Tune in and Tune out. Or just read 1 of these?

I remember being in around 5-6th grade and my older brother and I decided to make a point about quality time spent as a family, so we constructed a graph of time spent watching TV daily by our parents.
TV has acted like a drug in the past, but honestly I am too busy to even turn on my TV most months.

Yes I turn my nose up at TV viewing most of the time. Probably because shows like 2 1/2 Men are still on the air when programs like Arrested Development are barely given a chance.

I do not want a cable box in my new apartment. We have free cable. It is more out of principal. TV puts you out of control and takes away your ability to create, interact, or even socialize. Advertising instructs you what to buy, enjoy, and even how you should feel about your own self worth.
I am sure most people hate watching TV with me because I am a chronic TV/movie talker. I feel like I am wasting time "visiting" with someone if the TV is on and there is no actual interaction.

"Oh no! Why did he do that?!?"
"This plot is terrible!"
"Really?!? REALLY!?! This editing sucks!"

And if it isn't completely rude, I will attempt to read on my iPad or check email.

Doing nothing is something that I am awful at.
Today I was stopping to think of all of the TV shows I have given a chance for James...All while asking nothing in return. Nothing.
I have a fear of suggesting movies. I practically refuse to choose the music that plays in my own car when others are with me. Fear of rejection I suppose.
James has still not seen 2 out of my 3 favorite movies. (Moulin Rouge and Rocky Horror) Although I will not subject any straight man to the former. (The other is Fight Club and we would not be together if he didn't like that before we started dating)

For someone who is so open, so blunt and overly honest...Why am I so afraid to share what is important to me? Yup, fear of rejection.

But as I said...I don't watch TV.

I read books, write, study, craft, cook, bake, walk the dog.

These activities are a bit more difficult to get ones partner involved in. I did teach James the proper way to cut an onion. I doubt he remembers.
Ok...So I still don't know why I bought a 32" flat screen and that will probably be craigslisted shortly. That would end the debate of "Should there be a TV in the bedroom?"
See:     http://tvnz.co.nz/content/650268/2856650.html   (yes the article is from New Zealand, and about people in Spain. Do you think TV addicted Americans would publish this let alone do research on it?)

So here it is...
My book selections (Of my all time favorites that changed the way I think and made me who I am today).
All I am asking for is one book. I own most of them, so just ask me nice and you can borrow one. The library? Did you know they have more than just DVDs?

-Jonathan Franzen: The Corrections, Freedom.

Both of these books changed the way I see the world in unspeakable ways. I read the last page of The Corrections about 10 times crying the whole time. It is unspeakably amazing.

Freedom combines my love of population control, the environmental concerns of mountaintop removal mining, folk rock music, frightening Republican neighbors, a liberal slant, and memoir writing. (Yes, it's THAT good ;-) REEEEAD IT!

-Mary Roach: Bonk or Stiff

All of her books are amazing, but her scientific takes on both sex and corpses (OK, not together. Necrophilia is not cool) are the most interesting. Stiff is not for the squeamish.
So yes, read Bonk. I tried to explain the book to James on our first date but just ended up making him turn bright red. It's that good.
In my words "A scientific look at sex and it's cultural/consumer driven impact on society". Did you know they make fake silicon testicles for neutered dogs for owners who are that macho? Well they do, and if you read the book your head will be filled with other useless facts.

-John Irving: Cider House Rules

I don't care if you are pro-life or choice, READ IT! Don't watch the movie, that's not the point of this list. It will change the way you look at woman's rights (and ether) forever. You will know more about how illegal abortions were preformed in the early 1900's than you ever cared to know, but there is so much more to this amazing novel.

-John Kennedy Toole: Confederacy of Dunces, Neon Bible

Bet you thought Arcade Fire came up with that title themselves?!
He died so tragically young, like most great authors, and only wrote these two books.
Confederacy of Dunces is like Catcher in the Rye, only takes place in New Orleans. Imagine if Holden left prep school, tried to write a novel moved in with his controlling mother and turned out to be a fat lazy 30 something who loves hotdogs.

Wally Lamb: She's Come Undone

An amazingly true to life book about a high school/college age woman dealing with mental illness/weight/identity issues. You want to "get me"? Save yourself from talking to me extensively and just read the book. It sounds like a young adult fluff book, but it is amazingly researched about mental health, coming of age in the 1970's, Polish Catholic culture and so well written.

SOOooo many others!

1984/Animal Farm (How are there still people that haven't read Orwell?)

Siddartha

Brave New World

Rabbit, Run (Anything by John Updike)

In Cold Blood (I love you Mr. Capote...But you gave me nightmares for weeks)

I devoured Pillars of the Earth, but I know that most people aren't willing to commit to a 1,000 page
book.

For the ladies! Hahaha

The Beauty Myth: How images of beauty are used against women

The Body Project (SOoooo good! Well if you are into feminist books on how culture and society makes young women hate themselves)

I also have a weak spot for anything Steven King, David Sedaris, Chuck Pahlaniuk, Charlaine Harris, Anne Rice, Franz Kafka, the poetry of William Blake and Paul Celan, Non-fiction books on feminist theory/woman's rights/woman's body image issues and the impact in society.


I really hope most of you were forced to read these books in high school or college, or better yet, have already picked them up on your own. So if you need a good book, perhaps one of these will interest you.

I have spent my entire life hiding from making suggestion. I just can't do it. I can tell you my opinion all day, but ask me what movie to watch and I just can't answer that. Hopefully this list will break that bad habit and perhaps you will pick one up and thank me.


<3 Emi

Your love is a song...

After about 2 weeks of shameless flirting, my now fiance and I had our first date at the Florida State Fair. Neither of us had been before, but it turned out that we were both suckers for greasy food, people watching and making sarcastic observations (I knew it was something great when he shared my excitement at the Elvis impersonator world championship). Some of the first conversations we had were about music, bands we had seen, wanted to see, or simply couldn't stand. Asked early on by a mutual friend what our deal breakers were, I am pretty sure we both responded simultaneously with "listens to Nickleback".
Prior to dating James, I was going through a pretty awful music phase. Let's just say there was plenty of angry girl music involved. But seeing as he shared my love for Wilco, Sufjan Stevens, had also seen Travis in concert, and shared my belief that Pet Sounds is the best Beach Boys album (who would disagree?!?) I was willing to ignore him turning his nose up at my owning a Lady Gaga album (I bought it before she was as famous in my defense).
There are so many awesome memories I have in regards to music and "us". He still teases me because when he picked me up for our first date (the same date that my parents dog jumped out the door and attacked him but that's another story!) he was listening to Ray LaMontagne.
Well, his car stereo was scrolling "Ray LaMo" in my defense...So I ask "Oh, Is this Ray LaMo you are listening to?"

I am shocked I made it to a second date I was so embarrassed! (Although part of that was due to the fact that an English bulldog chomped on his hand and drew blood at my house)

Ray "LaMo" is now one of my favorite artists, and as I go through iTunes to help work on our wedding playlist, I look forward to hearing "You are the best thing" that evening, as it has made it's way on to a few mix tapes of ours.

We decided against a DJ for the wedding not just because it is going to be a rather small intimate event on the beach, or because I am a control freak (maybe a little?), but because there are so many songs that have meaning to us that making our own playlist just makes sense.

There is the song on the mixtape he gave me before we started dating and I had the biggest schoolgirl crush on him (obvious to EVERYONE in our church group I think) - Kyle Andrews, Sushi

The songs from the movie we watched that kind of made us think "This is it!". We went to see The Swell Season as our first concert together. - Swell Season, Falling Slowly

Then there are the songs that I can't even begin to explain...

The album Our Endless Numbered Days, Iron & Wine
Air, Venus
Travis, Flowers in the Window
Peter Bjorn and John, Paris 2004

After we had been dating for about a month we had an "iParty" and swapped mp3s on our computers.
About 45 gigs of music was exchanged between the two of us. For a month or so we were doing an "album of the day". James would pick an album he gave me and we would both listen to it on the way to work and discuss it. There are the bands we have seen in concert, do we include them? (Swell Season, Crowded House, The National, Sufjan Stevens)

I have "my songs" too. The ones that make me go "Awwww". Do I include those?
Josh Ritter, Change of Time
Damien Rice, Blower's Daughter
She & Him, I'm gonna make it better (Yes, I can be a bit eager to please)

Music has had such an important role in our relationship. From the fake "all-star group" we created when stuck in traffic to the songs that define our relationship and who we are as a couple, there is no way to break that down into a 3 hour playlist.

There is no doubt that I am an emotional person. I listen to music 90% of my waking hours and keep a pair of spare headphones in my desk at work. I heard the old hymn "Come Thou Fount" twice in two different settings over the past 2 days and at church this morning I almost started crying.
This Spring when I gave my testimony at church and spoke at 3 services, it was the song that was played as I left the "stage".
Music ties us to our emotions and can be amazingly powerful at times. I think of the impact that these 45 gigs have had over the past 10 months since I met James and I just don't think the chicken dance would be able to explain what an amazing adventure this has been.


<3
Emi