[Diary] 2007-04-09 - Tennessee Trip
Back from a trip to Tennessee (part of a Valentines day pressie for Cat). The last four or so of my days featured:
* A little less than two thousand miles of driving.
* Hanging out in the shadows of beautiful Tennessee mountains (and in the psychic shadow of Dollywood). It's funny, I feel as if an entire section of the country (Tennessee, Arkansas, around St. Louis) just lit up, and feels benevolent and friendly. Rolling over the state lines, I thought to myself, "ahhh, we enter the land of the traveling court of S.J. Tucker. All is well with the world".
* Obscene amounts of fried catfish, fresh coleslaw (why is that so hard to find in the restaurants back home?), and Waffle House waffles.
* A Sufjan Stevens concert. Sufjan himself is fast becoming a new favorite artist of mine, with every song that I hear of his. And he is fantastic live (you know how it is, how much closer you feel to a musician after seeing them live for the first time). But it's the opening band, an obscure (Czech?) duo -- Irena and Vojtech Havlovi, that absolutely blew us away. Apparently, the organizer of the Music Now festival heard of them first from the streets of Coppenhagen, and had tried for years to contact them and bring them over for a concert. They are... just insane. I apologize, I have no idea how to describe them, except as incredibly minimalist, imaginative, and godlike in concentration. They started on two mini-cellos (and I had no idea one could evoke such an alien range of sounds from cellos), through Irene's ghostlike vocals, and ended in an amazing duo on the piano (with Irena playing the center of the keys, and Vojtech, his arms reaching around her, playing the left and right extremes). We got all of their CDs, and I can't wait to discover more.
* Finishing reading Peter Pan (well, having yuki_onna read it to me, she does fabulous voices). I still don't know how I feel about Peter Pan, Barrie's women issues, etc, but I'm shocked at what a well-written book this was.
* Walking along a river in a pleasant spring forest, and then less than a day later digging out a stuck car from under two feet of snow.
* Our golden retriever running away. After much stress and sadness, ads in the paper and flyers on stopsigns (it's the flyers that did it), she was found, and after paying an exhorbitant ransom fee to Animal Control, we got her back. Whew!
* Mad dreams about Odessa (and you know how dream cities are, all crazy and dark and golden and full of longing, half-forgotten streets, ancient temples to Zeus complete with shabby soviet-era golden statues), and about Sage (the golden retriever, before we finally found her).
Book Log
Finished:
Pratchett's Interesting Times
The Care and Feeding of Your Brain: How Diet and Environment Affect What You Think and Feel
Lost In A Good Book (Thursday Next series, book 2)
Finder - Talisman (vol. 4) graphic novel
Peter Pan
Currently reading:
Hogfather
Y: The Last Man (vol. 2)
The Crying Of Lot 49
Through The Looking Glass (read to by Cat)
Coming up:
Tarot series by Piers Anthony
Atlas Shrugged heheheheh.
* A little less than two thousand miles of driving.
* Hanging out in the shadows of beautiful Tennessee mountains (and in the psychic shadow of Dollywood). It's funny, I feel as if an entire section of the country (Tennessee, Arkansas, around St. Louis) just lit up, and feels benevolent and friendly. Rolling over the state lines, I thought to myself, "ahhh, we enter the land of the traveling court of S.J. Tucker. All is well with the world".
* Obscene amounts of fried catfish, fresh coleslaw (why is that so hard to find in the restaurants back home?), and Waffle House waffles.
* A Sufjan Stevens concert. Sufjan himself is fast becoming a new favorite artist of mine, with every song that I hear of his. And he is fantastic live (you know how it is, how much closer you feel to a musician after seeing them live for the first time). But it's the opening band, an obscure (Czech?) duo -- Irena and Vojtech Havlovi, that absolutely blew us away. Apparently, the organizer of the Music Now festival heard of them first from the streets of Coppenhagen, and had tried for years to contact them and bring them over for a concert. They are... just insane. I apologize, I have no idea how to describe them, except as incredibly minimalist, imaginative, and godlike in concentration. They started on two mini-cellos (and I had no idea one could evoke such an alien range of sounds from cellos), through Irene's ghostlike vocals, and ended in an amazing duo on the piano (with Irena playing the center of the keys, and Vojtech, his arms reaching around her, playing the left and right extremes). We got all of their CDs, and I can't wait to discover more.
* Finishing reading Peter Pan (well, having yuki_onna read it to me, she does fabulous voices). I still don't know how I feel about Peter Pan, Barrie's women issues, etc, but I'm shocked at what a well-written book this was.
* Walking along a river in a pleasant spring forest, and then less than a day later digging out a stuck car from under two feet of snow.
* Our golden retriever running away. After much stress and sadness, ads in the paper and flyers on stopsigns (it's the flyers that did it), she was found, and after paying an exhorbitant ransom fee to Animal Control, we got her back. Whew!
* Mad dreams about Odessa (and you know how dream cities are, all crazy and dark and golden and full of longing, half-forgotten streets, ancient temples to Zeus complete with shabby soviet-era golden statues), and about Sage (the golden retriever, before we finally found her).
Book Log
Finished:
Pratchett's Interesting Times
The Care and Feeding of Your Brain: How Diet and Environment Affect What You Think and Feel
Lost In A Good Book (Thursday Next series, book 2)
Finder - Talisman (vol. 4) graphic novel
Peter Pan
Currently reading:
Hogfather
Y: The Last Man (vol. 2)
The Crying Of Lot 49
Through The Looking Glass (read to by Cat)
Coming up:
Tarot series by Piers Anthony
Atlas Shrugged heheheheh.