Happy 2009!

Returning to the grind after vacation is always tough. I spent today filling out invoices and updating the clips file on my website. Blargh. I'm already getting those bleary eyes and tight shoulders back.

On the brighter side, I had a wonderfully de-lightful vacation. Spent the first week in the snowy north--upstate NY and VT. It was sub-zero at times and very snowy, a real old school New England winter. Then it rained and the slopes turned to ice and I remembered we're living in a global warming era.

The second week I spent with family and friends in NYC. I made like my high school self and stayed up late/slept in every single night. Needless to say, I got none of my organizing-life goals accomplished thus, but I did consume lots of culture and get rested up.

Anyway, back to work means back to blogging, let us hope! I have lots to write about, not the least of which, MASTERPIECE CLASSIC SEASON IS UPON US AGAIN. Which means its time for my favorite thing in the world: literary mini-serieses. Mercy. I haven't caught "Tess" yet but plan to watch it online at some point Thurs or Fri. Anyone want to venture an opinion?

In honor of this venerable season of bodices, breeches, smoldering stares and ridiculous country dances, I'm going to re-post my classic series of lists honoring the best mini-series hotties, with potential addendum.

So look out for that in the next few days, as well as reviews of Beedle the Bard, Little Dorrit, and hopefully On Beauty.

xoxoxo.
/F-ette

How Many Books Did You Read in 2008?

Librarything is down so I did a little sleuthing to find out my number.

The total is 38 Books. Broken down:

14 books reviewed for Publishers Weekly
1 book for Venus Zine (American Wife)
And ~23 Books for Pleasure (reviews here) including:

• The latter two His Dark Materials Books (read Golden Compass in Dec. '07)
• All Four Twilight Books
• A re-read of all 3 LOTR Books
• 1.25 Books for my Bitch article on Jane Eyre and Rebecca (A quarter of Madwoman in the Attic and Daphne)
• .75 of Little Dorrit (gonna finish it this weekend!)
  
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• The Historian
• Scarlet Feather
• Good in Bed
• A Freewheeling Time
• One-Hundred Years of Solitude
  
• Great American Hypocrites
• Sula
• Cranford
• .5 of The Gathering
• The Terror Dream
• .5 of He's a Stud She's a Slut and It's a Jungle Out There
  
  

How many books did you read? Ballpark it!

Happy Solstice

...From me and Dar Williams.




I've really been enjoying my time in the northern part of our most liberal state, Vermont, braving sub-zero temperatures and various forms of precipitation to get amazing ski runs in and of course, bond with the nuclear fellow-ette family. But I'll be looking forward to returning to my urbane life and my life-partner in a few days. And to eating latkes. Hope you and yours are safe and happy during these darkest evenings of the year. More EBCing to come soon.

Snowy Sunday De-Lurk: What Are You Reading?

Greetings from a nook of the Hudson valley, where we have been snowbound for about eight hours, stalled on our way to Vermont.

So I finally finished the first book of Little Dorrit, all 450 pages of Victorian prose. I had to pause around page 200 to read/review a humorous novel about therapy and self-help novels, among other topics. Now I have to pause again to read/review a historical fiction about Jews during the Civil War, which seems pretty cool to me.

Little Dorrit, is great, interruptions aside. It's not David Copperfield-level breathtaking amazing Dickens, nor is it Hard Times level didactic Dickens. It's somewhere in between, and I love it. My favorite Dickensy characters so far are the effusive Flora Finching, the enigmatically angry Mr. F's Aunt, and the Society-mindful Merdle clan.

So, just like last time... let's have at it! My favorite lurkers, tell us what are you reading! And what are you planning to read over the holidays? How do you like or dislike it?

I wrote an end-of the year book wrap up for WeNews and a gift guide for RHRC if you're looking for ideas.

My Thoughts on Obama's Choice of Reverend Rick Warren

...expressed, once more, through chats with my brother (we are both procrastinating).

For those who don't know the background, woman-hating, gay-bashing, creepy pastor Rick Warren is giving an invocation at the inauguration. ERGO my away message: "WTF barack??"

[bro]: why wtf barack?

me: rick warren is delivering the invocation at the inauguration

37 minutes

5:52 PM [bro]: saddleback boy?

me: yeah!

[bro]: fatty?*

me: abortion=holocaust boy

no on prop 8 boy

FATTY MCFAT*

5:53 PM [bro]: that is disgusting

screw obama

dawkins is right

why do religious people get a pass on everything

hate is hate

whether the hater wears a collar or not
***
[bro]: god i'm reading some stuff

warren is despicable

hopefully a haggard scandal breaks

where he's doing meth with some gigolo

9:57 AM me: yeah he believes wives should submit to their husbands!

nice man, that
me: atrios says people should turn their backs when warren prays

[bro]: nice

10:02 AM god hates bigots

10:09 AM [bro]: im researching hate speech

warren is an idiot

*UPDATE. We are referring, of course, to his fatty bulbous SOUL gorged on self-importance and not loving his neighbor. Making fun of people's appearances is never okay unless I feel like it their ugly souls happen to be reflected externally. Which I believe qualifies in this case.

My evening

I went to an Oasis concert tonight. It was free, and I was a teenage fangirl once so I had to go. I had a blast. Here is an account of my evening as chatted to my brother just moments ago.

me: it was fun

they played some crappy new stuff

but then at the end they killed it with wonderwall, dont look back in anger, champagne supernova etc etc etc

they filled all of MSG! i couldn't believe how many people actually paid $ to see them

i mean i wouldn't have!

12:36 AM ALSO

as we were walking out

there were some obnoxious drunk guys chanting something

and we get on the escalator

12:37 AM and i say to [boyfriend]] "you know who's probably here, [group of high school boys I once knew who went to every Oasis concert that I did.]

And then I turn around at that very moment and lo and behold, there are [member of said group #1], [member #2] [and member #3] right behind me!

they were the chanting douchebags!

all along.

ain't life grand?

12:38 AM brother:

those guys are huge herbs

The moral of the story is, sometimes it can be fun to go to Oasis concerts!

Also, feel free to wake yourself up with this song, which was the best of the night.

Quick Link: Stephen Colbert is a Janeite

The breakdown of Stephen's best Austen-moments over at No Fact Zone.

Tuesday Poem: Happy Birthday Jane Austen

A Letter To Lord Byron by W. H. Auden

"... There is one other author in my pack
For some time I debated which to write to.
Which would least likely send my letter back?
But I decided I'd give a fright to
Jane Austen if I wrote when I'd no right to,
And share in her contempt the dreadful fates
Of Crawford, Musgrove, and of Mr. Yates.

Then she's a novelist. I don't know whether
You will agree, but novel writing is
A higher art than poetry altogether
In my opinion, and success implies
Both finer character and faculties
Perhaps that's why real novels are as rare
As winter thunder or a polar bear.

... I must remember, though, that you were dead
Before the four great Russians lived, who brought
The art of novel writing to a head;
The help of Boots had not been sought.
But now the art for which Jane Austen fought,
Under the right persuasion bravely warms
And is the most prodigious of the forms.

She was not an unshockable blue-stocking;
If shades remain the characters they were,
No doubt she still considers you as shocking.
But tell Jane Austen, that is if you dare,
How much her novels are beloved down here.
She wrote them for posterity, she said;
'Twas rash, but by posterity she's read.

You could not shock her more than she shocks me;
Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.
It makes me most uncomfortable to see
An English spinster of the middle-class
Describe the amorous effects of 'brass',
Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety
The economic basis of society..."

I network, socially... (part ??)

I'm twittering. Here is my official freelance writer twitter. And here is my fellow-ette ranty twitter.

And here is my friendfeed.

FUN TIMES, y'all, fun times.

JKR + JA Appreciation time

Sometimes I get down about stuff, you know, like life and modern society...and then I think about the fact that JK Rowling is the most powerful living writer in the world. And Jane Austen is probably the most powerful non-living novelist in the world.

And that is just awesome.

Austen-Book

For those who haven't seen it yet. 

I like the teevee

I've been meaning to write a "cultural consumption" post full of inelegant reviews to catch you/my up on everything I've been consuming since the 'oliday season came upon us... but the only thing I've really been doing is watching (excellent) TV. My reading of Little Dorrit has been suspended by a book review I had to do, and my vow to see a lot of movies is on hold til the vacation--which incidentally, couldn't come sooner.

So I've been watching True Blood (the whole first season) Friday Night Lights (the new season that's airing on directv now and will be on NBC soon) and Mad Men (starting season 1). They are all so so so excellent.

FNL is definitely my favorite because the characters--a bunch of Texas teens-- have become so beloved in my life. The show makes me cry and laugh in every single episode and this season it's gone back to being about the dramas of everyday life. It's lost all the desire to be soapy, and managed to stay gut-wrenching because life is gut wrenching. I can't recommend the show enough.

True Blood is stylized and gory. Very gory. But it's a lot of fun once you get past episode 4. The heroine is way more empowered than Twilight's, but the appeal is the same. Dark, undead hero who falls for our heroine because he sees her oddity as a special gift. Heroine torn between desire for hero and fear of his powers. Second love interest who is "safer" + also supernatural but less sexy. Think of it as Twilight for the non-mormon, non pre-teen set. Aside from the primary romance, the supporting characters are interesting and three-dimensional and very profane :).

Mad Men, the 50s ad-world drama, is really mesmerizing. The characters and scenes are totally stuck in my head after only three episodes of tense meetings, endless cigarettes, bed-hopping and the kind of sexual harassment that used to be called "banter." I can't wait to catch up on more. I have a theory about Don Draper being like a beautiful woman in a classic adultery novel (a.k.a a male Emma, Anna, or Hester, but I have to chew on it for a bit.) Also, I can't believe my parents grew up in that era! It really explains the 60s.

I really think TV has eclipsed movies these days in terms of the number of really really high-quality offerings. Thanks, David Chase!

[That being said, the Twilight movie was awesome. Campier than the book, a less zombie-ish heroine, a romance that didn't feel quite as disturbing and wrong. ]

Monday Song Lyrics: RIP John Lennon edition

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Jai guru deva
Jai guru deva


We miss you, John

Vampires

So this is a bit late due to Thanksgiving and the subsequent shock of going back into work full steam ahead with a turkey-hangover, but here's a piece I wrote about the literary/cultural history of vampires as symbols of socio-sexual anxieties.

---

With immortality, a killer instinct, and a life on the fringes, Vampires are a perfect conduit for musings on the human condition. "Vampires have long served to remind us of the parts of our own psyches that seduce us," writes Salon's Laura Miller (in a superb analysis of the Twilight books). But the metaphor is often less existential than that, as the vampire bite is easy shorthand for sex. Vampirism allows consumers to take vicarious pleasure in rule-breaking couplings, while also justifying phobias about sex-because the seducers do have lethal fangs, and their condition is quite contagious.

---

It was reprinted at Huffpo + Alternet and generated quite a bit of fang-tastic discussion (sorry) at the latter site and pickup around the web.