Boston, the Edmonton of the East

I have to say that while I was in Boston (and suburbs) this weekend, I was struck by how much I felt it was like walking around Edmonton.

The streets were clean (especially relative to Philly)

It's a university city, so walking around some of the neighborhoods felt just like walking around Old Strathcona - Harvard Square has a bit of a Whyte Ave feel.

The houses actually have yards and aren't all connected to each other

Walking around the financial district on a Sunday is like walking through downtown Edmonton on an evening or Sunday - dead.

The have a really nice park right in the middle of the city called Boston Common where throngs of people congregate to suntan, hang out, play in the playground and fountain. It has a little lake in it where you can take boat rides and has many buskers (including a bagpiper). It reminded me a bit of Hawrelak Park during a festival, but with more benches and paths and trees.



Faneuil Hall is like Street Performer's Central. It's the old city market turned into a big food court with lots of stalls selling stuff all around it. And even more street performers. We saw breakdancers, escape artists, hula hoop/yoyo/unicycle performers, and even more elaborate living statues.

Silence broken, and FOR SALE!

Let's see - Last time I posted I was in Washington DC at ALA. Time got away with me, and many things have happened since then, but because I have an atrocious memory I can't remember much of them. A quick summation:

Winning fabulous prizes with Ray courtesy of Overdrive. If anyone wants to buy a 30 gb video mp3 player (Creative Zen Vision M) let me know. I already have my wonderful Archos 504 so I do not need it. Still new and sealed in the box!

3rd of July barbeque with Micaela's magical lamb and mostly the whole gang

Blueberry picking at Linvilla

Discovering that I cannot take Topamax. That brings drugs that give me scary side effects to two in the past three months (I'm lookin' at you, Reglan)

Getting hooked on "The World Series of Pop Culture"

Visiting Boston for the first time and actually doing some touristy stuff. What a great city. And I discovered that if you happen to have a utility knife that folds up and looks like a key, like this:

And you happen to forget to remove it from your keyring before flying, that's okay! My mini bottles of shampoo and such get careful perusal, but concealed teeny knives pass through the x-ray machine no problem.

Busy comme une beaver

Can't write much, can hardly stand still - Day 3 of ALA in Wahington DC and I've accumulated my own body weight in free books and stuff. This is my one chance at a computer since Friday, so I'm going through withdrawal. It's been the glamourius life of shlepping tote bags full of books (and a bobble-head Darwin) around the exhibit hall (I think I've been compressed a few inches, I'll have to measure myself when I get home), back to the hotel, the going out to multiple cocktail parties all evening. Yay!

Talk more when I get back.

Dua Khalil Aswad

I'm sure many of you know about this already: On April 7th a 17 year old Yazidi girl in Iraq was stoned to death by a mob containing members of her own family. This was supposedly an "honor killing" as the girl had being seeing a Sunni Muslim boy. It all caught on cell phone video by the participants and posted on the web.
I saw the video, but I should have stayed away - the idea that people could do that to anyone with no intervention from the police (who were there) is repugnant. I could go into a long rant, but I won't, as Joss Whedon has already done it so well in Let's watch a girl get beaten to death. Go read it. I'll wait.

Whedon's post inspired Skyla Dawn Cameron to put together “an anthology of responses to Khalil’s death and the issues Whedon raised in his original essay ([the] culture of misogyny, violence against women, and the need for equality). It will be printed through Lulu.com, with all proceeds going to charity.” Head over to Nothing But Red to learn more about the anthology and how to make a submission.

Use me, abuse me

I've been sitting on this post for almost a year now, but the time is ripe for a rant. About what, you might ask? Why, about authors who suck you in with a good book, which leads to a good series, which inexorably devolves into one bloated blood-drenched sex-fest after another instead of the fine plots and decent writing of the first books in the series (I'm looking at you, Laurell K. Hamilton).

And then there's those authors whose epic fantasy series become so epic that the 4 books they planned originally somehow become 12, plus assorted prequels and such. And they come out so infrequently that when the new one is released you have to go back and reread the whole bloody series because so much time has passed you've forgotten everything that happened before. This has led to my Robert Jordan Rule: I will only read an epic fantasy series if it is completely finished and I can read all the books in a row, or if the author is dead. One way or another I'll read the Wheel of Time series, but not unless either of those two things happen.

Speaking of Laurell K. Hamilton (not the only one, but definitely the worst of the lot): I used to love her Anita Blake books. But somewhere along the line (maybe when Anita started getting freaky with were-animals as well as vampires) the books changed from being fun dark fantasy romps to wall-to-wall sex with only enough plot to blow your nose into. Really! I'd say the last few books were 400 pages sex, 50 pages story. And that's not even getting into her new series about a fairy who has to get pregnant to gain the fairy kingdom. At least in that series there's no illusion that there's anything other than sex moving the plot along.

And yet...

And yet I still read the series in the hopes that one day the author will remember the type of book she used to write, the ones that sucked me in and made me love them. I have in my possession her latest Anita Blake book, The Harlequin, and I shall read it in the fervent hope that some of the old magic will reappear. My expectations for that have pretty much been trampled and then spat upon, but there are a few gasps of hope left.

There's a great article about this phenomenon over at Bookseller Chick, and Smart Bitches Trashy Books talked about their favourite use me, abuse me authors as well

This is my life

Go Yankees!

I went to New York this past weekend and went to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium and got a Yankees cap. No, I'm not about to turn into a fanatical sports nut, but I have to say that it was a whole lot more fun than I thought it would be. Of course, the company I was keeping probably had something to do with that, but I did get into the game and was quite happy when the Yankees won! Plus, I got crackerjacks and a baseball cap! Whee!



And for more fun:
I am worth $2,107,000 on HumanForSale.com
How much are you worth?

And country music makes three!

So I've just read two books about music stars using the heroine for inspiration and I thought that was coincidental. Now I received a copy of Tides of Time by Sonya Kate Childers which is about...wait for it... a heroine who inspired the songs of a famous country star.



Sigh. I don't think I'm going to read this one based on my completely biased dislike of country music and romances set in Texas. But still - that's three in a week. What are the odds they would all just happen across my desk?

1 theme, 2 books

In the past few weeks I've run across two sets of books that deal with the same basic premise or theme. Of course, that meant that I had to read them all :)



Succubus Blues and Hell's Belles both deal with the romantic adventures (and Hellish misadventures) of their main characters, both of whom happen to be succubi. They are both also first novels in anticipated series. I thought both books were surprisingly good, but did like Hell's Belles better - I enjoy cheerfully amoral heroines quite a lot.

On another theme, 2005 saw the publication of Off the Record, the plot of which follows a woman who discovers that she was the inspiration for a smash hit pop song called Janey 245 (think Jenny 867-5309).



Just this week Dedication, by the authors of The Nanny Diaries, comes out. It concerns itself with a woman whose teenage relationship with a soon-to-be rock star has led to him mining their relationship for hit songs, thereby publicly humiliating her every time one of them comes on the radio.



I just finished reading both the books and I liked Dedication better (and a whole lot more than the uber-sophomore slumpy Citizen Girl). I thought the characters were more realistic and it was a bit less chick-lit-y than Off the Record.

And now that those are done with, I can re-devote my time to Tanya Huff's Blood series, which has spawned one of my new favourite tv shows of the season, Blood Ties.

Pretty girls do not fart...or do they?

They fart not, nor do they sweat.

Daring? Not so much

You Are Bold And Brave

But daring? Not usually? You tend to like to make calculated risks. So while you may not be base jumping any time soon... You are up for whatever's new and (a little) exciting!

How Daring Are You?

Fanfic

This article was a feature in this month's Locus Magazine. I read a bit of fanfic in my day (Kirk/Spock for-evah!) Oh god, I did not just write that.

Anyhoo, it's a really insightful look at one way fans take their favourite characters to heart.

Jerry Falwell

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I don't think I can top what Christopher Hitchens says about the man:

Quiz day

I am a huge sucker for online quizzes.

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

On the bandwagon

One of my favourite books, The Golden Compass, is coming out this year as a movie. If you've read it, you know that everyone in Lyra's world has a daemon. Now you too can have one! Check out mine, and for the next twelve days you can have input as to what the final animal will be:

New Obsession

My sister got me hooked on Facebook the other day. Oh goodness, is it addictive! It's like Myspace, only much more aesthetically pleasing. It's not the place to go for new bands and celebrity pages and stuff, but it's amazing for reconnecting (or just connecting) with friends. I'm finding tons of old friends and acquiantances from junior high on up.

Of course, It's also making me have yet another angsty moment as I realize how many of them are still working in theatre, while I gave that all up for the bright lights and glamourous lifestyle of being a librarian. But on the other hand, I absolutely love my job and I can afford to eat regularly and well. But still - it makes me sigh and go "What if...?"

And on that note, here's something fun:

Random stuff

I was walking up to the bus stop this morning when I heard a guy yelling behind me. I couldn't see what was happening, but I assume it had something to do with a car that was blocking a lane, as the phrases "blocking three lanes" and "fucking asshole" were thrown about. As the annoyed person drove by me, he stuck his head out the window and said "Pardon me for disturbing your beautiful morning". Ah, Philly.

Also,last night marked a rare occasion where I put down a book with no intention of ever picking it up again. I started "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters" by Gordon Dahlquist because of a positive review in Locus. I tried for days to get into it, but never made it past page 33. It's just too dense and Victorian for my taste. I have now switched over to "Ask a Mexican"

Sassy!!

Way back when I was but a wee young rebellious teenager, my mom bought me one of the first gifts I can remember her ever getting me: a subscription to Sassy magazine. I read that magazine religiously - it was a pop culture/counter culture somewhat alternative kind of smug us-vs-them teen girl magazine with models that were just slightly different from the typical (they had freckles!). I read it for years and then the magazine folded and I kind of forgot about it as I got older.
A little later on Jane came out with the same editor-in-chief as Sassy and I thought "Aha - Sassy for grownups! I must subscribe to this" I read it for a year trying to get into it, but the attitude that Sassy had just didn't translate as well into an adult format for me. It seemed more like a typical beauty mag with some "we must be smug and edgy" content thrown in. So I stopped reading it and forgot about both magazines.

Today I read about this book:



And I remembered how much I loved Sassy and how much it informed my teen years. So now I'm thinking wistfully of the halcyon days of Sassy, wishing I had some back-issues to browse through. Not much about my teen years makes my wistful, but evidently this is one of them.

Beyond the Spelling Bee

Clipped from Shelf Awareness on May 2, 2007:

"More than 200 people packed the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., recently to watch a Define-a-Thon in which eventual champion Katherine Bryant, a science textbook editor, grappled with a definition for the word "usufruct.”

You've heard about spelling bees and crossword puzzle contests, but how does one Define-a-Thon? The New York Times recently offered the following definition: "Houghton Mifflin [publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary] created--and trademarked--the Define-a-Thon, which is modeled after a spelling bee but instead asks contestants to match words to definitions (and gives them a helpful list of words to choose from)."

It's Balderdash on a competitive level!

Sickies unite!

Since three people called in sick today at work, I figured now would be an appropriate time to post this, a webpage that shows who is sick in your neighborhood and with what:

Who is sick in your neighborhood?