Escapism and Summer Reading

For those of you who don't know me well, I have little to no self-control where a good book is concerned.  I'm like a nerdy meth head, thinking only about when I'll get my next literary fix.  And this summer, I've really been bingeing.  There's a thing about summer reading, a sort of unspoken cultural idea that come summer it is our God-given right, not to mention our patriotic duty, to put aside textbooks, nonfiction, and the classics in favor of books that are, well... fluffier.  Books we actually want to read, as opposed to those books we think we should read.  Although I tend to read this way all year long, lately I've been shouldering a very large part of the fluffy burden.  For America!  That or I'm experiencing a massive bout of avoidance.  Whichever it is, the upshot for you is a phenomenal reading list... if you're a nerd.  With no further ado, I give you the reason(s) we haven't hung out or talked in weeks:

It really started with A Game of Thrones, back in May.  My friend loaned it to me, saying I wouldn't be able to put it down.  I knew I'd probably enjoy it (it's popular for a reason, right?) but I hadn't been in any rush to read it.  And my friend was right, I couldn't put it down.  One day I read from morning to night, for probably twelve hours straight.   The next day I went looking for the sequel, A Clash Of Kings at the thrift store.  It wasn't there.  But I DID find the third and fourth books, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows, waiting like little homeless kitties.  It was meant to be!  Naturally as soon as I got home I ordered the second book on the internet - for 7 cents.  Ridiculous, right?  The waiting for book two would've been awful, but I luckily went out of town for a week, and it arrived shortly.  And then all of a sudden it was three weeks later.  I basically read during every spare moment (this includes while eating and brushing my teeth).  Imagine me waiting tables with a too-happy smile on my face while frantically wishing my guests would shut up and pay so I could break the sound barrier rushing home to find out what happens to Arya Stark.    Honestly, I think this whole pattern is part of the reason I was in no hurry to start reading the series in the first place - because I knew once I started I wouldn't be able to stop.  

The whole Game of Thrones series didn't disappoint, for the most part.  They are entertaining, interesting, thoughtful books.  They're fun to read.  The author shifts point of view between a wide variety of characters, giving the reader a really global perspective of the story.  And not all the characters are men either; I'd say maybe a third of the main characters are women, and amongst those are some really strong interesting females.  I commend Martin for taking the female perspective into account, although it seems like a pretty natural thing for him to do.  I don't think it's always easy to write from the opposite gender, but he handles the task well.  I don't want to say much more about the stories, but if you like fantasy, or epics, or HBO, or history give these books a shot.  I warn you though, you may lose your summer tan while you're inside reading for the next six weeks.

Next I started reading The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.  I've only read one other book by him, but he sticks in my head as an important American author that I ought to like.  So this has been in my short stack for a while.  By the third chapter I was so reminded of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash that I had to put Pynchon down, though.  It was a good move; I don't regret it (and I don't know when I'll go back to the Pynchon).  Snow Crash is like an old friend - I've probably read it six times.  It is a pivotal cyberpunk novel.  If William Gibson is the father of cyberpunk, Snow Crash is the poster boy (this analogy is faulty but I like it so I'm leaving it anyway... Really I should be saying that Neal Stephenson is the poster boy of cyberpunk, but I kind of think he's a dick...).  Directly after finishing Snow Crash I revisited The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by the same author.  These books fire me up.  They take place in a not-quite dystopian vision of the future where smart-tech permeates everything, and nations have come out of the closet as corporate identities.  They're funny and really smart and make me excited about making art.  Read them.

From there I borrowed a bunch of books from another friend, including Catching Fire - otherwise known as the second Hunger Games book.  This is another one I was in no hurry to read.  I read the Hunger Games maybe six months ago, and enjoyed it.  But I didn't like it enough to search it out.  Besides, I knew it would come my way eventually.  Catching Fire satisfied me.  It was readable, entertaining, and very fast.  I do have some annoyance toward Katniss's perpetual dissatisfaction with whatever boy she's with.  I have even more annoyance toward Suzanne Collins for recycling that stupid plotline.  I know that society and mother culture tell women we should want nothing more than to have two boys fighting over us, but I think it's bullshit.  First of all, how often does it actually come about that you have two equal-but-opposite, good-looking, interesting guys you can't choose between?  Second, there's way way WAY more to both the human and female experiences than romance.  I'm trying in my own life to learn this lesson, and it would be a lot easier if it wasn't all over the media (yeah yeah yeah, write it myself, I hear you).  Anyhow, I enjoyed the book, but again, I'm not rushing out to get book three.  If someone wants to loan me Mockingjay I'll gladly borrow it.  And no, I do not use a reading device-they make heart dissolve.

I've guess I've been lonely, because I revisited another old friend next; The Time Traveler's Wife.  I LOVED this novel when I read it four and a half years ago.  I didn't disappoint the second time around.  The movie did it NO justice.  I noticed something different this time though.  (SPOILER ALERT)  The book perpetuates the cult of youth  and beauty vis-a-vis women.  Now that I'm almost 30 I read the story with different eyes, and it's pretty impossible to ignore Clare's age throughout the story.  You get plenty of adult Henry and little girl Clare, but not the other way around.  Once again it's acceptable for a man to love a younger woman (or young girl), but god forbid we read a story about a woman and a boy.  And then Clare's story basically stops after Henry dies, but that's the part I'm most interested in!  What happens after he's gone?  What happens when she has to learn to really stand on her own?  How does she manage?  You basically get one or two brief glimpses, but then nada.  Don't get me wrong.  I love this book.  Read it!  These are just some things I've noticed.


Okay, that's all I've got attention span for (I actually just want to get back to my book).  You may be interested to know that I'm reading a hard sci fi novel right now called Broken Angels, which is the sequel to Altered Carbon.  It's about downloading consciousness into different bodies.  And you may also be interested to know that somewhere in there I read the screenplay for Notes on a Scandal (speaking of women and boys - shudder).  And I've been slowly making my way through The Daring Book for Girls, which is AWESOME.  Today I learned how to put my hair up with a pencil, yesterday how to make a variety of different knots.


What are you reading this summer?  What did you think about these books?  Do you have something you want to loan me?  I take care of the books I borrow, and I return them.
xoxox

Miike Snow at the El Rey

I saw Miike Snow at the El Rey on Tuesday.  They played Wednesday too, and also both weekends at Coachella.  I wish I could've gone to all four shows.  I wish I was there right now.

I had one of those ecstatic crowd experiences; everyone was in an awesome, great mood.  We were all there to enjoy the music and the show.  There was no bullshit or drama or weirdness.  Just a bunch of hipsters having a merry old time.

When the show started (I'm sorry to say I didn't recognize the song they led with, so I can't link to it here) the band came out wearing matching black satin jackets with hoods and bronze neutral masks.  Their set consisted of a large circular console in the middle of the stage, painted black and fronted with rows of gold lights.  With the massive amounts of smoke and the yellow lights the whole thing gave the effect of a spaceship made of fire. Manned by attractive aliens.  I turned to my friend and say, real excited like, "I love space!"  I realized after the fact that, out of context, this could've been a confusing statement.

I don't consider myself a music reviewer.  I don't have the vocabulary, and also I sometimes feel shy about my musical taste, because some of it wanders towards what some might call "techno" (slander!).  So I'm not going to go into great detail about the music.  But I'll say this, my only gripe about the show (other than the abysmal opener, The Big Pink) was the lack of dancing space.  But I can't really complain about that because I got down despite the tight quarters, and everyone was busy having too much fun to mind the occasional neighborly bump.

I feel like Miike Snow is intelligent music for science fiction nerds that like to dance.  I feel like Miike Snow is branded towards people who reread Fahrenheit 451 every couple years and are ashamed to admit they like "Toxic" by Britney Spears.  Miike Snow, for me, builds upon my years of listening to David Bowie and DJ Shadow and Massive Attack and Daft Punk and makes perfect sense.  I'm friggin obsessed right now.  They put on a great show-it kind of made my week.

A sunny afternoon at the movies

Oh!  I forgot to tell you about when I went to see Shame!  So let's just take a little trip back in time (two whole months!) and I'll tell you about it now.

Everyone I know had already seen it, so I decided to see it by myself.  Call it an artist date.  And anyway, seeing it alone allowed all the more room for me to indulge the fantasy in which I bed this man:

Rowr.  So one sunny afternoon in January I betook myself to the ArcLight Pasadena for an afternoon at the movies.  I went to Pasadena because I wisely waited until it was barely in theatres anymore.  I mean, I wouldn't want to look like I was in a hurry, right?  That's unfashionable.

The weather was good for a trip to fantasyland: Shame was showing in a smaller theatre and there was only one other person there, so I could imagine I was in a private viewing room.  But it started to cloud over when five or six more people came in right before the show started, all of them at least 25 years older than me.  This last part surprised me, because I just don't imagine the middle to old aged population of Pasadena getting excited over an NC-17 movie about sex addiction.  But who am I to judge?

As the ArcLight girl started giving her pre-movie spiel I was really excited.  I'd heard nothing but good things about Shame; I was looking forward to one of those movie experiences where the film you're excited about meets (or surpasses) your expectations.  And then the storm broke.  A seriously old couple came in late and chose to sit  (you guessed it) two seats down from me.  Picture these two  this husband and wife who've been married since the Great Depression tottering carefully down the aisle, using the seats on either side for support because  they don't have canes even though they need them.  Their backs are hunched with osteoporosis, and their fingers are gnarled from arthritis.  I'm not joking about this, they had to be in their 80's at least.  And they wanted to see Shame.  Okay.

As they were walking in the girl was talking about the movie and the theatre, and the old said super loudly, "What?"  The ArcLight girl paused, but she just kept going.  I probably would've too.  Then the old lady turned to me, "What did she say?" (You know that special volume reserved for half-deaf octogenarians...)  before turning back to the girl and saying, "We can't hear you!  Do you have a microphone?" An awkward silence fell over the theatre, but ArcLight girl gamely continued trying to tell those of us with hearing about the emergency exits. The old woman, who was by now seated, chimed in, "Yap yap yap."  Storm warnings in fantasyland.

As the lights dimmed my elderly neighbor, who was parked in front of the railing, said to her husband, "Mario!  Mario!  Put ya feet up Mario!"  Beyond this, however, the start of the movie went pretty smoothly. Right around when Carey Mulligan was introduced the middle aged lady on the other side of me got up and left.  But that's her choice, you know?  Better she should leave than put weird vibes out, and I knew this movie wasn't for everyone.  Better than the old folks to my left, who punctuated the film with noises of disgust like, "Phawwww!"  Fantasyland was now closed due to inclement weather.

At a crucial moment (spoiler alert, sort of) Mario's wife said (more like hollered), "Did somebody try to murder her or what?" and I could hear the judgement in her voice.  She thought Carey Mulligan's character deserved bad things to happen to her.  When the movie was over Mario's wife let the whole theatre know in her loudest proclamation yet, "Awful movie!"  Big surprise, they hated it.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised about my viewing companions, because who goes to 4pm movies on a Wednesday?  Old folks and kids.  And no way was anyone bringing a kid to that movie.  I loved it though.  If you're a fan of American Psycho you'd like Shame.  I mean, you've already seen it of course, because I'm reviewing a movie that was released five months ago,  but if you hadn't seen it I'd say go.  But leave your grandparents at home.

Read this book

I went to Skylight books on Vermont last night and made Official New Purchases, including Love is Not Constantly Wondering if You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life by Zach.  I read it in about two hours.

I think this book appealed to me because it's an examination of someone else's fucked up relationship: what made them stay, and why they should have left.  The pain the author went through was palpable while reading it.  Whether or not it reflects an actual relationship it clearly came from a deep, raw place.  I suspect it is based on his real story; that depth of investigation has to come from life.

Read straight through "Love is Not Constantly..." reads like someone's diary: chronological entries describe meeting and falling love with Anne, who it unfolds is an alcoholic.  As the novella progresses the author struggles between wanting to stay for those glimpses of something great, and needing to leave due of his girlfriend's lack of control.  What makes this story really special though, is that at the end of each 'entry' you're given a different date to turn to, or maybe a choice between two dates.  Following the author's skipping path through the book shows you the untenable logic of love: contrasting an ugly episode of alcoholism with a magic first kiss, letting the reader in on those unreasonable turns that keep you with someone you shouldn't be with.  That's where the genius of this novella lies.  From start to finish you'd probably close this book and wonder why Zach needed over four years to realize Anne wouldn't change.  Flipping back and forth you understand a little better how his heart played tricks on him, reminding of how things might be.

I'd recommend this fast read to anyone.  I admit that I did have anxiety dreams about my ex-boyfriend going on a six month heroin binge (which certainly never happened) after reading it late into the night.  So if you're emotionally susceptible maybe save it for an afternoon read.

A Starving Artist's Guide to Shopping

Christmas is upon us (because having "last Christmas, I gave you my heart" stuck in your head didn't make that obvious) and once again I find myself finally getting into the black.  So it's obviously a great time for me to buy a bunch of expensive shit no one needs and spend a lot to ship it across the country.  Normally this makes me feel tense and agitated, leading me to stop working out and subsist only on red wine and chocolate for the duration of December.

This year, however, I'm not as anxious.  Any gifts I give this year will be used or (re)created or both.  Because I will be looking in thrift stores for gifts, I'm not able to go out and buy exactly that one thing that my mom doesn't need.  It's definitely limiting.  However, thrifting for gifts also gives me a special freedom.  Knowing that I probably won't be able to find something specific, I've released from the big idea of The Perfect Gift and am open to spontaneous gift inspiration.

It feels pretty good.  For whatever reason I've been able to let go of the stress of buying.  Maybe it's also because I'm not going to malls and big box stores, being assaulted by advertising and frantic music and overwhelming displays and screaming kids and a the same three colors over and over.

So let me tell you where I'll be shopping this year:

Out of The Closet on Glendale Blvd in Atwater Village.  This thrift store is new to me since I've moved to the new hood, and I got to say, I'm here at least once a week.  It is by far the best in the Out of the Closet chain I've found.  I've bought furnishings and art and also jewelry and clothes.  Usually I find it's one or the other with a donation based store, but this location obviously has some great folks donating.  Oh yeah, and lots of books.  Lots.

Crossroads Trading Company on Hyperion and Griffith Park Blvd in Silverlake.  I can walk to this store.  So obviously I spend too much money there.  I justify it because I'm getting a LOT more for my money, and still spending less than those who buy new.  For those of you who aren't familiar with this genre of resale boutique,  the clothes are all in fashion, and generally in great condition.  It's possible to find designer items there, but it's also totally possible to get things for less than $10.  As with all thrift stores, I recommend going in with a loose list of items you might like to find, then keeping an open mind.  Who knows what you'll find?

National Council of Jewish Women Thrift Shop on Ventura in Studio City.  I used to come to this place weekly when I lived in the neighborhood, and I still make excuses to go there whenever I'm in the area.  It's great.  I typically find lots of books, as well as really great furniture and art.  I haven't shopped much for the clothes, but I think that's because I have a preconceived idea that I won't find anything.  In reality, I think it's like most thrift stores: you have to be willing to sift through a bunch of crap to find a gem.

Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Thrift Shop in my hometown.  I have to throw a shoutout to this place.  I've been shopping there for 15 years, and it's consistently awesome.  Great clothes, great books, great everything.  When we were kids we used to go in there and find sequined sweaters and pilfer the 10 cent tee-shirt bin (as my friend Devin said recently, "10 cent tee-shirts was my jam").  I still have an awesome tee-ball shirt from those days.  I make a point to visit it every time I'm in Seattle.  Usually more than once.

Check these places out.  Chances are you'll find something cool and unusual, and it feels like finding buried treasure.  Who wouldn't like that?

Clowning around

A couple of years ago my Locke took a few photos of me wearing this clown nose.  He gave me a sweater to hold as a prop, had me face the wall for a moment, and started shooting when I turned around.  This was the middle of a several year period during which he took photos of everyone who came over, all wearing the nose.  Now he's having an art show. It opens on Friday, and I'm really honored to be a part of it.

Putting on that nose transported me to the summer of 2004, when I was working with a theatre company 30 hours a week, doing physical theatre, viewpoints, and a lot of mask work.  I love the physical transformation you go through-if you're open to it, when you put on a costume or an outrageous outfit.  Or even something as simple as holding a sweater and wearing a nose.

And I also love seeing my friend take this random thing he did and turn it in to a public event.  I love seeing him follow through on something he has been doing for years.  And I love that I was able to participate, along with countless other of his friends.  Very proud of you, friend.

Please check out Locke's work.  Please go see his art show.  I will be at the opening on Friday (after work, of course), but it runs for two weeks.  Don't be square.  And besides, going to look at photos in an art gallery is FREE!

Art in the Streets!

  Sharon and I went to the Art in the Streets exhibit at the Geffen on Monday.  It was free courtesy of Banksy (thanks!), and we squeaked in on the last day.  It was an awesome experience.  There was almost too much art to take in; it makes me wish I had gone sooner, so that I could have gone more than once.  I knew that it would feature graffiti (obvi), but I didn't really appreciate great a scope that could have, and also how many other forms of expression could qualify as street art.

   My idea of "what is art" was totally challenged.  Art can be anything, and it can be made anywhere.  It doesn't have to be something beautiful and pristine on a wall painted by a dead guy 200 years ago, it can be something tangible and raw right here, now.  The bags from the gift shop said, "you can touch things".  We didn't buy anything, but I almost would've just to get one of those bags.  Of course, this is ironic since we got in trouble three times for touching the art.  One time Sharon was spoken sharply to for standing too near the wall. 

That's right.  She wasn't even touching it.  She was just having her photo made.  So much for that "you can touch" thing.

   One of my favorite portions was a section of lost pet posters collected from Beverly Hills.  The artist, whose names escapes me, said he was moved by them because they were an unpretentious, unselfconscious expression of someone's raw emotion, condensed into an image and some text.  That really hit me, because I have been there, papering the neighborhood with "Have you seen me?" fliers, my heart on my sleeve, worrying about my cat.  No photo, sorry. 

       Another artist said of her photography that she was moved to take pictures because what if it would never be like this again.  I love that.  There were clips of graffiti films from all over the world-my favorite being a German film where a crew painted an entire subway car in the 5 minutes it was stopped.  There were instruments set up that anyone could be a musician.

   I am not doing justice to this exhibit.  Here are the rest of my photos-I'll let them speak for themselves.



Plenty to look at waiting to get in





Banksy stencil on a wooden door.  I love the collage aspect of his work.

Strange hall of mirrors.  I certainly know what it's like to look in the mirror and feel crazy though.

There were a lot of awesome murals.  I don't know why I didn't take pictures of all my favorite stuff though... 

This kid personifies punk rock for me, he really brought those photos to life.  I stole his picture.

Anything can be made into art

More Banksy!

Ironically I got in trouble right before this. 

Awesome light installation by artist Swoon.  It was housed in a sort of tent, so that the walls of the room were part of the piece.  I felt like my brain clicked into place when I realized that.  Again, art challenging my ideas of how it should be viewed or what it is.

Later in Echo Park I was much more aware of the street art all around me.  I dig this cityscape.

Tempted to try stenciling...



Curious Museums of LA

I've found a new website to haunt: http://www.rentfoodbroke.com/.  Take a wild guess what it's about. They have an awesome calendar with events around the city that cost $0 to $10.  It's pretty awesome.  It drew my attention to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.  I had heard about this place before, and it's only a $5 suggested donation, so my friend Pra and I went to check it out this weekend.

Pra enjoying a snack before going in.

The museum has an unassuming facade on Venice Boulevard in Culver City, so I was sort of surprised when it was PACKED inside.  I was bumping asses and elbows with all sorts of strangers.  Fun.

As far as the content of the museum, I am hard pressed to capture it all.  My best advice for all five of my readers (don't think I didn't notice my two new followers!) is to go experience it yourself.  Except that you can't because you all live in other states.  So since you're begging for it I'll give you my two cents (I'm not that broke).

Readers of Neal Stephenson, China Mieville, and Neil Gaiman would love this place.  MJT poses as a historical and educational facility, but it's pretty much all fantasy.  The exhibits and collections supposedly date from the Jurassic through the present.

I have no idea what this is supposed to be, but Athanasius Kircher designed it.

An exhibit devoted to Athanasius Kircher, some sort of medieval super-genius included a giant magnetic sundial of some sort, lots of models like those in a 7th grade science fair showing things like water systems of Earth with holograms projected on them, and-most importantly, a 3D movie translated from German.

Caption to an engraving

There were micro-mosaics you viewed through a microscope (duh) of floral arrangements created from fragments of butterfly wings.  There were lots of random engravings and paintings and whatnot.
There was a pretty awesome reading room, where Pra and I wrote some book spine poetry.  I got the idea from Rainn Wilson's website, Soul Pancake (http://www.soulpancake.com/post/1519/book-spine-poem.html).  Our poem was not very awesome, and the picture was not very clear, but I will include it anyway:

For a handful of feathers,
the gold of Troy,
British biscuit tins
Time Detectives
Q.E.D.
zone
gladiators at Pompeii

I was pretty upset when I realized we'd skipped right past a book called "Catapulting" but oh well.

There was also an entire section devoted to archaic remedies, with some really weird visuals.  My favorite was a model of a child with a duck's bill in it's mouth.  Apparently the duck's cold breath was supposed to cure thrush or something.  Ew.  In this area I discovered this gem, "Mouse pie when eaten with regularity serves as a remedy for children who stammer." 

 One section had handheld viewing glasses, which made only the most minimal differences to the vectographs on display.  

Another room was devoted to collections found in Los Angeles trailers, complete with scale models of mobile homes.  


After a while my brain lost it's ability to try to make sense of anything I was looking at; I could only sit back and let the experience hit me in waves.  I'm pretty sure that's part of the point.  We try to so hard to be adults, to get things right, that we forget to play.  We have so little sense of wonder anymore that we need places like the Museum of Jurassic Technology to get us out of our heads.


Upstairs behind a door marked, "Fairly safely venture" Pra and I played cat's cradle for ten minutes.  Peppered throughout the museum were phone receivers and buttons, 90% of which did nothing.  I can only assume it was 100% intentional.  And to finish our visit we enjoyed tea and cookies in the tea room!  Actually I didn't eat any cookies; they had no gluten-free refreshments.  The nerve.


Like my visit to the Psychiatry: an Industry of Death Museum, I left MJT feeling bewildered.  This time though I felt more bemused at my confusion, rather than depressed and in need of a drink.  I am not sure what I was supposed to get from it, but maybe that's not the point.  

Summer Reading part 2

After reading all those fabulous books by awesome lady authors I ran out of women on my to read shelf by my bed.  So I looked at what I had:

I chose Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (not pictured here).  I wanted something kind of sexy, and that still fired up the feminist in me, and nothing else there really fit the bill.

Boy was I in for a disappointment!  I have looked forward to reading this book for a while.  I take pride in being well-read.  Not just in quantity, but also in a variety of time periods and genres, so this seemed like a classic that must be attended to.  But frankly I kind of feel like I wasted my time.  Lawrence spends a lot of time showing how most people are not connected to their bodies, how they leave the physical out.  This is an idea I can get behind.  It's something I have struggled with in my acting, and I feel like it's true in a larger sense for many people.  Ironically though, I found myself skimming through the end of the book because I didn't care for all the chitchat and higher ideas being discussed in the book.  It was too heady; it didn't tug at my core-where I feel my soul.  Check out the link to read my review on Goodreads.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/186554294

Field Trip!

It's summer, and money is tight.  So I have been looking around for affordable (read free) things to do.  The other day I came across a coupon on the LA Weekly website for free admission to the Pyschiatry: An Industry of Death Museum.  It was eight pm on a Tuesday night, and this place just happens to be open until 10pm (weird hours, right?) so obviously I downloaded the coupon onto my phone and took myself to Hollywood!

I have walked by this place a number of times and thought to myself, "What is up with that place?  What kind of a name is that for a museum?  And what kind of hole does this fill in the public consciousness?" Time to find out!

So, turns out I didn't need the coupon, because the museum is ALWAYS free.  Okay, interesting.  My friend and I went in, and as the docent is giving us the history of the museum she mentions that it's affiliated with Scientology.  Ding ding ding!  Weird hours, unnecessary coupons, and unwieldy name all starting to add up here.  Clearly I am great at mental math.

The museum is basically a loop, and they start you out in a small room with padded walls to watch a movie.  The padded walls were a really nice touch; I guess I should expect great production value from anything associated with Scientology.  The movie had testimonials from lots of psychiatrists saying that there's no medical proof for most of psychology, and then it showed that they were the authors of books like "Mad in America", so they're obviously reputable sources.  The movie also showed shots of lots of really unhappy looking people, and interviews with their families about how their lives were ruined by psychiatry.  Finally, once we were totally depressed, we were turned loose into the museum.

The museum was like a combination of Universal Studios, Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, and the Holocaust Museum in Normandy.  It was basically a parade of Atrocities Everyone Loves to Hate, beefed up  with weird visual aids: examples of medieval torture devices, bloodletting knives or primitive electroshock chairs, realistic looking mummified heads made of wax, photos of bone thin patients locked in "cage beds", etc.  Every six feet or so there were large monitors showing video segments (now I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I should NEVER submit myself for an in-house Scientology project).  The exhibits are organized somewhat chronologically, and concern the Holocaust, racism, Hollywood icons, school shootings, insurance fraud and TERRORISM to name a few.  This was all accompanied by a bunch of arguments that really stretched to show that all of psychiatry is a conspiracy with big pharma.  

Don't get me wrong.  I think that people, especially kids, are over medicated.  I believe that there are lots of people out there who want a quick diagnosis, or who want to put other people's inexplicable behavior into an easy to understand box.  But I also believe that sometimes we can become emotionally unbalanced, and need more than someone to talk to.  There is a time a place for chemical aid.

When we left the museum we passed through a room whose walls were COVERED with pamphlets.  A sign politely informed us that each guest was permitted to choose one pamphlet free, but that additional pamphlets can be purchased for $1.50.  I was tempted to take the one titled Raped by Psychology, but I restrained myself.

I couldn't leave without checking out the gift shop.  Sure enough, right there on the shelves were copies of "Mad in America" and all the other books whose authors were quoted favorably in the introductory video.  What a surprise.  There was also a book that had a giant tag line saying, "Tom Cruise was right!!!"; I forget the title though, because I was so mesmerized by that.  There were also some really awesome tee-shirts.  My favorite was a bubblegum pink one that said, "Psych drugs turn kids into killers."  'Killers' had a gun superimposed over it.

We rushed out of the museum.  Luckily there were some teenagers foolish enough to talk to the docents, so we avoided being cornered by Scientologists.  We felt thoroughly depressed and in need of chemical aid after my trip through that weird, sterile space-it was like a carnival ride from the most depressing circle of hell-so we headed over to Mercantile for a glass of wine.

Summer Reading

I have read some really awesome books so far this summer.  Somewhat unintentionally, I'm on a great streak of reading female authors.  No, not Charlaine Harris, Stephanie Meyer, or even JK Rowling (although those names rolled pretty easily off my mind).  I'm talking about inspiring, artistic, intelligent authors.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin finished 6/19/11
This is a scifi classic; it was included in the display on fiction at the SciFi at EMP in Seattle.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I went to that-it was really cool (to a nerd).  It's about a genderless world.  An ambassador lands there to try to get them to join some sort of trade federation, and is forced to realign his ideas about humanity.  I almost feel like I need another reading of this.  It was told from the points of view of two different characters, alternating.  But I wasn't really hip to that at first because LeGuin used a lot of madeup lingo that was difficult to assimilate.  I really liked it in the end though.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood finished 6/24
Another awesome book!  I really liked "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Blind Assassin", so I was definitely eager for this one.  "Alias Grace" tells the story of a girl who's imprisoned for murder at age 16 in the 1840's.  It's sort of a pastiche of her recollections, news clippings from the trial, and letters and recollections of a physician 15 years later who's trying to determine if she was innocent.  This is a thinking woman's mystery.  Atwood's prose is clear and concise, and very pointed.  She's a great storyteller.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver finished 6/30
I have loved some works by Kingsolver, and others I really couldn't get into.  I was glad with this one that she put the level of research and dedication in that seemed to be present in "The Poisonwood Bible".  This was a really interesting story about a writer in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.  I love it when an author can wrap you up in a story but also teach you about a place or time period.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl finished 7/9
Okay, I admit it.  I've read this book at least twice before, maybe three times.  But revisting a favorite book is one of the joys of reading.  This is written in the style of a meticulously annotated textbook, but it's a whodunit.  It tells the story of Blue VanMeer, a senior in high school, who finds her teacher murdered in the woods.  I'm not giving anything away, you learn that in the first chapter, although it happens towards the end of the story.  The whole things is dark and precocious and carefully crafted.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen finished 7/13
Okay, I had sort of vowed to read no more Austen after Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion because they're all basically the same story.  However this was practically free at the library sale, so what the fuck?  I actually really enjoyed it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to rush to reread it (ever), but I found it pretty funny.  Jane Austen basically made fun of her main character-Catherine!-the entire time.  She is sort of a nut, who reads too many novels and gets caught up in silly fantasies about her life (that doesn't sound like anyone else I know).  The ending did wrap up a bit too neatly for my taste though.  I felt like Austen got tired of the story, and decided to sum up the end instead of telling it.

At this point I decided I could read what I wanted, and besides I only had one more choice by a female author on my To Read shelf, so I picked up this crappy Stephen King novel (also from the library sale) called The Dark Half (cue ominous music).  But I read a chapter or two and just felt meh about it.  So I'm going back to the ladies (oh yeah!).  Which brings me to the final book I have to talk about:

The Lover by Marguerite Duras present
I originally read this book in French, and really liked it.  I got the English version(at the library sale!) and couldn't turn it down, especially since I no longer have that French copy.  I'm digging it so far.  But I think I need to slow down and taste it more, I found myself rushing a bit.  It makes me want to find it in French again.  And it also makes me want to go get some Anais Nin or something sexy like that...

Vacuum My Way Into Adulthood

What's that, oh, you'd like to vacuum? It just so happens I have one!  Yeah!  Good news; I bought a vacuum.  What what!  Something about buying that vacuum really made me feel like an adult.

It's called the Shark, maybe you've heard of it.  It has its own infomercial-pretty fancy.

I haven't figured out how to embed a video, so here's the link:
http://youtu.be/Pl0_hzoxaqM  "Offering 'No loss of suction' technology"

That's right, The Shark: it really sucks.  Better watch out cat hair, cause The Shark is coming to getcha!  da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM (this is meant to signify the theme music from Jaws.  OBVIOUSLY)

I've got to say though, for a vacuum called "The Shark" I was a bit surprised that it only comes in pearl-finished lavendar.  And all that nonsense about turbo-powered pet hair brushes...  Hmmm...  They're really not marketing this vacuum for men, are they?  Or badasses.  Luckily I've got an at-home badass kit to upgrade my vacuum.  Check it out:

BOOM.  Dorsal fin!  This aerodynamic addition to my vacuum increases it's suction power by about 250%.  And it's coolness is now off the charts!  Can your feeble little mind even handle it?  Probably not.  Don't worry, you'll probably understand on your death bed.  Now get ready carpet, your day has come.