Bits and pieces

Since the fricking computer connection is too slow for me to read my daily news, here's a brief rundown of what I've been up to lately...by the way, as an officially out-of-work almost-housewife, I can officially state that housewifedom stinks. Get up, eat breakfast, take shower, feed pets, run laundry, let pets out, pay bills, buy groceries, rearrange bathroom, make dinner, go to bed...dear god, it's like a bad episode of the Brady Bunch. I would be a Valium-saturated woman if I were this age in the 1950s.

Books I've been reading:

• Don't Think of an Elephant (brilliant, provocative, brief)
• America, The Book (bawdy, provocative, bemusing)
• Trouble in Paradise (boring...well, mostly just boring. Hey, it's pre-thesis research. There aren't really any bestsellers out there that cover Latin American environmental justice.)
• What I wish I was reading: War Trash and The Crazed (Ha-Jin), In the Time of the Butterflies (Julia Alvarez), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, who has gone from being my high school nemesis to my most-admired British writer)

Music to which I've been listening:

• "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" ~ Bright Eyes (this album grows on me every time I hear it. The comparisons to Dylan do not seem unwarrented. It's genius...and, again, provocative.)
• My usual Death Cab for Cutie CDs. Oh, how I love them. I cringe every time I think I will leave the country without having seen them in concert.
• Martha Wainwright (Rufus' sister and Lauden's daughter) ~ Gotta love the eloquent, enraged female singer-songwriters. My new fix while Poe continues languishing in her unfortunate situation...not that the two are anything alike...
• The Mountain Goats ~ good, but possibly too depressing, even for me
• Things I should listen to soon: anything by Luna, the now-defunct indie band which I naturally discovered too late

Movies I've seen:

• Star Wars III ~ One hell of a lot better than the first, although it still pales in comparison to the originals. It had a few uber-cheesy lines and an inability to introduce strange alien "extras" with the continuity of the old episodes (e.g., Obi-wan's weird squawking bird-horse amalgamation - it only seemed to be present for the sake of having something unusual in the film)...it also is not for kids, although I can't tell you why if you haven't seen the end. The good: many psychological undercurrents that put a new twist on an old story. It's interesting that when the first three films came out, viewers and critics could accept a "good" and "bad" side without question. In today's movie, the lines are blurred...art reflects reality, perhaps?
• The Life Aquatic ~ Quirky, good for a rental, but sub-par compared to The Royal Tenenbaums
• Sideways ~ Oh, how I love this film...and I admit, I went and tried Pinot afterwards...oh baby. My new favorite red wine. Still, I must quibble with the Asian-American wild woman character, which was due for retirement about 100 years ago.
• Next up: I have to see Kinsey, Sometime in April, every freaking film at SIFF (the Seattle International Film Festival...insert lustful sigh here), Crash

Sadly, the highlight of my week was witnessing the incredible finish of yesterday's Preakness. If you don't know what I mean, Google "Afleet Alex" and "Preakness" -- that was racing history in the making. I also managed to hang out with some friends for an unprecedented afternoon and evening -- better not get used to this...Of course, I also suffered greatly tonight when my favorite trashy show (Desperate Housewives) and favorite medical drama (Grey's Anatomy) went into hiatus for the summer. I swear, if they don't get those in England, I might have to pay someone to put everything on Tivo for me...yeah, I know. I need a life. Trust me: for a graduate student with a wedding on the way, I don't think I'm doing half-bad!