Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

 Another audiobook in which the sound of the author's voice is everything.   Ione Skye is a semi-interesting women who can definitely speak to a very memorable time of Hollywood and music in the late 80's to late 90's.   However, I unfortunately didn't love this book.  The more I read, she seemed less like a survivor and more like a woman hanging on to every sad soggy crust thrown out by a man.  And I just can't help but feel that it's sad when a woman is most known by the men in her life: her worthless hippie dad, Donovan; let's call a spade a pedophile, Anthony Kiedis, probably the best man she ever met, Adam Horovitz; let me have a baby with a rich guy I barely know, David Netto; and then yeah this guy will do, Ben Lee. I know, I know.  I shouldn't be so mean.  But listening to her story truly made me feel that there are about 867,000 other women out there with more interesting stories.  And luckily, I've read a ton of them. As a big ...

 This happens a lot for me.  Whenever a film gets a lot of Oscar buzz/attention/awards, I want to know more.  Especially if it's a film kinda off the beaten path.  This was definitely the case for Anora.   So first I had to know more before I committed to this film.  When Mikey Madison accepted her award and when Sean Baker spoke at all about the film, they both gave a lot of attention to the "sex worker community".  To be honest, I didn't want to watch a film portraying women (or girls) being exploited or hurt in any kind of way.  Also after having watched Mikey practically grow up on the fabulous FX show, Better Things , I didn't want to watch her in particular be abused or hurt.   I was glad to learn it's not that kind of film.  It has been called by some to be the "modern day Pretty Woman".  I kinda get it.  She doesn't get hurt physically anyway. Well kinda not.  She's definitely exploited. And she definit...

 Here's another memoir I HIGHLY recommend as an audio listen.  It is a true treat and a bit unusual in the sense that Julia Roberts reads the narratives of Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough reads as herself discussing the life of her mother AND there are snippets of Lisa Marie's real voice in recordings made of her prior to her untimely death. To say that Lisa Marie had a tragic life, is too easy.  To say she had a complicated life.....an interesting life.....an eventful life.....a beautiful life might be better.  A baby then girl then woman who never had an inch of privacy and was known by the world before she knew herself.....how did she have a chance at anything beyond complication?   She's very honest about the wild silliness of her life growing up at Graceland and the cold detachment of her mother.  My favorite parts of this book are when Lisa describes the food, the smells and the feel of the South.....a feeling that comes back to her every time s...

 Late Winter/Early Spring had me sequestered in a way I never had been before.  I literally had no voice.  And I don't know if y'all know this, but it's hard to socialize in this world if you can't speak.  So I settled in and enjoyed a bit of telly. This could have been great, but it got bungled in the end. It's set up to be light and sexy, but how sexy can it be when a person who's actually loved and a part of the social circle is murdered?  This isn't Mr. Body being wacked in a gloomy mansion!  This is a bff.....a lover......a friend......the lack of concern and grief is yuck.  Other than that, the mystery is still fun to follow until it gets to the very end and is completely smashed up to end quickly and and neatly. I wonder if the novel plays the story out more gracefully?  To be fair, I was only really there for Liev Schreiber, and darling, he NEVER disappoints.  Babes is funny and ridiculous and still manages to be relatable. Let it be ...

 There's something about a winter sunrise.  I'm sure there's some science behind it, but I've never taken the time to learn about that particular phenomenon.  All I know is that it's one of the few things I like about making such an early morning commute.  It's the reward of seeing this: There was another point in my journey that was even more incredible than this, but I wasn't in a position to capture it.  Not that it could have been really captured anyway.  It was an amazing swirl of magenta and violet and about 10 or 20 other hues that I can't describe. This isn't the first time I've written about sunrises or sunsets or other natural events.  I'm a country girl at heart, and I hope I will forever be in love with what the natural environment does around us every day. Again, I haven't studied the science behind it, but I love watching the clouds and sky change before a storm, watching neighborhood wildlife get ready for cold winds, look...

 Odd & ends that I am enjoying and embracing this spring.  Which I'm compiling as an homage to Shayla Lawson and her sublime book, This is Major .   Gave my copy to a woman who had been in my office who I know had escaped the prison complex of America and I told her she would love it, just love it, and pretty soon we'd have a female president anyway, so just hang on Miss Lady, hang on, we're getting there, read this book, you'll love it, it's for you, keep it, pass it on, spread the word, Sis, this is Major. This is me deleting numbers, numbers I don't need, numbers I don't want to answer, I don't remember your name anymore boy, if you want me you better write a letter, you better come correct, you better have that apology on your lips, you better be ready for bye boy bye, you better be ready old friend, you better be ready to know I'm not that girl anymore, don't call if you're not ready, as a matter of fact don't call at all. A bed...

 This has been a lifelong habit of mine.....falling down rabbit holes.  I discover a subject, and I go all in.  I've watched it happen with a few various topics, and then for my own amusement, I traced back how it all happened.   With Gary, it went like this....... I had been listening to a lot of audiobooks on my Spotify.  After a weekend of listening to early 80's New Wave and British New Romantics, I decided to give Gary's book a listen.  And so it begins...... I'd always heard the term "New Romantics" but didn't really know much about who or what it referenced other than Duran Duran and maybe Culture Club, so I found an awesome doc online explaining the musical movement including London Club, The Blitz, the significance of Covent Garden, The Winter of Discontent, Saint Martin's School of Art and on and on and on..... From there I learned that Spandau Ballet was basically decided to be THE band of the New Romantics/Blitz Kids scene.  And even t...