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cabbages and kings
Mar. 1st, 2002 08:34 pmI'm reading Lady Anna, by Anthony Trollope. I'm a big Trollope fan; I remember seeing him described as the Shakespeare of the lending library, which pretty much
sums up my middlebrow tastes. I like all the conventional
Victorian and Edwardian "good storytellers", much more than
the innovators. I first picked up Lady Anna used last summer in Book Soup in Hollywood when I was staying over on a work trip. I'd read a pretty fair number of Trollope in a row at that time, and the plot didn't hold me. I put the book on my nightstand at home, roughly halfway through. This morning I picked it back up; it's great the way I remembered the whole plot so far. The novel's one of those
girl-choosing-between-rich-guy-and-poor-guy, although, like a lot of Trollope, the plot is subservient to the mild amusements about human nature in which his writing excels.
Today at work I broke open the CD of Tom Heasley's
Where the Earth Meets the Sky. Heasley's kinda a unique beast--an ambient artist whose principal instrument is the tuba. He actually managed to put a bit of cetacean atmosphere in a piece about "Monterey Bay", without it seeming all treachly and new age-y and Free Willy-y.
I liked it so much I immediately wrote an epinions.com review of it. My Suzanne Vega review got voted Very Helpful recently, but I think Heasley and my review of him is much less accessible. I don't know what I did before I found Hypnos.com on a google search recently, but it's sure sparked my interest in music. Now if I could only find my copy of Live! in the Air Age! I'd be back in heaven.
I signed up for the Suzanne Vega mail list some time ago.
The people there write such great concert descriptions about her shows. I don't have that gift. I tried to post at hypnos about the Dylan concert we saw a few weeks ago, and all I could really say was it's amazing how much material he has that I don't really know. Great show, that, though--he managed to seem connected to the audience, giving little quick bows in his cowboy hat and kinda "dude ranch" boots. I thought it was great that they did "All Along the Watchtower", but I kinda wished someone had tried to Hendrix up the guitars.
In my album of covers, I'd definitely play Black Oak Arkansas' "Gravel Roads". Also, I'd do a kazoo solo to Be Bop Deluxe's "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape",
do my best Arkansas-meets-NYC version of Ms. Vega's
"Ironbound/Fancy Poultry Parts", and perhaps Bowie's "Letter from Hermione" (love that lyric "I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to say/but I can see it's not okay").
I am just a four track machine and a silly ebay ad from
personal exhibition.
This weekend I'm batcheloring it; Mandatory Continuing Legal Education on line, perhaps a little tandoori chicken,
and a bit of poetry writing are the plan.
At dinner we talked about my friend Donnie, whose second marriage to a deeply devout woman made him a spectator
at the trial and expulsion of a congregation member
found guilty of the sin of living with someone without the benefit of marriage. I think it was the democracy of it all that caught his eye. He's a few wives down the trail now.
sums up my middlebrow tastes. I like all the conventional
Victorian and Edwardian "good storytellers", much more than
the innovators. I first picked up Lady Anna used last summer in Book Soup in Hollywood when I was staying over on a work trip. I'd read a pretty fair number of Trollope in a row at that time, and the plot didn't hold me. I put the book on my nightstand at home, roughly halfway through. This morning I picked it back up; it's great the way I remembered the whole plot so far. The novel's one of those
girl-choosing-between-rich-guy-and-poor-guy, although, like a lot of Trollope, the plot is subservient to the mild amusements about human nature in which his writing excels.
Today at work I broke open the CD of Tom Heasley's
Where the Earth Meets the Sky. Heasley's kinda a unique beast--an ambient artist whose principal instrument is the tuba. He actually managed to put a bit of cetacean atmosphere in a piece about "Monterey Bay", without it seeming all treachly and new age-y and Free Willy-y.
I liked it so much I immediately wrote an epinions.com review of it. My Suzanne Vega review got voted Very Helpful recently, but I think Heasley and my review of him is much less accessible. I don't know what I did before I found Hypnos.com on a google search recently, but it's sure sparked my interest in music. Now if I could only find my copy of Live! in the Air Age! I'd be back in heaven.
I signed up for the Suzanne Vega mail list some time ago.
The people there write such great concert descriptions about her shows. I don't have that gift. I tried to post at hypnos about the Dylan concert we saw a few weeks ago, and all I could really say was it's amazing how much material he has that I don't really know. Great show, that, though--he managed to seem connected to the audience, giving little quick bows in his cowboy hat and kinda "dude ranch" boots. I thought it was great that they did "All Along the Watchtower", but I kinda wished someone had tried to Hendrix up the guitars.
In my album of covers, I'd definitely play Black Oak Arkansas' "Gravel Roads". Also, I'd do a kazoo solo to Be Bop Deluxe's "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape",
do my best Arkansas-meets-NYC version of Ms. Vega's
"Ironbound/Fancy Poultry Parts", and perhaps Bowie's "Letter from Hermione" (love that lyric "I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to say/but I can see it's not okay").
I am just a four track machine and a silly ebay ad from
personal exhibition.
This weekend I'm batcheloring it; Mandatory Continuing Legal Education on line, perhaps a little tandoori chicken,
and a bit of poetry writing are the plan.
At dinner we talked about my friend Donnie, whose second marriage to a deeply devout woman made him a spectator
at the trial and expulsion of a congregation member
found guilty of the sin of living with someone without the benefit of marriage. I think it was the democracy of it all that caught his eye. He's a few wives down the trail now.
