jaynova

Last Night, I watched JFK. This movie has convinced me that Oswald was the only shooter because the theory the film supports is so convoluted and so speculative (and so based on things that are inherently false...anyone who sees the Zapruder film should conclude that the shot entered from the back).

I care.

 

I don't know what a pandora station is though.

Oh, it's like last.fm, except you don't have to download anything and you have to be from the US to use it.

I'm alone in having quite enjoyed Daredevil, then?

Yes.

I just read Secret War, which was Ok, I guess. Also, I read Emerald Dawn II , which I quite liked, for what it was, and Road to Civil War, which was a mixed bag.

As it stands, his career right now is a shining testament to largely-unfulfilled potential, and as a reader who really likes his work when he's on form, that annoys me.

Yes! I've always said that Wazza has the potential to be one of the greats, but he gets in his own way. He does to much, and he's too concerned with his image. However, he seems to understand the format in a way that others may not be bothered with.

Holy Fuck!!!

My Pandora station played the Decemberist's "The Tain". All 20 minutes of it!

I'm sorry...you don't care...

Listening, off and on, to:

Decemberists-Picaresque

Mountain Goats-Babylon Springs

Mountain Goats-The Sunset Tree

My Chemical Romance-Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Shut up, all of you!)

The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds (Mark...please explain what the big deal is about this album)

Ramones-Ramones

A little while ago I finished Rules of Attraction. I started getting tired of all those feckless, lazy, promiscuous rich college kids by the middle of the book. Ellis is a keen observer of human interaction and I'm sure knows this milieu very well, and writes it very well, so it still was entertaining. The book picked up during its second half and started moving purposefully toward where it was going, and became more interesting again.

 

Perhaps the problem is that I've read Ellis's Less Than Zero and therefore already had seen a lot of these kids. But also Rules of Attraction just wasn't as good a book as LTZ, but it was good enough that I'm glad I read it.

 

 

 

Bili, I didn't mean to come across as a dick by ripping on the books you've suggested like I read. I'm glad to have read them, even when it was only in part in one case.

 

 

 

Now I'm into The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. I'm not sure what I think of it, but there's a fair amount of variety in the stories, I have to say....

See, I loved Rules of Attraction even more than Less Than Zero . I liked the criss-crossing and contardictory narratives.

Ernest Hemmingway...well, I've read some of his stories, and besides "A Clean, Well Lighted Place", I could take him or leave him. (Preferably leave him)

Scientology is a nice example of the very definition of pseudo-science. Plus, the religion based on the pseudo-science is the plot to a below-average science-fiction story.

I mean, if you're going to join an outer space cult, at least go with the Raelians. They have CLONING TECHNOLOGY given to them by the aliens! What the fuck did Hubbard offer in the way of proof?

 

Some important fact I was going to reveal about Scientology popped into my head when I read your post, but it disappeared.

Another thing about Scientology...

It states that psychotherapy is evil and wrong. Psychotherapy does not work. instead, one should be asked questions by an auditor to find answers one's self about what valences one might have. A valence is a set of behaviors we take on to mimic someone else. The example from the scientology book is that if one does not feel that one has gotten enough attention from mother, one may emulate (wear the valence) the father to get the attention.

But psychotherapy is evil.

On top of Lolita, Serenity RPG, and The Books of Blood, I just started reading...Scientology by L. Ron Hubbard. I decided that I've heard so much bad from other people that I would read what the scientologists say about themselves. So far, I've noticed several glaring generalizations that were inherently wrong (psychologists and psychiatrists all believe that humans are souless animals, for example), but I'm going to keep reading.

The 3 on 1 dinosaur vs Kong fight rocked ass! That was the best video game in the history of EVER!

Corrected.

Just started Nabokov's Lolita, more as I read further...

Currently reading my copy of the Serenity RPG. You are all jealous.

Also reading The Books of Blood by Clive Barker. I probably won't finish it...I was just looking for a few short stories to read between books.

I finished Libra by Don Delillo. I highly reccomend this, especially if you are interested in the JFK assasination.

I just recently watched Jack Ass 2. I again laughed until I hurt. Yeah I know it's dumb grossout humour with absolutely no redeaming social value, but God help me I love it!!!

Hehe...I skipped the parts where people were drinking piss and horse cum, but the rest of it was hilarious!

Revisited "The Matrix".

It is a really, really good film, and im furious that Reeves got the main scapegoat for the utterly unsatisfying sequels, which i also have to see again in the not too distant future for comparisment purposes.

I never thought that Reeves wa sthe reason that the suquals were not satisfying. The blame lies entirely with the Waciowsk...Wichousk...Wikhousk....those guys who made the movies.

Spain...

Bwahaha!

Rak...

What happened to ya?

Thank you, guys. The Japanese say "ganbare."* "Do your best."

 

 

 

*(gah-bah-ray with the r that sounds more like a d)

Break a leg! (Your opponent's leg, natch!)

Well, it's been fun having my own apartment again, but it's now time for me to move back in with my grandparents again.

They must love it. Everytime they think they've finally gotten rid of me, a couple of months later, I'm always back again.

That sucks! Well, maybe it sucks...

1)Do they get the Disney Channel?

2)DO they have a phone? (I've tried calling you several times last month, but no answer!)

Goin' home!!!

The weather's so bad, the school's closing! I get to go home at noon! Woot!

Just chiming in to say that Brazil may be the best movie ever.

I know, I'm late. Work's been busy, guys!

 

Jay, how can you draw comparisons between Glamorama and Zoolander (a lot more comedic I would guess I havent seen it...) Are they similiar in themes?

they both deal with Fashion Models becomming agents of political destruction. in Zoolander, they are assassins; in Glamorama, they are terrorists. Both are Humorous, though Zoolander is more obviously a comedy.

 

Honestly, though, I felt that Glamorama was Bret's weakest book.

 

Fuck man, I thought it was his best.

 

I'm about halfway through the Informers right now, and so far I'd say that's his weakest.

 

Also, the only similarity between Zoolander and Glamorama was that spoiler bit in Jay's post. I don't see why Zoolander should stop Glamorama getting made.

 

Other than that, I'm on something of a "read the books that movies I liked were made from" phase. I just finished The Prestige, now I'm reading Fight Club.

I was kidding about Zoolander making Glamorama obsolete.

I should also say that the first half of Glamorama was pretty good...I thought it fell apart after Victor got off the boat.

Also, you're right about the Informers. It is weak, although the first story and the one about vampires were good.

Fight Club rocks.

I just re-watched The Incredibles again, for like the 6th time. Me likey.

Jay, how can you draw comparisons between Glamorama and Zoolander (a lot more comedic I would guess I havent seen it...) Are they similiar in themes?

they both deal with Fashion Models becomming agents of political destruction. in Zoolander, they are assassins; in Glamorama, they are terrorists. Both are Humorous, though Zoolander is more obviously a comedy.

Honestly, though, I felt that Glamorama was Bret's weakest book.

Currently reading:

Libra by Don Delillo. It's a novel about Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA's attempt to fake a failed assasination of JFK to drum up anti-Castro sentiment in the US. I'm almost done, and it is pretty great.

The Comnunist Manifesto by Marx and Engals. Finally getting around to reading it completely. So far, I agree with the problems they identiify, but I think that the solution doesn't sound much better when taken to the extremes that they do. "Confiscate all property of Rebels and Emmigrants"? If the Communist world has no borders, how does one emmigrate?

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. Reading this at Borders. I'm one sitting away from finishing it, and it's pretty much exactly like Hellraiser. That's a complement to the film, making it one of the best page-to-screen translations ever.

Okay um who wrote Perfume?!?

 

And also will anyone make Glamorama or Less Than Zero into a flick....?

Less than Zero was made into a bad film in the eighties. Very "Just Say No", as if the book was about drug problems. (Drugs in the book were a symptom, not the problem itself!)

No one needs to make a Glamorama film becasue Zoolander was close enough. Supposedly, though, Roger Avery (The guy who wrote and directed the Rules of Attraction movie) is planning on doing Glamorama, with the same actor playing Victor as in Rules.