Category Archives: Lists

Today’s Lunch-time Comics Run

Posted on by

So I’m not quite sure how this happened, but somehow I find myself once again making a weekly run to the comics shop to pick up new books. (This happened once for a year or so in NYC and it was ALL Barbara’s fault, you hear me, girl???? But eventually it went by the wayside.)

  • Local #12, the FINAL issue from Brian Wood – A dude who works at the shop got me totally hooked on this series, so much so that in trying to track down the old issues, he wound up bringing in his own copies for the store to sell to me. Now that’s dedication! Presumably it will be released as a graphic novel/compilation, but if you see the single issues, I’d highly recommend them.

  • Angel: After the Fall #8 – They’re not quite as good as the Buffy Season 8s, but I’m enjoying them. (But like Buffy Season 8, they continue on from the point of the TV series’ end, so no point in reading them if you didn’t watch all the way through.) This month will have two issues released.

  • DMZ “On the Ground” (the graphic novel/compilation of DMZ #s 1-5) – Since I am loving the aforementioned Local so much, I thought I might need to check out other Brian Wood books. So I bought issues #30 and #31 of DMZ last week. Totally intriguing. America’s second civil war has taken place. New Jersey & Inland = the Free States. Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island = The United States of America. Manhattan = The “DMZ“. I liked what I read/saw so far, so now I’m starting from the beginning.

Last week: Buffy Season 8 #15 (I also bought Secret Invasion #3 but that might have been released earlier, can’t remember.)

Next week: Runaways #30

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for May.

Posted on by

Bought:

  • Just One Look, by Harlan Coben
  • Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child
  • A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both, by Ben Greenman (stories)
  • Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (whoops)
  • Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, by August Kleinzahler (poetry)
  • Unmentionables, by Beth Ann Fennelly (poetry)
  • Dragon Blood, by Patricia Briggs
  • Raven’s Shadow, by Patricia Briggs
  • One False Move, by Harlan Coben
  • The Final Detail, by Harlan Coben

Read:
  • Just One Look, by Harlan Coben
  • Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child
  • Slam, by Nick Hornby
  • The Devil of Nanking, by Mo Hayder
  • Dragon Bones, by Patricia Briggs
  • Dragon Blood, by Patricia Briggs
  • One False Move, by Harlan Coben
  • The Final Detail, by Harlan Coben
  • The Collected Stories, by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Banned / Not Banned

Posted on by

Things I am definitely not allowed to buy right now:

  • Jackets. Spring jackets, fall jackets, winter jackets, any kind of jackets. I haven’t even worn two of the jackets I bought in the fall (yet)! Ridiculous!*
  • Bags. Handbags, purses, messenger bags, duffles. I don’t even have storage space for the bags I already have at this point, so they’re positioned around the house “decoratively” on door knobs. Yeah, how decorative. Ridiculous!
  • Socks. Serious shortage of storage space on these as well and honestly, if I start decorating the apartment with socks, someone’ll have to commit me. Totally ridiculous!
  • Yarn. At this point, I’ll be leaving it to people in the will. ‘Nough said.
  • Fabric, unless it’s specifically bought for (and used immediately as) backing. Backing yardage amounts = not my usual purchase.

Things I actually need to be buying right now, but never do:

  • Black Pants. WTF is wrong with me, how can I run out of black pants??? If you could see the ripped out lining of the pants I wear most often (most often = every other day? or almost) to the secondary browsing location… Let’s just say, hope none of the outside seams rip next…
  • Shoes. Am I the only girl in the world who, despite how many shoes she may try to buy, only has three pairs TOTAL (including running shoes which obviously don’t work for every occasion) that don’t hurt her feet and thus wears ONLY those? Pathetic!

*I say this as the new jacket I bought from Nau this week (Ridiculous!!) is keeping me warm in the frigidaire known as my “secondary browsing location”. It’s all Lim’s fault for posting about their going out of business sale!!!!

Japan Minutiae

Posted on by

just a list of things and moments I want to remember…considering I’ve already forgotten lots of them… will be adding any that pop to mind (fingers crossed).

  • Qoo (pronounced “coo” like a dove), best juice drink ever.
  • Morning set (preferably with Hotdog!)
  • Green tea “milk” (latte)!
  • incredible vending machine proliferation
  • yes that gives you change for 100,000 yen ($100)
  • Pocari Sweat!
  • Calpis (swoon)
  • “winning” the toy at the arcade (thanks to the arcade manager who apparently really really wanted me to win and moved the toy into an “impossible to lose” position)
  • random shrine in the nishki market
  • Japanese boy scouts spotting Americans: “Hi! Hi! Hello!” (my reply, of course: “Konnichiwa!!” which made them giggle like crazy)
  • unbelievable proliferation of smoking. for a country obsessed with cleanliness…
  • no glitzy postcards. plenty of other trinkets to buy, but…
  • heated toilet seats
  • noisemakers attached to toilet seats
  • blue button = “for washing of the buttocks”
  • pink button = “for Ladies only” (?!?!)
  • the morning bowers/greeters at BIC camera in Kyoto
  • cartoon characters hanging from phones, bags, jacket pockets, pants pockets…
  • ancient hunched over grandmas & grandpas totally kicking our asses on the steps (both up and down) at Fushimi Inari
  • duck ramen in Tokyo at the place Christoph found a “shortcut” to (ha ha ha)
  • the japanese restaurant meal we had in Kyoto where Jackie made our reservation and pre-ordered all our food
  • hmmm, I wonder what this is. fish? tofu? root vegetable?
  • that is one LARGE piece o’ tentacle.
  • “green pea soup”
  • the first ramen restau we went to in Higayashima.
  • teddy bears on benches
  • rachel shutting the taxi door and the uproar it caused
  • japanese set at the Hearton in the morning

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for April.

Posted on by

Bought:

  • A Plea for Eros, by Siri Hustvedt
  • Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos
  • The Philosopher’s Apprentice by James Morrow
  • Seven Notebooks, by Campbell McGrath (poetry)
  • Fade Away, by Harlan Coben
  • Back Spin, by Harlan Coben
  • The Last Kashmiri Rose, by Barbara Cleverly
  • The Devil of Nanking, by Mo Hayder

Read:
  • The Watchman, a Joe Pike novel, by Robert Crais
  • Drop Shot, by Harlan Coben
  • Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos
  • The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
  • Fade Away, by Harlan Coben
  • The Death of Virgil, by Hermann Broch
  • Back Spin, by Harlan Coben

Still in preparation for nuclear war.

Posted on by

You know, when I am stuck in my apartment, which was magically protected from the fallout, and have nothing to do but watch DVDs? (Otherwise known as continuing to pad the catalog with backlog as I have been doing.)

Today’s Amazon delivery features:

  • Aliens Quadrilogy (Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection)
  • American History X (had Ed Norton on the mind)
  • The Fifth Element (as I’ve been telling people, I like watching this as a double feature with 12 Monkeys)
  • Memento
  • Primary Fear
  • Seven (apparently I am feeling the need to be creeped out)
  • 25th Hour (see, there he [EN] is again)

Too bad I’m out of town this weekend…

Today’s Amazon Delivery.

Posted on by

DVDs of old (in some cases OLD!) favorites ordered to replace battered, beat-down, taped off HBO (or some such) VHS tapes. In alpha order…

  • Addicted to Love
  • Dangerous Beauty
  • The Fabulous Baker Boys
  • Good Will Hunting
  • Married to the Mob
  • Pretty in Pink
  • Say Anything
  • Singles
  • Sixteen Candles
  • Something Wild (ooooo, Dad and I love this movie! I haven’t seen it in years!)
  • Working Girl

Movies you’ve seen a thousand times = good background for knittin’. If I were doin’ any.

Songs I Would Do as Cover Encores Were I in a Band

Posted on by
  • “Dancin’ Boy” Harry Chapin
  • “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” John Denver
  • “Shook Me All Night Long” AC/DC
  • “Hole Hearted” Extreme
  • “Stroke Me” Billy Squier (Or “The Stroke” is apparently the correct name)
  • “Father and Son” Cat Stevens (I can actually play this one on guitar. So I’d have to include it, wouldn’t I?)
  • “Run for Your Life” Beatles

And of course, my #1 and #2 favorite all-time karaoke songs:

  • “Take It on the Run” REO Speedwagon
  • “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for March.

Posted on by

Bought:

  • The Death of Sweet Mister, by Daniel Woodrell (used)
  • The Great World, by David Malouf (used)
  • The Conversations at Curlow Creek, by David Malouf (used)
  • Confessions of a Recovering Slut, by Hollis Gillespie
  • Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
  • The Fatal Gift, by Alec Waugh (used)
  • A Spy in the Family, by Alec Waugh (used)
  • The Ballad and the Source, by Rosamond Lehmann (used)
  • The Music at Long Verney, by Silvia Townsend Warner (stories) (used)
  • The Naming of the Dead, by Ian Rankin (in Japan, no access to my bookshelves!)
  • The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie (in Japan, no access to my bookshelves!)

Read:
  • The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, by Richard P. Feynman
  • The Complete Stories, by David Malouf
  • The Hunt Ball, by Rita Mae Brown
  • The Hounds and the Fury, by Rita Mae Brown
  • Ms. Pettigrew Lives for the Day, by Winifred Watson
  • The Naming of the Dead, by Ian Rankin
  • Let`s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, by Carl Wilson
  • The Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie
  • The Tourmaline, by Paul Park

Things I Should Not Have Been Doing post 11 p.m. Last Night (But Clearly Was)

Posted on by

  • Drinking beer(s)
  • Eating an entire half of a large pizza (hello)
  • Watching a movie
  • Playing DJ for a friend
  • Burning CDs
  • Taking pictures
  • Flickering
  • Continuing work on the 2008 CD Reorganization Project

I guess I figured since I’m not getting any fucking sleep anyway (thanks a lot, increasingly stressful life, you can suck my dick anytime), I might as well stay up until 2 a.m. every night this week when I have to get up at 6 a.m. I’m pretty sure my emotional wellbeing (and of course beautiful face) need more than 3.5 hours sleep (lord knows I STILL can’t fall asleep right away even if it’s 2 a.m. before I get in bed. Damn.It.). Good thing vacation starts on Thursday. And you never know, the lack of sleep might actually put me to sleep on my gazillion-and-97-hour flight so KEEP YOUR FUCKING FINGERS CROSSED because me getting more than 10 minutes of sleep on a plane ride would be fucking AWESOME and unheard of.