Italy knocked out of Euro 2008

Opponents of gay marriage stay quiet

I love the idea that these two 'news items' are connected.

Taken by Krissa

I read this for the first time about ten years ago and, I'll be honest, lost track of what was going on. With a lot more Vonnegut under my belt I can say this is both one of the saddest and most penetratingly insightful of his books. Some of his other works are strongly flavoured by the horror of humanity's actions in World War 2, but this book largely eschews the normal satirical Vonnegutian flippancy when dealing with such grave and outrageous issues, and instead pores over the devastating personal effects of war, politics, art, love, patriotism and the mutability of human values.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Goodreads Profile

 

Kick off is at 7pm.
Remember, I'll be the eye-catching number 30,713.
Wish me luck.

I just finished A. This is going to take FOREVER.
A was sort of interesting.
The bulk of it was stuff I'd normally leave on if it came up on shuffle, like Gomez, Counting Crows, Yo La Tengo, and listening to the albums through was really, really good.
A surprise for me was that the Radiohead album 'Amnesiac' was REALLY hard to get through. I thought I'd go into 'New Radiohead Album' mode, but no. It kept leaping out and breaking my concentration with a huge clamour of noise - literal noise, not necessarily anything musical, and then it skulked off with something unremarkable until I was sufficiently off my guard that as the music changed I slowly began to grit my teeth and not realize why. I think a lot of people have a two-to-three listens threshold before Radiohead albums begin to kick in and work for them, and I would put myself among them, but I'm not sure I will manage it.

Cast: All Change was a bit annoying. There are only a couple of songs on there that don't sound like typical nasal 90s guitar band, and I still like those - 'Sandstorm' and 'History'. The rest was a bit of an exercise in endurance.

Green Day: American Idiot. Why are there two NINE MINUTE SONGS on a punk album? I'm not saying they're not good, but holy crap.

Big shock - I enjoyed listening to Annie: Annimal, and I love the Atlantic Soul compilation anyway, and compilations might be cheating the goal of the project a little.

I'm getting cracking on B, which is HUGE:

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos #4 and #5: Leppard / English Chamber Orchestra
Back to Black: Amy Winehouse
Bad: Michael Jackson (I think this might be corrupted)
Band A'Part: Nouvelle Vague
Barry White's Greatest Hits: Barry White
Be: Common
Beauty & Crime: Suzanne Vega
Becoming X: Sneaker Pimps
Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets Vol. 3: Juillard String Quartet
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Kreutzer, Spring : Perlman & Ashkenazy
Begin to Hope: Regina Spektor
Beginner's Guide To World Music: Various Artists
Ben Folds Five: Ben Folds Five
Bends (The): Radiohead
Best of Blur: Blur
Best of Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly
Best of Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Fitzgerald
Best of Glenn Miller: Glenn Miller
Best of James: James
Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1: Led Zeppelin
Best of The Grateful Dead (Skeletons In The Closet): The Grateful Dead
Best of The King: Elvis Presley
Beyond The Neighbourhood: Athlete
Big Calm: Morcheeba
Birth Of Soul Vols. 1, 2 and 3: Ray Charles
Blonde on Blonde: Bob Dylan
Blues Brothers Soundtrack: Various Artists
Born On A Pirate Ship: Bare Naked Ladies
Bossanova: Pixies
Boulevard: St. Germain
Boxer: The National
Boy With The Arab Strap: Belle and Sebastian
Bricolage: Amon Tobin
The Bridge: Billy Joel
Bridges To Babylon: The Rolling Stones
Bring It On: Gomez
Bringing It All Back Home: Bob Dylan
Buena Vista Social Club/Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
Bully (Original Score): Shawn Lee

That's one long stretch of Beethoven at the start there, and cor blimey,  three albums of Ray Charles in a row.
Should I even be including 'Best Of' compilations for a project where the entire aim is to appreciate albums as albums?

 

Yesterday I went to look at my hole. It is quite big, and they will be blasting bedrock for a few weeks now. Washington's Reagan Airport looks like it was put together with meccano: yellow girder trees FTL.
Although I have completely failed to find a picture online that doesn't make them look awesome.

Rehearsals for 'Much Ado About Nothing' have begun, although I missed yesterday's because of going to look at my hole. I have learned two of my lines which is not many but I have been thinking really hard about my motivation. (Seriously. I googled a Keanu interview to make fun, but he's talking sense about doing Shakespeare for a modern audience)

I like the new Weezer album. I have never acquainted myself with any of their albums, really. I know Pinkerton is meant to be the best, but all that coolness just passed me by.
I was reading.
This is separate to the ABC Project, which I'm doing at work, but due to The Busy, and a role which now involves getting up from my desk and talking to people quite a lot, I am still on the letter A.
'Here Comes Alice' from the The Jesus And Mary Chain album 'Automatic' is playing as I type.

I am quite happy with my new site design, but I am wondering if the blue is a little bland.
I am serious about the zeppelins.

Yesterday on the plane I did the NY Times crossword (before takeoff, no less) and a Delta Airlines in-flight magazine Sudoku puzzle. I am only proud of one of these.

Krissa is awesome and Nano is a cheeky little bugger.
Or have I got that backwards?