This Means War

I watched this movie over the weekend and I've been watching bits of it every night after I come home from work. It's just an adorable movie about two spies (best friends, no less) pining over the golden blonde, gorgeous girl. Although it's a typical romantic comedy with an utterly predictable ending (which I liked, by the way), I still love it. It's a good movie for anyone with spare time. It has bits and pieces of Gustav Klimt, guns, cars blowing up and a silly but hilarious scene involving a Friday Night Spy version of This Is How We Do It. I've always liked Reese Witherspoon and I cannot, for my life, stop staring at the gorgeous eyebrows framing those deep blue eyes of Chris Pine. What are you doing? Watch it! 

Here are some other links I've read this week: 

Why Phillip Phillips won American Idol. - SoCal baby Jessica Sanchez losing to Phillip Phillips of the Mid West is perhaps the most upsetting news in our country today, after the soap opera over at our Impeachment Court and the constant push and pull between respecting LGBT rights and Church dogma.

Speaking of American Idol babies, have you seen Katherine McPhee playing a naive theater ingenue on Smash? Why haven't you started a TV marathon yet? It's like Glee for Broadway babies and theater nerds. This is the show Rachel Berry would watch and follow until oblivion had she been a real person. 

Slate Magazine (a sister magazine of Foreign Policy) explains how cranes get on top of tower skyscrapers. (I've always wondered how. You have been, too.) Slate also has a piece on the best comedy/mockumentary show out there today, Modern Family, on its cold-witted but warm-hearted humor. I love that show. 

Facebook and the redefinition of public space from Rappler. Follow Facebook's stocks here. 

Sweet Bonus: Life inside Facebook from Time Techland because it is the coolest office in the world right now.

Deadly Meetings in the Workplace from WSJ. I think this is quite helpful especially if you're with a team or a department that conducts weekly or daily meetings. Which one are you?

I love these very unscientific drawings about the anatomy of sea life over at pleated-jeans. I love the octopus best, of course. *cough* 

Favorite cooking blogs: Momofuku for two (because I do not live in New York and therefore, don't have access to the Momofuku Ssam Bar anytime I want to) and breakfast & brunch recipes from 101 cookbooks. I am happy to note that I have finally perfected fritata for one. Wee! 

Lastly, Stephen Walt's smart-ass article about the recently concluded G8 convention. I especially love the wonderful Star Trek convention reference, although I'm pretty sure Sheldon Cooper will beg to digress. Bonus: How to refute the logic of a Thomas Friedman op-ed, in which by imploring Michael Bloomberg to run for president, Thomas Friedman refutes the past version of himself. And in an excellent display of reason, Stephen Walt lists ten things that would have happened had neocons backed off and let realists run U.S. foreign policy.

Links I love: Fab Five Edition

Hello! Here are the links I love this week.

How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings) - I love this quote from Steve Jobs:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” 

Why We Love: 5 Books on the Psychology of Love or What Oscar Wilde has to do with Hippocrates and the neurochemistry of romance.

Harry Benson’s Luminous Black-and-White Photographs of The Beatles, 1964-1966, From pillow fights to world domination, or what Beatlemania has to do with Jesus Christ - because a young Paul McCartney is one of my favorite faces in the world:

Sheryl Sandberg and the male dominated world of Silicon Valley. I've always liked profiles by the New Yorker, and this lengthy read is no exception. Shery Sandberg is one of the women I look up to, what with her gift for organizing and mobilizing structures and people, excellence in execution and overall personality. She is everything I want in a leader. My favorite snippet of the article, however, ties her success as a fruit of solid and extensive mentoring--which is really important when you are at the start of your career--and how it is hard for other women in the workforce to find someone akin to Larry Summers today.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who directs the Gender and Policy program at Columbia, read Sandberg’s speech and took exception. “I think Sandberg totally underestimates the challenge that women face,” she says. Hewlett agrees with Sandberg that women must be more assertive, but she believes Sandberg simply doesn’t understand that there is a “last glass ceiling,” created not by male sexists but by “the lack of sponsorship,” senior executives who persistently advocate for someone to move up. A third of upper-middle managers are now women—“the marzipan layer”—she notes. This number has increased in recent years, but the women aren’t rising to the top. She believes that Sandberg is insufficiently aware of this problem because she has benefitted from sponsors: “Sandberg, to her great credit, had Larry Summers. She has had sponsors in her life who were very powerful, who went to bat for her. That’s very rare for a woman.”

And lastly, a profile on the golden child of our generation, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. In a world that's in constant flux and  chaos, do we really want or need that kind of accessibility? 

Zuckerberg’s critics argue that his interpretation and understanding of transparency and openness are simplistic, if not downright naïve. “If you are twenty-six years old, you’ve been a golden child, you’ve been wealthy all your life, you’ve been privileged all your life, you’ve been successful your whole life, of course you don’t think anybody would ever have anything to hide,” Anil Dash, a blogging pioneer who was the first employee of Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type, said. Danah Boyd, a social-media researcher at Microsoft Research New England, added, “This is a philosophical battle. Zuckerberg thinks the world would be a better place—and more honest, you’ll hear that word over and over again—if people were more open and transparent. My feeling is, it’s not worth the cost for a lot of individuals.”

Filed in: Beautiful Books

Links I love! (Because I have nothing to offer you but the possibility of procrastination)

• I love and want all of Coralie Bickford-Smith's Penguin Classics covers. 
• In music, Tupac Shakur was back on stage (as a hologram) performing with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
• Today seems like a good day to re-read a masterful 2011 magazine piece on what the Secret Service does.
• When Did Hillary Clinton Become the Coolest Person on the Planet?
• The Atlantic asks, "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? As a society we're more isolated than ever. Is social media to blame?"
• The Top 10 Racy Novels--that awkward moment when erotica tales become literary sensations, and you just can't get enough. 

And finally, if you are a slave to your inbox like many corporate drones today:

Read so hard, libraries want to fine me.

How can you not love a rap song with a line like, "You use a Kindle? I carry spines..."

"He said Shay let's get married at the Strand, his Friday Reads so bad, he can't have my hand."
"Nerdy boy, he's so slow. Tuesday, we start with Foucault. He's still stuck on the intro? He's a no goooo."
"That shit cray. Explainy, ain't it, A? What you readin'? (de Montaigne)"
"You ball so hard? Okay, you're bowling but I read so hard, I'm J.K. Rowling." 
"War and Peace? Piece of cake. Read Tolstoy in three days, straight through, no delays, didn't miss a word, not one phrase"


And my personal favorite, "Burroughs, Golding, Shakespeare--all dead". Hahaha. Tangina this. 


This print's rare,
R

Mississippi Mud Baby Cakes

 Here are the links I love for this week:

• The foreign language of Mad Men from The Atlantic
• The benefit of bilingualism in The New York Times
• It's lonely at the top -- is China the world's loneliest superpower? 
• Daniel Drezner's So you want to get into a PhD program in Political Science? part one and  the best paragraph he's ever read in a dissertation prospectus. Clearly, I enjoy reading his blog. 
• A recipe for steak salads (but let's not trim the fat!), what I had for lunch yesterday and what I'll have for lunch tomorrow. You're welcome. 
• Another recipe for oreo cheesecake cookies, because what's life without the sugar and spice? 
• In your honor, a recipe for Mississippi Mud Baby Cakes (pictured up top, with marshmallow cream).

Here we come, in praise of the sun

In the summer of 2010, my good friend K put up an "Endless Summer, Endless Youth" mix and let me tell you, what a gem of a mix it is. It has, among many things, a fun Major Lazer track, Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks (Yes, y'all are two years too late), Let's Go Surfing from The Drums  and  my personal favorite--the "I wish I had a boyfriend, I wish I had a loving man in my life..." intro to Girls' Lust for Life. I'm not going to post a mix but I figured I'd do a little list of the old and the not-so-old songs I've been listening to because a.) it's summer and b.) I kind of miss the beach. Not just any beach though, this.

• Swimsuits - The Cool Kids ft. Mayer Hawthorne
• Beautiful - Pharell & Snoop Dogg
• Lust for Life - Girls
• Call It What You Want - Foster The People
• My Sun - The Temper Trap
• Honey Bunny - Girls
• Georgia - Yuck
• Learnalilgivinanlovin - Gotye

What will you be up to this summer? Traveling elsewhere, I hope.

Summer is here!

Happy Friday! Here are the links I love for the week:

• What are the chances of you being here? A graphic-heavy but celebrate life-y poster on the miracle that is Y-O-U! 
• The poverty line: What does being poor actually look like? (A photo essay of food a person living below the poverty line could buy from Foreign Policy.)
• Happy International Women's Day! Amy Chua profiles four female tycoons in China who bucked tradition to get very, very rich. I especially like the first sentence, "Like a relentless overachiever, China is eagerly collecting superlatives."
• Baked omelette with asparagus recipe from La Tartine Gourmand (You must recreate this but not before checking out the lovely photos of eggs and things in the same post!)
• How can you be smart, pretty and (less) awkward?
• The Myth of Funemployment from Thought Catalog. Look, I know I shouldn't be wasting your time by linking TC articles but this one's too close to an impending quarter-life crisis to resist.
• On Art & "Literature": The end of an era--Prospero writes that the beguiling lure of Chick Lit is finally waning. Also, a really nice article about the Steins in Paris, acquiring Matisse and Picasso like it's nobody but their family's business.
  
  

Random, but greatly recurring thought: I want a bulldog so bad.

Ogling puppies at the pet store every weekend is counterproductive but I can't help it,
Reisha

Happy Friday!

What will you be up to this weekend? As for me, I couldn't be happier that February is almost over and though things are yet to fall into place, the worst has come and gone. Anyway, here are the links I love for today:

• This week, I've been having one-too-many crepe cakes. You've got to try these, they're delicious! The baker used to be a pastry chef for NY's Dean & Deluca, so you know she knows the good stuff!
• Dining After Downton Abbey, why English food isn't as famous as it used to be.
• The most adorable puppy photos by Bruce Weber (for Vanity Fair)
• The wonderful Grant Gustin, all lovely and sexy singing Glad You Came
• John Steinbeck on Falling in Love  (My professor tweeted this link and it's such a nice letter that I kind of feel like it's meant to be shared. It also reminds me of a site I really love, http://www.lettersofnote.com/)
• The pleasure of re-reading: How Reading Books More Than Once is good for the health. (Hah, I'm not crazy! Hooray! Auntie Jane will be pleased. And by Auntie Jane, I mean Miss Austen because I read her books more than I read the things I should be reading.)
• Also, I finished reading Matched last night so I'm starting the second book, Crossed, this weekend. I guess this means I'm back reading YA and finally out of my romance novel reading phase which, in this last few weeks, I have come to know as the Venus flytrap of reading addictions. (It is interesting to note that the idea for these reading selections came from one person, we shall call her Mary.)
• A recipe for Ginger Scallion Sauce from Lottie + Doof. Finalement! I've been looking for this everywhere.
• Last weekend, in a snapshot (Filed in: Sometimes, I'm really happy I have work and that I have people beyond my level who I can talk to--it's fun because they have more to share!): 

A late happy heart's day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope yours was a good one. Here are the links I love for this week:

• I didn't get any macarons this year but it would've been nice if I did.
• Things we can all learn from Jeremy Lin (Forbes).
• Adele's interview in Vogue. I love this part,   “I am quite loud and bolshie,” she says (British slang for unruly and clamorous). “I’m a big personality. I walk into a room, big and tall and loud.” Bonus: quotes from Adele's album of love from Huffington Post. 
• Brainy models changing the catwalk, God help us all (normal women in the world) in The Economist. 
• PDA: Presidential Display of Affection from Foreign Policy, photos of world leaders locking lips, gazing wistfully, and other awkward moments.
• 55 Powerful Photos from 1955-2011 (winners from Every World Press, a yearly photo contest in Amsterdam) and a look at a novelty Chinese Sex Toy Factory (made me remember the film Lars and the Real Girl and the fact that sex is, in many ways, a trade).
• The trailer for Pride and Prejudice (2005). I didn't have time to read Pride and Prejudice this Valentine's day (I always do) but I did start and end my day watching this film. It is my favorite film of all time--the electricity, the beautiful screenplay, the amazing soundtrack c/o Dario Marianelli. Oh goodness, this movie is a dream. 

Don't Date A Girl Who Reads

"...nothing sucks worse than a girl who reads. Do it, I say, because a life in purgatory is better than a life in hell. Do it, because a girl who reads possesses a vocabulary that can describe that amorphous discontent as a life unfulfilled—a vocabulary that parses the innate beauty of the world and makes it an accessible necessity instead of an alien wonder. A girl who reads lays claim to a vocabulary that distinguishes between the specious and soulless rhetoric of someone who cannot love her, and the inarticulate desperation of someone who loves her too much. A vocabulary, god damnit, that makes my vacuous sophistry a cheap trick.

Do it, because a girl who reads understands syntax. Literature has taught her that moments of tenderness come in sporadic but knowable intervals. A girl who reads knows that life is not planar; she knows, and rightly demands, that the ebb comes along with the flow of disappointment. A girl who has read up on her syntax senses the irregular pauses—the hesitation of breath—endemic to a lie. A girl who reads perceives the difference between a parenthetical moment of anger and the entrenched habits of someone whose bitter cynicism will run on, run on well past any point of reason, or purpose, run on far after she has packed a suitcase and said a reluctant goodbye and she has decided that I am an ellipsis and not a period and run on and run on. Syntax that knows the rhythm and cadence of a life well lived.

Date a girl who doesn’t read because the girl who reads knows the importance of plot. She can trace out the demarcations of a prologue and the sharp ridges of a climax. She feels them in her skin. The girl who reads will be patient with an intermission and expedite a denouement. But of all things, the girl who reads knows most the ineluctable significance of an end. She is comfortable with them. She has bid farewell to a thousand heroes with only a twinge of sadness.

Don’t date a girl who reads because girls who read are the storytellers. You with the Joyce, you with the Nabokov, you with the Woolf. You there in the library, on the platform of the metro, you in the corner of the café, you in the window of your room. You, who make my life so god damned difficult. The girl who reads has spun out the account of her life and it is bursting with meaning. She insists that her narratives are rich, her supporting cast colorful, and her typeface bold. You, the girl who reads, make me want to be everything that I am not. But I am weak and I will fail you, because you have dreamed, properly, of someone who is better than I am. You will not accept the life that I told of at the beginning of this piece. You will accept nothing less than passion, and perfection, and a life worthy of being storied. So out with you, girl who reads. Take the next southbound train and take your Hemingway with you. I hate you. I really, really, really hate you."

- From You Should Date An Illiterate Girl by Charles Wanke (I know we've all had enough of these Date A Girl Who *insert favorite hobby in the world here* but I couldn't resist. I loved this.)

Here comes the sun, little darling

Ten things that make me happy (We're celebrating despite this week being an extremely crappy week because the fact that I can tell that it's a crappy week means I've already had happier, better ones. Things like that are celebratory enough):

1. Reading good books

2. My own personal spirit team. In this age of listlessness and general uncertainty, it's so easy to give up on everything you once wanted or thought you needed. It's easy to convince yourself that you are not good at it, that the journey is long and hard, and that all signs point to the exit door. But while it's so easy to give up on yourself,  it's not so easy to let friends and family down especially when they believe in you, when they see something in you that you don't see yourself. With that, you try harder even if you don't want to anymore. You begin to become more resilient. And the fruits of resilience, as we all know, is just magnificent.
3. Tequila Rose margaritas and/or Strawberry flavored Grand Margaritas
4. Grey's Anatomy and Happy Endings, but mostly Derek Shepherd and all that hair. (A close runner-up would be Teddy Altman and her chiseled cheekbones accentuated by her big, goddess of a hair)
5. Stamps on my passport because there is nothing more spectacular than the pleasure of leaving
6. Movies that remind me of my childhood like Matilda and Little Rascals
7. Long conversations over coffee
8. Humility and generosity from accomplished people because there is a certain, almost Nirvana-like sense of security that only success (or an extremely well-rounded and healthy personality) can bring. There is nothing more humbling or inspiring than seeing someone so successful rise above it all, while other people scramble around for whatever it is they're looking for. Speaking of accomplished people, I love this Foreign Policy article on Condoleezza Rice and this foreign policy heavy transcript of Madame Secretary's interview with TIME (not that they fit what I just wrote but I multi-task, so.)
9. Fun (fictional) stories like New York's 20 Under 10 from Thought Catalog 
10.  The chance to feel and the chance to start all over again. Down days are temporary. Emotions are temporary. Voluminous amounts of sadness, anger, and depression come and go so it's okay to fight them and it's perfectly alright to feel them. It's okay to be sad, broken, and moody because these feelings are not permanent. We don't have to be happy all the time and when we feel less than stellar, that only means that after the dark and twisty days, we're going to run into happiness once again.

I think happiness is hard work. It is impossible to be happy all the time and to feel that everything is fine and dandy, especially in a world where disappointment management is routine. Life can sometimes feel like a confusing cycle of all things shitty and wonderful, of good luck and impeccably bad timing, of love and loss and the good can sometimes feel incommensurate with the bad. That doesn't mean that we have to stop working for what makes us happy, though. And to work for your happiness means feeling both sadness and glee to a fault, to push yourself into finding something hopeful amidst the bad: when you fail a test you wanted to ace, when friends say something that sting, when friends suddenly turn into strangers, when there is just too much going on yet you feel like it's all going nowhere, when you are sick, when you don't see eye to eye with your parents, when the general feeling of listlessness suddenly overwhelms you, when life isn't just as peachy as you planned it to be three years ago, when you don't feel like you will ever be enough, when you feel like you're being left behind, when you feel stuck, when you miss the people who are far away or those who are gone forever, when you feel like your whole world is held up by a thread that will snap one day soon, so that you can discern for yourself what is the real balance of happy and sad and how you gain something for anything and everything that you lack.

And when you do, when the dust settles back into the ground and you finally go back to all that is good and fantastic, tell the whole world about it. Truth be told, we could all use a little jolt of something bright. We all love a promise to a happy ending. Smile. The dog days are over or at least they will be, very soon. All will be well.

Let me leave you with a short list of songs that I listen to whenever I feel less than stellar:

1. The Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine

Happiness hit her like a train on a track, coming towards her stuck, still no turning back 

2. The Ills - Mayer Hawthorne / Mr. Blue Sky - Mayer Hawthorne

You know the ills of this world they can get you down but then you get back up

3. Dust Me Off - Tilly and the Wall

Got to remember to fight off the darkness that comes in, sometimes 

Turn that sorrow into something that feels right

4. White Nights - Oh Land

There's a restlessness in me, keeps me up until the dawn

There is no silence, I will keep following the sirens

5. Roll With The Punches - Lenka

When life tries to knock all the wind out of you, you've got to roll, roll, roll with the punches

If all life offers is black and blue, you've got to roll, roll, roll with the punches

6. Clockwatching - Jason Mraz

Let's get backwards, and forget our restless destination

Let's live in the moment just in time, could we? 

7. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club

Something good can work and it can work for you, and you know that it will

Let's get this started girl, we're moving up, we're moving up

It's been a lot to change but you will always get what you want

and my personal favorite...

8. Let's Dance to Joy Division - The Wombats

Let's dance to joy division, and celebrate the irony

Everything is going wrong, but we're so happy

Let's dance to joy division, and raise our glass to the ceiling

 Cos this could all go so wrong, but we're so happy

Culture Curious

In which The New York Times stroke your ego to get proper feedback because survey pop-ups are so uncool like¹. 

I took a short personality quiz from The New York Times today and I think it's very clever on their part to come up with a visual DNA personality quiz to get feedback from their readership. I read NYT all the time but like most people, I choose not to answer the reader feedback surveys they used to have. Anyway, this is really nice and because I am my number one pimpfan, I think it to be true. Try it yourself. 

PS. Here's my result:

You are culturally adve nturous in all walks of life and love to explore different avenues of tastes and trends. Because your body is also important to you, you look for flavors that are unusual but still healthy and delicious, and you are constantly on the lookout for the next food trend. When all is said and done, you are a bit of an intellect with a tendency to do a spot of soul searching from time to time. 


You're sophisticated and inquisitive with a real passion for art and culture. You pride yourself on being an early adopter of the latest music and films and always like to have a good book on the go. Your ability to bring together very diverse and even dissenting opinions is rooted in your appreciation for all points of view. You believe in immersing yourself in interesting experiences that make you look at people, places and opportunities from new angles. Being sensitive and creative you want to feel connected to the world around you and actively seek out opportunities to explore it. It's all about broadening your horizons and living life to the full. Anything else would not fulfill your curious nature. You'll love the list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, the Critics' Picks and Arts Beat.

How you like me now? ;) *shades on, hair flip*

_____________
¹ This is a Charlie reference.

44 Bookers in 25 Words Each

The Man Booker Prize, for the best novel published in the past year by a citizen of a country in the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, is one of the most prestigious literary accolades given for a single work of fiction in the English-speaking world. In light of the October 18th announcement of the 2011 prize, the Review's editors asked Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the U.S. National Book Awards, to provide a bite-sized "take" on each Booker or Man Booker recipient (its sponsorship changed in the 1990s). He responded with precisely 25 words on each and every winner.


1969 -- Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby -- Who? Shockingly good. Graham Greene crossed with Steve Erickson: Personal and political melt into a man without memory. Appropriate that the Booker was a newbie.


1970 -- The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens -- Abraham and Sarah raise a different sort of dysfunctional brood. This is Sholem Aleichem's "Tevya and His Daughters" made into a wonderfully contemporary, psychological novel.


1971 -- In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul -- No one writes better about how oppression oppresses everyone it touches, including the oppressor. The book's last section is subtly complex and brilliantly nuanced. Marvelous.


1972 -- G. by John Berger -- Truly a reader's book, with hints of Marx and Stendhal and Robbe-Grillet hiding within. No one mixes reason and art like Berger, every sentence intriguing.


1973 -- The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell -- Start with a measure of stupid British commercial imperialism, add spoonfuls of ironic heroism, Anglican bible-thumping, and Victorian sexual naiveté. A real romance of cynicism.

1974 (shared) -- The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer -- Everyone talks about Gordimer and race in South Africa, but she's an incomparable artist with words, on every page a gem worth repeating to friends.


1974 (shared) -- Holiday by Stanley Middleton -- Middleton shows consummate craft in an exploration of marriage told in flashback. So many Bookers take place near water; it should be the (Sea)Man Booker.

1975 -- Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala -- Hard to believe that this book was written by a German-Jewish woman from Britain. A stingingly vivid embedding of alienation in an alienating country.


1976 -- Saville by David Storey -- I love British class-accent-based coming-of-age novels that civilly depict uncivilized behavior. Sons and Lovers without the paternal abuse and Lawrence's overbearing ideology, an immerging story.


1977 -- Staying On by Paul Scott -- This belongs to the "What were we thinking?" School of British Literature. It's not post-colonial, it's post-purpose. Read it with Scott's Raj Quartet: They intersect.

1978 -- The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch -- Insightful story of a retired man who pretends that forty years of an unfulfilled life do not exist. Intellectually intriguing and emotionally compelling: A masterpiece.


1979 -- Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald -- Creeps up on you, like the tide, with great story rhythms. Chock-full of pathos, few sentences stand out, but the whole makes up for it.


1980 -- Rites of Passage by William Golding -- When historical fiction overlays contemporary sensibilities onto the past instead of trying to approximate that era's sensibilities (see The French Lieutenant's Woman), a corker results

1981 -- Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- Winner of the Booker of Bookers (twenty-fifth and fortieth anniversaries). Not only one of the best but most representative of what the Bookers look for.


1982 -- Schindler's List (published in the U.K. asSchindler's Ark) by Thomas Keneally -- Novel? History? Doesn't matter. Keneally smartly situates victims and survivors at the center. Powerful reminder of when compassion battles brutality…and wins…but only sometimes.


1983 -- Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee -- It may be a cliché, but this book is like a traffic accident observed in slow motion. You grimace constantly but you can't look away.


1984 -- Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner -- As languidly sensual as the English get (again with the water!). In America they would call this a "snowbound" book, a modern classic of regret.


1985 -- The Bone People by Keri Hulme -- Reads like it was tapped out on a manual typewriter in a wilderness shack by a first-timer. Visceral and affecting. Among the Bookers, sui generis.


1986 -- The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis -- Codgers and regrets go together like horses and carriages. Not Amis's best, but it's a cohesive portrait of aging curmudgeons by the quintessential aging curmudgeon.


1987 -- Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively -- The most attractive, unrepentant female curmudgeon ever, passionate sex, intellectually exciting, and socially upending. My first Fitzgerald: couldn't put it down, will read it again.
1988 -- Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey -- Carey specializes in extraordinary people in uncivilized environments. His language grows more ambitious with each book, with greater risks and more accomplishment. Read 'em all


1989 -- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -- I have read three perfect novels in my life, and this is one of them. The British class system as realism, symbolism, and metaphor. Brilliant.


1990 -- Possession by A. S. Byatt -- One hopes that literary prizes get it right sometimes. This is one of those times. Read slowly and carefully, and don't skip over the poetry.


1991 -- The Famished Road by Ben Okri -- Raises the coming-of-age novel to the thrill of epic, candidate for the Great Nigerian Novel. Okri is a worthy successor to Achebe, predecessor to Adichie.


1992 (shared) -- Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth -- A post-swashbuckling saga of corrupt antiheroes on the Main, highly structured and powerfully languaged, a call-and-response plotting of moral relativism before the British abolition of slavery's Triangle Trade.


1992 (shared) -- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje -- The love stories twist you in knots while the beauty of Ondaatje's language creates an internal landscape to match the sublime vastness of the desert.


1993 -- Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle -- The title explains much of it. A kid's romp in the not-quite-mean streets, and one of the best evocations of the "loomingness" of childhood.


1994 -- How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman -- Who hasn't awakened in an alley missing his shoes? Portrait of the downsliding of a soon-to-be down-and-out, the prose style mirrors the story's blithery content.

1995 -- The Ghost Road by Pat Barker -- One of the best "if war is hell then the First World War is heller" subgenre books of political conflict writing. Like someone's dark soul imprinted.


1996 -- Last Orders by Graham Swift -- A really affecting novel of community and 
regret, though since The Big Lebowski no one can throw a crematee into the sea without comic relief.


1997 -- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy -- One of those books that people say you should read because of its themes; instead, read it (aloud) for the sheer pleasure of hearing words


1998 -- Amsterdam by Ian McEwan -- McEwan is Britain's big-concept, zeitgeist writer, whose personal stories engage with political ideas. Always intelligent and readable, Amsterdam's his take on death and dying.


1999 -- Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee -- Coetzee could win the Man Booker with every book. A man steadily loses control; in the face of gathering darkness, his social presence turns translucent.

2000 -- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood -- Character-driven and illusive, the dissatisfactions of women intertwine in the fictions they tell themselves and one another through the generations. Kate Chopin meets Robertson Davies.


2001 -- True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey -- For Americans, a revelation that other places had legendary bandits (Robin Hood? Joaquin Murrieta?). Carey's fabulous style creates a link between language and life story.


2002 -- Life of Pi by Yann Martell -- The fable that made the Booker fabulous, mingling Robinson Crusoe, Steinbeck's story "Lifeboat," Animal Planet, and Khalil Gibran. Don't believe the overhype: It reads good.


2003 -- Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre -- The least British British novel I've ever read. Absorbing, more Denis Johnson than Samuel Johnson, with gangly prose as if written by a stringy convict.


2004 -- The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst -- Class and sex, sex and class. It beautifully brings out the 
status of gay men as "ethnics," in an otherwise traditional British tale of "passing."

2005 -- The Sea by John Banville -- Another Booker about old men and the sea (see Murdoch, 1978). Few novelists write more beautiful prose than Banville…and most of them are dead.


2006 -- The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai -- It's hard not to admire this book. A big, heart-rending story of Indians who leave and Indians who stay, and those who came and went.


2007 -- The Gathering by Anne Enright -- Very earnest story of sex, death, family, and middle-age desire. The sentences are so astoundingly ambitious that their risk-taking beauty can keep you from sobbing.


2008 -- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga -- Surprisingly good, because some literary pundits badmouthed it for lack of complexity. The best of what happens when a journalist writes a socially relevant novel.

2009 -- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel -- English history is a fetish for the Brits, like Star Wars for the Yanks: They love to parade in costumes and jostle with their (anti)heroes.


2010 -- The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson -- We've been waiting 800 years for the British Messiah, but instead of a messiah we get messhugah. Also read Kalooki Nights. It's even better.

This piece is by Harold Augenbraum. He is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the U.S. National Book Awards. Asked what his favorite Booker Winners and Short List selections have been over the past 42 years, he responded, "The Sea, The Sea; The Sea; and C."

Something in the way he moves

Some links I love this week

1. A collection of photos from the golden days at Everyday I Show. These are basically pictures of a time that has come and gone. It's nothing but pictures but they are really great pictures in black and white. I love the golden era so I absolutely love this collection of photographs from the happy olden days. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too. My favorites are: James Dean, shots of the Kennedy family, Elvis Presley and Ann-Margaret, a fantastic shot of the New York City Rockettes  and a photo of a lady hiding in fear of sniper fire.

2. The best cities for street art from Travel + Leisure - I have to admit that looking at street art is a guilty pleasure. I like looking at it and when done right, I think the underground street art scene is a great movement. My favorite is Banksy, of course, but there are a lot of interesting taggers and bombers out there that I would just love to follow (Swoon of NY, for one). Also, I find this very useful whenever I troll forums on taggers I like. For websites, I like Wooster collective (It follows taggers all over the globe and it's awesome) and I also like this photo set of Soho Street Art.

3. Live free or die by Dan Tague - Using various bills of differing denominations, Dan creatively folds US dollars to spell out interesting messages about America and society. Money as a medium in art almost always adds a complex and political message about society. I think that's one of the reasons why money is a compelling medium in various forms of art. It works because the message cuts to all classes.

4. Adweek explores the world of food styling—with a backstage pass to the 'Bon Appétit' test kitchen. I happen to read a lot of food magazines. My favorites are Gourmet, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit and I don't think I've ever tried any of their recipes (I have Everyday by Rachel Ray for that--shameless information sharing right here) but I do think they're the Fantasyland of the epicurious. I love reading them because every issue is accompanied by an array of photographs that are far too pretty to look at or eat. In this article, Adweek dives deep into how test kitchen products transform into magazine-worthy food. The subject: chicken biscuit.

5. 100 Greatest Beatles Songs from Rolling Stone - Another article about the great magic of the Beatles. Two wonderful things about this article: Elvis Costello wrote it and he gives due credit to the creative process involved in the fab four's song writing. I really enjoyed this article. It reminded me why The Beatles' music, even after nearly fifty years later, continue to touch people. It also put into perspective the maturation of their lyrics, looking at it from its early stages to the full-on hype and eventually, the disenchantment leading to their break-up. The lyrics went from strange and catchy pop to simple lyrics of love to a vague narrative of some sort about what is going on in the world at that time. Bless them, they still get me through most days.

Also, I share the same sentiment of every Beatle fan. There is no "best Beatle song". It's impossible to answer just one. As far as best songs go, off the top of my head would be a jumble of songs enough to make a mixtape and they will change according to my mood. Right now, they would have to be: I Will, Something, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, All My Loving, If I Fell, Can't Buy Me Love, Ticket to Ride and Michelle. Oh, to love and to be loved in return.

6. Surrey student puts Cristiano Ronaldo to test at Surrey Sports Park - In a recent TV documentary sponsored by Castrol, a PhD student (Zoe Wimshurt) put Real Madrid football stunner Cristiano Ronaldo (also the world's most expensive footballer) to a test of football skill, strength, agility and mentality (the tests were mostly focused on his mental strength and intuition). I believe Ms. Wimshurt's study looks into an athlete's performance and how this performance can be improved by their vision. Anyway, the real star of this short tv documentary is Ronaldo. I may have a wee bit of bias because I am not immune to his Portuguese charm and amazing football prowess on the pitch (despite studs on his ears, his excessive abuse of hair products, and his numerous tanning sessions worthy of a Jersey Shore casting) but after watching this video, I know full well no one could ever argue that Cristiano Ronaldo is not worth his salt. Get this: He pulls 30 legit football moves in 8 seconds, hardly ever looking at the ball in possession or the defender. On another test, he successfully scores two goals in pitch black darkness, only relying on his subconscious to measure the trajectory and motion of the football. The people testing him have concluded that it is his years of practice that lead him to be who he is today, a scholar of football. (I really liked how Zoe Wimhurst compared learning and mastering football to learning a language, that was an excellent analogy)

So, yes. The test of just how epic Cristiano Ronaldo can get. And he is. Epic. RESPECT.

PS: Sorry for the obvious lack of anything useful. Fall means it's TV premiere season so I've been ~*busy*~ acquainting myself with the return of shows I've missed and new shows I might learn to love. I am terribly behind my IR websites but I have no regrets, just love. Heh. 

Remember to Love

Some links I love this week¹:

Remember to Love at NPR - Somebody I knew tweeted that 9/11/11 was "a heartbreaking day to be in New York City". True enough, most of the New Yorkers I know shared how gloomy it felt to be in NY at a time when the city and its inhabitants were still mourning the tragedy that struck exactly ten years ago. I listened to parts of "Remember to Love: Let Us Love One Another", a concert at St. Paul's, honoring the fallen of 9/11. Located right across the World Trade Center, St. Paul's has become a center for healing and comfort after the attacks. You can listen to the concert (it's about two hours long) at NPR by clicking the link.

25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names - I, for one, love the word "Tittle" because it sounds so obscene but it's really not. I await the day when I can finally use it. Some "words" (or phrases), like Morton's toe, Arms Akimbo, Philtrum and Crespuscular Rays, are already familiar to anyone who took P.E. or science classes. These names aren't useful though, and it has to be known that anybody (unless said person is a doctor) who would use Rectal Tenasmus in a sentence must be punched in the face.

Jackie O's Diss List at Slate.com - Whenever Slate.com does a Double X list, trust that they will do it right. Two weeks ago, the excellent people of Slate came out with "Ten Mistresses Who Change History", a list filled with women who literally kicked ass (Mob wives, authors, Cuban revolutionaries, a Chinese concubine turned Empress--just to name a few.) This time around, Slate compiled a list of Jackie O's not-so-friendly thoughts about people she has met while her husband was in office. It's nothing short of scandalous. In fact, it was feisty enough to pique the interest of one young (pseudo) Suri cruise. Incidentally, Suri's burn book is one of my favorite websites. It's obviously not written by the real Suri Cruise but whoever's behind that blog, writing as a bossy and snobby baby, is hilarious. Respect.

Sen. Miriam Defensor - Santiago's Reproductive Health Bill Logic 101 - This was Sen. Santiago's speech during the RH bill forum in UP a few days ago. I thought it was well-written and the small jokes made it very appealing to the students. My favorite part of the speech was her discussion of the fallacies surrounding the RH bill. I think it's a fresh respite from hearing all the moral arguments presented by politicians and groups against the RH bill. One does not have to agree with Senator Santiago to say that she does her homework, she knows what she's talking about and she takes a stand so definitive that her arguments are almost always sound. I really like that about her, she appeals to logic and intelligence. I think I've had enough of appeals and arguments riling up the moral passions of the masses. I really don't like that. It furthers my belief that religion (or the misuse of powerful religious institutions) is an Achilles' heel to our country's development.

Why we are shallow at The Philippine Star - This piece was written by F. Sionil Jose for his column, Hindsights. It tried to answer why, despite having many talented and successful citizens, we remain shallow as a nation and how being shallow hinders us from achieving our full potential. Of course, gross materialism, arrogance and religion were pointed out in the selection but my favorite parts were the ones about the lack of significant content in our media and our lack of desire to read:

"We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers and there is so little to read in them. It is the same with radio — all that noise, that artifice.

I turn on the TV on prime time and what do I get? Five juvenile commentators gushing over the amors of movie stars, who is shacking up with whom. One of the blabbering panelists I distinctly remember was caught cheating some years back at some movie award. How could she still be on TV after that moral destruct? And the telenovelas, how utterly asinine, bizarre, foolish, insipid moronic and mephitic they are! And there are so many talented writers in our vernaculars and in English as the Palanca Awards show every year — why aren’t they harnessed for TV? Those TV moguls have a stock answer — the ratings of these shows are very high. Popularity not quality is their final arbiter. They give our people garbage and they are now giving it back to all of us in kind! So I must not be blamed if, most of the time, I turn on BBC. Aljazeera, rather than the local TV channels. It is such a pleasure to read The New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post, to listen to “Fresh Air” on US public radio and public TV where my ever-continuing thirst for knowledge (and good entertainment) is quenched.

We are shallow because we don’t read. I go to the hospital on occasion — the long corridor is filled with people staring into the cosmos. It is only I who have brought a book or a magazine. In Japanese cities, in Korea — in the buses and trains, young and old are reading, or if they are not holding books and magazines, they are glued to their iPhones where so much information is now available.

In these countries and in Western cities, the bookshops are still full, but not so much anymore because the new communications technologies are now available to their masa. How I wish my tiny bookshop or any Filipino bookshop for that matter would be filled with people. I’ll make an exception here: BookSale branches are always full because their books are very cheap. But I would still ask: what kind of books do Filipinos buy?"

This week's Top 5 songs:
1. Are You That Somebody? - The Gossip
2. Flash a Hungry Smile - The Mystery Jets
3. White Nights - Oh Land
4. Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse
5. Clap Your Hands - Sia

_________________

¹ The list is shorter than usual because I didn't have time to read things online this week.