I would like to thank everyone who has ever taken the time to read even one of my posts over the last year. I'm grateful beyond words to all of you who feel like I have something to contribute to the book blogging community. I'm look forward to the coming year and would like to wish you all a blessed New Year. One that will bring you everything you need and then some.
Que mejor forma de cerrar el año en el blog que con el que posiblemente sea el disco del año 2011. Adam Dutkiewicz y Jesse Leach nos van a hacer gozar con su "The Hymn of a Broken Man" de su nuevo grupo Times of Grace. Hoy os dejo con una de las canciones que nos han adelantado, una e esas canciones épicas con un estribillo supremo. Se trata de "Live in Love". En esta canción Jesse explota tanto sus voces melódicas como las más potentes. Con toda seguridad, esta canción junto con las que ya nos han adelantado, van a conformar un trabajo realmente sublime que dudo que otro disco le pueda superar en calidad en el próximo 2011. Va a tener serios competidores como Mercenary o In Flames. Os dejo con "Live in Love":
Time is the Goon Squad and you can't escape. It's inexorable movement forward is captured by Jennifer Egan with excellent writing, humor, and a variety of styles including a Power Point chapter presentation. Each chapter's little stories ultimately link characters, places, and life itself. The main backdrop is the music industry, and in it Bennie Salazar fights to remain valid. Sasha, his young assistant, journeys through the book stealing possessions and our hearts. From New York to San Francisco, Naples, and Africa, characters interlock, live, love, and manage to survive. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan enthralled me.
From The Great Santini to Prince of Tidesto Beach Music, Pat Conroy's lyrical prose with a southern lilt made me a fan. Now with My Reading Life, he shares his love of books, reading, libraries, and words. Whether it's Gone With the Wind or Charles Dickens, Conroy's passion for books and his enthusiasm for other writers is infectious. His anecdotes are humorous and touching, as his skill as a writer kept me turning the pages. I received this book as a Christmas gift, and cherish it as such.
P.127 "I selected all my books for the possibility of some flare of candles along the road toward illumination or enchantment."
P.140 in regards to a beloved bookstore (now sadly closed): "It was once a home of thirty thousand books, a village of lost souls who once held citizenship in a princely city of ideas where the bright glimmer of the English language formed a great wall before the assembled forces of chaos."
p. 304 "Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid forms, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear."
Pat Conroy's thinking appears effortless on the page.
Begin 2011 with these two book recommendations and you are on the road to discovery. Time is the goon squad. Use it wisely.
El batería del grupo de cello-metal Apocalyptica cumple hoy 35 años. Mikko Sirén nació el 31 de diciembre de 1975 en Helsinki, Finlandia. Fue invitado en 2003 a hacer la gira con Apocalyptica, ya que Dave Lombardo no pudiera asistir. Dos años más tarde, Perttu Kivilaakso anunciaba que Mikko pasaba a ser miembro oficial de la banda. Para mí, Apocalyptica dio un paso importantísimo cara alante tras la contratación del batería, creando un estilo más fuerte y potente.
With this year ending and a new one beginning, I thought it best to post my favorite books of 2010. Like last year's list, these will be books that I read for the first time this year, no rereads. Some of these books were published this year but most were published prior to that. It was harder to narrow it down this year. I"m not sure if that's simply due to the fact that I read more this year or if it's just because I read more really good books over the last 12 months, despite the handful of really horrible reads sprinkled throughout. I was actually toying with the idea of making this a Best/Worst of list but decided against that. So with nor further ado, here are my favorite, in no particular order, books read in 2010. If you click the title it will take you to my review of the book.
La lista de conciertos de la gira del 2011 parece cerrarse poco a poco. Hay que decir que será una gira europea (supongo que por el antiamericanismo del grupo...) Me sigue pareciendo increíble que no pasen por USA, el país que les permitió ser lo que son, siendo incluso uno de ellos (Malakian), por mucho que le fastidie, ciudadano americano de nacimiento. Ante la petición popular parece que darán dos conciertos en Francia, pero de momento la lista es ésta:
6/2/11 - Italy, Milan, Milan Fiera Arena 6/4/11 - Germany, Nurnberg, Rock im Park 6/5/11 - Germany, Nurburgring, Rock am Ring 6/6/11 - France, Paris, Omnisports de Bercy 6/9/11 - Switzerland, Interlaken, Greenfield Festival 6/11/11 - UK, Castle Donington, Download Festival 6/13/11 - Austria, Nickelsdorf, Novarock 6/15/11 - Germany, Berlin, Wuhlheide 6/17/11 - Sweden, Gothenburg, Metaltown Festival 6/19/11 - Finland, Seinajoki, Provinssirock
En principio no parece que vayan a pasar por España, algo que veo muy normal si tienen una pequeña idea de la incultura musical de este país que idolatra a pseudo-artistas que ellos llaman rock como El Canto del Moco o Gruñido de Cerdo (Pig Noise para los pijos).
When a strange creature is spotted in numerous locations all over the globe, an American ship is set out to investigate and kill the creature that is starting to threaten ships in every ocean. On board that ship is a French professor, Pierre Aronnax. Through a series of events the professor discovers that not only is the creature a submarine, but ends up on that same submarine for a trip around the world.
As with, Journey to the Center of the Earth, this was a work by Jules Verne that I had always wanted to read, but never got around to it. I'm glad I've read this one but I'm not really sure how often I'll be pulling it out.
For me, this book seems to be a strange combination of scientific journal, travelogue, and adventure story. The story actually starts off in such a way that I was hooked from the beginning, the pace is fast and the writing style zips you along from page to page. Where I ran into problems with this book is the science part of it, I really don't know how accurate all the scientific terms describing oceanic life are, but what I do know is that they take up multiples pages at a time and I tended to find myself skimming those sections. The professor goes into great detail describing all the different species he sees out the gallery window as they are traveling through the waters. When he isn't describing them, he's talking about them with his assistant who ended up on the submarine with him. I know it's probably me, but I could have used more action and less description.
Where this books shined for me, were the action scenes. Even the scenes where Captain Nemo leads the professor out of the Nautilus for jaunts on the sea floor are fascinating to read and I found myself wishing I was there to see everything for myself. Thankfully there were enough of these segments to keep me reading the book and in a way they felt like rewards for plodding through all the other stuff. Even the scenes that weren't very long captured my imagination. Remember the giant octopus scene from the movie? In the book it only takes up 2-3 pages but is so intense that it's what most people know about the book.
After I was done reading it, I was better able to understand why so many people love this story. Now while I enjoyed it, I'm not one that loved it. For me the descriptions were just too much for me and the characters were a little one dimensional and never really developed beyond where they are introduced to us. Even with that though, I'm happy I read it and will probably do so again, but not anytime soon.
I've been seeing a lot of Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Red-shouldered Hawks, and possibly even a Rough-legged Hawk (but I didn't get a good enough view to call it a lifer), and today I went down to the Duck Pond near PSU and saw some nice ducks:a cute little female Ruddy Duck, complete with perky stiff tail, and
and a beautiful female Redhead. There is some back-and-forth on the listserv today about whether this is a Redhead or a Scaup -- I think the consensus is Redhead. Any other offers?
I'm also super pumped about three upcoming events: 1. Flying to Boston tomorrow for New Year's with AB and some of her old friends. 2. My bff Gretchen is moving back to State College next month! 3. I'm participating in the Christmas Bird Count for Bald Eagle State Park on Sunday! (that means a quick turnaround on the Boston trip) So much fun, so little time!
I was going to end this month and this year with another Christmas FFC, but I realized 4 a month would be fine. So instead I'm going back to one of my favorite movies of the 80s and a character that I love for a lot of the same reasons I love Brantley Foster from "The Secret of My Success".
Tess McGill, from "Working Girl", is a bright young woman who is tired of being stuck in the secretarial pool and when she realizes she is never going to get where she wants in her current job, it's off to the next one. At first she thinks she found the dream job, she has an understanding boss (Sigourney Weaver) who is willing to listen to ideas and even share the glory if they come true. So when Tess comes up with a terrific idea for an acquisition, she takes it to her boss and when she's told it didnt' pan out, she didnt' think much of it.
Tess didn't discover the truth until a skiing accident left the boss hospitalized in another state. When Tess is set on a mission to her home in order to send a few things out to her, she discovers that in fact the idea did pan out and that the deal is already in the works. Now I don't know about you, but that would have pissed me off. Unlike Tess though, I probably would have spilled the beans right then and there, and then quit. Luckily Tess didn't do that. Instead she decides to get even and impersonates her boss in order to close the deal and maybe the her bosses old job.
Tess is a strong, independent woman who goes for what she wants and refuses to back down when others keep putting roadblocks in her way. She goes for the job and the man, and ends up with both. She is also that kind of person that is always underestimated and not normally taken very seriously. She is a little ditsy, with over the top hair and a sense of style that only a child of the 80s could love. But underneath all that is a keen intellect and a drive to succeed, a wonderful combination to have in a character.
El grupo de Des Moines nos ha deleitado con un nuevo vídeo correpondiente a su último trabajo Audio Serecy. La canción elegida para ser el 3º videoclip del disco es "Hesitate". Se trata de una preciosa y melódica canción en donde Corey Taylor demuestra que lo suyo es esto y que su voz melódica es casi insuperable. El vídeo es un poco extraño, viendo la vida de Corey a cámara lenta y entre llamas, pero muy interesante. "El hombre de prominente cuello" nos vuelve hacer disfrutar junto con Jimbo Root, Roy Mayorga y compañía con esta maravillosa canción que os dejo, "Hesitate":
AB and I spent Christmas in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, visiting AB's family and friends. We got caught by the big storm on our drive home on Sunday, though we'd thought it would miss us. It wasn't too bad, though; AB's a pro on the snow.
We had a great time with AB's parents and grandma, and I even got to walk on a frozen pond!So cool!
There was a big beaver dam across the pond, and lots of the trees looked like this:Real beaver teeth cut that tree down! I've never seen anything like it. I wish we could've seen the beavers, but I'm guessing they were underwater in their lodge.
AB's parents' dog Nora chases BIG sticks, no matter what the condition of the water:Apparently, little sticks hold no challenge for her. She was so funny, running and slipping around and grabbing the stick in mid-slide.
Didn't see too many birds, but I did get some great bird gifts! A neat bird whistle, bird books, and a beautiful cup: and this cool sweatshirt: My sister Nora got me that one. Cool!
Hope everyone had a great holiday/Christmas/Xmas/Yule/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/etc. (I'm doing my part in the Liberals' War on Christmas!)
Hace un par de días salió el esperado primer vídeo del nuevo álbum de Ill Niño. La canción elegida para el videoclip es "Against The Wall", uno de los singles que habían lanzado previos a la salida del disco. El vídeo se rodó en una especie de bosque en donde ellos tocan. En mi opinión se trata de un videoclip bastante flojillo, ya que tiene poca historia y no aporta mucho. Lo realmente deprimente es el final con esos "efectos especiales" del siglo XIX cuando un par de guantes infames simulando un monstruo se llevan al tío para debajo del agua. A pesar de que no es muy bueno, siempre es interesante ver nuevos vídeos. En este podemos comprobar el pésimo estado de forma actual de Cristian Machado y la perilla que lleva luciendo un par de años o el nuevo look de Danny Couto, sin rastas y con una espesa barba. Aquí os dejo con "Against The Wall":
The goal of the Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge 2010, hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City, was to read 12 books in a year, I'm afraid I blew this one out of the water and probably should have done a recap post months ago, but I forgot about it. So for the challenge, I ended up reading 38 books that I counted towards the challenge as I was reading them. I think I could have counted some more books, especially the urban fantasy books I read. Since I didn't think of it as I was reading them, I didn't think it would be fair to count them now.
El batería de Metallica, el egocéntrico Lars Ulrich cumplió ayer 47 años. Lars Ulrich nació el 26 de diciembre de 1963 en Gentofte, Dinamarca. Abandonó Europa con 16 años para continuar su educación en USA (gracias a la acomodada situación económica familiar). En 1981 decidió formar el grupo de thrash metal Metallica, que se convertiría en uno de los referentes del metal underground a nivel mundial.
El ex-metalero Jared Leto cumplió en el día de ayer 39 años. Leto nació el 26 de diciembre de 1971 en Bossier City (Luisiana). Conocido actor, decidió pasarse a la música en 1998 creando un grupo de metal alternativo junto a su hermano Shannon, 30 Seconds To Mars. Tras dos grandes discos decidieron venderse el pasado año publicando un álbum pop. Desde aquí espero que fracase estrepitosamente en sus próximos trabajos musicales.
"In The End" dos Linkin Park para a dona da livraria Footnotes, uma personagem que é muito mais do que aparenta... Acham que encaixa bem ou têm uma proposta melhor?
I was so happy when i got my blogger Secret Santa package late last week. My partner was Pam who lives in Elizabethtown, PA and she did a wonderful job. She doesn't have a blog for me to link, otherwise I would have. She got me paperbacks of both The White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong. She also gave me a Charlie Brown & Snoopy teacup and a Snoopy bookmark.
When I got my Christmas card from my friend Pablo, he sent $10 in it so I went straight to the book store to buy something. I ended up with a paperback of Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen, plus I bought a paperback of Finding The Way edited by Mercedes Lackey.
I won a paperback of The Conqueror's Shadow and an ARC of The Warlord's Legacy, both by Ari Marmell.
My good friend, Michelle of The True Book Addict sent me this wonderful trade paperback of SciFi Christmas stories, Christmas Stars edited by David G. Hartwell.
I just came home and found out that one of the most talented singer, songwriters in R&B passed away in her sleep today. She was only 54 years old and she will leave a lasting legacy that will influence generations of R&B artists to come.
My favorite song of hers was "Lovergirl" so I thought I would share the video with everyone.
Debido a que este año 2010 ya está a punto de irse, me pareció una buena idea recopilar los que son, para mí, los mejores discos de esta temporada, recordando también algún fiasco. Antes de empezar recuerdo que ésta es mi lista de discos del año, así que si no estais de acuerdo con ella, espero vuestros comentarios con vuestras opiniones. 1. AB III (Alter Bridge). Se trata sin duda del mejor disco del año en mi opinión. Cada canción es mejor que la anterior haciendo que al terminar de escucharlo te quede una sensación magnífica. 2. Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold). El disco Nightmare de A7X fue la sorpresa del año. Con un estilo mucho más variado que lo que nos tenían acostumbrados, consiguieron crear un completo y maravilloso álbum. 3. Dead New World (Ill Niño). Maravilloso disco el que publicó este año el grupo de nu-metal de New Jersey haciéndonos olvidar el fracaso de su anterior trabajo Enigma. 4. Audio Secrecy (Stone Sour). Se quedan a un paso del podio por muy poco. Audio Secrecy se ha ganado a pulso estar en este 4º puesto de los discos del año gracias al saber hacer de Corey, Jimbo y compañía. 5. 7th Symphony (Apocalyptica). El cuarteto finlandés volvió a sacar un excelente álbum demostrando que son incapaces de defraudar a sus más fieles seguidores continuando con la misma línea de su anterior disco. 6. Truth or Dare (Oomph!). El grupo de metal industrial alemán publicó un recopilatorio con sus mejores canciones traducidas al inglés. A pesar de ser un recopilatorio, la elección de sus canciones hace que merezcan este 6º puesto. 7. KoRn III Remember Who You Are (KoRn). Los creadores del nu-metal volvieron este 2010 para sacar su nuevo disco. A pesar de ser bueno, sinceramente me esperaba más, aunque para mí es digno de ser el 7º mejor disco del año. 8. Imperfect Harmonies (Serj Tankian). El cantante armenio publicó su nuevo disco en solitario sorprendiendo con un nuevo estilo incorporando sonidos orquestales. A pesar de quedarse lejos del gran Elect The Dead, Serj ha vuelto a triunfar. 9. Asylum (Disturbed). 100 % Disturbed, así se puede definir este disco. Siguen fieles a su estilo mereciendo entrar en este Top 10. 10. Feeding The Wolves (10 Years). Y la lista la cierra el nuevo álbum del grupo de metal alternativo 10 Years que se han sabido rehacer de la marcha de su guitarrista para sacar un buen trabajo que para mí es merecedor de este 10º puesto. Con esto cierro mi lista de los 10 mejores discos del año, aunque este año también nos ha dado algún que otro fracaso. - Gold Cobra (Limp Bizkit). A pesar de que su primer single prometía, el resto del disco es bastante mediocre, al más puro estilo Limp Bizkit que no acaban de enterarse mucho de que va el negocio. - A Thousand Suns (Linkin Park). Negocio es el que han querido hacer estos 6 personajes, dejando a un lado el nu-metal para publicar este vergonzoso álbum pop. La calidad brilla por su ausencia, dejándonos un puñado de canciones casi iguales. - Danger days: the true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (My Chemical Romance). Otros que sufrieron un notable cambio en su música fue MCR. Si bien nunca destacaron por ser enormes músicos han dejado claro con su nuevo disco que tras años y años tocando, aún no saben que música hacer. Espero que os gustara mi elección y de lo contrario, como ya os dije anteriormente, dejad vuestras opiniones en forma de comentarios. Os dejo con una de las mejores canciones del disco del año, "Ghost Of Days Gone By" del disco AB III:
Time is the Goon Squad and you can't escape. It's inexorable movement forward is captured by Jennifer Egan with excellent writing, humor, and a variety of styles including a Power Point chapter presentation. Each chapter's little stories ultimately link characters, places, and life itself. The main backdrop is the music industry, and in it Bennie Salazar fights to remain valid. Sasha, his young assistant, journeys through the book stealing possessions and our hearts. From New York to San Francisco, Naples, and Africa, characters interlock, live, love, and manage to survive. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan enthralled me.
a cute little female Ruddy Duck, complete with perky stiff tail, and
and a beautiful female Redhead. There is some back-and-forth on the listserv today about whether this is a Redhead or a Scaup -- I think the consensus is Redhead. Any other offers?
So cool!
Real beaver teeth cut that tree down! I've never seen anything like it. I wish we could've seen the beavers, but I'm guessing they were underwater in their lodge.
Apparently, little sticks hold no challenge for her. She was so funny, running and slipping around and grabbing the stick in mid-slide.
and this cool sweatshirt:
My sister Nora got me that one. Cool!
Final hurrah on the 2010 Christmas season. Texas Santa stayed warm by the fireplace
Handpainted ornament, from a good friend, is only one of many cherished memories on the tree
A German ornament highlights many travel memories
Nutcracker sentry guarded the entryway. Maybe he should have been watching over cookie consumption in the kitchen.
Winnie the Pooh will be heading back to the attic for another year.
