Monthly Archives: August 2007

SModcasts: Side-Splittingly Funny

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If you found Clerks, Clerks 2, or Jay & Silent Bob to be just downright fucking hilarious, then these podcasts are for you. If you like the “Evening with Kevin Smith” DVDs, these podcasts are for you. If you can sit through 45 minutes of really blatant grotesque sex and slime talk, these podcasts are for you. I had to download them for my Dad, Kevin Smith’s biggest fan, and after hearing his rave reviews of SModcast #2, just started listening to them myself.

Too dangerous to listen to on the El because other passengers think you are a freak when you bust out laughing over what’s playing on your ipod. These would brighten even the darkest horrible days. So funny.

Netflix: Attack of the Gryphon

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Although this movie was cheesy to a truly ridiculous degree, I think I could have been fine with the cheese had the special effects not been so very, very bad. It’s hard to believe it was made in 2007, although I realize the Sci Fi Channel does not have a big-movie-house budget.

Amber Benson = good in a badly written role. Jonathan LaPaglia = not as good. The only person in the movie whose accent (natural, in this case, I believe) just seemed too modern to fit in with the rest.

Planet Mnemonics

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The old mnemonic my Dad can still recite from however many gazillion years ago (hahaha) he learned it:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Earnest (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Neptune)
Pies (Pluto)

The new mnemonic he made up for the Pluto-less planets:
Miserably
Vain
Earthlings
Must
Just
Shut
Up
Now

Just one of the many ways in which I am clearly living in a dream world.

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Number of times I went swimming this year in either ocean, lake or pool: ZERO.
Number of times last year: ZERO.
Year before: Maybe? ONE or TWO during physical therapy no less.

Number of swimsuits I bought this year: TWO.
Number of swimsuits last year: At least ONE, maybe two or three.
Number of (lap-swimming) suits hanging on the door of the closet: TWO.
Number of (beach & pool) swimsuits in a plastic bin under the bed: At least SEVEN.

Number of delusions I clearly have about how much swimming I do in my life: MANY.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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I mean to do a “currently” post every week. Every week. And then…I just don’t. Ah well.

Making: Working on two Friendship Star quilts, and just started a strippy pinwheel for a little five year old girl who refers to me as Aunt Carolyn although there’s no blood tie there.

Reading: Uh oh. I just finished my book on the way home. I am not reading ANYTHING right this second, can you believe it. But I’m figuring out what to take on vacation with me on Saturday. Right now “Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Elliot Perlman is at the top of the list. Ginger’s been recommending it to me and finally she just up and sent it to me for my last birthday. So I guess I’d better get to it. It’s nice and thick, I figured that way I only have to pack the ONE book!

Watching: The Closer is the only summer series I’ve been able to consistently watch (have just LOVED the last few eps!). The TIVO keeps filling up with the others (Rescue Me, Damages, Saving Grace), and I just keep not watching them, although I think I’m almost caught up with Psych. I’m also watching Miracles, some weird show that starred with Skeet Ulrich. It’s got a LOT of religious wishy washy psychobabble crap in it though so I don’t know if my crush will be enough to get me through all four discs. I really want to see Transformers (yes, I KNOW but I DO) and maybe the new Die Hard, but I can’t seem to get to the theater…

Listening: Hilarious live album from Matt Nathanson, new tunes from Common (mellower than I expected), Carla Bruni (it’s weird, poems by Wordsworth, Dickinson, etc. put to music), Okkervil River (LOVE it! v. fun!), and the old but only so far album by Rhymefest, who I really liked at Lollapalooza.

Best of July.

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The best movie I saw in July was probably La Vie en Rose, although I don’t think it was the movie I enjoyed the most (given my ridiculous Pisces empathy trait, watching movies about people whose childhoods were just SO crappy kinda stresses me out). And despite me not liking the last 15 minutes or so, I thought Sunshine was pretty good.

The best book I read in July was “Freddy and Fredericka” by Mark Helprin, which was just side-splittingly hilarious and super sweet and nostalgic all at the same time. Worth its weight.

The best concert I went to in July was Travis. It was just a wonderful show. Really made me smile.

My favorite tunes in July? Hmmm. Well, I still spent a LOT of time listening to The National “Boxer” which is really leading the running for my number one album this year. I also really like Jason Isbell‘s solo album, the new Magic Numbers (!!), girlie music from Sara Bareille and Maria Taylor. For easy mellow listening, you can never go wrong with the new Josh Rouse or Stars.

In concert: Travis (!!!)

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[Yes it took me FOREVER to write this up, went to see them July 21.]

I have been waiting to see this band for a LONG time and I was NOT disappointed. They finally put out a new album this spring after…I think SIX years since their last real album!!! (“Singles” in 2004 doesn’t really count to me.) Their albums can be pretty mellow so I thought maybe this would be a sleepy little relaxed concert. Um, NO. Not at all. Totally high energy, bouncing off the walls, singing their hearts out. So amazing. Tied with Gomez for my #1 live show so far this year, and I really do not foresee enjoying myself this much at any of the concerts I have lined up for the near future.

If you like their tunes AT ALL, their sweet, sweet melodies and (sometimes) melancholy lyrics and the extreme hummability of all their songs…make sure you catch them on their way through town. The sound was amazing, they turned songs I don’t even love off the albums into totally catchy tunes live. Sooooooo good. Great stage banter, completely engaging. Woot!

Fiction: “Taft” by Ann Patchett

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I think this was the only Patchett book I hadn’t read yet. What the hell was I waiting for? (Woman needs to write me something new!) I LOVED it. The lead character’s voice totally sucked me in. His longings and his fears and his reality… It all rang true. His tenderness and his sometimes hesitations… The atmosphere at Muddy’s. The rain. Palpable.

A great book. I think she’s one of the best writers out there right now, and in terms of female writers, she’s right up there with Pat Barker and A.L. Kennedy. Would love to see something new. Just talked to my pops, she DOES have a new book out!! “Run”. Heading to the bookstore now!!

Fiction: “Inglorious” by Joanna Kavenna

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I didn’t love this. The lead character’s downward spiral…never really ends but it never really takes off either. I guess I needed things to either get better or get worse, but there was sort of a sameness to it all. And when it ends, it.just.ends. No resolution either way really.

But there were two things I really really loved about it. I loved her to-do lists. SO funny. (Lists where things like “Read all of Western Philosophy” receive the same weight as things like “vacuum”.) And I loved her “letters” (or pretend letters as most are things you presume she did NOT send). And I thought they were so well-written and so comedic in a very bleak way…and I thought the rest of the book SHOULD have had that tone as well. Or if it would have, then it would probably have been a book I really loved. There was a distance to the rest / sort of a bubble around the character I found inpenetrable, that totally disappeared in those moments. They were what was most engaging about the character and perhaps were used too sparingly. They almost felt like they were written by a different person.