1) As I was waiting for the subway at Rockefeller Center, there was a saxophone player on the downtown platform. He was playing a really rocking version of The Family Guy theme. It made my day.
2) Note to Mitt Romney: Suck it, loser!
3) Note to the so-called Christian Right: Suck it, losers!
4) Day two of Lent going well. Of course, I've been avoiding temptation.
5) Since we haven't had a decent freeze this winter, my allergies are making me miserable. My rheumy eyes make me look like a feeble old man. Plus, I can barely see, which is remarkbly irritating. Yep, this is what old age is going to be like.
6) I just read Tom Dolby's new novel, The Sixth Form. I'll start by saying that I didn't like his first novel, The Trouble Boy. I've found that reading a book where none of the characters are over the age of 30, and where their worst problems are that they aren't quite as hot or rich or perfect as they want to be . . . well, frankly it frustrates me. It's kind of like watching those 90210-type shows (or whatever it is the kids watch nowadays . . . Gossip Girl?), the problems are so trivial, the people so shallow, and the situations so patently absurd, that I get pissed.
Well, Dolby's latest book isn't like that. Sure, it's set at a boys' school, so the characters are young, for the most part. But that's the nice thing, they aren't all young. There are parents and teachers, mentors and predators . . . all complex and interesting characters in their own right. It isn't just focused on the students.
It's an interesting story . . . a little darker than I expected, but worth a read.
That said, I'm probably going to read Kevin Sessum's Mississippi Sissy next. Sounds funny.
7) Speaking of dark books, last week's book was Atonement. Jeez. I can't wait to see how they did the movie. I loved the book, but it was like getting hit in the stomach.
8) And speaking of books I've read recently, check out Jay Quinn's The Beloved Son and Timothy James Beck's When You Don't See Me. Both excellent.
9) I'm going to give Lost one more chance. If it doesn't wow me now, I'm just going to stick with reading the synopses on Television Without Pity.
10) I saw The 39 Steps last night. Pretty funny, I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.
11) I attended Broadway Backwards III on Monday. Wonderful. Getting to see Anthony Rapp and Cheyenne Jackson sing Suddenly Seymore made my day. There were some marvelous performances. This is going to be added to my annual caldendar, right along with Broadway Bares.
Anyway, that's it for today.
UPDATE: Television Without Pity it is. I don't want to work that hard for a fucking TV show.
UPDATE 2: Mississippi Sissy . . . four pages into it, I'd had enough. Maybe some other time. I've started William Mann's Men Who Love Men.
No Gifts
2 days ago
4 comments:
It's wonderful to see you posting again. I might get to like Lent, if it means you'll be posting regularly. (Not that I dislike Lent. As a Jew, I'm pretty indifferent to it.) :)
Agreed about The Trouble Boy, maybe I'll pick up his new one once I finish Bob Smith's new one.
Men Who Love Men was OK, but I ended up hating the main character, who is just waaaay too self absorbed. In short, he's the whiney guy you sometimes see out, whom you know through friends, and with whom you rarely have much of a conversation because you can't stand listening to him complain and put himself down. The Biograph Girl or All American Boy were much better.
Just finished Fellow Travellers by Thomas Mallon, definitely worth a read.
Oh, thank God you're blogging again. I missed you. And look at all this reading I have to catch up on....
You're blogging again! I've got some catching up to do.
Thanks for the kind words about the novel. =)
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