0 babelonium: November 2004

11/25/2004

Shadow Divers

For all you Jon Krakauerheads out there - this book is like Into Thin Air meets The Perfect Storm, and really well written. Who knew scuba divers were so darn studly?

Although has anyone ever noticed that an author's descriptions of a real person/character NEVER match the actual person depicted in the photographs in the book?

For instance, if I were a person worthy of having a book written about me, my description would read, " A tall, willowy redhead with a vivacious smile, Valerie was very into fitness and fine literature."
When in reality:
Yes, I am 5-9, but happen to be built like the Eastern European peasant I am (in other words, like a soccer player). Some might call me "sturdy."
My hair is really brown, with sometimes happily-auburn highlights midsummer after I've been in the sun ALOT. By winter, it's drab mousy brown again.
My smile is the product of two and a half torturous years in braces, as an adult. I had to break the habit of years of smiling without showing my teeth. It still is more of a grin than a smile. I don't much care - my teeth are straight.
I run - very slowly, sporadically until lately, and I really shuffle more than I run. Most racewalkers walk way faster than I "run."
And as far as fine literature goes, well, I'm reading Jon Krakauer-like books, not slogging through the Russians.

So when the author describes a "handsome thin man with olive skin and thick black hair", I am no longer surprised to turn to the photos midbook and see a paunchy guy with little hair at all, and sallow skin probably brought on by years of drinking. All of adventure lit suffers from the problem. Not that whatever said person did is any less impressive just because he also happens to be an unattractive human being. (And in most cases, I am being wildly, horribly petty since nine times out of ten the reason the person made it into the pics at all is because they're dead.)

But it's gotten so predictable that it makes me check as soon as a description pops up now, and it makes me laugh.

posted by BabelBabe @ 2:10 PM   0 comments

11/22/2004

dinner with 12 strangers

I truly can't remember the last time I went out for a social event and was not bored for even a second. I just got back from an event that was like the world's coolest and most interesting cocktail party ever.

It was called Dinner with 12 Strangers and was hosted by the Carnegie Mellon Student-Alumni Relations Council.
The deal is that they invited 4 faculty members (some of whom were also alum), 4 alumni, and 4 current students, in this case all from CFA, to dinner at the UC. The food was good (but anything I don't have to cook myself at this point in my life is good...) and the conversation was better. There was no agenda, no moderator --- we all just introduced ourselves, got some food, and started chatting. Not just about CFA business either -- topics ranged from a dissection of the enigma in Arcadia, how much we appreciate email, kids and grandkids, zero-gravity machines, out-of-body experiences, of course the "Do-you-know so-and-so?" thing, how do people fly in their dreams, food (FiveStar bars of course were mentioned : )), how to meet people in Pittsburgh, the job market, movies, painting restoration, career path changes due to the generation gap...eclectic, intelligent conversation with a group of fascinating, talented people. I didn't get to talk to everyone -- the only flaw was that we only had two hours.

I met (but didn't really have a chance to talk to much) Charlee Brodsky, a professor of photography, whom I have read about in the PG and other places for years. I sat next to Lowry Burgess - he was dean of CFA when I was in school, and is, frankly, just a blast to talk to. I had a lovely conversation with (world-renowned mezzo soprano) Mimi Lerner about our families. It was absolutely, unbelievably fun and exciting. There were music profs there, and a few dramats, a couple architects, artists -- and they were all vibrant and enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their varied, multifaceted interests. Most of these people have done many amazing things, and were happy to discuss them. I admit I felt a little out of my depth at times, having left the creative world pretty far behind, but overall -- wow! What a terrificly invigorating experience.

I have to say that the SARC representatives were great in their own right. The two I spent the most time talking to were a chemistry major (who has done a research project on microgravity with NASA, which was a COOL discussion topic - check this out, SPACE.com Takes a Wild Ride Aboard the Vomit Comet), and an economics major. Really together, impressive young people.

If you ever get an invitation to do anything like this, I heartily recommend you take advantage of it.

posted by BabelBabe @ 9:35 PM   2 comments

what are we reading?

I am halfway through an Emma reread (it's like meatloaf and mashed potatoes for the brain), and just picked up from the library Beryl Bainbridge's The Birthday Boys, and Shadow Divers. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell still sits beckoning on my dresser, but there's no due date on that : )

And over the weekend, in the interest of brain candy enjoyers everywhere, I read a book called Hissy Fit which made me laugh out loud. As far as I am concerned, can much be bad about a book that makes you laugh?

Also dabbling around in and just wrapping up The Know It All .
As I mentioned to Gina, the section where the author does the St Vitus Dance at a wedding was worth the whole rest of the book, as far as I am concerned. Oh, well, and maybe when he gets a grammar citation from his eleven-year-old cousin. That was fairly amusing too. It's a decent read.

Anyone else? Suzanne, are you dabbling in Dostoevesky and Falubert in the original French? I knew it!

posted by BabelBabe @ 1:12 PM   3 comments

God help us all, indeed

Jessa Crispin of bookslut.com got it exactly right.

posted by BabelBabe @ 1:10 PM   0 comments

11/19/2004

You go, Fred!

I definitely see some sexing up of the librarian image coming from this, and that can only be a good thing. (Spoken as a decidedly unsexy librarian...but nonetheless...)

How about a movie, with the hero as an Terminator-type overdue fine collector? Yeah!

Kickass librarians of the world, unite! (Gina, come to the Dark Side...)

posted by BabelBabe @ 10:22 AM   0 comments

11/18/2004

here's a blog to check out

Joe of the Atari shirt fame, Suzanne. I think this will merely prove that your instincts were right and you two do indeed belong together. Or at least should have some passionate encounters.

posted by BabelBabe @ 9:22 PM   0 comments

movie quotes

Anyone care to weigh in on their favorite movie quotes? I'll come back and post mine later - I ahev to drag the boys to school for picture day. Sigh.

posted by BabelBabe @ 8:59 AM   7 comments

11/17/2004

Haven't Got Time for the Pain

It's ridiculous, but I am having serious angst over the National Book Awards. (And THEN I have angst over the fact that I have angst about this--there are women in this world who are starving, etc., and I worry about things like this--but that's another story.)

So, okay, I am a woman and a reader and a feminist. Why am I bothered by the fact that the nominees for the Fiction award are five women from New York City? (Doesn't that sound like the beginning of a joke?) I mean, I care a great deal for women writers. I think it's important that women get their due, and that their voices are heard and their value to the world of letters be appreciated.

But.

If there are only women nominees for the National Book Award, I'm afraid that the award will be seen as having been "feminized", which undoubtedly means that you can kiss its value goodbye. Yes, I realize that awarding Stephen King and Judy Blume special honors trivializes the NBA, but I think this is more serious. Imagine if Booker nominees were all women. What would happen? Would the book world think that the year was a strong one for women? Or would the book world begin its dismissal of the Booker?

Also, I only know one of the nominated books this year, Kate Walbert's "Our Kind". I read about half of this "novel in stories", but I didn't finish it because I didn't care about these country club women who came of age in the 50s and acted the subversive by keeping salamanders in their drapes and ice skating in the nude. It just left me cold.

So the one book by these five women I know is a book I considered a waste of my time.

What's up with all this? Why am I not feeling the love for my sistas?

posted by Gina @ 8:16 AM   1 comments

11/16/2004

you can read a rainbow...

Found this link on bookslut, abotu the bookstore that organized all its books by color for a week. It's so cool - I have to admit I thought it would be stupid.
I'll try to figure out how to post the pics here....

posted by BabelBabe @ 1:19 PM   0 comments

11/15/2004

Maureen Dowd

Did anyone see Maureen's column today?


Not only are they irate at his [Arlen Specter] fairly innocuous comment after the election that anti-Roe v. Wade judges would have a hard time getting through the Senate. They are also full of bloodthirsty feelings of revenge against the senator for championing stem cell research and for voting against Robert Bork - who denounces Mr. Specter as "a bit shifty" - 17 years ago.
"He is a problem, and he must be derailed," Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, told George Stephanopoulos.
[I love this: ] Sounding more like the head of a mob family than a ministry, Dr. Dobson told Mr. Stephanopoulos about a warning he issued a White House staffer after the election that the president and Republicans had better deliver on issues like abortion, gay marriage and conservative judges or "I believe they'll pay a price in the next election."

Dobson as Tony Soprano - I Like it. It was the review of Willard's Paradise Lost that made me think of sharing this, btw. But I love Maureen Dowd any day. Check out her

posted by BabelBabe @ 4:33 PM   2 comments

Kids' Books

Did anyone else see this in yesterday's NYT? I requested a few from the library, and I have to say I'm pretty excited about the new Jon Scieszka book.

I'm VERY curious about "The Tale of Paradise Lost". I'm not familiar with Nancy Willard, but her titles listed on the library's web site seem to indicate that she bends toward the Christian. I have no idea whether Ted will have an interest in this book or not, but I can see where it could open up endless discussions.

I'll keep you posted.

posted by Gina @ 1:53 PM   1 comments

Stewart O'Nan

I just went on a Stewart O'Nan spree. I stared with Prayer for the Dying which appealed to me at first due to its plague theme. (Do you know anyone else who regularly reads the Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report??) But what a ride! Suspenseful, nail-biting, and it made me cry too. Inevitability worthy of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Then I tackled Snow Angels (set in Butler PA). Very good as well, a little less polished, a bit more teen-angst-y due to the age of one of the main characters, a completely different book, but the same spare, elegant writing and gripping storytelling.

So now I am halfway thru Wish You Were Here, which is gentler and not as focused, but more focused on characterization.

I am wowed by my find and thrilled that there are almost half a dozen more O'Nan offerings to read.

posted by BabelBabe @ 11:04 AM   1 comments

Speaking of Hannibal Lecter...

While discussing Shakespeare's plays with a friend last weekend (and admitting that the histories just don't do that much for us save Brannagh's Henry V), it came to my attention that Anthony Hopkins plays Titus Andronicus in the 1999 movie. Does anyone else find this as amusing and apt as I do?

Hannibal Lecter does Shakespeare...there's a really clever joke in there somewhere.

posted by BabelBabe @ 10:59 AM   0 comments

Text Twist

Someone help me, I can't stop. It's crack. Good thing it's free.

Gina, this is all your fault.

posted by BabelBabe @ 2:38 AM   1 comments

11/14/2004

Bridget Jones

OK, in preparation for the movie, I watched the 1st Bridget movie - it is one of the few movies I think is better than the book upon which it is based. It's simply adorable, no other word will do. (Eck, I suppose, but adorable is ok sometimes.) The 2nd one got crap reviews...and I am going to see it anyway. An excuse to watch Colin Firth smirk and be haughty some more. Which brings me to the real point - who's seen the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice? I personally thought Colin Firth was *wonderful* as Darcy. --BUT-- it has recently come to my attention that not everyone feels that way. I was nearly as devastated as when I learned that not everyone wanted John Kerry to be the next President of the United States. So...if not Colin Firth - who? Can't be Jeremy Northam, as he is the perfect Mr. Knightley. Any one care to take this on??

posted by BabelBabe @ 7:51 PM   3 comments

11/13/2004

Children's books

OK, I just finished reading to Simon the Disney version of Peter Pan. Some well-meaning soul gave us an anthology of Disneyfied stories, and smart as Si is, he's just not that discriminating of a reader yet. BUT he is enamored of Peter Pan.

How does one manage to suck every last bit of soul and charm out of the story of Peter Pan? How do you make someone despise Wendy for being such a creampuff, and Peter for being spoiled, instead of seeing them for the lovely fable that they are? Captain Hook isn't even bad in this version, he's merely annoying, somewhat like a gnat or something else equally insignificant. The whole thing is incredibly poorly written -- like Reader's Digest Condensed Books, or worse -- it reminds me of one of those horrible book that other well-meaning people buy little children where the "authors" plug the kid's name into the appropriate slots throughout the story thereby creating a "personalized" book.

You can just hear it can't you?

"It was a beautiful day in [Highland Park, Liverpool, Baghdad] when [Simon, Florence, Ahmed] woke up. S/he knew it was a school day so s/he walked off to school. There the teacher said, "We are going to draw pictures of what we'd like to be when we grow up." So [Simon, Florence, Ahmed] got out their prettiest crayons and drew pictures of [a chef, a prostitute, a terrorist] [pls forgive my stereotyping in the interest of making my narrative flow - BB]..."

I know there are those who will think I am making this up, but I am not. Simon has one of these insipid books and his father and I take turns trying to hide it from him. Worse yet, all the illustrations are horriblly-drawn pictures of animals dressed as people, so we have elephants being ballet dancers, racoons being cooks, and pussy cats as nurses. Very disturbing.

When oh when will Simon be old enough to appreciate - ok, Nabokov might be a stretch - I'd settle for the Hardy Boys. I think.

posted by BabelBabe @ 8:30 PM   1 comments

MY favorite blog (i'm addicted...)

Bookslut.com - check out the whole site, esp. the daily blog. I ADORE this site and read it every morning right after Salon and before beginning my first-of-the-day games of TextTwist, for which I have Gina to blame. try it out too - yahoo games, TextTwist. But be warned - you cannot stop. It's worse than cigarettes.

posted by BabelBabe @ 8:05 PM   0 comments