Rec contr' Amor non es guirens lai on sos poclers, s'autra.

Got the scanner thing worked out - thanks everyone! (plastikgyrl, next time I need one, I'm coming over to your house with knitting and tea!)

My new question for everyone is: Does anyone want to see Wynton Marsalis with me? He's playing at Confederation Park on June 20th, at 8:30. Tickets are $30, but we could forgo the tickets and just sit outside the park on the sidewalk and listen.

A.

Music

On Peak Hill - Stars

This song is a little more electric than their other songs, but it's still a slow ballad. I love the bits and pieces of electronica that you can hear shifting in and out of the music.

Ochrasy - Mando Diao

Mando Diao is a Swedish band, and their song Ochrasy is a guitar fueled political statement, without the heavy-handed "You bad!" that is present in so many political songs.

Voice on Tape - Jenny Owen Youngs

A pop-indie song that has pieces of voice messages running through it, it starts a little oddly, but gets much better towards the end. Like the other two, it's more of a ballad than anything else, but it's a fun song that has a great repetitive rhythm.

Tangled up in Blue - Bob Dylan

Dude, it's Dylan.

Books:

The Book of Fate - Brad Meltzer

This is a good suspense/political conspiracy book. It's light enough that it's an easy read, but the content isn't fluff. The story is fairly engaging (if sometimes a little too well planned - you can see some obvious links that aren't revealed until later) and it moves quickly, especially the later half of the book.

Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko

Vampires and werewolves, oh my! The front cover says "Harry Potter, set in Gorky Park" which is absolute crap. The book is nothing like Harry Potter - it's by far much darker, and much murkier. Good is good, but it's a fine line that can be blurred. The characters often act contrary to what you would expect from the good/evil division. The story itself is fast-paced, and philosophical, but not to the point where you get bored.

Lost in Mongolia - Colin Angus

Colin Angus and two friends rafted/canoed/kayaked down the Yenisei river - from Mongolia, to the Arctic Ocean. Along the one, one gets lost for several days, and must live off the land. The story follows them from the Mongolia yurts, to Siberian cities. They interact with tribesmen and mob bosses. And it's all a true story!

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

A true account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, when 8 people, from 2 expeditions, died. The author is a journalist who had been hired to do an article climbing the mountain, and was part of one of the expeditions. The story can drag it's feet sometimes (the author always refers to people by their full names, which can get a little annoying), and you can tell it was written by a journalist and not a story-teller, but it's still griping. The lead-up is long and drawn out, but you get a full view of what it's like to climb Mount Everest. The latter half of the book movies very quickly, with events unraveling at a speed that is nearly unimaginable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an adventurous streak.

A.

With any luck, by tomorrow I will have finished the mixed cd - full of mostly new music, with a few old favourites thrown in - and will have them all ready to collect/mail.

kethara - I'll try to mail it either tomorrow, but it might end up being Monday. Either way, it should be there by the end of next week!

quotation - I'm thinking about going to Toronto end of this month/first week of April (yes, that is Easter-time), so I can either hold on to it until then, or mail it off. If I had your address.

proonjoos - not that you need to repay me in food, but if you insist, either Thai or sausages, whichever is easiest. :D ps - there is a special track on there (a la scissors sisters) just for you!

A.

So, I'm busy mixing up a cd for a friend, lots of new artists that I'm totally into right now (why, hello, Paolo Nutini!) and I just wondered if anyone else wanted a copy?

It probably won't be done for a few days, but there you go. Music for free.

A.

I'm totally digging Paolo Nutini. Despite the name, he's actually Scottish. And he's got an amazing voice - I love "Still Crazy" and "These Streets," and "White Lies" is fantastic as well.

He's kind of soulful, kind of acoustic, kind of blues-y.

I tried to find his cd at Compact Music today, but no luck. I'll try elsewhere tomorrow, in the hopes that I can find it.

A.

I'm hoping to burn a cd for my mom as a Christmas gift. I say 'hoping' because I currently don't have enough songs to make it worth the cd. So, my question to you, dear flist, is what song(s) should I put on it? Suggestions?

My mom likes 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkely, Rod Stewart, Van Morrison - mostly the usual suspects (although everyone seems to be surprised by 'Crazy'.)

So help a girl out! Suggest songs to be put on this cd!

A.

Last year, Stairwell K (when they were Stairwell K) played a show at Cafe Dekcuf with a band called "Cherrybomb" - a chick band, who played somewhat rock chick music.

This summer, a girl from Vancouver, Jenny Galt, appeared on Rockstar: Supernova. I didn't start watching the show til aobut 2 weeks ago, so I never saw her. But I saw her name on the website yesterday, and I thought, "Wait, I know that name!"

Yes indeed falks, Jenny Galt is in Cherrybomb. How freakin' cool is that?

A.

I watched 'Bones' on Tuesday night, and fell in love with the song that played at the very end of the episode.

So I go to the website, look under 'Featured Music' and....nothing. I have no idea what the song was, and as I have no google-fu, I can't seem to find anything to tell me what that song is. This always happens - I hear music I like, but can never seem to find it anywhere.

A.

I need new music. I'm tired of listening to the same old same old, everyday. Anyone got any suggestions? Anything at all. Could be old music, new music, rap, country, indie, jazz, emo, country, alternative, hip hop, etc etc etc. I'm not that picky about what I listen to, so throw out those suggestions!

I have two huge posts rambling around in my brain. I just need to find time to type it all out. One is an extension of the other, but they're different enough to require two entries.

A.

I'm looking for some good instrumental music. Maybe something with strings? Anything really. I'm looking for the non-stock-in-trade classics -- so not "Für Elise" or "Moonlight Sonata."

I lovelovelove the new Van Morrison. The first track, Stranded, is so utterly fantastic. I ended up listening to it while I read my book last night before going to sleep. It is definately dinner party music. All I have to figure out now is the logistics of a dinner party. Considering that I don't have a table (not really an issue, I didn't in Vienna either. There are ways around it) and seating might be a problem (will have to go with a small dinner party of 4, I guess). The menu I'll have fun with. I got a new cookbook for dinner, Fab Food; Retro Classics, which I think would be a good place to start. Or! Or, I could always get a new cookbook. 'Cause they're ever so much fun.

Speaking of books, the one I'm reading, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, I left that at work yesterday. So I was trying to decide what to read. I have lots of books, and a few of them I haven't read yet, but I wanted something.....light-hearted, but adventursome. So I decided on The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. I think it's on the reading list for Children's Lit at Carleton. Anyway, I read it when it first came out (along with the other two books in the series, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) and haven't read it since. A friend of mine who was over the other day commented on the titles, which lead me to pick up the first book last night.

A.

I totally treated myself today. I bought the new Van Morrison album, "Magic Time." It was recommended by the guy who owns Compact Music. I went in the other day, and said "I'm looking for new music. I'm bored with what I have now -- all of it. I need something new." He started pulling cds off the shelves. Some of them, St. Germain, I've heard before. I like St. Germain, and I don't have any of their cds, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. He asked me if I liked what was playing -- this kind of jazzy music. It's the type of stuff I played when I had dinner parties in Vienna -- you can listen to it and relax, you can talk over it, you can eat over it, it's just great background music. All of that music, however, was not mine. It belonged to my ex, and I don't have access to anything like it. But this cd, that was on at Compact Music, fit the bill. Lo and Behold, Van Morrison "Magic Time." So I gave myself some time to think about it, and decided to buy it today.

I've also borrowed a lot of cds from a friend and co-worker. The Killers, whom I've never heard, Flook, and a few others.

In other news, I think I'm almost in a relationship. Mostly because I'm too lazy to be single. This won't take any work, so it's more along the lines of the relationships I had in high school, then the ones I've been in lately. Whatever. It's not exciting, it's barely news, and it probably won't last all that long. Another three month wonder indeed. Which means, of course, that something _else_ (or someone else) is right around the corner, as this is how it always works out.

I finally paid off my Tiffany lamp. It's sitting in my bedroom now. Wheeee! I feel decadent. Then again, that could be the silk bedspread. I'm an adult now! A very ecclectic one, as the bedspread if made out of antique silk Japanese kimonos. Given time, I will finally amass all the things I want. Then I will die from pleasure. Actually, I'll die from pleasure once I get my sewing machine moved, and the sun room set up for curling up in a chair and reading a book with a cup of coffee beside me, on a raining day. Which will not be today, even though it's raining. There's just too much work involved in that for me to get into it right now.

A.

This is ongoing -- it's not finished yet.

In no order that I can fathom:

Chicane -- Autumn Tactics
Miss Jane -- Fine Day
Bjork -- It's Oh So Quiet
Bjork -- Army of Me
Blur -- Boys and Girls
Blur -- Parklife
Scripture -- No Words Needed
Alien Ant Farm -- Smooth Criminal
Dream Warriors -- My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style
Black Eyed Peas -- Let's Get Retarded

A. -- my shirt is itching me.

#2 isn't finished yet.

In no particular order:

Cyndi Lauper -- True Colours
Peter Gabriel -- Salisbury Hill
Jewel -- Standing Still
Spirit of the West -- Home for a Rest
Northern Pikes -- She Ain't Pretty
Kelly Clarkson -- Breakaway
Nelly and Tim McGraw -- Over and Over
Kelly Rowland -- Stole
Bow Wow Wow -- I Want Candy
Len -- Steal My Sunshine
Corey Hart -- Sunglasses at night
Aqua -- Barbie Girl
Beck -- Loser
Eric Clampton -- Tears in Heaven

Including, but not limited to, these songs:
(and not necessarily in this order)

AC/DC -- Back in Black
AC/DC -- Tunderstruck
AC/DC -- You Shook Me All Night Long
AC/DC -- Highway to Hell
Aerosmith -- Living on the Edge*
Black Sabbath -- Paranoid
Green Day -- Dominated Love Slave
Guns 'n' Roses -- Paradise City
Guns 'n' Roses -- Sweet Child O' Mine
Jimi Hendrix -- All Along the Watchtower
Janis Joplin -- Mercedes Benz
Queen -- We Are the Champions
Queen -- Another One Bites the Dust
Queen -- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Twisted Sister -- We're Not Gonna Take It

yeah.

* -- not for use in cars, as I've had too many car accidents involving Areosmith songs.

A.

1. The Hazzards song "Gay Boyfriend" -- this is making me laugh so hard, I have it on repeat. Perfect up-beat song for dancing around stupidly too, yet the lyrics make it not-Britney.

2. Mark Abley's book "Spoken Here" -- about dead and dying languages, he travels the world, from Australia, to Canada, to the USA, to France, Isle of Man, Wales and Ireland, to look at efforts to preserve languages that are dying out. Or, in the case of Manx, dead. Ish.

3. Finding money -- I went to deposit my paycheck last night, figuring that I had no money in my account, and it turns out that I had more than I thought. A lot more. So here's to the bank gnomes that are multiplying what little I have.

4. Winning gift certificates -- I won $75 in gift certificates to the Rideau Centre. Right in time for my birthday, as well.

A.