TASTING LIFE TWICE

things i'm looking forward to: a list

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:27:36 -0400

Jens Lekman at the Paradise
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 (argh it starts the night of Jens Lekman! TG for TiVO!)
Colin Meloy at the Somerville Theater
Planning a little wine tasting party
SPRING at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery
Spring in general!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ice cream season
Cleaning up the back porch, potting flowers and getting ready for summer.
Sitting on that same back porch and writing (although half the trees are gone and there is a massive house just feet away from ours now...maybe I'll have to scope out a park)
Lavinia, by Ursula K. Leguin
Going to the Langham Chocolate Bar for my birthday in June. I've been wanting to go since I moved here 11 years ago and this year is not going to pass without me going!
Receiving this in the mail sometime this week!
And this.

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50 in 365: Books 1-10

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:02:43 -0400

I haven't been posting as I go for the 50 in 365, but I have been reading. Sooo here is the backtrack for what I've read in the last two months.

#1-3

The Gormenghast Novels

The Gormenghast novels are really three books, Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone. Incredible books, especially the first two, which chronicle the story of a very odd castle and its strange inhabitants, including the just born Titus Groan, the 77th Earl of Gormenghast. It's a well-written gothic fantasy of sorts, although it can hardly be called fantastic in that there is no magic, just an amazing cast of characters.

I highly highly recommend these books. The BBC and WGBH put out a mini-series a few years back that is based on the first two novels. I think that the mini-series would have been confusing to me if I hadn't read the books, but I thought that they did do justice to the story and they did a great job with casting. Netflix them AFTER you read the books.

Now You See Him: A Novel

I've read quite a few other books as well...

#4 After Gormenghast, I read Eli Gottleib's Now You See Him. It's not the type of book I would normally buy but I scored a free reviewers copy. It's a short, easy read. Interesting literary mystery novel if you like those sorts of things.

#5 I was looking for a book on my great reading list that I could take with me on a business trip I took in January. Joe convinced me to bring Great Expectations, which I, shockingly, have never read. In fact, I've never read any Dickens beyond certain passages handed out in writing classes in college. This is very strange to me, being such a literary freak and such a fan of British literature in general. Dickens' collected works are on my list to read, definitely. I really enjoyed the book but found it hard not to picture Ethan Hawke, Gwenyth Paltrow and DeNiro as characters. I hardly remember that movie but reading the book brought it back and it was difficult not to think of those actors as I was reading.

#6 I picked up Love in the Time of Cholera at the airport in Oakland, CA on my way back from that trip. I hadn't read it yet, nor have I seen the movie, but wow, what a beautiful story. I do want to rent the movie...can anyone tell me if the movie does the book justice?

#7 The Glass Castle was interofficed to me by a colleague who knows I like books. I don't typically read many memoirs but this one threw me for a loop. It's written by a now-successful journalist who was raised by parents who were rather fucked up but still loved their kids. The story chronicles the story of how they lived, in shacks, often without food or money or clean clothes. I was absolutely riveted.

Finite and Infinite Games

#8 Another book that I read, Finite & Infinite Games by James Carse, was a slim volume that I picked up as a result of some random blog post I read about cognition. Basically Carse presents a philosophy of looking at the world, either as a finite game or infinite game. Children play infinite games...neverending games without rules or boundaries. Adults define, place rules around and create finite games, which in turn create stress in our lives. I like the idea of figuring out how to let go a little, how to take life less seriously and how to shape the world into a game that I want to play rather than to play the finite games of others around me.

Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems

#9 If you love poetry, you must pick up Ursula K. LeGuin's Incredible Good Fortune. It's been a very long time since I have read a book of poetry that has pleased me so much. The poems are delightful, smart, charming and they are incredibly accessible. I love the magic that weaves in and out of her words, as much here as in the many wonderful stories she has published throughout the years.

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fall television confession

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:32:56 -0400

So here are the obsessions for the fall:

Heroes
Journeyman (which is after Heroes and it has Lucius Vorenus in it!)
Smallville
ANTM
Project Runway (which will start Nov. 14)

So what does that mean about me? I like SciFi and fashion?? Talk about some irony, huh?

I'm very excited about this:

As fans of Battlestar Galatica get ready for the November 24 premiere of the telemovie "Razor" -- which will delve into the backstory of the Battlestar Pegasus, her crew, and Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes) -- the network has another surprise. The movie will be preceded by an 8-week series of "mini-sodes." Filmed in conjunction with "Razor," the two- to three-minute installments will air weekly in primetime on SCI FI Channel, and then be available online at SCIFI.com. The promotional shorts will premiere in October.

The first one appeared last night and you can catch it here. No one has YouTubed it yet or I would have just embedded it...

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a few monsters

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:37:52 -0400

This was done back in 1966 and was the precursor to the Cookie Monster we know and love.

The real Computer Monster

Cookie Monster vs Martha Stewart

I love YouTube.

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I really want to do this!

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:31:20 -0400

Call me crazy but this would be awesome in my book!

SPOOOOOOOKY!

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back to the 70s ~ weekend children's shows

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:27:28 -0400

Last weekend on Sunday morning, Joe and I ended up watching many episodes of the Little Rascals. I realize they aren't 70s shows but we were watching them as kids in the 70s. They don't show them on TV now because many see them as racist and controversial. They hold a lot of nostalgia for many people though, and they showcase some brilliant writing and incredible child actors (of all sorts of races during a time when you would never have seen non-whites on the same level or receiving the same playing time as white actors). Oddly, between last weekend and this weekend, YouTube/Google yanked dozens and dozens of episodes and so I could only find these two, which are not as good as some of the others we found last weekend but they are still really cute and funny:

And then this morning I dug up this gem. It's a full episode of H.R. Pufinstuf. I loved loved this show, especially Freddy the Flute.

H.R. Pufnstuf - full episode

Enjoy! We did!

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Dead? Or Alive? [warning BSG spoilers]

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:03:00 -0500

Starbuck, dead?

Sooo is she a Cylon?

The rumors came true last night, when Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff, bit the dust in a strange colorful maelstrom cloud after she had a dream flashback in which she made peace with her abusive and distant mom.

My eyes hurt today because I'm a terrible sap and she was my favorite character and well, I didn't want her to die. I'm also rather pissed.

Pissed because they just didn't give us anything. For those of us who became emotionally invested in that character, they gave us nothing. No understanding, no closure, just complete and utter confusion. Disappointment. It was just too weird...she has a destiny that includes quite matter-of-factly killing herself? Huh? It seemed so contrived--the strange Christmas-Carol/It's a Wonderful Life flashbacks in which she made her peace with mom and then that was enough for her to just call it all quits? I don't get it. It was completely uncharacteristic for her. It went against everything she ever stood for. She did, in fact, what her mom always said she did--she gave up. It was a huge let-down. There was no apparent grand sacrifice, no heroic end, and really, not even sufficient enough build-up about her ongoing craziness (sure, they teased the maelstrom here and there but there was nothing overly significant to show that it ever ate at her overall psyche until this episode).

So what was that all about? And with only three shows left and a huge ridiculous trial with Baltar commanding attention, what are the chances that they will tell us this season vs. next season (they just signed on for a 4th season, thankfully). Will she come back? Sackhoff has a 5-year contract so the chances that she appears again are pretty good (and I just pray that they aren't in more annoying flashback scenes). But how will she come back? Is she a Cylon? If so, she must be one of the "five," right? And who are the five? Why don't even the cylons really know who they are?

Who IS Leoben? And WTF with that "psychologist" who knew everything? Who is she? How does she know all the things she does? It's the same chick that knew about Hera in the earlier episodes, right?

Overall I feel frustrated. This season they yanked two of my favorite characters, D'Anna and now Starbuck. Sigh. I just hope that the whole Baltar trial doesn't make me really cranky. What on earth is Apollo doing defending him?

Well at least I can rest assured that Heroes will probably be more satisfying tonight...

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I KNEW IT

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:12:22 -0500

Adrian Pasdar is hawt

that Claire's dad would be who he ended up being. Hehe. I felt rather vindicated at that.

****HEROES SPOILERS*****

I'm on the Primatech paper list and one of the files contained in the super top secret location is for a woman who can peruse and find digital material without a computer. We haven't seen her on the show yet but she's bound to turn up. She firmly believes that Bennet "created" her power. The thing is, Bennet isn't working on his own...when they were testing Sylar, he told the doctor that they weren't allowed to kill him and as he was talking, was clear that the order was coming from somewhere higher up. I think that person is Lindeman. That would also explain why on earth he would let Nikki out of prison.

I'm really interested to see where the Nathan/Claire story is going to go. Adrian Pasdar is actually married to a Dixie Chick in real life, which I find somewhat fascinating. Who would have thunk it? Even stranger, Adrian was born only two months after my husband Joe, in the same town, Pittsfield, MA. They moved when he was two so Joe and Adrian never ended up going to school together...

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QotD: Set Your DVR

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:04:54 -0400

What TV show(s) will you be watching this season? Why?
Submitted by ducnly.vox.com.

ONLY 12 days! I can't wait!!!

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Preview

Heroes looks really interesting. It premieres tonight:

Heroes

I'm a sucker for AMNTM:

CW America's Next Top Model

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