This is SO sad. Just a few short months after my blissful discovery, and a few short weeks after I told the world (er uh, you guys) about it, and it has vanished like so much mist. The snoring is not constant, thank goodness, but man is it an adjustment to go from blissful silence to occasional abrupt loud ass log sawing right next to you. It doesn’t help that I’m a terribly light sleeper and Adam is a terribly deep sleeper. Oh woe is me. Suggestions? Other than not bragging anymore of course…
So I’m (finally) officially published. Yea! This piece I Hate The French is the first piece I ever submitted (in July of 2006 – why oh why does this stuff take so long!) and it is truly wonderful to see my words in print that doesn’t belong to my home computer.
It IS a pretty great start to the new year. Let’s hope there is much more of this to come. In case you are intersted in supporting a great literary magazine, and of course reading the first stepping stone on what I’m sure will be the wild unabashed success of yours truly (of course, right?), then go here: Pearl #38 and click on order to buy thousands of issues… 🙂
Ah, sigh. McSweeneys.
How I love thee. How thou does not yet love me.
I got my rejection today from McSweeney’s for a story I submitted months and months ago, so I knew it was a no, but it was good to have the final word, if only so I can send that story back out. It is one of my favorites, but I can see why it might not quite be a fit for my beloved McSweeney’s. But it’s okay, I’ve been working on (in my mind only) another little story that might be great for McSweeny’s…just have to sit down and put pen to paper, or fingertips to keys…whatever.
I have to say, one nice thing about a McSweeney’s rejection…it comes on an awesome little postcard (in my SASE of course so nobody can see my shame). It was also fairly encouraging for a rejection letter. I suppose I should have expected no less from them.
Okay, so the official count is now: 1 for 7
And that’s all that have gone out…I’m preparing a new group though. Let’s hope these are more potent (or lucky).
They look FANTASTIC. And I’m so happy to finally have them up…most importantly because this “art cluster” hides a giant grey metal switch box in my living room wall that I’ve been staring at angrily for the last six months. Yea for art on walls!
I also made a massive list…not of resolutions, but of priorities for 2008, and there were so many things I wanted to make sure I do this year that I broke the list up into sections (work/art, job, health, money, house, and fun). Onto each of these categories I put a bunch of things I want to accomplish this year and more importantly where I think my priorities should be on a daily basis (funny…tv did not make the list…at all). Anyway, house has by far the most things on the list, although if I just get up and do it the “house” items are also the easiest to accomplish, so that is good. Already two things (hanging those pictures was number one) have been accomplished…so that’s not too bad for January 3rd right?
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.
I didn’t actually take a bite as it had onions in it (yuck! who puts onions in tuna fish? – apparently our diner that’s who!) but it looked just terrible, kind of greasy and like it would just lay down in the pit of your stomach and never digest. Not at all like it looked in the movie, all crunchy and light and delicious.
Anyway, onwards…towards 2008…a year in which I will do everything I said I would do last year. A year in which I will finish my second book (and third! – why stop at two?!). A year in which I will magically become thinner while still happily eating whenever I am hungry. A year in which an agent and publisher will magically appear for me (and will of course want to sign and publish me). A year in which money will come to me easily and leave me never. A year in the which the world will discover my genius…and instantly brand me an overnight sensation, blithely ignoring the fact that I have been toiling in obscurity for years…
What about you guys? Any insane out of control hopes, dreams, and, I hate the word but here it is… “resolutions” for 2008?
My only real true resolution (though I still hold on to those wild hopes and dreams) is that I don’t have a crappy New Years Eve…it is such a lame holiday, built up with too much fantasy and desperation and drama, just waiting in the wings for you to have a lousy night.
Adam and I plan to get out early tomorrow/today to see There Will Be Blood (can’t wait!) and then hope to try a restaurant I’ve been dying to try called The Mermaid Inn (they appear to have delicious lobster rolls – which I adore – what better way to end a year?) and if there is time, finally checking out The Museum of Natural History, which I have been heinously ignoring going on nearly three years here in the city. The ‘Mythic Creatures’ exhibit ends in January, so there is no more time to waste. We’ll probably end up at midnight the same as usual, in the apartment warm and cozy, Adam watching me down champagne and getting a late start on the first thanks to too much of it. But that’s not such a bad tradition I suppose.
What about you…hopes, dreams, resolutions…or just plans for the “big night”?
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)
