the brink of time

Harvard Books is just depressing now. One bookcase of SFF, two shelves on the next, one of which is mostly empty but for a few John C. Wright novels that, spoiler alert, I will never buy, then a few more empty shelves, and then a mostly empty shelf of horror. I remarked but did not share with the world that I think of Tanith Lee as like “Jack Vance but without the uncomfortable sexism” and I guess that sexism had to go somewhere, so John C. Wright is “Jack Vance but only the sexism.” I don't know. The fragments I read when I first learned of John C. Wright read like an inept attempt at writing like Vance. The Sad Puppies stuff is more like a Narnia ripoff. I did, however find Jasmine Gower’s Moonshine. The book caught my eyes, years ago, though it was not for sale, and I resolved to buy it as soon as possible. It probably would have been worth it even if I wasn’t allowed in to Revels because I misinterpreted “proof of vaccination or recent test and photo ID” and had to use an old temporary ID to get in. Spoiler alert, I did get in. I even told the attendant “no covid, only trench foot.”
I don’t know if people are buying up all the good books and leaving behind either shit or things that are good that I already own, or if everyone is selling their books at Brattle now.
They were playing Somewhere Over The Rainbow from The Wizard Of Oz. Payton once said that she doesn't want to hear about people singing about having a holly jolly holiday when you're miserable.
And Dominic the Donkey is bad enough without feeling like the song is mocking you after a shitshow of a day.
The Qdoba, of all the places in Cambridge, closed. I’m looking forward to seeing another bank.

I'm surprised I made it because not only were they busing, the trains were running at a frequency of one every 24-32 minutes.

I did have a pretty impressive book haul from the library. Dick’s The Simulacra and Time Out of Joint, and Simak’s Ring Around The Sun and Howard Berk’s The Sun Grows Cold.

Revels was … weird. Basically, since they missed the 50th anniversary, a bunch of people from the Elizabethian era, one with a magick box with colored lights, showed up to chastise them. During the first set of Renaissance dances, a stately pavane and a lively galliard, the modern actors all stood perfectly still. The St. George and the Dragon was a rap battle because they misunderstood the word rapier. St. George was played by the Elizabethian guy. The dragon was played by a guy in a dragon costume and another guy playing his tail, detached from him like the dog in Inside Out. George was killed in Mortal Kombat and then resurrected with a syringe filled with mistletoe (don’t try this at home, kids).
They have different themes this year but tend to keep things consistent. The sword dance, for instance, was done with pool cues. The band this time was farfisa or piano or keyboard, trumpet, saxophones, acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, drums, acoustic and electric bass. The Elizabethian musicians played recorders, tabor, violin, and lute.
The childrens’ songs were done via zoom. A girl wore what I think was a dress with dots, but Zoom made it look like she was wearing a piece of The Matrix.
We got a brief look at the world outside, a la My Teacher Flunked The Planet, with a homeless wassail and Lean On Me. There was no intermission.
They finished it off by a poem about the shortest day by someone from a place where there is no seasonal lag.
Meanwhile, us audience sat around in 2300 AD.
I also got a Japanese chewy grapefruit candy and a Japanese orange hard candy.

There's what looks like an abandoned station right after Harvard.

burning question: This timeworn ghost town is Cambridge? I hardly recognize the place! What purpose would it serve to eradicate the cultural scene now? Are the planning to raise a new techtopia in this wasteland?