supercheesegirl

So, it's been a while. I definitely don't have time to maintain a journal online like I used to, and with giving myself the freedom not to post all my books, I also haven't been keeping up with event posts. But the thing about that is that I've got Goodreads for book tracking, but I genuinely use LJ/DW for capturing memories about events. So here's the abbreviated, compromise-with-myself version of stuff that happened over the past six months or so.

Friday September 22: Josh Ritter Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: This was the first free at noon I ever went to, which is silly because I can walk to XPN from my office in about 20 minutes along the river, and it's a concert, for free, and not at 10:00 at night. I loved seeing Josh Ritter - he's always such a treat, so happy to be performing, and he really seems to like XPN, too. It was my first time hearing the songs from his album Gathering, which was actually launching that day; it's about like any Josh Ritter album. But the show was good.

Sunday September 24: The Magic Flute at the Academy of Music: I saw this as part of Opera Philadelphia's inaugural fall opera festival. I've never seen a performance quite like this before. The set was basically one big screen, and it used animation and technology to make the story unfold. Performers sort of stuck their heads out of cutouts in the screen to sing, and certain characters got animated bodies instead of human bodies (like the queen of the night was a giant spider). Totally interesting, fun to watch, a really different take on opera.

Friday September 29: Rainer Maria at Underground Arts: I was so excited to see Rainer Maria, who were one of my very favorite bands back in the day, but I went about going to this show all wrong. I'd never been to Underground Arts before, and I forgot about opening bands, and that bands tend to play really late at night. So I arranged the sitter to come and put Freya to bed, thinking F and I could get some date time in before the show, and told her we'd be home around 11. We did have a nice time at a bar near the venue (seasoned popcorn yum), but then we suffered through two different opening acts.

Callowhill was fine and listenable, but Olivia Neutron-John was just cringe-worthy. We couldn't help live-posting to Facebook about it, and notable quotes included "It was the hair of Robert Smith, and an attempt at the vocals of Ministry, all over synth space pop." And "Alas, it was more gothy, electronic screaming with hints of new wave, a dash of disco, and a pinch of anguished art school performance theatrics." And "I mean, there were melodic moments, but overall I spent the set wondering what her mother thinks of her life decisions. I would like to see this woman comb her hair, stop screaming, and sing a nice song for once. So if anyone was doubting my mom cred, there you go." So yeah, I didn't buy her album.

And then we waited and waited and waited for Rainer Maria to come on, and kept texting the babysitter to extend our time, and by the time they came on we got to see four songs before we had to leave to get home by midnight. So thumbs down on that. If I'd planned it better, I would have had the babysitter come at like 10pm-1am and skipped all the crappy bands. Sigh. Next time.

Friday October 20: First Aid Kit Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: I really love this band, they are two sisters from Stockholm but they have a really countryfied jam. And I got to see them live and not have to pay to go see their actual show when they came back to Philly in February (a decision influenced in no small part by the OMG I hate opening bands experience described above). But the free at noon show was great. Which reminds me, I need to pick up the new album.

Saturday October 21: Goat yoga at Mad Lavender Farm in NJ: This was seriously the best. I went with my friend Sarah. Yoga class is held in the goat paddock, and the inhabitants climb on you, eat your hair or your mat, demand to be petted, and of course pee wherever they feel like. But the great part is that you absolutely have to be "present moment" when you're doing yoga with goats around. Goats don't let you get distracted, they want to be petted right now. So much fun.

Saturday December 16: The Nutcracker: This is now a Freya-and-Mommy annual tradition. We went with friends (Freya's best bud Eva and her mom) again this year, but we went to a different production: the last two years we did Nutcracker 1776, performed by The Rock School in Haverford College's Centennial Theater, but this year we saw one by the Academy of International Ballet performed at our local middle school. The change was partly due to poor planning, and partly due to Freya having a church friend in the performance. It was good, but I don't think as good as the one by The Rock School (Freya's friend notwithstanding, as that little guy did a great job).

December: Dogfish Head Beer Talk and Tasting at the Penn Museum: I can't remember exactly when this was in December. I went with my friend Archaeology Wife for the first time in a while. This was a really cool event: the owner/brewer of Dogfish and a Penn professor talked about their collaboration to brew ancient ales based on analysis of remains scraped from the bottoms of ancient pottery. I already loved Dogfish's ancient ales, so it was just cool to hear them tell the behind the scenes stories. There was also a beer tasting, with some snacks paired with the various beers. Really cool event.

December: Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Franklin Institute: We joined the Franklin
this year specifically for this exhibit. They had a special new members reception that was free, so F and I did that as a date night so we could see it ourselves. Then we went back with Freya and my parents. Really interesting exhibit. The first half was about the history and the figures themselves, the second half about the archaeology involved. Freya had read a book about them (go Magic Treehouse) and was excited to see them. The Franklin also had a cool phone app where you could take photos with terracotta warriors wherever you were, so we played with that. Now if we go back to the Franklin even once more, we'll have gotten our money's worth out of the membership.

Saturday January 20: Women's March: I was excited to go to the Women's March for the second year in a row. This year we got a lot closer and could actually hear some of the speeches. Just so much great energy.

Sunday February 18: Written on Skin at the Academy of Music: I have never seen an opera like this before. Incredibly intense, incredibly dark. Really fresh. Older operagoers seemed confused (overheard from nearby seats: A: "No one's been applauding for the arias." B: "What arias?" and also, "Are we there yet?"). And it was confusing, but also enormously well done; we heard from a lady that her friends had seen it in NYC and then come down to see it again here (so they must've liked it to begin with) and thought the one here was even better. The ideas of illuminated manuscripts, glowing boxes, what it means to create a book, what it means to be in a human body. A definite wow.

Movies:
I saw Star Wars in the theater with friends in December. We were all pretty torn about it; there was a lot to love, and also a lot that was unexpected. I thought at the time that I wouldn't want to watch it again, but I'm now looking forward to a rewatch. I think people who liked it liked its ability to reimagine how things work in the Star Wars universe. I also saw Black Panther a few weeks ago, and that was undeniably excellent.

Pippi in the South Seas (Pippi #3), by Astrid Lindgren: Finished 6/3/17. Found this on my shelf and read chapters at bedtime with Freya. She really loved it, especially the monkey and the parts where Pippi is exceptionally silly. This time around I was struck by the ending of the book - the last two pages are just completely lovely writing, an absolute gift from Lindgren - and I never noticed before. Glad to have read this with my girl.

Freya (Freya #1), by Matthew Laurence: Finished 6/5/17. I’m already a fan of mythologically based YA fiction, but with that title character? Of course I had to pick this up. :) The whole “gods are still alive” thing has been done a lot, and Lawrence does base his plot on the idea that these gods need worship for strength (which has been done by greats like Gaiman and Pratchett), but I did think there was some fun and interesting stuff here. The mental institution and the Disney tie-in were really smart. Is Lawrence trying to take advantage of the cultural wave going on with American Gods? Probably (although this is certainly closer to the Rick Riordan end of the mythological spectrum). Is it still a fun read? Yeah.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe, by Thomas Cahill: Finished 6/6/17. I was working on this for several months on and off. A fun look at the Middle Ages, and I learned a lot about several different areas (such as religious and scientific thought and art). I didn’t really understand why the last chapter or two digressed into the 20th century Catholic child abuse scandal, though; the book title really didn’t suggest to me that that’s where we were heading. Overall worth reading, a good challenge for myself, and I’d read something else by this author, as he made the historical info relatable and had some funny lines, but this has to lose a star on that ending.

Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine: Finished 6/9/17. Binge-read this very quickly late at night. Not my favorite by this author, but definitely worth reading.

Overwhelmed, by Brigid Schulte: Finished 6/12/17. Full title: Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. Five stars. If I could give this book six stars, I would. It feels like a game changer to me. Brigid Schulte digs into not only the problems inherent in our current system of busyness, but examines how we got here, looking at how these ideals around workers and mothers and fathers grew in our society and set us up to fail no matter what we do. And knowing this stuff, I feel, gives me power to change how I react. I will probably read this book again before the end of the year. I highly recommend this book to people who are parents, people who work, people who feel too busy, and pretty much just people.

Ever, by Gail Carson Levine: Finished 6/14/17. A quick and easy read. I enjoyed the setting in an ancient culture you don’t see in fiction too often; on the supernatural end, I particularly liked the bird people in the underworld, and the god wrapped in linen). The plot felt a little contrived and, once set in motion, pretty predictable (it’s not as if the lovers aren’t going to find a way to be together), but even so, it was sweet and fun to read.

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine: Finished 6/16/17. Really enjoyed this. The dragon and the ogre really did it for me.

The Four Hoods and Great Dog, by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer: Finished 6/22/17. I read this many, many times as a child, but just recently read it aloud to my daughter. She loved Great Dog and laughed a lot at Foudini.

The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1), by John Scalzi: Finished 6/24/17. I wanted to read some Scalzi and so checked this out as an eBook from the library. I was so sad when I got to the end and found out it’s his latest book and the first of a series! Now I have to wait for the end! Which speaks well of the book, because the situation is interesting and the characters are compelling. The primary players are excellent - I particularly like the Empress, and Kiva may be the most entertainingly foul-mouthed character I’ve ever encountered - but even the minor characters are memorable and interesting. Highly recommended, darn it.

The Other Einstein, by Marie Benedict: Finished 6/27/17. I picked this up because it was the “Big Read” in Philly and so there were unlimited e-copies available. At first I enjoyed it, but ultimately this book made me really angry. Benedict created a compelling character, but all along I was wondering how much of this story was really true. Was Albert Einstein really as awful as she paints him? And in the author’s note at the end, she doesn’t really address that, stating that the novel was her way of exploring the “what-ifs” of Mileva’s life. I really wanted more answers than that, which I suppose the world of physics has been feeling for a few decades, but still, as a novel it left me wanting more and feeling pretty angry.

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up (Tales from Deckawoo Drive #1), by Kate DiCamillo: Finished 6/29/17. Read this to my little one at bedtime (twice). I kept getting preoccupied by where he’s going to keep this horse and whether he can afford to feed it, but if you stop being a grownup for a few minutes it’s a really enjoyable little read, especially for fans of hot toast with a great deal of butter. My daughter liked it a lot and definitely worried about the horse during the storm scene.

You guys, we saw Hamilton. On Broadway. Eeee! And it completely lived up to the hype.

The occasion was F's 40th birthday, for which we'd planned a grownup weekend in NYC with another couple, F's best friend Mike (also celebrating his 40th) and wife Sarah. F and I went up on Friday afternoon, and Mike and Sarah joined us on Saturday morning. We knew we'd do a show on Saturday night, but Mike really, really wanted to see Hamilton. We eventually agreed that if he could get tickets for $300 each, we'd be in. So Friday night, F and I are drunk on bacon (for serious) and exploring Central Park when we start getting texts from Mike, who has found tickets. I'm not sure how he pulled it off, but he'd been looking online for weeks, and Sarah's dad had offered them some cash as a birthday gift toward getting theater tickets, and I believe the tickets were close enough to our $300 cap that Mike and Sarah just kicked in a little extra. So, yes, tickets were acquired the night before the show.

I needed to spend the first five minutes of the show suspending my disbelief that it would make sense to rap about a guy born in the 1700s who was best known for the US Treasury. Once I got past that, before the end of the first song, I was hooked. It was amazing. Surprisingly, the first half with the Revolutionary War was the uplifting part; I cried twice in the second half. I cried twice during a rap show about Alexander Hamilton. It was just so good. So many nuances and layers. Such amazing performances. I loved it so much.

Afterward, we adjourned to Lillie's Victorian Establishment for drinks and to decompress and talk about the show. We left there after 1, I think, and stopped for a slice of pizza on the way back to the hotel, which was an amazing idea. Got to bed around 2. Awesome night.

The Doll's House (The Sandman #2), by Neil Gaiman: Originally read in November 2005, reread 4/3/17. I didn't remember much of this. The serial killer convention was a little much for me these days, but I did enjoy the reread.

Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell: Finished 4/6/17. I started this as an audiobook on a day when I had a long drive to make by myself in the car (a thing that never happens anymore). Cath did get on my nerves, and I had some trouble understanding why these interesting people wanted to hang out with her. But the Simon Snow stuff was fun.

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening, by Marjorie M. Liu: Finished 4/12/17. Wow. The art is amazing, and the story is unique, with so many interesting plot threads and so much rich history. All the gory death and torture was pretty disturbing for me, but I will definitely read the next one.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1), by J.K. Rowling: Finished 4/16/17. My fourth reread, and OK, fine, I read this aloud to my four year old. I figured I'd read until it got too scary, but even toward the end she was hanging in okay, so I kept going. A LOT of it was over her head, but she seemed to really enjoy it, and the big bad reveal at the end was a total surprise to her. It was really a pleasure to read it with her, and I'm looking forward to doing it again in a few years.

I Liked My Life, by Abby Fabiaschi: Finished 4/20/17. Really, really enjoyed this, even if I was anticipating the twist at the end. A quick and engaging read, in one of my favorite niche genres, “ghost love stories”.

The Lost Princess of Oz (Oz, #11), by L. Frank Baum: Finished 4/30/17. Read this aloud with my daughter at bedtime. She enjoyed the mystery of it a lot and laughed pretty much every time I said "Cayke the Cookie Cook".

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin: First read in maybe 2002, reread 4/30/17. I was surprised how much I didn't remember: all the folk tales and anthropological bits, much of political machinations. I had remembered the book as being primarily (and endlessly) traveling over the ice, but that's really not even a third of the text (according to my friend Warren, who read it on an eReader and took note). My sci-fi book club read this on my suggestion, and it was the book that led to the most and deepest book-related conversation, so I was pretty proud.

Also, the copy my husband got out of the library had an interesting essay by Le Guin included at the end, about how she would have done things differently if she'd written the book later, and some alternate versions of chapters where she actually plays with the pronouns. This really added to my understanding and appreciation.

Genly isn't a particularly accessible character, and we know so little of his life before he came to Gethen (like, for example, why he would choose to give up everyone he'd ever known). But even without that backstory, by the end we see Genly opened. It's a sad book. I had forgotten the ending.

Christmas in Camelot (Magic Tree House, #29): Finished on 3/3/17. Was desperate for a book to read with my daughter and found this one as an eBook through the library, so we read it on my tablet, which she liked. In this one, all the joy and laughter has been magically sucked out of Camelot, and Jack and Annie have to go on a quest to find it, on the way rescuing Arthur's three bravest knights from certain death. Freya liked the part with the dragons.

Carnival at Candlelight (Magic Tree House, #33): Finished 2/19/17. I was psyched about this one because, first, they go to Venice, and secondly this is the first in a four-book run of which we’d already read all the others several times, and I had been wondering and wondering what happened in the first one. (Freya had no such issue and enjoyed this one because there was a flying lion and because Jack wore a silly costume.)

A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time (Magic Tree House, #44): Finished this for the second time on 3/18; I think we listened to it at least four times total. Freya now asked many questions about Charles Dickens, but she didn’t seem confused at all by the scene with the chimney sweeps (and she hasn’t seen Mary Poppins), so I’m wondering how much she missed here.

Dogs in the Dead of Night (Magic Tree House, #46)
Abe Lincoln at Last! (Magic Tree House, #47): Listened to these two in the car back in February. The Frey really enjoyed the antics of the silly dog, and hearing Jack and Annie transform into dogs, but we talked about Abraham Lincoln for DAYS. We also, coincidentally, listened to it right around Presidents Day. She was extremely interested in him as a president, in the fact that he died, in the fact that he had two young sons one of whom also died.

Balto of the Blue Dawn (Magic Tree House, #54): Finished 2/24/17
Night of the Ninth Dragon (Magic Tree House, #55): Finished 2/26/17. Listened to these two in the car, both at home and on the go in Orlando, FL. The dog sled one was popular because Jack and Annie got a puppy out of it, but the Camelot one was listened to over and over again. Just something about it captured her imagination. She loves the Camelot books particularly, I think. In unrelated news, if I have to listen one more time to the scene where Annie keeps saying "Bad DISEASE!" over and over, I may throw the CD out the window. One scene that comes across a lot better on paper than in audio, though I do appreciate Annie's cleverness with the yellow highlighter.

Sleepover Sleuths (Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew #1), by Carolyn Keene: Finished on 2/23/17. Freya got this free. It’s a cute concept to reinvent Nancy Drew for modern kids, but it’s way too girly, and it doesn’t read well aloud. I want to discourage further volumes in this series until my daughter can read them to herself.

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury (Ricky Ricotta, #2) (finished 2/16/17)
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Mecha Monkeys from Mars (Ricky Ricotta, #4)
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Jurassic Jackrabbits from Jupiter (Ricky Ricotta, #5)
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. The Stupid Stinkbugs from Saturn (Ricky Ricotta, #6)
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Uranium Unicorns from Uranus (Ricky Ricotta, #7)
by Dav Pilkey, Martin Ontiveros (Illustrations)
Freya is loving these formulaic graphic novels about a young mouse, his giant robot best friend, and the evil aliens they must defeat. The exact same thing happens in each volume, but that totally doesn’t matter. One thing we both really enjoyed, though, has been cousin Lucy’s character development over the series, as well as that of the Jurassic Jackrabbits, first introduced as bad guy minions in the Jupiter book and who later become small and cute and Lucy’s pets. I was totally delighted to find them coming back again to help Ricky and Lucy save the day. I also love how Lucy steals every scene she’s in. Neither of us particularly loves the flip animation action section in each book, though.

Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (Junie B. Jones #2), by Barbara Park: Finished 3/12/17. Freya’s class has been reading Junie B. at school and she loves her, so we got this one from the library to read at home (as well as an audio collection to listen to in the car, but this is the only one I’ve personally read all the way through). I find Junie to be pretty awful, honestly, and when we’ve been reading or listening to a lot of Junie B., we start getting behavior issues and have to remind her that if Junie gets in trouble when she does these things, Freya will also get in trouble. But in this book I was pretty entertained by the “little monkey” misunderstanding.

The Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh: Finished 3/25/17. Found this in our basement (it must have been a hand-me-down from a relative) and it was the right level of chapter book for bedtime reading so I brought it up. It was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1955, and on the whole it holds up okay in terms of story, plot, and readability, although the depictions of Native peoples were overly simplistic and caricatured. I’m willing to grant the book some slack in that Sarah’s perspective, as a child in 1707, is going to be biased against the Native people she meets, and the whole book is basically about how she overcomes her fears and discovers their kindness and humanity, but I just think Dalgliesh could have gone further in making the family Sarah meets into actual characters rather than pleasant brown cutouts who accept these White settlers without question. My daughter really liked the wilderness and Sarah’s bravery, though. We may be ready to dig into some Laura Ingalls.

Full title: The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country. Finished on 2/24/17, after starting it in December 2016 and not being able to finish it before my ebook expired and auto-returned itself to the library. I had to put myself on the waiting list to check the ebook out again, but once I got it, I finished it quickly. This actually reminded me a lot of Bringing Up Bébé, by Pamela Druckerman - both memoirs of English speaking white women trying to figure out a new life somewhere in continental Europe, I guess, both of whom end up extolling the virtues of their newly adopted cultures. Russell seems to be staying in Denmark, much like Druckerman in France, and the rest of us can try to incorporate their wisdom into our lives back at home.

Finished on 2/17/17. Really glad I read this.

Finished on 2/15/17. I was really disappointed by the conclusion to this series. The first book had such huge promise! But the big secret ultimately didn't make a whole lot of sense to me and felt underdeveloped. I would have liked this more if I hadn't liked the first book as much. Still a fun series, but not what I was hoping it would be.

Last night F and I went to see Mike Doughty at World Cafe Live (downstairs). The tickets were his Christmas present. It was a great show.

Leaving for the show, we had difficulty escaping from our clingy child, and it was freezing cold. We stopped and got butter on the way to the city (it stayed plenty cold in the car while we were at the show). Had no trouble finding the recommended parking garage or finding our way to the venue (F's first time there; my first time in several years).

Our tickets got us seats at a table, which was a great idea because we could arrive when doors opened and actually eat dinner without our offspring. F had the braised pork sandwich, which he loved. I had the vegan cheesesteak, which despite no actual cheese or steak was delicious. F had two beers; I had a beer and a glass of sauvignon blanc, and then the waitress mistakenly brought me another beer, which I drank most of; if I was going to have to spend another $8 I would have preferred a creme brulee, but the beer was open and in front of me and I don't know how I could have sent it back. A friendly guy named Cliff had the seat across from us at our table and told us stories about past Doughty shows he'd seen.

The opening band was Wheatus, whose big hit in around 2000 was "Teenage Dirtbag". Since then they've released six more albums, and I really liked their energy and sense of humor. The Wheatus folks were also part of Mike Doughty's backing band.

From the concert description (link above): "Doughty is touring with the largest band he's ever toured with: a cello/bass player, drums, another guitar player, an organ player, and a backing vocalist--six people on stage. The show consists of basically live remixing. Using hand gestures, Doughty improvises changes in what the musicians in the band are doing--stopping, starting, getting louder or quieter, changing their parts, repeating their parts. The songs are Soul Coughing songs and Doughty solo songs, but none are ever performed the same way twice."

It was really cool to see Doughty basically conducting his band - and everyone in the band also got a chance to lead and conduct too. Doughty clearly likes to be in control, but it's obviously in service to making the music really tight.

I only recognized three songs: "The Bells" (so awesome! I felt for the first time in a long time like this is going to be a really good year), the one about "looking at the world from the bottom of a well", and the one about how you "don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in". But I wasn't really expecting to recognize any songs, so I was pretty happy. The songs I didn't recognize were really strong, and I'm planning to look up Doughty's latest album, The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns.

After the show, we realized via Instagram that our friend Liz had also been there, but we were too late to find her and say hi. We had an uneventful trip home, which is just how I like things when coming home from the city late at night.

Really enjoyed this. Many of Greenberg's preoccupations mirror my own, and she writes them really well. Sometimes the ending to a particular piece (poem/mini-essay/whatever) felt a little flat, but overall this was clever and really resonated.