Music, The Brain and Ecstacy

Drew hosted this meeting in Hollywood and managed to collect a record breaking number of attendees with 11! The book this month was Music, the Brain and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain. An appropriate scene was set with Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same screening on the TV. Somewhere close to 9pm, some semblance of a discussion began.

In attendance were Drew, Lisa, Mike, Mike, Marco, Lorisa, Patrick, Tom, Lien, Chris and myself. Lorisa brought Cameron, but I think he was just tagging along which I don't think counts! I wasn't allowed to count my friend who was visiting or my husband when I last hosted, so I'm not letting anyone else get away with anything. In any case, Drew's night is the clear winner. A trophy should be presented at the next meeting, though it probably wont.

Unlike my heroics of last month in which I read the whole book, I shamed myself this time around, having read only two pages. I was hoping to learn a lot this time around by listening, but the general consensus seemed to be that the book was rather technical, thus rendering it difficult to summarise.

There was some discussion as to the causes of hearing loss and various tales of ear damage followed. Lien was presently suffering some ringing from an accidental loud burst of noise from a website while she was wearing headphones. Chris told of a co-worker who also received and ear injury with headphones, lost his balance and wasn't fully recovered for a good six months. The book stated that hearing loss through aging starts to present itself around the age of 40, which resulted in Lisa declaring that a good time to die.

Drew said he chose the book as, quite simply, he had wanted to read something to explain why we respond to music as we do. This was the only thing he found, and while people who had read it agreed the author was very thorough and well researched, I got the idea that it was sadly a bit too technical for easy grasping. Mike said while he didn't finish it, he had to re-read parts to fully understand it, but would always be glad he had done so.

I was disappointed to learn that the author spoke little of rock and pop music. This startled me as that is the very music that makes me giddy and ecstatic. Still, from the sounds of it, there is a lot to be learned from it. I will keep it in my "To read" list. Winding up the book discussions, we were excited to hear that Tom had auditioned for the role of Klaus in a stage version of "Pest Control".

The meeting wound down kinda earlier than usual with a rival party and a Deerhoof show drawing people away. Those who remained after that somehow ended up in a discussion about starting up Street Wars. It's a game where each person is assigned a target and are required to go out and "assassinate" that person with a water gun. It goes on for several weeks and requires planning and stealth. I'm very much looking forward to this!

I now live in great fear that nothing as interesting as Guitar Hero, hot tubbing and street wars will come to pass at the next meeting which will be hosted by moi. Next month's book will the Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Levy with I consider to have a terrifying cover!

Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, November 12, 2007

The November meeting to discuss Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach was hosted by Mike and held an hour earlier than usual. I wasn't aware of the reason for the time change, but I busted my proverbial balls to make it there on time, only to narrowly arrive behind Mike who just made it in from an out of town trip (when you take over two weeks to write the blog, you forget things like where he was coming from, and such and such.)

Summer arrived soon after so the two of us played a horrendous game of pool while Mike set up. Mike's is a great spot for book club as the condo complex has it's own rec room and library! Soon after Lisa arrived, we started. The group seemed a bit thin, but we couldn't hold out any longer. As I was the only person to read the whole book, we started from the back and went over each chapter from last to first. The book covered a whole range of things from cadavers used for crash tests, determining causes of plane crashes, used by cosmetic surgery students, ammunition testing, the history or organ donation and the fascinating and sordid past of body snatching for early anatomists.

I continued filling the others in on what they had missed. Not quite my favourite, but perhaps the most curious being use of cadavers being for medicinal purposes and specifically the medicinal properties believed to be held in the honeyfied remains of old men. In some civilization which has escaped me, in a time not as long ago as you'd think, (though that also escapes me) aging men would go in strict honey diets. They would piss and shit honey until finally they died from malnutrition. Obviously. The honey body was then placed in a tomb, covered in more honey and sealed for a hundred years. After this time had elapsed, the men had turned into some kind of dried honey treat that was believed to have some super medicinal properties. How they arrived at all that is something I would very much like to know, but not explained in the book. In a desperate attempt to bring food themed with the book, I was hoping to bring some kind of dried honey treat, but I ended up at the Gelson's bakery on my way over and demanded "Something that has lots of honey in it." It didn't quite capture the images conjured in the book, but I tried.

I wonder how these guys feel about their poor showing in this book?

Eventually Drew showed up, and finally Lorisa, Patrick and Russell who thought it still started at 8pm. While I had been proud to be the only one who finished the book, my glory was diminished with Lorisa's arrival as she had done the same. I cling to what little glory I can get. Summer had read the most after Lorisa and I, so she took over the recap until she overlapped with Lisa. More proof that the blog needs to be written right away, because I can't remember anything new that came out from the discussions aside from the recaps, but there was stuff, I swear!

There was a lot of talk about what people wanted done with their bodied after they died. I think Russell was adamant that his organs were his and he wasn't giving them to no-one. I was keen on the fertilizer idea where a Swedish crackpot (I shouldn't say that, she seemed lovely) has big ideas to freeze bodies with liquid nitrogen, then shatter them into tiny pieces and use them as compost. Then you would actually feed a tree, rather than being a worthless pile of ash. Apparently just dumping a body as is to decompose is more of a hindrance than a help.

As I said, aside from going over what we read, I forget the little dalliances of opinions and stories that make book club such an utter JOY. If I can't be bothered writing the blog right away, I shall at least take notes next time. Apologies.

Once we were done and realising that the hours of condo conveniences being at our disposal were coming to a close, (the reason for the earlier time revealed!) we hot footed to the hot tub to conclude. In the hot tub it was revealed to be Patrick's birthday, a real champ for still coming to book club on this day. I took this opportunity to boast about the blog which I subsequently neglected.

*

Next month: Music, The Brain and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain, hosted by Drew. Hideous cover, but sounds riveting.


*Not actual tub, nor actual book club member.

Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh, October 8, 2007

I believe this was the club's 13th meeting, though only the second one since it was named. Summer hosted in Los Feliz, an active new member given she only joined three months ago. In attendance were Lisa, Mike, Russell, Lorisa, Patrick, Summer, Chris and myself. Summer had the film "Microcosmos" screening throughout to fit in with the bug theme of the book. Usually we try to incorporate food and beverages with things found in the book, but aside from the peanuts Russell brought (drawn from Lillian's peculiar circus fetish) I don't think there was much else connected. I was going to bring Lucky Charms cereal, since they eat that in the book, but since I ate no dinner, and after all the candy at the "Geek Love" meeting, I decided to bring some brie for sustenance. The cheese was from France, so I could have said it was related to the assassin Chantelle, but I only thought of that after I bought it, so I didn't mention it.

The book didn't seem to evoke as much conversation as some of the previous books. I had heard a whisper that there were plans to turn this into a movie, but I learned at the meeting that the story's first incarnation was as a screenplay which explains a lot about the style of the book as it did read more like an action flick than we expected. We discussed the characters we did and didn't like and also, given that the film was supposed to be (and possibly still?) made into a film, who would play the characters. That big lug from the King of Queens seemed to suit as Bob, with David Hyde Pierce as Klaus was a good choice by Summer. Mike suggested Bob Hoskins for Bob, but I said "No way." and that he had to be taller.

No dispute about David Hype Pierce as Klaus...

...but what about Bob?

Mike had researched some other other natural pest control methods and their effectiveness was then debated by the group. A few scary bug stories were shared and that was about it. Once Lorisa's business associates arrived, that seemed to cease the discussion of the book. Even the late arrival of Chris who had not read it, did not spur on much new discussion. I think the general consensus, though we didn't actually call for one, was that we enjoyed the book, much like we would enjoy an action movie. Entertaining, but with nothing really to think about afterward, hence the trailing conversation.

Summer then put on "Sexy Beast" with Ben Kinglsey and Ray Winstone which we got a little taste of. It seemed great, but since no-one was paying 100% attention, I suggested we play Guitar Hero II on the PlayStation which carried us through for the rest of the night. Not usually how book club ends, but that was the nature of the book.