Finished this novel last night. I give it three out of five stars. Not as good as The Drowned World, which I loved and will reread one day. I had trouble following a lot of what was going on The Drought, partly because of Ballard's high-brow prose. Thankfully this Brit explained things, particularly that The Drought specialized in surrealism.
I've read several Ballard books:
The Drowned World (1962)
The Drought (1964)
Concrete Island (1974)
High Rise (1975)
Soon I'll pick up his autobiography, Miracles of Life, because I would like to read about his two years in a Japanese internment camp, rather than reading the fictionalizing of it in his Empire of the Sun. And I saw Crash years ago; think I'll listen to the audiobook.
Been reading J. G. Ballard's The Drought, and this New York Times piece on him from 1990 came to mind, especially this part:
For Ballard, the thing to be feared is the ''suburbanization of the world,'' a totally eventless landscape made up of television and theme parks. He points out that television has created a consciousness in which upheavals, disasters, cataclysmic events of all sorts register only as momentary images that are quickly forgotten. Given this state of affairs, he warns, passive media spectators might well allow a lunatic to come to power, since they would be unable to distinguish between someone posing a real threat and a minor character in the passing show.
I downloaded Green Day's Dookie from Amazon last night. I had a cassette copy from the '90s, however, it was worn out, so last year I picked up the vinyl at Barnes And Noble. I tried converting it to MP3 files, but it didn't sound too good (I've found converting vinyl and cassettes to MP3 sounded better on my desktops than with laptops). It's such a great album — except for "Welcome to Paradise", which is better on Kerplunk — that I just had to buy it again.
Finished rereading Gone South last night. It's held up pretty well since I first read it in the '90s. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it the second time around (not the case with some rereads, like novels by John D. MacDonald). The characters are believable and the pacing is good, however, I still think the ending lacks logic. When the protagonist goes to rescue his bounty hunters, I rolled my eyes at the unbelievably and how they defeat the drug dealers; maybe McCammon was watching too much Miami Vice. And this time around I didn't hate the last couple chapters, where the Bright Girl is revealed, though I still think it should have been supernatural or paranormal instead of a pedestrian explanation.
Anyway, I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. And here's a letter from the author discussing the novel's inspirations and themes.
Some of the things he'd seen, both in Vietnam and afterward, had convinced him that if any supernatural force was the master of this world, it smelled of brimstone and devoured innocent flesh as its sacrament. (p. 43)
Wanted to post about this before I forget. My day job had a virtual awards ceremony last Thursday morning. They shipped out canisters of popcorn to all of us. I saw mine had arrived Thursday night when I was coming in from bike-riding (the box was inside my apartment building — I had missed it earlier because it was on the rear side instead in the front by the mailboxes). I made a mental note to pick it up later. I didn't remember to go back down and pick it up until Friday during lunch. But it was gone. Kinda lame that one of my neighbors or a visitor of theirs stole it. Luckily, there wasn't anything inside the box, like a gift card, except for the popcorn. My lease can't end soon enough.
I read this book in the '90s and loved it. One memory was that aborigines didn't bathe as much as Westerners because they didn't eat meat.
Halfway through listening to the audiobook, I succumbed to bad habit of mine: Googling the author and book. Turns out the book isn't true in the slightest bit. It's all fake! The author didn't go on a walkabout with a dying aboriginal tribe. Learning that then made it a tough listen. I went days without listening to it. Eventually finished it, sped up at 1.5. Fortunately, it's only six hours. I give it 2 stars out of 5.
Oh well, upward and onward. I'm going to stay in Australia with my audiobook-listening and start Peter Garrett's (of Midnight Oil fame) memoir.
The Washington Post let me down again. I read Marie Benedict's The Mystery of Mrs. Christie based on a review of theirs. Pretty disappointing. I give it two out of four stars. The concept gives a writer so much to work with: Agatha Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926. Benedict doesn't really have down how the Brits spoke back then, the novel could have lost at least 50 pages, and the ending was weaker than a Tana French denouement. On the plus side, now I want to rewatch the great Dr. Who episode about it, "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
Got my second COVID shot yesterday. Like the first one, my arm was sore and I had a little headache, so I vegged out last night on Netflix. Watched Sarah Silverman's special. Really funny! She's the rare entertainer who's gotten better with age.
A few days ago, Google's algorithm suggested I read an article that NOFX bowed out of the Punk Rock Bowling weekend. While reading it, I heard for the first time about a documentary, A Fat Wreck, about NOFX's Fat Mike's label, Fat Wreck Chords. It was really good. I stayed up late Friday night to watch it on Amazon. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The doc-makers got access to Fat Mike and major acts on the label. I liked how it wasn't a total puff piece; for example, Propagandhi discussed their song "Rock for Sustainable Capitalism" (2005), which was put out by Fat Wreck Chords and was a reaction to NOFX's "Separation of Church and Skate" (2003). Would have been nice if they would have showed some of the label's questionable behavior; like how they strong-armed J Church into making their Drama and Alienation (1996) sound more like a Fat record that what J Church's Lance Hahn originally envisioned; and how the label hated Lawrence Arms' Greatest Story Every Told (2003) so much, they refused to cough up money for a music video (plus Fat Mike despised that record's cover so much, since then he insists on approving all artwork — I dunno, sounds more corporate than punk rock).
Nonetheless, watching the doc was an enjoyable way to pass 90 minutes. And it inspired me to finally buy the 20th Anniversary Edition of Propagandhi's How to Clean Everything (1993), since my old cassette copy was pretty inferior. I added that album to my Fat playlist, which I listen to regularly and now has 1,136 songs, clocking in at 44 and a half hours.
I usually just blog about books, movies, and TV shows I read and watch, but I did want to write about the past few days.
Haven't been sleeping too well the past few, with Wednesday night being the worse, though I did sleep well last night. Been worried about my living situation. The lease for my apartment is up at the end of June. I hadn't received a new offer, so I had to bug the property manager for one. I'm currently paying $1,145 per month. His original offer was $1,445 ($300 more). I pushed back and his new offer is $1,350 ($205 more), so I'm moving out.
The new owners are way worse than the original management company when I moved in 2017. Since taking over around Oct. '20, they've listed someone else name on my account online, took about six months to hire a handyman (I had a dead bird in the balcony closet, and handles on interior closets were loose — I had to fix them on my own), and took over a month to replace the light bulb in the hallway outside of my door.
I'm going to crash at my mom's house for a little while. There's an apartment complex I would like to move into, but they don't have anything open at the moment. Plus, my day job hasn't announced if they're reopening the office in the fall, since this pandemic is winding down. And I may save up enough money to buy a house; rent is so high now (my second apartment was $500 around the year 2000) that it may be worth it to get my own place, even though I'll have to do one major project a year and I'll probably never own it, but at least I wouldn't be paying greedy landlords anymore.
Finished reading Dmitri Volkogonov's Lenin. I give it four out of five stars. It's the second biography I've read by him. With Lenin, Volkogonov does a good job of chipping away at communism, much better than The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991 by Martin Malia, whose subtext oozed with the anti-Slavic condescension of an American imperialist.
Here are passages that caught my eye:
Lenin was the inspirer, Trotsky the agitator, and Stalin the executor. p. 261
bureaucratic totalitarianism p. 312
the path of dogmatism is the shortest way to dictatorship p. 317
Everything connected with Lenin was anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-reformist, anti-human and anti-Christian. There can scarcely have been another man in history who managed so profoundly to change so large a society on such a scale. p.326
[[Next to last chapter, starting with "The demise of the Union", and the last chapter]]
Last weekend I was listening to The World/Inferno Friendship Society's "Heartattack '64". I haven't bought anything by them since 2006's Red-Eyed Soul, so I thought I would pick up their latest, All Borders Are Porous to Cats. While listening to it, I glanced at a review on Punk News. Apparently it's a concept album mashing up immigration and Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat. The only song I'm keeping on my iPod is "The Cat in the Hat Has a Right to Sing the Blues". I was debating whether to keep "I'll Be Your Alibi" and the 57-second "In the Briar Patch Born and Raised", but I couldn't see enjoying them with repeated listens. I think part of the reason I'm not keeping more songs from this album is because it's very jazzy, and I don't dig that music genre.
I was gonna create a Spotify playlist of all the songs I have on my iTunes from them, but "The Expatraite Act" from the Rock Against Bush comp isn't on there, so what's the point. Damn you streaming services!
I picked up this 7" recently. After listening to it several times, I'm keeping three of the four songs. It's good but not great. Erg plays almost every instrument. Can't help but wonder if his old band The Ergs performed it, would the songs be better? Sometimes a certain lineup can take the mediocre and make it memorable. Anyway, the first three tracks each start out strong, then sort of meander. I hear some melodies in there from The Bouncing Souls' Gold Record. The fourth track is a Beatles cover, which feels like filler — I'm not a fan of the Fab Four after their peak (Rubber Soul and Revolver . . . Rubber Revolver period?), so I didn't listen to that song with the most open of minds.
Well, it took two months, but I finally finished listening to Frank Herbert's Dune. I give it two out of five stars. Can't believe how revered it is. Dialogue is laughable, and it felt like I was listening to a story written by a teenager or an immature college student. I'm not entertained by royalty, so it was a huge turnoff from the get-go. It's basically a Middle Ages drama set in space.
I watch France 24's news summary once a day. Pretty cool: 10 to 20 minutes of world news. They had this piece last night about the San Blas Islands of Panama. Never heard of it. Watched the video a few times. Looks so idyllic, despite the warnings.
Yesterday I finished listening to Hindsight Is 20 / 20, My Friend, a collection of outtakes, singles, and compilation contributions by The Ergs! Because it's 33 tracks and over an hour long, I listened to the first 15 tracks for five times, then I listened to tracks 16 to 33 five times. The second half is much stronger. I kept 21 tracks on my iPod. Can't believe it's only $5 at Bandcamp. What a steal!
Got my first Pfizer jab this morning. I was pretty impressed by the setup the Philly government, FEMA, and the U.S. Army had. Nice and smooth. Kinda cool how I showed up a half-hour before my appointment and I didn't have to wait. After getting my shot, I paraded out of the Convention Center, quoting Aubrey Plaza: "I'm gonna live forever!"
Today was my goddaughter's confirmation. At the dinner I gave her a communion card (apparently that's my thing — giving an ironic card). Below is what I wrote in it. Don't think she was amused.
Been on a bit of an Ergs kick lately by picking up their collection Hindsight is 20 / 20, My Friend and the seven-track Jersey's Best Prancers. On the latter there is a great song, "Man of Infirmity". It has shades of their classic track, "Pray for Rain", but that's a good thing.
Gonna quit blogging over at https://johnnyostentatious.com/blog and start blogging here again. My site at GoDaddy doesn't have cool tools like highlighting quotes or embedding videos, like Google lets you do here. Plus, here you have your choice of fonts, albeit limited.
The word genius get overused often, but I think David Bowie might actually be one after watching this interview from 1999 where he predicted the effects of the Internet.
Finished reading it last night. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Really enjoyed it, partly because I once spent a July 4th weekend in ReykjavÃk. I related to the protagonist, Hekla (reminded me of the creative output I had in my twenties), her friend Jón John (with him being an outsider), and her poet boyfriend Starkadur (his trouble writing, which is how I am now, though my lethargic pace is due to substance abuse in my twenties and thirties catching up with me). I didn't get the ending, but I enjoyed the characters and what life was like in 1960s Iceland. Looking forward to reading another one of Ólafsdóttir's books, Hotel Silence.
Finished reading this book yesterday afternoon. I give it 2.5 stars outta 5. Sadly, I didn't pay attention to the poetry class I had in college. This book was OK. I did learn some stuff, like poetry needs to be read out loud, and it has a good glossary in one of it appendixes. But the sections on poetry gatherings and writing it weren't of interest to me. Plus, it was published around 2000, so some of it's wildly out of date; and page 194 says "(see Figure 12-1)" — there is no Figure 12-1.
Weird thing was that after placing Poetry for Dummies in my bookcase, I picked up Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's Miss Iceland, which involves poets. Cue the Twilight Zone music!
Recently I unsubscribed to a bunch email newsletters I was getting, like AlterNet, Intercept, Jacobin, and New Yorker. I dunno, recently I have little interest in news and politics. I still visit The Guardian once a day and watch France 24's news digest after dinner each night. I can't tell if my partial unplugging is because Trump is no longer president, or if I'm in somewhat denial of the Western World slowing dying with democracy eroding and the impending Climate Change catastrophe. Also, I haven't been listening to The Majority Report podcast too much lately, though I've gone through periods where I don't even download episodes. Oh well, gives me more time to work on all the audiobooks that have been piling up in my Audible account.
When I was out biking yesterday, I listened to Love And Rocket's "Rock and Roll Babylon", so I thought I would create a Rock 'n' Roll playlist. Turned out pretty well, I say:
ABBA: "Rock 'n' Roll Band AC/DC: "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" Beatles: "Rock & Roll Music" Blanks77: "Girl Can't Rock and Roll" David Bowie: "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" Byrds: " So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" Dead Milkmen: "Rock 'n' Roll Queen" ELO: "Rock & Roll Is King" Go-Betweens: "Rock and Roll Friend" Government Issue: "Rock & Roll Bullshit" Bill Haley & His Comets: "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" Hoodoo Gurus: "Rock 'n' Roll pt. 2" Huey Lewis & The News: "The Heart of Rock & Roll" J Church: "Rock-N-Roll Museum" Joan Jett: "I Love Rock 'N Roll" King Missile: "Rock 'N Roll Will Never Die" Love And Rockets: "Rock and Roll Babylon" Mekons: "Memphis, Egypt" Wally Pleasant: "Rock Song" Power Station: "She Can Rock It" Queen: "We Will Rock You" Ramones: "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" Replacements: "Rock 'N' Roll Ghost" Supersuckers: "Rock-N-Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)" 30footFALL: "Still Rock 'n Roll to Me" Wyonna Riders: "The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle"
Wow, what a ride! I give it 4.5 outta 5 stars (I give five 5 stars about as often as there's a harvest moon). The one line I disagreed with was that literary agents don't have friends; I dunno, they're salespeople, and in my experience, those in sales make friends easily. Another reason for 4.5 stars is that it felt like the story took place in the late 20th century, even though King stated it was around 2010.
Regardless, great novel! I started Saturday afternoon and finished Monday night. That's quick for me. Doubt I'll reread it like Joyland, but Later will probably make a home in my subconsciousness for a long time.
I reserved three novels at my library yesterday when reading the New York Times Book Review. That's good. Sometimes I go weeks without any books that sound worth picking up. I put holds on:
Finished this yesterday afternoon. Quick read at just north of 150 pages. Really funny! Gave it 4 out of 5 stars at LibraryThing. Reminded me of the TV show Veep. And, of course, I especially enjoyed it because it took aim at Republicans.
Most days during my day job, I'll put my iTunes on shuffle, but I got into this weird habit lately of listening to full albums on Fridays. Yesterday, I was jamming out to New Order's Power Corruption and Lies and Low-Life and Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's, so I created a playlist of The Cure's three singles in 1983, though I think "Let's Go to Bed" came out in 1982. Check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0BRX35lV1J3zJWjKKiMxwd?si=e6c78dda3dff4853
Since I created a Church playlist recently, I thought I would pick up the single for "Ripple" because it's about a minute and a half shorter than the album version. I ordered it last weekend and it came in the mail yesterday (Thursday). Besides the Edited Remix, it only has one other track, the Album Version. Made me smirk how it came in a regular jewel case; thought it would have arrived in a cardboard sleeve. Ah, the 90s. . . .
Well, glad that's over with. Did not enjoy this sci-fi novel. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars over at LibraryThing. Whole time reading it, I was thinking of either ways I would have written it differently, or of better sci-fi worlds like The Expanse and Blade Runner. The latter is dystopian like The Space Between Worlds, but it captured my imagination more. Plus, in Johnson's novel, I found the protagonist to be such an asshole that I didn't care what happened to her, and the love story was unbelievable. The middle third of the novel had some interesting plotting — before that, I was gonna give it 1.5 stars.
With that book out of the way, I got one more library hold to read, then I can dig into Stephen King's Later. Can't wait!
I lucked out. Didn't have to report for jury duty today. I was a little worried about it because I haven't gotten the vaccine yet, and I would have had to wear masks all day on public transit and in the court room. I dodged the COVID variant one more day. . . .
Recently I had Lady Luck's "Disbelief" stuck in my head (it was from a 1990s comp), so I thought I would pick up the split album it's on, A New Beginning.
The first six songs were by another NYC-area band, Fully. I'm keeping on my iPod "Egg Creams" with its unique guitar work and the pretentiously titled "Magnam Opus", though the latter I cut down from 8:15 to 3:40, and I put it on my Instrumental playlist, which I listen to when reading.
Regarding Lady Luck, I'm keeping "Disbelief" — obviously — and "Higher Vision", though I may remove the latter. I dunno feels like it's missing a little something; plus, it's probably promoting pot, which I'm not a fan of.
Three and half tracks out of twelve ain't a good track record, but I don't regret purchasing it. Gotta spend those Biden bucks on something!
I read this novel in one day. I gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Characters were interesting, ending was a little weak, and his prose was pretty good. I dunno, felt more like a novelization of a screenplay than an actual book. Plus, the joke wore thin with all the illustrations of satirizing IKEA. Maybe I'm old school and like my horror to be dark and straightforward.
I got Kermit Pattison's Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind from my local library after reading about in The New York Times. It's really good. I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 on my LibraryThing account. Some of the science was over my head, I thought about 100 pages could have been cut, and the ending was a little weak, but I'll give the book as a gift to friends and family who are into science. Fascinating that millions of years ago, only 2% of our ancestors had cavities (apparently the advent of cereal agriculture is what did our teeth in, and sugary drinks in the past 150 years or so didn't help).
Amazing how much academic backstabbing there is in the world of paleoanthropology. The star of this book, Tim White, is a real jerk-hole. His animosity to laypersons, in my opinion, has hurt his discoveries. Before reading this book, I never heard of our Ardi ancestor, however, I was aware of Lucy, probably because the finders of that fossil are good at public relations.
"I tend to finish things, holding out hope. Sometimes what seems like a slog can bring you to a place you wouldn’t expect, like stumbling on a clearing. Mostly that doesn’t happen, but when it does, you have to imagine that it went that way for the writer too, hacking their way toward something they were glimpsing through the trees."
Sometimes I really wished I had moved to Australia in my twenties. Steve Kilbey performed The Church's singles from their golden period (1980-1992). I got inspired and created a playlist, though I dropped "Already Yesterday" and "Destination", and added "Different Man":
She Never Said The Unguarded Moment Too Fast for You Tear It All Away Almost With You When You Were Mine Different Man It’s No Reason Electric Lash Constant in Opal Tantalized Columbus Under the Milky Way Reptile Metropolis You’re Still Beautiful Ripple Feel
I picked up this novel last night at Barnes & Noble after reading a review in The Washington Post. Got so much in my TBR pile, I probably won't get around to it for a while.
Wanted to document this. My Samsung smartphone, which I bought in June '19, was starting to die (had a little, white dot near the top of the screen), so I wanted to buy a new phone before it crashed, since I have to use it for work, working from home. I picked up Motorola's Moto G Power (XT2041DL). My first smartphone over 10 years ago was a Motorola. Thought I would come full circle and go back to it. I bought it mainly because the battery is supposed to last for days. We'll see. . . .
Since I read some of The Expanse books and have watched every episode of the TV show, I reserved The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester from my local library because I heard it's an influence on the series. The novel looks like this:
I was disappointed because it's the size of college textbook, the cover is lame, and the forward is by Neil Gaiman, who I'm not a fan of, though his Doctor Who episode, "The Doctor's Wife", is awesome (I wouldn't be surprised if showrunner Steven Moffat did a lot of rewriting on it). So I bought a third printing of the novel from around 1960:
What a cover! Can't believe is was only $7.40. Looking forward to it. You can't judge a book by its cover, but it doesn't hurt. . . .
Back in the 90s, there was a decent comp, Ear of the Dragon: 19 Asian-American Bands, and one of the standout tracks was "Losing My Cool" by Yanti Arifin. I finally got around to picking up her only album, Paranoid Sing-Along. I ordered it on Thursday and it arrived yesterday (Sat.) from Maryland. Pretty cool, especially since I ordered birthday items for my sister on Feb. 14th, the Mütter Museum shipped it on the 17th, but it still hasn't arrived.
Anyway, I listened to Paranoid Sing-Along this morning while cooking Dr. Praeger’s veggie sausages. The album's pretty good. I'll probably keep less than half of the 13 tracks on my iPod. The ballads didn't really grab me, but the rockers are keepers. It sounds like music created in the mid-90s. That's a compliment!
Finished watching it last night. Wow, what a ride! After episode eight, I was skeptical they were going to be able to wrap everything up in one final chapter, but, boy, was I wrong.
Finished reading it last night. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Probably would have liked it more if I was a fan of late '60s rock and/or roll. Interesting characters, though too many cameos from real rock stars to make it believable. However, I did like the appearance of some characters from his other novels, like Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks. The Guardian's review nailed it.
I picked up his latest last night. Really looking forward to it. His last novel for the Hard Case Crime, Joyland, is one of the finest things he's ever written, IMO.
I rented this film from Amazon over the weekend and watched it last night (Sun.) — couldn't pass the rental price of $1. Only heard of Black Bear because occasional guest Matthew Weiss talked it up on the Majority Report podcast, since he edited it. I didn't enjoy it. The acting was awesome, especially Sarah Gadon (though I may be bias cuz she's Canadian and in a few David Cronenberg films). I didn't think the script was that hot. Very arthouse with indirect storytelling. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Amazon.
Picked up NOFX's latest, Single Album, after listening to it during dinner last night on Bandcamp. Pretty good, much stronger than their previous, First Ditch Effort, which I kept less than half of its songs on my iPod. Single Album is more alternative than punk with half the tracks being slo-tempo. In that respect, it reminds me of their 1996 album, Heavy Petting Zoo, though Single Album has stronger songs and better sequencing. I'll probably keep 8 of the 10 tracks ("Linewleum" should have been put on a comp [not album worthy], and "Doors and Fours" sounded better on their 7" of the Month Club [sounds better stripped down without slide guitars and extra instruments]). $8 well spent!
Yesterday morning I moved my Twitter folder to the bottom of my bookmarks. With it out of sight, hopefully I won't be going on there so much anymore. I was mainly using it as an RSS feed for news, but lately none of the stories have captured my interest. Can't tell if it's me or if social media managers are posting gratuitous content.
I picked up the audiobook for Frank Herbert's Dune back in July. Started listening to it today. Haven't formed an opinion yet. Hopefully I can get into it this time. I tried reading in grade school and high school, but just couldn't wrap my head around it.
Finished listening to this audiobook during dinner tonight. I give it 2 out of 5 stars. My impression going in was that the book was about the 1918 flu, but it's more about delivering babies in the beginning of the 20th century. Plus, the characters seemed two dimensional, and Donoghue's voice/tone didn't grab me.
I recently cancelled Disney+ after the end of The Mandalorian's second season, but they sucked me back in with all the good things I've been reading about WandaVision. Well worth the $70 (plus the upcoming Loki looks good too). After watching an episode a night, I'm now all caught up with WandaVision; episode 7 aired yesterday. Kinda wished I didn't hop on Twitter yesterday morning because one of the trending topics spoiled the ending. Another reason why social media sucks. . . .
As I was trying to read War last weekend, New Order's "Shellshock" popped in my mind, so I read on Wikipedia that their "Thieves Like Us", an instrumental, was also in the film Pretty in Pink, but not on the soundtrack. Then I listened on YouTube to the 17-minute version of their "Elegia", and after reading about their discography on AllMusic, I picked up Power Corruption and Lies and Low-Life. Can't believe I didn't buy them as a teenager or in my twenties! I was always a passive fan of them growing up. Haven't listened to Low-Life yet, but I've listened to Power Corruption and Lies twice. Sounds like The Cure's Disintegration owes a debt to it. What I like about Power Corruption and Lies is it's not really a pop album with standout singles on it but a work of art where you need to listen to it in one sitting.
100 pages in and I'm giving up on this book. It's all over the place. I get the vibe she has all this research and just did a stream of consciousness with no real focus. Plus, the average page only has two paragraphs, which doesn't make for enjoyable reading.
I had a playlist on my iTunes of Los Angeles songs but on Friday (today it's Monday) I was looking for it and couldn't find it archived on a CD or a screenshot of the playlist. Must have deleted it. So I recreated it. Kind of a blessing in disguise because I picked Cilantro's “Hollywood Boulevards” in the past year. Though this time I didn't include Public Enemy's "Burn Hollywood Burn"or Brian Setzer Orchestra's "Hollywood Nocturne" because they're nice to listen occasionally but not regularly. I also left off Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls", "T.N.T. (Terror n Tinseltown)", and "Dr. Feelgood" because there are already two songs by them and having five tunes would be too much Crüe. I'm still debating whether to leave off Hole's "Celebrity Skin" so the playlist is an even 30 songs, but it's such a great song!
Adolescents: “L.A. Girl” Angry Samoans: “Carson Girls” Art Brut: “Moving to L.A.” Blink 182: “Los Angeles” Church: “Bel-Air” Cilantro: “Hollywood Boulevards” Circle Jerks: “Beverly Hills” Doors: “L.A. Woman” Everclear: “Santa Monica” Fixx: “No Hollywood Ending” Flogging Molly: “Selfish Man in L.A.” Go-Go’s: “Stuck in My Car” Goo Goo Dolls: “On the Lie” Guns N’ Roses: “Welcome to the Jungle” Hex: “Hollywood in Winter” Hole: “Celebrity Skin” J Church: “Nostalgic for Nothing” J Church: “Beverly Hills” J Church: “L.A.” J Church: “City of L.A.” Mötley Crüe: “Down at the Whiskey” Mötley Crüe: “Saints of Los Angeles” 999: “Signed Dangerous in Hollywood” NOFX: “Green Corn” NOFX: “El Lay” Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Out in L.A.” Strung Out: “Cemetery” Supertramp: “Gone Hollywood” Surfer Trot: “Santa Barbara” Wang Chung: “To Live and Die in L.A.” Frank & Moon Zappa: “Valley Girl”
I have a $25 gift card for Barnes & Noble, so I went there yesterday morning to pick up Maggie O'Farrell's This Must Be the Place. I enjoyed Hamnet so much, hopefully this prior novel of hers is just as good. Of course, I have so many books in my TBR pile, who knows when I'll read it.
Because I've been blogging about horror the past few days, thought I would post this. Book I bought around the age of 12 from the Scholastic Book Club at my grade school. Out of all the books I've lost, sold, or gave away, this one has stayed in my possession. I may only have one bookcase, but there will always be room for this paperback.
Because I reviewed Gwen, In Green the other day, I thought I would list all of the books I bought after reading Gary Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell and my rating for each one:
I started binging this limited series Saturday and finished it last night (Wed.). Fran Lebowitz is fascinating. On the surface she shouldn't be so entertaining, with comments like "I don't care about there being no water 2050 because I'll be dead by then." But her delivery is so charming, it's hard to hate her. Plus her intelligence and insights are something to be admired.
Finished this paperback from 1974 last night. I give it 2.5 stars out of 5. Half-decent prose, but the sex felt like it was shoehorned into the plot. Plus, it read like a first draft that Zachary wrote without an outline.
Gwen, In Green was the 10th horror novel I bought after seeing it in Paperbacks in Hell. Probably one of the better ones I read. At least I finished it. . . .
Finished reading this novel last night. I give it two out of five stars. The plotting was predictable and some of the dialogue was absurd. However, I did like learning about some historical figures from around 1915, like Frank Tannenbaum.
I'm still working on The Road to the Skeleton Coast podcast. Over the weekend, I listened to episode 14, from the beginning of July. The Lawrence Arms' Brendan Kelly confessed that in his 20s (I'm assuming he was still in college), he was so broke, he'd go to gay bars, have guys buy him drinks, and hook up with women because of less competition. Fuckin' genius!
