(no subject)

[the_rck]

Should I renew Rose Lerner's In for a Penny again? I've had it eight weeks now, and I'm only halfway through it. I haven't picked it up in several weeks. I don't hate it, but I'm not sure I like it enough to make myself finish. It's a pity because I've heard so many great things about her as an author, and this is the only one of her books that the library has, so I can't try a different book of hers without going to a good bit of trouble or spending money.

I think I shall have to admit that I'm not going to finish Avatar the Last Airbender: The Rift. The combined volume is too large and heavy for me. I keep thinking about picking it up to read more, but I can't hold the dratted thing at a good reading distance if I'm sitting. That's not due until next Sunday, so I have a little leeway on the decision.

I've got seven new books on hold this week, but six of them are graphic novels that I should read rapidly. Three of those are so short that I'll likely finish each in under ten minutes even if I linger.

I tried to spend some time weeding my list of potential books on CD for Scott. There are a lot of things on that list simply because I had heard of them or of the author or because they are fantasy or SF. Scott wasn't very interested in the weeding, however, so I only got through about the first page (out of six).

Scott made tea this morning before work but neglected to drink it. The full mug is still sitting on the counter with the teabag still steeping. Scott doesn't seem to mind bitter tea, so he may still drink it when he gets home. I don't know.

Scott did the grocery shopping yesterday. He bought two bottles of shampoo when he meant to buy conditioner. The shampoo is roughly the same color as the conditioner I usually use, so I think he didn't look at the label. I can't use the shampoo until after Thanksgiving, and Cordelia is supposed to use dandruff shampoo, so the bottles will sit for a while.

I looked at a FAQ for a newish product last night and got fairly confused because most of the questions and answers repeated several times. I couldn't figure out if they expected their readers to be stupid or if they just had a set amount of space to fill and couldn't come up with enough to fill it.

I went to an FFA gathering at the Espresso Royale on Plymouth yesterday. We scheduled around the football game, but we ran late enough that I think people still ran into traffic trouble anyway. There were three of us there. We hadn't thought to arrange any way of recognizing each other, so two of us sat there for twenty minutes or so wondering if anyone else was going to show up. We had fun talking once we found each other, though, so it was over all enjoyable.

Amazon has decided to recommend a lot of music to me from the 1950s and early 1960s (and some later stuff). I've been trying the various artists on YouTube and then seeing if the library has any CDs by the ones I maybe like. There have been five artists I definitely liked, based on 20-30 minutes of music, and another ten that I maybe liked. Then there are thirty one artists I'm definitely not interested in hearing more of. I tried to give each artist more than one song, just in case the first one that I disliked wasn't typical.

Comments

[escritoireazul]

I went to an FFA gathering at the Espresso Royale on Plymouth yesterday. We scheduled around the football game, but we ran late enough that I think people still ran into traffic trouble anyway. There were three of us there. We hadn't thought to arrange any way of recognizing each other, so two of us sat there for twenty minutes or so wondering if anyone else was going to show up. We had fun talking once we found each other, though, so it was over all enjoyable.

I'm so intrigued by FFA gatherings. I hope to live somewhere that has one sometime. (And I miss that Espresso Royale.)

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Now I'm curious about the artists you liked. Between us, Bruce and I have a decent selection of music from the 1950s and 1960s (I also have a goodish bunch of what I call World War II songs, although a lot of them are not actually related to the war, just to the 1940s.) We might be able to assemble you a care package of stuff you might like.

FFA?

[the_rck]

The folks I've tried and definitely liked:

Harry Belafonte (I already own a good bit of his stuff)
Chuck Berry
Chad Mitchell Trio
Buddy Holly
Johnny Horton
Irish Rovers (I own one CD, I think)
Ben E. King
Kingston Trio (I own one CD)
Limelighters
Ricky Nelson
New Lost City Ramblers
Marty Robbins

The folks I need to hear more by to be sure whether or not I like them:

Coasters
Crystals
Sammy Davis Jr
Drifters
Connie Francis
Tommy James and the Shondells
Clyde McPhatter
Platters
Lloyd Price
Diana Ross and the Supremes
Shirelles
Temptations
Sarah Vaughan

The library has something by each of these apart from Tommy James and the Shondells. I thought there wasn't any Sammy Davis Jr., but it turns out that the library doesn't include the 'Jr' in his name in their online catalog.

I did not much enjoy the following:

Tony Bennett
Solomon Burke
Jerry Butler
Petula Clark
Bing Crosby
Doris Day
Diabulus in Musica
Fats Domino
Marvin Gaye
Eydie Gorme
Roy Hamilton
Lena Horne
Bert Kaempfert
Eartha Kitt
Brenda Lee
Peggy Lee
Little Anthony and the Imperials
Los Lobos
Henry Mancini
Marvelettes
New Christy Minstrels
Wilson Pickett
Rascals
Lou Rawls
Della Reese
Jim Reeves
Jimmy Ruffin
Sam & Dave
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Kay Starr
Jerry Vale
Bobby Vee
Mary Wells
Andy Williams
Jackie Wilson

I've still got about fifty artists that Amazon recommends that I haven't tried yet.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

I know I have the Limelighters and the more folky of your picks. Let me rummage around my giant beast of a music folder and see what I have of the others. Would you like some cd copies of what I do have?

[the_rck]

Sorry to take so long getting back to you. I've really let email and comment responses slide in the last couple of months. I apologize.

I would definitely be interested in whatever you have.

I'm very definitely interested in the following folks (the asterisk indicates that the local library doesn't own any of their CDs):

Belafonte, Harry.
Bellamy, Peter.
Berry, Chuck.
Bok, Gordon.
Cash, Johnny.
Chad Mitchell Trio.
Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem.
Cline, Patsy.
Como, Perry.
*Cumberland Three.
Flatt & Scruggs.
*Foley, Blaze.
Full English Quartet (Dr Fay Hield, University of Sheffield; Nancy Kerr, Musician; Rob Harbron, Musician; Ben Nicholls, Musician).
Hield, Fay.
*Highwaymen (1960s folk group).
Holly, Buddy.
*Horton, Johnny.
Irish Rovers.
*James, Sonny.
*Kerr, Nancy & James Fagan.
Kingston Trio.
Lawson, Doyle and Quicksilver.
Limelighters.
Maccoll, Ewan.
McPhatter, Clyde.
Nelson, Ricky.
New Lost City Ramblers.
Ochs, Phil.
Planxty.
Prine, John.
*Quadriga Consort.
Marty Robbins.
Roberts, John & Tony Barrand.
Rusby, Kate.
*Shepard, Jean.
Sizemore, Charlie.
Smiley, Red.
Staines, Bill.
Stanley, Ralph.
Steeleye Span.
Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Weavers.

I have a much longer list of folks who I think I might be interested in but am not sure enough to put them on the absolutely yes list, and I have a very, very, very long list of things I'm not interested in. I think I got pickier as I went along. Early on, not being offensive was enough to get someone on the maybe list. But my main criterion was whether or not I'd be willing to spend money on the music I tried on YouTube.

How have you been doing recently? I haven't seen you post in a while.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Dumb question: What is FFA?

[the_rck]

It's a community on DreamWidth, fail_fandomanon. All comments there are supposed to be anonymous. The discussion covers a lot of fannish stuff and a lot of other things, too. I go back and forth about whether or not it's worthwhile because I sometimes find it stressful, but it's also interesting and fills time without requiring my brain to do much.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!