Archive for November, 2008

iPod Meme II

Be honest.  Don’t make up answers to make yourself sound “in” or super-smart.  Just put your itunes on shuffle and push next to answer the questions…

I’ve done one of these before, but not this one.

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
horse pills – dandy warhols
(I’m guessing: “bull-shit.”)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Ghost Story – Sting

(hmm…a song of cliches, but it’s a really pretty song, plus…STING)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Bella’s Lullaby – Twilight Soundrack

(I think this means I want a hot vampire lover?)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Nice Overalls - Lustre
(um…okay)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Amazing – Aerosmith
(kept the right ones out…let the wrong ones in…it’s amazing, with the blink of any eye, you finally see the light.  That’s right-i’ll be alright.  And, yes, Aerosmith ROCKS.  Cause he says a prayer for desperate hearts.)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
What it Takes – Aerosmith

(some shuffle, kind of depressing…tell me what it takes to let you go…yet, strangely accurate)

 

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
The Prettiest Thing - Norah Jones

(aw, stop, I’m blushing…)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
I Grieve – Peter Gabriel
(Depressing…)

WHAT IS 2+2?
Every Word is a Knife – The Bravery
(Apparently, it is bullshit.  There’s a theme here.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Black & White – Sarah McLachlan
(hmmm.  Well, I have multiple best friends foi, elle, sunshine, yalayla…not sure what this means, but I do love you :) even though I don’t know who I am.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Mary Jane – Alanis Morrissette
(Well, that would be a sad thing to think of mcsweetie.)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Sweet Soul Sister – The Cult

(yeah, okay, I could live with this one)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
What Am I To You – Norah Jones
(I’m going to say this means I want to love and be loved.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? (didn’t we already do this question?)
The River – Garth Brooks
(Much more appropriate since he’s a super cool dude working on his PhD in a social services field.  He is a good person.)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHEN THEY SEE YOU?
Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
(LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Does this mean they wish I’d breakaway from home??  Actually, it’s kind of sweet.  I translate as it means they think I’m special.  And that’s true and not in short bus way either.  Much.)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Strawberry Fields Forever – Ben Harper (cover–obviously)
(hmm…so will I be lovely and high at my wedding?)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
wish i could – Norah Jones

(lots of Norah on this particular meme.  anyway, kind of sweet)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Mama, You Got a Daughter – John Lee Hooker
(Um.  No.)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Detachable Penis – King Missile
(first, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  second, um no.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Buffy’s Main Title Theme – Radio Sunnydale 

(this means you are all rockstars who would look good in leather and can kick a lot of ass.  go you.)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Rock the Shack – New Order
(I didn’t do it.  I DIDN’T.)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Broken – Norah Jones
(More Norah.  Also, how very Shakespearean tragedy.)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Without You – Ultimate Air Supply
(Pushing people away. So true.)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Walk the Walk – Poe
(This song jsut makes me all chick-rock militant and wanna dance.)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
falling in love (is hard on the knees) – aerosmith
(LOL!)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Unwanted – Avril Lavigne
(I guess not?)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?

solsbury hill - peter gabriel 

(apparently death.)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Hoodoo – Muse
(apparently, someone does.  that’s special)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
May This Be Love – Jimi Hendrix
(There would have been better fashion at Woodstock.)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Jesu-Joy of Man’s Desiring – Josh Groban and some chick
(My faith or lack thereof.  Yeah, that’s pretty good.  Can’t make myself believe in some things though.)

 

Antsy…Fidgety…

=me.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  I have the sickening feeling in my stomach and legs like I need to get up and move.  It’s like that restless legs sydrome only it starts in my stomach and works it’s way down to my legs.  Work is annoying me.  The websites I normally visit aren’t holding my interest today.  My shoes keep falling off.  I feel weird.  Very strange.

Last Man Standing

I’m always just a little bit-okay, a lot-behind the times.  Yesterday I went to Lone Star Comics to pick up my subscriptions.  Like always, I also picked up the first in a series of a comic I have never read before.  This time it was Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man. 

250px-y_-_the_last_man_23_-_widow27s_pass_03_-_00_-_fc1

I felt safe enough buying the first in hardback.  For starters BKV is the creator of Runaways, a really terrific comic about a group of teenagers who find out their parents are part of a super-eevil villian crime syndicate.  Plus he wrote the best, so far, of the mini Buffy season 8 arcs, featuring Faith (No Future For You).  All my BKV experiences thus far have been positive.  He’s a great writer-imaginitive, witty, and can create truly extraordinarily compelling characters and storylines.  In Y: The Last Man, a sudden plague instantly wipes out every single male human and animal, save for Yorick Brown, so named by his drama teacher father, and his pet monkey, Ampersand.  There’s something immediately eye-rolling about a dude who’s the last dude on earth.  Oh the possibilities for getting laid frequently and by as many different women as possible.  It’s like a 15 year-old boy’s wet-dream.  But that isn’t the direction BKV takes the story.  Yorick is in love, deeply so, with Beth, who is far away on an entirely different continent.  The newly appointed POTUS assigns a secret service agent to Yorick and sends them on a mission to find a genetics doctor who has expiremented with cloning.  Meanwhile Yorick has his own mission to find the woman he loves.  All this is hampered by a group of extremist militants calling themselves Amazons, who believe the eradication of men was divine and are only too happy to finish the job in Yorick.  It’s an intense ride, dark, richly imagined, and even comic.  It’s that perfect blend of pathos and humor that I find so provocative in other writers like Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson. I highly recommend this story.  I must log off now in order to set up the direct deposit to Lone Star Comics….

Book Review: Harry, A History

 

In Harry, A History, author Melissa Anelli recounts her experience in the Harry Potter fandom.  I’m a Harry Potter fan, too, but Melissa’s book is a lot more interesting than mine would be, owing to her sheer proximity to the PTB in the Potter-verse all the way to the grand-poobah herself, JK Rowling-rhymes-with-bowling.  The text is littered with details from Anelli’s eight hour/two day interview with JKR, and for the dedicated Potter fan is, alone, worth the price of admission.  Any Potter fan would be thrilled over the extra content-the commentary straight from JKR, the wonderfully enthusiastic fan-like descriptions of Anelli’s visit to the Prisoner of Azkaban film set.  (“Where’s the section in Honeyduke’s with the blood lollipops?  It’s supposed to be right here!…The velvet poufs!…they’re velvet and poufy!”), the insightful reporting on the interview with anti-HP activist, Laura Mallory, the insider’s look at the Wizard Rock phenomenon, what it’s like receiving a phone call from JKR, and all while running The Leaky Cauldron while working full-time as a journalist.  No doubt about it-the extras are awesome.  But they are not the heart of the book.

 

It seems every Potter fan I’ve ever met has a story about how the Harry Potter books helped them in some way.  For Anelli, the biggest moment was September 11, 2001, the day the twin towers fell.  Anelli had family who worked in one of the towers.  It was the HP community on the Internet that kept her centered-that kept her connected to the human race at a time when she desperately needed connection.  Anelli peppers the book with personal anecdotes that enhance rather detract from the story of the fandom.  I found myself remembering the first time I cracked open a Harry Potter book, shortly after a devastating life-altering event.  And here was this book that transported me to another world and for a little while I forgot my own.  When I turned the last page I felt stronger because Harry was strong.  I felt I could battle Dementors because Harry could.  (Plus, chocolate.)  Like Harry, Anelli was tenacious and persistent in the pursuit of her goals, and, again like Harry, she had true friends helping her on her journey.  This is what makes Harry, A History so compelling. Harry’s story is Melissa’s story, and at the end of the day, Melissa’s story is ours. 

My Philosophical Era

Your result for The Find Your Philosophical Era! Test…

The Modern

Congratulations! You are: a Modern!

(Keep in mind, by Modern, I mean the era which began around the 17th century and ended in the 20th century.)

Throughout the Modern era, philosophers and scientists were forced constantly to do battle with the forces of censorship, philosophical conservatism, and pure inertia.This was the age in which “innovation” was a bad word, and the Moderns were all about innovation. Despite all the opposition they faced, Modern philosophy is the most optimistic of any era. The Moderns seem really to have believed that, for instance, giving men freedom from kings and priests and tyrants will make men happier and better. Their goal was a political community based on reason. But while some Moderns concentrated on becoming more and more scientific, rational and civilized, others, such as Wordsworth and Rousseau, reacted against this trend by turning back to what they saw as the pure, uncorrupted truths of nature. However, the Romantic and the Scientific trends in Modernism are two sides of the same coin. The two are united in their disdain for the status quo and for social norms, and their search for more real, trustworthy truths upon which to build the new society they all dreamed of.

Some modern philosophers: Newton, Voltaire, Bacon, Hume, Rousseau, Hobbes, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, Darwin, J.S. Mill

Some modern artists: Da Vinci, Molière, Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Mozart, Cervantes, Swift

Typical modern art forms: opera, comic plays, portraiture, the concerto, the confessional memoir, descriptions of nature

Take The Find Your Philosophical Era! Test at HelloQuizzy

Like, chauceriangirls’ results, this should surprise no one.