After almost a week without any genuine eccentrics or capital-A assholes, I was starting to get worried that one of my on-the-job perks (seeing weirdos up close and personal) was slowly fading into oblivion. The last two days have dispelled all my fears.
First Up, Granny Rambles: around six pm Tuesday night, I'm loading up a cart of books to shelve and this short old... Read More
i'm a HUGE fan of marcuse. or i used to be. and the debord piece is really exceptional as well.
'ronnie mars this season is pretty good. it's not as great as seasons 1-2. some people are saying that it's because they've "dumbed down" the show to attract new viewers. but that's only a small part of the problem. after all, the show still has sexy characters in dangerous situations giving witty banter. no. the problem is that the first two seasons unfold like a single, televised novel - digging deep into the history of the characters and the nature of neptune (hence - the importance of the *high school* as a literal and metaphoric microcosm of the city). the first two seasons really work as one single story about "who killed lilly kane? (and what happened to her killer!)." BUT, you couldn't do a third season on that. 'cause it would get silly (i mean how many times can veronica get in "someone want to kill me b/c of what i know about lilly!" situations before you start to roll your eyes?). so *structurally* the show is forced to move on. but it's hard to have a hook of a mystery that is NEARLY so compelling as the first two season. and THAT'S what's hurting season 3. it's more *growing pains* than anything else.
now. lost. yea. this is what my wife said last night: "i'm done with this." in part it was the killing of the beloved character (easily my 2nd favorite, behind my true love - jack). what bugs me about the show is that clearly the writers would prefer to do a character-driven show, rather than one driven by the mythology of the island (hence - the lack of answers/the slow reveal of any information). and i can roll with that. but if you're going to do a character-driven show ... you have to do it. as in: why didn't eko and charlie confront locke for BLOWING THEM UP? or, why don't locke, charlie and eko get pissed at desmond for ALSO BLOWING THEM UP. further, what's with locke's all: "everyone come on my scouting trip! i'm not an elitist like jack!" line? this is the dude with the scary bowie knife who spent the first season in the jungle killing his sidekick and spent last season hiding in the hatch. he is *not* an inclusive kind of guy. it just came out of left field. i feel jerked around not by the story - but by piss poor characterization. (also - i liked hatch locke better than jungle locke. jungle locke feels like a comic book character to me. the guy who is made up to be cool - like snake eyes or wolverine. hatch locke is crazy and pathetic. WAY more fun to watch if you ask me.)
Sunday night was our monthly staff meeting. As usual, we had to watch a safety video with horrific production values and had to endure our district manager lecturing us on the current Arizona comics market (X-Men good, X-Force bad, Ghost Rider... Read More
Thursday: I had the day off. It was one of those blissfull days-off where absolutely, positively NOTHING of consequence happened. I went to Anthem to spend the day with my dad (the biological one). Aside from being an all-around nice guy, he also has the ability to bake the best chocolate chip cookies in the history of mankind. Seriously. Thank god I don't live with... Read More
Tuesday in a nutshell: a long day at work, relatively uneventful save for one interesting seller, and a night spent hitting the books and watching Futurama.
The Interesting Seller (Or, One Man's Desperate Urge To Unload His Shit Is Another Man's Dream Come True):
so i'm intrigued that you said good things about marie antoinette. i'll admit to being *skeptical.* and not b/c of the music or fashion choices. that seems fun to me - and i'll admit that "a knight's tale" is a guilty pleasure of mine that is equally anachronistic. what makes me *nervous* about the movie is it's approach to marie herself. i have no problem with making her sympathetic ... but i get nervous that it makes her *so* sympathetic that we think of the revolutionaries as "enemies," and not - you know - the midwives of modernity. (that's like the WORST analogy ever, and totally deserves a high five, f'reals.)
Sunday shifts at the bookstore are kind of nice, because they're usually very uneventful (save for an afternoon rush of bookworms and people dragging in their yard sale leftovers for us to rummage through). Aside from dealing with the... Read More
i have the dead milkmen's best of... Death Rides A Pale Cow. it's damn good
and X actually has two movies... X:The Unheard Music is a documentary type thing intercut with live performances...and then there's just a live dvd that i haven't seen yet. Exene is my hero. i want to be her daughter
and better than chocolate was really good. it sort of dragged a little but a cute lil' love story. i saw the trailor for it when i went to see Blairwitch Project in jr. high.
It's that time again: long post time! Luckily, my computer-challenged mind finally understands how to use spoilers, so for the sake of making my blog posts more eye-friendly, I'm going to spoiler individual paragraphs by subject. So if you're reading this and don't give a shit about what I think about "blank blank", you can save yourself the effort of scrolling past half a screen... Read More
the meet up was fun, now that you've come out and met us the hard part is over. i love belle & sebastian by the way, glad to hear the new one is good, i haven't heard it yet
In other news: I had a pretty fucked up dream last night.
When I usually have a bad dream (which isn't often), they tend to have a carnival-esque atmosphere. They look like they were filmed by David Lynch after a night of heavy "better living through chemistry". This makes them pretty easy to dismiss. The dream I had last night, though, was like cinema verite:... Read More
that is a seriously creepy dream. now i have to tell you my own little dream story - but it's not really mine. my wife has crazy dreams, but she can remember them ALL in pretty exacting detail. plus she can actually direct her dreams.
In spite of myself, I'm starting to develop a fondness for R.E.M.
My listening habits over the last week have been dominated mostly by early Roxy Music (in particular their first record and "Country Life"), Wire, and Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures". In the middle of all this 1970's arty goodness, R.E.M. has managed to sneak in ninja style into my ear-drums. I used to outright... Read More
I too miss college for its intellectual smackdowns and buildups, but more than anything I miss that one motherfucker in every discussion section who was just bright enough to get everything wrong, and thereby drew me into debate. Then the prof would laugh and settle us down. At night I'd drink beer and push my musical tastes on my friends. Good times.
Tonight: yet another movie review, since nothing has happened in the last few days to my life that would be interesting enough to write about.
THE DEPARTED
I had mixed feelings going into this one. For starters, there was the fact that its a remake. While I haven't seen Infernal Affairs (I did order a copy a week ago, though, so I should be posting... Read More
I seriously want to see The Departed. We didn't get to it last weekend, and this weekend I got a cold like a punk so we spent most of the weekend on the couch. But it's totally on my list. In fact, there are quite a few fine flicks coming out.
Work: slow today, and I am slowly getting bogged down in sci-fi hardcovers that need to get shelved. Most of them are published by Baen Books, a company whose work I find immensely unappealing, but that is neither here nor there. The Breton tattoo is healing quite nicely and has yet to start itching, which is a nice change of pace from my last tattoo,... Read More
i'm a HUGE fan of marcuse. or i used to be. and the debord piece is really exceptional as well.
'ronnie mars this season is pretty good. it's not as great as seasons 1-2. some people are saying that it's because they've "dumbed down" the show to attract new viewers. but that's only a small part of the problem. after all, the show still has sexy characters in dangerous situations giving witty banter. no. the problem is that the first two seasons unfold like a single, televised novel - digging deep into the history of the characters and the nature of neptune (hence - the importance of the *high school* as a literal and metaphoric microcosm of the city). the first two seasons really work as one single story about "who killed lilly kane? (and what happened to her killer!)." BUT, you couldn't do a third season on that. 'cause it would get silly (i mean how many times can veronica get in "someone want to kill me b/c of what i know about lilly!" situations before you start to roll your eyes?). so *structurally* the show is forced to move on. but it's hard to have a hook of a mystery that is NEARLY so compelling as the first two season. and THAT'S what's hurting season 3. it's more *growing pains* than anything else.
now. lost. yea. this is what my wife said last night: "i'm done with this." in part it was the killing of the beloved character (easily my 2nd favorite, behind my true love - jack). what bugs me about the show is that clearly the writers would prefer to do a character-driven show, rather than one driven by the mythology of the island (hence - the lack of answers/the slow reveal of any information). and i can roll with that. but if you're going to do a character-driven show ... you have to do it. as in: why didn't eko and charlie confront locke for BLOWING THEM UP? or, why don't locke, charlie and eko get pissed at desmond for ALSO BLOWING THEM UP. further, what's with locke's all: "everyone come on my scouting trip! i'm not an elitist like jack!" line? this is the dude with the scary bowie knife who spent the first season in the jungle killing his sidekick and spent last season hiding in the hatch. he is *not* an inclusive kind of guy. it just came out of left field. i feel jerked around not by the story - but by piss poor characterization. (also - i liked hatch locke better than jungle locke. jungle locke feels like a comic book character to me. the guy who is made up to be cool - like snake eyes or wolverine. hatch locke is crazy and pathetic. WAY more fun to watch if you ask me.)