Monday, August 29, 2005

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

For the past two days this song has lilted through my brain waves. Dionne Warwick is pounding my head with her light tinkling voice. Why? Yesterday I took the love of my life to the airport so he could spend the week in San Jose. He is learning the ins and outs of the highly engineered equipment he uses in his job. After this week he will be able to fix the equipment. It's perfect for him...he loves to take things apart and put them together.

I have never been to San Jose. I picture green rolling hills with high-glazed buildings. Every surface is reflective or translucent. To me, this is the image of silicon valley--shiny, metallic contrast against a lush landscape that is northern California.

I just recently finished One Hundred Years of Solitude. A powerful, creative book filled with interesting characters. It follows the entire history of a town and the family that founded it. It was all at once overwhelming and underwhelming. Details on important historic happenings were crammed into a single paragraph while a single animal description could take up two pages. So many people had told me about this book and I read it with great anticipation. But, in the end, I was only satisfied slightly. The characters are described in such a way that the adjectives that relate them are removed. There are no emotional ties to these characters...you never truly feel them. There are moments when they creep into your heart, but quickly, he tears them away with a mundane, unrelated detail. The imagination behind this book is stunning, but I was not sad when the characters died.

Right now, I am reading Stop-Time by Frank Conroy. It is wonderful wonderful wonderful! It is considered the quintessial book for creative nonfiction. His voice captures the mood so thoroughly. You take a journey with a boy and you never want it to end.

I have decided to concentrate on one book at a time for the moment. No more juggling books. Next book will be the completion of Cold Mountain. I have enjoyed this book so much that I have been holding off on finishing it. I don't want it to go away. But, my best friend has insisted I finish so she can talk to me about it. Everyone should read this book! It is pure genius and beauty.

Before I go...recent bands I am in love with...Hot Hot Heat, Embrace and The Shout Out Louds. Two are from Britain (gee, that's a surprise) and the other is from Scandinavia.

"...do you know the way to San Jose...doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-da-doo-da-doo..." Shut Up, Dionne Warwick!