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Reading: Richard Ford, The Sportswriter – The first in the 20th Century classic realist trilogy of novels about the laid-back hero Frank Bascombe. A warm, rich American landscape.Listening on Audiobook: Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore– Disparate narrative strands bring together a montage of strange, surreal and touching images, in the flux of time.Watching: Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski’s Three Colours trilogy – beautiful, but also indulgent. The Harry Potter films, with my two girls. Very different from each other… life provides a good balance, this time.
Listening: Schubert, Wagner, Frank Zappa, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds |
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Reading: His Dark Materials: The Amber Spy Glass by Philip Pullman (ie, The Golden Compass vol 3), and A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler, although John Buchan’s The 39 Stepskeeps flirting with me (I’ve always wanted to read it after seeing Hitchcock’s movie based on the novel) and I’m responding to its charms.Watching: The last season of Weeds while on the treadmill, but not liking it so much.
Listening: The Book of Mormon musical. Eating: Honey Bunches of Oats, Peaches edition. |
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Reading: An old stack of Real Simple magazines I found in the back of my closet, plus The End of Overeating by David Kessler.Watching: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on hulu.com. Can’t beat the convenience!
Listening: Assorted works of minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich Eating: The new apple/pear hybrid fruit. It’s round like an apple with yellow speckled skin like a pear. It’s very sweet and kind of mealy. I like! Also, Jay Robb’s chocolate protein poweder. It actually tastes good to my vegetarian lips. Browsing: The accompanying website to Kessler’s book. |
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Reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthyWatching: Big fat nothing… but can’t wait for the new season of Parks and Recreation.
Listening:80s music- my 20 year high school reunion is this month! Eating: A great 4-cheese calzone at De Fazio’s Wood Fired Pizza in upstate New York. This place was ‘totally legit’ as my 12 year old would say. Browsing: Turned a couple of pals at the pool on to Damn you, Auto Correct — STILL good for a laugh anytime I need a pick me up. |
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Reading: Several un-noteworthy pieces of fiction + The Hole in our Gospel— Richard Stearns. Here is the quote that drew my attention to the book:
“For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.” (RESV-Richard E. Stearns Version) This book has been haunting me all the while I’ve been reading it. Stay tuned for a future post. ;) Watching: Nothing life-changing: The Help, Cowboys and Aliens, the last Harry Potter, Friends with Benefits, The Change-Up. Listening: The Sabbath World — absolutely fascinating podcast on RadioWest re: what the Sabbath has meant traditionally and what role it can play today in reconnecting us to family and community. Mormon Matters Episode 45: on the unique practice of bearing testimony. Mormon Matters Episode 46: In Memoriam: Chieko Okazaki and Marion D. Hanks. I don’t remember Marion D. Hanks, but I love Chieko Okazaki and felt like some goodness went out of the world when I heard the news that she had passed away. I enjoyed listening to this podcast and learning more about her life. Eating: Chilly Fillmore’s-a new self-serve yogurt place. We don’t get very many new eating establishments in our little town. This one has been a huge hit in our family! It’s low-calorie and they have all kinds of fresh berries! Browsing: The Reality of Daily Life in Israel, Big Questions Online – a blog that tackles the intersections between science, markets, religion, and morals. Favorite blog post of the month from Mormon Child Bride. |
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Reading: I moved this month, the only reading I did was take-out menus and box contents.Watching: Got to see The Book of Mormon musical a second time last week – loved it even more! No cable for us this month, loving internet clips of The Daily Show and Colbert Report. And the seamstress in me can’t resist Project Runway! And the best movie I’ve seen in several years: Vincent Will Meer (Vincent Wants to Sea)
Listening: I began Ragnar training so I’m running to old favorites Gogol Bordello, Nirvana and Lady Gaga. New ipod downloads are: “Under My Skin” Gin Wigmore, “Golden Age” The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, “Swoon” Rising Appalachia. Saw Bon Iver live this month. Eating: Late summer = heaven, craving the golden grape tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market. Also have a new favorite ice cream after my recent trip to NYC – maple bourbon. Browsing: Political blogs like TPM is a regular and a new one I’ve stumbled upon the Historiann. |
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Reading: In Defense of Food by Micahel Pollan (still/again), loads of old (can we call them vintage if they’re from two or three seasons ago?) gardening magazines.Watching: Discover Channel and Animal Planet shows with the kids – we’re into anything deadly right now and are totally amused when Dad has to leave the room whenever the snakes appear.
Listening: Krishna Das: Pilgrim Heart, personalized yoga playlists, Commonwealth Club Podcasts Eating: Buckets of foraged blackberries and blackberry jam, blackberry cobbler, blackberry pie, oatmeal with blackberries and blackberry muffins. Tomatoes, cucumbers, zuccini, basil and green beans from the garden. Fresh strawberries, peppers, lettuce and corn from the Farmer’s market. Plenty of good quality milk chocolate. Browsing: 100 Days of Real Food, Jem Lemen, a design blog. |
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Reading: A few days ago, I finished Just Kids by Patti Smith. I’m half-way through Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (Laurie — holler!) Also reading the play Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff, poetry by Wilifred Owen, No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie, Dancing With Life by Phillip Moffitt and selected stories by Alice Munro.Watching: Uneven, but largely satisfying BBC drama The Hour, Japanese classic The Burmese Harp, Korean film Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall … and Spring, Bergman films. A fantastic production of Journey’s End in London’s West End.
Listening: A mixed-CD my husband made for me with Metronomy, Goldfrapp, Toddla T, Austra and Twin Sister. Eating: Out! Except for the occasional take-away, we never eat out, but I’ve been out four times in the last two weeks! The best was The French House in Soho. Browsing: I’m addicted to The Rumpus. All of the writing is great, but I am in LOVE (all-caps, breathless love) with their advice column called Dear Sugar. I’ve also been hanging out on the site for the Lost and Found Series, a series of five documentaries about losing things and finding that which has been lost. |
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Reading: The OSPD, 4th ed (The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), I’m going to play in a Scrabble tournament in Portland, OR in a few weeks; God is Not a Christian: And Other Provocations, by Desmond Mpilo Tutu, edited by John Allen, because Heather read parts of it out loud to me and it seemed like something I needed to read on my own; The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Entrepreneurship, a textbook written by Hisrich, Peters and Shepherd, because I’m going to be teaching from it in a week.
Watching: Napoleon Dynamite (with the kids, because our youngest hasn’t seen it, and well-adjusted kids should be able to quote lines from it); The Alzheimer’s Project: The Memory Loss Tapes. Listening: The List, Rosanne Cash (I heard it reviewed on NPR and decided to buy to it). Eating: Tony Roma’s (and a few other good restaurants in San Antonio, I was there at a conference). Browsing: The Huffington Post. |
Staff Stacks
Claire, thanks for linking to “Damn You Auto Correct”! It’s now my new support group.
I’m certain the dudes at Apple have intentionally created much of the mischief somehow, with code that says, I don’t know, something like: “any word beginning with ‘pen’ will autocorrect to ‘penis’ and defy any attempts to correct the auto correct.”
Ed, you’re welcome! I really love that sort of lame humor. It’s a bit embarrassing, actually.
Andy, do you your girls like Harry Potter? We took Kensington with us to the drive in to see the last one and it was not a good experience. I actually had a fantasy she would sleep (the built in babysitters were out of town) but instead she asked questions and complained it was scary THE WHOLE TIME. Except the time she had to go to the bathroom. ARGH
It’s really cute, Claire: Cara (age 4) watches so intently, eyes glued to the screen, while Flissy (age 2) finds the monsters scary and wants a cuddle at parts. They both seem to have enjoyed the series, as far as we’ve seen… but I think we may pause where we are (the third one), as I seem to think they get more scary as they go on – ?
H, the Big Questions Online recommendation is great. . .
Claire, I’m reading ‘The Road’ too, as a result of Heidi’s D&S book club… I’m about 50 pages in, then took a break, but have found the language and style so powerful. How far into it are you? Are you ‘enjoying’ it?
I tried to read The Road and did okay till the “let’s see what’s going on in this basement” scene. The whole time I kept thinking the book was about me and my (now) 18 year old son and that got me depressed. I like the author’s other works, but this was really bleak. Some have suggested it’s a really, really, dark work of humor, but I don’t buy it.
What’s the opposite of spreading cheer? Spreading bleakness? The Road is one of those books you can’t quite recommend. Or, recommend with extreme caution, (which makes a person like me want to read it.) You can’t really say that you’ve enjoyed or loved it, but it does leave a mark — powerful is a good word.
Ah, I see that Brent has admitted–publicly-to reading the Scrabble dictionary. What he didn’t own up to is the number of times he’s read it . . .
Cheers for the informative post
Radhe Shyam – Your amazing blog has contributed satisfaction to my soul. Sing the praises associated with Lord Ramachandra.