+ Kat

Listening: John’s awesome No Wave mix at 8tracks.com, this awesome “Ballad of a Fly Girl” mix as well. That’s basically the X-Y axis of my musical perspective right there.
Watching: I re-watched Legends of the Guardians with my nephew, i.e. “Lord of the Rings, but with owls.” I really actually kind of dig it, and the voice talent is amazing.
Reading: I started Middlemarch, which I hadn’t read since my “19th Century British Novel” class, which you’d think would be a boring class, except it was taught by the late, great Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick — and so it was an extremely exciting intro to queer theory. I remember thinking Middlemarch was more exciting in college; now I don’t remember why. Maybe it’s not queer enough? So I stopped reading it, except picking through the stuff about the marriages. Then I read Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country, and OH MY GOD WHY HAVE I NOT READ THIS BOOK EARLIER?!!!!! It has the most shallow, vain, manipulative horrible social climber as the main character (whose only blessing is that she has the beautifully horrid name of Undine Spragg, which is shortened to “Undie.”) It began as “dressed-up historical chick lit” but then evolved into something a lot more tragic and amazing. Seriously, the whole novel is an example of how dramatic irony can endow a shallow character with a sense of existential tragedy. Interesting example of a female “anti-hero,” I suppose. Also: I just started The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke, which I know I like because I loved her Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Wearing: My favorite hoodie, skinny jeans, Frye boots. In other words, the usual.
Wanting: I need coffee. Right now.

These mixes rock! One is super-great No Wave, the other will make you wish you were a Fly Girl like Rosie Perez, dancin’ on “In Living Color” :

+ Liz

Listening: I heard “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” on the radio this morning, whoa!!!
Watching: Oh I only watch Jersey Shore. And I saw Somewhere and loved it.
Reading: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Wearing: My friends Alisa and Michaela got me a beanie that says “BELLS BEACH AUSTRALIA,” so I wear that all the time now. You know about Bells Beach, right? Fifty-Year Storm? It’s not tragic to die doing what you love.
Wanting: My MacBook murdered itself yesterday. I want for that to not have happened. Also, on Wednesday night I dreamed that Pauly D from Jersey Shore and I were living in a Shakespearean play that included the stage directions “Pauly D dispassionately sews silver thread into the toe of his shiny slippers.” I WANT IT TO BE REAL.

HEY DID I EVER TELL YOU I LOVE EVAN DANDO??!!!!! My fave’s the part with the Beatles/Stones trivia, and the part about being sick of being cute:

+ Laura Jane

Listening: My new “thing” is listening to Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue and writing Revolution 9 at the same time. It’s so cerebral and badass. It makes me feel like a grown-up.
Watching: You know what I just realized? I have a skewed understanding of what a grown-up is. Anyway, yeah: Jersey Shore, and about fifteen minutes of the only Rolling Stones documentary on Netflix, which features this really sexy Keith part where he’s like “Oooh, ahhh, I’ll never die, I’m too sturdy,” and I just, like, LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reading: Keith’s book. I’ve reached a point with Keith Richards where he’s no longer Keith Richards, he’s just “Keith,” in the same way that Paul McCartney is “Paul.”
Wearing: Oh, just the same-old same-old. But in a Keithier way than usual.
Wanting: To hang out with Keith and all his Rastafarian buddies in Jamaica in the mid-seventies, where we would all smoke weed out of coconuts together!

“ooohhhHHH Laura Jane! Smoking pot is so fun with you and we love you!”