Ulysses

We're about to be subjected to a revival of the Trojan War / Ulysses meme -- first there was Dan Simmon's new novel, Ilium, an interesting recast of the Trojan War as a play directed by transhumans, then there is the upcoming movie Troy, with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Which recalls a favorite poem, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses, which ends with this bit (memorably performed for a TV commercial by Sir John Gielgud):

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Playing It Straight

Stuck home on Friday night while my partner's off having dinner with a friend in Aptos. Doing my mother's all-too-complicated taxes while watching Playing It Straight in the background. The guys are in the throes of homosexual panic as they discover there are gay men among them. Since they all look and act pretty much like West Hollywood boys, it really is hard to tell.

Boring paperwork and sublimely stupid show. What could be better??