Books: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

We just picked up an incredible book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, which is nothing like what the title denotes. The story tells of immigrants and family, and ends up teaching some interesting lessons about what really matters in life.

Nadia and Vera haven't gotten along since money arguments occurred following their mother's death. However, they find common ground when their father falls in 'love' with a women fifty years younger and insists on marrying her, giving her citizenship and all of his money in the bargain.


Quick vote: We really enjoyed this book. It was funny and poignant, and much better than anticipated.

Blogs: Knuckle Tattoos

We recently started reading the blog, Knuckle Tattoos. The blog has people send in pictures of their knuckle tattoos and then posts them, essentially exactly what it sounds like... It's an interesting study of mankind, seeing what they want written forever on their hands; dogs would never do such ridiculous things!

Check out the tats here!


Quick vote: We love this blog, it's so inventive!!!

Movies: Enchanted

We just purchased, or rather convinced our parents to purchase, the Disney movie, Enchanted. This movie, like most Disney films, teaches important lessons such as: fall in love, step-mothers are evil, rats and pigeons and cockroaches are your friends, and steal your father's credit card.

The story begins with a cartoon world, like Cinderella on steroids. She falls in love with her Prince Charming and they are to be married the next day. However, the evil step-mother isn't excited about the impending marriage, and sends Giselle into a terrible world where there are no happy endings!!! Which happens to be New York City, where we've never been. Perhaps it is a terrible place, do they even allow doggies?!


Quick vote: We though this movie was over-the-top in a hilarious way. Check it out, we're sure you'll love it! (Unless you are a boy dog, we only recommend it for bitches and girly pugs.)

TV: Arthur

We're going to let you into a little secret, we love the television show Arthur. The show teaches important lessons, even morals, about friendship and growing up. Every show resolves itself well, and leaves a few laughs as it goes.

Arthur follows a family of aardvarks with three kids, Arthur being the oldest. Arthur writes stories, gets a puppy, fights with his little sister DW, and gets into trouble. Luckily, he always learns his lesson and everything turns out great in the end!


Quick vote: If you've got some free time at about 4:00 in the afternoon, we recommend you check out Arthur, and his antics! But beware, the show is aimed at children, though adults will find it hilarious as well!

Music: In Our Bedroom After the War

We have been listening as of late to the newer album by Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War. The Stars are known for their bizarre electronic pop, and when we're in the mood for it, we really enjoy their music.


"The scary part, the aftershock, the moment it takes to fall apart
The time we have, the task at hand, the love it takes to destroy a man
The ecstasy, the being free, the big black cloud over you and me
And after that, the upwards fall, and were we angels after all?
I don't know, I don't know...

The night starts here, the night starts here, forget your name, forget your fear
The night starts here, the night starts here, forget your name, forget your fear
You drop a coin into the sea, and shout out "Please come back to me"
You name your child after your fear, and tell them "I have brought you here""
--The Night Starts Here

"When the worries of the world hold your feet
And there's little left to believe in

Today is going to be a better one
There's nothing more to take in
That's going wrong"
--Today Will Be Better, I Swear!


Quick vote: This music is funky, but we like it.

Books: Sense and Sensibility

After reading Pride and Prejudice a few weeks ago, we decided to read another Jane Austen classic, Sense and Sensibility. The book follows the fate of three sisters and their mother who are thrown into the throes of poverty by their dead father and negligent brother. The two eldest sisters fall in love and then end up in trouble because of it.

Elinor and Marianne fall in love and fail to keep it close to their chests. Then they are both embarrassed and devastated when their loves end up marrying other women. The book teaches the folly of gossip and the virtues of sensibility in a woman.


Quick vote: We like Sense and Sensibility, but we definitely prefer Pride and Prejudice.

Blogs: 2008 Tournament of Books

Though this is not officially a blog, we're big fans of the new contest put on this year by The Morning News. Each day, two books go head to head and a literary critic of some sort decides which book is best. That book then goes on to battle other books.

The battle can be found here.


Quick vote: We love the idea of a book tournament. Excellent.

Edit: The winner of this year's The Morning News' Tournament of Books is The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Check it out, we're going to.

Movies: The Departed

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we bitches watched the action/amazing film, The Departed. There are a plethora of famous actors in the film, including, but not limited to: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. This film is quite violent and there is a lot of swearing... But other than that, it's great!

The movie follows two policeman in Boston from their graduation of the police academy through the beginning of their careers. One is a rat for the mob passing inside information to the local mob boss, and the other is a rat inside the mob, passing information to the police captain. The film is full of intrigue, betrayal, and phenomenal plot twists; it will have you on the edge of your dog pillow.


Quick vote: This is one of our all-time favorites! We give it eight paws up!!! (Which means that we're waiting for our bellies to be rubbed, so get rubbing already!!!)

TV: Bachelor -- London Calling

This season of Bachelor just started, and we're afraid of getting as sucked in this season as we did last time. This time, we have a British bachelor trying to find love with twenty-five American women. We suppose that because we are unable to fall in love ourselves (or even reproduce due to lack of "girl parts") we are overly attracted to such romantic fairy tales.

This Brit is going to chose one woman to be his "true and forever love" and that he is supposedly going to marry.


Quick vote: This is a very very cheesy show, but we hope we're not barking up the wrong tree...

Music: Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley

We just got our paws on the most recent Rilo Kiley album, Under the Blacklight. It's quite the change from their earlier albums, less electronic pop, and more country r&b.

"Betrayal is a thorny crown,
You wear it well,
Just like a king.
Revenge is the saddest thing.
Honey, I’m afraid to say,
You deserve everything."
--Breaking Up

" And the grass it was a ticking
And the sun was on the rise
I never felt so wicked
As when I willed our love to die

And I was your silver lining
As the story goes
I was your silver lining
But now I’m gold"
--Silver Lining


Quick vote: We really enjoy this album. Pretty fun and funky times.

Books: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

We just listened to the book Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is not the first time we've read this classic romance novel, nor will it be the last. The messages that are contained in its pages raise many questions about the way that we treat the people (or dogs) around us, and we appreciate the lessons on judging others prematurely.

The Bennetts have five daughters that are of eligible age and looking for husbands. Luckily, Mr. Bingley moves into town, a man of handsome countenance and vast fortune, and the daughters immediately claim him as their own. Unfortunately, Mr. Bingley brought his friend along with him, the proud and obstinate Mr. Darcy.


Quick vote: This is one of our all time favorites. Check 'er out!

Blogs: Intentional Serendipity

We have several aunts and uncles, but only one of them has a blog, Aunt Didi! She has a lovely-lovely blog entitled Intentional Serendipity, in which she talks about things that happen to her, like skiing and our crazy Aunt Izzy.


"I take one solace in the fact that my mother loves [Izzy] more than she loves me: whenever I come running towards her, talking in a certain voice, she cowers. Because she knows I'm going to make her dance around and pretend to sing Broadway." --V Day


"So there was a professor this semester who made my life pretty terrible.

And I had a dream in which I killed him. And got away with it.

Apparently my subconscious is both vindictive and homicidal. That scares me a little."
--Killing Spree


Quick vote: We love reading the blogs of those we lick, and Dione is definitely one of those lickees.

Movies: The Triplets of Belleville

There are cartoons created for adults, and cartoons intended for children. The Triplets of Belleville falls into the the former category, and though sometimes we don't love such films, we really enjoyed this one.

The movie includes an incredible dog, which we have an incredible soft-spot for. Also, an amazing singing trio, many frogs, and a buff-legged cyclist.


Quick vote: This short flick is quirky and original. We recommend it!

TV: Saved By the Bell

We're falling back on one of our favorite television shows for today's blog, Saved By the Bell. If you've ever watched afternoon television (TNT, TBS, and the like), chances are quite high that you've seen this classic sit-com.

The show takes place at Bayside, a Californian high school and follows six students (three of each gender) through their school careers. The students encounter drugs, heartbreak, and constant schemes by Zach Morris to get ahead. Basically, it's amazing.


Quick vote: If you're ever sitting at home sick or something (or just sitting at home, as we do all day every day...) and this show comes on, give it a look-see.

Music: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse

An oldie, but a goodie; we've always been big time fans of Modest Mouse. Their most recent album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, is one of our favorites. This album is more like Good News for People Who Love Bad News and less like the older albums, such as The Moon and Antarctica.

"I was patiently erasing and recording the wrong episodes
After you had proved my point wrong;
It wasn't like I'd let it go, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
I just wanted to catch the last laugh of this show.

Yeah, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know.
Oh the dashboard melted, but we still have the radio."
--Dashboard

"Everyone's unhappy,
Everyone's ashamed.
Well we all just got caught looking
At somebody else's page.
Well nothing ever went
Quite exactly as we planned.
Our ideas held no water,
But we used them as a dam."
--Missed the Boat


Quick vote: We heart this album and whole-heartedly recommend it to y'all, our loyal reader(s).

Books: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

After watching the film a few months ago, we were inspired to read the book, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The book was quite a different story than the movie, and we were quite surprised. The book is heavy on vampire lore; superstitions and the like.

Robert Neville is the last man on earth. Everyone else has contracted a disease that turns them into a vampire, complete with fear of the sun and garlic-aversion. They all desperately want to suck his blood, and they stalk him every night. This book is spooky and captivating.


Quick vote: This is a really cool read, though not as good as I thought it would be.

Blogs: Skull-a-Day

We've been reading (Is it reading if it's pictoral???). a blog as of late know as Skull-A-Day. Basically, this guy makes a skull every day out of... whatever, and then he posts it.

Though it's kind of morbid, we really like it. Check it out!


Quick vote: We like it, it would be a great Halloween blog.

Movies: Jumper

We snuck into our local theater and crawled (literally, we're really good at crawling) into the first movie we found, which was Jumper. We had great expectations for this film, about teleportation and all; and it included Rachel Bilson, a favorite of ours from the OC. However, we were sorely disappointed.

It started out fun and exciting with some light bank robberies, but it soon turned poorly. The acting went sour quite quickly, and the plot never quite pulled out of the nose dive. We howled at the screen for the last ten minutes of the movies, which actually got us kicked out of the theater.


Quick vote: Don't see this movie.

TV: Heroes

Though we have long been recommended the television show Heroes, for one reason or another, we haven't made an effort to watch until now. We can't believe we had been letting such an incredible show slip through our claws for all this time.

The show follows a bunch of people around the world that realize that they have super-powers (like bending the space-time continuum, or invincibility). Basically, it's an incredible looking show, though we've only seen a couple of episodes.


Quick vote: We really really like this show. Check 'er out!!!!!

Music: Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird

We have just gotten into Andrew Bird, and more specifically, his album Armchair Apocrypha. One thing we really love about this music, is the idea that Andrew did all of the music on it himself (and there are quite a few different instruments)!

"this isn’t your song
this isn’t your music
how can they be wrong
when by committee they choose it all?
they choose it all"
-- Plasticities


"Do you wonder where the self resides
Is it in your head or between your sides
And who will be the one who will decide
Its true location
And does the thought of bile that’s red and black
The thought of tongues that taste you back
Fill you with a nauseouseous sort of elation"
--Dark Matter


Quick vote: We're a big fan of this album. Check 'er out!

Books: Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane

We just finished reading, Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. We have already read another book by the same author, Mystic River, and we thought it excellent. This book was pretty exciting and a page-turner, but not super well written; and the end was a tad disappointing.

Amanda McCready disappears from her bedroom one evening while her mother was out for a short while. The police and two private detectives team up to find the lost four-year-old, and end up finding more than they bargained for. The book brings up several ethical dilemmas, and many questions about raising children.


Quick vote: A quick read, this was pretty fun. Though if you have a small child (or puppy), we wouldn't recommend it...