Friday, November 26, 2010

That's my goddaughter!

She just turned three, and this happened a while back . . . I think when she was two. My mom was babysitting my goddaughter and her two brothers (ages 4 and 6). You need to understand that my mom no longer has patience with children; hard to believe she had three kids. Anyway, things were chaotic in the house around lunchtime. My mom's washing the dishes and my goddaughter pranced into the kitchen trying to get my mom's attention. My mom tried to ignore her but my goddaughter wouldn't go away, so my mom snapped. "What the fuck do you want?" My goddaughter didn't miss a beat: "I want a fuckin' sandwich." Classic! Love how she used the F word in the right context.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Stephen King

Just downloaded his latest, Full Dark, No Stars, over at Audible.com. I didn't finish his previous one, Under the Dome (I'll explain why in another post), but he's my favourite living writer -- used to be two with Robert B. Parker -- so I have to check this novella collection out.

While downloading it, I saw that Audible has almost every Stephen King novel up in unabridged format. Awesome! So I downloaded It, Tommyknockers, Misery and The Langoliers. You see, I have the unfortunate character flaw of rarely finishing a book that's more than 500 pages, but I can deal with an audiobook no matter how long. I know, weird.

Once back in the 80s and once in the 90s I tried reading It but lost interest about halfway through, and the miniseries was weak sauce. But check this out, the unabridged audio for It is -- are you ready? -- 44 hours! Hot damn, and I thought Jean Smith's bio on FDR was lengthy at 33 hours.

I'm stoked about Tommyknockers, too, because in my opinion it was the last novel in his prime. I've heard it's overwritten, and I know he was all coked up and drunk while writing it, but I have high hopes since the miniseries was one of his better adaptions.

Misery I never read but should be interesting, since it was one of the first novels he wrote in sobriety.

And I had to download The Langoliers. I read the novella a while back, but it's read by Willem Dafoe. Couldn't resist. A superb sci-fi/horror as interpreted by one of America's finest hours. Gotta save that one for last. Build up the anticipation. . . .

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Death of the Liberal Class

I have this book on my wish list. Author Chris Hedges has an interesting argument on why the Left is so ineffectual in the United States. He believes it is because liberals have either fled or been expunged from five pillars of society: the press, universities, labor unions, liberal religion, and the Democratic Party. All good points, but one thing I don't see too often is how the Right annihilated the Left's momentum in the 60s.

Not to get all conspiracy theory, it seems odd that the most charismatic Left leaders of the 60s were assassinated: Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X. I find it hard to believe that they were all murdered by lone gunmen. Plus, I read somewhere that a former FBI agent confessed to riling up Nation of Islam idiots, which eventually led to Malcolm X's death.

Another thing that has helped obliterate the Left, in my opinion, is the identity of this country. The myth of the American Dream is so entrenched in most citizens that they believe the lie. Let's be honest, entrepreneurs are great. They introduce society to new innovations, but in order to bring that to the marketplace we need support personnel, such as accounts, working-class cats and paper pushers. In the current mindset of Casino Capitalism, the support personnel have been kicked aside like a talented sports player who hasn't hit his prime yet.

And as much as it pains to me say it: We need a conservative class. Their roots in the past help society stay stable. I just wish I lived in a country where both sides of the aisle had equal play -- not a media brainwash where "fair and balanced" ruled the airwaves.