June 25, 2009 by Paul Debraski
I’m a fan of David Foster Wallace. I read Infinite Jest when it came out (1996) and loved it. I still vividly recall scenes from the book even 13 years later. However, I’m a very different person and a very different reader now. And I wondered if I would get more out of the book reading it as an older, hopefully [DFW would hate that usage] wiser person (and certainly a second read could only help with this incredibly dense book).
But who wants to undertake the immense work involved in reading this 1100 page book?
Enter Infinite Summer.
The Challenge
Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd.
A thousand pages1 ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.
1. Plus endnotesa.
a. A lot of them.
The Rules
There ain’t none. Read Infinite Jest, start around June 21st (if you want), finish around September 22nd (if you want), gloat about having completed the novel afterward (required).
If you wish to read ahead, feel free. Think of us as a pacecar: you can leave us in the dust, but it’s probably best not to fall behind.
If you are ahead of the pack you should feel free to join the conversation. All we ask is that you adhere to the Inficratic Oath: First, Reveal No Spoilers. So, apparently, there is at least one rule.
So I’m on board. This is TOTALLY going to screw with my plans of reading lots of other books this summer. And this especially hurts because I have two summer reading contests that I was hoping to enter a couple of entries every two weeks. I know this book. 75 pages can take a long time. I hope I can squeeze in some other books as well.
Like on Infinite Summer, I’m going to post weekly updates, mostly to keep notes for myself, but also to comment when it’s warranted. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventure, Big Books, Boston Phoenix, Boston, MA, Contests, David Foster Wallace, Funky Web Sites, Infinite Summer | 3 Comments »
June 23, 2009 by Paul Debraski
I began my Rolling Stone subscription a few years ago when I bought something at Best Buy. The subscription was a bonus gift of some sort. The choices were pretty lousy and I didn’t even want Rolling Stone, but I figured what the heck.
I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the magazine.
I suppose no one has to be told what Rolling Stone is like. Or so I thought, because here was me, being surprised by this most mainstream of magazines. I mean, I’ve seen the covers for years, and I knew they liked sex, drugs and rock and roll, but there’s more under the covers.
I have quickly learned my favorite sections and the ones I don’t even bother looking at.
Skim the letters. Maybe there’s a worthwhile addition.
The first main section is the “news” of the last two weeks…usually a concert or a new album or some such. This one happens to focus on American Idol, so, I skipped right past that nonsense.
The Hot List is 5 things that impress them since last issue. I usually like 1 of the 5.
I never read the Smoking Section, but Breaking is usually about an indie band that I heard about a few months earlier. RS finally catches up and I can read a bit more about them. The In the Studio section is worth browsing to see who’s due for a new disc.
The Random Notes I feel is meant to be a big deal, with “insider” photos and blah blah. I skim it but little more than that.
And then the issue proper starts. Continue Reading »
Posted in Books about music, Canadian Music, Comedians, Concept Albums, Consumerism, Essays, Film & TV, Music, Political Humor, Religion, Rolling Stone, Technology, War, WMDs | Leave a Comment »
June 20, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK–THE REPLACEMENTS–All Shook Down (1990).
And here we come to the end of the recorded history of the Replacements. 7 albums (and an EP). 4 and a half hours of recorded music. And a steady maturation from drunken punks to elder statesmen. Or really statesman (Paul Westerberg at the ripe old age of 31!). All of the reviews state that this was originally designed as a Westerberg solo album, and that the band barely played together on it at all. And it shows.
To me, this album just isn’t very good. It’s not that the songs are bad…I ‘ll always admit that Westerberg is a great songwriter. I’m just not inspired by them. The single, “Merry Go Round” is the most (there’s that word again) mature sounding rock tracks that Westerberg has written. And “Nobody” is a decent acoustic type rocker (although the drums are kind of boring). “Bent All Out of Shape” shows promise but never lives up to it.
“Sadly Beautiful” is another of Westerberg’s solid ballads. But it doesn’t stand out because the rest of the album isn’t that radically different. “Someone Take the Wheel” and “When It Began” are decent rockers, but the rest of the album is just sort of…there (except for the awful duet with Johnette Napolitano (whom I used to like but who i just find annoying all these years later).
Westerberg went on to do about a half dozen solo albums but I haven’t heard any of them.
There’s nothing wrong with a songwriter maturing, especially if you get to mature along with him or her. It’s just such a surprise to see it happen so quickly.
[READ: June 15, 2009] Natural Novel
My coworker and I were experimenting with our library’s catalog. We started searching for books in specific languages. We noticed that Bulgarian was one of the languages, and were surprised that our branch had anything in Bulgarian. It turned out that there was one book that was originally written in Bulgarian but which had been translated to English. It was this book. It sounded bizarre and fascinating. And it was only 136 pages. How could I pass it up? And what would it be about?
Well, that’s hard to answer.
The premise of a “natural novel” is that it is meant to be a man’s attempt to deal with the dissolution of his marriage. He starts to talk about the divorce several times, but he can’t really come to terms with it, and so, rather, he gets involved with other things. Continue Reading »
Posted in Books about music, Dystopia, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Georgi Gospodinov, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Minnesota, Natural Novel, Postmoderism, Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs, Short Books, The Replacements, Toilets, Unreliable narrator | Leave a Comment »
June 18, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Don’t Tell a Soul (1989).
With this disc, the ‘Mats finally scored a hit. “I’ll Be You” actually made the Billboard charts! And why not, it’s a delightfully catchy, far more mature version of the ‘Mats now-adult-alternative music.
In my head, this is where the ‘Mats sold out entirely. But, I listened to the disc the other day and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it. I was probably still really into Pleased to Meet Me when I first got Don’t Tell, so the trip from point A to B isn’t quite as drastic. I guess maybe grown up me enjoys it more than college-aged me did.
The allmusic review is very harsh about the disc, especially the production. I can’t say I noticed anything about that. I was just listening for the songs. And, in addition to being their longest disc to date, it only features 2 songs shorter than 3 minutes!
What you see is Paul Westerberg maturing as a songwriter, for better or worse. And, as far as his craft goes, it’s certainly better. As for indie rock, well, not so much.
The songs still maintain the rocking style of older Replacements, but they have more proper structure (verses and choruses, repeat). They also play with the loud/soft dynamic that would really come to the fore with Nirvana…although The ‘mats version was more of a rocking/acoustic juxtaposition. Almost all of the tracks on this disc feature an acoustic guitar somewhere in the mix. In fact, I thought that the disc was a lot less rocking than it actually is.
There’s a couple of clunkers on the disc, “We’ll Inherit the Earth” seems a bit off somehow. But for the most part, the songs sound like a grown up version of the teenage ‘Mats from just five years ago.
By comparison to general pop music, “I’ll Be You” still maintains some indie cred. And, it’s really hard to resist the catchiness of it (from the break to the slightly off-kilter guitar solo that ends the song). “Achin’ to Be” is another coulda been a hit, although perhaps more on a folk/country side of things. And “Talent Show” and “Back to Back” are sort of gentle rockers that speed up at a few points. Only “Anywhere’s Better Than Here” has the really distorted rock sound of yore.
Even though I did enjoy listening to the disc, it suffers from a lack of fun. As I said, it’s a pretty shocking maturation over the span of eight (or even five) years.
[READ: June 12, 2009] The Eternal Smile
Sarah received a copy of this book, and as soon as I realized it was by the guy who did American Born Chinese, an amazing, amazing graphic novel, I was excited to read it.
This is a collection of three short stories: “Duncan’s Kingdom,” “Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile,” and “Urgent Request” I’m not sure if Kim and Yang collaborated or if one did one story and not the others. But regardless, the art is fantastic in each. I love the effortless style shifts in “Duncan” from the simple lines in the fantasy sequence, to the very very dark style in the nightmares. “Gran’pa Greenbax” is so cartooney, so “childlike” in its style, that the violent avarice in the middle comes as quite a shock. And “Urgent Request” is simply beautiful from start to finish. It’s a great looking collection. Continue Reading »
Posted in Derek Kirk Kim, Fantasy, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel, Minnesota, Scrooge McDuck, Short Books, Short Story, Snappy Cola, The Replacements, Violence, YA Books | Leave a Comment »
June 17, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Pleased to Meet Me (1987).
My friend Al introduced me to the Replacements with this disc way back in 1987. He was so in love with the song “Alex Chilton” that he must have played it all summer. And for me, this album is the soundtrack to our summer house at LBI (along with the Surf Punks’ My Beach). As such, this is my favorite Replacements album. Whether or not I would feel that way objectively, I can’t say. But to me this disc is perfect, even without Bob Stinson (blasphemy I know!)
And I have to say that even without Stinson, there’s a lot of screaming guitar solos on this disc, presumably from Paul Westerberg, as I can’t find anyone else who they’re attributed to). I’m only surprised by this because I thought of Westerberg as more of a rhythm guitarist.
It’s even hard for me to describe this record because it’s so a part of me. “I.O.U” is a fast and furious opener. “Alex Chilton,” has everything, rocking guitars, mellow bits and hooks galore. “I Don’t Know” is a sloppy song, and yet it is a polished kind of sloppy, like they are trying to recreate their wild days. And yet, it works–the opening drunken laughter and crashing noises, the call and response of disinterested “I dunno” after each line. hey seemingly get lost during the chorus, but manage to pull it all together, of are pretty perfect. Even the horns (!) really work on this track. “Nightclub Jitters” is a jazzy, slow song, it sounds a bit out of place, yet it foreshadows Westerberg’s slower pieces. “The Ledge” is a catchy song about suicide (!). Whoo hoo, but it’s a really powerful track.
“Nevermind” is a poppy little” number with a catchy chorus (of course they all have catchy choruses). “”Shootin’ Dirty Pool is a dark and dirty track and “Red Red Wine” is a fun shout along. “Skyway” is the tender song. An acoustic guitar ballad that fits nicely on the disc after the raucousness of the last few tracks. And of course, “Can’t Hardly Wait” is a fantastic closer.
There’s not a bad track on the disc, and I could listen to it over and over and over. And heck, it’s barely over 30 minutes long.
[READ: June11, 2009] God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
In Palm Sunday Vonnegut rates this book as one of his best, so I was pretty excited to read it.
I was surprised that while reading it that I didn’t fully enjoy it as much as I wanted to. However, once I finished it, upon reflection, it was a very substantial book, and it will stay with me for a while. I think that’s because the book deals with really heavy topics: wealth, greed, humanity, love. And even though it is funny, it’s not as wacky as his other books. In fact the opening chapters are practically genealogical, and you don’t really realize that the action has started until you’re in the throws of it.
Before I get to the plot, though, I’m going to mention the first appearance of Kilgore Trout, author of science fiction of dubious morality. Continue Reading »
Posted in Corporate skewering, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Kurt Vonnegut, Marriage Trouble, Minnesota, Political Humor, Smarty Pants, Surf Punks, The Replacements | 4 Comments »
June 15, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Tim (1985).
Many people consider this to be the best Replacements album. It features one of their best songs “Bastards of Young” (which has one of the best anti-videos ever created (available here)).
For me, I think the second side (how quaint) is stronger than the first. And, it’s not quite as diverse stylistically as Let It Be. I think there’s something to do with the production that makes it a bit more polished-sounding. And yet, despite all of this seeming Tim-bashing, it is still a fantastic record.
“Kiss Me on the Bus,” continues Westerberg’s streak of catchy poppy indie rock. “Left of the Dial” is an awesome tribute to college radio stations. And “Little Mascara” is another great, simple rocker.
Tim also contains a few ballads, “Here Comes a Regular” is another great TomWaitsian bar song. And “Waitress in the Sky” is a sweetly depressing song.
All signs indicate that The Replacements matured on this record (which makes this one seem less teenagery than Let It Be). And after recording this, they kicked out Bob Stinson, founding member and brother of the bassist, for being too drunk and reckless for the band (for THIS band!). In fact, their next album will be even more “mature” (but I like that one more).
But Tim stands as one of the 80’s classic indie rock albums.
[READ: June 8, 2009] “The Book of Genesis”
As a general rule, I don’t like R. Crumb’s drawing style. He’s a little too rough, a little too crass for my tastes. This is no to say that I don’t appreciate his iconic images and the fact that his style is so recognizable. I just don’t happen 
to like it all that much. (Although I think his original characters are all pretty cool–the Keep On Truckin’ guy, of course).
Having said this, I appreciated his somewhat toned-down style in this excerpt. Crumb decided to do a faithful, respectful illustration of the Bible (or at least the Book of Genesis). And so he did. The illustrations are really striking and, as is crumb’s way, he doesn’t hold back. Continue Reading »
Posted in Bible, Gods, Minnesota, New Yorker, R. Crumb, Religion, Supernatural, The Replacements, Tom Waits | 2 Comments »
June 13, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Let It Be (1984).
This is the final album the Replacements made before they moved to the majors. This disc represents the culmination of their pre-major label sound and is one of my favorite “college albums” of the era.
The disc retains a lot of their sloppy/punk sound of the time, but the songwriting moves forward a little further. Westerberg wrote some timeless anthems for this disc (“I Will Dare,” “Unsatisfied”). But, they also sprinkle the disc with silly tracks…not filler exactly…more like balance. This keeps the disc from being too ponderous.
“I Will Dare” opens the disc. It is bouncy and poppy with an irresistible chorus. But the bulk of the album is faster and more rocking. Unlike on their their first two discs, however, the songs run a little bit longer, and they don’t attempt the hardcore feel quite as much.
In fact, there are a few songs that are quite clearly ballads. “Androgynous” is a piano ballad (!) that could have easily been written by Tom Waits. “Unsatisfied” is another ballad, although this one has more instrumentation. Nevertheless, the feeling of yearning is palpable in Westerberg’s voice. Finally, “Answering Machine” is another flanged-guitar filled song about romance in the age of modern technology (circa 1984).
These relatively light (musically, not emotionally) songs are balanced out quite nicely by the pair of punk/nonsense songs: “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” and “Gary’s Got a Boner.” They add some (more) levity to the disc. As well as some rocking guitars.
But perhaps the most surprising song is the cover of Kiss’ “Black Diamond.” It is surprisingly faithful to the original, (at a time when Kiss was not even ironically cool) and it rocks just as hard.
This album showcases the diverse aspects of The Replacements perfectly. While some people say their next album Tim is their masterpiece, I am more inclined to go with Let It Be. And, for some reason, I really like the cover.
[READ: June 10, 2009] Ana’s Apartment
This short story sees the return of Perkus Tooth, who I first encountered in Lethem’s story in The Book of Other People. In this story, Perkus has had it. He is tired of his life and of his lifestyle. He wakes from a party at an obscene hour and walks home in 2 feet of snow. He learns that his building is shut down; he can’t get his stuff, he can’t even change his clothes.
He wanders around, freezing, until he remembers that his friend Biller told him of a place that Perkus could crash. When Perkus arrives, Biller tells him he can crash in Ana’s apartment. Ana’s not there, but she won’t mind a roommate. Continue Reading »
Posted in Consumerism, Demons, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jonathan Lethem, Kiss, Minnesota, New Yorker, Short Story, The Replacements, Tom Waits | 1 Comment »
June 12, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).
This is the second full length from The Replacements. For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy. As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)
However, the rest of the album doesn’t sound like hootenannies at all. In fact, the rest of the album is all over the place. I don’t want to read into album covers too much, but the design has all 16 titles in separate boxes in different colors. It suggests a little bit of stylistic diversity inside.
Just see for yourself: “Run It” is a one minute blast of some of the punkiest stuff they’ve done. (It’s about running a red light). Meanwhile, “Color Me Impressed” marks the second great alt-rock anthem (after “Go”) that Westerberg has put on record. “Willpower” is a sort of spooky ambient meandering piece that, at over 4 minutes is their longest piece yet. “Take Me to The Hospital” is a punky/sloppy guitar song. “Mr Whirly” is sort of an update of the Beatles’ “Oh Darlin.'” “Within Your Reach” is technically the longest Replacements song to date. It starts with a cool flangy guitar sound that swirls around a fairly mellow vocal track (this song was featured in the end of Say Anything. John Cusack cranks the song up past the red line). “Buck Hill” is an (almost) instrumental. “Lovelines” is a spoken word reading of personals ads over a bluesy backing track. “You Lose” is the first song that sounds like another one…a sort of hardcore song. “Hayday” is a fast rocker like their first album. And it ends with “Treatment Bound” a sloppy acoustic number that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can.
As you can see, this album is all over the place, and almost every song sounds like they may not make it through to the end. Yet, despite all of the genres represented, the band sounds cohesive. The disc just sounds like a band playing all the kinds of music that they like, and the fact that there are a couple of really lasting songs on the disc makes it sound like more than just a bar band.
I feel as though not too many people even know of this disc (it was the last one I bought by them, as I couldn’t find it for the longest time). But in reading reviews, I see that people seem to really love this disc. I enjoyed it, and, like other ‘Mats discs, it’s certainly fun, but I don’t listen to it all that often.
[READ: June 9, 2009] McSweeney’s #31
The latest issue of McSweeney’s has a totally new concept (for this journal, anyhow): They resurrect old, defunct writing styles and ask contemporary writers to try their hands at them. I had heard of only two of these defunct styles, so it was interesting to see how many forms of writing there were that had, more or less, disappeared.
Physically, the issue looks like a high school yearbook. It’s that same shape, with the gilded cover and the name of the (school) on the spine.
Attached to the inside back cover is McSweeney’s Summertime Sampler. As far as I know this is the first time they have included a sampler of multiple upcoming works. There are three books sampled in the booklet: Bill Cotter’s Fever Chart; Jessica Anthony’s The Convalescent & James Hannaham’s God Says No. I enjoyed all three of the pieces. Fever Chart has stayed with me the most so far. I can still feel how cold that apartment was. The Convalescent begin a little slow, but I was hooked by the end of the excerpt. And God Says No has me very uncomfortable; I’m looking forward to finishing that one.
As for #31 itself:
The Fugitive Genres Recaptured (or Old Forms Unearthed) include: pantoums, biji, whore dialogues, Graustarkian romances, nivolas, senryū, Socratic dialogues, consuetudinaries, and legendary sagas. Each genre has an excerpt of an original writing in that style. Following the sample is the modern take on it. And, in the margins are notes in red giving context for what the author is doing. I assume these notes are written by the author of the piece, but it doesn’t say.
I’m going to give a brief synopsis of the genre, but I’m not going to critique either the old piece or whether the new piece fits into the genre exactly (suffice it to say that they all do their job very well). Continue Reading »
Posted in Anachronisms, Barzum, Biji, Bill Cotter, Books about writers, Charlie Chaplin, Consuetudinary, Corporate skewering, David Thomson, Death, Digression, Douglas Coupland, Duan Chengshi, Dystopia, End of the World, Ernest Hemingway, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Barr McCutcheon, Graustarkian Romance, History, James Hannaham, Jessica Anthony, John Brandon, John Cusack, Joy Williams, Legendary Saga, Mary Miller, McSweeney's, Meta, Miguel de Unamuno, Minnesota, Nicolas Chorier, Nivola, Oddities, Orson Welles, Pantoum, Plato, Poetry, Religion, Say Anything, Senryū, Sex, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Sight & Sound, Smarty Pants, Socratic Dialogue, Supernatural, Susan Sontag, The Replacements, Threats, Violence, Virginia Woolf, Virginity (Loss of), War, Whore Dialogue, Will Sheff | 2 Comments »
June 10, 2009 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Stink EP (1982).
The Replacements followed their shambolic Sorry Ma, with this little EP. 8 songs in 14 minutes. If you were going to check out one of these two releases, this is the one to get. If for no other reason than at 14 minutes it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.
And song-wise, this album is pretty amazing. The first track, “Kids Don’t Follow” opens with a live recording of the Minneapolis police breaking up a party. Not sure if this was a band party or not, but the Replacements had to change their name from The Impediments because they got banned from a local club because they were too drunk and disorderly.
But even though this album has all the trapping of a hardcore record (check out the sleeve design, and, of course, the name of the EP). And look at these song titles: they’re almost a parody of punk attitudes: “Fuck School,” “White and Lazy,” “God Damn Job,” “Dope Smokin’ Moron.” Once again, the band plays fast, but not terribly angry songs. Rather than being angry ragers, the band sounds more like drunken teenagers. And so the chorus of “God Damn Job” stays with you so and wind up singing the infectious but inappropriate to sing in public “Gaaahhhhhd Damnit. Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhd Damnit. God Damn!”
It’s only White and Lazy that features anything like the hardcore trappings the album suggests. The opening of the song is almost folksy, but when they hit the 90- second mark they bust out a true hardcore section: speed, shouty lyrics and more speed. It’s very cathartic.
But best of all, Stink features “Go” the first song by Westerberg that is truly awesome. It’s slower than the rest, and features a great chorus with a cool screaming guitar. Over his career, Westerberg would writes some amazing anthems, and this is the first.
Although this isn’t their final raucous record, future records will drift from this attitude. And this condenses their stuff into 15 minutes. The whole album sounds like it will fall apart before they finish it, but finish it they do.
[READ: June 6, 2009] The Graveyard Book
Sarah gave me this book for my birthday, with an exciting IOU: that she would get Neil Gaiman to sign my copy when she meets him at ALA this summer. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
I’ve been a fan of Gaiman’s for years. And yes, Gaiman’s Sandman was what got me interested in comics, so thanks Neil. Plus, as a Tori Amos fan, you pretty much have to love Neil, as their symbiotic relationship goes back almost twenty years now.
Having said all of that I haven’t followed his post comics career all that closely. I read American Gods, but I don’t recall all that much about it. My brother-in-law Tim tells me that it’s amazing, so I will likely go back and read it again someday.
So, what about this book, anyhow.
There’s a chapter of this story available in his M is for Magic collection. Interestingly in the introduction, he notes that, it’s Chapter 4 which he wrote first. Huh. So, it seemed familiar to me when I started reading it although it didn’t seem totally familiar until I got to Chapter 4. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventure, Boredom, Children's Books, Dave McKean, Death, Demons, Fantasy, Minnesota, Neil Gaiman, Supernatural, The Replacements, Threats | Leave a Comment »
June 10, 2009 by Paul Debraski
This is a periodical I haven’t mentioned before. Wholphin is a “DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films.” So yes, the reason I hadn’t mentioned it is because it is a DVD and not a book. However, as I have been watching Vols 1-8 over the last few months, I have noticed that a few writerly names keep cropping up in the credits. Plus, it’s got that whole McSweeney’s connection.
So lets look at some of the folks who have turned up on these videos:
- Spike Jonze with an amazing documentary about Al Gore (that will make you weep all over again about the 2000 election).
- Miranda July with a short film.
- David O. Russell (with a post-Three Kings documentary).
- Bob Odenkirk has several entries on several DVDs
- A short film by Taika Waititi who did the crazy New Zealand film Eagle vs Shark.
- There’s a Japanese version of Bewitched with bonus subtitles by Daniel Handler (among others).
- Daniel Handler also “revoices” a short film Darling Darling starring Michael Cera and a horse-headed man. (John Cleese does another “revoicing”).
- Michael Chabon’s short story “House Hunting” adapted as a film (starring Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel).
- Evany Thomas (and others) rescripted the subtitles to Schastlivy Vmeste the Russian Married…With Children. And hers is extremely enjoyable. She gives up on the show about ten minutes in and then just starts riffing on all manner of things. I laughed harder at this than I had any right to.
- “New Boy” is adapted from a Roddy Doyle short story.
- “Love You More” an adaptation of the short story “Peter Shelly” by Patrick Marber.
- “The Discipline of De” is adapted from a William S. Burroughs short story.
There is also (from Vol #1) my favorite short 
film possibly ever by Scott Prendergast called “The Delicious” which you can watch, and I encourage you to, here.
Although “Stairway at St. Paul” is also awesome, and that’s available here.)
There’s also “Heavy Metal Jr.” a great documentary of a metal band made up of pre-teens–available here.
Oh wait, and there’s an amazing documentary about Rubik’s Cube that will blow your mind (if you haven’t played with a cube in a decade), called “Piece by Piece.”
Oh yeah, and “Sour Death Balls” is hilarious and available here.
Even though these films are available online, it would be best to purchase the DVDs from here at http://www.wholphindvd.com. There’s even a Best of, which features most of the films I mentioned above. In fact, you should just subscribe, because that will guarantee that they keep releasing these gems on video.
In addition to the random assortment above there are international animations, short nature films, 45 minutes movies, and everything in between. It’s a wonderful way to see short films that you never knew existed.
Posted in Adventure, Art, Bob Odenkirk, Daniel Handler, David O. Russell, Eagle vs. Shark, Evany Thomas, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), John Cleese, Led Zeppelin, Married...with Children, McSweeney's, Michael Cera, Michael Chabon, Miranda July, Oddities, Patrick Marber, Paul Rudd, Political Humor, Puzzles, Roddy Doyle, Rubik's Cube, Scott Prendergast, Short Films, Sour Death Balls, Spike Jonze, Taika Waititi, Wholphin, William S. Burroughs, Zooey Deschanel | 2 Comments »
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