Sherry still...

won't eat unless I give him a cuddle first. Just now I had to bounce him around on my shoulder in time to Jimmy Cliff singing "Vietnam."

(Is there a more cheerful sounding protest song out there? Heavens.)

a little commercial break

"He might die of embarrassment before being digested."

I went into the kitchen and listened to CBC radio "Wiretap" while making and eating a sandwich, and I heard the last part of this story. The part I heard was about Jonah trying to get a girlfriend after living in a fish, and I thought it was sweet. I'm listening to the rest and it's more moving than funny. It's from the narrator (Jonathan Goldstein)'s book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!

"Out of the fish's eyes I saw where Moses and the children of Israel had marched across the ocean's floor. I saw their footprints stamped in the mud."

Scenes from a marriage - Jack Bauer

My husband is trying out a new job at work, and today he's working on improving his speed.

Last night Living room
Mabel - You should pretend that I've been kidnapped, and if you don't get the work completed on time, I will die.
Fernando [nods]
Mabel - Or they will send one of the cat's body parts every hour you fall behind. ...First you'll get a severed ear. Then a paw.

Today, Fernando wakes up early.

Mabel - Are you going back to bed?
Fernando - I'm going to make some cheat sheets for work.
Mabel - Go back to bed, get a little extra sleep.
Fernando [gravely] - I can't, otherwise my wife will be killed. ...It's going to be like 24 today.

PS

Still a great video. Considering it was made in the 80s, that's saying a lot.


(Or try this live version where everyone, Paul included, is having an awesome time.)


And my favourite Paul Simon song. The first time Trevor Payne played this for us in Cegep I just about fell out of my chair. The drums! The horns! On a good stereo it comes across like a Phil Spector Wall of Sound.

more 80s on sale

Come on. You know you need Billy Joel's Glass Houses. "Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk--it's still rock n' roll to me."





Or Paul Simon's Graceland?

80s

With the arrival of the internets, have you ever suddenly come across a song that you had completely forgotten you once LURBED? I'm sampling an old Tina Turner live album that I loved as a teenager, and came across this duet with Eric Clapton:



Of course, nothing tops her Bryan Adams duet. Those two had a really rare electricity together. Sexual chemistry, but also just great theatrics. Awesome. AWWWEsome.


Speaking of the 80s, iTunes is having an 80s sale. So I finally caved and bought the Traveling Wilburys album I've been eyeing since it came out. Now there's an example of something I didn't even care for in the 80s, but I seem to have grown into. I suppose it was inevitable since my dad raised us on ELO. I've got the Lynne sound burned in my music-psyche.



And finally, another of my forgotten-faves, from Men at Work:

My birfday: It's all vair vair excitin'

I want to get myself a wee Kobo eReader for my birthday.

So here's why...

- It's pretty cheap. Though that means no bells and whistles--the only thing I'm sad about is no ability to highlight text. If I can use multiple bookmarks, that'd work.

- It's nice and light, with no pages floppying-trying-to-close on you. Not a problem when I'm sitting upright, but it can be hard to read books when lying down which I sometimes have to do when I have a bad headache, or when I'm having my blood sucked out.


- Hardcovers books are around 40% off -- so I can get hardcovers for about the price of a "trade" softcover, and it won't be all Bulky, which I dislike. I'm not sure how much all that will change--as of April 1ast the "big 5" publishers changed to "agency model" pricing. Now I understand why Kobo was offering deals every single week up until March 31st--from now on the publishers will set the prices, not the e-retailers.


- Instant access to some research books, as I'm working on my stories. This is actually Very Dangerous. Right now I don't like the idea of reading a book on my computer, so I've resisted. But if I can load it onto something comfortable... ahhhhhhh! Good thing I'm creating a new budget. Will have to make a book budget.

- Can hide my addiction even better. Right now I have books lining the walls all over this apartment... this way I shall ever-increasingly hoard, and no one shall know!! Moua ha haaa. (You can store 1000 books, and then add more memory.)

- It comes loaded with 100 free classics--these books are free anywhere, cause they're public domain, but they'll still cost you at least $3 to buy them in paper form. And as a coworker said, you won't have to download these books yourself!

Cheap Moby Dick

Cheaper Moby Dick

- I'm really excited by the possibility of out of print books being put to ebook format--my guess is this will happen more and more, and hopefully become a standard. Can you imagine? They do this already with Regency romances. I'd love to see this happen with Jane Langton's out of print mysteries, I'd buy them all.


- I can read my dad, and my friends' writings on something other than the computer. I DISLIKE reading anything long on the computer.

- There are tons of great sci fi short stories available for free online, but I don't read those for the same reason. (Including some Connies!) I can also download longer articles and load those on the Kobo.

- And finally, I like to carry around more than one book with me, for My Many Moods. Usually a business book, non-fiction research, and fiction. This way I can bring just the fiction, and stock the non-fictions in my Kobo. Not sure that will help me get rid of wearing a backpack all the time but... occasionally!

It's all just... very exciting. My addiction reaches new heights.