28.8.05
on the iPod
If you like
Nouvelle Vague - early 80's New Wave, Bossa Nova, and French cinema, and I do, this album has got it all rolled into one. Well, maybe not cinema per se, but very much the existential brooding attitude of nouvelle vague. Take a selection of 14 songs - a lot from old favorites like Depeche Mode's
I Just Can't Get Enough and The Cure's
A Forest (my favorite rendition, but of course) and The Clash's
Guns of Brixton, throw some bossa nova beats, acoustic guitars, smokey, smoldering female jazz club/lounge voices and it makes for a peculiar but brilliant mix of everything fantastically 80's and modern day. Love, love it!
25.8.05
short of tearing my hair out
I've finally whittled my
story down - the hardest part is deciding what stays and what goes. But it's the nice part of the writing challenge - to make a tighter, better story within a certain number of words.
Other things that make me want to tear my hair out this week: misbehaving child - I've been having to deal with a defiant, opinionated little boy all week. What's that you say? Me opinionated, defiant? Never!
Dylan started school, or daycare more appropriately, last week. He now recognizes that weekends are GOOD and school is, well, certainly not the weekend. Some days he leaves with promises of being a good child, others, with a scream. Ah well. That's how it will be for the next, oh, until he goes to college I guess. I'm not satisfied with the school's program - supposedly they do a lot of activities and worksheets - which, surprise, surprise Dylan would much rather scribble on. But I'm getting the feeling that they don't do much short of "Nothing" and "I watched TV" all day. I hear there's a Montessori that costs almost the same with a much better program and lots of museum field trips. On the otherhand, a couple of things
we've learned: Dylan doesn't think names are important and school lunches are a thinly disguised ploy for corporate America to take over the world, again. But that's another story.
18.8.05
happy birthday
After all this excitement, I want to wish my
Beloved Husband who is almost 3000 miles away tonight, a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you and all, but I really think it's time to update the blog don't you?!
full moon
Since
Nikki's mentioned that her story has been accepted and we've been doing mental happy dances, I guess it's O.K. for me to now say how appropriate that the moon was near to full when I found out that the story I submitted would also be included in
Dean Alfar's Filipino Speculative Fiction Anthology to be published at the end of this year. I spent a couple of sleepless nights trying to find a way to end the story as that has always been my biggest problem - coming to a close and to quit constantly re-reading and obsessing about everything else that comes before the ending. It really gets in the way of ever finishing a story, let me tell you. I'm eager to see the Anthology and to read the other stories that made the cut.
17.8.05
i'm over the moon
with joy - jumping up and down right now!
14.8.05
Beautifully phtographed,
March of the Penguins is equally a beautiful story about perseverance, dedication, and love. It's a story that a lot of humans could learn from about raising their own young - the test of will and physical strength, the difficulty under the most adverse conditions and eventually the triumph of bringing to life and keeping alive, a single chick. Morgan Freeman's soothing voice adds to the expansive vistas, the struggle through sub-freezing temperatures, and the beauty of creatures that come together in a time of hardship. A pleasing soundtrack rounds out this wonderful production that is more story than scientific facts. I only wonder how the cameras kept rolling and the crew survived the temperatures that dipped to -100°C. I can barely survive a few hours of snowboarding in fair winter weather without my toes going numb even in woollen socks and winter boots. This is one of those stories that make you complain less about the trifles in life and more resilient as you are reminded what creatures are capable of achieving despite the odds.
8.8.05
sugar water festival
Jill Scott can set the soul on fire! The Sugar Water Fesitval is a colletive of women's voices that can bring any house down. I could have watched all four hours of Jill Scott, but we got a taste of
Floetry too, who only had a short run - they didn't even get a chance to do the songs I wanted to hear from them.
Queen Latifah was up next, engaging the crowd. Although I don't listen to the Queen, she can interact with the crowd and rile them up. She's got the voice and if she wants to, can really sing the blues, mama! Then Jill Scott came on, ah, the voice is unreal. Yet there we were, listening to her live and it is better than what you hear on a recorded CD.
Erykah Badu closed out the show, channeling Billie Holiday. I was glad to hear more songs from
Baduizm rather than the later albums. All they needed was
Angie Stone, and when we spotted a dead ringer in the audience, we wanted to tell her to bring it up on the stage. I wish I'd brought my proper camera because the cell phone could barely capture Jill and Erykah there even though I was only 3 rows back from the stage, elbowing with other snappers. I'd see them again next year if Angie Stone tours with them. Oooooweeee, what a show, what a show!
1.8.05
good reading
Thanks to
Nikki's post and
Zarah's numerous suggestions, Dylan and I have been able to settle down to a few good books. There's unbelievably awful stuff mixed in with the good at the young people's section, and sometimes it just gets bloody trying to find the good stuff. I do the search largely because I'm the one who has to do the reading, and I just can't do it if a book is terrible. Nice pictures help too. I don't require a lesson or moral, though it's quite useful, I just need a stretch of imagination, a dose of creativity, and a good story wouldn't hurt too much. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently, these days.
While other moms are busy buying
The English Roses or
Mr. Peabody's Apples (books have to be celebrity too?!), I just wonder what happened to all the wonderful kinds of books that I used to find in bookshops when I was a kid - you know, the ones with amazing stories and unforgettable characters? Still there I'm sure, but getting harder to get to as you push aside the other books posing as children's stories. Everybody seems to think writing for children is easy. It's probably why the good books are few and far between the other shelf fillers.
