timefiller

i'm one of those people who like lists. list of groceries; things to do; desired appliances, hardware tools, and housewares; favorite things; resolutions; lists of wishes. on random scraps of ephemera that inevitably disappear prompting me to begin anew in journals, on blogs. etc. mind you, i don't often stick to them, the lists. i don't take direction well, even from myself.

so this is an enumeration list of sorts. while i've been here in san diego for the last three weeks, not counting things read in lobbies & waiting rooms, i've read nine magazines--two trashy, seven "lifestyle" (two of which were ecological consumerism), 1 shopping, one city--and eight point seven five books (5 .25 fantasy, one novel, one allegory, point five self-help, one nature, and two childbirth). and am working on 3.25 more.

oh, and i've learned to knit babyhats with five doublepoint needles. working on the booties. much harder. maybe i should stick with rectangles and cones.

of all those offerings, these are the ones that i'd recommend:

The Wizard of the Crow by Ngui~gi~ wa Thiong'o
A satirical magical allegory of postcolonial African history/State. It's like Wretched of the Earth (Franz Fanon), How Europe Colonized Africa and Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dengaremba) mashup told with the cadence and nuance of a traditional African storytale.

Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood by Meredith Ann Pierce
My love of fantasy arose because they were like fairytales with complex female heroines. This simple one naturalizes the sacred feminine. Her Darkangel Trilogy is also great.

and of the random movies i've watched too fragmented to list:

Stranger than Fiction
"this may sound like gibberish to you, but i think my life is a tragedy." Damn good movie. Quirky, literary/philosophical, great witty dialogue, in spite of Will Ferrell--whose "i want you" is childish, plaintative and pathetic rather than sexy, disarming and charming. but he is suitably awkward for the rest of the movie to work, "If I was [staring at your tits], i can assure you it was only as a representative of the United States Government." I Heart Huckabees-Office Space-and i can only assume Adaptation genre. only numerical not existential vs. nihilist. and bonus, Jude Law isn't in it. that's always a good thing. Dustin Hoffman is great in a supporting role "dramatic irony. it'll fuck you every time." and "aren't you relieved to know you're not a golem?" as is Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Get bent, TAXMAN! Taxmaaaaaaan!" and the classic "Actually... it's my weekly evil-conspiracy and needlepoint group." Emma Thompson rocks. as always. "Well, Penny, like anything worth writing...it came inexplicably and without method."