The Last Werewolf...

Of all the books I read in 2011, The Last Werewolf is the one that haunted me the most. It still haunts me. Beautifully written, sincere and yet, sometimes, cynically executed it's a novel that holds nothing back and most certainly is not for the faint of heart.

More than anything, Glen Duncan's novel feels like an indie pop album full of pining, sometimes lonely music that is always lovely even when it rocks hard. It's one of those books that has so many wonderful lines, you don't know which one to love best.

somewhere around 102 (give or take a page)...

So I finally reached a point in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where I want to keep reading (page 102ish, in the movie tie-in paperback edition)...I still don't see what all the excitement is about, but I no longer find the novel boring...

It appears, though, that there is a small, but steady group of us who are not, nor ever have been, swept up in dragon fever:

read more here

New Yorker article on the popularity of The Dragon Tattoo

Carver

Reading "They're Not Your Husband" by Raymond Carver and so wanting to scream...He seems as sexist and brutal (emotionally) towards woman as Phillip Roth is. This story, in particular, bothers me so much that I feel like I'm going to cry.

The main character, out of work, seems to be taking his lack of self-esteem and his unemployment out on on his wife, whom he convinces (rather mercilessly) to lose weight, at the expense of her health.

I think of the double standards when it comes to weight and women. Earlier in his collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? there is "Fat," a short about an obese man who is the object of sympathy and understanding rather than scorn and hatred.

Ultimately, I think the man in "They're Not Your Husband" is seen as a fool by both his wife and her co-workers at the coffee shop where she works. But, still, the attitudes toward women and weight really bothers me :(

There is a crispness to Carver's writing and an oddity to almost every selection I've read so far that is definitely intriguing and I find his characters (in some cases) as compelling and ill-behaved as those you'd find in a Shirley Jackson story.

Spoilers below!!

As over-the-top and often uneven as American Horror Story has been all these weeks, I am really going to miss it. In the most recent episode (for me, at least) it wasn't my beloved Jessica Lange (okay, 'beloved' is pretty much over the top, I know) who stole the show but Connie Britton (whom I've grown to really like a lot as an actress!).

At the very end when Vivien (Britton) has died and appears to her daughter (has she been in the room the entire time?) to comfort her I found my heart melting just the slightest.

How ironic that in death Vivien is now at her strongest and can find the kind of relationship she always wanted with her daughter. When Violet tells her, "I'm so sorry you lost your baby" and Vivien replies (in this wonderfully soothing voice): "I haven't lost my baby." I wanted to cry.

I felt like the show had its first genuinely peaceful (almost happy) moment. Clearly, Vivien is telling her daughter that she's her baby and that she's going to be there for her. One of THE best moments on any tv show this season!!

I'm kind of sad that next week's the season finale. I've not always been a fan of the writing, but there's no doubt American Horror Story has a great cast and some fine moments in acting (hoping Jessica Lange is nominated for an Emmy)


 
also related to AHS:   Would you buy the house?

...don't take this the wrong way...

After four previous attempts I have finally passed the point in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where I had given up because I found the early parts boring.

My friends really want to see the upcoming American film version so I decided the fifth time would be the charm and I would get through this novel.

Finally (!!) I find myself intrigued enough to keep reading, but at the same time I also continue to be kind of baffled by its amazingly huge popularity. The plot is certainly compelling, but the writing feels lackluster and the people rather passionless.

Still, there is one line from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo that rings so true with me and makes me think of how I wish I'd behaved in situations where I meant well, but most likely drove someone crazy.

One of the characters tells Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo): "I understand that you don't want anyone interfering in your life and I'll try not to do that. But is it okay if I continue to like you?"

It's the perfect thing to say to someone whom you want to know you admire and care about, but will never ever act in any kind of ill-received way. Or, at least, it seems that way to me :)

...a musical blast from the past that very few probably remember...

I love that you can track down things from your past online and buy them. Years and years ago I really dug this album called X2 by a little-known duo called Times Two.

The album did not do well at all and the two guys behind Times Two faded into musical obscurity, but somehow (back in 1988) they kind of got to me with their one hit wonder, "Strange But Two" and their odd remake of Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia."

Recently I bought the cd version from a private seller on Amazon. I wanted it in compact disc form so I could download it onto my iPod. And strangely enough, I found all of the songs as endearing and appealing as I did when I was a kid.

Yeah, songs like "L.O.D. (Love On Delivery)" and "Only My Pillow Knows For Sure" sound kind of silly now, but, really, there's an honest kind of pain on the slow tracks that tugs at your heart unexpectedly. And the upbeat titles ("Romeo" and "Jet") are fun and airy and so upbeat and innocent-sounding you can't help but smile.

...taking a break for a little bit...

be back soon :)

Holiday Daze

For many, the holidays are a trying time. It could be hard for some lonely people to see so much cheer around them no matter how hard they try to be happy for them.


It could be that all the Christmas commercialism is just a little crass when shopping has become such a cold, greedy, downright distasteful thing.

Or it could be the fears that come with all that food constantly on tables in staff lounges, at home and friends' houses.

The other night on a Charlie Brown special Marcie said that Thanksgiving was about more than food, that it was about people. She is right. It is or, at least, should be.

But ask anyone who struggles with weight issues or eating problems what the hardest time of the year for them is and they'll probably say any date from Thanksgiving on to New Year's Day.

The following article isn't going to ease up all the anxiety from the stress food brings during the holidays, but it certainly is less pat than others I've seen and actually has some good advice to follow:


read "The Feast of Gluttony" here

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." - Cyril Connolly


No one ever says to a straight writer, "You write too much about straight people," yet critics often accuse gay and lesbian novelists of writing too much about their own community*. For me, this is a double whammy on top of the one that already demonizes people simply for who they love.

We need a voice in fiction just as much as any other group does.  Maybe in big cities like New York or Los Angeles or even D.C. being gay is no big deal, but where I live people still care, and often in a bad way. Keeping quiet about who you really are is often the only way to go.

I had this terribly unrealistic dream once that I could write the kind of fiction that would shatter stereotypes, maybe even bring the most homophobic homophobe to see the light about how human and moral and loving gays and lesbians are or can be. I was going to write the kind of love stories that would emphasize the love, not the sex. Because when I was in my 20s and grabbing any GLBT fiction I could (because there was and is so little), it kind of angered me how much of it was steeped in sexual stuff and not so much the love.

But the more I wrote, the more I realized I was not going to be that person. My dialogue is horrible and I write about the kind of woman I'm pretty sure would never come across as realistic. Worst of all, no matter how hard I try not to base the narrator on me, my "voice" is always me.

Still, I try. Not because I wish I could write good fiction and won't give up, but because it is an outlet for me, a little happy place I escape to in a world that mostly doesn't believe that gays and lesbians are anything but sordid.

This post comes not from the perspective of a "special interest group member" (as the far right sometimes likes to anyone who dares to speak up), but from a basic human rights need. 

As an old New Order song ("Thieves Like Us") goes: "It's called love and it belongs to every one of us."





* (When Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger first appeared, a lot of book reviews went on and on about how it was her first "non-lesbian" novel...as if she had been writing too much about gay women.)

Thanksgiving tremors

For some people this picture is Heaven, for others it is Hell. Food isn't supposed to be scary or sinful or any other negative word you can think of to convey how afraid of it you can be. But for some, a table full of enticing food can induce a kind of panic normally reserved for emergencies or life-threatening situations.

I'm not sure if so many people really do enjoy the holidays as much as they seem to or if they're really just good at hiding their pain, distrust, horror or "hurry up and get this over with" attitude.

And I also don't know if it's just me who thinks this or if there are others who wonder why on earth Hallmark has been showing Christmas movies non-stop since the day after Halloween. Seriously, you'd have to be a mighty happy, cynic-free, tons of time on your hands kind of person to want to watch so many holiday movies non-stop.

If you have food problems or family issues that are extremely challenging, you're @#$% out of luck in avoiding the kind of holiday cheer that gets so manic it makes you want to vomit at times.

I don't think it would be so bad if the holidays were about genuine things like kindness and love and, hey, even God. But what makes it especially hard is the commercialism and greedy need for all things electronic and the way strangers treat each other in parking lots and the road.

And the food, oh the food. Family issues aside, for some of us the food is the worst part. The weight of it all can put a pressure on your chest the size of an elephant.

Sit Calm, Lessons from Tv

"Just because something needs to be told doesn't always mean it needs to be heard."- Kevin on "How I Met Your Mother"

Simple words, but oh so true! Lately, it seems, when I'm looking for a sign I get it from a tv sitcom, of all places.

Kevin's words from "How I Met Your Mother" remind me of something a friend told me when I was wrestling with desperately wanting to apologize to someone for something from long ago.

"Who is this apology helping more? You or the person you hurt?"

It made me think. I would love nothing more than to make amends for something I did in my past. I truly regret what I did and would never have ever intentionally hurt this person.

But is it really worth it to her, if I risk digging up the painful past and bad memories?

If a confession works better for us than the person we're confessing to, maybe it should be left alone...sometimes closure just has to come from knowing there will never be closure.

And if you're lucky, coming to accept that will help (even if just a little bit) calm the hornet's nest stirring inside you.

So much fun

I wish all 18th century novels were as much fun as this deliciously humorous one. I was feeling kind of down this morning and went over to my bookshelf to see if I could find something to pull me out of myself. And there was Tom Jones, a book I last read twenty years ago, waiting for me.

It's the kind of classic that is fresh and exciting, defying stereotypes (at least stereotypes that a lot of students believe) that classics are boring.

I love the chapter headings, especially this one:

Containing such grave matter that the reader cannot laugh once through the whole chapter, unless peradventure he should laugh at the author.

I wish Henry Fielding had written more; his books really make me laugh! Joseph Andrews and Shamela are two of my other favorite 18th century novels and are both by him. The formality of words from so long ago combined with a timeless sense of wit just floors me!:)

Misery Bear, I'd be friends with you.

Who knew a teddy bear could be so sad and miserable? Have you seen this? It's a little too maudlin for me, but there's something about the bear I like (also, be sure to check out the much funnier "Dawn of The Ted" video) :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dTHlTu_DC8


I have been watching more of the Misery Bear videos and I really feel for the poor guy. He has over 35,000 likes on Facebook and one of the most touching things about the bear is how he brings out compassion and "Hey, I can relate!" comments.

He's not real, I mean I know that (obviously, right?) But the feelings he brings out in any of us who finds a soft spot for him are surprisingly strong.

Who has not, at one time or another, felt that deep need to connect with another living soul? Ideally, for us humans, that connection would not be with a teddy bear, but there's nothing wrong with a quick hug with your favorite stuffed animal if he or she happens to be nearby!!:)

SPOILER ALERT!

Last night's episode of The Walking Dead left me very unsettled. I see from posts on the Internet Movie Database that some people found it boring (and these same posters also feel that this season is overall boring so far) but I couldn't disagree more.

In the most recent Walking Dead Shane deliberately killed his traveling companion (they were both on a mission to find medical supplies at a high school they had heard was a safe haven) by shooting him, then throwing him to the zombies so his body would serve as a deterrent and give Shane some extra time to get away.

Following that chilling scene, there is another one where Shane is cleaning up in the bathroom of the family who has taken him and his friends in. The running shower in the background has fogged up the mirror and he has just shaved most of his hair off when he starts wiping the mirror with his hands so he can see his reflection.

His eyes are troubled, haunted even and he looks like he could throw up at any time. Clearly, the horrific thing he has done is troubling him very much. The man who plays Shane (Jon Bernthal) is amazing in this moment worthy of an Emmy nod. Hard to believe he's the same guy who played Duncan Carmello on the short-lived sitcom The Class.

Right before Shane shoots Otis (the man who has accompanied him to the high school) he says "I'm sorry" with such sincerity and unease, you know what's coming next can't be good. Still, what does (even if you can possibly justify it with a 'greater good' argument) is one of the most disturbing things I've seen on tv in a while.

The Walking Dead is not winning acclaim for being a show with zombies, even if zombies are currently the it thing. It's getting so much buzz because of the characters, great dialogue and oddly moving emotional moments.

Sex, before our time

Some of the Stanza app's free ebooks, which offer several interesting (both refreshing and outdated to our modern eyes) takes on sex, the 19th century way, are also available through Google Play.

One of them, The Sex Side of Life, is just amazing, especially for the time period during which it was written. Imagine a woman (a woman!) daring to speak her mind on birth control, to actually suggest both parties be a part of sound, respectable sexual behavior. Well, just the thought of it is enough to give a girl the vapors!

This incredibly ahead-of-her-time woman (read review here) had a lot to say, but for true appreciation of the story behind the story, you've got to check out The Sex Side of Life...available through the Stanza app or right here.

Meanwhile Henry Stanton's Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain English (unintentionally, I hope!) is so earnest in its attempts to demystify sex and make it more seemly, the copy reads as if it is going straight into a medical school textbook...jeez! Of course, I haven't gotten that far yet, but everything is so clinical and detached, it's no wonder he thinks no one wants to talk about sex...dirty it up some, man!:)

"I'd loved the book so much I had a crush on it. For two weeks after I turned the last page the book lay on the floor next to my bed and whenever I looked at it I felt actual pain, so great was my sadness that the story was over."--from the novel Zippermouth

Zippermouth by Laurie Weeks is a lovely mess of a book. It's not particularly plot-driven and definitely not linear, but it's written in such an earnest, endearing and very funny way that it's very hard not go crazy over it.

I mostly love the book because of the writing (like the quote above) but if there is a plot, it goes like this (taken from Publisher's Weekly because it sums it up better than I can): 

"Weeks’s brash, exuberant debut traces a young lesbian woman’s tortured, drug-addled, unrequited crush while living in New York City in edgier times. The narrator is wracked by anxieties and is at home in the toxic landscape of 1980s lower Manhattan; drugs and alcohol both calm and stimulate her, lending the prose a psychotic compression that recalls Naked Lunch and imparts a fresh, lyrical sympathy to Week’s narrator. Dreamy, impressionistic, and rapturous, this brief volume is an ecstatic love story. (Oct.)"

It's such a short read and the plot jumps around a lot, but the writing is just wonderful, plus it's hilarious, choke-on-your-water hilarious at times! But as funny as it can be, there are some chillingly familiar (as in "I've been there!") passages almost too painful to bear: "Rejection always wiped me out so thoroughly that I disappeared, leaving but a wrinkle in the air, it was too hard to reassemble myself."

I don't want it to end because the writer speaks to me in a way a writer hasn't in quite some time!

This is the first novel I can ever recall reading where the narrator has a crush on Vivien Leigh and writes letters to Judy Davis (both of which make for some of the most comedic moments in the story).

Though Zippermouth may be hitting too close to home for me (minus the drug problems!) and is all-too-familiar to anyone who has ever felt different and isolated for being gay, there is a universality to the pain of unrequited love here that any reader can relate to..Laurie Weeks is a gifted writer, whom I hope has many more tricks up her sleeve.

My mind has been set to private lately and I haven't been able to write anything I feel comfortable sharing. But I will back soon!:)

(quote from Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction To Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds)



"Nostalgia in the modern sense is an impossible emotion, or at least an incurable one: the only remedy would involve time travel." So Simon Reynolds writes and he is absolutely right. That's why nostalgia (when one drowns herself in it) can become so annoying and tedious.

Yes, our pasts (especially our teenage pasts) can seem wonderful to us in these modern times when the economy is tanking and our adult lives can be so challenging.

But I'm willing to bet (at least, on my own past) that we often remember things better than the way they really happened...

I picked up this special magazine put out by the editors of NME and UNCUT over the weekend and it's really quite interesting.

Not only are there songs mentioned that I've always loved and now feel kind of redeemed (not that I need to feel this) for liking, there are lots of sidebars and interesting tibdibts about "lost" tracks and underrated albums throughout pop music history.

I'm also discovering wonderful songs that I never knew existed.

missed connection in a grocery store

I love shopping at the grocery store late at night...the music always seems better, the people more mysterious and the checkers eerily sedate.

Last evening I was at my local Giant Food when this amazingly gorgeous song came over the speakers. Usually when this happens, a "clean-up in aisle 4" message almost always interrupts the flow and the magic is gone.

But this time I got to hear the entire song. And once I realized I really liked it, I pulled out my cell and scrambled to type every word I heard into my "notepad tool," sure that when I got home I'd be able to figure out the song title through Google, Bing and even song lyrics websites.

Alas, I wasn't able to and now the song is still swirling through my mind, or the rather the echo of it is, taunting me with the fact I may never know its beauty again. :(

Oh mi dios!

Gloria Estefan's Miss Little Havana came out this Tuesday and though I just read a great review for it, I'm not sure I like the album all that much except for three stand-out ("you've got to get on the floor and dance right now!") songs.

"Right Away" kinda sounds like good old school Miami Sound Machine, "Hotel Nacional" rhymes Susan Lucci with hoochie coochie and has a mean horn section that defies you not to move and "Make My Heart Go"...well...not really sure why I like this one.

Of course, there is some absolutely awful, awful material on here as well: the first time I heard "Wepa" I thought it was some kind of joke, a throw-in track to see if fans were still paying attention to Estefan et al after all these years.

And the title track is almost as abysmal. Yet I still feel so terribly guilty for writing something so cruel (in the late 80s I thought the sun set and the moon rose by her) because it's very obvious Estefan put her heart and soul into this...


read the article here

Experimenting with some new gadgets and branching out some...

I recently discovered you can add a gadget to a Blogger account that lets you post a link for your favorite charity.

If people click the link on (there is no charge at all!), money will go to the blogger's favorite cause.

To Write Love On Her Arms (see here for more info) is mine.


from fundraisingip.com:


To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a charity about suicide prevention, started by Jamie Tworkowski in 2006. Jamie himself is a major draw for the organization, as beneficiaries of TWLOHA feel a personal connection with him. 

The organization’s strategies for spreading the word include live events and effective use of the internet and have helped to create almost two million dollars in gross receipts. Not every group will be able to produce such stellar results in such a short time, but there are several things you can do to…

Shock Value...

I'm enjoying Shock Value so far, but I wish it were longer and more inclusive of other directors in horror besides the ones that come immediately to mind.

Horror which relies exclusively on excessive gore and unrelenting punishment a la Saw style (sometimes referred to as "torture porn") has kind of made me cynical about a lot of horror, but I did recently (kind of) enjoy Insidious, a film that seems to remember true scares work better with a "less is more" mentality.

The visuals (especially one of a ghost child skipping through a living room to the sounds of an old record) got under my skin and after the movie was over I found myself turning on all the lights on, something I almost never do when I've finished something scary.

Get Well Soon (the way it's meant to be said)

Last year I was floored when I first heard Rumer sing on the single "Slow." She sounded so much like Karen Carpenter it kind of scared me, mostly because you don't hear too many vocalists who resemble the late singer's voice so well.

And it also made me feel sad because I'm pretty sure if Karen Carpenter were still alive today she would still be singing and sounding as marvelous as ever. She loved music so much I don't think you'd be able to tear her away from it!

But moving on...I was floored again tonight for the same reason when someone tweeted about the album Get Well by Sarabeth Tucek and I just had to have a listen. 

Her resemblance to Karen (mentioned in the tweet) is also uncanny, but putting aside that for the moment, I'll say this: Get Well Soon is an amazing, amazing recording and certainly worth its own merit no matter whom Tucek sounds like!

read more here

An Old Photo of Your New Lover

My Amazon widget page is missing! I can't access the pictures to post alongside what I'm writing about. I'm sure I can fix the problem, but for right now I'll upload my entry and then add the picture later for The One A.M. Radio's "An Old Photo of Your New Lover." If anyone knows why the widgets aren't working, feel free to let me know:)!

The song is really rather clever and spot on. The first time it goes through the chorus it leads up with a little story about a man finding an old picture of his new girlfriend and feeling left out of her life, even though he hadn't met her at that point.

The second time the chorus approaches it twists the title around with "A New Photo of An Old Lover." Now the song is about the man discovering to "his chagrin" (online? we never know for sure) how his former flame is doing by finding a new picture of her.

Both times the verses are followed with: "There's a world without you" and that part is so profound...so profound, maybe even layered with more than one meaning.

The first world is one I can't truly relate to, but the second is a different story and all too familiar because of a little thing called Facebook: that weird and instant flicker in your heart when you see someone who used to mean so much to you, as they are today, not when you last saw them.

The "world without you" part? I can't figure out which scenario is more painful, even as both are true: there is a "world without you," certainly before and certainly after.

And rationally I think most of us know this when we're in relationships or when they've ended. But knowing that doesn't take the sting away.

As for the "chagrin" part? Don't even get me started!:) Because that's true, too.

(photo from TV Guide)

I'm so excited about the new FX show American Horror Story with Jessica Lange I can barely type this :) It begins on October 5th...here's more about it:

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/157571/check-out-glee-creator-ryan-murphys-american-horror-story-starring-denis-ohare-and-jessica-lange/

New York magazine puts it on their "and we're also anticipating..." list for the new fall tv season because American Horror Story stars  "Jessica Godd*mn Lange. And it's on FX, a network willing to take real risks."


I guess it's silly to put the asterik in the curse word...probably a leftover habit of mine from that word always always being a BIG no-no in my house when I was growing up. Basically the use of that word (I'm assuming) is the magazine's way of saying just how awesome Jessica Lange is,  just how legendary!:)

There was a time when I would do almost anything for good food. In my 20s (pretty much through all of them) I could eat whatever I wanted without suffering any consequences except intense but surprisingly short periods of guilt and shame.

Some nights I would go to the store for that week's worth of groceries and come home with a pint of ice cream and a cherry pie, both of which I'd eat in one night.

It was only a few years into my 30s when I realized this wouldn't do anymore. I'd just look at something and gain weight. Eating whatever you want whenever you want can only go so far before fate or karma or whatever you want to call it comes calling to collect its dues. I cleaned up my act and started eating better and more sensibly.

A large part of my success with this came from two things: scented candles and glossy food magazines. I bought so many scented candles that smelled like cinnamon buns I thought I worked in a bakery and the amount of vicarious thrills I got from pouring through issues of Bon Appetit and Cooking Light (not to mention Cheap Eats specials for Baltimore and Washingtonian) was far more titillating than it should have been.

I used to laugh at aromatherapy, but there really is something to smell and the fact that a whiff of something can make you feel like you actually ate it. I can't really explain why looking at pictures helped so much except that maybe the physicality of looking at something can be almost as good as actually doing it.

Music also played a big role. My love for music grew and grew to the point where I'd rather spend any extra money I made on new cds or iTunes songs and because I liked (like) music so much, I suddenly found exercising more exciting than any food item I craved.

I'm not saying I don't have days where it's all I can do not to eat an entire Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey in one sitting or that I'm a skinny Minnie who doesn't have to worry about weight gain anymore...I'm just saying that my love for junk food only became cheap and sordid to me when I realized how many more uplifting things there are in life, one of the most important of them being music, a presence that is almost as strong as love as far as I'm concerned.

And one more thing: the tv. Turn it off when you're eating and you'll notice how much better everything tastes and how much slower you eat it. When I stopped associating food with the television I really started cutting back. I can't stress that enough!:)

I watched "Let Me In," the American remake of the Swedish "Let The Right One In" a few nights ago and I still feel kind of torn up about it. It's the most oddly touching and sadly atmospheric film I've seen in ages and it's as much about loneliness and feeling out of place in the world as it is about vampires.

Never mind that it's amazing just for the fact that it's a remake that is possibly better than the original...Let Me In also is intriguing and terrific because it captures the feel of the early 80s better than any recent film I remember and it makes you care about its central character Owen (a young boy tormented by his classmates and pretty much ignored by his over-worked and beleaguered mom) so much your heart physically hurts.

Of course how you react to the film may depend on where you're coming from...I was Owen's age in 1983 (the year Let Me In takes place) and I didn't fit in at all in middle school. And while another child my age who was also a vampire didn't move in next door to me like one does in the film, I certainly can empathize with how quickly and deeply you can form an attachment to someone who is as lost and as lonely as you are...

I can't recommend Let Me In enough. But it is not for the faint of heart at all, so consider yourself warned!!:)

Beer in Outer Space?

Thanks to insomnia and specials about The Universe on the History Channel late at night, I now know that far far out in space there are "beer clouds."


And I was so full of wonder at this I just had to get a second opinion online:


"Scientists said the cloud, located near the constellation Aquila, contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer." 



read more here


I don't drink alcohol, but I definitely know people who will be both happy and sad to hear this...happy that so much beer exists, sad that it is so terribly out of reach!!:)

George Michael's understated album Older received little critical or commercial attention when it came out in 1996, but I remember liking the album a lot...or at least most of it. My favorites included the surprisingly touching and beautiful "Jesus To A Child" and the more upbeat "Fastlove" and "Star People."

But the song that spoke to me most was "Move On"...maybe because I was in the midst of wanting to be out of love with someone I was hopelessly in love with. The song was (is) pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to be about it, except for the fact it's sung like something would be in a quiet supper club late late at night when the singer is lonely, world-weary yet still somehow rising above it all with something approaching optimism.

The best part, the part that is so vulnerable and lovely, is when George Michael sings softly at the end, "I'm going to be lucky in love one day...going to be lucky in love one day" over and over as "Move On" fades out.

You're never really sure if he's certain of this little fact or he's desperately hoping he will...

A good cry or two...

I bought Everything Changed seven years ago and it still gets me to every single time I listen. Where is Abra Moore these days? Her voice and her music are too good to not be heard on a regular basis!!!


"Every once in awhile, something's got to break to give," Abra Moore forewarns in the opening track amid a heavenly, uplifting, gorgeously melodic declaration of love. The line foreshadows what awaits on Everything Changed, the most emotionally arresting account of a relationship's rise and fall since Matthew Sweet's 1991 masterwork Girlfriend. Along the way are several irresistibly buoyant should-be pop smashes--"I Do," "Big Sky," and "Shining Star" could all scale the charts--balanced against the more measured melodic grace of "If You Want Me To" and "Taking Chances." The deepest cuts, though, are the straight-shooting piano ballads including the title track and "Family Affair," in which Moore cries out, "Don't take away the one love that matters," her voice quaking with unmistakable heartbreak. --Peter Blackstock


Also unbelievably heart-breaking and quite wonderful is Glen Campbell's brand new album Canvas of a Ghost. It just came out today so I'm still soaking it in and will hopefully be able to capture how good it is tomorrow...

Nostalgia doesn't pay well, but it sure can sound good:)

It doesn't pay to be both an insomniac and next to a computer with an open iTunes account. Last night, for some odd reason, I could not stop thinking about Scoundrel Days, an a-ha album I absolutely loved way back in 1986. I remember everything about it...buying it at my local Sam Goody back when record stores were all over malls, listening to it over and over on my Sony walkman late at night, finding an odd appeal in the forlorn and soulful sounds of songs like "Maybe, Maybe" and "October."

I'm not sorry I bought it. My iPod is slowly becoming a representation of not only current songs I adore, but all of the ones from my past, too. Some of the things I once liked are too dated now to really find fascinating (Miami Sound Machine's "Conga" just doesn't do it for me anymore), but some still sound as relevant as ever (Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Joy Division...)


When I listened to it for the first time in at least ten years, I felt chills...Scoundrel still does it for me!

This review from allmusic.com's website is the best thing I've seen written about Scoundrel Days:

Review

by Ned Raggett

While not quite as strong as the band's debut, Scoundrel Days is still a-ha succeeding as a marketed "pretty boy" band which can connect musically and lyrically as much as any musical sacred cow. The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and "The Swing of Things," a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over.

Although the rest of the disc never quite hits as high as the opening, it comes close more often than not. A definite downturn is the band's occasional attempts to try and prove themselves as a "real" band by rocking out, as on "I've Been Losing You" -- there's really no need for it, and as a result they sound much more "fake," ironically enough. Other songs can perhaps only be explained by the need to translate lyrics -- "We're Looking for the Whales" isn't an environmental anthem, and neither is "Cry Wolf," but both also don't really succeed in using nature as romantic metaphor.

When a-ha are on, though, they're on -- "October" snakes along on a cool bass/keyboard arrangement and a whispery vocal from Harket; "Maybe Maybe" is a quirky little pop number that's engagingly goofy; while "Soft Rains of April" captures the band at its most dramatic, with the string synths giving Harket a perfect bed to launch into a lovely vocal, concluding with a sudden, hushed whisper. The '80s may be long gone, but Scoundrel Days makes clear that not everything was bad back then.

Delayed gratification and my Snow Patrol problem:)

These are two Snow Patrol albums I had not been aware of until recently (how I missed them is a mystery!!). And I'm trying so very hard (really, I am!) to be patient and not download them off iTunes onto my iPod Touch. I have to practice self-restraint and delayed gratification even though every single cell inside my body is yearning for them. I haven't been this big a follower of a band's music since the late 80s and very early 90s when I went to at least half a dozen Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine concerts all within a three year period.

I guess the difference this time, though, is that I care a lot less about the people behind the product and more about the gorgeous music they make. I mean no offense to Gloria and her wonderful MSM, but looking back now I realize it was (for me) all about the show and (often, but not always) their lavish productions. Gloria is a very talented performer and emerged as a true survivor shortly after a devastating bus crash almost left her paralyzed, but her music doesn't speak to my heart the way Snow Patrol's does.

"Chasing Cars" (made so famous during the second season finale of Grey's Anatomy) "Cartwheels,"  "Just Say Yes" and "You Could Be Happy" are all songs that have this unbelievably deep and sincere emotional appeal.  For those who like their music happy and upbeat (something you can dance to) Snow Patrol probably is a no no...but for those nights when you feel just a little lonely and need to drown your sorrows just a little bit...

I read about The One AM Radio in the Washington Post on Friday and though I bought it because the writer compared the group to Snow Patrol (I don't hear it, but maybe it's just my ears) I have ended up liking the album (Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread) because it's a terrific album in its own right.


The One AM Radio has a soft, chill sound. The Washington Post succinctly puts it best when they refer to the music as having "sweet melodies and sour lyrics." The contradiction (almost adorably catchy grooves with a rather cynical take on love and life) is just amazing!!

The July 25th cover of The New Yorker (called "Wedding Season") is one that truly caught my eye and touched my heart...I only found out about it after reading this:


August 15, 2011

I wept when I saw Barry Blitt’s cover of two brides walking hand in hand across the Brooklyn Bridge (“Wedding Season,” July 25th). The image reminded me of my parents, who were closeted gay women in the nineteen-fifties. They were both teachers, and bravely raised me, their daughter, in our happy but very secretive household. Wedding vows were beyond their realm of possibility or even imagination, but these many years later I still have the intimately inscribed copies of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet,” which they exchanged in lieu of vows.

Patricia Lambert

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/letters/2011/08/15/110815mama_mail1#ixzz1VhJ4npit

Okay, maybe it's because I can't sleep and it's almost one in the morning, but I'm in one of those moods where I feel like I'm really hearing something for the first time even though I've known it for years.

"Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison. Is it me or is it a really sexy song? Not so much the words (they're pretty unromantic) as the phrasing and the beats and the way the song is sung. I love it when someone sounds like they know exactly where they're going! :)

If you've never heard the song before or you haven't heard it in a while, give it a listen and let me know if it's just me:)

The part I really feel the whammy kick is when Harrison sings "Well, I might take a train. I might take a plane. But if I have to walk..."

Here are some more facts about the song:  read here

The most recent New Yorker (the August 15/22 issue) features an article by Dana Goodyear called "Grub: Eating Bugs To Save The Planet".

read abstract here

It offers up lots of interesting facts, but one of the most compelling (and a convincing argument for possibly consuming insects) is that lobster, shrimp and crabs are all far more disgusting eaters than insects. The former literally scrape the bottom of the barrel (or the ocean, in this case) while insects often feed on lettuce and flowers.

Goodyear references a fascinating 'pamphlet' from 1885, "Why Not Eat Insects?" by Victor M. Holt.

You can read it here!

I'm not saying I'm ready to start eating insects anytime soon (they all freak me out except for bees and butterflies) but the argument for doing so is unlike any I've seen before:)

When I was in college I took a migraine-inducing class called "Being and God." It most certainly wasn't boring and I definitely didn't hate it, but at the age of eighteen I felt I wasn't ready for paradoxes and existentialism and figuring out how God came into existence...I just couldn't accept (without at least trying to think it all through thoroughly) that He Always Was and Is...

Our teacher stood at the podium, small and gentle, a lot like "Sophia" from "Golden Girls," but without the wisecracks. She spoke quietly and wisely and everyone pretty much hung on her every word because she was so fascinating...and old. (I've always been a sucker for the wisdom of elderly people.)

As I turned the pages of The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained some of what we learned came rushing back at me, most of all my least favorite philosophical theory, Pascal's Wager.

The Philosophy Book is actually a pretty good review for people looking to refresh their memory and a great introduction for those new to philosophy.Anyone who is well-versed in this area would probably be just a little bit bored:)

One of my favorite movies ever is the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" and there is one scene in that flick that is made all the better precisely because of Richard Cheese and his delightful lounge act take on "Down With The Sickness."

The heavy metal band Disturbed also recorded "Down With The Sickness" (in a much more seemingly appropriate ferocious manner), yet (somehow) Cheese's is the one that taps on the absurd cruelity of passing time while being stuck in a mall, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of zombies.

Once I tracked down Cheese's "Down With The Sickness," I thought I wouldn't care about the other songs, but this guy does things to classic 80s songs like "Relax" and "Hot For Teacher" you wouldn't believe without listening to yourself.

Now, some of the album is possibly offensive to a delicate sense of humor and definitely explicit, but some of this Cheese-y charm actually works on me. Yikes!!

I love this quote...

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
— James Baldwin