Touch the Sound - A Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie

• In RIVERS AND TIDES, German documentarian Thomas Riedelsheimer explored the enchanting and hypnotic "nature" art-installations of Andy Goldsworthy. Now, with TOUCH THE SOUND, he turns his camera on nearly deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who experiences sound as a kind of touching or vibration. Using Glennie's unique musical sensibilities as a jumping-off point, Riedelsheimer introduces the

From the director of Driving Miss Daisy comes this compelling, heartwarming and inspiring true story of a father (Pierce Brosnan) who faces impossible odds to keep his family together. Times are tough in Dublin, Ireland. But no one has it tougher than Desmond Doyle when his wife runs off and his beloved daughter Evelyn and two young sons are sent to an orphanage by the government.Enlisting the help of loyal friends (Julianna Margulies, Stephen Rea) and a feisty American lawyer (Aidan Quinn), he takes his! case to Ireland's Supreme Court in a history-making quest to topple an ironclad law and win back the custody of his children!With a gentle tug at the heartstrings, Evelyn tells the true story of an imperfect father whose devotion brought much-needed change to rigid Irish law. It's a labor of love for star and coproducer Pierce Brosnan, who brings just the right touch of Everyman charm to his role as Desmond Doyle, a struggling Dublin tradesman, father of three, and chronic pub-crawler whose wife abandons their family the day after Christmas, 1953. Desmond's a loving father who's boyishly irresponsible; Irish law dictates the removal of his children to stern Catholic orphanages, and his battle for custody is aided by two lawyers (Stephen Rea, Aidan Quinn) who seize this opportunity to revolutionize the courts. With straightforward, unobtrusive style, director Bruce Beresford draws fine performances from Brosnan, Julianna Margulies (as a barmaid who inspires Desmond's! sobriety), and especially young Sophie Vavasseur in the title! role as Desmond's bright, determined daughter. Sentimental without being saccharine, Evelyn is simple, well made, and bursting with genuine Irish spirit. --Jeff ShannonJosie’s come a long way from being an average human chick who just wants to sex-up a vampire. She’s dated, mated, and killed one of the world’s richest vamps and is currently seeing a mysterious, blood-slurping hottie named Walker.

Now, Josie must adjust to the realities of a steady relationship with a vampire, which isn’t all exciting parties, hot sex and moonlit walks. And with a vamp who’s anxious to push their relationship to the next phase as mortality bears down on his human’s fragile body, the pressure for Josie to commit is on.

Can their night-day romance survive leaving Josie’s character and individuality intact, or will the secrets of the supernatural community crush her spirit and her chance at a permanent vampire mate?

*Title is a 140-page novel! la.

WARNING: This is not your regular paranormal romance. This series explores the realities (such as they might be) of humans having relationships with vampires and uses a chick lit style to get there. Oh yeah--and the characters within are fallible and not entirely heroic.

You've been warned...

For more fun, visit Vamplure.com!

EXCERPT

PART 1â€"HOW TO GET YOUR VAMPIRE TO SHARE

Vampires are possessive with their property, their lovers (which are not more than a step above property), their information, and their personal history. It is not often a human woman is lucky enough to find one who shares memories of his youth during post-coital lounging.

After a lifetime of dating humans, the best way for you to adjust to the possessiveness of your vampire lover is to revel in it, accept it, and take his attention for the compliment that it is…

---Excerpt from VampLure Magazine

Ch! apter 1

Dusty. Texas is dusty. Sure, maybe not all ! of Texas is dusty, but the part that my superhot vampire boyfriend and I were driving through was decidedly dusty. Even in the dark of nightâ€"which was when we had to driveâ€"I could see the powdery dirt rising from the road as our tires stirred it up. Fortunately, we didn’t need to have the windows open in the old Ford since Walker, the aforementioned superhottie, had finally gotten the truck’s air conditioning fixed. Unfortunately, Walker was pro-nicotine and without the windows down, I was stuck inhaling the obnoxious fumes of his chain-lit smokes.

“You know Nicotene-o, you might not get any sex tonight if you keep blowing your nasty-ass cigarette smoke in my face,” I said.

Walker’s head turned from the endless expanse of highway ahead and his eyes, partially hidden behind hanks of his layered, dirty blond hair, found mine. He lifted one eyebrow and quirked his thin lips in a smug, sexy way that turned my genitals into a penis pep squad and had th! em sending an SOS up to my brain for some sexlike activity.

After sucking in, and blowing out, one more puff of smoke, he answered me. “And why’s that, my little hyperbolic chamber?” If I were honest, watching his thin but soft lips tug at the cigarette was one of the sexiest things ever, but I didn’t want those lips tugging at anything but my skin, which meant I was actually jealous of tobacco.

“Because your cigarette smoke makes my eyes red, and that makes me tired. It also gives me a headache andâ€"”

“Josie, a headache is the oldest excuse in the bookâ€"”

“â€"and you’re old enough to know.” I interrupted to fit in one of my favorite rankling comments.

Any human in a relationship with a vampire is automatically at a disadvantage in terms of life span, strength, and speedâ€"boning up on your banter and flinging it at every opportunity could be the only edge you’ve got. Of course, you also need t! o be ready for your sexy blood aficionado to fling it back.
“Exactly, so don’t think that’s going to work on me. I know how to get you where I want youâ€"headache or not.” As he spoke, Walker’s hand slipped from the steering wheel and onto my knee, where it began a heroic and purposeful journey up my thigh.

Josie’s come a long way from being an average human chick who just wants to sex-up a vampire. She’s dated, mated, and killed one of the world’s richest vamps and is currently seeing a mysterious, blood-slurping hottie named Walker.

Now, Josie must adjust to the realities of a steady relationship with a vampire, which isn’t all exciting parties, hot sex and moonlit walks. And with a vamp who’s anxious to push their relationship to the next phase as mortality bears down on his human’s fragile body, the pressure for Josie to commit is on.

Can their night-day romance survive leaving Josie’s character and individuality intact, or will the secrets of the supernatural community crush her ! spirit and her chance at a permanent vampire mate?

*Title is a 140-page novella.

WARNING: This is not your regular paranormal romance. This series explores the realities (such as they might be) of humans having relationships with vampires and uses a chick lit style to get there. Oh yeah--and the characters within are fallible and not entirely heroic.

You've been warned...

For more fun, visit Vamplure.com!

EXCERPT

PART 1â€"HOW TO GET YOUR VAMPIRE TO SHARE

Vampires are possessive with their property, their lovers (which are not more than a step above property), their information, and their personal history. It is not often a human woman is lucky enough to find one who shares memories of his youth during post-coital lounging.

After a lifetime of dating humans, the best way for you to adjust to the possessiveness of your vampire lover is to revel in it, accept it, and take his attention for the compliment that it is…
---Excerpt from VampLure Magazine

Chapter 1
Dusty. Texas is dusty. Sure, maybe not all of Texas is dusty, but the part that my superhot vampire boyfriend and I were driving through was decidedly dusty. Even in the dark of nightâ€"which was when we had to driveâ€"I could see the powdery dirt rising from the road as our tires stirred it up. Fortunately, we didn’t need to have the windows open in the old Ford since Walker, the aforementioned superhottie, had finally gotten the truck’s air conditioning fixed. Unfortunately, Walker was pro-nicotine and without the windows down, I was stuck inhaling the obnoxious fumes of his chain-lit smokes.

“You know Nicotene-o, you might not get any sex tonight if you keep blowing your nasty-ass cigarette smoke in my face,” I said.

Walker’s head turned from the endless expanse of highway ahead and his eyes, partially hidden behind hanks of his layered, dirty blond hair, found mine. He lifted one eyebrow and quirked his thin lips in a smug, sexy way that turned my genita! ls into a penis pep squad and had them sending an SOS up to my brain for some sexlike activity.

After sucking in, and blowing out, one more puff of smoke, he answered me. “And why’s that, my little hyperbolic chamber?” If I were honest, watching his thin but soft lips tug at the cigarette was one of the sexiest things ever, but I didn’t want those lips tugging at anything but my skin, which meant I was actually jealous of tobacco.

“Because your cigarette smoke makes my eyes red, and that makes me tired. It also gives me a headache andâ€"”

“Josie, a headache is the oldest excuse in the bookâ€"”

“â€"and you’re old enough to know.” I interrupted to fit in one of my favorite rankling comments.

Any human in a relationship with a vampire is automatically at a disadvantage in terms of life span, strength, and speedâ€"boning up on your banter and flinging it at every opportunity could be the only edge you’ve got. Of course,! you also need to be ready for your sexy blood aficionado to f! ling it back.

“Exactly, so don’t think that’s going to work on me. I know how to get you where I want youâ€"headache or not.” As he spoke, Walker’s hand slipped from the steering wheel and onto my knee, where it began a heroic and purposeful journey up my thigh.

TOUCH THE SOUND - DVD MovieSubtitled "A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie," German director Thomas Riedelsheimer's exquisite Touch the Sound is nominally a portrait of the Scottish musician known as "the first full-time solo percussionist." Glennie is certainly a fascinating subject. Profoundly deaf since childhood, she disdains the use of hearing aids and sign language, relying instead on lip reading and, more crucially, on the use of all of her senses, especially touch, to "hear" with her entire body. The film reveals Glennie's extraordinary skills in a variety of settings: playing a snare drum for bemused New Yorkers in cavernous Grand Central Station; improvising with guitarist Fred Frith i! n an empty warehouse in Cologne, Germany (their final vibes-guitar duet is one of the film's musical highlights); working with hearing-impaired students in her native Aberdeenshire; jamming with taiko drummers in Japan, and later delighting customers in a Tokyo bar with a spontaneous workout involving chopsticks, dishes, cans, and glassware (the woman can make music with virtually anything). But Riedelsheimer, who was also the film's editor and cinematographer, has a broader agenda here--namely, to intensify our awareness of the sounds that surround us everywhere, in every moment. From the streets of New York to the beaches of Santa Cruz, from the rocky Scottish coastline to a tranquil Japanese rock garden, he links heightened audio, as clear and natural as the best ECM recordings, to a succession of gorgeous visual images to create a balance of complex detail and overall sparseness, resulting in a kind of Zen feast. Even more of the same is found in a "making of" featurett! e that's the highlight of the bonus material, making Touch ! the Soun d easily one of the most rewarding documentaries in recent years. --Sam Graham