Suggestions Please...

LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS…

OK, just a quick post here…I am looking for suggestions in a few areas…

I just sorted out my scheduled obligations for the next few months…there are some really intense weeks on the horizon! But gleefully peppered with a few trips. This next week I go to Skopje, then for the weekend in Holland. Then in May I am meeting “PC” in Italy…HOORAY! I am also still hoping to take a long weekend in Istanbul in June as well. But that is not all sorted out yet, so more on that later.

So…this will be “PC’s” first trip to Europe! We are meeting in Rome and then going to Venice and Florence with a night in Bologna (for a taste of real Bolognese). I have been several times to Rome and Venice, only once to Florence, and have not been to Bologna. I am really excited to go. I usually have been there in the heat and crowd of summer so May should be nice. Given that he has not been to Europe and that he is so proud of his Italian heritage and loves food, I think we are going to have a great time!

***If anyone has suggestions for special or especially good restaurants (high end or budget) - in Rome especially, but also in Venice, Florence, and/or Bologna - please let me know. I am looking for treats in each place that may not be in the guidebook. ”PC” is an authentic “foodie” and knows tons about food and wine, so I want to try to take him to some good places and/or to be sure that we don’t miss a special good food or wine experience in each place. Please send me any suggestions you have.****

OK…a minor digression to tell you that …OWWWW! My knee is killing today!!! I fell again yesterday while walking home from work. I swear the crumbling pavement and my Judas ankles are conspiring to prevent me from remaining upright as much as possible!! Last time I sustained an injury here (as I detailed in an earlier post, with pics and all) I fell getting off the tram. I blamed my shoes and a hole in the street. That wound was gross looking but not really a bad injury. It was a huge bruise on my leg and bloody knees and hands. This time there is only a small mark, but the real injury is something behind my knee…it’s fine as long as I don’t try to bend it too much or straighten it too much! Which should be no problem considering that I walk everywhere, and live up several flights of stairs… right?

Damn! And I am leaving town Tuesday…I do hope it feels a bit better by then. And I hope I haven’t done permanent damage…for many reasons…not the least of which is that walking is important – both to my life here and to my life in general as well as to my plan to shed unwanted poundage. ARRGHHH! Why am I so clumsy! Along with my compulsive motor-mouth, my clumsiness is my most hated quality!

(OK…I almost let myself go on a litany of things I hate about myself here, but I am not going to do that to myself…or to you…positive thinking…focusing on spending the self-critiquing time and energy on critical scholarly writing instead…channel obsessive perfectionism into my work…more productive that way anyhow…)

OK…well other than that…I am planning on working for most of the weekend so I shouldn’t be moving around too much anyhow…the injury and the predicted snow for the weekend should keep me inside and productive.

So back to my request for various suggestions…next up…music…

So, to my surprise, I really like Amy Winehouse! I had never listened to her before, having avoided jumping on the train-smash band wagon, but I had seen the train wreck in the tabloids for a while. Well, I have been treating myself to a few new downloaded songs each week, and I finally gave in and decided to give her a listen. She is great! I especially love “Back in Black” and “Rehab.” I like her voice, I like the sound of the music, but what really makes it something fantastic is her ability to code really scandalous lyrics behind this retro/50s-innocent sound. She is totally unapologetically singing about co-dependence sex, enjoying crack, and most hilariously to me, at one point even about her lover not being able to “complete the task” because he is too wasted…things like this.

A few other faves at the moment that I have recently discovered include Duffy, Lilly Allen, Lady GaGa, Flo Rida, the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant stuff, and some great bluegrass, but especially some Jerry Garcia solo stuff (which, despite my youthful brush with the Grateful Dead, Dead tour, Dead-head life style and the dozens of Dead bootlegs I so religiously collected for so long, Jerry’s genuine brilliance is only now becoming clear to me, and I would rather hear the Jerry stuff over the Dead any day at this point).

As far as specific songs that have been in my current fave rotation…that song “Paper Planes” by MIA (from the Slumdog soundtrack – remix is good too! – In fact I pretty much love the whole Slumdog soundtrack), a Morrissey song “America is not the World,” a new discovery from old fave Tom Waits called “Jockey Full of Bourbon” (of course I love anything Bourbon related and anything Tom Waits related, so this is pretty much the perfect find!), and one of my super faves at the moment is the T.I./Justin Timberlake “Dead and Gone” track…very hot!

And now, for my most embarrassing admissions…(a little reward for any who have read this far)…I have also been stuck on 2 Miley Cyrus songs – “7 things” and “See you Again” – as well as many of the songs from Britney’s Circus album – especially “Womanizer” and “Circus” – as well as an assortment of remixes of two other Britney songs, “Piece of Me” (which I LOVE), and “Gimme More.”

Finally, two pop faves that I have been listening to since last summer, but that I am still loving…Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” (which I have a secret fantasy about singing at lesbian karaoke one night), and Nickleback’s “Rockstar” (which reminds me of my time in Budapest…with a few choice word changes to properly reflect “the group”).

Overall, I have a really wide and eclectic taste in music. I have over 6,000 songs on my ipod of every genre. Right now I am especially partial to global hip-hop (in English or otherwise), bluegrass, pop-remixes or mash-ups and of course Euro-pop. I am also a big fan of good acoustic stuff like Josh Rouse, Jack Johnson, etc. and bands of all sorts that just sound good to me like Scissor Sisters, Postal Service, and even Maroon 5. I love old stuff like Edith Piaf, old country like Johnny Cash and even Willie Nelson, and have been into rock of the decades lately like 90s stuff (Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, STP, Alice in Chains, Black Crows and even NIN), 80s (Heart, Metallica), 70s (Sabbath, Aerosmith). But I actually love and/or appreciate most kinds of music – really, honestly, all kinds from all time periods, from all countries, from all genres…well most genres…

– (OK…DISCLAIMER: I don’t care for most Christian music. I hate nationalist super pro-American-new Country – I think Gretchen Wilson is emblematic of all I hate about US culture, and I feel ashamed anytime I hear any kind of “America will put a boot in your ass” type of country music [though I love old country, all bluegrass and some new pop-country]. Further, I am no longer angry enough at the world to enjoy screaming angry dark death metal [though I like old industrial, goth, and/or old metal like Sabbath or Metallica]. I feel very uncomfortable when I hear super angry violent misogynist hip-hop [though I love hip-hop with smooth grooves and nice lyrics and am especially partial to Eminem, Snoop, Biggie, and Nelly]. And, while I love most electronic music, my least favorites are probably garage techno, and drum-and-base. Finally, although I do love a lot of pop, there is plenty that is annoying and that I can’t tolerate [like that stupid Umbrella song, or that Beyonce “Put a ring on it” song])

****So with this in mind, any suggestions for artists or songs I should check out are appreciated.***

I have also been still a devotee of my weekly “The American Life” podcasts…I highly recommend this clever and enthralling weekly NPR radio documentary if you have not given it a shot! You can get free weekly downloads from Itunes, or can listen to any episode for free at http://www.thislife.org/ . And have recently enjoyed the John Stewart audiobook version of “America,” and the Steve Martin audiobook “Born Standing Up.” I really like when audiobooks are narrated by the author. I do enjoy audiobooks when travelling, but I still prefer a really good paperback page-turner. I love a good story...the kind you can't wait to find out what happens next!

***So my final request for suggestions…any suggestions you have for good audiobooks, podcasts or a really good page-turning piece of fiction that I should check out are appreciated***

OK, so back to work. Thanks for reading and I look forward to any suggestions you have. I hope you enjoyed, or at least got a giggle from, this list of my current music obsessions :-)