Reacher
Posted by Sarah in books, recommendations, reviews on Apr 13, 2012 | 0 commentsI just got around to the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. By the time I got to the second book, I remembered that the main criticism I’d heard about the books is that Reacher is a Gary Stu and DUDE. So. Right.
That said, I was willing to suspend disbelief thanks to a blend of interesting characters in each book, solid action and Reacher being likeable despite his incredible amazingness. Probably because the author generally makes Reacher wrong before he makes him right.
Definitely a library read for me – I don’t know that I’d read them more than once – but a fun couple hours brain vacation. I powered through the first six books in most of a day. Comparatively, I thoroughly enjoy the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher and have read them multiple times. The fact that Harry is relatively fucked up, aware of his fuck-up-ed-ness and copes with it in various scenarios makes him far more relateable than Reacher.
You can dance if you want to
Posted by Sarah in entertainment, movies, reviews on Apr 2, 2012 | 0 commentsI watched the new Footloose movie this weekend and I’ve got to say it was far superior than the original.
The original has a soft spot in my heart because, when it came out on video, it was a movie I identified with. My parents had moved us to the suburbs the summer before 6th grade and we also started attending a Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church. It was a strict church and there was no secular music, no movies, no dancing. I’m not sure why video was okay, or if my parents just realized that it was inevitable, but I didn’t get to go to a proper movie in a theater (that didn’t have to do with god – there was some Prodigal Son movie that I got to skip school for) unless I was staying over with a friend and my parents didn’t know or I got my driver’s license. The stuff against the rules didn’t have to actually be the law, it was the law of the house where I lived and that was just as good.
When my mom found a cassette tape of Def Leppard’s Hysteria in my room, you would have thought it was wrapped in pentagrams and soaked in baby’s blood. My parents were nothing if not committed to what the church was doing. I fought for WEEKS to be allowed to go to the 7th grade Halloween Dance – it was the first dance of the school year. I was allowed to go, albeit not in costume, and while it was fun it was SO not worth the month of parental arguing that I’d done to get there.
So seeing a movie – even though my friends thought it was so improbable to be in a place where dancing WASN’T ALLOWED – that reflected part of my crazy life experience and captured my frustration was kind of awesome. Especially since it was part of my life that almost no one else COULD empathize with. In my public school, I didn’t know anyone who went to church regularly and it was pretty much the only social outlet I was allowed. It was outside of the town where I lived so there was zero overlap between school and church. There weren’t a huge number of kids who were in the youth group at my church and, I suspect, almost none who were experiencing MY frustration with the rules. Now let’s be clear, the kids in neither Footloose film are advocating for dancing in the name of the Lord. And Spouse will tell you that a hangnail was better than the first film, so yes it was admittedly not great. For me, it was the novel characterization of something similar to my own experience that I remember resonating strongly with for the first time.
The new film is a pretty loose remake – modernized a bit and some of the over-the-top asshole characters have been changed or improved. There are some funny music callbacks and overall I think they did a better job with the story and setting. Everyone was a bit more believable than in the original and folks even have a southern twang.
All of this is a long way of saying I really enjoyed the new film and would watch it again before the original.
I’ve got a working theory
Posted by Sarah in music, recommendations, reviews, sewing, tv on Mar 20, 2012 | 0 commentsThat Monday nights are my night for Tossing, Turning and Fucked Up Dreams. Terrible for sleep, but clearly my brain is working some shit out.
Unrelated, I got half a dozen compliments on my Sugar Skull shirt at work – from patients. Sweet.
My current sewing project plans: another scrub shirt (or two) and two pairs of scrub pants. This will be new material and a new pattern (pants) as well as adapting the shirt pattern. That should be followed by two pairs of slacks (thanks Vogue!) and a knit shirt (and possibly a summer dress). Provided I get through all these things without wanting to kill myself, I just got a pattern for a weekender bag that I’m pretty stoked about but will be more complicated. This is all by way of working up to my silk shantung Victorian steampunk costume, which I’d like to have done by the beginning of August. I figure at least a month for that project, so that means I’ve got April through July to crank through the rest of my project list. Do-able, I think.
In scrub pattern adaptation, I’ve noticed that I prefer double pockets low on my shirts and rarely use the ‘traditional’ pants pockets. I’m planning on moving the side pants pockets up and potentially dropping the traditional pockets altogether. I’m also sorely tempted to add an additional low pocket on the back of my shirt as a place to chuck my phone, though I suspect raising the pants side-pockets will solve that problem for me.
I apologize to all of you who don’t give a shit about sewing things but I AM pretty excited about the Vogue pants, as I’ve got some bitchin’ houndstooth and charcoal lightweight tweed. I may become one of those people who stops wearing jeans.
Nah. But there’s potential that I’ll make my own. Incidentally, if you’re interested in the sewing stuff that I’m interested in, I’ve been using my pinterest account as a sort of inspiration board for things that I’ll be searching out patterns or patterns I already have.
We watched The Descendants and it was pretty much as good as everyone said it was. It was, I think, a pretty realistic depiction of teenagers today. It didn’t shirk the difficulties of relationships and it did a pretty great job of characterizing all the shitty things about a familial death without being too maudlin or twee. In short, worth a watch.
Our companion rental, The Immortals, was on the other hand a HOT MESS. It started strong and then fell apart somewhere around the last third and for a movie that was goddamn loud, there was A LOT OF FUCKING MUMBLING. Movie-watching pet peeve. Not worth what you’d pay to rent it. Wait for cable.
Incidentally, every single movie with big battles since Gladiator has tried to recapture the intensity and awesome of the Maximus pep talk but has failed gloriously. I think it’s in part because they are clearly trying to recapture that moment at the Very Important Moment, whereas in Gladiator he does it a couple of times with different audiences at non-lynchpin moments and it’s believable precisely because he’s not trying so hard and because the entire success doesn’t hinge on it.
Clearly I’ve spent more time thinking about this than anyone should bother doing. Related, the pep talk scene in Immortal is egregiously bad despite the presence of Stephen Dorff.
There is currently a plan afoot to make a movie trip to see The Hunger Games this weekend. I do not care that I am a studio mark. No, I do not have a costume.
In TV news, I’ve been sucked into Smash entirely against my will. I have no explanation.
The Walking Dead had a whipass finale and Justified has been six kinds of awesome.
I’ve updated Goodreads (and by proxy, Facebook) with my 2012 reads and reviews. Most recently, Still Missing and Penumbra both got 5 stars from me. Vastly different but interesting and evocative reads, both.
In music news, I have been OBSESSED with the Gotye and Kimbra song “Someone I Used to Know.” I CAN’T GET SICK OF IT.
Internet vacation OR random miscellany
Posted by Sarah in books, entertainment, internet, miscellany, movies, recommendations, reviews, tv on Feb 19, 2012 | 0 commentsI’ve been largely away from the internet for about a week now. Some had to do with travel and FrankenDog and work and school but more of it was about trying to finish 1Q84 before my library loan expired. I managed to finish it today and get caught up on some of the shows we watch.
Twitter has fallen rather by the wayside these days, as I tend to be busy at work enough not to have time to check it. I miss it as a way of keeping up on things but not enough to have carved out time for it. All things considered, I suspect it means I’m finished with it.
Things I have checked: email and GReader. GReader is my primary way of keeping up with the news.
I’m continuously disheartened by the elected assholes who claim to represent the people. It’s that or admit I’m increasingly disappointed that there continue to be assholes who think they should control my reproductive organs but I can’t have any say-so about theirs.
We rewatched Crazy Stupid Love today and it’s still the best possible things a romantic comedy can be. We watched The Help this week and, while enjoyable, was predictably less nuanced than the book and the result was a bit more insulting.
I had a Ginger Blossom at Ling and Louie’s which is a surprisingly delightful beverage.
I’ve discovered the joys of endless.com and overstock.com respectively, which is hurting my resolution to start sewing more of my own clothes. Not that I’ve PURCHASED much, it’s just the LOOKING.
In unsolicited product endorsements (warning: Ladynerdery Ahead)-
I’ve been hearing for ages from both the internet and my friend Melissa that Clinque’s Black Honey Almost Lipstick is AMAZING and lo, I have found it to be true. I’d tell you to try it first but good luck finding it in-stock at a Sephora location. What I can say, without a doubt, is that it will look fantastic on you and it feels incredible on your lips. Totally worth it. Also, it means I can throw out a half-dozen lipsticks now.
Speaking of lipstick- MAC’s Russian Red. Not too blue, not too orange and destined to be the one red lipstick you’ll love. The key is getting used to seeing the intensity of the color. It looks great day OR night and is somehow never “too much.”
In eyeshadow news, I’ve been using the Cover Girl Intense ShadowBlast in Brown Bling. I put it on over my lid and a bit in the crease, then use my finger to blend it in/smooth it out. Super easy and it looks fantastic – one of the few “intense” billed shadows that I can honestly say works great day and night. I put it on with brown liner and it really does last all day without creasing.
As part of my Sephora order, I got a sample of Caudalie’s Fleur de Vigne perfume which is pretty fantastic.
————— end of LadyNerdery
While I’ve been watching the usual TV shows, I find I’m disinclined to talk about them. The Walking Dead is back and feels a bit gorier than previously seen.
Piper is doing well. Staples and stitches are out and the little spot that had reopened is scabbed over and apparently healing. She’ll be out of T-shirts in no time.
Work this week will be another bit of hectic, but I’m hoping to get started on Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow.
Mercury Falls
Posted by Sarah in books, recommendations, reviews on Jan 30, 2012 | 0 commentsGiven my previously mentioned minor obsession with Revelations-style Rapture, I can’t believe this book slid under my radar. I blame the original cover as the second cover grabbed me. It was a loaner on my Kindle and MAN, I blasted through it. Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, I’m recommending this because it was damn funny and wicked clever.
From my GR review:
I loved this. Loved it. Humorous, sharp and clever – unabashedly picking apart the idea of free will, destiny, religion and divine intervention with fantastic action and dialogue. One of my favorites:
“The bullet, having thoroughly enjoyed this hole-punching business, proceeded to punch holes in the windows of four nearby cars, finally coming to rest on page 328 of a dog-eared copy of Gravity’s Rainbow, which is 186 pages further than anyone else had ever gotten.”
It begins with a reporter who’s spent her professional career following Apocalypse cults and reporting on them for a Christian publication and spirals into the actual mechanics of the impending Apocalypse and how she’s managed to trip into it. There’s a spectacular Antichrist, Angels of dubious allegiance and intelligence, plenty of Twilight allusions and frankly, it was one of the funniest breakneck reads I’ve had in ages. I loved it so much I plowed through it all in the same day.
Among Others
Posted by Sarah in books, reviews on Jan 23, 2012 | 0 commentsEverything I read about Among Others by Jo Walton could be summed up as “if you love books, you LOVE THIS BOOK.” The story is told from the viewpoint of a teenage girl who is an avid reader, so there is that. She comes from some interesting family circumstances and is attending boarding school. What I really enjoyed about this book are the way the characters use books for conversation (thoroughly believable) and the female relationships characterized at the boarding school (also believable). It’s a fantasy novel of the ‘magical realism’ sort, which is to say that it’s pretty modern with fantastical elements that are important to both the story and the characters. While I did really enjoy the book, I did not love it and that was disappointing. There are so many things about it which mean I SHOULD have loved it but it just didn’t grab me as I’d hoped.
The Ohshitometer Pegged at 20
Posted by Sarah in recommendations, reviews, tv on Jan 21, 2012 | 0 commentsLet me tell you a story about crap tv. Not crap as in bad or terrible, but crap as in campy, melodramatic and awesome. One of those shows is Revenge, probably one of my favorite shows of the new season. But maybe the best crap show of all time – chock full of HOLY SHIT and OMG – with great pacing and clever writing is… The Vampire Diaries.
Yes. Really.
I remember when the show first started, I caught a couple of episodes and was pretty meh about it. It fell off my radar until right around the finale maybe? At that point, my lj buddy Roniabirk was HOLY SHITTING all over the place about how awesome it was (season 1? season 2? I feel like it was maybe season 2). At her urging, I went back and watched the entire season 2 including, no lie, one of the most holyshitterific finales I’ve seen and lo- the show made it onto my DVR queue this season.
It is one of my favorite shows because you literally never know what is going to happen. No one is safe. There is clever dialogue and age-appropriate pop culture references. There are (of course) pretty people (it IS the CW). It’s darkly funny and as previously mentioned, excellently paced. It is some of the most fun on TV.
That said, one of my other favorite things about this show is the recaps done by Jenny at Forever Young Adult, in no small part due to the ohshitometer which is possibly the best invention in television reviews of all time. Fair warning, that recap is for the most recent episode. The recaps are just as clever as the show, chock full of non-target-audience-age-appropriate pop culture references and a drinking game guide in every one.
So yeah. You should be watching. It’s about 10 million miles better than Grey’s Anatomy.
Double Feature
Posted by Sarah in entertainment, movies, reviews on Jan 20, 2012 | 0 commentsThe other night we watched Ides of March and Shark Night. Yes, I know, it’s a PERFECTLY LOGICAL combination.
Ides of March was solid, but I kind of feel like Clooney gets nominated for taking a shit these days. I mean, it was good but I don’t think it was better than State of Play (which got NO love when it came out). Evan Rachel Wood is pretty fantastic in a small part and everyone else is basically exactly as good as you think they’d be.
Shark Night. Oh, Shark Night. Where do I even BEGIN. This is the kind of movie that is best enjoyed with a pitcher of alcoholic beverages close at hand and a group of friends intent on shouting at the screen because it can be a drinking game on FIRST VIEWING. Drink when what you think will happen, happens! It is positively chock full of every terrible movie cliche and stereotype and the two of us alternated predicting the next scene/action and shouting at the tv. It is hilariously awful and I can only assume the actors were playing it that way knowingly, otherwise I am VERY concerned for this Katherine McPhee tv show coming up. Also, when you rent the DVD (and you really should) you MUST watch through the credits for the cast-made RAP VIDEO. NO I AM NOT JOKING. Yes, my soul died just a little bit because Spouse insisted we watch it all the way through. It is a cherry on top of the godawful.
We watched The Debt the other day and I don’t think I wrote about it. I heard a review of it at some point that said “It feels like it should be better than it is” which is absolutely and utterly accurate. That is not to say there weren’t some great performances, because there were, or that the story wasn’t interesting (it was) but it was missing a little je ne sais quoi that would have made all the difference.
2012 films
Posted by Sarah in movies, reviews on Jan 14, 2012 | 0 commentsMoneyball was pretty fantastic and did an amazing job of taking what COULD be the most boring subject (stats) and crafting a compelling story that it was easy to get invested in. Highly recommended.
Midnight in Paris. I’d heard a lot of great things about this movie, which I would call solidly good. I’m not a huge Allen fan, as every single protag seems to always be him, but Owen Wilson made what could have been a ticky and annoying character mostly charming and affable. Rachel McAdams plays a perfect asshole. Perfect. The supporting cast did what it needed to do to support, but the bottom line is this movie is a love letter to Paris. I’m okay with that. It put me in mind of The Paris Wife (for obvious reasons) though I preferred that book to this film. If you’ve ever been to Paris, or ever wanted to go, you’ll probably enjoy this film.
The Last Werewolf
Posted by Sarah in books, recommendations, reviews on Jan 13, 2012 | 0 commentsMy latest read for 2012 was maybe one of the most lauded of 2011. What I kept hearing is ‘literary genre fiction’. Truthfully, as someone who reads a lot of genre, I’d say it was far more genre than literary. Sadly I think most of the critics of “genre” don’t read much of it, so they don’t know how much smart, incisive and thoughtful commentary exists in a lot of great genre fiction. Yeah, there’s brain candy but you find that in any book label. It was an interesting read with a different take on vampires and werewolves and the commentary was heavy on the meaning of life and death, the individual’s role in society and whether or not our history is really important to why we do what we do. All of which makes it sound like there was a lot less killing, shooting and fucking than there was. If you like the Hunger Games series and aren’t completely against the idea of werewolves, I’d definitely check it out.
Oh my fucking GOD you guys
Posted by Sarah in books, entertainment, movies, reviews on Jan 10, 2012 | 0 commentsMy new scrubs finally arrived. I ordered them on December 29. This was not my favorite online shopping experience ever and let’s just leave it at that.
But the SCRUBS. Dude. I am marginally embarrassed that they say Grey’s Anatomy on them because SERIOUSLY but the tags are small and unobtrusive and HOLY SHIT THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE that I almost don’t care. Almost. They are fantastic colors and they are so soft but sturdy that it was totally worth it. Not worth the WAIT, maybe but still worth it. Awesome.
This is random because I’m sitting in front of the TV but CBS just interrupted New Hampshire primary coverage for NCIS. I laughed out loud. Because bitchez, we know our old peeples like their NCIS and we are NOT giving up those advertising dollars for an election that doesn’t really COUNT yet!
Unrelated, the 2012 book list is underway! I powered through the first six Harry Dresden books (I’d previously read 1-5) and had forgotten exactly how much I enjoyed them. Now I’ll have to pick up the rest. In the meantime, I’m partway through The Last Werewolf which is – thus far- as interesting as everyone on the internet said it was. I’m reserving judgement until it’s over, though.
We saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol over the weekend. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Tom Cruise may be batshit nuts, but he works his ass off to try and make a good movie. I enjoyed it pretty much EXACTLY as much as I’ve enjoyed the others (which is a good thing) with a bonus of Simon Pegg. Afterwards I got snagged by a studio focus group person to answer some questions about the movie and about the movies we saw previewed. Wow, y’all. There’s about to be some SHIT coming out.
My favorite part: Why wouldn’t you see Ghost Rider?
Me: DID YOU SEE THE FIRST ONE? It was fucking TERRIBLE. (she actually had to type that all out. I was amused.)
Her: What could we change about the trailer to make you more likely to see the movie?
Me: PUT ANYONE BUT NICK CAGE IN IT. He’s been terrible ever since The Rock. In fact, put The Rock in it and I might go see THAT.
This was apropos of The Rock being in the equally terrible looking sequel to GI Joe. My response to that was ALSO Did you see the TERRIBLE FIRST FILM?
I won’t lie, I had a bit of fun with the fact that she was having to type my responses verbatim.
They don’t give you money or anything for doing those surveys but, as I told Spouse, if I’m going to keep bitching about the shit movies Hollywood is putting out this is the LEAST I can do to try and help. As it is, we rarely see films in theaters [response to actual question from survey lady: We like to see shit blow up.] but if you’re going to give me a chance to have input I’ll stop and answer the questions for the common good.
Surprise from the survey: Spouse saying he’d be most likely to see Snow White and the Huntsman (versus other previewed films) because of the people in it. Huh.
Things I have loved this year – tv, apps, podcasts
Posted by Sarah in books, geek toys, recommendations, reviews, television, tv on Dec 30, 2011 | 1 commentI listened to A LOT of podcasts this year. It started with The Nerdist (which I still love) and led me to some comedy podcasts that I DIDN’T enjoy so much but ultimately I found Girl on Guy (Aisha Tyler) and Sklarbro Country (the Sklar brothers) which made up for any missteps. Episode 1 of Girl on Guy has, by far, the funniest story I have ever heard. The rest of her shows are right in my wheelhouse. She’s a chick who thinks like a dude and has wide-ranging interests and plenty of geek hobbies. And she’s funny. Sklarbro Country is a great combination of comedy and sports with impressive guests. I’m less enamored of their ‘celebrity call in’ segment but it’s toward the end so I usually just skip it.
I also love Pop Culture Happy Hour and Culturetopia from NPR. The former was a recommendation by my friend Mimi and it consistently makes me laugh.
Book podcasts! Bookrageous is a fave because it’s three friends talking about books and graphic novels they like and frequently trying to convince one another to read something they love. It’s been great and I got a couple of excellent recs out of it this year, not to mention it’s fun to listen to. Incidentally, I recommend Brews and Books (Josh’s blog) since it’s the way I found the podcast and I love his beer reviews. Books on the Nightstand is a little more polished but also gave me great reading ideas this year.
Sound Opinions from NPR was my go-to music podcast and I enjoyed every single episode.
The 404 was my geekcast of choice, as I have raved about before. Buzz Out Loud switched to once a week podcasts with special coverage episodes, which means I listened to it more than I would have expected.
Doug Loves Movies was, hands down, the funniest podcast I listened to all year. I could be seen laughing out loud at work REGULARLY while listening.
Android Apps:
Words with Friends. Do I really have to explain this? I was the kind of kid who learned to play Scrabble by making the coolest words we could- we didn’t keep score. Words with Friends has taught me strategy. I dig it.
Tweetcaster replaced Tweetdeck toward the end of the year because it’s got a great user interface and it does everything I want it to.
No Time to Cook by Real Simple is a great app and cost about the same as one issue of the magazine. Consistently delicious recipes. ChefTap I already raved about but I am still loving it and having lots of success.
Foursquare continues to be my default ‘travel’ app, with a side of OpenTable for getting reservations. My fave utilities are Springpad and OurGroceries. My calendar is Jorte, whose only fault as far as I can see is an inability to create bi-weekly events. Now that I work in an office with a radio, I understand and use Shazam.
Gentle Alarm is still the way I wake up and I still love it. Tea Timer has been great for making tea, the Starbucks app is great if you’ve got a Starbucks nearby (I no longer do) and the Eljay app has made my LJ flist mobile.
Tab Tools is a GREAT app for guitar tabs and my goal for the new year is to actually USE the Meditation Support Timer.
Greader and Gmail are on my homescreen with G+ and Tweetcaster. Password Card is the best thing for creating safe passwords on the go.
Dear Emergency Medical Spanish App – YOU ARE AWESOME.
Untappd is a recent addition which I’m playing with. Verdict is still out.
TV.
Dude. I watched A LOT of TV this year.
Tops on my list: Revenge, Justified, Homeland, Community, Castle, Sons of Anarchy, Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Criminal Minds, Modern Family, Ringer, The Mentalist and Covert Ops.
Whether it was brain candy (Revenge, Covert Ops, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Ringer), interesting crime drama (Justified, Homeland, Sons of Anarchy, Castle) or comedy (everything else), this was the stuff that made me keep watching.
Revenge is campy, but awesomely so (and FYA does GREAT recaps), Covert Ops is slightly less campy but equally fun. I’m enjoying the modern takes on fairy tales and I loved the comedies. That said, if I was going to recommend something to everyone, it would be Homeland, Sons of Anarchy and Justified.
Homeland had tight and intense writing, focused storylines without a dozen hanging threads and some INCREDIBLE performances. Claire Danes better get an Emmy. Watching Sons of Anarchy is like a terrible accident – you know what’s probably going to happen, you can’t look away and then HOLY SHIT something else comes out of the blue – but so out of the blue that you disengage, you’re just pissed you didn’t see it coming. Justified has Timothy Olyphant so that’s 1. He’s a cowboy in Wild West sense of the word, so that’s 2. It’s got one of the most interesting fencesitting characters (is he good? is he terrible? does he even KNOW?) in Boyd Crowder that I’ve seen on television, so that’s 3. Add in the very specific kind of subculture that happens in rural areas and it’s engaging, thoughtful and consistently a wild ride.
So there you go. That’s my favorites roundup. My list of this year’s books is at Goodreads and I think I posted about MOST of them, so you should be able to click on the 2011 books tag on this post and get all the entries. At Goodreads the books are all listed chronologically. I’m hoping to get through a reread of some of the Dresden Files books this weekend so I can start catching up.
Things I have loved this year- web and music
Posted by Sarah in entertainment, food, internet, links, music, recommendations on Dec 30, 2011 | 0 commentsWebsites:
I found Forever YA through my mad love of the Hunger Games series and this post pretty much sums up what I love about the site. Their recs of the best of the year cover a wide range of topics, narrators and genres. The conversations I’ve seen and participated in have been interesting and I frequently found myself bookmarking their recommendations.
Jezebel continues to be my go-to pop culture website. I love the snark and social consciousness and their no-holds-barred shouting about those who belittle/denigrate/reduce/disempower women. Also, the snark.
The Daily Dish has provided interesting political commentary from many sides (I rarely click through from my RSS feed, but still) and Questionable Content remains my favorite webcomic despite having flirted with a few others this year.
Paste has filled my GReader with lovely music tidbits and the BrokeAss Gourmet has given me good recipes as well as some culinary inspiration.
Possibly my single favorite recipe of the year is this one for General Tso’s Chicken, which proves that you CAN make takeout in your kitchen that tastes JUST as good as the restaurant.
Goodreads has not only been great for conversation about books but their book challenges (self-determining) and bookshelves have made a nice way to keep track of what I find interesting and what I’ve been reading. Twitter and Google Plus require no links but are my social media outlets of choice. My twitter feed is embedded on this site and it’s my first line social updating mechanism on my phone. I like Google Plus for different reasons – I’m more likely to share things there (links, comments) because it feels more like conversations and has far less asshats than does facebook (which I log into – at most – once a week).
Music:
This was an amazing year in music helped in no small part by the early 2011 release of The King is Dead by The Decemberists. It’s a fantastic and engaging album which even turned Spouse on to their tunes. In concert, they were every bit as amazing as their recordings and the house-crushing rendition of The Mariner’s Revenge is one of my favorite music moments of all time.
The Black Keys released another album (El Camino) and continue to THE band I want to see at Red Rocks. Spouse loves their work, too and it was difficult to determine who was more excited about the latest record. The bluesy-classic rock mashup style consistently makes me want to MOVE and it’s impossible to be in a bad mood with this in your ears.
One of my vendors was playing something on his phone while working and it grabbed my attention in an unexpected way. “What IS that?” “The Cat Empire.” This began my obsession with Two Shoes which led to my purchase of their entire back catalog and not finding a single beat of disappointment on any song in any album. They describe themselves as a ska/reggae/jazz band and I defy you to find anything wrong with any part of that.
Miranda Lambert has single-handedly brought me back to country music. Between her latest album (Four the Record) and side project (The Pistol Annies), she is my new female music hero. Smart and snappy lyrics without the heavy pop sound a lot of country musicians are leaning on, she defines “kick ass”.
Feist and Florence + the Machine both put out new work which I enjoyed a lot but didn’t grab me like the aforementioned records. I’m also going to admit to enjoying Taylor Swift’s Speak Now. And I know everyone’s been creaming their pants about Adele’s 21 but I’m straight up going to tell you this was an album fungus for me. On first listen I wasn’t knocked out and thought it was fairly derivative of 19 (which DID knock me out, for the record) but it definitely grew on me. It was not my default listen of the year, though.
Baby, Darling, Dollface, Honey by Band of Skulls – I can’t remember when I got it but I definitely played it a lot this year. Grab you by the balls guitar rock.
Harlem River Blues by Justin Townes Earle, The Head and the Heart (self titled), Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons, Guster’s Easy Wonderful and Sarah Jarosz’s Follow Me Down round up my most-played indie/folk albums of the year.
In dance music news, I had Femme Fatale (Britney) and Cannibal (Ke$ha) in hard rotation along with Robyn’s Robyn and Body Talk. When I was increasingly frustrated at work, these albums helped prevent me braining coworkers by chucking pallets at them overhand. Both Britney and Ke$ha had to grow on me – while several of the songs are out of the gate badass there are a couple of fungi in there. It got to the point where I even liked THOSE songs, so that says something. Robyn, on the other hand, INHABITS dance. I’m inclined to believe she can’t make a misstep when it comes to her album picks.
James Blake’s debut album is also excellent, blending a post-dub sound with mellow jam and making it perfect for entertaining.
Next post: apps, podcasts and TV
Salvage the Bones
Posted by Sarah in books, reviews on Dec 27, 2011 | 0 commentsThis ended up being book 60 of 55 Books I Read And Am Willing to Tell People About. I’m pleasantly surprised to be exceeding my goal but I’ll probably keep it to 55 again next year. With any luck, I’m going to end this year’s reading with some brain candy.
Back to my original point: After reading about a dozen reviews that loved Salvage the Bones but didn’t seem to really know how to TALK about it (including Jen Weiner, who I LOVE), when it came up as a Kindle Special Offer for $2, there was no chance I was passing it up.
First, the hype is justified. It’s an incredibly lovely novel, written with equal parts hope and sadness and captures an experience that most will only ever read about. The language is beautiful and the characters painfully well-rendered. For those unfamiliar, it’s the story of an impoverished family’s experience surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Before you jump to the ‘holy depressing’ conclusion, it’s also an amazing story about community and family and how we try to take care of our own. Definitely worthy of the acclaim and awards.
In only tangentially related news, I completed my online FEMA emergency training and while being PAINFULLY DULL it’s actually full of good things which makes me hopeful about our response to further natural and man-made disasters.
My holiday gift to you
Posted by Sarah in cooking, food, geek toys, internet, recommendations, reviews on Dec 24, 2011 | 0 commentsI spent a large chunk of today looking about the web for a good way to corral the recipes I find online, add my own and have access to all of it on my phone. Since I’m a nice person, I shall share with you the fruit of my labors.
First and foremost, I spent a worthwhile bit of time consolidating and organizing my bookmarks in Chrome so that it syncs them all and everything is in easily identifiable folders on all the computers I use. AMAZING. There is no proper reason for me to feel as smug about this as I do.
Some time ago I purchased the Real Simple android app and it was worth the $5. You get to choose the amount of time you have to cook as well as a protein and then it gives you a list of options to choose from. Every recipe I’ve ever made from Real Simple has been fantastic and the app is a collection of those.
Today I added OurGroceries (free), so that Spouse and I can avoid duplicating purchases at the grocery store. It syncs the lists so we each know what we need and can check them off as we go.
But what about the initial premise- adding stuff I find online and my own recipes? I attempted My Cookbook first but when you attempt to add a recipe from a webpage, it’s rather a shit show as to what will actually import correctly.
Through a vast amount of googling and some trial and error, I tripped upon ChefTap (free). I tend to be skeptical of anything that claims to be “the first” to do anything but I’ve got to tell you this app is the shit. I imported recipes from no less than 5 websites, all of which look vastly different in structure, and where MyCookbook failed ChefTap kicked ass. They imported brilliantly and formatted exactly as desired. The only downside to this app: no desktop, so you’ll have to do the browsing from your phone or send yourself links to add the recipes from webpages. On the other hand, it’s vastly superior to me having to type in ANYTHING on my own.
As a second bit of awesome, ChefTap will also sync and import any recipes from epicurious.com and allrecipes.com (neither of which have mobile apps that sync across all platforms). This has persuaded me to open an account at epicurious and the sync feature is pretty brilliant.
In related free apps, I also got Sweet and Spicy Indian Food so I’m pretty stoked to try that out as well.
I’m starting to add my frequently made/favorite recipes/recipes from mom on Epicurious and then searching out other faves online so that I’ve got them with me all the time.
I also took a bit off the BrokeAss Gourmet’s Cranberry-Zinfandel Brownie Bites and adapted them for fresh cranberries and high altitude. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, thought I think I might want a mini-cupcake pan since I made mine in regular cupcake liners.
Incidentally, this was all prompted by making a fantastic General’s Chicken recipe for lunch today and wanting it on my phone for a shopping list. Spouse is working out and I’m couched in the basement with a bottle of Snow Day and Dr. Who Netflixing on my TV.
Hppy
