the probability that i am delirious is quite high

lxxxiv. the best australian stories 2010, ed. cate kennedy

really really great. there was not one story that i did not like.

i am reading arundhati roy's 'the god of small things' and so far am not impressed by the rushdie-like compound words and magic realism. i will give props for select imagery and back-history scene switching.

opera update: i now know enough to judge that anne sofie von otter generally does good handel and has better musicality and precision than most other mezzos, but that paula rasmussen is a better 'serse'. would i be correct however in assuming that most people would not enjoy listening to opera as general background music? i.e. can i listen to it at work without alienating everybody? serious question. i can't really tell anymore.

beep boop

lx. winter's bone
really good! strong acting all around and i think they really cut out all the walking she had to do. i don't know what else to say, everything was suitably creepy and uncertain.

lxi. igor
kid's movie, we watching this straight after winter's bone because 'it [the latter] was not entertaining'

somehow in the last day i have become a bit of an opera fan, who knew der rosenkavalier was that good? who smells silver roses? why do they all do it? ETA if i bothered to look up the libretto translation i would realise as i just have that there is rose oil on the silver rose as a device, obviously

best american extremes

lxxxii. best american short stories 2009, alice sebold
good collection! not many which weren't immediately recognisable as 'really good'. yup really specific

lxxxiii. best american essays 1992, susan sontag
now this i can get specific about. i expected more. maybe it was the time or maybe it was the editor, but 90% of the essays were not topical, and could have been written any time, not specifically in 1991. i mean, the topics were historical, literally. they could have been titled 'on audubon', 'on why hamlet sucks', 'on famous paintings i don't like', 'on why i don't like england because i don't like england', 'on mickey mouse and how because he is important to me he is important to america in 1991 because i am john updike', 'on arias which shaped me as a gay man and here i am showing off my musicianship essay writing skills'.......
.......you understand.

resolution: to break my habit of constantly refreshing social media, imbibing too many small unimportant pieces of information and as a consequence worsening my attention span and short-term memory. also possibly watching less stupid tv just because it's on

goal: to spend longer periods of time doing real things, not limited to but including reading, learning, painting, organising, learning to play basketball again

this is where chrome nanny comes in, to help with my self-control.

buh buh bowww

x. the last romantic, sydney opera house
so, i went to the symphony last night and for the first time sat in the choir stalls behind the stage at the opera house. have to say, the sound was not great, which was unexpected, and really should be better if they are selling tickets for these seats in a world-class concert hall. anyway there was a great brass ensemble piece and joyce yang playing rach 3 was pretty impressive, i can't say the same for rachmaninoff's 3rd symphony though. funny thing of note: from behind obviously we could see the men in full white tie and tails, with the chairs the kind with a spine to split the tails around when they sat down. some of them just sat on their tuxedos though hehe.

lxxx. the girl who played with fire, stieg larsson
seriously, even worse than the 1st book. seriously, the movie was better. i don't know whether to blame the translation, seeing as it was riddled with grammatical errors, but maybe they left them in to preserve that euro-english flavour. also the 'funny' parts were anything but. worst book i have read this year by far.

lxxxi. best american comics, 2008
not bad, a few strange ones in there. i don't know what to think of lynda barry and her feint-ruled paper.

lix. welcome to the rileys
hmm, a little bit good, a little bit eh. realistic ending.

o'_'o

clearly i had not realised the puntastic possibilities of 'knowing the drill'

lxxix. the black swan, nassim nicholas taleb
a lot of pontificating on the nature of the reality of reality and how therefore we should not use mathematical models based on the past to predict the future, like using a map of the alps to cross the pyrenees because it's the best thing available. definitely illuminating in the light of the GFC, but possibly mostly because of the imagery of the titular concept and bringing down the establishment, both corporate and academic.

lvii. the king's speech
somewhat less of a great movie than i expected, thanks to the academy! other than colin firth's performance and the portent of the events involved, there wasn't much.

lviii. barney's version
i don't know whether to say it was interesting or melodramatic. possibly both. several caricatures. good makeup though.

you know the drill

lxxvii. the big necessity, rose george
very interesting investigation into poor sanitation around the world and the innovations people are coming up with to reduce disease and pollution, putting shit back into the environment! also many insights into how to convince people to change their habits.. money doesn't work.

lxxviii. the end of overeating, david kessler
hmm, in the end it all boils down to a genetically vicious cycle of sugar, fat and salt. eat and repeat. apparently you must set rules for yourself if you want to break the cycle. oh really?

;

scanwiches has a book coming out?!? such a rort. if it isn't obvious i am feeling very cynical right now, exacerbated by my currently reading 'the black swan - the impact of the highly improbable' and being annoyed at the arrogant tone and the breaking-down of commonsense for the stupid people.

what does one do with the folded poster cover of mcsweeney's 13?

i want to walk around

i suck at words with friends

lxxv. blubberland - the dangers of happiness, elizabeth farrelly
written in the context of architecture, this was more a treatise on the monumental wastage behind what constitutes 'success' in western society, and the possible genetics and evolutionary reasons for it. very interesting.  a couple of pages encapsulated what amy chua tried to possibly satirise in the whole tiger mother debate.

lxxvi. the gathering, anne enright
possibly the most nebulous book that i've read that i would call an overall success.

------------------------

liii. picture me - very interesting documentary about the real world of modeling

liv. tangled - better than i expected

lv. never let me go - keira knightley looked positively skeletal in this

lvi. machete - sorry robert rodriguez, you are not as good as quentin tarantino. the social commentary on illegal immigration was a nice touch though

REMEMBER..

..THIS??!?!

and now raquel zimmermann is shoving the distal appendage of her upper limb into lady gaga in the 'born this way' video. FINGER ON THE PULSE, THAT'S ME.