she's babbling again!

My new favorites are Coldplay and Virginia Woolf.  Last week I re-listened to a Coldplay disc in which I have no idea the name, partially because all the writing is Chinese.  Jeff goes to China a few times every year, for business, and he gets great deals on music and bootlegged first run movies.  Once we started watching 'The Producers' and realized we had company.  On or in the movie, we heard the audience.  Yea, the cinema audience where the movie was running for all to pay their hard earned Chinese money on popcorn and juju candy, and apparently, to produce home movies of other people's work.  Poor quality, annoying movie audience, five American bucks down the drain.  In retrospect, the barely there cardboard cover with a nearly there photo and exclusively foreign writing, should have clued one of our intelligent brains in before we hit play.  Live and learn.

So, back to my new faves...Coldplay just happened to be in the cd pile and I just happened to be rearranging and procrastinating nearby.  Put it in the trip pile.  Oh yeah, I took an unexpected road trip through a few mid western states last week.  Dad went into the hospital in Milwaukee so I volunteered my day to sit with him, bro and sis did their time, and to hang out and help out with my aforementioned siblings' families.  Well, really I don't have to be asked twice to play with my nieces and nephews.  Had a blast, shot lots of pics, got outdoors, raked up the automobile miles, saw stuff from my youth, remembered why spring is a popular season.  All is well now with Dad.  He's home and so am I.  States traveled:  MI>IN>IL>WI>IL>IN>MI.

Other music travels with me, in my car, one cd player, no itunes, no ear buds, just me and the cd.  I rock out, big time.  If you pass me on the highway expect to see every part of my visible body moving.  Arms flailing, head boppin', hands drummin', feet tapping (cruise control is my friend) and mouth mouthing.  One way to stay awake.  The best music is familiar.  If I know the words and my body knows the beat, I'm on cruise control too.  The other listening option is a baseball game on AM radio.  Driving home last week I listened to 2 Chicago ball games at the same time.  Good thing my steering wheel is equipped with radio station controls.  Oh, by the way, both teams won and I am happy for both.  Yes, I can root for the Cubs and the White Sox at the same time, regardless of what most of chicago thinks.  I bat to the pitch of a different...what?  you get the point.

Speaking of Chicago and sports and my incongruent alliances...HOCKEY!  Blackhawks are my childhood memories and Red Wings are my adult admiration.  More for a later post.  Be ready.

Almost forgot Virginia.  The story begins a few weeks ago at a thrift store I pop into occasionally.  I always peruse book selections at resale shops, antique outlets, and garage sales.  I mean, for 50 cents or a buck you can find great words in a somewhat shabby chic binding, with intentions to share with your friend later, or add to your collection of favorite authors like the one I have strewn throughout every room in our house.  I digress...so I picked up the biography of Virginia Woolf by her nephew Quentin Bell.  I have not read the iconic Ms Woolf and am very interested to know why my friend G likens my work to hers.  Thus, I have been searching for Woolf at all cheaper book seller establishments.  It's all about the hunt, don't ya know?  OK, so V Woolf did not write this book.  Close enough.  50 cents, remember?  I got my fifty cents worth on page one and haven't looked back!  I love this man's writing style, the careful research he has amassed from the plethora of extended family authors, and the story reads like an historical novel.  Some biographies or auto-bios are starchy and plain.  Not this one.  Ms Woolf's life is fascinating.  Her modus operandi is incredible.  Her family is entertaining and artistic.  Her journey is full and colorful and true.  Bell writes with the utmost respect for his ancestors and weaves his Aunt's tale precisely.  Excerpts from Virginia's work, as early as her sibling childhood newspaper and personal familial letters, allow me a peek into her thought patterns and a glimpse of her writing genius.  My brother-in-law owns Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" so I will begin there.  Intrigued and inspired to say the least.

I'll keep you updated...on Woolf, hockey (game tonight), and my travels.  Photos are in process of being batched, uploaded, and shared soon.  Spring is overloading my computer memory!
peace always,
~L