Media Consumption: Fall 2009

1. Music

I thought everyone knew what Pandora was. No? It's a website where you type in a genre of music, an artist, a song, and Pandora will "open the box" and give you similar songs (or artists). So far my favorite stations have been Beauty and the Beast (I created it mostly for Bridget, but I ended up discovering some beautiful stuff), Franz Ferdinand (who knew I like The Strokes? Pandora, that's who), Enya (I needed to calm down one day and boy did this do the trick), and George Gershwin. Be warned, you only have 40 free hours per month. I guess that means I have been sewing for 40 hours in the last month.

If you do run out of free minutes, go to Grooveshark. It's also free, but you have to create your own playlist.

2. Books and Magazines

I love magazines. One of my many diseases (that and entering contests). On our trip to Bear Lake in August I picked up a copy of Vanity Fair because it had more words than pictures. (In contrast, I also bought a copy of In Style, which is all pictures. Booo.) It's very much a "New York" magazine, but even though I have nothing to do with New York City, I still found just about every article fascinating. There is real reporting in it! And the writing is good - I need my dictionary close by most of the time. The September issue (the one with Jacqueline Kennedy on the cover - did anyone else watch The Soup or The Amazing Race and see those bozos on The Amazing Race not recognizing a picture of Jacqueline Kennedy?) made me want to read Death of a President by William Manchester. It's out of print. But my search on Amazon (since I don't want to pay $50+ for a used copy of Manchester's book right now) led me to The Best Autobiography by an American Politician (according to smart people and also the lonely ones who write 10 page reviews of books on Amazon). Guess who wrote it? Ulysses S. Grant. I just ordered The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant along with some Rowenta iron cleaner from Amazon.

3. TV

I've had to scale back my TV time. Toward the end of the summer Melissa alerted me that The West Wing was starting over on Bravo, playing two episodes a day at 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning. I set my DVR to stun... record and then Brian and I got lost in the fake world of President Bartlet and his White House staff. It's odd to me that they acknowledge former presidents like Lincoln and Eisenhower, but they never mention other former presidents starting at about Lyndon Johnson. In The West Wing's world, Farmer Hoggett is a former U.S. president, but Bill Clinton is not. Interesting. Anyway, the show has piqued my interest (again) in American politics and history. I'm convinced that I would also be C.J. Craig's bff if we ever met. They have a continuity problem that drives me crazy. Or maybe Bravo has a problem playing episodes out of order or not at all.

Speaking of politics, the only new show (in addition to my old faves) that I started watching this fall is The Good Wife - the one with Julianna Margulonglastname and Chris Noth. It's really just a courtroom drama, but the stories and the acting are quite good. And Logan from The Gilmore Girls is on it. And he's a weasel in this show as well. I'm starting to think he's a weasel in real life.

4. Internet

Sometimes I like to browse in etsy. There are plenty of strange things people are making, badly photographed strange things, etc. But! Every once in a while I find something so beautiful that I would never be able to make myself. Ever. Just a few examples:
Isn't that beautiful? And there are a dozen more equally beautiful things in that shop - M Stevenson Designs.

So so so pretty. I think they called this one a wedding scarf. The shop is called Victoria Jackman Knitted Textiles. She's from England - I'm guessing that's why her name is Victoria and also why she uses the word "textiles."

If you haven't been checking Akward Family Photos (link list on your left) at least once a week, you're denying yourself some good laughs. This is one of my favorites from the last week or so:
There is totally a raccoon in that picture. And acid-washed jeans. I'm laughing again and I just barely saw it 15 minutes ago.

So! There you go. I hope you feel encouraged to sit around and be entertained.