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So I wanted to do a cartoon about Adam dancing since it’s so great, but Adam alone is responsible for the stripper pole direction it took…his suggestion for the cartoon…and it was a great one. Although my favorite panel is the second one, with him sort of doing ‘the robot’. He’s a great dancer, it’s a shame that nobody will ever really know it…
How I love/hate Law & Order. I think it is the definition of an addiction…in the sense that I don’t even really like it and it makes me feel terrible, yet I feel compelled to watch…unable to stop. And damn TNT for playing them so cleverly back to back the way they do, which is the whole reason I’m unable to turn it off. The only saving grace I suppose is that I don’t actually LIKE the show, so I don’t turn the tv on looking for it…but it definitely preys on me if it happens to be on…which is ALL THE TIME.
Damn this show. I resolve to watch like 80% less than last year. SIGH. That will never happen.
But I made it! Whooo! Now I can get back to important things, like drawing decent comics. This is number 50, which seems like it should be a milestone…but next to 52 books it seems minor at best.
I hope you are all digging into work with a happy fervor. I was disappointed to find that I was as miserable as ever at the thought of returning to work. It’s not like I have a horrible job or work with terrible people…the job is not so bad, certainly the most interesting and rewarding work I’ve had the opportunity to do thus far in life and the people are some of the best I’ve ever worked with, but it’s just not what I want to do with my life I guess, so it’s not so great to return to it after almost two weeks of freedom.
With the exception of being sick for several days over my break, I have to say I had an absolutely fantastic time…did exactly what I wanted all the time…hung out with Adam; played games with Adam – mostly lost to Adam 
; slept in; made pancakes; went to great restaurants; saw movies; did some home improvements – which were rewarding enough in the end to make it seem not so bad; watched some amazing documentary tv; and just layed around feeling free and happy reading and writing (not enough as usual) and drawing (also not enough). It was so great. I guess that is what made it so difficult to return to work. I just really want to get to a place where life is much closer to the break I just had, rather than getting that two or three weeks out of a year. But I suppose there is nothing original about that.
Damn. I didn’t mean for this to be a downer post…but sadly, that’s where it went. Happy New Years everyone…let’s get back to work I guess… 
Whooo-hooo!
I just finished the other day a completely magnificent book, that also happens to be my 52nd book for the year 2007…happily (and barely) meeting my 2007 goal to read a book a week. Okay, so I cheated a bit here, and here, and maybe even here, but you’ve got to admit it’s pretty awesome. I feel good about this accomplishment, that said, I’m not going to do it again for 2008 and here is why…
1. I found that having such a stringent book reading goal kept me away from some more challenging (or just more lengthy) books that I’ve long been wanting to read (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Children’s Hospital, Watership Down, The Tropic of Cancer to name a few). Multiple times this year I picked up books (often those books) and was forced to put them down for fear that they would prevent me from making my goal. A good alternative would perhaps be to set a page number goal, rather than a book number goal…that might be something I try in the future, but not this year.
2. I sometimes found myself frustrated or rushing through a book that was dragging or was simply a slower book to read because I was getting (or as of April had become) so far behind. This was not a fun feeling. It took an activity that I enjoy immensely (yes, reading) and turned it, kind of, into a task. It was sometimes unpleasant and the reality is there are enough unpleasant things in my life currently without needlessly adding to the stack.
3. I need to be more focused this year on writing and submitting and yes, the dreaded elliptical trainer (blah!) than happily and selfishly and yes, somewhat detrimentally reading. I’m sure I’ll still read a hell of a lot, but a shift of focus is definitely necessary.
So onto a review of book #52. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Junot Diaz. Fiction. 4.5 Stars.
This was, I think the second best book I had the pleasure of reading this year, second only to McCarthy’s The Road, which was not only wonderful, but I also had the pleasure of blasting through in about three and a half hours in the middle of the night…which is always an awesome experience. Wao is a much more layered, complex, and quite frankly longer work, so it took me a few days to get through, but I enjoyed every second of it.
I was given Diaz’s short fiction collection Drown a few years ago by a wonderful friend and loved it right away. It was a welcome change from much of the short fiction out there…beautifully crafted stories that were just fascinating. Wao is no different as it is rich and amazing in its history and yet it is told with a casual believable voice that was EXACTLY what I wanted…and that was pitch perfect for the book. Even the footnotes were fascinating – while historical and there to be “footnotes” they were all written in the same voice as the book…and with a definitive perspective. I definitely came away sharing all the author’s views of the Dominican Republic.
Diaz has some truly beautiful believable characters, even if they come from a world I cannot even begin to imagine, and it’s the kind of epic book that I fear I will never have in me to write because of my boring boring life and super super boring experiences. Oh Woe Is Me. I never know with Diaz how much is fiction and how much is autobiography that has been recrafted into fiction, and that I suppose is one of the marks of a great writer…that I believe him SO much that I cannot stop fathoming at the truth he has put down on the page, and have to keep reminding myself that much of it must be fiction…must be…it is too fascinating and rich and beautiful and horrible to be really true. Right?
I can only think of two reasons not to give it 5 stars, 1) I did not give The Road 5 stars and this is an admittedly close second on that book and 2) it is told from the perspectives of a couple different characters and is told almost in short story format in the form of chapters – which I love – but occasionally found confusing or maybe distracting. Anytime you switch character focus you run the risk of losing your reader as he/she can become bored with a new character that is not as interesting as one they were so invested in – this was not a major problem as Diaz’s book was pretty well balanced, but a few times I felt like I was getting a frustrating history lesson when all I wanted to do was get back to the point…to the characters I was pining for. It is a minor complaint, but a complain nonetheless I suppose.
Anyway, a brilliant book. If you’re looking for something to blow you away, this is it. 4.5 stars.
Hard review to write…and I’m going to hold off on both the full review…and the number of stars because about 50 pages into one of the longer pieces there was a misprint in my book which caused the story to be cut off mid-sentence and then about 12 pages of duplication in the next story. Hope that my book was one of few botched copies, but I don’t feel good about reviewing a book without having been able to complete all stories within…but I’ll be damned if it’s not counting towards my 52 books this year…!
There really aren’t words to describe this. I highly suggest looking it up on youtube, as there has got to be something out there on it…certainly by 6am…the world will know the glory of CATHOUSE…THE MUSICAL!!!!!!!
I’m off early today to try to catch There Will Be Blood, after the snafu yesterday. Happy New Day to everyone out thre…hope you’re making the best of it…for most of us it is the last of the paid office holidays for months and months to come…I hate this part.
Sidenote: Adam has a ‘greatest quote of all time’ while watching this “musical” – “these women aren’t just whores, they’re attention whores” never have truer words been spoken my friends.
Update: here’s a youtube clip, though I must say the clip contains what I thought was one of the better performances…by far. Adam didn’t agree, but I found this one to be one of the least embarassing/funny/sad. Have a look.
Here it is, what you’ve all been waiting for…the top 25 movies of Kelly’s Top 100 Movies Of All Time!
If you want to see numbers 26 – 100, check out here, here, and here. And if you must know why I even bothered with this list in the first place, read more here.
But first, let me give you some movies I LOVE that came so close to the top 100 but just didn’t quite make the cut. It was painful to leave them behind (and this is harder than it looks, I swear). I honestly feel like watching all 100, plus the ones I’m about to list all over again, to see if my list is really accurate, because it really seems to depend on my mood…
Anyway, here are some movies that fell just short: Personal Velocity (2002); EXistenZ (1999); You Can Count On Me (2000); 12 Monkeys (1995); Magnolia (1999); Sunshine (2007); Little Children (2006); Kicking And Screaming (1995); Far From Heaven (2002); Good Night And Good Luck (2005); The Motorcycle Diaries (2004); Ratcatcher (1999); Imitation Of Life (1959); Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939); Stranger Than Fiction (2006); Leaving Las Vegas (1995); Lovely And Amazing (2001); and Kids (1995). It was brutal eliminating these…maybe under further review they’ll be readmitted next year…
In the meantime, here are the top 25:
025. Strictly Ballroom (1992)
024. Gosford Park (2001)
023. Being John Malkovich (1999)
022. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988 )
021. The Graduate (1967)
020. Half Nelson (2006)
019. Lost In Translation (2003)
018. The Ice Storm (1997)
017. Unbreakable (2000)
016. Zodiac (2007)
015. 8 1/2 (1963)
014. Fight Club (1999)
013. Buffalo 66 (1998 )
012. Dangerous Liasons (1988 )
011. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
010. Manhattan (1979)
009. Stealing Beauty (1996)
008. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
007. City of God (2002)
006. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
005. The Squid And The Whale (2005)
004. 28 Days Later (2002)
003. Sense & Sensibility (1995)
002. Run Lola Run (1998 )
001. Annie Hall (1977)
Join me on my 2007 countdown to Kelly’s Top 100 Movies of all time. See numbers 51-75 and 76-100, and read about why I decided to tackle this in the first place here. Off we go…
050. The Godfather II (1974)
049. Schindler’s List (1993)
048. Raging Bull (1980)
047. The Big Lebowski (1998 )
046. The Godfather (1972)
045. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
044. The Piano (1993)
043. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
042. Pulp Fiction (1994)
041. Office Space (1999)
040. The Last Picture Show (1971)
039. Roshomon (1950)
038. Network (1976)
037. The Station Agent (2003)
036. 2001: A Space Odessey (1968 )
035. Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
034. Happiness (1998 )
033. Dogville (2003)
032. No Country For Old Men (2007)
031. Monster’s Ball (2001)
030. Belle De Jour (1967)
029. The Lives Of Others (2006)
028. Taxi Driver (1976)
027. The Last Tango In Paris (1972)
026. Gone With The Wind (1939)
#50. The Session. Aaron Petrovich. Fiction Novella. 2.5 Stars
I’m too stupid to read this book. It’s partly my fault, and I partly blame the back cover.
The reality is that the book is written in a kind of stage play type style like Beckett’s Waiting For Godot (although there are no character names followed by a colon, so you have to pay even closer attention to know who is speaking). I have read and enjoyed Godot, but can’t claim to be a super-fan. It’s just not accessible enough to me. I cannot connect to the characters and, for me, that is always the most important thing when I’m reading. That is obviously not Beckett’s goal in Godot and that’s not Petrovich’s goal in Session, but in the case of Session, I was seriously lead astray by the back cover (which is why I usually do not read them and will now go back to my promise to never read them again). Here’s what the back cover says,
“Funny, frantic, and with a subversive intelligence, Aaron Petrovich’s Keaton-esque heroes, Detectives Smith and Smith, stumble upon a bizarre new religion while following the trail of a murdered mathematician’s missing organs. Their investigation to discover the truth – about the mathematician, the men and women who may have eaten him, and ultimately the nature of truth, sanity, and identity – leads them into a lunatic asylum they may never leave”.
AWESOME right? Yeah, no. I got maybe a tenth of that from reading the book. Really, I’m lucky if I got a tenth of that. If I had not read the back cover I would have had no idea that was what this was supposed to be about. This book was almost entirely inaccessible to me. I could connect to nothing and I could follow little. I was expecting a narrative of some sort due to the back cover and found no narrative at all.
I agree with part of the back cover, as below the synopsis is says that “Petrovich elevates rapid fire banter to a hysterical musical litany that carries the detectives, and the reader, right along with it”. The writing was kind of brilliant, and I did feel compelled forward, driven by the two characters dialogue with eachother. It was fascinating, and if I was smarter perhaps I would have gotten the point as well, but I’m afraid in the end I’m just not smart enough for it.
I’m giving it 2.5 stars because I suspect it is quite brilliant, and there is no doubt it is compelling and well written, and I can’t penalize it too heavily just because I’m not intelligent enough to “get it”. So I’m going to give it 2.5 stars for now, and plan to re-read it someday, preferable when I’ve become a more intelligent and enlightened being (that’s for sure gonna happen right?).
2.5 stars.
#49. The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner. Alan Sillitoe. Short Fiction Collection. 3.0 Stars
First of all, can I just say, best freaking title ever. The cover is pretty awesome as well (the one above is pretty great, but not near as great as the version I was reading, I think it was the verison printed in 1987, which I cannot seem to find online). The two (cover and title) together was deadly for me in my “system for picking books” and then this first sentence: “As soon as I got to Borstal they made me a long-distance cross-country runner.” totally put me over the edge.
I love that sentence, I suppose it doesn’t look like much, but the simplicity and matter of factness of it, I just love it. So considering all of these things, and the fact that I already have romantic ideas about long-distance running anyway, I had my expectations up pretty high. I think that is one of the reasons I was ultimately let down. Additionally this book was loaned to me by Adam and I for some reason assumed it was a novel, but it is actually a collection of short fiction, which initially upset me, however this turned out to be for the best, because I really liked some of Sillitoe’s pieces, but fundamentally I found the title piece (Loneliness) to be pretty repetative and frustrating, and I was excited when it was time to move on to the next story.
I found Uncle Ernest, Mr. Raynor The School Teacher, and On Saturday Afternoon to all be quite good, and The Fishing Boat Picture to be heartbreakingly good. The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller and The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale were good and had great titles (Sillitoe has a way with titles I must say), but left me a little wanting. The Match, Noah’s Ark, and Loneliness I found pretty greatly wanting, but I suppose only Loneliness really let me down because I had just wanted so much to love it.
I often dream I’m a runner. Not that I am running, but that I AM A RUNNER. Like a great one. Like it is what I was born to do. They are incredibly freeing and wonderful dreams. However, the universe definitely put me in the wrong body for that…so either the universe likes a joke…or it’s just mean (probably the latter), because I will never be a runner, not in this body…even at a drastically different weight, I’m just not built for it. I suppose it’s not Sillitoe’s fault that I wanted his Loneliness And The Long-Distance Runner to fulfill some deep seeded running void that I will never be able to fulfill, but I’m damned if I could keep it from affecting how I ended up feeling about the title piece and in the end the collection overall.
However, even with my lost hopes and dreamlike runner expectations being shattered, the writing was still creative and interesting, and for its time it was particularly beautiful and probably aggressively new I guess, which is pretty impressive. The theme throughout the book was a very obvious Loneliness – more obvious in some stories than in others – and it was a haunting and sad read. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time to be trying to read this book…while the world around me is trying extra hard to be happy and joyous and filled with anything other than loneliness, but I had thought maybe that would make it the perfect time…
3 Stars.
