The Mark on the Wall

Streeping

2012-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Recently, over on The Film Experience, there was a reader ranking of Meryl Streep’s Oscar nominated performances, excluding her most recent work in The Iron Lady. I had seen 13 of the 16 roles, and I meant to email my rankings in, but I forgot. Anyway, because I LOVE Meryl Streep and because I love making lists, I thought I would watch all sixteen performances in chronological order, discuss my thoughts, and then at the end post my ranking here. This would also give me a chance to catch the ones I’ve missed and see many for the second time.

Her first two nominated performances (and first win!) were for 1978’s The Deer Hunter and 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer—both films won Best Picture. I had only seen these films once before, in college, so I was ready to see them again. Here are my thoughts on the films and on Her Streepness.

The Deer Hunter is an epic that clocks in at just over three hours. Setting aside three hours in a day to watch a film is one thing, but that doesn't matter if the film is excellent. Despite the prestige for the film, it’s left me a bit cold both times. Robert De Niro is young and quite dashing and gives a riveting performance that kept me watching. Everyone talks about the elaborate Russian Orthodox wedding set piece which takes up approximately half an hour of screen time. It is stunning. Aside from Meryl Streep, the first time I watched the film was to see the infamous Russian roulette scene. Most people will note that there is no factual evidence for Russian roulette taking place in Vietnam. In fact, its conception was from an earlier, discarded script set in Las Vegas called “The Man Who Came to Play.” Rather, the film uses Russian roulette as a metaphor for the Vietnam War—sending young men off to uncertain fates—and while the film seems more anti than pro war, its politics are difficult to ascertain and what are we to make of the closing scene where the characters sing “God Bless America?" The film also has detractors citing it as a racist hate film. This is a charge I didn’t understand the first time I watched it. Filmed in Thailand with Thais playing the Vietnamese, Vanity Fair’s Peter Biskind writes, “The Deer Hunter, on the other hand, has few scruples about killing Vietnamese; the sadistic, cackling monkeys with dollar bills clutched in their paws deserve what they get. What the film doesn’t like is Vietnamese killing white American males and exposing them to emotional and physical trauma like Russian roulette." Ah, now I understand. It should be noted, for better or worse, that the filmmakers were focused on the relationship of the friends and that the Vietnam War merely provided a testing ground to explore those bonds. It was considered more of a domestic drama than a war movie thus playing fast and loose with historical facts and ignoring the wider social context of the war to focus on the main characters and their hometown community.

So what about Meryl Streep? She is the main reason I watched this film both times. This was more or less her first major film role after a bit part in Julia and a role in the TV miniseries Holocaust (and some other stuff). In The Deer Hunter Streep plays Linda but her character feels so minor that I could barely remember her name. The maid of honor to Angela the bride, Streep is introduced wearing her bridesmaid’s dress and taking care of her alcoholic and abusive father who is cursing all the bitches in the world and who strikes her. This seems to serve little purpose other than that Linda decides to leave her father’s house and sublet Nick and Michael’s place while they’re in Vietnam. It also elicits the “morass of homoeroticism and misogyny which [the film] evokes but refuses to explore” (Biskind). I would personally argue that the bonds are more homosocial than homoerotic. Anyway, Streep’s Linda makes eyes at De Niro’s Michael during the wedding but she dances with Nick (Christopher Walken) and when she catches the bouquet, Nick asks her to marry him and she says yes. When Michael returns from Vietnam, sans Nick, he and Linda begin an affair. Her role is little more than “the girlfriend” and seems slight for an Oscar nomination. Still, there she is on screen, fully formed and beautiful, Meryl Streep, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a prestige picture that won five out of nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. She even sings!

Among Film Experience readers, this role placed 12th. Nathaniel R. writes, “In the grand scheme of Streep's Filmography this role as a small town girl left by men going to war one is a mere lovely introduction…” It will probably place near the bottom of my own ranking owing to the smallness of the role and my personal indifference to the film as a whole.

The next year, Meryl Streep had a supporting role in Woody Allen’s Manhattan (also as an ex-wife and parent) and won the Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) for her work in Kramer vs. Kramer. I was delighted by this film both times, finding it to be a warm and absorbing domestic drama. Joanna Kramer is a deeply unhappy woman whose identity has been subsumed as wife and mother. At the beginning of the film she leaves her husband, Ted (Dustin Hoffman), a workaholic Mad Man—the less WASPy, less unfaithful, ‘70s successor of Don Draper. As the sole parent of their six-year-old son Billy, he now has to earn the bacon and cook it too. Though he is easily frustrated in his new role, he works hard a being a good father. However, his performance at work suffers, and he is let go. At the same time, just as he is developing a rhythm for himself and his son, Joanna returns, suing for custody. Her reappearance is deeply sinister, appearing as she does, hand pressed against the glass of a coffee shop in the background, watching from afar as Ted drops off Billy at school. Although she has been presented as the bad guy, the one who left her marriage and her child, she is deeply affecting as a lost woman who still loves her child and wants custody. “I’m his mother. I’m his mother” she repeats on the stand at the custody hearing.

It’s a small but quiet and heart-wrenching role. It placed 6th in the ranking. Nathaniel R. writes, “It became the top grossing film of 1979, it's title shorthand for divorce it so captured the zeitgeist. It is one of those best pictures that people sometimes complain about since it beat not one but two bonafide auteurial masterworks (Apocalypse Now and All That Jazz) but damn if this isn't still a remarkably potent affecting drama.”

Next up: The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sophie's Choice.

Down with Love

2012-02-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Now that it's February, and Valentine's Day approaches, I thought it was time for a new playlist. I should start by saying that I don't hate Valentine's Day, and I don't call it Singles Awareness Day (SAD). In fact, I often celebrate it with chocolates, a romantic movie, and maybe even some red wine if I'm not living with the parentals. This year, I thinking of checking out a trashy romance novel from the library. I never did finish the one I was reading for Nancy Pearl's genre class. I guess I'll have to see what kind of selection the library of conservative Davis county offers. Anyway, back to the playlist. This is not a selection of love songs, nor is it an offering of breakup songs, or even a list of Single & Fabulous (exclamation point!) songs (even if I am often, though not always, happily single). Instead, these are fifteen "love songs" for the the lonely and lovelorn, the emotionally damaged and the J. Alfred Prufrocks.

“Hounds of Love” by Kate Bush
And I’m ashamed of running away / From nothing real— / I just can’t deal with this / I’m still afraid to be there / Among your hounds of love

“Fidelity” by Regina Spektor
I never loved nobody fully / Always one foot on the ground / Suppose I kept on singing love songs / Just to break my own fall

“One Man Guy” by Rufus Wainwright (Loudon Wainwright III cover)
This is a gorgeously solipsistic song.
I don’t know why I’m a one man guy / Or why I’m a one man show / But these three cubic feet of bone and blood and meat are all I love and know

“So Unsexy” by Alanis Morissette
I can feel so unsexy for someone so beautiful / So unloved for someone so fine / I can feel so boring for someone so interesting / So ignorant for someone of sound mind

“Untouchable Face” by Ani DiFranco
Fuck you / For existing in the first place / And who am I / That I should be vying for you touch / Who am I? / I bet you can’t even tell me that much

“Creep” by Radiohead
“You’re so fucking special / I wish I was special / But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo / What the hell am I doing here?

“Fear” by Sarah McLachlan
But I fear / I have nothing to give / I have so much to lose / Here in this lonely place

“Hallelujah” by Allison Crowe (Leonard Cohen cover)
I have several excellent covers of this song, but Crowe's is my favorite.
All I ever learned from love / Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you / Well it’s not a cry that you hear at night / It’s not somebody who’s seen the light / It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

“Coin-Operated Boy” by The Dresden Dolls
The first offering from the punk cabaret Dolls, Amanda Palmer is sort of the patron saint of this playlist. I was also considering her song "Ampersand."
Made of plastic and elastic / He is rugged and long-lasting / Who could ever, ever ask for more? / Love without complications galore

“How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths
No one has Morrissey's melodramatic flair for turning teen angst and doomed relationships into catchy pop songs.
There’s a club if you’d like to go / You could meet somebody who really loves you / So you go and you stand on your own / And you leave on your own / And you go home and you cry / And you want to die

“Fuck and Run” by Liz Phair
I want a boyfriend / I want all that stupid old shit like letters and sodas / I can feel it in my bones / I’m gonna spend another year alone

“I Think I Need a New Heart” by The Magnetic Fields
But the words you want to hear / You will never hear from me / I’ll never say, “Happy Anniversary” / Never stay to say “Happy Anniversary” / So I think I need a new heart

“The Queen and the Soldier” by Suzanne Vega
In this haunting ballad, a soldier forces a queen to confront her innermost fears, and for that he is killed.
But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break / And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached / And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred / The battle continued on

“The Perfect Fit” by The Dresden Dolls
I’m not exceptionally shy, but I’ve never had a man / That I could look straight in the eye and tell my secret plans / I can take a vow and I can wear a ring / I can make you promises, but they won’t mean a thing

“Save Me” by Aimee Mann
Come on and save me / If you could save me / From the ranks of the freaks / Who suspect they could never love anyone

A Few of My Favorite Words

2012-01-31T17:06:00.000-08:00

On one my Facebook groups, there is a discussion of people's favorite words. As a language lover, I thought I would list some of my many favorite words and phrases here. Some are my favorites simply because of how they sound, others for what they mean, most for a combination of the two. Here they are, in alphabetical order, with brief definitions and notes.

Antediluvian literally "before the deluge," used to describe the time before The Biblical Flood. Also: old. Avuncular: of or relating to an uncle; benign.

Bellicose. Such a pretty word to mean warlike or combatant. Likewise, I love the country name Belarus, which means something like "White Russia." Bemused which many confuse with amused but actually means bewildered. Betch--my favorite way to say bitch. Blasé, which I believe I first learned from Titanic. Bloody hell is a favorite as both British slang and profanity.

Chimera--a gargoyle that isn't actually a waterspout. Also: fancy, fantasy. Cosmopolitan. Such a sophisticated word to mean worldly and sophisticated. Coup de grâce--deathblow. Pronounced more like "grass" than "grace."

Dendrites. One of the SUU counselors was obsessed with this word. It has to do with neurons and brain stuff. Dénouement: the falling action/resolution of a narrative. Love the barely-there "nt" at the end. Detritus. Dulcet: a sweet and soothing word to mean just that.

Effulgence: radiance. Like many of my favorite words, it flows with Fs and Ls and soft Gs and Cs. Élan: stylish elegance; panache. A frequent crossword solution. Ennui: "Listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement." That is so my life. Ephemeral. Another word with the soft F sound. Eschatological. From the branch of theology dealing with the end of the world. First learned reading Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. Ethereal: sounds similar to ephemeral. Evanesce: to vanish.

Fecund. I love/hate this word. The hard consonants and short vowels. It's fun to say but also sounds dirty. Foppish. Fuck. It can be used as nearly any part of speech. The short "u" and hard "ck." Highly effective.

Gruyère. A delicious cheese and delicious word. "Don't be shy. Say it with me: Gruyère." Gerrymander. A fun word meaning to unfairly map political districts. Learned in AP American History.

Hella janky. Learned on TBTL, meaning inferior quality. Hubris. "Good. Cause you know why? Cause hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that."

Iconic. Iconoclast: a destroyer of (esp. religious) images; a subversive. Ineffable: incapable of being expressed. Internecine: mutually destructive.

Je ne sais quoi: that intangible, attractive x factor. "Jeuge." Or is it gjush? or zsuzsh? Learned from TBTL via this video about folding jeans. Actress Emily Watson says "It's kind of term for a bit of fancy stuff."

Kummerspeck: a German word for weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, "grief bacon."

Liminal: relating to the threshold or transitional process. Loquacious: chatty. Luxuriate. It's a wonderful word to luxuriate in.

Mellifluous: melodious. Such a pretty word to say. Métier.: forte. Munificence: generosity; largess.

Occipital. I first came across this word reading Marianne Moore's poem, "To a Snail." Fun to say.

Penultimate: second to last. First learned the definition from Gilmore Girls. Perfidy: deceitfulness. Perspicacious: ready insight, understanding. Also heard on Gilmore Girls. Phantasmagoria: fantastic imagery as in art; associative, dreamlike imagery.

Queue. What an excessive use of vowels. Quixotic: unrealistic and impractical, after Don Quixote. I learned this word in 10th grade AP Euro.

Sagacious. Sanguine: cheerful; having to do with blood. Savoir faire: able to do or say the right thing; social graces. Literally: "to know, to make." Schadenfreude: pleasure from another one's misfortune. Good ole' German words. Shibboleth: watchword, from the Book of Judges. Solipsism. I first learned about this word when studying Virgina Woolf. Somnambulism: sleepwalking. I first came across this word from Charles Brockden Brown's short story "Somnambulism" in Am Lit I. Sonorous.

Teleological. Troglodyte: cave man; hermit. Truculent: isn't this word succulent? It means defiant, aggressive.

Ululation: to howl, wail, or lament loudly.

Voluptuous. What a sensual word.

All of these wonderful words remind me of a poem I like called "Saying Things" by Mariyln Krysl. Check it out.

Sh!t People Say

2012-01-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

So when Dain was home around Christmas he told me about the "Shirt Girls Say" videos that have gone viral. Since then we have seen many, many parodies. Here are four of my favorites:

Sh*z Mormons Say
A catalog of all the "swear words" Mormons use.

see also: Things Mormon Girls Say

Sh!t the Dowager Countess Says
You are watching Downton Abbey right? If you're not, Maggie Smith is Cousin Violet, the Dowager Countess and HBIC who is totally gangsta--well as gangsta as an elderly uppercrust British lady can be in the (post) Edwardian Period.

Sh*t Liz Lemon Says
By the hammer of Thor, I can't believe it took someone this long to make one of these for Liz Lemon. What the what?! Though I suppose there are already several Lemon videos on YouTube. Nerds!

Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys
This is probably my favorite.

Ha ha ha ha ha! So true. and funny!

Do you have any favorite parodies?

Policy Wonk for Beginners

2012-01-24T12:17:00.000-08:00

In the February issue of GQ featuring a sultry Michelle Williams spread and accompanying article, the magazine lists the 50 Most Powerful People in Washington. This list includes liberal blogger Ezra Klein (no. 34) at the Washington Post with Wonkblog and neoconservative Charles Krauthammer's (no. 45) syndicated Post column. A sidebar listing the most powerful people of the campaign season includes New York Time's blogger Nate Silver (www.fivethirtyeight.com) for his use of statistics and The Daily Show's John Stewart for satire.

Anyway, I haven't been paying too much attention to politics lately, but these are the people I'll be reading and watching in hopes of better understanding what's happening in Washington and on the campaign trail.

Sundance

2012-01-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night I was watching The Good Wife, my new obsession (only three years after it premiered), when Rae texted me. She’s in town for Sundance, had an extra ticket, and wondered if I would like to join her. Yes, of course! Who fills a theater seat better than me? The show was at 8:30 in the am—I haven’t been up for one of those in a while—so on my way to Park City, I swung by Starbucks. Their new thing is blonde coffee meaning lighter roasts whereas I prefer a bold, dark roast myself. But it was that or Pike Place which I detest. The Veranda roast ending up kicking my ass. I was so wired, I was literally jumping out of my skin during the screening. I thought I would shake right out of my seat. The people next to me must have thought that I was some kind of junkie going through withdrawals. Nope. I had just had a small coffee, lightly roasted. What the what?!

The film we saw was Your Sister’s Sister from writer/director Lynn Shelton, best known so far for Humpday (which I enjoyed). Your Sister’s Sister, which first debuted at Toronto, was the perfect way to kick off a day at Sundance. It stars Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass (whom I’ve been lusting after since Humpday). Shelton is associated with the mumblecore film movement (“the new talkies”) which often focuses on characters and dialogue. These are two of my favorite things. Duplass plays Jack, a man whose life if going nowhere. I can relate. His best friend, Iris (Blunt), who was dating his recently deceased brother, convinces him to go off on a personal retreat at her family’s island cabin somewhere in the Puget Sound. There he unexpectedly runs into Iris’s lesbian half-sister, Hannah (DeWitt). Things get complicated when Jack and Hannah drunkenly hookup and Iris shows up for a surprise visit. The film is hysterically funny and quite heartwarming as these quirky characters figure out the next step in their lives—which the movie leaves open-ended. It’s such a great film! I just had the best time. I can’t wait for it to finally show up sometime later this year in select cities. In the meantime I can rewatch Humpday and catch up on Shelton’s and Duplass’s previous projects.

Afterward, I got to catch up with Rae as we rode buses and taxis around Park City trying to get tickets for other showings that day. On one cab ride with two fabulous East Coast lesbians we got their tickets for Shorts V as they couldn’t go. That was pretty awesome. Or so we thought—we’ll get to that later. We both needed protein as well, so we found a diner that was crammed with people and had far too many Gregs which caused confusion. But I finally did get my English muffin which helped stop the shaking. After I got waitlisted for Middle of Nowhere, we hung out the hotel and gossiped waiting for the show. When we got there, someone ended up having an extra ticket so I didn’t have to wait in the standby line after all. Festival goers in Park City are awesome!

The film Middle of Nowhere, in its world premiere, was written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It’s a domestic drama that takes place in the greater Los Angeles area as a wife waits for her man who is in prison. The wife, Ruby, is played by Emayatzy E. Corinealdi who is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen (she was also there in real life for the Q&A). Hopefully we will see more of her; she deserves to become a difficult-to-pronounce household name. Despite some slow parts, this drama was very well written and acted and avoids cliché to truthfully depict these characters’ lives. Just as her husband Derek is about to be paroled after four years of good time, his record is sullied when a fire breaks out in his wing and other details come to light. Just as he is facing an additional four years in prison, Ruby begins a relationship with her bus driver, Brian (David Oyelowo, who is also gorgeous. and English!). It’s beautifully shot and full of close-ups which draws us into the drama. Also, I had a possible Chris Pratt sighting. If it wasn’t Chris Pratt, it was a very attractive man wearing very expensive clothes who looks exactly like Chris Pratt.

Afterward, Rae and I chatted over pints of Guinness and shots of Jameson at an Irish sports bar. The service was terrible—we never did get our nachos!—but in the end our server bought our beers which was at least semi-decent of her. We then went to dinner at the J&G Grill at the St. Regis Deer Valley, the treat of Rae’s fiancé. I can’t even tell you how amazing it was. First, we had to ride up to the restaurant in a funicular—look it up. We had the best wine I have ever had. For an appetizer we ordered the black truffle pizza which was divinely decadent. For the entrée, I got the glazed Niman short rib with jalapeno-apple puree and rosemary crumbs. Oh. My. God. I have never had short ribs before, and now I am obsessed. Obsessed. It is one of the best things I have ever tasted in this life. And for desert, apple crisp. Now that was fine dining. I now know how the other half (and by half I mean 1%) lives, and why they don’t want to give it up. I was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, only with slightly better table manners. Last night, I had fish sticks. Fish. Sticks. I have surrendered the ruby necklace and am back to my shitty hooker’s apartment. *sigh*

To end the night, Rae and I went to see Short Films V. WTF? Seriously, what the fuck? That’s all I have to say, except that I’m going to say a lot more. There were seven short films, each one worse than the one before. They were shocking, disturbing, and exploitative. And not in a good way. I did not find any of them artistic and/or meaningful. After each one a piece of my soul died. If this was the crème de la crème of all the shorts submitted, I have to tell you that it’s curdled cream from a rotten crop. Dear Sundance, if you need someone with eyes, ears, and taste to help go through the shorts submissions, I would like to humbly volunteer. Let me briefly tell you about a few of them. The second short was basically gay porn as a guy is looking for some action in a public mall restroom. At first nothing was shown, it was all implied. But then there were flashes of masturbation and fellatio. I’m not a prude and like seeing cock on screen ~~as much as~~ more than the next person. But if you’re going to use hardcore sex in a film please try to do it as tastefully and meaningfully as John Cameron Mitchell (see: Shortbus). People were laughing but only because it was uncomfortable, outrageous, and well, okay, slightly funny. People stopped laughing when there was use of religious imagery that bordered on blasphemous. There was a strange Bolivian film that began with the Official Sundance Selection seal, which at first seemed funny and self-aware. It was interminably long, boring, and painful. In the end I think that seal was used in all self-important seriousness. There was one set in the Scottish highlands where past and present collide. However, it was the goriest thing I have ever seen (between splayed fingers) and full of very black humor. However, I think it jumped the shark from what could have been interesting and funny to something tasteless and sickening. The coup de grâce was the last film. At least I think it was the last film. Rae and I—and half the theater—walked out before the credits had finished to even see if there was any more torture to be endured. Walking out of a festival screening is a pretty big faux pas, but we were well and fully done. Only Dain and Elise know about that bizarre animated short with the chicken and the eggs and the pirates that was absolutely traumatizing. This was even worse and more horrifying by a factor of a lot—and more soul-crushing than all the other films combined. And I was only listening, because from the first ten seconds I knew this was something I could not handle, mostly because of the animation style. So I closed my eyes for most of it. The motto of this year’s festival is “Look Again,” but every time I opened my eyes and glanced up at the screen, I was given a good reason to shut my eyes again. And it was SO LONG. It just would not end. At the end I felt like standing up and saying “I reject you!” much like Jen Andrews does before she walks out of weekday matinees where no one is there. But that’s pretty daring to do in a full theater, especially when the directors are sitting five rows in front of you. I was surprised that no one booed—during any of them. But maybe that’s something they only do at Cannes. Remember how those New York lesbians were just looking to give their tickets away? They knew what was up. “Because they don’t sleep with men, their other senses are heightened.”

So to recap: Your Sister’s Sister is the best thing I’ve seen so far in 2012. The shorts were the worst thing I have ever seen. Ever. Short ribs are fucking delicious. Also, driving down Parley’s Canyon is terrifying, especially in the dark. The End.

I'm the Hero of This Story

2012-01-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

It's a new year and time for a new post. Perhaps one of my resolutions should be to post more often. A weekly writing assignment would not be a bad idea for me. Besides, it might force me to lead a more interesting life just so I can write about it.

Other resolutions? A la Liz Lemon, I want to say yes to life, yes to love, yes to staying in more! I already stay in plenty, but I do want to be open to trying new things, and as I haven't had a date in a year, I should put myself out there more. As Luke Burbank would say, I want to get my health on. I've really let myself go in the last few years--this is a twofold problem of discovering alcohol and discovering how to cook. (How to cook with Grburbank: use butter. use salt. delicious. the end.) My family has a family pass to the local rec center which has elliptical machines and other such nonsense. So I should take part. Besides, I would get to buy gym outfits and create workout playlists. I want to be a better friend--I don't have a lot of friends. Much like Liz Lemon, I don't like a lot of people. So I want to be a better friend to those I do have. Perhaps my biggest resolution is to find that professional library job and start the next phase of my life.

Because being unemployed is lame. Sure it was fun at first--a bit of a break after getting my master's and before starting a professional career (for the rest of my life. or until all my student loans are paid off. same diff.). But I've done diddly-squat with my life in the last six months (see: this blog).

But really, what have I done recently? Well there was my third Thanksgiving dinner, or rather Friendsgiving at Elise's where I had an amateur moment. I hadn't eaten much that day in order to eat more turkey, and then when I got there I quickly drank liquor (g&t, whiskey and coke), high point beer, and wine. Thusly, I passed out on Elise's bed and missed dinner. Fortunately, I didn't throw up as there was no Champagne, Tequila, or Oreos.

Then it was December replete with awkward family parties and yuletide cheer provided by Amazon.com. On Christmas Eve my sister and brother-in-law came over and we all got r/c Hot Wheels. So on Monday, we had the first (and last) annual Burbank Grand Prix. (It did not go well.) Christmas morning we were up bright and early (with no coffee!) to eat Christmas breakfast and open presents. Then I took a nap while my family went to church. At Christmas dinner we had an middle-aged bachelor neighbor over, and it made me realize that when I'm single, childless, and older, I'll have to a find a neighbor family of my own with whom to celebrate Christmas.

I got some cool stuff like Habibi by Craig Thompson, movie tickets to the art house theater, the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (which is mostly the same as The New Best Recipe cookbook just without all the lengthy explanations), the first season of Gilmore Girls, Burberry Touch parfum (I had asked for London, but Macy's lied to my parents and told them that London has been discontinued--not true, shop girl!--so they got Touch instead which is a lot less good), a French rolling pin for perfect pie crusts (along with the vodka pie dough recipe from Cook's Illustrated!), The Lexicon by William F. Buckley, Jr. (which means that many of the citations are from his conservative writings which pisses me off only just a little), Break, Blow, Burn by the provocative Camille Paglia, and Night of Hunters by Tori Amos.

Night of Hunters. What to say? For some it's her best album in the decade since Scarlet's Walk, for other fans it's another straw on the camel's back that started with The Beekeeper. I'm somewhere in the middle. Amos has lost a lot of the passion, rage, and sorrow that won her a large, dedicated fan base. This is probably largely due to marriage, motherhood, and growing older. And maybe she just had a golden decade from 1992 (Little Earthquakes) to 2002 (Scarlet), and now that's over. Anyway, NoH is another concept album, produced by Deutsche Grammophon, that's a 21st century song cycle based on classical music and Irish mythology as we chart the relationship between a couple over the course of a night and how the hunter and hunted exist within all of us. To which I say, "Oh, reallo? I meant to say 'really.' I misspoke. Continue." I have been listening to it a lot over the last week or so, and while I haven't sat down with the liner notes, the lyrics do not seem particularly strong, which is sad because her lyrics were always my favorite part. However, the music (instrumentation and musicianship) is amazing. So much so that I bought the "Sin Palabras" edition ($5 on amazon.com!) which is just the music. If you would like to listen to the original classical pieces that Tori based her variations on you can listen to the YouTube playlist I created here. Lovely.

Then it was Saturday, New Year's Eve. My sister is going on a mission to Anchorage, Alaska, and her farewell was on Sunday, the 1st (at 9:00 am! ugh.), so the Sorenson family party was Saturday. And since many family members were staying overnight, the party continued at our house. This made some of my friends (i.e., Ellen) upset so I swung by Ellen's house (party game, fireworks, cider) and then to Elise's where I actually rung in the New Year with some sort of terrible sparkling raspberry wine and a New Year's kiss. After I drove all the way home I got to sleep on the couch and wake up super early (again with no coffee!) and go to church. Then all sorts of people came to our house and ate and ate and ate.

In the first week of 2012, I've already been the cinema twice, though both movies were 2011 releases. On Monday, Dain and I went to see Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hated the book and have mostly forgotten the Swedish film, but I thought the Fincher version was well done. I thought it stayed true to the book while streamlining it in the best way possible (the book needed to be streamlined). It's no Social Network despite Rooney Mara (as an excellent Lisbeth), computer hacking, and Trent Reznor, but it still makes for a dark, visually compelling, well-made film.

On Wednesday I saw Melancholia the cheery film from that most humane and loving of directors, Lars von Trier. While this nihilistic film does end with the utter and total destruction of the planet Earth (NOT a spoiler), I didn't feel it was quite as bleak and hateful as Dogville, the only other von Trier film I've seen. It's an operatic and stunningly visual ode/farewell to his battle with depression in the mode of German Romanticism, and is also indebted to Ingmar Bergman (a positively warm and fuzzy humanist next to von Trier). The next day I made meatloaf.

And if all goes well, I will see Young Adult today. It looks like a delightful dark comedy from Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. And I love me some Charlize Theron. She's the best!

I've also finished two books this year already! First was Tina Fey's book Bossypants. While it was very funny, I actually liked Mindy Kaling's book better. Not that we have to compare the books, but I did, so whatever. Maybe it's because I'm more in Kaling's target demographic than Fey's. But it's okay, Tina, I still love you! I am basically Liz Lemon.

The other book was By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham. He is back to form after that weird conceptual detour of a novel, Specimen Days. It doesn't quite have the vigor and rough-hewn edges of his first two novels and it may be more polished and precious than The Hours, and possibly sadder than all of his previous books, but it's still a rather good novel and beautifully written. It is Cunningham, after all.

Anyway, that's what's been going on lately. Here's to a happy and more productive 2012!

Some of My Favorite Things

2011-12-19T20:36:00.001-08:00

So it's the end of the year. I've been watching things like The Year with Katie Couric and looking at things like the 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011 on Buzzfeed. (Also on Buzzfeed the 30 Most Important Cats of 2011.) I got my Entertainment Weekly issue of the Best & Worst of 2011. Film critics everywhere are making their Top 10 lists. And some of my Seattle friends are making their Top 10 book lists. So I thought I would share some of my favorite things from this year.

Books
My book list features only two books published in 2011. It also features more nonfiction than usual.
Top Ten
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Books and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris
Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Runners Up
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Currently Reading
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
The Tale of Telsharu by Valerie Mechling and Samuel Stubbs
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Excited For
Habibi by Craig Thompson
Bossypants by Tina Fey

Movies
I actually did not see that many movies in the theater this year, so I do not have a full top ten list.
Favorites
Midnight in Paris directed by Woody Allen
This (somewhat thin) fable was thoroughly enchantement as Owen Wilson realizes that the l'age d'or of the 1920s was not all it was cracked up to be. This movie hit all my buttons: Woody, nostalgia, modern Paris, 1920s Paris including such luminaries as Hemingway, Dali, the Fitzgeralds, Stein, and more. It was the most fun I had at the movies this year.

Drive directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
This neo-noir thriller with a boss synth soundtrack was my favorite movie I saw this year (so far). It's destined for cult classic-ville. And I wanted to climb Ryan Gosling like a tree.
Notables
The Descendants directed by Alexander Payne
I didn't love it as much as I loved Sideways way back in 2004. It's still a very good (and Paynesque) movie. Clooney is great, as always, and Shailene Woodley is a revelation.

Beginners directed by Mike Mills
This is a lovely little jewel of a film, as a father (Christopher Plummer), recently out of the closet, and son (Ewan McGregor) look for love. The father embraces his new lifestyle while his straight son is more trepidatious in embracing a new love--Melanie Laurent, who is refreshing and wonderful in what could have been just another manic pixie dream girl role.

The Help directed by Tate Taylor
This movie, a huge hit, is not without its problems, nevertheless it's notable for all its wonderful actressing. Viola Davis surely deserves an Oscar nomination.

Bridesmaids directed by Paul Feig
This was another smash success starring women who were very, very funny and (dare I say it?) ballsy. Kristen Wiig is wonderful as the lovable, pathetic loser whose life is falling apart as her best friend is getting married. Melissa McCarthy steals the show in a batshit crazy performance.

Crazy, Stupid, Love directed by Ficarra and Requa
I love and will watch anything with Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell. Their plot lines were mostly great, however, I really didn't care for the son/babysitter plot line.
Excited For
Melancholia directed by Lars von Trier
Young Adult directed by Jason Reitman
Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese
Shame directed by Steve McQueen
The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher
The Iron Lady (only for Her Streepness) directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Music
Favorite Albums
21 by Adele
What can I possibly say that hasn't been said? It's the number one record this year. Adele also has the number one single this year, "Rolling in the Deep;" number one video, Live at the Royal Albert Hall; and a boatload of Grammy nominations.

Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine
I've already discussed my love for this album. It's been playing on repeat in my car's CD player since it came out.
Excited For
Tori Amos
Tori released her twelfth solo studio album this year, Night of Hunters. I did not buy it because her last four albums have not been super great (especially the last two). However, this tour is apparently "amazeballs." I'm so upset that she's not coming to SLC this time. I did ask for the CD for Christmas. So I hope I get it and that I love it. What I really want for Christmas is Andreas Ottensamer, the impossibly hot Austrian clarinetist that accompanies her.
I love/hate him. You know, I used to play the clarinet, but I'm not the super hot, super talented one playing with Tori.

Television
Oh my god, I love TV. There were a lot of great shows this year. Here are five of my favorites:
Parks and Recreation on NBC
It's one of the best and funniest sitcoms on television and it has Amy Poehler, so you have to love it. I especially love the romance between Poehler and Adam Scott.

Downton Abbey on PBS
It's the most amazing Masterpiece period show EVER. The cast is superb, especially Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess Violet, and it's so elegantly plotted. I'm rewatching season one and SO excited for season two coming in January.

30 Rock on NBC
Tina Fey's brainchild is another awesome piece of comedy. The fifth season, which wrapped in the spring, had several standout episodes. I'm rewatching all five seasons to get ready for season six coming in January.

Revenge on ABC
It's this year's dishiest nighttime soap taking its cue from 80s titans like Dynasty and Dallas. It's a loose reworking of The Count of Monte Cristo. Watch it for Madeleine Stowe and its complex, episodic plotting.

Happy Endings on ABC
Ignore it's fairly horrible title. Happy Endings is about the lives, loves, and travails of six friends living in Chicago. Entertainment Weekly writes, "If you're not watching Happy Endings you're missing the sharpest, funniest, giddiest show about six friends since that other show about six friends." Not every episode is amahzing, but when it's on, it's on.

P.S. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It's only came out in 1997, but I finally watched all seven seasons of this landmark television series this year. That was a helluva good time. Highly recommended.

Ghosts of Turkeys Past

2011-11-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. In fact, I'm going to my first of three dinners this Sunday. It's the annual "Apartment Thanksgiving" with my college friends, only none of us currently live in apartments. I will be making cranberry sauce (it's my thing), pumpkin roll, brownie cheesecake (for Ellen who dislikes pumpkin and pies), and spinach dip. The big day itself will be hosted at my house with 20-30 relatives from both family sides. Ugh. We'll have two turkeys--one oven roasted, the other deep-fried. I'm making rolls and cranberry sauce. The final meal will be at Elise's the Sunday after. It will also be the only boozy one. In addition to the sauce, I'll be bringing dressing and some sort of pie.

When I was younger, Thanksgiving was not my favorite holiday. There were relatives to contend with, televised parades to ignore, football games to avoid, and homework to procrastinate. But once I got to college, there were also friends to celebrate with and from many Friendsgivings, it has become one of my favorite holidays. Besides, I love to cook and eat. So here are my top five Thanksgivings.

2005
I was a sophomore in college living in the Villa apartments with five other guys. Gross. I was also working at Convergys where employees were guaranteed only one of the Big Three holidays off: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. I got Christmas off, which meant I would be on my own in Cedar City for the holiday and working. But it actually was really fun. Work was really slow, so we played games like Ten Fingers (I Have Never) and bounced bouncy balls all over the call room. The few people who did call in always wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. Then I went home to an empty apartment--all mine. I don't remember what I had to eat, but I did drink an entire bottle of Meier's Sparkling grape juice (that stuff is seriously good guys!) while watching The Rules of Attraction (something of a guilty pleasure). After the movie I was so wound up--sugar rush!--that I went cruising Cedar's Main Street (a favorite pastime of mine), and the street was decorated and lit up for holidays and Christmas music was playing on the radio. All in all, it was a lovely way to spend Thanksgiving by myself.

2010
Last year I hosted my first Thanksgiving with Heidi. We were going to feed all the iSchool orphans who didn't have family in the area, but in the end they all decided to fly home for family Thanksgivings anyway. (Even my dad called last minute, offering to fly me home for the weekend, but I didn't want to leave Heidi all alone.) This did not deter me from making an entire feast including my first turkey (well turkey breast--nobody was coming and Heidi's vegetarian). Heidi made the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a pumpkin spice cake. I made everything else--we had rolls for days. In the end Chloe and Cameron were are only guests bringing cranberry bread and sparkling pinot noir. We had plenty of wine and plenty of food. After dinner we played Trivial Pursuit. And then I did have to finish an assignment that I didn't understand (on Thanksgiving! evil!) drunk. The other nice part of last year was that campus operations were suspended Monday evening (just as I was leaving work) due to a little snow and cold weather that resulted in two snow days. No class for a whole week. It was a Thanksgiving miracle.

2008
The year before I left for Seattle, I had a Friendsgiving at Chez Whitney's. There was much drunkenness so I don't remember a whole lot of the food, except that it was delicious. Pecan pie, yum! There was even a fight/breakdown which just means that it is officially the holidays. We ended up watching Pieces of April drunk and doped out on fat calories. Good friend times. Dain, Whitney, Alex, Elise, I miss us.

The Gang (not on Thanksgiving)

2006
This was Apartment Thanksgiving my junior year. After dinner we moved all of the couches outside, huddled under blankets, and sang Christmas songs. It was very cold. and fun.

The furniture is outside!

Huddling under the blankets with Valerie. It was cold!

1995
This was one of the more unusual Thanksgivings I've had. We went camping in the Nevada desert outside of Boulder. My step-grandfather's nephew owns an old gold mine there, so there we went. It was also my first time eating deep-fried turkey. We kids explored the caves, shot potato guns, and went on a wild treasure hunt on ATVs.

(Dis)Honorable Mention
2007
My senior year I lived in an apartment with an oven that didn't work properly. It turned out one of the heating elements was broken. We did not realize this for the longest time. Even after the turkey had been roasting for quite some time, it still was not cooked. So we took the turkey over to Ellen's apartment, but in the end, Melissa carved the bird up and cooked the pieces in a pan. If it weren't for her, we may have all died or at least gotten very sick.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Ten Things

2011-11-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Is it November already? When did this happen?! And what's all this white stuff on the ground? Now that I again live (for the meanwhile) where snow happens, I hope we all have a milder winter than last year.

1. Ceremonials, the sophomore album by Florence + the Machine is no slump. If you enjoyed Lungs, I think you'll like this. If, however, you're no fan of Florence, this is not for you as it's Flo in overdrive--dark, sonic anthems full of harps and unrelenting drums. The BBC's critique that it's "all grandeur without any grace" may be legitimate; it is relentless, but I find it more exhilarating than exhausting. And it's provided excellent opportunities for awesome kitchen dancing in front of god and everyone. My favorite review is from the A.V. Club: "Ceremonials is Welch barreling off a cliff on wings made of dear-diary sentiment, art-school theatrics, and pure-cut sincerity, and somehow, against all odds, she manages to soar." Some of my favorite tracks include the singles "Shake It Out," "What the Water Gave Me," "No Light, No Light" as well as "All This and Heaven Too."

(image source)

2. I am loving the nonfiction book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by one of my favorite critics Mark Harris (who is married to Tony Kushner--what a power couple!). The book traces the five Best Picture nominees of 1967--In the Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner--just as the old Hollywood studio system was crumbling along with the Production Code. It's a brilliant piece of cultural history with fascinating profiles of key players such as Warren Beatty, Mike Nichols, Dustin Hoffman, and Sidney Poitier.

3. With the Halloween jack-o-lanterns moldering and the advent of snow, Christmas commercials have already begun. Ugh. Two full months of soul-crushing consumerism run amok.

4. Speaking of Halloween, my group of friends went as old people. I did not choose this theme as I found it borderline offensive and being old is not really a costume--it's something that happens if one is lucky to live long enough. Anyway, I ended up looking a bit like my uncle Richard. So this is probably what I'll look like when I'm sixty, god willing that I live that long and keep all my hair. Yes, I am wearing a tracksuit.

5. Speaking of Christmas, I may be jumping the gun, but I'm looking forward to making this year's playlist. As much as I enjoy effervescent pop like Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You," I really love melancholy Christmas music--you know, like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "River." So I'm kind of excited by the spare and bluesy sounds from A Very She & Him Christmas, the latest offering from Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward.

6. This mock vintage Inception poster. I want it.

(image source)

7. These applesauce oat bran muffins adapted from Martha Stewart Living. They're so moist, chewy, spicy, lightly sweetened, healthy, and delicious. A note: they are not very quick to whip up, plus you'll have to buy things like wheat bran, ground flax seed, and dried dates. Still, excellent. They keep well and they'll keep you regular.

8. If you were planning on reading Death Comes to Pemberley, yet another Austen sequel/reworking, you can just read this digested version from the Guardian. It's hilarious, so you should all read it, even if you're not an Austenhead. You're welcome.

9. The Occupy Wall Street movement has filled me with hope and on occasion tears (of joy). In my own small way I am in the middle of transferring my money out of the big bank Chase to the more regional Zions. One day--when I have a job and don't live with the parentals--I plan on using a credit union.

10. I wasn't really planning on seeing the upcoming film Immortals, but these two things have (mostly) changed my mind.
a) The truth in advertising of this commercial:

b) Henry Cavill naked and dirty:

(image source)

10 Things

2011-10-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

(Sometimes I hate Blogger--your rich text editor is kinda terrible.)

1. I HATE frosting/icing, don't you? It's so sickly sweet. Gag. I also hate confectioners' sugar--I'm not sure if I hate it because I hate icing, or if I hate icing because I hate confectioners' sugar. (Also, I don't like powdered donuts.) One time I did make a French buttercream frosting--it was pretty good though also very labor-intensive. I made it for a birthday cake for a combined birthday party for Ellen and me. in the summer. in the park. where it melted. because it's mostly butter. It was still pretty decent.

2. I am rereading Great Expectations which is my favorite Dickens novel. I'm reading it with my good friend Lillian from UW who is a lover of nineteenth century literature. It's her first time with GE. Naturally, I am also listening to Tori Amos's song "Siren" which she wrote for the modern adaptation starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. By the way Charles Dickens's bicentennial is next year.

Currently I'm still reading Frankenstein, The Catcher in the Rye, and rereading The Golden Compass.

3. Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) as Batman on Parks and Recreation. It was the greatest thing in the world; I about died. I think Adam Scott is sexy adorable, I love the character of Ben, and I love Batman. Super hawt! The whole episode "Pawnee Rangers" was excellent. Treat yo self to it!
4. Socks. That's what Ben Wyatt treats himself to, and you know what, socks are awesome! I ran around the whole summer in bare feet and flip-flops and that's one of the things I love about summer. But now that autumn's here and the days are colder, I get to treat my feet to warm, soft, comfortable socks. I hate the standard white crew sock, and for a while I was into the whole no sock fashion look, but now I just love a colorful (solid, stripped, patterned, argyle) dress or boot sock.

5. Zachary Quinto. He just officially came out even though it really wasn't a secret. I've had a crush on him way before he played Sylar or Spock. It was when he was Tori Spelling's gay best friend on the pretty terrible TV show So NoTORIous.
6. Mizithra cheese. If it were physically possible to make love to a cheese product, this would be the one. I haven't had mizithra in years, but it has returned to my life, and we are so, so happy together.

7. In other food news, how good are French dip sandwiches? Amahzing. The best one I ever had was at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis. The Robin's Nest in SLC also makes a good one. I like to top mine with Swiss cheese and pickles, yes pickles. It's delicious!

8. I recently made a Tarte Tatin, an upside-down French apple tart. I wish I had taken a picture because it turned out so brilliantly. I was nervous because it looked so intimidating, but like so much French food the impressive results belie how easy and simple it actually is. I used the recipe from The New Best Recipe Cookbook which I adore. Try making one sometime. I'll send you the recipe if you want.

9. My fingertips are currently peeling. I'm not sure why, but I think I've ruled out leprosy. But I'm just a librarian, not a doctor. According to some web forums I've looked at, it may be a bacterial or fungal infection. If it doesn't get better soon, I guess I'll have to see the doctor. It's weird, and kind of gross.

10. Horror films. 'Tis the season. I just saw Carrie--who knew the scariest parts were after she killed everyone at the prom (*spoiler alert*)? Man, oh, man. Currently, I have Manhunter at home. I'm also trying to decide whether to Exorcist or not to Exorcist. On the one hand I love Ellen Burstyn and "Tubular Bells" (as played by Tori Amos, anyway). On the other hand, demonic possession terrifies me (which I guess is kind of the point). I'm not even sure why really since in my personal experience the Mormon church doesn't really focus on possession (though they do believe it can occur), so it wasn't a huge childhood concern. But I would much rather watch a ghost story and/or a psychological thriller.

Anyway, I thought I would list my top five scary movies. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a masterpiece. The (original) Haunting is the scariest film I have ever seen. El Orfanato is a wonderful ghost story. The Innocents is a ghostly thriller story based on James's story "The Turn of the Screw." Those children are terrifying! Finally, the gloomy and turgid Interview with the Vampire for its homoeroticism between Cruise and Pitt, Dunst's uncanny performance, and that ending scene which scared me for the longest time.

I thought you might enjoy this macabre animated short of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" which was nominated for an Oscar (1953) and narrated by James Mason.

TV, How Do I Love Thee

2011-10-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

Did you watch any television yesterday?
No.
Gosh, what was yesterday like?
--Calvin & Hobbes

As you all know, I love television. Probably too much, but, hell, what's too much? Just because I no longer read books, watch movies, apply for jobs, or talk to real-life people...

Anyway, I love fall for many reasons, and one of them is the fall lineup of new and returning television shows. So here's what I'm watching.

On Mondays, we have the fifth season of Gossip Girl on the CW. Sadly, none of our television sets receive the CW for unknown, tragic reasons. So I have to watch Gossip Girl on the Internet. Still plenty of gossip, secrets, and drama.

Since I can't watch Gossip Girl when it airs, that means I can watch How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls on CBS. However, I haven't seen HIMYM for a few seasons. 2 Broke Girls is kinda funny. We'll see.

On Tuesdays we have New Girl and Raising Hope on FOX. (Following Glee which I stopped watching halfway through last season.) I thought the pilot of New Girl was adorbs (yay Zooey Deschanel!), but I didn't love the second episode. I missed the third episode last week, and now you can't watch online until eight days later, unless you have Dish Network or Hulu Plus. Ridiculous. Last year, I stopped watching Modern Family when one of the episodes was Hulu Plus only. If I can't watch New Girl until weeks later, I might forget about it. People (the media) told me I needed to watch Raising Hope, so I did. I don't really get it. I'll give it a few more episodes, but if I'm not loving it, I'll stop.

Wednesdays is a banner night of television on ABC! First there is Modern Family (I'm watching again) which swept the Emmys, and is always reliable for a laugh. Then there is Happy Endings which may be my new favorite show. Ellen showed me half of the first season last week, and I laughed out loud. a lot. Anyway, it's amahzing. Then we have Revenge which is a dishy, soapy drama starring Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stowe--and when they face off it's spectacular. You need to watch it from the beginning, but Emily has moved to the Hamptons to exact revenge against the powerful and wealthy who framed her father who died in prison. Some have compared it to The Count of Monte Cristo (which I have read, unabridged, twice), and there are some similarities.

Also on Wednesday nights is American Horror Story the latest offering from Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee) on FX. Sadly, we do not have cable, but happily they are showing episodes (at least the pilot) on the FX website and Hulu. Here are the creepy opening credits:

In this hot mess of a show, Connie Britton left her happy marriage to Kyle Chandler on Friday Night Lights for a troubled one with Dylan McDermott (who is frequently naked in the pilot). After suffering a miscarriage and catching her husband having an affair, the family has moved to LA for a fresh start in a very old, haunted house. I can't wait to see what happens next.

On NBC Thursdays there is Parks and Recreation the very funny show created by Amy Poehler. And later there is Prime Suspect the American remake of the British Helen Mirren vehicle. It stars Maria Bello--the entire reason to watch--as a tough homicide detective who has recently transferred to a new, good ol' boys squad. If you're interested in this procedural drama, I would recommend the pilot just to orient oneself. And should I be watching Community?

I'm looking forward to the midseason premiers of 30 Rock and Mad Men (though again with the cable). I still actually need to see the last few MM episodes from season four.

What are you watching this fall?

October Fest

2011-10-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

Oktoberfest may just be ending in Germany, but pumpkin month is just beginning! I heart October. Megan made her own October list, so I decided to make one as well.

I don't know if I'll be able to find any good pumpkin beer this year, Utah being what it is and me living with my family. But I'll try.

I'm excited to make some pumpkin treats. Last year, Heidi really went overboard with the pumpkin, but I loved it. And Megan is cooking up a culinary storm. I think I'll be good with just some pumpkin chocolate cookies and some apple cider.

I am going to keep Netflix for another month so I have stuff to watch. I am in season seven of Buffy and season four of Angel. Maybe I will also watch Twin Peaks which is sure to be disturbingly Lynchian.

I have several movies in my queue right now. This includes Manhunter based on the novel Red Dragon. Michael Mann's movie came out five years before Silence of the Lambs and is supposed to be a lot scarier. Also, I've never seen Carrie so I thought this year would be good for that. Elise lent me Young Frankenstein so that will be good for some laughs. I was trying to decide between the cult classics Halloween (Michael Myers), A Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddy Krueger), and Friday the 13th (Jason Voorhees), because I don't think I could all three in one year--I'm not a big slasher fan. Currently, I'm planning on Nightmare. Both Let the Right One In and Let Me In are streaming on Netflix. I'm also thinking about Paranormal Activity, Night of the Living Dead, and The Shining which is my favorite horror/thriller movie.

Elise is performing in a couple of plays this month including Baby with the Bathwater this week, and Sweeney Todd closer to Halloween. And I think we'll all go to a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

In honor of Banned Books Week which ended last week, I picked up The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Catcher in the Rye from my library. I never did read Catcher in the Rye when I was in high school or college, so maybe I'll be too old for such an angsty book. For Halloween, I think I'll read Frankenstein which I've never read either. I think it will be more haunting that scary.

10 Things

2011-09-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

1) Today is the first day of Fall. Yay! Still it was a pretty warm day; those are nice. It will be cold and wintery soon enough.

2) I went and saw Drive today. Midnight in Paris has been the most delightful film I've seen this year, but I would have to say that so far Drive is the best film I've seen. The movie is entirely in control of itself. It's amazing visually, which is good because Ryan Gosling's ~~character~~ archetype doesn't even have a name (i.e., it's not a talky character piece). It's neo-noir, the visuals are surreal, the violence is brutal, the casting is superb, and the soundtrack is unexpected and interesting and effective. Go. See. It.

3) Ryan Gosling. He's so hot. and perfect. *sigh* I still haven't managed to see Crazy, Stupid, Love (must change that soon, before it leaves theaters), and I'm looking forward to Ides of March.

4) Did you see the Emmys? I love television, and I love awards shows. The best moment happened when the best comedy actress nominees staged a beauty pageant. And Melissa McCarthy won for ~~Bridesmaids~~ Mike & Molly.

Also, Kate Winslet now has an EGO. Time to get that Tony, Kate! Also, Downton Abbey pretty much swept the miniseries category; Poor HBO. If you haven't seen Downton Abbey, you have an incredible seven hours of TV ahead of you! I can't wait for season two to come to PBS in January.

5) Amy Poehler. Sadly, I missed last night's premiere of Parks and Recreation as I was having drinks with Kristen. But that just means I have an episode to look forward to very soon. Yay for the Internet.

6) New Girl. It's the new show starring Zooey Deschanel. The pilot was so great, I've watched it three times! Even though it has a few problems, I'm sure those will get ironed out soon. Check it out!

7) Seattle. Yesterday, I was trying to find a bar in SLC, I thought of all the many bars I knew and loved in Seattle. And earlier this week, a couple of Mormon friends asked me what they should do when they go to Seattle in a few weeks--I couldn't think of anything except bars. But later, I did think of lots of non-alcoholic things to do and sent them a very long itinerary. It made me just a little homesick(is that the right term?) and a bit newstalgic. I hated grad school, but it turns out I kind of liked Seattle.

8) Stupid Jobs. I still have not found a job yet. Boo. However, there are some entry-level jobs opening up at the San Francisco public library. Yay! I'm not getting my hopes up, but how awesome would SF be? And I don't even want to go to California. By the way, did you know that San Francisco is a consolidated city-county?

9) Facebook. Every time Facebook changes, people bitch and moan, and then other people bitch and moan about the first bitchers/moaners. I just tried to put my big girl panties on and adapt to the changes, because sooner or later we all do. Resistance is futile. But now I'm really not sure how to use Facebook anymore. and the Ticker thing pisses me off to an unreasonable degree. Lame.

10) Ten...ten...ten..? I don't know. Oh, Tori Amos's latest studio album came out. I have not bought it. yet. It's a song cycle riffing off a lot of classical pieces (she is a classically trained pianist), I've listened to some of it; none of it has caught my attention. Too arty. Tori can do what she wants, but I wish she would get back to her roots and make an album similar to those circa 1992-2002. Or stop making albums and just tour a lot. Also, the Netflix/ Qwickster thing is pissing me off. Oh, and I had Arby's today for the first time in .... well, a really long time. Delicious.

Fall Reflections

2011-09-14T13:19:00.001-07:00

With the changing of the seasons, it's time for a new playlist. Summer is the time for loud, energetic anthems about the sun and surf. For fall, I enjoy softer, moodier, and darker songs of melancholy that allow for reflection. Here are the songs with an autumnal atmosphere, at least I think so.

New(ish) Additions:
Honey Come Home by The Head and the Heart
"oh god, I love my vices / but they've taken me to places / that I'd never thought I'd go / and I am ready to be home"
Fun fact: I saw The Head and the Heart open for Hey Marseilles. They were both awesome. Sometimes I miss Seattle.

Dead Hearts by Stars
"was there one you saw too clearly? / did they seem too real to you? / they were kids that I once knew / now they're all dead hearts to you"
Fun fact: I first heard this song on the Like Crazy trailer.

9 Crimes by Damien Rice (with Lisa Hannigan)
"it's the wrong kind of place to be thinking of you / it's the wrong time for somebody new / I give my gun away when it's loaded / is that all right, yeah? / if you don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it?"

Blinding by Florence + the Machine
"no more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden / no more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world"
Fun fact: While most of Lungs has disturbing imagery, especially of death, this is the track that I find most creepy. OK, so that was more of an opinion than a fact.

Quelqu'un m'a dit by Carla Bruni
"que tu m'amais encore, me l'a-t-on vraiment dit / que tu m'amais encore, serait-ce possible alors?"
Fun fact: Carla Bruni, First Lady of France, appeared in Midnight in Paris as the Musee Rodin guide.

Down in the Valley by The Head and the Heart
"Down in the valley with / whiskey rivers / these are the places you will find me hidin' / these are the places I will always go"
Fun fact: The Head and the Heart's self-titled album is awesome. If you like Mumford & Sons, check them out.

Monster (and monstrous) Love:
The Horror of Our Love by Ludo
"I want you stuffed into my mouth / hold you down and tear you open / live inside you / oh, love, I'd never hurt you"
Fun fact: Based on Salvador Dali's quote about his wife, "I love Gala so much, if she dies, I will eat her."

The Curse by Josh Ritter
"long ago on the ship, she asked, 'why pyramids?' / he said, 'think of them as an immense invitation' / she asked 'are you cursed?' he said, 'I think that I'm cured' / then he kissed her and hoped she'd forget that question"
Fun fact: After Tori Amos (268), I have more songs by Josh Ritter (55) than any other artist (excepting compositions by Chopin). Thanks for introducing him to me, Rae.

Howl by Florence + the Machine
"a man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night / may still become a wolf when the autumn moon is bright / if you could only see the beast you made of me"
Fun Question: Have you heard the new singles What the Water Gave Me or Strangeness and Charm?

Possession by Sarah McLachlan
"oh, you speak to me in riddles / and you speak to me in rhymes / my body aches to breathe your breath / your words keep me alive"

Songs Not About Food:
Caramel by Suzanne Vega
"so goodbye / sweet appetite / no single bite / could satisfy"

Honey by Tori Amos
"he liked my shoes I kept them on / sometimes I can hold my tongue, sometimes not / when you just skip-to-loo, my darlin' "

Lullabies:
Be Here Now by Ray LaMontagne
"don't look for love in faces, places / it's in you, that's where you'll find kindness"

Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap
"spin me around again and rub my eyes / this can't be happening"

Change of Time by Josh Ritter
"I had a dream last night / and when I opened my eyes / your shoulder blade, your spine / were shorelines in the moon light"
Fun fact: Ritter just published his first novel back in June.

Somedays by Regina Spektor
"I've gone away, don't call me don't write / Somedays aren't yours at all / They come and go as if they're someone else's days"

Old Favorites:
Spark by Tori Amos
"if the divine master plan is perfection / maybe next I'll give Judas a try / trusting my soul to the ice cream assassin"

Poses by Rufus Wainwright
"I did go from wanting to be someone / now I'm drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue"

Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event
"and the band plays some song / about forgetting yourself for a while / and the piano's this melancholy soundcheck / to her smile"
Fun fact: this band's semi-ridiculous name is taken from Don DeLillo's masterful postmodern novel, White Noise.

Northern Lad by Tori Amos
"I guess you go too far / when pianos try to be guitars / I feel the west in you / but I feel it falling apart too"

Thoughts in the Presence of Fear

2011-09-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

I recently learned about this essay by Wendell Berry available on Orion magazine's website. It is also one of three essays in his book In the Presence of Fear and Citizenship Papers which I will be reading posthaste. It is an incredibly thoughtful and prescient essay of 27 points regarding technology, the economy, the environment, education, politics, culture, society, and a way of life. I highly encourage everyone to read it in its entirety. Nevertheless, here are some highlights:

IV: The “developed” nations had given to the “free market” the status of a god, and were sacrificing to it their farmers, farmlands, and communities, their forests, wetlands, and prairies, their ecosystems and watersheds. They had accepted universal pollution and global warming as normal costs of doing business.

VIII: Nor did we foresee that the weaponry and the war science that we marketed and taught to the world would become available, not just to recognized national governments, which possess so uncannily the power to legitimate large-scale violence, but also to “rogue nations”, dissident or fanatical groups and individuals - whose violence, though never worse than that of nations, is judged by the nations to be illegitimate.

XII: Or we can promote a decentralized world economy which would have the aim of assuring to every nation and region a local self-sufficiency in life-supporting goods. This would not eliminate international trade, but it would tend toward a trade in surpluses after local needs had been met.

XIV: This is why the substitution of rhetoric for thought, always a temptation in a national crisis, must be resisted by officials and citizens alike. . . . But the talk that we are hearing from politicians, bureaucrats, and commentators has so far tended to reduce the complex problems now facing us to issues of unity, security, normality, and retaliation.

XV: We are not innocent of making war against civilian populations. The modern doctrine of such warfare was set forth and enacted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who held that a civilian population could be declared guilty and rightly subjected to military punishment. We have never repudiated that doctrine.

XXI: What leads to peace is not violence but peaceableness, which is not passivity, but an alert, informed, practiced, and active state of being. We should recognize that while we have extravagantly subsidized the means of war, we have almost totally neglected the ways of peaceableness. . . . We have ignored the teachings and the examples of Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and other peaceable leaders.

XXIII: We must not again allow public emotion or the public media to caricature our enemies. If our enemies are now to be some nations of Islam, then we should undertake to know those enemies. Our schools should begin to teach the histories, cultures, arts, and language of the Islamic nations. And our leaders should have the humility and the wisdom to ask the reasons some of those people have for hating us.

XXIV: Starting with the economies of food and farming, we should promote at home, and encourage abroad, the ideal of local self-sufficiency. We should recognize that this is the surest, the safest, and the cheapest way for the world to live.

XXV: We should reconsider and renew and extend our efforts to protect the natural foundations of the human economy: soil, water, and air.

XXVI: Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. Its proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible.

XXVII: The first thing we must begin to teach our children (and learn ourselves) is that we cannot spend and consume endlessly. We have got to learn to save and conserve. . . . An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy.

How to Dispose of a Demon

2011-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Don't ask me how to kill a demon, for that you'll need a slayer or a vampire with a soul. Or a bazooka. But once it's dead--to keep it from coming back--there's just a few steps to follow. Incinerate the body. Douse the ashes with holy water. Divide and bury the remains in separate plots. No more demon redux!

(Isn't "redux" a great word? Also "avuncular"--though it's a bit weird too. What if my uncle isn't like your uncle? I guess it mostly means a kindly uncle. Is there a word that means aunt-like?)

Anyway, I've been watching way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel lately. It's taken over my dreams. I am addicted and obsessed. I decided to watch the first season of Angel to see what was going on, but I actually like it on its own merits, though I still like Buffy more.

For more vampire/werewolf fun, check out The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. It's ridiculous, silly, stupid fun. It's a paranormal romance/mystery series set in an alternate Victorian steampunk London. I read Soulless back in March, liked it and then forgot about it. But I got an itch and am now reading book two, Changeless. I'm giggling a lot.

I just finished reading Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton, chef/owner of Prune in NYC. It is an excellent memoir of a hard-lived life. It didn't have the same joy I felt reading Julie & Julia or Comfort Me with Apples, but I think it's a better written book. If you enjoy food writing, I would recommend it. I've also stated A Clash of Kings book two in the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. They are very long, intricately plotted books, and once I finish this one, I'll take a long break before continuing the series.

The last movie I saw in theaters was The Help. Have you seen it? I thought it was a pretty good movie, though it got a little long. I think it was well-intentioned, but Hollywood added some pastel colors and sanded down some splinters of the Civil Rights era. I think it is for white audiences especially women. A way to assuage white guilt, pat ourselves on the back, and ignore contemporary racial injustice. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching some great actresses doing great work. What is your take on The Help?

Speaking of The Help, Mark Harris has begun his Oscar column on Grantland, discussing early contenders for Best Picture. Like he says, 'when it comes to the Oscars, obsessive overkill is part of the fun [and] this post-Labor Day moment is the last opportunity to weigh in before things get complicated." It's a really good, funny piece, especially if you like movies and awards.

So summers is over. My family went camping over Labor Day, and I stayed home and watched Buffy. I think camping is more fun with friends and beer, less with family and no beer. And I like having the house to myself. Anyway, it's time to get serious with job hunting. No more staying up till 2 and sleeping in till noon, and doing absolutely nothing. I haven't written much all summer, because I haven't done anything all summer. It was really lame. So here's to being a more productive person, getting a job, and perhaps even writing more posts. And to fall--I really love fall.

Blast from the Past

2011-08-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

On this Monday, when I should be looking at library job postings, I am being endlessly diverted by Facebook, YouTube, blogs, emails, etc. Anyway, I don't really have anything to share lifewise, but I do have a couple of 90s songs stuck in my head, so I thought I'd share. Most of the 90s in my iTunes is devoted to the alt female songwriter ToriSarahAlanisLizAni. The songs I'm sharing are not those. These are the gloriously cheesy pop songs that I grew up listening to on my mom's soft rock radio station.

"I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole

You're welcome! (I only recently found out this was the theme for Dawson's Creek, somehow as a gay teen in the late 90s/early 00s who watched a lot of The WB, I never watched the Creek.)

"Stay (I Missed You)" by Lisa Loeb

I'm not sure the lyrics make sense except in the contradictory senses of love, relationships, and loss. This song's left an indelible impression on my brain.

"Tonight and the Rest of My Life" by Nina Gordon

OK, so it came out in 2000. It haunts me.

One more: "Foolish Games" by Jewel. zomg! That was one of my most favoritest songs in high school.

If that wasn't enough, Garfunkel and Oates skewer these and other songs in their Worst Song Medley.

It's ok if you like some (or all) of these songs in spite of yourself.

Happy Monday.

A Year in the Life

2011-07-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

Wherein I take inventory of the large and small milestones of my twenty-fifth year.

I watched all three seasons of Veronica Mars in two weeks. It was intense.

I rewatched Battlestar Galactica. It was frakin' awesome all over again.

I read most of The Iliad. That is one long-ass book. I suppose there is still time to finish it before my birthday...

I went to Mount Rainier with lovely ladies Maggie and Lillian. It was fun except for the whole nature part.

While I was unemployed last summer, I watched a lot of movies. Thanks Netflix (by the way, I may be breaking up with you next month).

When summer ended, I moved to the Lake City neighborhood with Heidi who was the Best Roommate Ever! Love you!But before that I went to IKEA for the very first time to furnish my new apartment.

My Poetry Study Group celebrated another anniversary. I'm going to miss you guys so much and reading awesome poetry every month.

For Halloween I carved a cat jack-o-lantern. It ended up looking like Hello Kitty. My costume was a fairy/butterfly/glitter queen.I had Nancy Pearl for my adult genres class. It was delightful, and I fell (more) love with comics/graphic novels.

I have hosted Thanksgiving before with other roommates, but this time I made the turkey--my first. I got a little carried away making a feast since there were only four people at the table.

Many of the recipes were from the Pioneer Woman--an obsession that helped heal the lack-of-Food-Network wound in my heart.

I finished fall quarter, the hardest quarter/semester of my academic life. (Until winter quarter came, that is.)

I celebrated Christmas in Utah, where I caught a cold, and rang in the new year in a kitchen sink.I survived my cataloging class and made a digital portfolio.

Heidi graduated early, moved back to MN, and got a job. I was sad, and the kitchen was never clean again.

I had Nancy Pearl again. Yay!

I dropped my first class ever. I got a "W."

I made sushi for the first time. Mostly, I watched other people make it, but it was delicious. and none of us died.
I started a Pilates regiment.
. . .
And two weeks later, I stopped.

I partook in Royal Wedding Madness. and played King's Cup for the first (and probably last) time.I learned more about Charles Dickens, serial publication, and David Copperfield than is reasonable for one person.

Heidi came back for the iBall. It was so much fun.
Kristen came to visit me. I went to Canada for the first time, and we got lost.

I graduated with my Master's degree. Hallefrickinlujah!Recently graduated, unemployed, and nearly 25, I moved back in with my parents.

Then I went to Lake Powell for the final, final, final time with my extended family. It was fun, though I banged my knee up pretty bad.

And in one week, I will start a whole new year. My goals are to get a job, move out, and get a (new) life.

Summer Playlist

2011-06-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

A week after solstice (which is either the start or mid of summer) I'm almost kinda finally ready to post my summer playlist. Every year there are a lot of new "summer" songs that take over the airwaves and bbq playlists which means that tried and true summer favorites get edged out. Edged out only because I like to burn the playlist to a CD to listen to in the car for road trips or zipping around town--and a CD can only hold approximately 20 songs. So I think this year I might make two playlists: one for new stuff and one for my old favorites.

Let's begin with the new 2011 songs:
Where Not to Look for Freedom by The Belle Brigade
This was not one of my favorite early runners in the TBTL Song of the Summer contest, but it grew on my and is now possibly my favorite of the new songs. The Belle Brigade is an LA band fronted by a brother-sister duo, and this song is about the allure of the road.
Oh and is the only way to find a free feeling on the road / Where you go wherever you want whenever you want

Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
I already wrote about this song. New twist--if you listen to the lyrics, which is hard because they are mumbly, you will learn that this is about an alienated kid going on a shooting spree. Huh. However, the music video is of the band on the beach and performing to a bunch of dancing hipsters.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks / You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun

Rolling in the Deep by Adele
Adele is going to win the Grammy and the pennant and the cake. I love car dancing to this soulful song.
You had my heart inside your hands / And you played it / To the beat

Price Tag by Jessie J
I heard this playing in a mall when I was still in Seattle. It's a lot of fun. And this summer as I'm unemployed I would like to forget the effing price tag of my education.
We just wanna make the world dance / Forget about the price tag

You Are Not a Robot by Hoodie Allen
A pretty fun hip hop song, and I don't even like hip hop very much.
Sometimes I'm just feelin like a robot / Sittin round, hopin that you'll show up

MoneyGrabber by Fitz and the Tantrums
It's a pretty fun soul song, though it also sounds a little generic. Still they generate a lot of sound all without a guitar.
Don't come back anytime, you've already robbed me blind / This is your payback, money grabber

Turn Off This Song and Go Outside by The Lonely Forest
This is a Washington band from Anacortes and their album Arrows was produced by Death Cab's Chris Walla.
Turn off, turn off this song / Find someone to love

Nothing Ever Happens by Rachel Platten
Dain shared this song, and I really dig it. An excellent lighthearted pop song perfect for summer.
Nothing ever happens if you play it safe! / Make a little space / And get out of your own way!

Speaking of the TBTL Song of the Summer--it may have been hijacked by Bruno Mars fans as the winner was The Lazy Song. I don't really like the song, and neither did TBTL so they gave the honorable mention to Well OK Honey by Jenny O. and I don't really care for that song either. Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory had a lot of votes too, and while I do like that song, I don't know if I'm ready to own any Gaga.
...
OK, I'm ready and Edge is going on the playlist.

Other newish songs:
City with No Children by Arcade Fire
The Suburbs came out last summer, but I'm going to hold this song over for another year.
Do you think your righteousness / Can pay the interest on your debt? / I have my doubts about it

Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
I loved this song so much last summer, I have to keep it.
Laugh until we think we'll die / Barefoot on a summer's night / Never could be sweeter than with you

Long Shadows by Josh Ritter
I really like this short and sweet song from his latest album So Runs the World Away.
I'm not afraid of the dark when the sun goes down / And the dreams grow teeth and the beasts come out

Fader by The Temper Trap
I just heard "Sweet Disposition" on the radio today, and while I do love that song, it's so overplayed. So how about this less famous song from the same album?
So hold a hand for cover / Hold a hand for cover from harm

Girls with Accents by Fences
This is an indie Seattle band that sounds a bit like The Decemberists and Rogue Wave (or so I've heard). The album was produced by Sara of Tegan & fame.
And now's my chance to finally kiss you / But I got drunk and I passed out / I'm fucking up, I'm fucking up, I'm fucking up everything

Florence + the Machine
I came to the Lungs party late, but I love that album SO much! Even though it came out in '08, it really blew up last year. I can't decide which song to put on the playlist: Hurricane Drunk, Heavy in Your Arms, Rabbit Heart, Kiss with a Fist, Swimming, Drumming Song, My Boy Builds Coffins? All of them? I don't know.

Mumford and Sons
I heard The Cave on the radio earlier today, but I also love Little Lion Man. Conundrum.

Blue Skies by Noah and the Whale
I heard this song about a month ago at a Great Harvest, and it made me realize how much I like this song which had been on my 2010 spring playlist. I don't know if it's the most summery of songs, but I'll take it. (Of course, their new album just came out, so maybe I should check that out too.)
I don't think that it's the end / But I know we can't keep going / But blue skies are coming

I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked by Ida Maria
This was a TBTL contender a couple of years ago. LOVE it!
What the hell do I do that for? / You're just some guy! / OK, you're kinda sexy, but you're not really special...

Rio by Hey Marseilles
This is a Seattle band that I've raved about before. I think this is a great, wanderlust-y kind of song.
Drink 'til tomorrow becomes yesterday / Think of the shorelines you have yet to see / Men who will hold you with eyes you believe

So What by P!nk
So what if it's a few years old, it's still awesome.
I'm still a rock star!

That's about it for new songs though I do have some free space left if you care to make any suggestions. Now we move onto The Ultimate Summer Playlist.

All I Really Want by Alanis Morissette
White Houses by Vanessa Carlton
Bouncing Off Clouds by Tori Amos
California by Rufus Wainwright
Daylight Robbery by Imogen Heap
That Time by Regina Spektor
Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow
Boys of Summer by The Ataris
Los Angeles by Sugarcult
Mr. Brightside by The Killers
Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional
Sweet Darlin' by She & Him
Downtown by Petula Clark
5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale
1901 by Phoenix
Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend
Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin
Read My Mind by The Killers
If It Makes You Happy by Sheryl Crow
Summer in the City by Regina Spektor

O Canada and Other Stories

2011-06-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

So when we last left off, I was in the middle of finishing my final paper and thus completing grad school. Well, I finished the shit out of it, turned it in early, and got a 3.8 on it. Not too shabby. To celebrate, I ate an entire pizza, drank an entire bottle of wine, and watched Moulin Rouge! to celebrate its 10e anniversaire.

Earlier that weekend, I picked up my former roommate Heidi and her fiance from the airport, which meant I had to clean the apartment for the first time since spring break when she moved out. (That is only mostly true.) Anyway, they had come out for the iBall, which is the big library dance party, like prom! only with (legal) alcohol. I got very drunk (I was also packing my flask) and danced my little heart out and caught up with everyone. It was a blast. On Saturday we all went to lunch with Caroline and since the day was so nice and sunny we dined al fresco. By the time I got back from dropping them off at the airport, I noticed my arms were bright red. Really, Seattle?!?

On Monday, I picked Kristen up from the airport. We caught up and talked so much that we had nothing else to discuss for the rest of the trip. But first we went to a moderately-price family-friendly (American) Mexican restaurant where we both got margs even though we hate tequila and the word margs. Then we went to the grocery store and bought way too much food especially since we ate out so much, and in the end I had to throw most of it away when I cleaned out my fridge.

On Tuesday, we were going to go on an impromptu road trip to Canada, but then I realized I had my poetry study group that night, so we delayed the spontaneous trip. Instead, we hoofed our way across Seattle largely due to a logistical error on my part. I'd rather not talk about it. After walking forever, we got lunch at Specialty's Cafe which is the most amazing sandwich chain on the west coast (and Chicago). And you have to get an item from the bakery case. I got the most amazing cinnamon roll I've ever had, and I don't even like cinnamon rolls. Later we went to poetry and read a Frost poem that was plagued with awkward syntax and then a Mary Oliver poem and realized she is a total hardass. Later that night we made mac n cheese, and then we got incredibly tired and emotional. very emotional.

So on Wednesday, we did go to Cananda and that was an adventure. Kristen had brought her passport, so we thought let's go to Vancouver, especially since I had lived in Seattle for nearly two years and had never made it to The Great White North. We had our GPS on, even though I was planning on just taking I-5 all the way to the border. However, the GPS in its infinite wisdom decided we should enter by a different way, we mere humans obeyed of course, and I'm not really sure where it took us, but we eventually made it to the border. The Canadian border patrolman drilled us (and not in the good way) and when we told him that we were from Seattle and going to Vancouver, he asked us why we had taken this very indirect route. And once we had been let in, the GPS promptly shut off. Obviously, this is because Canada doesn't have satellites. or maps.

We did find an east/west highway, Highway 1, so we took that going west and eventually we did make it to Vancouver. So then we chose an exit at random and popped off the freeway and tried to make our way to all the tall buildings. We finally made it, and found some supposedly "public" parking at a business building. Once we exited the parking garage, we realized we were completely lost. But we did find a food court, so we decided to eat lunch. We were then directed to the Waterfront Station, where we were probably supposed to take some sort of bus to Granville Island, but we were futzing around with the sky train fare, when an incredibly nice man helped us pay the fare and direct us to the station we needed to get off at. Then we had to take a little motor boat to Granville. It was a very long, arduous process. Then we arrived.

So Granville Island is basically a huge market. It's the Pike's Place of Vancouver. I also realized I am not a market man. We had already eaten and had limited Canadian cash, so we didn't hit any of the food stalls. That left us with handicrafts, mostly jewelry, and I don't know about my fellow gay men, but I don't really care that much about jewelry. Kristen, however, loved the jewelry and the touristy shops. She eventually bought a large bottle of maple syrup for her mom, only to realize it was too large to take on the plane. After a Very Long Time at the market, we decided to head back on our boat and then sky train. A bus would have been much faster and probably cheaper. This is why it's helpful to do a little research even before an impromptu road trip, especially to a foreign country.

By the time we got back to the city, I was ready to go--and we didn't even get to see the library! So once we figured out where we had parked, we had a few scary moments. First we realized we didn't have enough Canadian money for the parking fare, so we had to go find an ATM really far away. Then we realized the business building was closed. So we entered the garage through the car way, and then we realized that, yes, the parking garage was locked. There was a number for the company that owned the garage, so we called it, but they were closed. PANIC! Then we saw a number for the security guard. So we called him, dragging him away from the Canucks game, and he was able to let us in. Thank god!

However, we still had no idea how to get out of the city or even the name of the freeway that would take us home, because we had entered the "wrong" way and our GPS didn't know where the hell it was. If only we knew how to hack into our GPS. Also, did I mention there was a Canucks game? so traffic was pretty crazy. Eventually we found a bridge a drove out of the city--a really, really far way with no freeway in sight. So then we drove back toward the city this time finding a sign for BC 99 North. Now, we wanted to go south, but we had found the highway we wanted, even if it was going the opposite direction. So we drove all the way back into the city, got off 99 North, made several left-hand turns in congested traffic, and . . . we drove a really, really far way out of the city--but this time with signage! We eventually did make it onto BC 99 South and back into the country--I could have kissed the tarmac (if there was one and I was the Pope, but there wasn't and I'm not)--and drove all the way back to Seattle.

On Thursday, we went to the Elliott Bay Book Company. I was planning on buying Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? but that apparently doesn't come out until November. Lame. Then my parents arrived, and I had to get ready for my convocation. I made myself pretty, and we took a taxi to the campus. I sent my family off to the Ave for food while I caught up with people at the reception. At the ceremony, our speaker was the CEO of Costco. He didn't say anything relevant to librarians, but his speech was blissfully short. I did learn that Korean cuisine doesn't really contain bread, tomato products, or cheese, but that the Costco in Seoul sells more cheese pizza than Costcos anywhere else in . . . Asia (or was it the world?). Then I was hooded, fluffed, and graduated. Dirty.

On Friday, Kristen, my family, and I went to the Space Needle and the EMP|Science Fiction Museum. Then I had to go to a wedding, leaving Kristen with my family which I think was traumatic for me, Kristen, and my family. I suited up and went out to dinner with Maggie at our favorite Wallingford Pizza House which proved to be unnecessary because they had so much good food at the wedding. We arrived seconds before the ceremony started. The wedding was short and so beautiful. So we socialized and then we ate and then there was dancing, but I had to cut that short to rescue Kristen. and my family.

On Saturday, we all went to the Seattle Aquarium where they have the cutest otters, and then on a harbor cruise/tour which was actually lovely. I took Kristen back to SeaTac, and my family came to my apartment to start packing. So much packing. And on Sunday, the packing. and the cleaning. On Monday, my family was supposed to arrive around 10 am with the U-Haul, only that turned out to be more like 6 pm. It's a long story. We loaded everything in, made one last stop at Dick's and drove all the way to . . . Yakima! We woke up early the next morning and drove all day during which my sister left her purse in La Grande, OR and we finally made it home in Utah around 9:30 pm. And that my friends is the story of my last week (plus change) in Seattle.

This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco

2011-06-05T08:54:00.001-07:00

This ain't no fooling around.

My final assignment/paper, perhaps my final academic assignment EVER, is due tonight at 11:45. It it to be 4,000-5,000 words long. I am currently at 2,500. Not to worry, all I have to due is write another 1,500+ words, edit and revise, and complete a works cited page. Easy breezy lemon squeezy, or whatever the covergirls in Britain say.

Then I'll have finished this effing program.

So here's a little video about grad school:

So funny and so painful.

Summer Loving

2011-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

I mean summer reading.

I should be researching and writing my David Copperfield paper, but that's not due till Friday, so what the hell. Instead of wondering how everything is going to get done--my paper, cleaning before my roommate, friend, and family arrive, and packing up the apartment--I'm watching television. I think it's a much worse time of my holiday, but much more enjoyable.

Anyway, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, especially if you're already done with school. So I thought I'd post my summer reading list. Last year I went in for the 16 Books in 16 Weeks Challenge and came up short. So I decided to only choose ten books this summer. I was going to add cover art, but it exceeded 1 megagigabyte and Blogger yelled at me.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
For my (un)genrefied book club with Nancy Pearl, we're reading fantasy quest fiction, and I thought I'd take on this 700 page monster. Sadly, I will be back in Utah when the group meets, but I do love me some quest fantasy. Also, I don't have HBO, so I have to read the damn thing.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
This very well might by the leviathan of my summer reading, but I've always wanted to read this great American novel.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Reading all about David Copperfield has made me want to reread my favorite Dickens novel.

Wise Children by Angela Carter
I love Ms Carter's feminist retelling of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber, and I've wanted to read one her novels. This was suggested by Slarue and Nancy Pearl.

Old School by Tobias Wolff
This is a slim novel about a boy a prep school and a beastly literary competition.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
I love the Robber Bridegroom/Mr. Fox/Bluebeard fairy tale, and here Ms Atwood riffs on the familiar tale to explore a femme fatale in the lives of three women.

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
This is a memoir about a young girl growing up in a small town in America's heartland.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
I've long wanted to read this futuristic, dystopian novel, and I recently acquired a free copy.

Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
I love food writing, and this is apparently the best new thing in the genre.

Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Best known as Kelly Kapoor on The Office, I can't wait to read her new book of essays which is apparently like Bossypants only for the younger, single, and childless set.

I hope you're all enjoying Memorial Day like Chloe Sevigny remembering your memories:

Happy Holiday!

Song of the Summer

2011-05-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

zOMG! Second post in a week! I am starting to think about my summer playlist (a future post to look forward to!), but first we need to decide what the new 2011 summer songs are going to be. The ones blasting out of car stereos and barbecue mixes everywhere. There are the big summer mega-hits like Rihanna's "Umbrella," Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," Gnarls Barkely's "Crazy," Katy Perry's "California Gurls," etc. Then there are the slightly more alternative and indie songs that have great summer energy: Jack's Mannequin's Everything in Transit comes to mind. So what are people going to listen to this summer?

Since I don't listen to the radio or read Picthfork, I have to rely on TBTL which every year tries to answer that question with their TBT ella ella Song of Summer contest. The constant tension lies between predicting the true song of the summer which might end up being Katy Perry or Black Eyed Peas OR choosing the indie/alt song they actually want to listen to all summer. In 2008 listeners chose Little Jackie's "The Stoop" which wasn't actually released as a single, but small details right? In 2009 they chose "1901" by Phoenix, an excellent pick. In 2010 the listeners actually voted in "California Gurls" which was a tragedy for everyone. Currently, they are sifting through the nominees. Some of which are as follows:

Rolling in the Deep by ADELE
First of all, even though I came to the Adele party late, it's amazing! Second of all, it's already huge and probably will continue to be huge throughout the summer. Who can resist that sweet, sweet soul sound? You can't help but dance.

Money Grabber by Fitz and the Tantrums
Another indie-soul song. I like this one a lot too, but I'm not sure how memorable it is.

Price Tag by Jessie J.
This song, released as a single back in January, may still become one of the huge hits this summer.

Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
This is an indie synthpop band, and this track is pretty chill, maybe too chill to be a summer jam, and slightly repetitive but still good. (Also, the drummer is kind of cute in a classic, all-American way.)

Turn Off This Song and Go Outside by The Lonely Forest
The Lonely Forest is a Washington band that sounds a lot like Death Cab, but this is still a pretty great jam for summer, as evidence by the 4th of July setting.

You Are Not a Robot by Hoodie Allen
I almost always enjoy some white rap (does that make me racist? probably). Anyway, it's a pretty fun song.

Nova by The Sound of Arrows
This is a Swedish pop duo working out of the UK bringing us some sugary 80s-style pop songs with a dose of gayness thrown in for good measure. Who could not love that?

Those seven songs will probably be on my playlist. Some other songs for consideration (that I myself don't quite love) include Lights by Ellie Goulding, Super Bass by Nicki Minaj, Where Not to Look for Freedom by The Belle Brigade, Well OK Honey by Jenny O., and Slippin ' by Quadron.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What music are you going to be listening to this summer?

O Blog, Thou Art Sick

2011-05-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

I have neglected my poor blog, and the less I write the less it is read. (I have also been reading others' blogs less.) I am unsure if I will keep blogging in the future. I suppose I will see what happens this summer.*

I am nearly done with graduate school. On Friday I had my last lecture in 508--The History of Recorded Information. There are still two more weeks of classes, but those will be taken up by student presentations. And yesterday, I had my last class with Nancy Pearl in Readers Advisory. I am nearing the end--and I do mean The End. All I see is a great abyss in front of me. (The world may have survived yesterday, but we still have 2012 to get through.) Anyway, aside from my presentation, I also have a 20 page paper to write for 508. My topic is on Charles Dickens as the professional author and serial publication in the Victorian Age as manifested primarily by David Copperfield (and The Pickwick Papers). I have been able to handle the original monthly issues of David Copperfield which are held by UW's Special Collections. I need to finish my research this week, and then pound out a 20 page paper the week after. I hope I can still do it; I haven't had to write a paper that long since 2007 during my final undergraduate semesters at SUU.

I have been very disheartened by my experience with the iSchool and the UW and academia at large, but I really haven't been able to express my dissatisfaction. On Friday's class though, I had an epiphany as represented by Walt Whitman and Melvil Dewey. My personal experience with my high school and undergraduate education was Whitmanesque: expansive, embracing, affirming.** However, my experience with the Information School has been Deweyan, which is to say monomaniacal. It is a trend I fear is taking place in education at all levels--learning is a business with a focus on test scores and analytical intelligence. Where is the critical thinking? Where are the arts? Where is the humanism? In the end I have been buried in debt, and I wonder "Have I grown intellectually? Have I been prepared [for the MLIS is a professional degree] to be a librarian?" I really don't know.

*Speaking of the summer, I will be moving back in with my parents in June (education and the economy are in fantastic shape!). I am, however, excited to be back in Utah, for a while anyway. (And, also, I might just miss Seattle, but just barely.) I keep forgetting that it will not be summer vacation--a stasis in my personal and academic-now-professional life spent drinking iced coffees and reading books by the pool--it will be consumed by job hunting (my least favorite thing in the world), and hopefully before the summer's over I will have a real-life, professional, adult job--somewhere--and be moving again (my second least favorite thing in the world).

**I just wanted to quote the first and last stanzas of Leaves of Grass (the 1855 edition):

I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease . . . observing a spear of summer grass.

. . .

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you.

Get P!ink'd

2011-04-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm about to go to my friend's apartment for a surprise birthday party/viewing of the Royals. It's going to be a long and interesting night. I also work at nine o'clock in the morning, then class, and after class I have to drive all the way to Des Moines (WA not IA) to have an awkward lunch with my grandma, her sister and her daughters. People always want to have lunch in Seattle, but somehow it never actually is in Seattle. Traffic's going to be a bitch. But back to tonight, we're going to have scones, champagne, cake, strawberries, digestive biscuits, perhaps a spot of tea (to stay awake): it's going to be brilliant!

Anyway, on a different note, have you seen this TMC Megamix of P!nk's dance hits? It's pretty much awesome. I've never been a huge P!nk fan, but I've always liked her songs when I heard them on the radio. But the more P!nk I get, the more I like her. Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!

Library Week

2011-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

This whole week has been library week, and I just love that! The public library may just be the last democratic institution that we still have, for the moment anyway. So, show your love for your library by popping in this week--find a new book to read, check out the displays, even talk talk to a librarian. And why don't you read some of these articles:

Celebrate Our Nation's Libraries!

The Library Card as a Pop-Culture Fiend's Ticket to Geek Paradise

Librarians: Master of the Info Universe

You know who else loves libraries? Arthur and his friends from the wonderful PBS kid's show Arthur (one of my favorite shows as a child. and teenager. and adult):

Having fun isn't hard! (However, I'm not so sure about the friendliness of the Dewey Decimal System.)

In other news, I just ordered a new Pilates workout system and finished my first workout today. *ouch* In the two or so years since I last did Pilates, I have lost what little core and leg strength I had. This will be fun. Anyway, I decided to do this because my "Situation" is out of control, what with my love of cooking with butter and salt. It's tasty, but wreaks havoc with my waistline.

School and Sushi

2011-04-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

So this is the end of the first week of my last quarter of school. (Well at least of library school--maybe one day I'll want to get another Master's.) It's scary because I need to start looking for jobs NOW, and I don't want to. However, apart from that, I think I'm going to really enjoy my last quarter.

I'm taking Library Technical Systems online this quarter. I should have taken it last quarter in person instead of Government Publications, but live and learn right (and then get Luvs). The word "technical" scares me, but I think it's going to be a very good, practical course and perhaps help ease my technophobia. I don't want to be a systems librarian (the people who run the technological back-end of libraries), but any and all technical skills can only help me in the job search. So far the work load is not too bad, and the online discussions have been interesting.

I'm taking The History of Recorded Information which is a humanities-style class on information coupled with special collections. It may be one of my favorite classes ever. I've never been that interested in special collections, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should have taken more classes in that specialty--it's much more interesting than I thought. It's one of the few classes in the Information School where it's okay to say that we actually like books and have concerns over the exponential growth of technology--concerns I've had since starting this program. There's going to be a lot of reading for this course and a very long research paper due at the end, but I've very excited.

My last class is Nancy Pearl's reader's advisory class. In the fall I took her Genres for Adult Readers. We haven't actually had class yet as we meet every other Saturday. I'm also excited for this class. We have to read three books--the whole class is reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, then we each get to choose a narrative nonfiction from an approved list (I'm considering The Liar's Club, The Tender Bar, or The Devil in the White City), and finally a book suggested by an reader's advisory peer--we'll see what I get. I think my favorite part of her classes is that every week I get to send the Nancy Pearl a journal entry on reading and books, and she actually reads it and responds with comments! Awesome.

Being at work every day by nine o'clock is kicking my ass. I do not care for this going to bed and walking up early thing. It is absolutely no fun. And I'm realizing that life is going to be very long and tiring as a responsible adult.

Yesterday, my friends and I decided to make sushi and watch The Lost World. Jason, Meagan, and I drove down I-5 on a Saturday (which is something I never recommend) to go to the Asian market downtown in the International District. Then we picked up Susan, consumed Dick's, and headed back to Megan's to make sushi which is a very involved process. We consumed a lot of Bourbon and made California rolls, Philadelphia rolls, and spicy tuna rolls. They were all very good, and we did not die (well, at least I didn't). We also had mochi, miso soup, and Riesling (which of these is not like the others?). Then we watched The Lost World--we had watched Jurassic Park a few weeks earlier--which I had never seen before. Since I didn't see these movies growing up, I was not all that attached. It was fun, but it made me miss my dinner/movie nights with Whitney, Dain, Elise, and Alex. Those were good times.

Spring Break '11

2011-03-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Sunday evening of spring break, and the twilight is just ending. It's nice how there's still some light in the day after 7:30. I guess the Vernal Equinox and Daylight Saving will do that. Anyway, it's the end of spring break, and while I didn't go anywhere fun like last year (Portland!), it was nice to kick back and relax for a bit.

On Monday morning, Heidi drove her parents back to the airport (they were visiting over the weekend) and picked up her boyfriend--he was to help her drive back to Minnesota. Anyway, that afternoon we headed downtown--I love going downtown!--and then over to the city center to visit the Space Needle, unquestionably our country's finest needle. I have seen the Space Needle up close a few times, but I've never gone up. It was pretty fun, but I feel no need to do it again. This is us:
That night we had a farewell dinner with another classmate. Then Alex was supposed to come over for some whiskey drinking, but his wife had other plans for him instead. So the three of us sat around watching Will & Grace.

I woke up early Tuesday morning to say goodbye to Heidi. Tear. We hugged goodbye, and she left, and I decided to watch Saved! and be lazy. Then I finished Ruth Reichl's memoir Comfort Me with Apples which I love. If you enjoy food writing and/or memoirs, I highly recommend it. All memoirs are ME-moirs, but hers is less egotistical than some. It's also not a memoir about a horrific childhood which are in excessive abundance (some are good, others not). It will also make you hungry! Later that night I watched the recent Star Trek movie, and the futon which we had just repaired, broke again. *sigh* Now all my naps will be at an angle.

On Wednesday, I decided to go see 127 Hours which was playing at the (three) dollar theater nearby. I hadn't caught the film during its first run since I had little desire to see a movie about a man trapped in a canyon who has to cut his own arm off, even though I heard all these good reviews. But I thought I can spare $3 bucks, and what else am I going to do? The film was good--I didn't think it was spectacular spectacular--and it was more entertaining that I thought it would be. The part where he cut off his arm was actually gorier than I expected, but I think the film is a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit. Mostly, the red rock of Southern Utah made my heart ache a little bit.

On Thursday I finished reading Stuck Rubber Baby, a graphic novel by Howard Cruse. It's a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story dealing with race and homosexuality in the Deep South in the 1960s. It was very interesting. That night, I went back to the dollar theater to see The Social Network again. It's such a good movie! and it made me upset all over that Tom Hooper won Best Director. What the what? Anyway, I liked it even better the second time I saw it--everything works so well: script, acting, score, directing, editing. Amazing.

(I don't remember what happened on Friday. Probably nothing.)

On Saturday, I finally decided to clean the kitchen, something which Heidi usually did. I love to cook, but I hate doing dishes which puts me in quite a predicament. Once it was clean, I decided to make stuff--like zucchini bread and a wilted spinach salad--quickly dirtying many more dishes. It's so Sisyphean.

This morning, I decided to make cream scones (with sugared ginger!) which by themselves are a justification for life. So good. And then I had to do more dishes. Then I went to visit Lillian in West Seattle, and we had tea and talked books. I have decided I need to read Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, and Margaret Atwood. Everybody reads The Handmaid's Tale, but I'm really into the Bluebeard story (and variants), so I might read The Robber Bride instead. However, first I'm reading some steampunk books for my Nancy Pearl book club. There's Soulless by Gail Carriger which is a Victorian romance vampire/werewolf parasol book, and it's all a bit silly, but very popular. There's also The Time Machine by H.G. Wells which is very short. and weird. I also checked out The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, but I'm not sure I'll have time to read it.

Anyway, I should start getting ready for bed soonish. This quarter I'm going to be working 9 to 12. So early--nine o'clock is when I got up last quarter, if I was feeling motivated. But it'll be good to get an early start on my day. or something.

A Day Late

2011-03-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was World Poetry Day and you can read more about it at the UN's webpage. However, and perhaps more importantly, it was also my good friend Dain's birthday. This I forgot because I'm not all that good with dates and it's not on his Facebook profile. So, Happy Birthday, Dain!

And here are a couple of poems, both by Christina Rossetti, the good-natured and long-suffering sister of the more devilish Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Both contain hints of ecstasy, erotic and spiritual respectively, which is fitting since it is now officially spring and the weather has been gorgeous in Seattle today.

"A Birthday"

My heart is like a singing bird
     Whose nest is in a watered shoot:
My heart is like an apple tree
     Whose boughs are bent with thickset-fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
     That paddles in the halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
     Because my love is come to me.

Raise my a dais of silk and down;
     Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve in it doves and pomegranates,
     And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
     In leaves and silver fluers-dy-lys;
Because the birthday of my life,
     Is come, my love is come to me.

"Passing Away"

Passing away, saith the World, passing away;
Chances, beauty, and youth, sapped day by day;
Thy life never continueth in one stay.
Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey
That hath won neither laurel nor bay?
I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May;
Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay
On my bosom for aye.
Then I answered: Yea.

Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away;
With its burdens of fear and hope, of labour and play,
Hearken what the past doth witness and say;
Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array,
A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay.
A midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day
Lo the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay;
What thou and pray.
Then I answered: Yea.

Passing away, saith my God, passing away;
Winter passeth after the long delay;
New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray,
Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven's May.
Though I tarry, wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray:
Arise, come away, night is past and lo it is day,
My love, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say.
Then I answered: Yea.

Winter Quarter

2011-03-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I submitted my final project for winter quarter, made a Long Island iced tea, and went on a shopping spree at Amazon.com. Now it's spring break, and after going on the Space Needle today(!) I am going to read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. and sleep.

One of the things I learned this quarter is that I lack the organization and motivation to do well in online classes--three of my four classes were online. Yikes. Next quarter only one of three of my classes will be online. Much better.

One of my classes was an introduction to databases using Microsoft Access. I followed the exercises in the book using controlled data--data entry essentially--but that is not the same as learning how to really make/use a database. Not that the lecturer cared--I received credit for the class before I even submitted my final project.

Cataloging is an elective course in our program, though I think of it more as a core class. Cataloging is an essential skill for librarians. Do you know what's difficult--learning cataloging online in ten weeks. Half of our class failed the second assignment (thankfully not me), but I think it's good to fail an assignment every now and then (like I did last year)--it builds character. In my experience, physical description and subject cataloging are arts of sorts, but they make sense. However, I have no idea how to Cutter a number--but nobody assigns numbers anymore. It was a hard class, and I'm glad it's over, but I'm also glad I took it.

I took Government Publications because Meagan was taking it, and there weren't really any other classes that sounded good. Then Meagan dropped the class. Excellent. Especially since it required a lot of work, and I just wanted it to be a filler class. The weekly assignments weren't too bad, but the final project was more involved. First we did a poster session--it was like science fair!--giving the spiel on our projects. Mine was about film censorship and the government--mostly told through Supreme Court cases. In 1915 the Mutual decision legitimized the prior restraint imposed on films by local and state censoring boards. In 1951 the so-called Miracle Case reversed the Mutual decision and prior restraint (mostly). Then I had to write a rather long paper about it all. Blerg. My mantra in that class was "Credit, No Credit" and I got credit.

Then there was Portfolio--it was my culminating experience in lieu of a thesis, research, or capstone project. It's new, and they're still working out the kinks which means the whole thing was a bit of a mess. At the end of eight weeks, I submitted my final draft, and did not receive credit. So I had two more works to revise it. This time I did receive credit, but the professors still had quite a few suggestions. Here is what I have so far.

At this point, I have completed all my core course, cataloging, and my culminating experience. Hooray. So for spring quarter, I am taking Nancy Pearl's reader's advisory course (awesome sauce!), the history of recorded information (a promising humanities-style class), and information tech systems (a promising practical management course). I have the highest hopes that it will be a fairly easy and enjoyable end to grad school, which is good because now I need to start looking for a job. Not excited. But for now, there is spring break. Now if we could just get some spring weather.

Herstory

2011-03-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

As you should all know, March is Women's History Month, but in case you did not know that, Will Forte shares the amazing richness and depth of women's herstory on Saturday Night Live:

Good job, women. Indeed.

For March, the lovely ladies over at On How to be Lovely are celebrating women. Go join them! It was there that I learned that TV Squad was paying tribute to the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters. zOMG! I love TV and female characters! Not all of these characters are role models or feminist-approved, but I think they are largely memorable. Some of my favorites include Karen Walker, Lorelai Gilmore, Starbuck, Sydney Bristow, Joan Harris, C.J. Cregg, Liz Lemon, Veronica Mars, and Laura Roslin. Good job, TV.

Just today, The Critical Condition and Low Resolution revisited Alanis Morissette's debut, diamond-certified, album of 90s amazingness, Jagged Little Pill, on its 15th anniversary (of what I'm not entirely clear since it was released in 1995). I would not hear Alanis wailing for several more years since at the time I was nine-years-old and did not know what pop music was. But she was still my first radio love, because even seven+ years later Ms. Morissette was still getting a lot of radio play on Star 102.7. However, it wasn't until my freshman year in college that I bought the CD and listened to it in the car ALL THE TIME. So rest assured, Alanis was there to guide me through angsty teen times with girl power. Time to re-listen. Good job, Canada.

It would not be until later in college that I would be introduced to Tori Amos. You know how Emma Thompson, in Love Actually, says that Joni Mitchell taught her husband's cold, English wife to feel and that true love lasts a lifetime. That is Tori for me. And not to diss Alanis, but Tori is the better musician and feminist. Good job, Tori. and Joni.

In case you want something meatier for March than corned beef, you should check out the stylized HBO film Iron Jawed Angels which recounts how activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the National Women's Party and petitioned for national suffrage. The film was written, directed, and produced by women and features a nearly all female main cast, including the delectable Angelica Huston. It's kind of amazing that less than 100 years ago, women didn't have the right to vote--and how hard it was to get it. Good job, ladies. and HBO.

As much as the women's rights have been enlarged, equal pay is still not a reality and the glass ceiling remains very real. There's still a lot to do--for both women and men. How are you celebrating women's history month?

Silly Rabbit

2011-03-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

This quarter has kinda been like the final scenes of Kill Bill, Vol. 1--specifically where the Bride kills O-Ren's guards and Gogo. This quarter was hard, but I was laying waste to my assignments--and I got pretty beat up myself. And then it was almost over, and I was like, yeah! this quarter's done. So I relaxed for a bit, and then the Crazy 88 showed up, and I realized my final projects are going to be more involved than I thought. But for a second there, I really thought it was going to be that "easy." So this week I have to go collect myself some arms and then scalp a Tokyo crime boss. Wish me luck!

This and That

2011-03-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

Hello readers!

It's been awhile. School has been punishing, but it's the penultimate week of the quarter, and the finish line is in sight. I cannot wait for spring break, even though that's when Heidi (my roommate) is leaving me. She decided to graduate a quarter early. Lame sauce. Speaking of spring, I hope it comes here soon. Last year, Seattle had the warmest January on record and it was spring all winter. This year winter has been (relatively) brutal--as it has been across the country, and I really shouldn't bitch since I haven't had to deal with massive blizzards. But I think we're all tired of the winter and are looking forward to warmer, sunnier days.

Oscar thoughts: I thought the intro video was really funny and well done. And then it all went downhill from there. James Franco was baked and had no idea where he was--he didn't even have facial expressions! I thought Anne Hathaway was adorable--she's a huge drama nerd but so charming. If you didn't fall in love with her in The Princess Diaries, I can see that she might be off-putting. And she did have to try a bit hard, but only because her co-host gave her nothing. There were no real surprise winners and no interesting speeches. (Do you know who always gives amazing acceptance speeches--Meryl Streep.) What to make of Melissa Leo though. That ad campaign was a mistake, and that speech was all over the place. She's kind of been turning me off lately. I think she took the whole thing a bit too seriously. It was a good performance though. Jacki Weaver also had an amazing performance, and I'm thoroughly delighted by her. I love Natalie, but I really wanted The Bening to win.

I was happy that The Social Network nabbed a few prizes including score, editing, and screenplay. I can't believe Tom Hooper won director--all of the shots in The King's Speech were good, but none of them were interesting. All the other directors were more deserving not only for camerawork but in all the ways they brought the story to life. All of the songs this year were terrible. You don't get Florence Welch to do 30 seconds of I don't even know what that was. Let her run around on stilettos and belt something fun. They should have nominated Cher--it would have made everything more interesting. Finally the most interesting part of the Oscars which sadly didn't make it to TV--Josh Brolin and Javiar Bardem soft-shoe and exchange a playful kiss:

image source

New Subject--Congress: So, I don't want to get into it too much because it makes me so angry, but is Congress declaring a war on the poor and women? A vicious, full-out attack to cut services (thank god we extended the Bush tax cuts) and regress a good 50+ years. Thoughts, comments? Stay classy, congress.

I hope to start blogging more this month as this awful quarter finally ends, and a hopefully better quarter begins.

Life and Other Movies

2011-02-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

My UW planner has weekly words and quotes, and the quotes are generally your usual cookie-cutter wisdom, but this was a quote from Katharine Hepburn a few weeks ago:
"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around wondering about yourself."
So Hepburn's advice isn't all that profound, but it's brusque, and it hit a nerve with me because I've always been more drawn to the life of the mind, and I love wondering (and blogging) about myself. But I'm going to take Kate's advice, and try to live my life a little bit more.

And I hope that being a librarian will be an interesting and enjoyable way to support myself. Someone commented somewhere on Facebook that those who loved law school hate practicing law and vice versa. Maybe this bleeds over to library school, and I'll love being a librarian (because I do not care for this grad school thing). This quarter is rough mostly because I don't like any of my classes, and they all require a lot of work. Also, my part-time job splits my day right up the middle, so that's hard too. But enough bitching--I'm just looking forward to spring quarter.

I have managed to sneak in a few movies when I should be soaking up cataloging theory, but ... well, honestly, which would you prefer? I just saw The King's Speech today which is the leading contender for Best Picture. I think it's a really well-made, if traditional film, that is very Oscar friendly. I laughed, a lot, and I was touched. It is the definition of a feel-good film. We all applauded at the end. I am still rooting for The Social Network to take home the big prize though. (I also think Natalie's going to take home the Oscar for a well-deserved performance, but I'm actually rooting for The Bening.)

I also saw Blue Valentine which was quite good, in a very understated way. It's a travesty that Ryan Gosling wasn't even nominated for Best Actor because he's amazing. Maybe it just wasn't showy enough for the Academy. Anyway, if you're looking for a bruising love story, this is the film for you.

I also saw The Fighter which I thought was fine. It's also traditional Oscar fare--a boxing movie (based on a true story)--but it's done in an excellent way breathing in some fresh air. Amy Adams plays against type as a working class bartender who has let opportunities pass her by. Melissa Leo was excellent as Alice, the larger-than-life mother. Christian Bale does crazy things to his body. And almost no one is talking about Mark Wahlberg, but I think he gives the best performance of the film (and of his career). It's to O. Russell's credit that he gets such a diverse range of performances that somehow all work together.

Moving now to stuff on DVD. I saw the Joan River's documentary A Piece of Work. It's fascinating, funny, and real. It's an in-depth look at Joan Rivers, warts and all, and a revealing look at the business we call show.

The Town is really good heist movie, and who know Ben Affleck was still doing things? I didn't. Jeremy Renner is superb, playing a wild card with a short fuse. I also really like Rebecca Hall who I think is beautiful in a fresh sort of way and also quite good.

Animal Kingdom. Wow. I wasn't sure I was going to like this gritty, menacing film about an Australian crime family. But it's a mesmerizing film--you can't look away even when you want to, and it's very well-paced. Ben Mendelsohn is terrifying, and Jackie Weaver is superb, especially in the second half, as the sociopathic matriarch of the family.

The Ghostwriter was good little thriller from Roman Polanski that came out very early last year. Ewan McGregor is ghosting the British primer minister's memoirs and soon gets in over his head. Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt) steals the show.

Finally Winter's Bone is a faithful adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's slim novel about a tenacious teenager who must protect her family in the Ozarks. And now I'm going to watch the brilliant Tilda Swinton in the operatic I Am Love. I'll let you know how it is.

Good luck to everyone with school and life--and go see a movie!

Music for Your Weekend

2011-01-27T23:05:00.000-08:00

So it's Thursday night which means tomorrow is Friday and the weekend begins. Big whoop. My weekends are always full of portfolio, cataloging, and gov pubs. I hate the weekend. I hate this quarter. I hate school. So how's your life going?

Anyway, here are three songs I've been listening to lately, and I offer them here for your edification and/or delight.

"The Book of Love" by the Magnetic Fields

You may be familiar with the more famous Peter Gabriel cover, but I prefer the original vocal stylings of Stephin Merrit. Sorry the video's a little (lot) creepy, but it's the only decent one I could find. I love, love this song! It's probably my favorite love song. ever. "The book of love is long and boring / And written very long ago / It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes / And things we're all too young to know."

"Harrisburg" by Josh Ritter

I'm going to see Josh Ritter again this February (well, I'm planning on it). From his second album, "Harrisburg" is the latest Ritter I've downloaded, and from what I can gather, it's one he always plays live. I think he's just one of the greatest American folk singers working today. "Some say that man is the root of all evil / Others say God's a drunkard for pain / Me, I believe that the Garden of Eden / Was burned to make way for a train."

"This Year" by The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats "This Year" from A Bruntel on Vimeo.

You may have heard a clip from this song from last week's This American Life episode. The song's kind of weird--as is the video--but I can really get behind the chorus: "I am going make it through this year / If it kills me." I'm going to make it through this quarter, and another one, graduation and finding a job, moving--it might kill me, but I'm going to make it through 2011.

Bonus Song
For those who'd like a little musical number, here's Elaine Stritch (aka Colleen Donaghy) singing "Ladies Who Lunch" from the Sondheim musical Company in which she originated the role Joanne. She masterfully walks the line between comedy and bitterness.

"And here's to the girls who just watch / Aren't they the best? / I'll drink to that!

Well I hope you all have a lovely weekend--hopefully not doing homework--but if you are, I commiserate.

A Few GG Thoughts

2011-01-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to do a full recap of last night's show--for that you can read the live blogs of The Film Experience and/or IMDb.Here a just few thoughts.

Since I don't have television I had to stream it live which took a while to get going, so I missed the first few minutes. I also drank a whole bottle of Domaine Ste. Michelle blanc de noirs which is a sparkling wine I can finally get behind.

Ricky Gervais killed it last year, and I was so excited he would be hosting again. Shame, shame, shame on you, Ricky. You were not funny, just rude. I would like to join IMDb in hoping that Robert Downey, Jr. might like to host next year.

I have not seen The Fighter yet, but everyone says it's amazing. I must see it before the Oscars.

Chris Colfer wins for Glee, and is just adorable! LOVED it so much! Lea Michelle cries all night. Jane Lynch also win for Sue. And Glee wins Best TV Series--Comedy or Musical, and I'm sorry, but even though I like the show for it's glitzy musical numbers, the show long threw out things like story lines and character development.

IMDb writes, "Andrew Garfield presents 'The Social Network' but gets totally tangled on the word 'inspiringly' because, well, it's not a word." But he's so cute we don't even care! The Social Network wins four prizes including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), and Best Original Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). All very deserved in my opinion. If you haven't seen it, go; it's still playing. I'm waiting till it hits the dollar theater to see it again.

Pixar cannot be stopped, and Toy Story 3 wins Best Animated Feature. I liked it, but I preferred How to Train Your Dragon which is just as good as anything Pixar's done.

Annette Bening wins for the (seemingly) effortless The Kids Are All Right. Natatlie Portman wins for her bravura performance in Black Swan. They both gave excellent speeches and will be dueling for the Oscar, and I can't decide which one I want to win more. The Kids Are All Right also wins Best Picture Comedy, and it would have been a travesty if it didn't. Yay!

Tina Fey and Steve Carrell are very funny presenters. Maybe Tina Fey should host! How good is she off-the-cuff though?

Paul Giamatti bests Johnny Depp and Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal's ass for some movie I've never heard of: Barney's Version. Good for Paul.

And Colin Firth wins for The King's Speech which I haven't seen yet either. Clearly, I have a lot of movies to see before the Oscars.

Anyway, Gervais wasn't very funny, most of the winners earned it, and there were very few surprise moments. But I was very drunk, so I had a very good time with lots of clapping that drove my roommate insane. What did you think?

On the Verge

2011-01-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks of 2010, I had a really good feeling about 2011. Ya know, that it was going to be my year. Well my school is trying to kill me, and all my warm fuzzy feelings towards the new decade (do we start with 1 and end with 10 or do we start with 0 and end with 9?) have evanesced. Also, they just changed the Zodiac on us, and now I'm supposed to be a Cancer. What?!? I was a Leo (born in the year of the Tiger) and I felt very feline. Now, apparently, I am a crustacean. That's a big change to spring on a guy on a Thursday.

Remember how I thought that last quarter was going to be my hardest quarter it was all going to get easier from then on out? Well, I do. But my new quarter is a beast--it makes last quarter look like...I don't know, something really easy--and there is going to be a lot of bitching. Here, on Facebook, to my roommate, and even to my apartment when nobody's there.

Three of my classes are online which doesn't help since that makes me responsible for setting aside time for lectures and readings and online posts. It's much better for me to have a set class time when I just have to be there. Highly functional and motivated people will just say that I should set aside certain hours on certain days for homework, but that's just not the way it works. Sorry.

I am taking Cataloging, which is actually an elective and not a required class. Can you believe it? Professors and alums--who are NOT catalogers--continually say that it is hard and not fun but that one must absolutely take it. I think librarians are sadists. I, apparently, am a masochist.

I am also taking Portfolio which is my culminating experience like writing a thesis or doing a capstone, but it's actually not like doing those things because it is a portfolio. I haven't even started this class, but the first module is due on Sunday--the same day as the Golden Globes! Hosted by Ricky Gervais! My cataloging labs are also due on Sunday. Do they not know?! Do they not care!? WTF, iSchool? There are important things like library students learning cataloging and preparing portfolios so they can get jobs, and then there are really important things like award shows where celebrities get drunk.

I am also taking a government documents class which is my only in-class class, and is kind of my filler class (because there are practically no electives offered this quarter!) that I don't really care about. Honestly, I don't care about any of my classes. The instructor is really nice, but there's a lot of work slogging through gov pubs, so it's not a very easy filler class.

Finally, I'm taking a one-credit pass/fail database class using Access. I figure it's a good idea to have a tiny bit of knowledge about databases and Access. The first module was pretty easy, so currently it's my favorite course.

I want to say my next and last quarter will be easy peasy. I will be done with all my core classes, cataloging, and my culminating experience. It could just be Nancy Pearl, XML intro, directed fieldwork, and yoga. Isn't it pretty to think so? But if my last five quarters as a library student have taught me anything, it's that each quarter is worse and harder than one before. Somebody kill me now.

On a side note: go see Black Swan. It's so intense! You definitely need to see it theaters because it is partly spectacle. However, it's pretty visceral, so if you're squeamish, you may want to avoid it.

Holiday Highlights

2011-01-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

It's January 10th already? Where does the time go? Here's just a brief recap of my two-week break for my own records and just in case you happen to be interested.

On Thursday, Dec. 17 I finished 544--the worst class ever--and packed my bags which still had clothes in them from when I moved back in August. Don't judge me. Then on Friday morning I flew away home to beautiful, frozen Utah. I seem to have brought the Pacific Northwest with me, however, because soon all the snow melted and it rained and the sky was gray. Festive.

On Saturday my family got up early for breakfast at the Sunshine Cafe which happened to be full, so we downgraded to Denny's instead. After scarfing down some grand slams, we made our way out to the Hale Centre Theatre for A Christmas Carol which was very well done and the stage effects were very nice. And in the end, Scrooge learned the true meaning of socialism, I mean Christmas.

Later that night, I went to Megan's wedding which was not at all themed like Joe Versus the Volcano, but Megan made a lovely bride anyway, and I got to see some high school friends. Then Eric (the groom) threw the garter to the only two bachelors in the room which included myself. Oh, Utah.

On Sunday I went to Apartment Christmas with my college friends (and some new ones that I didn't know) even though none of us really live in apartments anymore. Ellen made me an apron--tres chic--Val got me hot cocoa and wrote me the most beautiful note, Chris/Tina got me a gift card, and Matt and Dixy gave me stuff they got for free. We also went to Temple Square and sang carols and stuff like that.

On Tuesday it was the solstice which meant we could all go dance naked in the freezing cold or sing karaoke indoors where it's warm and there is alcohol, so we went with that plan. Elise and Justin B. sang beautifully, and then I sang "Fuck and Run" which did not go well since I do not have a beautiful singing voice to begin with and am tone deaf too. But I was drunk so I didn't even care. Yay, Solstice.

On Wednesday, Ellen and I watched Love Actually, as is we are wont, with Justin A. and Daniel. O Love Actually, you have so many plot lines, quite a few plot holes, and we love you dearly.

I got sick the next morning with a minor cold. Bah humbug!

Then one day it was Christmas morning, and even though my brother and sister got up at seven as per family tradition, I slept in a whole extra hour. And I made out like a freakin' bandit. I already wrote a love letter to my Roku player. I am very pleased with The New Best Recipe cookbook even though it is sometimes very judgmental. I got a Nancy Pearl action figure with amazing shushing action! which I used on my family. I got an external hard-drive so I won't cry if my computer dies and all my songs are gone (also to back up important school files), an Edith Piaf collection, a new watch, lots of gift cards, and more. My sister and brother-in-law came later and gave me a risotto cookbook and risotto rice which they bought on the Internet since apparently Logan grocers do not stock arborio. I barely managed to shove all my loot in my suitcases.

My family also got a Blu-Ray player and lots of Blu-Ray movies, and I have to say I wasn't super impressed. It was nice and all, but it didn't blow my mind.

On Sunday the extended famdamily showed up which made our house very crowded. And we ate a huge feast and then exchanged more presents. Goodness gracious.

The next day, Elise hosted her Festivus party which was low-key and charming, and everyone got obsessed with the fake snow--like the stuff they use in movies. Elise also made super delicious party food.

Sometime during the week when I wasn't busy reading The Passage or The House of Mirth or watching Battlestar Galactica, the family went out to eat at The Mandarin--best Chinese restaurant in Utah! Yum. And on Wednesday I went to Village Inn with Jessica which also happened to be free pie day, so that was awesome. and I drank coffee for the first time in over a week, and my heart went pitter-patter.

Friday was New Year's Eve--at which point the freezing weather had returned with a vengeance--and I went downtown to the Broadway sing-along with Elise and Justin A. and then we got dinner at Applebee's. I left them to join Elise in her kitchen sink with a couple of bottles of Cava that I bought at my beloved SLC wine store, and we rang in 2011. This is us.

Now Megan has hosted New Year's for the last eight(?) year, but now she's all married and currently in Texas, so . . . yeah. She stole New Year's, like the Grinch, with the lemon water and the Little Smokies, and we just had to make do somehow with the broken pieces of our shattered lives.

On Saturday, I went to Barnes & Noble with Kristen P. We browsed and talked and caught up on life and school and wedding plans (hers, not mine), so that was lovely.

Then it was Sunday, and after a lovely home-cooked dinner, and a round of billiards, I was hurtling back to Seattle on a jet plane--after it was severely delayed. And Heidi, who went to bed at 7 on New Year's Eve--because she is already an old person--picked me up at 11 at night which was way past her bedtime. Once I got home, I unpacked my bags, and that was that.

Top Ten

2011-01-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

I just saw Easy A again. Love it! so much. Anyway, some of my friends asked for my top books list of 2010, and before I forget, I want to post it here.

This is in the order that I read them and not the order of how much I liked it:

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
(I love his short story collections!)

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
(a reread and still my favorite YA novel)

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
(one of the most inventive contemporary novels I've read lately)

Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges
(I did a review of this back in April--a very important book)

The Absolute Sandman vol. 3 by Neil Gaiman
(absolutely love The Sandman)

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
(an interesting novel / critique of Harry Potter)

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
(it is as good as everyone says--read it if you haven't already)

Fun Home by Alison Bechdale
(a tragicomic graphic memoir about her identity as a lesbian and her fraught relationship with her father bound together with books)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
(a classic of sci-fi and the basis for Bladerunner)

Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee
(my favorite Batman comic)

And I have two alternates which are books that I started to read and didn't finish--but not because they weren't good. One was overdue at the library, and I didn't finish the other one before school started up again.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
(will make you hate Big Agriculture and fall in love with agrarianism)
The Iliad by Homer translated by Robert Fagles
(a modern, readable translation of the greatest war epic in Western literature)

So there you go. What were your favorite reads of 2010?

Do Nothing Day

2011-01-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year people, but enough of that. It's the first day of the quarter and I've already said goodbye to productivity, hello do-nothingness!

I mean I did wake up early.ish. I mean what is early anyway? And then I went to work. For three whole hours! And I just got back from grocery shopping. That was expensive. So I've done things. I even checked my gd email. And right now I'm writing this blog--you're welcome.

But before that, I set up my Roku player! It was one of my Christmas presents--the best Christmas present ever! (There will be another post about holiday highlights. Later.) Right now I'm streaming Netflix on my television! We live in a magical, magical world people. All my fears and anxieties about technology have suddenly disappeared. I just watched like eight episodes of 30 Rock.

So basically school can rot in hell, because now that I can stream TV shows onto my TV--I may never leave my apartment again. Ever. And later tonight I'm going to watch The Thin Man on DVD (from Netflix) with a martini. I get two DVDs at a time--I may need to drop it to just one. But there are so many movies I need to see for the Golden Globes and the Oscars!, many of which are already out on DVD, others are not--like Black Swan which I am DYING to see. I should go this weekend.

I didn't get any DVDs for Christmas because I didn't ask for any, except for Tori Amos Live at Montreaux (which I did get). So then I felt a little sad and ordered 10 movies I love and 2 seasons of Will & Grace. It's going to be a great quarter.

After I spend all day in front of the TV, I'm going to need time to read my GQ and Entertainment Weekly and then some more to study some poetry, so I think I'll just have to shunt my cataloging reading and lectures. You can't say I don't have priorities.

I iz sick :(

2010-12-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

I seem to have developed a cold over the night. Combined with dog allergies, my body has rejected my nose. or something.

So I need to go to the store and get myself some Cold-Eeze, Ricola, and herbal tea so I can be awesome instead.

Blerg

2010-12-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

Why can I write a four-page blog post (though I know you wish I couldn't) easy peasy lemon squeezy, but I can't write more than one paragraph at at time on my major paper? It's difficult, difficult lemon difficult.

Maybe I have adult ADD. or ADHD.

Do you ever just listen to your entire iTunes library on shuffle? It's fascinating the songs you forget you have.

My coffee has been laced with Kahlua. Watch out world!

I'm OK, You're OK

2010-12-07T21:42:00.000-08:00

I decided to make a finals playlist that I will be playing as I prepare for my imminent psychotic breakdown: I think I might call it "The Depths of Despair." (and this is my explicit language warning. yay.)

"iieee" by Tori Amos
"well, I know we're dying / and there's no sign of parachute"
it's sort of like my theme song

"The Perfect Fit" by The Dresden Dolls
"Can't you just do it for me, I'll pay you well / Fuck, I'll pay you anything, if you could end this" I'm good for nothing too.

"Eight Easy Steps" by Alanis Morissette
to fuck up your life
"How to keep smiling when you're thinking of killing yourself"

"Livin' On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
The title pretty much says it all.

"Woman Like a Man" by Damien Rice
"I need a piss / Wanna hate / Fuck it up / Come"

"Kiss With a Fist" by Florence and the Machine
My quarter is trying to kill me--it will probably end in our mutual destruction:
"You smashed a plate over my head / Then I set fire to our bed"

"Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
Because I'm running up a hill, and if anyone wants to swap places, you can steal this moment from me.

"Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" by The Killers
and I'll drink it by myself.

"Mind's Eye" by Josh Ritter
"My day might be coming, but yours is coming first / I'll knock you out of your day lights"

"Help I'm Alive" by Metric
Again, the title says it all. But here's more:
"If I stumble / They're going to eat me alive"

"Hero" by Regina Spektor
"I'm the hero of this story / Don't need to be saved"

"Mr. Zebra" by Tori Amos
"Ratatouille strychnine / Sometimes she's a friend of mine"
There are some people I would to whom I would like to serve this dish.

To those who have finals--good luck to us. To everyone else, you suck.

Brilliant!

2010-12-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

This is my friend Raye's wreath made by her friend/neighbor. I love it! One Christmas, not this year but soon, I will make my own. Happy Christmas!

More Book Lust

2010-12-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I finished Collection Development. Our final assignment was turned in and we gave our presentation. There are a few more presentations next week--I plan on bringing a thermos of rum with some eggnog or maybe coffee with Kahlua.

Today I finished my genre advisory class with Nancy Pearl. Tear. We discussed science fiction and fantasy. Fantasy is probably the genre I am the most familiar with. As a young'n I read The Chronicles of Narnia (which I don't think hold up very well as an adult). Later in elementary school I read The Book of Three and then finished up The Chronicles of Prydain. In junior high I started The Belgariad by David Eddings and then continued with The Malloreon. After that I read most of the Shannara books by Terry Brooks. During this time the Harry Potter books were coming out as well (I don't really care for the last three). In ninth grade my English class read The Hobbit, and in high school I read The Lord of the Rings as the movies were coming out. In high school and college I mostly left fantasy behind as I read more "literary" books. I say "literary" because readers' advisory is not about being an English critic; it's about matching books with readers. (So hard!) At the end of college I started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. And the summer before grad school I read Little, Big which I'll talk about in just a minute.

For fantasy I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I've already discussed. Here is my annotation: "Richard Mayhew is an unlikely hero whose ordinary life has left him unprepared to deal with the shadowy underbelly of London--a dangerous subterranean world that exists beneath the gaps of the city."

I haven't read all that much science fiction. I do seem to watch a lot of sci-fi movies and TV shows though. Science fiction are often novels of ideas, which make them ripe for discussion. I really enjoyed reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, once I got going, though I couldn't really tell you why except that it's a Philip K. Dick novel. I do look forward to watching Blade Runner. Here's my annotation: "Before there were Cylons, there were Androids, and Rick Deckard retired them for a bounty. As he hunts down the latest model, he must confront his own ideas of empathy, morality, and what it means to be human."

And then I book talked Little, Big by John Crowley, which went pretty well if I say so myself. Here's basically what I said.

Imagine you are a stranger in your own life and to your own family. That is the fate of Smokey Barnable who knows his wife's family thinks they talk to faeries, but he doesn't believe a word of it.

Little, Big is the history of this singular family who live on the border of another realm. It is a secret history of America. And it is a very great love story.

In this novel the reader will:
visit Edgewood which is not to be found on any map
learn Brother North-Wind's secret
build a house made of memory
and discover the enigmatic plans of the faerie's parliament

With intricate design and dense, gorgeous prose, Crowley works his magic on us. I believe this is not a novel to read once but to get lost in over and over. Ursula Le Guin warns "Persons who enter this book are advised that they will leave it a different size than when they came in."

So you should all go buy and read Little, Big which was actually out-of-print for a while. In terms of the best fiction written in the last fifty years, this is near the top of my list.

To finish this whole thing I want to reproduce some of Roz Kaveney's thoughts about genre. This is from a review of Little, Big called "Wit and Terror" that was published in Books and Bookmen:

"Fiction consoles, but it also disturbs, awakes unease. There are questions that have to continually be asked and fiction is one of the best ways to pose them; not least because, truthfully, its answers have to provisional and conditional. The genre and subdivisions of the novel have their obsessional questions and their usual answers; one way of judging the basic seriousness of a piece of genre fiction has to do not so much with the originality of its solutions as with the strenuousness of the efforts it takes to come to the standard ones. The thriller for example has its traditional great Matters—for example, the questions “Can a just man be nurtured by a fundamentally unjust society? Nurtured thus, can he build justice within it?” The regular answer of the thriller is yes; the best thrillers show the price the avenger has to pay as being more than a sap across the back of the ear or a bullet through the windscreen. The campus novel has its conflict of abstract knowledge and institutional power; the novel of life among the urban intelligentsia has its search for balance between sexual equality and sexual justice; so-called hard science fiction has its demonstration that by natural grace and scientific ingenuity you can escape the deaths the universe has in store.

"And the fantasy novel? Too often critics have taken as the sole and crucial matter of fantasy the preoccupation of Tolkien, the quest for a remedy to the world’s pain that will not destroy innocence with the temptations of power. Impressive and popular as The Lord of the Rings is, it manages it landscapes, vast green-leaved or slag-heaped vistas of pathetic fallacy and implied morality, far better than its people: it leaves the impression that important issues have been turned by sleight of hand and Georgian prettiness into questions of good and bad practice in urban planning and rural conservation. After all, the Grail is only worth seeking is you can believe in a god who put it there to help those who help themselves, in an Avalon to which burned-out heroes can retire with dignity. There is another great Matter for fantasy, one of more obvious resonance for the creative artist—the reconciliation of faerie and humanity; of the passion, power, and wit of a world of sensuality, magic, and danger with the requirements of a kind and ordinary life."

(Two more weeks. Two more classes. The end is in sight.)

10 Things

2010-12-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

Thursdays are the worst. It's the end of a long day at the end of long week at the end of a long quarter. Blerg.

That brings us to my ten things (stolen from a running series by MaryPosa):

1) School makes me sad. At the end of my three hour class tonight I wanted to jab my pencil into my brain. Two more weeks . . . I may die. Mostly I'm just exhausted.

2) Eating hot Dick's. Sometimes one just needs greasy, empty calories to make the pain go away.

3) The Jack Rose. Fast food and alcohol are a magical, magical combination. The Jack Rose is currently one of my favorite cocktails. Take 2 ounces of Applejack (Laird's is the only company that makes this apple liquor; French Calvados is also acceptable). Add an ounce of fresh lime juice, and a half ounce of grenadine (I make my own from pomegranate juice and sugar). Shake it over ice and pour into a coktail glass. Delicious town! GQ says it's the booziest cocktail you'll drink five of. My day is much better, by the way.

4) Kind things said by others about oneself. It's very gratifying and humbling. We're always so inside our own heads, that's it's always refreshing to hear what others think about us, especially when it's the good stuff.

5) I really need a manicure. I was introduced to this cosmetic treatment by Slarue and Rae. My nails were so pretty! Now they're dull and ragged. But who will go to the salon with me?

6) Speaking of cosmetics, my skin is looking pretty good. It's probably all that money I'm spending on strange chemicals and then applying them to my largest organ. Oh, and helpful tips from acne.org like using a featherlight touch and avoiding scrubs. One day I might like to try a more natural oil regimen (oil dissolves oil after all), but I'm afeard for my skin.

7) I finished reading Neverwhere. It's only the second Neil Gaiman novel I've read. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I think Gaiman's a great storyteller but not as great a writer (he's still pretty damn good). I think The Sandman is genius and I love his short stories, but something in the execution of his novels is lacking. Now I'm reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I'm really liking it.

8) I'm betting most of you have seen the Xtranormal videos. Here's one called Library School: Hurts So Good.

There's also a pretty good one about getting a PhD in the humanities. It makes me laugh. and cry.

9) Now that I have a job where I can listen to my iPod again, I have reunited with my podcasts (and it feels so good!). Listening to TBTL, This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, The Weeklings, Selected Shorts, and Planet Money makes work a lot better. I'm also more connected to current events. Win win!

10) Tina Fey is a comedy goddess. She was recently awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. It was broadcast on PBS. You should at least watch her acceptance speech. You can see video here.

My New Favorite Thing

2010-11-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last week I was mildly obsessed with The Pioneer Woman, particularly the cooking part. She has just been dethroned though by Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half. But don't fret Pioneer Woman, your considerable use of butter will always draw me back.

Hyperbole and a Half is a blog that is illustrated by Allie's cartoon drawings. It's a perfect storm of well-told, hilarious stories replete with amazing cartoon drawings. I always have a case of the giggles as Heidi could tell you. It's just the funniest site I've read in a very long while.

The first post I read dealt with moving and how that affected her two dogs, neither of which have coping mechanisms of any kind. Dogs, they're so funny!

Once I discovered this website, I didn't do anything else with my weekend. Some of my other favorite posts include The God of Cake in which a young Allie is psychotically consumed with the need to consume an entire cake. I relate entirely too well with This is Why I'll Never be an Adult. And then there's Spiders: "Spiders are little pieces of death wrapped in scary." So true. And this image had me laughing so hard I almost died. No seriously, very strange gurgles started coming from my throat and I almost stopped breathing.

So happy Monday everyone. Good luck getting anything done.

Christmas Time is Here

2010-11-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

I mentioned last week that is was snowing here Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't sticking. Well, I woke up Monday morning to a winter wonderland. of two inches. And Seattle freaked out. I was working at the library Monday afternoon, when it was announced that campus would be closing operations at 5 pm. So I got on a bus and it took forever to get home in the snow. Then it was announced that operations would be suspended for Tuesday. Snow day! Sometimes, you gotta love Seattle. Campus was supposed to be open back up on Wednesday, but they decided to keep it closed at the 11th hour. Snow day number two! And then it was the holiday weekend--I haven't been to class in over a week. And I don't want to go back.

Well the temperature has climbed a little and the snow has (mostly) melted. Thanksgiving is over, which means we can talk about other things--like how many movies I want to see in theaters (Black Swan!). Love and Other Drugs was all right. The main selling point is nudity--Jake said he and Anne are naked like 65% of the film. Yup. And they're gorgeous, so who loses out? Their chemistry (and bodies) are the best part of the movie which is otherwise a fairly traditional romantic comedy. She's terminally ill, he's a player, they have hot sex--no strings attached--but then they get attached.

I just updated my Netflix queue for maximum holiday cheeri(less)ness First up is The Ice Storm which I actually think takes place at Thanksgiving. Following is A Charlie Brown Christmas to remind us all of the true meaning of Christmas. and that great Peanuts dance. Next up we have The Family Stone. I kinda want to say it's my secret shame, but I've only seen it once before. Then we have Eulogy which is black family comedy. I kinda wanted to see Everybody's Fine when it came out last year, but I didn't. And then we have The Apartment which is one of my favorite films and is somewhat Christmas-y. To top it off there's The Dead, John Huston's final film adapted from a James Joyce short story which actually takes place at Epiphany (which is in January). And my roommate has Love Actually which is my favorite Christmas movie of them all. What movies do you break out in December?

Last month I tracked down my two favorite Christmas songs which are both Tori Amos rarities: "Little Drummer Boy" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Amazing. I also love "River"--I have the original Joni Mitchell version and an amazing Allison Crowe cover. Crowe also has an excellent cover of "Hallelujah." Brandi Carlile's "The Heartache Can Wait" is one of my new favorites from last year (thanks Megan!). Also on the Hotel Cafe album is "Winter Song" and "Auld Lang Syne." "Song for a Winter's Night" by Sarah McLachlan is also lovely. Weezer does a great upbeat version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Holy Night," a couple of personal favorites. Sufjan Stevens also does a good version of "O Holy Night" and I enjoy his original "Get Behind Me, Santa!" The classic Crosby & Bowie duet "Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)" is one of my favorites. Add to that "A Great Big Sled" by The Killers. "The Holly and the Ivy" is one of my favorite carols, but I don't have a smashing version of it. Frowny face. Throw into that Martha Wainwright's "How Soon" (not actually a Christmas song) and Diana Krall's "Christmastime is Here," and you have a pretty good playlist. Favorite Christmas songs?

Happy Holidays Everybody!

The Day After Yesterday

2010-11-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for my roommate Heidi who did almost all the dishes from yesterday's feast.

Only Cameron and Chloe came over, but that did not deter me from making a feast. We were small in numbers but had enough food to feed an army. My thinking was that you can never have too much food at Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving leftovers are the best leftovers of all.

I started taking some pictures of the food but then I forgot, so this post will not be illustrated. If you would like to see what the food (mostly) looked like, you can go to The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It is my new favorite blog and is where I got most of my recipes this year. Besides, she's a better cook and photographer than I.

On Tuesday I first made cranberry sauce which I do every year. Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce is a sad state of affairs. On Wednesday night I made an apple de leche pie (oh my!) and then proceeded to eat the rest of the dulce de leche from the can.

I bought a 6+ lb turkey breast and brined the bird for over 24 hours. The meat was very moist, but I don't know that the flavor was exceptional. This was my first year roasting a turkey--I had to buy a meat thermometer!--but I think it went pretty well. The nice thing about a small bird is that it only took around 3 hours to cook. The sad thing about buying a turkey breast is that there's no dark meat.

On Thursday morning I started the Parker House rolls. I thought about halving the recipe, but opted against that. It made about a bajillion rolls. Well the recipe says 36, but I think we got more than that. But rolls are the best!

Then I made homemade stuffing which was basically a cubed baguette topped with onion and celery sauteed in butter and boiled with herbs and vegetable broth. It was actually quite good.

While the turkey was resting, I made gravy from the drippings. This was my first time making meat gravy, but it turned out all right, I think. While this was all happening, Heidi made a pumpkin spice cake (Heidi once had a bad experience with pumpkin pie, so this was not allowed), mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole.

Cameron and Chloe brought us some cranberry bread and sparkling Pinot Noir. It was delicious--after it was gone, we had some Washington State Merlot and New Zealand Suavignon Blanc. Tasty! And since Heidi doesn't drink, this equated to a bottle per person. After dinner was done, but before dessert, we played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. Chloe won of course. She recently auditioned for Jeopardy, and may get a call any day to be on the show. I almost got a third wedge, but I answered Julie Kristeva instead of Julie Christie. Similar names; very different people. I blame the wine.

After they had left, and I was quite drunk, I had to finish an assignment that was due that night. On Thanksgiving! Evil. And the assignment was evil. It was a lot of work about web crawlers--something I understand at a very minimal level. The hardest part was going to open source crawlers and trying to find certain architecture features. I just made stuff up.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday this year. How did it go? What are you thankful for?

Once I finish the dishes, I'm going to catch a matinee of Love and Other Drugs. I'll report back. I'll also give a rundown of my holiday playlist.

Olio

2010-11-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

"Olio" and "oleo" are frequent solutions to the USA Today Crossword puzzle. I like that online crossword puzzle cause it's free and easy--if you enter the wrong letters it will let you know, so it's easy to cheat.

Three weeks ago or so, I had several blog post ideas, and I was going to write them just as soon as I had time. Foolish me. Now the ideas have evanesced from my mind.

So this is just to say "Hey! How's it going? What's up?"

School is kicking my butt. I hate information retrieval systems--the class mostly, sometimes the actual systems. There's lots of maths involved. I've never hated math before, I was even kind of good at math especially when I had a good teacher, but that's all over now.

In my management class, I have to write a memo letting employees know that shift might hit the fan (I don't know anything about anything and might not have a job myself), but I have to reassure everyone and keep them working. I want to write "Run for you lives! We're all going to die!" But that might set the wrong tone.

Collection development is the class that causes the entire cohort to go out drinking afterward and bond that way and over Facebook status(es). But our final assignment--in which groups have to write a selection policy--is almost done. Did I say almost done? because I meant almost due.

Yesterday in Nancy Pearl's class we talked about Westerns and whether that's even a viable term anymore. Maybe regional literature is a better definition instead. I already mentioned that I read Shane and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. In two weeks we'll discuss fantasy and science fiction. I currently have Neverwhere, Dune, Sunshine, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and The Passage sitting on my table. We'll see which ones I read/finish.

It was snowing earlier today. It just stopped. For about ten minutes it was snowing pretty hard and even momentarily sticking. It might continue to snow throughout today and tomorrow.

Right now I'm thinking up my Thanksgiving Feast. It might only end up being me and my roommate. All our friends that we invited are going home. My roommate's vegetarian, but I'm still going to look for a really small turkey. I might end up getting a chicken instead, like Chandler (and we be watching all the Thanksgiving Friends episodes). I found this brining recipe via Megan, and really want to try it. I will be making cranberry sauce (it's tradition!), and I need to find some bottles of wine.

I also bought my plane tickets home yesterday, which means I can go to Megan's wedding and apartment Christmas and Elise's party. I can't wait!

So that's what I've been up to. Next week I hope to post my holiday playlist--ho ho ho!

Book Lust: A Really Long Book Post

2010-11-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I promised a post on the books I was reading in Nancy Pearl's (librarian extraordinaire) readers' advisory class where we are taking on genre fiction. We discussed whether or not genre was a useful term--there was much debate--and we read a short essay by Ursula LeGuin called "On Despising Genres." Most of us thought that calling a book genre fiction or even saying that it "transcends genre" places a value call on it--which as librarians we want to avoid (but as a critic...). However, we were not sure if interfiling so-called genre books with "regular" fiction would be helpful for our users (and us) or not.

We started with mysteries and thrillers. I read Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie for my traditional mystery. It was my first Christie (and possibly my last). It was a fine book, but not really my cup of tea. Nancy likes to say there are four doorways to a book: story(/plot?), setting, character, and language. One classmate believes there is a fifth doorway--idea (like a philosophical novel, perhaps). Now most books will have components of all four doorways, but will primarily utilize one or two. And most readers have one or two doorways that they prefer to read. I like books that focus on characters and are beautifully written. Hello Shakespeare! Story and setting are generally secondary to me. So Orient Express is entirely a story book where Hercule Poirot sits back and solves a mystery like a puzzle. Mysteries after all are essentially intellectual books. I will say the solution to the murder was unusual, and I didn't see it coming at all.

For each book we read, we are supposed to provide a brief annotation, basically what you would see under staff recommendations. A one to two sentence review that teases the potential reader while staying true to the tone of the book. Here was my annotation for Murder on the Orient Express: "Get stranded on the fabled Orient Express with a cast of international passengers and follow Hercule Poirot at his finest while he tries to solve a seemingly impossible murder mystery with an unexpected ending." It's not a very exciting annotation.

For my contemporary crime novel, I read the international sensation The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the original Swedish title translates to Men Who Hate Women). I am boggled by why this is such a popular book. I think the pacing is really uneven which is critical for a thriller; it's probably why I didn't find it very thrilling. I don't think it's well plotted which is perhaps less of a story problem and more of a narratological issue. The setting, in Sweden, is perhaps the best element of the book. Sweden, as presented in the novel, is a very different place than I am used to, and it flavors the whole work. There are two central characters: the journalist Blomqvist, who is really boring (though he somehow has lots of sex), and the (possibly autistic) sociopath and hacker Lisbeth Salander. Salander is a much more interesting person, but I don't quite buy her as a fully developed character. Maybe this is due to her autism and sociopathy (things I don't fully understand), or perhaps that she is a male fantasy, as one of my friends thinks. The language is technically proficient, but it's very literal--lacking any literary devices or figurative langauge. That may just be the translator's issue. Many of my classmates objected to the strong violence portrayed in the work, but I generally don't have an issue with fictional violence portrayed through the written word. Last night I just watched the Swedish film, and it possibly did less for me than the book.

My annotation: "In this shocking and violent crime thriller, a journalist and computer hacker join forces to solve one prominent family's mystery only to uncover a larger conspiracy of corporate corruption." If you've read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, what did you think? Like or dislike? I have to say that most of my classmates enjoyed this book (as well as millions of people worldwide). Opposed to intellectual mysteries, thrillers focus on adrenaline and the emotional impact built on a series of escalating and life-threatening events. So do you guys read mysteries or thrillers? If so, do you have any titles you would suggest?

Our next session was about romance novels. The list of traditional romances included such classics as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. The Regency romance novels of Georgette Heyer were also included and Rebecca which I chose to read. It was a good novel, but I didn't think it was very romantic. Basically a young, unsophisticated woman marries an older and wealthy widower, Max de Winters, and goes to live with him at the estate of Manderley. The titular Rebecca was the first Mrs. de Winters, recently deceased, who by all accounts was beautiful, sophisticated, and charming. The unnamed protagonist is haunted by the memory of Rebecca, but things really get cooking 2/3 of the way through the novel. It was an interesting book, and I'm excited to see the Hitchcock film. Supposedly it's among the least of his works, but it's his only film to win Best Picture. My annotation reads: "At the grand estate of Manderley, the young Mrs. de Winter must contend with a menacing housekeeper, a distant husband, and the ghostly presence of his first wife, Rebecca."

Then we discussed modern romance novels. Oh boy. I read My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne. I was so opposed to reading one, that I ended up pleasantly surprised. Sadly(?) I didn't finish the book, but the writing was much better than I was expecting, and the lead female character, Jess, was feisty and headstrong. (Apparently the writing goes downhill and Jess becomes a much weaker character in the second half). There was plenty of sexual tension from the very beginning, but I never got to the part where they ended up in bed together. There are two features of every romance novel: a central love story between two characters and a satisfactorily happy outcome. (Also, there is lots of sex.) There is also a surfeit of sub-genres. For example, my novel took place in London during the Napoleonic Wars. Here's my annotation: "Follow the headstrong Jess Whitby as she navigates London's seedy underbelly to clear her father of treason. Standing in the way is the rakish Captain Kennett who has his own plans for Jess and may lead to her undoing." I wanted to finish the book, but there was other homework and it was overdue at the library, but I think a got a good snapshot. It also made me think there might be something to romance novels.

Then we got to graphic novels, and I read a bunch from the class list which was divided into superhero comics and more "literary" ones. My roommate and I both read Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, and my roommate developed a huge crush on Superman. I've always been more of a Batman guy myself, so I read Year One and The Dark Knight Returns both my Frank Miller. Year One is pretty good, but I really disliked The Dark Knight Returns (where Miller is also the artist) even though it's widely considered to be one of the best Batman comics ever. I think Miller is an acquired taste. And I also read The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale. I really like this one because it uses most of the rogues gallery including an origin tale of Two-Face. It also does a good job with meshing Bruce Wayne and Batman. My annotation: "Follow Batman as he tries to deduce the surprising identity of Gotham's latest serial killer, Holiday, who is targeting members of the Falcone crime family. Along the way the Dark Knight must contend with the formidable villains of his rogues gallery and the loss of an honest friend."

Much of our discussion centered on whether or not graphic novels was an appropriate term. I've always thought of graphic novels as a book-length comic or a book of collected comic issues. But I also like the idea of just calling them comics too. Both terms have their problems. We decided it's best to use whatever term the patron is using. We also discussed whether or not comics/graphic novels are a genre or a format. I'm inclined to think format since there's a wide and diverse range of genres in the comics format. People keep talking about the "death of the novel" and I think that comics might really be the next major literary format.

Among the "literary" graphic novels I read Persepolis and Blankets. Both of them are very good. And both are memoirs not novels at all. Persepolis is the story of Marjane Satrapi, a young girl growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Blankets is a coming-of-age love story by Craig Thompson who grew up in the Midwest in a Evangelical Christian home. Then I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdale which was really good. I won't describe it more than by my annotation: "In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdale comes out as a lesbian; four months later her father dies--likely suicide. By turns funny and tragic, this is the story of their complicated relationship woven together with books and fraught with secrets."

Next time we're discussing Westerns. For my first Western I read Shane by Jack Schaefer. It's the archetypal story of a man who rides into a Western valley, cleans up town, and rides off into the sunset. Shane is a dangerous man who stays with the Starretts; the novel is narrated by the young boy Bob Starrett. The Starretts are homesteaders who are being driven off the land by a rancher and that's where Shane comes into play. My annotation: "A man's dark past and a boy's future cross paths when a lone stranger rides into a burgeoning Wyoming town where he is soon caught in the middle of a power struggle between homesteaders and ranchers." Right now I'm reading The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen. It's ostensibly a work of (historical) fiction, but it feels like narrative history. The book's okay, its just long and dense.

After that we're reading fantasy and science fiction. It will be very exciting, I'm sure. So do you guys read genre fiction? If so, what are your favorite genres and books?

And the Winner Is...

2010-11-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Elise!

Thanks to everyone who played--you're all winners in my book (and you'd all get a book if I could afford that). I may make this a semi-periodical thing, so keep your following ways.

More posts to come soon.

And Happy Guy Fawkes Day. Can you believe it's November already?

Rant

2010-11-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

So I got these awesome new old-fashioned WeSC headphones last year--like the ones Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears in (500) Days of Summer--and they were/are awesome. Only the cord is like a foot-and-a-half long. This didn't really matter because it came with a longer extension cord. Sad story: the extension cord shorted out (or something) and no longer works. So I stopped using these awesome headphones and started using bud headphones which are lame. Now I'm trying to look for a gold-plated male/female extension cord and they're all like a bajillion (or fifty) feet long, or they have sucky user reviews, or the postage is super expensive, especially for a freaking cord. Just slap a Forever stamp on it. Sheesh! All I want is a high-quality 3'-6' gold-plated male/female audio cord. Is that so much to ask for? I think not. It's not like I'm even asking to find one that's the same orange color to match the existing cord.

So my Washington school log-in page called, appropriately enough, MyUWNetID, is inexplicably showing up on every web page that I visit. It's f**king annoying. My roommate said I should export my bookmarks and then reinstall my browser. I don't think any of those words are English.

I voted today. In Washington we vote by mail-in ballot which is lame since I don't get an "I Voted" sticker at my local precinct. But voting itself is not lame, and you should all vote! Here's what the liberal Seattle weekly The Stanger says:

"Glen Beck says you're not going to vote this year. Bill O'Reilly says you don't have the guts. Sarah Palin says you're going to toss that ballot straight into your socialist recycling bin. And Christine O'Donnell says masturbation is a sin and she's not a witch and she's you and you're not going to vote.

"Here's why they say you're not going to vote: because the Republicans are unstoppable. They're going to take the House and the Senate and the pennant and the Oscar and the Emmy and the cake. And they know this because they heard it--and said it--in the echo chamber that is Fox News.

[Other stuff about local issues and one fanboy "Squeeeeeeeeee!"]

"Vote. Prove Beck, Palin, O'Donnel, and the rest of the health-care-killing, Wall-Street-loving, anti-gay, pro-kitten-rape dickwads wrong."

And if you want to win a book, enter by leaving a comment in the previous post. Why wouldn't you want a free book?

Copy Cat: Book Giveaway

2010-10-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

My "Hello Kitty" jack o'lantern that you can see in an earlier post died. It got one good night all lit up, and then the mold descended. and bugs. It was gross. Then the pumpkin collapsed in on itself; tragedy. All those years carving pumpkins in Utah and I never had this problem--then I moved to the Pacific Northwest. *sigh*

Remember how I hadn't seen any really good, really scary movies this year? Well, I watched The Haunting, and it was freaking terrifying. After watching it by myself after Heidi went to bed, I read a blurb that said "Do not watch this one alone!" So that was helpful; actually it was good that I didn't read it beforehand since it contained spoilers. I can safely say it's the scariest film I've ever seen, and it's a good film in its own right. If you're looking for something to watch this Halloween, there's a suggestion.

For Halloween, I decided to go as a fairy. It seemed a fairly obvious choice. So I went to Display and Costume and ended up buying butterfly wings and a butterfly mask. (At one point there was also a pink tutu.) So I guess I'm going as a butterfly--maybe Heimlich. But it's kinda like a fairy--maybe I'll get some colored hair spray and body glitter.

Anyway, here's the real draw of this post--following in the footsteps of MaryPosa and Neil Gaiman--I'm giving away a book because that's the kind of world I want to live in. Also, what's a better use of the student loans I will spend the rest of my life repaying? So here's how you enter--do one or more of the following:

1. Leave me a comment.
2. Follow this blog.
3. Tell someone else about this post--share the love!
4. Post your reading list on your blog or Facebook (or somewhere) with a picture of you peeking over a book--comme ci--and send me the link.

So you can be entered up to four times. I'll randomly select a winner (or two) in a week--Friday, November 5th--and send you a book!

Concerning the BHAG

2010-10-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

Right now I am writing a vision document (about the SLC public library!) for my management course. In class we discussed whether every vision needs a BHAG--that is a "big hairy ambitious goal" and also one of the worst acronyms ever. I wondered why does the goal need to be hirsute? Why can't it just be a BAG? Like a Birkin--isn't that ambitious enough?

I hate quarters. and assignments. and readings. Blerg. Oh well, back to the grind.

Notes from October

2010-10-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had people over at our apartment to carve pumpkins. I carved a cat's face. It kind of looks like Hello Kitty. We also had pumpkin treats galore--Heidi made pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake (with pumpkin frosting), pumpkin pizza (in the crust not as a topping), and we had pumpkin beer. Lots of vitamin A! We also just roasted the pumpkin seeds from the jack o'lanterns. We also had apple cider and apples with a caramel dip (it's actually just cream cheese and brown sugar). It was very autumnal.
This quarter is stressful. Last fall I took 10 credits, but 2 of those credits were basically a one weekend class. So I had 8 hours of class per week and no job. Now I'm taking 14 credits and have a part-time job. Blerg. I have to manage my time efficiently, and that is not one of my strong suits. Like I should be doing homework right now, but I'm not.

I also just ran through all my scary movies from Netflix, so I had to get some more in my queue. Also, apparently I no longer get scared which is kind of disappointing. Cat People was somewhat suspenseful but not scary, then again it was made in the forties. Alien was also a bit whatever. It wasn't really my kind of movie in the first place, and you know everyone is going to die until only Ripley's left. The alien was creepy, but aside from a few jumpy moments it wasn't scary. What Lies Beneath was actually the scariest movie I watched. It directly invokes Hitchcock and gets a bit ridiculous at the end. It also employs a lot of cliches, but those are cliches for a reason and were terrifying. I thought Rosemary's Baby would scare the bejesus out of me (quite literally), but again, nothing. The novel terrified me as a freshman in college, and the movie is a fine film, but it's more eerie than scary. Scream had it's scary/jumpy moments, but I was over it as soon as the film ended. Even The Silence of the Lambs was not super scary though Anthony Hopkins was quite evil.

I need a really good scary ghost movie that will haunt me long after the film ends. The scariest movies I saw last year were Misery and The Innocents. I also thought The Orphanage (El Orfanato) was really good and scary.The Shining of course is one of the scariest films I've ever seen and a masterpiece of cinema. Anyway, I've added Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? which I don't think will be all that scary, but hopefully dark and disturbing, and The Haunting (the original). Hopefully that will be terrifying. I'm also thinking about having a party and watching the classic 1931 versions of Dracula and Frankenstein. I don't think they'll be scary, but it could be fun to watch these really old monster movies and play games and make caramel apples or whatever. Sadly Netflix does not have Frankenstein to rent--it's only on Instant Watch. Have you seen any good scary movies this year?

Also, I need some suggestions for a costume this year. So far the only suggestions have been Mrs. White--the maid from Clue--or my professor Nancy Pearl based on her action figure. But if you have other ideas, especially ones that don't involve cross-dressing, I'd love to hear them!

Double Ninth Festival

2010-10-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

Here's a lovely autumnal poem for your delight. Enjoy!

To "Drunk in the Shadow of Flowering Trees"

Pale fog, then dense clouds—
     gloomy all day long;
in the animal-shaped censer
     incense burns away.
Once again it is that autumn holiday:
to my jade pillow behind the gauze screen
at midnight the cold first comes.

By the eastern hedge I took wine in hand
     after twilight fell.
A fragrance filled my sleeves unseen.
Don't tell me this does not break your heart—
the west wind blowing up the curtains
and the person,
     as gaunt as the chrysanthemums.

by Li Qingzhao
translated by Stephen Owen

Silent All These Years

2010-10-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today is National Coming Out Day, and while I've never been a very good activist (for anything) in the wake of the recent slew of suicides and the furor over the last LDS General Conference, I can no longer remain silent.

I don't have much to say about everything, other than that Ms. Tori Amos was the best gal-pal this gay boy could have. So I wanted to post this video of "Merman." Tori originally wrote this song for her husband, but she was on tour when she heard Matthew Shepard was killed, so she started playing and dedicating this song to him, and it took on a life of its own. Like a lullaby, this song is simple yet so comforting.

Who could ever say you're not simply wonderful?
Who could ever harm you?

Igruffusa

2010-10-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Please humor me and click on this link to a new blog:

http://igruffusa.blogspot.com/

It's for one of my classes. You can read more about it at Igruffusa.

Now wasn't that fun?

The First (Half) Week

2010-10-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

I quit. I've only had two days of classes, but I already want to quit. Here's a brief recap:

On Thursday morning, I had 580--Management of Information Systems. It's our required management core class, and I was not excited to take it. However, it may actually be one of the better courses I take at the iSchool (it's hard to tell after one class though). Our professor, Nancy G., is great, and she actually has real-world management experience (half our professors have never worked in a library or have real-world experience) and she's structuring the class to be a more practical course (rather than the iSchool's penchant for theoretical ones) and there's almost no group work (something else the iSchool LOVES). So it sounds pretty good, right? Well, Code Name "She" is in the class. And She sat right next to me! I won't go into all the details about She because it would take too long and would frankly be too mean. Suffice it to say that She is universally disliked by my entire cohort. Now I think Nancy had been warned and she was able to manage She pretty well. In the future, I just have to make sure that She doesn't sit next to me, or there may be a bloodbath.

Well, I didn't have another class for five hours, so I caught up with some people, bought my textbook, and did the reading for my class that night--Information Retrieval Systems. The reading was something about Boolean searching and inverted files and only about half of it made sense. So then I went to this class, which counts as a required technology core, which also happens to be three hours long, from 4:30 to 7:20 every Thursday night. Half the class was made up of MLIS students, but the other half came from our sister MSIM program--the master's of science in information management. Oh, and one student who is a computational linguistics major. Early on we were promised no calculus and no programming, and then we quickly started talking about logarithms and programming. I'm pretty sure I have never ever learned about logarithms, and if I did then I have repressed all such knowledge. At the end of the three hours, the LIS students were traumatized, and the SIM students were all like, "but of course." I kind of thought this would be the easiest of the tech cores (foolish me!), but maybe I should have taken the XML class instead.

On Friday, I had another three-hour class, this one is Collection Development and Management. I think the material will be really important to learn and useful in the future, but I haven't made up my mind about the class yet or our professor. What I do know is there will be a helluva lot of work. She seems to believe in the principle that since this is a three-hour course, we will do nine hours of work outside of class. There are lots and lots of readings, online lectures, mandatory online discussion posts, and while there are only three assignments they are very involved projects. Oh, and She is in this class too. Fortunately, She is not in my group. And the class does end at 4:20 which means it's happy hour time.

I still haven't had Nancy Pearl's class which is six hours every other Saturday. But everyone loves Nancy Pearl and her classes, but there's still a lot of work to do. Okay, well it's time to hit the books. Oh, and Heidi and I built my bed--a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally) went into it, but I have bed now. So that's something.

Survey Says

2010-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of the quarter and the school year here at UW. I, however, don't have classes till tomorrow. I'm not very excited for this year, but I still hope it will be good. Anyway, my friend Megan has posted this Beginning of Semester Inventory survey previously, and I thought I would steal it.

Age: 24

Relationship Status: Single, and very happily so.

Hair: Medium short, and in need of a trim soon (or when I get around to it in a month or so).

Current Employment: I am a sad little unemployed student. But I just interviewed for Monographic Acquisitions which went . . . okay. And I just applied for Interlibrary Loan (which is where I worked at the U).

Residence: Lake City, Seattle, WA

Activities: Currently, sleeping and watching TV. But classes (and hopefully work) will be in full swing soon. And finishing my MLIS degree.

Future plans: To achieve the perfect liquid line. Nothing spectacular--going home (hopefully) in December; graduating (hopefully) in June.

Currently reading: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie; The Iliad by Homer; Oldman's Brave New World of Wine by Mark Oldman. And I need to start my Westerns--Shane and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford--ASAP!

Currently listening to: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire at this very moment, my fall playlist, Tori Amos (especially From the Choirgirl Hotel), Josh Ritter, et al.

Currently watching: Gossip Girl, Glee, Modern Family, and 30 Rock
Also rewatching Gilmore Girls and Battlestar Galactica

Currently anticipating: Poetry Group, pumpkin beer, scary movies, and my reader's advisory class with Nancy Pearl.

Recently acquired: a new apartment and roommate, IKEA furniture (my bed should be arriving today), some more books...

Goals for this quarter: getting a job, staying on top of my classes, buying a weather appropriate jacket

Well, here I go again.

Life and Other Stuff

2010-09-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I have a new address along with a new roommate, Heidi, and new furniture by IKEA. I'm not really going to miss my old place even though it was nice (except for the upstairs neighbors who liked to turn their apartment into a discotheque on the weekends). I will, however, miss having HBO. I now live in Lake City which is a neighborhood in north Seattle. I'm not really sure which lake the "Lake" part refers to--probably Lake Washington. I live really close to a QFC grocery store, Bartell Drugs, Dick's Drive-In (this will be dangerous), the post office, the public library, and a fire station (which is loud). All in all, it's a pretty nice neighborhood.

I moved in a couple of weeks before Heidi, who was still in Minnesota for the summer. Her futon stayed in Seattle though and was my makeshift bed for a while--surrounded by boxes and boxes and even more boxes. Moving was traumatic enough; I had no energy to unpack anything. Especially without furniture. Moving from a furnished apartment to an unfurnished apartment is so not fun. So I went to IKEA for the very first time to get some cheap furniture. This is the part where I grew up and learned that furniture is incredibly expensive--even the cheap stuff costs a pretty penny. There was a lot to see and Swedish meatballs to eat. I ended up getting a coffee table, chair, book case, dresser, and mattress but no bed. Funny story--I helped my former roommate's ex-boyfriend move across town and he left me his old wooden bed frame which he told me was full sized. So I bought a full size mattress. Turns out the frame is actually a queen, so that didn't really pan out. I had also wanted to get a box spring mattress for extra height since IKEA bed frames are like 15 inches off the ground. Not good. But IKEA was sold out of box spring mattresses. So earlier this week, I finally ordered their tallest bed frame and bed slats (instead of a box spring) online but they won't come till Monday. Which is fine because it was just today that I finally screwed my dresser into the wall. Yes, you read that right, because apparently if it's not mounted securely to the wall, the weight of the dresser will cause it to fall forward. This is high quality stuff. And my bedroom remains a work in progress.

But Heidi finally showed up and we moved all her stuff in and then unpacked and organized almost everything, and suddenly our apartment looked a lot more like a home. We also got Internet which meant I stopped playing Jewel Quest for hours and hours on end. Heidi also decided to commit to lacto vegetarianism after flirting with it for a while. This will mean some interesting cooking adventures (I still remain an omnivore). Heidi also does the dishes almost every day which means our kitchen stays very clean!

I thought about buying a new TV because I have an old, analog CRT TV (which I love! I'm such a neo-Luddite), but since I don't have cable, or a converter box, I need a digital TV. and a tuner. and an antenna. So I have decided to keep my TV to watch DVDs on and I'll watch my television shows on my laptop. Hello Hulu! Also, buying a bed wiped me out--who knew beds were so expensive, even compared to other furniture?--so there are not a lot of funds for TV.

Earlier this week I went to Northgate Mall and got a fresh supply of Burberry London--reunited and it smells so good! Plus, they were having some kind of sale, so I got it for $30 off. Booya! Then I went and saw Easy A which was pretty funny. Basic summary/tease of the film: "I always thought that pretending to lose my virginity would be a little more special. Judy Blume should have prepared me for that." And I have "Pocketful of Sunshine" stuck in my head from watching this clip.

I still laugh every time. It's not the greatest high school/teen film ever, but it's thoroughly entertaining. Also, Emma Stone may be our chance for a non-trainwreck-y Lindsey Lohan.

I start school in a week. Boo. So here's what happened with my summer reading. I won't even remind you of my sweet sixteen list because that basically didn't happen. I read Lowcountry Summer which is possibly the worst book I've ever read in my entire life. I read The Absolute Sandman Vol. 3 which I bought for myself for finishing the school year. It was pretty good. (I also reread Vol. 1.) I read most of The Omnivore's Dilemma before it was seriously overdue at the library, but Heidi owns it, so I can finish it. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was seriously unimpressed. Why is it an international phenomenon? I read The Magicians and it was better. I read Winter's Bone, and I was glad I didn't grow up in the Ozarks. And I made it 2/3 of the way through The Iliad and really my only goal was to finish that book before school started. I suppose there's still time, but only a week. Dammit!

I tried reading The Big Sleep for my genre fiction class this fall, but it's not nearly as good as The Long Goodbye. I think I'm going to just watch the movie and read a different mystery instead. This last week I read Batman: Year One and Persepolis which are on the graphic novels list. I'm also reading Rebecca which is romance, and then I plan on watching the Hitchcock movie afterward. And I just picked up Shane and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford which are Westerns. I've noticed that most of the books we can choose from are also movies. I'm thinking maybe I should do film advisory instead of readers' advisory.

With October just a week away, I've already chosen the scary movies I'm going to watch this year. Now I prefer to watch psychological thrillers and ghost stories to slasher/splatter/torture porn films as I prefer terror to horror. I generally don't like satanic horror films either because invoking the dark prince has always made me rather uncomfortable. Anyway, get me some pumpkin beer and let's go: I just saw Gaslight last night--the 1944 version with Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury in her debut! Not really a scary movie at all--it's mostly atmospheric and suspenseful. Next is Cat People which I had never heard of before. But I've read that it's scary and a classic. Following that is Alien and it's probably time I see this monster movie. Then we have What Lies Beneath a Hitchcockian supernatural thriller with the lovely Michelle Pfeiffer. Then we come to Rosemary's Baby which I know is a bit demonic (it was this or The Exorcist). I read Ira Levin's novel my freshman year of college and it was terrifying. Scream is next--my one concession to slashers--and though I should probably watch A Nightmare on Elm Street and/or Halloween before Scream, I don't think I'm ready for those films. Then we top it off with The Silence of the Lambs. I've never seen the film, but I'm already terrified of it. I've rented it before but chickened out. But I think this is the year.

So yeah. I know I haven't posted much lately, but that's just a little bit of what's been going on.

The Really Big Music Post

2010-09-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Part I

The other day, I was thinking, “What do I look for in a song?” And the following is what I came up with. First, based on my deep and abiding love for female singer/songwriters, I love girl power—like the following strong female artists: Tori, Regina, Alanis, Amanda, Sarah, Joni, Ani, Kate, Suzanne, Sheryl, Kelly, etc. I’ve never really been a pop diva kind of gay—Madonna, Britney, Lady Gaga, Cher—being the alternative singer/songwriter mo that I am, but I do like me some Cher every now and then.

Another reason why I love singer/songwriters is because I love a story. As the former English major, I’m all about words. Even in movies the dialogue and story is usually more important to me than the visual aspects. And with songs, lyrics mean far more to me than music. See, I’ve never been the guy who can hear the story in a symphony. But I will happily listen to a girl (or guy) strumming basic chords on a guitar if they’ll sing me a story, especially if I can sing along to it. But my idea of sing-along-ability is probably different from most people—I don’t really go for the baby baby boom boom.

Along with stories, I look for literate lyrics. I’m all over lyrics that are essentially poems, and I love literary allusions. My favorite type of allusion is to religious symbols, but not so much in a faith-affirming, hymn-like way; I’m talking about iconoclasm. Break those images! My unofficial senior thesis was about “unprodigal” daughters who break apart/rewrite the patriarchal myths of religion.

So while lyrics trump music, the music is still important. One of the things I’ve noticed about songs I particularly love is the use of layered vocals—which I believe is technically called doubletracking(?). I love the rich, full sound that layered vocals give a song. I also like multitracking(?) where several parts are being played over each other in rich confusion. And I love a slow-burning crescendo—songs that start out at a whisper and slowly build up ending in a bang.

Finally, I like good beats and hooks as much as the next person; catchy tunes are great. But no matter how catchy a song is, if there’s nothing behind it (story; lyrics), then once I’ve listened to it several times on repeat, I’ll forget it about it in a week or so. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I like a song with emotional resonance. Something relatable—which is ineffable and different for every person. So that’s what I look for in a song. How about you?

Part II

My friend Elise posted one of those Facebook meme notes—top fifteen albums. One is supposed to list one’s top fifteen albums without too much thought. Well I thought a lot about it and took it to mean the top fifteen albums throughout my life and not just my favorite fifteen at this moment. Now I only have about 45 complete albums and EPs, and many of them I’ve just downloaded within this last year, so those are not in the running. I’ve listed the albums in the order that I listened to/purchased them.

The Phantom of the Opera by the Original Broadway Cast
Ander Lloyd Weber’s rock opera was the soundtrack to my childhood. It’s still pretty good.

Les Misérables by the Original London Cast
Because, yes, I’m also a bit of a musical theatre queen. I’ll tear up a bit if I listen to “Do You Hear the People Sing?” or the “Finale.”

Fallen by Evanescence
My friends and I liked Evanescence our senior year of high school. It was also one of the first CDs I ever bought—I listened to it a lot those first couple of years in college.

Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette
Alanis was my first love (that wasn’t a musical), but it wasn’t until the end of my freshman year that I bought her first (and best) album.

Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink by Tori Amos
I first heard Tori Amos in Jen’s dorm room (for which I’ll be eternally grateful), and it was instant love. I bought her first two albums the beginning of my sophomore year. Little Earthquakes is my desert island record.

Poses by Rufus Wainwright
I got this along with the two Tori albums. I listened to this album on and off throughout college, and it still reminds me of a road trip to Arizona with Rae and Slarue.

Wicked by the Original Broadway Cast
I got this soundtrack for Christmas sophomore year as most of my college friends were obsessed with the musical. I listened to it over and over again until I knew all the words—that’s how we musical theatre queens do it. “For Good” and the “Finale” get me every time.

Rent from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
I saw the film when it came out with Val; at the time I loved it though I’m more critical of the movie today. Nevertheless, I bought the soundtrack later that year. My sophomore roommates had to put up with a lot of Rent, Wicked, Tori, and Alanis that year.

Begin to Hope by Regina Spektor
Valerie gave me this album for Christmas our senior year, and “Samson” got me through finals. Since then I’ve purchased Soviet Kitsch, which has some of my favorites, and Far, which I think is her most cohesive record, but it’s her breakout album that introduced me to Regina’s world.

Mirrorball: The Complete Concert by Sarah McLachlan
I’ve liked Sarah since high school and I bought some of her songs through the years—“Building a Mystery” was my most listened to song junior year, just ask Chris—but I’ve never owned any of her studio albums. I got this live album post college.

Everything in Transit by Jack’s Mannequin
When I worked at Barnes & Noble, a coworker burned this album for me and I love it. It’s a great CD to zip around town to especially in the summer.

Garden State from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
Although I saw the film when it came out freshman year with James, and I kept thinking I should get the album for years, it wasn’t until after college that I finally got the CD. It's super relaxing--perfect for hanging out or long, meandering drives.

Boys for Pele by Tori Amos
It was only a couple of years ago that I bought Tori’s third album at a used record store. Critical reaction to her experimental and not very listener/radio friendly record was mixed, but it was embraced by fans as a cult favorite. And after many, many listens, I joined their ranks.

To Travels and Trunks by Hey Marseilles
I bought this album a year ago, just after moving to Seattle; Hey Marseilles is a Seattle band after all. They’re one of the hottest bands in Seattle currently—I’ve seen them live twice—and their first album is very enjoyable.

Part III

Well, it’s the middle of September, and the grey and rainy skies have returned to Seattle. It is fall. And with the changing of the seasons, it’s time to revisit/revise my fall playlist. I submit twelve songs for your consideration.

“Caramel” by Suzanne Vega
Don’t you think caramel is autumnal—like caramel apples at Halloween? I do. This cautionary song about longing is perfect for brisk fall days. “It won’t do to dream of caramel, to think of cinnamon, and long for you.”

“Honey” by Tori Amos
Honey, like caramel, also reminds me of fall. I don’t know why. And the warm, womb-like sound of the song (it was recorded in an adobe house) reminds me of an Indian summer. “So when we died I tried to bribe the undertaker / Cause I’m not sure what you’re doin’ or the reasons.”

“The Horror of Our Love” by Ludo
Amber introduced me to this song last year, and it’s perfect for fall with its tale of monstrous love (more Wuthering Heights than Twilight) inspired by this Dali quote: “I love Gala so much, if she dies I will eat her.” And what’s more appropriate for autumn than monsters and a litany of horrors? (Besides pies and sweaters, I mean.) “I’ve murdered half the town / Left you love notes on their headstones.”

“October” by Stephanie Smith
Perhaps a bit on the nose, but October is my favorite month of the whole year. Sadly, Stephanie doesn’t have such warm and fuzzy associations with the month. “But I’m still sleeping in your sweater / When I’d be better off to throw it out.”

“Be Here Now” by Ray LaMontagne
It’s almost a whispery lullaby that nestles you close like a pile of blankets. “Don’t let your soul get lonely / Child it’s only time, it will go by.”

“Haunted” by Evanescence
It’s spooky enough for Halloween. “Hunting you, I can smell you alive / Your heart pounding in my head.”

“I Miss You” by Blink-182
A nostalgic favorite from high school. It also references The Nightmare Before Christmas. “Hello there, the angel from my nightmare / The shadow in the background of the morgue.”

“Change of Time” by Josh Ritter
One of my favorite Ritter songs, it’s about dreams, memory, time, and moving on. “The black clouds I’m hanging / This anchor I’m dragging / The sails of memory rip open in silence.”

“Northern Lad” by Tori Amos
Everyone’s familiar with a red sunset, but in Seattle during the fall the Western sky is often tinged an ethereal pink. This song reminds of that for some reason. Though Tori’s lad is from Northern England, it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest too. “I feel the West in you, but I feel it falling apart too.”

“Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap
Another whispery and haunting lullaby. “All those years / They were here first / Oily marks appear on walls / Where pleasure moments hung before the takeover.”

“Poses” by Rufus Wainwright
The song seems to be about time wasted, buying into the poses—façades—of life, and the inability to change. “In the green autumnal parks conducting / All the city streets a wondrous chorus / Singing all these poses, now no longer boyish / Made me a man, oh, but who cares what that is.”

“Somedays” by Regina Spektor
The song is a quiet lull, a tale of person who is only left with remnants of days—some of which aren’t yours at all. “I’m not here, not anymore / I’ve gone away / Don’t call me, don’t write.”

What are you listening to these days? What songs remind you of autumn?

Who Needs a Movie?

2010-08-18T17:13:00.001-07:00

So I've been watching a ton of movies lately. It's basically what happens when you're unemployed and have a Netflix account (a more pragmatic person would have canceled their Netflix account until they found gainful unemployment, but I've never been much of a pragmatist). Anyway if you're looking for a movie, I've seen a lot of good ones lately.

Gilmore Girls loves movies--both the characters, Lorelai and Rory, as well as the show's creators, producers, and writers: the Palladinos. In the fourth season, Lorelai invites Luke to movie night ("The Fundamental Things Apply") and she asks him what he's seen (which is nothing), rattling off a list of films: Casablanca, Chinatown, Bonnie & Clyde, It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Diner. All seven films also happen to be in my book of 1,001 movies. So since I had not seen five of the seven (and the other two only recently), I put them straight at the top of by Netflix que-u-e.

Casablanca is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Hollywood's Golden Age. I myself only saw it a year or so ago around New Year's--there was snow on the ground and I had an spare bottle of champagne. There's nothing I could possibly say that hasn't already been said. So if you haven't seen it, do that. Right. Now. (Unless, like a certain friend of mine, you've made it well into your twenties without seeing Star Wars. WTF? Star Wars may not Casablanca be , but it's Star Frickin' Wars!) Enjoy with a nice champagne cocktail. Responsible for "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world," and a dozen more instant quotes.

Chinatown is a magnificent hard-boiled detective mystery. (How much do I love noir?) I saw it earlier this year for a class where I traced the Big6 stages of information literacy through the film--very exciting stuff. Although it's set in Los Angeles circa 1937 (and the sets are very good), there's something about seeing it in 1970s Technicolor that's slightly incongruous. I'm used to my 1930s noirs in black and white. Jack Nicholson plays our detective hero, Jake Gittes, made from the same mold as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, who navigates the Byzantine plot. Faye Dunaway plays the femme fatale with the film's most shocking revelation--what is it about those dames? And John Huston is masterful as our villain. And, of course, the famous last line which nicely sums up the entire film: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

Bonnie & Clyde also features Faye Dunaway along with a young Warren Beatty. (Did everyone else know that Mr. Beatty is the younger brother to one Shirley MacLaine? Because I sure didn't.) This anti-establishment picture was one of the first movies to take advantage of the new rating system following the abandonment of the Hays Code, and its fresh take on violence and sex was shocking at the time. Bonnie and Clyde rob banks, of course. For me, the emotional center of the film comes when Bonnie asks Clyde, "What would you do if some miracle happened and we could walk out of here tomorrow morning and start all over again clean? No record and nobody after us, huh?" And Clyde just doesn't get it, but then their relationship was doomed from the beginning as a lawless affair. As Bonnie's mother notes, "You best keep runnin', Clyde Barrow. And you know it."

It Happened One Night, by Frank Capra, is one of the first major screwball comedies. Claudette Colbert is Ellie, an heiress on the lam, and Clark Gable is Peter, a journalist now with the scoop of a lifetime. They can't stand each other at first, so naturally they fall in love. If you want a good romantic comedy (they haven't been making them since the nineties), go rent this (and maybe brush up on the story of Jericho--it's in the Book of Joshua). Each one gives as good as they take, and my favorite scene is when they roleplay a "perfectly nice married couple" to fool some detectives who are looking for Ellie.

His Girl Friday is another screwball comedy that raises the rapid-fire dialogue to scintillating heights. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, an ace reporter, who's leaving the newspaper business to marry a nice, normal man. Cary Grant plays her former boss and husband, Walter, who can't bear to lose her and schemes to win her back. I did have a slight problem with this film since *spoiler alert* Hildy ends up with Walter. Of course, Roz Russell is going to end up with Cary Grant, and Hildy would be bored stiff as a "real woman." But her fiance is so nice, if dull, and Walter, though charismatic, is a liar and a crook. Still, it's very funny, and you'll have to watch it several times to catch all the dialogue.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre scored Oscars for father and son, John and Walter Huston. It tells the story of two listless, American drifters (Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt) in Tampico, Mexico who, after listening to a grizzled prospector (Walter), decide to hunt for gold. They find the gold, and plenty of it, but this is no action/adventure x-marks-the-spot treasure story, rather it's the story of how money corrupts. Indeed, Humphrey Bogart undergoes a slow-burning psychological breakdown in a highly memorable and disturbing role. It's an excellent film not only for character study but also for its setting as it was filmed in an arid Mexico.

Diner was my least favorite of the seven films. One reason is probably it's lack of major female characters, but then Sierra Madre had none. Filmed in 1982, it's set in 1959 Baltimore, and features six friends, in their twenty-somethings, in a bittersweet coming-of-age story (but then growing up is always painful). They hang out, appropriately enough, at the local diner. Its heavy in dialogue, normally something that I love, and while the dialogue's quite good, I never quite connected to the characters. It's notable for helping to launch the career of several then unknowns including Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon. It's a fine film, just not my cup of tea. It did make me very hungry though. Anyone up for Luke's?

So if you're trying to decide what to rent next, why don't you try one of these on for size?

Brief Update

2010-08-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, a slew of friends have gotten married or engaged, and while I'm happy for them, I am reminded of the superbly solipsistic Lady Augusta Bracknell: "I do not know whether there is anything particularly exciting in the air of this particular part of Hertfordshire, but the number of engagements that goes on seems to me considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance." Indeed, so the rest of you can just stop it.

Last Thursday, Maggie, Lillian, and I played cards and sipped tea in Wallingford, had sandwiches downtown at Specialty's (omg!), and bought hiking supplies at REI. I got a Klean Kanteen bottle and Smart Wool hiking socks. Then Maggie and I trudged all over Capitol Hill before getting cocktails at Chapel. It was a long but lovely day.

On Saturday, the three of us got up bright and early and made our way to Mount Rainier National Park. When we got close to the entrance there was a traffic jam and apparently some kind of horrific accident and the entrance was closed. So we drove another hour or so to an entrance at the opposite side of the park and ate lunch. Then we finally did some hiking and the views were spectacular (sadly, I left my camera in the car so there are no pictures). Then we drove all the way back to Seattle, and once I dropped off Maggie and Lillian--the vegetarians--I got a Dick's burger because greasy diner food is always necessary after getting close to nature (which I usually prefer to look at from a distance or watch on television).

Earlier this week I made the most amazing vodka tomato sauce featured on Barefoot Contessa. This is Nick and Toni's Penne alla Vecchia Bettola and it is ... there are no words. Go buy a bottle of vodka and some San Marzano tomatoes, and make this sauce; you will not regret it. It's better than anything I've had in an Italian restaurant and only rivaled by things my uncle, who lived in Italy for a couple of years, makes.

In a week and half, I'll be moving a few miles north. It shouldn't be too bad, but moving is one of my least favorite things ever, and then I'll have to buy some furniture. It'll be nice to be moved, I just don't want to do it. So that's me in a nutshell. Check back later for "Who Needs a Movie." You know you're excited!

Me Likey

2010-08-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

This is a post about some things I am enjoying lately which means it's a largely positive post and not about how society is going to hell in a shopping cart (how hard is it to return them, people?) or about how much I didn't like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (but really even The Da Vinci Code was a better book).

Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele--the title pretty much says it all. Now I don't know from Radiohead, but I like Amanda Fucking Palmer, and I think this collection of covers is pretty good. And who doesn't love some ukulele? Neil Gaiman says "it's, strangely, not even a novelty album at all," though one must assume he's biased. The seven tracks include two covers of "Creep" but I think my favorite is "Idioteque" or maybe "No Surprises." All this and more can be yours for the low, low price of $0.84. You can listen to the songs and buy the digital album at her website. You name the price--the 84 cents pays the royalties--anything extra goes straight to Palmer.

In other music news I bought Joni Mitchell's Blue (finally) after seeing The Kids Are All Right and Arcade Fire's The Suburbs after Megan mentioned their new album was only $3.99 on Amazon. It was an impulse purchase since I've never listened to Arcade Fire, but I like it so far. They remind me of Spoon.

Carey Mulligan. How much does everyone love Miss Mulligan since she came out last fall in An Education? I want to screen a Carey Mulligan festival, and I'm starting with the recent BBC adaptation of Bleak House, available for instant viewing on Netflix, where she plays Miss Ada Clare. I also plan on seeing her in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps where she plays Gordon Gekko's (Michael Douglas) estranged daughter and Shia LaBeouf's love interest. I even watched the original Wall Street in preparation though I wasn't very taken with it.

The Film Experience Blog which is somewhere around here
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It's a blog devoted to awards, actresses, and cinematic musings which are pretty much three of my favorite things ever. There's always something new to read over there, and Nathaniel R., fellow actressexual, loves Meryl Streep just as much as I do. However, I am green with envy at him for doing the film talk so much better than I can.

Humpday, by Lynn Shelton, is also available for instant viewing, and I decided to watch it last night. It's an indie film set in Seattle (hey, I've been there!) where two straight friends decide to make a gay porno together for HUMP!, an annual film festival hosted by The Stranger showcasing homemade erotica shorts. As part of the mumblecore movement it's heavy in dialogue and relationships which are things I love. Favorite line: You're not as Kerouac as you think you are, and I'm not as white-picket fences as you think I am." I liked it much better than Netflix thought I would, and I love it when the complexity of my personality and taste cannot be reduced to some algorithm. Plus, Mark Duplass is pretty cute.

Other things I love:

FOOD. Who needs men when you can have a relationship with food? I was watching the Seattle portions of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on YouTube and was basically drooling uncontrollably. I must go to all of these places immediately.

Canada Dry Seltzer water. It's magical, magical stuff. I just bought the last case at QFC. Hopefully they will stock more.

New wisdom entries. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" Rabbi Hillel preaches perfect, accessible wisdom, and something I need to remind myself of more frequently. And from Job, "Canst though draw out Leviathan with an hook? . . . Will he make a covenant with thee?" Which is wisdom of a much more brutal kind, as Captain Ahab would come to learn.

Gin! Just kidding. Well, not really.