Tell me a story
I love books, writing and the written word. The whole process of writing a book fascinates me. That's why I find
this post by Neil Gaiman so interesting. (If you end up checking out the post, be sure to read the labels, they're funny!)
He's apparently in the middle of writing a new book (yay!)and has uploaded some pictures of what his notebook looks like. Granted the post is in response to a question about page numbering, which in an of itself is interesting, but I'm more drawn to the pictures of the beautiful notebook and the written word. It's so intriguing because it's a book in it's rawest form, in a way it's like seeing a journal or diary; pure & raw. I also think to myself that it would be amazing to own something like that, and can really only imagine how much it would cost. (I assume it would cost whatever someone was willing to pay for it, because really how can you put an actual price on something like that?) The whole process is amazing and I have the utmost respect for writers. Being able to take an idea or thought and translate it to words that create a story is amazing to me.
It seems as though a lot of writers choose to actually sit down with a pen and paper and
write their books.
Neal Stephenson did that with the Baroque Cycles, which is beyond amazing as each one of those books is close to (if not more than) 1000 pages. I can only imagine how many written pages that would be, how many notebooks much have been filled, how cramped his hand must have become. I remember when we saw him do a little reading at UW when Quicksilver first came out, he talked about how it was actually easier to write with a pen and paper because he was able to take more time and elaborate on his thoughts without rushing through as he probably would have if he were just typing away on a keyboard.
All in all the process of writing a book is a very interesting one. Each author has his own way of doing things and that's part of what's so interesting. Of course I'm looking forward to Neil Gaiman's new book, and hope that he will do a little reading tour in support of it. Hopefully he'll make it back to Seattle.
I was on a Paris train
The best cover of the Berlin song "Metro" would have to be by
Alkaline Trio. Seriously. Go listen to it, it's great.
I love covers.
Speaking of, I've been listening to
We're a happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones a lot lately and I would have to say that I'd like to see KISS doing more Ramones covers. Their version of "Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio" is excellent and I think they'd do well doing a whole album like Screeching Weasel, Boris The Sprinkler, MTX, etc, did back in the day. Granted, it will probably never happen, but I can dream, can't I?
John Vanderslice @ The Triple Door 4/7/07
Saturday evening found Shawn and I at
The Triple Door for an evening of music, food and fun with
John Vanderslice and the extremely talented
St Vincent. JV was super nice and sweet as always. He is by far one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He went out of his way to make sure that Shawn would be able to get into the venue with his camera and spent a lot of time talking with his fans before the show.
Annie Clark aka St Vincent opened the show with a very intriguing set. I honestly didn't know that much about her before we went to the show so I wasn't really expecting much. She ended up sounding like a mix between the girl from Morcheeba and Tori Amos and was extremely talented and very intriguing. She ended up playing both guitar and piano while also singing and stomping on pedals.
Then John Vanderslice came on with his drummer/synth guy and played a wonderful set. He played some new songs that will be on his upcoming album out in August as well as a number of old ones. He had one guy, Brandon, come up on stage and sing a song and then had quite a number of people come up to sing
Me & My 424 while Annie played the piano. It was a great show filled with great music, good people and plenty of laughs.
JV should be headed back this way in the fall with a full band, in support of his new album. I can't wait.
We've Got Everything
And somehow it all turned to music. I seem to recall when I brought lunge back, I was anticipating doing some exercise/neat products/reviews type stuff. Obviously that didn't really work out exactly the way I had planned, but in all honesty I have no problem with what it's become. So let's continue, shall we?
The new
Modest Mouse, am I the only one listening to this constantly and loving it? I swear every single time one of the songs from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank comes on my playlist I think to myself "this is my favorite song! I looooove this song!" and then another one comes on and I do the same thing. If you ask me there isn't a single bad song on this album and it's by far their best album to date. The lyrics and melodies are complex, as most of their stuff usually is. Every time I listen to the album new things jump out at me, like lyrics or little sounds. Also, they've apparently added Johnny Marr (ex Smiths) to the line-up, which adds a little something new.
All in all, awesome album. Just what I needed to cut the monotony of my recent music collection (well, pre Fratellis, Rock Kills Kid, etc). Good times.
