And now that I have shiny new Castle icons, I can use one to post about last night’s Castle episode because ZOMG CLIFFHANGER YOU CLIFFHANGERY BASTARDS!
Spoilers…
GIP!
I realized tonight, seeing both 
mamishkaalg
However, thanks to 
castleiconstellmewhyxxtxduck
I need to find one of Castle actually writing as well, but this assortment should do me nicely for now. <3
Fine food, fine conversation, and fine music
kathryntsolarbirdspazzkatllachglin
And oh my word. I hadn’t eaten there before, but it was a delight all around. Our waiter was amazing, and they was another gentleman who was very eager to offer us wine suggestions even though we didn’t actually wind up buying any wine. So thumbs up for the staff, all around. As for the food: WOW. A bit on the pricy side, but worth every penny. Dara and I shared this tasty seven flavor beef dish, and it was so much a pleasure to be served a portion size that was exactly the right amount of food for the two of us to eat. The chocolate torte we both had for dessert was, in a word, orgasmic. Calorie-laden? Oh god yes. But I REGRET NOTHING, even though I made myself get on the treadmill this morning to earn that orgasmic dessert. *^_^*;;
Over such a delightful dinner, we had lovely conversation about the music we were about to see as well as our various thoughts on who ought to be in the cast for The Hobbit, previous experiences with high school reunions, Lillian giving herself her first haircut, and other fun topics. A wonderful experience all around and a splendid lead-in to the main event of the evening.
The orchestra first performed Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op. 102, Double. I wasn’t familiar with this work, but my Aubrey-Maturin fandom naturally inclines me to be fond of anything involving violin and cello together, so hey! The soloists did do perfectly lovely work, and once or twice the violin hit this high sweet sustained note that made me grin. On the whole though it wasn’t as musically interesting to me as I’d have hoped, and this may be because we weren’t in the best seats on the floor to get the richest sound experience. Overall the piece seemed a little distant and removed to me. I think I’d like to hear it again on a home stereo or perhaps through decent headphones, just to get a more personal idea of its flavor.
After that the chorale came out on stage to join the orchestra for the feature performance: Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, with which I had not been previously familiar. But Q gave us an overall summary of the story, since it was originally written as the score for a ballet, and between that and the program notes I got a decent idea of where in the story the various parts of the piece were. I was quite impressed by this overall–in no small part because of the variety of instrumentation. There were multiple flavors of clarinet involved, and, which was very near and dear to my heart, an alto flute solo! And there was even a wind machine at certain key moments, emphasizing where the god Pan was supposed to appear.
Dara told us all afterwards that she had an experience with it much like I had when I finally saw Casablanca: i.e., that after seeing all of the movies and TV shows and books and such that were riffing off stuff in that classic film, it was very odd to actually go back and see the original work. Same deal with this performance, since it was full of a lot of motifs and styles that heavily influenced quite a bit of Disney and Hollywood scores that came after. She particularly recognized bits that showed up in the soundtracks for Buckaroo Banzai and Tron.
I’m thinking I may want a recording of this, so I’m going to have to hunt through iTunes to find a good one.
Thanks, kathrynt
Justine Larbalestier and Alaya Johnson’s books
What I wound up spending my Barnes and Noble coupon on last night was a hardback copy of Justine Larbalestier‘s Liar.
I’d seen a lot of traffic about this book on the publishing blogs a while back, pretty much because her publisher had initially opted to put a white face on the cover–and her protagonist, Micah, is not a white girl. I wanted to show my support of putting brown faces on covers if indeed the characters they are depicting are brown people, and so I felt it appropriate to buy a copy of the book.
Not to mention it sounds like a fascinating story in general, and an exercise in the ultimate in Unreliable Narrators. I will of course be reviewing it when I read it, and I encourage y’all to think about checking it out too, especially if you’re interested in YA reading.
This same issue is why I want also to check out Racing the Dark by Alaya Johnson. She guest-posted on Justine’s blog about how her father had tried to advise her to not put a brown person on her book’s cover, and how she’d found that Borders exiled her fantasy novel to the African-American section, where, sadly, most fantasy readers are not likely to bother to look for it. Racing the Dark sounds to me also like a refreshingly different fantasy novel, just because it’s not the traditional pseudo-European setting you’re likely to get, and that alone makes me want to check it out.
Hobbit news!
Word is going around the net that The Hobbit starts filming in July! Tolkien fans, please to be joining me in squee that Sir Ian McKellen will be reprising his role as Gandalf.
However, that leaves plenty more important roles to be filled. I’m of course crossing fingers for Hugo Weaving to come back as Elrond and Andy Serkis to be Gollum, because I cannot frankly imagine anyone else in either role. Cate Blanchett for Galadriel would also be sweet.
But let’s talk the most important role: Bilbo himself. Who should play him? Ian Holm is too old to play the younger Bilbo required in the story. And who should play the dwarves? It’s highly unlikely that John Rhys-Davies would show up as his own previous character’s father, Gloin, given the issues he had with the dwarf makeup during the LotR trilogy. But surely the role of Thorin Oakenshield would require somebody of equal heartiness and presence.
Who would y’all want to see play Bard and the Elvenking? And how about this deeply critical question: who should be the voice of Smaug?
Hrmm. I really need more LotR-related icons, preferably some involving hobbits. :)
I need your book recommendations!
Okay, so it’s a quiet Friday afternoon and work is quiet and I’m bored, so I turn to you, O Internet, for the answer to the following vital question:
I have a 15% Barnes and Noble member coupon! Since I can’t spend it on ebooks, what recently released print book should I spend it on?
Leave your answer in the comments! (And if your answer is seanan_mcguire
ETA Sunday 11:01pm: A couple of you have answered this since Friday, so just in case anybody else answers this, please be advised that I have already spent the coupon. ;) Don’t let that stop you from offering recommendations for my later reference, though! But as I’ve also mentioned a couple of times in the comments, right now I’m in a mood to read stuff that actually isn’t urban fantasy, since I’ve had way too much of that in my reading diet the last few years and I’d like to vary my intake for a bit. Thanks!
Book Log #18: To Play the Fool, by Laurie R. King
The second of Laurie R. King’s Kate Martinelli books, To Play the Fool, is a tightly written, thoughtful work, and was a nice re-introduction for me to the series. I’d previously read the third and then the first ones; going back to read the second filled in the blanks nicely on things that I’d missed. It’d been long enough since I’d read the previous books though that I’d forgotten much of the nuances of the series, but I recalled enough to find this perhaps the most enjoyable of the ones I’d read so far.
Much of the pleasure of this book lies with the individual Kate must investigate: a homeless wanderer known only as Brother Erasmus, a charismatic preacher revered by the street people of San Francisco and who is the primary suspect in her current murder case. She quickly learns that the man communicates only in literary quotations and by presenting himself as a Fool, which makes questioning him frustratingly difficult. Yet as she investigates him further, she finds that he has a tragic and moving past, which all comes together to make the man a vivid figure indeed.
Against this, Kate’s domestic situation is a wistful counterpoint. Her partner Lee is recovering from traumatic injuries suffered in the first novel, and she and Kate’s home life has undergone major upheavals as a result. Kate’s efforts to find ways to help Lee regain her confidence while dealing with her disability are quietly touching.
Overall, this was quite an enjoyable read. Four stars.
All hands, brace for fangirling!
For those of you who haven’t seen this already, here’s the latest trailer for the forthcoming Robin Hood movie. Look for none other than Alan The Doyle, showing up around the 0:54 mark or so–with a line, even!
Is it May yet? Is it May yet? Is it May yet? Also, elf needs icons, BADLY. And desktop backgrounds! And, Big Trailer is Big, so behind the cut it goes!
Lulzy Star Wars geekery
More book roundups!
I’ve gotten onto a kick of replacing all my J.D. Robbs with ebook versions, since there are so many of those that that will clear a good chunk of my shelf space off. As a result, I’ve also been re-reading the series from the beginning, which has been pretty fun; look for forthcoming review posts. For bonus fun, since she just came out with a new one, Fictionwise had a big rebate going for her titles. Which naturally meant I had to pick up several!
Before I get back to that, though, I need to finish my run through Laurie King novels, which will culminate in my review of the ARC I just got of God of the Hive!
So, ebooks purchased recently:
- Rapture in Death, Ceremony in Death, Vengeance in Death, Holiday in Death, Conspiracy in Death, Loyalty in Death, and Witness in Death, by J.D. Robb. Romance/mystery, ebook re-buys.
- The Language of Bees, by Laurie R. King. Mystery.
And, since I picked up a couple of print books today after taking several J.D. Robbs to Third Place:
- A Local Habitation, by
- The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan. YA. This is the “companion novel” to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which I really loved! Very much looking forward to reading this.
Total books purchased for 2010: 85