The Thrill of It All

Kicking myself for getting rid of my old cassette of Roxy Music's Greatest Hits. Found out yesterday that the version of "The Thrill of It All" only appeared on that comp. Doh!

Fugazi's "Guilford Fall"

A song that's been in my head this past week, the demo of "Guilford Fall" by Fugazi. I listened to the final version on a later album, which seemed overproduced to me. The demo is so much better. Weird how it's been on my mind lately; in the past it was never one of my favorite tracks off the Instrument album.

Gob Memory

Piggybacking on that Roxy Music post from the other day, about two months ago I had the beginning of Thatcher On Acid's "Gob" stuck in my head, but I couldn't place it. I kept thinking it was a song off the comps C86 or Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82, or off Trans Am's Sex Change. Wow, I really missed the mark. Glad "Gob" popped on my iTunes shuffle during work.

Oh, and off-topic: I had a Carlsberg on Sunday night as my beverage after dinner (97% fat-free hot dog, mixed vegetables, and French fries). I know I'm playing with fire because I had a drinking problem from 1988 to 2012, but the plan is to only have one after a meal, not get drunk, and drink only imports, like Carlsberg and Foster's. At the moment, I'll probably only drink one after dinner with French fries (hot dogs and crab cake).

Quip #9

Ask a stupid question, get a sarcastic answer.

THIS IS WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE by Ilhan Omar

Don't think I've ever even read a political memoir before, but after hearing Ilhan Omar on The Majority Report podcast on Friday, October 15, I thought would pick up her book, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman, which just came out in paperback. Fairly easy read. I absorbed most of it in two sittings: last Sunday and yesterday (Saturday).

The beginning was interesting with her upper class upbringing in Somalia before it turned into a failed state. I did get a little annoyed when she talked about being in a Kenya refugee camp and mentioned they found ways to avoid malaria, but she didn't give any details, though that may be more fault of her ghostwriter.

Upon her arrival in America, she goes into how conservative she is some ways. For example, wearing leggings in high school because her faith says don't show skin. And since a teenager she's always hidden her hair, even to the point that there are no photos of her in the book, past childhood, without some type of head covering. I dunno, that seems to clash with her progressive politics; then again, most people are complicated.

Fascinating to learn that that Somali community here in the States is split between the status quo and progressives. Crazy how when Omar was running for office in Minnesota, Somali elders practiced political dark arts on social media. Explains why right-wing attacks in Washington, D.C. don't faze her.

Near the end of the book, she seemed to recycle stump speeches from the campaign trail. Obviously, I speed-read those sections.

Overall, glad I picked up this paperback. Don't think I'll read another political memoir for a long time. It's basically a 250-page press release.

I give Omar's book three out of five stars.

Roxy Memory

Memory is so weird. The music around 1:30 of Roxy Music's "Bitter Sweet" was stuck in my head yesterday, but I couldn't remember the song. I thought it was on their first or second album. Had to go through my Roxy Music collection to find out. Mystery solved!

GOD'S POCKET by Peter Dexter

I heard about this book in March of '20 over at Billy Penn's "10 underrated Philly books to devour in the quarantine era". I'm convinced the cover designer didn't read the book or jacket copy — worst book cover ever.

Anyway, I give this 1983 novel three out of five stars. Even though it's set in a South Philly neighborhood, it reminds me of people I grew up with, especially in high school, with kids coming from Fishtown and Port Richmond. Dexter nailed Philly's white working class back then . . . . how they only leave the neighborhood for work, and how row homes are passed down from parents to children.

A couple complaints:

• The newspaper columnist, Richard Shellburn, seemed unbelievable. Even back in the '80s, I don't believe columnists had their own offices (my impression is they were all thrown in the bullpen), and they weren't as popular as Dexter makes Shellburn out to be. Maybe back in the mid-20th century that was the case, but by the '80s, TV had captured the public's imagination. I dunno, part of the reason it irritated me is because newspapers are now on hospice. Dexter made a decent living working for newspapers during the end of its golden age, and he seems to shit on the institution. Guess I shouldn't be surprised because Dexter strikes me as a self-centered opportunist.
• There was forced plotting with Mickey. I was confused for a long time why the dead body of his stepson, Leon, was in the funeral home's backyard. And it struck me as absurdly unrealistic when Mickey was selling his truck, and the potential buyer took it for a drive, with Mickey chasing it on foot, and the truck getting into an accident.

Nonetheless, it's a good novel. Nice way to spend a week. I probably won't read anything else by Dexter. Will be interesting to see if any of the novel stays with me, or if I'll forget all about it like a paint-by-numbers mystery yarn.

Leon said Cheryl was a flight attendant for U.S. Air and lived in the Northeast, which Mickey recognized for the classiest thing Leon could make up.

p. 15

To get an idea how big Philadelphia was, all you had to do was go to the Northeast and try to find a street sign. Going the the Northeast was like going the hospital, you forget all the little things they do to you, you forgot how slow time moves until you're there again.

p. 139

Existenz

I watched this movie Sunday night for the first time. I wanted to watch Crash because I just finished the audiobook, but it's not available here in the States to rent online legally, so I went with Existenz, another Cronenberg flick from the '90s.

Interesting film. I give it 2.5 stars out of 5. A little campy, but the Grade A acting saves it — Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, oh my! Since it's about video games and virtual reality, I thought it was going use technology of the time (1999), but it was a different timeline or the near future, which was a nice touch. I can see why it never really made an impact. Tough to follow The Matrix, which came out the same year.

Right-wing Propanda

I saw on Google that Mark Levin's American Marxism is one of the bestselling books of 2021, which is a frightening fact, so I read this piece over at Jacobin. This part blew me away:

There is something particularly American in not wanting to understand the people you set out to destroy. . . . For the early Puritan, the forest was a site of Satanic evil; for the anti-communist, Marxism was a kind of witchcraft, to be burned — or perhaps electrocuted — rather than incorporated or co-opted. 

CRASH by J. G. Ballard

I give this audiobook two out of five stars — rating probably would have been lower if the author wasn't Ballard. I saw the movie way back in the '90s, and while I didn't love it, Cronenberg's film has always stayed with me (plus the soundtrack is amazing with that haunting guitar riff).

Quite honestly, for most of the audiobook, I only half-listened. Because it's only about seven hours, I figured I would power through. Ballard's a deep writer, so there is more to the pornographic language, but it was a bit much for me. I guess you could say that Crash is the quintessential horror novel, since it's so ugly. That's what horror is all about: entertainment that makes you cringe.

One cool thing about listening to Crash is that for the novel I'm working on I'm going to change the protagonist's name to my own. I liked how Ballard named the narrator after himself. Ballsy.

Oh, and I've been jamming out to Flesh For Lulu's "Crash". Great song, even though it's got nothing to do with the book (predates the film).

Babylon Berlin

Finally finished watching the third season of Babylon Berlin. Glad I didn't stop watching it around episode four, when I thought it was starting to drag. The last few episodes were awesome! I liked how they wrapped everything up, especially with the Nazi Benda. Now I can cancel Netflix (nothing else I really want to watch, especially since most of its content is geared towards teenagers and twenty-somethings). I got plenty of other stuff to watch, like Dublin Murders and the Penny Dreadful series set in 1930's L.A.

Goodbye Gyro!

Wanted to document this. Ate my last gyro Sunday night. It wasn't sitting too well that evening, but Monday was tortuous. Never had food poisoning like that. Not only was my stomach upset, but I had a headache, felt achy, and my joints was creaky. Monday night's dinner didn't help: dr. Praeger's Spinach Cakes were a little too greasy (the french-style cut green beans were fine, but I couldn't finish my brown rice); took a great amount of effort not to throw up.

Monday was made worse by my goofy apartment building shutting off the air-conditioning a few days ago — you can only have the A/C or the heating on, not both. It was bad timing for me. It was sticky and in the 80s all day in my apartment, even though it was high 70s outside.

Tuesday I ate light. Two pieces of toast for breakfast; craisins for mid-morning snack; chicken noodle soup for lunch; banana for mid-afternoon snack; Gordon's fish fillet, french green beans, bulgar wheat, and hot green tea for dinner; and cherry yogurt for dessert.

Sunday's gyro was worse than one I got about three years ago in Manayunk. At least with that one, my stomach was only rumbling until 1 AM that night.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, double-shame on you.

THE SCAPEGOAT by Sara Davis

Back in March, I read a review of this debut novel in The Washington Post. Sounded interesting, so I bought the hardback. Read most of it yesterday (while marketed as a novel, it's more like a novella with a blank page between most chapters). I give it 2 out 5 stars. Her prose is good enough where I didn't feel the urge to skim sentences, but I just didn't get the plot, though I'm pretty sure she was more concerned with theme and metaphors. I went on Goodreads and a few reviewers mentioned the word Lynchian; that tracks — this is the type of story David Lynch would be attracted to.

Oh, and why did Davis have her protagonist read a Swedish mystery without mentioning who the detective is? I'm 99% sure it's Wallander. I dunno, seemed like an odd choice to withhold that name.

B&N book purchases

Because of an article I read, "Book Publishers Warn of Supply Chain Delays for 2021 Holidays", I picked up these books (I also bought them because my library has been pretty poor lately with holds — I reserved one book back in March; I cancelled that hold last month).

The Age of Decadence: A History of Britain, 1880 to 1914 sounds interesting from The New York Times review. Clocking in around 900 pages, should be a nice long read, though it's probably less with the photos and footnotes. Looking forward to it.

The Last House on Needless Street has been out in the UK for at least six months. Was finally published here in the States in September. Stephen King's blurb plus a Guardian write-up made it sound purchasable.