After listening to Amy Poehler’s audio book, it made me want to listen to Tina Fey’s book. Sarah had read the book and said it was very funny, but I imagined that the audio would be even funnier. And boy was it ever funny.
And here’s where I apologize to Tina Fey. I had always heard her spoken about in such lofty terms as the funniest writer, the golden child (insert various rave here), and I wound up holding her to an unfair standard. I never found her funny enough for me. She made me laugh, but, for instance, I thought Mean Girls could have been…more somehow. After listening to this, I realized what the problem was for me. I always felt like her stuff could have been more pointed or something, but I realize that given the media she works with she was unlikely to “get away” with anything more pointed–certainly not on Saturday Night Live or 30 Rock. Rather, she did lots of subtly feminist (or sometime over the top feminist) jokes that I didn’t really appreciate for what she was doing. But when she lets loose in this book it is really amazing to hear what she herself–not a team of writers–has to say. Of course, having said that, and having listened to the book, I absolutely need to rewatch 30 Rock (although I never cared for the Tracey Morgan or Jane Krakowski characters) and maybe even some old Weekend updates.
But, I already know Tina’s response to me, because she says it in the book. And, it talks about something Amy Poehler once said. Continue Reading »
Karl Ove mentions many bands in this book, but the deLillos are the only Norwegian band that he plays. They sing in Norwegian and play sprightly, jangly guitar pop–they would fit in very well with some of the lighter alt bands from the late 80s and early 90s.
I have no idea what they’re singing about (well, the title translates to “love” so I guess I know what they are singing about.
The singer has a high, delicate voice and there’s some interesting harmonies. I really like the way the song transitions from verse to chorus with the picked guitar notes–very catchy.
It comes from their second album, Før var det morsomt med sne (Beforeit was funin the snow), which along with their first was quite popular and was reissued with a bonus disc in the 90s. Having said that I see that Amazon has one copy of the disc and no album cover listed. Worse yet, I can’t find many other songs online (Spotify lists the album, but I can’t get it to play).
Sorry, deLillos (even searching for you gives us more Don DeLillo than you guys).
[READ: June 24, 2014] My Struggle Book Four
I started including the British edition page numbers because at my work we received both editions of the book, and I received the British one first so I grabbed it and started reading. I noticed the page numbers were quite different (the British book is taller and the print is quite bigger, although this doesn’t explain why the previous books have fewer pages).
I had been interested in the differences between editions from the get go. I had enjoyed the American editions, but I enjoyed reading this British edition more (bigger print?). But when I noticed on one of the pages that the word “realise” was spelled as I typed it, it made me wonder if the American edition changed that to the American spelling. [Actually, I see that Don Bartlett lives in Virginia, so perhaps he translates it into American first]. While I wasn’t about to go into a deep inspection of the topic, when I saw the American edition on a shelf at work, I had to do a little comparison.
And what I found out was that even though Don Bartlett is the (amazing) translator for both editions, someone (perhaps Bartlett himself?) is translating the American into British (or vice versa). I looked at a couple of pages and noticed these changes from British to American:
BRITISH EDITION = AMERICAN EDITION
Pack it in, now = Give it up, now
roll-up = rollie [about hand rolled cigarettes]
looked daggers at = gave her a dirty look
a complete prat = completely useless
is that possible? = really?
to cook and wash up = cooking and doing the dishes
I had got = I’d gotten
had penned = had written
and yes, realised = realized.
Other than select phrases, every word is exactly the same. So somebody goes through the books and changes them to British english idioms and spellings. That’s fascinating.
I also see that this is the first book I had not read an excerpt from first. Not that it would have made any difference as to whether I read the fourth one. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
So book four is set in Håfjord, a town in Northern Norway near Finnsnes (a five hour flight away–okay I had no idea Norway was so big!). Karl Ove is 18 and has decided to become a grade school teacher there for one year. The tax breaks are great if you teach, and he plans to teach and write his masterpieces and then get out. He has no interest in teaching, but the town is small (most grades are 3-7 students), so he figures it can’t be too hard.
As in most of Karl Ove’s books, the stories jump around and flash back and do not stay all in this one time, but it is largely set in this locale.
My first thought was that I have never read a story with as much semen (both nocturnal emission and premature ejaculation) in my life. It is a strange take away from the book, but there it is. Karl Ove is 18 and really wants to have sex for the first time. About 3/4 of the way through the book he reveals that he never masturbated (it just never occurred to him, apparently, and at 18 he’s too old to start–what!?). As such, he seems to have wet dreams every night. And every time he gets near a woman, he has an orgasm too soon. He is horny all the time–it’s a bit disconcerting.
And since I mentioned that, I don’t know if Karl Ove’s life is typical of Norway, but I am shocked by the number of women who take their clothes off around him (he may have never had sex, but he was about to on at least a half-dozen occasions). And he says that all through school (from around age 13 and up) it was common place for the boys to lift up the girls’ shirts and kiss and or fondle their breasts. It is mind-boggling to me. And the 16 year olds all seem to be having sex all the time–this may be skewed from Karl Ove’s perspective, but that’s what I now believe happens in Norway.
But while sex is the main theme of the book–sex, sex sex, there is more to it.
Karl Ove’s parents have split up and his father has started drinking in earnest. The dad has remarried and has just had a baby. Incidentally, I was also shocked to read that Karl Ove’s father, who is an abusive stodgy old man who is cranky and mean and abusive and all the stuff that we read about in the other volumes was only 43 at the time that Karl Ove was 18. So the old man who I pictured as a gray-haired curmudgeon in this book is actually younger than me. Great.
In Håfjord, Karl Ove is teaching kids who range from age 13 to 16. It’s disconcerting to read about him thinking lustful thoughts about his students, until he reminds us that for most of the students, he is only 2 years older than them. I am pleased to say that he behaves himself (except in his mind) with all of the students. There’s even a really interesting flash forward to eleven years later when he runs into two of them again.
He proves to be a pretty decent teacher it seems. The kids mostly like him (the girls all think he is hot) and he is young and tries to make it fun (he himself hated school and everything about it). He even seems to help out an awkward boy (although that is never resolved). We see him teaching, trying to interact with the kids and generally being a pretty good guy.
Until the booze comes out.
For in addition to semen, this book is chock full of alcohol. Before graduating from gymnas (high school), Karl Ove basically stopped caring about anything. He spent most of his time drunk. It is astonishing the amount of drinking he does–it’s practically like an Amish Rumspringa how crazy he goes. But even in this retrospective look, he talks about how much he likes it, how it loosens him up and makes him less nervous.
But really he just spends most of his time drunk, hungover or sick. He even got into the hash scene for a while. He was living with his mom at the time and she was appalled at the way he acted–especially when he threw a party which trashed their house. She even kicked him out for a time.
He seemed to be over the drink in Håfjord, but it turns out that there’s precious little else to do except drink up there, especially when it grows dark for most of the day. So there is much drinking–he only misses class once or twice because of it but he comes very close a lot.
The irony that he is appalled at his father’s drinking, while drinking so much himself, is apparently lost on him.
The other main preoccupation with Karl Ove is music. He talks a lot about his great taste in music (he reminds me of me–a little insufferable). Back when he was in gymnas, he spent a lot of time discussing his favorite bands and favorite songs. He got a job (at 16) writing reviews for a local paper (holy crap, jealous!) and then later gets a job writing a column for another paper. For the previous book I listed a lot of the bands he mentioned, and I wish I had written them down for this one. U2 features prominently (this is 1987, so I’m guessing Joshua Tree), but also Talking Heads, a Scottish post-punk/new wave band The Associates and their album Sulk which he describes as “an utterly insane LP.” he and his brother really like The Church and Simple Minds (before they got so commercial). He also has a whole thread in which he makes connections with albums:
Briano Eno, for example, started in Roxy Music, released solo records, produced U2 and worked with Jon Hassell, David Byrne, David Bowie, and Robert Fripp; Robert Fripp played on Bowie’s Scary Monsters; Bowie produced Lou Reed, who came from Velvet Underground, and Iggy Pop, who came from the Stooges, while David Byrne was in Talking Heads, who on their best record, Remain in Light, used the guitarist Adrian Belew, who in turn played on several of Bowie’s records and was his favorite live guitarist for years. (64).
He also specifically raves about “The Great Curve” from the Talking Heads album, and of course, he raves about the first Led Zeppelin album as well.
Music is a huge part of his life (and he dresses accordingly too). It’s unclear whether the kids think this is awesome or not, but he may be a bit too much for some of the locals. The locals are mostly fishermen (which makes sense), and Karl Ove is a bit intimidated that he is so wimpy compared to them–one of the women even teases him about his tiny arms.
But his main focus is writing. He writes a few shorts stories (to my knowledge he has never published any of them). We see some excerpts and they seem fine–he fancies himself Hemingway. But he also mentions a bunch of Norwegian authors (I love when he does that). Sadly again, not too many of them have been translated into English. [I really hope that some mega fan creates a database of all of the bands and authors he mentions]. He also talks briefly about his first novel which alludes to his time teaching here. I happened to read a small summary of said novel (Out of the World) and feared that it spoiled what was going to happen. But, in fact there does appear to be a difference between his fiction and non-fiction.
The book moves very quickly–from party to party, from failed sexual attempt to the next, even from his staying up all night long trying to write. And most of the time he comes off as kind of a dick–he is also very self-critical, which somehow tempers that dickishness.
As with the other books I cannot figure out exactly why I am so addicted to his writing. I brought the book home on Thursday night and finished it (all 548 pages of it) Monday night. This really completes the picture of himself as he moved from childhood to adulthood and really lays the foundation for whatever is to come next. Early in the book he talks about the books that he loved at that age, books that talk about the move from childhood to adulthood. And thus, this book becomes something of a bildungsroman as well. Although whether or not Karl Ove actually grew up at the end of this book will have to wait until volume 5 (which I have to assume is still another year away as there is no information about it online at all!).
For ease of searching, I include: Hafjord, For var det morsomt med sne.
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Hamilton ON (February 24 2001).
This is a show that there is no real information about. In fact, I have to wonder if it is actually from the date that it says because during the set someone (very casually, I think) mentions that their album came out today (it was released on October 23, 2001). It is also really short (just over an hour) and is clearly not the entire show. I assume the first half was lost, but it’s hard to know.
Despite the brevity, there is a great sound on the disc. The first two songs sound amazing. And “Stolen Car” is scorchingly good.
There’s a funny discussion about the washroom, which turns into a joke that the “washroom rocks.” And there’s some wonderfully funny “ads” for Snapple, Marlboro “the smoke that hurts,” and even a Gibson “the guitar for depressed musicians.” “Feed Yourself” is particularly long with lots of chatter in the middle and they joke about Martin playing with “millennium technology,” some gadget that makes his guitar sound different.
“Four Little Songs” has a very funny refrain about Martin’s “device” which they now call the robot dog–there’s even a silly riff at the end.
It’s a great show, even if it is brief and it’s a good collection of older songs (which is weird if their new album came out that day).
[READ: April 21, 2015] “Major Maybe”
This was the second short and breezy story I read this week, which was kind of fun.
This story is so simple, it’s even told quickly, as if the narrator just had to get it out.
“Major Maybe” is the name of a dog in her neighborhood. She and her roommate Eagle Soars (his real name) are living in Chelsea in New York. He is a wanna be actor and she helps him with his lines.
One day they were rehearsing in their usual spot in front of their building. Their building was quite nice, the first floor resident was a therapist and he decked out the front stoop very nicely with flowers and chairs. As they were rehearsing the red-haried homeless lady came by. She was known to have good days and bad days Today was a bad day. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Horseshoe Tavern Toronto (February 16, 2001).
There are seven live shows from 2001 on the Rheostatics Live website. In this block, I’m going to talk about the first four shows because the final two of the four are drummer Don Kerr’s final shows with the band.
There is a lovely introduction by the club owner, who thanks the Rheostatics for playing there so much. The sound quality is great and the crowd is really into it. At one point someone shouts out “Californication” (which is a line from “California Dreamline”) and Martin says that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing down the street. Another funny line is when someone shouts out “Jessie’s Girl” and Dave says that there’s a trend in shouting out bad songs. Nobody wants to hear the “Rheos do Rick Springfield.” That’s just bad energy.
“Fat” sounds great and it’s quite a long version. The vocals for the next few songs are fun. Martin is crazy on “CCYPA.” “When Winter Comes” has a great and fun intro.
The notes say that song 12 is “We Went West” but it is actually a cover of a Celtic Blue song “Heading Out West” with Alun Piggins (from Celtic Blue) on harmonica. It works well with them.
“California Dreamline” has some funny banter. Dave says he loves the way Martin says “Sowthern” California. Martin says English is not his first language. But that he is wearing an amazing shirt.
They have a lot of fun with “Legal Age Life” which they open with a “pa pa ooh mow mow” refrain and in the middle they throw in some “I Wanna Be Sedated.” This show also has one of the best versions of “Claire” that I’ve heard.
This is the first version of “Mumbletypeg” that I’ve heard where it includes the spoken word part (like on the record). And I love that they throw in “PROD” into the end of “Four Little Songs.”
This show was simulcast online (which is pretty high tech for 2001, no?). You can also watch the simulcast on the Rheostatics live site.
[READ: April 20, 2015] “If You Cannot Go to Sleep”
I enjoyed that this story was pretty much a fictionalized version of many people’s insomnia. It opens, “First she tries counting.” As it progresses through a series of nights, we encounter her fears, both reasonable and excessive.
But interestingly, before it even gets into her dream fears, she has a long unsleeping thought about the difference between working at a discount store and an upscale store–the discount store must be depressing, but the upscale store must be full of insufferable people–what would be worse?.
Then we learn a bit about her life. She studied French and even lived in Paris for a time. Now she works translating technical manuals and she hates it. Her husband finally quit the job that he hates–something she hoped he would do for years. But now that he did that he has moved to France–without her. Continue Reading »
I have been raving about every show that I’ve seen lately, so it’s really about time that I wasn’t head over heels by something, right?
Sarah and her mom love Camelot, the musical–Sarah grew up listening to it. When I saw that it was being staged at The State Theater, it seemed like a great Mother’s Day present for both of them. Well, a last minute change of plans meant that Sarah’s mom couldn’t go. So we took Tabitha, who enjoyed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
I don’t know the Camelot story at all, in fact, despite my (what I assumed was good) knowledge of King Arthur, I was not aware of the love triangle with him Guinevere and Lancelot (I guess I just liked the fighting). I also had no idea that Arthur was trying to set up a law by court rather than a law by might. Which is pretty interesting. Sarah said I should read The Once and Future King which the musical is mostly based on.
The set was fascinating. Gigantic metal “waves” on the right side that represented a forest and/or a tree and/or other things dominated the scene. The left side of the stage had various set that dropped from the rafters–a kingly backdrop, a bed, and other items. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: ADAM ARCURAGI-Tiny Desk Concert #42 (January 10, 2010).
I had never heard of Arcuragi before this show and in the five years since I haven’t heard of him elsewhere. Bob introduces the show by raving about Adam’s voice.
But I don’t really think there’s anything special about his voice. It’s a good decent string voice, but nothing notably unique about it or anything. So it was a bit of a set up for a let down. Which is shame because Arcuragi and his mates sing three delightful songs.
“She Comes to Me” features acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin. “Steal People’s Medicine” uses the electric guitar a a slide guitar, which sounds remarkably different from the first song (no mandolin either). “Bottom of the River” which switches the mandolin for a tambourine is the most fun of the three songs. It’s a bit more upbeat, there’s some good harmonies and the crowd even starts clapping along. And Adam does wail a few notes showing that his voice is better than I suggested.
[READ: April 7, 2015] Handbook of World Domination
I was unaware of The Vault of Simpsonology Series. This is the third book in the series, the other two being from Homer and Bart with future books from Lisa, Grandpa and Bartman. I’m also not exactly sure why our library received this book, But it’s a fun little addition to all things Simpson.
The book is 64 pages about 6 inches square and it is chock full of insights into Mr Burns.
On the first page is an envelope with a poster. Given the incompleteness of the back, I assume that all the books have similar posters with which you would make one giant poster.
The introduction (by Mr Burns) explains that he just wants to entertain with this volume–not to give away secrets. So we get Burns’ bucket list (#29–keep a meal down completely; 17- Buy the EPA and rename it the Environment Profit Administration) and Secrets to Burns’ long life (a bizarre medical contraption involving syringes, a small devil and a drooling baby). Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS-Tiny Desk Concert #41 (January 3, 2010).
I have talked about Tiny Desk Concerts off an on (more than 100, if I’m counting right), but I never really made a concerted effort to do them all. So now I’ve decided to make the effort. My plan is to post two old concerts a week and also mention new ones when they pop up. Since there are nearly 450 concerts, this will take ages and ages. But I’ve been really enjoying the bands I like and it’s been fun listening to the bands I didn’t know. And two a week seems reasonable enough.
I know the Mountain Goats, although I don’t know them all that well–I keep meaning to listen to them more. So this is a good place to start. It’s just John Darnielle and his guitar.
These four songs are simple enough and yet they have s much passion and inventiveness. Darnielle is known primarily for his lyrics, but he throws a good melody over his songs too.
He plays two (then) new songs, the quiet “Hebrews 11:40” and the loud “Pslams 40:2.” His voice is instantly recognizable in either song–it more or less just sounds like him singing louder, and yet there’s something slightly different in his rollicking singing voice–a bigger intensity, perhaps.
He also plays two old songs. The slow “Color in Your Cheeks” and the rollicking “Going to Georgia” (which he starts and then interrupts and then starts again).
While his lyrics are serious, his between song banter is charming and funny (“I am permanently a young man, no matter how old I get”). I just saw that the Mountain Goats were on Seth Meyers’s show, I’ll have to check that out too.
I was going to let my Popular Mechanics subscription lapse. I enjoy it a bit, but don’t really read it all that much. But this issue has some good articles and the start of this four part essay by an author I really like. Who knew that authors wrote for such unlikely places?
I suspect that Popular Mechanics readers probably aren’t used to long form essays, because this first part, called “Takeoff” is only four pages long–this is not a Harper’s essay we’re looking at, here. But the writing is still really good.
Ferris talks about the two things that contributed to his decision to take flying lessons. The first was the death of his father and the second was his absolute fear of flying. Continue Reading »
Rubblebucket plays horn-infused music that is fun but not too crazy. With a name like that I thought they’d be a bit more wild, but although they are fun (they asked if they could bring a confetti cannon–Bob was a killjoy on that front) their music is fairly traditional. The trombone (I can’t believe how many trombones I’ve written about in the last week) even has a mute on it.
Singer Kalmia Traver is fun and bouncy (with a bizarre sweater). And she is an engaging front woman.
The band plays 3 songs. “Carousel Ride” has a some great lead trumpet (by Alex Toth) and some rather complicated rhythms. For the second song, “On the Ground,” Traver straps a tambourine to her foot and also plays flute
“The Sound of Erasing” is a song about skinny dipping your pain way (in which Toth plays flute and trumpet as well), while Traver plays keyboard).
Her voice sounds a little weak (I don’t know if she normally hits some of those notes) but that seems to be a common problem with singers coming in during the day to these Tiny Desk Concerts.
While they won’t be a favorite band of mine, this set was really enjoyable.
[READ: January 28, 2015] Tomboy
I saw this at the library. Between the simple cover and the intriguing premise, I had to check it out.
This is Liz Prince’s memoir of growing up as a tomboy–not a lesbian, not a cross dresser (well, maybe), just a girl who enjoyed playing with boys. And the heaps of abuse she received all through school for it.
The story starts out simply enough with Liz being old enough to say she doesn’t want to wear dresses. And it’s cute and her parents are cool with her decision–because really it doesn’t matter all that much when you’re little. She had a younger brother who had long hair, what was the problem? This was during the 80s, I believe.
But then she started going to school where wearing boy’s clothes would certainly cause some comments–especially from the older boys. God, kids suck.
Liz learned early on that she liked “boy’s” toys more than “girl’s” toys–action figures rather than dolls, bugs rather than princesses. And also that most of her heroes were the male heroes of movies–why be rescued when you can do the rescuing? (The part where she hops in time machine to yell at a “model” who claims to be a tomboy in a magazine article is hilarious). Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: BOBBY BARE, JR.-Tiny Desk Concert #417 (January 27, 2015).
I don’t really know anything about Bobby Bare Jr. I don’t know anything about Bobby Bare Sr. I knew he was from Nashville and I assumed he was a country singer.
But in this Tiny Desk Concert it’s just him on his acoustic guitar and Matt Rowland on keyboards (often employing a Hammond organ/1970s sound). This makes his songs fall more into the singer-songwriter category than the country superstar category. (I particularly enjoy the way the keyboards “build” for the instrumental section of the first song, “Don’t Wanna Know” when Rowland lays his arm on the keys.
Bare is very funny (and Rowland’s keyboard “comments” add to the humor). He introduces the second song “The Big Time,” a rocking catchy number about moving to Nashville to become famous. He seems to have a love/hate relationship with Nashville. He introduces the song by talking about hanging out with his friends and telling them, “I can’t wait til I become famous because I’ll never hang out with any of you motherfuckers again.”
As an introduction to the final song “Visit Me in Music City” he describes Nashville as making the worst music ever recorded and the best music ever recorded. He talks about a guy at a bluegrass festival who, upon realizing that Robert Plant was in the audience said he’d like to welcome Robert Plant from ZZ Top. “And this sums up Nashville.” This is a funny and actually sweet song that shows how charming Bare can be,
I enjoyed the whole set, and it totally changed what I thought I knew about Bobby Bare Jr. Check it out.
[READ: January 15, 2015] Captain Marvel
I was pretty excited to see a female super hero cross my desk. I don’t really know much about the history of Captain Marvel (who was a man at some point). Nor do I know why she is a woman now (there is a previous book in this new series written by DeConnick but I couldn’t find it).
This book opens in the middle of the action with Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, walking with several aliens (a robot creature, a green figure in a hood, a woman with snakes for hair and a bull-looking guy) on the Maniaciano Outpost. They are looking for something. The plan, which is a simple one, goes awry and soon they are all trying to escape at top speed. Captain Marvel has what they are looking for but they have lost the green woman. (Whose name is Tic).
Flash back six weeks ago where Captain Marvel is speaking to Captain America and she has just encountered a pod with, of all things, an alien girl with green skin. We see that Carol lives in the Statue of Liberty and is also friends with Iron Man. And as the first book closes we learn that she is ready to go back out on another mission. This one proves to be pretty dangerous and she is saved at the last minute with help from…The Guardians of the Galaxy (holy crossover Spiderman!–it looks like she will be getting her own movie in 2018, so just hold on to your tights for a few more years). Continue Reading »
I started this show without observing who it was (it was just next on my queue) and I listened without watching first. At first I thought, hmm, interesting old timey songs. And then the guy spoke and I thought, wow, he sounds a lot like actor John C. Reilly, I wonder if he’s from the same place. And then I clicked over and saw that it was John C. Reilly, in full beard and hat playing old timey, spiritual songs.
A lot of actors have vanity music projects, but there’s nothing vain about this. It’s all old music (they use an old timey microphone) and they’re clearly not looking to top any charts. Rather, Reilly plays acoustic guitar and sings—he has a great, solid voice. And his backing group is full of great musicians who all have careers doing other things: Tom Brousseau on guitar and harmony vocals, Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond on harmony vocals, Andru Bemis on banjo and fiddle, as well as Soul Coughing’s Sebastian Steinberg.
I didn’t recognize any of the four songs they played–which is probably the point. He explains that Tom is their archaeologist and he uncovered a number of these songs.
The second song references Jesus and after the song Reilly talks tells everyone that he’s a lapsed Catholic but it seemed a shame to ignore all these beautiful songs because of religion. So when they say Jesus you can think Buddha or… Satan or… the ocean. Becky Stark comes across a bit more, um, something, with her comment “we are advocates for deathless bliss.” (Reilly deflates the silence by saying “deathless bliss” is their other band).
It’s a charming group of songs and would not sound out of place with some tracks from O Brother, Where Art Thou.
[READ: January 8, 2015] Cleopatra in Space Book One
I brought it home for C. but it looked really fun so I read it too. I enjoyed this book so much that I can’t wait for the next part.
I love Maihack’s artistic style, it’s simple and very clean, and his drawings of the people and aliens are cool and expressive
The basic setup here is that Cleopatra, yes, that Cleopatra, is about to have her 15th birthday. This means she is about ready to rule the country. But in the meantime she is stuck going to school and taking Algebra, ugh. She gets her friend Gozi out of class (by hitting him with a pebble and making him yell). So they sneak out. I loved the joke when he asks where she got the slingshot since her father confiscated them all–“It’s not like they’re hard to make, Gozi.”
While they are shooting rocks at things, they uncover a giant tomb door. When it opens, they see all kinds of cool artifacts. One of them is a panel of some sort. And when Cleo (she prefers Cleo) reads it, she is sucked into a portal to a new planet generations into the future. The great great great great grandson of her cat is there (and he can talk–in fact all the cats can talk). And they inform her that she is the prophecy sent to defeat the Xerx. The Xerx are a race of brutes who are ruled by Xaius Octavian, a power-hungry dictator.
He evidently sent out some kind of EMP to destroy all of the electronic records in the world but also managed to keep copies for himself. So he has all the knowledge in t universe. And it was written that Cleopatra would come and save them from this terrible scourge. Continue Reading »
After listening to Amy Poehler’s audio book, it made me want to listen to Tina Fey’s book. Sarah had read the book and said it was very funny, but I imagined that the audio would be even funnier. And boy was it ever funny.
I Just Read About That... 