This is my first attempt to post via the new Blogger iPod app, so forgive me any issues...the keyboard doesn't rotate, so my typing is more awkward than usual.
So- just downloaded my first Booktrack!! It's an app (also just online I believe, not only app) that is essentially an ebook that has a soundtrack. I got Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band, it's the only story available on the iPod at the moment that isn't a kids fairy tale. However, they said more titles are forthcoming... Including Pride and Prejudice - excited for that, of course!
It's not an audiobook-- in the sense of someone reading the story to you. It plays a soundtrack of musical underscoring and light sound effects appropriate to the narrative - for example, a crackling fire during a scene in Baker Street where Holmes refers to the fire being lit, footsteps at the top of a page where characters make an entrance, etc. So far it hasn't been distracting. The app uses a fairly simple way for you to adjust playback speed -- I read much faster than the default pace -- and learns your speed pretty quickly.
This is essentially what I have been wanting for years, trying to do myself with carefully chosen Pandora stations (note: it rarely works, except occasionally for Jane Austen), and which certain audiobooks like The Golden Compass and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell alllllmost have for bits of their audible files. But not the whole way through - and not as a soundtrack to something you read yourself.
In general I prefer to read books myself rather than listen to an audio (though the narrator of the Jonathan Strange audio is one of the few that I prefer to my own mental voice), so having this Booktrack option is amazing. There are some little glitchy things in the app, but hey, it's new; and I wish they had more titles available. But I think it's a fantastic start and I am so excited to downloading more as they become available!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Thoughts on Neil Gaiman's writing style
Originally posted 23 Oct. 2008, at the old version of Stored Thought on LJ.
There is a quality of Neil Gaiman's writing which I have been struggling to identify for some time now (like, since I started reading his books, really), and finally, after all these years, and through discussing it with my mother, I think I've figured it out.
There is a quality of self-consciousness, an almost emotionless, nonchalant, 'aren't I clever?' sense, to all of his writing - his short stories, his longer works of fiction, his graphic novels, his blog posts, his book-signing-tour talks, his introductions to other people's stories. You can see the construction, the assembly behind it. It's a quality my mother described as arrogant, and I called teenaged -- neither of them meant as an insult (both my mother and I are big Gaiman fans), but both seem to apply. Something about his writing feels a little smug, a little affected. It's kind of a pose, and not in the tongue-in-cheek, wryly ironic way that Stephen Fry or Oscar Wilde are posed and affected, but in an unavoidable way. With Fry or Wilde, you get this feeling that they're in on the joke, and it's all done with a twinkle in the eye or, at least, tongue firmly in slightly cynical cheek. Douglas Adams, too, has a little of this quality, but in his writing it always accompanied by a sort of reckless, wild bitterness that my mother described as him flipping off the world. In all of these cases - Adams, Fry, and Wilde - it's ironic, it's aware of the absurdity. With Neil Gaiman, it just kind of reads as too planned without being meticulous; crafted without being exquisite. You can feel him as Author just behind every word, telling you why he chose that phrase instead of another, pointing you toward the conclusions he wants you to draw, pulling the curtain back from the plot twists he wants you to be amazed at, preening himself a little all the while and saying what a clever writer he is.
Actually, now that I'm thinking more about it, I think this quality can be seen in John Steinbeck and Tad Williams, too. Now there's a random combination. But with Steinbeck, it's intermittent (very much present in East of Eden and The Pearl, and I would say entirely nonexistent in Cannery Row), and even when it's there, it's overshadowed by a vastness, an awed-ness, his own sense of quiet, ayup-esque joy in life. With Williams, it's present in his earlier works and fades away as you continue through his bibliography - with him, it's very much the product of his youth and inexperience early on, and it's delightful to watch him grow out of it, to improve, to learn both how to tighten up and to free his writing. Neil Gaiman, however, hasn't grown out of it - if anything, I would say he's just growing more into it.
But still, I like his stories. But that's just it -- I always say I like Neil Gaiman's stories, never that I like his writing. If he didn't indeed have such clever conceits (my mother may call him arrogant, but he has got something to be arrogant about, at least!), I wouldn't read him. Some authors, I would read anything they'd written, for style alone. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Vladimir Nabokov -- I would read a shopping list they'd written. In the case of Victor Hugo, I'm pretty sure he did include a shopping list or two in Les Miserables. (Really, who else could get you to read a history of the Paris sewage system that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual plot of his novel -- excuse me, tome?)
My point is, some authors I read for aesthetic reasons, for the sheer pleasure of the way they put words together, exquisitely crafted but seemingly effortless, and arising as though the only possible assembly of language for that story, that situation, that character, that moment. You just savor the language, revel in it, and if they have intricate plots and engaging characters to boot, then so much the better. But Neil Gaiman I read solely for the plots.
There is a quality of Neil Gaiman's writing which I have been struggling to identify for some time now (like, since I started reading his books, really), and finally, after all these years, and through discussing it with my mother, I think I've figured it out.
There is a quality of self-consciousness, an almost emotionless, nonchalant, 'aren't I clever?' sense, to all of his writing - his short stories, his longer works of fiction, his graphic novels, his blog posts, his book-signing-tour talks, his introductions to other people's stories. You can see the construction, the assembly behind it. It's a quality my mother described as arrogant, and I called teenaged -- neither of them meant as an insult (both my mother and I are big Gaiman fans), but both seem to apply. Something about his writing feels a little smug, a little affected. It's kind of a pose, and not in the tongue-in-cheek, wryly ironic way that Stephen Fry or Oscar Wilde are posed and affected, but in an unavoidable way. With Fry or Wilde, you get this feeling that they're in on the joke, and it's all done with a twinkle in the eye or, at least, tongue firmly in slightly cynical cheek. Douglas Adams, too, has a little of this quality, but in his writing it always accompanied by a sort of reckless, wild bitterness that my mother described as him flipping off the world. In all of these cases - Adams, Fry, and Wilde - it's ironic, it's aware of the absurdity. With Neil Gaiman, it just kind of reads as too planned without being meticulous; crafted without being exquisite. You can feel him as Author just behind every word, telling you why he chose that phrase instead of another, pointing you toward the conclusions he wants you to draw, pulling the curtain back from the plot twists he wants you to be amazed at, preening himself a little all the while and saying what a clever writer he is.
Actually, now that I'm thinking more about it, I think this quality can be seen in John Steinbeck and Tad Williams, too. Now there's a random combination. But with Steinbeck, it's intermittent (very much present in East of Eden and The Pearl, and I would say entirely nonexistent in Cannery Row), and even when it's there, it's overshadowed by a vastness, an awed-ness, his own sense of quiet, ayup-esque joy in life. With Williams, it's present in his earlier works and fades away as you continue through his bibliography - with him, it's very much the product of his youth and inexperience early on, and it's delightful to watch him grow out of it, to improve, to learn both how to tighten up and to free his writing. Neil Gaiman, however, hasn't grown out of it - if anything, I would say he's just growing more into it.
But still, I like his stories. But that's just it -- I always say I like Neil Gaiman's stories, never that I like his writing. If he didn't indeed have such clever conceits (my mother may call him arrogant, but he has got something to be arrogant about, at least!), I wouldn't read him. Some authors, I would read anything they'd written, for style alone. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Vladimir Nabokov -- I would read a shopping list they'd written. In the case of Victor Hugo, I'm pretty sure he did include a shopping list or two in Les Miserables. (Really, who else could get you to read a history of the Paris sewage system that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual plot of his novel -- excuse me, tome?)
My point is, some authors I read for aesthetic reasons, for the sheer pleasure of the way they put words together, exquisitely crafted but seemingly effortless, and arising as though the only possible assembly of language for that story, that situation, that character, that moment. You just savor the language, revel in it, and if they have intricate plots and engaging characters to boot, then so much the better. But Neil Gaiman I read solely for the plots.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
White truffle white bean hummus with mushrooms and thyme | Vegan Good Eats
White truffle white bean hummus with mushrooms and thyme | Vegan Good Eats:
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
I discovered Vegan Good Eats when I was googling a good vegan deviled egg recipe, and this AMAZING-sounding hummus recipe just kind of smacked in the face. I have to try it. I HAVE TO.
in related news- tonight's dinner is a baked potato with Tofutti sour cream, Earthy Balance vegan faux-butter, black pepper, green onions, tiny tiny adorable tomatoes from my dad's garden, & steamed broccoli; other dish, a cold mixing of brown rice, kidney beans, corn, red bell pepper, & onions, which tastes very very very good, altogether. I'm really into food for someone who can't cook. It's a problem.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Vegan kickstart Day #2
I had lunch today with my mom at a place called Roots, at which she's eaten at several times, and I never have. I had their vegan chili empanadas which were really, really delicious, and the little bit of cheese sprinkled on the side salad was the one slip-up in my daily attempt at veganism. Roots happens to be right next to a Trader Joe's, so there was some shopping for veganish things done there, and I've also eaten today- a shingo pear/singo pear/apple pear/Korean pear/Asian pear (there are too many names for it, but it's absolutely my favorite fruit, they're so good!), a few almonds, my weight in blueberries, and for dinner- a Morningstar Farms chik patty & Uncle Ben's 90-second Basmati rice with some leftover grilled veggies my dad made yesterday-- corn, 3 different kinds of squash, and asparagus, with some grapes for dessert.
Anyway, it's not like I actually cooked anything myself, but it all tasted so good I felt like sharing! (And, seriously, I can't stop eating these blueberries, they're so amazing.)
Anyway, it's not like I actually cooked anything myself, but it all tasted so good I felt like sharing! (And, seriously, I can't stop eating these blueberries, they're so amazing.)
Vegan kickstart!
I've been a vegetarian for exactly six months now, so this seems like an appropriate day to start this attempt into veganism! I burst into vegetarianism really abruptly - I read Eating Animals, by Jonathan Foer, and thought "Well, gee, I can't eat meat anymore" and just stopped. I didn't call myself a vegetarian for a while, because I didn't want people being like "oh yeah? for one week? suuuure", but after about a month, I tentatively began using the label (because I had to, at a camp during spring break, where the vegetarian food options only went to self-identifying vegetarians!) I'd tried to go vegetarian in the past for various reasons, and it never lasted more than a few days, but this time, for whatever reason, it just worked, and except for one night in May where I accidentally ate a piece of pepperoni on otherwise perfectly fine cheese pizza and got sick to my stomach, I haven't eaten any meat since the end of February.
Over the summer I've been toying with the idea of veganism, but I just haven't quite been able to make the plunge, largely because I'm a) a cheap, miserly college student, and b) the world's worst cook. But you know... it doesn't hurt to try.
So, on this, the 6 month anniversary of my decision to stop eating meat, I'm sort of tentatively trying to feel my way into veganism, for the same reasons I went vegetarian - health & moral issues (the general inhumanity and incredible cruelty associated with the meat industry is present also in production of things like eggs, milk, basically any time you get industrialized animal husbandry like this, and while I wouldn't probably mind consuming milk or eggs from animals on my own farm or something, if I was actually living like that, I don't have enough access to those friendlier products in my actual life). So I have been eyeing 21 Day Kickstart-- a veganism "kickstart" diet, just like it says on the tin, from the PCRM. I forgot I'd planned to start today, but at the end of the day my mother asked me how I did and... as it turns out, I'd eaten entirely vegan today without even trying!
Over the summer I've been toying with the idea of veganism, but I just haven't quite been able to make the plunge, largely because I'm a) a cheap, miserly college student, and b) the world's worst cook. But you know... it doesn't hurt to try.
So, on this, the 6 month anniversary of my decision to stop eating meat, I'm sort of tentatively trying to feel my way into veganism, for the same reasons I went vegetarian - health & moral issues (the general inhumanity and incredible cruelty associated with the meat industry is present also in production of things like eggs, milk, basically any time you get industrialized animal husbandry like this, and while I wouldn't probably mind consuming milk or eggs from animals on my own farm or something, if I was actually living like that, I don't have enough access to those friendlier products in my actual life). So I have been eyeing 21 Day Kickstart-- a veganism "kickstart" diet, just like it says on the tin, from the PCRM. I forgot I'd planned to start today, but at the end of the day my mother asked me how I did and... as it turns out, I'd eaten entirely vegan today without even trying!
Breakfast: Multigrain Cheerios with almond milk (Blue Diamond) & fresh blueberries
Lunch: Morningstar Farm chik patties, more blueberries, some raw almonds & Trader Joe's Veggie Stix
Dinner: an Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger (seriously, it's vegan, I swear) from the glorious Native Foods, my favorite restaurant
Midnight snack: Silk chocolate soy milk and more blueberries, I have a huuuge bowl of them and I've been wolfing them down all day, there's almost nothing I love more than fresh blueberries.
Lunch: Morningstar Farm chik patties, more blueberries, some raw almonds & Trader Joe's Veggie Stix
Dinner: an Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger (seriously, it's vegan, I swear) from the glorious Native Foods, my favorite restaurant
Midnight snack: Silk chocolate soy milk and more blueberries, I have a huuuge bowl of them and I've been wolfing them down all day, there's almost nothing I love more than fresh blueberries.
So, see? None of that did I have to go out of my way for, none of it was hard to make - I didn't even cook anything, I had one meal out and the rest was microwave (for the chik patties) or no cookery at all. It was what I would have eaten today even if I hadn't been trying to eat vegan.
20 more days...!
Reading: Shadowheart, by Tad Williams (#4 of the Shadowmarch "trilogy") -- still!
Listening: "Speak Now", Taylor Swift, whom I unabashedly adore
Watching: Project Runway, season 4 on DVD!
Reading: Shadowheart, by Tad Williams (#4 of the Shadowmarch "trilogy") -- still!
Listening: "Speak Now", Taylor Swift, whom I unabashedly adore
Watching: Project Runway, season 4 on DVD!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Grand First Post Hurrah
First post!
This blog will be divided into three sections (for now...). My adventures in food, my adventures in books/movies/television, & my adventures in my life in general (including college, unschooling, sorority life, and...everything). I'd make multiple blogs but that really seems a bit ambitious at this point, so I'll just tag everything accordingly and maybe in the future, if I keep at it, actually divide the blogs up.
Backstory-- I'm a 23-year-old Californian native who has been unschooled most of her life (I was a 1st grade dropout). I still consider myself an unschooler at this point, although you could call me a homeschooling alum as well. I go to a college near home where I'm double majoring in Drama and History (about to start my senior -- well, supersenior -- year), I'm in a sorority which is a very important part of my life (living in the chapter house for the 2nd year, multiple officer positions in the chapter, and I'm on the campus Panhellenic executive board). I have an older sister and a younger sister, a mother and father who are remarkably awesome, four finches that are actually my mother's, and an unabashedly extreme amount of pretentiousness.
Some of my favorite books include The Little Prince, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Great Gatsby, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Lolita, Captains Courageous, and Pride & Prejudice. Some of my favorite authors, generally, include Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov, Diana Wynne Jones, and Patrick O'Brian.
Some of my favorite music that doesn't come from theatre or opera includes: Adele, Taylor Swift (and I'm not ashamed to admit it), the Beatles, The Boy Least Likely To, Camera Obscura, Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen, Madeleine Peyroux, Au Revoir Simone, and Dar Williams.
Some of my favorite musicals include: Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof, The Spitfire Grill, The Secret Garden, Passing Strange, South Pacific, West Side Story, The Light in the Piazza, and Man of La Mancha. Some favorite plays include Proof, How I Learned to Drive, Wit, Cyrano de Bergerac, Macbeth, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and Arcadia. Favorite operas include La Traviata, Turandot, and Madama Butterfly.
I'm vegetarian (5 months & 2 weeks, so I think I get to actually use the label now), but I can't really cook at all. I'm terrified of all things kitcheny. I can assemble -- I can make salads, sandwiches, anything in the microwave -- but for some reason I'm paranoid about actually...cooking. So I'm going to try to change that, because these recipes I keep finding on vegan blogs sound a lot better than non-stop empty burgers at In N Out, and I want to spend less money and lose more weight and generally stop being so faily, come fall quarter - which starts in 1 month. So I'm going to try to teach myself how to cook some easy recipes, and take photos and put them on here with links to the recipes, basically. That's the adventures in food part.
The adventures in books etc part is because I used to have another blog on another provider, called Stored Thought, which was solely book reviews & thoughts on literature. It's long past dead, though I might repost here some reviews I had there, but I still have opinions on books (inevitably), as well as on movies, theatre, tv, and other reviewable kinds of artforms like that. And they'll go here. Informal as well as more officially reviewy things.
The adventures in life is just exactly what it sounds like. It might not be very exciting, but it's my life and really, I think it's pretty different from a lot of people's.
Listening: Dar Williams, "Southern California Wants to Be Western New York"
Reading: Shadowheart, by Tad Williams (#4 of the Shadowmarch "trilogy")
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