Thursday, December 29, 2011

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows


Went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie today and I liked it a lot. Sherlock Holmes is trying to take down Prof. James Moriarty, his nemesis from the stories. I was surprised to see Moriarty in the second movie as he's Holmes' greatest opponent and by all accounts a third movie is probably in the works. I liked the movie a lot, the plot was good, the effects fun and the actors amazing. My only compliant is that Rachel McAdams wasn't in it more but I don't think anyone can blame me.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

McSweeny's 39


McSweeney's 39

I absolutely love getting my subscription to McSweeney's in the mail and can't wait to see who's in the edition, how it's formatted, etc. This issue is another traditional book and it was an enjoyable installment. Not my favorite but there were a few amazing pieces in it and a lot of good ones. The problem with McSweeney's putting out a really good issue is that they've set the standard for greatness. I can't say a thing bad about the issue and I enjoyed it a lot. My favorites pieces in this issue are;

Carlos the Impossible by J. T. K. Belle about a star matador's longtime battle with an indestructible bull Carlos. This one was absolutely amazing and my personal favorite.

50 Ways To Eat Your Lover by Amelia Gray that I thought was going to be funny but ended up being awesomely sad. By far my second favorite, I had 2 people read it right away.

Benjamin Bucks by Jennie Erin Smith, a non fiction piece about a reptile smuggler. It takes a special person to smuggle reptiles in their underpants.

The Neochileans by Roberto Bolano. I have a soft spot in my heart for his work. I can't say I understand all of it but I like it.

Politics and Conscience a speech by Vaclav Havel that was politically and interesting.

Chick Killer by Elmore Leonard an awesome little story about a woman of the law telling her dad about taking down a bad man by being in the right place at the right time.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk



Another good but not great book by Palahniuk. This short novel is about an ageing movie starlet from the golden age of Hollywood with her assistant as together they fend off plots to kill her by her new boyfriend so he can publish a scandalous tell all book after her death. Not quite as shocking as some of his other work and could have been a novella as it was so short. I probably would have liked the book more if I knew more of the minor starts of that period in Hollywood history as a lot of the fun was name dropping. Some of my favorite parts were from the fictitious tell all where there was some hilarious writings about sex that had some ridiculous metaphors. Overall I'm not sure I'd recommend it but it wasn't a waste of time.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Homeland - Season 1




My big TV run continues with season 1 of Homeland on Showtime and here's my take. Slow set up in the first 4 episodes, kick ass episodes 5 through 11 and big old bag of disappointing in the finale that was full of anticlimactic moments, too much given away in the preview where you knew certain people were still going to be not dead and lots and lots and lots of season 2 set up.

I almost bailed after episode 4 as it was dragging but then episode 5 was amazing and completely hooked me. The basic pretense is about an American Marine POW Nicholas Brody played by Damian Lewis is freed from Al-Qaeda after 8 years in captivity and he may or may not be turned. CIA agent Carrie Mathison played by Claire Danes works for her boss Saul Berenson played by Mandy Patinkin to stop the impending terrorist threat. The whole rest of the cast was really good but Body's wife Jessica played by Morena Baccarin was pretty until she chopped off her hair and great. As one might imagine the plot is fairly complicated and in the awesome episodes 5-11 there are tons of twists and they show did a great job of making you guess who was good and who was bad. They did a great job with the dynamics, Brody was captured for 8 years and his wife had formed a romantic relationship with his best friend after I think 6 years so there's a lot of stuff going on there. I don't want to spoil too much but at one point Claire Danes has to act her way through a couple sex scenes and they were gross. I'm not sure if she was trying to look like a nasty huge nosed frog like transsexual in her scenes but if so, job well done. Overall she did both a good and bad job acting in the series, I thought she was terrible for a long time with poor line deliveries, constant disgusting looks, a weird arm swinging pant suit wearing walk, the gross sex scenes but then there were some episodes where her bi polar got out of control and I thought she was great. So when she's trying to act crazy she's fantastic, when she's not it comes off as visually unappealing and high school drama clubish.

I'm waiting on final judgement until after the beginning of next season but would have loved it if they hadn't jacked up the finale so bad. We'll see, hopefully the set up to season 2 is worth it.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Best American Short Stories 2011


The Best American Short Stories 2011. Guest editor Geraldine Brooks and series editor Heidi Pitlor

I can't believe I only found out about this series a few years ago, I feel genuinely cheated. The Best American series has quickly become one of my favorite annual traditions one that I hope continues till I'm done walking this earth. Geraldine Brooks was a great guest editor choosing fantastic stories from those presented by Heidi Pitlor and writing a hilarious introduction. This years edition includes the following 20 stories;

CHIMAMANDA MGOZI ADICHIE. Ceiling
This story is about a successful married man in Latos who gets a letter from his college girlfriend who is clearly his one true love that got away.

MEGAN MAYHEW BERGMAN. Housewifely Arts
Fantastic story about a single mom who is trying to deal with the grief of losing her mom by driving cross country to a zoo where her mom's parrot is now in the hopes that she'll hear her mom's voice through the parrot. Sad & great.

TOM BISSELL. A Bridge Under Water
Funny & powerful story about a honeymooning couple and faith. The dude may or may not get kicked out of a temple in Rome for pitching a fit about wearing the hat.

JENNIFER EGAN. Out of Body
The first of many stories in this edition I've already read. I actually really enjoyed rereading all of them including this one as it's fantastic. This one was included in A Visit From the Goon Squad and involves one of the main character's college years. One of her friends had tried to commit suicide and the challenges that creates among their circle of friends.

NATHAN ENGLANDER. Free Fruit for Young Widows
He's a genius. This is a story about a fruit vendor, his son and a complex relationship with someone he knew from the war.

ALLEGRA GOODMAN. La Vita Nuova
Amazing story about a very complex woman going through some stuff. I know that sounds insanely vague but this one's a hard one to summarize without giving away too much.

EHUD HAVAZELET. Gurov in Manhattan
Powerful, really short story about a Russian cancer survivor and his dog in the winter in NY. Loved the dog.

CAITLIN HORROCKS. The Sleep
A small town hibernated the winters away. Going into winter, it sounds kind of awesome, curl up and sleep all cozy and warm until spring.

BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON. Soldier of Fortune
Great story about a 14 year old boy with a crush on a girl who's family is dealing with a crisis when her baby brother is badly hurt in an accident.

CLAIRE KEEGAN. Foster
The story of a young girl who comes from a poor & not so good family sent to live with relatives on her mom's side who are amazing people dealing with the loss of a son.

SAM LIPSYTE. The Dungeon Master
Dungeons and Dragons kids are weird and messed up? That's odd.

REBECCA MAKKAI. Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart
Holy crap is Rebecca Makkai an amazing author. 4th year in a row she's in here and it's another standout story. This one's about an actor who's lost the ability to act. One of the things I most admire is that she is so versatile with each story I've read from her being completely different and yet all fantastic.

ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN. Property
Man loses wife, man moves to shit hole in Maine. Man makes shit hole home and woman who owns home upset man thinks place is shit hole as she is also dealing with loss. Lot's of loss in this issue and I'm missing telling that this is another good story.

STEVEN MILLHAUSER. Phantoms
This is another one I've read before and he's another one of my favorite authors. So creative and awesome. This one's about a small town that has regular ghost sightings.

RICARDO NUILA. Dog Bites
Read it. Reread it here and it was ok, not my favorite despite being from McSweeney's. Kid's messed up, dad's mess up. Kid does some messing up at a party and dad gets concussed.

JOYCE CAROL OATES. ID
Christ on Toast was this one great. This tackled a bunch of issues centering around a 13 year old girl and her single mom. I don't want to give away the plot of the story but this was one of my absolute favorites of the issue.

RICHARD POWERS. To the Measures Fall
This story is a story for authors. It's about a book. Seriously. A physical book. Book is found, book might be autographed by someone famous, sometimes book gets good reviews, sometimes bad, main character tells friends book is awesome, friends disagree.

JESS ROW. The Call of Blood
I liked this one about a private male nurse taking care of an elderly Korean woman who has Alzheimer. Sad & great social commentary about race issues in NY/America. Left me thinking after I finished the story.

GEORGE SAUNDERS. Escape from Spiderhead
I'd read this early last year when I had a subscription to the New Yorker on my Kindle. It's a strange story about human experimentation on inmates through chemicals. I loved it.

MARK SLOUKA. The Hare's Mask
I liked this one but it wasn't my favorite in the issue. It's about a family told from the son's point of view telling the story about how his dad's family hid a jew in the rabbit pen when he was a young boy.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Game of Thrones



In we're currently 6 month behind the times news Heather and I just finished watching the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. It was so #$%& amazing I just peed a little. I don't know what anyone would every want more in a series, it had everything! Action, power struggles, hot eye candy, cool wolfs, sword fights, dragon references, beautiful locations, fighting corpses, a dwarf and the creepiest bit of insest in a show. Oh and a 12 year old breast feeds on a fake tete in one episode bringing Heather to perform a mad web search to confirm the breast was in fact fake and if they could do that on HBO. Much to her chagrin they can and did! I don't want to ruin anything but there were tons and tons of twists with the end of one episode near the end literally dropping my jaw. Highly recommended and can't wait for season 2!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Journals by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.



Years ago I read a glowing review of this book in the NY Times book review. It talked about how amazingly insightful the book was, how charming the author and about how rare a look into this period into American history. My dumb ass decided that I should branch out as a reader and use this opportunity to read and learn. $40 later, the book sits on shelf for years making me feel guilty. Finally I resign myself to read it and began in September, early September. Last night I finally gave up at page 723 of 849. I would sit down to read as if punished giving off a sigh that would reinforce my girlfriends opinion that I'm not right in the head. Now that being said, Schlisinger was an extremely interesting man, an excellent writer, insightful and involved heavily in the democratic party since the 40's. I loved reading his notes about JFK & RFK learning a lot. After RFK was assassinated I should have stopped reading as that's where the literary journey turned laborious. Not really sure what I was thinking here, I don't read a lot of non fiction, I'm not political and I have absolutely no idea who 90% of the people he talked about were. For anyone who is into politics and don't mind reading someone's notes about stuff for an insanely long time this book is for you!

I would after reading it pick up his book 1000 Days about JFK someday. Just not for a while until I discover the joy of reading again...

Zoetrope: All-Story Winter Vol. 15 No. 4



Zoetrope: All-Story Winter Vol. 15 No.4.

I hate to say this because I'm such a huge fan but this issue wasn't great. While the stories were all good, none of them blew me away. The guest designer Ryan McGinley did all nude photos and here are a couple examples;




Pretty cool art but again nothing that was truly amazing or iconic. The other issue with the issue is that the paper was completely different making it feel way more flimsy in the hand.

As I said the stories were all good and included the following;

PEOPLE THAT DON'T EXIST by Shani Boianjiu
This was an interesting story about a couple women involved in people from Sudan escaping their country to go to Israel.

THE REDEEMERS by Ethan Coen
An extremely short play about a couple good old boys who have just killed their pa when the law comes a callin.

I'LL BUY YOU A SHOVEL by Jon McGregor
I'm not really sure what this one was about. I know what the surface story was about but no idea what the author was really trying to say. Meh

ONE AFTERNOON AT THE BAKERY by Yoko Ogawa translated by Stephen Snyder
I really want to like this one but was disappointed. I think it was just a preference thing as it was a very near miss for me as it reminded me of Murikami.

ATE/MENOS OR THE MIRACLE by James Lasdun
This is another one I'm surprised I didn't like. Lot's of potential here for things I like including mistaken identity, then assumed identity, then bedding of hot woman, then busted. Sounds awesome right? Right. But again it was just ok not great.