The Girl of The girl with a one-track mind has tagged me with a lovely variation on the recent book-meme project.

Like her I’m not a huge joiner of things like that (I rarely complete online surveys either) but I’ll try rising to the challenge. In the spirit of mutations I’m going to answer approximately, and introduce possible redundancies by tagging people who may have been tagged before. No one should feel obliged to respond though of course they’re welcome to either by answering these or making up their own. Kudos to TG for loosening the bustle a bit (not that tight bustles are a bad thing.)

Last five songs:

Tough question since I’m more of a roll-your own music listener. Instead I’ll tell you the last five instruments I’ve played my own songs on: guitar, banjo, mandolin, pedal-steel, or (recently) piano.

• Joanie Mitchell’s Circle Game: a lovely modulating chord progression that’s complex enough to listen to but simple enough to learn by ear on these new piano thingies I’ve started trying to play.
• Jay Ungar’s Ashokan Farewell: a hauntingly beautiful that’s only 20 years old but sounds a thousand. The melody makes me ache, the chords offer reassurance and resignation. Acoustic guitar.
• Over the Rainbow: Another tune with wistful voicings and lush transitions that I’d always wanted to learn to play. I’ve got it pretty nailed on guitar, now I’m moving to other instruments. (Also trying to work out If I Only Had a Brain — way over my head on piano but my theme song.)
• Lennon & McCartney’s In My Life in open strings for the banjo, replacing the hokey harpsichord break with the chorus of an old sea chantey about finding a lost friend. I hope it’ll be ready in time for a memorial service for a friend.
• The second (cantable) part of Beethoven’s Patetique on Dobro in standard (open G) tuning.
• Various rock anthems on a six-string ukulele (Stairway to Heaven at quadruple tempo is a riot, also at that speed you realize Jimmy Page nicked the chord progression from A Taste of Honey), various old-timey songs on overdriven electric guitar (Tennessee Waltz a la Hendrix is a lot of fun too.)
• Recent artists listened to include Red Clay Ramblers, Devo, Joan Armatrading, Carl Perkins.
• The very most recent song I’ve heard was a piano/mezzo duet of Handel’s Weep No More

Recent Movies:
Also hard since I have two young kids in a largely babysitter-free environment. The following have been mostly rentals

• Fellini’s Satyricon
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The Incredibles (on DVD with the hilarious short “Jack-Jack Attack”)
• A couple of of old and new Satr Wras movies (disappointing)
• The Big Lebowski (highly solarized but otherwise letter-perfect tribute to the film noir detective genre)

Recent Books:

• Barbara Tropp’s The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (the best cookbook I’ve ever read, period)
• A marathon binge of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels and short stories (for instance Devil in a Blue Dress)
• Paul Graham’s Hackers & Painters (Nice essays on society and computers)
• Alexander Tsiaras and Barry Werth’s The Architecture and Design of Man and Woman (fabulous anatomical images with translucent overlays)
• Clemente’s Clemente Anatomy (practical and very detailed)
• Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Harry Potter for grownups)
• Sally Schneider’s A New Way to Cook

Recent Cultural Events:

• The Seattle Moisture Festival including the burlesque late-show edition.
• Mary Zimmerman’s revival of Secret in the Wings which is good but not as overwhelmingly powerful as her The Odessy
• Various local art openings and street festivals

Recent Masturbatory fantasies:

Believe it or not, while my sexual fantasy life is very well developed, my the fantasies I actually masturbate to are pretty ordinary and elemental, mostly quick mental images and recollected sensations.

Recent non-masturbatory fantasies run along the following lines.

• Trying a BDSM session with Matisse to help me understand what I’m missing.
• A tactile version of the recent “real or implants” breast test that was making the rounds. (I’ve never been intimate with anyone who’s undergone breast enlargement and I’m curious.)
• Starting a coeducational sex-therapy-oriented brothel in Nevada that specialized in hands-on instruction with an emphasis on bringing what you learn home to share with one’s partner or partners. (There’s going to have to be a post to explain that one someday, eh?)
• Participate in an attempt to confirm the (highly dubious) report that sperm makes college co-eds less likely to be depressed… but not if I was onlyl assigned to the control group.
• To have some intercourse of some kind (social or sexual, either way would be equally satisfying) with several of my fellow sex bloggers. (If I wasn’t incredibly shy I’d name names.)

Actually I’m so shy I’m not going to tag anyone else to follow up, though of course everyone who wishes to is welcome to. I’d love to hear more.