![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Of vampires and rock bands
So, I lied. I do have a couple things to talk about. Nothing too big, though. One of my Xmas gifts was the book Fangland by John Marks. What a fascinating novel. I'm really enjoying it. It's kind of a modern day, post 9/11 retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
It's about Evangeline Harker, a young producer for The Hour, a hit TV news show. Recently engaged, she's sent off to Romania to meet with an arms dealer named Torgu. The events leading up to the meeting are ominous and speak to what's going to happen in the coming pages. When she meets him, he's very off and the events seem very similar to Dracula. She's locked in his giant hotel as he's gone "on business" during the day. He also wants to use Harker as a way to get to New York. I'm not very far into it, but it's definitely an exciting novel with a kind of cheesy name (though the name refers, at least partially, to the environment Harker works in at The Hour; a kind of dog-eat-dog world). It's written in the epistolary format, just like the original Dracula, and is actually pretty intense. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of vampires/Bram Stoker's novel. I'm sure I'll have more as I get further into it.
I brought Rock Band over to my parent's house yesterday so we could jam for a bit. It's funny, when I first brought it over back at Thanksgiving, I thought my dad would be good at it and my mom would barely get by. I was shocked to find out it's the opposite. Especially yesterday. My dad was struggling to get 60-70% on either the bass or the lead guitar (and in fact said that the reason he was doing poorly on the lead was because he "couldn't hear his part" so he switched to the bass). On a couple songs we had to save him and bring him back. Conversely, my mom was rocking it out with high 80s and some 90s.
The best part was when my dad switched to the drums so I could mess around on the guitar. At one point, he was just smashing away and his sticks went flying. All three of us broke down into laughter to the point my mom was coughing. I'm not sure what caused it exactly, but the simple act of seeing the drum sticks go flying and my dad's confused "how did that happen?" look was priceless. Definitely worth the hassle of carting around all of the equipment.
It's about Evangeline Harker, a young producer for The Hour, a hit TV news show. Recently engaged, she's sent off to Romania to meet with an arms dealer named Torgu. The events leading up to the meeting are ominous and speak to what's going to happen in the coming pages. When she meets him, he's very off and the events seem very similar to Dracula. She's locked in his giant hotel as he's gone "on business" during the day. He also wants to use Harker as a way to get to New York. I'm not very far into it, but it's definitely an exciting novel with a kind of cheesy name (though the name refers, at least partially, to the environment Harker works in at The Hour; a kind of dog-eat-dog world). It's written in the epistolary format, just like the original Dracula, and is actually pretty intense. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of vampires/Bram Stoker's novel. I'm sure I'll have more as I get further into it.
I brought Rock Band over to my parent's house yesterday so we could jam for a bit. It's funny, when I first brought it over back at Thanksgiving, I thought my dad would be good at it and my mom would barely get by. I was shocked to find out it's the opposite. Especially yesterday. My dad was struggling to get 60-70% on either the bass or the lead guitar (and in fact said that the reason he was doing poorly on the lead was because he "couldn't hear his part" so he switched to the bass). On a couple songs we had to save him and bring him back. Conversely, my mom was rocking it out with high 80s and some 90s.
The best part was when my dad switched to the drums so I could mess around on the guitar. At one point, he was just smashing away and his sticks went flying. All three of us broke down into laughter to the point my mom was coughing. I'm not sure what caused it exactly, but the simple act of seeing the drum sticks go flying and my dad's confused "how did that happen?" look was priceless. Definitely worth the hassle of carting around all of the equipment.