Did I mention link? Because it's up now.
"Day 25 - Raw Manuka Honey
Colour: Pale cloudy yellow, the colour of late morning light.
Smell: Strongly anti-septic; a cleaning product smell.
Taste: It's thick without being crystallised, heaps out onto the wand, and tastes clean and sugary without the chemical smell interfering. A flavour not dissimilar to anise."
A lovely re-telling of the end of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid today - deeply moving, and a little disturbing. Nice.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Honey Month, Day 24 (2/24/2011)
eta: Link.
"Day 24 - Apricot Creamed Honey
Colour: Today's booze-related colour is lager, specifically Beck's.
Smell: In keeping with creamed honey for, more belly-button fuzz!
Taste: A juicy sweetness, fresh; the honey's liquidy, and the sweetness has a liquid edge to it as well. It doesn't dry out the mouth at all, and calls up fruit without tasting specifically of apricot."
Oooo, this one is nice. I don't know if allegorical is an entirely accurate descriptor, but I'm going to go with it anyway. The bees are an allegory for the restorative back and forth of romantic love - sometimes partner A supports partner B, and sometimes the opposite is true.
This is a lovely and sweet piece; I'd pair it up with the Cranberry Honey story from the beginning of the month - a diptych, if you will.
"Day 24 - Apricot Creamed Honey
Colour: Today's booze-related colour is lager, specifically Beck's.
Smell: In keeping with creamed honey for, more belly-button fuzz!
Taste: A juicy sweetness, fresh; the honey's liquidy, and the sweetness has a liquid edge to it as well. It doesn't dry out the mouth at all, and calls up fruit without tasting specifically of apricot."
Oooo, this one is nice. I don't know if allegorical is an entirely accurate descriptor, but I'm going to go with it anyway. The bees are an allegory for the restorative back and forth of romantic love - sometimes partner A supports partner B, and sometimes the opposite is true.
This is a lovely and sweet piece; I'd pair it up with the Cranberry Honey story from the beginning of the month - a diptych, if you will.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Honey Month, Day 23 (2/23/2011)
A link, a link!
"Day 23 - Tart Cherry Creamed Honey
Colour: The colour of quince syrup: a dark beautiful red amber.
Smell: I wonder what it is about creaming honey that produces that unpleasantness? All the creamed ones have had it so far, an odd body-like odour that I'm coming to realise promises deliciousness. There's a sharpness to this one too, though, a hint of pine resin.
Taste: Cherries steeped in syrup or wine."*
Ouch - a gut punch of a scene today, unrequited lust, perhaps? It's a scene that, perhaps, we're all familiar with - we see someone across a room that we like, and we build fantasies about how meeting them will be, and then, as we go to meet them, they do not react as we had expected them to react, and the whole fantasy collapses. This scene does that quite nicely - a fine piece of writing.
*Perhaps a cherry lambic?
"Day 23 - Tart Cherry Creamed Honey
Colour: The colour of quince syrup: a dark beautiful red amber.
Smell: I wonder what it is about creaming honey that produces that unpleasantness? All the creamed ones have had it so far, an odd body-like odour that I'm coming to realise promises deliciousness. There's a sharpness to this one too, though, a hint of pine resin.
Taste: Cherries steeped in syrup or wine."*
Ouch - a gut punch of a scene today, unrequited lust, perhaps? It's a scene that, perhaps, we're all familiar with - we see someone across a room that we like, and we build fantasies about how meeting them will be, and then, as we go to meet them, they do not react as we had expected them to react, and the whole fantasy collapses. This scene does that quite nicely - a fine piece of writing.
*Perhaps a cherry lambic?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Post-President's Day Library Post (2/22/2011)
I gotta tell you, I'm looking forward to reading something that doesn't feature vampires. I've got several books waiting to start next Tuesday, and this is one of them:
Joseph Maiolo - Cry Havoc
: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941
I think that subtitle basically says what this book is about. Maiolo has solid historical credentials, so I'm looking forward to this on an intellectual level.
Joseph Maiolo - Cry Havoc
: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941I think that subtitle basically says what this book is about. Maiolo has solid historical credentials, so I'm looking forward to this on an intellectual level.
The Honey Month, Day 22 (2/22/2011)
Two things to add. First, the link to Amal's DVD extras is live. Second, I am pleased to announce that I am now writing reviews of the work of a Nebula nominee - Amal has been nominated in the short story category. The story in question is here, and though it has nothing to do with vampires, I've read it, and it's good. So, many congrats, Amal!
"Day 22 - Malaysian Rainforest Honey
Colour: Opaque, creamy orange-brown - a bit like pale caramel, slightly warm.
Smell: Cold wet flowers tangled in syrup.
Taste: A very water honey, strange because it's very crystallised, but it's as if the crystals are floating in wetness. It tastes like candy - the hard kind that come in bright colours, individual wrappers. That, and violets - the scent of violets."
Another piece of magical realism. This one is a fragment, and it cries out for a continuation - it's the beginning of something much longer. It doesn't fit in with the other scraps that cry out for continuation - it's something entirely its own; but it doesn't stand on its own.
"Day 22 - Malaysian Rainforest Honey
Colour: Opaque, creamy orange-brown - a bit like pale caramel, slightly warm.
Smell: Cold wet flowers tangled in syrup.
Taste: A very water honey, strange because it's very crystallised, but it's as if the crystals are floating in wetness. It tastes like candy - the hard kind that come in bright colours, individual wrappers. That, and violets - the scent of violets."
Another piece of magical realism. This one is a fragment, and it cries out for a continuation - it's the beginning of something much longer. It doesn't fit in with the other scraps that cry out for continuation - it's something entirely its own; but it doesn't stand on its own.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Honey Month, Day 21 (2/21/2011)
I'm not sure what lychee tastes like, but I know where to find a link!
"Day 21 - Bamboo Honey
Colour: Orange amber, complete with cloudiness and bubbles.
Smell: thick and gummy; raisins; a hint of molasses.
Taste: Lychee. Completely. Strong, beautiful, lychee-thickened-with-honey with a side of light raisins."
A lovely piece of magic realism today, involving a vaguely ominous pie baking home invader. I mean, this is the most dangerous pie you've ever heard of. This is the Dracula of pie bakers - there's a strong vampire flavour here, which crosses both of the month's themes. Amal packs a delightful punch of unease and menace into this piece, it's the sort of story that will plant its barbs in you and niggle at you for the rest of the day. Excellent.
"Day 21 - Bamboo Honey
Colour: Orange amber, complete with cloudiness and bubbles.
Smell: thick and gummy; raisins; a hint of molasses.
Taste: Lychee. Completely. Strong, beautiful, lychee-thickened-with-honey with a side of light raisins."
A lovely piece of magic realism today, involving a vaguely ominous pie baking home invader. I mean, this is the most dangerous pie you've ever heard of. This is the Dracula of pie bakers - there's a strong vampire flavour here, which crosses both of the month's themes. Amal packs a delightful punch of unease and menace into this piece, it's the sort of story that will plant its barbs in you and niggle at you for the rest of the day. Excellent.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The Honey Month, Day 20 (2/20/2011)
The link, it is up!
"Day 20 - Blackberry Honey (2)*
Colour: Thick, cloudy, creamy orange yellow
Smell: Sugared brambles and thorns.
Taste: Gentle, quiet; something crystallised. It does not taste of blackberries so far as I can tell; oh, maybe a little, there, but it's more honey than anything else."
*Amal offers no explanation of why there are 2 blackberry honeys, but consider that she was tasting a collection of honey sent to her by a friend. I assume, since the descriptions are different, that this is an entirely different blackberry honey from the last one.
Hmmm. Today's piece almost feels like two different poems. The first is a kinda sexy piece, mourning the loss of a lover, with honey and brambles as fairly potent metaphors. Sad, but, as I say, sexy and evocative.
The second poem is an interesting musing on Ophelia's drowning - like the earlier reevaluation of Goliath, this twists the story a little, and makes it a love story about Ophelia and the river. It's sweet, and sad, but a little hopeful.
Both poems are nice, but I don't really see how they fit together, beyond the fact that both address a sense of loss.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A note on what's going on here. Two years ago, Amal El-Mohtar began a month long exploration of a variety of honeys, tasting and describing each, and then writing a short piece of fiction, or a poem, or something of that nature which was inspired by the honey of the day. Last year, these posts were collected into a short book - more formal than a simple chapbook, perhaps - called The Honey Month, which I reviewed when it came out. My biggest problem, at that time, was that I ploughed through the book too quickly, and so I resolved to do a more careful reading of it at a later date. That later date is now - the posts were originally a February project, and so there are 28 honey days. This is now February, and I cannot think of a better time to slowly read poems and stories about honey. The material in quotation marks is the description of the day's honey, from the book (so that you get a good taste of Amal's lovely writing), what follows that is a brief thought about the piece of poetry or fiction of that day from yours truly.
In addition to my daily reviews, Amal has been re-running the original posts with what she is describing as "DVD Extras," some commentary on the piece for the day, some discussion of the differences between the original post and the finished piece in the book, and some delicious LJ Honey Month icons. The first of the re-runs is here, and I have been linking the appropriate post via the daily title, above, as the post becomes available. Amal is currently in England (because she is fabulous), and so her sense of what time it is and my sense of what time it is are somewhat askew. And that's ok.
"Day 20 - Blackberry Honey (2)*
Colour: Thick, cloudy, creamy orange yellow
Smell: Sugared brambles and thorns.
Taste: Gentle, quiet; something crystallised. It does not taste of blackberries so far as I can tell; oh, maybe a little, there, but it's more honey than anything else."
*Amal offers no explanation of why there are 2 blackberry honeys, but consider that she was tasting a collection of honey sent to her by a friend. I assume, since the descriptions are different, that this is an entirely different blackberry honey from the last one.
Hmmm. Today's piece almost feels like two different poems. The first is a kinda sexy piece, mourning the loss of a lover, with honey and brambles as fairly potent metaphors. Sad, but, as I say, sexy and evocative.
The second poem is an interesting musing on Ophelia's drowning - like the earlier reevaluation of Goliath, this twists the story a little, and makes it a love story about Ophelia and the river. It's sweet, and sad, but a little hopeful.
Both poems are nice, but I don't really see how they fit together, beyond the fact that both address a sense of loss.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A note on what's going on here. Two years ago, Amal El-Mohtar began a month long exploration of a variety of honeys, tasting and describing each, and then writing a short piece of fiction, or a poem, or something of that nature which was inspired by the honey of the day. Last year, these posts were collected into a short book - more formal than a simple chapbook, perhaps - called The Honey Month, which I reviewed when it came out. My biggest problem, at that time, was that I ploughed through the book too quickly, and so I resolved to do a more careful reading of it at a later date. That later date is now - the posts were originally a February project, and so there are 28 honey days. This is now February, and I cannot think of a better time to slowly read poems and stories about honey. The material in quotation marks is the description of the day's honey, from the book (so that you get a good taste of Amal's lovely writing), what follows that is a brief thought about the piece of poetry or fiction of that day from yours truly.
In addition to my daily reviews, Amal has been re-running the original posts with what she is describing as "DVD Extras," some commentary on the piece for the day, some discussion of the differences between the original post and the finished piece in the book, and some delicious LJ Honey Month icons. The first of the re-runs is here, and I have been linking the appropriate post via the daily title, above, as the post becomes available. Amal is currently in England (because she is fabulous), and so her sense of what time it is and my sense of what time it is are somewhat askew. And that's ok.
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