Oh Ricky you're so fine

I love Ricky Martin's announcement on his blog that he's gay. It's so well expressed. He seems like a pretty healthy and balanced guy.

...At this moment I'm feeling the same freedom I usually feel only on stage, without a doubt, I need to share. ... This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment.

These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed.

What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment. The word "happiness" takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution.

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.

attack of the teevees

The TV draws me in... oh noes! Must cut something else out of my life... sleeping? Eating?

I was home on Wed evening and decided to watch some TV, so I got drawn into the current Survivor! I always know Survivor will suck me in, so I usually avoid it, but I couldn't resist a peek in at Heroes vs Villains. Eeeep!

Inspector Murdoch mysteries have started again! These I do NOT avoid. I lurv mystery series, and this one takes place in turn of the century Toronto.










A new Sharpe is airing soon! A must-watch.










And can I resist Glee once it begins again? Oh la oh la.

I need to get ouut of heeeere

Oh my days--a couple fellow managers (let's call them CD and LK) showed me this when we were having a manic day this week. And now it's what we sing whenever work is getting too-too. My theory is that one day CD is going to start singing this in the middle of a manager's meeting, and then get up and walk out the door never to be seen again.

bookrastination

Took a little procrastinatory moment to almost-finish cataloging my fiction books--I hadn't yet done my shelf of favourite authors. (I just haven't done Heyer yet.)

So far I have about 370 "already read" books added to weread on facebook. A mixture of the books I've read and still own, and those I can remember reading--which I add to sporadically, as titles come back to me. I envy those growing up in this electronic age, who can catalog every book they've ever read as they grow up! How wonderful that would be, to remember every library book you took out as a child, every little collection you owned, etc. SIGH.

Here's my list of Favourites on weread. To be a fave, it doesn't have to be the greatest book in terms of Ahtistic Mewit. In fact, it's hard for me to mark just any great literary read as a fave, because if the book was also sad, chances are I'll never re-read it. But there's a few, like A Fine Balance. I probably won't ever reread it, but it was so beautiful, I cared about the characters so much, and I remember so many little details--it definitely has to qualify as one of my fave books ever. But often books like that earn 4-stars, or 5-stars but not a "fave."

On the other hand, books that were funny usually make The Fave List. Even if every Wooster story is basically the same, I know I'll always return to these stories and get great enjoyment out of them. These are the books that make me want to write.

To write... if I can ever get out of this mire of music business research.

I also have an account at goodbooks, but I'm only adding books to it as I currently read them--I joined so as to chitchat with other staff members on what we're reading.

writing humdrumconundrum

How to write about fictional inventors? Let's say you want to write about a character who revolutionizes an industry (the - ahem - music industry, for example, which I'm writing about, and which is imploding)... how do you invent the revolutionizing thing when you, yourself, are not actually genius enough to predict or come up with Thing That Needs Revolutionizing?

Luckily, as a humour writer, I will probably fight my way out of this paper bag by doing something silly. But in the research/thinking phase it's hurting my brain like hell, which means I'm procrastinating a lot.

I usually enjoy researching, but on a personal level I'm not sure I care all that much how this music thing is going to turn out. I consume music, but I don't make it. I'm happy to sit back and see what happens. But now I can't! I can't just SBASWH because I'm writing this damn book. Or rather, I'd like to be writing this damn book, but I can't until I get a breakthrough.

Frikkety frak.

It's 6 AM I'd better go to bed. Frakkety frakky frak frak frak.

I feel like Don Music from Sesame Street.

Sherry Bones

This is my oldy cat. Named after Friday's Child: Lord Sherringham. Or Sherry. Or Bones. Or Indiana Bones when he's feeling adventurous.

Now that he's so oldy he just likes to sleep...

Have cuddles.

Play.

And eat (here he guards the softies.)

Admittedly... these are the things he's always loved to do. He just does them in a different proportion.

Things Sherry likes:
- softies over crunchies
- toys that jump and fly about
- a good run after he uses the facilities
- freshly cleaned pillow cases (Apparently. Today I tossed two clean pillow cases on the bed, and he went straight to them and slept there all day.)
- scratches and fur-pulls from the armpits upwards
- carbs (but he can't tolerate them--so he's a cat with long bumhair, who gets diarrhea once a week)

Things Sherry hates:
- Haley bugging him
- pets anywhere below the armpits
- bathing himself
- the weekly bath to clean his bum
- when other cats come home from the vet smelling Wrong

mixtape

Well, I changed my song again. I finally decided on Nina Simone's "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" for the playlist of favourite songs of the employees in my department. This song fits the bill even better than my previous choices--it's sung by a woman, it's a song I'll love forevah, but it's also a song that represents me philosophically.

And here is the playlist (I didn't realize you could embed a whole playlist!) it's pretty interesting. I've got a couple new faves now.



[PS - Please no negative comments, should you choose to view The List. I doubt a single one of my employees reads this blog, but in case someone does... sharing favourite songs is actually a sort of vulnerable thing to do.]

People have the power... well some do, anyway

More charity songs. War Child actually has a whole album--this is the first video I've seen. It's a remake of Patti Smith's "People Have the Power." Now... if I was going to produce a remake of this song, I'd go in the direction of making it musically even rock-ier, rather than poppier. This is tinny sounding. But the video is cute... the kids are just too darn tootin' cute-in'. And at least at the end they say what they're doing with the money.

Lyrically the song is simple, but I think it's nice to be optimistic once in awhile. Very much in the "Imagine" vein, and appropriate to the subject matter.

I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth's revolution



Here's the original song.

A FriendPaul Favourite Song - beeoootiful

Bill Cosby: The Chicken Heart

My grandfather had this album, and this was one of our favourite skits. "And I'd start smearing that Jell-o..."





And this one:



And this one:

Oscar

Many years ago, when Rolling Stone was a real magazine and not crap-o-la, I read an article about the lack of recognition of African-Americans at the Oscars. I hadn't watched the Oscars that year so I didn't know that Spike Lee's Malcolm X had lost out for best actor and best film to Al Pacino and The Scent of a Woman. I was shocked--shocked!--as I sat in my chair at the Dorval library. The Oscars always give prizes to *epics* and Malcolm X fell firmly in the epic tradition.

I can't say I was a big Oscar fan before reading that article, but I became even less of one after. Cinematic Hollywood must be the most out of date, out of the loop, backwards entertainment industry in the US. Ridiculously so. Ridiculously behind its own public.

And I guess, according to this article, very little has changed since I read the article 14 years ago: [this is in re. Mo'Nique's acceptance speech]

In the 70 years between McDaniel's and Mo'Nique's wins, only three other black actresses -- Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry and Jennifer Hudson -- have taken home Oscars. Just one of those was for a leading role, and if you guessed that went to the only thin, light-skinned, button-nosed, biracial one of the bunch, you get a gold star. Four black men have won best actor -- three of those in the last 10 years -- and four have won best supporting. So that's 13 acting awards out of 328. In 82 years. This year also saw the second African-American to be nominated for best director and the first ever African-American screenwriter to win. In 82 years. Welcome to post-racial America.

...

Consider the shocked reaction of umpteen reporters upon learning that the movie's star, Gabourey Sidibe, is nothing like Precious -- that she was, in fact, acting. Consider the clip they chose to show last night that featured Sidibe stealing a bucket of fried chicken, for crying out loud. Consider that four of the best picture nominees were widely criticized for their treatment of race -- "Precious" for all of the above; "District 9" for its arguably sketchy handling of an apartheid allegory and undeniably degrading depiction of human black Africans; "The Blind Side" and "Avatar" for being yet more iterations of a tired and condescending "white savior" narrative. That's not to say those films were wholly without merit or even necessarily undeserving of the praise, but when four of the year's most beloved movies contain problematic racial tropes, it's a bit premature to congratulate the Academy or ourselves for having come so far in the last 82 years. [from Salon]

A must watch! (and I don't say that often)

You guys will love this. And some of the youtube comments too:

TheRPGenius (53 minutes ago) Show Hide

+1

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Ecstatic enthusiasm over cleverly biting, yet at the same time playfully joshing, combination of joke and critical observation through this internet video!

SLIGHTLYlovely (57 minutes ago) Show Hide

+5

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Complaint that it will never compare to the book.

AveryHayes (40 minutes ago) Show Hide

+1

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Snide comment about today's youth made while completely uninformed about your identity.

24816ist (1 hour ago) Show Hide

+1

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Expressing admiration for the film with a clever comment that is actually a pathetically attempt to demonstrate the intelligence of the poster.

Well I don't LURV Apple, but I do like it quite a lot!

I just filled in a survey for the Apple Genius Bar, and it turns out that cleaning the screen and the computer is part of the service. Cause they asked if it was done! Nice touch, I must say. I definitely recommend anyone to use this service if you have one near you. The repairs were also done quickly, and the customer service was very professional. A really different experience than bringing it into a mac dealer service shop.

zzzzzz

It's 11:43 PM and I might actually go to bed. I went to bed late last night, even though I was already sleepy to start with. And I was sleepy all day. And now as I sit as my computer my eyelids are getting heavy.

Go to bed! Quick, before the moment passes!!

I have to do a day shift tomorrow so... must... get... bed... meh meh meh!

Scenes from an apartment: Haley's gum

Did I ever mention that Haley loves mint gum? She loves toothpaste too, though I don't let her have it. I once bought her real mint, but she was uninterested.

Shlp shlp shlp

Magicians and WW2

I'm reading an article by Connie Willis about the WW2 research she loved but couldn't put into Blackout or All Clear. Here's one example:

During the North African campaign, the British moved the city of Alexandria
to keep it from being bombed.

You heard me—they moved Alexandria. It was one of the many clever
deceptions British Intelligence carried out, this one with the help of Jasper
Maskelyne, who'd been a magician in civilian life.

Here's how it worked. They took photos of Alexandria's harbor (famous for
its distinctive ancient lighthouse), then went down the coast and found a place with a
similar coastline. They set up lights to simulate the city's and built another, much
shorter lighthouse (the heights of things on the ground can't be judged from the air,
as witness those damned hedgerows in France which nearly derailed the D-Day
invasion), and then blacked out Alexandria and lit up the fake city. Luftwaffe pilots—
looking for the harbor and the lighthouse—bombed the new location, and in the
morning when they sent reconnaissance planes over, found rubble where they'd
dropped their bombs the night before, which meant they were bombing the right
place. Except that the rubble had actually been piled there the night before to match
the spots bombed in the fake Alexandria, and the rubble was portable, so when the
Luftwaffe bombed "Alexandria" the next night, they simply moved the rubble to the
new locations. (Full article here.)

Scenes from a marriage - a typical scene in the Mabel-Fernando Home

Me (singing Gershwin in fake French accent): Eez madness! To be always sitting around in sadness!! I'll build a stairway to Paradiiise with a new step every daaaay! I'm going to get there at any priiice stand aside I'm on my waaaay!...

[5 minutes later, husband waltzes into the room with calico cat]

Fernando: I'll build a stairway to Haaaleeey with a new paw every daaaay!
me: [the orchestra] doo dooo doo doo dooooo
Fernando: I'm going to get to Haley at any priiiice...
me: doo dooo doo doo dooooo

Scenes from an apartment: the boys upstairs

Every Saturday I hear the boys upstairs yukking it up like mad. I don't know if they have guests, or it's just the three of them, but they certainly have a Nice Time. One of them has the loudest, craziest laugh. I can hear chairs scraping, and the occasional bang! (which we've been given to understand is two of them practicing their judo.) I can't even hear a tv, and rarely hear music... it's like they're just sitting around talking and making jokes.

Well, they've been my fave upstairs neighbors since we moved here, I must say. One family, years ago, used to yell at their kids all the time. And the last family were the ones who used their washing machine after I expressly asked them not to, thereby flooding my whole kitchen.

Fave Songs?

I'm doing a little project at work, where I've asked all my staff to give me one of their favourite songs of all time, and I'm going to make a mix-tape. But now I've got to pick mine!

Originally I was going to pick The Roots' "The Seed (2.0)". If this song doesn't make you drum your keyboard then... well, you've got no inner majorette, that's all I can say.


But most of the staff are picking male artists, so I decided to pick a song by Kate Bush, since she's probably my fave pop artist ever. I was probably going to pick "The Fog" which is lyrically meaningful, and instrumentally interesting, the music matches the lyrics, it's beautifully engineered, and just lovely. It's KB.


Then it occurred to me... what about my favourite songs outside the realm of rock-pop? And I almost immediately thought of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's recording of the operetta "Porgy and Bess." Oh my days. Gershwin + Ella + Louis = Out of Body Experience. If I'm going for A Fave Song, why not pick one that has the power to give me goosebumps or even bring tears to my eyes. [For this version, skip to the end of this post!]

Porgy and Bess is the story of a nice, disabled guy who's in love with a drug addicted woman in an abusive relationship. Racially it's controversial--written by white guys, black people portrayed as poor and durggy and thieves, and the dialect is insane. But enough African-Americans have and still do record it, and musically it's luv-er-ly.

Though "Summertime" is probably the greatest song from this musical, I've loved "Bess, You is My Woman" ever since I heard it on Streisand's first Broadway album. (It's a combination of this song, plus "I Loves You Porgy.")



I didn't know there was a Miles Davis recording of the whole operetta... must investigate.


Here's a version the way it would normally be sung. The ending, esp when acted well--that's the tears part.


And here's Ella and Louis, uploaded by moi pour vous. "Morning time and evening time and summertime and wintertime..." That's the goosebumps part. (And if this gets taken down from youtube by the time you read it, I apologize. You'll just have to go buy the song!)


So what would you choose as One of Your Fave Songs of All Time for a mix tape to share with coworkers?

Canada Reads result

Well. Nikolski won the Canada Reads debate. But I personally cannot urge every Canadian to read it. It's won a ton of acclaim, but I didn't care for it.

Maybe I'll read the winner of the Combat des livres instead.

eeek!

It's that time of year again. When I sit around looking at pictures of creepy-crawlies on the internets.

Honest Movie Posters

How Sauron first thought up his "one ring to rule them all" plan

Dr Katz

David Duchovny locks himself in the closet.


Dave Chappelle: "Who would wanna be Aquaman?


Of course my fave ever was Mitch Hedberg: "If you are flammable and have legs you are never blocking a fire exit." "Yeah but what happened to the Dufresnes? Nobody seems to care!"
http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/29876/Mitch-Hedberg-on-Dr-Katz-Video.html

The next charity single - K'naan's "Wavin' Flag"

Well, obviously I lurv K'naan so I don't have much to say about this charity tribute. I do think it's the most appropriate of all the songs recorded so far -- in part because of the original lyrics/intent of the song, and in part because K'naan altered the lyrics specifically for this new subject matter.

If you haven't yet listened to the original song, you must--out of his many beautiful songs, it's one of the most beautiful. A lot of his songs are about celebrating his home (Somalia) and trying to show a different side to it, to counter-balance the media image (pirates! warlords! Black Hawk Down!)

In 2009, he released his second album, the critically hailed Troubadour which featured Wavin' Flag. The artist is optimistic that music does have the power to reach people and creative positive change in the world.

"I think there's a difference between media coverage of an incident and a song. I think a song does something a little more lasting, I hope. I hope we register into people's feelings," K'NAAN said. "Since Haiti is going to be struggling for a long time now to fix this thing, I think we need a song that stays with people a little bit more than the newspapers are willing to commit to the subject." (Vancouver Sun)

eyelid failure (falling asleep)

I finished watching the Jeeves and Wooster DVDs. Sadness. I needed something else funny to watch, so I'm watching the episodes of Dr Katz that I hadn't yet seen. Sometimes I buy a DVD and I'm in no rush to watch it, because I save it for when I really need it. So thought I lurv Dr Katz, I didn't watch the DVDs back to back when I bought them.

Dr Katz is the cartoon of a therapist living with his grown son who doesn't work. When he's at the office, his patients are just a variety of stand-up comics doing their shticks. I think I find stand-up even funnier when it's illustrated.

Anyway, the conversations between the father and son are so funny, really well written. And Dr Katz reminds me of my dad. So does the Steve Martin character in Parenthood.

I would explain, but I'm falling asleep at the computer because I worked at 6 AM today... I've had 2 hours of sleep... I can barely maintain cohererererence.

My compy -- back and better than before!

Well my compy, Tsau Tsau, is back.

Fernando asked him to put in a new keyboard, because my fingernails had worn out certain letters. And the light's been fixed.

I think the guy cleaned my screen. It looks so nice. And I think he fixed the latch that keeps the lid closed--I had taken to putting a big, cute hair elastic around it. But now it seems to just latch shut again.

loo loo loo break from work

Compy is fixed and awaits pickup tomorrow. Right now I've got the husband's computer... I brought it to my desk, cause his chair is uncomfortable and will probably give me a headache. I'm not used to such a big screen!

I'm working from home today... currently mired in a little project which seems never ending. I keep finding more details I can add.

I really should finish soon cause tomorrow I have to work at 6 AM. But I'm nooot sleeeeepy yet.

Scenes from a marriage

Scene: Standing in kitchen

Fernando is making something to eat

Me: I dreamed last night that I saw Nombly's ghost. He and Hayley were chasing around the apartment, and then he was sitting right there-- [points finger to entrance of kitchen. Husband does not look up from food.] Right there at the entrance to the kitchen, and he was a little bit see-through--

Fernando: Like a Jedi?

Me: And the other cats couldn't see him. And he turned and smiled at me.

Fernando: You had a Return of the Jedi moment.

Me: And I woke up depressed.

computer is pooped

The screen on my laptop went all Dark & Mysterious tonight, so I'm on The Fernando's desktop. I can juuust make out the screen, so I'm updating my backup (it's just a week out of date, new music mostly), and tomorrow Fernando will take it to the Apple store--to the "genius bar" which I didn't even know existed till a friend told me. I did the usual troubleshooting attempts, but decided not to waste my whole night over it. It's nice to have an Apple store right near us now, and turns out they're open til 9 each weekday! Oooh. I wasn't crazy about the dealer we used to go to. At least at the bar they'll do a little troubleshooting first.

From googling it appears this may be a known issue by the manufacturer of this video piece, which they may or may not charge me for.

Anyway. My email responding will likely be a little spotty this week, so you've been warned.

My days this keyboard is stiff! It's always strange switching keyboards when you use your computer a lot.

Gonna check a few emails, post to my other blog, and then--as Bertie would say--retire to bed with an improving book.

Julie the prat

Watched this movie tonight because everyone said Meryl Streep was wonderful as Julia Child, and her story is great; although the parallel story of Julie is less likable. I agree--she whines a lot. And we all know by now (from her second book) that Julie cheated on her husband throughout their marriage, and is apparently quite a dick, and her husband a doormat. So it was a bit hard to enter into the "romance" of the thing. But worth watching for Julia.

Now the question remains whether I'll still read the book by Julie Powell, about cooking Julia Child's recipes for a year.

Ah well. Off to work on my own book. I have lots of good new ideas because of watching and reading Wodehouse all week.

Jeeves and the Spot of Art

Watching Jeeves and Wooster. Bertie has just gone round to the home of his artist friend, who has just painted the portrait of his father's new baby -- and he's very angry at his father.

[Corky reveals the painting.]

C - How does it strike you?
B - [After a stunned pause, with horrified look on face.] Yes well, of course I only saw the kid for a moment.
C - I've painted the soul of the subject Bertie! It's a talent we artists have.
B - Surely a child of that age wouldn't have had the time to get a soul like that, would he Jeeves?
J - I should think it most unlikely, sir.

ahhh!

Found this in my inbox. The child frightens me.

I would not buy toys from you, Scary Child, no matter how much you discount them!

Story of Me: In headcolds

Ohhh. I gots nooo energies. Actually that's not true. I have enough energy to sit up, which is more than I would have with a flu or gastro. But the energy to take a much needed shower? Ohhhhhh. I wonder if I can wear my PJs to work tonight. I don't even have sloughy jogging pants to wear, cause I'm not a sloughy joggings pants girl (can never find any long enough for my legs.)

I kept waking up last night, and I only got a 7 hour sleep. Lately when I hit the pillow, no matter how tired I am, I think about work. I need to get out of this phase! Last night I finally sat up in bed and worked on my story plotting, which finally quieted my brain down.

Maybe I should attempt a nap, but I'm afraid it will take me too long to fall asleep and next thing I know I'll have to get up for work. Mehhhhhhh.

When I was in school I used to get 2-3 head colds per winter. And still went to school and work most days, cause I had to. I'm not so tough anymore. I've turned into a big softy.

watching Flight of the Conchords

Got a head cold. But when I tried to take a nap after work I couldn't fall asleep. Hapoo. Luckily I don't work until 9 PM tomorrow, cause we're doing inventory. I need to be well enough to go into work cause... it's a little much to ask a manager to come in at the last minute to work 9PM - 5AM. I doubt I'll be feeling that bad, but maybe low on energy... maybe I can just sit on a chair in the middle of the store, tucked under a blankie, juice and Kleenex at hand, answering people's questions with an imperious air.



They're turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers.
But what's the real cost?
'Cause the sneakers don't seem that much cheaper.
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers
When you got them made by little slave kids

Theme song of booksellers everywhere! (minus the N-word)

Linked on DCGirl@themovies.

things that make me go hmmmmm

Watching Jeeves and Wooster, and reading Wodehouse, has me rethinking my story. Hm. Hmmmmmm.

Bertie Wooster covers

I love it when a book's been around awhile and there are various generations of covers.

These are cute, though the one on the left is inaccurate (only 3 cats I think).

This one's quite silly. If there is a scene where a woman is bathing in Bertie's flat, there isn't the slightest soupçon of sexuality in these stories. Funny reflection of the time it was produced in.

I don't like the one on the left, because it looks like Bertie is sitting in a dull modern day living room. The one on the right is much more jazz age! (And complete with purple socks, which is story-accurate.)

The one on the right is illustrated by Ionicus who did covers for most Wodehouse books. They're always really accurate to a scene in the book (in this case the Communists coming to dine at Bertie's flat.)

And finally a couple contemporary covers. The one on the right is accurate, but I don't really get illustrating one of the very minor characters. At least do this from Bertie's POV (that is, pushing the child off the bridge.) The one on the left is perhaps my fave. It's got a 1920s feel, and shows Bertie lording it over his Aunt Agatha (perhaps the only time, ever, in his life) because she tried to get him hitched to a couple of con artists (and pearl thieves.)

fuuuunneeeee!

Ever wish The Shining was a romantic feelgood comedy?

Zadie Smith & Wodehouse

ON BEAUTY by ZADIE SMITH

After much interruption--finished the book. Some of the reviews on the book strike me as weird, though. I wouldn't describe this as "A rollicking satire. Fun, chummy and big-hearted." The word "funny" is used a lot. I agree it was good satire, but I wasn't, you know, laughing.

Overall I really liked it. I cared about the characters from the first pages, and that's what engaged me and made it page-turning. I thought the overarching story of the marriage relationship clichéd, but Smith wraps the whole thing up so well that it at least makes sense to the plot.

The most interesting thing, from a writing perspective, was that she was dealing with a variety of accents--Haitian, Trinnie, Jamaican etc.; Nigerian and I think another African country; Bostonian; English; educated; "street" and such. Most of the time I thought she did it really well--my only test being "when I try to hear this in a British/Nigerian/Trinidad accent, is it easy to do?" 90% of the time it was.

THIS IS THE PART WHERE I START BLATHERING TO MYSELF
Except, oddly, when the one "of the streets" type young Black guy was talking, and the character who's middle class but likes to talk like he's from the nabe. They both sounded like London Black kids to me. ...Now mind you... I'm comparing Young Black American Guys From TV vs Young Black British Guys From TV. Which shows how much I know. I couldn't help it, I kept hearing an East London accent like this. But I probably just don't know what a Roxbury accent sounds like (sounds like?).

Anyway, it was very helpful to read in this way (merci MyAmericanFriend.) Smith does the same thing I did in my last book--you write non-phonetically but with the right accent in your head, and then you occasionally pop in what the phonics of the sentence would look like.

There's just one odd exception. She has this one deep-southern character (I forget from which state) and half of his words are written phonetically. I have no idea why him, and not anyone else. Every single time he says "powerpoint" Smith writes it as pah-point. Or "ah" instead of "I."

The other reason to read her was to see how she handled having many characters, which she did very well, but I don't think I learned anything new. Basically you introduce people slowly, but thoroughly. And if you have as many characters as Jilly Cooper or Charles Dickens, you throw your audience a bone and give them a Cast of Characters list. :-)

WODEHOUSE & WOT NEXT?
And so. Now to decide whether to read her other well-known book, or switch rails entirely. Meanwhile I'm still re-reading The Inimitable Jeeves, which is absolutely wonderful. It's been long enough since I read the Jeeves books that I'm really enjoying it, and rewatching the series too. Ahhhh. Wodehouse. Writing that soothes the Mabel Soul. (There's actually one Wooster reference in On Beauty. Zadie Smith is English.)

All the best Jeeves & Wooster videos are embedding-disabled!

* The famous giving of prizes by a drunk Finknottle.

* A little summary of the Jeeves & Wooster series... for Mlle Peej... the only other woman I know who has a crush on Bertie Wooster.

* And my favourite music TV theme song of allll time: The Jeeves & Wooster opening.

time to finish the last 32 pages of the book i'm reading

I don't like the way work keeps interrupting my reading! How vair vair rude.