I'm still here.

Though I've been MIA since October, I am indeed, still here. Graduate school is doing its best to kick me when I'm down, hence the prolonged absence. I only have a little over a month left until I am finished with my graduate degree! Suffice to say, I am counting down the days.

I know I've said it before, but I am intending to change the focus of Randy the Blog. The change is coming, even though it may take a while. There will be book reviews, recipes, concert reviews, music reviews (forewarning: I am a music snob. I am very persnickety about what I like. If I don't love it, I HATE it.), movie reviews, general ramblings and hopefully, some pictures. It is my sincere hope that once I am out of school I will have more time to keep up with poor Randy.

Speaking of music, I had one of my classical music cd's with me in the car the other day, with the windows down and the volume cranked up. You should have seen the odd looks I was getting from people next to me when I was stopped at red lights. I guess it is pretty funny/odd/unexpected to see someone completely rocking out to the "William Tell Overture," "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, "Water Music" from Handel, or "The Torreador's Song" from Carmen, but there I was, conducting my own imaginary orchestra, but hey, that's just me. I'm a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Yes, I got that phrase from somewhere, but I can't remember where. So, if you are the genius that came up with that phrase, I credit you and esteem you. I am not trying to commandeer your genius.

On to the books. I haven't had nearly as much time to read lately as I am accustomed to having. This is physically painful to me. Seriously. However, I have been able to read a few really good books that I must share:
1. The Vampire Diaries Series (including books 1 and 2 of The Vampire Diaries: The Return) (L.J. Smith)
2. Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
3. An Abundance of Katherines (John Green)
4. Witness (Karen Hesse)
5. Interred With Their Bones (Jennifer Caldwell, I think)

I'm still working on The Last Precinct (Patricia Cornwell). It's a lot more dense than the above YA fiction. With the amount of brain strain I've had from school, I've been more prone to read non-grisly murder mysteries. I had to ditch The Dandelion Killer. The writing was not to my taste and I lost patience with it by the time I was 100 pages in. I was being indulgent to wait that long before throwing it into the recesses of my closet where things have a tendency to disappear, never to be heard from again. This is impressive as my closet is less than 9 square feet of space. Alas, I digress.

So what is my taste? It's complicated to explain. Can I describe it with a list (with possible annotations)? Let's see...
1. Writing that doesn't "sound" forced. It should read with the words flowing effortlessly within the mind. Make me kick your words around in my head, make me think, make me savor the words. Paint a picture, show without telling, be poetic.
2. Voice. Let your characters have a unique personality. Give the book a tone, a mood. Give the book an element of individuality. (Like I said, it's hard to explain.)
3. Snark. Need I say more? I'm a fan of sarcasm, cynicism, satire, all that good stuff.
4. Cleverness and wit. It goes along with snark and all of that, but I really admire writing that is clever and characters with razor sharp wit.
5. Don't go too far beyond the realms of possibility. Yes, I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy, but you need some aspect of realism to ground a text. Don't leave me completely within a created world or atmosphere with no frame of reference, no possibility for personal connections to the text.
6. Feeling. Make me connect with a book. I want to feel something when I read--make me cry, laugh, scream, cower in the corner with fear, wonder about the ideas presented, smile...shake me to my core.
7. A profound lack of sap. I HATE SAP. Saccharine sweetness, cutesy constructs and rot your teeth tropes really grate on my nerves. "Life's not a song, life isn't bliss. Life is just this. It's living" (Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More With Feeling"). Crappy sap is not realistic. It's contrived; it's fake; it's an abomination.
**branching off a bit...
8. Characters I can relate to. Don't give me a weak protagonist. If the person I'm supposed to be cheering for is a spineless lump of humanoid cells, I'm not going to care. I'll be cheering for the antagonist to wipe the floor with their sorry hide. Likewise, avoid stereotypes, archetypes and stock characters. Give me someone who is flawed yet likeable. My favorite character from Romeo and Juliet? Mercutio the Mouth. There's someone with personality. Forget fickle Romeo or the sobbing sad sack Juliet.
9. The Unexpected. If I know what's going to happen by the first page or even the first chapter, what's to entice me to read further? I probably will read further, in the hope of a shock in there somewhere. Maybe I'm a masochist.
10. Development. Give me some conflict, some inner turmoil for the characters, work up to changes in the plot and characters. Please, please, do NOT rush through this important part of the book/text/whatever. Show me how the characters get to be the way the are, show me how their relationships change, how the plot thickens or the problems change.

Maybe I have seriously high expectations... This is not even an exhaustive list of things that I look for in quality reading material (this list is also applicable to movies).

I noticed as I was reading through this post...I've been quite alliterative in my writing this time. How oddly obnoxious.

On a vastly different note, here's some music you should check out:
Gary Allan: Get Off on the Pain
Eric Church: Carolina
Cross Canadian Ragweed: Happiness and All the Other Things
Miranda Lambert: Revolution
Eli Young Band: Jet Black and Jealous
Scott Wiggins Band: Burn
The entire catalog of music from these artists is required listening as is that of:
Randy Rogers Band
Micky and the Motorcars
Reckless Kelly
Jack Ingram

"My first love is an angry, painful song" ("Wicked Twisted Road," Reckless Kelly)

My first foray into blogging in a while has gone on for far too long, so for now, I bid you adieu, dear readers.

au revoir!