Suggestions?
Jan. 10th, 2004 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_nepveuMeme time, from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pnh. Suggest to me:
- A movie.
- A book.
- A musical artist, song, or album.
- An LJ user not on my friends list.
- Something to do in the next two months.
(It would be helpful if you said why, too, at least for 1-3 and 5. (I can look at a user's journal on my own easily enough.))
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I fear you'll have seen/heard/read them all already. But I'll try.
Date: 2004-01-10 07:59 pm (UTC)A book.Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin, because it's what I think of as American magical realism. Or Candas Jane Dorsey's A Paradigm of Earth, because she's done something new with First Contact, and that's not easy.
A musical artist, song, or album. October Project, for sheer gorgeous lyrics, or Boiled in Lead, for exuberant energy and being mentioned in War For the Oaks.
An LJ user not on my friends list.
Something to do in the next two months. Come to Arisia or Lunacon. :)
Mer
Re: I fear you'll have seen/heard/read them all already.
Date: 2004-01-11 09:45 am (UTC)2. Taking my cue from WftO, you've read Bone Dance? I should reread it; it's been years.
3. BiL is lots of fun. For Bach, try this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000009SDY/qid=1073842363/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/102-6628635-7043348). Right now, I'm listening to Virgil Fox on the organ. See also #5. Really, it would help to know what sorts of music you tend to like.
4.
5. If you like "Yeti" (http://www.player.org/pub/flash/maurice.html), memorize it and see how fast you can sing it.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:04 pm (UTC)I don't really have much experience with classical music, but I'm willing to expand my horizons, so I will throw that into my Amazon cart. I mostly like pop/light alternative/rock stuff--Old 97s, John Hiatt, Barenaked Ladies, Del Amitri, the Wallflowers' _Breach_, to pull a few off the top of my head.
Forgot to say to
I don't have the album that "Yeti" is on. I have the more recent Flash Girls album, of which I like a few songs, but not enough to buy others, I'm afraid.
Re: I fear you'll have seen/heard/read them all already. But I'll try.
Date: 2004-01-11 06:57 pm (UTC)I've read _Winter's Tale_, pre-booklog. The beginning section is gorgeous and intoxicating, but it's really hard to keep momentum through its version of a plot. I'll put the Dorsey on my list of things to look for, though.
I've never heard of October Project. Amazon's sound samples are being weird, but I'll try again later. The reviews are certainly glowing.
Not only do I have albums by _Boiled in Lead_, I have what I suspect is the last copy of Cats Laughing's _Another Way to Travel_ to be sold before it went out of print. => Exuberant energy indeed.
Ack! Can I come to Boskone instead? Arisia is just a little too close to Boskone, and I have to be in Mass. the weekend after Arisia for two baby showers--just don't think I can manage it.
Re: I fear you'll have seen/heard/read them all already. But I'll try.
Date: 2004-01-11 07:07 pm (UTC)Of course you can come to Boskone, but I likely can't so my Ulterior Motive will be unfulfilled. Drat. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 08:16 pm (UTC)Mer
I fear they won't be to your taste. . .
Date: 2004-01-10 09:03 pm (UTC)1) Donnie Darko (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005V3Z4/qid=1073795884//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl74/104-0618650-2044755?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846). Cuz the Gyllenhals are hawt. But really because the movie is marvelous and surreal. Always manages to make me relate to the characters, even though I've seen it a million times, and several of the characters can be construed as stereotypes of the not-super-flattering type.
2) Kitchen (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671880187/qid=1073795986/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-0618650-2044755?v=glance&s=books). Banana Yoshimoto. One longer and one shorter novella. Both about characters dealing with death. Sort of magical realism (or is it surrealism?). Beautiful and touching and manages to avoid melodrama, which I appreciate. Not a whole lot of plot, so you may find it irritating.
3) 16 Horsepower (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009UW2G/qid=1073796842/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-0618650-2044755). Any of the albums, really. Sort of an Appalachian goth sound, but don't let that put you off. Lots of banjos and accordions and singing about God. Even leaning to atheist, I find it moving and applicable to me (and I have a horrible habit of assuming applicable to me is the same as universally applicable). Plus, they do a deadly cover of Dylan's "Nobody 'Cept You." Yum.
4) Hrm. This one's a bit harder. I'm going to go with
5) Spend a half-day (or whole one, if you're ambitious) in silence. No radio/tv/phone/talking. It's usually hard if you have lots of commitments, but I feel so much more centered after doing this. It's sort of like a mini-retreat, even if just done at home.
Re: I fear they won't be to your taste. . .
Date: 2004-01-11 07:12 pm (UTC)I love the summaries that you get on the digital cable guide.
I don't necessarily require plot in my books, though I admit that books about ordinary people doing ordinary things aren't exactly my cup of tea (hence all the genre reading). However, Sturgeon's Law applies everywhere and this looks promising--it'll go on the library list.
Sometime when I'm not all stuffed up, I will figure out why I can't get Amazon's sound samples to work. Their descriptions certainly sound like nothing else I've ever heard.
Well, actually--taking _O Brother Where Art Thou?_ as a starting point, in which direction do they move?
I'm throwing all the journal suggestions into a bookmarks folder for later reading at my leisure.
The silence thing is a really interesting suggestion, but it doesn't work that way for me, unfortunately--I end up losing words and having to fight to come back to being a social creature, it's isolating rather than centering. Occasionally I do need to go off and be by myself to recharge, but silence isn't an integral part of it, if that makes sense.
I've been really wanting to hibernate all this week, though, so it sounds appealing in that direction. =>
Thanks!
cable sometimes has fortuitous timing.
Date: 2004-01-11 07:55 pm (UTC)I think that I'm not super social to start with, and so I see silence as a retreat. Losing my words seems a good thing in the face of what often seems to be too many commitments. I'm off to hibernate now.
Have fun with all your suggestions.
Silence
Date: 2004-01-12 06:25 pm (UTC)This _is_ fun--thank you for suggesting!
no subject
Date: 2004-01-10 10:03 pm (UTC)2. This seems redundant, considering.
3. Lowell Libermann's Symphony No. 2. It's classical music composed by a living person, and it's not just good when compared to other 21st century music, it's good, period. It's neither harshly modern nor retro-Brahmsian -- it feels both current and classical.
4. I got nothing.
5. Go sledding. 'Cause, you know, it's winter and all, and a few decades from now, we won't have any snow, and won't you regret not taking the chance to sled when you could have?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:15 pm (UTC)2. Heh.
3. I know squat about classical, as I've said elsewhere in this thread, so this means not much to me. But it's on my list of things to attempt to get Amazon to play for me.
4. Okay.
5. I'll ask the neighbor kids if I can come over next time we have a big storm--they piled up their entire backyard's worth of snow into one mound and were sledding down it. I'm too old and cautious to sled down actual hills anymore.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 12:46 am (UTC)A book. Dr. Seuss Goes to War, a collection of World War II editorial cartoons by Theodore Geisel.
A musical artist, song, or album. Little Richard: The Itsy Bitsy Spider, on the album Disney for our Children. Fabulous rocking' version of the childhood classic.
An LJ user not on my friends list. pegkerr. The writer Peg Kerr.
Something to do in the next two months. Contemplate the beauty of bare tree limbs combing the sky; imagine the different kinds of hair (curly, straight, short, long) that the different trees' limbs are designed for.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:22 pm (UTC)Book: how much editorial context is provided? My history is pretty weak, alas.
Music: *blink* Oh my goodness, I have to find a version of that just to hear that it actually exists.
LJ user: I stop in there occasionally, pointed there by talk-about-writing posts, but will try to do so more regularly.
Thing to do: oh, I like this. It's funny, until I had a house and a yard I didn't notice trees that much, and lately with the cold I've been focusing on other things (is the dog going to step in the slush and hurt her paw, is the windshield going to freeze if I spray wiper fluid on it, etc.). I need to get back to noticing trees. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:51 pm (UTC)Seuss editorial content: lots. It's divided into chapters headed Dr. Suess and PM, The Home Front, Hitler and Nazi Germany, The Rest of he World, Winning the War, and Concluding Thoughts. Each chapter begins with about 10 pages of context and discussion of the specific cartoons, then the cartoons one-to-a-page. The introduction is good, and there's a list of important dates.
Good luck finding the Little Richard song. I've got the tape, and I might be able to dupe it for you if you want. What I'd really like is to record it digitally so I can burn a CD to take to work with me.
I found Peg Kerr's LJ before I knew she was a writer, and I enjoyed it muchly. I've only read one of her books, and it was okay, but didn't tempt me to read more. I just enjoy her writing about her life.
I'm glad you like the tree thing; I wrote a bit of doggerel about it one winter while riding the bus home from work, and that paradigm has stuck with me.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 06:17 am (UTC)Book: Have you read Walter Jon Williams's The Praxis yet? Space opera. Aliens. Depth.
Music: Bach. No, really, he's brilliant, there isn't anyone like him. Try the Brandenburg Concertos.
LJ person:
Something to do: Come to Montreal and visit.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:30 pm (UTC)I have not read _The Praxis_ yet. I was under the impression that it was still in progress, and I'm reluctant these days to pick up big ambitious works that aren't done yet. I've heard many good things about it, though.
Now that I think about it, I may have some Bach hidden in a tape case somewhere. I wonder where it got to.
I believe you if you say I did, but I didn't even remember meeting Mary Kay at Octocon. I believe I've read some of
But it's even *colder* there! I'll check and see what long weekends I have in the spring, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 08:33 am (UTC)2. Women in Purple, Judith Herrin. It's Byzantine history, and I liked it quite a bit. I think anyone who liked the Sarantine Mosiac would be interested in iconoclasm.
3. The Austin Lounge Lizards, because I think you'd like their humor.
4.
5. Get a pedicure. No particular reason other than it's fun to do.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:41 pm (UTC)2. Well, I liked The Sarantine Mosaic for the people, primarily, and haven't even got around to _A Short History of Byzantium_ yet--but I usually prefer fiction anyway, so I'll put this on the library list.
3. I have found their official homepage and will take a lot when bed isn't calling.
4. Ditto.
5. I've only had a manicure once, and didn't like it. I've never had a pedicure, but, well, I've no toenails to speak of and those calluses serve a purpose, darn it.
I am, however, overdue for a massage.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 04:58 pm (UTC)I have been mulling this question, wishing I had a better sense of your tastes--and if you have already experienced my suggestions.
Still. For a movie, Into the West, a splendid film about a magical horse, and the children who run across Ireland to rescue it.
Book: Cornelia Funke's new Inkheart
Music...well, my taste is in my socks, so my housemates tell me, but still, how about the blend on Senegalese melody, French, and Gregorian chant presented by the monks of Keur Moussa? I never get tired of it.
For LJ users, my brain isn't capable of holding long lists, so I don't know where we overlap and do not overlap. As for something to do, why, read more, of course!
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 07:49 pm (UTC)Have you talked about _Inkheart_ on your LJ and I missed it? I'd swear I've never heard of it, but what a wonderful concept! It goes high on the library/bookstore list.
I have, somewhere, the soundtrack to _Power of One_, which uses African choirs and is just gorgeous. It's probably not much like what you mention at all, but just the suggestion makes me eager to get sound samples working on this computer.
As for something to do, why, read more, of course!
I knew there was a reason I liked you.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 08:06 pm (UTC)2. A book -- A Song of Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay (Because you liked Sarantine Mosaic and this is the other Kay I've read though he's on my list...)
3. A musical artist, song, or album -- well I see you've commented you don't know much about classical but are willing to learn. Since Jo's already done Bach, let me suggest some of Vivaldi's concertos.
4. An LJ user not on my friends list --
5. Something to do in the next two months -- this time *you* throw the RASFF party at Boskone. Or the LJ party?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 06:34 pm (UTC)_Arbonne_ is very good indeed. Which did you like better? I think _Arbonne_ is about his most emotionally cool book, with the Sarantine Mosaic next--I've a theory that people react to Kay's books in proportion to the emotional intensity (though in different directions of course).
I stop by
*enormous waves of guilt* Unfortunately we both have to work Friday all day and so won't be getting into until at least 9, more likely 10 Friday night--and Saturday's the Tor party, so . . .
(Worldcon? I could help at least.)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:21 pm (UTC)I really adore Cabaret, but I love Bob Fosse's choreography. And the very young and bony Michael York is completely adorable as well. Joel Grey is simply The Best. He owns that role.
Oh, for heavens' sake, don't feel guilty. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it. Still I said at the time it would be my last RASFF party and I meant it. Not doing an LJ party either. I threw a really nice Christmas party here in Seattle on Dec. 13 and allowed peoples' praise and enthusiasm talk me into doing a New Year's Eve party a mere 2 1/2 weeks later. We did it as a classic cocktail party and it was lots of fun. I'd like to do that at a con sometime but I'm about partied out right now. Hmmm. Maybe Minicon...
MKK
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 12:04 am (UTC)2. Book: Trauma Junkie by Janice Hudson, a memoir about the author's years as an emergency flight nurse for a California helicopter ambulance service. The writing's a bit amateurish, but the horror stories are addictive. Seat belts are our friends.
3. Album: Drum Hat Buddha by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer: lovely, mystical alt-country/folk. Also Rant and Roar by Great Big Sea. Looking Out the Fishbowl by Eddie From Ohio. Tropical Brainstorm by Kristy McColl. I second the Austin Lounge Lizards rec -- try Never an Adult Moment.
4. LJ user: No idea.
5. Something to do: You're a lawyer, so you're going to wind up on community boards one of these days. Look into what kind of non-profit leadership training is offered in your area.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 06:41 pm (UTC)2. Oh, sounds great--I have a weakness for this kind of thing. See also Sullydog's clinical notebooks (though he hasn't posted any for a while).
3. Many albums to track down, thank you.
4. Okay.
5. Eee. The idea is strangely frightening. Maybe our outside-work rules would prohibit that anyway.
Excuse me while I pretend I'm not actually an adult. =>
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:26 am (UTC)2. Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede, a novel about a house of Benedictine nuns. Good characters, and an interesting look at monastic life. (Also a good example of omniscient viewpoint done well.)
3. Sorten Muld, III, because some days you just need good mellow-to-chipper electronic music, clear soothing vocals, and lyrics about doom, death, and destruction in Danish.
4. mamadeb
5. Buy a bunch of clear or white Legos and supplement the snow and the ice with a front yard sculpture. (Or did you want a _sane_ thing to do?)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 06:44 pm (UTC)2. This sounds interesting. (And also reminds me I still have half-a-dozen Cadfael novels to read.) Is it a mystery?
3. lyrics about doom, death, and destruction in Danish.
Umm . . . *edges away slowly*
4. Okay.
5. That would be a *lot* of Legos. And the squirrels would probably steal them anyway. Maybe I could make a little snowman to go in the bay window, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 09:21 am (UTC)half-a-dozen Cadfael novels to read.) Is it a mystery?
No, it's just Generic Novel.
3. Umm . . . *edges away slowly*
Oh, it's got lyrics about unrequited love, I-see-you've-requited-it love, and Mom-why-are-you-in-bed-with-my-boyfriend too.... (Forgot to say in my original post, Sorten Muld is one of these folk-revival groups. All their songs are old Danish or other Scandanavian folksongs, so they're supposed to be about bad relationships, illicit sex, and violent deaths. You can get away with some really wild lyrics if you use stuff that comes out of a folklore archive....)