Wednesday, January 03, 2007

"...No thanks to the grindstone..."

View from a window (not mine) at work.

Happy New Year. No more holidays in sight and work is starting to crank up in preparation for the busy season. The time off was pleasant and I did little else but lounge about and enjoy a variety of gifts.

Music wise, Tom Wait's Orphans was one of the coolest albums I received, a 3 CD set that I am still just getting into and S. also picked up a very funky album from Brazilian Girls that I get more addicted to every time I listen it. I also got Little Miss Sunshine and thoroughly enjoyed the dysfunctional family road trip. We watched Friends With Money last night and what appeared to be a run of the mill midlife crisis chick flick turned out to be pretty good. In the words of one of the characters it was "...minimalist with a splash of color...maybe an orange lamp?"

Some friends in Tucson sent along an amazing DVD of Calexico live in London from 2002 as part of the Further Beyond Nashville festival. I have not even gotten into the extra features on this yet. A must own. Calexico will be touring with Iron & Wine this month in Japan so if anyone has an extra ticket count me in.

Resolutions. I have a few. I want to quit x, y, and z. I would like to start a, b, and c. More of this. Less of that. I do want to resurrect the book blog I started and abandoned last year to keep track of books that I was reading. This time I also want to keep track of those purchased, the amount spent, and books that I tabled for later or simply abandoned. As well as make notes of books that were recommended or ones that I want to remember for the future trips to book stores as a wish list. I will post a link to that once I get it together.

The first book I finished in 2007 was a recommendation from Red State Librarian. The Corpse in the Koryo by James Church, the nom de plume of a career intelligence officer who spent over thirty years in Asia. This is the debut novel in what I feel will be an intriguing series about a police detective in North Korea. The murder mystery is almost ancillary to mood evoked and settings of a place we know next to nothing about and yet Church's tale still rings true. I would love to be able to visit North Korea and this is an excellent alternative.

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