The postillion was struck by lightning

Today has been sort of pathetic. It's raining and cold and I slept on my hip all weird so it hurts and Dad broke a lightbulb in the bathroom and I got to spend half an hour picking up glass off all the soft things in the bathroom and BLARGH. And my sister is still not returning my emails, which leads me to believe that she changed email addresses, because the one I'm sending the emails to is her maiden name. And she's simultaneously absentminded and Type A enough to forget to tell anyone that. (We are not exactly alike! Shut up!) Otherwise, she's pissed at me about something. And I have no idea what that could be.

So, yeah. Today has been a day.

Random: Does it bug anyone else that Mediaeval Baebes say their name "Medieval Babes" instead of "Meh-dee-eh-vahl Behbs"? Because it's starting to bug me a little.

On the NaNoWriMo front, I have come to a decision. Since the poll was absolutely inconsequential, because everything was tied everywhere (which might have been my fault for setting it up the way I did -- who knows!), I made the decision in the face of everything everyone told me. In other words, I used golf scoring, and will be writing a tale of love and war and jokes about boobs on the Welsh border.

Yes, I will be writing the novel I tentatively titled Smells Like the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, it will probably be a lot more serious than the title implies, but it is a working title.

And there might be ninjas. I don't know yet.

I've been trying to harness Google for my nefarious research needs, but to no avail. I tried the library, but some monster got there before me and checked out all the books on the middle ages. Of course, there were only two, but I still felt thwarted. So I'm going into this blind, really. I know next to nothing about medieval Wales, unless we want to go counting what happens in "Henry IV, Part 1". And Glyndwr is pretty hocusy-pocusy, mystical, magical in that. Fairly confident the Henry plays are not an accurate reflection of 14th century Wales, to say nothing of the English bias.

Stupid toaster burnt my bagel! Blargh.

Anyway, why medieval Wales? ( Let me tell you, and some stuff about 'historical' novels )

In closing, my soundtrack for the next month will be Mediaeval Baebes (Mirabilis and Undrentide) and Garmarna's Hildegard von Bingen, which is, yes, a recording of plainsong written by Hildegard von Bingen in the 12th century, set against some subtle electronic stuff. I also have Love's Illusion by Anonymous 4, for that authentic touch.

The Garmarna album is excellent, and I recommend it to people who like Delerium and other similar groups. Maybe Mediaeval Baebes, though the Baebes have a more medieval sound, really. Emma Hardelin, Garmarna's vocalist, has an absolutely haunting voice.

Yesterday, Dan came into my room to "serenade" me with his guitar, as he frequently does. In this case, "serenade" means playing the intros to Guns'n'Roses and Led Zep songs, and the intros only. I guess they're mad licks?

I cranked up the Patrick Wolf, because I don't especially like hearing the intro to "Immigrant Song" fifteen times in a row, and Dan says, "No." And I say, "No? What do you mean, 'no'?" And he says, "Just no. This sucks." And I say, "Whatever, Mr. . . . " and then I blank, because part of having eclectic music taste is that I can listen to a lot of the same bands Dan does. He's also been listening to a lot of Cream and Eric Clapton lately, so I can't really rip on him for that. The other thing is that I really have no idea what the bands I don't like that he listens to are called. I just go, "Hey, where's the Clapton, man?" and sort of ignore the Cookie Monster vocals groups.

Also, Dan frequently finds himself playing the Noriega to my General Stiner. I have used music as a weapon, and I do not regret it.

Anyway, this little exchange led me to think about "this sucks" as a criticism of music or writing or any other art. It seems to me that when most people say "this sucks!" they mean, "This is not to my taste." We'll take the Patrick Wolf example. I can completely understand why someone would not like his music, but it's still well done. It's not sloppy or poorly played; he is not the alternative (folk punk? who knows!) version of the Pussycat Dolls.

For a writing example, I can understand why someone would not like In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, but the book is not poorly written. But Dan Brown? In Da Vinci Code mode? Oh, yes. Poorly written and poorly plotted. Or Twilight! One long WTF? with vampires.

So, in summation, it pisses me off when people use "this sucks!" to describes works that are just not to their tastes, rather than genuinely filled with suckitude. Please take the time to actually assess a work before labeling it as sucky.

Thank you.