oh shit, i forgot movie nerd. speaking of which, i caught the movie all the real girls on IFC on the aforementioned newly acquired cable, and it was sooooooo GOOD. wasn’t a huge fan of george washington by the same writer/director, but seeing this really had me on that david gordon green’s team. you cannot beat a bittersweet love story with quirky characters you want to go home with yourself. very recommended to the order of 4 stars at least.
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like i said a few days ago before my kavalier & clay review, i get a little non-reading guilt if i don’t spend enough time with my books. of course, it may be some sort of passive subconscious self-sabotage then that not only did i get a new directv/tivo this weekend, but the new grand theft auto comes out tomorrow and i’m sure not to spend a whole lot of time reading for at least a couple weeks… or it could be that being a nerd was lame all along and i’ve finally realized it’s way cooler to watch lots of good TV at any time of the day i want between sessions of mounting a virtual criminal empire.
actually now that i’ve said it, i’m realizing it’s just a choice between being a book nerd, tv nerd, or game nerd on alternate days, so there’s really no difference is there? none of the three are getting me any beautiful women admirers so i may as well vary the nerd menu from time to time.
i want to go on a tivo rant (installation successful!) but i figure this is more important. while joking with mike the other day i feel as if i may have stumbled on to something groundbreaking that deserves immediate sharing with the world at large, especially in today’s tough political climate.
many of us have heard the debate and conjecture swirling around the presidential debates, specifically the apparent ‘bulge’ on president bush’s back as shown in several photos. then, of course, the fact that they were not doctored after the fact as evidenced by their being visible in footage from both debates. so what was it? back brace? strangely wrinkled suit jacket? flak jacket for his protection? wire system to feed him statistics?
or was it something even more revealing? could it be that this bulge has been there all along, and until now no one thought to photograph our president from behind? could it be, perhaps, that our president has a permanent bulge, a bulge not unlike a certain 80’s childhood toy who dazzled us all by being able to move it’s mouth spewing pre-recorded stories (mostly fiction) without thinking or feeling…
think about it. bush is cute. teddy ruxpin is cute. bush is a bad president. i can’t imagine teddy ruxpin’s foreign policy is all it could be either. bush does pretty much what his owners want, and teddy ruxpin has convenient play/stop/rewind functions. bush keeps going as long as he keeps getting special interest soft money, whereas teddy ruxpin i believe required four AA batteries. it almost makes too much sense.
[the author of this piece is available for interview on this theory by all major media outlets via the email listed at right.]
so after this past weekend, i have successfully completed the amazing task of having seen every single episode of the sopranos ever produced. and i have the internet to thank almost all 50+ hours of that A+ quality entertainment. file sharing is probably only illegal because its so unbelievably awesome. espeically when you have a laptop you can hook to your tv in less than a minute and watch near-dvd-quality files on the couch like it’s part of the normal entertainment center. i am such a technical master i can’t believe it.
only now that i’ve done this daunting task i feel empty inside because i know it’s all over and now i have to wait like 15 months for a new season to start. luckily, i am getting directv and tivo next week so i can fill the void by watching and rewatching every episode of arrested development about a million times and finally getting to see the daily show again, only at whatever time of day i want. did i say i loved technology?
the problem with getting to see yourself as being a ‘book person’ lies in the accompanying pressure you put on your reading record. along with the pride i take in being at least reasonably well-read comes the responsibility to have read popular works of fiction, and to continue to read more books at a mildly impressive pace. so when i take more than a month to finish a book that’s not even a thousand pages, when i can’t even maintain a pace of a hundred pages a week when i could easily read at least fifty in a single casual night were i just to keep my head in it, i get this unfortunate readers’ guilt.
it made more sense when i was in school and i had deadlines to make; then at least it was an outside pressure. now i’m the only one looking down on myself for taking 7 weeks to finish a book that i absolutely loved. why didn’t i zip through it if it was so good? i could lay down the excuse that i’ve been going out so much more than i usually do in the past few weeks — which i have. or i could give the excuse that it was so good i was savoring it, you know? reading it slowly to soak it in, not reading too much at once to draw out the pleasure longer, which i’ve done before with other books. i think in all honesty though i just slacked off on this one. perhaps i will blame the internet, the ultimate distraction. that seems a popular scapegoat these days.
the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay – michael chabon – 5 stars
aside from how long it may have taken me to read this book though, it was a delight more or less start to finish. chabon had an excellent command of clever wordings, and a real storyteller’s structure. sure it helped that the thread through the whole book was comics, another of my weaknesses, but this had more to offer than the tale of two funnybook creators. the more i read, the more i wanted to know and befriend these characters. i wanted to spend time with the protagonists. i wanted to work with them and enjoy the 40’s new york nightlife with them. and i wanted to fall in love with joe’s wonderful girlfriend (are there any single rosas out there right now who need a gentleman caller? please oh please don’t hesitate to write).
all in all the book had me from the first page to the last, with the exception of a somewhat confusing side trip i didn’t see coming and may not support, even if i can’t see the better solution he could have went with. but a few odd chapters can’t tear down the pleasure of reading the rest, and i think i have a new favorite to add to my list of recommends.
i’ve had a musical crush on j. robbins since my first experiences with indie rock. going way back to a tape one of my high school friends made me with a couple burning airlines songs, through noticing his name in the producing credits of some of my favorite albums, and into realizing finally that almost everything he had a hand in was exactly my kind of music. frankly, he’s one of the few i’d call a rock genius.
the last and only time i saw him perform was part of burning airlines on september 12th, 2001. the coincidence was unfortunate, but he started off the set simply saying how in the face of something awful we could only try to come together and still enjoy some good music. i still consider that one of the best shows i’ve ever seen.
so my sadness at the ending of that band nearly equals my excitement at the beginning of his new band, channels. they have an EP out already, more songs written, are on tour now (coming to spaceland here in LA the 29th — you can bet i’ll see you there), and i couldn’t be happier. the one song they have up as a sample sounds just like i hoped it would, top form as usual, and i get more anxious every time i play it for the show coming up in two weeks. so the pay day song is absolutely going to be chivaree, and if you need a ride to spaceland two fridays from now give me a ring, because i couldn’t possibly miss it.
i’ve had a lot of fun watching the debates so far, and i’m somewhat sad that last night was the final matchup. shouldn’t debating be the primary way to make the decision? wouldn’t we learn more if there were like twenty of them, each on a single specific issue that they stick to and have time to really discuss and explain their plans for? maybe america just can’t handle that much to think about. i guess it is more important they don’t have to pre-empt too many nights worth of quality sitcoms and forensic crime dramas.
on a side note, i love the idea of one good minute, which puts the blogging medium to good use with an original and very suitable premise. well played.
i heart huckabees – 4 stars
although uncertain to what degree the term ‘existential’ really applies to the philosophies espoused in the film whose tagline declares it to be a comedy of said school of thought, i certainly enjoyed the film anyway. the unselfconscious absurdity of the story and characters and dialogue really made it a fun ride, because nothing spoils oddball comedy than the feeling it should have to explain itself. plus, i always like a little metaphysics with my comedy. you know, ‘the fool’s job to speak the truths we will not tell ourselves’ and all that.
so essentially the fact the story was strange and scattered was more than made up for by the fact it was filled with ponderous moments as plentiful as the silly or satiric ones. highly recommended for the funny little nerd in at least some of us.
it should be fairly apparent by my general characteristics (age, education, economic status, heck, even musical tastes) that i am naturally liberal-leaning. and yes, i’m long-since decided to go the smarter route and try to get the current bungled administration out in favor of a hopefully smarter, better, less offensive one.
so i’m not really watching the debates so faithfully because i need the insight into the candidates in order to make a decision. my decision was made as soon as the current president managed to convince the supreme court to give him the job. it’s more to get some better insight into the new candidate’s ability to prove themselves better in front of the camera to those who don’t realize how obvious the choice should be. i have to say though, it was much more fun watching an intelligent and insightful kerry badger a frightened and helpless bush last week than it was to just watch one fairly smart and charming vp candidate sling accusations against those of the other fairly smart but evil current vp. i didn’t get the satisfaction of hearing cheney start to sound like a whiny kid caught doing something wrong by his mother in the same amusing way bush did on thursday.
at least i have friday to look forward to; hopefully when confronted with the massive job losses during his administration, the president won’t respond with another incredulous, “what about poland?” or “of course i know osama bin laden attacked us. i know that.” sharp as a tack, that one.
yesterday a group of us went paintballing for mike’s birthday (happy 23rd man!), and after crouching for 6 hours in the dirt getting pegged by whizzing pellets of colored dye, i’m generally tired and sore and doing nothing today. it was a blast even if my legs are killing me the day after, although next time i’d much rather get a private party together instead of playing with the general group of hardcore dudes with customized gear and something to prove by shooting me in the neck. good times.
a few notes though, like that i finally set up a photo albums page, so if you want to see my adventures after reading about them, check it out. so far all i have up are my recent trips to prague and vegas, but i will now have more of a reason to photo-document all the fun that goes on around here, i guess, so look forward to more in the future.
also, since i was saving/paying for an intercontinental vacation, i haven’t bought any new music in weeks. although i have a nice list going of what to pick up soon, i did go ahead and at least download a bit to hold me over, and as a result have been singing har mar superstar’s DUI to myself and dancing around wherever i go for about the past two weeks. see what happens when you don’t visit amoeba regularly?