Books & Rooms

This page has an incredible list of authors and the spaces they work in.

This is my favorite, mostly because it has a pictures of one of my favorite places in the world:


If I lived in NYC, you would never be able to drag me out of this room.

If I had a time machine

I would travel through time to see the original cast of every Broadway/West End show.

Except probably Hair. I don't really care for Hair, free love and hippie music aren't really my things.

Oh, and I would watch the revival of Company instead of the original because Raul Esparza melts my socks off.




Hell, if I have a time machine, I'll go see both the original and revival.

If wishes were children, I would be the old woman living in her shoe.

Right now, I wish...

• I was walking through the streets of NYC, taking pictures, with a ticket to a show for that evening.
• I were in the park, taking pictures of all the pretty trees that are blooming.
• I were at home, with all (two) of the windows open, reading a book (of my choice), with everything completely clean.
• I were wearing my red high heels. Just because.
• I were buying flowery plants to hang on my patio.
• For it to be 5 o'clock already.
• I were running errands, getting stuff done.
• I were sitting in a coffee shop in Austin, drinking coffee and hanging out with very cool, interesting people.
• I was packing for my trip to London/Ireland/Europe (which probably won't be happening for another two years).
  
• I was on the Mac website, buying a new computer for myself.
  

For the past year or so I've been recording VH1's weekly music video countdown and watching it on Saturdays while I clean. It's one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

As I watched the countdown today, I have a few comments:

• WHY oh why must everyone keep spelling out shit in their songs? Yes, you can spell (sort of). What's the point? Have we become so used to crappy lyrics that we accept THE SPELLING OF WORDS instead of an actual song?
• I haven't ever listened to much of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I really like their last two songs.
• This countdown seems a little flip-flopped - Nora Jones is the toast of the music community right now, the top of all the charts I know of, and everyone is talking about her. Her video did not make the countdown. Blue October, on the other hand, has the #1 video and I rarely hear the mass media talking about them. I know which I prefer, but it just seems strange.
• It's driving me crazy that the host is now wandering all over NYC. It just reminds me how much I want to go back there.
• I love Fall Out Boy's new video. It's always cool when celebrities/bands/etc. make fun of themselves, and they do an excellent job in the video. Plus, it's just the kind of song that I love, very peppy.
• Regina Spektor annoys the shit out of me.
• Amy Lee is absolutely beautiful, and has a voice to match. She may be the poster child of the goth-girl revival, but I love her anyway.
  
• The recent trend of laid-back boy group rock is ridiculous. Nickelback/Augustana/The Fray/Daughtry/Dashboard Confessional all sound the same to me, and I fast foward through all of their videos. Booooring. I left the Goo Goo Dolls out because they were one of the first cds I played when I started driving, and they will always have a special place in my heart. And don't even get me started on John Mayer/James Blunt/Daniel Powter/Mat Kearney whiny "sensitive" boys. I do also do not include Snow Patrol in either category, because I love them and they kick ass.
  
• Timbaland is sexxxy, and seems almost guaranteed to make a song a hit.
• Because I have been a Blue October fan for so long, to watch them come from the crappiest video EVER ("Calling You" - astronauts? A space ship? Bad CGI? A stupid concept AND no sign that the band members are actually a band that play instruments? Bad idea + bad execution = crappy video) to "Hate Me" and then "Into the Ocean" is wonderful. I think they did a great job with "Hate Me," especially by including Justin's mom, but I love the whole look and feel of "Into the Ocean." Literary allusions aside (Moby Dick anyone?), the costumes, the makeup, and the cinematography all work very well together, especially with Justin's stage persona.

I think that just about concludes the wrap-up of this week's show. Off to bury my nose in a book. Okay, I might eat lunch first, who knows.

AHHHHHHH!

Bebe Neuwirth is in Chicago, and Lea Salonga is in Les Miserables. Are you kidding me?!

Not to mention this.

Or this.

Or even this.

And this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or this.

Sob.

I have got to stay off of Broadway.com unless I am actually go to be going to Broadway.






Oh, I hadn't even heard about this!

Ever since I joined Facebook, I have started to think about my life in terms of the Facebook status message.

For example:

• Beth is...having a wonderful day.
• Beth is...wondering what the hell she did before coffee.
• Beth is...sitting at work alone because it is a rainy day and no one wanted to come in and keep her company.

You get the picture. I do think it is weird to be narrating my own life in the third person. I don't actually put all that information up all the time (I don't want to be annoying and tell a bunch of people that I mostly don't really talk to my every move), but I can't help thinking about it.

Sometime, I would like to put up the following messages:

• Beth is...having a blast in NYC going to see every play & musical on Broadway.
• Beth is...done with grad school!
  
• Beth is...???

And that really comes down to my point. There are a few things that I would like to do in the future, including moving to a big city and/or traveling through Europe for a year, but beyond those I don't really know what I want to do. I could teach - but I really don't know if I am going to be able to teach in Texas, the land where we worship standardized testing. I could get my doctorate - but I don't know if I'm cut out to write a dissertation, much less actually teach at a university. I could look into other jobs - but what kind of job is perfect for someone who has a love of literature but not writing? (I mean serious writing kids, not the kind of crap I put up here.)

And then I get worried about my parents and wonder how much longer they are going to be able to keep going the same way that they are now. And I worry about my sister, and wonder what her plans for the future are. And I worry about my cats, and wonder if I could leave them for a year, and if I couldn't how I could move them across the country/world. And I worry that maybe I won't actually have the guts to move somewhere else and that I'll end up living in the same stupid town for the rest of my life.

But - I've done it before. I've moved across the country to a town/state in which I didn't know a single soul. I've traveled to NYC by myself and had a blast. I've wanted to see and be other places for as long as I can remember. I can do this, I can do something.

One more year of grad school, and then we will see where I am. It's kind of scary not knowing, not having a specific goal...but the tingling, exciting kind of scary.

---------------------

And on a totally separate note, my hair smells really nice today. I used a different shampoo (every girl knows that you must switch shampoo every once in awhile to get rid of build up), and I am really digging the smell. Every time I turn my head, it's like sticking my face in a bowl of flowers. Ahh, to be a girl.

I don't really have any opinions about anything today. I think my brain has been mesmerized into into repeating the same thoughts over and over again by my hands rhythmically stuffing and sealing envelopes.

The same (ever repeating) thoughts?

• I want to go to NYC.
• I really really want to go to NYC.
• I want to live in a big city.
• I really really want to live in a big city (NYC, London, SF, etc.)
• I can't believe I am more than halfway done with a master's degree and my job is to stuff envelopes.
  

And that's about it.