Yesterday was my 34th birthday. It was mostly a quiet year for my birthday. I went out with a few friends to get drinks at Marie’s Crisis in the Village after spending the morning just enjoying the sun and weather.

My big present this year was a Kindle. Already I can’t imagine life on the subway without it. Also, now that my music collection has gone digital and my movie collection has ceased to grow (instead of buying DVDs, I just rent online), books are the last big pain-in-the-ass to move from place to place. Especially those sorta-trashy fantasy books I enjoy, will never read again, but can’t bring myself to throw out or trade in at the used bookstore.

But, I just bought a handful of those trashy books and they take up no space at all. My first Kindle read is Mercedes Lackey’s Intrigues: Book Two of the Collegium Chronicles because I love her Valdemar books. I’m about halfway through. From a fantasy writer who has tackled issues like terrorism, gay teens, depression, suicide, rape, and sex trafficking in remarkably sophisticated ways (although Haven is a bit of a utopia where things are basically guaranteed to work out for the best thanks to magic talking horses who always do the morally correct thing), it’s interesting to see her take on abject poverty, xenaphobia and school bullying in these stories about the early days of the Collegium where the heroes of the stories learn to be heroes.

I also bought the trilogy for The Hunger Games, which will be my next read. After that, I don’t know yet. Suggestions?

Anyway, today I’m off to the park for a picnic with my friends and more taking advantage of the sun before I start working tomorrow. Even though my work day doesn’t start until 9:30, my goal is to get up at 6 and hit the gym before work all summer. We’ll see how long that lasts. Probably only until we hit the late, late nights of the Trial Ad summer competition (we have 123 students signed up to compete over the course of 3 nights – eek!).

In other news, today is my first no-smoke-iversary. Technically, I think it might be tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter, it’s been a full year since I quit smoking. I celebrated by pushing myself for a really fast run in the park this morning. I was on track to do 5 miles in under 40 minutes, but about halfway through I ran headlong into about 5000 marathoners going in the opposite direction and I was forced to take a break and figure out how to get around them.

I also looked at some apartments today. There’s one in Harlem that I really, really like, although the guy who is moving out just said this morning that he doesn’t plan to leave until June 1 and I have to be out of the dorm May 28 at the very latest, so it might be impossible.

I started reading Changeless by Gail Carriger yesterday. It’s the second book in the series after Soulless, which I read over Spring Break. A few lines had me laughing out loud in Sheep’s Meadow this afternoon.

I also took myself to see Clash of the Titans last night. I was a great date, but I did get a little handsy later. Anyway, I thought the movie was fine summer popcorn fare. They did exactly what they promised to do – update the original film with modern special effects. Same plot. Same characters. Same opportunities for respectable actors to chew the scenery as mythical gods and monsters and warriors.

Otherwise, school is school. It’s not as stressful as last semester, but it’s not as new and exciting, either. We had a rather intense Constitutional Law week, covering 3 weeks of material in 3 days. Even though it was interesting material (14th Amendment Equal Protection stuff), it was rough. Interestingly, we had more classroom resistance to heightened scrutiny of gender-based laws than we did to applying a higher standard of review for laws that negatively impact gays, lesbians and bisexuals (again, not an especially trans-aware discussion). Whatever, I mostly keep my mouth shut in class these days and listen, especially on issues where I feel passionate.

Anyway, I’m soaking up some sun and having some fun because once school starts up again, it’s all downhill to finals, then the writing competition for law review and journals, then summer interning, then registering for classes… aside from Memorial Day (when I will likely be settling into a new apartment), I don’t anticipate a long weekend again until the 4th of July.

Anyway, the definite highlight of the week was the Scissor Sisters concert. The last time I saw them in concert they were still mostly unknown and it was a much more intimate concert space. Five years later, at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan rather than a Park City nightclub during Sundance, they’re still making music that just fills me with joy and makes me want to dance (new album apparently coming out in July).

Prior to the concert, I did some shopping. Nothing special, I just needed to pick up a black t-shirt for Follies and ended up browsing through a couple stores. I found a really nice white v-neck that is super comfortable and looks good. I wore it jogging this morning and got a couple flirty glances. I may have to go back to pick up a few more.

The weather in Manhattan has been utterly lovely. I’ve spent hours in the park reading (yes, Soulless was as good as Rob said it would be) or walking dogs or jogging or simply soaking up the sun. Once Follies tech week is over, I’ll have to plan frequent outdoor study breaks if it stays like this through finals.

Congrats to Jennifer and Jacob, who finally got hitched this morning. Wish I could have been there.

When I wasn’t trying to flirt with doggie-daddies at the park, I spent much of today listening to the soundtrack for Love Never Dies (the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera) and reading Soulless by Gail Carringer. It feels utterly indulgent to be reading for pleasure when I have, literally, hundreds of pages of case law waiting for my attention, but after all Rob’s praise of Carriger, I couldn’t resist when I saw it in the bookstore window after taking the dogs home. I’m about 80 pages in and I’m enjoying it so far.

As for Love Never Dies, it’s not entirely terrible. Completely unnecessary, poorly plotted, lacking in dramatic tension, and forgetting that the original Phantom was at least part Gothic suspense, the score is nevertheless lovely. Sadly, the most memorable song (“Till I Hear You Sing” — below) comes early in the first act and the build-up to the climactic aria and title tune ends in disappointment. I barely recognize these characters, either. Raoul is unlikeable and unrecognizable, Christine is vapid and one-dimensional, Madame Giry is greedy and indignant, Meg is jealous and jaded. The Phantom is the most audience-accessible character now and his obsession seems less terrifying and more like the faithfulness of a good man. Still, as much as I love to mock Andrew Lloyd Webber (and I do love it), I’ll always have a soft spot for Phantom and this sequel isn’t completely hateful (unlike Starlight Express).

Anyway, I think I’m dropping the “see a show” from my list of goals this week, because I’d rather spend the time reading a book (which is also less expensive).

Avatar is sort of like a twink on ecstasy working a stripper pole. Sure, it’s fun to look at and mildly diverting, but you feel bad about it because it’s shallow, not very smart, and kinda offensive. I could forgive the plot holes bigger than Craig and Enrico‘s combined p33ns (like the disappearance of all the other human-driven avatars after act 1), I could forgive the characterization that made me yearn for the complexity of stereotypes (the general who walked on screen and said “I’m the bad guy who wants to kill or bully everyone… hate me now, hate me forever, I have no positive characteristics”). What I can’t forgive (because I’m me) is the offensive white hetero male fantasy where strong women sacrifice themselves, the white man assimilates into native culture and saves the minority culture through (essentially) terrorism, and the thinly veiled use of blue aliens as stand-ins for Native Americans and tribal Africans.

On the flip side, there’s not much about Sherlock Holmes that I didn’t like. I don’t remember Sherlock Holmes being quite so smartass or lecherous to chamber maids in the books, but whatever. Robert Downey Jr is great at playing Robert Downey Jr. The story was well done and I was able to pick up on a few clues prior to the unraveling of the mystery at the end. I hope the holder of copyright isn’t going to stop the future movies because of teh gheys having buttsecks subtext.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides wasn’t exactly my idea of light vacation reading, but it was Enrico‘s idea of light vacation reading, and that’s what I get for asking him for a recommendation. Kidding aside, what I loved most about this book was the style. The writing itself was superb and I don’t think I’ve ever read another book that so effectively used first person plural for a narrator’s voice. The structure of the book was also interesting as it vaulted back and forth between present day commentary and various points in the story. What I didn’t love about the book was the story itself and the themes. They struck me as being the weak point of the book and I wish Eugenides had used his excellent storytelling skills to tell a more interesting story.

Ah, urban fantasy. Now this is my idea of light vacation reading. White Witch, Black Curse is the seventh book in Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series. Unlike some urban fantasy series (I’m looking at you Laurell K. Hamilton), it always feels like Harrison is moving the larger story along rather than stringing it out as long as possible. I still like the characters and Harrison manages to continue coming up with new and credible threats and mysteries to solve (again, looking at you LKH).

Anyway, my flight back to NY is late Thursday. I’m already getting emails from my professors and school is coming back way too quickly. I wouldn’t mind another few weeks of down time. Of course, when you’re putting in several resumes a day for summer internships, it’s not really a true vacation.

ETA: Somehow I forgot to mention the first movie I saw on this trip, Nine. I didn’t really love it much more than when I first heard the Broadway Cast Album in the 90s. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exactly riveting cinema, either. The cast did a fine job, but if you never connect with or care about Guido Contini, it’s all an exercise in standalone performances.

Movies I saw in the theater in 2009:

• Avatar
• Nine
• Happy Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Star Trek
• The Hurt Locker
• Sugar
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Notable not-required-for-school Books I read in 2009:

• Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
• One L, Scott Turow
• Foundation (Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles, Book 1), Mercedes Lackey
• Swallowing Darkness, Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Outlaw Demon Wails, Kim Harrison
• Touchy Subjects, Emma Donoghue
• The Phoenix Endangered, Mercedes Lackey

Places I’ve been (for more than a day) in 2009:

• Cincinnati, OH
• New York City, NY
• Salt Lake City, UT

Blog stats for 2009:

Month	Monthly visits	Avg. daily visitors
January	4,240	137
February	3,912	140
March	4,412	142
April	3,213	107
May	3,159	102
June	5,126	171
July	4,626	149
August	4,972	160
September	1,683	56
October	1,791	58
November	1,866	62
December	1,966	68
Total/Overall	40,966	113

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Augusten Burroughs – books on my shelf: Running With Scissors	Alan Hollinghurst – books on my shelf: The Folding Star | The Line of Beauty | The Swimming-Pool Library	Chuck Palahniuk – Choke | Snuff | Lullaby | Rant

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My choices from last week:

Marry: Daniel Radcliffe.
F*ck: Tom Felton.
Kill: Rupert Grint.

When I first decided to take “a year off” before starting law school, I doubted that I’d even be able to relax and suspected that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’m finally figuring out how to fill a day with nothing. Everyone told me to enjoy it, because I’d be working really hard once school started and through the foreseeable future, and I’m trying… I’ve just never been good at down time.

(The astute observer, however, will note that the book I’m reading is Getting To Maybe, a book about what to expect and how to prepare for law school exams… clearly I haven’t quite mastered the art of goofing off yet)

Saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine yesterday. Here’s the thing, I’ve given Hollywood a lot of slack on the X-Men films. From the beginning, I’ve accepted that they were going to play a bit fast-and-loose with the back stories of the characters and eliminate some of the really far-fetched elements of the X-men universe (e.g. magic, aliens, cyborgs and robots, time-travel, etc.). But really, I’m starting to feel insulted. There is more to Emma Frost than “blonde, turns into diamond.” There is more to Remy/Gambit than “New Orleans, makes things explode.” There is more to Fred/the Blob than “strong, fat, vaguely Southern.” These aren’t minor characters they’re messing with, these are major characters with long, established and well-known stories. And don’t get me started on Deadpool. My point is simply that the movie was fine, it was well-acted and enjoyable, but I wish they’d rename it “Wolverine: A movie based extremely vaguely on characteristics of an X-Men comic book.”

I finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff last night. I always sort of like Palahniuk’s work, particularly because he seems so aware of the novel as a form and takes interesting risks with the format. I get weary of the apocalyptic stakes-raising of each book, and I wonder if he could have told the same story in half the time and just as effectively by cutting 1/3 of the random trivia, but it’s fun to read and painless, so I don’t mind. In Snuff, we follow 4 characters around during a 600-man gangbang of world famous porn actress Cassie Wright, and it’s possible one of the 600 men plans to kill her. The characters, a veteran porn actor who will be “Mr. 600″, a washed-up actor running from rumors of his sexual orientation, a young man virgin with an unusual interest in the aging star, and the intelligent and philosophical talent wrangler keeping all 600 men in line. Palahniuk reveals the story and the characters one layer at a time until we know the deepest, most neurotic details of these 5 lives (Cassie gets revealed through the people around her) into his typically absurd climax of storytelling whether nothing really gets resolved and no one gets what they wanted.

I’m starting to get nervous that the swine flu seems to be spreading in New York. It’s only about 100 days until I make the move and I’d rather not walk directly into the plague. Oh, I know the media is making it sound much worse than it really is at present, but still…

I just finished reading One L by Scott Turow, the cautionary tale/autobiography recommended to most students considering law school. Having done obsessive research (as is my custom) about law school life, the book was somewhat tamer than I expected. Turow’s account of his first year at Harvard Law School may have been shocking and revolutionary in the 70s and 80s, but in the age of the internet and mass market appeal of law school guidebooks (of which I’ve purchased too many), I would hope that incoming law students are already versed in ideas like the Socratic method, case books, law review, exam styles and the dreaded grade curve. If I’m wrong, and most 1Ls don’t know this stuff is coming, well, so much the better for me and my ability to be prepared.

It seems that Fordham Law has dropped 3 spots in the US News & World Report Rankings, coming in at 30th place nationwide. Much of this slip is attributed to the change in the way USN&WR considers evening program students, but whatever. I’m not as rank-obsessed as I pretend to be and I’m still very happy with my decision. I would be more concerned if the drop in rank was more than 5 points and/or wasn’t explained by algorithm changes.