While watching My Life, a rich-man-learning-how-to-live-after-discovering-he-has-a-terminal-disease movie, it occurred to me that there are few movies that couldn’t be improved by the inclusion of a rampaging werewolf.
Or the sudden decapitation of the main character at the two thirds mark.
Billi 99 has gotten its first customer review at Amazon. It’s not a good review. The reviewer’s other review was of a watch. He didn’t like the watch either.
If you’ve read Billi 99 and liked it, do us a favor and go add your two cents.
I can’t. Not honorably. Being married to the author and all. Even though I read and liked the book before I met said author.
Posted a new piece of art to my gallery at Kaijuphile.
So. Fourteen boxes packed so far. Books in boxes take up far more space than books on shelves. The plan is to pack at least two boxes a night until only the dregs are left.
Sometime in the next few months Nizzibet and I will be moving out of this house. The exact timeline isn’t, well, exact. PassedAwayMother’s house still needs to be sold. Another residence needs to be purchased.
Right now my concentration is on packing up or getting rid of stuff. When we moved back here from Portland four years ago we moved 168 boxes of books and videos. Give or take. We have, of course, acquired more books and videos since then. I did a purge of videos last summer. That made a small impact.
The plan right now is to pack up all the books I want to keep. Pack up all the books I know the Nizz wants to keep. I’m pulling out any duplicates I find as I go along. Maybe we can get a little in trade at one of the used book stores. I’m recycling computer books written before the millenium.
Besides the books, we’ve got a lot of furniture that needs to go away. J-Dogg will take some of it. He and TwoM are moving into a house next month. I don’t imagine he’s going to take much unfortunately. Wherever we move it’s likely to be pretty small. We’re not likely to put the effort into a yard sale. It’s not a lot of fun and we’re too likely to get rained on.
I’m going to offer a few items through Freecycle. See how much of a hassle it is. Giving away stuff can be fun.
I’m currently reading The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. Nizzibet found me a paperback copy for Christmas. I downloaded the novel sometime last year but had never started reading. Somehow a stack of loose pages is less attractive than the same story bound up beneath a snazzy cover. The novel is infamous for being brilliant and awful in equal degrees. It’s considered brilliant for the imagination behind the setting, awful for the prose style and florid romanticism. So far it’s living up to its reputation.
Even if I’d been unaware of the critical opinion of The Night Land I would have been expecting a bit of a slog. I’ve already read his other three novels – The Boats of the Glen Carrig has little plot and wooden characters; The Ghost Pirates is slow and repetitive and The House on the Borderland is clunky. None of Hodgson’s novels are easy for the general reader. They all display a brilliant imagination hobbled by great gobs of clunky prose, meandering plots and wooden characters. Hodgson’s best work is in his short stories – the most famous being The Voice in the Night if only because it was filmed as Attack of the Mushroom People.
Anyway – I’m only able to take The Night Land a few pages at a time but I am enjoying the thing. Hard for me to recommend to anyone else though. For a taste of the setting see The Night Land site. I understand that Hodgson published an edited, streamlined version of the novel as The Dream of X. I’ll have to see if I can find a copy someday.
It’s snowing out. Probably bad news for someone. I haven’t checked the news yet. One of the techs at work sent me an article Friday about an impending superstorm that was supposed to be hitting Mid America this week. Friday night we had rain that became a wettish snow that was gone by noon on Saturday.
At the moment (6:30 am) the snow is coming down with enthusiasm. I’ll probaby use the excuse that I need to return movies to go out in it later.
No. Of course not. That would be silly.
However, it’s a bad idea to put wolves in charge of sheep and to ask someone who only rides in limosines whether the subway is in good shape.
In other words, if the Administration says that Social Security is in trouble, you might want to consider that they are lying. Lying. Lying.
Because they are.
And if you don’t believe me, start doing some research.
There are bad movies and there are bad movies. How bad you think a movie is depends on your expectations for the movie. This weekend I’ve watched The Truth About Cats and Dogs and Shatter Dead.
Cats and Dogs – Honestly, I don’t expect much from comedies. Too often “comedy” springs out of stupid people doing stupid things. I tend to avoid comedies for just that reason. I get enough of stupid people in real life (being one of them) that I’d rather avoid them in my entertainment. Fortunately, The Truth About Cats and Dogs is about smart people acting stupidly. And regular, not so smart, people acting on their feelings. In other words, the people in the movie act like real people. It’s now one of my five favorite “romantic comedies”.
(I’m guessing on five favorites. I’m more a fan of monster movies than of romantic comedies. Do Grosse Point Blank or Bed of Roses count as Romantic Comedies? One concerns the redemption of a conscienceless hit man, the other is occasionally amusing rather than funny.)
Anyway.
The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Funny movie about smart people acting stupidly.
Shatter Dead. Movie made by smart people with no budget and a little too much ego. In other words – it would have been better if they’d known what they were doing but if they’d known that they probably never would have released the video. Entertaining if you can suspend your disbelief (and the expectations you’re likely to have in a movie with more than a $1.98 budget).
Unfortunately I can’t find the review that originally sparked my interest in this film. I’m pretty sure it came from one of the the B-Masters but I don’t know which one.
Lovesettlement has put up a new poem (11/24/04 entry) to be revised. Very charming and just a little creepy – so of course I find it delightful. I tend to like his narrative poems the best. I’m sure that’s because I get them more quickly than a sound or a mood poem. They don’t require that I think. I’ve no objection to think, y’understand, I like thinking. Thinking just isn’t automatic. (And here’s the dare – how many times do you think during the day. By “think” I mean do more than make a choice between A, B and C. I mean – take in a new concept; really look at the world from someone else’s point of view (which usually means asking questions) or examine an issue (concept, story, theory, poem) with new perspective/information (which also usually requires asking questions).
Leif Jones has a website. And it looks cool. Bastard.
