Well, stick a fork in another week here at Persephone. We’ll leave things open for y’all to chat all weekend to your hearts’ content. Just make sure to clean up after yourselves before you leave. Oh, and we counted the change in the jar above the fridge, so don’t even think about it!
Anyway let’s kick things off with my favorite artist that I found through Pandora, Kate Nash. She’s a sassy British bitch and I like her. Who else has an artist they discovered thanks to the endless feedback loop that is Pandora?
Photo: Getty
48 replies on “Weekend Open Thread!”
I am juuust back from the south of France. I am not, repeat NOT, sunburned. This is unprecedented.
Also, holiday was great, and now I have to catch up with True Blood.
Who’s seen Midnight in Paris? I really enjoyed the movie overall, but keep being sad at Woody Allen’s constant use of MPDGs to drive the entire movie. Marion Cotillard deserves better! So does the random Cole Porter-enjoying girl from the street boutique!
Other than that, Adrien Brody as Dali killed it. “I see… a rhinoceros!” *pounds skinny chest in surrealistic fit of emotion*
I found the Detroit Cobras and Los Straightjackets through Pandora and I enjoy them very much.
Howdy Perse’s!
Hmm, that doesn’t sound all that good. I’m writing an article, fanfic and I should be writing SEO’s. But those are boring. And I could start shaving my very hairy legs but why would you waste a weekend on that?
Hi everyone! I haven’t hung out in an Open Thread since forever, how’s everybody doing? I’ve been through some kind of postpartum depression since getting my PhD (not to trivialize actual postpartum depression, but… you know what I mean) and now I’m trying to cheer myself up by making plans for my first non-thesis-writing summer in years. Anybody planning something exciting?
Hi stranger! Glad to see you again. And congrats on the PhD!
Hm…define “exciting.” This is my first full summer in NYC so I have some plans to do some urban exploring. Throw in a couple weddings and my summer’s pretty much spoken for. Sigh!
Glad to see everybody again! And urban exploring sounds fun! I don’t really know how to define “exciting”… At the moment I’m planning a trip to Vienna and Budapest with my best friends and I can’t even get excited about that (see what I meant about the depression?) But I guess I’ll get more into it as it gets closer…
Yowza!
I’m planning for my vacation in less than a week, ha ha hurray. Well planning is mostly packing right now. Blegh.
I usually hate packing, but the prospect of vacationing makes it easier, doesn’t it? Where are you going? Other than a one-week trip with friends, I’ll be mostly staycationing with my partner, looking for fun stuff to do within a day-trip radius of home.
Three weeks in South Africa and five days to Cornwall. Or Rome. Boyfriend gets to decide and can’t make a choice.
Three weeks is a lot of time, you’ll get to see so much stuff! And either Cornwall or Rome would be exciting destinations for a short trip…
Yes, I know I should feel a bit spoiled.
Hi there, Stranger, PhD! My very exciting plan include: steam-mopping my floors, mowing the lawn, and grocery shopping. I lead a very exciting life, indeed.
Haha, I meant exciting plans for the summer, not Sunday. Unless you plan to spend your summer steam-mopping your floors, mowing the lawn, and grocery shopping, in which case, hey, whatever rocks your boat! :)
Well, yeah, it kind of needs to get done pretty much every week, I guess? And I’m afraid that’s about as exciting as my summer’s going to get.
I know exactly what you mean. Every time I do something big, I feel sort of sad and lost after it’s over. I don’t know about long term plans, but in the immediate future I suggest finding something simple you’ve been wanting to do for a while and go do it.
(This message was inspired by my recent trip to the Melting Pot for my birthday. It was sooooooo good)
Yes! Even though at the end I hated my dissertation and I couldn’t wait for it to be over and I was really looking forward to doing LOTS of non-dissertation stuff… Once I was done I felt like… “Now what?” I think it’s just the exhaustion, so I may try to remedy it by lying on my back A LOT this summer. As for finding something simple I’ve been wanting to do for a while… yay, reading crappy books!
And here’s another weird remedy I read about – try eating spicy foods, or other foods/drinks with strong flavours. Supposedly the sensory stimulation in spicy food helps compensate for the loss of stress-stimulation.
Thanks to Pandora, I discovered a compilation called Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra Records. Basically, they raided their vaults for some unreleased / obscure stuff from the 60’s and 70’s, and the music is AMAZING. Look up Courtland Pickett’s “You Don’t Grow Old.” It’s the most beautiful song in the world.
(It isn’t on Youtube, but I have my fave Pandora station set to play it all the time. You can find the compilation online pretty easily too.)
Umm, besides that…
Is the writing group here still pretty active? I’m taking a page from NaNoWriMo this summer and am trying to complete my novel. Anyone else want to get in on this and help motivate each other? I’m at 63,000 (unedited) words right now– way beyond the WriMo count, and nowhere near finished. Help. D:
Ooh. So, to add to that…
NaNoWriMo is expanding to do something called “Camp NaNoWriMo.” From what I gather, it’s like a July version (NaJuWriMo? Yikes.). Is anyone else participating in that?
I know this is a better question for the writers’ group, but I’m not sure how active that is…
I found a lot of awesome Renaissance-era motets through the Gregorio Allegri/Tallis Scholars channels. A lot of them I knew already but there were some new ones.
Also… the bar exam… about a month away. I’m gonna die.
Me too. :( And I’ve been slacking this week (stupid PMS sapping my energy and making me cry and eat pizza). Monday, though, I am going balls to the wall, if you will.
I’m slacking kind of (I went with my boyfriend on a work trip so I’m working in a hotel room, haha).
We’re about 50% of the way through the program and I don’t feel like I can remember ANYTHING even though I feel like I should. That seems to be par for the course? Argh. I hope you’re feeling better at least.
I think that’s pretty awesome. I play renaissance recorder/am a big early music dork.
THAT is awesome. Do you play in a band/orchestra/at fairs or what have you or just do it for fun?
I play in a consort, which is a group of four ren. recorders. I started during my masters degree in the school consort, but now I play in a chapter of the american recorder society.
That is so cool!
Who wants to talk about The Hobbit? I WOULD LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THE HOBBIT.
The book or the movie? Are you talking the weird additional elf thing? I mean, Evangeline Lilly looks like an elf. So it’s got that going for it.
And she looks not unlike the beautiful Liv Tyler, too, so that casting makes sense. I’m looking forward to the movie! I thought they did the other books justice, but then, I wasn’t a diehard fan of the books, either. So I was a bit easier to please, I think.
I know, there really are no female characters in the Hobbit so I’m glad they added one. (It’s frustrating how Tolkien is so all-or-nothing in female characters. He has almost none but then he dreams up one of the best female literary characters evar in Eowyn!)
The only thing is…poor Dominic Monaghan! (E.Lilly’s ex and Merry from the trilogy!) His character was not born yet during the Hobbit so he has no chance of making a cameo.
Anyway they just released the first two images of the main characters, Bilbo and Gandalf. Ian McKellen looks the same, but it was still great to see him in costume again! And I think Martin Freeman is going to make a GREAT Bilbo.
…aaaand now I really want to reread the book!
I reread the book not long ago, it was such a delight and not nearly the slog that LotR can be. Although I always skip Tom Bombadil’s songs. It would be a great summer read.
I smell a book club!
(Oh, and don’t get Neil Gaiman started on Tom Bombadil. And don’t get ME started on friggin GOLDBERRY.)
Ok I would totally love to hear your thoughts on Goldberry. And do you know where I can find Neil Gaiman’s thoughts on Tom? /so curious
Ask and you shall receive! From his spot on Colbert Report (Colbert is an unapologetic Tolkien super-fan).
And as for Goldberry, I just don’t get it…what is she supposed to be? I have pretty much the same problem with her that people have with Tom, which is that she doesn’t really fit into the Middle-earth legendarium very well. But she’s even more unneccesary because at least Tom Bombadil does something to advance the plot and teach the Hobbits a few things. Goldberry just makes dinner and sings to them. Bleh.
Sadly, the video doesn’t play in the US and its Canadian proxy keeps giving me an error message. OH WELL.
A girl I know set her whole identity up as Goldberry and made my geeky guy friends absolutely drool over her for a few months. I didn’t understand why I was so irritated at the time… but this helps.
Well I’ve been inspired by this discussion to write a whole post about the Hobbit, it should run at 6pm eastern if anyone wants to nerd out over there! :)
Ha, I totally forgot Goldberry even exists. And it hasn’t even been that long since I read the book.
You guys! Such great news out of NY to wake up to! According to conservatives, this means I have to divorce my husband and marry some random woman, right? Oh, wait. It doesn’t affect “traditional” marriage ONE BIT. Funny about that.
I’m so happy for all the people who have that door open to them now. It’s depressing that it’s such a battle, but every step forward counts.
It’s SO exciting, honestly. It’s one of the major civil rights issues of our time and for New York, such a massive state with such an important city, to go in for equality… it’s a big deal. Gold star for NY today.
So proud to be a semi-NYer today! Woooo!
HOORAY! I have pretty much had my entire life on hold for the past week and a half so I can stay near a computer in case the Senate started voting. By the end, I was paranoid that the vote was going to happen when I couldn’t watch, after having wasted all that time and effort on sweet corn and underpants! I’m so glad it’s over. A lot of people have been working very hard for a long time to make it happen.
I also want to note that the state and national marriage groups (MENY and HRC off the top of my head, although HRC came through toward the end) completely wrote off Grisanti as unwinnable, and it was the serious dedication of the local crew that won him over. Pretty much everything he mentioned in his speech last night as information and learning came straight from the hands of the local organizers and activists. It was truly something to behold.
This might be kind of dorky/random/cheesy but I just wanted to stop in tonight to say how much I love this blog. I love that it covers issues relevant to me like academia, Bones (maybe not an essential but you know), cooking, women’s rights, social justice, and vibram five fingers and I really like how positive the commenting environment is here. I feel like the comments here are thoughtful and insightful and people are kind. I switched over from another lady blog and just feel like I am much less stressed about commenting and can be a lot more open because people don’t jump down your throat if your worldview differs. I also love that I can get recipes and information about the government and what its plans are for planned parenthood in the same spot. Because I might be a feminist, but darnit, I like to cook tasty food.
Aw, we love having you here!
Well WE like YOU so that actually works out well. Also one of our editors has a day job at a spa, so I’m not surprised there is a more relaxing atmosphere around here. :)
Man, I would love to work at a spa. It would probably be a great antidote to the dissertation writing stress.
I’ve found some good ones, of course, the names escape me now. Does anyone else find that Pandora will start the day by mixing it up a little bit, then hit a half hour or so of songs that you’ve checked “yes” to and then go back to mixing it up again? Am I trying to create a pattern in something that is pattern-less? I only have 5 hrs left this month, then I’ll have to wait til July 1 to try it again!
You know, I would have never thought of it, but maybe you’re right! My pandora does do the same thing — some new stuff, but then eventually going back to things that I had originally liked. I thought that maybe it got too tired of me rejecting and liking some of its songs that it gave up! But your explanation makes a lot more sense than me anthropomorphizing my pandora.