Fun With Construction Drawings

Here's a little tidbit from today's drafting - a Royal Ensign (a flag, more or less) for the royalty of Seven in One Blow: or the Brave Little Kid that starts building Monday at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth:

Design copyrighted Clare Floyd DeVries

This show should be a heck of a lot of fun!  

(The goofy squirrels BTW are authentically armorial.  Can you imagine a knight riding into battle bearing his Dreaded Squirrels Shield?  It's right up there with Monty Python's rabbit from The Holy Grail for sheer terror, right?)

Radio Silence

Sorry for the sparse postings... I'm in the middle of construction drawings for Seven with One Blow: or the Brave Little Kid and, as soon as that ink dries, leaping into the same type of for-the-builder drawings for my B&W, The Frequency of Death!  In the holding pattern behind those are design sketches for The Diary of Anne Frank.  Then starting Collapse for Kitchen Dog.

Plus I'm writing on The Project.

I'm beginning to develop some momentum... but also an increasing terror as I begin to realize just what a HUGE undertaking I've undertook.  The illustrations alone...  Scary.

the Golden Mean proportions (and Fibonacci series) public domain image

But I do have a juicy post coming soon about my recent jaunt to Houston, where there was Art!  Architecture! and nearby Seafood!

Drawing...

Drawing, drawing, drawing, drawing, drawing...

Dallas Ferris Wheel

Today's paper tells me that the city of Dallas is considering allowing a Ferris wheel - excuse me "an observation wheel" - to be erected downtown.  Smack dab on Founder's Square next to the county courthouse Old Red.

I must admit I blinked.

But why not?  Really?  If London can have its Eye in sight of the historic Houses of Parliament, why on earth can't Dallas handle one near our courthouse?

Image from publicdomainpictures.net

Because it's not stuffy?

We desperately need to de-stuffy Dallas.  Let's do it!

Pratchett's Latest - Snuff

I've just raced through the new Terry Pratchett Disc World R novel, Snuff.

Another adventure starring Sam Vimes (my favorite character) is very welcome.  The humor, invention, and social commentary I expect from Pratchett is here, as well as cameo appearances by other beloved characters.  (Vetinari cursing the newspaper crossword is a hoot.)  None of the new characters introduced, however, particularly caught my fancy, except Tears of the Mushroom.  Her big moment onstage is wonderful.  Young Sam!  I didn't think of his as a "new" character at first, but he's grown so much that he really ought to count as new and delightful.

Image of Commander Samuel Vimes borrowed from ozdw.com

The moral of the story... is maybe a little too obviously a moral.  Perhaps less integrated artistically than in some other Disc World books.  Then again, I read Snuff so quickly, gobbling the plot - as I usually do - that it may come into better balance on rereading - as I always do a Pratchett book.  His novels repay rereading.  There are layers and details and jokes that are easier to catch once the driving question of "What happens next?" is satisfied.

I'll probably reread other books in the series too now; the development of Wilikins the butler here, for instance, casts a new light on earlier appearances.

A good addition to the epic of Disc World.  Highly recommended for Pratchett fans.  (Who don't need me to tell 'em that and are, anyway, busy reading as I type this).  For new readers, I suggest starting at Guards! Guards! (the first Sam Vimes book) or maybe with  more of a stand-alone like Truth, which may be my favorite.

Books - The Weird Sisters

A novel about sisters.


The Weird Sisters is a find - a well written, amusing, sometimes touching book about the complicated relationships of three sisters.  No fantasy, no wild plot, no out and out comedy, just a straightforward novel... dipped in Shakespeare.  The father is a Shakespearean scholar, which warps his family in a way I found entertaining, but the situations and people are essentially realistic and truthful.  A likable book.

Given the backlog of Really Good Novels already written, it's tough to write a new plain ol' novel worth reading.  As this one is.  A debut - I'll be interested to read the next one.

Book cover image borrowed from Eleanor Brown.com

Not A Review - The Tempest

The Dallas Theater Center's production of The Tempest is interesting.

As we've come to expect, performances were excellent, the Shakespearean language fluid and natural.

The set by Beowulf Borrit is wonderful - imaginative, ethereal, very beautiful, and beautifully used.  It's as if a giant cupped a portion of Prospero's enchanted isle in his hands and deposited it on stage... with crumby edges of dirt and roots left exposed.  The top surface (white carpet like mown grass) encourages the director and actors to roll, slide, crawl, fling themselves down, and make one of the most dramatic entrances ever.

Oddly though, costumes, also by Boritt, were... prosaic.  The black and white theme was strong - the stranded men-in-black become whiter with island dust and mud is a nice conceit - but overall...  Disappointing.  Particularly disappointing were costumes for other-worldy characters like Caliban or  Arial.  The monster?!  I'm restraining myself from smart-mouthed cracks about that monster: suffice to say it'd have better suited Chuck E. Cheese than Prospero's Isle.  (After thinking about it, I'd suggest some creature more crab-like or scorpion-like, in the dusty island colors than this velveteen puppy.)  Even Miranda's costumes were unromantic and, worse, unflattering.  How could the designer of this phantasmagorical set create mundane costumes?  Or... why?

But the set!  In those moments when the lighting design turned to the saturated colors that, for me, are magic onstage, this world was enchanted.

Image borrowed from The designcurve

Black and White

I just tripped across this photo of last year's Black & White at Pegasus Theatre, Death is No Small Change.

Image courtesy of Pegasus Theatre