WTF-Beta

@kluurs doh! I bought that book on Kindle last year! I just haven't read it yet. And there's no audio version.

@DougG said:

“old movies”

That's why I used scare quotes in the thread title!

Oh wait, you said "talkies" ...

@AdagioM said:

He surprised me with a trip to Sonata piano camp in 2000. I went for several more years after that. Life-changing

I remember you posting about it!

Thanks for sharing that review! The writer might not have liked it, but I sure did!

@kluurs I don't know if I know that book, I will check it out.

Horde

Nope, no audio book version. Too bad

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385318219?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

NPR’s Noah Adams has passed away. I never regularly listened to All Things Considered, so I only learned of him because of his book Piano Lessons, I think my mother sent me the book IIRC. I was living in Japan and started learning piano in 1999, I think I got the book the next year. (although maybe I learned of the book from PW? I don’t recall now)

I remember really loving the book, and having a book about another adult learning piano meant a lot to me at the time. Maybe I’ll read it again. Or listen to it, presumably there’s an audio version now. I wonder if he’s the narrator, that would be nice!

RIP Noah.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/business/media/noah-adams-dead.html

@jon-nyc I feel like lived experience and self-care are similar, in that their origins are legit, but they’ve morphed with overuse and have become annoying buzzwords.

@AndyD said:

I half-watched Sleepless in Seattle for the third time recently, just listening to the music.

Yes, I noticed that, great soundtrack!

Also, I assumed this was the start of the Meg Ryan + Tom Hanks thing, but the internet tells me there was one before that, Joe Versus the Volcano, which I’ve never heard of.

Watched a 1962 b&w Japanese movie called Harakiri.

That’s another super famous movie (at least in Japan) that I’ve never seen.

Whenever I watch a movie that’s just a little bit on the old side, like this one, there’s always a little cognitive dissonance. For the most part, they don’t look “old,” not the way a much earlier film does. Even the clothes and hairstyles, which you could point to as out of fashion, aren’t that different, It’s mainly the tech that’s different, the cars, the absence of smartphones and the absence or at least diminished role of computers. So if you’re not paying attention, you might think it’s a more “present-day” movie but then you notice, no phones, and it’s kind of startling.

@Daniel said:
Bette Davis

When I think of old movies, this is what I think of!

I just finished watching Sleepless in Seattle, 1993.
I mostly knew the story but I had never actually seen it before.

It’s funny to think of that as an old movie, but the computers, the cars, the telephones… so dated now!

And I love watching movies that mostly feel contemporary but no one has a cellphone!

What “old” movies have you seen lately?

I think I’ll start it tmrw. Thanks for leaving out the spoilers, @adagiom and @kluurs !

@Bernard yep, I don't have a problem with those things.

@Daniel said:

"self-care"

i dislike this expression as well.... I think the concept is ok, but the way it's used is grating... And I read a critique a while pointing out that often, what's recommended as self-care is often not that great for the person...

@Mik said:

My SIL was friends with her at DePauw.

Interesting!

I don't read a lot of fiction in English, so this is the first time I've heard of her as an author (my mother actually shared the info about the new book with me, which is how I learned of it).

I changed my search approach and found this:

https://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?storyid=69226&categoryid=5&archived=0

the audiobook edition of PARTITA by Barbara Kingsolver features classical recordings from Grammy-nominated pianist Han Chen throughout with a 6-minute recording of “Ondine” from Maurice Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” at the end of the book.

@AdagioM I'm especially curious about the music audio, but an admittedly cursory internet search revealed no specific info....

I just heard about this book, Partita by Barbara Kingsolver,
https://www.amazon.com/Partita-Novel-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/B0GNP1MGLY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1

The main character, now middle aged, was a piano student at a music university and music apparently plays an important role in the story.

It looks like the audio book version includes music. From the Amazon page:

Featuring six new recordings of classic works by Frédéric Chopin, Maurice Ravel, Edvard Grieg, Erik Satie, and Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by Han Chen.

I just got the audio book, so I’ll report back once I start listening.

Head

@Steve-Miller said:

caprese sticks on his boards. Cherry tomato, a basil leaf and cheese on a stick.

Ooh, that sounds nice! A little labor intensive for some of the mid-semester events I do, but doable for a Christmas gathering.

@Bernard said:

Cheese straws are easy and inexpensive to make.

Interesting! I've never heard of those, but from what I saw googling, they look yummy!

Mundane