculty
hated what I was doing. . . . as I said a while back.
ProfFirstName
From: Me
To: Prof
Excellent!
The advantage of Sappho's poetry for a costume is actually what makes it hard to study; the gaps and unknown bits provide an opportunity to make the costume more three-dimensional and draw the viewer more; I'm thinking of writing the poem on the outer layer of a peplos and rending the cloth wherever the words are unknown.
Yes, we do do some multimedia at Smith (though this is more for my own amusement; since it's just a costume party I could hypothetically attend in an artfully draped sheet). I actually work in the computer labs at Smith (when I'm not studying in Spain) and do tech support for classrooms, so I wind up seeing a fair number of the more cutting-edge presentations. Of course, I also wind up with a certain amount of overhead projectors, or slide projectors with burnt-out bulbs, and once there was one person who had media on reel-to-reel.
On the subject of innovative classes, we have one first-year seminar that's really wonderful called Reacting to the Past; the students are given a historical period (say, revolutionary France, or India on the eve of independence, or the court of Henry VIII), a historical character, and a set of objectives, and basically left to their own devices; the professor just facilitates discussion, rolls dice to determine popular reaction to particularly big moves, and occasionally provides suggestions to make sure that the game stays on track and nobody strays too far from their character.
Thanks,
Me
From: Prof
To: Me
Yes, I see what you mean about "rent poetry" and Sappho would be a great and
somewhat novel idea. YUou could title yourself as DOmina Papyra! If it
works well adn someone snaps a pictuire, send it one sometime.
Best,
ProfFirstName
Christof Wolff ret. Dartmouth writes music with similarly intended musical
'gaps', his idea seems to be to make you reach for the actual sound mroe
because of the missing ??? parts. Actially clever but I dont; like it, my
music on the site is all continuous and old fashioned.
From: Me
To: Prof
Hm. I don't know about music with gaps in it. While it sounds like an interesting idea, I rather suspect that I wouldn't like it either.
-Miriam
Please note: I didn't actually mention anything about Multimedia or tech stuff in the first e-mail; the only semi-logical explanation I can think of is that he missed the bit about it being a Halloween costume and thought it was for a class.
Or maybe that he has an axe to grind.
So what I'm wondering is:
-Is he this weird in person?
-Is he actually on drugs, or does it just sound like he is?
-How long can we keep up this mercurial conversation that seems to be leaping from conversational topic to conversational topic in a manner similar to that of a flying fox in a forest?
Since I don't speak Greek, I decided to do a bi- or tri-lingual poem. I found a translation I liked by a Middlebury prof, and since his translation is technically his intellectual property, I figured that I'd ask before using it in my costume.
From: Me
To: Prof
Subject: Sappho's Poems and Halloween
Hello,
I'm writing because I'm planning on dressing up as one of Sappho's poems for Halloween (long story short, I got the idea from a book and thought it sounded cool but like something I was unlikely ever to do, and then I found myself in Spain with a need for a costume in which to go to a Greek and Roman themed Halloween party, and it seemed like the ideal thing). I'm planning on being a trilingual poem (Greek, Spanish, and English), and like your translations. I don't have a clue what the intellectual property laws on poetry translations as relates to Halloween costumes in Spain are, but I thought I'd ask: do you mind if one of your translations is used in my costume? (I'm looking at "Some say an army of horsemen" and ""I ..... really wish I were dead;"" I'll decide after I figure out which of the Spanish translations I like best.)
Cheers,
Me
From: Prof
To: Me
That sounds like fun, and you are certainly welcome to use anything from ym
site forn your imaginative process.
But I wonder if these short and pithy poems of Catullus might be a better
base for a humorous presentation. I jkust looked in on that file and some of
these are pretty lively, which mioght be what you want. Or the others....
anything.
website/Translations/Catullus.html
You do multimedia at Smith? In my time long ago we thought that two slide
projectors with inverted images, or tuned pocket radios for a group prompt,
were the new way along with improv poetry against changing color lights. We
had nothjing of the equipment and skills everyone has now. But the faculty
hated what I was doing. . . . as I said a while back.
ProfFirstName
From: Me
To: Prof
Excellent!
The advantage of Sappho's poetry for a costume is actually what makes it hard to study; the gaps and unknown bits provide an opportunity to make the costume more three-dimensional and draw the viewer more; I'm thinking of writing the poem on the outer layer of a peplos and rending the cloth wherever the words are unknown.
Yes, we do do some multimedia at Smith (though this is more for my own amusement; since it's just a costume party I could hypothetically attend in an artfully draped sheet). I actually work in the computer labs at Smith (when I'm not studying in Spain) and do tech support for classrooms, so I wind up seeing a fair number of the more cutting-edge presentations. Of course, I also wind up with a certain amount of overhead projectors, or slide projectors with burnt-out bulbs, and once there was one person who had media on reel-to-reel.
On the subject of innovative classes, we have one first-year seminar that's really wonderful called Reacting to the Past; the students are given a historical period (say, revolutionary France, or India on the eve of independence, or the court of Henry VIII), a historical character, and a set of objectives, and basically left to their own devices; the professor just facilitates discussion, rolls dice to determine popular reaction to particularly big moves, and occasionally provides suggestions to make sure that the game stays on track and nobody strays too far from their character.
Thanks,
Me
From: Prof
To: Me
Yes, I see what you mean about "rent poetry" and Sappho would be a great and
somewhat novel idea. YUou could title yourself as DOmina Papyra! If it
works well adn someone snaps a pictuire, send it one sometime.
Best,
ProfFirstName
Christof Wolff ret. Dartmouth writes music with similarly intended musical
'gaps', his idea seems to be to make you reach for the actual sound mroe
because of the missing ??? parts. Actially clever but I dont; like it, my
music on the site is all continuous and old fashioned.
From: Me
To: Prof
Hm. I don't know about music with gaps in it. While it sounds like an interesting idea, I rather suspect that I wouldn't like it either.
-Miriam
Please note: I didn't actually mention anything about Multimedia or tech stuff in the first e-mail; the only semi-logical explanation I can think of is that he missed the bit about it being a Halloween costume and thought it was for a class.
Or maybe that he has an axe to grind.
So what I'm wondering is:
-Is he this weird in person?
-Is he actually on drugs, or does it just sound like he is?
-How long can we keep up this mercurial conversation that seems to be leaping from conversational topic to conversational topic in a manner similar to that of a flying fox in a forest?
