| Thoughts on 'Avatar' |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|01:51 pm] |
So overall, I thought it was pretty good. :) The story wasn't anything I hadn't heard or read or seen before, but I thought it was told pretty well, and the graphics, of course, were amazing. Incredible work there, and it should rightfully get all those technical Oscars it's going to win. There was a little too much hype for my tastes, too.
More on the story: ( spoilers beyond! ) |
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| I Think It's Snowing |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|07:42 pm] |
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This is the first Christmas I've been away from New Jersey. But I'm full, happy and sitting with Kim on our couch in our pajamas. I'm not home this year, but I'm home. |
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| Holidays and Other Things... |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|10:41 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
*I'm currently at work until around noon and then I will be heading home for a few days! I'm very excited about Christmas. My father has a mysterious present he's giving the family tonight. I have a feeling it's something cute and cheesy instead of something actually good, but I can't wait to find out what it is! I'm also super excited to give everyone the gifts I've gotten them.
*The next few weeks are going to be crazy fun. I'm taking a couple days off next week and I think I'll basically be eating and drinking in some form nonstop for many days. I'll also be going to the gym for longer since I have time off, so that will hopefully offset all of the eating.
*Speaking of the gym and obsessively eating, I got my body fat index taken the other day. I was in the "acceptable" range, but I was at the higher end of "acceptable". I was kind of surprised. I've been frantically lifting and admittedly still doing tons of cardio. I've gained some weight and I assumed a lot of it was muscle weight, but now I'm not so sure. The trainer who took my body fat index thing told me the electric approach which they use is not necessarily super accurate. If you drink too much or not enough water, if you drink coffee or if you're retaining water for any reason, the number may be completely thrown off. The most accurate test is the pinch test which they won't do at my gym because it's "too invasive". Needless to say, it's really disturbing when someone tells me 40 pounds of my weight is fat. Disturbing and kind of hilarious.
*And on that note, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT! |
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| Ho Ho Ho! |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|08:58 pm] |
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Christmas Eve Eve is probably my favorite day of the holiday season. I don't know why, but it is. |
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| Story within a story |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|02:52 pm] |
So in Lantern Man, Bette (the main character, if I haven't named her on here before) is reading an account of the 'ghost story' behind the murderous ghost she's encountered in a booklet containing about five similar stories. I'm wondering now if it would be more effective to actually "reprint" (as it were) the story itself, or just have her recap through narration what it was about. I've briefly named and summarized the other 4 stories in the booklet and mentioned they were somewhat gruesome retellings of these supposedly true events.
I don't want to go on forever about this ghost story in 'reprint', but I'm feeling like that would be more interesting than just recapping it.
So, LJers and writers, thoughts or opinions on this? I've already started making a trend in this story of jumping away from Bette's present-day first-person narration on ocassion. So far just by jumping back in time three years and keeping it in first-person, but I think doing so kept things interesting.
And that said, any suggestions for quick reads I could check out to get ideas of how to change the style of writing in the reprint? It is written by a specific character, after all, so I feel like I should try to give it its own voice. Something Lovecraftian or generally gothic horror-like would be good, I think. |
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| there were three of us this morning; I'm the only one this evening |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|09:32 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Leonard Cohen - "The Partisan" | ] |
Against all sense and evidence I walked from Copley Square to Park Street on Monday night, in teens-degree weather against prevailing wind, to get a drink with Hawver and Fraley at Silvertone. I needed to get in touch with my city again. I love Boston in the fall and winter, lit up at night during the holiday season: the crowds, the traffic, the dash from windbreak to windbreak. I love cities at night.
"You still thinking about moving to Chicago?", Hawver asked.
"Not really," I said. "I've got things coming up in spring, like the show. Writing has started coming together again. Working downtown is nice. And my efforts to get out and be social are actually paying off."
"So you're putting down roots?"
"As much as a man in his late twenties without a child or a mortgage can, yes."
Taking a few days off to fly to Baltimore and visit the family. Merry Christmas if that's your poison. Posts coming next week, but I may not be copying them to Livejournal. All must labor and rest in their due time.
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|06:14 am] |
On the twelfth day of Marxmas
My comrade gave to me
Twelve Hunky fascists
Eleven Lenins leaping
Ten days a-shaking
Nine men in the Kremlin
Eight Bulganins bulging
Seven strikers swinging
Six splinter groups
FIVE! YEAR! PLAN!
Fourth International
Three bayonets
Two Das Kapitals
And a portrait of Leon Trotsky
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| Quincy House Adventures: Underrated |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|07:42 pm] |
I feel sort of bad ass, because I've got band-aids on three fingers on my left hand and another cut on my right hand. I wasn't doing construction, or painting, or sanding anything. I was just cleaning. Ah, cleaning. The underrated household task.
The cuts on my left hand were the extra-bad-ass type; those ones that you can feel slicing in without actually causing you any pain at all. And then you say to yourself, "Well, I better finishing moving this air conditioner, because I'm probably going to start bleeding in a minute."
So, today, I feel like a household... not ninja, precisely. Ninjas sneak up on their target. I full frontal assaulted two rooms full of dust and clutter today, and emerged victorious despite my un-stealthy approach. I suppose I was sort of a Household Knight, or possibly Household Mounted Cavalryman. |
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| will I see you tonight, on a downtown train? |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|10:54 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Tom Waits - "Downtown Train" | ] |
While Boston didn't get it as bad as the rest of the East Coast, nine inches of snow fell on us from late Saturday night into early Sunday afternoon. This wouldn't have been enough to dissuade us from jiu-jitsu (grr! we're tough!), but since Watertown declared a snow emergency, we couldn't have parked on the street our dojo sits on (we obey the law!).
That sounds like a mis-translated Shaw Brothers movie, actually: Tough Guys Who Obey All Laws. Starring Gordon Liu and Sun Chien; directed by Chang Cheh.
So I stayed inside all day Sunday and watched movies. Including and limited to:
Get Carter: Brutal and compelling, of a style that found frequent imitators through the 70s and 80s but retained little of the source's art. A young Michael Caine (whom Matt W. told me I resembled once, back when my hair was curlier and my sideburns longer, plus I was carrying a shotgun and slapping around the proprietor of a Newcastle B&B; only now do I get it) plays Jack Carter, a London mob enforcer who goes north to investigate his brother's death. He sinks waist-deep into a genuine mystery, popping pills and assembling clues until he uncovers the predictable, yet still galling, truth.
What puts Get Carter a head and shoulders above its imitators (including Tarantino) is its art. The cinematography is excellent: from the opening shot of Carter, backlit in an apartment window and staring over London with a drink in his hand, to the crane shot that follows him as he flees pursuers on foot and jumps into a waiting car, to the film's tense climax. Midway through the film, a local youth group parades down a main street in full mufti. They play some stirring march in a kazoo chorus. The cookie-cutter rowhomes of the street they march on frame a massive factory and burbling smoke stacks at the bottom of a hill. ThinK Pittsburgh without the charm: it's a beautiful juxtaposition.
Jack Carter is a psychopath. He lets the people who help him get beat up, robbed or even killed without much in the way of tears. He holds nothing sacred except family. And even that, we feel, is not out of some duty to the hearth but as a way of redeeming his past. "Frank wasn't like that," he yells at one point, shaking his listener by the shoulder. "I'm the villain in the family, remember?" Carter wants proof that the sadism he engages in is a choice, not in his blood. The fear that his family - his brother Frank and Frank's daughter Doreen - might have fallen as far terrifies him. And like a terrified dog, he bites and never lets go.
Strangers on a Train: One of Hitchcock's sharpest. Two men meet on a train ride from New York to D.C.: a handsome young tennis player, Guy Haines, and a rich, idle bachelor, Bruno Anthony. The two get to talking - Haines reluctantly - until it comes out that Guy wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, while Bruno chafes under his father's thumb. Bruno suggests that two people who'd met by accident - like he and Guy - could swap murders and solve each other's problems. Guy patronizingly agrees in order to get away from Bruno. But when he arrives in D.C. a day later, he discovers that his wife has been murdered ...
All the usual elements are here: a man falsely accused. A woman uncovering a mystery. A maniac with a twisted relationship with his mother. Odd psychological contrivances. Races against the clock. Climactic battles in odd locales.
Example: In the film's climax, Guy must win a tennis match as quickly as possible in order to hop a train to Connecticut. While avoiding the police who are tailing him. So he can catch Bruno planting evidence. But at the same time, through Hitchcock's genius we find ourselves rooting for Bruno as well. We hope that nobody spots him, or that he doesn't lose the crucial piece of evidence - because that would deflate Hitchcock's meticulous ending into an anti-climax. Compare this to J.J. Abrams, whose idea of cranking up tension involves making everyone run (q.v. Star Trek, Mission Impossible 3).
Robert Walker as mama's boy Bruno Anthony is the real gem here. He wavers between harmless eccentricity and casual brutality in a way that Anthony Perkins - to say nothing of Anthony Hopkins - must have mirrored. We find him fascinating in the way that a snake fascinates a rat. Sadly, Strangers on a Train was his last film. In August 1951, he suffered an acute allergic reaction to a dose of sodium amytal, administed by his psychiatrist for nerves. He died (like Brittany Murphy, who just passed this Sunday) at age 32.
Original post |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|06:07 am] |
On the eleventh day of Marxmas
My comrade gave to me
Eleven Lenins leaping
Ten days a-shaking
Nine men in the Kremlin
Eight Bulganins bulging
Seven strikers swinging
Six splinter groups
FIVE! YEAR! PLAN!
Fourth International
Three bayonets
Two Das Kapitals
And a portrait of Leon Trotsky
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| 50 books: 2009 |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|09:38 am] |
Best Science Fiction / Fantasy
Nominees: To Say Nothing of the Dog, The Stress of Her Regard, Accelerando, Earth Abides, Perdido Street Station, The Dispossessed
 Winner: The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin's strength has always been to illustrate the odd quirks of human society by depicting them through the eyes of aliens. In lesser writers, this might come across as a condemnation; with Le Guin, it's simple re-evaluation. How does the commodification of labor, food, comfort, shelter and everything else we take for granted in a capitalist society shape us? It may be the most efficient means of distribution yet discovered (as I believe), but it is if nothing else odd. Le Guin's The Dispossessed makes that clear.
Best Mystery / Crime / Espionage
Nominees: The Tailor of Panama, The Surgeon, Persuader, No Second Chance, Shutter Island, Paranoia, One Shot, Gone for Good, The Hard Way
 Winner: Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane. A tough one, really. All the Harlan Coben and Lee Child novels were roughly equivalent - good, diverting, fast-paced but ultimately just a little too contrived to merit a Best In Year title. But Lehane has a smooth, strong style like the pull of gravity. His tale of two federal agents investigating a disappearance in an insane asylum keeps the reader rattled, uncertain and hooked all the way through. Read it before the movie comes out.
Best Literature
Nominees: The Master and Margarita, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The House of Sand and Fog, Brave New World, No Country for Old Men, The Baroque Cycle
 Winner: No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. Stephenson's penchant for long-winded asides, though entertaining and informative, keeps his novels from being the focused vectors of craft that they ought to be. And Bulgakov's whirlwind satire of Stalinism vaults confusingly - though whimsically - from point to point. It's McCarthy's highly regarded novel that earns the top slot. Though all of his best novels concern the absurdity of human plans in the face of mortality, No Country makes those plans easily accessible to a modern audience (how to steal two million dollars of the mob's money). And he gives mortality a face and a name, in the person of Anton Chigurh.
Best Non-Fiction
Nominees: Fast Food Nation, Kitchen Confidential, A Brief History of Time, Your Religion is False, Gang Leader for a Day, Wanderer, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Empire.
 Winner: Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain. I wanted to give it to one of the political depth charges I read this year - Bacevich's The Limits of Power, Sharlet's The Family, Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis. Ultimately, however, they all padded their word counts with exhaustive details that showed the depth of their research but sacrificed the grace of their story. Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, on the other hand, paints a vivid, unflattering and engrossing picture of the transactions going on in each restaurant kitchen in America. It's a wild ride, and Bourdain deserves the fame this book has brought him.
Best Reread
Nominees: Declare, The Stars My Destination, Red Mars, The Ophiuchi Hotline, This Immortal
 Winner: Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson. Perhaps I'm cheating somewhat here, as I never finished Red Mars as a teenager. But that gave Robinson the greatest burden to fight against. I knew what to expect from Powers, Bester, Varley and Zelazny going in, but I had low expectations for Robinson. "I couldn't slog my way through this before," I thought, "what hope do I have now?" Boy, was I off. A sweeping, detailed, realistic and ultimately very human look at how a disparate group of humans might terraform our neighbor planet.
Biggest Surprise
Nominees: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Surgeon, Xenos, The Confusion
 Winner: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz. Picking up this critically acclaimed novel, I was expecting a dense bildungsroman set in the Dominican Republic, one of those Important Novels that everybody reads but nobody enjoys. Instead, Diaz treated me to a breezy trip through three generations of laborers, hustlers, players and geeks. He sprinkles his anecdotes with note-perfect references to sci-fi and early 80s RPGs as well - and trust me, I would have noticed if he got them wrong. Read it, love it.
Biggest Disappointment
Nominees: Button Button, Emergency, Jack and Jill, How the Mind Works.
 Winner: Emergency, Neil Strauss. Jack and Jill I should have known would let me down; more than enough critics have heaped their derision on James Patterson for me to be wise. And my inability to plow through How The Mind Works says as much of my short attention span as Pinker's dense, myopic writing style. But Emergency was pitched to me as "how to be Jason Bourne [...] a veritable encyclopedia for those who want to disappear" (thanks, Tim Ferriss!). Instead, I got a series of self-indulgent anecdotes by Neil Strauss on how he could have obtained the documentation and survival skills to go off the grid. But didn't. It's part of the growing genre of Do Something Weird Just For The Sake of Writing A Book About It (The Year of Living Biblically, Julie & Julia): the niche blog as bestseller. It's interesting to read. But if you want actual useful information, go elsewhere.
Most Fun
Nominees: Boomsday, Anansi Boys, Kitchen Confidential, Paranoia, One Shot
 Winner: One Shot, Lee Child. Really, any of the Lee Child books could have answered here. Jack Reacher, his sullen, hulking ex-MP hero, is like Sherlock Holmes meets Jack Bauer: competent enough to take anybody down with his hands or with a gun, but usually capable of outwitting them first. Perfect beach or airport reading.
Original post |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|07:01 am] |
On the tenth day of Marxmas
My comrade gave to me
Ten days a-shaking
Nine men in the Kremlin
Eight Bulganins bulging
Seven strikers swinging
Six splinter groups
FIVE! YEAR! PLAN!
Fourth International
Three bayonets
Two Das Kapitals
And a portrait of Leon Trotsky
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| Quincy House Adventures: The Adventure Begins! |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|11:56 pm] |
Act I: Tim: (Urgently.) Christine!
Tim: (More urgently.) I've done something horrible! [<-- This is an actual quote.]
(Hissing noises.)
(Christine runs into the kitchen to see Tim running out the door to the basement. Water is spraying across the room from under the sink.)
Christine: !!!
Act II:
Christine: I'll stay here. If you hear a scream, turn the water back off.
Tim: Okay. Hey, aren't you glad this happened after you got out of the shower?
Act III:
Tim: (Casually.) Christine?
Christine: Yes?
Tim: (Very casually.) Do you see this thing I'm pressing on with my finger?
Christine: Yes.
Tim: (Extremely casually.) Can you put your finger there for just a sec while I run to the basement and shut off the water?
Christine: Yes!
...
After all this, we decided we could live without cold water for the night. Although we actually cooked a nice leek and potato soup for lunch, we regressed for dinner: I had english muffins and Tim had instant stuffing. Our fridge will eventually have water attached to its ice maker. And for this night, we consoled ourselves with some Shiraz, This Old House's Home Inspection Nightmares, and There, I Fixed It. |
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| 2009 Discovery: Audiobooks |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|10:13 am] |
Reflecting on the year past I felt compelled to write about one of the most amazing discoveries I've made: The Audiobook.
The truth as of late is that I spend more time driving than sitting around at home with time on my hands. Thus, would rather listen to a book then have no time to read at all. I did read a few actual books over the last few months (my marathon training book, vegan nutrition book, the Jillian Making the Cut book, and endless cookbooks) but it was less cumultative time than even one audiobook takes. Sigh.
Anyway, last week there was an piece on NPR about audiobooks by Neil Gaiman. He shared his thoughts on the medium and experiences recording his own audiobooks. Gaiman also talked about David Sedaris and his love of him. Then Sedaris provided a quote about how much he loves audiobooks. So cool!
It's so refreshing to see my favorite authors embracing this form of their art. If it wasn't for audiobooks my car ride would be dreary and my imagination stagnant. I've loved reading since I was a wee Kimmer. I'd rather have the audiobook than nothing at all.
In the several months of the latter part of 2009 I listened to a bunch of audiobooks. Some I loved and some I hated. I realized there's a precise art that needs to go into the right book choice. It can't be anything too heavy; nothing that you'd need to flip back and reacquaint yourself with if you missed a detail (character names, plot, narrative switching). Good choices are those with very descriptive language, that which you can visualize and fully immerse yourself into.
Audiobooks Listened To This Year & Thoughts:
J.K. Rowlings - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Excellent first foray into audiobook. Perfectly written and imaginable. I don't need to say any more on my HP obsession.
Sarah Vowell - Wordy Shipmates - I tried and tried to get into this because I LOVE SV but I couldn't. Too much dense information that I couldn't keep up with. I had to quit halfway through.
Stephen Colbert - I Am America And So Can You - John & I started this on our road trip to Vermont but I couldn't get in to it either. I stopped it a few chapters in. I wanted to love this so much but it was actually pretty stupid, I'm sorry to say.
Jonathan Foer - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Amazing, heartwrenching book. Intricate narrative but the 3 different voices used were easy to follow. I hear the book had pictures and illustrations which I would have loved to see.
Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol - Completely fun, could visualize everything, I'm such a sucker for Dan Brown.
David Sedaris - When You are Engulfed in Flames - Read by Sedaris, I adore his voice. Hilarious, witty, clever, loved everything about it. Some of his funniest stories to date.
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake - I tried so hard to get into this but couldn't. I had to stop it a few chapters in. I had such a hard time following. I think the print version is a must with this one.
J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings - Finished yesterday. This was the original BBC radio version from 1981. Beautiful, brilliantly narrated, just amazing. The score is also beautiful. Stephen Oliver composed it just for this production which lead me into a 2 week manhunt for the audio of the score. Finally found it. Debating for wedding music, it's so gorgeous. My only gripe with this audio was Gollum, the voice used was almost unlistenable, too annoying with all of the gutteral throat noises.
Anthony Bourdain - A Cook's Tour - John & I started this last weekend on our drive to NJ. Roughly 4 hours completed the first half. We still have the second half to listen to but so far it's touching, clever, total visual, funny, smart, and interesting. I love Anthony Bourdain.
Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love - Starting this today! I read the book a while ago and own it but I just love this story. I want to experience it again. I
also have another 20 audiobooks downloaded and ready for our cross country road trip in June 2010! |
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| you gonna save me or not? |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|09:46 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Kyle Andrews - "Sushi" | ] |
Last week, I wrote about discovering sushi, something I avoided for a while (in part) because I feared it was pretentious.
I copied this post to LiveJournal, where ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rival asked,
"You mention that you had been writing sushi off as a pretentious/inaccessible food. I have heard this sentiment from other people. Where does it come from?"
rival, permit me to demonstrate:
Last Sunday, I went to the grocery store in Porter Square. I got some sushi from the seafood aisle. It came in a pre-packaged little tray: eel, tuna, salmon, all in little ricey rolls. It had been made that morning, but would supposedly keep until the 19th (five days later) if I were in no hurry.
I took it home and ate it. And I really liked it.
(sits back, waits)
Original post |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|07:02 am] |
On the Ninth day of Marxmas
My comrade gave to me
Nine men in the Kremlin
Eight Bulganins bulging
Seven strikers swinging
Six splinter groups
FIVE! YEAR! PLAN!
Fourth International
Three bayonets
Two Das Kapitals
And a portrait of Leon Trotsky
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| It's A Christmas Miracle! |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|07:59 pm] |
Since I saw this round up of Boston restaurants doing special Christmas Eve dinners John and I have been debating ad nauseum about where to go and what to do on Christmas Eve. I'm talking weeks and hours trying to decide!
But today, finally, we decided to go to Legal Seafoods in Kendall and catch a Christmas Eve movie. Ahhh, a decision.
But then! Then! We get home today and have received an envelope from Legal Seafoods. Huh?! Inside is a mystery gift card for $50!!! It says "Merry Christmas John & Kim" and has clearly been sent from someone who knows us but there was no return address or any "from" name.
Who sent this to us?!?! It's a Christmas miracle!!!!! |
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| my face woulda been beet red |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|08:57 am] |
| [ | music |
| | MC Mr Napkins - "Street Cred" | ] |
On Monday night, I stayed out way too late at the ImprovBoston Fun(d)raiser at the Estate in downtown Boston. Rather than narrate a party you didn't attend in droning detail, I'll call out some of the local and rising comics who performed. Keep an eye out for these names.
MC Mr Napkins, a/k/a Zach Sherwin: hilarious, Jew-froed indie-rap backpacker / comedian / anagrammatist from the Boston area. I've heard that he's moving to the West Coast soon to try and Break In, which would be awesome.
"Street Cred" was one of the two songs he performed last night.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1QS-MmEZo]
Tony V: legendary local on the Boston scene. A foul-mouthed but friendly old man.
The following video's old material, but it's indicative.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH1R04dhtEU]
Myq Kaplan: really clever local comedian with a quick delivery. He's going to be on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien tonight (Wednesday the 16th). But I already saw his material. Except for the swearing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPOhnYI1YY]
Shane Mauss: if memory serves, he did a bit for The Waste Land Comedy Hour Starring T.S. Elliot that went over like a Stratus off a cliff. But the material in this show was all fresh and he delivered it pretty well. Shane has already been on Conan; he is supposedly coming out with a comedy album soon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFkV__01ijw]
Original post |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|06:34 am] |
On the Eigth day of Marxmas
My comrade gave to me
Eight Bulganins bulging
Seven strikers swinging
Six splinter groups
FIVE! YEAR! PLAN!
Fourth International
Three bayonets
Two Das Kapitals
And a portrait of Leon Trotsky
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