It's been a while since I've updated this, and since it rarely
actually indicates my "favorites," but rather what's on my mind
recently, it needs an updating.
Books: At the moment, I've been reading Jonathan Strange And Mister
Norrell, which I am enjoying so far. I have to admit that my
Blackberry and my job and having my emails for my job come to my
Blackberry have put a significant dent in the amount of reading I
do, since a lot of it is done while sitting around cafes or on
transit, which is now occupied by the damn Blackberry.
I would guess that about 90% of what I read is fiction, and of that
40-50% is some kind of spec-fic, sci-fi, fantasy or other "genre
fiction." Another 10-15% are things that I'm feeling vaguely
embarrassed about not having read yet, like Italo Calvino (on the
list for 2009) or Godel, Escher, Bach. I read and reread the
books I love, the primary requirement for any purse or bag is that
it be large enough to hold a good sized book. If it were actually a
private thing, I could put under the "most private thing you're
willing to admit" question that I hated "Dune." However, it is not
private. I hated "Dune." See.
Movies: Recently, I (re)watched Pan's Labyrinth and there
was a director's prologue in which Guillermo Del Toro said, in
essence, "I hope you like this movie, because making it almost
killed me." Despite the fact that this is very pressuring, this is
exactly the kind of movie I like. If someone auctioned off their
worldly possessions to raise money, or contemplated suicide during
the editing process, I'm more likely to be interested in watching
the film. Movies are art, and I like the ones with a bit of blood,
sweat and tears in them. This is why I like Terry Gilliam, despite
the fact that his films have almost universally bad endings, he
always seems like he throws his whole self into the making of
them.
Music: Lately I've been recapturing my musical youth, which is
apparently mostly Depeche Mode, Creedence Clearwater Revival and
The Beastie Boys. Obviously I spent my musical youth in a strange
place.
Also I have been listening to Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box,
which caused a Ukrainian friend to introduce me to Leningrad (if
you got excited when you saw Gogol Bordello in my profile, go check
out Leningrad). I picked up a couple of Ladytron's albums after
having a copy of "Seventeen" for ages and repeatedly saying, "man,
I like that song, I should get some of their other music." I have a
problem with doing that a lot, but iTunes and I have a plan to
address this issue.
Ladytron is pretty excellent though, you should check them
out.
Food: So I just bought a great big teflon pan so I can start
learning to make Injera, and by extension, other Ethiopian food.
I'm also adding Thai to my learn to cook list. For the month of
January, I've decided not to eat any processed sugar (I'm cutting
myself a break on things like the small amount of sugar present in
bread, though. No reason to go crazy) because I think we as a
culture and me as a person eat far too much of the stuff. I am
trying to get into the local eating/slow food movements as much as
my time will allow. When it comes to eating out, I'm adventurous
and willing to try most anything, though I lean towards the spicy
and exotic, particularly things I don't yet know how to cook
myself.
