So This is the New Year

Hello, and welcome to my New Year's post; it's going to be massive. So go to a store, buy a hat, and get ready to hold the eff onto it. I'm not kidding.

Year in Review. I'll try to make this as brief as I can. Here we go.
January: I watched a helluva lot of movies getting ready for the Golden Globes and Oscars. I also saw Casa Blanca for the first time ever. I know.
February: I started listening to NPR after 101.9 The End canceled The Parker Show. I enjoyed a Death by Chocolate Valentine's party with friends. I saw a few more movies and won the Oscar pool. I submitted my graduate school applications, and was already jonesing for summer. I also started "working" at the SLC Public Library.
March: I went to Minneapolis for a Sigma Tau Delta convention and caught up with old friends like Rae and Slarue. I miss you! Highlights included a Neil Gaiman reading and signing, a drag queen show at the Gay '90s, and the French dip sandwich at Hell's Kitchen. Minneapolis, I heart you.
April: I thought a lot of deep thoughts inspired by NPR, television, and bumper stickers. And I doubled my Tori Amos catalog.
May: I made my summer playlist and my summer reading list. They were both awesome. And I saw Star Trek with Dain and Megan.
June: It rained. a lot. and was very cold. So we packed up and hit the Caribbean on a cruise ship--I read like four books. Key West was awesome and more hot and humid than any place else I've ever been on this Earth. My favorite souvenir is a Fossil wristwatch that I bought on the cruise ship. And I stopped "working" at the SLC Public Library.
July: I saw Tori Amos in concert. It changed my life. Dain moved to Philly and Whitney moved to Minnesota, and nothing's been the same since. I also watched the first season of Brothers & Sisters--so good!--and saw a couple of excellent summer films: The Brothers Bloom and Away We Go. I turned twenty-three and had a pinata at my birthday party.
August: I watched almost as many movies as I did in January including Julie & Julia and (500) Days of Summer. I started to freak out about moving to Seattle, and I quit my job at the Marriott Library at the U. Best. Job. Ever.
September: Over Labor Day I threw a bon voyage party, and it was very fun. I started watching Dollhouse, I moved to Seattle, and I finished Battlestar Galactica. My life has changed in profound ways.
October: I started grad school in earnest. I watched a lot of scary movies--The Innocents was excellent and terrifying. And I dressed up as newsie for Halloween.
November: I saw Regina Spektor in concert and it was delightful. For Thanksgiving I made my own personal feast and watched far too much TV as well as a few movies including An Education.
December: I finished my first quarter of classes and finals. I went to some parties and drank a lot. I flew home to Utah and celebrated Christmas with my family and caught up with old friends.

The Big Haul. In which I will try to be both grateful and humble about all the amazing loot I got this year, because isn't that what Christmas is all about?
I got black Adidas Sambas--score!--and money to buy a printer so I don't actually have to pack one on the plane. Santa brought me a Philips Sonicare toothbrush--I think in addition to flossing and with proper use I can say goodbye to gingivitis, tartar, and cavities--and a GPS which will be helpful in Seattle. My favorite gift is a book called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die which is awesome. I've already seen around 100--I keep finding more movies that I've seen. I also got (500) Days of Summer on DVD which I somehow lost before I even removed the plastic wrapping. I'm more than a little upset, but it seems to be gone forever. FROWNY FACE! And as I've already mentioned I got the final season of The West Wing which I recently finished watching, and now my set is complete. I also got The Rocky Horror Picture Show so I can finally stop being extra virgin olive oil. And Ellen gave everyone a used copy of the Trivial Pursuit board game (except Matt and Dixy who got Celestial Pursuit). She went to several DI's to find complete, intact sets--it was pretty awesome. Now I need to find friends in Seattle with whom to play it. I got a lot of other really good stuff, so thank you to all my friends and family. You're the best!

The Last Two Weeks.
On the 19th I took a taxi to SeaTac and flew away home to SLC. It was a little strange to be back home at first. On Saturday I celebrated Christmas with college friends by eating fondue and opening presents. On Tuesday I caught up with Elise and Justin and we watched Meet Me In St. Louis. On Wednesday I drove around doing some last minute shopping. My aunt came over for Christmas Eve and we unwrapped a few presents, sang carols, and read Christmas stories by the warmth of the fire. Christmas morning came and went and we unwrapped a lot more presents. On Saturday we drove down to my grandma's and back. While we were there we ate, played games including The Beatles Rock Band, watched Kung Fu Panda, and the cousins exchanged presents, and I got a B&N gift card, $10 bucks, and chocolates, so that's pretty neat. On Sunday, Elise hosted a post-Christmas party where I drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of hummus and salsa, and caught up with a few more people.

On Monday morning I had breakfast for lunch with Kristyn and Jessica, who is now engaged, and that was fun. Later that day I went bowling with my family. Across the lanes there were five giant screens that played the music videos of all the Disney Channel artists and other teenyboppers--who knew there were so many? Well, I played four games with my sister and brother-in-law. I broke 100 three times, so that was cool. On Tuesday I braved the snowy weather and roads to hang out with Kristen P. We went and saw The Young Victoria which was alright. It was a lavish costume drama like The Duchess--just not as good. It worked best as a love story between Victoria and Albert, but the larger political story fell flat which was very disappointing. And then it suddenly ended after she gave birth to her first child because we all know that is when a woman's life ends. Emily Blunt was very good though, as she always is. Still we saw it at the Broadway Cinema, my favorite indie movie house. Afterward, we went and got pizza and cheese pull-a-parts at The Pie which I miss so very much. On Wednesday I went on a date with a guy named Jason which went pretty well. However, I don't think anything's going to happen since I'm in Seattle and once he graduates this spring he wants to work in NYC or Chicago or else teach in Korea.

On New Year's Eve I went downtown for 3VE where I caught up with Ellen, Justin, and Christopher, and we first went to a Broadway sing-along and that was pretty fun. Then we met up with Melissa at The Gateway and grabbed dinner at Z'Tejas which was delicious. Val and Grady joined us and we walked through Temple Square and saw the lights. Afterward, I went to Megan's house for the eighth year in a row to ring in the new year. Megan and I talked about library school and Dain joined us to talk about Dollhouse which is collectively blowing our minds. So midnight came and went, and then we watched Wolverine which was actually pretty good. The CGI wasn't top-notch but who needs special effects when Hugh Jackman is naked? Anyway, I thought it was pretty entertaining.

I slept in so very late on New Year's Day and then my family went and saw Avatar in 3-D. I still don't know what to make of it. I will say it was good though I wasn't blown away by it like everyone else I know. The 3-D was used very effectively and subtly which was a nice touch. Its message is blatantly green and anti-war which was evidenced by an excessive amount of National Guard and Air Force promos before the movie. I'm still thinking about it today which may be the best thing I can say for it. It was good but not the best movie I've seen nor was it the most enjoyable or even the most important, but it was definitely something. So I saw it and I'm glad, but I'm just not sure it's Best Picture material... Well, we'll see.

Lists.
So most film critics makes a top ten list at the end of the year. Well there were a lot of movies released this year, technically, that I haven't seen yet as well as many movies I saw in January and February that were released in 2008. Anyway, I just wanted to give my top five movies and books that I saw or read this year. So post-Oscar season, my favorite movies that I've seen this year, in no particular order, include Star Trek which was the perfect, flashy summer blockbuster. (500) Days of Summer which was a sweet but not saccharine love story, or rather the perfect twenty-something not-love story. An excellent indie film with a great outfits and a bitchin' soundtrack. I should say The Hurt Locker which is a perfect film in its own right, but I much preferred Julie & Julia starring the always superb Meryl Streep and butter. Inglourious Basterds is the first (and only) Quentin Tarantino film I've seen in theaters, and I saw it twice. It may be his best film yet, though Kill Bill is still my favorite. Finally An Education is a perfectly lovely indie film held together effortlessly by the sublime Carrie Mulligan who rightfully earned a Golden Globe nod. There are still many, many films I want to see including Nine, Up in the Air, and The Princess and the Frog to name a few.

On to books, none of which on my list were released in 2009. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is one of Louise Erdrich's best novels (or so I've heard) and it was quite enjoyable and literate. Good stuff. I read The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton, whom I adore. It's widely regarded as her best novel and I can see why though I prefer The Age of Innocence. Little, Big by John Crowley is one of the best fantasy works I've ever read and also one of the most difficult novels I've managed to finish. Still, all that hard work payed off. I just finished The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler who is the master of the private detective novel. It was far superior to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Chandler just has a way with words that I love. The fifth spot is a tie between Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road and Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. Yates's novel remorselessly portrays a marriage and the social malaise of the 1960s. Fuller's memoir perfectly captures a childhood spent in an Africa of civil unrest and war. I also have to give a brief nod to two excellent novels I reread this year. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is one of my favorite contemporary novels and I love returning to Hampden College and the sharply drawn, if amoral, characters. And Don DeLillo's postmodern classic White Noise is a biting satire of technology and mass culture.

Well, that's a lot about 2009 and it was a pretty good year. I suppose this is where we talk about 2010, and I mention my New Year's resolutions, but I just don't seem to have any. Not yet, anyway. I was reading The Guardian's book blog which mentioned reading resolutions--like looking up every new word in a dictionary or mixing up nonfiction with novels--and I don't even have any of those. So I hope 2010 is just as good, hopefully even better--I'm excited to be in Seattle this summer--but for now I've got to go. If I think of any resolutions or goals, I'll let you know. I should probably revisit my life list which is ... somewhere. Well, I've written some long-ass blogs, but I think this is my longest hands down. I told you to buy a hat. For now I'll say shalom and have a Happy New Year!

P.S. Now it's time to get a new playlist together. But later...

Christmas Time is Here

I think this may have been the longest I've gone without posting since starting this blog one year ago today. I've had a lot I've wanted to say but just never got around to blogging. Well I am back in Utah for the moment--yay!--and spending Christmas Eve with my family. Well, except for right now while I'm typing away. And fall quarter is over, thank god! I'm still not sure how I feel about Seattle or if LIS is the right program for me, but I know that I hated 510, along with the rest of my cohort, and I will never take another class from that professor if I can help it. And that's all I will say on that except that I aced my final--booya! I thoroughly enjoyed my other class which was engaging, challenging, and good overall. I only took 10 credits this quarter and am signed up for 13 next quarter and looking for a part-time job. So we'll see how that goes. But for the rest of the break I'm not going to think about school except that I really need to go through my school email inbox which has been a disaster since late October.

There was a lot of bonding that went down at the end of the quarter so that's really good. First there was the Mad Men party hosted by Janelle and Althea, who live in a charming house in Ravenna with four other girls, and that was really fun. Here are some of my fellow library students. Since I didn't have a suit I took my inspiration from Miles Fisher in season three, which I haven't seen, but where I believe he plays a dope dealer. Miles Fisher, by the way, is the love child of Tom Cruise and Christian Bale. Anyway, my find that day was a knit tie at J.Crew for $10! Pretty much awesome. There were '50s and '60s records and dancing and lots of booze. There was a sherbet punch that had a good liter of gin or so and tasted like candy but aside from that I stuck to Jameson neat. They had gin but it was the cheap Monarch stuff that comes in giant plastic bottles and I just can't get down with that. When I went home I did make myself a proper Gimlet before retiring for the night.

I took my final for 510 on Sunday and my last paper for 520 was due on Friday, so on finals week I only had class for 520 since we didn't have an actual final. On Monday night, after class, we hit up the College Inn Pub for some beer and nachos, and then we stopped in at Big Time since I had a coupon for a free growler. If like me you didn't know what a growler is, it's a gallon sized bottle for holding beer--or other forms of alcohol--it looks like those moonshine bottles with all the Xs on it. However, they didn't fill my growler they just gave me the bottle, which was lame. But we had some more beer anyway, and then made our way to Flowers for more drinking and some grub. I ordered a Negroni off their menu listed as gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, so I thought I was safe. If you know me, you know how much I adore Negronis but I have no idea what I was actually served--cheap gin with a splash of sweet vermouth. I couldn't even tasted the Campari which has a very strong flavor, and it was only the faintest of red while a true Negroni is a beautiful ruby color. Still, a pub crawl on a Monday night--how awesome are library students?

I also hung out with Maggie whom I had hardly seen since midterm. We grabbed some delicious pizza at the Wallingford Pizza House. And on another night we rented Julie & Julia and I opened a bottle of Cava I bought for the end of the quarter and we made Buddy the Elfs. Buddy the Elf is a drink my friends and I invented. My friend Dain is really into making liqueurs by macerating fruit in liquor. He's made some good limoncello as well as a strawberry liqueur, but his zenzerino is the best. Zenzerino, Italian for little ginger, is a liqueur with grated ginger peel, orange and lemon zest, and I believe a cinnamon stick or two and some cloves. Soak it in some vodka and Everclear for a bit, strain it, and add a bunch of sugar water. Awesome. Anyway, we took an ounce or two of zenzerino over ice, added some amaretto, and topped it off with ginger ale. It smells and tastes like Christmas. We originally called it spice cake before changing it to Buddy the Elf--what's your favorite beverage?--over my strong objections since I don't really like Elf, but the name has stuck. Anyway, if you are ever in possession of some zenzerino, you need to make this drink, especially around Christmas.

By the way Julie & Julia is really good and was one of my favorite movies of the summer. I love Julie Powell's memoir which is hilarious and profane, and if you like cooking, breakdowns, and butter, you should definitely read it as long as you don't mind a few F words. Okay, a lot of F words. However, in the film it's the Julia Child storyline that works the best based on her memoir My Life in France written with Alex Prud'homme. Meryl Streep earned herself two Golden Globe nominations--one for Julia and the other for It's Complicated which comes out tomorrow, I believe, and which I need to see. She was also in the nominated Fantastic Mr. Fox which I will not be seeing since it is stop animation. Speaking of the Golden Globes, there are nine more movies which I desperately need to see including Up in the Air which is getting all sorts of critical love, Nine, A Single Man, The Princess and the Frog, The Young Victoria, The Last Station, Invictus, Precious, and Avatar which I thought was the stupidest looking movie I had ever seen a trailer for, but which is not only nominated for Best Picture but is also getting excellent reviews. Fine, James Cameron, I will go see your movie.

So on Saturday I made my way all the way down to Sea-Tac which is $48 far away plus tip. And after a very short, 90 minute flight, I was home in Utah. On Saturday I got together with college friends for Apartment Christmas and fondue, presents, and old friends. Valerie gave me the seventh and final season of The West Wing to complete my collection which began at Christmas seven years ago. Slow but steady wins the race. Anyway, I'm already half-way through. It's not nearly as good as the first four seasons, but the seventh season is much better that seasons five and six. In addition to The West Wing, I've been catching up on Dollhouse which is insane! I can't even handle it. On Tuesday I saw Elise and Justin and we watched Meet Me In St. Louis which I had never seen before. We saw Judy Garland and her corsets, singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and learned about bloom. We also decided that between the three of us, we could handle twenty men.

Yesterday, I drove around Salt Lake shopping for my final Christmas presents which are for my parentals who are the hardest people to shop for which means they will have to settle for gift cards. By the way, I love driving in Salt Lake--compared to Seattle there's no traffic, free parking everywhere, and you actually know where you're going--most of the time anyway. However, I have to use my family's cars since mine is back in Seattle. Boo. Anyway, I got my mother a gift certificate for a Japanese restaurant, and I was going to get my dad movie tickets for his favorite cineplex--which is half an hour away--but they were sold out of gift cards. How do you sell out of gift cards?! Especially at Christmas?! So I ordered one online from a different cineplex, and he'll just have to wait for the mail to deliver it. He also wanted The Road by Cormac McCarthy which I own and have been reading, so maybe if I finish it today, I'll wrap that up for him. I bought The Road a couple of years ago but just recently decided to give it a go, since I'm not really into post-apocalyptic art. However, it's better than I expected, plus it's really easy/short. Well this brings us to Christmas, so there you go. Time for more parties and lots of movies. Hopefully there will be more posts soon. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wisdom Journal

But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
—Job 28:12

Harold Bloom uses these words for his book Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? which Slarue gave me for Christmas two years ago. I've been rereading sections of it lately, and today I decided to make a wisdom journal. (Finally, a use for my Moleskine notebook!) I thought about developing a theoretical definition and/or framework of wisdom, but after a quarter of discussing theoretical definitions of information, I decided I would freestyle it instead. (Also, how does one define "wisdom"?) I think it will be composed mostly of quotes, poems, passages from novels and plays, aphorisms, song lyrics, etc. Things that strike me as being wise—whatever that is. So far I have four entries.

The things that make us happy make us wise.
—John Crowley, Little, Big
I think I will generally stay away from quotes that directly invoke wisdom, but ever since reading this passage in Crowley's novel, it has haunted me.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
—Hamlet (Act I, scene v)
Every now and then it's a good reminder to quote this to myself and replace Horatio's name with my own.

From Blank to Blank—
A Threadless Way
I pushed Mechanic feet—
To stop—or perish—or advance—
Alike indifferent—

If end I gained
It ends beyond
Indefinite disclosed—
I shut my eyes—and groped as well
'Twas lighter—to be Blind—
—Emily Dickinson, Poem 671
I don't think anyone ever knows what Emily is saying, but I love this poem, and it strikes me as being very wise.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me in one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you.
—Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself" Leaves of Grass
These are the final three lines of "Song of Myself," and Whitman is an American prophet, so it must contain wisdom, right? I think I fell in love with these lines from the Angel of America's reprise: "You can't Outrun your Occupation, Jonah. / Hiding from Me in one place you will find me in another. / I I I I stop down the road, waiting for you." from Tony Kushner's play Angels in America.

The problem that arises without using a definition of wisdom, is that I'm not sure what to include. I don't want to be too generous or too stingy. I suppose I will learn as I go, and look for those things that haunt me. After all, Emerson said, "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." If you would like to nominate any entries for wisdom, I'd love to hear them.

I feel old, but not very wise.
—Jenny, An Education

Happy Holidays

Right now I am eating a delicious slice of the pumpkin cheesecake I made to celebrate my own Thanksgiving. One of my best Thanksgivings was spent in Cedar City, and I actually had to work. But almost no one called Convergys that day, and so we played games like I Have Never and threw bouncy balls around. And then I went back to my apartment and all my roommates were gone (except for Adrian), and I drank a bottle of Meier's sparkling grace juice and watched The Rules of Attraction. I was so energized afterward (sugar rush!) that I cruised Main Street listening to Christmas songs on the radio. All in all, it was a pretty good day. This Thanksgiving was not exactly like that. It was very low-key but more lonely. I missed all my friends and family.

I did make a whole feast for myself. Besides the pumpkin cheesecake, I also made homemade cranberry sauce which is my specialty--but it's also ridiculously easy. A monkey could make it. I also made a spinach pancetta strata (which is like Italian stuffing), spinach artichoke dip, and Brussels sprouts. The Brussels sprouts were actually not half-bad even though I burned my hand on the pan--an ibuprofen and a few glasses of wine helped ease the pain tremendously. I also bought a rotisserie chicken which I didn't even touch until yesterday. The wine, Brussels sprouts, dip, and cranberry sauce are gone. The cheesecake is disappearing at an alarming, yet delicious, rate. So all I have left is the strata and a couple of chicken legs.

I spent the day watching movies. Well, first I watched all ten Thanksgiving episodes from Friends on the WB's website. That was delightful. I also watched a couple of The West Wing's Thanksgiving episodes. Again, delightful. And then Netflix screwed up my movies, and instead of sending me Will & Grace and Were the World Mine, they sent me A Streetcar Named Desire and Dark City. I sort of stopped paying attention towards the end of Streetcar so I'm not entirely sure what happened. What I do know is that Marlon Brando exudes sexuality. So damn hot. Whew. Dark City is an interesting and bizarre, stylistic and dark science-fiction picture starring Rufus Sewell who's very pretty--especially ten years ago. It reminded me a lot of Sin City and now I very much want to see that movie again. On Friday afternoon, I made my way all the the way down to Capitol Hill to see An Education which was very good. It was very interesting and not at all what I had expected based on the trailer. So I had to adjust my expectations, but I think it was all for the better. The screenplay's by Nick Hornby based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, and it's set in England in the early '60s right before The Beatles took over and shook things up. It's a coming-of-age story of Jenny played perfectly by Carey Mulligan. I didn't make the connection myself, but she's being compared to Audrey Hepburn--the sunglasses help enormously--yet Carey Mulligan is effortless and graceful and glowing so the comparison is apt. Peter Sarsgaard who has always creeped me out, was only mildly creepy, but then his character is a charmer, so I guess it's very good acting. Here's a part of Roger Ebert's review and it doesn't contain any real spoilers:
"So young women, let this movie offer useful advice. When a man seems too good to be true, he probably isn't -- good, or true. We all make mistakes when we're growing up. Sometimes we learn from them. If we're lucky, we can even learn during them. And you must certainly see Paris. Do not count on meeting the aunt."
By the way, I also loved the last line of the movie. All in all, it was a good film and worth checking out.

There were also a couple of trailers for movies I want to see. I love the way that the way trailers present movies change through the years. A few years ago trailers seemed to give away the whole movie. Sometimes the two-and-a-half minute trailer is better than the movie itself. But I think we're moving away from that a little bit, based on these two trailers anyway. I have no idea what either of them is about, but I desperately want to see them. The first is the directorial debut of Tom Ford's film A Single Man and it's garnered a lot of critical buzz. The second is Nine and all I know is that it's a musical from the same director of Chicago. By the way, I finally bought Chicago on sale at the grocery store last week, and I also watched that on Thanksgiving. I love Chicago! Here are the trailers:



And today I started working on some lists. I finished my wish list on amazon and my holiday/winter playlist. Some of my favorites include Allison Crowe's cover of "River," The Killers' "A Great Big Sled," and Tori Amos' versions of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Little Drummer Boy." I also love "How Long" by Martha Wainwright which screams Christmas to me with the "starlight gleaming" and the melancholy atmosphere; it would be the perfect song for a Christmas scene in Brokeback Mountain. (Is there a Christmas scene in that movie? It's been a while since I've seen it.) I also queued all my holiday movies on Netflix for this month. Based mostly on TBTL's recommendations from last year I will be watching The Shop Around the Corner, Die Hard, Love Actually (it's a tradition!), Fanny and Alexander, the original Miracle on 34th Street, Meet Me in St. Louis, the 1984 A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, and The Dead which is based on a James Joyce story and is actually set during the Epiphany. It's not a very traditional list, but I'm kind of going for a more alternative Christmas this year, but if I happen to catch It's A Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, or The Muppet Christmas Carol on TV then so much the better. What are your favorite Christmas movies?

I can't wait to go home. I have three more weeks of classes and finals, but I'm not too stressed out. I only have three assignments and one final, and none of them should be too difficult. This break has also been nice and long. I only got one extra day off, but I can't believe it's only Saturday. I still have Sunday to relax and lounge around. Delightful! Well, the Christmas season has begun in earnest. I guess it's time to start my Christmas shopping. Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.

Music For Your Weekend

I'm awake in the wee hours of Friday morning, but it's the weekend nonetheless, especially for me since I don't have classes on Friday. However, I have a major group project that I will be working on tomorrow, actually later today, and the rest of the weekend. Boo. But forgetting about that for a moment, I am patently ripping off TBTL's segment "Music for Your Weekend" wherein they showcase new-ish songs every Friday for the listener's weekend listening pleasure. My selections aren't new songs per se except to me and perhaps you as well. Anyway, these are three songs that I've been listening to a lot this week, and if you happen to be bored with all the music currently on your iPod (or Zune, Dain), you might take a gander at one of these. Enjoy!

The Other Other Wainwright
My first song is by Martha Wainwright, daughter of Loudon and sister of Rufus, and the song is "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole." As you can probably tell, the lyrics are explicit. In contrast to her brother's polished, seductive voice and lush arrangements, Martha strips down the music to some sparse guitar and her voice is raw in its crooning not entirely unlike Liz Phair. And the song reminds me a little bit, oddly, of Avril's "I'm With You" only better. The song can be found on the EP of the same title or Martha's eponymous album.


Hey Seattle
I heard about local Seattle band Hey Marseilles on TBTL and bought their album To Travels and Trunks on iTunes over the summer, but only lately have I gotten into the record. The band has seven members and even more instruments including a mandolin and accordion giving it a European flavor hence their name. A few of the tracks are purely instrumental, but the songs with lyrics are artfully crafted and sincere. Here is their most popular number "Rio" which has excellent lines like "There are always Brazilian boys to discover" and "Drink till the morning becomes yesterday." And who doesn't love a song with clapping?


Reading Camus
This is actually off of a recommendation by Regina Spektor from some radio show she was on. It's called "I Don't Want to Get Over You" by the Magnetic Fields from 69 Love Songs. (Dirty!) It's a short song that I just love; a self-aware number about the exquisite agony (and pleasure) that comes after love when you're not quite ready to let go. My favorite lines are "I could . . . smoke clove cigarettes and drink vermouth / Like I was 17 that would be a scream."


Speaking of Regina...
Here's a bonus song. Her latest album Far came out this summer, and as I've already mentioned it is my favorite yet, and I've been listening to it incessantly. Working with five different produces has the odd effect of making it her most cohesive album to date, and there's not a song on it I don't like. With so many excellent songs to choose from--and really you should check out the whole record--I've chosen the first track "The Calculation" which points out that one can't calculate life or love, which is fitting in regards to my last post.

Have a marvelous weekend!

21 Things I Want in a Lover

Every now and then one comes to a realization of one of life's great truths as if there were such things. Raised in a culture that celebrates romantic love and fed on literature that worships soul mates, we believe that our perfect match is out there, and it's just a matter of meeting that person. Perhaps, that is true, but I find it highly unlikely, and it is even more unlikely that one will ever meet that person if, in fact, he does exist. Still, it's a highly romantic notion, and so we indulge it--if we could just find him! then we will be complete. That is the premise of the beautiful song "Origin of Love," though I believe the primary human condition is aloneness (not to be confused with loneliness), but perhaps that's just the solipsist in me. I also like that we believe that true love triumphs over all even though love of all sorts--passionate, familial--is as often destructive as not. Is there any proof that love is inherently good? Harold Bloom happily reminds us that the Macbeths are the happiest married couple in all of Shakespeare. Speaking of marriage, I've always found it to be a business arrangement, first and foremost. It's the primary reason I think that gay marriage hasn't been widely granted. It's not because the general public can't stomach the thought of two men or two women together--though that may be part of the case--or even religious--whatever the rhetoric--but because marriage is a sign of power with its various rights and privileges (tax breaks, inheritance, visitation rights, etc.). It's the same reason that slaves couldn't get married either. A sort of Foucauldian power struggle if you will. On a side note, there's a scene in Eyes Wide Shut where a man is talking to Nicole Kidman and he tells her something to the effect that the only reason women got married back in the day was so that they could then sleep with whomever they wanted. I've always liked that notion that marriage is a business arrangement separate from love affairs. But I digress. In one of my favorite songs by Alanis Morissette, she lists the twenty-one things she wants in a lover--not necessarily needs but the qualities that she prefers. I've been thinking about my own list, and it starts with a variation of the desert island question. Dr. P once remarked that he married his wife in part because she loved the film Raising Arizona, and that if she hadn't the relationship would have ended. So I've started with the tastes I would want to share when it came to books, movies, music, etc. The rules are you only get to choose one item from each genre where compatibility is essential though it may differ from your personal favorite or desert island choice. Again, this perfect person probably doesn't exist, but isn't it pretty to think so?

NOVEL I've chosen novel over book because I like the idea of a work of fiction representing a facet of a person. My novel would be To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. One of my favorite novels, this stream-of-consciousness work perfectly captures the minutiae of daily life making it one of the seminal modernist novels.

FILM I'm a film buff, and I think that the films one has in one's personal collection says a great deal about his character. The film I've chosen, naturally, is The Hours directed by Stephen Daldry. A drama centered on characters instead of plot, it has so many things that I love: Meryl Streep, Virginia Woolf, literature, life, loss, and the transcendental moments that change our lives.

PLAY | MUSICAL Ideally, this would be based on a live staged production, but we no longer live in an age of ideals, at least not the Wildean one. So this may be a musical or play in any format you like: live, the book, a film version, or the soundtrack. Mine would be the play Angels in America written by visionary Tony Kushner and the brilliant miniseries directed by Mike Nichols. In the best of all possible worlds, Angels would be required American reading because it has everything in it: sex, religion, politics, and America.

ALBUM I haven't entirely decided on the rules here. Should best of collections or soundtracks be allowed? Maybe but it should be a single disc. I would choose Little Earthquakes Extended by Tori Amos. Earthquakes is Tori's seminal album. It remains her most accessible and her best. The extended edition includes four B-sides: "Upside Down," "Flying Dutchman." "Take to the Sky," and "Sweet Dreams." In real-life we may make mixed CDs of our favorite songs and artists, but that's not part of this game. Anyway, Earthquakes was a transformative album for me, and there's nary a song on it that I don't like.

TELEVISION "TV knows everything." Also, it's our true national pastime. I love television, and I don't think I could be with a person who didn't. Here you have to choose an entire television series. I have at least five, but the one that matters the most is The West Wing even though I haven't yet seen the final season. Still, the first four seasons alone are some of the best TV ever seen on network television. Yes, it's political porn, but that's part of why it's so good. What I love the most about this series is the characters--what I've learned is that what matters most to me in any novel, film, series is the characters--especially the women: C.J. Cregg, Donna Moss, Abigail Bartlet, and Amy Gardner. The men are pretty great too. Furthermore, the writing is excellent, the drama is earnest, and it's hysterically funny--more so than many sitcoms. Any show that can make jokes out of syllogisms and dangling modifiers gets instant respect from me.

POETRY I just added this category, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I think we should allow selected and completed works as well as books published by the poet, but anthologies are too easy. I can't decided what mine would be. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot would be my desert island choice, but I'm not sure if that's the criterion I want to select. Perhaps I would choose the extant handful of Emily Bronte's poems. Or the poems of Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, or Octavio Paz. Obviously, I need to read more poetry, but for now I suppose I will settle for The Waste Land.

I can't think of any more categories of media for now, except perhaps visual art but that seems like an entirely too messy genre to contemplate right now. I couldn't even begin to choose a favorite painter, though I suspect Salvador Dali would be in the running. Perhaps video games too though I generally don't play them. Mine would be Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And there are, of course, many other important qualities such as personality, clothes, and whether or not he prefers gin to vodka. Anyway, prove me wrong, if you know a gay man with these exact same interests, I need to know. What would be your personal selections?

Fragment

I love to slip into the shadows
Into the void that can hold
The shape        that is not me.