Here's something I've been reading lately:

A friend of mine gave me this novel, and I was already a couple of chapters into it before I realized the novel wasn't just a novel. It's based on a massive series of podcasts, a live show, and well, just a lot of associated art. I probably would have been slightly intimidated by coming in to the story so late if I'd known, so it's just as well I didn't. After all, if I hadn't started reading it, I'd have missed passages like this:

Imagine teaching a fifteen-year-old how to drive a car with manual transmission. First, you have to press down the clutch. Then you have to whisper a secret into one of the cup holders. In Diane’s case, this was easy, as she was not a very social or public person, and most any mundane thing in her life could be a secret. In Josh’s case this was hard, because for teenagers most every mundane thing in their lives is a secret that they do not like sharing in front of their parents. Then, after the clutch and the secret, the driver has to grab the stick shift, which is a splintered wood stake wedged into the dashboard, and shake it until something happens—anything really—and then simultaneously type a series of code numbers into a keyboard on the steering wheel. All this while sunglasses-wearing agents from a vague yet menacing government agency sit in a heavily tinted black sedan across the street taking pictures (and occasionally waving). This is a lot of pressure on a first-time driver.

Freaking hilarious! And not unlike my first experience at learning to drive a stick shift (except that there were no glasses-wearing government agents watching. At least not that I know of.)

This is the first novel set in Nightvale. Welcome to Nightvale came out in 2015. It was written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, the same people who created the podcast. Here's a reassuring introductory video for those who, like me, are a bit intimidated by the scope of it all:

One thing that I find both hilariously appropriate and slightly creepy is that the book Welcome to Nightvale keeps getting unaccountably lost in my house. The book disappeared for days right after my mother read me the first chapter (it's great aloud). I knew I hadn't taken it out of the house, and my house isn't all that big. How could it have gone missing? I even looked in the yard and in the cars. Nope. I finally found it deep under the covers of my bed down near the bottom on the side I never sleep on. I shrugged and read a few more chapters, thinking Well good, I found it. But I looked for it just now when I started writing this OT. It is, once again, completely missing. And yes, I checked my bed from top to toe this time. No soap. I'd think the good neighbors were borrowing it, except that they probably already know the story, having dictated it to Fink and Cranor; it sounds like it.

I think I'll start listening to the podcast as well. I'll let you guys know what I think in a later OT.

I found another foreign period drama to watch. This is another one from China, set in the fifth century:

The Princess Weiyoung (Chinese: 锦绣未央) is a 2016 Chinese television series starring Tiffany Tang in the title role, alongside Luo Jin, Vanness Wu, Mao Xiaotong and Li Xinai. It is adapted from the novel The Poisonous Daughter (庶女有毒) by Qin Jian and is a fictionalized account of Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei's reign and Empress Feng (Wencheng)'s regency.

I hope that this one has a better ending than The Rise of Phoenixes. If I watch another 70-episode series for nothing, I might swear off Chinese television for life!

Apparently, there's some controversy around the original novel The Poisonous Daughter:

The author of the source novel was involved in a plagiarism case, where it was alleged that she used a software to copy over hundreds of other works to create her own novel. An alliance formed by 12 writers, including famed wuxia novelist Woon Swee Oan, teamed up together to sue Qin Jian. According to Beijing News, a group of volunteers compared The Princess Weiyoung with more than 200 other novels. They found that out of 294 chapters, only nine chapters are original.

That's unfortunate, but I'm going to watch it anyway.

What I've been listening to lately, live and in person: an Afro-Cuban jazz band out of Jacksonville called LPT.

These guys are the genuine article. Holy moly!

How are you all today?