Igenlode Wordsmith

Comparable titles

2026-04-25T00:06:01Z

I spent two and a half hours non-stop in Waterstone's bookshop again this afternoon looking for 'comps', which was both mentally and physically taxing-- if I look any further I shall have to find another shop, because I can't face going back in there after hanging around for so long, reading so much, and buying absolutely nothing! The question you are supposed to be asking yourself, apparently, is 'which table in the bookshop would my book be on and what other books would be next to it'? ( Read more... )
I found precisely three potential 'comps', only one of which is actually a good fit: ( Night Fire )

Where it doesn't match at all is in the travel/adventure aspect, and as I said, I failed to find anything at all that did :-( The other 'wild card' match that felt closer than most of the others was a very different kettle of fish: ( The Phoenix Ballroom )

The third title I noted was the one and only example of published fan-fiction I found on the shelves (as opposed to the Jane Austen-marketed one, which looked promising from that respect but turned out to be based on the real-life history of her nephews and nieces, which isn't the same thing!) ( West of Wicked )

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All the cases

2026-04-22T21:33:12Z

I can't believe that after delaying the introduction of *any* mention of noun case-endings at all until Lesson 9 (and anything more complicated than the accusative and prepositional cases, which the other book covers in the very first lesson, until *after* dealing with verbs of motion!) the 1960s Penguin Russian course then proceeds to hit you with all the plural cases at once -- plus all the numerals from 1 to 100 in addition -- to be memorised in the course of a single lesson :-O
( 1930s Russian Basics )

Of course it's ridiculous to be doing this after a year's worth of intensive Russian listening practice, multiple films, and a whole load of fairly complex song translations, but I'm afraid I do actually need the formal grammar, and it hasn't painlessly inserted itself into my brain by means of mere passive exposure, toddler-fashion...

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"Mam'zelle Guillotine", Baroness Orczy

2026-04-22T09:45:34Z

The scenes in England at the beginning are verging on self-parody (and abuse of adjectives) on Orczy's part, but the French setting is vivid and alive, and it's interesting to have a female antagonist for a change, while Gabrielle gets an unusually detailed backstory to explain what made her the way she is: I was getting strong flashes of Madame Defarge in "Tale of Two Cities", the victim who becomes a monster out to destroy an entire family. ( Read more... )

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Chillies et al.

2026-04-22T09:28:55Z

I finally pricked out the Demon Red chillies from their windowsill pot, putting six of them into a narrow tub in the mini-greenhouse with an eye to thinning them out later, and two into a temporary cardboard toilet-roll with an eye to giving them away in the near future; I should of course have hardened my heart and simply disposed of the spares! I did steel myself to throw away the very small ones.

The seedlings had better roots than the ones I potted up last year, although of course I'm doing so a week later.

And I do *finally* have a single nasturtium coming up, very belatedly.

I moved the Roma tomatoes out of the mini-greenhouse to make way for the chillies to live outside; the ones that were inside it do look a lot more vigorous than the ones that have been outside and unprotected all April, but it's quite possible that I put the 'best' seedlings under shelter in the first place and left the runts to take their chances! It looks as if I *may* have some germination from the fresh batch of basil that I put in there a couple of weeks ago, although the soil in that pot is looking very green and compacted. The only sign of life from the furry hedgehog wildlife garden is a single shoot of grass and a whole lot of white mould, but I shan't repine if that basil doesn't grow at all :-p

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"The Witches of Wenshar", Barbara Hambly

2026-04-21T09:20:06Z

I finally came across another copy of "The Witches of Wenshar", and could see why, as I remembered, I didn't really get on with it on my first reading; maybe I'm biased by the fact that I have now read all three books in this series, but I still feel that this novel is far more closely dependent on its predecessor than "Dark Hand of Magic" was on this, despite the mentions of "the King of Wenshar" in the opening lines of the latter. And it still feels darker in tone.( Read more... )

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Too much poetry

2026-04-20T15:54:52Z

Lesson 20 is a rare misfire from the "Let's get to know one another" course; these shows usually have an excellent balance between the simplified vocabulary required by the learner and the level of creativity put into making the story-telling/info-dump sound natural and entertaining. Unfortunately this one involves illustrating the life-story of Pushkin with chunks of Pushkin's actual verse, which is on a comprehension/vocabulary level well above the surrounding dialogue -- the result being that a significant portion of the broadcast is effectively inaccessible :-(( Read more... )

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Plant update

2026-04-19T12:14:28Z

I finally potted up the coriander (the two seedlings left over at the end got a whole tall pot to themselves, so it will be interesting to see how much better, if at all, they do!)

Having got my hands muddy I then proceeded to 'top up', or rather fill in the bottom of, one of the dwarf peas that didn't seem to have a lot of soil depth in its pot, and took the chance to give it a stick at the same time. None of the peas have really grasped onto their various sticks, which is a bit disappointing...

( Chives )

Also resowed the orange poppy, which has likewise shown no sign of life after a couple of weeks.

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Song of the Jester

2026-04-18T22:22:23Z

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more of these (I always say that) -- but having said that I couldn't do this one because the chorus was just not amenable to translation, I naturally had to find a way of doing it :-p

Original lyrics (including a middle verse that Boyarsky doesn't sing here): https://sovetskaya-estrada.ru/load/bojarskij_mikhail/quot_pesenka_shuta_quot/36-1-0-1474 [Edit: sheet music!]

( Literal translation )
( Verse translation )

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Damping off

2026-04-18T19:09:04Z

I have lost four otherwise vigorous towel-tomato seedlings, from both batches, to damping-off already, which is annoying, though I currently have plenty of spares (just as well).

I have potted up half the marigold seedlings, leaving the remainder still tumbled in their original tub; we shall see how they go. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of self-sown marigolds in other pots :-p

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The Eldest Son (1976)

2026-04-17T22:49:40Z

Having just counted up the number of 'pending' Russian videos that I had acquired, I ended up jumping straight into a forty-third when YouTube suddenly presented me with "Старший Сын", the film that gets cited in the documentaries as Boyarsky's 'breakout' picture. It was only an hour long (it turns out that this was in fact an opening episode!), and I thought I'd take a look at the start at least without bothering with subtitles or anything, as I was no more than mildly curious about it. The start (a) has nice music and (b) is practically wordless and was thus undemanding to follow, so I was ten minutes in or so before things started getting complicated, and by that time it had grabbed me emotionally...
( Read more... )

Of course, as it happens, this sort of thing -- a conflict of loyalties, assumed identity, and emotional betrayal -- is very much more up my street than the standard romantic drama of will-they-won't-they with lashings of sexual action... But it's *not* Boyarsky, because he's really barely in it -- frankly, I'm not sure how this was a break-out role of any sort -- it's simply the film itself. ( Read more... )

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Another new buckle

2026-04-17T18:07:23Z

I noticed last night when taking in the washing that the new buckle on my secondary clothes line had cracked through in the same way that the original Bakelite buckle did, and after about the same amount of time; however this time I knew where to go to purchase a replacement! The current new buckle is green, but I don't think it's as thick in cross-section as the last one, so I don't know how long it will last. What I really need is a metal buckle, of course (though doubtless the weld holding the bar on would eventually fail; they are simply not designed for heavy loads). Possibly I should *get* a metal buckle and then make a strap to fit it, as opposed to trying to find buckles to fit the existing stout woven strap -- which has lasted remarkably well.

Current cycle mileage: 878 -- 271 miles since January (plus a few more that didn't get recorded due to bike issues). Spot on the usual average of 18-19 miles a week :-)

*reads rest of past blog post*
I currently seem to have two videos on Venjamin Smekhov queued plus two on Igor Starygin, having watched four on Valentin Smirnitsky... well, I currently have 42 videos queued ;-p
( Read more... )

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Pitching Arctic Raoul

2026-04-16T00:18:55Z

I sat down to try to write a 'pitch' for Arctic Raoul, only to discover after wasting an evening on some rather anaemic attempts that I had in fact already written a rather livelier version back in 2022!

My attempt at supplying the "putative extra paragraph at the end" to justify the length and acknowledge the fanfic aspect: "From the Phantom's Shadow" is a wide-ranging historical adventure of 125,000 words that takes its protagonists from the seas of the nineteenth-century Arctic and the lonely wilds of Scandinavia down to the south of France, and back up for a final confrontation, as they learn who they really are and what matters most. It's a story that seeks to bring a fresh twist to the classic themes of the original Phantom of the Opera while ultimately remaining true to its period and its overall message of redemption.

I spent some time in Waterstone's looking for appropriate 'comps' and couldn't find anything even vaguely similar before running out of time; ( Read more... )

In further slightly alarming news, I have been asked to supply copyrighted copies of my collection of poetry translations (which also involved trying to research the original authors of the lyrics in order to credit them) after an ex-associate of the Russian department at Cambridge saw one of them and was very impressed :-O

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Plant maintenance

2026-04-15T10:21:50Z

( Gypsophila elegans, pink Linaria and Swan Rover daisies )

( Kale )

Tumbled the entirety of the tub of flax into a deeper pot without splitting up the root-ball at all. The marigolds are the other thing that really needs potting up, but that means finding a lot of individual pots and of compost to fill them, and I couldn't face it.

No sign of germination from my second attempt at chives, despite the success of the spring onions; I'm afraid the seed library appears to have been a dead loss on my first attempt. I hope the seed I donated there is doing better for other people :-(

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Hockey as a martial art

2026-04-13T21:52:51Z

Sometimes it seems that everyone else is watching/reading Heated Rivalry.
Meanwhile YouTube presents me with Soviet Russia doing this:

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People who go quiet when hurt

2026-04-12T01:52:01Z

"People who go quiet when hurt" -- apparently this is a new piece of pop psychology. https://www.bolde.com/psychology-says-people-who-go-quiet-when-theyre-hurt-arent-shutting-you-out-they-learned-early-that-pain-leads-to-these-10-consequences-so-silence-feels-safer/

But the conclusions they draw just don't ring true to me at all. No, I don't 'reach out' when I'm hurt; I don't respond well to group sessions or psychotherapy, because my instinct is to shut up like a clam and I'm not just dying to tell the world about all the times someone humilated or cheated me (why would I want to expose my own failures?) In fact I know people who are never happier than when they are talking about how wronged they are, and I find it frankly uncomfortable to be around.
( Read more... )

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Plant progress

2026-04-11T14:06:28Z

Pricked out the Gypsophila vaccaria from its brown-paper pot, where the compost was worryingly dry despite the fact that I'd watered it only about ten minutes before; the other paper pots should probably be disposed of too.

I think we have dill germination, though I still can't be sure if any of the other seedlings in there are winter purslane or not. The double-fronded seedling was definitely a California poppy (and a fairly unhealthy-looking one) so I have disposed of it.

Winnowed the last of the 2024 basil in its brown paper bag, and sowed it. My previous attempt using commercial seed has clearly failed; the timing was over-optimistic. (I should, of course, be winnowing the 2025 basil seed and using that for preference, rather than trying to 'use up' the old bag first...)

I have been thinning/harvesting the lettuce, and probably ought to be sowing some more in order to have a progression; I harvested my first real crop of rocket today, and the kale has been yielding well (although it is now being afflicted by some kind of sap-suckers on the young growth).

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The Importance of Being Igor

2026-04-11T12:24:17Z

Igor Starygin appears as Algernon in the cigarette-case scene from the Soviet adaptation of "The Importance of Being Earnest":

The part clearly offered scope for his latent intelligence and mischief, as well as illustrating Soviet directors' tendency to cast him in 'white-bone' (aristocratic) roles...

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Severely abbreviated

2026-04-10T23:54:42Z

Chapter 28 of the "Three Musketeers" Russian audiobook is definitely *very* much abridged; the story here cuts from Athos' drunken confession (and d'Artagnan's attempt to evade any further revelations by pretending to have fallen asleep) at the end of the previous chapter directly to all four characters back in Paris and being abruptly summoned off to war, with all the would-be comic episodes of the loss of the valuable English horses being omitted altogether. Which means that the entirety of the surviving content of the chapter only lasts about three minutes; one wonders why they didn't just roll it into the start of the following chapter and adjust the numbering of the edited version...!

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Plant progress

2026-04-10T14:22:48Z

I planted up the furry hedgehog wildlife garden that I was given before Christmas ( Read more... )

( Mesembryanthemum and strawberries )

( Towel-tomatoes )

( Roma tomatoes )

The dwarf peas have put out their first tendrils; the sweet peas have not yet produced tendrils, but required sticks simply to hold them upright, especially after the winds we have been having...

There are now four definite spring onion seedlings ;-)

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"Under the Red Robe", Stanley J. Weyman

2026-04-07T01:44:19Z

As with "Scaramouche", this was a book that I was a bit disappointed by when I first read it, having originally been excited to find a copy of after having seen and enjoyed the film version ("Under the Red Robe", 1937: It was a period of plot and counter-plot, of reckless gallantry and ruthless oppression ... the time of D'Artagnan, of Cyrano De Bergerac, of Gil De Berault, the "Black Death"). Doubtless I was hoping for a novelisation of what I've just seen, which this of course isn't -- although I seem to remember that it's rather closer in spirit than "Scaramouche".

But again, sufficient years have now elapsed that I have long since forgotten almost everything about the film save a vague favourable impression, and I am able to approach the novel on its own terms. And right from the start you realise that the author is doing something unexpected (and doing it very well): the protagonist, Gil de Berault, is quite recognisably *the villain* in this scenario, although of course he doesn't see himself that way.
( Read more... )

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Meme: get to know you questions

2026-04-06T18:12:54Z

Procrastinating (I'm not even sure what from any more, other than the overwhelming knowledge that I ought to be doing So Many Other Things) by filling out a set of meme question prompts from fred_mouse. ( Read more... )

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Seed log

2026-04-06T16:57:32Z

Re-sowed the orange poppy, dill, nasturtium and chives, all of which appear to have failed without trace. (There may possibly be a dill seedling appearing around the edge of the pot, which tends to reinforce the suggestion that the seeds need light in order to trigger germination -- I scattered a fresh batch on the surface this time.)

( Rocket )

( Strawberries )

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The Dissertation of Aramis

2026-04-06T01:26:00Z

I realised while listening to Chapter 26 of the Russian audiobook of "The Three Musketeers" that the chapter had almost certainly been abridged, because we don't get the entire scene where the two churchmen and Aramis have a long and Latin-laced argument as to the suitability of the proposed subject-matter of his dissertation, and where d'Artagnan fails to understand a word of the Latin :-P In fact, on glancing at my French copy to check that the missing scene *was* located in this chapter and not on d'Artagnan's subsequent return, I noticed that the scene in the previous chapter where Mousqueton tells the story of how his father brought his two sons up as a Huguenot and Catholic respectively during the Wars of Religion is also missing, as is the entire narrative of how the excellent breakfast (which *is* described) has been obtained despite Porthos' lack of funds.

So I would guess that the translation and/or audiobook version has been extensively shortened. Given that the reading lasts for over 20 hours as it is, this really isn't unreasonable... ;-)

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Router recycling

2026-04-05T20:34:10Z

My Internet service provider sent me an (unsolicited) new router, probably so that they could ensure that I had their up-to-date security firmware. ( Read more... )

This seems like a very good way of getting out of your recycling obligations, since I can't imagine many people are public-spirited enough to pay return postage on an object they never asked for in the first place; they will all simply go straight in the bin. ("Alternatively, you can find a local recycling centre at www.recyclenow.com" -- none of those appear to accept routers, or at least don't include them in the very long drop-down list of equipment types you have to pick from...)

The marigolds have suddenly popped up overnight...

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Russian progress

2026-04-04T23:33:17Z

I am currently on Lesson 18 of the second 'tele-course', which provides the comforting experience of understanding practically every word on the screen; this lesson was about winter sports( Read more... )

In my parallel progress through the two different course-books, I am currently in Lesson 9 (of 28) of "Colloquial Russian" from 1990 and Lesson 13 (of 30) of "The Penguin Russian АБВ" of 1965 ( Read more... )

I have finished listening to all the nine episodes of the Ali-Baba podcast( Read more... )

I am 50 minutes into the filmed stage version of "Elsa's Land" -- which of course doesn't come with convenient English film-festival subtitles! -- and 7 hours 53 minutes (Chapter 26 -- "The Dissertation of Aramis") into Smekhov's reading of "The Three Musketeers", which if nothing else is helping to teach me my ordinal numerals thanks to repeatedly paging through the chapter numbers ;-)

I stumbled across a second upload of "Smok & Malish" and re-watched it straight through up to the point that I had previously 'been over' with the dictionary( Read more... )

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