July 27, 2010
I would SO go to Pacey-Con.
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July 18, 2010
Late-Night Grocery Shopping
- 1 pint butter pecan icecream.
- 1 bag sweet hawaiian onion potato chips.
- 1 box rootbeer/lemon-lime/banana popsicles (three of each, NOT mixed).
- 42 packets of black cherry Koolaid mix.
It was still 88 degrees when I was walking home at 2 a.m. Can you tell?
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July 16, 2010
L'alone. Sigh.
Some of the writing on this site is a bit too ouchy to read (without crying anyway). But I love all the photos and the illustrated sayings. I just do.
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Trying out some summer TV: new and old.
The Bridge - sorry, Chief Tyrol, but this show isn't good enough to keep watching. Too many corruption plotlines even for a two-hour episode. Choppy editing, bad dialogue.
The Glades - The character is a bit too arrogantly "I am so funny" for me. And I thought it was a little bizarre how many times he went back to the crime scene and found yet another clue. Don't they have forensics down there? Wouldn't that stuff have all already been catalogued and filed into evidence?
Rizzoli & Isles - Actually really good. Tightly plotted, well acted, nice chemistry between a bunch of the characters, not just the main two. Thumbs up. (Bonus = creepy backstory scars.)
Haven - Not great but definitely watchable. Like a less goofy/funny Warehouse 13. Plus several good-lookin' boys. So there's that.
The Choir - I liked it enough to keep watching, but not totally into it. But then I NEVER watch those reality shows y'all love. So maybe it's just that it's not my genre. The little Kenyan boy, Enoch (sp?), is not only so insanely adorable but dang, he may have the best voice in the choir. And I do love both the enthusiasm of the director dude and the fact that he's young and actually able to do himself what he's asking of others. Which is most certainly NOT the case on some of the reality shows I've seen an episode of here or there.
Also watching:
Lie to Me - It's similar to House in that it all really falls on whether you can tolerate the main character but it's different than house in that a) the main character isn't such a train wreck and b) the storylines each week differ a LOT more than the ones on House do.
The Good Wife - I find myself a little taken aback by how much older Julianna Marguilies looks. I guess I just remember her in the Clooney ER days and haven't seen her do that much between. It's OK. I have only seen scattered episodes though. (Chawne, if you're reading this, in another celebrity shoutout, I've actually played softball with [against] Chris Noth.)
Warehouse 13 - I thought the first ep was a little bizarre, didn't really have the same tone as last year's show to me. But I liked the second one better and you know I'm a) a big Eddie McClintock fan and b) a fan of any show with a purple-suited superhero. Come on now!
Burn Notice - The failing of this show this season for me is that they just never follow up on the Fiona/Michael relationship. The past two seasons were huge steps in him admitting he loves her, him being able to show it... and now every week maybe one tiny moment of flirting and that's it?!? COME ON PEOPLE. I need my virtual relationships to actually BE relationships. Throw me a frakking bone, here.
Friday Night Lights - This show will never be what it was to me in season 1. But there are several quality storylines going on and it's STILL some of the best truly real-life emotions (not TV emotions) acting there is out there.
Eagerly awaiting:
Dark Blue returns August 4. It's not the greatest cop show but it's all dirty and dark and sometimes that's what you're looking for.
Season 3 of Sons of Anarchy starts on Tuesday, September 7 and I'll be jumping out of my skin by that time waiting for its return. I've already rewatched both seasons 1 and 2 this summer (as well as all 4 seasons of BSG. Hey, I had the month of May off!!) and I just can't wait to see what happens next even as there's some stuff I'm just sooo worried about MIGHT happen!!
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July 12, 2010
One can see the appeal of disposal cook/eat ware.
1. One washes all the dishes.
2. Dinnertime! One cooks, creates some dirty dishes, puts leftovers in tupperware.
3. Breakfast. More dirty.
4. Oh, lunchtime! Take out tupperware (now dirty), heat up food in pan/pot/etc. (now dirty), and eat off plate/bowl/etc. (now dirty!)
5. Oh, dinner! Cooks. More dirty.
6. One washes all the dishes.
7. Breakfast! More dirty.
8. Lunchtime. Take out tupperware (now dirty), heat up (dirty), eat (dirty.)
9. Dinner. More dirty.
10. One washes all the dishes.
Ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
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A conversation.
C: Where'd you get that skillet?
Me: At that store that's exactly like Linens 'n' Things, but the other one.
T: Skillets 'n' Things?!
Me: Uh no. You know...
C: Ha! No, I know, it's called...
T: LINENS 'N' SKILLETS ?!?!
[queue hysterical laughter]
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July 06, 2010
À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for June.
Bought:
- Dead in the Family, by Charlaine Harris (iphone/Kindle)
Read:
- The Hidden City, by Michelle West
- A Distant Magic, by Mary Jo Putney (borrowed from Mom)
- Dead in the Family, by Charlaine Harris (iphone/Kindle)
- Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens (from Steph, thanks dude!)
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June 22, 2010
Books I Wish I Could Buy Right Now
- "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan
- "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell
"Slut Lullabies" by Gina FrangelloI have very generous friends!
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June 19, 2010
I have yet to see an episode of True Blood.
But this video is hilariously fantastic.
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June 16, 2010
À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for May.
Bought:
- Magic on the Storm, by Devon Monk
- 61 Hours, by Lee Child (iphone/Kindle)
- The Hidden City, by Michelle West
Read:
- Magic on the Storm, by Devon Monk
- 61 Hours, by Lee Child (iphone/Kindle)
- The Fool's Progress, by Edward Abbey (library)
- The Photogenic Soprano, by Dorothy Dunnett (library)
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May 15, 2010
Dear Joaquin,
this entire thing just makes me so, so sad.
Seriously: WHY?
Sincerely,
someone who used to love you,
Duff.
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Transforming Gaga
I know Lady Gaga is completely frakking nutballs but her music IS indeed fantastic and here's how you can tell.
An acoustic cover of Bad Romance by Lissie.
A (piano) acoustic cover of Paparazzi by some insanely talented 12 year old boy.
Oh. YES.
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May 14, 2010
A wonderful image.
I dip myself in books like feet in the ocean, and when I emerge I am dripping with ideas as icy as the Atlantic.
-written by my friend Meera.
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May 06, 2010
New Favorite Song of the Summer!!
"Airplanes" - B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams of Paramour.
You know how I love my rap and my pop all mixed up together.
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May 05, 2010
SciFi: Blackout, by Connie Willis
I remembered really loving The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, although I apparently read those well before I started keeping track for this site (or its previous incarnations) and I was super excited to hear Willis had a new book out! (And thanks for the bday present, Cat!)
She falls somewhere between the Diana Gabaldon Outlander books (with the time travel, of course) and Maureen McHugh (more sci/fi fantasty, less romance than Gabaldon) in my mind.
I felt this one was a bit slowgoing at first, there are SO many characters to set up, in different places both in space and time. But about halfway through I found myself quite eagerly turning the pages and then...OH NO IT'S BEEN TURNED INTO A TWO-PART BOOK AND THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST HALF NOOOOOOOOO
Yeah, that's putting it mildly. Apparently part 2 "All Clear" will be out in October.
Really cool intertwining of historians from the future (2060) sent back to research WWII England. The contretemps of trying to find the right outfits, accents, accessories, etc., is quite entertaining. The effect of them navigating the past, trying to observe with the minimum of involvement and no interaction; can that ever really be possible? There have been a bunch of History teachers-to-be in my classes this year and we've done a lot of talking about "historical fact" and it's really interesting to read this with that type of semantics in mind.
I was really psyched about who arrives in the last chapter (or who I think it is that arrives). I hope to see more of that character in book 2...
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Romance: How to Knit a Love Song, by Rachael Herron
This is not an unbiased review. I have been friends with Rachael for years.
Be that as it may, I absolutely loved this book.
Now, this IS a romance genre novel and it does abide by many of those conventions. It's not a mystery who's going to wind up with who, or even whether they'll wind up together. Rather the mystery is in how is that going to happen? How will they get past their irks and irritations and hangups and baggage? How will they become the right person for each other?
That said, there is a lot going on here: the integration of knitting lore and farmers meeting 'round the breakfast table at the diner, as well as a mystery popping up from someone's past...
Abigail and Cade seem very real and very human and very connected. Their interactions have just the right touch.
I'm so proud of my friend that she wrote this lovely book and I'm so excited for her success!
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Fantasy/Mystery: Silver Borne, by Patricia Briggs
Book #5 in the Mercy Thompson series (book #4 here).
Another fantastic entry in this series. Lots of stuff happens here, we learn more about the pack and its internal dramas/rules/etc., about Samuel, about the fae. I couldn't put it down!
I'm super into these, I'm into the related Charles/Anna books, I've read her more "medieval"-type fantasty as well (here or here or here). I just think everything Briggs writes is fantastic.
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SciFi/Fantasy: Magic on the Storm, by Devon Monk
Fourth in a series. Definitely in my top five current fantasy series (along with the Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books and the almost-completed Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books...I'd have have to walk to a different room to look at a different bookshelf to pin down the rest...).
This has a lot of the good stuff of the previous three books, as well as widening the list of characters I cared about, filling in some of the folks who were broader strokes in books past (Shamus in particular). There continues to be a LOT about blood magic that we don't really know its longlasting effects. Lots of great fighting (magic and otherwise). And a freakalicious ending that is NOT going to keep me patient until the next one comes out in November (YAY SO SOON!).
Allie and Zayvion continue to have a sexy yet more than that relationship. The imagery describing Zayvion in a certain fight at a certain point in this book...is just so so cool. And I do dearly love Stone. (FYI you can knit your own Stone should you wish to. Although in the books he is a LOT BIGGER than that.)
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May 01, 2010
Big Screen: Clash of the Titans (3D)
Soooo hilariously cheesetastic. One of those movies where you're laughing at stuff that the movie seems to want you to take seriously but it's such bad dialogue that there's just no way to hold your giggles in. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes had particularly cheesalicious hilarious lines.
The 3D didn't look that great to me and honestly during really fast action scenes = it loses all effectiveness.
The only two not horribly ridiculous things about this movie?
a) Sam Worthington. Nom. So earnest.
b) Mads Mikkelson. Nommity nom nom. I have been a fan of his since he played Tristan in that also-not-very-good, but better-than-this 2004 King Arthur movie (Clive Owen / Keira Knightley)--but most of you probably know him as one of the villains in the last two James Bond movies. He's fantastic. Dear US Movie Producers, GIVE HIM MORE WORK. KTHXBAI.
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À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for April.
Bought:
- Silver Borne, a Mercy Thompson novel, by Patricia Briggs
Read:
- What's Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies (library) (re-read)
- Letters to a Young Teacher, by Jonathan Kozol (library)
- Death at an Early Age, by Jonathan Kozol (library)
- I Won't Learn from You, by Herbert Kohl (library)
- Silver Borne, a Mercy Thompson novel, by Patricia Briggs
- Possession, by A.S. Byatt (re-read)
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