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Archive for May, 2007

What I learned… (4) [Roman, Immortalized]

Posted in Boston, MA, Digression, Funky Web Sites on May 31, 2007| Leave a Comment »

My friend Roman has just been immortalized in a blog–and not even this one, although now this makes two; granted my immortalization pales in comparison to THIS ONE. Congratulations Roman, for being The 50th Inductee Into Utter Wonder’s Hall of Fame! You can be in my hall of fame as well! And, while you would be the first, which is an accomplishment in itself, we’ll have to wait and see if any other folks clamor to follow you in.

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What I learned… (3) [Book covers]

Posted in Big Books, Digression, Funky Web Sites, Heather McGowan, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy on May 31, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Obviously, I’m stealing my book and album cover art from Amazon.com. I could scan them myself, but let’s face it, no one has that much time. So, I’m sorry for the Search Inside logo, which I suppose I could crop, but I’m simply not going to. Not if I’m going to have time to write anything, anyway. Just the fact that it bothers me should display enough anal-retentivity for anyone. But the point I was getting at is just how weird it is for me to be posting covers that are not the cover of the book that I read. In fact, I would say that over half of the covers no longer reflect the jacket in my house or from my library. How weird is that. It makes me feel like I didn’t even read it. Frankly, the cover of the Duchess of Nothing (below) is appalling, and nowhere near as interesting as the cover of the book I read. Weird.

In the same breath, however, album covers never change. And despite the ineluctable (thanks James Joyce) connection between the music and the unchanging album cover, it is the music that you can now download with no art at all. Although now, you can go to http://www.dailylit.com/ and have a chapter (or at least a chunk of pages) of any number of classic works (including Mr. Joyce) sent to your Inbox daily. Fascinating. It would be like getting THE BEST WRITTEN EMAIL EVER! (more…)

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Heather McGowan–Duchess of Nothing (2006)

Posted in Deftones, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Heather McGowan, Tom Waits, Unreliable narrator on May 31, 2007| Leave a Comment »

duchess.jpgSOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-B-Sides & Rarities (2005).

deftone.jpgThe Deftones are fascinating. They play some really really heavy metal, and yet they have a softer side, like Sears. One of the all-time great metal songs is the Deftones’ “My Own Summer (Shove It)”, it has a dynamic loud-soft interplay and an excruciating chorus. Sheer madness. And then, you get their B-Sides collection and find out that they do an awesome cover of the Cocteau Twins’ “Wax and Wane.”

(more…)

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What I learned… (2) [Leaving things unfinished]

Posted in David Lynch, Digression, Unfinished on May 30, 2007| 1 Comment »

[DIGRESSION]: Previously, in Sarah’s Book Journal there was a post about a book that she didn’t finish because she didn’t think it was good enough to finish. This is an admirable trait; in fact, if you do some basic searches online for “not finishing books” you will receive a lengthy hit list. However, I don’t seem to be able to give up on a book, no matter how dry or boring I think it is. This whole mindset stems from an incident in college where I claimed that David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” was terrible. So bad, in fact that I couldn’t finish it. My (influential) teacher said, how can you pass judgment if you haven’t finished the whole thing; it’s an unfair assessment. (more…)

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Ted Naifeh–Polly and the Pirates (2005)

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Ted Naifeh on May 29, 2007| Leave a Comment »

polly.jpg[READ: June 2007] Polly and the Pirates.

This is a pretty cute graphic novel. Stylistically it is somewhat unique, in that Naifeh’s style is idosyncratic and odd (see his Courtney Crumrin books and note that Courtney Crumrin has no nose!). This tale is of a young girl in a boarding school who is captured by pirates who believe that she is the daughter of their former pirate queen! Intrigue, treasure, dashing heroines, and all in a for-all-ages format. Good fun!

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David Foster Wallace–Consider the Lobster (2005)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gilmore Girls, Meta, Tom Waits on May 29, 2007| 2 Comments »

lobster.jpgSOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Orphans (Bastards) (2006).

orphans1.jpgThis is the piece de resistance of the Orphans set. All of the really, really weird songs by Waits get thrown together on this disc. Weird and wonderful, including a crazy cover of “Heigh Ho” from Snow White.

[READ: Summer 2006] Consider the Lobster.

When I was living in Boston, and going to graduate school, (more…)

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Joshua Braff–The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green (2005)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Joshua Braff, Set in New Jersey!, Tom Waits, Unreliable narrator, Veronica Mars, Vikram Chandra on May 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Orphans (Bawlers) (2006).

orphans1.jpgThe thought of Tom Waits singing lullabies is a pretty scary one. The strange thing is that his lyrics and melodies are really quite beautiful, I’m just not sure I want that voice in my kid’s head at night.

[READ: May 2007] The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green

After the heaviness and length (I’m sure Gaitonde would appreciate THAT beginning) of Sacred Games, it was nice to kick back with a comparatively light, and yet thoroughly enjoyable book like this one. (more…)

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Richard Brautigan–Trout Fishing in America (1967)

Posted in Memoirs, Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, Unreliable narrator on May 24, 2007| 3 Comments »

trout.jpgSOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Orphans (Brawlers disc) (2006).

orphans1.jpgPeople either love or hate Tom Waits. My wife, bless her, hates him, but was kind enough to get me this great 3 disc set for Christmas. The Brawlers disc is full of noisy raucous story/songs from the gravelly voiced troubadour. There’s some great pointed political songs on this disc, and then some simply weird stories. Great for playing loud in the car to see the way the people in the next lane look at you.

[READ: Summer 2006] Trout Fishing in America.

I finished this book right after Oranges as (more…)

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Jeanette Winterson–Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)

Posted in Augusten Burroughs, Boston, MA, Chavez, David Sedaris, Digression, Jeanette Winterson, LGBTQ, Memoirs, School House Rock, Short Books, Terry Pratchett on May 22, 2007| Leave a Comment »

orange.jpgSOUNDTRACK: CHAVEZ-Better Days Will Haunt You (2006).

chavezz.jpgI first fell in love with Chavez when I saw a video for their song “Break Up Your Band.” I loved the video, and loved the music. And, I basically became of fan of them because of this video, which I think I must have seen on 120 Minutes, way back when. Turns out that my memory of this video is the equivalent of my memory of Good Omens (cf. Good Omens). The video is on the DVD that comes with this collection, and wow, I don’t recall the video looking like that at all! Huh, clearly I am an unreliable narrator.

Chavez is such a great noisy dissonant band. Squealy guitars, weird tempos, and noise, noise, noise. Fun! But what’s really fun is their cover of “Little Twelvetoes,” a song from the School House Rock oeuvre. This song is SO bizarre, and that’s even before Chavez gets their hands on it. The premise is that people from other planets with six fingers and toes and each hand and foot could count to twelve as easily as we count to ten. And, they made up two new numbers that would fill in the gap between nine and ten so that their twelve could be our number 10. Therefore, they could just add a zero when multiplying by 12. Or something.

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FINISHED-Vikram Chandra–Sacred Games [pre-pub] (2006)

Posted in Adventure, Digression, Gangsters, Primus, The Sopranos, Torture Porn, Vikram Chandra on May 18, 2007| 2 Comments »

sacred.jpgSOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-They Can’t All Be Zingers (2006).

primus.jpgSuch a great name for a greatest hits album. I’m delighted to know that Primus is still fun after all these years. How on earth they were every popular is simply beyond my comprehension.

[READ: May 2007] Sacred Games.

Here’s a link to Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games blog.

Whew, I thought this day would never come, but I finished Sacred Games, and what a trip it was! (more…)

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