mmm...

Man, the last time I really grooved to a musician this much, it was Heather Nova. And now 'cause of that vid ('Us'), I've totally become fixated on Regina Spektor, whose music is really really awesome and has lots of interesting quirky beats & piano and her voice is so soothing and. Listening to it always brings me out of a mental funk & forces me to wake up a little more. It's both soothing and invigorating :D

I'm the sort of person who totally gets emotionally manipulated by the music I listen to 100%, so listening to this totally lets me groove on the frequency I most prefer, so... I thought I'd share. She's seriously awesome.

So here it is (the full album): Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope ♥.

(a question without an answer)

So um, sometimes I'm bored and I read Salon.com (har har), and there's an interesting article right now about Milan Kundera's lit-crit book, here. Apparently, Kundera says something to the effect of all 'true' literature needing to offer some insight into the nature of existence, and it needs to do this through formalism or meta-commentary of some sort rather than a mimetic representation of life. I sort of laugh and at the same time feel bad, 'cause I know where he's coming from, emotionally speaking; it's not so long ago that I thought Harry/Draco fics should answer or at least pose deep questions about the pairing or they're worthless :P
    And I agree with the author of the review in that these 'theories' in a writer really say more about -them- and what inspires them than the literature they're supposedly critiquing. I mean, criticism is inherently about the work itself rather than the critic's issues, isn't it? You shouldn't bring too many expectations/outside influences to your analysis, or it'll automatically be skewed and most likely didactic (so annoying). Which is a lot of the problem I have with some HP meta I've seen... but yeah. -.-;;;

The reason I mention all this is that there's a quote by Roland Barthes included in the article (whose 'Lover's Discourse' is awesome): "Literature is a question without an answer."

I was just thinking that this applies to romance stories in an interesting way, doesn't it; especially 'genre' romance relies so much on answering questions.
    ( blaaaaargh. )

~~

In other, more Zodiac-related news: Robert Downey Jr still super hot even as a drunk bum. Well, he was my teenage crush, what do you want. :/ Jake Gyllenhaal surprisingly much MUCH hotter as a dork. SO MUCH HOTTER. *_____* Like 0 to 60. D: