Addenda

Addenda to 15 things about books (aka, I cheat! Muhahaha!)

3a. I mention reading speed not because it's a how-fast-or-slow-I-read thing (I read faster than some people. I read slower than some people. I figure, as long as I'm getting what I want to be getting out of the thing, all is good) but because it was a very important number for me. I'd basically negotiate hours in bookstores or libraries with my mom all the time ("How long are you going to spend there?" "Four hours!" "Four?? Two!" "Three?") because I would make her dump me there whenever she went shopping, or just when we went to Taipei (they had English bookstores there!). So it was absolutely crucial to know about how many pages an hour I could read, because then I could try and pick a book that I thought I could finish in that time. This usually worked against me; I'd spend so long picking a book that by the time I started reading, I would inevitably be at the climactic good parts when my mom would drag me off screaming. I've still not finished a good deal of books because of this, though for others, I would determinedly camp out in a bookstore for several days in a row just to finish.

Also, 100 is a much easier number to divide into things that 135 or 85.

14a. (this is going to make no one ever want to invite me over to their house ever, ever again) I try not to be judgmental about books on shelves, but it is difficult. I check over bookshelves because a) I am a snoop (though I only check on bookshelves openly displayed, unless I have been introduced to bookshelves in rooms, in which case it's all fair game), b) I am selfish and want to survey to see if there's anything I want to borrow, and c) sometimes it's not even intentional, but I seem to naturally gravitate toward the shelves. They call to meeeee!!

14b. Ever since I worked at a used bookstore as a book buyer, I now have the truly horrible habit of trying to evaluate how much the contents of someone's shelves would get at the used bookstore. Not necessarily the general fiction, but if there's obscure knitting or quilting books, or random metaphysics books, or rare frsts or something, I tend to go into "acquire" mode for the bookstore even though I don't even work there anymore!

Oh my god, no one is ever going to want to have me over at their house now.

Um, yes, that's my dirty book laundry. What's yours?

Vienna Teng and the Animators @ the Montgomery Theater

Picked this one instead of one in SF because a) closer and b) seats! Seats are nice! It was a bit different watching it in a seated theater, as opposed to a more club environment; less whistles and applause, more "decorous" behavior. I do like the energy of the club environment a lot, but on the other hand... it was really nice to sit down! I got so tired at the last Vienna Teng concert I went to that I nearly fell asleep during some of the slower songs -_-;;. Also, the feet were much less irritated at me after this one.

And this time, I got to see her with her band, as opposed to being backed up by the Animators! Not that I didn't like the Animators, but it was nice being able to hear her on an actual piano instead of a keyboard, accompanied by cello and violin and viola instead of guitar. It was a very, very different sound from the only other show of hers I've been to.

The Animators opened this time as well; the songs were much slower and less angry than the show before (with the exception of a song about Strom Thurmond titled "The Senator Goes to Hell"). There was also a really cute Al Green song (who is Al Green?), along with a love song/gospel tune. The first song of the set made me mad, because it was one of those "Why won't she go for nice-guy me, she says she wants nice but she really just wants the bad boys and to be treated badly" things, which drives me crazy. I read somewhere that guys who complain that they are Nice Guys, why don't they have a girlfriend, are in all probability not really Nice Guys.

They also played my favorite song of theirs! Ok, I only know that one song, but still. I like it. They were going to play a sad love song, but due to instrument misplacement, they ended up playing "Simple," which is one of those songs that makes me point and say, "I want to be like that!" (er... the lyrics make it a bit more complicated. I just realized that sounded like I wanted to be simple-minded. Yeah). Anyhow, I got it off iTunes, but it sounds better live -- much more energy instead of being sappy and slow.

Vienna Teng started out with lots of songs that I heard the last time I saw her ("Hope on Fire," "My Medea," other somewhat sad and depressing and slow songs), including some new songs that I'd also heard. Having seats or the 7:30 starting time or not having the drive to SF or just having the actual piano instead of a keyboard there made such a difference. Before, I got really sleepy during the slow bits (I think I was very tired), but this time I could actually concentrate. That was nice.

She didn't play quite that many songs off her albums, but I was happy because we got "Atheist Christmas Carol" (hee!) and "Homecoming." And it was really fun hearing her new songs! I had heard about three of them before, but there were a lot more new ones this time. I hope that means a CD is coming some time in the near future.

The ones I remember most are "Boy with the Piano" (or is it "Boy and the Piano"? Anyhow, there's a boy, and there's a piano), which was fun and jazzy and syncopated, "1 bd/1ba," a cute song about apartment hunting in San Francisco, and "City Hall," a really, totally, absolutely adorable song about the gay marriages in SF. It was really, really, really cute! I loved it! It made me happy!

And then there was "Harbor" to close up. "Harbor" also makes me happy! And it was so cool with the cello and the piano and the violin and even a xylophone and accordian (courtesy of the Animators). Vienna Teng mentioned that she has a lot of travelling songs, but I never really thought about "Harbor" being a personal song. Except... after "City Hall" and "1 bd/1ba" and other very California songs, I finally realized that "Harbor" was most likely not about the Maine coast, complete with picturesque lighthouse and grey waves crashing, but about the San Francisco Bay, the bridges and the fog.

Duh. I guess I associate ships more with the Atlantic and with whale-hunting type things of the past?

I love the energy of "Harbor" and that shift in timestamp where the piano starts pounding out chords (or something... yhlee, don't kill me for misuse of musical terms!).

Very fun.