I had the week off and drove to Seattle to visit family this past week. This gave me the chance to listen to a ton of albums at once and the time to finish my first book from My New Years Resolution.
My life has been dull with no adventures lately, sorry for the lack of posts.
Book
Out of Africa- I was not overly fond of this book. While the stories were interesting and the descriptions helped me picture the wild of Africa I did not like the layout of the book. The stories were scattered and out of chronological order. I didn’t even know the author was married at any point until toward the end of the book, and it was hard for me to identify with the key characters when she only gave bits and pieces of them throughout the book. It was a struggle for me to finish, but I managed. I also have the movie on my list so maybe I’ll enjoy that more.
Movie
Cabaret- Wow! This famous musical was not AT ALL what I was expecting. I was expecting something along the lines of a Rogers & Hammerstein musical, not the trippy, gritty ride of Cabaret. I enjoyed the way the Nazi storyline was a backdrop to the lives of the main characters and how the musical numbers always correlated with what was going on at the time. I found Liza Minelli’s character annoying at first but as the movie went on I liked her more and more. The stand out was Joel Gray, the emcee of the movie. His showmanship really made the movie.
Music
Beach Boys; Pet Sounds- I was not a fan! I don’t know what album had Kokimo on it, I used to listen to that one with my dad, but I found the songs very boring on this particular album. I was itching to skip songs, but I forced myself to listen to the whole album and aside from two songs that are still popular, I didn’t care for it.
Marvin Gaye; What’s Going On- Ugh! This was a difficult album to listen to as well. I am not a smooth R&B kind of person and all his songs revolved around sex and the lyrics were uninspiring. It definitely had a 70s sound but not my cup of tea.
The Clash; London Calling- The album was okay. At first I was digging it but each song sounded just like the one before it and I was bored by track 8 and there were 18 on the album!
Bob Dylan
Mr. Dylan was a surprise because I absolutely loved the two albums I had! I was not expecting to at all, but the mellow songs that were longer than normal were soothing and the perfect road trip music. Of all the albums I listened to on this trip, Dylan was the only one I listened to more than once.
Highway 61 Revisited- This was my favourite of the two I listened to. The strong opening song “How Does it Feel” really got me into the sound and I enjoyed the rest of the songs a lot.
Blonde on Blonde- While I didn’t like this one as much as Highway 61 (I felt there was TOO much harmonica on this one) I still really enjoyed it and listened to the album twice.
