the fall semester

There is only one cd coming out this fall that appears to be interesting enough and good enough that I intend on going to the store and buying it: Fiona Apple's long awaited Extraordinary Machine. The cd will be released on October 4 and it's been six years since she released When the Pawn... Apple has long been a favorite of mine, I've seen her in concert and I really like both of her albums. I've just been so apathetic about buying and listening to music lately that I didn't even buy the new Tori Amos album that came out this summer. At one point that would be unthinkable as she has long been my favorite artist, though I think she's taken a backseat to Jennifer Knapp, and I haven't replaced the stolen copy of A Diamond in the Rough: The Jennifer Knapp Collection, and this is also odd since I have one of the song testimonials in the liner notes.

Books: The only book I actually plan on buying this fall is the new George Martin book: A Feast for Crows. Possibly the new Louise Erdrich novel The Painted Drum, depending on how I'm feeling and how much spare cash I have. Otherwise it will be a lot of library books as usual, which is fine. I still read an absurd amount of books, I just can't buy them all anymore. It's real life.

Robert Jordan is releasing the new Wheel of Time novel: Knife of Dreams. Terry Brooks is releasing Straken, which concludes yet another Shannara trilogy. Christopher Paolini has the new volume Eldest, which is the sequel to his bestselling Eragon. Eragon showed some promise (considering he was 15 when he wrote it), but Eldest has been rather poorly reviewed from what i've seen, so I can only hope it is a couple of bad reviews that I've read. I'm nervous that it really will be kind of bad. I'm geekish enough to admit that I'm looking forward to James Luceno's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. There should be some nice Jedi Purge going on in that book plus some Palpatine/Vader interaction. There is, of course, and endless amount of books that are just coming out, have already come out, or are years old that I want to read, so I'll just highlight Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men as another I'd like to read.

There are always a bounty of movies to see, even in a dry season. This fall looks to be no different, if only I can make it back to the theatre.

September: The Constant Gardener, The Exorcism of Emily Rose (this one will either be a horror classic or it was be horrible, I don't know if there is middle ground), An Unfinished Life, Proof, Corpse Bride (this is another feast or famine movie), and I'm only listing this last movie because it stars Jodie Foster and we really need more Jodie Foster movies: Flightplan. I just wish it looked better.

October: In Her Shoes (but only because it is directed by Curtis Hanson), Elizabethtown. Wow. Is that all? Okay, here are a couple that could be good: Domino, North Country, and Goodnight, and Good Luck

November: Jarhead, The New World, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Walk the Line, Syriana, and a big ol "why the hell not?" for Rent. I have no expectations for Rent. Maybe I'll be surprised.