h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reading your Space makes a person want to know you and belong to you and talk to you everyday of their life. You sound so damned interesting. It's unfair!

I don't know whether I already mentioned these bands you. But here are some names. If you've heard of them then excellent. If not, then try them. I don't know what you'll think. They might be a bit to poppy, I don't know: the Eels, OK Go, Sigur Ros, Mew, Kashmir.

In terms of classical, I'm not very well informed, but these are some of my loves: Rimsky-Korsakov, Eric Carlson, Mozart's Requiem (particularly. His Symphongy 40 in G minor I absolutely loath) I also love Opera.

Books. Have you read Life of Pi? Anna Karenina? Stuff by Robert Cormier? The Grapes of Wrath (I'm in the middle of it)?

I don't know if there's really a point to this, just seeing if there's anything that grips you.

*is amazed to be called interesting... thankyou*

I've not heard of the last three bands... but Kashmir is my all time favourite Led Zepplin song! The frist two I have only heard a few songs from, but they're pretty decent.... I tend to think of the Eels in relation to Trigger Happy TV (the squirrels...heehee!).

Opera is fab... Wish I got to see more of it! Once I saw La Boheme at the Royal Opera House. Great, apart from having to put up with snobs treating you like a commener. How vulgar! I am not well voiced on the first two you mentioned and am not really a big fan of Mozart... However, my best recommendation classical wise is Carl Orff's Carmina Burana... Fantastic stuff! They use it in loads of horror movie trailers

I /have/ read the Life of Pi.... Quite remarkable, although I can bring myself to believe that it really happened... What do you think?

Nice to hear from you

Woohooo! You did reply! I thought maybe I'd insulted you with my ignorance or something......

No, I meant Kashmir the band, their "big hit" was Rocket Brothers. It's kind of in the same metallic sadness as Radiohead and Coldplay. Only they're Danish. Heh.

I have three Eels albums. Sad music is so damn beautiful! It's weird how sad music and sad words seem to just be so much more attractive.

Yeah... Carmina Burana's Ok... but a bit of a cliche. I like the whole "O fortuna" bit, but I think the rest drags on... ahem... I've only ever seen one Opera, and it wasn't famous, but I enjoyed in none the less - 'Elixir of Love' or something. On the same school trip I went to see it we also went to this Opera Academy type thing. It was weird and pokey and the people were all old and very very snobby. They wouldn't let us do much. Though we did get to try on some of the old Opera costumes - good fun.

Did you mean you /could/ or /couldn't/ bring yourself to believe it? I found it very confusing - everyone treats it bluntly as a work of fiction, there doesn't seem to be any public speculation over the possibility it's real, that would be so awesome. And it /does/ seem pretty believable to me, especially how there's those interviews with Pi, and the recorded ones at the end. *confused*

~laughs~ Don't be silly!

Ooh, Danish metallic sadness.... Not a big Radiohead fan myself.
I think maybe sad music is much more heartfelt... I mean, you can't really believe a pop group singing happily about a girl/boyfriend and how great life is when you can't feel that they really believe in what they're singing. Those songs don't come from the heart; they come from the purse.

Old opera costumes...... do tell!

I meant that I can't quite bring myself to believe it... totally. I think the stuff near the end was more likely hallucinations... I was totally with it up to the giant man eating island and the second boy!

Yeah, me neither, to tell the truth, just a few of their songs(Radiohead).

I also think it's the same case as with words - sad seems more genuine because it's less choked by overuse - extremely happy words lose their meaning because they're used for such insignificant things and are much less effective, where as sad words are in greater supply and less ground.

Well, there was this big black dress with all this material and embroidery - it was about a ton in weight and everyone who tried it on seemed to get pushed into the ground a bit. The thing that amazed me was that, although the costumes made you look huge - as Opera singers look, the waistlines were in fact tiny. I guess the singers are given most of their ample girth by their costumes... and their chests...

Yeah, I know, but it can't really be *dis*proven, it's very neatly taken care of in that way - the island is tiny and in the middle of an immense ocean, and the man is killed... but as you say, it could've just been hallucinations. It certainly works for me as far as suspension of disbelief or whatever...

Now you suggest some stuff.

And I think it's mainly because 'happy' bands tend to be mass produced and don't actually write their own stuff, so it doesn't feel so genuine....





Okay, some stuff...
Well, I had this priest guy in my RS class today, and he really really annoyed me (and my RS teacher. Just saying that to prove I'm not entirely out of line on this!) because of his frankly rather offensive views of God. What do you think about God?

:-D Hmm... That's very interesting, and I heartily agree with you. How dare he. Might I direct your attention... back here for just a minute.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F91307?thread=347588 ...from aaages ago. Remember? ;-) :-) Do you like Muse?

Damnit! I just skimmed that thread and realised I've mentioned pretty much everything we've talked about in this thread - Life of Pi, Kashmir, Mew. Whoops! I'm really not that flat a person! My interests to change!

I must admit BT, I did have rather a sense of deja-vu with his conversation!

How did the new Vicar thing go in the end, anyway?

I'm not really much of a Muse fan.... I really liked You could be my unintended... but apart from that, they tend to sound samey to me, I'm afraid

I know you're not really flat! You can make the same things interesting twice, how could you possibly be flat?

What other books have you been reading?
I recently read "Whistling for Elephants" by Sandy Toksvig, which was an incredibly powerful book... heck, I nearly cried (in the middle of school as well...! How embarassing!).

You knew all along?

Er... I don't remember... what was the problem? I believe I had a very nice Vicar, or at least...hmm...

I've actually only heard two songs by them so far, so I don't know whether they're samey or not. Bliss, and something else. They were pretty cool.

Heh.

Really? Wow, I haven't had a book have such a strong emotional reaction on me since I was about 10 - Charlie and The Chocolate Factory had me squealing with excitement. I'll look into it...

I'm on a week's holiday, (I won't be around for a couple of days )so I just borrowed a couple of books from the library. "My Brilliant Career" (my grandad's been after me to read it for ages...) and "The Woman Who Walked into Doors" (I think. Just caught my interest) are the ones I remember. Then I have to read "The Things They Carried" for English and I'm in the middle of "The Grapes of Wrath" which is awesome.

I was feeling suspicious.....

Ermm... you said something about a new vicar...

They're worth a listen to, methinks

She's a strong feminist writter....

Sounds fab....!

Enjoy your holiday! I want to hear all about it when you get back.....