Blessed Solstice to You and Yours

I love Georges de La Tour's use of light; he's one of my favorite painters. And yet, I'd never seen this picture, which seems appropriate for today.



The Young Singer by Georges de La Tour



PS Hopefully I will post soon and explain how writing roughly 30,000 words of fiction in the last two weeks has kept me from posting reviews for the five books in my "already read" stack.

Meme!

This one was going around LJ the other day (although you were writing a poem and not a song) and now I see that both Figgy and Marra have done it, and because I am about the stealing of good ideas, and also about procrastination, I'm going to do it again here.

First phrase from iTunes songs on shuffle 1-20; 21 - song title, 22 - band name.

Turn Your Ugly Face
by I Had a Dream

I was born by an old streetlight
She knows the voices in her mind
Have I got everything? Am I ready to go?

My lover's charms
I know you just want to kill me
You belong to the gang

Field of light
Something isn't right
Knew you were born under a waxing moon

Well turn up the bottle, pour down the wine
Oh, life is bigger
When I offer you survival

The leaves tell
Be ready to fly
Alcoholic kind of mood

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
Must it take a life for hateful eyes
The canyon air is like a breath of fresh LA

Bye bye love
There's no time for us


Okay then, that's surreal. Although the last two lines dovetailed nicely.


1. Street Smart, Book Stupid by Sara Slean
2. After All (DJ Moon) by Delerium
3. Traveling Again (Traveling I) by Dar Williams
4. My Lover's Box by Garbage
5. I Need to Say Goodbye by VAST
6. O Valencia by The Decemberists
7. Happy by Mazzy Star
8. Something Isn't Right by Aimee Mann
9. Majesty by Claire Voyant
10. It Ain't the Wine by Kate Wolf
11. Losing My Religion by REM
12 Bling (Confessions of a King) by The Killers
13 From Heaven to Dust by Azam Ali
14. Journey by Hungry Lucy
15. Nancy Boy by Placebo
16. Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
17. Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly
18. Dogs of LA by Liz Phair
19. Bye Bye Love by Simon and Garfunkel
20. Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen
21. Getting Scared by Imogen Heap
22. Fallen by Beauty's Confusion

The Freebies List

Both Marra and Figgy did this, so let's make it a Cannonball Meme, shall we? To quote Figgy, "a 'Freebies List' consists of the 5 celebrities you'd most like to do whoopie with. No consequences or regrets. Just pure enjoyment."

Because I love the laaaadies!



5. Allison Janney -- Fabulous, talented, hot and also? Tall.



4. Kate Hewlett -- Actress and playwright and generally gorgeous. (and yes, that's her brother down in the "honorable mention" section of the guys. It's a talented family.)



3. Rachel Luttrell -- Unless you're a Stargate: Atlantis fan, you undoubtedly don't know who she is. Poor you.



2. Gina Torres -- I've lusted after her since the Xena days.



1. Carrie-Anne Moss -- I'm sorry, were we talking about something?

Honorable mentions: Monica Bellucci, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Lawless, Tilda Swinton...okay the list could go on and on.


Guys I'd switch back for, a list that proves that I'm a big, geeky fan-girl.



5. Joe Flanigan -- Someone else from SGA. To be honest, he's hardly the best actor out there and he's a Republican (which is why he's fifth on the list), but I really do think he's hot in a dorky kind of way.



4. Jason Momoa -- Another obscure SGA alumni. Just look at him for a minute, okay? Now, any questions as to why he's on this list? Even I like a little beef in my cake now and then.



3. Liam Neeson -- Yeah, he's a little craggier these days, but still...



2. Sean Bean -- Because everyone needs a bit of rough from Yorkshire.



1. Viggo Mortenson -- Smart, funny, sensitive, talented and really really hot. The question is: why wouldn't you? (yes it's a huge picture but I've always loved that shot.)

Honorable mentions: Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood and Harry Potter) and David Hewlett (SGA again)--two guys I'd love to just hang out with.

Oh sure, Amazon is cheaper....

There's something about a bookstore, even one as soulless and corporate as Borders. I really do like shopping though Amazon because it's easy and cheaper than most bookstores, but I still love going into a bookstore and fondling the books. Of course, like an idiot, I almost always forget to take a pair of reading glasses with me, which leads to me holding the book at arm's length and squinting while I read the back.

I looked at a ton of stuff in the SF/Fantasy section and almost picked up Maguire's Son of a Witch, but I put it down, figuring I'd pick it up used somewhere. I did get Neal Stephenson's newest, Anathem which kind of sounds like it's his take on the classic A Canticle for Lebowitz. It's pretty massive and Stephenson is hardly someone you can read quickly, so it'll be a while before I have a review up.

I also picked up Tanya Huff's first two Valor novels, conveniently bound together in one book. I'm a big fan of her Vicky Nelson vampire books and the spin off Shadow series. Seriously, if you the whole "vampire and female PI together they fight crime" genre, read the Blood Ties books. Trust me, they're a lot better than the short-lived Lifetime series, although the TV show had some serious pretty--male and female--going on. Anyway, Huff's Valor books are military SF featuring a female space marine, so I'm good.

Hard military SF is actually one of my guilty pleasures, particularly if the protagonist or one of the main characters is female. I call it a guilty pleasure because, well to put it one way, most of these writers are probably voting for McCain or writing in Ron Paul. But still, give me a new David Weber Honor Harrington book (aka Female Horatio Hornblower In Space) and I'm a happy camper. I have no idea why I like this kind of thing so much, although I suppose my early love of Heinlein's* juveniles has something to do with it.

Darkrose picked up a couple of books that I'll end up reading--a fantasy novel set in a pseudo-Japan about an assassin and a fascinating sounding book about a people on a post-apocalyptic fantasy world going on crusade. It's nice to have someone around who reads the same kind of stuff I do; several of the books I've read for the Read have been her books.

Finally, although I said I wouldn't do too many re-reads, I found myself downstairs without a book in hand the other night when I went to get a late night snack. I ended up picking up Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and ended up reading it cover to cover over the course of the last couple of days. While it's not my favorite Kay book (that would be Sailing to Sarentium), it's utterly fabulous. I'll have a review of tt up soon.

*I'll save the Heinlein rant for another day; suffice it to say, I think he jumped the shark right around Farnham's Freehold.

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain

To you and yours!



From Darkrose and Telesilla!

pimpin' for a friend and other stuff...

Vote for this shirt, not only because it's cute, but so I can buy one.

Not much else going on; I'm coming up on the end of two--yes two!--books and hope to have reviews up tomorrow or Wednesday. Go me!