9 books so far this year

Since the end of January I've read 5 more books, keeping track on Goodreads, which I find really useful. Here's the recent books, all of which I highly recommend. And in the interest of full disclosure, two of these are by Goddard faculty, though I didn't discover until after I'd read 4% Universe that Richard Panek was one of the VT campus faculty advisors. You'll notice a theme here, if you're clever.

Galileo

Brecht,Bertolt

Blueprints Of The Afterlife

Boudinot,Ryan

The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

Panek, Richard

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

Greene, Brian

The Cosmic Puppets

Dick, Philip K.

Super 8

Watched the JJ Abrams helmed Super 8 last night. Felt like I was a kid watching Close Encounters all over again. Quite amazing how he captured all the magic of a Spielberg flick from the 70s yet managed to avoid the hyperbolic sentimentality usually found in the Spielberg films. Though the two dads banding together was a bit much. I mean, who didn't see that coming. The kids were all great, very impressed with the quality of the cast. This brings my total number of films so far this year to 10. It seems there supposed to be movies new to me, and since I've seen the LOTR trilogy so many times, I'll just count them all as 1 for the purposes of Fifty Fifty. Which is where the weird math comes from. Just in case you were pondering.

This reading and watching movie thing is easy.

So I've read 4 books so far this year:

The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K. Dick

Staying Well With Guided Imagery by Belleruth Naparstek

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (book club selection, meh)

Clans of the Alphane Moons by Philip K. Dick

Movies I've watched so far this year, in reverse chronological order:

The Burrowers

Quantum of Solace

Casino Royale

Contagion

Phase 7

An Inconvenient Truth

Cowboys & Aliens

Fright Night

Return of the King

The Two Towers

The Fellowship of the Ring

For a total of 11, which equals a movie just about every other day. This is not including episodes of TV shows. I really need to work on writing more.

So far so good

Managed to knock off 2 films yesterday as we started our annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings. Every year on New Year's Day we watch, or attempt to watch, all three extended versions of the films. Yesterday we only made it through the first two, but we plan to watch the third tonight. One year we tried a Star Wars Marathon, but you know what? Those, sadly, don't hold together so well to make one cohesive story. It's as if the first three were done after the last three or some such nonsense ;-) Also, Episodes 1-3 are pretty bad. Yes, some epic battles, but plot, script, acting...meh. So we scrapped that idea and returned to the viewing of LOTR. It's the only time of the year we watch the films, so it's always a treat. Cannot WAIT for The Hobbit.

Also finished the first book of the year Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick. He's just brilliant, and crazy enough to really push the boundaries. Can't believe this one hasn't been adapted into a film yet, it would be great.

So far so good on my Fifty/Fifty pledge.

Seriously, am I becoming as batshit crazy as Manson (Charlie, not Marilyn)

I have been having some rough emotional shit with all this physical healing taking so long and having way too much time alone in my brain. I didn't really realize how close to 'lock-her-up' time it might be until I was reading the lyrics for an album that I love and had the thought that he (Aaron of Awolnation) was speaking just to me through this album. Then I promptly recalled that Manson thought the White Album by the Beatles* was a message just to him that it was time to lead the revolution of the black man against 'whitey' and committed the Tate and LaBianca murders.

Then I realized that by having that realization, I had gone that extra step Manson never did, or maybe I didn't go that extra step...not really sure which.

Regardless, I very quickly realized that while the album (Megalithic Symphony) certainly is extremely relevant to everything I'm going through right now, it's not just for or about me. "It's not just music, but a crusade designed to fight all that's fake, commercialized, compromised and debased in popular culture."

whew.

btw, if you'd like to find out more about the most amazing musical artist since Mumford & Sons visit the website: www.awolnationmusic.com

oh, and they'll be here in MN at the Varsity Theater on Nov, 10th. Obviously I'll be there, let me know if you plan to attend.

*I know that it shouldn't be necessary to identify the artist of The White Album, but apparently there are lots of kids out there that weren't raised properly by their parents.

Grateful things

So yesterday I was on the brink of a massive personal pity party and asked the FB world for suggestions to keep me from falling in. One of my friends gave me the idea of making a list of 25 things that I'm grateful for, starting with toilet paper. But should I put them in order of importance like from least important to most important? reverse order? alphabetical order? Or how about just random, as I think of them?

I think I'll go with that.

1. Toilet paper, cause the alternative is just EWWWW.

2. Vaccines, let's face it, I would have died from measles or small pox long ago with em.

3. My puppies, Jack & Coco

4. The iPod. Thousands of songs on one tiny little device, so simple to use...just love it!

5. Narcotic pain killers, often lately the only thing making the days bearable, along with #11.

6. My hubby and daughter, Guy and Annika

7. My mom, Judy

8. My 2 years at Goddard and all the people I met there.

9. Especially my advisor, Neil Landau.

10. Soft, fluffy towels

11. Netflix streaming

12. Airplanes

13. Flowers

14. Facebook. And it's conflicting, because I hate being so wrapped up in a brand, especially one started by such a little punk. Yet, FB has helped me reconnect with so many people I might not have found again any other way. It's also served as a lifeline out to the world during these times of being bedridden while healing from all the shit during the past 2.5 years.

15. Dr. David Potter and the whole team at the U of M Breast Center

16. Books

17. Awolnation - his music really says it all for me right now, reminding me there's a bigger world out there

18. Indoor plumbing

19. Free public education

20. The MN State Fair, even though I don't get to go this year, it's really all the interesting bits of Minnesota concentrated into a few short days.

21. Video games

22. All those animals that gave up their lives for the medical research that has saved mine

23. The universe

24. Central heating

25. Jon Stewart and the best fucking news team ever.

nbt: Never Been Thawed

First scene is really ticking me off. What, is this for teen-age boys? Rooster radio KOCK? Yish, I don't think I'll even get through 30 minutes.

Production value blows. They didn't have a lot of money and it's obvious, now, it's probably intentional based on the whole 'mockumentary' thing, but it sucks.

This is a seriously low-rent attempt at a Christopher Guest type film about a quirky sub-culture. You know, he does it so well, why bother?

20 min. in, a modestly funny bit about a frozen food collector that works as a phone counselor at the William Jefferson Clinton Abstinence Center.

28 min. in, I am not amused.

31 min. in, the Vietcong style corporate team building prison camp is a great idea, but they talk about it, would be funnier if they showed it, would be funnier if that was the premise of the film.

Talking head documentaries are only really interesting if the subject is compelling. This idea is not and is throwing a bunch of garbage together to hide it.

Ugh, the "No Choice cafe" set-up next to a women's clinic. The have little fetus stirrers for the coffee.

OK, this is a conglomeration of skits barely tied together with the idea of the characters all collecting frozen food entrées.

I am done at 35 minutes. Not funny or interesting enough to hold my attention any longer.

Next.