'cause you were always made to want it all
Here we are at the end of another year. I can't even believe it. But I've got the sauce bubbling away and some meatballs simmering in red wine vinegar and oregano (and the windows open so my apartment doesn't smell too much like fried onions when this is all over). I have to do a quick grocery store run because I am short tupperware containers to carry this stuff safely over to L's, and also to pick up fresh bread, but I'm going to take this brief break before I have to start wrapping dates in bacon or putting rice balls together to make this post.
I hope you all have the most wonderful 2015. I hope it is a vast improvement over 2014 for those of you who've had a bad year, and that the awesomeness continues for those of you who had a good one.
<333
***
Today's December meme question is:
December 31:
the_rck asked, What three books do you think everybody ought to read? Alternatively, what three movies do you think everybody ought to see?
Oh man, I have been thinking about this all month, but I keep coming back to the same answers so...
I think three books everyone should read are:
1. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner - I think it's a great American novel of the early 20th century, and it's about how the stories we choose to tell shape our lives (and the lives of those before and after us). And also it's a masterwork of storytelling and heartbreak. Oh, Quentin.
2. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - for similar reasons - it's a fantastic novel about how stories can have consequences - you might think it's all a big laugh, but someone else is going to believe it and start living their life by it and that is probably not going to end well for everybody! Also it's just a great adventure novel, if you accept that at least 40% of the time you'll have no idea what the fuck is actually happening.
3. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - not just because it's a writing tour de force ("Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is AMAZING) but also because it's a heartfelt antiwar screed from someone who fought in Vietnam and is still trying to come to grips with why he was there and what happened.
(I didn't intend for it to be three white guys, but that is what I kept coming back to. Sigh.)
Honorable mentions to The Iliad (though if you want to read Christopher Logue's adaptation, I would also recommend that), The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin, because it was so formative for me, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for similar reasons.
As for movies - I am not an expert on movies - I like movies that entertain me and don't make me think too hard while they're doing it - but I'm going to go old school here and say:
1. Casablanca - to paraphrase Eco here, you need to know where all the cliches come from! (It's also why you should read Shakespeare, even if not for your own enjoyment; you'll get a lot more references if you're familiar with the sources), but also because it's a fucking awesome movie.
2. It Happened One Night - often imitated, never replicated (though I do love Cameron Crowe's loose remake, "The Sure Thing") - the grandaddy of all rom coms, and better than any of the rom coms being made today, even if parts of it are dated. (Every romcom of the last 80 years owes something to It Happened One Night.) It's still one of my all time favorites.
3. The Big Sleep - highly influential film noir (even if nobody is quite sure it makes any sense, plotwise - I'm pretty sure Faulkner, who co-wrote it, said he didn't know who the murderer actually was+), with amazing dialogue and atmosphere, and Bogey and Bacall being iconic.
+possibly that's apocryphal.
(Honorable mentions to The Maltese Falcon, which I actually enjoy more than The Big Sleep, and The Thin Man for being one of my very favorite movies ever and for modeling the lighter side of detective movies.)
Anyway, it's been a fun meme, and we should do it some time when the holidays don't make scheduling tight! how about June for the next round?
I still want to do my year-end/midseason TV report card post, but that's going to have to wait a bit, because I have some meatballs I have to give a stir.
Have a Happy New Year's Eve and stay safe, y'all!
<333
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/718244.html.
people have commented there.
I hope you all have the most wonderful 2015. I hope it is a vast improvement over 2014 for those of you who've had a bad year, and that the awesomeness continues for those of you who had a good one.
<333
***
Today's December meme question is:
December 31:
the_rck asked, What three books do you think everybody ought to read? Alternatively, what three movies do you think everybody ought to see?
Oh man, I have been thinking about this all month, but I keep coming back to the same answers so...
I think three books everyone should read are:
1. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner - I think it's a great American novel of the early 20th century, and it's about how the stories we choose to tell shape our lives (and the lives of those before and after us). And also it's a masterwork of storytelling and heartbreak. Oh, Quentin.
2. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - for similar reasons - it's a fantastic novel about how stories can have consequences - you might think it's all a big laugh, but someone else is going to believe it and start living their life by it and that is probably not going to end well for everybody! Also it's just a great adventure novel, if you accept that at least 40% of the time you'll have no idea what the fuck is actually happening.
3. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - not just because it's a writing tour de force ("Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is AMAZING) but also because it's a heartfelt antiwar screed from someone who fought in Vietnam and is still trying to come to grips with why he was there and what happened.
(I didn't intend for it to be three white guys, but that is what I kept coming back to. Sigh.)
Honorable mentions to The Iliad (though if you want to read Christopher Logue's adaptation, I would also recommend that), The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin, because it was so formative for me, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for similar reasons.
As for movies - I am not an expert on movies - I like movies that entertain me and don't make me think too hard while they're doing it - but I'm going to go old school here and say:
1. Casablanca - to paraphrase Eco here, you need to know where all the cliches come from! (It's also why you should read Shakespeare, even if not for your own enjoyment; you'll get a lot more references if you're familiar with the sources), but also because it's a fucking awesome movie.
2. It Happened One Night - often imitated, never replicated (though I do love Cameron Crowe's loose remake, "The Sure Thing") - the grandaddy of all rom coms, and better than any of the rom coms being made today, even if parts of it are dated. (Every romcom of the last 80 years owes something to It Happened One Night.) It's still one of my all time favorites.
3. The Big Sleep - highly influential film noir (even if nobody is quite sure it makes any sense, plotwise - I'm pretty sure Faulkner, who co-wrote it, said he didn't know who the murderer actually was+), with amazing dialogue and atmosphere, and Bogey and Bacall being iconic.
+possibly that's apocryphal.
(Honorable mentions to The Maltese Falcon, which I actually enjoy more than The Big Sleep, and The Thin Man for being one of my very favorite movies ever and for modeling the lighter side of detective movies.)
Anyway, it's been a fun meme, and we should do it some time when the holidays don't make scheduling tight! how about June for the next round?
I still want to do my year-end/midseason TV report card post, but that's going to have to wait a bit, because I have some meatballs I have to give a stir.
Have a Happy New Year's Eve and stay safe, y'all!
<333
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/718244.html.
people have commented there.