31 posts from 2008

Funny video where they talk about what my company's name, CA (formerly Computer Associates) means...

is that you can find a million wonderful tidbits about things that make you happy (I know, I know, you can also find things that will utterly depress you but let's not talk about that).

From MentalFloss: The Origins of Your Favorite Muppets

This makes me so happy I could cry:

And this one...Colbert giving the smackdown to Cookie Monster, who gave in to peer pressure and is now touting healthy food, oh sigh.

I wonder if the Magnetic Fields had this guy in mind when they wrote their Zombie Boy song...

 

Last night Joe and I hit up the Roxy to see one of my all time favorites, Peter Murphy, play. The opening act, Ali Eskandarian, was, arguably, one of the worst I've ever seen, even more so than the woman who opened up for Morrisey last summer.

It was a short and early show because the Roxy has an annoying tendency to shut everything down by 10PM so that they can open it up as a club later. But WOW, what a great short show it was. There was so much energy and we were up pretty close. Overall, it was one of the best shows I'd seen (and I've seen hundreds, really).

He played "Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem," which is probably my all time favorite song. And "Huvola" was gorgeous and beautiful. The only thing missing from the night was "Cuts You Up," which was supposed to be an encore song but the Roxy was making them go fast. He did do "She's in Parties" as well as two Bauhaus songs from the new album.

I left feeling happy. Just plain, wonderfully happy. The music was wonderful. I had danced all night. Joe had a good time. The evening was oddly foggy but still warm. And we capped it off with a drink from the bar at Rialto, our favorite restaurant.

Yes, a good time really was had by all!

Okay, so this is going to be another one of my rambly update posts seeing as I'm not the best blogger lately...

 

• 37 on 5th
  
• Kindle coming in my near future.
  
• The price of gas, keeps on rising...nothing comes for free. ♫
  
• Recently I was walking by some developers in my office and overheard them talking about "the Lords of Cobol" and was surprised to see such old guys talking about Battlestar Galactica...until they kept talking and I realized that he was meaning whoever is writing COBOL on the project they are on. I don't think the slip was intentional. It was then that I realized I am rather a bit of a geek. A geek because I assumed it was a BSG reference and a geek because I know what COBOL is.
  
• Oh my Season 3 of BSG is turning out to be amazing, IMHO. I'm so so so addicted. And frustrated that they are going to drag it out into 2009.
  
• Is anyone using Friendfeed?
  
• Yet another blog is in my future, putting the total at three. This blog. My writing blog (on which I have not been writing, sigh). And soon to be...a professional blog about B2B digital media relations. Gah.
  
• New job is good. Different. Still figuring things out in many ways. I relied a lot on the PR agencies at my previous jobs to handle pitching and getting the news out (imagine that)...this time around I'm realizing that I'm going to really have to get my hands dirty and do more direct outreach myself. I'm used to pulling teeth to get what I need, but this is more like yanking out the whole jaw. On the other hand I seem to be one of the only ones who really get the power of social media, so that's a good thing for visibility. Goes back to how women are the queens of it all.
  
• I've been thinking a lot about trauma, tornadoes (unrelated but tragic in a similar way and I keep dreaming about them) and the preciousness of life. Someone I know recently lost a dear friend and the tragic story has hit home for me in the sense of the ongoing importance to never take the people in your life for granted.
  
• I'm in love with Erin Tyner's photography. Recently bought (note the tornado):

• Listening to:
  

Sooo I know I promised to read 50 books this year, and I AM well on my way but have been lax on updating. Here are my most recent reads:

 #10   The Little Friend by Donna Tartt -- I listened to this as an unabridged book on tape, read by the author, which I felt greatly enhanced the experience. I really enjoyed this book and the images still sit with me a few weeks later. I don't think she has measured up to the amazing Secret History, but this is still worth a gander.

#11   Livia by Anthony Barrett  -- a wonderful biography about Augustus Caesar's wife, Livia.

#12  Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges -- This book is on the favorite list of many literary-minded friends and I have to admit that I just don't see why it's so brilliant overall. Maybe I'm the one that's not so brilliant, sigh.

#13  The Game by A.S. Byatt -- It was just ok. Nothing of the brilliance that Possession had. Overall I felt like it was rather a let down. But I bought it second hand for about $2 so I suppose it evens out.

#14  Salem Falls -- Jodi Picoult -- Better by far than The Game but still, just OK. I picked it up at the airport in Oakland in a shop that had a terrible selection of books. She has done some work with Grub Street in the past so I tend to want to patronize authors connected with one of my favorite organizations. It's an easy read but the whole teen witchy thing felt cliched.

#15 The Witch of Portobello -- Paulo Cohelo  who, according to the book flap, is one of the most beloved writers of our time (he is?).  So I haven't read the Alchemist yet, don't sue me. At any rate, this book was also a fast-paced read but I did find that the ending rather fell flat for me as some great "literary" fiction has a tendency to do. Again, maybe I just don't have an overall affinity for the esoteric? What I liked about this book was the style--not a single bit of it was told from the POV of the main character but instead, through a series of interviews of everyone that knew her.

#16  The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay -- I really liked this book partially because it was about books and about a bookstore and because the characters are so strange and peculiar. Despite the oddness of the cast, the book is very accessible and reads quickly. Definitely recommend.

#17  The Collected Poems of Carl Sandburg  --  Ahhh just plain wonderfulness. I often read poetry to Joe before we go to sleep at night. When you read poetry aloud to someone who isn't much of a reader, you realize that accessiblilty is of the utmost importance. I was struck by how many of his poems, now 100 years old in many cases are still so very relevant, fluid and modern even today.

I'm also halfway through Aldous Huxley's The Island, partway through Margaret Atwood's The Tent and sigh of sighs, only about 400 pages into War and Peace. I like the Peace portion a lot but the War portions tend to drag on for me. And I can't figure out how late 18th Russia had so many damn princes and princesses...they seem to be everywhere you turn around!  

I'm not sure how I missed this, but here, for your viewing pleasure, Linell having a chat with some rabbits...

Ahhh nerds. :)

It often doesn't come at all, instead going right from winter into spring. Joe and I took a walk over to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery today...pure gorgeousness.

over at Cork'd so if you are interested in wine add me (and by default, Joe, who knows oodles more about wine than I do).

http://corkd.com/people/crystallyn