reading and tving

I think I'll read The Agency next, about Victorian girl spies. A coworker picked up a free reading copy for me at a Random House show. I've still got White Teeth on the go, but after reading a couple sewious litewawy books, I'm due for something light.

If it's good I'll save it for the step-mommy. I bet she would have liked to have been a girl spy.

In the meantime I'm also reading that book on the music industry, some business books, and a book of/about poetry that my brother left behind when he moved.

The Husband and I finished watching all the Entourage series last night--can't wait for season 6 on DVD, cause we don't have HBO. But the entire set of Vicar of Dibley arrived, so maybe we'll move on to that. This is often how we spend time when he's not in Warcraft mode--sitting at opposite ends of the couch, playing with our respective toys (me the internets, and for him at the moment Dungeons and Dragons.)

Why do we say we "can't wait" for something when we clearly have to, and therefore can?

1 star! How dare they!

The experiment--find the worst review of your favourite books:

A Fine Balance: I didn't find this book to be crushingly depressing at all, but the 1-star reviewers on amazon disagree with me -- "This book is a piece of trash. I've never read about so much death and destruction. Someone dies, gets raped, or castrated on every other page. At times, instead of making me sympathetic to the plight of the severely unfortunate characters in the book, I found myself laughing, and waiting for the poor fools to fall into their next hilarious misfortune (again, always only a few pages away)."

Pride & Prejudice: I think this review is by Mr T -- "Like others, I really did want to like this book. I tried and tried to read it, but it was all nonsensical jibber-jabber. I may try again, but doubt it. It's torture!"

Adrian Mole -- "This book was so hard to believe, and I'm easy. It's the first book I plan to thorw in the garbage. I thought about writing in the front cover to warn people how bad it is, but then decided against it. It goes nowhere. Why is it a hit?!?!"

The Evolution of Jane -- "Was I disappointed. I thought the characters uninteresting and boring (glad I wasn't on that trip,) and the stuff on Darwin didactic and boring.If I wanted to know about evolution I'd go to Darwin direct andIf I wanted to know about lost friendship I think I'd search the Internet."

The Scarlet Pimpernel -- "I had to read this in 7th grade for English, and I could barley stay awake for it. It takes the character about 5 pages to do something as simple as pour themselves a glass of milk." Well I admit I think the movies are better than the book.

The Doomsday Book -- "Initially I enjoyed the historical part of the book but there was absolutely no dramatic tension to be found anywhere."

Couldn't find 1 star reviews for:
- me fave Georgette Heyers
- my fave Sarah Caudwell (The Sirens Sang of Murder)
- only 1 for a Jeeves book, but the person liked other Jeeves books
- Kate Ross' mysteries
- Jane Langton's Homer Kelley mysteries

crappy pol pot!

I'm reading a book that takes place just after the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, so it's quite depressing. (The Disappeared - Kim Echlin.) To be expected--the reason I wanted to read it in the first place was to pique my interest a bit in the country. I took one South Asian course in university, so I only learned about so many countries, and Cambodia wasn't one. I like watching a movie or reading a book, or writing a paper on a specific country, and then it sticks in my head after.

Anyway. I'm not crazy about her writing style, but I care about the characters, and it's interesting and sad. And if YOU want to take a chance on it... it's a Heather's Pick which means Chapters/Indigo will refund you if you don't like it, no matter the state of the book. (Or "after you've dropped it in your bathtub and rolled over it with your car" as I like to say.)

blehhhh

Been up 5 hours now. Getting that OVERWHELMING EXHAUSTION feeling again. Time to crawl back to bed... if I can... just... make it...

I iz wooooorn out!

I had a full night's sleep last night, got up at 1 PM, lay on the couch and watched TV until I kept nodding off. But then I made myself go sit in the yard and read for an hour to enjoy the unseasonable 24 degree temperature. Went back inside, lay on the couch watching a documentary on Earl Jones, and kept drifting off again. So I went back to bed and slept for five hours.

I've had chest congestion for almost a month now, ever since getting a simple head cold a few weeks ago. But maybe I've caught another bug on top of that, cause I have a sore throat and the congestion's worse. I have this pitiful little Zoolander cough, but just because I can't take full breaths.

Now I'm watching Dynasty with the cats, and I have energy for nothin' else.

Eeeeeeviiiil!

So I'm reading this book:
What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business

I'm reading it as research for the book I'm writing. Now you see... I've always heard, and believed, that the music industry was shitté. But now I believe it is The Devil. It's, like, Satan personified. I didn't believe in demonry til I read this book. Not I understand why a black artist would go around with the word Slave written on his cheek in protest of his record company.


And this book isn't a shocking tell-all. It's a fairly dry and practical manual for artists and their teams on how the industry works, and how to run their personal businesses well. But the basic, dry facts of the case speak volumes.

In the music industry the artist pays for almost EVerything. The company foots the bills in the beginning, but you pay it allllll back from your royalties, while they start reaping profits from the first sale. This doesn't happen in other entertainment industries. An author might pay for some of their promotion costs, but she won't pay to actually, say, print the book. Musicians pay back the recording costs, mastering, fabricating the CDs, much of the promotional costs, tour costs (which are huge), and video costs.

But here's the bit I love. If the album's royalties aren't high enough to pay back the advance you were given, then the company starts taking the money off the royalties of... your NEXT album. This does not happen in the book industry. This doesn't happen to actors and directors.

It's like this weird combination between investor and banker. If you give someone a loan, then you have the right to get every penny back. If you're an investor, then you're a partner, and you share in the losses. But record companies are basically both--they invest, but they don't bear as much risk as a normal investor.

That's just one example. There are innumerable examples of how these companies, which are rolling in it, try to make the artists pay for more and more. It's ridiculous. The industry is full of supposed music lovers, often right up to the CEOs. How can these people claim to love music, and constantly screw over the musicians? It's ludicrous.

It reinforces my feeling that I like being part of the book industry. People in books LOVE BOOKS, and they LOVE THE AUTHORS. You can see it in the long hours and shitty pay. The agents believe in their authors and work long hours for little pay; the editors fight for their favourite books, champion their authors, working long hours for little pay. Not matter how big the publishing houses become, or the retail companies become, they are not rich, and don't spend their time scheming to get another penny out of the creative people without whom there'd be no business.

Oh la oh la. Digital music is probably the best thing that's happened to music in a longo time-o, if it ends up--block your ears--fucking over the vampires.

Ridiculous.

O the humanity!

I'm watching Hoarders, and they're trying to make this kid part with a couple stuffed animals, and he doesn't want to.

Hold tough kid!! Don't let them beat you down!!

No one understands... stuffed animals are REAL. You can't just give them away! What's wrong with these people? They're not toys, it's not about having stuffies (or aneemals was the technical term I invented as a child) to play with.