10 Things

(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.

October Fest

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.

Fall Reflections

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"

The Day After Yesterday

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

"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!

Copy Cat: Book Giveaway

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!

Notes from October

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!

Catch-Up

I just mapped out my bus route to the Paramount Theatre for tomorrow because I am going to see Regina Spektor, so obviously everything is just dandy.

This was after doing all of my reading for tomorrow--a rarity--though it seems no matter how much you do, you're never entirely caught up. I still have two papers due this week, two group projects to work on, oh-so-much-more reading, and my inbox is overflowing with emails--of which most of the information will already be outdated by the time I get around to reading them. "Yesterday's news more remote than a cuneiform tablet smashed to bits." Also, information overload.

Today, I realized that I hate LIS 510--Information Behavior--and that I want to be more on the library side of LIS than the information science part. After most of the readings, and classes, I ask "So effing what?" The so what is a question that our professor told us is the staple of our program. That and "stuff." The Information Science field is still maturing and much about it is ill-defined. She also wants us to think critically about our readings. Thing is, it's backfired. I'm critical of the class and think "so bloody what?" about the readings, most of which are written by our professor. Also, the last three weeks of class will be devoted to group projects and no lecturing. Aside from my own group project, the workload will be rather light, but that's not what I'm really paying thousands of dollars in tuition for.

Oh, and this week I need to arrange and register for next quarter's classes. Add that to the "to do" list.

I'm not very fond of the term "guybrarian," but ever since beginning the LIS program, I have become ever so much more domestic. Okay, all I'm doing is cooking--my room, the living room, the bathroom--they've all been taken over by chaos--but the kitchen is loverly. I'm also spending way too much money on food--my grocery bill is at least twice what it used to be as an undergraduate in Cedar City--and it wasn't cheap then either. However, I am buying real food. In college, I didn't cook, I heated various frozen, canned, and boxed foodstuffs with the microwave, stove, or oven and called that good. It can't have been that healthy, but watch how the pounds melted off of me. Now eating supposedly healthy real food has the opposite effect. FML. Of course, all the beer could be affecting the results. Still, I'm eating well. I've made moussaka, potage parmentier, real macaroni and cheese, risotto, and the like. Delicious. And on Fridays when I don't have class, I sleep in and then watch the Food Network. I make a day out of it. Beautiful.

I miss being an English major, though of course I'm not so sure I want to pursue a post-graduate degree in the field, and though English professor was my ideal job for a while, I know I can't handle the competitive nature of the field. I'm not even so sure I'm going to get a job as a librarian at the end of this thing. Going into the program, I thought I will have my Master's before I turn twenty-five. Now I'm starting to think that the five+ years of work experience that my fellow students have on me might be to my disadvantage. Today I thought I would like to be a personal assistant/secretary. I know right away that I would make a terrible one--I'm not detail oriented. But I also thought--it's not my life, it's someone else's life. I would get to pay their bills with their money--that's a lot more fun than paying my own bills, an activity I tend to avoid for as long as possible. So I'm still deciding what I want to be when I grow up.

The lines are being drawn and the ranks are closing in. It looks likes I'm pretty much set up with my friends in the program, and while the lines will be redrawn based on the classes we take in the future and group projects, I'm not going to be making any new friends this quarter. And the people I am friends with are a lovely bunch, and I'm sure (well hopeful) that our friendships with flourish, but it's never quite what one expected. I believe, and have believed for some time, that my perfect best friends are out there, waiting. This brings me to three realizations: 1) I already met them are they are Elise, Dain, and Whitney; 2) I really just want to meet myself and apparently I am unique; and 3) I am never the best friend. So it's a sorta fairytale.

Thursday night's alright for drinking. On Thursday, after class, I met some members of my cohort at the College Inn Pub for happy hour. Our time there lasted a long, long time past happy hour and then some of us moved along to Brauers for more beer and more importantly delicious frites. On Friday night, I went to a game night in Greenwood with Maggie and met some gaming people--that was interesting. I came home to find Netflix sent me the first disc of The Forsyte Saga. I am not sure how I feel about this BBC miniseries. Sidecars are a delicious amusement when watching a confusing and semi-boring miniseries.

Saturday was Halloween, and I needed to buy a couple of things for my costume, such as black shoes since I foolishly left my one and only pair in Utah. So I went to the GAP and bought a lot of lovely clothing but nothing that helped me in my costuming endeavors. So then I drove to Northgate Mall and bought a bitchin' pair of black Robert Wayne dress shoes. They're a bit narrow but I chose them over the much more sensible and comfortable Steve Maddens which weren't nearly as cool. Once my Newsie outfit was complete (with newsprint on my face), I went to Jeannie's for our pre-party game plan, much wine, beer, and champagne was consumed. We then piled into a taxi and went to the Baltic Room in Capitol Hill--a very loud dance club. More beer. And we picked up Emily. Then we stuffed ourselves into another taxi and were headed to a so-called "rave" but decided that the cover charge was too much and ended up in Belltown instead. We went to the Buddha Bar, more beer, and there was a costume competition and a screening of Orange County. WTF? We then stumbled to Belltown Billiards where there was a $10 cover just for the guys, and we were a bit strapped for cash at that point. Have I mentioned that I don't like clubs? Bars are great, but I hate clubs. Emily and I were about ready to crash, so we finally left, got into another taxi and went back to Jeannie's and eventually I got myself back home. Home, sweet, home. Also, my feet really hurt.

And then yesterday I woke up at noon only to realize an hour later that I hadn't set my clock back, so it was noon again. Lovely. I ignored my homework, went grocery shopping, and decided to see Bright Star which is a film about John Keats and his love affair with Fanny Brawne. The performances are good and the cinematography is beautiful. Afterward, I stopped at Dick's Drive-In and got myself a deluxe and some fries. Dick's it's perfect fast food. SO effing good! And then it was Monday. Blerg.

Class today was an exercise in staying awake. All that's keeping me going is Regina tomorrow. And Guy Fawkes Day on Thursday.

Hitting the Books

While I was working on my summer reading list over the past few months, a number of titles caught my eye, but I had to place them instead on my never-ending, always-growing, lifelong reading list. However, my summer reading list was quite successful, if not 100%--and I'm still trying to make my way through the last sixty pages of Absalom, Absalom!, and Sexual Personae is something I will slowly but surely be making my way through. I'm not quite 1/3 done, but I hope to finish it by Christmas. So along with graduate school, television programming, a new city, and (hopefully) new friends, I present the thirteen books I would like to read this fall, and while several are short and/or fast reads, I certainly don't expect to finish them all, but here they are nonetheless.

My first two selections are novels from my summer list that I didn't get to. The first is Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence which is his most notorious novel, and that is saying something. It was also at the center of the landmark obscenity trial that allowed the book to be published. The second is American Rust by Philipp Meyer, a new American novel that is already racking up comparisons to Steinbeck and Twain.

Wishful Drinking is the latest memoir by Carrie Fisher and is the basis for her new, one-woman show. Just out in paperback, the memoir is supposedly candid and hilarious dealing with Hollywood inbreeding and family affairs, alcoholism and drug addiction, and her battle with bi-polar disorder. I can't wait to read it!

Dracula by Bram Stoker. I tried to read this book once many years ago, and failed real hard. But I'm thinking I would like to try again this October. After all, I always aim to read something terrifying around Halloween.

Death in Venice is perhaps Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann's best known work. I'm thinking I would like to try the novella's latest translation by Michael Henry Heim.

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth has to be more exciting than actual morality plays. It's a novel of a Medieval English theatre troupe that gets caught up in a small-town murder.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by locavore Michael Pollan who is also known for his bestsellers The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. I've decided recently that I would like to change my eating/buying habits somewhat and read Pollan among others.

Blame by Michelle Huneven is a new novel that came out today. It's the story of a reckless professor who kills two people on a drunk driving spree and attempts to atone for her crime. It's supposedly smart, deep, addictive, and . . . then the author drops a bomb. I'm intrigued.

The Liars' Club by Mary Karr is a seminal family memoir. It was recommended by Alexandra Fuller of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, and is a memoir of childhood and a family of liars and drunks. For those interested, Karr's third memoir, Lit, comes out in November.

Nocturnes is a collection of five heartbreaking stories and is the latest work by Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day. It comes out later this month.

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk comes out in October. Pumak's (who also won the Nobel Prize) novel is about forbidden love in Istanbul. GQ quips "sure to become a Cate Blanchett movie," which sounds good to me.

"Buckingham Palace," District Six is a novel by Richard Rive who traces the stories of several characters living in District Six before their eventual removal by the South African government under apartheid.

And finally, also coming out in October is The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. Am I excited? Very. Let's get biblical.

So here's to a whole new slew of books I'm excited to read, and to GQ for helping some of these novels to catch my eye.

Liminal Spaces

It's a little strange to be home now, alone, as my baby sister left for college a couple of weeks ago. The house is quiet and I miss her. It's also a little strange to watch all the busy students at the U--especially the freshmen--readjust to campus, because even though I'm also starting school this fall, mine is still a month away. There is much to done in the remaining month including such things as packing and freaking out, but for now all is still. I'm just reading books, going to movies, hanging out with friends, and catching reruns on television.

Speaking of books I just started Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner which is not at all what I expected, my expectations mostly based on As I Lay Dying. So far I've been managing a chapter a day which isn't bad considering there are only nine chapters and they're anywhere from 20 to 80 pages each and the writing's a bit dense. I'm not sure if I like it yet; we'll just have to wait and see. I recently finished All Souls by Christine Schutt, a novel about--well I'm not really sure what it was about, but it concerns the characters at an elite Upper East Side school in Manhattan--the students, parents, and teachers. I was really excited to read it because I love Gossip Girl (the television series, not the books), and All Souls was a finalist for the Pulitzer--and I love awards. But the novel was much more difficult than I thought it would be, and in the end I was rather disappointed. Finally, I've been making my way through Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia and it is fascinating. The subtitle Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is fitting for this tome which is described as "a unified-field theory of Western culture, high and low" from the Ancient Egyptians who invented beauty through the art and literature of the ages up to the American Transcendentalists and Dark Romantics. Harold Bloom calls it "an enormous sensation of a book, in all the better senses of 'sensation.'" And it is sometimes outrageous and infuriating, tackling the assumptions of conservatives, liberals, and feminists alike. The New York Times says it is "as intellectually stimulating as it is exasperating." And while I don't agree with all of Paglia's points, she makes a persuasive argument while challenging everything I thought I knew. I still have much to read, but I highly recommend this book especially to my friends who are interested in art and literature, and especially those who consider themselves feminists.

Anyway, once I finish Absalom, Absalom! I will have checked off a good portion of my summer reading list though--alas and alack--I will not have finished everything on it. Faulkner and Paglia will complete the fifteen books I did read this summer, but there were still four more titles on my list that didn't make it including American Rust; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; Lady Chatterley's Lover; and One Hundred Years of Solitude--which I never finished in Continental Lit II. Nevertheless, it's the only reading list I've come remotely close to finishing, and I intend to finish these four novels in the fall though I'm sure grad school has other plans.

I've also checked off a few more movies off my summer list. Star Trek is every bit as good the second time around; The Hurt Locker is "ferociously suspenseful," a war movie refreshingly free of political polemics; and Moon is a spare and haunting science fiction movie where individuals are expendable in the face of technology and energy. I also saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after rereading the book. While the narrative is terribly engrossing, I think the book is full of cliches, bad writing, and static characters. (Let the hate comments begin.) The movie was a fine visual adaptation of the book, but certainly not great cinema on its own merits. I think that the third movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron is the best of the film franchise, though I'm not even sure if I've the seen the fourth and fifth movies. So while Labor Day is still a couple of weeks away, I would just like to say what I think were the most fun and enjoyable summer movies. Star Trek obviously, The Brothers Bloom which is hilarious and almost masturbatory in its own enjoyment, Julie & Julia is a visual feast with the always sublime Meryl Streep, and (500) Days of Summer is a delightful romp with the best soundtrack of any movie to come out, so far, this year. What were your favorite films this summer?

Speaking of Labor Day we are entering the time and space between summer and fall. While the Autumnal Equinox is not until September 23rd and we're still waiting for the first cold snap--though it's been unusually cool this summer--classes are starting for most students and Labor Day is just around the corner. Summer is ending and fall is beginning. These are my two favorite seasons and I love the liminal space between them. As Kristyn and I were driving home from Harry Potter, it was late evening and the pale daylight was fading from the mountains and city buildings, and everything was peaceful even in the city. I felt the smallest pang of nostalgia, the tiniest tremor. And I wanted to listen to Regina Spektor's "Summer in the City," Vanessa Carlton's "White Houses," and Dashboard Confessional's "Stolen." We watched the season pull up its own stakes / and catch the last weekend of the last week. And now I need to work on my fall playlist--any suggestions?

It is also the time of the harvest. I visited SLC's Farmers Market which was absolutely delightful! I've only been to one other farmers market before, it was a bit pitiful and I was quite young. Anyway, Pioneer Park was swarming with people and the vendors were hawking their wares from fresh produce and baked goods to cooked meals and hipster handicrafts. It was so much fun, and I want to go back this weekend. I bought some peaches for peaches & cream!, and heirloom tomatoes. I've been using them to make tomato sandwiches which are delectable. Toast some bread, slather it with mayonnaise, layer on juicy slabs of fresh tomatoes--for best results use a variety--sprinkle with salt and pepper, and eat open-faced. OMG! So good. Bring on the peaches and tomatoes, I'm ready for fall. I'm ready for jacket-weather, leaf peeping, long walks on brisk evenings, exploring coffee shops and drinking hot chai lattes, starting school, and curling up in a blanket reading novels.