I'm 'old school', Jeff. I like paper. I like the ritual of opening a book for the first time. I like the sound of closing the cover as I finish the last page. I like the smell. I'd buy 'Eau d' Library', if the scent were available. Just as electronic communication fails to convey 75% of the unspoken (real!) conversation between people, e-readers seem to dilute the power of the authors words and meaning, imo. The 'magic' is inherent in the medium... or not.
Yes, I have a very large hardcopy library. It's my precious.
The first time we went to NYC-Manhattan, we stayed in a rental through 'Home Away' for three weeks. The rental was owned by two late middle-aged sisters, living in a brownstone on W. 121st. They had bought the brownstone at a time when the neighborhood was being renovated (maybe ten years ago?). The building was gutted and completely redone to the sisters specs for around $500K. (I have a friend living in Pasadena who paid considerably more for a tiny cottage, at the height of the real estate bubble.) The rental was a walk-up on the third floor; it was very nice. I felt perfectly safe all the time I was there, day or night walking around on the streets. Inexpensive, reliable public transportation available at either end of the block. No need for a car. I asked alot of questions of these two women about what kind of income it took to live in Manhattan. Alot less than one might think. Housing is the biggest challenge, but if you're willing to live in some of the other burroughs, renting gets easier and cheaper. The second biggest challenge, I think, would be about mobility. You have to allow for more time to get from Point A to Point B, even more so if you have special needs.
But on the plus side, there were the stories... there was the story from a woman and her friend who told me about moving to NYC from Cuba to become dancers. The young man who read Sarte aloud to me, in French, while we shared a seat on the subway. The long conversation I had with the owner of a fusion restaurant about his mother's many uses for leftover bread. It is a city full of people from all over the globe, and their energy, dreams, stories, and talent. Unlike the West, it is a place steeped in the history of the people who lived there; the evidence is everywhere. If your looking for a global kind of conversation and you're interested in the stories, I can't think of many cities in the U.S. as rewarding as that one.
Hmmm... yup, passive aggressive. But I'd rather the signmaker insult me with their "quotes", than call me a dumbass and try to tear my head off, cuz they're at their wit's end from all the dumbasses that came before me.
The documentary 'How to Die in Oregon' featured the story of a number of people who were terminally ill, but the audience saw one patient's story more than the others -- a nurse in Portland dying of liver cancer. The voters of Oregon voted in doctor assisted suicide in 1994 and the documentary was one filmmaker's POV on how that law has affected the terminally ill who live there.
Thanks, Alex! With Miss Cellania's warning in mind I'll try to make some time for this.
A friend of mine has been and is seriously into Terry Pratchet and the DiscWorld books. Over the holidays we watched 'Hogfather'. 'Death' is basically a good guy just doing his job, and the boyish-faced character 'Teatime' is the psychopath. I love stories that play with stereotypes.
I'm kinda interested in the level of objectivity and acceptance it would require to show up for a casting call... like looking in the mirror as any actor/model would, and wondering if what they saw there was what the agents were looking for?
These days films are so frontloaded with 'spectacularly' (root word - 'spectacle') attractive stars to market the movie globally, it eclipses the story. Isn't this just another marketing ploy? Will the new crop of 'bad guys' be spectacularly unattractive?
And here I thought the use of prosthetics on a television show served no greater purpose than to enable the audience to tell one set of characters from another, good guys from bad guys.
If I understand the true distance between Earth and any other inhabitable planet correctly, we Earthlings will never know whether it's possible for humans to breed with a species from another planet. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.
Thoroughly enjoyed this article! I loved the picture of Rockefeller flipping the bird; I went looking for a better one so I could print it out and post it on the fridge to gaze upon for a while. Didn't find a better one, but I did find this: NSFW
Yes, I have a very large hardcopy library. It's my precious.
I asked alot of questions of these two women about what kind of income it took to live in Manhattan. Alot less than one might think. Housing is the biggest challenge, but if you're willing to live in some of the other burroughs, renting gets easier and cheaper. The second biggest challenge, I think, would be about mobility. You have to allow for more time to get from Point A to Point B, even more so if you have special needs.
But on the plus side, there were the stories... there was the story from a woman and her friend who told me about moving to NYC from Cuba to become dancers. The young man who read Sarte aloud to me, in French, while we shared a seat on the subway. The long conversation I had with the owner of a fusion restaurant about his mother's many uses for leftover bread. It is a city full of people from all over the globe, and their energy, dreams, stories, and talent. Unlike the West, it is a place steeped in the history of the people who lived there; the evidence is everywhere. If your looking for a global kind of conversation and you're interested in the stories, I can't think of many cities in the U.S. as rewarding as that one.
http://news.yahoo.com/endangered-species-bikini-waxes-wiping-pubic-lice-211923413.html
A friend of mine has been and is seriously into Terry Pratchet and the DiscWorld books. Over the holidays we watched 'Hogfather'. 'Death' is basically a good guy just doing his job, and the boyish-faced character 'Teatime' is the psychopath. I love stories that play with stereotypes.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0912938/
These days films are so frontloaded with 'spectacularly' (root word - 'spectacle') attractive stars to market the movie globally, it eclipses the story. Isn't this just another marketing ploy? Will the new crop of 'bad guys' be spectacularly unattractive?
If I understand the true distance between Earth and any other inhabitable planet correctly, we Earthlings will never know whether it's possible for humans to breed with a species from another planet. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/the-bird-the-finger-what-have-you/