Unusual (?) things

[altivo]

From brunbera and songcoyote:

A CD you own that you don't think anyone else on your friendslist does: This is probably too easy. Picking from the top of a stack, Granada: Jim Riggs plays the Grande Barton Organ.

A book you own that you don't think anyone else on your friendslist does: Also probably too easy. let's go with Willow Song by Richard Amory (soft core gay male fantasy, oddly like furry fiction except the associations are with trees rather than animals.)

A movie you own that you don't think anyone else on your friendslist does: I'm a silent film fan, so let's pick The Return of Grey Wolf (1922) with James Pierce and Helen Lynch, featuring the dog Leader.

A place you've visited that you don't think anyone else on your friendslist has: The top of the Greenstone Ridge, backbone of Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior? Edit: OK, dogteam has been there. Guess I was wrong trying to pick the most secluded place. How about the most obscure? On top of a hill locally known as the "Old Maid's Nipple" to watch the sun set behind Torch Lake in Antrim County, Michigan.

A piece of technology or any tool you own that you think no-one else on your friendslist has: A raddle, weaver's tool used to spread and count warp threads while dressing a floor loom.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

You "win" on all counts compared to me. You'd think that I would've been to Isle Royale by now, after four years living in Marquette and countless trips to the U.P. since then, but I haven't managed it yet.

I did this meme a while ago (many months ago, I guess), and it seemed too easy to pick a CD and book that no one else was likely to have. The fun there would be trying to find one that would be a conversation starter. Like, say, Willow Song by Richard Amory. (If it's about trees instead of animals, does that make it a Leafy story instead of a Furry one?)

Places and movies were a little tougher in terms of finding a unique one. The technology/tool question is a new one from the last time I did it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You need to visit Isle Royale. I know you will like it, and I'll bet you'd find considerable inspiration in the history and desolate beauty of the place.

I've never been on the campus at Marquette (I assume that's where you were) but I have been at Michigan Tech in Houghton (I think it was called something like the "Michigan School of Mining and Technology" at the time. See how old I am?)

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could get my friend Dr. Dave to go with me, as long as his wife was getting some other help with their four kids. He'd love to go, I'm sure. He teaches at Northern so he's right on the way to Isle Royalee for me. We've been on a couple of hiking trips together, while in school and since, most recently in Adirondack Park.

I'll never tell how old you are. But I haven't heard "Michigan School of Mining and Technology" in a long long time. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I forgot to answer your question about Willow Song. Yes, it is a leafy story, sorta. It's a typical Amory fantasy, in which men are somehow found in the wilderness between modern California cities, living not exactly off the wild, since they go into town occasionally and raid stores at night without being caught. Their culture is a peculiar mixture of Celtic and Native American, and the main character is descended from both lines so he belongs to the Alder clan and is also the grandson of Chikwesen Ehekatl, a Nez Perce chief and shaman. Amory himself was quite a linguist (I suspect he was a professor of languages somewhere) and mingles bits of Nahuatl and Latin into the story until it drives you to obscure dictionaries to figure out the symbolism. In spite of that it's a good puzzle and a good romance and a bit of wistful fun that at least leaves me wishing there really were such a culture to run away and join. (A la James Barrie's "Lost Boys" in Peter Pan I suppose.) Published about 1971, I think, and long out of print. But if you can find it, you'd probably enjoy reading it.