2 of 30- Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

This is the 4th or so book I've read by Palahniuk and Lullaby was exactly what I expected. Hilarious, brash, quick, interesting characters with the occasional gross out moment sprinkled in. The story revolved around the discovery that a particular poem killed anyone who heard it read out loud. There were witches, a super annoying vegetarian, a greedy real estate lady & a mad search to destroy all the copies of the poem. The best thing I can say about the book is that when I got to the last 100 pages I couldn't put it down.

1 of 30- The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010

This years version of The Beat American Nonrequired Reading edited by David Eggers was filled with all kinds of great stories. The book is divided into 2 sections with the first part comprised of all kinds of short lists or small items and the second part consisting of larger stories either fiction, non fiction or comics.

The first section is quick, fun & often hilarious. My favorites out of this years section were gun headlines, six-word memoirs on love and heartbreak, far names, illustrated missed connections by Sophi Blackall & lawsuits. The best of the best was probably from the six-word memoirs from Audrey Adu-Appiah "I loved the idea of you." Right behind that were the illustrated missed connections, they were all real craigs list posting from NYC that Sophi Blackall chose to draw. Her blog is http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/ where you can find the following examples;








The second section had a fantastic section of stories. All of them were amazing and the following were my particular favorites althought it's hard to leave any of them off.

Kurt Vonnegut's short story The Nice Little People was published after his deal and I had originally read it in Look At The Birdie. Great short little story about an ordinary man who finds an extraordinary object.

George Saunders' Tent City, U.S.A. was about a reporter who went to live among a community of homeless people.

Evan Ratliff Vanish was a interesting piece of nonfiction when he participated in a contest by Wired challenging him to disappear completely & for readers to find him. It focused more on the facts of what happened rather than the psychological impact it had on him

Ideas by Patricio Pron was a quick thriller about a small community where kids started disappearing mysteriously.

Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife was a story about a tiger escaping from a zoo in a town that the Nazi were taking over at the beginning of world war II and what happened to him. One of my favorites in the issue.

Fed To The Streets by Courtney Moreno was a story about an ambulance driver. I'm still not 100% sure if it's fiction or nonfiction but the story was amazing.

Etgar Keret wrote What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish a story about what would happen if you found a goldfish that gave wishes. It was translated by Nathan Englander who is another author I've enjoyed tremendously.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines by Andrew Sean Greer was originally published in an issue of McSweeney's that I've read and is about Andrew and his husband spending their anniversary at a Nascar event. Funny story & reminded me somewhat of David Sedaris.

Rana Dasgupta wrote Capital Gains a story of how modern India has been dealing with the new middle class and massive amounts of money to be made. Fascinating story and one that I would recommend anyone reads.

Burying Jeremy Green by Nora Bonner is about how a classroom is dealing with an incident that happened at recess when a stranger jumped the fence.

Pinkie Swear Regarding New Books

After discovering my book buying problem I've entered into a pinkie swear not to purchase another book until I've read at least 30 books and/or quarterly literary magazines that I or Heather own*. My parents have extended my subscrition to McSweeney's so those don't count & I negotiated that new issues of Zoetrope are ok too but that's it. Pinkie Swears can not be broken and I'm taking it seriously with the full knowledge that it isn't going to be easy. I've already cancelled my Kindle subscription to The New Yorker to comply with the intent of the promise.

Today I put together a list of books that are either on my shelves at home, at my desk at work, on my Kindle or at Heathers and I actually came up with 52 books and literary magazines off the top of my head. I actually have quite a bit more than what's included on the list but I don't want to overwhelm myself. The list below may be edited as other currently owned books as of 1/26/2011 may be replaced but it is the rough reading guide for at least the next 52 weeks. The library may only be used for audio books and borrowing books from friends is prohibited.

My goal is to power through 52 books in the next year and make a giant dent in my library. The list is in no specific order.

1. McSweeney’s 36
2. McSweeney’s 35
3. McSweeney’s 27
4. Granta 108
5. Granta 111
6. Best American Non Required Reading 2010
7. Best American Short Stories 2010
8. Vonnegut – Armageddon In Retrospect
9. George Saunders- In Persuasion Nation
10. Chuck Palahniuk- Lullaby
11. JD Salinger- Catcher in the Rye
12. Rick Moody- The Ice Storm
13. Playboys college stories
14. Sara Vowell – Assassination Vacation
15. Dennis Lehane - Coronado
16. Blaze Ginsberg – My Life As I See It
17. Stephen King - Under the Dome
18. Stephen King- All Dark No Stars
19. Karen Abbot- Sin in the Second City
20. Sara Gruen-Water For Elephants
21. Stieg Larsson- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
22. Stieg Larsson- The Girl Who Played With Fire
23. Stieg Larsson- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
24. David Eggers – A Heartbreak Work Of Staggering Genius
25. Hemmingway complete short stories
26. Tin House 46
27. Tin House 45
28. Tin House 44
29. Tin House 43
30. Tin House Heaven & hell
31. Salmon Rushdie – Midnight Children
32. Nicole Krauss – History of Love
33. Chris Cleave- Little Bee
34. John Connolly – The Book of Lost Things
35. Gregory Maguire – What the Dickens
36. Haruki Murakami – Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End Of the World
37. John Hatcher – The Black Death
38. TC Boyle – The Road To Wellville
39. Richard Russo – The Straight Man
40. Maile Meloy - Both ways is the only way I want it
41. Eric Larson – Thunderstruck
42. Arthur M Schlesinger, Jr.- Journals
43. Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Club Dumas
44. Arturo Perez-Reverte - The Flanders Panel
45. Alice Monroe – Open Secrets
46. Jorge Louis Borges – Ficciones
47. Heather’s Ecotone 6
48. Heather’s McSweeney’s 14
49. Heather’s McSweeney’s 8
50. Heather’s McSweeney’s 16
51. Heather’s McSweeney’s 4
52. Heather’s Paris review book

*(The reader reserves the right to declare a book shitty and bail at any time with no partial credit to be awarded)

McSweeney's 24

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m really torn about this issue. On one hand there were some amazing stories but they had some others that I didn’t like. The binding was cool as there were 2 different sides of the book and the artwork from the outside and inside looped together to make different scenes. One side was a collection of action stories & the other all circled around Donald Barthelme with a symposium then 2 of his short stories.

Honestly I’m not a fan of Mr. Barthelme from his two short stories. He has a short choppy style that wasn’t enjoyable to read. His first story the Bed was about a man buying a bed for his ex wife. There were some funny lines in it and I can see why authors love him as he says a lot indirectly. The second story lost my interest completely within three pages, I had originally stopped reading it but decided to go back and finish it. Just not a fan of his style. The symposium lost my interest early on as I found it extremely boring and filled with flowery bullshit praise so I skipped it. There was a time that I would finish everything I started reading but in the last couple years I've gotten away from that in books I'm reading for pleasure.

The other side of the book I loved as it was all fast paced action stories. There were three that particularly stood out among a strong group. Bored to Death by Jonathan Ames was about him being bored and becoming a private investigator just like his favorite books. Interesting how it was about him but entirely fictional. Joe Meno – Stockholm, 1979 was about a botched bank robbery and circles around Stockholm Syndrome. The characters were interesting and ended up revolving around the original bank robbers dirt bag friend who was brought in to try to help and a beautiful female hostage. The third standout story was The Last Adventure of the Blue Phantom by Eric Hanson. Without giving too much away this story revolved around ancient treasures found in a tropical jungle and the fight over that treasure when it's brought home. There were a couple really good twists and the narrative was extremely well written. Great way to end the issue and one of my all time favorite McSweeney's stories.

Boston Birthday Weekend

Kicking off the year I outlived Jesus in Boston

In honor of my birthday Heather and I took a 3 day vacation in Boston. We got up Friday morning to 4-6 inches of snow, packed up Sky and headed south. The drive was miserable as it was near white out conditions until Mass and there were multiple accidents including a huge one that blocked 3 of the 4 lanes of traffic with 2 jackknifed tractor trailer trucks. Sky was great watching her movie as it took well over 3 hours rather than the typical trip of under 2 hours. We dropped her off at Heather’s sisters for the weekend and we headed into town safe but tired.

We checked into the Hilton Back Bay and because it was my birthday they gave us a great room on the 20th floor and vouchers for 2 free breakfasts.

View from the hotel;


After lounging around and freshening up we headed to grab some food as we were both starving. I would have thought it would be easy to find a decent meal at 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon in Back Bay but this proved a little problematic. Eventually we found ourselves at Abe & Louies on Boylston St. thankful to be inside from the cold. I had a little sticker shock when we sat down as I was originally looking for some relatively cheap Italian food and this was a really nice steak place. This was the first place that a recurring theme for the weekend first surfaced, bartenders inability to suggest hot drinks other than hot toddies & coffee with baileys. Heather was under the weather and asked the waiter then bartender to suggest a hot drink with no successes. She settled for a Boston Red Brick ale as mine was good. We both ordered clam chowder then decided to share the 2 specials, a lobster pasta dish with a linguine with a spicy red sauce and a steak with melted blue cheese & sautéed onions as well as a side of broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Best steak I’ve ever had hands down & the pasta was really good too. I usually refrain from ordering lobster dishes out living in Maine but this one was worth it.




After dinner we walked to Lush so Heather could restock on some supplies. Lush as I learned sells soaps, moisturizers & other skin care products. I somehow got a hand demonstration where they worked to get a dry patch off one of my knuckles. Pretty girly but it worked and felt nice. Heather snapped off a couple of pictures of me trying a product to exfoliate your lips. I bought it and still not sure if it’s worth the harassment I’m sure I’ll get in the future. With our skin care supplies sufficiently restocked we stopped by a liquor store, purchased some soda and a bottle of Pinnacle whip cream flavored vodka. I hate to admit this but holy crap is whip cream flavored vodka good. I’m not sure if my man hood will ever fully recover from the Lush/flavored vodka combo but at least my skin will be soft when I sit down to pee.

The rest of the night was spent drinking in the hotel room, drinking at the hotel bar then drinking at a local dive bar Bukowski’s. I tried to stay with vodka in the hotel bar and get some semblance of my manhood back by ordering a sturdier drink. Bartenders are a holes and said that a manly drink would be a dirty martini & then he draw a blank on a good hot drink for Heather. I’ve learned that I don’t care for dirty martinis but they are pretty good for kicking in a good healthy drunken fog. From that fog we stumbled into Bukowski’s that was 1 block away from the hotel. It was dark, narrow, dirty & awesome. They had a wheel we both had spun to pick our beer as we’d both given up on trying to drink vodka & hot respectively. I got a high life and Heather got a dark beer of some sort. We grabbed another round that we picked ourselves but that was a bit fuzzy. Great spot to end the end and as luck would have it we ran out of cash & they didn’t take cards.


Saturday

We slept in Saturday morning until 11 and probably wouldn’t have gotten up except we had a free breakfast downstairs to partake in. The waitress was awesome, she completely hooked us up by having blueberry pancakes & omelets added to the buffet. The Bruins were playing at 3 and I wanted to go watch them at a sports bar in town. The hotel concierge said that Champions was the best sports bar in Boston. I can’t even begin to say how wrong he was. The bar was located in the Marriot connected to the Prudential Center, was bright, open, had color changing walls and a constant stream of trance/dance/top 40 dance jams playing the entire time. The bartenders were dressed head to toe in black, had spiky black hair & spoke in strong European accents. Heather was sick yet again and the bartender made her a crappy coffee drink when pulling a blank on hot drinks. Later we saw a selection of hot chocolate & alcohol drinks on their menu which the bartender clearly hadn’t read. Sitting next to us at first were a couple of business men who were talking about the benefits of robots in the workforce & cars driven by google satellites. The guy said that he would want to see a blow up doll in the driver’s seat so he didn’t get scared. I almost spit up my drink. I was momentarily pleased when they got up only to be disappointed when the sex and the city’s fan club took their place. The constant chatter about who looked like ass at the gym was the perfect complement to hockey & dance music. The only reason we stuck it out was that we had a good seat at the bar, it was a busy Saturday and all the other good sports bars were quite a ways away.

After the Bruins beat the Avalanche 6-2 we decided to go bar hopping closer to the hotel. Our first stop was the Cactus Club where we sat at a window seat and watched people’s reactions as they passed a strange box truck by someone called the chicken man. We have absolutely no idea what was going on with the truck, it was completely glassed in, had 2 medical looking chairs bolted to the floor, a chicken purse hanging from the roof and a sign that urged people to buckle up. Next stop was Whiskeys, a sports bar more in line with what I was looking for to watch the game. We just had one drink but watched a waitress skanked out in 14lbs of makeup, a tied off tight t-shirt & the smallest jean shorts around work a group of guys for tips. The bartender was awesome and told us we should check out Back Bay Social Club for dinner & this Irish bar Solas while we were there.

This pic was above the stairs leading to the downstairs bar & seemed a little Freudian

Back Bay Social Club was nice, we ate at the bar downstairs. There were all red leather booths & a black & white dance floor that held tables at the dinner service but we were told they were later removed. Heather got chicken which she said was the best she’s ever had and I ordered grilled salmon that hit the spot.

Our next stop


Solas and would have been right at home on a cobbled back alley in Dublin if the stereotypes can be believed. All dark wood, a working class bartender & good dark beers. They also had a cool little alcohol cabinet behind the bar that looked like a confessional window which Heather picked up on right away. Hopefully the tongue in cheek humor was intentional as that was pretty funny. As I wanted to fully embrace the ambiance I went all cliche and ordered a pint o Guinness.

To finish the night we went back to the hotel after popping our heads in a couple places only to find them a little too busy to get service right away. This last trip could have turned ugly quick as we sat down next to a racist, homophobic submarine captain. Heather and I decided to point out the man’s flaws which obviously wasn’t received particularly well. The funniest part was that Heather dated a guy who used to be a sub captain so she was able to call a lot of his bullshit that I wouldn’t have picked up on. My strategy was to see how far I could mess with him if I was really sarcastic. Unfortunately, he was so drunk it stopped being fun and we had to get out of there. Felt pretty bad leaving the poor bartender to deal with him as she was Indian and had good hearing. As it turned out she was way nicer than I am as I would have booted his ass out for far less.


Sunday

Another morning of sleeping in. Heather still felt bad and I could feel like I was finally starting to catch it. Kind of crazy that I hadn’t by then but we had been pounding the vitamin C. We walked down Newbury St. to Sweet Cupcakes and got 2 each for Sky, Heather & myself. We brought them back to Maine & had them at night. I wasn’t a huge fan, the vanilla ones were kind of dry and not worth anywhere near the money they got for them. Wired Puppy had a sign outside that they were voted best in Boston for their coffee so we checked them out. My tipple shot latte was ok but not anywhere near as good as Arabica. Properly caffeinated up we then went book shopping to Raven’s Used Books & Trident Bookstore Café. Both places were awesome with great selections and lots of literary magazines. I ended up buying more than I should have as I have a bit of a book buying problem. The ironic thing is that the book I'm most excited about is one a literary magazine that Heather bought called Ecotone.

After our book buying bonanza we picked up Skylar and took her, Ben & Hillary to the Kowloon on route 1. The Kowloon is a huge Chinese restaurant that is kid friendly and Sky loved. She’s a big dumpling fan and theirs hit the spot. On the way back we were regaled with stories of Sky’s big Museum of Science & 3D movie weekend which was adorable.

I can’t think of a better weekend to kick off my 34th year.

McSweeney's 29

I'm clearly on a bit of a McSweeney's kick but I've inexcusably let quite a few build up while reading other things. I'm working on rectifying that mistake.

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse but this was another amazing issue. No real theme to this one except it included pictures on every page of art that was on old match boxes. They're from Eastern Europe and are interesting, I especially enjoyed a bunch of the Russian space ones. As a reminder to myself I need to figure out why one particular dog was so important to the Russian space program as there were quite a few that included the little lady/fella.

My absolute favorite story was by Blaze Ginsberg, an autistic teenager who writes stories about his life as an episode on a TV show that he's the star of. The story included here was called My Crush On Hilary Duff and had me close to tears it was so funny. Based on the notes his book should have been out in 2009 so I need to pick it up.

My second favorite was The Painting by Roddy Doyle who is a regular contributor to McSweeney's. In this story an immigrant painter from Poland is struggling to make ends meets in Dublin and takes a job to paint a portrait of a local woman who he finds beautiful. The woman is extremely odd and as the story progresses nicely in only 50 pages or so.

There were quite a few other stores that I liked a lot. Dawn Ryan writes another stand out story about a couple of high school girls who have a lesbian relationship. One of the girls comes from a poor home life and the other is a black girl adopted young by a well off white couple. A Record of Our Debts by Laura Hendrix was an extremely powerful story about a town whose population is going insane. Augury by J. Erin Sweeney is about importing these cute advise giving monkey like animals to a small town. The book ends on a really interesting story by Joyce Carrol Oates called Labyrinth where the words circle around two open pages requiring the reader to rotate the book at the end of the line starting in the upper left corner and ending in the center of the pages. I enjoyed both the story and the form in which it was written.

The other stories deserve to be mentioned too as they're also good but I guess it's just a matter of taste that I prefer these.

Arabica & Scarborough Grounds

Besides reading, traveling & doing fun things I also love coffee. I particularly like cafes and my current two favorite cafes are Arabica & Scarborough Grounds.




Arabica Coffee located at 2 Free Street in Portland. Last year my company moved across the Old Port to about a block away from Monument Square. The move was a mixed blessing as the building was new but the location in my opinion wasn’t anywhere near as desirable. Previously we were close to Standard Baking, Rosies, Shima, Market Street Eats & the heart of the Old Port for happy hours. The only thing I like better about the location is Arabica as in my opinion they have the best espresso in town. I’ve never had the coffee but the cappuccinos, macchiatos and lattes are all excellent down to their foam art pours. The bar is large made of old wood & the tables make good use of the space. They also specialize in toast which is from a local bread company that is hearty and delicious. Well worth the cold walk to and from the office to jump start my day even on the coldest mornings.





Scarborough Grounds is located at 264 US Rt 1 in Scarborough across from the town hall & high school. The owners used to own a dark internet cafe Java Net located in the heart of the Old Port that was probably more well known as a place to hang out in the day time waiting for it to be socially acceptable to drink. This differed a great deal between social circles. Ironically, I met my ex girlfriend when she worked for Java Net and later she worked in the building that was leased and turned into Scarborough Grounds. Small world. Scarborough Grounds as a sharp contrast to Java Net is bright, comfortable, typically filled with smart fairly affluent non or at least high functioning alcoholics. They also have great espresso although not quite where Arabica is but they also have good lunch options & a great bakery selection. During one of my healthiest hangovers I couldn't understand if a cookie was huge or if the head of the girl eating it was extra small. As it turns out it was a little of both.

McSweeney's 31

Another mind blowing issue of McSweeney's. This issue is all about dead forms of stories that aren't used anymore. The issue was inspired by two interns who came up with the idea. Each section included a description of the style, an example and then new stories using that style done by current authors. The new stories have notes in the large margins expanding on themes in the types of stories or giving examples from the original works.

1- Pantoum

My absolute favorites were pantoums, which are poems where lines from each paragraph are repeated in the next paragraph. According to the book it used to be a game about who could most skillfully manipulate these lines in their poems. The more I read the more I liked them. I'm guessing Eggers did too as he both starts and ends the issue with pantoums while every other style only has 1 section.

Jack Davis by Tony Trigilio was an amazing pantoum about the Kennedy assassination. Joel Brouwer's Direct was also stood out among the strong group.

2- Whore Dialog

This was erotic writing in the 16th through 18th centuries that was instructional based graphic dialog between an innocent woman and a more experienced married woman. It was supposed to be instructional as well as pornographic. Mary Miller writes a funny story called A Dialogue Between Two Maids In The Twenty-First Century, One Of Whom Is Skeezer. I think you have to love a story that talks about skeezy as an unwritten rule of nature.

3- Legendary Saga

These stories were from Iceland in the 13th through 15th centuries that were basically tales of war & conquest. While good they kept making me think of world of warcraft for some reason.

4- Biji

I'm a little fuzzy on how Biji truly differentiates itself from other more general storytelling but was written from 220-1912 AD, which is a really long time to just die out. It's characterized in the book as musings, anecdotes, quotations, "believe-it-or-not" fiction, social anthropology. What I do know is that, Survivor by Douglas Coupland is fantastic. It's about a camera man working on a season of Survivor when World War III breaks out. The story was one of the funnier tales I've read in a while.

5- Nivola

These were a series of books written by Miguel de Unamuno between 1914-1930 AD that according to McSweeney's were meandering, plotless & playful. I'm not sure I buy this being a genre. Seems silly to me to call one authors style a complete genre. Wouldn't other authors have to adopt similar styles in order for there to be a larger collective? Dumb. Anyays, Joy Williams wrote a story about a woman named Snow that was certainly plotless and rambling. The best part was a note in the margins from a book of Unamunos called Abel Sanchez where a doctor is jealous of his artist friend. The doctor laments that all he can do is delay death where the painter can capture the person on canvas and make them immortal. Pretty zen and shit.

6- Senryu

These are Japanese poems that are 3 lines long, not rhymed & deal with human nature. I've never read a lot of haiku and there have been so many jokes about them that I wasn't expecting much but these were great.

7- Socratic Dialogue

These are from ancient Greece and Rome and are conversational in tone revolving around philosophical issues. After Citizen Kane by David Thomson was about a conversation in present time between Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Charlie Chaplin, Earnest Hemmingway & Viginia Wolf. They are all drinking at a cafe but they make reference to having died. It's an interesting story.

8- Graustarkian Romance

These romantic stories are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries & are set in an imaginary old fashioned country in Europe. They are described as have this characteristics of Victorian utopianism, swashbuckling & courtly intrigue. Fun, light read but not my favorite.

9- Consuetudinary

These were essentially lists of basic tasks and rituals performed in monasteries between 970-1700 AD. The sample story bored me terribly but Shelly Jackson's story was pure genius and ended up being one of my favorite stories in the issue.

On another note, while the book was a little awkward to read sometime due to its size I loved the cover art with the gold waves on white leather.

Infinium brewed by Samuel Adams & Weihenstephan

Tonight Heather and I got Infinium brewed by Samuel Adams & Weihenstephan. Heather liked the commercials and I like trying new things. The beer comes in a 750ml bottle with one of those Champagne corks, has 10.3% ACV and is a partnership between the 2 breweries. According to the label it was brewed to comply with the 1516 German beer purity law and was made with only malt, hops, water & yeast. I find it fascinating that only those 4 ingredients, 3 really because water shouldn't be considered an ingredient, can make such a complex, delicious beer.

Infinium has a huge leg up over High Life as the Champagne of beer. It was bubbly, had a good flavor that was crisp & light with a fruity aftertaste. The bottle says that it should be served between 40-42 degrees which is rather specific and despite being warned otherwise we clearly over chilled it. When too cold it was only so so and now that its had a chance to warm up the beer is fantastic. I've been drinking a lot of great winter beers lately so this has been a nice change of pace and one I'd like to have again.

Zum bitz = crazy disgusting

Got a little snack on the way down to the Pats because it contained the term spunk. God awful is about right.

Pats v Jets 1/16/11 Sect 120 row 6

Went down to Gillette Stadium with Heather, her sister Hillary & her sisters boyfriend Ben who got his tickets through work to watch was was supposed to be the Patriots crushing defeat of those @#$% Jets. I was all excited. Amazing seats, 3 rows up in the end zone opposite the giant light house thing. We started off by having a good meal in Patriots place where we all put a healthy buzz on for kickoff. The game didn't exactly turn out as it was suppose to & I think 90% of the Jet's fans were sitting right behind us. The guy directly behind me was especially annoying as his 80 IQ points were hampered by the cold and not exactly up to peak performance. Didn't stop the little bastard from a non stop commentary that wasn't even 10% right. Heather got into him pretty good a few times which momentarily shut him up and made me laugh.

The game started off pretty well, the Jet's got the ball but were stopped in the red zone and missed the field goal. When they missed the place absolutely erupted into wild celebration. The feeling of being among all that celebration was electric. The Pats got the ball and drove down field settling for a field goal. From there it went down hill a bit as that was our first and only lead. Sanchez had a pretty good game, Braylon Edwards was a beast with a nasty toss and catch late in the game to essentially win it. That being said the Pats really looked bad, poor clock management, a sluggish offense and a defense that bent a little too far despite not breaking. At one point in the 4th we got it within 3 points but the Jets came back to go up by 10 and essentially the game was lost right then.

As I said, not the best outcome but it was still an amazing experience and can't wait to go to another game. Too bad it will have to wait till next year but in the meantime, GO BRUINS!!!!

Zoetrope: All-Story Winter 2010 Vol 14 No 4

This is the second issue I've read and will probably subscribe because they've both been so good. The format is 5 short stories with 1 person in charge of art design. In the issues I've read all the art mixed into the magazine were done by the same artist but I'm not sure if that just happened to be a coincident or if it's a concistent part of the magazines. The art throughout the issue are pictures chosen by Thurston Moore artistically painted on by his wife Kim Gordon. Thurston & Kim were founding members of Sonic Youth and the pictures are all old school pictures of families and friends covered with abstract paint. The overall impression is often haunting & I enjoyed them a lot.

Lieland by Etgar Keret is a story about a man who finds a world filled with lies made real. It was quick & fun while not earth shattering.

Holiday by Gerard Donovan is about a girl who while watching tourists in her seaside tourist home town takes off with a Pram. To me it's a little more interesting as the main character is a woman written by a man. At first we're not sure if the Pram has a baby or not and the whole story takes place within a couple hours.

No Matter How Many Times I Read Your Confession, There's Only One Thing I Just Don't Understand: Why Didn't You Kill The Woman by Ryu Murakami has probably the best title for a short story ever! I don't want to give anything away but it's an interview with a prosecutor going over the details of a confession. The story lived up to the title, well, as much as possible being as epic as it is.

Gardeners' World by Julian Barnes is a story about gardening that's really about a crappy marriage. Ok, not my favorite.

The Real Bad Friend by Robert Bloch was another great story. Bloch, I have learned is the author of Psycho and this story, written in 1957, Bloch created a character very similar to Norman Bates. I'd rather they had told me that after reading the story rather than in the intro as I immediately knew the twist as the story unfolded. That being said, it was interesting and enjoyable.

"A Visit From The Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan

Short stories are probably my favorite story medium. Where there are times that I love a long sprawling epic allowing ample time for plot & product development I favor short stories. The skill it takes to create something impactful in such a short amount of space always fascinates me. I also like how a skillful author can narrow down their scope to focus minutely on one topic or theme. This book by Jennifer Egan is a break from my typical short story reading as it is almost like a Mosaic where each short story is part of a much larger, deeper story. The stories all circle around Bernie, a music producer & his assistant Sasha as well as people who come in and out of their lives. There are stories ranging from when Bernie & Sasha are both young and old, there is quite an age difference between the two if you were wondering. The first story is about how Sasha has an uncontrollable urge to steal small items that are important to their owner and much later in the book there is a story from her youth that gives a curious insight into why. There is another reoccurring character Kitty, a movie star who escapes from an attempted rape in one story that helps catapult her from a b actress into a star. The actual story of the attempted rape is told by the reporter who was in jail for it after we had already gotten to know how he was dealing with life after prison. I'd actually read the second story in the book about Bernie when he's lost his producing touch in an issue of Granta last year and didn't realize that it would be in this book. When I reread it I enjoyed it just as much, which says a lot.

The order of the stories may not be the most important part of the book but it's important as the author plays with our emotions about the characters as the stories progress in their non linear sometimes random feel. The impression after finishing the book is that the order is in no way random and feels preconceived as part of the concept but I'm only guessing. The writing style is good, with a lot of quotes that I found worth saving.

Finding books like this that make me look at something I love in another way is fun and why I like exploring new authors. On an unrelated note this is the first book I've read on my brand new Kindle that I received as my big gift this Christmas. Overall, I liked reading on it. Took a little getting used to but I can't say how much I love the built in dictionary that gives the definition just by putting the cursor next to the word.

Weezer shows!

Weezer is by far my favorite band. There is no close second. Currently out of the 6 bays in my car cd player 5 of them are occupied by Weezer. Blue Album, Pinkerton, Red Album, Death to False Metal & Hurley. Death to False Metal has one of my new favorite songs I Don't Want Your Lovin, a song about turning down sex from a beautiful, confident, girl of loose morals that is catchy & has some of the best power guitar to close out the song. But I digress. Weezer put on back to back concerts in select cities including Boston where the first night they played the Blue Album in its entirety & the second night Pinkerton in its entirety. When tickets went on sale I bought one for the second night with a couple friends then decided I really wanted to go to both so bought a single ticket for the first night and booked a hotel room down the street.

The shows were held at the Orpheum Theater right on the Boston Commons. It's an old theater that while a bit uncomfortable & hard to see from the balcony has a ton of charm which offset some of the negatives. I got into town during the day on Tuesday and tooled around the area for a while, grabbing a bit to eat after checking into the hotel. The hotel was Nine Zero on Tremont and was impressively nice. I also found a new coffee shop The Thinking Cup which had some amazing espresso and did some great foam art.

Both shows opened with a general set, they took an intermission and then came back with the album. As you can see by the playlists they kicked off the show with Memories from Hurley and they worked back in time going from album to album with Rivers calling out the year. I had just read an interesting article in the Boston Phoenix where Rivers talked about having 2 distinct types of fans that essentially boiled down to fans who love Beverly Hills and fans who love Pinkerton. After seeing both shows they modified their first play list to each type of fan where Beverly Hills fans went with the Blue Album and Pinkerton fans obviously fell to night 2. They stuck with a lot of the bigger hits & poppier songs on day 1. At one point Rivers climbed up into the balcony from stage left and sang most of a song from among the crowd. The only downfall to day 1 besides going solo was sitting behind a handsy non lipstick lesbian couple who increased the pitch & fervor of their make out session as the night went on. The night ended with Only In Dreams which is one of my all time favorite songs. What an amazing what to end a show, the guitars going back and forth working their way to the end was amazing and as I left the theater I was still busting with energy.

Set list first show;
1. Memories
2. If You're Wondering If I Want You To
3. Pork and Beans
4. Beverly Hills
5. Keep Fishing
6. Photograph
7. Island In The Sun
8. Hash Pipe
9. Falling For You

Intermission

10. My Name Is Jonas
11. No One Else
12. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
13. Buddy Holly
14. Undone - The Sweater Song
15. Surf Wax America
16. Say It Ain't So
17. In the Garage
18. Holiday
19. Only in Dreams



During the day between shows I went to the MFA and explored the new wing of American art. Such an amazing experience! That night met up with Derek & Preston to see the show. This night they only played a couple of the same songs and stuck mostly to the nerdier, more eclectic play list which was such a great compliment to the first night. The tickets for this show were way up in the balcony which made it a little hard to see the front of the stage but being with friends made up for it. Pinkerton is probably my favorite all time album so this night was amazing. Pink Triangle, the Good Life, El Scorcho were all mindblowing. Rivers ended the night singing Butterfly solo on stage and saluted the audience with his guitar held one handed high above his head. Ending on a sad sweet song was probably the most fitting way to go for me as I had such a great time and that it's unlikely they'll ever play these types of shows again.

Set list second show;
1. Memories
2. Pork and Beans
3. The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
4. Perfect Situation
5. Dope Nose
6. Island In The Sun
7. Hash Pipe
8. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly
9. Susanne
10. Only In Dreams

Intermission

11. Tired of Sex
12. Getchoo
13. No Other One
14. Why Bother
15. Across The Sea
16. The Good Life
17. El Scorcho
18. Pink Triangle
19. Falling For You
20. Butterfly