Female Rambling Sailors and other anomalies

[ellenkushner]

A friend of a friend has just sent me an entire CD of authentic historical songs from, as she puts it, "the 200-years tradition of Anglo-American top-hits about women who edressed as men for love and glory at warn and sea (or, to get a salary)." It is Diane Dugaw's _Dangerous Examples: Fighting & Sailing Women in Song_.

Best of all, there's a website with wonderful links to all her source material, including scans of 19c broadsheets, and thoughts on clothing and disguise . . . Highly recommended!

http://server.fhp.uoregon.edu/dtu/sites/warrior/
USER: dtu
PASSWORD: 222hijinx

Why this is of particular interest to me right now, I will reveal in my next posting . . . .

- not now, though, as I have to give a talk tonight at the Revels Salon http://www.revels.org/coming_events/salonbios04-05.htm#kushner on "The Ways Between the Worlds." I have been brushing up on Papa Legba, the Afro-Caribbean trickster god who opens the doors - when he feels like it.

(A few decent sites if you're interested:)

http://www.harvestmoon.net/Vodou/Lwa/Legba/legba.html
http://zer0dmx.tripod.com/gods/legba.html
http://www.techgnosis.com/trickster.html

So Delia is out at the cafe writing, not expected back for another hour - but I just heard the front door open & close.

It is, however, not her.

No one is there.

The door just opened. And closed.

A wonderful thing is research....

Comments

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

You know what they say. When one door opens, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up quite straight. Thank you for this. Also the links.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Well, I *heard* it open & close. I didn't actually see it. But I do tend to get info through my ears, unlike you visual types . . . When I was in Amsterdam, I realized that the reason I kept nearly walking into the path of oncoming bicycles was that I couldn't hear them coming - and of course it never occurred to me to *look* for traffic....!

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

papersky's journal led me here. I'm a student of the early 19th century, so this link will come in extremely handy. Have friended you not just because of these excellent links, but also because you are one of the few people I've met born on 10/6. :)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Are you an October 6 baby, too?

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

I am indeed. The only other person with that birthdate I know personally is supergee.

[ksp24.livejournal.com]

Hi there, didn't know you were on LJ until papersky pointed me here.

A quick hello, and I've added you to the frinds list!

offer of crash space in Sydney Australia

[earthquake1906.livejournal.com]

Why this is of particular interest to me right now

I am very much looking forward to hearing about this, so I have friended your journal & will check back in. Don't reciprocate - my journal focuses on slash reviews. :)

As you may recall, some lj-friends and I had a lively discussion of Swordspoint on LJ a few years ago now. Some of a group of young writers called "intellislashers" (possibly as a joke) were into your work. I've lost touch with them - literary movements in fanfiction last 2 weeks on average - but at the time I sent you the link and you posted very graciously in response. I've also sent your work to writing partners in Luxembourg and Singapore. I am pretty sure these are some of the readers who are responsible for the fact that Amazon offers yaoi-focused lists to buyers of your & Delia's books... :) If you'd ever like that link again let me know....

Ooops, forgot to explain who I am. I don't use my RL name on this journal due to some legal problems too tedious to recount, but you and I met through my then husband whom you met at WCRB. The most recent time we spoke was in the bar at Readercon 2003, right before I left for Australia to live with my new sweetheart. That relationship is going well, and if you or any other young Trollope or interstitial artist comes through Sydney and needs a place to stay, we have plenty of space. I will also mention that the major Australian sf con is around April 25th (ANZAC day weekend). Just in case!

Hope today's performance went well! / eq

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

We dream of visiting Australia, and will surely do so someday - I'll check back then to see if that offer is still open!

Of course I'm dying to see what "intellislashers" say about me - but I have sworn a mighty oath not to do a lot of lurking on LJ, because I really should be writing . . . When you hear that I have finished my next novel, reward me with that link!

. . . . and I do realize that "my next posting" does not say anything at all about cross-dressers . . . . But I'll get to that soon. Honest.