ramble, ramble :D

The semi-tropical Chicago summer has officially set in. It's been hellishly hot and stuffy for most of the day - and now it looks like there's going to be a small tornado.;) (Not that I'd ever seen a REAL one, mind you - but it's getting dark sooner than it should, and the wind is tossing clouds of dust - as well as some leaves and little twigs - around.)

Also, I spent most of Thursday and Friday evenings making another lovely folk music tape for my car player, as well as printing out gorgeous Viggo & Orli pics for my scrapbook.:) Yes, sometimes I do feel like a happy teenager.:D In the so-called meantime, more of my recently ordered CD's arrived - and I had a wild ball dancing to the 9-minute live version of The Strawbs' Where Is This Dream of Your Youth. There is so much FIRE in this piece - especially the untamed instrumental improvisation in the middle... *sigh* I had downloaded the song from Napster before - but it was a much shorter studio version, and it was bland. So I had to order the live album... and I am very happy that I did. It is a nice edition, with a beautiful cover and a quaint, old picture of the band inside (incidentally, one of the musicians looks EXACTLY like Billy Boyd in his Pippin wig... LOL). And now I actually have all the Strawbs' songs that I remembered from my favorite radio program - as well as some more that are just as breathtaking. So I can try putting them all on an mp3... (I wonder if I'll be able to figure out how - I'd never done that before... LOL)

And then there is Lacrimosa. Powerful, dark, mind-blowing gothic rock from Germany. Or symphonic black metal - or whatever else they call it.;) I don't care for labels - but the music is astounding. Very melodic, even lyrical at times - but still full of energy and force. Sweeping is the word, I believe.;) And there is lovely black&white artwork on the album covers, plus gorgeous photos inside; as well as lyrics in both English and German (the songs are performed in either of the two languages, i.e. some in English, some in German - but all the lyrics are provided in both). I still haven't had the time to savor it all properly - since I feel it would be a horrible offense to listen to THAT kind of music before nightfall ;) - but I get a thrill just looking at the covers. Oh God, I still have so much beauty to discover as far as music is concerned... I could never really afford to explore it to my heart's content - and now that I finally can, I am going to make up for the lost time as fast as possible... LOL.

And the movies... I have so many movies I want to see again that I don't know where to start (including LOTR, which I haven't watched in months). I won't even go into the list of books to read, for that will just make me frustrated. I can barely decide what to read as far as fanfic is concerned. I don't want to miss out on anything good, but I simply don't have the time to plunge into everything that floods my inbox. So I tend to just delete the stories that fail to intrigue me within the first paragraph. It is cruel, I know - but it is the only way. And so many fanfiction stories are like those American action thrillers - all based on the same scenario. Not that I could actually write something more original - if I could, I probably would have by now... LOL. Which is one of the main reasons I write so little - the thought that I would probably delete my own stuff after reading the first paragraph... *sigh*

Still, I often find myself frustrated with stories that have an interesting plot, but fail to follow some simple grammatical or logical rules of the English language. ( Read more... )