And the moonbeams kiss the sea

Last night Masterpiece Mystery featured the first of Inspector Lewis: Series II. I love watching these British mysteries and my mom and I have now taken to watching them together. Last night's episode was the first from the second series and not only featured a body in the library, but is titled And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea based off a poem from Shelley. In fact, Shelley's poem was a central part of the episode and it really got me wanting to re-familiarize myself with these classic British romantic poets. The full poem is beautiful! I think I'm going to have to get a book of Shelly, Keats, Byron, Wordsworth and other "boys in the band" as was noted in the episode.

Love's Philosophy
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Nine Inch Nails @ Aragon Ballroom (8/28)

OMG. NIN blew my mind tonight! The smaller venue with only a few thousand fans really made it unique. I wore more beer than I drank from all the jumping around, and I inhaled more pot than oxygen, but the vibe was amazing. Screaming "I want to fuck you like an animal", "What have I become?" and "Bow down before the one you serve" with that crowd was one of the best experiences of the year.

See all pictures from the NIN show here.

Read the Chicago Sun-Times concert review here.

Set List
1. "Pinion"
2. "Wish"
3. "Last"
4. "Discipline"
5. "March Of The Pigs"
6. "Something I Can Never Have"
7. "The Frail"
8. "The Wretched"
9. "Closer"
10. "Terrible Lie"
11. "Head Down"
12. "Banged And Blown Through"
13. "Burn"
14. "Gave Up"
15. "La Mer"
16. "The Fragile"
17. "Non-Entity"
18. "Gone, Still"
19. "Lights In The Sky"
20. "Eraser"
21. "The Downward Spiral"
22. "1,000,000"
23. "Letting You"
24. "Survivalism"
25. "Down In It"
26. "Atmosphere" with Peter Murphy
27. "Dead Souls" with Peter Murphy
28. "Kick in the Eye" with Peter Murphy
29. "The Hand That Feeds"
30. "Head Like A Hole"
31. "Hurt"

Water for Elephants

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant; an elephant's faithful, 100 percent!” - Dr. Seuss

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

I just finished reading Water for Elephants and I am absolutely in love with this book! I got through it in about 4 days when a 300-page book usually takes me a month because I am a very casual reader. However with this one, I found myself in bed extra early to allow for lots of reading time. I love the characters and the historical setting. I may have related to is so much because of all the time at spent at the Ringling Museum down in Sarasota, but it is such a great story and even has a happy ending. I actually teared up a few times while reading this one.

Jimmy Buffet @ Toyota Park (8/15)

How come nobody told me there's a whole tailgating thing that goes on before the Jimmy Buffet shows? We totally missed out on that! Seemed like a bunch of super drunk yuppies dressed in vacation clothes... but still, what fun!

Set List
Lage Nom Ai
Nobody From Nowhere
SummerZcool
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
Manana
Conky Tonkin'
Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
Volcano
Cheeseburger In Paradise
Come Monday
Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
Brown Eyed Girl
One Particular Harbour
A Lot to Drink About (with verse from Why Don't We Get Drunk)
My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don’t Love Jesus
Rocky Raccoon (Peter Mayer)
Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit
Last Mango In Paris
Let Me Love You (Ilo Ferreira on vocal)
I Feel Like Goin’ Surfing in a Hurricane
Southern Cross
Gypsies In The Palace
A Pirate Looks At Forty
Margaritaville
Fins
We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About
Yellow Submarine
Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season (with Banana Republics)

Julie & Julia

I was so excited to see Julie & Julia! I love Meryl Streep and Amy Adams and I also read both books (Julie & Julia and My Life in France). It was a good movie but I really liked the Julia Child parts better than the Julie Powell parts. I enjoyed Julie's part better in the book. Some parts of the book were so funny and I was surprised that they left many of them out of the movie. But Julie inspired me to start my own blog and that has been alot of fun.

Lollapalooza 2009

Friday it rained and we got soaked. But it was fun anyways. Met up with a whole bunch of people and were all together at the end of the day for Depeche Mode. On Friday we saw:
The Gaslight Anthem
Bon Iver
Ben Folds
The Bloody Beetroots
Crystal Castles
Thievery Corporation
Of Montreal
Depeche Mode


Saturday was hot and steamy but we saw the most bands this day:
Langhorne Slim
Los Campesinos!
Robert Earl Keen
Perry Ferrell
Arctic Monkeys
Santigold
LA Riots
Diplo
TV on the Radio
Ben Harper and the Relentless 7
Animal Colletive
Tool
Yeah Yeah Yeahs


Sunday was the hottest of them all and we spent most of the day sitting in the shade under the trees at Perry's trying to stay cool and listening to all the cool DJs.
Esser
Friendly Fires
Portugal. The Man
Car Stereo (Wars)
Bat For Lashes
Cage the Elephant
He Say, She Say
The Hood Internet
The Glitch Mob
Boys Noize
Lou Reed
MSTRKRFT
Jane's Addiction
The Killers

See all pics from Lollapalooza 2009 here.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is hands down the best book I have read so far this summer. I fell in love with all the characters in The Guernesy Literary and Potato Peel Society and I have become fascinated with the Channel Islands German occupation during WWII. I never realized the German's actually ever made it to British soil!

The book takes the format of letters which at first seems strange but there is also an addicting voyeuristic sense about it which just makes the book all that more fun. I highly recommend this one - you'll probably fall in love with it too.