Braved the beginning of the snowstorm to visit our local branch library and to get physical library cards (I have had an online one since the pandemic). Can’t believe it took this long. Libraries are magic. And this one has a promising makerspace.

I have just made the decision to not go to NYC in May for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Instead, I will go to another concert in Montreal. The farewell in December will have to do. I had clung to hope through the past few weeks, but hope must lie elsewhere. As Das Lied von der Erde concludes: Ewig

Mood. A little bit of self-care and gazing into the abyss tonight, with dancing, existential angst, and a lil’ dash of silent film humour. This concert sort of covers it all. (110a? That was the one after he was coerced into joining the Party, orchestrated for chamber orchestra.)

If you thought I listened to a lot of Shostakovich now, buckle in, kiddies. Guy saw some shit and put it all into music that is simultaneously 50 different emotions yet gorgeous and terrifying and I’m going to need that for the next 4 years or forever.

I have been building book books. Very addictive.

♥️♥️

As much as I try, I can’t not be happy that Ohio State is going to play for the national championship in football. I mean, college football is essentially a junior pro league now. But I’m still an OSU alumna. The new playoff system certainly had some interesting and unexpected results.

The latest project. Finished last week, but won’t be able to wear it for a few weeks. Feels odd not to have a sewing or stitching project in the go, but I have an online conference to help run in two weeks, so priorities.

I am cat furniture.

Finished. For those playing the home game of my lil’ obsession, this is the 22nd Shostakovich embroidery I have completed. I’ve been doing this for coming up on five years now.

The work is now substantially complete. I always let my my work sit for a day before making final tweaks, stretching, and painting the background.

Abutting cat butts.

I buy my Christmas/Yule/winter/holiday cards on Boxing Day every year and usually send them out at the beginning of December. Canada Post mail is (sorta?) starting to move again. They won't get there in time. Nothing international going out until the 23rd. Do I arse myself to send them this year?

Progress update du jour. Hardest part done now. On to clothing.

Tonight’s progress. I crashed this evening after an early morning and not enough sleep, followed by work holiday party gorf-o-rama, so just a little hair stitching.

Progress. There may be fine-tuning, but face is done and it’s on to hair shortly.

Just finished writing my review of the NYPhil's performance Saturday of Shostakovich's Tenth along with William Kentridge's amazing film, Oh To Believe in Another World, to be published in DSCH Journal early next year. Fellow Shostakovich enthusiast? You should subscribe! dschjournal.com

Zoya and Gertrude watching the juncos that are all over our garden.

My weekend in manuls: this is Baku, who lives at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

I had a hunch it might be manul weather, and it was!

Progress photo from last night. Too busy today searching for the ring my chaos calico knocked off the counter (did find it eventually) and prepping for my NYC trip.

It’s that time of year again. IYKYK.

One of my earlier needlepainting embroidery projects (fall 2020). Pissed off flood kitty with no f**** to give was an internet meme in 2017. He’s sort of my mascot for life now.

Tonight we had to buy a new clothes dryer, but had a couple of hours of microstabbery.

Progress. Still rough, but taking shape. There is a lot of contrast in this photo between light and shadow.

Zoya was helping last night with embroidering her namesake’s brother. Realized I didn’t actually get a progress shot of the embroidery. Later tonight…

Show me your pet and what they were named for.

Do I link up the blog here? I used to post it to FB. I I once had designs to make it much more historically focused, and then 2020 hit and I burned myself out posting Thoughts every day for a year. It's usually art projects, vacation photos, concert reviews, and a bit of existential angst.

And so it begins. This is based on a photo of a quite young Shostakovich. I usually start these with the nose and work outwards. The original is on the overexposed side, with strong light and shadow.

I want a human to write the books I read. One with a real life, real experiences, real emotions, real relationships. I want to see how other humans think. I want to experience life through another human’s choice of words, way of speaking, and cadence.

Cleared my project pipeline, so it’s time to embroider Shostakovich again. Step 1: the cartoon.

For those encountering me from @askhistorians.bsky.social, I'm Herissony_DSCH5 on Reddit. PhD in medieval history (13th century popular religion/education) with more recent interests in medieval clothing; art, music, architecture and lit of the early 20th century, and Shostakovich.

Union Station full of sparkly Swifties (especially the tiny ones and their parents) is the kind of thing the world needs more of. Although let’s see how I feel on Saturday when I have to take the GO into the TSO concert. But it’s the Shostakovich violin concerto no. 1, and that’s worth it.

Is it only me that gets excited when it’s time for new glasses? (I guess it helps that since cataract surgery my prescription is quite stable)

…and what a lot of people know me for (I think I am up to 22 or 23 embroideries of Shostakovich now.) This is 8” x 10”. Background is painted. Finished in June. It’s about time to do another one.

I mentioned that I embroider stuff. Most recent thing is this derp dragon. Thread is silk with Japan gold outlining.

As of yesterday, Spitfire has been with us for ten years.