Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Tom Robbins)

I wish I had read this book years ago. It was both funny and insightful. After being introduced to me the week after I graduated from highschool Tom Robbins has become one of my favorite authors, if not my favorite.

This book is a feminist manifesto that takes place during the hippie-counterculture vietnam war era of the 1960's. Sissy Giltchen Hall is a women hitchiking throught america by way of her very large thumbs. Acording to Robbins these thumbs are a symbol of american culture.

The book explores Sissy's life, from the time she began hitchiking, until she finished. Sissy becomes a model for a femine hygine company, and as a result ends up living on an all-cowgirl goat ranch, after she has married an Native American who has denied his heritage. Along the way she meets the Chink an oriental man with a very interesting philosophy of life who lives in clockworks that is counting the end of time.

Tom Robbins has some exellent things to say about life. He is obbsessed with lesbians, which is kind of a problem for me in that I really don't care about them one way or the other, since I am a straight female. Its just really distracting. I loved the book anyway, even if (and maybe because) it made me realize why the femist movement has pretty much failed. Tom Robbins has an amizing gift of being able to make such great social statements in such an entertaining an comical way ( much like Kurt Vonnegut Jr. light).

A Life Aquatic

Great movie. As perfect as it gets. This movie stars Bill Murry (as Steve Zissu, oceanographer and award winner ducumentary filmer) and Owen Willson(his son), both actors I am very familiar with but have not been a great fan of most of their later work. But they have redeemed themselves in this movie. This movie was not really a comedy as Hollywood tried to package it (although we were laughing the whole time), but instead was more of an aligory about a man who is going through a terrible time in his life and trying to make sense out of it all.
I especially liked the creole man who sang David Bowie songs.
Several recent movies such as I (Heart) Hucklebees, Death to Smoochy, and A Life Aqutic all seem to be creating a new genre of movies that I particularly like . While not exactly dark comedies, they are not entirely lighthearted either.

Earthsea Part two

I liked the second part of this miniseries.It had a very nice ending, but I'll let you discover that for yourself. The miniseries got a little predictable towards the end. The second part became almost formulaic. It wasn't quite mechanical, because of the excellent writing by Ursula K Guin. However , I don't think they're were too many twists or unexpected events. Although I'm sure it was the last part that left many fans of the series unsatisfied. It seemed as if a lot had been left out in order to combine the last two books. I know that the series continues after the miniseries ends, but there doesn't seem to be any way for it to continue, but it does impress me that this was able to stand on its own. I still highly recomend the series, although I wouldn't run out and buy it on dvd.