book recs + music recs + explanation of my icon
This was kind of a productive week in terms of both book reading and finding out new music. So I thought that it was a good excuse to make some rec post.
1. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
That was a though one. I mean, it's exactly like the movie. Very good but extremely peculiar and not of the I-could-read-it-on-the-beach-kind. It''s definitely weird because it doesn't even distinguish the dialogue from the actual story and the actual story is written the way the characters speak, which is definitely original but to poor foreign people like myself it takes fifty pages to get how Texas accent works. But apart from that, it's excellent. My favorite character from the movie was the sheriff and it remains the sheriff, but it's all good. Especially, he manages to develop characters mostly with dialogue and very dry descriptions of the action, which is quite an accomplishment. Took quite some time but worth it.
2. The Shining by Stephen King
It was, apart from Bag of Bones, the only important King book I hadn't read. I don't think I'll ever manage to read Bag of Bones, I tried a couple of times but it just doesn't click. This one did, though, even with all the specifics of the case. Unfortunately, seeing the movie (Kubrick's, not the TV one) three times before reading it didn't help.
Now, as all of what Uncle Steve writes, it surely flows well. It was also nice to read something from his first years since I had only read recent stuff of his lately, though I tend to prefer him when he doesn't do purely horror stories. Anyway, the reason I like him most is that he's good with the way he develops characters and here, at least until the end, he did it as good as usual. I really liked the way he worked with his lovely family until part #4, though in retrospective, if we want to talk about dealing with child abuse, The Body was millions of miles away from Good Old Jack Torrance. Though, I guess the seeds where there. And as everything SK does, the last part was very meh in comparison to the others.
Now, here comes the comparison with the movie, but shortly, I think that the matter comes more or less to this: while in Kubrick's Shining I'll agree with Uncle Steve saying that both Jack Nicholson and his wife there weren't good choices for the casting (Jack looked crazy since second #2 and the wife didn't have a thing to do with the book's Wendy), the only thing I liked best in the book about the ending was that in the book he didn't kill Hallorann. Apart from that, Kubrick's ending was far more upsetting and much more sober. I mean, since Jack went at the party and spoke with the former caretaker until the hotel exploding in flames (and the spirit of the hotel coming out of it, of all), it was just a big horror cliché, from the husband becoming abusing of the wife, teaching children lessons, having the last redeeming moment before everything goes to hell because you love your son and then that Florida epilogue which well, wasn't actually bad, but I could have done without. While Kubrick had thankfully cut all the supernatural abundance which would have looked ridiculous on screen, made Jack crazy without a way out (thankfully), kept only the necessary and didn't destroy the hotel. Which was a much more interesting ending, not counting the picture at the end. That was creepy. So I'd say a solid one that I should have read before if anything for King culture, but it could have been much better and the movie was, in fact, better handled IMHO. I liked to see him planting the seeds for things that he was going to do much better in the future though.
3. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson
I don't know where the hell my father went to find something like that since they didn't translate it here but ladies and gentleman, it's the some of the most brilliant satire I've read all my life. It's also absolutely crack from the beginning to the end, but it doesn't surely hurt. It's an absurdly clever parody of organized religions where God is a flying being made of pasta and meatballs, his chosen people are pirates (and global warming is caused by the lack of pirate activity), heaven has a stripper factory (also with male strippers for women) and a volcano which erupts beer and there aren't ten commandments but eight I'd-Rather-You-Didn'ts. I was cracking up laughing at every page. Pastafarianism (as the FSM religion is called) has also a web site which is a total blast. I'd totally recommend reading it, if not for converting, at least to have a good, sane laugh for two hours.
Now on to the music! Beware, I'm in a half-country phase. Under the cut there is some Elvis Costello, some Steve Earle, quite some Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and something else could turn up.
Johnny Cash because he's always better than all the others
I don't have even half of the money I'd need to get his boxset but I've downloaded it recently and oh man. I can't even begin to say how freaking awesome 'Unearthed' is. Not much to discuss, he was on a whole other level, bless him. These are some of my favorites from said box set and his last two records.
- Heart of Gold (Neil Young cover) -> damn. This cover is something wonderful. I gush over it like I've rarely gushed over a cover. It's not much different from the original but damn. The interpretation totally sells it.
- Redemption Song (Bob Marley cover), duet with Joe Strummer -> I mean. Nothing to say here. Cash + Strummer + Redemption Song = excellence.
- Devil's Right Hand (Steve Earle cover) -> I love the original, but this one is more stripped down and has a much more country feeling. Gorgeous, I'd say.
- Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode cover) -> the fact that John Frusciante plays on this just adds to the total awesomeness of it, but fact is, I may prefer it to the original. Don't kill me ;)
- Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel cover) -> gah. Just a tad more dark and sad than the original, but wow.
And Redemption Song speaking, since I also have it and I think it's a pretty awesome version too, here's the Unplugged version by Chris Cornell.
Emmylou Harris
There like, four or five female singers I really like. She's one of them. She just rocks.
- Bad Moon Rising (CCR cover) -> just lovely. I love it sung by a woman. It's similar but different and it's awesome.
- Every Grain of Sand (Bob Dylan cover) -> that song is wonderful and she sings it remarkably well. This is the original version, btw.
- Always Every Grain of Sand, but live version.
- Long May You Run (Neil Young cover) -> gorgeous song and great rendition.
- Goodbye -> great song. I kinda love it.
Elvis Costello
This will be a very random one since I've kinda downloaded a bunch of stuff at random and listened to it at random, except for one song and one record that I don't have on the computer. But I'm loving it so far.
- Veronica;
- Man out of Time;
- I Hope You're Happy Now;
- There's a Story in Your Voice (duet with Lucinda Williams) -> and this has to be my current favorite song. Not for anything I've named an opus after it (and I'll finish the second part one of these days). It's wonderful, great lyrics, she's got a great voice, they duet really nicely and the lyrics are totally Sawyer.
Steve Earle
My latest discovery. Blame a song of his used in PS I love you. Then I read someplace that he had been considered the new Springsteen. Antennae sprung up. The critics of course don't know a thing because he and Springsteen don't really have that much in common, but he's terrific nonetheless. Knowing myself, I'll spend two weeks with his complete discography, bless torrents.
- Original version of The Devil's Right Hand -> this was my favorite song from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. Of course I find out it was him yesterday.
- Someday -> oh, this one just wants me to gush.
- Nebraska (Bruce Springsteen cover) -> yeah, I just said he isn't that similar to Bruce. And he isn't, but his Springsteen covers are just perfect. I love his take on this one. And I can't have a music upload without a Springsteen song in.
- Over Yonder -> now that makes you think.
- Valentine's Day -> slow, sweet and just guh.
- The Galway Girl -> heee, my first song of his. It's fun, fast and really nice. I love it.
- Always The Galway Girl, but live version.
- Best for last, You're Still Standing There -> I don't know what's with me and people duetting with Lucinda Williams, but I've been listening to this all over since yesterday. I don't know whether it's catchy or whatever, but see There's a Story in Your Voice.
And since I'm planning to listen to more from Mrs Williams, seeing that she seems suited to my taste, here's my current favorite from hers truly: Metal Firecracker.
And this would be all for this entry. Yay for Mondays without lectures.
1. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
That was a though one. I mean, it's exactly like the movie. Very good but extremely peculiar and not of the I-could-read-it-on-the-beach-kind. It''s definitely weird because it doesn't even distinguish the dialogue from the actual story and the actual story is written the way the characters speak, which is definitely original but to poor foreign people like myself it takes fifty pages to get how Texas accent works. But apart from that, it's excellent. My favorite character from the movie was the sheriff and it remains the sheriff, but it's all good. Especially, he manages to develop characters mostly with dialogue and very dry descriptions of the action, which is quite an accomplishment. Took quite some time but worth it.
2. The Shining by Stephen King
It was, apart from Bag of Bones, the only important King book I hadn't read. I don't think I'll ever manage to read Bag of Bones, I tried a couple of times but it just doesn't click. This one did, though, even with all the specifics of the case. Unfortunately, seeing the movie (Kubrick's, not the TV one) three times before reading it didn't help.
Now, as all of what Uncle Steve writes, it surely flows well. It was also nice to read something from his first years since I had only read recent stuff of his lately, though I tend to prefer him when he doesn't do purely horror stories. Anyway, the reason I like him most is that he's good with the way he develops characters and here, at least until the end, he did it as good as usual. I really liked the way he worked with his lovely family until part #4, though in retrospective, if we want to talk about dealing with child abuse, The Body was millions of miles away from Good Old Jack Torrance. Though, I guess the seeds where there. And as everything SK does, the last part was very meh in comparison to the others.
Now, here comes the comparison with the movie, but shortly, I think that the matter comes more or less to this: while in Kubrick's Shining I'll agree with Uncle Steve saying that both Jack Nicholson and his wife there weren't good choices for the casting (Jack looked crazy since second #2 and the wife didn't have a thing to do with the book's Wendy), the only thing I liked best in the book about the ending was that in the book he didn't kill Hallorann. Apart from that, Kubrick's ending was far more upsetting and much more sober. I mean, since Jack went at the party and spoke with the former caretaker until the hotel exploding in flames (and the spirit of the hotel coming out of it, of all), it was just a big horror cliché, from the husband becoming abusing of the wife, teaching children lessons, having the last redeeming moment before everything goes to hell because you love your son and then that Florida epilogue which well, wasn't actually bad, but I could have done without. While Kubrick had thankfully cut all the supernatural abundance which would have looked ridiculous on screen, made Jack crazy without a way out (thankfully), kept only the necessary and didn't destroy the hotel. Which was a much more interesting ending, not counting the picture at the end. That was creepy. So I'd say a solid one that I should have read before if anything for King culture, but it could have been much better and the movie was, in fact, better handled IMHO. I liked to see him planting the seeds for things that he was going to do much better in the future though.
3. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson
I don't know where the hell my father went to find something like that since they didn't translate it here but ladies and gentleman, it's the some of the most brilliant satire I've read all my life. It's also absolutely crack from the beginning to the end, but it doesn't surely hurt. It's an absurdly clever parody of organized religions where God is a flying being made of pasta and meatballs, his chosen people are pirates (and global warming is caused by the lack of pirate activity), heaven has a stripper factory (also with male strippers for women) and a volcano which erupts beer and there aren't ten commandments but eight I'd-Rather-You-Didn'ts. I was cracking up laughing at every page. Pastafarianism (as the FSM religion is called) has also a web site which is a total blast. I'd totally recommend reading it, if not for converting, at least to have a good, sane laugh for two hours.
Now on to the music! Beware, I'm in a half-country phase. Under the cut there is some Elvis Costello, some Steve Earle, quite some Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and something else could turn up.
Johnny Cash because he's always better than all the others
I don't have even half of the money I'd need to get his boxset but I've downloaded it recently and oh man. I can't even begin to say how freaking awesome 'Unearthed' is. Not much to discuss, he was on a whole other level, bless him. These are some of my favorites from said box set and his last two records.
- Heart of Gold (Neil Young cover) -> damn. This cover is something wonderful. I gush over it like I've rarely gushed over a cover. It's not much different from the original but damn. The interpretation totally sells it.
- Redemption Song (Bob Marley cover), duet with Joe Strummer -> I mean. Nothing to say here. Cash + Strummer + Redemption Song = excellence.
- Devil's Right Hand (Steve Earle cover) -> I love the original, but this one is more stripped down and has a much more country feeling. Gorgeous, I'd say.
- Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode cover) -> the fact that John Frusciante plays on this just adds to the total awesomeness of it, but fact is, I may prefer it to the original. Don't kill me ;)
- Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel cover) -> gah. Just a tad more dark and sad than the original, but wow.
And Redemption Song speaking, since I also have it and I think it's a pretty awesome version too, here's the Unplugged version by Chris Cornell.
Emmylou Harris
There like, four or five female singers I really like. She's one of them. She just rocks.
- Bad Moon Rising (CCR cover) -> just lovely. I love it sung by a woman. It's similar but different and it's awesome.
- Every Grain of Sand (Bob Dylan cover) -> that song is wonderful and she sings it remarkably well. This is the original version, btw.
- Always Every Grain of Sand, but live version.
- Long May You Run (Neil Young cover) -> gorgeous song and great rendition.
- Goodbye -> great song. I kinda love it.
Elvis Costello
This will be a very random one since I've kinda downloaded a bunch of stuff at random and listened to it at random, except for one song and one record that I don't have on the computer. But I'm loving it so far.
- Veronica;
- Man out of Time;
- I Hope You're Happy Now;
- There's a Story in Your Voice (duet with Lucinda Williams) -> and this has to be my current favorite song. Not for anything I've named an opus after it (and I'll finish the second part one of these days). It's wonderful, great lyrics, she's got a great voice, they duet really nicely and the lyrics are totally Sawyer.
Steve Earle
My latest discovery. Blame a song of his used in PS I love you. Then I read someplace that he had been considered the new Springsteen. Antennae sprung up. The critics of course don't know a thing because he and Springsteen don't really have that much in common, but he's terrific nonetheless. Knowing myself, I'll spend two weeks with his complete discography, bless torrents.
- Original version of The Devil's Right Hand -> this was my favorite song from the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. Of course I find out it was him yesterday.
- Someday -> oh, this one just wants me to gush.
- Nebraska (Bruce Springsteen cover) -> yeah, I just said he isn't that similar to Bruce. And he isn't, but his Springsteen covers are just perfect. I love his take on this one. And I can't have a music upload without a Springsteen song in.
- Over Yonder -> now that makes you think.
- Valentine's Day -> slow, sweet and just guh.
- The Galway Girl -> heee, my first song of his. It's fun, fast and really nice. I love it.
- Always The Galway Girl, but live version.
- Best for last, You're Still Standing There -> I don't know what's with me and people duetting with Lucinda Williams, but I've been listening to this all over since yesterday. I don't know whether it's catchy or whatever, but see There's a Story in Your Voice.
And since I'm planning to listen to more from Mrs Williams, seeing that she seems suited to my taste, here's my current favorite from hers truly: Metal Firecracker.
And this would be all for this entry. Yay for Mondays without lectures.