Disturbingfurniture's blog

New Music!

We went out to the Theaytah last evening. What a hoot! We say "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" If you don't' know the musicals of William Finn, this is a great place to start...then you can move on to the "Falsettos" trilogy and "A New Brain" all catchy & touching & fun!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005 Original Broadway Cast)

William Finn

Before the show, we dined at Thai 9 (where we would eat every evening if moolah permitted) and stopped at the CD shop where I snagged

The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnsons

Been wanting an Antony CD since I heard "You Are My Sister" and this is creepily entrancing and musically complex. Fab! (Also love the label: "Secretly Canadian" that's us!)

BLOG at the Library: Odd Authors

Striving to pass on the trivia in my noggin, I wrote another blog for Dayton Metro...books by people famous for other things...you probably know about some of these:

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-wrote-book-about-what.html

Gotta love Jaime Lee Curtis's children's books...but must laugh at Judge Judy writing a book (on many levels, her titles are worth a giggle in and of themselves).

My Trentie is a Record Producer!

CaliYearsCover

Here's a cover image...my Trentie is thanked as a producer in Jill Sobule's newest CD...yes, we are music moguls! And you really should buy one (when they're available to the PUBLIC ;-) not only do you get a great CD of Jill's funny, toe-tappin' music...but you also get Trent's name spelled out for you in the liner notes!

California Years (Dig)

Jill Sobule

Mindfulness...and Readers Advisory

I have two blog entries over at Dayton Metro Library. The first on a nifty quick and dirty readers' advisory tool I found online (that does movies too) from Germany noless...and the second is all about the Buddhist idea of Mindfulness going secular. Check them out:

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/02/every-book-its-reader.html

Just type in your favorite author and get some suggestions in a spiffy cloud. You can also participate in this projuct by answering quick questions about what you like to read or watch.

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/02/pervasive-mindfulness.html

Mindfulness has been working its way into every day Western life...here are some good books (relatively new) on the topic...I have more on order about gardening and child rearing...seems second only to "Green" as the topic to talk about.

Former Bestsellers...

I have been a weeding (of books) fool at work. TRYING to make it through the shelves and shelves in storage of 100's...philosophy, psychology, parapsychology, and self-help...I make sure the books are in the right place, that we don't have too many copies of titles...and that we don't have outdated or dangerous info. I also mend books as I go.

I noticed on this most recent pass through of the self-helpish area that we had a lot of former best sellers down there. So I thought I would bring them back to the attention of our patrons with a blog entry:

http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/02/formerly-bestselling-now-awaiting-your.html

Now I can see if they circulate more :-)

Yes, I AM a Librarian to the core...

"Pallin Around with Sarah and Bill"

Oh, that is RICH! My favorite CNN news story of the day...

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/11/bill-ayers-has-an-idea-for-palin/#more-39731

Bill Ayers, the "terrorist" who Sarah Palin said Obama was palling around with, sent Sarah a note after the election suggesting they do a talk show together called "Pallin Around with Sarah and Bill"

I would watch everyday!

On a completely unrealted note...I am speechless at how fundamentally juvenile and stupid Congressional Republicans are. Eight years they spend ramming their legislation down our throats and look where it's gotten us. They are asked to help draft this bailout legislation...and like a kick-ball-loving five year old whose asked to play dodgeball instead of kickball--they want to take their ball and go home (except for Spector and the intelligent ladies from Maine)...I do hope that when the midterm elections roll around every parent in America remembers that one of the sticking points for Republicans was funding TO BUILD NEW SCHOOLS.

Yes, they don't want to give the states money for the building of new schools...600,000,000,000 and counting for a baseless war is OK...but an additional 10,000,000,000 to educate our kids in buildings that aren't falling down, Republicans say NO.

Lovely.

You know I love me a good coinkidink...

So last month we were at the Used book store & Trent picked up two movies I had never heard of (but they were on his "list" to see). A couple days later he said pick one to watch & I picked "Weight of Water" not knowing anything much about it. It was good--a fiction with some non-fiction stuck in the middle. The non-fiction was a double murder in a small island community called Smuttynose (hehe). Good movie. Sean Penn playing a decidedly different character to Harvey Milk.

For Christmas, Trent's older brother sent me a book I had tried to get the last two times we were up. "They Lynched Jim Cullen" by Dena Winslow. I became obsessed (a little) about it since Jim Cullen lived (in the 1870's) in the house across the street from the house where Trent grew up. (He has a fun ghost story about peering in the window when the family across the street was away). So the upshot is the only lynching to occur in all of the New England states happened in little Presque Isle...to a guy who (murdered two people) lived in Mapleton (well, Castle Hill actually).

SO, this morning I'm reading the book which starts with a chapter about lynchings in general...and about what lynchings have in common...and New England justice--and it mentioned the Smuttynose murders. Seems they occured March 6th 1873...and were reported in the Presque Isle newspaper March 16th...and Jim Cullen was lynched April 30th--so the lack of justice in Smuttynose indirectly led to Jim Cullen's hanging.

And we just happened to watch that movie (made in 2001) right before I started reading this book...woooo!

6037496

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Laugh out loud of the day...

I'm working on a presentation on Readers' Advisory for science fiction and fantasy and horror for our library (that's where we teach people how to tell you what to read ;-) and I came across this image...I've seen it before on the icanhascheezeburger website...but it just cracks me up and I want to share--with that rare person who knows Sci Fi and loves a funny cat picture...Is that you?

I-are-dunecat

Quick and Dirty Movie Update...

We have actually been really slow on the movie front this year...but we have seen a few good and bad:

"Slumdog Millionaire" is good, but it's not blindingly great. It doesn't make either of our "Best" lists. It's worth it if you are interested though.

"The Wrestler" is also good...and also not great. Mickey Rourke IS very good as is Marisa Tome...but Evan Rachel Wood blows pretty hard & the story is a little predictable...more worth your time than the previous.

"The Reader" is really good. It IS on both of our "Best" lists. Great performances all around and just a fascinating story. Well worth your time.

"Revolutionary Road" is bad...Kate Winslet is good (but not great) but that's not her fault. The script would have worked best as bird cage liner...and she could only do so much with that load of tripe. As Trent said, the characters had no subtext to work with, they shouted it at each other. They had amazo-disappearing kids that were present when they were needed as plot points. The only thing worth seeing here is the supporting cast...but wait for DVD. (Spooky aside: Kathy Bates seemed to be channeling my grandmother--same hair...same voice...very similar faces...and THE SAME NAME! ;-) This is VERY missable.

"Milk" is really good. I think it too is on both of our "Best" lists (it is on mine). It is a very good biopic with a very good script. Sean Penn was amazing. Mickey Rourke was playing in kind--Sean Penn was playing a whole other person. And Josh Brolin was good and crazy. This is well worth your time. If the producers had THOUGHT, they would have released it before the November election & we wouldn't have this Prop 8 crap to deal with.

"Doubt" is Trent's favorite for the year. We both really liked it...great performances all around. Of this list, it's probably the not-to-be-missed title with "Milk" a close second.

So Great and not-so-great stuff out there...and on Revolutionary Road...don't believe the hype.

(We have no interest in "Benjamin Button" the "Forrest Gump" retread by a bunch of people who missed the central joke of the source material...and made it maudlin)