Coming soon: My favorite music of 2010!
BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2010
BOOKS PUBLISHED EARLIER THAN 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Teena Marie has died!
At such a young age! Sadness. :-(
This was one of my fave songs in high school.
This was one of my fave songs in high school.
Series Finale: My Best Reads of 2010 #10
OLD FAVES RE-ENJOYED IN 2010
Two of my favourite authors are PG Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer, and I returned to a couple of their books in 2010.
I read a bunch of Wodehouse's Jeeves stories (collected in Carry On, Jeeves and The Inimitable Jeeves).
These stories are told from the point of view of the dimwitted but kind hearted Bertram Wilberforce Wooster. He's an independently wealthy man-about-London, who gets himself into trouble (usually when trying to help his friends), and is always saved by Jeeves, his genius gentleman's personal gentleman. The price is usually an item of clothing that Bertie has purchased without Jeeves' approval (purple socks, multicolored spats, a straw boater, etc.) 
The most brilliant bit about Wodehouse: His similes...
"The poor chap gave one of those mirthless laughs. He was looking anxious and worried, like a man who has done the murder all right but can't think what the deuce to do with the body."
He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say "when!"
He was white and shaken, like a dry martini.
She had a penetrating sort of laugh. Rather like a train going into a tunnel.
As for Heyer, I re-read two of the best: Frederica and Cotillion.
Frederica is a practical young woman tasked with caring for three trouble-making brothers, a gorgeous and overly romantic sister, a man-hating governess, and a large, excitable dog. Alverstoke, the most selfish man in London, is sucked into helping Frederica extricate her charges from one mess after another, and of course they fall in love. The charm of the story comes from the contrast between the world-weary Darcy-esque hero, and the earnest, high-spirited Merrivale family.
In Cotillion our hero, Freddy, is another Bertie Wooster--a fashionable but dumb young man about town. His orderly bachelor life is turned about when his cousin Kitty strong-arms him into a fake engagement, and he finds his hands full of troubles and responsibilities. Freddy surprises everyone (including himself) with his problem-solving abilities, and wins over Kitty who's always had a crush on her more dashing cousin Jack. This book contains my favorite Heyer scene of all time: Freddy and Kitty see the Elgin marbles (or "They've got no heads!")Both books have the same plot--falling in love while helping the heroine fix everyone's problems--but in one scenario the two leads are played by intelligent people (Frederica and Alverstoke), and in the other by two idiots (Freddie and Kitty). The former is more touching, and the latter is funnier. Both are my idea of the perfect romantic-comedy.
______________
“Oh, Meg said I must go see the marbles which Lord Elgin brought from Greece! She says everyone has seen them! They are at Burlington House, she told me.”
As the carriage wended its way southward again, Freddy confided he would not object to taking a look at them. “Deuce of a dust kicked up about ‘em!” he said. “Seem to be all the crack, though.”
But when, having, as he put it, dropped the blunt for two tickets of admission and a catalogue, he confronted these treasures of ancient Greece, he was quite dumbfounded, and only recovered his voice when he was called upon to admire the Three Fates, from the eastern pediment. "Dash it, they've got no heads!" he protested.
"No, but, you see, Freddy, they are so very old! They have been damaged!" explained Miss Charing. "Damaged! I should rather think so! They haven't any arms either!
" Well, if this don't beat the Dutch! And just look at this, Kit!”
" 'Birth of Athene from the brain of Zeus'," said Kitty, consulting the catalogue .
"Birth of Athene from what?"
"The central groups, which are the most important features of this composition, are missing," said Kitty in propitiating accents. "And the catalogue says that the metopes are not in good preservation either, so perhaps we should just study the frieze, which is excessively beautiful!”
But the disclosure that he had been maced of his blunt by a set of persons whom he freely characterized as hell-kites only to see a collection of marbles of which the main parts were missing so worked upon him that he could not be brought to recognize the merits of the frieze, but seemed instead to be so much inclined to seek out the author of this attempt to gull the public that Kitty hastily announced her wish to visit St Paul's Cathedral, and coaxed him out of the building.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
The continuing adventures of Minion Vs Christmas Tree
In the days leading up to Christmas, Minion's attacks on the tree were restrained. She pulled off a pine cone and batted it around for a bit.
She's been giving Fernando's Christmas flowers a few curious sniffs, but I managed to stop her from eating them.
I woke up one morning to find that the metal fairy had finally got it.
But Minion seems to understand that Christmas is over and it's open season on the tree. Today I woke up to find a soldier, a person, and a bird on the floor.
I finally understood how she's been getting to the ornaments halfway up. She places a paw upon the lower branches, and stretches up with her other paw.
The little person came right back down.
Then back she went...
Down came a ball, which she played with for a bit.
Up again.
Down came an elephant.
Up again.
Down came the soldier.
And her grand finale: An attempt to take the whole tree down by sitting on the cranberry garland.
(She also took down this bird, and continually removes the light stars.)
Series: My Best Reads of 2010 #8 & 9
BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2010 - PUBLISHED EARLIER THAN 2010
Mystery
Emily Dickinson is Dead - Jane Langton - American author (Published in 1984)
About a couple murders that take place in connection with an Emily Dickinson symposium, with Langton's usual detective: Homer, a Thoreau scholar and ex-cop.
There are tons of drawbacks to this book. It's full of unrealistic coincidences; and the baddie is a very fat woman whom Langton describes in a sort of sweaty-gross-detail-misery-secreted-away-in-folds-of-her-fat way. It's offensive to read, and very dated.
And yet it's so good! Because while her plots aren't always real, her characters are. In this case, the book is peopled with scholars--sincere ones, greedy ones, scheming ones, desperate ones, kind ones, etc. I was totally drawn into their little dramas and worries. Plus Langton always works in a theme--in this case the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Special Relationship: Langton's books are filled with 'em! Homer always pairs up with someone who needs a little help--in this case a lonely widower. And the lonely widower has a wee romance with a jilted woman. Then there's also the older woman who helps care for a troublesome toddler.
Further Reading: My two favourite Langtons are The Memorial Hall Murder, which made me want to visit Harvard. And Dead as a Dodo, which made me want to visit Oxford, England. All her books make me want to travel.
____________
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett - American author (Published in 1934)
A 1930s noir with a traditional cast of guilty characters and good mystery. But the reason to read it is for ex-detective Nick Charles and his rich socialite wife, Nora. Nick's no longer interested in crime-solving, but Nora's eager to watch him in action, and loves meeting all the thugs, floozies, and weirdos who drag him into the mystery. "I love you Nicky, because you smell nice and you know such lovely people." Nick and Nora booze their way around New York with their little dog Asta, exchanging kisses and barbed witticisms. If you haven't seen the movie, it's a must! Played to perfection by Myrna Loy and William Powell.
This is a terrible cover! The only redhead I remember from the book wielded a frying pan.
Mystery
Emily Dickinson is Dead - Jane Langton - American author (Published in 1984)About a couple murders that take place in connection with an Emily Dickinson symposium, with Langton's usual detective: Homer, a Thoreau scholar and ex-cop.
There are tons of drawbacks to this book. It's full of unrealistic coincidences; and the baddie is a very fat woman whom Langton describes in a sort of sweaty-gross-detail-misery-secreted-away-in-folds-of-her-fat way. It's offensive to read, and very dated.
And yet it's so good! Because while her plots aren't always real, her characters are. In this case, the book is peopled with scholars--sincere ones, greedy ones, scheming ones, desperate ones, kind ones, etc. I was totally drawn into their little dramas and worries. Plus Langton always works in a theme--in this case the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Special Relationship: Langton's books are filled with 'em! Homer always pairs up with someone who needs a little help--in this case a lonely widower. And the lonely widower has a wee romance with a jilted woman. Then there's also the older woman who helps care for a troublesome toddler.
Further Reading: My two favourite Langtons are The Memorial Hall Murder, which made me want to visit Harvard. And Dead as a Dodo, which made me want to visit Oxford, England. All her books make me want to travel.
OTHER COVERS
I prefer the one above, cause it shows Dickinson's dress which is key to the story.
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett - American author (Published in 1934)A 1930s noir with a traditional cast of guilty characters and good mystery. But the reason to read it is for ex-detective Nick Charles and his rich socialite wife, Nora. Nick's no longer interested in crime-solving, but Nora's eager to watch him in action, and loves meeting all the thugs, floozies, and weirdos who drag him into the mystery. "I love you Nicky, because you smell nice and you know such lovely people." Nick and Nora booze their way around New York with their little dog Asta, exchanging kisses and barbed witticisms. If you haven't seen the movie, it's a must! Played to perfection by Myrna Loy and William Powell.
Dorothy patted the dog's head and left us. We found a table. Nora said: "She's pretty."
"If you like them like that."
She grinned at me. "You got types?"
"Only you, darling--lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."
"And how about the red-head you wandered off with at the Quinns' last night?"
"That's silly," I said. "She just wanted to show me some French etchings.
OTHER COVERS
This is a terrible cover! The only redhead I remember from the book wielded a frying pan.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Testing: Youtube playlists
Just testing what a youtube playlist looks like, and works, once embedded. In prep for my Best of 2010 music list. (This playlist is one I'd already made awhile back... just random party music.)
A Christmas Carol for a Christmas Mabel
One of my favourite stories since childhood has been A Christmas Carol.
I grew up on the 80s cartoon version: (I don't see a youtube of the version I remember, but once found pics).
And this album my dad had, with Ronald Coleman as Scrooge on one side, and Charles Laughton reading from the Pickwick Christmas on the other side. I L.U.R.V.E.D. it!! When Bob Cratchit cried, I cried.
My dad and mum always watched the Alistair Sims version, so I also grew up on that and watch it annually:
And I own a copy of the story that I bought in grade 2 or 3 from Scholastic, as well as my dad's beautiful annotated Christmas Carol. And a mini version. Oh and Patrick Stewart's audio version.
When I was in London I tracked down where Scrooge's place of business would have been,
and the little cemetery where the final ghost showed him his grave.
Here's the book at the British Museum library:
I heartily recommend working this story into your annual celebration (if you celebrate. If not, well it's a nice story anyway.) Here lots of cartoon/kiddy versions...
I caught this one recently, it was very good. It explains a lot of stuff, to help kids understand the story.
The Muppet one is great:
And Connie Willis claims the Magoo version is the most accurate.
I grew up on the 80s cartoon version: (I don't see a youtube of the version I remember, but once found pics).
And this album my dad had, with Ronald Coleman as Scrooge on one side, and Charles Laughton reading from the Pickwick Christmas on the other side. I L.U.R.V.E.D. it!! When Bob Cratchit cried, I cried.
My dad and mum always watched the Alistair Sims version, so I also grew up on that and watch it annually:
And I own a copy of the story that I bought in grade 2 or 3 from Scholastic, as well as my dad's beautiful annotated Christmas Carol. And a mini version. Oh and Patrick Stewart's audio version.
When I was in London I tracked down where Scrooge's place of business would have been,
and the little cemetery where the final ghost showed him his grave.
Here's the book at the British Museum library:
I heartily recommend working this story into your annual celebration (if you celebrate. If not, well it's a nice story anyway.) Here lots of cartoon/kiddy versions...
I caught this one recently, it was very good. It explains a lot of stuff, to help kids understand the story.
The Muppet one is great:
And Connie Willis claims the Magoo version is the most accurate.
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