Clearing the Backlog...

[Blade]

Annnd after that Season 3 finale, I know for sure that I'm not watching Season 4. Not because Season 3 was bad, it was actually quite good... It just won't be the same show after that.

 

[Барбоса]

Films

First Viewing

1. Eastern Promises
2. Lust, Caution
3. Taxi Driver
4. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

A decent adaptation of one of the classic books of the 20th century. Of course, even with HBO backing, it was never going to be able to go into the depth and scope of Dee Brown's masterpiece.

Still a rather damning indictment of the American approach to the "Indian Problem," even those like Dawes who thought they had the best interests of the 'savages' at heart.

Repeat Viewing

1. Zulu
2. Die Hard With A Vengeance
3. The Punisher

Books

Read

1. James Bowder (ed.) Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (2012)
2. Paul S. Kemp Star Wars: Riptide (2011)
3. James E. Fraser The Roman Conquest of Scotland: The Battle of Mons Graupius AD84 (2008)

Currently Reading

1. Peter Heather Empires and Barbarians: Migration, Development and the Birth of Europe (2009)
2. Aaron Allston Star Wars: X-Wing #10 - Mercy Kill

 

[Danger Burger]

Rules of Attraction finished. In classic Bret Easton Ellis form, the ending was not much of an ending at all and everything is left up in the air.

The book is pretty much centred on a love triangle between Paul Denton, Lauren Hynde and Sean Bateman (brother of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman) over a year in college. Each acts as a narrarator, which is a pretty cool device. Its used well because with the amount of drugs and alcohol in the novel, pretty much everyone is unreliable in one way or another. Repeating scenes from another point of view really helped establish the differences in the characters, and a lot of the comedy came from how differently the narrators interpreted each other.

As per usual with B.E.E. its a vapid, meaningless world and everything that happens in the book is a form of escapism for the characters. What was really cool (something I didn't really know) is the links in this book to the other works by Ellis. The narrator of his first novel appears for a chapter, another character named Victor becomes the protagonist of later novel Glamorama etc. The biggest of these are the hints towards Patrick Bateman (who also makes a brief appearance) and at-the-time jokes that would see him develop into the American Psycho. One character even remarkes "Jesus... think if you had a brother who was born in '69 or something... They'd be... fucking bonkers...". Being a huge American Psycho fan, I really dug this stuff.

Eaither way, I really enjoyed it. I just like the way the guy writes, and I'm looking forward to working through the rest of his stuff. Still haven't picked what book to read next, but I'm sure necessity will force a choice. 3 books down, and I'm a little behind schedule.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Finishing The Rules of Attraction tonight, y'all gna hear about it in the morning. Struggling to pick the book to start after.

Options:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Fear and Loathing (half-Likely)
Next book in the Dresden Files series
Vurt (half-likely)
The Catastrophist

If anyone can highly recommend any of those, I'll take the suggestion with a pinch of salt.

If you haven't read Milan Kundera before, I'd highly recommend another one of his books before reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, preferably either The Book of Laughter and Forgetting or Ignorance. Ignorance is short and easy reading and can probably be finished within a matter of a couple of hours if you read at a decent pace.

I am only saying this because Kundera is a good writer but, if you're a Nietzsche-fan like I am, you might be completely turned off by the opening pages of Unbearable, which I think discusses the idea of the eternal recurrence/return in the most egregious way possible.

Rules of Attraction finished. In classic Bret Easton Ellis form, the ending was not much of an ending at all and everything is left up in the air.

The book is pretty much centred on a love triangle between Paul Denton, Lauren Hynde and Sean Bateman (brother of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman) over a year in college. Each acts as a narrarator, which is a pretty cool device. Its used well because with the amount of drugs and alcohol in the novel, pretty much everyone is unreliable in one way or another. Repeating scenes from another point of view really helped establish the differences in the characters, and a lot of the comedy came from how differently the narrators interpreted each other.

As per usual with B.E.E. its a vapid, meaningless world and everything that happens in the book is a form of escapism for the characters. What was really cool (something I didn't really know) is the links in this book to the other works by Ellis. The narrator of his first novel appears for a chapter, another character named Victor becomes the protagonist of later novel Glamorama etc. The biggest of these are the hints towards Patrick Bateman (who also makes a brief appearance) and at-the-time jokes that would see him develop into the American Psycho. One character even remarkes "Jesus... think if you had a brother who was born in '69 or something... They'd be... fucking bonkers...". Being a huge American Psycho fan, I really dug this stuff.

Eaither way, I really enjoyed it. I just like the way the guy writes, and I'm looking forward to working through the rest of his stuff. Still haven't picked what book to read next, but I'm sure necessity will force a choice. 3 books down, and I'm a little behind schedule.

BEE is one of the greatest writers of American fiction of the past 50 years, but his skills as a film and literary critic leave much to be desired. His low opinion of David Foster Wallace makes it quite obvious that he lets personal grudges color his critiques.

 

[Danger Burger]

If you haven't read Milan Kundera before, I'd highly recommend another one of his books before reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, preferably either The Book of Laughter and Forgetting or Ignorance. Ignorance is short and easy reading and can probably be finished within a matter of a couple of hours if you read at a decent pace.

I am only saying this because Kundera is a good writer but, if you're a Nietzsche-fan like I am, you might be completely turned off by the opening pages of Unbearable, which I think discusses the idea of the eternal recurrence/return in the most egregious way possible.

That's not a bad suggestion. I had wanted to read the book moreso than the author, if you know what I mean. I knew its reputation, rather than his, and it was a four quid purchase. But if i'd be at risk of not enjoying I have no trouble building up. Hopefully the others are near four quid each too!

BEE is one of the greatest writers of American fiction of the past 50 years, but his skills as a film and literary critic leave much to be desired. His low opinion of David Foster Wallace makes it quite obvious that he lets personal grudges color his critiques.

Have to agree, but its no surprise from his work that he'd be a miserable cynical prick. I was reading his AMA on reddit this morning, pretty interesting, especially his thoughts on DFW. I haven't read DFW yet, but being inspired by Pynchon is a step in the right direction. What's the grudge there anyway? Or just a professional rivalry?

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Have to agree, but its no surprise from his work that he'd be a miserable cynical prick. I was reading his AMA on reddit this morning, pretty interesting, especially his thoughts on DFW. I haven't read DFW yet, but being inspired by Pynchon is a step in the right direction. What's the grudge there anyway? Or just a professional rivalry?

From what I can gather, both men had what the other wanted. From all accounts, Wallace's literary greatness was only rivaled in magnitude by his social awkwardness. On the other hand, for all of Ellis's fame and celebrity, all of his works combined still pale in comparison to the greatness of Infinite Jest.

Here's a good article about it: http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/i_know_why_bret_easton_ellis_hates_david_foster_wallace/

 

[Барбоса]

For some unknown reason, I just cannot bring myself to read virtually any fiction for that matter. You name it - classic or modern, 19th, 20th, 21st century - and I will not have read it.

Indeed, take out sci-fi and I would likely not have read a fictional work in the last 10 years. Maybe more.

 

[Danger Burger]

For some unknown reason, I just cannot bring myself to read virtually any fiction for that matter. You name it - classic or modern, 19th, 20th, 21st century - and I will not have read it.

Indeed, take out sci-fi and I would likely not have read a fictional work in the last 10 years. Maybe more.

What all have you tried? With the interest (if I may underestimate) in history and warfare and what not, have you delved much into the fantasy realm? I haven't read it (though I'm trying) but the LOTR offers a bizarrely and unnecessarily detailed world to explore. Or even something like the Legend book I mentioned earlier, settled on the defence of a fortress. If the Great Gatsby leaves you wanting. I'll refrain now for fear I'd cause unintended offence.


Back to the game at hand, I had myself a productive week of not reading. Went to the cinema last night to check out the latest offering from The Hobbit series. The Desolation of Smaug. Bit of a poncy title for a rumble in the jungle with a bunch of short men, but who am I to say. For a film with no beginning or ending, I enjoyed it quite a bit. That is to say, I didn't fall asleep as I did when seeing the first instalment. Martin Freeman was great, Magneto was stellar and I like the way short people move. Even though it's caused nine hours of film to exist for a two hundred page book, I did enjoy the stuff that was added in and it all felt pretty natural. The action was good (I skipped 3-d and HFR cause it sucked last time) and I very much so like the way they dealt with the "addiction" the ring causes. That being said, there was too much of it. It didn't feel as much like three hours as the last, but some scenes were too much. A little less 'going-to' and a little more 'being-there' would have suited. Still though, despite the exorbitant ticket cost, it was well worth it.

Tonight I took to watching Man on the Moon, the Andy Kaufman biopic with Jim Carrey in the lead. At first I was hesitant to accept Carrey as Kaufman (not a big fan of Jimmy) but it grew on me. Kaufman's life and style were so bizarre that I can only assume it was a tough film to make. Kaufman is a great anti-hero, very talented at pissing people off. I'm not entirely sure what to say of the film. It got better and better as it went along. The opening scene was extremely weak and I nearly didn't bother sticking it out. By the end I was almost in tears. It was pretty cool seeing Jerry The King and he looked great and did a brilliant job. It was actually because of his appearance on the Stone Cold podcast that I checked the film out. Well worth a watch.

Two films down either way. I've wound up with two books on the go through indecisiveness, but I'm sticking with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest for tonight. Best of luck to the rest of you.

 

[Барбоса]

What all have you tried? With the interest (if I may underestimate) in history and warfare and what not, have you delved much into the fantasy realm? I haven't read it (though I'm trying) but the LOTR offers a bizarrely and unnecessarily detailed world to explore. Or even something like the Legend book I mentioned earlier, settled on the defence of a fortress. If the Great Gatsby leaves you wanting. I'll refrain now for fear I'd cause unintended offence.

I have tried LOTR in the past but found it an unrewarding experience due to the aforementioned detail swamping the narrative and the lack of anything approaching character development. Having said that, I have read all of A Song Of Ice And Fire...

The idea of reading historical and warfare fiction never appealed to me because I read so much actual history. Why read something that did not happen went the stuff that did is just as interesting?

As for stuff like The Great Gatsby, it just never held any appeal for me. Any of those classics I have ever tried to look at are just so wrapped up in their literary pretensions and verbose language that the story can quite frequently go nowhere or at least at a snails pace.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Blood Meridian's good. Lots of historically accurate slaughter of the innocent. It's actually quite sickening.

 

[Miko]

For some unknown reason, I just cannot bring myself to read virtually any fiction for that matter. You name it - classic or modern, 19th, 20th, 21st century - and I will not have read it.

Indeed, take out sci-fi and I would likely not have read a fictional work in the last 10 years. Maybe more.

Read more GRRM, only then will you understand why I scoff at your convenient happy ending for ASOIAF. Daenerys is evil, yo!

 

[Барбоса]

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

Of course, it all depends on what you class as 'happy.' We might end up with a good king/queen on the throne and the extremes of Light and Darkness defeated but the chances are that Westeros will be left in a complete ruin with the corpses of many main characters strewn everywhere.

 

[Miko]

Aye,

Spoiler

but Dany and Aegon will fight, Daenerys is crazy and makes Stannis look reasonable. Fire and Bluuud!

A Song of Ice and Fire is a poem about the end of the world. Fire has fucked up half the world already (blanket slaughter because she cant afford an army of eunach's. Yay savior!)

Last story GRRM told about Noble houses fighting on a dying planet...

Spoiler

By the time the Dragons, the religions, the sellswords, and the false Kings are done, the Others will have 5 people left to kill. There will be no teaming up to take them down.

Benjen Stark will have to repopulate the Planet, that'll be the 'sweet' in 'bittersweet', the fact that enough people survived to rebuild. Thats what I reckon. GRRM is evil.

 

[Барбоса]

Films

First Viewing

1. Eastern Promises
2. Lust, Caution
3. Taxi Driver
4. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
5. Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising could have been so much better. The first half is spent creating an interesting character in One-Eye but the second half does virtually nothing with him. I know it was taking a minimalist approach but not enough was made of the Holy Land/New World (that is quite the detour...) and instead focused on being abstract.

Repeat Viewing

1. Zulu
2. Die Hard With A Vengeance
3. The Punisher

Books

Read

1. James Bowder (ed.) Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (2012)
2. Paul S. Kemp Star Wars: Riptide (2011)
3. James E. Fraser The Roman Conquest of Scotland: The Battle of Mons Graupius AD84 (2008)
4. Aaron Allston Star Wars: X-Wing #10 - Mercy Kill

The long awaited return of Wraith Squadron and while it was fun to see the old gang plus many new faces back together, I was a little disappointed. Not in the execution or the banter which was classic Wraith but, as with many books and shows that attempts to do the Ocean's Eleven style heist/plot, too much is happening for it to make for a coherent story.

I did like the integration of events from the EU, particularly the character of Scut and the Yuuzahn Vong, who despite being the most important thing to happen in the Star Wars Expanded Universe have been largely invisible since their defeat.

Currently Reading

1. Peter Heather Empires and Barbarians: Migration, Development and the Birth of Europe (2009)
2. Chester G. Starr The Influence of Sea Power on Ancient History (1989)

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

The marketing of Valhalla Rising and comparison with 300 was pretty bad. The film itself was an interesting watch and I'd agree that its a tad uneven overall. It was also nice to see the director to be able to really experiment with visual imagery and have fun with his vision.

 

[Uncle Sam]

As for stuff like The Great Gatsby, it just never held any appeal for me. Any of those classics I have ever tried to look at are just so wrapped up in their literary pretensions and verbose language that the story can quite frequently go nowhere or at least at a snails pace.

The Great Gatsby is thinner than my dick and gets right to the point. I did have to keep a dictionary beside me while reading it though.

 

[Барбоса]

The marketing of Valhalla Rising and comparison with 300 was pretty bad. The film itself was an interesting watch and I'd agree that its a tad uneven overall. It was also nice to see the director to be able to really experiment with visual imagery and have fun with his vision.

I did like the contrast between the dark, dismal real world and the saturated red of One-Eye's visions, although I think that more should have been made of it.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Yeh it did lack a certain something to give it more oomph, although the ending was quite brutal.

At the moment I'm reading a Jack Reacher book, Trip-Wire I think. They are easy enough reads but there was a page where the phrase, "Think about it..." was used at least 5 times and I couldn't help but laugh out loud at how fucking condescending Lee Child can be. The villain actually has a hook for a hand.

 

[Danger Burger]

Took a few days to myself there, watched some movies, read some books. Not sure how much depth I'll go into considering.

After Man on the Moon I sat down to Moneyball; a repeat viewing but I hadn't seen it since its release. Its a good film. Less Sorkin than Sorkin usually is. Nice pace, good characters (even Jonah Hill did OK in it). Pitt stole the show as usual.

Y'know, watching a film like this really gets to the heart of what sports is all about... Inspiring cool sports movies. I have never sat through a game of baseball, and likely never will, but this film fascinated me. I hate soccer, but mean machine was great. I'd rather shave my balls than watch golf, but I'll be damned if Tin Cup wasn't a hearthy experience. You think I care who wins wimbeldon? I don't. But if Paul Bethany is going, I'm in.

While I'm off topic.. Any Aaron Sorkin fans ever wind up on his wiki page and see he is listed as being uncredited for his work in Nicholas Cage biopic "The Rock"? Is this a joke? It must be a joke.

I also took a stab at watching Limitless. Two stabs in fact. Another to come in the next few days. When I saw the trailers for this film I knew I would enjoy it. And I did, for the first twenty or so minutes. What a great idea, this wonder drug. But yeesh, don't your limits show up fast when you try and pretend you know more than you do! They quickly flew through him writing a world class novel and all this other crap without the slightest touch. I'm sure theres plenty more to be revealed, but they just stormed through what I was looking forward to the most.

Then I watched Buried with the old ball and chain, her pick. Interesting film. All being in a box. It was kind of annoying watching it on a laptop though. Good ending, but a very draining experience. More grunting than Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

After that I watched Paranorman and Wreck It Ralph to lighten the mood. Paranorman done the job, thought us all a lesson and whatever, but it never really got me there. Wreck It Ralph was brilliant though. Being an absolute loser I really liked the video game references and the meshing of styles was great too. The plot was great though. Paranorman really lacked there. Great twists, little depths added... Truly a timeless classic. Fuck you, Gone with the Wind.

Messy time for books, but I settled on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the last few days. Absolutely brilliant read. Having seen the movie before I was rather taken by the story being told from Bromden, the Native American's point of view. Done extremely well. A much better idea than a yarn in McMurphy's drawl. Being both Native American and mentally unstable lead to a great meshing of clichés that spun off to something fresh and unique. The tale is wonderful. Its been a long while since I've been so endeared to characters as I was here. And that damned nurse... what a villian. Beyond that, it's also a pretty great view into the problematic area of mental health care at the time (even now I would imagine). Hell of a book. Would recommend to anyone but the clinically insane.

On to reading Nueromancer now, by William Gibson. It helped inspire the matrix, so I'm expecting some manner of techno-madness. Sorry for the long post guys!

Either way thats 4 books down and uh... 7 films. Might watch Raw tonight and go bother some other threads for a while.

 

[Uncle Sam]

1. The Great Gatsby
2. Blood Meridian
3. The Forever War

Three books. Hurrah.

 

[LSN80]

Just in January? I'm not going to bother to review most of the books I read, this would take too long:

1. The Tenth Circle:

2. Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of Preferred Realities: Excellent, if you're in my line of work.

3. The Absence of Mercy: Excellent book, the best I read in the month. It's a fiction that truly gets inside the mind of a sociopath. Chilling as heck.

4. The Weight of Silence:

5. These Things Hidden: I love books told from the perspective of multiple people.

6. Gone Girl:

7. Dark Places:

7. Nearer Home:

8. The Mourning Hours:

9. Standing In Another Man's Grave:

10: Evidence of Life:

11. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends: Another book that helped a lot in the work I do.

12. Stay Close:

13. Bad Things Happen:

14. Integrating Sex and Marriage Therapy: A Clinician's Guide: Boring.

15. The Silent Wife:

16. Six Years:

17. Live Wire:

All recommendations from colleagues/friends, or ones my wife had read previous, in the case of a few of the really bad fiction like The Silent Wife or The Tenth Circle, both which she labeled "great."

I think those are all.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Genuinely don't understand how one can read that much. I couldn't if I were locked in a room for a month with just a pile of books.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Took a few days to myself there, watched some movies, read some books. Not sure how much depth I'll go into considering.

After Man on the Moon I sat down to Moneyball; a repeat viewing but I hadn't seen it since its release. Its a good film. Less Sorkin than Sorkin usually is. Nice pace, good characters (even Jonah Hill did OK in it). Pitt stole the show as usual.

Y'know, watching a film like this really gets to the heart of what sports is all about... Inspiring cool sports movies. I have never sat through a game of baseball, and likely never will, but this film fascinated me. I hate soccer, but mean machine was great. I'd rather shave my balls than watch golf, but I'll be damned if Tin Cup wasn't a hearthy experience. You think I care who wins wimbeldon? I don't. But if Paul Bethany is going, I'm in.

While I'm off topic.. Any Aaron Sorkin fans ever wind up on his wiki page and see he is listed as being uncredited for his work in Nicholas Cage biopic "The Rock"? Is this a joke? It must be a joke.

I also took a stab at watching Limitless. Two stabs in fact. Another to come in the next few days. When I saw the trailers for this film I knew I would enjoy it. And I did, for the first twenty or so minutes. What a great idea, this wonder drug. But yeesh, don't your limits show up fast when you try and pretend you know more than you do! They quickly flew through him writing a world class novel and all this other crap without the slightest touch. I'm sure theres plenty more to be revealed, but they just stormed through what I was looking forward to the most.

Then I watched Buried with the old ball and chain, her pick. Interesting film. All being in a box. It was kind of annoying watching it on a laptop though. Good ending, but a very draining experience. More grunting than Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

After that I watched Paranorman and Wreck It Ralph to lighten the mood. Paranorman done the job, thought us all a lesson and whatever, but it never really got me there. Wreck It Ralph was brilliant though. Being an absolute loser I really liked the video game references and the meshing of styles was great too. The plot was great though. Paranorman really lacked there. Great twists, little depths added... Truly a timeless classic. Fuck you, Gone with the Wind.

Messy time for books, but I settled on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the last few days. Absolutely brilliant read. Having seen the movie before I was rather taken by the story being told from Bromden, the Native American's point of view. Done extremely well. A much better idea than a yarn in McMurphy's drawl. Being both Native American and mentally unstable lead to a great meshing of clichés that spun off to something fresh and unique. The tale is wonderful. Its been a long while since I've been so endeared to characters as I was here. And that damned nurse... what a villian. Beyond that, it's also a pretty great view into the problematic area of mental health care at the time (even now I would imagine). Hell of a book. Would recommend to anyone but the clinically insane.

On to reading Nueromancer now, by William Gibson. It helped inspire the matrix, so I'm expecting some manner of techno-madness. Sorry for the long post guys!

Either way thats 4 books down and uh... 7 films. Might watch Raw tonight and go bother some other threads for a while.

Neuromancer's good stuff. Although nowhere near as creative (at least in my opinion) as Gibson, you might want to give Neal Stephenson a try. I hear Cryptonomicon is his magnum opus but I've never been able to get through more than 100-200 pages of the 900+ page tome.

 

[LSN80]

Genuinely don't understand how one can read that much. I couldn't if I were locked in a room for a month with just a pile of books.

To preface, I had an infection in my foot that I had surgery on this summer that had me in the hospital for 5 days, and with 6 books of those books, they're reading on the list of approved books by the American Psychological Association, which means I got paid to read them and simply bill them to a client's chart.

The other 11....I just like to read, and the foot thing gave me extra time I wouldn't otherwise have. I can't workout for awhile, so reading is a decent substitute.

 

[Danger Burger]

Watched two great movies last night, on the theme of actors I think are shit for no reason whatsoever.

First was Dallas Buyers Club. This is the first Matthew McConaughey movie I have ever seen. I have no idea how I managed to avoid him for so long, but he's been getting rave reviews the last while so I thought I'd challenge some of my (and my house-mate's) preconceived notions. It was good. It was very good. I thought the opening scene was a little too showy, but after that it really settled into itself. McConaughey did a fantastic job, and seemingly went through some very demanding physical changes too. Is he up for an Oscar for this? I haven't seen any of the other noms, but I wouldn't leave with a sour taste in my mouth if this guy got it. So a strong first impression was made. I don't want to go much into plot because its new. But its a topic I was interested in either way, and dealt with stuff in a very realistic way. I would highly recommend seeing it!

That was a decent challenge, but the main event was an hour and a half with Owen Wilson. Insurmountable odds. I went with The Darjeeling Limited. I'm a bit of a Wes Anderson fan as it is, so I trusted this would do the job. At the very least I knew what I was getting myself into. Throughout the movie it became more and more apparent that Owen Wilson was annoying, just in himself, so I have to commend the director for giving him the role of a tremendously annoying character. And thinking back, through You, Me and Dupree, Meet The Parents etc he's always been annoying. I'll be rewatching Midnight In Paris later though, so we'll see!