tinypinkstar

I'm conducting the Dick Vet orchestra (no really, it's the orchestra of Edinburgh University Veterinary School), and we desperately need a few more players for our concert on November 21st. Specifically we need VIOLA and DOUBLE BASS players, and an extra bassoon and percussion.

The concert is in the Reid Hall at 7.30 on 21st Nov, final rehearsal 5.30-7pm; we're also rehearsing on the evening of Monday 16th, 8.30-9.30pm in Summerhall (the old Vet school by the Meadows). It's with the Dick Vet orchestra - http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=533291369&gv=12#/group.php?gid=37941882161&v=info
Two Beethoven overtures (Coriolanus, Prometheus) and two of Britten's "Soirees musicales" (arrangements of Rossini), plus a couple of carol arrangements - easy to pick up.

If you're in an orchestra, could you please bring this to their attention at the next rehearsal?

Anyone interested in playing, please email me - hutchingsmusic@hotmail.com - or call me on 07811 395 488.

Thanks!

Hey, i've had a look in previous entrys but couldnt find anything. Was just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a gas hob fitter (not too expensive preferably) Any advice would be great. Thankyou

Lucy

Being a man should never be an impediment to behaving like a gentleman.

Say - how would you say, “For the dead travel fast,” in Latin? Dog Latin, even. (It doesn't have to be perfect, just recognizable.)

I cannot remember the title or author of this book. It was about a girl--I think she was fourteen--who began babysitting for her new neighbors. Then the father of the kids she was watching started hitting on her. There are two scenes I remember: one where the main character is asking her cousin what 'popping a cherry' means and the other where the mother of the kids she babysat is attacking the main character. I think she scratches the girl.

I haven't come across this book since so it might be really obscure. Out of luck, though, does anyone know what it could be?

( Review! ) 

More Reviews can be found lovebooks-letter4no1.blogspot.com/

Movie review of the day
Film: The Strangers (2008)

Because you were home

So I was a fan of vampires BEFORE the twilight apocalypse, and i've also been writing along the vein (no pun intended) of Anne Rice vampires for a few years before, and now I'm attempting to figure out what to do in the aftermath. One of the things i want to do is read the pre-twilight and other "good" vampire books and stories out there, and I know you all will set me up with some good ones.

So I'm NOT interested in anything like Twilight. Could stand to read stuff that came out after, but no immitations, and you know what I'm talking about. If you tell me a book that came out after twilight and has a similar marketing ploy is still worht a look, I'll believe you, but with a grain of salt. However YA is fine, providing it's original. I'm also not interested in the humorous ones like Charlaine Harris and "You Suck" etc. I've tried those and I don't like them. Nor trashy romance novels that just happen to have a blood sucker in them. I want the stuff of literary merit, and if you tell me it has, I'll give it a shot. I'm hoping to guage what has been done in the field, what might be an innovation and what might be worth bringing back, in terms of getting vampires back on the track that Anne Rice layed and Meyers struck it wildly off.

I have read The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice; I won't lie and say all of them, but I'm up to Blood and Gold and it seems the best has already been. Plus she isn't doing vampires anymore, sadly, in the time we need her most. Also tried the Anita Blake ones and didn't like them much, so checked that off. 

Dracula is on my list. I probably should have gotten to it earlier, but you know. Also looking into The Vampyre but I just found out that was a book, so i have an excuse ;)

Also I'm totally into short story collections of vampire stuff. I've read two but I couldn't tell you the names. Recommend me some if you know of any.

And finally, definitely don't feel confined to the "modern era": some of the coolest vampire stories I've read have been pre-1950s, so it doesn't matter how old it is.

Thanks!
 

something's knocking at the door

a great white light dawns across the continent
as we fawn over our failed traditions
often kill to preserve them
or sometimes kill just to kill.
it doesn't seem to matter: the answers dangle just
out of reach,
out of hand, out of mind.

the leaders of the past were insufficient,
the leaders of the present are unprepared.
we curl up tightly in our beds at night and wait.
it is a waiting without hope, more like
a prayer for unmerited grace.

it looks more and more like the same old movie.
the actors are different but the plot's the same:
senseless.

we should have known, watching our fathers.
we should have known, watching our mothers.
they did not know, they too were not prepared to teach.
we were too naive to ignore their counsel
and now we have embraced their
ignorance as our
own.
we are them, multiplied.
we are their unpaid debts.
we are bankrupt
in money and
in spirit.

there are a few exceptions, of course,
but these teeter on the
edge
and will
at any moment
tumble down to join the rest
of us,
the raving, the battered, the blind and the sadly
corrupt.

a great white light dawns across the continent,
the flowers open blindly in the stinking wind,
as grotesque and ultimately
unlivable
our 21st century
struggles to be
born.

The dove flew out the door and she followed it, and every seven paces a drop of red blood and a white feather fell and showed her the way. Farther and farther she went into the wide world. She never looked around her and never rested, and one day the seven years were almost over. Then she was happy, for she thought they would soon be set free, but they still had a long way to go. Once as she was walking along, no feather fell and no drop of blood, and when she looked up the dove had vanished. "No human being can help me now," she said to herself, and climbed up to the sun.

Foxfire (Trickster's Game #3) (2009)
Written by: Barbara Campbell
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 628 (Mass Market Paperback)

The premise: taken from the author's website, because I'm evil like that: On the bleak northern moors, Darak and his family begin a new life, free from the prejudices of their tribe and the looming threat of the Zherosi. But their past continues to haunt them, and choices made years ago threaten their future as surely as the armies that raze their forests.

As rebellion spreads and the tribes fight for survival, a new force enters the game--Rigat, the youngest son of Darak and Griane. Gifted with magic far greater than Keirith’s, Rigat is the only one who might be able to save his people. Aided by the Trickster, he embarks on a dangerous game of deception that will determine the future of the children of the Oak and Holly--and the fate of the gods they worship.

My Rating

Give It Away: which is a hard rating for me to give. Because I sort of know the author, and I really, really, REALLY like the author. And I'll be honest: I couldn't have written something like this, so I applaud that she was able to write an epic fantasy trilogy with such detail and description and well-realized characters. It's her "first" effort, and as a writer, it's not a stretch at all to say that Campbell's got potential, and I'm really, really, REALLY looking forward to her future books. I want to see what else she's capable of, and based on what I've read so far, I think she's capable of a lot.

That said, the trilogy's final installment didn't satisfy me the way I'd hoped, but I think that's in part due to my own personal bias when it comes to reading fiction. And an important note: Heartwood, the first book, is essentially a stand-alone. You can read the second book, Bloodstone, without reading Heartwood (though you'll miss important character-building stuff), but you cannot, absolutely CANNOT, read the third and final installment, Foxfire, without having read at least Bloodstone.

Should you give the trilogy a shot? Heartwood remains my favorite of the trilogy. I love Campbell's focus on tribal people, as that's not something I've seen often in epic fantasy unless it's to vilify them. And the latter conflict between the tribal people and the Mediterranean-like peoples is also compelling--again, it's something I haven't personally seen all that often in fantasy, so I was happy for something different. And again, Campbell does a great job with setting and world-building. It's just that the trilogy didn't resolve on the emotional note that I wished, and I'm happy to acknowledge that may be more my fault than the author's. If you're interested, I'd say you should start with Heartwood, especially since it can be read as a stand-alone.

Review style: if I'd reviewed this book sooner (sorry folks, I've been distracted), you would've gotten far more in-depth. Instead, you're gonna get something stream-of-conscious that has the POTENTIAL of going in-depth, but may or may not get there. Spoilers? Yes, because it's the end of the trilogy and I want to talk about how that makes me feel. :) So if spoilers don't bother you, feel free to click below to my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Barbara Campbell's FOXFIRE

Happy Reading! :)

ALSO!!! November's Book Club Selection is Alaya Dawn Johnson's Racing the Dark (YA Fantasy). Interested? Details are here.

Hi ya'll, I'm selling some more of my Japanese study aids. Both are in great condition, just want to get rid of them because they are superfluous materials.

- Essential Kanji by PG O'Neill. Perfect condition.
- Japanese Street Slang by Peter Constantine. In really good condition, a few words are underlined.

Both books retail for about $15, selling both for $10 with S&H included, or $5 each, S&H included.

Comment if you're interested, thanks!

As the Yellow pages say:

Harry Dresden – Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or
Other Entertainment.

( Read more... )

Hi everyone. I am interested in reading Rainer Maria Rilke's only novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. I searched online for what I naively thought was perhaps the only English translation, but learned to my bewilderment that there are not one, nor even two, but at least four different translations available (including one published only earlier this year)! Can anyone familiar with this work tell me which I should read, or at least which I should avoid, or (blasphemous notion) whether it even matters? It would be much appreciated. Thanks!

"She was a talker, wasn't she?" Bobby Lee said, sliding down the ditch with a yodel.

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

"Some fun!" Bobby Lee said.

"Shut up, Bobby Lee" The Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in life."

Hi all, I hope this is an appropriate question for the comm - it's certainly about books, anyway!

I've recently been reading a lot of books, non-fiction historical accounts, memoirs and biographies about World War 2, particularly books about the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe.

All of them have been from the public library, and I've noticed something a bit weird - in a lot (almost all) of the books, people have written their names and a date - presumably of their reading - in the very back of the book. I have never seen this is any other book, fact or fiction, and it's got me really curious...

Does anyone have any insight into this for me? I'm curious whether this is a common act in books like this, a sign of acknowledgment and respect, or is it something culturally specific to Judaism? Or something specific to those who have some kind of personal connection in some way to that story?


It strikes me as quite a lovely idea, it's nice to see a list of people who have read the same book - particularly some of the sadder or more traumatizing tales, it's quite a comforting sense of connection to others who have been effected, an act of witnessing. I haven't written my name in any of the books, and I won't unless someone can give me some insight - especially if there is some kind of cultural/community significance, but it's certainly piqued my curiosity!

Hello All,

Wondering, can you suggest some good tour companies? My cousin and I are considering touring Greece, we'd like to see a lot of it, for not a lot of money. We're perfectly okay with companies that use Hostels for sleeping. I've looked at conitki, statravel and a myriad of other places but don't know what's the best, what company would you recommend?

thanks!


x-posted, sorry!

Pamela at TG taken by Ionair Images

He didn't use a flash, which is why it's a bit odd colour wise. That or I was blushing very badly.

I should make up my new bed and go to sleep rather then just enjoying all you can eat 10mg broadbeans! All the broadbeans to myself! Nom!

Hi. I was hoping someone could give me some advice. I am new to trying to live a more natural life. Currently I am in a transitional period where I am changing the food I put into my body. I live in a dorm and do not have a fridge. My meal plan isn't so great - not a lot of nutritious options. I don't feel well a lot of the time and I'm convinced it's because of the food I have been eating (classic dorm room food, all highly processed). I want to cleanse my body - kind of like a complete overhaul. But I have two questions about it:
1. Is a complete overhaul a good idea?
2. How can I go about doing it?
Is it as simple as cutting out all of the crap or should I go through some sort of detoxification process to get a clean start? I've been reading up on it but I thought it would be a good idea to hear from personal experiences with lifestyle changes.

Thanks for your help.

Seems every time I turn around there's another book, fiction or otherwise, decrying the evils of religion, especially in fantasy/sci-fi where thinly-veiled parodies of real religions are applied as some control-the-masses plot device. This is upsetting to me, as you can probably tell from my icon, and the fact that I'm most excited about graduating college so I can go to the New Seminary.

So I'm looking for books, specifically fiction or memoirs, wherein the characters or the writer have good relationships with their religion and/or God, or where religion is used as a force for good. I don't want informational material--I have like five "Guide to World Religions" already. I'm looking for books where a personal relationship with God/religion is explored, and in a positive way. To give you f'rinstances, I really appreciated Alessandra's relationship with/understanding of God in The Birth of Venus (Sarah Dunant), my worn-out copy of The Faith Club (Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner) is sitting beside me as I type, and Mister God, This Is Anna (Fynn) will never leave my personal library.

Also, I'm not just looking for Christian-, Abrahamic-, or even monotheism-themed books. Bring on the Hindus and Buddhists and Shintos, et al. And there'll be virtual brownies for anyone who recommends a book that is GLBTQetc-themed, or where interfaith dialogue is featured and/or promoted.

Thank you in advance!