Weekly Arts update

There are so many books, movies, music, and artists I would like to share with everyone that it would be impossible to write an individual review for all of them. So I think I'll just update you weekly on what I'm reading/watching/listening to/discovering w/ mini-reviews :)

• Watching: Bram Stoker's Dracula. Haven't finished it yet, very confusing right now honestly. Visually there's just too many things going on. Watching Keanu Reeves try to do a British accent is very entertaining though. I'll probably give it 3 out of 5 stars when I finish it. As a sidenote, it's interesting to see this film as the novel really set the precedent for all modern vampire literature and film. Certainly it was the inspiration for Anne Rice and (now) Stephanie Meyer in establishing the vampire as a sex symbol.
  
  
  

• Reading: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy. Just as thrilling as the first one, in some ways even more so because you really have no idea what to expect after the climax of the last book. These two books are both very revolutionary and very feminist, in my opinion, a la V for Vendetta in many ways, but Collins takes a completely new spin on it. Even only being halfway through it I give it 4 out of 5 stars. 

• Listening to: HIM (aka His Infernal Majesty). Yeah I know, all the pseudo-artistic posers in my high school listened to it, but because I rejected music like this for years I am just now being exposed to it, thanks to my lovely partner. I've sampled all of their albums, and they're actually not bad, brooding and romantic in some parts. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. Would recommend his more well-known songs like his cover of "Wicked Game."

In Joy and Sorrow - H.I.M.  

See you next week.