Probably the only good thing about being here is that I get to watch TAR again. Half a day behind the US isn’t bad either, so I’m always up-to-date. And boy, did we have a great episode this week. Idiots who got eliminated went to some poor guy’s house thinking it was where they had to do the detour; then they bald-snarked for an unknown reason; and then when it was quite clear that at the roadblock they were one of the last teams, they decided not to use their express pass. Someone asked on twop which was more stupid: being eliminated with 2 immunity idols in Survivor or with an EP on TAR.

Lots of great camera work and editing as usual, this is the Emmy episode if the producers are smart. And Phil’s “Oy vey” at the end? Priceless.

Went to a piano recital by 20 year old Piao Xingji. Very impressive. Started with a piece by a composer I’d never heard of, contemporary Charles Griffes. Then moved onto Brahms, Prokofiev, Liszt to end with Schumann’s Carnaval Op 9. There were 2 short encores, a nice way to spend 2 hours. Highlights for me were the Prokofiev sonata No 4 in C minor Op 29, and parts of the Schumann. The only complaint was that the complimentary red wine we had at interval was undrinkable. Besides, we only had 15mins so not enough time to drink even if it were drinkable.

Since I’m stuck at home, I’ve been glued to the tv and have become addicted to an idiot abroad. I’m not sure if the humour will be understood by non-Brits, but it’s effing brilliant. The conceit is that Karl Pilkington gets sent to all sorts of places by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Karl being the ultimate reluctant traveller. It’s very much a series of cruel jokes played on Karl by Ricky and Steve. I don’t know whether to sympathetise with Karl or laugh at him. I didn’t have sky when I was in London so I missed out on seeing them first time round. So tempted to get the dvd.

At parents’ this weekend, just hanging out. It’s great. Mum bought a few new dvds so I finally got to see Les Miserables the film version. For me, it’s mixed.

The good first. I love the musical, have seen it several times in London, the first was over 20 years ago. There is a reason it’s one of the longest running musicals in the West End; millions of theatre-goers can’t all have bad taste. Yes, it’s a tear jerker. Yes, too many people die. Yes, the music is emotionally manipulative. But it’s Les Miz. It’s probably the best musical I’ve ever seen. So, with established storyline and music, the film already has a good foundation. I liked that film gives us a lot more in terms of visual richness that is impossible on stage. The dark streets of France, the bars and houses and sewers, and finally I can see rather than imagine (through creative lighting) Javert jumping to his death.

What I liked less. Some of the actors can’t sing. I know that the singing was recorded live and not dubbed later, it means that the actors’ shortcomings are highlighted. Russell Crowe’s voice is too high and too thin; Hugh Jackman overall was good but not all the time; I didn’t like the actor who played Marius (although I loved the one who played Eponine). Lots of reviewers’ praise for Anne Hathaway, I thought she over-acted in I Dreamed a Dream. Didn’t like the Barricade. On stage it was an imposing monster, on film it was a stack of abandoned furniture on a street corner, hardly important when it came support le revolution (though may be, that was the point). I read a review that called it Occupy Paris. Remembering that the original London production was hammered by the critics, it’s kind of auspicious that the film version is experiencing some of the same bashing.

All criticism aside, I’m glad I watched it but I’m also glad I watched it at home. There are simply too many well loved songs to sing or hum along, it would have been embarrassing in a cinema. Fantine’s I Dreamed a Dream, Valjean’s Who am I, Master of the House, Eponine’s On My Own, when little Gavroche started the first line of Do You Hear the People Sing, and of course Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. At the end, it’s the music that carried the film, just like it did on stage. At every stage performance I’ve been to, there is hardly a microsecond’s pause between the last note of the epilogue sung by the company and the audience leaping to their feet in applause. I wanted to do that after the same moment in the film too.

Then again, what I really want to do is to watch the 10 year anniversary concert again. Colm Wilkinson. Michael Ball. Lea Salonga. 17 international Valjeans. Whoa.

I came across a review of book 1 of a comic series called charm school. Wow it brings back memories. Charm School is a comic series set in the town of Little Salem, where good teen witch Bunny has a perfect girlfriend in vampire biker Dean, until a dark, and very insistent faerie comes along causing chaos. It’s cute and fun and, as befit the series title, quite charming.

I was an internet acquaintance of the writer a long time ago, long before social media came along and made everyone connected. I had lost touch, and am very glad to come across this mention of her work. Amazingly, book 1 is listed on amazon at over $10, and checking my copy I note that the cover price was $2.95 for the 2000 edition. How the world has changed. I have books 1-9, I think it’s time to read them again.

I was watching 2 different Jamie Oliver programs. The first was his food revolution program where he was in an American elementary school and kids couldn’t even recognise a fresh potato, or tomato, or eggplant, or any fresh vegetable. They could all recognise french fries and fried chicken though. The second was an old Naked Chef program where he visited his old school in Essex. He brought out some buffalo mozzarella and asked the class if they recognised it, and most of the class said yes.

The point? It is a sad state of affairs in the US, where kids have never seen nor come into contact with fresh food. Is it typical? I’m no expert, but anecdotally, I can say that America is where I have found the greasiest, most processed, hugest portions of food as well as the least adventurous eaters. I must say, I’m not immune to a big steak or good pizza myself, but there has to be a balance between fast food and fresh, home-cooked food. And NO EXCUSE for parents for bringing up kids who can’t even recognise a potato.

It’s slightly better in the UK, though it seems that the trend is alarming skewing towards obesity caused by fast and processed food. At least people in the UK are more accepting of non-British food. Chicken tikka masala is the national dish, after all (and I say this with sarcasm because it’s certainly not a true Indian dish.) McDonald’s in France feels less like fast food than in America, it’s still McDonald’s.

Which brings me to another part of the world, where palates are developed early in life and food is for enjoyment, not just sustenance. On buzzfeed recently there was an article about a Japanese toddler called Rino who loves trying new food. The youtube channel is called Rino which eats world various dishes and ignoring the slight Engrishness of the descriptions, every single video on there is worth watching. Repeatedly. The construct is simple,

a few shots of food prep — pad thai in one video, a Spanish tortilla in another — then many many shots of Rino shoveling the food in her mouth, usually with total delight

There is no need to understand Japanese, the delight is easy to see. Watch this one where she tries pho. At 2:10 when she picks up a tail-on shrimp and takes out the tail. Then at 3:40 when she claims her meal as her own. And good manners too, at 5:58 when she says thank you. She’s 3 years old and other videos in the channel show her trying bibimbap, tiramisu and tortilla. Very cute.

I was watching some music programs on tv, where a young musician was singing a well known song from the 1980s. The presenter asked him how he knew about the song and he said that it’s one of his father’s favourites. Ack!! Those are the songs from my childhood, and I realised that the singer wasn’t even born when I was listening to those music. Remember making your own mixed tapes and giving them to people or playing them in the car? I still have half a box of cassette tapes in my possession, I don’t even know if I can find a cassette player anywhere anymore. Feeling old. And then I read an interview with Stevie Nicks. It’s 40 years since Buckingham Nicks. Holy moly. Definitely feeling old. Anyway, I just had to go listen to some old Mac songs.

So Disney buys Lucasfilm. The news was surprising, but then again not. There’s the Star Tours ride and Indiana Jones show at Hollywood Studios; and some of the themes touched by both companies’ films do overlap.

Some fans are aghast, not wanting change, not wanting the Star Wars franchise to become Disney-like (aka childish, predictable, too much sugarcoating). I get that. Will Princess Leia become yet another Disney princess? Will we get even more Jar Jar Binks soft toys?

Personally, I think it’s a good move. I fall into the camp of original Star Wars fans who absolutely hate, hate, hate Episodes 1-3. To me, George Lucas already turned the franchise into a second rate Disney with the prequels and the Ewok cartoons. Darth Maul was the only saving grace. So my take is, it’s about time someone else takes it over, inject some new ideas and give it back its edge. Yes I think Disney is capable of producing films that are a little bit darker. Plus, I’m glad that there’s the mighty Disney $$$ machine behind it that it will continue for many more years to come.

Anyway, on the Star Wars theme, here’s a fantastic flash mob by the WDR Radio Orchestra who treated an unsuspecting crowd at Cologne Wallrafplatz with a…treat.

This is a fantastic deal. The idea behind the humble ebook bundle is pay whatever you want for 6 sci-fi ebooks, available in the popular formats, DRM free:

• Invasion by Mercedes Lackey
• Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
• Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
• Pumpsix and other stories by Paolo Baclgalupi
• Stranger Things have Happened by Kelly Links
• Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

There’s a sweetener, pay more than the average and get two more books: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi and a graphic novel Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean.

Of the six starter books, I’d only heard of Mercedes Lackey as an author and Cory Doctorow as one of the people at boingboing. But I have heard of John Scalzi and Neil Gaiman, who are I guess the bigger draws.

I could have paid a tiny amount ($1) and gotten the first 6 books, but the average when I saw the deal was $11.95 so it was a no brainer to shell out $11.96 for 8 books. I’m sure I’ll find something to enjoy; and even if I didn’t like them, it’s $11.96 I don’t mind spending. None of it goes to Big Publishers, the buyers can set how much is split between the authors, charities such as the EFF, and an admin fee.

The current average is $12.53 so it has been creeping up slightly. Almost 44,000 purchases totalling $550,000 since launch a week ago. Linux and mac users are more generous than windows users, heehee. There’s less than 10 days to go on this deal. They also bundle games, music and movies, I’ll be keeping an eye out for future happenings.

 

Looking at flavorwire’s recommended october books, it occurred to me that this is a nice bunch of bookcovers. A little aghast that my favourite is a Tom Wolfe I’ll never read. The most intriguing author on that list, to me, is Chinua Achebe, not least because I just read a small article about the memoir and it seems to be one of those important books that one reeds to read.

On a separate note, the list of 50 best book covers of 2011 is also interesting. The only book on that list that I have is londoners, although the cover that won is only for the UK edition, in the US it’s a more boring, generic cover. The publishers are not doing the reading public justice, it’s not just Londoners who will get that the colours on the cover correspond to all the tube lines, there are lots of people around the world who have travelled to London or recognise the clever play on colours. Sigh. Publishers really shouldn’t pander to the lowest common denominator. Anyway, here’s a snippet towards the end of the Introduction:

The only definition of a Londoner I followed was the people you see around you. The ones who stock the Tube trains and fill the pavements and queue in Tesco with armfuls of plastic-wrapped veg. Whatever their reason or origin, they are laughing, rushing, conniving, snatching free evening newspapers, speaking into phones, complaining, sweeping floors, tending to hedge funds, pushing empty pint glasses, marching, arguing, drinking, kneeling, swaying, huffing at those who stand on the left-hand side of the escalator, moving, moving, always moving. It’s a city of verbs.

He’s still not quite a Londoner. He should have said Tesco’s, not Tesco. It’s always the doctor’s, not the doctor’s office.

All the palaver about Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth, I almost forgot about the other book published this year also called Sweet Tooth. Not a spy thriller, but a sort of personal-discovery-essay-history of sweets, aka candy, by Kate Hopkins, more well known as the Accidental Hedonist.

The kindle page has no kindle version available. I can get it directly on my kindle though. Strange. I haven’t gone through with the purchase, I wonder if it will work.

I missed the parade of heroes because the movers were here packing and I barricaded myself in a corner in the kitchen. They were done by mid-afternoon. The flat is now full of boxes ready to be loaded to the truck tomorrow. I’ve gone for groupage shipment so it won’t be the container that arrives in the morning. They will load my stuff into the next available container and I may have to share with other people.

The movers left the TV and bed. I looked at the schedule and there is nothing worth watching. No Clare Balding, no Lexi guide, no overly eager 5-min segments explaning the difference between the two types of rugby wheelchairs, no one running incredible races or swimming their hearts out or playing blindfolded ball games. And sob no Last Leg sob. #isitok to have gotten addicted to the most un-PC coverage of disabled sports?

Took a little break from the Paralympics to catch the last night of the Proms. Always a boisterous and emotional and patriotic event, it didn’t disappoint. In a way, I wish I’d tried to get into the Hyde Park crowd, 40,000 people opposite Royal Albert Hall in a simucast with Belfast, Caerphilly and Glasgow. There was a surprise at Rule Britannia, when several members of Team GB and Paralympics GB rowing medal winners came on stage to show that Britannia does rule the waves. Perfect.

The walls are very thin here, so I have to keep the volume low but I did sing along with Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and the National Anthem.

Had dinner with SM and AT at the Bavarian Beerhouse at Tower Hill. Had a few beers, schnitzel and sausage platters. They gave me a fantastic farewell present — this iconic London scene painted by AT herself. So thoughtful, I’m very moved.

I never read Roald Dahl’s book, but I can guess at its quirkiness. I’ve been wanting to see Matilda the Musical for a while. It’s too popular to be in the special offer in May, and somehow mm and I couldn’t find the time for it when she was here. But nevertheless, I managed to get a ticket for myself. No, it’s not the same, watching a musical on my own, can’t be helped.

I had a good seat, upper circle second row aisle seat. Full house tonight, a good mix of adults and children. Worth the ticket price, doubled and tripled. Absolutely fantastic show — the kids were just naughty enough to be endearing, the adults despicable caricatures, the story moving without the emotional blackmail that goes with this sort of tale. And oh, Lara Wollington as Matilda tonight really shone. Like everyone in the house, I was entranced by her story of the acrobat and the escapologist (kudos to the sound and lighting effect, there was one scary bit when I was scared too). No big huge production number, all the songs were great. The highlights were Naughty and When I Grow Up.

It doesn’t matter that mm hasn’t seen this, it took me years to manage to show her Wicked, I’ll make sure she gets to see Matilda one of these days. It’s one show I won’t mind seeing over and over again. Highly recommended.

When Line of Duty started 5 weeks ago, I watched the first episode. A bit confused. A bit bored. A bit addicted. There were intriguing terms, like “laddering” where easy suspects were convinced to own up to more crimes than they’d committed to bump case resolution figures up. Or picking and choosing cases to tackle the ones that promise a higher solve rate. This wasn’t a traditional good cop vs bad guys drama; in modern policing the lines between good and bad were very blurred. I wasn’t sure if I would watch it again.

Episode 2, and I watched it. And kept watching. There are twists, and at the end the message is that there are degrees of goodness and badness. That the police organisation is just like any large corporate enterprise. Bottom line, metrics count. In corporations it’s P&L, in policing it’s number of cases solved. Put lots of people together and there is politics. Add on power and there is corruption. What motivates people is different. Makes you think. The article by writer Jed Mercurio is pretty interesting too.

Oh my goodness. This is the definition of quality. I’d seen the film and was underwhelmed. My smart theatrical friends told me that this is a must see, because of Imeda Staunton (and Michael Ball.) They were not wrong. So I went out on a hot Monday evening to the Strand to see Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi.

This version of the Stephen Sondheim’s musical was dark and chilling. The chorus was menacing and the occasional screech of the steam whistle heightens the sense of unease. Remember Michael Ball as the babyfaced Marius at Les Miz? Now he’s scary and broody and still sings like an angel. The real star of the show, for me, was Imelda Staunton, which isn’t much of a surprise. I tried unsuccessfully to watch Superstar, the only thing I took away was the in musicals acting ability is just as important as singing ability. Imelda Staunton brought comic relief and masterful acting ability to her portrayal of Mrs Lovett.

The first half started slowly for me, and I was waiting for the next big scene or next big number. The second half though, I was at the edge of my seat, totally riveted. I remembered that almost everybody died at the end, but even so the way they met their ends were just as gruelsome as I expected. Wonderful production.

(This video is from the run at Chichester last year, with the same London cast>)

Patriotic ad from British Airways. The message is “Don’t Fly. Support Team GB.” And coming from the national airline it’s kinda of an oxymoron.

It’s now almost 10 days to the Olympics. Running to Regent’s Park today past Lord’s they’re already beginning the preparation. Giant concrete anti-terrorist blocks along the entrances, official cars disgorging officials lugging boxes into the site. Archery is at Lord’s, and it’s one of the earliest sports to begin.

Sigh. I’m NOT getting the Olympics spirit yet. Far, far too many stupid ignorant tourists around town. Standing still blocking almost the entire pavement while they look up, or look at maps. Not knowing to stand on the right on the tube. Getting off the bus from the front! Making my teeth grind and wanting to just wring their necks. I wish I had made plans to leave the country.

On the other hand, apparently aside from Olympics visitors no one is coming so it’s easier to book restaurants. Well true, I just managed to get a reservation for one of the hottest new restaurants, Dinner by Heston for August. Small silver linings.

Musical #3 this summer, Chicago. On my own this time, and matinee at an odd time of 5pm. I’d gone to Hawksmoor to grab a lobster roll for lunch and ended up staying there till almost 3pm drinking their best bourbon, heehee. Anyway, I opted for the cheapest £20 upper circle tickets, this is a musical that I feel like I’m supposed to see rather than me chomping at the bits to see it. Truth is, I hadn’t even watched the film till this week, and only because I knew I was coming to see the show and I want to get familiar with the story.

I got to the Garrick early and made my way up to the top floor. At which point one of the officials informed me that the upper circle is closed and if I would follow him to the box office he’ll give me a new seat. Wow. They gave me 4th row stall, on the aisle. Nice seat. It was full house, I wonder why they closed the upper circle.

I won’t compare with the film, they are two different animals. I am glad I watched it to get a sense of the story, it’s kind of surreal and needs a bit of imagination. Enjoyed the performances, thought it was strange that there weren’t costume changes (policemen and doctors tend not to be bare-chested or wear see-through tight shirts). The principal casts were great, if not outstanding. To my amateur eye, the dancing was better than the singing. All in all, as I said, an enjoyable performance. Should have bought my ticket for next week, Robin Cousins join as Billy Flynn for Olympic season.

The London production of Singin’ in the Rain opened in February after a run at Chichester last year, and is one of the tickets RM and I got during the May discount season. We managed to snag the second row and our tickets had the warning that people in the front stalls may get wet. Ha! May?

First the production. Excellent. Excellent dancing. Excellent choreography. Singing was good, though none of the solos brought the house down. Liked that they used the whole theatre, including the aisles at the stalls. The screening of the Duelling / Dancing Cavalier at the back of the stage made us feel a part of the filmmaking. It had enough merit on its own without comparisons to the Gene Kelly film.

The best thing was the theme song at the end of Act 1, and there was real water!! Adam Cooper as Don Lockwood was dancing his way on stage with real water. And kicking the real water towards the audience. Some people came prepared with raincoats, but I think the fun part is actually getting wet. Throughout the intermission, we watched a team of people mop the stage dry, in its strange way it was mesmerising. The company repeated the number at encore and there was even more splashes. We were drenched, completely drenched. It was brilliant.

I saw Les Miz a couple of times in the early 1990s in London, it was a huge hit then. It is still a huge hit. Earlier in May, there was a theatre offer where tickets for London shows were offered at big discounts, RM and I managed to get mid-stalls for £40. It’s the first time I’d seen Les Miz at its new home at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Ave, it is smaller than the Palace, but it’s still a huge hit.

The storyline, the music, and spectacle have all been well documented. I had forgotten quite a few of the songs, so I watched the 10th anniversary concert on youtube beforehand. Oh yes, I had forgotten. There were so many opportunities for solos, everyone on the stage could shine. Geronimo Raunch from Argentina was wonderful as Valjean, but it is always the Javerts that steal the show, and tonight it was Tam Mutu. Samantha Dorsey is making her professional debut as Cosette, I think she needs more experience. Craig Mather as Marius, well he did Michael Ball proud

So many favourite songs. The one that always bring misty eye is Empty Chairs Empty Tables. This video is Michael Ball and Alfie Boe singing, ignore the scenes with Nick Jonas.

I’ve been catching up on the jubilee festivities. The pageant on Saturday was a bit boring to watch on iPlayer, but I watched the jubilee concert on Sunday in its entirety. Super production, very moving, all the performers, comedians and 600 support staff. Shows the world how it’s done, and I think I’m like a lot of people trying to avoid saying something like “Gary Barlow did a good job, take that!”

This is Sing, written by Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Weber and performed by the Commonwealth band/choir and the Military Wives. All (?definitely most) of the performers are not professionals, but their voices are simply magical. Beautiful song, beautiful performance.

 

There was a free event Dickensfest today, a whole day of talks and readings to celebrate Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday.

Okay, I confess. I like Dickens and all, but I’m not really that literary a person and can never imagine going to a day of talks and readings. Except I did go. And all because it was at King’s. The last time I was there was when I graduated and I wanted to see how much has changed.

I did go to a little bit of the Dickensfest. The talks were all in the Great Hall, which hasn’t changed one bit. At first I felt like it was another one of those AKC lectures where attendence was the only criteria, but it quickly improved. Michael Allen spoke with authority and interest about Dickens’ time at Jonathan Warren’s blacking factory where he worked when he was about 9 or 10, sticking labels and washing bottles of blacking. I have no idea what blacking is, or was, but it sounds like terrible work for a young child. What I did take away was that Dickens’ childhood experiences would translate to so many of his books, and that he of all the classic writers was the one who wrote most, and most sympathetically, about poor children in that era. There was also a short reading of Oliver Twist, and I left after that, to explore my old haunts.

Wow. Everything has changed. Not surprised, it has been many years. The corridors are newly renovated. The 6th floor is now informatics not chemistry. But the lecture rooms are mostly unchanged. I visited 1B06, where most of my first and second year lectures were; and 1B27, where mm and I met. Tried to walk over to the Macadam building but it was locked. There was also a café on the first floor of the main building that didn’t used to be there.

There were posters of famous King’s alumni outside. I’m not one of them (not famous, that is) but it is a place where I spent a good 7 years of my life and it was nice to be back.

Avengers premiers in the UK next week, 26-Apr, one week ahead of the US. Here, it’s known as Avengers Assemble. I don’t usually go to a movie on its first day, or even first week, but I’m tempted to make an exception. Looks great. I mean, it’s Joss. And RDJ, and the rest.

I’ve been following the progress of Dancing with the Stars on Car’s blog. One of the favourites is Katherine Jenkins, the local (well, if you’re Welsh) girl. One of my colleagues was lamenting why she is on US DWTS and not UK Strictly. I guess it’s all about conquering the US market and exposure.

She really has a beautiful voice. She has 8 albums (plus 3 best of) out, and Car joked about how much it would cost to buy them all. So I went and did a simple comparison of amazon UK and US. To get the 8 cds in the UK is just over £40 ($65); getting them in the US will be $110. And since I’m going to GCLS in June, I can bring them over. So she said yes, go for it and I ordered them. And they arrived today. Beautiful.

I did a (relative) massive amazon mp3 download today. Both US amazon, where there were albums for $3.99 and UK amazon, with 2 for £10 offers. Some newish music, but also quite a lot of catch up.


Brookville — Broken Lights. What can I say? Under-rated, little known indie band. Love Andy Chase. I’m less of a fan of the Ivy, I like this Brookville incarnation better. Atmospheric and just very nice music.


Marlon Roudette — Matter Fixed. This guy will be big. This is New Age, which has already conquered a number of European charts.


Take That — Progressed. Catch up. This was released last year. Take That are from my younger days, and I’m so glad to see them return to triumphantly.


Samantha Ronson & the Undertakers — Chasing the Red. This is Love Song. Sam Ronson is famous, or infamous, for being Mark Ronson’s younger sister and there was this period of insanity when she was associated with, of all people, Lilo. I get the feeling that her work could do with a bit of Mark magic, but it’s still a pretty decent effort.


Mumford & Sons — Sigh No More. They are really worth a listen. Seriously.

What else did I get? Adele’s 19 and 21. Maroon 5, an old Nick Drake and Amy Winehouse: Lioness. All good stuff. My itunes will like me.

I was telling mm about a newly discovered lost composition by Mozart that was supposed to have been written when he was 10 or 11. It was recently premiered by pianist Florian Birsak on Mozart’s own piano in Mozart’s home. I’m not a very good musician, but mm is, and she’s learning a Mozart piece right now, so good timing.

Watched riveted as Masterchef champion was announced after weeks of gruelling competition. Remember this name: Shelina Permalloo. She was born in Southampton and lives in Tooting. Her family is from Mauritius and her food was described by Gregg Wallace as

sunshine on a plate

and

a restaurant waiting to happen

She was consistent, joyful, and calm. She never made bad mistakes and she was always on time in tasks. And her food. Wow. In the beginning, like all amateurs, it was great tasting but did not have professional presentation. By the end, oh wow again. This was her octopus salad starter from the final — beautiful and apparently full of flavours. If she opened a restaurant I’d be there in a flash.

Over the weekend i caught up with The Very Hungry Frenchman, the new bbc2 program where Raymond Blanc travels back to France and explores the cuisines of various regions. The series started with him going home to his parents’ house. How lovely to see his mother’s garden and kitchen, it’s no surprise that he learned a lot from her. This clip shows him making comté soufflé. Wow, oh wow.

Thus inspired, I looked at packages at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, his 2 Michelin-starred hotel restaurant in Oxford. Pretty expensive is an understatement. There are midweek and weekend packages as well as one the combines a day at his cookery school. For example, the Decouverte Experience includes:

• room varying between luxurious to super deluxe suite
• welcome drinks, flowers, chocolate
• 9 course dinner, which has dishes like confit de foie de canard, wild brill with caviar, roasted venison and vacherin with truffle & honey
• french breakfast

will costs at least £800. Gulp. Talked it over with mm, and even though it would have been a fantastic visit, we decided it’s too expensive.

Imagine a freezing, bitingly cold day. Imagine huddling underneath the scant shelter of a bus stop, stamping your foot waiting for the stupid bus to arrive. Imagine being tired, hungry and cold. What do you feel like? How about a freshly baked potato? Hits the spot, right?

TV chefs have talked about smellivision for years, that their cooking is so great and smells so good that they wish viewers can partake in those smells too. Now, McCain, maker of oven chips are promoting their oven ready jackets, baked potatoes ready in 5 mins in the microwave. And how are they promoting it? By mimicking the smell of baked potatoes in bus shelter ads. Press a button on the side of the shelter, and the smell wafts out. Took them 3 months working with a scent specialist to get the smell right. Clever.

Something different, that is not running or food or macs. Spotted via flavorwire, very interesting twisted mashup by illustrator John Woo, of Star Wars characters in modern hipster outfits. Padme looks no different, and Darth Vader looks oh so coquettish in a Band of Outsiders suit. But my absolute favourite, is Boba Fett in Comme des Garçons. So fetcing. So dreamy. Even after all these years, I still hanker after his helmet and flight jacket.

It’s Tuesday so it must be Biggest Loser. At last I find another of my favourite reality shows here. The contestants are not quite as large as the US group, most of them hovering under 20st (280lbs). (Love that weights are still in stone.) The biggest contestant was at 32st though, over 450lbs. The format is the same, but with a nicer presenter and 3 very tough-looking trainers. Looking forward…

There is a flurry of activities planned to commemorate the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens next year. In advance of that, or for other reasons, the BBC brought us a new adaptation of Great Expectations this week. Not sure why it’s on the week between Christmas and New Year, but whatever.

The most recognisable name on the cast was Gillian Anderson. I didn’t quite like her portrayal in episode 1; too young, difficult to shake Scully off my mind. One of the newspapers, Guardian, Indy or Telegraph, I can’t remember, likened her Miss Havisham to an adult Luna Lovegood and I thought it was fitting. She grew on me though, and by the end, I thought she brought enough lunacy to the role.

Young Pip played by Oscar Kennedy was my favourite. Amongst the adults the actors playing Magwitch, Joe and a special shoutout for David Suchet as Jaggers. Extremely disappointed at adult Pip and Estella. Neither had presence nor acting ability. Douglas Booth playing Pip was apparently a Burberry model and was too pretty and too wooden. Vanessa Kirby playing Estella looked too modern.

It’s been a while since I read the book or watched any adaptations so it was good to refresh. It was strictly an adaptation, there seemed to be bits missing from the book version. There is a film version coming out next year, it’ll be interesting to compare.

p.s. People forget that GA, though American, went to school in the UK. She does both British and American accents, speech patterns and vocabulary like a complete native. Amazing.

Staying in Japan, and casting back to a cartoon made 25 years ago. The amazing and wonderful Laputa was recently aired on Japanese TV and it completely broke the tweets per second record. 25,088 tweets per second, annihilating the previous record held by Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement, which had a mere 8,868 tweets per second.

Can’t believe that a generation ago, Japanese food was not very well known outside of Japan. Now, it’s so widely available that it’s hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know how to use chopsticks.

That said, Japanese food outside of Japan suffers the same fate as any other world food that is transported out of its origin country. It becomes bastardized. Which is why I’m so looking forward to this forthcoming documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi,

the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review.

Just watch the trailer, and make sure you have a napkin handy.

Both Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly are in London and will be for a while. Ms Gless in A Round-Heeled Woman, which moved from the Riverside studios to the Aldwych this week (and with the 3 times price hike upon the move to the West End). Ms Daly will star as Maria Callas in Master Class at the Vaudeville come January. I’m really, really not a theatre person, so I’m not sure I will go to either. I went to Love Never Dies with mm when she was here, and I want to see if I can book Matilda for when she is here next summer.

Anyway, back to the inimitable ladies. They were also at the BFI earlier this week to celebrate 30 years of Cagney and Lacey. Ack, I missed that, would have been interesting to attend.

Notable miscellaneous music news:

• Leonard Cohen new album in January, yay! This is Show me the Place, it’s been a long long time to wait for a new song from him
• Elvis Costello says don’t buy his new boxed set as it is too expensive, buy Louis Armstrong instead
• I’d never heard of Ra Ra Rasputin before today, but they have released a 3-track EP for free download until 6 December — I listened to Forward and I thought it’s pretty good
• Snow Patrol tour dates, they will be in London in Feb. Very tempted. Even more tempted after reading Gary Lightbody’s highly intelligent essay on huffpo. I mean, I can’t imagine any of the X-Factor / BGT / AGT brigade, or Justin Bieber, or even Lady Gaga, using words like fecund (I had to look it up, myself) and not as an alternative to some other salacious swear word. Mr Leonard Cohen may know the word. Ah, but I digress…read that essay, and tell me you know a song by Snow Patrol

This is the John Lewis Christmas ad. Of course it’s meant to be an emotional blackmail, meant to tug at our heartstrings. All the other ads are the same (the Guardian has a nice essay and collection).

But, this is John Lewis! No other retailer has the same place in our hearts as John Lewis. Where else do you buy your duvets, your vacuum cleaners, your oven gloves? They, plus to a certain extent, M&S, are allowed to tug at our heartstrings. So I watched this again, and again, and again. And there is a lump in my throat every.single.time.

video link: http://youtu.be/M7mfXA0SEo0

I spent most of today catching up on Strictly Come Dancing. The ballroom, set decoration and program sequence are almost identical to Dancing with the Stars, even the theme song is the same. Different people in British accents of course. The hosts are Sir Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly who are both better than their US counterparts. There are 4 judges: Len, Bruno plus a lady called Alesha and a guy called Craig. Alesha does the typical “rah rah, you’re great!” role and Craig criticizes technique and doesn’t smile. He gave people scores of 1 and 2 in week 1. Celebrities are the usual actors, singers, breakfast show hosts, boxers, footballers, “legendary” celebrities, politicians etc.

I’m up to week 2. Jason Donovan and Holly Valance (heh, Neighbours!) are the front runners and very impressive. But to my surprise I found myself rooting for short, chubby, cute, campy Russell Grant.

youtube link: http://youtu.be/4qtFr8joEjk

Our department went out for a farewell party for one of our colleagues. Dinner first at the forge at covent garden. I had roasted vegetable risotto, steak diane, and crème brulee.

Then it was onto the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross Road to see Respect La Diva. It’s only on for 3 weeks, and I thought it was a musical that included songs from the great divas — Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, Tina Turner et al. Actually it was more like a straightforward concert of tribute singers singing those songs. The singers were all very good, but the show could have been tighter and had a bit more of a storyline. It’s a very small theatre that doesn’t seem to have an orchestra pit so the band was on stage. This meant not a lot of space for the performers (especially the dancers) to move around. Some of the audience members were really enjoying themselves and the majority of the house stood up and clapped for the finale.

youtube link: http://youtu.be/7JxfgId3XTs

As part of the ads leading up to the opening of Westfield Stratford on 13 September, this is a cool video of 100 years of East End fashion.

I wanted to take mm to the southbank real food stalls to try the roast hog but there were no pigs there today and we didn’t feel like anything else. Walked back towards Piccadilly Circus and ended up at another old favourite, Stockpot. Had the lunch special — grilled halloumi, mm had fish and I had roast beef, then we both had apple crumble with extra custard. Can’t beat Stockpot for value although I think it’s now less of a poor student’s haunt and has been taken over by the tourist guide crowds in search of a cheap meal. We were surrounded by out-of-towners, the French family next to us ordered steak and kidney pie.

The afternoon was spent ambling around town. I showed her the new M&M store, and we had an absolute blast there. Onto Foyles to look at music books for mm (I escaped to the basement to read finance exposés). Tea at what I now realise is a gay café bar but at the time it was the first one we came across. Early dinner of roast duck noodles in Chinatown. She continued her piano playing stint at a digital piano store and there is such a huge difference between a digital piano and a Steinway (duh). She was a tad unhappy at herself for not playing very well, but we were cheered by the sight of a rainbow at Covent Garden. More blessings.



So, onto yet another highlight of our week, the final performance of love never dies. Reviews haven’t been kind, but we really enjoyed it! I couldn’t afford stall seats so we were up at the upper circle, right in the middle though. We were riveted throughout the performance; the music was good, most of the performances were impressive (some hamming up by Ramin Karimloo notwithstanding), and, well, the audience was overly rambunctious. I even got 2 for the price of 1 for my interval drink — I’d only paid for 1 beer, but they had 2 bottles laid out when I went to collect, ah well. Andrew Lloyd Weber said a few short words at the end and I think they deserved every minute of the standing ovation. We even had a good laugh at the plot holes on the way home.

Did my weekend run, laundry and grocery shopping yesterday so I had time today. Finally go round to seeing HP7b. It was very, very moving. I wish I watched part 1 beforehand to remind myself, but it didn’t matter, I was gripped from the start. The flashback to when Harry first went to Hogwarts, when he was under the sorting hat, wow. Everyone’s grown up, and the grown-ups held their own. Special mention to Neville! Awfully sad to see it end, I stayed all the way to the end of the credits.

When mm is here in August I’m determined to take her to at least one musical, we love musicals. There are so many choices, but it’s a done deal when I read that Love Never Dies is closing on 28 August. Originally I thought we’d go on the Monday, but after listening to Ramin Karimloo, who doesn’t perform on Mondays, we’re going Saturday. Shame that mm is leaving on Sunday, otherwise we can catch the last show.

youtube link: http://youtu.be/7GTS51GznsE

Samantha Ronson & Jimmy Messer — acoustic cover of Enrique Iglesias’ Tonight, NSFW for language. There are naturally 2 versions of the original:

• uncensored
• clean

I’m not 100% convinced that SR is going to be a huge singer, but with her family connections and notoriety you never know. It’s a nice acoustic version, slower and more emotional.

video link: http://youtu.be/36LmZb1v6GM

 

I was at hard rock calling tonight. It turns out that it’s the event’s 40th annversary. I got to Hyde Park around 5.30pm, just in time to catch james, followed by kaiser chiefs. The main attraction was the killers, which is now the only band I’d gone to see twice. They hadn’t released anything new (except Brandon Flowers’ solo album) since Lollapalooza 2009, and their set was full of familiar songs. Doesn’t matter, the crowd sang and cheered along with Spaceman, Somebody Told me, Some Like You Mean it and positively roared with Human and Read My Mind and All These Things.

The day started sunny but for most of the five hours I was there it rained non-stop. I was glad I wore my Timberlands and brought my cap. The ground was soaked but thankfully not quite Glastonbury-level of muddiness. I found myself near the front but stuck behind people taller than me. It didn’t matter. There were fireworks, a quiet rendition of Moon River and closed out with Jenny and more fireworks. Here’s the video of Human, although the sound quality isn’t good. There are a few more pics on flickr.

video link: http://youtu.be/PWKZVbG9egQ

mm sent me this, an old hymn called “I know who holds tomorrow” from the album by Alison Krauss & the Cox Family. I’m not as religious as mm, this was very beautiful though.

and each step is getting brighter
as the golden stairs I climb
and every burden is getting lighter
and all the clouds are silver lined
and, over there the sun is always shining
and no tears will ever dim the eye
and the ending of the rainbow
where the mountains, they touch the sky

No lollapalooza this year, so it’s hard rock calling instead. No 3-day ticket deal, and the line up is so much smaller. It’s a different sort of event really. The choices for headliners for the 3 days are: Killers, Bon Jovi and Rod Stewart. No brainer isn’t it. I actually thought that it’s a Killers only concert before I realised it’s a 3-day event. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, but as a vodafone customer I’m able to order 48hrs in advance, so I have my ticket already.

If it weren’t so expensive I’d get a ticket for Sunday too. I have zero interest in Rod Stewart, but Stevie Nicks, Rumer and Lighthouse Family are also playing. Then again, no one goes to a concert to see the supporting and guest acts, do they?

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqx4-d_4g1U

Talking about commercialism, this feels propaganda-y and cliché-y, and they have a less than stellar reputation but I’m a nike fanboi anyway. This ad was “recycled” from old ads, and is part of the nike better world campaign. If we can get the world to a fitter place, or if we can help a potential athlete achieve their dream, then it doesn’t matter how and what is the ultimate motive as long as it harms none, right?

When I was migrating to the mba, I looked at some pics of me just 3-4 years ago and I was appalled at how unhealthy I was. Running played, and continues to play, a big part in making myself better. If I can help just one person do more sports, I’d like to believe I’m earning my keep in the world.

I think this deserves its own post. We saw diving pigs.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPVaT5I9_9g&feature=fvw

London is arguably the best city in the world for theatre and we’re big fans of musicals. We thought of going to see love never dies but when I got home, mm was curled up on the sofa, trying to keep warm. It was too cold to go out, so we stayed home again. We love staying home, so it’s not a hardship. Anyway, we’ll get another chance at London, we hope.

Noted via kottke that Grant Achatz’s memoir is coming out in March. Chef Achatz’s restaurant, Alinea, is ranked best restaurant in the US by Gourmet magazine and is bikeable from home. Home being Chicago, still.

Much to my regret I never managed to make it to Alinea, or any of the top Chicago restaurants with the exception of frontera grill. Will I ever? I can only hope.

When mm was visiting me in October, we spent a lot of time at home watching bones season 4 which I netflixed. Before I left I thought about buying the whole series and discovered that it was cheaper in the UK. We then saw that it was on sale for £80 at HMV, and even better when I checked on amazon last week that it was a special sale item for £32. That’s just over $50 for 5 seasons. Ordered it immediately and received it today. We watched 2 episodes already tonight.

Santa Lucia (or St Lucy’s) Day is celebrated in Sweden and other Scandanavian countries on 13 December. Thursday I went with J&R to the harcourt arms, opposite the swedish church for a short Santa Lucia Day recital. The main attraction was the choir singing the santa lucia song. The girl at the top of the procession wears candles on her head representing the fire that refused to take her life when she was sentenced to be burned.

I was thinking about it yesterday, that it was amazing race final and I was missing it. I can’t watch it off cbs.com cos it’s not available outside the US. Tonight I tried to proxy but didn’t like all the ads and stuff I saw at proxy sites. So I did what I had planned to do anyway, downloaded it off itunes. $1.99 per ep isn’t bad, especially since the team I had been rooting for since the beginning won. The docs will likely enter the TAR hall of fame on par with Kris & Jon, John Vito & Jill and the Bald Snarks as the nicest pairings in the show’s history; and certainly the nicest winners. And now it’s safe for me to visit twop, as I was very careful not to spoil myself on the winners.

Looking forward to future seasons. It doesn’t look like I can get it on TV here, so it’s either buy it ep by ep, or wait till the end and buy the whole season. I doubt I can wait till the end of the season. May be it’s time to investigate apple tv or google tv.

So on fb there’s this meme to change your avatar to a favourite childhood cartoon. I changed mine to Mr Benn. Mr Benn wore a suit and bowler hat, and he visited a costume shop where the shopkeeper gives him different costumes to try. He then goes into the changing room and off to an adventure dressed as that costume. It was a simple, escapist cartoon that I used to watch when I was very very little. Oh, the memories.

Saw HP7 part 1 today at Navy Pier imax. Absolutely brilliant. Would have sat for 5hrs without moving for the whole thing. July 2011 can’t come early enough.

Haven’t read the book yet, I think I’m still on HP5. But it didn’t stop me from appreciating the story, the acting, the special effects…everything about it. Now I’m wondering if I should go see it again before I leave.

After work, we went to see billy elliot at the Oriental. First time at the Oriental was when I saw Wicked, and the theatre is still imposing. We drove and parked next doors.

The show wasn’t full, about 25-30% capacity only. I can still remember the film, and it was good to see the musical version. The Billy for the night was JP Viernes, and overall the show was good. Not outstanding, still enjoyable. Lots of memories on the miners’ strike, I doubt many people in the audience understood or were there for that.

I’m still thinking about Sunday’s race so indulge me for another marathon post please. If I hadn’t been running, I would probably have been watching the whole race on TV. And watched in wonder at the final 1k battle between Sammy Wanjiru and Tsegaye Kebede. Wow!! The way they ran, it looks like they’re sprinting and not having run 41km. Sammy’s kick at the end…I’m awestruck now.

On another topic, I met a guy today who’s run Chicago, NYC, London, Paris, Rome, and a Swiss marathon (Zurich? Jungfrau? I have to look it up). And he came in at 5.17 on Sunday. I feel I didn’t do too badly.

Learned a new phrase today on the rw.com forums — redemption marathon. While we’re still at good fitness form, go run another marathon soon after this one, especially if the performance wasn’t ideal. For example NYC on 7 Nov is a perfect opportunity to redeem for Chicago. Hmm.

Even though hecklerspray called it crap, I’m still gonna buy Brandon Flower’s new album. Just because.

I finally sat down and watched season 7. I know exactly what happened, what with recaps and online videos, but didn’t get round to watching the whole season till now. Sigh. It was as expected, and disappointing. Well, I expected it to be disappointing.

It was so boring. I couldn’t wait till it all ended so I could put the box away. The episodes bled into each other, and the First, Bringers, Potential, General!Buffy storyline was dragged on for far too long.

Buffy was obviously suffering from paranoia, depression and all sorts of trauma. Giles was a bumbling idiot. Willow the most bumbling idiot of them all. I mean, just because she’s afraid of her powers doesn’t mean her IQ should disappear, right? And that’s what they did to her, took away her intelligence. And poor Xander, sidelined. Anya did her best. Andrew was meh.

The bright spots for me were Dawn, Faith and actually the Potentials. I enjoyed watching the Potentials, they did a good job even though there were so many of them and they were fighting with each other for screen time. Faith brought it, as usual. And Dawn. I used to hate Dawn, but she grew backbone and MT did a great job making her convincing. I also liked Kennedy. I know why people are against her in principle, cos she’s no Tara. But on her own, she had a credible storyline and IL gave her just enough spunk.

The ending was complete crap. All of a sudden the Guardians appear? Willow remember how to do a spell? The scythe was the most plastic looking weapon ever. They used to have good weapons (see Faith’s knife) and surely could have done better.

I’ve deliberately left out Spike. HATE. One second of screentime was one second too much. I should have been glad he got killed, if only I didn’t know he’d come back on Angel. Spike and Spuffy totally ruined the show for me.

That was a big negative rant. All I feel is a whopping “is that it?” If I’d watched it during 2003 it would have turned me off the show completely.

Transformers 3 has been filming in Chicago for the past few weeks. La Salle and Wacker have been closed and helicopters circling in the sky occasionally.

This week my normal car park near the office was closed “for a special event”. On Monday when I walked past, I saw a couple of huge trucks, Optimus Prime sized, as well as an awesome red fire truck and a whole line of Hummers at the back. The security guard said no photos, but whispered to me that he’s told to say that and if I kept moving he won’t do anything. So I quickly took one of the red fire truck.

Wednesday when I left work there were about 10 people at the entrance openly taking pictures. So I took a bunch. Optimus Prime was still there, but the line of Hummers were gone. There were a few other cars, like a taxi and a black SUV. But no Bumblebee. Bummer.

Managed to take 12 pics at the car park. I haven’t been able to catch any of the filming. Set here: flickr.

This was all over fb a few weeks ago, so I thought I’d bring it out again.

Bongwater is Michael Hornburg’s first book, published in 1995. It tells the story of 3 twentysomethings in Portland. Courtney burned down the house she shared with David and ran away to New York. David had a crush on Jennifer and Jennifer ran away to New York to join Courtney. In the meantime, David met Mary and went on a road trip with her to visit his weed-growing friend Phil.

Nothing much else happens. Arguably David and Courtney are the main characters but they don’t meet up again till the end. Jennifer is the glue. Mary is somewhere in between. David crashes with two gay guys who steals Jennifer’s underwear. Courtney and Jennifer does a round of New York clubs and comes back to Portland.

The characters are cynical and innocent at the same time. They do drugs and each other. But no one judges. It just is. The end of the book doesn’t have resolution; instead there is the hint of a beginning.

I get confused between Gen X and Y. Of course I’m reading this book 15 years after it was published, and I think about those days in the early 1990s with nostalgia. Now I identify with them — not the drugs or alcohol or sex or partying, the sense that we are just observing and living our way through life.

Reviews are mixed. Some readers get it. Others find it boring and without plot. Even others dislike the prose. I liked it. It feels superficial, but is deeper than it appears. Was Mr Hornburg sending life lessons? No, of course not. It just is. I get the feeling that there’s a large autobiographical element in the book. Nothing wrong with it. It just is.

I turned down afterwork drinks to go home and watch the biggest loser finale. I enjoyed this season, the contestants were generally likable and it was encouraging to see them become healthier. Is a 4-month bootcamp with a focus on weightloss the best way, probably not. But for this group, it’s a good start.

The F3 were a revelation. Orange Daris turned into a very good-looking young man, and a runner too! He did a marathon in just over 4 hrs, wow. Pink Ashley has such a wonderful personality, everyone underestimated her in the beginning and she ninja’ed her way to F3. The winner, White Mike, started as the heaviest man ever at 576 pounds. He was a little unpopular in the beginning but won me over with his hard work, losing 264 pounds. Wow, that’s like, 2 of me.

Missing drinks was worth it.

Bret Easton Ellis’ seventh novel, Imperial Bedrooms, comes out mid-June. It’s a follow up to Less than Zero, to coincide with its 25th anniversary. Gulp. Has it already been 25 years? Next I know, I’ll be needing reading glasses. [heh, don’t be so cocky. that day will come soon and you know it.]

Less than Zero is arguably my favourite book. Something spine-tingling and deep comes over me whenever I read it (unlike spine-chilling when I read American Psycho). I’m not sure how I feel about a sequel, because they never live up to the hype of the original. And reading the excerpt, which I assume is the beginning, I’m still leery.

They had made a movie about us. The movie was based on a book written by someone we knew. The book was a simple thing about four weeks in the city we grew up in and for the most part was an accurate portrayal. It was labeled fiction but only a few details had been altered and our names weren’t changed and there was nothing in it that hadn’t happened.

Clay is now a successful screenwriter and returns to LA from New York. The characters are still there — Julian (RDJ, who died in the film), Blair, Trent. I suspect parties and craziness still abound but it’s probably a bunch of people pushing 40 who don’t want to grow up.

I’m being unfair. I haven’t read the book yet and here I am dissing it. The reviews on amazon are mixed. It’s 100% certain I will buy it so I must reserve judgment.

On the livestrong forums is a thread on top 5 running songs. Till I Collapse by Eminem seems to be a favourite, but I find it too loud and hard to run to the beat. Doesn’t mean I don’t like rap, I run to 8 miles and Lose Yourself, which would make my top 10. So, top 5, in no particular order:

• mgmt — kids
• ben lee — afterlife
• killers — read my mind (or human, I can’t decide)
• uh huh her — common reaction
• muse — uprising

Honourable mentions: chris rea — auberge, lindsey buckingham — did you miss me, lady gaga — poker face, fort minor — where’d you go (or remember the name).

I’m at the margin of this world. You, you’ve put yourself at the centre of it.

Even though both Chantal and Jean-Marc found out more about themselves during the course of the book, at the end I felt like I’d only glimpsed a part of their journey. That there was more to come. The end was both ‘fade-to-black’ and sudden. I can’t decide which, because I was flipping the pages too fast to get to the end. I also can’t decide if I wanted to know more about what happened next. Basically, I can’t decide if I like this book, or I was bored by it. It’s strange. Perhaps it will permeate and brew more in my head.

I could have gone to see a musical I hadn’t seen, yet I decided to go see wicked instead. May be if it hadn’t been on the 101.1001 list? Hmm. No. It’s been a few years since I last saw it in Chicago, and I wanted to see the London company perform. Must admit it was strange yet refreshing to hear dialogue and singing in British accents. It’s been a long time.

Enjoyed the show very much. I had to stop myself singing along. It wasn’t superstar gasping level, I was happy I got a centre stalls seat. I hadn’t heard of the cast — Rachel Tucker as Elphaba, Louise Dearman as Glinda, Lewis Bradley as Fiyero — the ladies deserved the standing ovation they received at the end.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAIj7tGjzps&feature=player_embedded

Wow. Best. Move. Ever. Parvati Shallow, I bow to your survivor expertise. This is worth watching over and over.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxcHXrPxhs

I have the itinerary for london, ticket will be issued tomorrow. I’ll be there on bank holiday Monday, so time to plan some activity. It so happens that drones will be showing as part of the sci-fi london festival. I reserved my ticket. £8, plus 60p booking fee. Not too bad.

The Sandpit by Sam O'Hare

Talking about Chicago, here’s a fabulous tilt-shift video of New York, via kottke, including a link to how it was made. Tilt shift makes me swoon.

Daniel Merriweather’s latest, love & war came out last June. In the UK. I waited and waited and waited for it to become available here, or at least available for download. But no, it didn’t show up. Boy, was I tempted to get it elsewhere. Luckily, when I was on home leave I made a point of going to hmv to get the cd. It’s as good as I expected. And I noticed it’s just come out on amazon US. This is the first single, Change featuring Wale, which reached #8 on the UK charts.

I heard about Daniel Merriweather on twitter. I follow Mark Ronson, who produced the album. I didn’t realise he’s from Australia — guess he’s another transplant. His style has been described as r&b, with a mix of pop. I like it, I have the whole cd and every song deserves its place on the iphone and nano.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78pl1FUXfA

Perfect timing, Jeff Bridges wins this year’s Oscar, and the first trailer for Tron Legacy comes out.

I was the absolute right age for the original Tron. I loved, loved, loved it. Who didn’t? Even almost 30 years later, it doesn’t look its age. There was something magical about the film that’s hard to describe.

Man, December seems soooooo far away.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoDCiTsS7dU

If/when I become published I want to design my own covers. I won’t be able to paint or draw them since I’m an awful painter, but I can photoshop and I have definite ideas about what visual elements I want in my book covers.

I have a long way to go and much to learn though. This time lapse video from Lauren Panepinto, the creative director of orbit books shows the amount of skill needed, condensing 6 hours of work into 2 minutes. There’s even a brief interview about her approach. My awe of designers just went into orbit (pun intended).

Comments at bb rightly pointed out how effective this was as a marketing tool for the book. I must admit I am not bought into video trailers for books but based on this particular video, I can see myself checking out the book (due out Sept 2010 and is part of a series). Of course it helps that it’s steampunk and has vampires in it.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRKfZ0mGLaY

Went to an amateur improv show tonight. It was okay, the main purpose was to support one of the performers, and I enjoyed the show.

All I know is that, I will never be able to do it, I simply aren’t quick-witted enough and my comic timing is in the negatives. Nowadays when I think of improv, I think of the antics of improv everywhere, who have

caused [over 100] scenes of chaos and joy in public place

Paris, Texas is being released in HD and blue-ray tomorrow. It’s strange, I don’t remember the story, but I remember very well the mood. It was written by Sam Shepard after all.

I went to see Avatar on IMAX 3D, it was awesome. The special effects were seamless, Pandora was so stunningly beautiful it’s difficult to describe. It’s as of today the second highest grossing movie behind Titanic, and it’s for sure that it will be the highest soon.

Of course, there’s a lot of media hype and every one and their uncle seems to have a different spin on it. Right wingers are up in arms because it cuts too close to the truth about corporate interests, indiscriminate use of force and disregard for other cultures. Others have picked up on its racist undertones. It’s even said to have caused depression.

Yes, the story is clichéd and the underlying warning message delivered to us by a giant hammer unlike, well, what District 9 managed to do. But D9 was made by a South African, and Avatar is so utterly American. I can’t help but think that giant unsubtle hammer is the only way of delivering these political messages nowadays, and all power to James Cameron to do that, and entertain us in the process.

But anyway, back to the film. There is nothing to fault. There are so many colours and light and surprises on Pandora. My first impression was that it’s like a combination of Endor and Laputa, but it’s much much more. So much care has been put to create landscape, plants and creatures in such detail it is hard to believe it’s all in our imagination. The theme of nature-energy-force-we-are-all-connected-to-mother-earth theme is nothing new (I half expected someone to say ‘midi-chlorians’), and yes I cringed when they started doing voodoo-like chants, but at the end it’s all so, so good. I want to run and jump and fly and shout like a hunter-warrior. I want to sleep in those pod-hammocks. I want to ride the Toruk. I want to touch Eywa herself. For such an unsubtle film, there is an unexpected depth. I’m still thinking about it, and mulling over my experience. I won’t forget this film in a long time.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ-8jYpa1-o

I know I post this last year, but I can’t go through Christmas without listening to this on a loop. It’s my total favourite Christmas hymn.

something arrived in my mail today that I haven’t seen for long time — a print magazine. runner’s world to be precise. One of the perks of joining cara I suppose. It’s an interesting magazine, a few good articles like the one about running safely on the road, which is especially relevant in the winter when it gets dark too early. Runner vs vehicle, runner loses almost 100% of the time.

There’s also race calendars, a survey on the best marathons (most fun = NYC; best value = Fargo, ND; best destination = Big Sur, CA) and in general lots of encouragement. I visit the rw forum occasionally, but they seem too elitist and hardcore for me. It’ll be a change, to have a magazine to read in bed.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7tfyVbyD08

I caught the Cirque du Soleil cake challenge on the Food Network, which introduced me to the trampoline finale of la nouba. Wow. I mean, wow. It was mesmerising to watch this video — the precision, the control of the acrobats on trampolines, “walking” up a building cube and shooting themselves inside the windows. La Nouba is showing at Walt Disney World. I wonder how long it will be there, because if it’s still showing during gcls week, I’d want to go see it.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdVzboF2E2Q

This is a clever ad by doubletwist for an update available from tomorrow. A play on the original famous 1984 apple superbowl ad. Not the first time this has been copied or parodied, I’m not sure how the apple fanboi in me feels about this.

I had to get home by 7pm today to catch the return of TAR. It was a 2 hour premiere!! Although at first when the contestants were running out I was like why are there so many YDCs?? [not a spoiler cos the cast bios are on the cbs site] But as the race got started, it naturally redeemed itself. Can’t wait to read the recap.

I was keeping track of the programs I have on my must watch list:
mon — none
tues — biggest loser
wed — top chef
thurs — survivor
fri — dollhouse
sat — none
sun — TAR and Iron chef

I also keep an eye on project runway whenever I remember though I have very little interest in american idol, dancing with the stars or any of the “talent” shows. So apart from dollhouse, it’s all reality tv. Oh wow, I really am a reality tv junkie.
[t-shirt from redbubble]

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-zdLqFuHw

Even though there were tons of people around, we made sure to catch ep 1 of the new dollhouse season. It was a Joss written and directed ep and it showed. Very intriguing, very great, it’s gonna be a good season.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppiF7FYQi_s

This song rotated to the top of my running playlist and it’s such a great song to start a run. I mean, I adore fleetwood mac and (almost) everything they do and Lindsey is a huge, huge part of that love. Yes, he gets disparaged — think the joke about the lindsey buckingham paradox — but even then he’s recognised as a genius.

This is did you miss me from his 2008 album, gift of screws, which has been very well received, albeit not much attention given by the mainstream press and radio stations. It’s a shame. This is a perfect top 40 song, with a catchy hook and the usual killer unstated guitar playing.

oh, while googling the LBP, I came across this:

sudden onset Stevie Nicks syndrome: a serious disability that may be accompanied by Lindsey Buckingham

SNERK.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJWFvKQdM8

As a new owner of a sports car, I can safely say that yes, I look at other sports cars. And covet the models I didn’t get — Porsche 911 GT3, antique green MG, BMW M3. And this, the Audi R8. drool

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYiw5vkQFPw

I’ve only recently come across the use of trailers to promote books. Seems a little disjointed to me, books are text only but videos need sound and graphics. To be honest I have only seen a handful of book trailers that I liked, the others are too forced.

Until this. Leviathan is labelled as a Young Adult book, this trailer makes me want to order it straightaway. Of course, it helps that it’s an illustrated book. And OMG STEAMPUNK.

Important: Simon & Schuster is giving away Scott Westerfeld’s earlier book Uglies, but only for 1 more day. Get it quick.

I’m still on the fence on trailers for books.

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3coSedm7o&feature=player_embedded

Bat for Lashes was the first act I stopped to watch at Lollapalooza, just because it was the first stage I came across, and because the music kinda grabbed me. There was a pretty, dark-haired girl and a voice that was, even at an open stage, ethereal. I filed the band’s name away in my head, and went off to see the likes of the Airborne Toxic Event, Vampire Weekend and the Killers.

So at the weekend I decided to browse amazon for their music, and I ended up buying both albums, fur and gold and two suns. Bat for Lashes is actually Natasha Khan, the practice of calling oneself a band continues, in the NIN and Badly Drawn Boy tradition. She’s from Brighton, looks a little like Lily Allen, has a hipster new wave fashion style. She’s been compared to Kate Bush and Bjork and has opened for Radiohead. Thom Yorke is a big fan.

I find her music clever and just that bit whimsical. Descriptions abound from reviewers like magical, dreamy, luminous. I actually can’t stand Kate Bush or Bjork, but Natasha isn’t grating like the former or batty like the latter, she manages to balance pureness of voice with pop; cute whimsy with solid musicianship. She’s indie without trying too hard, if that makes sense. Someone to watch out for, definitely.

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you’ve seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what movies my friends choose. I hope you participate, even if you didn’t get tagged.

1. Star Wars
2. Lord of the Rings series
3. Casablanca
4. The Great Escape
5. My Fair Lady
6. Reality Bites
7. St Elmo’s Fire
8. Streets of Fire
9. Ladyhawke
10. Chance
11. Il Mare / The Lake House
12. X-files: Fight the Future
13. Blade Runner
14. In the Mood for Love
15. When Harry Met Sally

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

1. Pride & Prejudice — Jane Austen
2. Catcher in the Rye — JD Salinger
3. The Belgariad series — David Eddings
4. Less than Zero — Bret Easton Ellis
5. I am David — Anne Holm
6. Hood - Emma Donoghue
7. The Sun also Rises — Ernest Hemingway
8. Bright Lights, Big City — Jay McInerney
9. Down there on a Visit — Christopher Isherwood
10. From an Inland Sea — David Harsent
11. Pzyche — Amanda Hemingway
12. Deverry Series — Katherine Kerr
13. American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis
14. Hitchhikers’ Guide series — Douglas Adams
15. Little Women — Louisa May Alcott

I’ve had this book since it came out in 1997, together with Goodbye Johnny Thunders and Elvis Has Left the Building, Tania Kindersley’s other books. She was someone in my generation, catching the end of the yuppie 80s, the generation for whom it was almost easy to achieve success and wealth, provided we went out to look for them.

This book chronicles the friendship of a small group of young people, from their undergraduate days at Oxford to their burgeoning careers (or not) as they found themselves entering their thirties. The focus was on the narrator, Ashley, and her best friend, Virge.

One of the most noticeable things about this book is its atmosphere. I look for atmosphere in books, in the same way that I look for plot in films. The poignancy reminds me of another “atmospheric” book, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which I return to again and again when I’m in search of those quiet, deep moments. There are shades of Jake Barnes in Ashley; and a lot of Brett Ashley in Virge.

That the characters are privileged and indulgent and petulant is no question. However, they oh so charming and nonchalant about it, because they didn’t set out to be arrogant. This is a generation that reinvent themselves on a whim, and has very little patience for those who can’t keep up. A side character described Virge as” shallow and fey and smug” but Ashley never felt it. She was upset and angry, but her response to that jibe was that the person could feel whatever he feels about Virge. In a way, Ashley doesn’t feel any need to justify Virge, and by extension herself, to anyone.

Ultimately, it’s about growing up and leaving the comfort of college to face the outside world, which they do in various shades of success.

“No one has told me,” said Virge with sudden violence, “that it was this complicated. Why do they never tell you that?”

Here the atmosphere evoked is This Life, so much so that the characters could almost interchange.

The blurb is that the story is all about friendship. Ashley and Virge are opposites who attract. We hear mainly Ashley’s voice, about her feelings for Virge,

and because i didn’t believe in coincidence, I felt utterly unsurprised that she should be here, back from America on the very day that I had fought my way out of the months of darkness and despair and self-doubt, because she was the one person in the whole wide world who always made me feel that I was lovable and desirable, and good enough.

And later on,

“You do know, Ash, don’t you,” said Virge, “you do know that you are the one I love best. I never loved anyone so much as you.”

I keep waiting for them to cross the line from friends to lovers, which they never do. Perhaps I’m projecting, or perhaps the writer intended this as the pure, unconditional kind of love that can never be tainted, even by sex.

As is life, nothing is perfect and golden forever. Throughout the story, the copious reference of looking back suggests to me that Something Big will happen at the end. And again, to mimic life, it’s not one big event that gives ample warning — it’s a series of littler events that chip away at the perfection, and then finally, something explodes.

The events at the end were actually not unexpected, though just as tragic. The last pages were sad and, again the word is poignant, but it seems to me that a page has been turned. What is past is gone, and there is a future that is more mundane and less rose-tinted.

Don’t ask me why, but that’s just how life is, isn’t it.

So, we went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read the book, I know i need to finish the series. I didn’t mind that the film would spoil the book. Wow, the kids have grown up. I want to see it again already, it was awesome.

The first Walkman was launched 30 years ago this week. Wow. I had one of those original monsters, and still have this 1987 WM-103 in my drawer.

The BBC asked 13 year old Campbell Scott to trade his iPod for a Walkman for a week, and his account made me feel old. OTOH, it’s amazing how much technology has advanced over the last 30 years, that he has absolutely no idea what a cassette tape is.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape.

Oh my! Cassette tapes! I still have a couple of them at the bottom of drawers. Remember making mix tapes for friends and swapping them? Blah RIAA.

I went to Amber Benson’s signing of her book Death’s Daughter today. The event started at 4.30pm, but I got there after work at around 6pm. I could have brought a whole collection of her stuff for her to sign — Chance and LLL dvds, Chance poster (hmm, that one is already signed), my 2 limited edition Ghost of Albion hardcovers (hang on, those are signed too), or any of her comics. Or Buffy stuff. She’s got such a varied body of work. While I was queuing someone at the store asked me was there a signing. I said yes, and he asked who? He didn’t know Amber (travesty!) but I heard him tell his friend “it’s an author.” Little does he know she is more.

I guess there was a reading, which I missed. The queue for the book signing was long, snaking all the way to the back of the store. I wish I’d brought some water cos it was a hot day and I felt dehydrated. It took the better part of an hour. but it was all rewarded when i finally reached the front, because she was warm and friendly. She greeted every single person like a friend, and was genuinely happy to speak with each of us. I didn’t really have anything to ask or say to her, just asked her to sign my book, and another copy for Car.

I took a picture of her and the books. There’s also one with me, but I’m doing the hiding being invisible thing again so that pic isn’t available in public.

There are tens of thousand of iphone apps available. This one, Brushes, created a stir last week, as it was the app used to create the June cover of the New Yorker magazine. Of course, artistic talent had a lot to do with it.

Ever since the story broke about the Kuzuis’ intention to reboot Buffy, ostensibly to take advantage of the current Twilight-fueled obsession with vampires, there has been no shortage of fan outrage. Joss’ response was a diplomatic:

I hope it’s cool

which says absolutely nothing.

From the response I’ve read all over the place, and the ones from my fb friends (a large proportion are Buffy fans), the overwhelming response is that a Joss-less Buffy is a Very.Bad.Idea.

Me? On the one hand, I’m cautiously excited about any (re-)appearance of the Buffyverse, OTOH I share many fans’ skeptism and trepidation that the slayer as we know it will be completely ruined.

So with perfect timing, via kottke is a long article on the star trek reboot. We are reminded that Star Trek, Batman and James Bond are among the franchises that have gone through reboots, some more successful than others.

The author came up with some thoughts on how to successfully reboot, among which is don’t abuse the audience goodwill:

If you’re doing a new version of a beloved old property, that means you need to figure out what it was people liked and make damn sure it’s in there. That doesn’t mean you have to do it the same way every time, you just have to do it. James Bond movies have been retooled a number of times, but we never lose the license to kill, the exquisite stunt work, the Bond theme music, or the cool cars and hot girls. There’s about a million miles of difference between Moonraker and Casino Royale, but they’re both recognizably Bond movies and they were both successful, because they met the baseline audience expectation of what a James Bond movie would give them.

Who’s to say that we won’t get another director who ‘gets’ buffy as much as we do? That perhaps we are lucky enough to get the equivalent of a Christopher Nolan or JJ Abrams for our beloved verse? The cynic in me says no, because the Kuzuis’ haven’t shown much wisdom (apart from giving Joss freedom to work on the series), but I can’t join the chorus of disapproval. At least not until more details emerge.

Evelien Lohbeck is a Dutch artist who makes videos, commercials clothing, posters, and a ton of very very cool stuff. I’m always in awe of creative people. This is called “Noteboek”.

gama-go are the people who made the boing boing hoodie, which I missed. :( They’re now doing the boing boing t-shirt, but I’m not interested. Instead, I entered into thehoodie roulette in which I sent in $40, and they sent me back a hoodie. The fun part is that I didn’t know what the design is until I receive the package.

It turned out, I got #61/360 of the pastoral dirty bird design. Pretty cool.

Wow, free CDs seem to be the newest thing. From Darren Hays (remember him? from Savage Garden) and Robert Conley comes We are Smug, the name of both the band and the album. Download the full 10-song album. FREE.

The concept of extreme opinionated news reporting baffles me. News, by definition, should be neutral. Now of course people can’t help but to have views. But, shouting? We have people screaming on ads — I can’t put these on mute fast enough, otherwise my ears will burst — and i don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the shouting and dramatics on American news shows.

Anyway, this is the astute Charlie Brooker on the difference between US and UK news.

Sigh. Americans [/Giles]

Starting tomorrow 15 May, Coldplay is giving away a FREE DOWNLOAD of their latest live CD, leftrightleftrightleft, recorded over the Viva La Vida tour.

This coincides with their North American tour. Those who are lucky enough to make it to the tour will also receive a free copy of the CD. Tracklisting:

1. Glass of Water
2. 42
3. Clocks
4. Strawberry Swing
5. The Hardest Part/Postcards from Far Away
6. Viva La Vida
7. Death will Never Conquer
8. Fix You
9. Death and All His Friends

When I lived in NYC, I remember watching some Julia Child. I had no idea of her significance or influence on Americans, just that she seemed important in a Delia Smith sort of way. This film looks really really good. I even checked out julie powell’s current blog.

I did flat stanley for my niece this week. flat stanley is inspired by the children’s book by Jeff Brown. Poor Stanley got squashed and became flat as pancake. Undeterred, Stanley takes advantage of his flat state to go on many adventures around the world and even to space.

Many schools initiate Flat Stanley Projects in which children make their own Flat Stanleys, and take him to activities with them for a few days. They record the activities in a journal. Then the fun part starts:

Flat Stanley and the journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a period of time.

So my niece’s flat doll, whom she named Flat Neena, has been making the journeys. She’s been to her grandparents in West Sussex, and our cousin in New York so far. And this week she was with me. I took her to Sears Tower, the Arts Institute, the Bean, downtown, and on a ride on the brown line. She’s now on her way back to my niece. It’s been really fun.

Full set: 17 (15 public) on flickr

from the award-winning documentary,playing for change, stand by me performed by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.

An interesting article in the new yorker magazine on ereaders. I read it, and disagreed with most of it. Originally I was just going to post a link on fb, but I realised I had more thoughts on it. Not many, but a tiny bit more than just a 1-2 liner that accompanies a link.

The author references, and I think is trying to debunk, a recent WSJ essay that, inter alia, postulates that as more people use e-readers, reading may one day be a social networking activity.

As you read, you will know that at any given moment, a conversation is available about the paragraph or even sentence you are reading. Nobody will read alone anymore. Reading books will go from being a fundamentally private activity — a direct exchange between author and reader — to a community event

I like that idea. Already I know i search online in blogs or amazon reviews if I want to buy something, or have an idea. I love reading comments for posts and articles and get disappointed if an article (in, say, the online version of the NYT) didn’t have comments turned on. The idea that I can click out of a passage in an ebook and see comments from readers is simply fascinating.

But Thessaly La Force at the New Yorker doesn’t share my enthusiasm. He sites the example of the Project Gutenberg books, and how much discussion there are [not] on the books. Well, I counter that the books there aren’t of sufficient interest to elicit discussion. All of the books there are in the public domain, and are either a) obscure or b) books we’ve read in school. I looked at them, and frankly dismissed them. I still have 50 books from the free Sony classics library I am entitled to get, but I don’t care either way if I forfeit my right cos I know I’ll not read them.

The other point made in the article, that e-readers aren’t as sexy as real books,

that guy reading an electronic device at a restaurant by himself? He just looks busy. The same guy reading a crumbly paperback? Attractive and approachable

I dunno. I disagree with that too. When I was flying back from LGA, I had my 700 out in the plane happily reading away while the rest of the plane got on (advantages of boarding first, heh) and I got noticed! A couple commented “is that the Kindle?” and I said no, it’s the Sony and we had a quick chat about the difference. A young guy and his girlfriend just behind them chimed in and expressed interest. They had to move on cos they couldn’t block up the aisle. My point is, the ereader does get you noticed. Perhaps as a gadget, but increasingly other people who have an ereader or are thinking of one, will bond over this common interest. And that’s how social interactions start, right?

In many articles about ereaders, and where authors bashed the kindle, sometimes there’s a comment about whether the authors themselves own, or have used extensively, these devices. Yes of course at the back of my mind I long for an Apple e-reader (just like I want an Apple netbook) but I’m happy with my Sony right now. I recently cancelled a book order on amazon cos I decided to get the ebook instead. I have a big feeling this is the way forward and there’s no turning back.

Dream, by Priscilla Ahn.

i listened to this on the plane. Three times.

ifc.com is having a radiohead fanatic fortnight. Enter the draw for Special Collectors Edition of Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer.

swoon

Wow. nine inch nails. jane’s addiction. street sweeper are touring together. There’s even a great 6 track free EP for download on the nin|ja 2009 site.

Novel-I Am NEW Video f. f/ Ben Folds, Talib Kweli &Spree Wilson


For some very odd reason I like rap better than, say, country. Some rap anyway. This is “I am” by novel.

Apparently it was just a display issue, and my account was credited with 100 classic books. I looked through the ebookstore today, and even though there are over 900 books, it took me a whole day to come up with 66. Jane Austens, Shakespeare comedies, and a bunch of Dickens. But there were many from authors who are obscure, like Charlotte M. Yonge. And for some like Trollope, they’re not offering his most popular books. They have just one or two of each series, like just Barchester Towers above, but not many more. Actually the entire list looks like it was gakked from project gutenberg and if i wanted i could just download them free from there and convert.

I have to register twice for the ereader — once at the sony website for the device itself, and a second time via the stupid PC only software at the ebookstore. The first went fine, cos I did it on the mbp. The second wasn’t so smooth. The device had been authorised before to another user. What? It became obvious that I had been sold a returned product, as new. This is very annoying.

I emailed Sony, following the instructions on the faq. The fact that they had the answer to that question is disconcerting.

I got a reply within a few hours. They gave me 2 codes, each for 50 free classic books. I entered the code one at a time, and hey presto! Only one code worked. My account has 50 free books, but the other 50 was missing. I’ve emailed again, and waiting for the answer.

This is becoming ridiculous and a farce. Am I not supposed to have bought it? Was someone thumbing their nose at me for getting the 700 instead of the more popular 505? Should I have been more patient and ordered direct from Sony instead of getting from Borders?

Very bad taste.

so I was visiting Car this weekend, and she’d told me during the week that she’d ordered the sony ereader and it was expected to arrive on Friday. And when I got there Friday it was there, all tiny and thin and cool looking. How possibly can I resist such a toy? I had myself during the week went over to the Borders at Michigan Avenue to look at them in person, and i was amazed at how small they are.

Instead of ordering and waiting, I just decided to go get it. Originally I thought I’d go during the week when I’m back in town, but Car very kindly offered to take me to a nearby Borders. The one we went to first was further away, in a large shopping complex. I queued up at the till and told the person there I wanted to buy a sony ereader. She gave me a blank look for a few seconds before something snapped. she was still a bit clueless, first having to ask a colleague, then offering me the 505 when I specified the 700. Eventually i found myself at the information desk, and a VERY helpful lady told me they actually have one and was bringing it out. Then it turned out the they didn’t have it, but she continued her helpfulness by calling another store nearby and holding it.

Backtrack. Why not the kindle 2? The main reason is the DRM — I want to buy books from sources other than amazon, and the conversion process put me off. The k2 still looks like a toy to me. I will probably use the iphone, when i get one, perhaps on a daily basis. I wish I had gotten more into ereaders last year when I was travelling so much. Why the 700 and not the 505, at $100 cheaper. One word: touchscreen. I’m a big sucker for geeky things I can touch. When I was playing around both the 505 and the 700 at Borders, I’d finish with the 700 and was poking at the screen of the 505 expecting something to happen.

Okay, back to the buying adventure.

The other Borders (at 95th and Western) turned out to be elusive to find. First off, it started raining heavily, then there was zillions of traffic. We ended up at the mall, but it wasn’t inside the mall. Finally we got there, and I queued up again to buy my ereader. The helpful lady at the first store had told us, “it’s behind the registers” which we first thought it was the store that was behind some “registers”. Hee. Anyway, i paid for it, got suckered into getting a Borders card, and off we went back home.

Close. But the story doesn’t end there.

I carefully opened the box, fondled my new ereader, and then discovered the usb cable was missing. It’s a fairly standard cable, and i have a couple at home just like it, but still…it was missing so we should get the whole package. i called the store, and was fairly inept at the whole explaining thing, but finally i found out that i could go back and exchange it.

After a dinner of “shit on a shingle” — i was too concerned with my ereader to take pictures of the new food — we headed back to the store to exchange my ereader. Actually it ended up at the store assistant ripping apart a 505 package and giving me the cable. LOL

So i sit here, it’s happily charging up. The only hurdle to overcome is Sony’s STUPID decision to make their software PC only. Then again, they make vaio’s so they don’t want to be associated with macs? As i said, stupid, and it rings a sour note. But i’ll get round it somehow.

I have zero comics / graphic novels cred. I want to be all geeky about it, but alas I never got round to it. This looks absolutely fascinating.

meme #12. Tagged by Bobbi.

Instructions: A list of every movie to ever be nominated for a BEST PICTURE Academy Award follows. For each year, the film to actually win the Oscar is listed first. Mark every film you have seen, total them up, and divide the total by your age.

Very long list behind the cut.

meme #11. Tagged by Car who, together with airlines, provides me with film entertainment.

SUPPOSEDLY if you’ve seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own Facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x’s next to the films you’ve seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 6

( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 9

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 13

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 18

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total so far: 21

( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong
Total so far: 23

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-mas
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 24

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 26

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 28

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog (the original)
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 30

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 34

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
( ) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 44

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 54

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street [the original]
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 54

(x) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 60

( ) Basketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(x) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 61

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
( ) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 63

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( ) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
Total so far: 65

( ) Kill Bill vol 1
( ) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 65

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 71

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Grand Total: 75

must watch video. Absolutely amazing statistics. Everything is going exponential.

meme #8, tagged by Kerry. Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading
4) Tally your total at the bottom
5) Put in a note with your total in the subject

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen x+++
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien [I tried, but i just can’t get through them]
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte x
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling * [i’m stuck on book 5]
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee x
6. The Bible [the whole Bible, not so much]
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte x
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell x
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman x
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens x+
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott x+
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien [see #2]
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger x+++++++++ [:P]
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell [no, never]
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams x+++
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck x
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens x
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell x
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [i got may be half way, then lost interest]
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding x
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert x
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen x
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt x+
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding x
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens x
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett x
74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens x
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro x
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White x+++
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton [why these and not the Famous Five?]
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Exupery x
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams x [really boring]
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas x [though, i think it was an abridged version]
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare x
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl x
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo x [this was definitely an abridged version]

Total 28, of which most were required reading at school. Those I like I put more than one (+) and of the ones I haven’t read, I intend to finish the Potters, that’s it. I wanted to read Atonement, but after seeing the film, not so much.

I tried to look for the origin, and I think the meme grew from a 2003 search for the nation’s favourite books that resulted in the Big Read. When i said grew, there are post-2003 books in this list, so perhaps it’s morphed.

new cds today:

• Coldplay: Viva la Vida — I bought the download already, but this was a bonus cd with the Prospekt’s March EP
• Beyoncé: I am…Sasha Fierce — I’ve only listened to If I were a Boy, and this has changed my mind about Beyoncé, I used to be indifferent now I’ll take more notice
• The Killers: Day & Age — I bought it for the outstanding Human. One song can make me buy a whole cd, yep
• Franz Ferdinand: Tonight — no intro needed
• The Script: eponymous — and the indie rock cd gathering continues, this is a new Irish group that is in the same vein as the above
• Mark Ronson: Version — I think this will be interesting

25 years ago, on 22 January 1984, this ad showed once during the Super Bowl.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Tony Hart has died. It’s probably difficult for Americans and younger people to comprehend how utterly devastating this news is for me. I feel like Mr Hart watched me grow up, with programs like Vision On and Take Hart taking prime place in my childhood viewing schedule. I’ve never been able to draw, but watching him was inspiring enough. There’s a longer bbc tribute, but embedding has been disabled. Watch that video in addition to this ITN news item, if you have any love for children, art and fun.

Watched Anthony Bourdain all night, and tonight it’s Andrew Zimmern. Love the Travel Channel, especially when they have great food programs like these.

I never watched it’s a wonderful life but I understand it to be Christmas related, and not to make wishes you didn’t mean.

This flash animation was originally at itsawonderfulinternet but the website seems to have gone. I found it elsewhere and videograbbed it.

It’s one for the Christmas season.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about updating music libraries. Basically comparing 80s or 90s musicians with the current crop. I can’t say I agree with the choices.

If you like…

No Doubt “Tragic Kingdom” (1995)
The Orange County band’s hyper, unrepentantly fun breakthrough set sold 16 million copies worldwide on the back of rocket-powered pop singles “Spiderwebs” and “Just a Girl.”

… then try

The Ting Tings “We Started Nothing” (2008)
Singer Katie White doesn’t sound remotely like Gwen Stefani, but this heavily accented drum ‘n’ guitar duo does an incredible job channeling her group’s relentless, ska-propelled energy on its primary-colored debut, which includes the iTunes jingle “Shut Up and Let Me Go.”

Other comparisons include Rolling Stones—>Kings of Leon, Mariah Carey—>Leona Lewis (okay, I can see that) and Beastie Boys—>Girl Talk. But the comparison I most disagree with is,

If you like…

Paul Simon “Graceland” (1995)
Venturing into apartheid-torn South Africa and working with local musicians, Simon returned with dazzling, tuneful evidence for the case of taking world music seriously. It won a Grammy for album of the year.

… then try

Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend” (2008)
These well-groomed Columbia University alums launched their Afrobeat revival from the less dangerous environs of their dorm rooms, appropriating Simon’s fluid rhythms and featherweight melodies with a whiff of collegiate humor (“Who gives a f- about an Oxford comma?”).

JJ Cale is set to release his first solo record in almost five years. Legendary.

Watch and listen to Cale and Eric Clapton so effortlessly play After Midnight.

via mefi, pride and prejudice told facebook newsfeed style. It’s funny as hell, I grinned like an idiot reading it. Funny bits further down:

Lydia Bennet and Kitty Bennet joined the group 1,000,000 Strong Against the Officers Leaving Meryton!

Mrs. Bennet joined the group Widows of Men Killed in Duels.

via kottke, mcsweeney’s break down 50 years of popular songs intoone simple sentence.

The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” — I want to do it with you

Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” — I want to do it with you

James Blunt “You’re Beautiful” — I want to do it with you

Frank Sinatra “Strangers in the Night” — I’m drunk and I want to do it with you

Patsy Cline “Crazy” — I want to do it with you so much I’m going fucking nuts

Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights” — I’m an 18th-century fictional character and I want to do it with another 18th-century fictional character

I’m, um, sensing a theme here. Writers of pop-rock music seem to have one thing on their mind.

Matt Ward (M. Ward) is an indie singer-songwriter from Portland who manages to combine country, blues, pop, and folk into a unique package. He’s toured with Bright Eyes and is mentioned in the same space as the Decemberists, the Shins and Feist. I keep expecting to see his name on the Garden State, or some other Zach Branff film, soundtrack.

Zooey Deschanel (awesome, awesome name) is an actress who has small roles in films like Almost Famous, and increasingly larger roles in films like Elf, and was Trillian on Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Matt and Zooey met on The Go-Getter, in which they sang a duet together. Some correspondences led to the formation of She & Him and their first cd Volume One. The first single, Why don’t you let me stay here, is kinda bouncy and folksy. Another of my favourites is their cover of Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold on Me, when Zooey channels some serious Patsy Cline.

She has a distinctive voice, he has a way of arranging the music that is simple and effective. There’s a cute, retro, kitschy feel to the songs. Paste magazine said in their review,

the 13 songs on Volume One are lovely throwbacks to blissful 60s pop, tastefully arranged and produced by the uber-talented Ward

They should know, they just named She & Him — Volume One as their best album of 2008.

via bb, a weird, strangely mesmerizing, out of senses…flash platform game by the name of I made this, you play this, we are enemies. The creator, Jason Nelson, who tells us “don’t try to get it”, calls it,

an artwork/game/digital poem/world of scribbles and ideas from the back of my brain, way-way back in a storage room for contextual whims

Cory Doctorow calls it

brilliant and terrible all at once

Broken down, it’s basically a flash platform game using famous webpages as background and incorporating random words and graphics. But I think it’s more than that, just like poems are more than just a collection of words. Or graffiti spray paint. It has attitude.

I freaking love it, the freak that i am.

via stacia seaman, an editor at BSB books. Interesting, her answer on romance books.

+++INTRODUCTIONS+++

What’s your name? heh, you’re kidding me, right?

Do you read a lot? yep

What’s your favorite genre? modern fiction, adventure, fantasy


+++FANTASY AND SCI-FI+++

Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction? fantasy

What’s your favorite fantasy book/series? the Belgariad

Who’s your favorite fantasy author? David Eddings, Katherine Kerr, Anne McCaffrey

What’s your favorite science fiction book/series? it’s been a long long time since I read good sci-fi: Foundation series, Hitchhiker’s Guide

Favorite sci-fi author? Asimov


+++MYSTERY, HORROR, AND THRILLERS+++

Which do you prefer: a puzzling mystery, or a terrifying thriller? mystery, i get too scared of scary stuff

Do you have a favorite mystery novel? probably more adventure, Desmond Bagley, Frederick Forsyth

A favorite horror novel? i’ve never finished a horror novel


+++ROMANCE+++

Do you read romance novels? yep, i can’t stay away even though I get really disillusioned reading them

How about gay romance novels? uh huh

What’s your favorite? all bella, spinsters ink, bsb authors, the standard is very high


+++CHILDREN’S AND YA+++

What’s your favorite children’s book? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Encyclopedia Brown series, Three Investigators series, Hardy Boys series, Famous Five

Is it the same book that was your favorite when you were a kid? these were the books i read as a kid

What’s your favorite YA book? I am David

Did you actually read it as a YA? i read it when i was 12, so probably it’s should have been classified as a children’s book

In general, do you prefer children’s books over grown-up books? i think i’ve outgrown children’s books. classics now classified as children or YA books — Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, the Count of Monte Cristo among many — i haven’t read and find it hard to motivate myself to read


+++CLASSICS AND GENERAL FICTION+++

What’s your favorite classic novel? Pride and Prejudice

What about general fiction? Classic: The Sun Also Rises; Modern: Less than Zero

What classic novel do you just not get? Moby Dick

Do you have a favorite play or drama? Macbeth

What do you think of Shakespeare? some are okay, like the comedies and tragedies. i don’t get the heavier war plays


+++POETRY+++

Could you pick a favorite poem? don’t know any poem, let alone picking a favourite

What about a favorite poetry collection? see above

Who’s your favorite poet? see above


+++COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS+++

Do you read comics or graphic novels? i’ve read a few: Buffy, Oldboy, Doraemon, but not a lot

Do you have a favorite series? nope

A favorite book? nope


+++SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS+++

Do you prefer short stories (or short novels) over full-length novels? no, i pretty much only read full length novels, which is strange because I write a lot of short stories

What’s your favorite short story? i have to think about this

Favorite short story collection? nope

Do you have a favorite short story author? nope


+++NONFICTION+++

What kind of nonfiction do you usually read? none, unless we’re talking about blogs, travel guides or the watcher’s guides i use for reference

Do you have a favorite nonfiction book? i have a few travel photography books i treasure: the collection of Furano & Biei photos by Kenji Alsumi and the Chile photo book by Pablo Valenzuela Vaillant that K gave me for example

Read any interesting biographies? no, though when I was really young (like primary school) I read a bunch of biographies about famous composers

History books? no

Politics? no

Religious texts? no

How about books on mythology, fairy-tales, or other cultural stories? I have Mythology for Dummies on my desk for months and I haven’t touched it


+++ELEMENTS OF FICTION+++

What’s the most important element of a novel? Plot? Characterization? Style? Themes? Happy ending? as long as it makes sense and speaks to me. some books have no particular plot, like the Catcher in the Rye, but i get embroiled in Holden Caulfield’s mind. some have weak characters but a strong storyline, like a lot of adventure books, i get caught up in those too

What kind of plot interests you the most? ones that have that something — not too clichéd, have a combination of strong characters, intrigue, angst

What kind of characters usually appeal to you? real people; people with ups and downs; people who are not perfect; people who know what they want, or are confused about what they want; they can be twisted (like Patrick Bateman) or curious (like Hermione Granger) — as long as the writer tells me their story, and i can relate to them somehow

What is your favorite book overall? i don’t think anyone who takes this survey can answer this


+++PASS IT ON+++

What’s the last book you read? the Supreme Constellations series by Gun Brooke

What are you reading now? i’m looking at my shelf and trying to decide

What are you going to read next? probably something i’ve read before

Is there a book you would recommend to everyone on your friends list? if you want to understand my writing and the type of writer i want to be, read Less than Zero

Tag five people to fill out this meme. I don’t tag. do, or not do, it’s up to you

Helen Sandler used to be the editor of Diva, and still freelances for them though nowadays she’s more known as a poet. I haven’t read Diva in many years and I have a feeling my copy of this book was a freebie with the magazine. Published in 2001, it’s Helen Sandler’s proper book about “sanity, secrets and cybersex”.

Some of it seems at once to be both relevant and dated. People still IM and email and (may be) do cybersex. But there’s so much more to online life today that the protagonists would simply be overwhelmed — all the social networking, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, twitters, tumblrs and just completely conducting one’s life online — all pretty unthinkable in the early part of the millenium.

It’s a nice book to read on the plane, not too heavy and just enough humour mixed with angst to make the story interesting. The main character, Joss, tends to whinge and feel sorry for herself way too much but I suppose we all do that. Weird neighbours, well-meaning friends, boring job, a relationship without commitment are all familiar in real life. Meeting someone online and falling in love may seem a novel idea in 2001, but nowadays it’s almost a norm.

Like I said, the writing is light and funny. There are bits between chapters providing insights from the point of view of a side character that are amusing. The main characters are real enough, though in the spirit of being light, not hugely developed. Not a book that left me deeply affected, I enjoyed it.

I think I’ll try to make it a habit, read one of the bookshelf books when I’m travelling.

I heard this song from The Airborne Toxic Event on the plane, and had to scroll back and listen again. What caught my ear was how much like Chasing Cars it sounded. And I’m big on Snow Patrol. No wonder, this LA group has been compared with The Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse. Mixed reviews, mostly with critics wanting more from them than sounding like yet another one of those bands.

But you know what? I don’t care that they don’t sound quite original, it’s the style I like and there’s never too much of a good thing with stuff you like.

I bought a stack of CDs lately, the new ones from: Kings of Leon, Jason Mraz, Keane, Airborne Toxic Event, James Morrison, Katy Perry, Oasis. I’ve gone back to buying physical CDs, for no good reason that I feel like it.

So now I have over 10,000 songs in my iTunes library. Most are ripped from CDs, quite a few are freebies from everywhere and, okay, there’s a bunch that comes from frostwire.

Bret Easton Ellis defined my writing. I was very affected by Less than Zero and American Psycho. Not so much The Rules of Attraction but still. It’s the style, the tightness of language and ultimately the blank emptiness of his characters, his stories and his locations that got me. Deeply.

The Informers came out in 1994. My copy is actually signed, I bought it in London. Strange that it’s taken me 14 years to finally sit down and read it. I’d tried numerous times, but never got round to finishing. When I’m stuck on a plane with no access to my books, it’s a good incentive to finish.

Not so much a novel as a collection of short stories about a group of people who are loosely interconnected. Almost all written in first person and, honestly, it sometimes took me a few pages to figure out who was narrating.

Nothing of import went on. Set in opulent LA we had people doing drugs, doing each other, aimlessly going from one place to another, and not even death can pull them out of their self-absorption. The actions shock, but are not written to shock. Some of the chapters held my interest more than others. Some of the characters I could recognise — Julian, Tad, Alana and Blair from Less than Zero, or just characters with the same names. Tim was just like Clay. Sean. The characters are grotesque, in their tanned, Porsche-driving, Spago-dining ways. But they are just who they are. He doesn’t judge, or glamorise, he just paints the picture.

Now I need to read Glamorama.

omg, i’m getting this giant totally inappropriate crush on Rachel Maddow. She’s so smart. She’s on twitter. She cares about technorati searches. Yet she claims to be just a normal person. Here she is interviewing John Hodgman, another crushworthy guy — he’s “PC” on the mac vs pc ads (I know, I know, Justin Long has the better hair but John is a cutie). Mr Hodgman has a new book out on fake trivia and he’s guest blogging on boing boing. All round coolness.

Back to Dr Maddow. She’s got huge attention as her new msnbc show is doing great in ratings. A whole slew of articles on her: new york times magazine AND arts section, washington post, la times and time magazine, too many to list.

I had just over half an hour to spare today so I hung out at HMV listening to new releases. The station that had the new James Morrison and Daniel Powter also featured someone I’d never heard of before, Jason Mraz. I listened to We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things and immediately picked it up, as well as his previous CD, Mr A-Z.

I can’t find a lot of articles on him, but it doesn’t matter. A peek at his website confirmed my first impressions — quirky, fun, nerdy and downright left of centre. The Hawaiian influence reminds me of Jack Johnson except I’m liking Jason Mraz whereas I can’t get into Jack Johnson at all.

I tend to listen to too much depressing indie rock, this cheerfulness is a nice change.

It’s not that often that I read through all my digg feeds but I’m glad I did today, because there was a link to 7 unexpected moments of guitar awesomeness. I mean, Lindsey Buckingham on there is enough for me.

But their #1 is Prince’s solo at the George Harrison Tribute. He totally outshines Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Dude.

Found on the guardian, Kaiser Chiefs’ single Never Miss a Beat from their new album which came out this week. I’m only slowly starting to discover the Chiefs, having heard their name in my subconscious now and then but never quite registering enough attention. I’m liking this song, it’s kinda catchy. Disturbing video though, kids in halloween masks running rampant around a decrepit council estate scaring off the residents and then ending up in some sort of surreal Fame groupdance routine. Huh. Will reserve judgment till I hear more.

oh. my. lord. I’m watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

It’s spectacular.

Ignore the fact that mm had to work over the weekend. We’d originally (or rather, I’d begged and begged) planned to see the X-files movie sometime over the weekend. But when I got back I found out that it was on for a week, then disappeared. Either The Dark Knight was too strong, or the people here too stupid to remember. I suppose I have to be resigned to waiting for the dvd.

I’m reminded of this strange article in the USA Today a couple of weeks ago. Most of the article was blurb about the film, which appeared with all the other blurbs out there. But the bits about the Museum of Jurassic Technology inserted into the article were truly weird, like they were trying to be as weird as the show in the early days of the mythology and it ends up seeming forced.

Unfortunately the reviews of the film were pretty harsh. Perhaps Chris Carter was trying too hard? Trying to satisfy the formerly faithfuls while trying not to confuse newcomers. It’s like trying to park a car with 2 open spaces, you’re never as focused as when you have only one space available.

I dunno. May be I managed to convince myself that the film wasn’t worth the hype and anticipation cos I missed it. I may have felt differently if we’d gone and seen it. May be. I hope they aren’t too disappointed and bounce back with a third movie. After all, we still haven’t used the tagline The Truth is Out There.

Quiet reading day today. I hadn’t done much reading during the week between eating out, jetlag and watching the travel channel. I got through 2 books before dinner (okay, that includes last night).

We spent a little time persuading Gram to come watch Mamma Mia with us and were pleased when she agreed finally. It wasn’t a wasted trip cos she was laughing and humming along.

I saw the musical with mm a few years ago and the film followed the musical pretty loyally. The reviews have been mixed but my reaction to the film is that it was very enjoyable. Sure, Meryl Streep was extra twitchy, Pierce Brosnan can’t sing, Colin Firth was hideously underused and there was an uncurrently of cheesiness to the whole endeavour. But I suspect the viewers weren’t supposed to take it too seriously, and the reviewers who trashed it were probably those who didn’t know how to let their hair down and just have fun. I really wanted to sing along with the songs but was too shy, heehee.

Less than 2 weeks from the opening of the one film I’ve been looking forward to all year, the New York Times tells us that Chris Carter has a message for us.

CHRIS CARTER, the creator of “The X-Files,” has a message for anyone who, some time during the show’s nine-season run, threw up his hands trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the extraterrestrial abductions, the black-oil aliens, the metal sinus implants, the Syndicate, the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder’s sister, Scully’s baby, Mulder’s father, Scully’s cancer, the colonists, the Lone Gunmen, Deep Throat and all the rest of the show’s staggeringly complex and often murky mythology:

You can come back now.

I love that all the players are back. The producers, the stars, the back-to-early-seasons standalone type story. Great article. Must read.

I got a chance to watch an old musical, Brigadoon on stage. The venue was the Huron Playhouse, a part of Bowling Green State University of Ohio. This is the 60th anniversary year of the theatre and they are putting on 5 productions, as per usual.

The theatre itself is the auditorium of a local school, but it was a full house! All 500+ seats were sold, and many of the audience have season tickets to watch all 5 shows.

I liked the show. The cast and crew are mainly students and this is a sort of educational / semi-professional production. It’s not 100% professional of course, and there were some outrays, but it made it charming. All the credit goes to the company and the director for getting it all ready in 2 weeks. It’s a 5 hour drive from Chicago and I’m glad I was invited.

I had missed the headline, which read: “Two-Hit Wonders!”

Oh, that.

It’s a list I have shown up on fairly often recently, so I had almost gotten used to it. Of course, he’s right, and it’s demeaning — it makes me look as though somehow I managed to squeak out those two songs and then shuffle back to being a receptionist, which isn’t true.

A satisfyingly long and unsurprisingly well written piece by Suzanne Vega, deconstructing the making of Luka, reminded me of how much I loved her music. It’s great to see that she’s a regular NYT blogger, and I will follow her writing closely.

Like the hundreds of commenters on that post, I disagree that she is a two-hit wonder. She isn’t even a three-, four- or five-hit wonder in my books. Yes, Luka and Tom’s Diner dominate; but there’s Solitude Standing, Left of Center, Small Blue Thing, Marlene on the Wall, Undertow, 99.9F and many others. I remember watching her in concert, a long blue coat, small and thin, a quiet voice that sang deep songs. She’s one of the influences for my teenaged self that inspired that teenaged self to write poetry. Imagine.

Death Cab for Cutie’s new single, from their album Narrow Stairs. Very rare to come across a single that is over 8 minutes long. Fantastic intro. Even before Ben Gibbard starts singing, the girl in the video has been around the world already.

You gotta spend some time, love
You gotta spend some time with me
I know that you’ll find, love
I will possess your heart

I have no idea how much time I’ve spent waiting for mm. So when we were trying to arrange to meet after her church, I left plenty of time. She said 12.30pm, so I said 12.45pm, knowing that it means her 12.40pm at the earliest.

But by a strange type of luck: a) she was done early and b) I left my cellphone at home. So she got there really early and got tickets. I got there my usual 15 mins early and I got tickets.

Oooooooops.

With some persistence we were able to exchange the tickets for Price of Caspian in a couple of weeks’ time. Phew.

We were at the cinema to see Ironman. It was awesome. All that gadgetry … drool. But accomplished dramatic actors as Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges brought sensitivity and acting — who would have thought the 3 of them in a blockbuster superhero film. The CGI was flawless, there was enough story to add to the action, and so what if some of the technology was too fantastic? It’s a superhero film!

Definitely comparable to Transformers.

I spent most of the day reading quietly. For some reason, I’m reminded of something I find on kottke before my trip. Here’s sad kermit singing Needle in the Hay. He does Creep and Johnny Cash’s Hurt too.

I see it all the time, even though I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. It’s always intrigued me, and apparently other people have been wondering too. It seems that it’s called Rolex: A Crown for Every Achievement and is attributed to a Brit by the name of Vince Pope.

What is it? The music for the Rolex commercials. It’s classical, strong, and encouraging. There’s not a lot of online information, surprisingly. But some enterprising people have made compilations. Nice.

It’s official, the X-files 2 movie will be called X-files: I Want to Believe. Chris Carter said, “It’s a natural title.”

It won’t deal too much into the mythology, but rather will be an earthbound standalone story aimed at both die-hard fans and newcomers. Chris Carter has a good point:

“It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don’t know the show or haven’t seen it. If you’re 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you or your parents wouldn’t let you watch it. So there’s a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone.”

I don’t know about other fans, but my first reaction was that if they wanted to use a familiar phrase, they really should have used The Truth is Out There, unless they wanted to save it for film #3. That said, I don’t give a damn what they call it, 10 years is a long time to wait for the second film and July can’t come quickly enough for me. There are so many unresolved issues, like the baby, like what happened at the end of Fight the Future, the baby, and most importantly:

Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty? asks the New York Times Magazine this week as they cover the work of Jan Chipchase, an anthropologist-designer working for Nokia whose job is to live and understand how cellphones means for people in Tibet, Uganda, Ecuador etc — in other words the other 4 billion people on earth who don’t have access to a mobile network.

Yes, ultimately the likes of Nokia and Motorola are there to make money but what strikes me as inspiring is that they are making an effort to learn about unique local needs in the developing world. These are potential customers for whom a cellphone isn’t just another gadget or device .

Something that’s mostly a convenience booster for those of us with a full complement of technology at our disposal — land-lines, Internet connections, TVs, cars — can be a life-saver to someone with fewer ways to access information. A just in time moment afforded by a cellphone looks a lot different to a mother in Uganda who needs to carry a child with malaria three hours to visit the nearest doctor but who would like to know first whether that doctor is even in town. It looks different, too, to the rural Ugandan doctor who, faced with an emergency, is able to request information via text message from a hospital in Kampala.

Given resources and the right motivation, people are fantastically inventive. That’s why some humanitarians favour the bottom up approach to aid rather than top down — empower and encourage entrepreneurship rather than telling aid recipients to wait for money to filter down through bureaucracy or corrupt agencies. An example is what Grameen Phone Ltd in Bangledesh offers:

Women use microcredit to buy specially designed cellphone kits costing about $150, each equipped with a long-lasting battery. They then set up shop as their village phone operator, charging a small commission for people to make and receive calls

In the Philippines, pre-paid cards double as currency and gives an alternative way of sending money to far away relatives. Monks in Mongolia are unbelievably tech savvy. In India locals want cellphones to tell them about the weather because they have no access to TV or radio. In Ghana locals are given a chance to test some new Nokia designs:

“Hellllloooooo,” Chipchase said, smiling broadly.

“Helllllooooo, Brudda,” she said back in English.

“We work for Nokia. You know Nokia?”

The woman said nothing, but reached down and from the folds of her wrapper produced a Nokia phone. “Not good,” she said, shaking her head disparagingly. “You call. It switches off.”

Chipchase enlisted the interpreter to explain that her problem sounded like a network problem and not a Nokia problem. Shrugging, the woman went on to inspect the prototype phones, testing their weight in her palm, pressing them against her cheek, punching buttons. She pooh-poohed the stylus phone but said she liked the one-button model if it meant she didn’t need to use a lot of numbers. “Brudda, how do you charge it?” she asked. From his bag, Burns pulled another still-conceptual design, this one a thin metal cylinder with a whirlybird antenna on top. He showed the corn seller how to rotate the cylinder in small circles, causing the antenna to swing, which, he explained, in 15 minutes or so would generate enough power to charge her phone battery.

The woman picked up the futuristic gizmo and began to swing it; the antenna whipped around and around. She let out an enthusiastic whoop. Then a friend of hers who’d been sitting in the shadow of her umbrella started to laugh. Another woman, a spice seller perched on a stool next to small mountains of turmeric and cumin heaped on canvas cloths, began to laugh also. “Very nice,” the corn seller said to Burns and Chipchase, swinging the antenna like a toy. “It’s good!”

Spotted via kottke, an article I’d never have noticed except it was about something called the Lindsey Buckingham paradox. Heh. What is the LBP?

The Lindsey Buckingham Paradox is what happens when otherwise brilliant musicians decide they’re better than their bandmates (creative differences, natch), strike out on their own with solo “careers”, and somewhat curiously never again manage to grasp his or her own genius in the way we all know is possible.

Lindsey is a goddamned genius. He strives for constant musical evolution, always pushing the creative envelope, and is unto himself an origination point on the great conceptual flowchart of musical evolution in the last 40 years. But, solo? Mania. I mean, oh dear god, concept albums. He’s a one-man Plastic Ono Band, all by himself.

It is when Lindsey Buckingham’s lunatic genius is tempered by Stevie Nicks (and even Christine McVie) that the magic happens, because the whole of Fleetwood Mac is so much greater than the sum of its parts.

Among the top 10 artists who suffer from LBP are Glen Frey, Peter Cetera, Paul McCartney, and Sting. I think about Lindsey’s solo stuff and, yeah, there’s a BIG case for the existence of LBP. Just look at this…um, i don’t know how to describe it…video of Trouble.

The strangeness that is my mind. I saw the periodic table poster on thinkgeek and my first thought was: “I wonder if someone can make a steampunk version.” I guess it’s the greenish grey background.

I find it not an exact science to define steampunk. It’s science; it’s fantasy; it’s history; it’s animation; it’s an attitude and a mood. It’s Jules Verne and laputa and Firefly.

Just watch that video, the guy’s work is so intricate.

I cannot believe it’s taken me this long, have I been living under a rock or something? A Popstars phenomenon since 2003, their success can’t be attributed to simply being manufactured fake reality stars. Seventeen consecutive Top 10 singles in the UK can’t be scoffed at.

So anyway, I heard Call the Shots on the plane and thought, “hmm, very catchy.” I had to wait for a second cycle to catch the band’s name and I had to write it down on my bookmark. And that was my introduction to Girls Aloud.

The more I listen, the more I like them. Yes, they’re pure pop. Yes, they sell glamour. Yes, I can’t tell the girls apart. So what? Like my first impression, they have catchy songs and that’s enough nowadays. I went out and bought Tangled Up and I’m enjoying it. It appeals to the part of me looking for instant gratification, ice cream and something different from the broody music I’m usually drawn to. The appeal of girls aloud is loud and clear.

He’s been around since the 1980s, so it hardly qualifies as new. But I’ve never truly gotten into Nine Inch Nails, or more precisely Trent Reznor. I find the music a little too electronic, a little too industrial, for my taste even though peripherally I know I need to explore the music more.

I was glad to be given an excuse when Ghosts I-IV was released. Definitely setting a great example of how the way music should be distributed in this day and age, the album is available in a variety of formats and prices. Tracks 1-9 are available for free download; the whole album for $5; a double CD for $10; a special edition for $75 and an ultra deluxe limited edition for $300. Needless to say, and as an affront to the RIAA, the $300 edition sold out quickly.

I was perfectly happy to pay $5 for the 36-track digital album and also happily found a review that included a little summary of each track. Very useful, especially for an instrumental album like this, where it’s easy to lose track (heh, no pun intended) of the tracks. One reviewer on amazon suggested listening to each section separately, but listening closely for the first few times then letting it wash over me works better for me. I’m at the listen closely stage and liking the variety as well as the different mood that each piece strikes.

Another advantage of being in the US is access to the iTunes music store. Although I’m wary of purchasing anything from iTMS because of the fairplay DRM, I live in hope that in time it will fade away due to consumer demands.

I was glad to read about the free album offer at tunecore. Free download at iTMS of 34 songs, definitely a good bargain. It was very easy, just click for a special code at tunecore and redeem it at iTMS. The offer is valid till September and includes music from the likes of the Dandy Warhols, Public Enemy as well as many more I’d never heard of. Good way of sampling new music.

One of the best things about being in the US is having access to Pandora again. In fact, I deliberately didn’t bring my external hard disk cos I knew I’ll have lots of music at my fingertips here. Yes, I know I can access pandora using other methods but it didn’t seem worth the trouble.

Anyway, first thing this morning after getting online is setting up a few new personal stations. I added one for the music from Once, let’s see what it brings me.

I found a Japanese kimono dolls origami kit at the bottom of a drawer. This must be at least 10 years old, the way they look so at home at the very bottom of the drawer.

So I thought I’d give it a go, knowing full well I’ll make a mess and it’ll look like crap. No shred of artistic creativity. Just as well that the instructions are illustrated cos I couldn’t make heads or tails of the Japanese. Also, very nice of them to enclose a sample. Took me forever to get it done, including looking for glue in my rarely opened stationery drawer.

The one on the left is my attempt; the one on the right is what it should look like.

One of my 101.1001 tasks is to learn flash. I guess it’s like photoshop and illustrator, the basics are straightforward to learn, once you grasp the toolbar system and understand the concept of layers and timeline. But with such a complex program, to get any good takes a long time.

So I followed an informative video that shows how to create a simple animation with falling text effects in flash. It was fun.

Over on the main site there are drawings and crafts that are so creative. So just to reinforce my knowledge that I have not a single artistic cell, here’s my attempt at art. This was created, not very creatively, at online sketchpad.

So yeah, we’ve been a little ebook crazy lately. And I finally bought ebook studio for $26.95 (I found a 10% discount code). It’s dead easy to use, it can read txt, rtf, html — the more stripped down text formats and conversion to pdb takes one minute. Of course, to add more features like images, page breaks, table of contents will take longer but the basic action takes a minute.

So for my thing-a-day today I made a video of me converting lamplight to ereader format to show: a) I made an ebook and b) it really only takes a minute.

What do balls, paint, bunnies and ribbons have in common? Ingredients for a kid’s party for sure. Miscellaneous items found in a garage too. But there is a sequence to these — these are the themes for a series of Sony Bravia commercials. I usually skip ads on TV but I’ve taken to watching it whenever it comes on.

This is the 4th in a series of colourful and creative Bravia ads, all are worth spending a few minutes watching, for no better reason that they were all filmed “real”:

• balls (2005) — 250,000 brightly coloured rubber balls bounced down real San Francisco streets
• paint (2006) — 70,000 litres of paint, 1,700 explosions, one Glasgow council estate
• bunnies (2007) — or sometimes called play doh this featured claymation rabbits, cubes and shapes given free rein of the streets of New York
• pyramid (2008) — the Great Pyramid in Egypt is covered with ribbons

Good stuff. As the guardian said:

Simple, catchy, different, endearing, brilliant

When I read about layer tennis I thought: “okay, it’s a bunch of designer-bloggers doing their small clique thing again, to show off to the general public why they are so cool and why other uncool people can’t get into their club.”

Well okay that was a little harsh. The idea of layer tennis is that at a pre-determined time (usually 2pm Central time on a Friday), two contestants

swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley”

The file is published to online viewers and a third person provides commentary. Most matches are played in photoshop but there’ve been matches played in after-effects, flash and illustrator. It’s really a test of visual design skills in a short period of time rather than how well they know how to use photoshop filters.

There’s been 15 sessions so far, this weekend’s featured two simultaneous matches and it was touted as a “finale” so I’m not sure if it’s the last scheduled or what.

Do I understand it? Yes I do. And I’m pretty impressed with the creativity and ideas. This is from one of my favourites, between Veerle Pieters and Cindy Li on 11=Jan-08.

It was also interesting to read the participants’ thoughts on the match: Veerle Pieters | Cindy Li. Of course there was a large dose of inside jokes, as they know each other. Not a huge amount of technique commentary, mostly thoughts of how they arrived at each volley. Seemed like fun was had by all.

Ever since the kindle came out I’d been having on and off thoughts about getting an ebook reader. I’m still not sure about the kindle. I’m with Philippe Starck, it is a little sad. No, it’s actually pretty ugly, expensive and the wireless all but useless for me. I wonder why ebook reader designers insist on using a one page portrait orientation. I’d prefer a device that shows 2 pages on a screen, landscape — like an actual book.

But ebooks aren’t just for handheld devices. ebook software has existed for a long time, and I can’t believe it took me this long to download ereader. I have the free version now, but the pro version is only $5, which is…nothing.

Car did all the research, cos she’s the one who likes reading on the screen. There are so many places to download ebooks, one of the early favourites is manybooks with they claim almost 20,000 titles, mostly from project gutenberg. The books come in all sorts of formats including: kindle, palm, iPhone, pdf, even newton. Most of the titles are public domain classics and with so many available, it’ll be a long time before anyone is tired of their selection. Here’s how Pride and Prejudice looks on my screen.

For fanfic closer to home, there’s pdafiction, and Susan has converted a number of stories on the muse to ebook format — it was weird downloading my own stuff. Hee.

Ease of reading is very high. I can choose one page, two-pages and full screen. There’s a range of backgrounds, fonts and sizes — these may be pro only features but like I said, $5 is a doddle. I can pageup or down using my arrows. There’s also links, annotations and a dictionary. No complaints here. For $29.95 I can get ereader studio which allows me to create ebooks. Oh boy, I can see days and days of fun.

I just finished watching the final of TAR12. It was very exciting, and for once it was 3 likeable teams. Most of the comments on twop from last week’s ep was how no one minded who won, because in their ways they all deserved it.

I was mad, because there was a tiny header in the NYT which spoiled it for me about who finally won. Sigh. That was the first time I was spoiled. (Apart from catching up on TAR1 and 2 a few seasons after they aired.) In any case, I enjoyed it. And that’s why TAR is my favourite reality program…favourite program in all classes actually.

It’s a family tradition, that we all go to the yacht club to enjoy mulled wine and minced pies, then watch the choir sing the christmas carols before sitting down for christmas eve buffet. This year sis invited her friends Win, Po and their son Josh. I had something like 4 glasses of mulled wine but only a few bites of the minced pies. Mum put probably 20 of them in a ziploc bag for home.

I do enjoy Christmas Carols very much. I don’t broadcast this all over the place but deep down I’m a fairly religious person and I like the meaning that carols bring. Ignoring how commercialised Christmas is, step back and think about the origins of the day, and listen to the words in the hymns. I’m not so keen on the overly jovial ones like Joy to the World or Jingle Bells. My favourites are Once in Royal David’s City and Silent Night sung very slowly. This year, I have O Holy Night on my mind pretty constantly the last couple of days. I mean, how can anyone not be moved by the chorus.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born

There are literally dozens of versions available online. I’ve listened to pop stars and opera singers on youtube but this one is absolutely stunning! Michael Crawford with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Don’t let this Christmas pass without listening to this at least once.

I have a soft spot for charming, off-beat, Sundance-type of films. Sideways, What’s Cooking, Before Sunrise (but not Before Sunset), Oldboy, an obscure French film called Nanou, and I’ll admit it…Reality Bites are ones that I remember long after I’ve seen them.

I watched Once on the plane. It won the World Cinema Audience Award at this year’s Sundance. And well deserved, it was absolutely charming and wonderful. A simple story — an Irish busker meets immigrant woman and they find music, friendship and love. There’s a lot of chemistry between the 2 leads, who are more musicians than actors; and for a short film the character development was fantastic. A sign of quirkiness is that the characters were never named, just going by “Guy” and “Girl”; it also has the type of ending I enjoy.

The film starts with a man and a guitar. My first thought was, it’s another Chance! No offense to Amber Benson, but this is what Chance tried, but couldn’t quite get to be. Conceived by director John Carney as a “video album” much of the film was just the leads singing some songs. And what songs! Wow. A commenter wrote on the Time Out London review wrote:

The kind of film which overwhelms me in its breathless scope. Genuine, big hearted, generous. It touches at our romantic notions if we have them. I wanted them to be together. I wanted to listen to the songs over and over again with my own sense of resonance with my own meaning in perception of it. I felt emotional but I didn’t cry, I just recognised my own experience of life through this film.

The official website streams the songs endlessly and I’ve been listening to them all night. There’s an official soundtrack but Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová also recorded a cd of songs called The Swell Season — some of the songs are on the film, some are not.

I shouldn’t put 2 videos in one post but I simply have to. This next one is of Glen and Markéta performing “If You Want me” my favourite song from the film. I actually rewound a couple of times when i was watching to listen to it again.

ETA: some stats. The film cost $160,000 and has grossed over $14million worldwide as of 6-Dec-07. The soundtrack was #1 on the iTunes soundtrack chart. There’s low level Oscar buzz too.

it was with great sadness that I read that Karlheinz Stockhausen has died. I don’t know his works that well, finding some of it in the Very Weird and Needing to be in A Special Mood to Listen category.

I was in a weird mood tonight so I thought it may be a good opportunity to try the new Deutsche Grammophon online store, with its giant catalogue of DRM-free, 320kbps mp3s, including its vast store of out-of-print albums. Alas, the only offering was a mixed CD containing one Stockhausen piece sandwiched between two by György Kurtág.

Lucky enough, he has his own website and an impressive collection of mp3s and videos. This youtube video is of Kontakte, written in the 1950s.

The third new book from yesterday’s big book order is a nice story about government, the President of the USA, a writer and 3 kids. It’s also set in year 2020-ish. Looking at the publication date, first published in 2001 which means probably written during 2000 or earlier.

Though a well-written story that flows easily and with likeable characters, I can’t help but smirk at some of the “advanced” technologies that we thought in 2000 would be in place in 2020.

1. voice activated computer and media systems with voice authentication, as in “Computer, start playback on disk, code 123456” where you had to use your activation code Every.Single.Time you issue a command — um newsflash, voice activation is a hassle and stupid; and needing to speak a code as security is worse than no security
2. taking pictures on a film camera — i mean, who uses film anymore?
3. paper newspapers — I won’t be surprised that by 2020 paper versions of newspapers and magazines would be overtaken by electronic versions
4. people using the phone to contact each other albeit with holographic images, no mention of IM, sms or anything using the web

I’m not deriding the book, in fact the tech part is small and only incidental to the story. I’m just kinda amazed at how quickly technology has advanced and how writers have to think very far ahead when writing a contemporary story set in the future. There were hardly any blogs in 2000 and certainly no facebook or skype. Again, amazing.

The big 15-book order I placed using the voucher Sis gave me for my birthday arrived yesterday. I was so excited when I opened the box, it’s been more than 4 weeks since I put the order in. I didn’t have to go out today cos of timing and miscommunication with mm (nothing bad, just confusion about times) so I stayed in and read like crazy. I finished the book I’d been reading before, read one of the new ones and am almost done with a second one. I’m likely to start a third new book tonight. It’s wonderful.

It’s strange, some time during the last year or so I picked up reading books again. I’m now reading less intense, and not generally fantasy books, but they are enjoyable nontheless. Add to it following 70+ feeds and writing here on the website, I’m doing more reading than anything else. Including writing. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, I guess it’s good.

There’s been a fair bit of attention on amazon’s kindle lately. At first I skimmed past all the articles but today I sat down and read a few of them. First impressions? Very mixed reception and boy, is it ugly. Conclusion? No thank you.

I’ve never considered using an ebook reader at all, although I can see the benefits especially when travelling, or for students who are carrying around too many heavy textbooks already. The demo video on the product page sure is enticing, and it tempted the gadget-geek in me for, oh, about a second.

why I might buy it

1. it can store hundreds of books in one book-sized package — saves lugging lots of books around


2. as of launch, almost 90,000 titles available from amazon at a lower price than paper books


3. amazon name, especially the book selection


4. eliminates expensive shipment fees


5. built-in wireless means instant shopping gratification


6. subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and blogs


7. dictionary and wikipedia

why I won’t buy it

1. oh lordy, is it ugly or what


2. $400 for the reader alone — there’s comparison with iPod pricing, but thing is … music requires a widget, be it walkman, boombox or iPod but books don’t need no hardware, dude


3. monopolistic — it can only read the proprietary amazon format, cannot load other formats, no connection between the book on my shelf and the ebook


4. DRM — who’s ever heard of DRM-ing books? Once bought, it’s mine and i should be free to do as I please with it, including sharing with my friends


5. although cheaper than paper books, $9.99 for best sellers is expensive — the publishers don’t seem to be passing along the vast amount of savings from not needing to physically publish and distribute books


6. charging consumers for books in the public domain doesn’t seem right


7. charging consumers for stuff they can otherwise get free is ridiculous — $0.99 per blog per month? Kidding?


8. omg, black & white screen?


9. what is the keyboard doing there? why isn’t it a slide-out panel?


10. the so-called built-in wireless uses EVDO, which for those of us who live in non-caveman networkland is something unknown — apparently it’s a CDMA (omg!!!) based cellular wireless network that is provided by Sprint. In other words it’s completely and utterly useless outside the US


11. I said ugly already, right?

I want to like this device. I’ve not thought of using an ebook reader but I’m intrigued. I read enough books to want something small that can hold more — I took 6 books with me on my 2 week trip, imagine the convenience with a kindle. I can imagine the convenience of having loads of travel guides when I’m on holiday.

Many people, including the newsweek cover story likened the kindle to the early iPod. Not apples to apples, I’m afraid. Yes even though the analogy is there, there is one HUGE difference — the consumer can happily use and enjoy the iPod without ever going near iTMS. I mean, I like amazon and order a hell of a lot of books from them so it’s not a huge problem that the content is tied to the hardware. But it’s too closed. What if a book I want isn’t on amazon but is available from say a niche publisher? So my choice is limited, isn’t it?

The iPod sold us something we never thought we needed before, but can’t live without after. There’s no such buzz with the kindle, for me it’s meh at best. It’s a great idea, and I hope amazon will continue to improve the product. Until then, I’ll stick with traditional books.

And really, they have to do something about the dismal design.

Ever since Pandora fell under the wrath of money-grabbing selfish music industry dictators, I’ve been missing it. I still have it on my toolbar, in case they make a triumphant return one day.

Not as sleek-looking but there’s now hope. lifehacker calls it Pandora on steroids — formerly known blogmusik.net, deezer is an awesome way of listening to music online. It lets users search for songs, create playlists and randomly stream songs. Though it’s still a little raw — it may not have all the songs one would typically search for, songs in an album aren’t listed in order and the stream is sometimes broken — but these are small things.

With a smart playlist, it will play similar songs the way pandora used to. I haven’t tried it yet — that feature requires registration and I haven’t gotten round registering. Still, the features for a non-registered user are nice enough. I listened to a few albums today.

There are discussions in the lifehacker comment thread, about saving the streamed mp3s. Turns out that the streamed versions are only 32kpbs, okay for streaming but not worth keeping. They seem to have worked out a way of pacifying the music industry, which is a good thing. I do still miss pandora, the recommendations were great and I like how the player popped into a smaller window.

This is Not Pretty Enough by Kasey Chambers.

Am I not pretty enough
Is my heart too broken
Do I cry too much
Am I too outspoken
Don’t I make you laugh
Should I try it harder
Why do you see right through me

Sigh.

Staying with the music theme, here are some of my recent purchases.

The Invitation — Thirteen Senses
Contact — Thirteen Senses
If You’ve Never Been — Embrace
This New Day — Embrace
Out of Nothing — Embrace
Tin Lily — Jeff Black
Love Travels at Illegal Speeds — Graham Coxon
Another Fine Day — Golden Smog
Blood on the Slacks — Golden Smog
From the Decker House — The Rosewood Thieves
Feeling the Fall — The Village Green

I was also listening to videos of Death Cab for Cutie on youtube. Further surfing led me to barsuk records and a very generous collection of free mp3s of their musicians.

Yes I’m a britpop and britpop-influence junkie. My iTunes library is full of Coldplay, Keane, Travis, Starsailor and the like. Here’s my newest discovery, Thirteen Senses from Penzance. Their song Into the Fire was featured on both Grey’s Anatomy and the 4400. This one’s called Do No Wrong and it’s really really good.

Do No Wrong

Satellites contain us
Traffic lights control us
Rockets shoot us up into the stars
Rockets shoot us up into the stars

Letters keep us posted
Numbers calculated
Nothing picks us up when we are down
Nothing picks us up when we are down

Complement the atmosphere
Fill the ground with all our tears
Dry them up to make it clear
Do no wrong
Complement the atmosphere
Fill the ground with all our tears
Dry them up to make it clear
Do no wrong

Strange surrounds each corner
Stains pollute the water
Something for us all to think about
Something for us all to think about

Summer sun protects us
Winter rain affects us
Now it seems to me we can’t be free
Now it seems to me we can’t be free

Close the door before it’s late
We were born to love and hate
Turn it down for our own sake
Do no wrong
You fill your ears with every note
Direction seems the only hope
Its crowded lets create now
Do no wrong

Common sense protect us
Everything affects us
To the outside light its paradise
To the outside light its paradise

We went to see Transformers mainly at my behest. I kinda wanted to see a film and there weren’t so many choices. I’ve heard of Transformers as toys and a cartoon when I was young, but I was never into it. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of Japanese giant robot cartoons, but I didn’t obsessively follow them, nor found them memorable.

When the film started and the military base was being attacked, mm was scared and I was afraid she wouldn’t like the film.

Then the action got bigger, and everything got bigger. (Come on, it’s a Michael Bay film after all.) I was flabbergasted at the CGI effects — so seamless, to make the solid mechanical transformers move so fluidly. Wow, ILM really did their stuff. mm was getting into it too, so that was a relief.

We thought it was a very enjoyable film, one of the best we’d seen in a while. Yes the dialogue was clichéd and exposition-like at times; some of the human characters were extraneous and parts of the film were plain corny. But it’s not high drama — it’s a action film that’s based on toys! The main characters are the robots, there isn’t supposed to be a great human story there.

Like one of the critics said on rotten tomatoes: “there is so much action packed into every second of Transformers that by the time it’s over, you may be tempted to go outside and give the box office another 10 bucks.”

Found via mefi and totally dugg, a great sequence of movie scenes and quotes, counting down from 100 to 1.

And the maker very nicely gave us the answers too.

Lifehacker reports on some fantastic people who lists possible methods of accessing pandora from outside the US. I haven’t tried them all, but the most obvious public cgi loads, but is slow. Kudos for them for trying to help.

Warning: If you haven’t watched the TAR final, don’t read.

So, probably the most meh non-team ever wins TAR. Not the most unsatisfactory, because the despicable Mirna could have won and I would not want to hear her talk about “overcoming prejudices” and preaching about stuff (oh wait, she did that too). When the race started I wanted JVJ or Romber, but by the beginning of the finale I found myself rooting for the BQs. The tasks were interesting, the kayak looked very tough and they had helicopters overhead watching all the time. The know-your-partner task was better than a lot of physical or eating tasks we’ve had in the past.

Still, in all the TARs I’ve watched (and I’ve followed it live since TAR3, and watched the old ones on repeat) this ranks at the top 3 of sucky finishes. TAR:FE is still way out there in #1.

Finally I watched a couple of episodes of the Catherine Tate Show. It’s a series of sketches with recurring characters and themes, like the foul-mouthed granny Nan Taylor and her best known character Lauren “I ain’t bovvered” Cooper. Lots of Lauren videos on youtube, including the one with Tony Blair. Gets a bit formulaic after watching a few of them in one go, but still funny. I like this one with David Tennant best.

Talking about Pandora, the day after I decide to listen to it more, it will no longer be available to non-US users because of some crap-ass licensing issue. It was always intended for US users only but they were okay about users supplying any zip code.

Pandora operates under Section 114 of the DMCA, which gives them a clear process for paying rights holders in the U.S. There is no international equivalent of the DMCA, and so to operate legally in other countries, Pandora must sign deals with rights holders directly. That means separate deals with labels and publishers for each song, an extremely difficult and time consuming task.

You really gotta hand it to the music industry don’t you. They’re gonna kill their own industry all by themselves. If it weren’t for Pandora, I wouldn’t have discovered Brookville, Ivy and a whole slew of artists. And today I went to HMV looking for The Village Green! (Didn’t find them, I’ll probably order from amazon.) How are less well known musicians going to have this sort of exposure? Pandora is easy to use, has great recommendations and is not intrusive. And now they’ll lose a large chunk of their users because they live in the wrong part of the world. The world, and especially the internet world, is global nowadays, when will greedy businesses ever catch on to that?