Emily’s Neighborhood

I'm resurrecting this idea from last summer.  Here are the things that I'm most looking forward to:

• July 30 - 5pm when I will be done with the bar exam!
• Breaking Dawn on August 2
• The Detroit Tigers coming to Tampa Bay the first week of August
• Visitors in August/September - my mom, Janelle, and maybe Karen
• Trying out a dance class tomorrow (I had to add something that happens a little sooner, even if it's something small like this).
• The new 90210 spin-off that starts this fall and all the other tv shows that will finally be new again after the writers' strike.

Paige Toon: Johnny be good (LOVED IT!!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katie Price: Jordan - Pushed to the limit 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and one book in finnish (Osmo Soininvaara - Fillarilla Nizzaan)

 

 

 

I spent the early part of the Fourth of July over at Ault Park.  I went for a run around the trails.  It had rained all the night before and was still raining, so the trails were muddy and slippery.  I had to walk them in places.  It was fun, though.  There's something very enjoyable about being alone in the woods in the rain.

Here are some pictures I took while I was there (l-r): imprisoned flowers, muddy trail, muddy legs, muddy shoes, non-muddy snail

And here's another batch (l-r): stairs w/foam, shelter that didn't actually shelter, rock stairs, little sun w/flowers

BOOKS BOUGHT:

• McSweeney's #27--Dave Eggers (editor)
• The Bostonians--Henry James
• The Baron in the Trees--Italo Calvino
• Invisible Cities--Italo Calvino
• Civilwarland in Bad Decline--George Saunders
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames--David Sedaris
• Swann's Way--Marcel Proust
• Slapstick--Kurt Vonnegut
• God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater--Kurt Vonnegut

BOOKS READ:

Hotel California--Barney Hoskyns

The full title of this book is Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends.  That's a mouthful right there.  Although I don't care even one tiny bit about David Geffen stories, I like most of the other musicians mentioned in that run-on title.  In a fit of boredom, I actually counted up the albums I had by the musicians mentioned in the title.  I came up with 94, so this book was right up my musical alley.

Hotel California examines the Southern California music scene from about 1965-75 with a close look at the rise of the singer-songwriter movement and the country-rock genre popularized by the Eagles.  It was actually a pretty good book.  My only complaint was that parts of the book paid too much attention to Joni Mitchell's voracious sexual appetites.  I don't remember exactly, but I think she had sex with everyone in the title with the possible exception of Linda Ronstadt and Neil Young.  David Geffen was gay, but I'm pretty sure she tried to get with him anyway.  When the author wasn't keeping track of bedpost notches, he was telling interesting anecdotes about all my favorites.  He also gave Gene Clark his due respect and credit.  That right there is enough for me to recommend this book to anyone with similar musical tastes.   

The Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow

Augie March was a great book for the first 300+ pages.  It followed the titular character's boyhood and young adulthood in Depression-era Chicago.  Special emphasis was given to Augie's relationship with his family and his many employers.  Then Augie went down to Mexico to train an eagle to catch lizards, and it seemed like all the characters suddenly stepped into a Malcolm Lowry novel.  It was strange.

Augie eventually finished up the Mexican chapter in his life and went back to Chicago.  Then it seemed like Saul Bellow didn't know what to do with the story so he just had Augie marry somebody he met down in Mexico.  It was a disappointing ending to what started off as a very interesting, well-written book.

Augie March is considered a classic in many circles.  In my mind, it's half classic/half disappointment.  I liked the author's Henderson the Rain King much more. 

One Picture for Every Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow--Zak Smith

Zak Smith got the idea of making a drawing or painting that represented what took place on each page of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.  It was a great idea, but the final result was surprisingly dull.  After about 50 pages, it became glaringly obvious that Zak Smith's art wasn't consistently interesting enough to pull off the project.  Illustrated became very repetitive.  How many pages can he represent with a black and white scribble?!  He was always sure to draw the sex parts, though.  I guess that's what happens when you let a pornographer make a book.  A much better idea would've been to commission a different artist for each page. 

I read Gravity's Rainbow about seven or eight years ago.  I didn't reread it when I read Zak Smith's book.  Maybe it would've been more interesting had I tackled both books simultaneously.  Maybe not.   

CURRENTLY READING:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman--Lawrence Sterne
Swann's Way--Marcel Proust
The Book of Yoga--Christina Brown

Whenever I visit NYC, I like to imagine I'm living somewhere on the Upper West Side (or Greenwich Village, depending on my mood), in a cute but not too expensive brownstone (with a stoop in front, of course).  I'd get bagels every Saturday from H&H bagels, enough for the week, shop at Zabar's, and generally feel very good about my life.  On weekends with nice weather, I'd head over to Central Park to enjoy the scenery and read a book, walk along the Hudson River, and be close enough to visit any New York landmark that strikes my fancy. 

In my imaginary Upper West Side world, I don't think I'd actually have a job, or if I did, it would be a cool one like running the world's cutest children's book store a la Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail (my original inspiration for the whole Upper West Side thing).  Or teaching but earning enough to live on the Upper West Side.  Clearly this is all in my imagination.  Earning a teacher's salary and living on the Upper West Side don't go together unless I'm married/living with a very rich man. 

Though surprisingly, there isn't a man in the cute brownstone apartment.  Or if there is, he stays away in the background (the ideal man perhaps?)

I tend to do this imagining thing when I'm in a strange but cool city.  What would it be like to live here, I wonder, and then my imagination (honed over many, many years of being forced to use my imagination growing up because of my lack of cable television and voracious reading habits) takes off.

These are some of the thoughts that occupy my mind and distract me from the fact that I've been rejected from yet another job interview (VSDB if anyone is keeping tabs). 

Cell is Stephen King's homage to zombie flicks.  He dedicated the book to George Romero.  This was very fast-paced and grabbed my interest from the first page.  As any King fan will tell you, he has a very readable writing style and kept me interested until the end.  I was a little disappointed with one thing he leaves up for interpretation at the end.

Basically, there is a pulse, and then everyone who answers their cell phone turns into a zombie.  The book is mainly focused on Clay, Tom, and Alice, strangers who meet each other and decide to stick together for survival.  There are plenty of twists to keep you interested to the end.

This was our book club selectin for July, which I thought was funny.  I've never read a horror book for a book club, but I think this one does present a lot of material for discussion, especially since he leaves some big storylines unresolved.

 

 

#13 in 2008

 

Despite the seemingly nonstop bar studying, I managed to finish 5 books this month.  I'm impressed.

• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: I love this one.  Definitely read it.  It will only take you a couple of days and it a really good memoir.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: I loved this one, too.  It lived up to the expectation I had for it after waiting so long to read it.
• Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut:  I liked this one.  It was different form other Vonnegut books but I still found it entertaining.
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby: My first Hornby novel.  I thought it was pretty enjoyable.  It lagged at some points but for the most part it was hilarious.
• Lies...by Al Franken: My first complete audio book.  I listened to it on my drive to class and found it funny, engaging, and disturbing.  It brought back all of the political rage of the early 2000s and reminded me how it is still just as frustrating today.  I like the idea of listening to political/economics books in the car since I'm not very good at actually sitting down and reading them.  My next one is hopefully Obama's The Audacity of Hope.
  

How much does a ticket cost at your usual movie theater? Does the price affect the number of movies you see at the theater?
Submitted by Kristie.

I'm answering this one because it is Kristie's question and it is fun when you get picked for things on vox.  :)

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what a movie ticket costs here.  I think it is about $9 or $10 at the theater we go to.   Which is more than I was paying in Ann Arbor because all the theaters there have student prices.  There is a cheaper theater right down the street.  They just upped their prices from $6.50 to $6.75 for all shows.  But it is a very bad theater.  I've seen one movie there and the sound quality was so poor that Ben and I decided to see all other movies at the AMC from then on.

The high movie prices do affect how often we go to the movies.  We are very poor at the moment so we just wait until they come out on dvd or we don't see them at all.  We do see some bigger movies.  We saw Sex and the City and we are going to see the new batman movie this weekend.  But mostly, we don't go very often.