Here is what I have been listening to:

Chris(topher) Walla--Field Manual
Somewere, there is a botched attempt at me bashing Death Cab for Cutie's album Narrow Stairs, in favor of Christopher Walla's solo album Field Manual. I'll skim it down for you. Here I was, thinking since puberty that Ben Gibbard was the genious of this outfit. I have swifty been corrected, now fully aware that Ben Gibbard  has been reduced to poorly recycling already stale materal designed to feed to coorperate black holes that are Major Labels.
Chris Walla, on the other hand, takes everything I like about Death Cab and puts a new voice to it. Anyone that has pointed out that Chris has a deffinte production style (Death Cab Albums, Decemberists, Kings of Leon), it's put on display here. Cleverly sampled drums, bittersweet lyrics, toe-tapping guitars, and very intimate vocals. This guy seems swell. Death Cab is nothing without him.
Favorite Track: Two-Fifty

Thom Yorke--The Eraser
I remember that this came out on the cusp of me really starting to eat up all that was Radiohead. I swiftly downloaded it apon it's release, and upon listening quickly disguarded it. I remember specifically thinking it was "boring." Wtf? This is Thom Yorke. I've been inhaling all of Radiohead's material even more so than usual this past year, and this is...more of it. Thom wrote and played all the songs himself, using mainly guitar and drum samples. I can't say that he's been holding back any secret ambitions to make a departure from the band's past material, but seriously, that's why everyone likes it. I've noticed, and even Thom pointed out at one point, coorelations between songs on The Eraser and Hail to the Thief. It has a similar feel, but as it was the album that origonally endeared Radiohead to me, I don't mind at all. Keep it up you lazy eyed lunatic.
Favorite Track: Analyze

My Brightest Diamond--1000 Sharks Teeth
Holy shit. This album is amazing. I was first introduced to this wonderful woman when she opened for The Decemberists at the Moore last year, and finally got around to getting it a few months ago. It's basically just one woman and a backing band, and being that she's an operatically trained singer, it's a given that she has a beautiful, sophistocated, and very haunting voice. Her songs share those same traits, though her debut, Bring me the Work Horse, also carried a rather disturbing feel. William was quick to point out "I think you'll like the new album better--there aren't any songs about dead animals." This was asumption was correct.
Don't get me wrong, it's still strange, but now only in a structural sence. She does alot of things musically that you don't expect, and still manages to pack quite a punch. I also very much like that she uses her voice as an instrument, in a way that is akin to Thom Yorke, in that she uses it to amplify intensity...in a very twichy way.
Favorite Track: Inside a Boy

All Hail the MOoose!

Finished 2/20/08

Why does everyone give such praise to Stienbeck? Maybe I'm reading the wrong book here, but he is a shit writer. His style seems to be completly flat, dry, no real life whatsoever. No flair to the language, not even the usual over-extravegant explaination of clothing or chracter background.

It seems like he wrote this book when he was bored and someone forced a deadline on him. Every once and a while a single, somewhat poetic phrase will come out of him, but for the most part, a ten year old could have written it. The metaphores were clear and established however,  and I think if he could actually write it would have been fantastic: greed is the fuel of man and it's quite consuming and all that jazz.
The ending was compelling in comparison to the rest of the book, but I'm really glad it was only 90 pages.

In retrospect, I rather hope that  becuase he set the book in such a primative enviornment, he was trying to write in a primative style. Or, it could just be crap.

In Summary:  John Stienbeck can't write.

Final Verdict: Crap

So here's the deal:
I have a notebook that is made from an old Pokey Little Puppy book that I write down these opinions in, which I will transcribe onto this awesome new account, LiterateMoose. Enjoy.

Finished: 2/7/08

I'd been wanting to read this book for about a year now, becuase I saw the movie it was based on, and thought itw as really relateable to myself when I was younger. I've sucked my thumb all my life, sometimes I still do. My parents tried numerous things to make me stop but they weren't nearly as harsh about it. I was in debate for a couple years in highschool. I was also on (and by that I mean perscribed)  ridalin for a number of years.

However, the movie only covers the first out three sections in the book, cutting out alot of the bizzare stuff, the strangness of which only increases throughout the book. The thumbsucking, which one would think was the main premise of the entire book, was quit within the first four chapters I'd say?

The rest is just Justin (the protaginist) dealing with his parents, who I did not like in the movie, and even less in the book. Even Justin, as every with every other character, is clingy, self absorbed, and whiny, and clingy. And it's really hard to enjoy a book when you hate everyone involved.

The strangeness began for me, when Justin started using drugs, which while explored in the movie, was changed quite a bit.  In the movie he does speed and has a lot of sex to get off of ridalin, but in the book he sticks to alcohol and weed. Which turned rather disturbing when they start meeting at his dealer's house and the dealer makes his baby inhale pot smoke constantly.
It took an absurd turn when Justin takes up Mormonism and goes on a mission in NYC. By the end of the book I felt the whole thing was so out of touch with reality that I was glad it was over--this was not why I picked up the book.

Also, there was something about the style of writing that put me off. I read the first few pages in the store to see if I actually did want it, and at the time his style really intreged me: I liked the way he worded things. But the more I read it , the more it kind of irked me. Something about the tone of both the story telling and the dialouge made the characters less likeable.  I felt like Justin was following me around  trying to make me realize what great buds we'd be, but really I just wanted to tell him to fuck off.

I'm glad I read it, for curiosity's sake, but all in all this is one of the rare cases were I am rooting for the movie over the book. Simply becuase the movie took out all the unbelievable stuff and left only quirky characters, which is greatly preferable to the whiny son of a bitch that the father was all by himself.

In Summary:  Weird storyline and off-putting characters that had the potential of being a really great story. Watch the movie instead.

Final Verdict: Suck-ish.