subdee

Back to reading The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U. The nice thing about this book is that the author doesn't assume you know anything -- I'm about halfway through, and the "personal" part still hasn't started because the author is too busy filling in background. And he's great at it, strikes a very good balance between the big picture and interesting details. On the other hand, because the history of this region is so murky, I suspect that some of the his "facts" are actually pretty controversial theories. But I don't know enough to say for sure.

In other news, gonna be in Montreal this weekend ^___^. I'll be in Seattle/Vancouver three weeks from now -- from the 18th to the 24th. Anyone from around there interested in meeting up?

( spoilers, but do you really care? )

In conclusion, probably a movie you want to watch high. That must be why I could smell weed the whole time...

THEY'RE CRAZY.

...Here's where the disinterested should start skimming. ^^; Look, if you need something else to read, you can read the review of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters I wrote for bibliophages. Okay?

Ahem. Where was I? Oh, right, Pete and Carl are crazy. Separately they are sane but together they are crazy. This was actually the first thing I thought about them, a week ago when I'd run through the mainstream media coverage (in which Pete is a drug addict and Carl is the "loyal" Libertine who kept the group's engagements after Pete flaked out to shoot heroin etc) and moved on to the things that didn't make it into the headlines, like Pete keeping a scrapbook full of magazine clippings of Carl, or Carl's obsession with large knives. But rather than stop there, I kept going (sorry these links are not representative -- they're actually the second layer of mainstream coverage, the offbeat interviews that made The Libertines famous) and, well. Twenty or so interviews in, their methods start to make a strange kind of sense, you've learned to decipher their weird accents (Pete made his up and Carl's slur is either a speech impediment or the result of about 15 years of sustained drug use, starting from age 10 or so), and you've started to think that maybe, under the trauma and delusions and co-dependence and drug addiction, there is a Plan.

( That's where you'd be 50% right and 100% wrong. )

Sabina wanted a Primer, so here is a Primer. ^^; Though keep in mind, I've only been looking into this stuff for about a week (and most of what I've been looking at is years out of date). Anyway:

( Music )
( Background )
( Together )
( Drugs )
( Media )


I feel like I should be hyperlinking more things in this post to show where these opinions are coming from, but I'm getting kind of exhausted. ^^; I may go back and add links later; in the meantime, here's a list of highlights compiled by joliefolie.

Passover was great, by the way, although my uncle ran a "humanistic" Seder that emphasized the inspirational value of the flight from Egypt in terms of what it might mean to oppressed peoples everywhere, and I kind of liked the old, politically-incorrect Haggadah which was all about the Egyptians tried to kill us and God punished them, now let's eat. (Paraphrased from the NYT.)

I plead sleep debt, your honor. (I can't stay up to watch the Daily Show or the Colbert Report anymore! *sob*)

worldserpent posted about the many many many faults of Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, and why she was entertained by it anyway. A few weeks ago lacewood made a similar, but much less forgiving post, but then went on to BECOME A FAN ANYWAY WTF. This is seriously the last time I anti-recommend anything, obviously such tactics have either none or an opposing effect -_-;.

April Fools: I liked this one at the Reborn! comm (haha, it was pages before anyone got the joke, stupid manga obviously attracts lots of stupid fans kidding, kidding, the joke was kind of niche and the community is extremely popular, so lots of people probably commented in the first rush before anyone picked up on it). There was also this one on the Loveless comm, which was AWESOME. XD

supacat's post on JE. I'm not much of a fan of the source material, but I like reading the commentary.
From that post, annnimeee's Nobuta wo Produce fic "Youthful Love, WHICH IS LOVE, seriously. .___.

More fic recs!
c_elisa, For the Kingdom of Heaven: X-men, Beast POV on a controversial mutant "cure".
mithrigil, Spires of Granite, Eyes of Black: Twelve Kingdoms, Rakushun on pilgrimage to Mt. Houzan. This recommendation is pointless because every single 12K fan here is probably already watching canis_m, but just in case.
xparrot, On the Wings of Imagination and With Healing in His Wings: Stargate Atlantis & Dragonriders of Pern. I forget who recced this. orz Google says that this crossover is not the first, but it might be the first with Sheppard as a sarcastic bronze dragon bonded to a reluctant McKay. On a related note, afrai has been running a "give me two characters, and I will write you a story where one of them is a dragon soul-bonded to the other" challenge on her ficjournal, and the results have been very entertaining so far. XD
EDIT - HOW COULD I FORGET -
vanilla_klise, Mushi ex Machina: the best Modern!AU Mushishi fic ever. See also the psuedocanon fic A Wandering Song + everything the author has ever written.

Work was hell today. I hate style handbooks. WHO CARES WHETHER THE PERIOD COMES BEFORE OR AFTER THE PARENTHESIS IN AN MLA-STYLE CITATION, I CERTAINLY DON'T.

Okay, I'm done. ...No! Wait! I also read some books this week:

Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Oni (trans. Alexander O. Smith)
War of the Oaks by Emma Bull
Tin Princess by Philip Pullman
and
The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Vrs. Authors <-- someone at work gave me this for free

I've been totally failing at bookblogging this year, but if someone wants to know what I thought of these, I'll try very hard to answer in comments.

I'm going to Philadelphia tomorrow (Thursday) to visit a friend in Ze Hospital. I don't thiiiink any of you reading this are from that area, but in case I'm wrong, is there anyone who wants to meet up for dinner downtown, around 7pm?