The Freedom Song of the Jigsaw Girl

I have a fondness for jazz singers, especially female jazz singers. Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Rosemary Clooney--I adore them and have several Pandora stations based on this love. Because of those Pandora stations I discovered a more recent jazz singer, Madeleine Peyroux. Her voice is a rich and sultry alto and I love the jazz and swing rhythms. Her music makes me think of outdoor cafes, Paris, evening outdoor galas accented with fairy lights, wine and good food, and dancing.

( videos under cut )

My first introduction to Neil Gaiman was his book Neverwhere. My father had picked it up on a whim just before the two of us set off on a two day long train trip to attend a family reunion. Having never taken the train for a long trip this was a lovely adventure in and of itself, though sitting next to your father, who snores loud enough to wake up the folks in the back of the coach car, does not make for a good night's sleep. I don't remember what book I took with me on that trip, but I remember how much my dad enjoyed Neverwhere and consequently how much I enjoyed it on the trip back.

Once familiar with Mr. Gaiman's work, I eagerly sought his works out. I had the fabulous opportunity to read the Sandman series in it's entirety while housesitting for friends one summer. I devoured Coraline and Stardust. Sadly I have yet to read American Gods but have it on my kindle now and will be reading it over the summer (I have a very long to be read list and look forward to whittling it down over the summer). I love his short story collection and his young adult and children's books as much as I love his adult fare. The Graveyard Book was delightfully creepy (as most of his books are). Like my other favorite authors he weaves a well spun tale with all the fascinating elements of the universe (darkness, light, good, evil and everything in between). He has a wonderfully wry sense of humor as well, which is always something I enjoy.

He's also just a neat person, very happily a geek (and his episode of Dr. Who last season--The Doctor's Wife--was one of my all time favorites), and donates lots to charities, which makes me like him all the more. Not only is he someone whose works I adore, he is someone I would love to have over for coffee or dinner, someone who would be great fun to hang out with (as is his wife, the lovely and talented Amanda Palmer).

I shall end with a fun song, sung by Mr. Gaiman, written for the 8in8 project with his wife (the whole album is great btw):

Since 100 Things I Love is a rather vague and broad topic, I decided to break it up into mini categories to make choosing individual post topics easier. I thought that perhaps folks might be interested in how the categories broke down. Things were chosen for each category in no particular order. I'll be cycling through the categories as I go. The numbers don't all break down evenly in fives or tens, but I get to the proper total of 100, which was all I was worried about. :D

Category I: Miscellaneous things (people, organizations, activities, etc) (The George Takei post was from this category) (16 posts overall)

Category II: Video Games/Games (9 posts overall)

Category III: Authors/Books/Series (15 posts overall)

Category IV: Graphic Novels/Webcomics (15 posts overall)

Category V: Movies (15 posts overall)

Category VI: Music (10 posts overall)

Category VII: Artists (visual) (10 posts overall)

Category VIII: TV Shows (10 posts overall)

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

It's a neat idea and will spur me to do more writing for fun. Will likely not take off fully til school is done, and finals are all turned in. I think that I will do 100 Things that I Love. Covers a multitude of topics and interests. This should be fun. :D