Poetic & Divine

Grounded

2010-02-08T12:26:00.003-05:00

Currently Reading: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart
Last Movie Watched: New York, I Love You
Song In My Head: Landed - Ben Folds

It's been five days since my last run and I'm going into withdrawal.

Since Snomageddon hit DC on Friday, there hasn't been much opportunity for running, given the blizzard like conditions followed by nearly three feet of snow (not followed by extensive plowing). And now, there's a call for more snow tomorrow. Doesn't nature know that I have a marathon in 82 days (oh sweet Jesus, that's less than three months)?

At this point I'm ~17 miles behind my training schedule, if I don't count the 2.2 mile round-trip walk we took to Giant yesterday (I mean, that's sort of like the Easy 2-3 prescribed by Runners World). I'm fully prepared to dive back into the schedule once the weather permits, but those aren't miles I can really make up at this point.

The good news is, spring is just around the corner (right? right?!?) and even if that doesn't mean immediate warmer temperatures, it means more daylight, so I can run before or after work soon enough. If I can continue to steady my pace - which has been slowly but surely evening out around 9:24 - and maintain weight training, I'm confident that I can keep on keepin' on with my plan. And hey, silver lining, this is a good rest for my right calf, which was showing sings of returning to last spring's injured state.

Still, as I've mentioned, my biggest concern is that this week will come back to haunt me somewhere around mile 16 or 20 on May 2nd. My mind will focus on the 17 miles I've missed this month, rather than the dozens of miles that preceded and followed. I will hit the wall and no amount of catchy music on my iPod, not Lady Gaga, not Journey, not even Bruce, will save me.

Stumble in the Snow

2010-01-31T21:39:00.004-05:00

Currently Reading: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
Last Movie Watched: Inglourious Basters
Song In My Head: Love is Gonna Save Us - Benny Benassi

First the snow ruined my training and then it ruined my dinner party.

To be fair, first I "interrupted" my training. On Wednesday night, I got into bed at 10pm. I was going to fall asleep early. I was going to be rested. I was going to get up and run at 6:45am.

I did get up at 6:45am. And then I reset the alarm for 7:45am, having made a deal with the devil (myself) that I could just run 2 to 3 miles on Monday, my cross-training day, instead. No harm, no foul - I'd still get the miles in, but I'd also get some much needed sleep, as I hadn't been able to doze off the night before until nearly 1am.

But then came Saturday, and with it 6 inches of snow. I'm a fan of snow, inked myself with a flake and everything, but I am not a fan of snow on days when I a) have to run 6 to 7 miles and b) have planned a dinner party for 13 people. The run, of course, could be rescheduled, and was completed this afternoon. The dinner, however, was a three ring circus of Scottish excess, replete with haggis, multiple incarnations of shortbread and a bounty of bawdy poetry. Food preparation began 20 hours in advance, with the assistance of a color-coded spreadsheet. Ingredient reconnaissance began on January 18, when I drove 8 hours round-trip to New Jersey to pick up the haggis from my hometown Scottish butcher. This was, as Robbie Burns himself may have said, a shite show.

I'd already pulled three batches of shortbread out of the oven and refrigerated the base of the cottage pie when the cancellations began to pour in. By the time our party was halved, I'd already seasoned the tatties and neeps and set the haggis to boil. By the time we were down to our final party of five, there was nothing to do but adopt my best brogue and recite Burns' dirtiest words myself, with the help of John, his sister, Erin, and eventually two friends who braved the storm. We did what damage we could to the vittles and verse, encouraged by a glass or two (or more) of single malt.

Our guests left early, so John and Erin and I were left to clean up and collapse in front of the television before 10pm. I made it through the first scene of Inglourious Basterds before passing out from exhaustion. Scalped Nazis, it turns out, aren't enough to keep my eyes open after a day of baking, blending and ballyhooing. I roused myself long enough to stumble up to bed, where I remained until roughly 9am.

Here's the upside (besides the fact that the first three bites of haggis didn't taste "that bad"): cooking tired me out more than running has. I knocked out just under a 10k this morning, and I still haven't felt the fatigue that last night delivered. Each run is easier, if not easy. The few stitches that have dared to bite into my side were mere nibbles before they faded into nothing. There has been no mid-run bargaining, no cries of exhaustion, no collapsing at the end of the trail.

Sure, I'm still in the early stages of the war. Really, this is just basic training. I'm jogging up Currahee and I've got Bastogne in front of me. For now, I'll relish the accomplishment of energy and drive. Who knows how long they'll last?

The Daily Battle

2010-01-11T20:47:00.004-05:00

Currently Reading: Under the Dome by Stephen King
Last Movie Watched: The Accidental Husband
Song In My Head: Walk on Water - Eddie Money

Running every day is hard.

Correction.

Getting up to run every day is hard.

Once I am out on the sidewalks or streets, dodging traffic, causing daydreaming pedestrians to jump with the shout of "Excuse me!" or "On your left!", all is well. Or as well as one can be with an elevated heartbeat and lungs working overtime. At that point, I've forgotten how cold it is, how tired I am and how I could still be curled up in flannel sheets with an orange cat warming up my feet. I am moving. I am determined. I am rocking out to Journey and Lady GaGa and no one even knows it.

Thirty minutes earlier, it's a different scene. My face is pressed against the pillow, one eye open and glaring at my alarm clock. 6:35am. I turn slightly, looking out the window above the bed in my basement apartment and quickly discern that it is dark. This does not surprise me, as it has not been light before 7am since last year. In fact, just last night I confirmed on weather.com that today's sunrise is not until 7:23am. It's unclear why I've set my alarm this early. Everything is unclear at 6:35am.

I hit the snooze bar. I've allotted myself enough time for one, maybe two ten-minute delays. My gear is ready to go as soon as I stumble out of bed. In a matter of minutes, I can be suited up in UnderArmour and my Mizunos, Garmin on my wrist, iPod on my arm, and walking out the door. If I can just wake up...

I do not want to wake up. I want to sleep some more, get back to whatever dream it was that occupied my mind moments earlier. It was probably some sort of apocalyptic nightmare, given that I was reading Stephen King's latest up until midnight, but it's still better than the idea of opening my eyes beyond slits and going out into the January cold.

6:45am. The alarm returns. Without a thought I hit snooze, but I do not go back to sleep. I shut my eyes and begin to calculate, negotiate with myself and my schedule. According to Runners' World, I'm supposed to run 3 to 4 miles today. I can do that in 21 - 40 minutes, depending on my pace and the number of traffic lights I hit on my Old Town course. If my bus comes at 8:48am, that means I have to be finished running and home by 8am, which means I can START running at 7:20am. That's a whole half hour more of sleep! But it's not enough... I could sleep until 8am and find another chance to run later... during my lunch break, if I bring my gear to work and figure out the deal with the office showers. Yes, yes, that will be even better.

I reset the alarm. I settle back in to sleep. And then I get runner's remorse. It's sort of like buyer's remorse, but involves only a decision, not a purchase. I'm thinking about the rationality and consequences of my decision. I should run now. I don't really need another half hour of sleep. I should be stimulating my fitness economy. I do NOT want to shower at work.

This is the turning point. I get up. It's just after 7am. By 7:11am, I'm out the door and I am running. 4.48 miles later, I am home. I am slightly out of breath, I am flushed, I am sweaty. But I ran. I did what I was supposed to do, for the eleventh day in a row. And on May 2nd, when I'm running my first marathon, and my mind begins to negotiate and calculate, trying to tell me what I can and can not do with my muscles and my breath, I will be able to say, "No. This is a done deal. I did what I was supposed to do for the last sixteen weeks, so now I can do this." And I will.

But next week, when the alarm sounds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and all the weeks after, the battle will begin again. There will be a battle every day until the war on May 2nd. And I will fight... by running away.

Four Months

2010-01-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

Currently Reading: Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
Last Movie Watched: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
Song on iTunes: Tiny Vessels - Death Cab for Cutie

In four months , I will run my first marathon.

Really.

I mean it.

I realize I'm a bit behind on the marathon trend. The new thing is triathlons, and while I bet I'd do really well at the swimming bit (the fear of whatever shark/alligator/swamp thing is about to eat me will have me stroking faster than my KitchenAid), my propensity for clumsiness would result in my slipping/tripping somewhere between the running and biking.

I began running because I had friends who began running and also because I have a big mouth. Upon hearing of Richard and Erin's success with the Army 10-Miler, I made the mistake of saying, "Well if you can do it...". Here I am, three years later with three 5ks, four 8ks, two 10ks, and three 10-milers; my race pace has gone from 10:28 to 8:40. There are days when I can not wait to go out and run, and there are days when I reset the alarm for another hour of sleep. Some runs have me mentally cheerleading myself to finish from the very first step and others have me wanting to go further than my planned route. One week I'll be able to run 5 miles without thinking about it and the next I'll be tuckered out halfway through a 5k.

There's no logic to my running, so I've thrown it out the window and decided to embrace the illogical. Hence, the marathon.

Mostly, I am scared shitless by this idea, except when I am giddy at the idea of planning. A marathon is a planner's dream. There's a regimen, there are guidelines, there are charts! I have immersed myself in maps and calculators and tinker incessantly with my new Garmin 305 (a Christmas gift from jOHN). Yes, I was made for marathon-ing (except for my short legs, subpar lungs and the pudge that's invaded my waistline in the last year).

Still, on May 2, I'll be lining up in Pittsburgh with nearly 10,000 others, including jOHN and his dad, to crank out 26.2 miles. I have no idea what to expect, but I'm sure there will be a lot gained (and hopefully a few pounds lost) along the way.

Glorious Bounty

2009-09-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

For tonight's Gree-ing.
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Improvised Italian

2009-08-16T20:39:00.000-04:00

The 4th batch of pasta dough made outside the auspices of Sur La Table has proven successful. After some improvised drying, the end result - homemade papardelle w/ tomatoes, basil, capers and roasted garlic.
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Latest look in running gear

2009-08-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

Alpine DayGlo
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Epic Fail

2009-07-15T18:36:00.000-04:00

29st?
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I'm on a boat

2009-07-11T15:08:00.000-04:00

Susquehannah River, Port Deposit, MD.
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This how we roll...

2009-07-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

Me with the Onion crossword, jOHN with The Economist.
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On the mall

2009-07-04T13:51:00.000-04:00

Perfect positioning for 4th of July in DC.
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Myrtle!

2009-06-20T19:36:00.000-04:00

John found him on his run today.
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Friends

2009-06-20T19:18:00.000-04:00

Mya doesn't know what to make of Myrtle.
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Stigmata or Running Injury?

2009-06-15T09:33:00.000-04:00

Nothing like face planting 1.02 miles into a 5k run.
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Another Month, A Dozen Other Books

2009-06-02T16:45:00.004-04:00

Currently Reading: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Last Movie Watched: Up
Song in my Head: Total Eclipse of the Heart

After my first semester of college, I had approximately six hours between my final exam and my ride home for the holidays. In that time, I sat down and read my sister's Christmas gift (mine to her; I know, I was selfish), but it was the first book I'd had time to read for pleasure in roughly four months. I'd say it was refreshing, and it was, but the book was Girl, Interrupted and that's not really a "feel good" read.

Despite my endless hold list at the library, I found that I'd been spiraling back into a slow-to-no reading pattern in the past year. Blame it on my short commute, the lapse in business travel (and therefore time on planes and trains to read books, uninterrupted)... I was not on my usual pace. And then came April and May with glorious travel and umpteen rainy days spent lounging on John's couch, Mya curled up on my lap, John curled up with his laptop and me curled up with a book. All that led to the consumption of nearly a dozen books in less than two months:

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (Book Challenge)
A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth (a bit of fun fluff)
Once a Runner by John L Parker (wonderful, can't believe this was out of print for ages)
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (a new favorite, I think)
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth ReichlI (short but lovely, though not as satisfying as her other books)
I Love, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci (unsatisfactory chick lit)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Book Challenge)
Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Ilene Beckerman (a charming illustrated collection of vignettes)
Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine (timely, but without the comic timing the author probably desires)
Fool by Christopher Moore (another genius work, one of his best, didn't want it to end)
Fatherland by Robert Harris (Book Challenge)

First, a review of Remains of the Day. Another quintessentially British book. I enjoyed the detail of character created by Ishiguro; it's probably the book's strongest trait. However, to be honest, I found myself a bit bored by the writing, no matter how flowing or gorgeous his prose could be. I'm one of those people who rolls their eyes at the complaint "nothing happened in the movie/book/show", but, well, nothing happened. Certainly I understood better Stevens, the narrator/butler, and why he behaved in the way he did. Perhaps, even, I understood why the British behave(d) the way they do(did), holding back emotions and acting according to custom. But Stevens never changes. He never recognizes why he is the way he is. It's an important point to make, certainly, that it is easy to disguise ourselves from ourselves, but the lesson is only learned when the facade is dropped. A lovely read for the structure and character development, but thus far, my least favorite book in the challenge.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend is a completely different type of character study, and also paints a portrait of England, albeit several decades after Remains of the Day. I'm thoroughly impressed with The Guardian for including a Young Adult novel in their list. I've noted before that I've been enamored as of late with this genre, especially when authors skip the modifier and focus solely on the "adult". I can imagine how a 13-year old could read this book and identify with the protagonist - the angst and the acne. However, more mature eyes catch the broader scope of complexity in a teenager's world: divorce, unemployment, elder care, etc. I can't say it's the best YA book I ever read, but Townsend certainly captures her character well, and I'm anxious enough to read the sequels.

Now, onward to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I imagine that ten days in Myrtle Beach, commencing on Saturday, should leave plenty of time to complete this and at least another book or two by month's end.

View from the Top

2009-05-18T19:39:00.000-04:00

At the Bruce concert, Verizon Center. Better to see all the bald spots.
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Poser

2009-05-15T14:14:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I think Freeloader was a GQ model in a past life.
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Please Send Help

2009-05-02T16:58:00.000-04:00

I've gone back in time. That is the only explanation for the existance of this Sam Goody in San Antonio.
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The Way We (Almost) Were

2009-04-30T14:42:00.005-04:00

Currently Reading: Fool by Christopher Moore
Last Movie Watched: The Wrestler
Song on Pandora: Crying Like a Church Monday - New Radicals

I've caught up on Jennifer's Guardian Book Challenge, My book for April was Fatherland by Robert Harris, a book I've known about for ages because I remember my father reading (and raving about) it when it first came out. My father has long been a fan of alternate history, more of in the vain of Harry Turtledove, and I've shared the same enthusiasm when I've stumbled across it in my reading.

The alternate history shtick is what got me through the first two-thirds of Fatherland. I enjoyed it well-enough as the plot develops deeply and quickly into intrigue. In short, the novel follows a criminal policeman in 1960s-era Nazi Germany as he investigates the murder of a victim who turns out to be a high-level politician from the days of WWII. Hitler is still in power and about to celebrate his 75th birthday. Germany is a police-state. Poland, et al. no longer exist. The rest of Europe answers to the Reich. All this carried me through the bulk of the book, but all the while I wondered "Why is this on Guardian's List?" And then I began to wonder, "What on earth can the big 'reveal' be? We all know what the Nazis did." (in the alternate history of Fatherland, the Holocaust is suspected by dissidents but not confirmed or recognized by any formal government).

The fact that Harris is able to make the revelation of a known historical fact stunning and poignant is a true testament to his writing skill and this book's power. Even so, I still don't understand its placement among the other books on this last, especially in the absence of others. I can't imagine that this book's importance will be lasting, even if it is a quick and fascinating read.

And now, on to The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (but first, to finish the last few pages of Fool by Christopher Moore, who has not disappointed, ever.)

Talent!

2009-04-13T08:17:00.000-04:00

@ White House Easter Egg Roll
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Miscategorized

2009-04-10T20:34:00.004-04:00

Currently Reading: Fatherland by Robert Harris
Last Movie Watched: The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
Song in My Head: Boston - Augustana

Still running behind on Jennifer's Guardian Book Challenge, I've just finished J.P. Donleavy's A Fairy Tale of New York, only 10 days behind schedule. Luckily, I'm in Wellsboro for the weekend, which bodes well for lazy hours reading my April pick, Fatherland.

Fairy Tale is actually a quick read. Donleavy's prose flows rapidly, almost chaotically, and it's easy to get lost in his images and emotion. I'd find myself skimming over paragraphs, not really catching the words as they fell off the page. It's a fitting tribute to the pace of New York, and to the life of his protagonist, Cornelius Christian. It's an odd book that begins by with the instant security of sympathty for the hero, only to throw it out the window mere chapters in the book. Any other down-on-his-luck, freshly minted widower would certainly have readers on his side throughout the course of a narrative, but Christian is constantly shaking off the reader's compassion with his shallow words and actions.

Donleavy writes like the hypothetical bastard child of James Joyce and John Irving. The chain of thought writing, the "Irishness" of Christian's predicaments, the fascination/fixation on sex, the incomplete characterization of female roles. They all lend themselves to the comparison. Though I can't say I've made myself familiar with Joyce, I know that Irving does a better job of managing the "anti-hero", maintaining his outsider status while still endearing him to the reader. I've walked away from Irving's novels wanting more, but I found myself finished with Fairy Tale several chapters before the final page.

Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book. I did. But a classic? A comedy? (Far from it, really - if anything I found the book to be intensely depressing) Meant to be read by all? Not quite. Worthy of being read by those with a passion for the dark, the chaotic, the stylized? Perhaps.

Variation on a Classic

2009-04-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

Not exactly beer can chicken...
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Barn doors!

2009-04-03T12:32:00.000-04:00

I wants.
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Satcheled

2009-03-15T15:53:00.000-04:00

My post-8k energy drop has been picked up by Mya. I think she dreams she's Superman.
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Conscious Naïvete

2009-03-13T10:27:00.006-04:00

Currently Reading: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Last Movie Watched: Rachel Getting Married
Song on Pandora: Tiny Vessels - Death Cab for Cutie

Finally making good on Jennifer's Guardian Book Challenge... I finished the first tome, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, in February, so technically, I'm on course.

Castle has been sitting on my shelf for ages. I picked it up at Borders as part of their "3 for 2" promo (it's irresistable, that table), most likely for three reasons:
1) JK's Rowling endorsement on the cover
2) I knew there was a British film version featuring Bill Nighy (sadly, unavailable on Netflix)
3) It's a British romance

Really, it could have just been for the third reason that I picked up the book. I'm a sucker for such things.

In the few short days it took me to get through Castle, I found my heart/mind wandering down a familiar path. I instantly fell in love with Cassandra, the narrator, and her optimism. A true Brit, she manages to make abject poverty seem desirous. Her enthusiasm for the simplest of things - a warm bath, the act of writing - endeared her to me instantly. The adoration she clearly holds for her family, her home and her country are admirable, nearly enviable. Cassandra in her natural environment is an image to behold and to treasure.

And then she went to London.

There's nothing wrong with London. There's nothing wrong with a change of scenery. It's not even that this change in locale disservices the story. If anything, it's a perfect contrast to Cassandra's humble nature. It wasn't the wrong choice for the author to make. Still, it completely unsettled my love affair with this book, which, in truth, made me love it all the more.

The moment a character steps outside his or her comfort zone, I am reminded that the book must have a conflict, climax and resolution. And resolution means "the end". I am never more disappointed in a book when I love it so much that I dread the end (see "Most John Irving novels"). I dread it do much that I begin to hate the book for ending. It's no the book's fault. It has to end. The cost of paper and ink, the amount of editing time... I understand the cost-benefit isn't really working out in my favor here. It doesn't mean I'm any less unhappy about the situation.

So yes, this is proof that I loved the book, but not so much the reason. That part unfolds... here. Early on in the book, Cassandra is reffered to (by her newly aquired American friends/landlords) as being "consciously naïve". It's an entirely accurate description of her, or of anyone, really who journals their existence (as Cassandra does, setting the structure of the book). As the writer of your own story, you must choose what to share and what to edit. There is always an opportunity to be honest - and I feel that Cassandra frequently takes this road - but there is also an opportunity to be honest about the lies one tells one's self.

As it happens, this perspective also applies to how I write this blog.

In order to write here with any sort of personality or insight, I have to pretend that no one is reading. The thought of people reading this blog (or, dear God, referring to this blog) weirds me out a little. It's like when you're driving along in your car, belting along to "Open Arms", only to look over and realize that the dude in the Impreza next to you is laughing his head off. There you were, being completely vulnerable, and this is the thanks you get. If I were not consciously naïve about the fact that this blog has readers (however random and irregular), there'd be no shameless singing along. Writing a blog that way would be like driving with my hands at 10 and 2, keeping exactly at the speed limit and never, ever even mouthing along with power ballads from the '80s, and where's the fun in that?

At the same time, I can not let loose with wild abandon. There's a reason why I don't step in for the lead singer of Journey when my windows are rolled down. That's just asking for trouble. I'm all for letting loose, for letting the hair down, for letting... well, whatever else you can let. But all things in moderation. I have to remember that there are readers whom I may know, with whom I may work, in whose eyes I may one day have to look. And I never want to be stuck in a conversation, thinking all the while: "Oh my god, I hope they didn't read my blog." There are way too many other things I have to worry about in daily conversation. I can't afford to add another worry to the list.

So, like Cassandra, I am consciously naïve. She may have bristled at the description, but I appreciate it. It's not really naïvety if one pursues it purposefully and with good intention. Take that as you will.

In summary, high marks for I Capture the Castle, especially for us sad saps that enjoy the veddy British idea of countrysides, sisters in competition, tea, literature and poverty.

ePic FAIL

2009-03-08T22:52:00.000-04:00

The iPod is the borken. Conveniently, this occurred 10 minutes into my hour long run.

<sigh> At least now I can upgrade to the lighter Nano model... I'll miss the added weight training that came with lugging this giant around on my arm, though.
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Oh my!

2009-03-05T21:55:00.000-05:00

Beer + Smoke + Meat = AWESOME
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Day Off

2009-02-16T16:27:00.000-05:00

Book? Check.
Blanket? Check.
Cozy cat? Check.
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Reading On A Deadline

2009-02-11T12:38:00.005-05:00

Currently Reading: Street Gang by Michael Davis (still, yes, I know, it's... wordy)
Last Movie Watched: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (don't laugh, but I thought it was swell)
Song in My Head: Love Story - Taylor Swift (stop laughing at me!)

Having accepted Jennifer's Guardian Book Challenge, I set forth on the task of choosing which 10 books I would read. This was hard. Really hard.

First off, the list is 1,000 titles long. That's a lot. The easiest place to start was separating out the books I'd already read. My calculations showed that I had read just over 5 percent of the recommend books. This made me angry and mad at myself. When the year is over, I will be slightly less mad at myself having added 10 additional books (at least) to my tally. Then, after sorting out the titles I was most interested in reading, I saw that I was fairly heavy in the "Love" category. Raise your keyboards if you're surprised about that.

Finally, after much hemming and hawing, I sorted out a heavily edited list and schedule:

February
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (Category: Love)
This book is on my "to read" shelf. Actually, it's now "shelves". I know. That's one of the main reasons I chose this book, so I can start clearing those things off. Also, I'm always happy to be able to supplement a book reading with a film viewing, and there's a BBC version out there with Bill Nighy in it. Of course, Netflix informs me that the title is unavailable, nearly 6 years after its production, but I shall hold out hope.

March
A Fairy Tale of New York by JP Donleavy (Category: Comedy)
In honor of St. Patty's Day and a planned trip to New York at the end of March, I added this to my pile. It sort of falls under the category of "Never Heard of Before", except the more I think about it, the more I think I have heard about it. Unless I'm just thinking of The Pogues song...

April
Fatherland by Robert Harris (Category: Crime)
I remember my father reading this when it first came out in 1992. I think we share an interest in the "alternate history" genre, but I've never dipped into this book's pages. Now is the time.

May
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Category: Love)
Reading Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was an experience. I highly recommend it. I felt so wrapped up in his strange yet familiar tale. Every day I turned a page, I felt like I was curled up inside on a rainy spring day, no matter the forecast in the plot or in reality. I'm hoping to re-experience that here.

June
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (Category: Family/Self)
This is my "I've Never Heard Of It" selection. The title alone capture me. I've also had much fun, in the last few years, discovering some real gems in YA (see Harry Potter and The Mysterious Benedict Society). I hope to add this one to the list.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy)
This is also on my "To Read" shelves. I began reading it in the summer of 2006, for a now defunct book club, but that was a tumultuous time and I wound up putting down the book and never picking it up again. June is the time to remedy the situation, as I will have a glorious 10 day vacation in Myrtle Beach during which I plan to soak up a lot of sun and a lot reading (hence the double book order for the month).

July
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Category: War & Travel)
The quintessential roadtrip began in July of 1947. It seems only fair to start this book at the same time. It's is a damn dirty shame that I haven't read this already. It's a damn dirty shame that I haven't read most of these books already.

August
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy)
It seems I've read modified versions of this, and I've certainly seen the Disneyfied version, so why not go all out and read the damn thing in its original incarnation? It also occurs to me that I'll have to move in the near vicinity of August, and this book seems in celebration of turning everything upside down and inside out.

September - October
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Category: State of the Nation)
I've never read any Rushdie, sadly. It was between this and The Satanic Verses, but that fell under "Science Fiction and Fantasy" and I needed something under "State of the Nation". I'm alloting myself two months to read this as, at 560 pages, it is second in length on this list only to Kavalier & Clay .

November
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (Category: War & Travel)
By November, I should be well versed in riding on the back of John's motorcycle. I intend to put those experiences to use by reading this.

December
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Category: State of the Nation)
To me, no author screams "December" so much as Dickens. This book is actually a bonus/make good, in case I bail on any of the others. I may opt to drop this book in favor of the more seasonally-appropriate A Christmas Carol, because Christmas is my crack and I need to feed the addiction.

There were many other titles that I wanted to read, but removed them from the list according to limitations of category, time and space. My runners up:

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Children of Men by PD James
After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

I may try to squeeze some of these in over the course of the year, or simply use them as a foundation for a 2010 list. Now, off to heavy reading.

Perfect Sunday

2009-02-08T16:54:00.000-05:00

Appletini and Scrabble.
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I Know I Have a Problem

2009-02-05T11:27:00.003-05:00

Song In My Head: Take Me Away - Natasha Bedingfield
Currently Reading: Street Gang (My reading pace is sluggish this season)

Because I can't be content with just beer bars and The Guardian's Must Read list, I need to also review Entertainment Weekly's "Modern Classics" list to see what I've read and what I should read. My plan is to solidify my Guardian "to read" list by the end of next week, and I think this will help in determining what I should read.

I'm happy to see that I've read over a quarter of the list already, with many of my favorite books appearing on the list #15, #16, #28. #29, #73, #79). I was also pleased to see Ruth Reichl on there, as I've adored her ever since her appearance on Julia! America's Favorite Chef. Her voice is luscious, especially when she talks about food. Sometimes I pretend it's her, not Lynn Rosetto Casper, talking on The Splendid Table (even if I'm not a Splendid Table hater like everyone else seems to be).

I've had several of my "to read" books on my library hold list for quite sometime, but they usually arrived with some overflow of other books and I never got to them. Here's another chance for me to get aquainted. Any others I should get to know?

Key:
italics = already read
bold = meaning to read

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

My irrational fear

2009-02-04T15:55:00.001-05:00

The last time I "swam" in open water was 2002. I tread water for about 10 minutes in the Gulf of Mexico, near Sarasota, Florida. A dozen or so feet away, a flock of pelicans floated on the waves. I used them as radar. If they suddenly flew off, I knew that a shark was lingering nearby and I would have to book it (all 10 feet of "it") back to the beach. Overreacting? Yes. Well-planned? Also yes.

I blame my fear of sharks - and alligators, really anything that can rise up from the depths and eat me - on reading too many of my mom's Readers Digests growing up. Every issue had a story about someone surviving a horrific attack by a shark or alligator (or crocodile) while swimming in open water. Reading Jaws and too many Stephen King novels has also contributed to this fear.

Because I Like Lists

2009-02-04T15:09:00.003-05:00

Song In My Head: Movie Script Ending - Death Cab For Cutie
Last Movie Watched: Choose Connor

After some Flickr activity called my Minneapolis-St.Paul photos to front-of-mind, I perused a little bit through the images I took only three months ago. It really seems like years, though. All of 2008 is like that really. Strange.

I remembered, then, after seeing exterior shots of the Happy Gnome, that I'd meant to look at the full 125 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die (aka The Growler List) from All About Beer Magazine. The Gnome is #125, and I'm fairly sure I've been to a fair number of the others.

The full list is below. I've bolded those I've been to... a measly seven. I thought it would be more :( What bothers me most is that I've been in fair close proximity to a number more (and may well be in proximity again), so I'll italicize those - and other feasbile/North American locations - as "to do"

1. Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO
2. Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium
3. U Fleku, Prague, Czech Republic
4. Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court, London, England
5. Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
6. Augustiner Keller, Munich, Germany
7. Abbaye de Notre-Dame d’Orval, Orval, Belgium
8. The Gravity Bar, Guinness St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland
9. Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA
10. The Great Canadian Beer Festival, Vancouver, BC
11. Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
12. The Brickskeller, Washington, DC
13. Rick’s Café, Negril, Jamaica
14. The Market Porter, Stoney Street, London, England
15. Cat’s Eye Pub, Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD
16. Seats on top of the Green Monster in Fenway Park, Boston, MA
17. Mondial de la Bière, Montreal, Quebec
18. Horizon’s Café, CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario
19. Clubhouse box seats at the Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, NY
20. Beer Club Popeye, Tokyo, Japan
21. The Publick House, Brookline, MA
22. Infield at Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
23. Henry’s 12th Street Tavern, Portland, OR
24. The Hopleaf, Chicago, IL
25. World Beer Festival, Durham/Raleigh, NC
26. French Quarter during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, LA
27. Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy
28. Zum Uerige, Dusseldorf, Germany
29. Toronado, San Francisco, CA
30. The Olde Mitre Tavern, Ely Court, Hatton Garden, London, England
31. Turn 4 Suites at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN
32. Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR
33. The Wynkoop Brewery, Denver, CO (I'm particularly salty about this one as I gave it up to go to #42 instead)
34. Spuyten Duyvil, Brooklyn, NY
35. Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH
36. McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel, Portland, OR
37. Atelier am Dom, Cologne, Germany
38. Anchor Brewing Tasting Room, San Francisco, CA
39.The Flying Saucer, NC, SC, TN, AR and TX
40. Arend’s Nest, Amsterdam, Holland
41. Blues Bar, Stone Town, Zanzibar
42. SandLot Brewery, Coors Field, Denver, CO
43. Clark Street Ale House, Chicago, IL
44. Tailgating at a Southeastern Conference Football Game
45. Selin’s Grove Brewing, Selinsgrove, PA (I drive through Selinsgrove on the way to Wellsboro all the time... highly feasible)
46. The Great Lost Bear, Portland, ME
47. The Map Room, Chicago, IL
48. The Blue Tusk, Syracuse, NY
49. Woolwich Arms, Guelph, ON
50. Beach Bar at the Atlantis Hotel, Paradise Island, Bahamas
51. The White Horse Pub, Parsons Green, London, England
52. Redbones Restaurant, Somerville, MA (I used to live around the corner, but I was a vegetarian and hence never stepped inside)
53. Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, Sydney, Australia
54. Falling Rock Tap House, Denver, CO
55. Sleeping Lady Brewery/Snow Goose Restaurant, Anchorage, AK
56. In de Wildeman, Amsterdam, Holland
57. Andechs Monastery, Andechs, Germany
58. Charlie’s Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark
59. PINT Bokbierfestival, Amsterdam, Holland
60. Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, CA
61. Kr?ma, Ceske Krumlov, Czech Republic
62. Sapporo Beer Garden, Higashi-ku, Japan
63. Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI
64. Sail and Anchor Brewpub, Fremantle, Australia
65. F.X. Matt Brewery Tasting Room, Utica, NY
66. Delerium Café, Brussels, Belgium
67. Birreria l’Orso Eletricco, Rome, Italy
68. Gösser Bierklinik, Vienna, Austria
69. Bariloche Ski Resort, Rio Negro, Argentina
70. d.b.a., New York, NY
71. Brewer’s Art, Baltimore, MD
72. Au General Lafayette, Paris, France
73. Schlenkerla Brewery Tavern, Bamberg, Germany
74. De Hopduvel, Antwerp, Belgium
75. Mr. Sancho’s Beach, Cozumel, Mexico
76. City Tavern, Philadelphia, PA
77. Die Weisse, Salzburg, Austria
78. Halve Maan Brewery, Bruges, Belgium
79. Tinkoff, Moscow, Russia
80. Le Bier Circus, Brussels, Belgium
81. TY Harbor Brewery, Tokyo, Japan
82. Irseer Klosterbrauerei, Irsee, Germany
83. Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
84. Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, IL
85. Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
86. Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY
87. Deschutes Brewery & Publick House, Bend, OR
88. Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern, Monroe, WI
89. Icebergs Bar, Sydney, Australia
90. Cantillon Brewery and Gueuze Museum, Belgium
91. Dogfish Head Ale House, Rehoboth Beach, DE
92. Belgo Central, London, England
93. Bruxellensis Festival of Characterful Beers, Brussels, Belgium
94. Felix in The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong
95. Brasserie Federal, Bahnhof Zurich, Switzerland
96. Heineken Brewery, Amsterdam, Holland
97. Clark’s Ale House, Syracuse, NY
98. The Shakespeare, Aukland, New Zealand
99. Mahar’s, Albany, NY
100. Steamworks Brewing, Vancouver, BC
101. Cooter Brown’s, New Orleans, LA
102. McSorley’s Ale House, New York, NY
103. Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill & Brewery, Key West, FL
104. Rose & Crown Pub, Epcot Center, Orlando, FL (I stayed literally DOWN THE STREET on my visit to Austin last month, didn't remember to go)
105. The Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA
106. Brick Store Pub, Decatur, GA
107. Sunset Grille & Tap, Boston, MA
108. The Ghost Bar at the Palms Hotel, Las Vegas, NV (I protest this entry. I don't think anyone goes to Ghost Bar to have a beer that isn't a Bud Light accompanied by a sorority slut)
109. Norwich Inn/Jasper Murdock's Brewery, Norwich, VT
110. The Gingerman, Austin, TX (I stayed literally DOWN THE STREET on my visit to Austin last month, didn't remember to go)
111. Library Ale House, Santa Monica, CA
112. t’Bruges Biertja, Bruges, Belgium
113. beerbistro, Toronto, Canada
114. The Dubliner, Washington, DC
115. John Barleycorn, Chicago, IL
116. Anchor Bar, Buffalo, NY
117. Gritty McDuff’s, Portland, ME
118. Top of the Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Chapel Hill, NC
119. The Bell, Aldworth, Berkshire, England
120. The Golf Tavern, Edinburgh, Scotland
121. Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, DC
122. 5 Seasons Brewing, Atlanta, GA
123. Tim Schafer’s at Lake Norman, Sherrills Ford, NC
124. Stumbling Monk, Seattle. WA
125. The Happy Gnome, St. Paul, MN

Just Like Heaven

2009-02-01T16:37:00.000-05:00

Beer. Kielbasa. Kraut.

My DNA's mouth is watering.
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Turn The Page(s)

2009-01-28T13:31:00.004-05:00

Currently Reading: Street Gang by Michael Davis
Last Movie Watched: Frontrunners
Song in My Head: Leaving New York - REM

In an effort to write more often and to read with more direction, I'm accepting Jennifer's 1000 Book Challenge:

The challenge is to read and review ten books off the list (that's 1%) between February 1st of 2009 and February 1st of 2010. Of these 10, I must read one from each category and one should be a book I have never heard of until I saw it on this list.

Here's the list. I've bolded those I've already read and italicized those I'd like to read. Any suggestions for which to pursue?

Comedy
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Money by Martin Amis
The Information by Martin Amis
The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
Augustus Carp, Esq. by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man by Henry Howarth Bashford
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Queen Lucia by EF Benson
The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman
A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
No Bed for Bacon by Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon
Illywhacker by Peter Carey
A Season in Sinji by JL Carr
The Harpole Report by JL Carr
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary
The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Just William by Richmal Crompton
The Provincial Lady by EM Delafield
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo by Peter De Vries
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot
A Fairy Tale of New York by JP Donleavy
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Ennui by Maria Edgeworth
Cheese by Willem Elsschot
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Caprice by Ronald Firbank
Bouvard et Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn
The Polygots by William Gerhardie
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Brewster's Millions by Richard Greaves (George Barr McCutcheon)
Squire Haggard's Journal by Michael Green
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgkins
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
The Lecturer's Tale by James Hynes
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
The Mighty Walzer Howard by Jacobson
Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Gil Blas) Alain-René Lesage
Changing Places by David Lodge
Nice Work by David Lodge
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
England, Their England by AG Macdonell
Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen
Cakes and Ale - Or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard by W Somerset Maugham
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Charade by John Mortimer
Titmuss Regained by John Mortimer
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
La Disparition by Georges Perec
Les Revenentes by Georges Perec
La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec
My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunkett
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
Alms for Oblivion by Simon Raven
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
The Westminster Alice by Saki
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
Hurrah for St Trinian's by Ronald Searle
Great Apes by Will Self
Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe
Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe
Office Politics by Wilfrid Sheed
Belles Lettres Papers: A Novel by Charles Simmons
Moo by Jane Smiley
Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett
The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
White Man Falling by Mike Stocks
Handley Cross by RS Surtees
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
Penrod by Booth Tarkington
The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
Tropic of Ruislip by Leslie Thomas
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon
Tono Bungay by HG Wells
Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson
Something Fresh by PG Wodehouse
Piccadilly Jim by PG Wodehouse
Thank You Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
Heavy Weather by PG Wodehouse
The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse

Crime
The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley
The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley
The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E Braddon
The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Greenmantle by John Buchan
The Asphalt Jungle by WR Burnett
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
Double Indemnity by James M Cain
True History of the Ned Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross
The Ipcress File by Len Deighton
Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter
The Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter
Ratking by Michael Dibdin
Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin
Dirty Tricks by Michael Dibdin
A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin
Vendetta by Michael Dibdin
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt
The Crime of Father Amado by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
LA Confidential by James Ellroy
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
The Third Man by Graham Greene
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
The King of Torts by John Grisham
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill
A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles
Silence of the Grave by Arnadur Indridason
Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes
Cover Her Face by PD James
A Taste for Death by PD James
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Misery by Stephen King
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
The Constant Gardener by John le Carre
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
52 Pick-up by Elmore Leonard
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Cop Hater by Ed McBain
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim
The Strange Borders of Palace Crescent by E Phillips Oppenheim
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky
Blacklist by Sara Paretsky
Nineteen Seventy Four by David Peace
Nineteen Seventy Seven by David Peace
The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos
Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos
Lush Life by Richard Price
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
V by Thomas Pynchon
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
The Hanging Gardens by Ian Rankin
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Le Sayers
The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon
The Blue Room by Georges Simenon
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
The Getaway by Jim Thompson
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
A Fatal inversion by Barbara Vine
King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Native Son by Richard Wright
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

Family and self
The Face of Another by Kobo Abe
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
Epileptic by David B
Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker
Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
Le Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
The L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett
A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
G by John Berger
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
Evelina by Fanny Burney
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
The Sound of my Voice by Ron Butlin
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Wise Children by Angela Carter
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Les Enfants Terrible by Jean Cocteau
The Vagabond by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Being Dead by Jim Crace
Quarantine by Jim Crace
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
Roxana by Daniel Defoe
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
My New York Diary by Julie Doucet
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Silence by Shusaku Endo
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
Howards End by EM Forster
Spies by Michael Frayn
Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
The Man of Property by John Galsworthy
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Immoralist by Andre Gide
The Vatican Cellars by Andre Gide
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
The Shrimp and the Anemone by LP Hartley
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier
Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Washington Square by Henry James
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
The Unfortunates by BS Johnson
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
Memet my Hawk by Yasar Kemal
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Martin Eden by Jack London
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
The Chateau by William Maxwell
The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor
The Ordeal of Richard Feverek by George Meredith
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kezaburo Oe
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Good Companions by JB Priestley
The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
A Married Man by Piers Paul Read
Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson
The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Unless by Carol Shields
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
The Family Moskat or The Manor or The Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
Death in Summer by William Trevor
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Peace in War by Miguel de Unamuno
The Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smarest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Frost in May by Antonia White
The Tree of Man by Patrick White
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Love
Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier
Dom Casmurro Joaquim by Maria Machado de Assis
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis by Giorgio Bassani
Love for Lydia by HE Bates
More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Look At Me by Anita Brookner
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Possession by AS Byatt
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
A Month in the Country by JL Carr
My Antonia by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Claudine a l'ecole by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette
Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
A Room with a View by EM Forster
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Living by Henry Green
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by WH Hudson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
Beauty and Saddness by Yasunari Kawabata
The Far Pavillions by Mary Margaret Kaye
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Moon over Africa by Pamela Kent
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
Women in Love by DH Lawrence
The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Zami by Audre Lorde
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
Samarkand by Amin Maalouf
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
A Heart So White by Javier Marias
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
The Egoist by George Meredith
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male by Vladimir Nabokov
The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
Light Years by James Salter
A Sport and a Passtime by James Salter
The Reader by Benhardq Schlink
The Reluctant Orphan by Aara Seale
Love Story by Eric Segal
Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Waterland by Graham Swift
Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
East Lynne by Ellen Wood
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Science fiction and fantasy
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Non-Stop by Brian W Aldiss
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
Crash by JG Ballard
Millennium People by JG Ballard
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Vathek by William Beckford
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Coming Race by EGEL Bulwer-Lytton
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
The Influence by Ramsey Campbell
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
The Magus by John Fowles
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Red Shift by Alan Garner
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Light by M John Harrison
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
Dune by Frank L Herbert
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Children of Men by PD James
After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Shining by Stephen King
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The Earthsea Series by Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ascent by Jed Mercurio
The Scar by China Mieville
Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Mother London by Michael Moorcock
News from Nowhere by William Morris
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Air by Geoff Ryman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Blindness by Jose Saramago
How the Dead Live by Will Self
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Institute Benjamenta by Robert Walser
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Sword in the Stone by TH White
The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

State of the nation
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
London Fields by Martin Amis
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
La Comedie Humaine by Honore de Balzac
They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy
A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave by Aphra Behn
Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Room at the Top by John Braine
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
The Plague by Albert Camus
The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier
What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coeztee
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Underworld by Don DeLillo
White Noise by Don DeLillo
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Sybil or The Two Nations by Benjamin Disraeli
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
USA by John Dos Passos
Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Effi Briest by Theodore Fontane
Independence Day by Richard Ford
A Passage to India by EM Forster
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
The Odd Women by George Gissing
New Grub Street by George Gissing
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
Mother by Maxim Gorky
Lanark by Alastair Gray
Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Chronicle in Stone by Ismael Kadare
How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman
The Leopard by Giuseppi di Lampedusa
A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin
Passing by Nella Larsen
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Amongst Women by John McGahern
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Of Love & Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Time of Indifference by Alberto Moravia
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
McTeague by Frank Norris
Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Ragazzi Pier by Paolo Pasolini
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Moon and the Bonfire by Cesare Pavese
GB84 by David Peace
Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Shame by Salman Rushdie
To Each his Own by Leonardo Sciascia
Staying On by Paul Scott
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr
The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
God's Bit of Wood by Ousmane Sembene
The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
Richshaw Boy by Lao She
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovtich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
This Sporting Life by David Storey
The Red Room by August Stringberg
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Couples by John Updike
Z by Vassilis Vassilikos
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Germinal by Emile Zola
La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola

War and travel
Silver Stallion by Junghyo Ahn
Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin
Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
Regeneration by Pat Barker
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Fair Stood the Wind for France by HE Bates
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti
One of Ours by Willa Cather
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell
The History of Pompey the Little by Francis Coventry
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Bomber by Len Deighton
Deliverance by James Dickey
Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos
South Wind by Norman Douglas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Justine by Lawrence Durrell
The Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake
The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
The African Queen by CS Forester
The Ship by CS Forester
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Beach by Alex Garland
To The Ends of the Earth trilogy by William Golding
Asterix the Gaul by Rene Goscinny
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman
De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard
She: A History of Adventure by H Rider Haggard
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Covenant with Death by John Harris
Enigma by Robert Harris
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
Confederates by Thomas Keneally
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Day by AL Kennedy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
La Condition Humaine by Andre Malraux
Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat
Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
History by Elsa Morante
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell
The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolp Erich Raspe
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Crab with the Golden Claws by Georges Remi Herge
Tintin in Tibet by Georges Remi Herge
The Castafiore Emerald by Georges Remi Herge
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa
Sacaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Safran Foer
The Hunters by James Salter
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
Austerlitz by WG Sebald
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
A Sentimental Journey by Lawrence Sterne
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Williwaw by Gore Vidal
Candide by Voltaire
Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells
The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
Voss by Patrick White
The Virginian by Owen Wister
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
The Debacle by Emile Zola

Where Does The Good Go?

2008-12-09T20:04:00.003-05:00

Currently Listening To: Classical Christmas on Pandora
Last Movie Watched: In The Company of Men

I'm at the Shirlington Library, trying to get some prep work done for my tutoring appointment tomorrow. It's an interesting position, being a tutor, as it requires remembering most of the things I thought could be swept out of my head the moment I took my final diploma in Radcliffe Yard (if not sooner). Much of it stays, though, at least where English and History are involved. Admittedly, I often decline students in the areas of math and science, at least after the junior high level, because I simply lost the capacity to retain that information, if I ever retained it at all.

In my research today, though, I stumbled across the AP Language & Composition prompts from 1998, the year I took the exam. I realize this may come across as geeky, pompous and sad, but back in the day, I actually managed to earn a "5" on the exam, and it remains one of the proudest accomplishments in my life. In order for me to be truly proud about something, I often need to be taken by surprise. I tell you, I didn't expect to do well on that test. Or rather, I didn't know what to expect from that test. I remember the course being the hardest I'd ever taken, because I was actually working hard to succeed. I'll admit, chemistry was harder, but I didn't even have the drive to succeed there once I realized (or sealed) my fate in the subject. But I wanted, even needed, to do well in English, so I pushed myself. And I saw a tangible result.

As I tutor my current student in AP English, I'm always delighted to remember any small fragment and disappointed when I don't even have an inkling about the rest of it. Oddly enough, though, I remember this fragment - http://home.wi.rr.com/richterap/AP%20Language/Language_Exams__by_Year/1998_Lang_Q_1.pdf. This one - http://home.wi.rr.com/richterap/AP%20Language/Language_Exams__by_Year/1998_Lang_Q_2.pdf - illicits some semblance of a memory, but not a very strong one. Yet ten years ago, I had enough to say about both of them, not only enough, but in quality to join the quantity.

Where does that all go? Where's that part of my life that meant so much so long ago, but now flitters off in the shadows? I know our minds have only so much capacity, and I am forever in awe of and enamored with those who have been able to take those fragments to build a foundation, building year after year into an expertise. Perhaps this is Malcolm Gladwell and his Outliers speaking through me, but I am envious of those who have spent endless (or, per Gladwell, 10,000) hours crafting themselves into structured and historied beings. My structure never seems quite as clear, my history not so planned, so that I don't always know what goes next and where to proceed (much like the way I write, for certain).

The contrast between this path and the one I began so many years ago is markedly different. For ages, I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to come next. Today, I am not so clear in my convictions. I could tell you, for example, that I would like to be married and that I would very much like to have a family a few short years down the road. But the future is hazy after that. I'm not apprehensive about that, so much as I once was at least. It just seems so odd to be meandering, even it doesn't appear that way.

Gonna Go Back in Time...

2008-12-07T18:44:00.005-05:00

Currently Listening To: Swingin' Christmas on Pandora
Last Movie Watched: You Don't Mess With The Zohan
Currently Reading: The Wordy Patriots

As is fairly well-documented in the early stages of this blog (see anything prior to 2005, really), I used to be something of a band follower. Not a groupie. Just a fan of the live music, and of particular bands, namely Graham Colton. I've seen him (solo or with band) over two dozen times. And now I'm going to count them all out for you:

September 2002 - opening for John Mayer @ GW
October 2002 - opening for Counting Crows @ GW
Winter 2003 - DC
Fall 2003 - Towson, Northampton, Providence, Boston, Falls Church, Atlanta, DC
Winter 2004 - Northampton, Worcester
Spring 2004 - Northampton, Providence, Boston, Rochester, Towson
Summer 2004 - Oklahoma City, Dallas
Fall 2004 - Chicago, Nashville, Bloomington (twice)
Spring 2005 - Urbana-Champaign
Fall 2007 - Alexandria

I think that's all of them... yesterday marked #26, when Graham played at Ram's Head On Stage in Annapolis. It's strange to explain the "relationship" I have with Graham, because it's not quite a friendship, but it's not quite a fan-ship either. It's the relationship you have with someone who you've worked with professionally (albeit in college) and personally (as in I used to date his tour manager).

Regardless, it's a special relationship, because it actually extends beyond two people. Although I'm sure it would freak me out should my hypothetical offspring ever enter into such relationships, I quite enjoyed meeting the wonderful and diverse circle of friends I've met through Graham. It seems weird, even to me, that such close bonds could be made in the confines of a few concerts a year, but stranger things have happened. I love that six years after meeting Graham for the first time - and almost as long since meeting most everyone else who was at yesterday's show - I can still recognize a commonality with people who are otherwise strangers to me. There's something kind of awesome about that, the ability to share something so small as a infrequently-played song or an inside joke called out in between lyrics.

Sitting in the concert hall yesterday, I felt like I was in a little bit of a time warp. So much time has passed since the first time I heard some of those songs, but - aside from the change in lineup, location and notoriety of the performer - it felt a little bit like oldtimes. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that I'd be heading back to getting signatures on the mailing list before heading back to my grad apartment in my Zipcar. The snowflakes on Route 50 on the way back home to Alexandria were a little reminiscent of the weather I often encountered on the ride from Northampton to Cambridge, but at least I was in my Honda Accord and not in a rented VW Bug with frozen windows. Some changes are welcomed more than others

2008 (l to r): Jessica, Devon, Sam, Graham, Rachel, Sam, Ryan

2003 : Ryan (back row, far left), Devon (front row, second from left), Jess (back row, second from left), Graham (center), Rachel (front row, second from right), Sam (far right)

Out of many, one

2008-12-05T17:46:00.000-05:00

The only house on my entire walk home that's directed. Where's the Xmas Atmos people?
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I Can Haz Streetview?!

2008-10-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

Just landed in Minneapolis and looked up directions to hotel on BlackBerry Google Maps. Street view is offered at each direction point! Brilliant! Google for DOT Secretary!
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Adventures in Mobile Photography

2008-10-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

Galaxy Hut, pre-Wax Standard concert
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Regression

2008-10-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

I am at the New Kids concert at Verizon Center. I am acting like a 10-year old. It's awesome.
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Qu'est-ce que c'est?

2008-09-26T19:22:00.000-04:00

Why, it's the microphone from which David Byrne will rock ACL in a mere 9 minutes. And I am 5 people back from the stage. Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa.

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Jolie-Pitt trumps Cruise

2008-08-19T00:29:00.000-04:00

I knew Shiloh was a PBS kid. Her mom did love "The War" afterall.
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Four years later...

2008-08-14T17:37:00.000-04:00

Song on iTunes: No Such Thing - John Mayer
Currently Reading: Buying In by Rob Walker
Last DVD Watched: Battlestar Galactica

Tomorrow, it will be four years to the day that I left Boston. Four years to the day that Paul first met my family, that I loaded everything I could into a minivan, that I took a risk and moved to Indiana.

Right now, I'm almost back where I was then. Amtrak is pulling into Route 128, and in a few minutes I'll pull into South Station, the place where, arguably, the biggest catalyst of my life occurred four years, three months and one week ago.

For the most part, that time now passed has been precious, and it's been rushing away quicker than any other period of my life that I can recall. Even the rough patches have flown by. It was two years ago that I was even in Boston, in a completely different state. I'm glad that this time I don't have a cloud of gloom hanging over me, that I can enjoy familar sites and friends... Even in the shadow of the Red Sox.

Here's looking forward to a long weekend of Dunkin Donuts, Sam Adams, Restaurant Week, chick flicks and fun. And here's hoping time slows down just a little bit so I can savor it.
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What you could only imagine

2008-07-24T09:48:00.000-04:00

Song In My Head: Georgia Aquarium Ambi Music
Last Movie Watched: Great Performances - Company
Currently Reading: Windy City by Scott Simon

As a kid, there was no limit to the things I wanted to be when I grew up. Assistant Director of Brand Strategy and Promotion never made the list, oddly, but, sometime after fashion designer and before virologist, I was bound and determined to be a marine biologist. My focus was on the cute and cuddly side of the professsion (read: dolphins), but I also had a strange obsession with sharks.

Now to this day, I'm not a fan of open water. I'm afraid that every ripple and rush bear the imminent onslaught of a shark attack, or worse (blame that irrationality on reading Stephen King in junior high). Still, back then I could put aside my fear for fascination. I'd watch every documentary, read any article... Shark Week was something to look forward to well in advance, much in the same way that I prepare for for Restaurant Week now.

I never really wanted to get up close and personal with sharks, not in open water, not in a cage, not even from the safety of a boat (I'd seen Jaws; I knew what those things were capable of). The sole exception to this rule was the Whale Shark. Perhaps it was because of their close resemblance to their cetacean neighbors, or because of their general elusiveness, I craved them.

The likelihood of seeing one seemed nonexistent and the desire to do so slipped back into my subconscious as my motivations moved on from marine life to Muppets. Even so, a few years ago, when the Georgia Aquarium opened, the feelings came flooding back. They had Whale Sharks.
I didn't have much reason or desire to go to Atlanta (I'd been before, nice enough), but the taunting of a real life whale shark sighting pulled at me. In the last year, I've had two false alarms for business travel to Atlanta, and both times my heart sank knowing I was no closer to fulfilling this two-decade old desire.

Yesterday, work brought me to Atlanta and US Air's schedule is keeping me here until 2pm, giving me just enough time to visit the aquarium.
Is it everything I hoped for? Yes and no. The whale sharks are amazing, to be sure, but they seem smaller and therefore less majestic than I imagined. Still, this opportunity to be so close to something I thought was unattainable is humbling. I know that life is full of such moments, but rarely are they recognized or appreciated. The technology we use, the places we go, the people we meet - how much of that did we ever imagine we'd encounter, even in our wildest dreams?
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They Were Right

2008-07-10T21:05:00.000-04:00

My favorite statistic of all time is the the most common name for drivers of white cars is Deb. I heard this years ago, like pre-junior high, most likely from a highly reputable source like the Z Morning Zoo on Z100. It's stayed with me all these years, so much so that it's one of the top reasons I refuse to own a white car.
Tonight, while walking back from teet another trip to The Dairy Godmother (hey, I said I walked), when I came upon this beaut. Statistics in action, baby.
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Pittsburgh Loves Me Back

2008-07-07T16:18:00.003-04:00

Song In My Head: Bixby Canyon Bridge - Death Cab for Cutie
Last Movie Watched: Trainspotting
Currently Reading: Capote in Kansas - A Ghost Story

It's been over a year since I last set foot in Pittsburgh (and truth be told, I wouldn't mind going back... especially if the city again provides a red Mustang and pierogies galore), but apparently it's the city that keeps on giving. I just received a request from Creative Nonfiction to use one of my photographs in an upcoming online edition.

In July of 2008, Creative Nonfiction will launch a website entitled “Pittsburgh in Words,” as part of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary celebration. This website will feature 7 new essays about the city as well as classicn onfiction work about the city and its people. They are including illustrations with many of the pieces, and felt that my picture of the WQED sign (specifically, we'dbe using just the "Q") would be a great fit for Stewart O'Nan's essay "My Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

There's no pay, of course, but I will get a credit. I suppose that's the next best thing to getting paid in pierogies.

How Far We Are

2008-06-28T22:57:00.000-04:00

Real live Wax Standard CDs, for sale. Soon to be on iTunes, currently available on digstation.com. Support my manz.
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Dairy Godmother

2008-06-26T21:12:00.000-04:00

Currently Reading: All the Way Home by David Giffels
Last Movie Watched: Persepolis
Song in my Head: Only the Finest - the Wax Standard

If ever there was a night for ice cream (alright, frozen custard), this is it. Someone turned the humidity up to "Fucking High" this morning, and now the switch is stuck. It's after 9PM, its essentially twilight, but the heat is still enough to thicken my throat and instantly weigh down on me and my ill-selected jeans.

Fortunately, The Dairy Godmother is a a short 0.7 miles from my new abode, a major neighborhood perk if there ever was one. I like to think that the roundtrip will make my frozen indulgence less sinful, but even I can't swallow that. Maybe if I consider the additional benefit of walking vs. Driving I can lessen the guilt factor, just a little.
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What's worse...

2008-06-21T15:16:00.000-04:00

..driving through tornado country and hearing the emergency alert system interrupt NPR, or, after hearing said alert, not hearing any information about why it sounded in the first place.

Comforting, really.

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Some Things Change

2008-06-16T12:34:00.000-04:00

Currently Reading: The Woods by Tana French
Last Movie Watched:
Song on my iPod: Black Flowers - Yo la Tengo

I'm sitting at a two-top at Ollie's, facing out to the intersection of 84th and Broadway on the Upper West Side. In 90 minutes, I have a meeting at Sesame Workshop, a few more blocks south, across from Lincoln Center.

It was six years ago - god, six? - that these streets were my stomping ground. I'd intern at the Workshop, trekking up from my fellowship apartment in Union Square, bearing the heat and the smells that go with it on the subway. Once a week, I'd treat myself to lunch at Ollie's, always happy to get a small table, preferably upstairs, and enjoy an intern's feast of vegetable dumplings and a vegetable roll.

Ollie's has changed. It used to be two stories, and the entrance was inside the atrium of an office building. Now it's a small square on the corner, brighter and modern. I was worried that the food had changed, too, but my fears were dismissed once the waiter poured my tea and I bit into my spring roll. Hot as it was, I could still taste the undercurrent of cinnamon that made me order it week after week all those years ago.

Some things change, but I'm so glad at least that bit stayed the same.
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Good morning Carolina

2008-06-10T06:27:00.000-04:00

Only 3 more hours til I'm finally home. Thank goodness.
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Never Say Never

2008-06-09T23:46:00.000-04:00

So on my way to Oregon, during my unexpected layover in Phoenix, I spotted the Fox Sports Sky Box and vowed never to set foot inside, unless absolutely necessary. I am now eating my words, along with a cheeseburger, cause it's the only "decent" (I use the word hesitantly considering Fox is involved). Of course I'm in the line of fire of several screens that are set to Fox News - not Sports, as the restaurant marquee promises - and I question how long my cheeseburger will remain in my digestive system if I'm caught in its unholy tractor beam. Luckily, despite having already finished four books on vacation already, I have two remaining in my carryon alone, and can use David Sedaris as a shield if necessary.
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Going home

2008-06-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

I'm at SEA-TAC, waiting for my flight home. That flight isn't for another 2 hours, so I'm going to veg out with I'm Not There, courtesy of Netflix, and an unhealthy amount of Starburst. I'll take in the 50-something degree weather as long as I can, considering DC turned into a sauna the moment I left town next week. And I'd been so happy wearing jeans (translation: not having to shave my legs).
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42

2008-06-05T15:49:00.000-04:00

Grabbing lunch - grilled cheese panini and iced tea - at the Sunnyside Up Cafe. Totally tickled by the note on my table number. It is, after all, the answer to the great meaning of life.
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High and Mighty

2008-06-04T17:38:00.000-04:00

Finally on the train to Albany. It's a lovely view from the top of the doubledecker.
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The saga continues

2008-06-04T16:53:00.000-04:00

Well I'm finally in Oregon (riding in a cab to the Amtrak station, listening to a lovely muzak version of "Never Gonna Dance Again" on the radio)... Too bad my luggage isn't here to enjoy it. Yes, my luggage, held captive overnight in Vegas, somehow missed the plane this morning. US Air tells me that it should arrive on the next few flights out of Vegas, but then they've got to get it to me ... Two hours south in Corvallis. So glad I've been wearing the same outfit for nearly 36 hours. Good thing Jocelyn and I are essentially the same build.
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The Saint Tropez

2008-06-04T05:21:00.000-04:00

Oh yes, that's a hot tub in the corner of my 4-hour hotel room.

Then again, that IS how I roll in Vegas.
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Stays in Vegas

2008-06-04T04:24:00.000-04:00

Currently Reading: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Song in My Head: Valencia - The Decemberists

Well the flight wasn't so hampered by the storms... Those cleared up by the time we took off, 90 minutes late, resulting in me missing my connecting flight to Portland. So now I'm stuck in Vegas for 6 hours before jumping on a flight to Phoenix and then another to finally arrive in Portland around noon. And then I need to find an alternate route to Corvallis as my original plan was a bus at 11:40.

This is turning into quite the trek... I'd try my luck at the tables while I'm here, but considering my streak today, that may not be the best idea.

Funny to be back in Vegas. The first, and only, time I was here was in October 2001. It is amazingly strange to think how different things are now from back then, not so much in the person I've become, but in the person, back then, I thought I'd be (and be with, for that matter).

On the shuttle now to the Saint Tropez. Despite the delay being weather related, US Air is putting us up for the night. Granted, a "night" for me is only going to be a few hours as I've rerouted myself through Phoenix on a 6:45am flight... Getting into Phoenix by 12:45PM and, knock on wood, to Albany by 4:10 and Corvallis shortly after.

What a day...
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Newsgasm

2008-06-03T20:13:00.000-04:00

Currently Reading: Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck
Last Movie Watched: Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story
Song in My Head: Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers

I'm sitting at DCA, waiting for my flight to Portland - via Vegas - and watching CNN cream themselves as the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination for Obama dwindles. It's an audio-visual money shot, let me tell you.

The horse race is finally ending, and even though the winner is clearly in the lead by several lengths, the news just keeps fluttering around, repeating on loop what we all know is about to happen as if it were a revelation. This is why I stick to wire reports and The Daily Show - to avoid this circle jerk.

I wonder how I can get my hands on a remote to switch all the monitors to PBS...

I just looked outside, and the ridiculous rainstorm that has stationed itself in Arlington over the last hour, just in time for my flight. It is not pretty (only CNN is uglier at the moment), and the fact that I will be taking off in this shortly is not making me happy, not at all.

I should be taking off from BWI, but) route to the Metro (to get me to Amtrak, to get me to US Air), the airline called to tell me that my flight to Vegas would be delayed, causing me to miss connection to Seattle. Luckily, I was able to switch everything around so that I could fly from National to Portland, getting me that much closer to my destination. No more 5 hour journey on Amtrak, just 2 hours on Greyhound - which I'm willing to tolerate only because it's Oregon, and not the Midwest like my last long-distance bus journey.

I suppose the rain is fitting considering my Northwest destination. At least when I get there, there won't be any turbulence.
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Washed Clean

2008-05-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

Five straight days of rain have washed the blackboard-paint Crystal Flight clean. I desperately want to go at it, but the sponsor hasn't put out the box of crayons. Boo.
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View from a comfy chair

2008-04-18T16:55:00.000-04:00

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A Nice Place To Visit

2008-04-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

I am in Evansville, sunk into a worn, green velvet arm chair, drinking iced apple chai and eating a vegan granola cookie while reading chick lit. I just figured out that The Jayhawks' "All the Right Reasons" is playing over the sound system; it's the same song I listened to just a few minutes ago, when my iPod picked it out on random as I drove down Veterans Memorial Parkway.

These are the Evansville moments that I miss, that I missed, because I never took advantage of them enough when I lived here. I wonder how much different it would be, four years older, and more experienced, if not wiser...
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Oh Happy Day!

2008-04-15T11:38:00.004-04:00

Song In My Head: This Is The Day - The The
Last Movie Watched: Dan in Real Life

It's one of the most wonderful times of the year (I mean, there are so many most wonderful times - Restaurant Week, Christmas, Fourth of July, Austin City Limits - I can't pick just one) - announcement of the ACL Festival lineup! Sure, Radiohead isn't the Sunday night headliner, and neither Death Cab nor REM appear on the bill, but still, look who does (edited down to the folks I know and am excited to see):

Foo Fighters ("Excited" may be too strong a word in this case. I'd skip them for another headliner if there's counter-programming)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (Do you know how excited I am to hear "Gone, Gone, Gone" live?)
Beck (Especially after seeing the Washington Ballet's latest piece using his work, I'm stoked for this).
David Byrne (Truth be told, I know this will be a disappoint since it's not full on Talking Heads, but close enough)
Gnarls Barkley
The Raconteurs
N.E.R.D.
Iron & Wine
Gillian Welch (I will hoot and holler like no tomorrow if she plays "Revelator")
Band of Horses
The Swell Season (Hooray that I get to see them twice this year!)
Vampire Weekend (Yes, I've jumped on this bandwagon, and I'm fine with that).
Stars
Jenny Lewis
M. Ward (fingers crossed, mayhaps Zooey Deschanel will join him for a song or two?)
Heartless Bastards
Ingrid Michaelson (clearly, I am a sucker for Old Navy commercial songs)

I'm also sort of interested in seeing: John Fogerty, Tegan & Sara, G. Love & Special Sauce, Tristan Prettyman, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Erykah Badu, Patty Griffin, Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels, Silversun Pickups (only because I like the song "Lazy Eye"), Drive-By Truckers, Louis XIV (if only because they have such kickass cover art).

I'm working my way through MySpace to check out the rest. Depending on scheduling, I may deem the following acts worthy of my viewing (otherwise, I'll just use the time to eat Salt Lick BBQ - mmmmm, salt lick....): Hot Chip, Man Man, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Mates of State.

Of course, the ACL folks will now promptly set up the schedule so that all the bands I want to see will overlap

IMG00140.jpg

2008-04-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

Leaving Ira Glass @ Lisner Auditorium, I am behind this car on 20th Street, NW. I am jealous of her plates. In fairness, I've seriously considered a PBS version for years.

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It's 5 o'clock Somewhere

2008-04-09T09:19:00.000-04:00

Waiting for the bus to work (late, thanks to the second blown fuse of the week) and noticing that the 50-something sitting in the bus shelter is chugging a forty. He's not even brown-bagging it folks - just using a plastic 7-11 bag. Quality.
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The People In My Neighborhood

2008-04-04T14:21:00.000-04:00

Just another slice of life at PBS. God bless Christopher, resident safety beacon and softball coach.
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Usher Duty

2008-04-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

Sakes alive, I get to wear a costume for ushering at the Studio tonight. Thank heavens for rainpan 43 and avant garde theatre.

image/jpeg
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My day at work

2008-03-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

My job today is to observe and discuss children exploring at Port Discovery in Baltimore. I spent the morning climbing rope ladders, swinging down zip lines and being funny with magnetic poetry like this.

image/jpeg
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My Current View

2008-03-15T15:27:00.000-04:00

image/jpeg

And Mazzy Star on the iPod. With Dan Savage to read. Oh yes. Life is good today.
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Oh How They've Grown...

2008-02-28T12:19:00.004-05:00

Song In My Head: Falling Slowly - The Swell Season
Last Movie Watched: Always

So in the summer of 2004, I went to a Damien Rice concert in Boston. The opening band shared Damien's Irish roots, and I faintly remembered my sister telling me something about how the band - The Frames - was pretty darn decent. Here it is in writing, folks - my sister was right. You can read about the whole thing in an old blog post - a reminder that a) damn this blog is old and b) damn this blog's 4th anniversary is coming up in a week. If you're too lazy to click through, I'll summarize: An Oscar winner told me that I had nice knickers.

Anyways, I've since seen Glen (The Frames lead singer) a few times in concert, mostly with the full band. However, about a year and a half ago, he began touring with a side project, The Swell Season. My friend Jill and I went to see them at Iota about a year and a half ago... and together we made up possibly 1/6 of the audience. You can read all about that here. Not even a year later, they sold out the 9:30 Club, which you can listen to here. Wow, my third decade is really well documented...

Finally, as you may have seen, they won this year's Oscar for Best Song for "Falling Slowly" from Once, not necessarily my favorite movie (though definitely worth seeing) but absolutely my favorite song from it, even if I do, admittedly, prefer The Frames' full band version. Jon Stewart even let Marketa come back out on stage to finish her speech, and he's still talking about it.

Anyways, they're heading back out on tour (see full dates), but I'm making plans with Jill (god bless those Irish girls) to head down to Richmond for the May 16th show. Who's with me? Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning, so give me a shout ASAP if you're interested.

Casual in Connecticut

2008-02-27T14:46:00.000-05:00

image/jpeg
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In the Blogosphere

2008-02-26T19:07:00.005-05:00

Song In My Head: Dance of the Dead - Cloud Cult
Last Movie Watched: Eagle vs. Shark
Currently Reading: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

So via YouTube comment, I found out that my video clip of Big George and Little George dancing to Soulja Boy's Superman (taken at the Rutgers vs. GW women's game in November) has been making its way around the web, including the Washington Post's D.C. Sports Bog. So not only has this month seen my debut on NPR, I can also say that I've contributed to The Post. At least that's what I'll put on my resume until it costs me employment.

The video is now posted on:

D.C. Sports Bog
Colonial Hoops
Flyers Fieldhouse (Dayton blog)

Now if only I got residuals...

Travelogue - Day 1

2008-02-20T23:30:00.005-05:00

Song In My Head: Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind - Yo La Tengo
Last Movie Watched: Dedication
Currently Reading: Beginner's Greek by James Collins

There's nothing like business travel to make me both exceptionally hectic and appreciative of my job situation at the same time. It's one thing to be on a project when you have access to your desktop and work facilities, but to be thousands of miles away (~2,356 miles, according to Google Maps) always puts me in a bit of a tizzy, lest I forget something. It didn't help that Tuesday, my one day in the office this week, was chock full of meetings. However, I think all is well and we'll be good to go for our focus groups tomorrow.

Getting here wasn't too much of an ordeal. I drove to Annapolis last night since Richard & Erin had offered to cat sit for Freeloader. I figured since I was flying out of BWI early in the morning, I'd just stay the night myself, which would also help Freeloader get acclimated. As far as I could tell, he's okay with the other cats, since they're pretty gentle, though he has finally picked up the puffy tail/low growl traits that my parents' cats have been using on him for the last few years. This came out in full force when he met his first dog, Guinness, last night. At first they walked right up to eachother and just sniffed a bit, but then someone must have moved a little to quickly because suddenly Guinness was yelping and piddling on the carpet a bit and Freeloader had grown a mini-faux hawk on his back from puffing his hair out so much. No one was hurt, just a little scared, though I do find it amusing that Freeloader held his ground and that he made a dog piss himself.

I got to BWI in the morning with just enough time to spare. I'm still amused at the stupidity of people in airports. It's been 6.5 years of these security measures people. Take off your damn shoes and get your laptops out. It's not that difficult. Sigh.

I hadn't flown on Southwest since they instituted their newest set of boarding rules. I was used to checking in 24 hours in advance and staking a claim in Group A, but now you get a Group and a number. Thanks, Southwest - I've always wanted to be in a caste system. So, despite checking in online 23h 20m beforehand, I was in Group B, Number 14. That means 43 people checked in before me. Ergo, I am not the most anal retentive person out there. Of course, I was a little anal retentive when Number 15 tried to get on the plane in front of me. We're numbered for a reason, go for it. Next time, log in a few minutes earlier and I'll be happy to let you go in front of me. It's a slippery slope, people, and I'm not going to allow for it.

I still managed to get a window seat, albeit over the wing, but since I use that position more for resting my head when I fall asleep than for the view, I was fine with that. And then we sat for 30 minutes because 15 people from a connecting flight were just getting off their aircraft and then of course there were two families traveling with children, and we needed to rearrange ourselves so that they could sit together. I hate that I was peeved by this, but I was. I understand that SW is an affordable airline and it's hard enough to travel with kids, but can't families make some sort of arrangement to make sure this crap doesn't happen and we're not sitting on the tarmac for any longer than we have to already? At least I wasn't in a rush, but I know other folks had connections to make and they couldn't have been happy.

The five hour flight was probably one of the smoothest I've had in a while, and I probably only had to chant the Hail Mary about half a dozen times (mostly during take off). Ahh yes, I lapse right back to Catholicism at the merest suggestion of a fiery crash. Blame the nun who taught my 3rd grade CCD class. It all goes back to her.

Once I picked up my rental car (not a Chevy HHR, thank goodness, as the woman at the counter originally told me) I made a clear and direct path to In N Out Burger for some double-double animal style, fries well done and a chocolate shake. And a large diet coke. Yes, I know, but how many miles have you run this month? I'm up to 38.2 miles so far (split fairly evenly between indoors and outdoors) so I think I deserve a heart attack on a plate. I have to say, good as it was, it wasn't as good as in LA. It did feel good to be eating it outdoors, though, in flip flops, sans coat. That makes every meal taste better.

I made my way over to my fancy, schmancy Spring Hill Suites (okay, not fancy schmancy, but accumulating me Marriot Rewards Points regardless) to unload and check email. I thought that would take 15 minutes, but then I realized that I'd forgotten to put my "Out of Office" email response up, so that took a bit longer. Finally I headed out to the Mill Avenue District, under Lauren's recommendation, to check out the shops and inhale the smells of Tempe (a mix of spring, patchouli and bar).

I didn't buy much, save for the This American Life - Season 1 DVD at Borders, which was on sale. On Sale plus Borders Credit = me buying something. Bonus: the checkout guy at Borders looked like a mix between Jesus and my senior prom date. I wandered around a bit, gave the 'rents a call, tried to find Greasy T's (unsuccessfully) and took what I thought would be cool pictures, except I didn't realize I had some schmutz on my lens. Bah. I did, however, find a new favorite song while shopping in Urban Outfitters - Muscles' Hey Muscles I Love You. The lyrics are as follows:

last night i had a most terrible dream
it was 12am and the music disappeared
and i'm crying
i'm shaken
i'm scared
i'm vacant

hey muscles, i love you
i wanna have your babies
just come home, i'll kiss you
don't worry 'bout the neighbours

Brills.

I drove up to South Mountain Park just as the sun was getting low in the sky and took some more schmutz-added photos. I didn't go all the way into the park, though, since I thought I might return the next day. This idea was confirmed when I passed Ponderosa Stables and discovered that I CAN RENT A HORSE TOMORROW! I haven't been riding since Banff and boy do I want to get back in the saddle. I called up and their rates are very reasonable and they have a first come/first served policy starting at 8am tomorrow morning. So, you know where I'll be bright and early in the AM.

Then I went off the enjoy the American marvel that is a Mills mall. It's a true testament to the standards of our country when we have malls bigger than most high schools. Of course I didn't help this situation by buying a load of heavily discounted items at Bath & Body Works, a sensible shirt for riding tomorrow at Forever 21 and the cutest/hottest damn dress you've ever seen for $20 at Ann Taylor Loft. Now all I need is somewhere to wear said dress. In between these purchases, I had to avoid kiosk salesmen like the plague. I am clearly checking the phone I currently own, why on earth would you ask me if I want to buy a new phone? And using a line like "Miss, you dropped your smile" isn't going to help your situation. No, not at all.

Then it was back to the hotel for a 5k run, which I would have been prouder about if I had a) remembered to warm up and b) the "fitness center" (a laughable title) was better ventilated. I put those calories right back on at dinner, and now here I am, lollying around with the time difference and contemplating cleaning up all the stuff I've managed to scatter around this place in the half a day I've been here.

And oh yeah, I couldn't see the lunar eclipse because of either the cloud cover or the moon being too low. So here's looking forward to 2010...

Focus groups tomorrow - hooray!

Golden God of Running

2008-02-18T00:19:00.006-05:00

Song on iTunes: The Island: Come & See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning - The Decemberists
Last Movie Watched: I Could Never Be Your Woman
Currently Reading: Smart Girls Like Me by Diane Vadino

Like The Beatles said, it's getting better all the time. I struck out for a run late on Saturday afternoon, trading in my usual stretch of the W&OD Trail for a new stretch, starting just past the 11.5 Mile mark and hauling up to Mile 15 before looping back. That's seven miles, folks, my longest stretch ever. Better yet, I did it all while maintaining a 10:00 pace. Best yet, this was three hours after consuming a pint of Harp at Four Courts for Richard's farewell brunch. I already knew that my best runs have been during hangovers, but this was something new.

So now I've covered miles 0 to 4.5 (all within close proximity to home) and 8.5 to 11.5. I think I may hop on the trail at 15 tomorrow, if I can get my butt out of bed early enough, and see if I can get close to covering close to half of the trail. Or, considering the cost of gas, maybe I'll just try to fill in that gap between 4.5 and 8.5 for a solid eight miler.

I'm now considering running the whole trail, in segments, by the end of the year. This is entirely doable if I keep up one long run per weekend. This upcoming weekend is out, as I'll be in Austin/Waco for work, but the weekend after could bring me from Mile 15 to Mile 18 (most likely run in reverse, to accomodate parking availability). The following weekend is the St. Patty's 8k, and I spend the weekend after in Ft. Myers, FL for work. That leaves March 22nd for Mile 18 through Mile 23 - I want to try and do a full 10 miles before the actual Cherry Blossom 10 Mile on April 4th. The trail runs 44.5 miles, all the way to Purcellville, so I could conceivably cover half the trail before April.

A lofty goal, I know, but those are the best kind.

I Forgot To Do My Homework

2008-02-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Little of a Let Down - The Wax Standard (yes, still, it's an awesome song and I start every workout by listening to the unmixed version of it... there, I feel better)
Last Movie Watched: Great World of Sound
Currently Reading: Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes

I forgot to do my homework. It's not so much that I forgot that I was busy... and that made me forget. But there's plenty of time to make up for it and last I checked, there was no syllabus stating exact deadlines. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I'll take on the assignment from January 26th first, and then sometime this week I'll get to this week's assignment about Worst Date Ever (cause that'll take time... maybe I'll just have to talk about the worst dating situations ever... but that could be a whole chick lit novel). So here goes...

This week's assignment was to choose your favorite show and write it's plot. Very topical, with the writer's strike and all. But here's the thing: if I could actually come up with a plot, I would. I'd be in LA, riding on Zach's coat tails, and making it big in Hollywood. However, I am not. I can't create out of thin air like that. There, I've admitted it.

It's my firm belief that there are (at least) two types of people in this world - creators and editors. Once upon a time, I had the gall to think that I was a creator. I thought I was the most creative thing since sliced bread. And then I met some truly creative people and went "Oh shit". The chances are slim that I will ever sit down and write out the great American novel (or even the so-so Mid-Atlantic short story), and even slimmer that the end result would be shared with others, let alone published. Part of this is a lack in self-confidence, sure, but even more so it's a strong sense of self-awareness (and oh boy, do I EXCEL at self-awareness). I know what I am capable of, and I'm pretty sure that creating something out of nothing is not it.

However, should you have a story, a song, a joke - whatever - that you're not sure of, send it my way. I'll diagnose it in a second. I'll tell you what I like, what I don't like and why. I'll help you fix it. That's what I do. That's what I'm good at. When I do it, and it works, and it's appreciated, hooray for me and life is swell. Problem is, in order for such things to happen, I have to turn off the little voice in the back of my head that says the creatives know exactly what they're doing, thank you very much, and if I was really so good at the editing bit, I should be able to create stuff, too. But hey, that's why there are editors and writers in the publishing world, musicians and producers in the studio, actors and directors on the stage. There needs to be a balance somewhere - we can't all be creating without a sounding board, and we can't all be sounding off about... sounding off. Even if the latter is entirely what this blog is about.

I suppose you could use all that for a plot line of a new show. Or just tack it on to Quarterlife. I suppose that would be fitting.

All This Can Be Yours... on 2/13

2008-02-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

2008-02-04T23:31:00.000-05:00

Working for the Weekend

2008-02-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Little of a Let Down - The Wax Standard
Last Movie Watched: Ira & Abby

It's only Monday and I need another weekend. Where the hell did this one go?

Friday night was The Wax Standard's third show @ The Red & The Black. We pulled in over forty people, my favorite of which - no offense to anyone else - were Tales & Scales (yes, that syntax is bothering me, but I can't even begin to unjumble it). Zadie, Neil, Meaghan and Bonnie made a special trek from a gig out on the Eastern Shore to come check out the show. We were so excited, we took zany pictures afterwards:

The show itself was also great. There are loads of videos on YouTube (apologies for the shakiness, especially on "Little Boxes" but hey, people were rocking out). It was also supposed to be Aaron's last show as guitarist, but more on that later...

So I finally got to bed around 3am, only to wake up and discover that my Yahoo! email account isn't working. Something is screwy with my password, or my account got hacked, and I'm still in the process of fixing that. So if you're trying to reach me, I'm not ignoring you. Just call or IM or Facebook or use my work account and you'll go along just fine. I rushed off for a quick jump to the gym (afterall, there are only 33 days until the St. Patty's Day 8k and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler is two months from today) before quickly making myself presentable for the Studio Theatre's 30th Anniversary Gala. I think I cleaned up nice (that's me on the LEFT, by the way):

Again, it was 3am bedtime after all the dancing and schmoozing and champagn-ing, but I was resilient and ran 5.75 miles on the W&OD Trail the next morning. Good thing I've been doing so much cardio, because it prepared my heart for the Super Bowl and the Giants' amazing last-minute victory. I've got a soft spot in my heart for Eli Manning (being a fellow younger sibling and all), so I was so happy to see him get his moment in the spotlight. Plus, you know, Tom Brady's a tool. Same for Bill Belichick.

And now I'm in a tizzy on a last minute Wax Standard show. The next gig was supposed to be on February 24th at Galaxy Hut (still going on, don't worry), but the booking agent of The Red & The Black asked the band to open at The Rock & Roll Hotel (also under their management) on February 13th. The headliner is Sounds Under Radio, heard on the Spiderman 3 soundtrack, and DC's Once Okay Twice is also playing. Aaron has agreed to step in for a grand finale performance so the band is good to go. Doors are @ 8pm, and The Wax Standard kicks things off at 8:30pm. Cover is $10 and all ages are welcome. Phew. Now please show up (and bring me a pillow so I can finally get a rest).

2008-01-31T22:44:00.000-05:00

Another Day In DC

2008-01-28T20:36:00.001-05:00

Song on the Radio: No One - Alicia Keys
Last Movie Watched: Atonement
Currently Reading. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Driving back from volunteer orientation at the Studio, I was smack dab in line to the Capitol where the State of the Union is currently being given. To be honest, I could give two shuts about whatever this administration has to say, but it's another 'Oh yeah, I live in the middle of all that' moment.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Strange Smells of Washington

2008-01-24T18:05:00.001-05:00

Song in My Head: Every Little Thing is Gonna Be Alright - Bob Marley
Last Movie Watched: Stranger Than Fiction

On my way to a GW Young Alumni Committee Meeting... Got out at Farragut West to discover that the station smells not so much like root beer, but root beer-flavored Dum Dums. Odd.

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The Game

2008-01-22T23:19:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Sunglasses at Night - Corey Hart
Last Movie Watched: The Motorcycle Diaries

In my constant effort to keep busy - an effort doubled, if not more, in recent weeks - I joined my friends late Saturday night for an outing to Rock It Grill in Alexandria. It is, by far, the top people-watching location in the Washington metropolitan area. It is where 30-somethings go to dry-hump and sing karaoke. It is beautiful.

The problem with going to Rock It, though, is the men. Thirty-somethings (and their elders) are happy to make out on the barstool with Sherri from Accounts Payable until they smell fresh blood. Walking into Rock It Grill looking like a 20-something is dangerous, especially if you, like me, hate being approached by guys who have no business approaching you and the feeling of said guys' hands on the small of your back.

I don't mean to sound like a snob. If someone within five or seven years of my age came up to me in a bar with the intention of having an actual conversation, 1) I probably wouldn't even realize I was being hit on and 2) if I did notice, I'd be flattered. What I am not flattered by is a man, easily fifteen years older than me, walking up to me and my equally young company to try and make I move. Especially when the opening line is "Hey, were you just outside? I hear there was a fight."

Now yes, we were just outside, but no, there was not a fight. This sounded, in every way, like a line. However, being a relative novice at dating, I had no idea how much of a line it was until tonight when I shared this story with a friend who immediately informed me that it was a line... from a book.... called The Game.

This is what is out there. This is what I fear and loathe. Help me.

Homework Assignment

2008-01-21T20:12:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: What Sarah Said - Death Cab for Cutie
Last Movie Watched: Into the Wild
Currently Reading: Golden Country by Jennifer Gilmore

My NPR debut has come and gone. I love how everyone texted/emailed/called/IMed immediately after the segment aired, and that most of those were people who didn't even know I was going to be on. I love that all my friends listen to NPR on Saturday evenings :) If you missed it, the whole bit is online at npr.org.

What sucks is that I scored on the first shot (story of my life, I suppose), and now there's no real rush to submit anything again. I mean, I could, but that'd be like the kid in class who raises their hand to answer every question, and I've outgrown that. So here's my compromise.

The assignments keep coming week by week and I need an excuse to write every week... not an excuse, really, but a motivation. I work well on assignment. So I'm going to respond on here, so long as I can think of a reasonable response. Here goes....This week's topic is nicknames. I've had a few over time, but never anything .

The beauty of a nickname occurs in two situations. The first is when it is bestowed - the moment arises and someone sees you so clearly as to say "Of course you should be called [insert nickname here]." This is how all good nicknames are born and stick. The second is when someone who doesn't know your nickname finds it and uses it so naturally that you forget that it's new to them, that they've never heard anyone else call you that before. In either case, the beauty of the situation is being known so well by someone that they can capture you so completely and easily.

The odd thing is, I don't think I've ever really had either experience, at least not in the complete sense. I've had nicknames, though - Devo, Chief, Duchess - but they've floated in and out of use, or have been limited in use to only a handful of people. I've come closer to having the second experience. It was May of 2004 and I was in the HGSE computer lab, editing film for a class website and IMing at the same time, when I was called "Dev." It's easy enough nickname, a shortening of my full name, but it's rare that anyone calls me that, and rarer that someone can call me that and make it sound right. That one person managed to get it right the first time and on the rare occassion I hear him say it again, if I hear him say anything it all, it still sounds right.

Here's hoping I get to hear it right, one way or another, sometime again.

All My Dreams

2008-01-18T15:13:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn & John
Last Movie Watched: Idiocracy
Currently Reading: World War Z by Max Brooks

Holy shenanigans, I'm gonna be on NPR. For real.

So I was sitting at home by my lonesome self last weekend, plugging away into my laptop when, on my beloved NPR, I heard the weekly segment "Homework Hotline". For those of you not in the know (or with better ways to spend your weekend afternoons), at the end of every Weekend All Things Considered, they ask listeners to respond to a prompt of sorts (i.e. stories about your high school principal). Last week's request was for "memorable characters" - and as someone who devours books as if they were cheesecakes, it wasn't too hard for me to come up with a response. I typed up a little nothing on my laptop and mailed it away on that system of tubes known as the internet.

Yesterday, I received an email from an NPR staffer asking if they could call me today to talk about my submission. Lo and behold, I found myself sitting at my desk this afternoon, being recorded for broadcast.

Weekend All Things Considered airs Saturdays and Sundays from 5pm to 6pm, but you should check your local listings to make sure. That is, if you want to hear me wax poetic in the first place. I'd assume you do, considering you're already seeing my poetic waxings in blog form.

Now if only they'd hire me as a regular contributor...

Making the Quantum Leap

2008-01-17T22:46:00.001-05:00

Song In My Head: Love Song - Sara Barielles
Last Movie Watched: The Ten
Currently Reading: Five Minds For The Future by Howard Gardner

The sweetest gig in DC is theatre ushering. It still amazes me that more people haven't figured out this scheme. Once a month, usually less - at least if you're only working on theatre - you stand around for 90 minutes or so, help some old people hang up their coats or find the restroom, and then you get to see a $50 show for free. Seriously, the ushers have to be making out like gangbusters on the deal. Which is why I presently usher at no less than four theatres in the area - The Shakespeare Theatre, The Studio, The Arena and Signature. True, I may cut down next year, especially depending on the seasons, but for now it's nice to have a show just about every week, especially when I could use a few hours of being quiet, all the better to keep me distracted from the other silence in my life right now.

Tonight I saw a truly spectacular performance, in the truest sense of spectacle. The Shakespeare Theatre hosted a fundraiser for Ford's Theatre (currently under renovation) titled A Night With Scott Bakula. Yes, that Scott Bakula. Quantum Leap Scott Bakula. Now I'll give the guy credit, he's a trained singer and actor who started his career in musical theatre - he's even been nominated for a Tony. Still, this was out and out the cheesiest show I've ever seen. As corny as Kansas as August. He sang TV jingles. Only David Sedaris can get away with that, and even then, he has to do it in the style of Billie Holliday. I admired his effort, but I found myself slackjawed at how hard he was trying, how effort-ful it seemed.

Though I stick by my evaluation of the performance, I have to step back and realize that part of my contempt for the show stems from my jealousy that someone even got to perform it. Someone got paid (or maybe not, since it was a benefit, but you get the idea) to stand on stage, tell their story and sing their favorite songs. The closest I get to that is when I get up on stage at Rock It Grill and announce that I'm a "karaoke virgin" before belting out a slightly sharp rendition of "Dancin' in the Dark". I feel like I used to be, if not truly talented, then at least creative. What happened?

It's not that the drive has disappeared completely. This blog, of course, is the primary way in which I can let out whatever bursts of creativity (if you can call it that) rise up within me. I tried picking up guitar last year, and while I'm still plugging away... okay, planning to plug away at it, I need more guidance than can be found with the Arlington County Rec Program. I've thought about taking acting lessons just for the chance to perform, but then I thought it would be better to pay my rent. It's been a few years since I've even bothered to look at audition notices for community shows, mainly because there aren't very many community theatre groups around here. Everyone's too professional. Everyone's too damn talented.

It would be nice to go to a play or a concert one day and not find myself staring at the actresses' mouth or the guitarist's hands, wishing I could be the one letting loose with those words, those chords. Not because I've lost the desire, but because I know that I am not only capable of doing the same, but because I am. There is a huge difference between having potential and using it... if I've learned nothing else in the last four years, it is that. I don't want to be the person who always wants to be someone else and winds up being no one. There's so much more to life than that, if you can just get past that tiny little hump.

No Pain, No Gain

2008-01-13T20:32:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Maybe, This Time - OK Go
Last Movie Watched: City of God
Currently Reading: The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

One of my semi-official New Year's resolutions had to do with preventing unhappiness. It's easy to think that that preventing unhappiness comes naturally, and shouldn't require the focus and attention of a resolution to be achieved. But I've realized that there is a difference between happiness and gratification. Gratification is fleeting. You feel good in the moment but then you're off seeking the next hit, whenever that may arrive. The frustration of seeking gratification begins to outweigh the benefit.

It's unfortunate, then, to realize what has to be done to truly prevent unhappiness. Not only does it require denying gratification, it requires cutting out, nearly completely, the most important person in my life. It is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I know it has to be done. I wake up in the morning and the first thing that I think of is that I can't talk to my best friend today, and it makes me unbelievably sad. At the same time, though, it feels undeniably right. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but it also has the power to make the heart grow stronger, and that's what I need. A year and a half of loving someone without reciprocation has nearly worn me out, and it's time to rebuild.

Cliches exist for a reason, so I understand that I have to go one day at a time. I have to train myself to not expect a phone call or a message. As much as that will hurt, I know it's for the best. I need to create new Pavlovian responses, ones that don't involve me standing still for ages while everyone else moves on.

Divide and Conquer

2008-01-10T16:26:00.000-05:00

Song in My Head: Forget About You - Graham Colton
Last Movie Watched: Jackass 2
Currently Reading: Acceptance by Susan Coll

It is 4:25pm and I just finished sorting through my email inbox. It took me all day. Granted I had meetings between 10 and 2, but damn. That's the last time I send out a mass email to stations. Actually, that's a lie. If it was the truth, I'd probably get fired.

Damn.

Typical Washington Weather

2008-01-08T13:55:00.001-05:00

Song in my Head: Bubbly - Colby Callais
Last Movie Watched: Amores Pérros

It is January 8th and I am walking outside to run errands, sans coat. It's 68 degrees. I guess someone heard my bitching about wanting spring to come soon.

Too bad it goes back to the 40s on Sunday. At least I have Phoenix and Texas to look forward to next month, and then Florida in March.
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America Needs More Fat People

2008-01-04T15:07:00.001-05:00

Song in My Head: Mother, I Just Can't Get Enough - The New Radicals
Last Movie Watched: The Kingdom
Currently Reading: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 edited by Dave Eggers

And under the category of "Things I Actually Said"...

Lauren: The only reason Huckabee even got on the political radar is because he lost 300 lbs.
Me: Goddamn weight loss.

That's right. Down with weight loss. It allows freaky former pastors who want to put AIDS patients on a remote island to run for president. And Lauren's point is completely true. Look at this quote from The Washington Post back in 2006:

"Think about what they put on the cover of Time and Newsweek when there's no big news story," Todd says. "Diets and Jesus. There is a huge audience for this. These could be Huckabee's constituencies."

Then again, it also increases the chances of an awesome Democrat (Hillary or Barack, either way I'm happy) to kick their asses.

Then again, this is exactly how I felt eight years ago when I thought America wasn't dumb enough to vote for Bush. Ahh, I was so naive in my youth (I'm an old lady of 26 now, I can say these things).

Getting Fingered

2008-01-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Last Book Read: Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Last Movie Watched: The Extras Holiday Special

Hi. I've just met you. I've looked at the ring finger of your left hand before we've made eye contact.

It's sad but true. I have fallen into that awful, awful habit of reviewing a person's marital status by seeing if they have a ring on their finger. This is what happens when everyone and their mother around you is getting engaged or married and you have no idea if either of those things will ever happen for you.

And here's the thing... even in all my wildest dreams, if things worked out in the way that I hope they will and every obstacle to my relationship happiness was removed, I don't think I'd want to be married right now. At this point in my life, I would happy just to know that there is one person who can fathom keeping me around indefinitely, who can sort of picture having kids with me one day, if/when circumstance allows. But even before that, I would just like to know that there's someone I can rely on no matter what, that I can list as my emergency contact, that I can go on vacation with, that I can call first with big news, good or bad. And for whom I can be and do the same.

Even funnier... I'd forego the ring. I would. All those things I just listed are worth more to me than a piece of jewelry that I will spend the rest of my life worrying about getting lost or stolen.

Yes, I am an urban legend. The woman who doesn't like when someone else pays for dinner, doesn't want to trap a man into marrying her and is willing to be diamond-less to boot. And yet here I sit, in ambiguity.

Scoping out the competition

2007-12-17T14:52:00.001-05:00

Currently Listening To: Yahoo! Launchcast Holiday Music
Last Movie Watched: The Extras Holiday Special

My primary task at work today is to scope out momblogs and get a feel for what they're writing about. In general, they're blogging about what all bloggers blog about... bitching and moaning. Hey, it's why blogs were invented, so that we can vent our frustrations and pass them off onto others, kind of like the Smug cloud in South Park.

Of course I'm not exempt from this trend as my favorite thing to blog about is how I have nothing to blog about. Not that it's completely true. I have plenty to blog about, but not the balls to say it. Maybe that's my beef with Quarterlife - which I otherwise like - that someone my age would be so open about discussing their thoughts and feelings while naming names. I can't name names. I can be ambiguous til the cows come home, but I'd never get specific for fear of someone reading this and actually piecing together what I'm talking about. Then again, ambiguity is the definition of all my problems in life... and here I am, just contributing to it all that much more.

The thing about blogging is that you need a purpose. You need a theme to start with and go from there. It was easy enough to start as a graduate student and then as a transplant to Indiana. But once things in life became disconnected and (here it comes again) ambiguous, I'm all dried up. Even the specific things about life - namely work - can't be talked about, for fear of corporate retribution. Not that there's anything worth saying that would result in that.

So in thinking about it, here's what I can blog about:
- my workouts
- my books/theatre/film reviews (which are just pointless because who the fuck cares whether or not I like something, go out and judge for yourself)
- bitching about the little insignificant things that happen in between work and my ambiguous social life

And now you know why I don't blog so much anymore.

I'm debating making a New Year's resolution to blog once a day, every day for the month of January. I have to believe that there is something in my life everyday that is worth exploring. We'll see how that pans out.

Safe... For Now

2007-11-20T13:51:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab for Cutie
Last Movie Watched: The Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Currently Reading: Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead

Congressional Quarterly just came out with their rankings of the safest and most dangerous cities in the country (The Baltimore Sun shows the top 25 in each category here). Normally I'd just check to see where my current habitat ranked on the list (DC is 27th, incidentally), and then skim over to see how any of the places from my past are holding out (Newark represent at #20). The odd thing is now looking at the list as research when considering where I might live next.

It hasn't been until recently that I've even considered spreading out beyond the mid-atlantic region. Hell, four or five years ago, I'd probably have told you that I'd be living in New York right now, surviving on Ramen Noodles and happy hour freebies. And if you had told me four years ago that I'd spend a year of my life as a resident of Indiana, well... Then again, I once swore I'd never return to DC and yet here I am again.

If the last seventeen months have taught me anything, it's that you can't expect anything. You can't predict, you can't plan ("a tiny prayer to father time", if you will)... and that's something that's so hard for a person like me who has planned and prepared for every step of her life since kindergarten. I rolled with some punches and adjusted to change. Change is easy. It's when the opportunities for change slow down that it gets hard.

I wonder, then, if I might fall into the trap of change for change's sake. If I might need an opportunity to build up something new. The older I get, the more sure I am of myself than I can do it. As confident as I was as a graduate student and the time shortly thereafter, I know that I'd be better at myself then... now. If that makes sense... I suppose it's saying that I'm more comfortable in my own skin now than I've ever been, and I'm more comfortable stepping out of that skin from time to time, too.

Chalk it up to the mode I'm in now: hover. Endless waiting to figure out what comes next, hoping for the best and not knowing at all to prepare for the worst. Maybe that's all I can do at this quarter-life point, choose hope over preparation and leave it up to chance for a change.

Me & The Boss

2007-11-16T13:30:00.000-05:00

Song In My Head: Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
Last Movie Watched: The Queen
Currently Reading: Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead

A few friends from work and I did it up right last week when Bruce came through DC. No surprise appearances by The Arcade Fire, but still a good show. Here are some crappy shots from my camera phone to show you the closest I've ever been to the Boss.

Um, this doesn't seem right

2007-11-06T22:58:00.001-05:00

So I'm in a cab on my way from O'Hare to my hotel and the cannur is speeding (and I mean SPEEDING) along. Not scary on its own, until you consider that the van/cab is vibrating constantly as he does this. Seriously, it's like I put a quarter in the bed of a roadside motel in Paducah. That can't be good.
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How Depressing

2007-11-06T09:27:00.001-05:00

Song In My Head: The Devil's Arcade
Last Movie Watched: Superbad

During last year's November election, I waited 30 minutes in line to vote. There was a buzz of excitement in the air. And the Democrats swept.

I just walked out of the polling station for this year's local elections... Two minutes after I walked in. The place was empty, and apparently has been all morning.

It never ceases to amaze me how apathetic people can be about the things that can affect the greatest amount of change on their lives. Sadly, these tend to be the same people who will bitch about their property taxes, broken streetlights and potholes. Yet they won't take five minutes to do anything more than complain.

Sigh.
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Hooray For Me

2007-11-01T09:50:00.001-04:00

Song in My Head: Let It Go - Graham Colton Band
Last Movie Watched: Planet Terror

The looming threat of a bridesmaid dress and my late 20s sent me running (though not screaming) to the YMCA an astounding fifteen times this month. And what do I get as my reward? Toned biceps? Nope. A flatter stomach? Not even close. A noticeable drop on the scale? I wish (though I keep telling myself that muscle weighs more than fat).

No, I get the following rankings on the Alexandria YMCA Fitlinxx Monthly Wall of Fame:

#7 among all women, Fitlinxx points
#3 among all women, total weight lifted
#1 among women 20-29, Fitlinxx points

Boo-yah.

My level of detail

2007-10-31T17:22:00.000-04:00

Song in My Head: And She Was - Talking Heads
Currently Reading: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
Last Movie Watched: The Animation Show

It's entirely possible that I just called The Birchmere to let them know that, for the third week in a row, they misspelled Graham's name as "Graham Coulton" in their weekly ad. These things are important. You know damn well you'll never see an ad for "The Wanx Standard".
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It Will Last Longer

2007-10-22T10:21:00.000-04:00

Song in My Head: Handshake Drugs - Wilco
Last Movie Watched: Borat
Currently Reading: Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison

Slow and steady, I am conquering the Schmap scene. This time they're including some shots I took of DC. Funny thing is, I think two of them are pretty crappy photos. The only one I really like is the Grog shot I took the night of The Wax Standard's professional debut (shameless: new amazing-sounding LP coming soon, stay tuned for details).

You can see the photos (by the way, when I type that, I kind of think it like ET saying "phone home" - "phoooo tooooes") here:

Foggy Bottom
A shot of Lindy's Red Lion, one of my favorite places in all of DC, if not solely for the following two reasons:
1. They used to serve veggie burgers that tasted so much like real burgers, that I nearly complained the first time i had one. Now the veggie burgers are good, but not as great as they used to be.
2. During the President's Day blizzard of 2003, Lindy's was the only place that was open, and Evan and I got totally tanked on two pitchers of Woodchuck...draught. I miss draught Woodchuck

The White House Easter Egg Roll
I feel like I must have taken better shots at this event. Then again, those shots generally involve me and John Tartaglia, Mr. McFeeley or Abby Cadabby. Point taken. Here's hoping Easter comes later in 2008 so that I don't freeze my ass off like this year... and I quick check on Wikipedia shows that it's actually two weeks earlier next year. Damnit.

Grog & Tankard
Haven of yet-to-be-discovered amazing bands (i.e. The Wax Standard) and cover bands consisting of 40-somethings who practice in their McMansion's rec room out in Loudon County.

Look for the Cowboy Hat

2007-10-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

Song in My Head: Fergalicious - Fergie
Last Movie Watched: Failure To Launch
Currently Reading: How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers (I feel more cultured/less dirty now)

In more Wilco/Austin news (I know, I'm in withdrawal, I have a problem, I'm seeking help), CNN did a nice little story about the upcoming 33rd season of Austin City Limits, and it heavily features the Wilco taping which I attended. I'm sitting in the center section, about the third row up, closer to the (stage) right. I have no idea if you can actually see me, but I know I was the only one in the area wearing a cowboy hat.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2007/10/04/austin.city.limits.brown.pkg.cnn

CNN will either trim it to a shorter length (most likely) or use the whole thing this weekend for CNN on-air. It will also be playing soon on their digital CNN channel and may get onto Headline New's Showbiz Tonight. Spread the PBS/ACL love.