Brave New Worlds

Last night I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing up Pillars of the Earth and it was incredible, as I anticipated. I just ordered the sequel World Without End on amazon, because I have no self control. But I can't wait until it gets here.
In the meantime I'm picking up the anthology Brave New Worlds which is a collection of short stories of the dystopian variety, as you may be able to guess from the title. It has stories by Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, Philip K. Dick, NEIL GAIMAN, Ursula Le Guin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and that's only the ones listed on the front cover! Needless to say, I'm expecting great things from this book.
Well I'm off to immerse myself in depressing and deadly futures in store for man kind, because I know this week is the last time I'll have all of this free time to read because soon my classes will be picking up and life will again be consumed with work, but I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts.

The Pillars of the Earth

SO. I have been reading this book in a crazy frenzy for the last two days, I was on page 250 on Tuesday morning. It is now Wednesday night and what page am I on? 723. It has sucked me in completely and made it so if I have a free moment, I NEED to open and continue the story. I've never read a book where I at least get teary-eyed every 50 pages, BAWL at least every 100, and have to walk away from the book to keep from ripping it to shreds in anger and frustration...every few pages. Ken Follett is fucking BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT. I don't think I have read many books that can top it. I love the time period it is placed in, and I love the rich culture that Follett creates. This 1000 page book is not boring, dry, or even too long for me, but instead it is extremely enthralling, unable to be put down, and TOO SHORT. As I approach the end with only 200 pages left I wish there was 1000 more pages! I can't wait to write my review for this book on goodreads...though I doubt it will do it justice. I am so wrapped up in these character's lives that I don't know how my own life will continue when their two dimensional lives end with my completion of this book. Well this is as much time as I can spare you, blog, as the remaining 200 pages are beckoning me. Until tomorrow when I am hopefully finished. I hope at least at the end Follett stops torturing me and all of his wonderful characters and at least give them some happiness, for if this book ends in a depressing manor I can't say I can handle it, and may commit suicide. Just kidding, but really ask Dan...he has seen how psychotic this book has made me. Sorry Dan.

Clark University, I missed the shit out of you.

So I am finally back in my humble abode of a dorm room and so so so stoked about it. I don't even say stoked, that's how stoked I am. I missed this place! I can't wait to start classes tomorrow, and to live with Maddy every day which is awesome, and to live on my own without being told what to do constantly. I love the independence of college, it may be my favorite part. I can't wait to visit Dan at college, and for him to visit me. I can't wait until Rui and Simone finally come visit me and stay for a weekend of shannanigins, which Rui and I already planned in detail in our wonderful 3 1/2 hour long skype session last night. I miss that lovely boy.
Anyways, since I'm so excited to be back I'm posting pictures of my dorm because I'm so damn proud of it. I will be so sad to leave this dorm room at the end of this school year...I don't think I've seen a better freshman dorm of all of my friends, not to toot my own horn. But it's HUGE! And it has a really nice brick wall. And dark mahogany closet space which in combination with the brick wall gives the room a homey, cave-like feeling. I fucking love this room! I will shut up about it and just post pictures:

This is my full fridge, full of lots of goodies. My fridge is usually barren, with only a few iced teas and a few waters in it. But it is the beginning of term so I have cheese and clementines and mac and cheese and milk! I am very proud of my full fridge. I can't wait until one day I have my own apartment, and a full sized fridge, and I can fill it with tons of delicious foods. Until then, I will settle for my mini fridge.


Note the two boxes of ramen in the top section of the closet. MMmmm.


I missed Jim Morrison watching over my studies for the past month, and I'm glad we are finally reunited.


This is Maddy and my record collection, probably the most important part of the room.


And I would take pictures of Maddy's side and post them but I don't know how happy she would be about that. She hasn't even arrived yet so it's pretty empty looking with only about 1/2 of her stuff. Anyways, this was my ode to Clark University, and now I'm off to eat breakfast and shower and spend the day just lounging and getting ready for classes tomorrow. Ta-ta.

I always get so crafty.

So I'm finally seeing Jill today (I cringe calling her Jill. It will always be weird to call old teachers by their first name, but I'll get used to it...eventually) so I had to wrap her Christmas present, although it's well past Christmas, we just haven't found any other time to see each other yet until now.


So just as I finish wrapping it all and such, I get a call from Jill Rutman saying she's on her way to the doctor's and if they say she's not contagious she can see me so I'm hoping she's not contagious because I would really like to give this gift before the chocolate pretzels go bad. Or before I eat them all. Anyways, I guess I should shower and such in the off chance that she can see me.

Even though I went to bed at 4 am...

I woke up energized and feeling awesome. It seems I have found the perfect balance when I get 6 hours of sleep a night, so I'll shoot for that from now on. This fine morning I have decided I am going to wake and bake and spend the day reading Pillars of the Earth...until I have to go out with Rutman at 3ish. But I have a few good hours to read in there.
I just received The XX's debut album in the mail because I have been obsessed with them since first hearing Crystalised by them last week. This album is fantastic....so eerie and soft and melodic and amazing. I love how in pretty much every song the male and females voices join, and their voices just fit so perfectly together. Definitely seeing potential for this band to become one of my favorites. I have been getting into so much great new music lately. I love times when I am finding tons of new stuff, but I also love the dry spells where I don't find anything new but spend all my time listening to old favorites. Like yesterday, and my quality time spent with The Decemberists. Don't worry I won't get started on them again, I got it out of my system yesterday.
Ahhh Fantasy by The XX just came onto the album, probably one of the best songs. I love how it begins with the male just talking with an eerie sound placed above his voice, and then it breaks down into this amazing mesmerizing break...ahhhhh it's so good.
And Basic Space RULES MY LIFE. It's so sexy. It's so beautiful. Man The XX is getting me all hot and bothered before I even have had breakfast. The last line of the girl repeating "I can't let it out. I still let you in" is the high point of the song. Pretty relatable to me too (hah very relatable). God every single god damn song of theirs is just perfection, I'm convinced of it. I love English bands. Well raisin toast is calling me, perhaps with some chocolate milk. I'm off to listen to the XX, and schmoke and joke, and read. Until later, blogstah.

Today...was surprisingly a good day.

After a physical this morning, I spent the day revisiting my very old love the Decemberists in lieu of their upcoming concert this month which I am VERY VERY VERY FUCKING EXCITED FOR. This will be my 7th time seeing my dear Decemberists and I know it won't be my last. They put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen, and all of their music is so consistently wonderful, from their first album released in 2002 to the few songs I've heard off of their new album out this month: The King is Dead. I cleaned the shit out of my room today, after smoking, because smoking always seems to make me want to clean the shit out of things. And while cleaning I listened to all of the Decemberists full length albums, starting with Castaways and Cutouts, Nothing beats Castaways and Cutouts. Leslie Anne Levine, Grace Cathedral Hill, The Legionnaire's Lament, Cocoon, Odalisque, Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect, and California One/ Youth and Beauty Brigrade all jam packed into a fucking INCREDIBLE debut album?? Actually, I might as list every single song off of this album, because they're all so perfect. For a band to produce this gem of an album as their first jaunt into the music industry, they're obviously going to be something. Since this first album they have released 6 more albums, and not one have been a disappointment. Colin Meloy, please see how much I love you and marry me.

then on to Her Majesty, Her Majesty has the two best songs to ever transition into one another. Red Right Ankle MAY be their best song, it's perfection, and then it goes right from the soft beauty of Red Right Ankle into the sheer force and AMAZINGNESS of The Chimbley Sweep, which is the most epic, dance worthy song out there. Los Angeles, I'm Yours has been a favorite of mine since probably 7th grade, and I still love that song to death. Billy Liar and I Was Meant for the Stage are two others from this album that will always be on my favorites list. Although overall I think this album is weaker than Castaways and Cutouts, but damn it contains some of their best songs, even if overall it is not up to the perfection of Castaways.

and then Picaresque,
Which contains.....wait for it...drum roll....The Mariner's Revenge Song. Which may just be the most genius, epic, 8 minutes of a song ever. I could sing this song in my sleep, that is how much the words are ingrained into my mind. Some other notable ones off this album...The Engine Driver... On the Bus Mall is amazing. Eli the Barrow Boy, The Sporting Life, and the Bagman's Gambit. This is the album where they really started to display their quirkiness in their lyrics...though it had obviously been shown in the first two records, just not as extensively. Meloy starts to utilize his monstrous vocabulary and woo fans with old tales of battling at sea, falling in love with a trouble-making woman in jail, and the disappointment a son feels when their father watches their inability to play sports in The Sporting Life, which can be humorously thought of as a biographical depiction of Meloy's failed attempt to be sporty as his father desired.

The Crane Wife, I actually remember making my mom drive me to Newbury Comics in 2006 to pick up this album, and how excited I was for it. And I remember how it infiltrated my life for the next month or so, and I did not listen to anything else. The Island is a 12 minute long sprawling epic that is very reminiscent of The Tain, their 17 minute long single song released that is also amazing. I didn't listen to that today, unfortunately, because my copy of it is scratched beyond repair. One day I'll buy another copy because The Tain is just another piece of perfection to add to the Decemberists discography. The Crane Wife Parts 1 & 2 are my second favorite off this album, and then there's Yankee Bayonet, and When the War Came, and Sons and Daughters, and O Valencia...and basically all of them. I wasn't kidding when I said they're such a solid band and basically all of their songs are amazing.

The Hazards of Love, Finally, the Hazards of Love, which is a concept album about faeries, water gods, love, and finally love lost. It has always been in The Decemberists talents to create amazing imagery and strange worlds in their songs, and The Hazards of Love only epitomizes this. I can't even pick out a certain song off of this album because they all flow together, but I love listening to this album whenever I can, but it's not one where I can just hear a few songs, I have to hear the entire thing. I don't listen to it as often as I would like because of the time commitment, but it is up there with one of my favorites from them.

and now I am finally giving their new album, The King is Dead, the first of I'm sure many listens. I don't know how The King is Dead is supposed to follow The Hazards of Love, but I'm sure it'll find its own way into the spot in my heart designated solely for The Decemberists.
This album is country-ish however, and it's scaring the shit out of me. I ...decidedly hate country, but i would honestly follow this band even if they suddenly turned into a hip-hop-folk-country band... I hope it grows on me. I wish they would make another album like Castaways, but that is a long lost creation, probably never to be repeated. Their first album was so solid and perfect, I don't know another band that has remained so consistent. I could talk extensively about every single one of their albums, I just hope The King is Dead will soon join the ranks of his very worthy counterparts.
Today I also started the sprawling 1000 page best of a book The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's my goal to finish it before going back to school in 15 days or so and I can already tell it will be an easy goal to reach. 150 pages in and I am hooked, surely not to be set free until all 900 pages are read and retired. I hope this book stays as good as it is because I'm really excited for it.

Thomas Cole

has been my recent hero. I love his paintings, I could stare at them for hours.

Expulsion from Eden is my favorite:










I want to live in the worlds that Cole paints. I would do anything to live in any of them.