Author Archives: Duff

Boys will be boys.

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Wright kept talking. “For me [Stephen] King is Emily Dickinson with balls, Emily Dickinson if she got the hell out of her house and lived in the real world.”

Horowitz leaned toward Adi. “I think the philosophers of old got it wrong. The big question in life is not how much pain and suffering can we endure, but how much happiness can we bear. That’s the real existential question for post-industrial, agnostic man. Things are going to get better for us. How many cruises can you take in retirement? How many all-you-can-eat buffets can you visit? These are the real issues facing us!”

–both from “Death of a Writer” by Michael Collins.

Fiction: “Death of a Writer” by Michael Collins

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Bought because I enjoyed an earlier book of his, “The Keepers of Truth.”

As to this one: A novel set in academia, involving a lost manuscript, an unsolved murder, suicide, jealousy, ambition, and the lack of it. A side story with the lead detective’s messed up life.

I thought the beginning with Pendleton was dragging on a bit…but once he became incapacitated things really took off. The backstory on the detective however seemed dragged in a bit. Eventually it found its place, but I was never sure it was really necessary that it be there.

Live Tunes for June.

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15th: Morrissey – I’m hoping for a few Smiths appearances. “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” anyone?
19th: Arcade Fire – Concert of the season, no? second time seeing them. Will accept nothing less than being blown completely away.
24th: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – I have no idea what to expect.
31st: Dinosaur Jr. with Lou Barlow doing some solo stuff also or so the flyer suggests. “Mary kissed me and we lost control / The oldest story never told / Crazy Mary you’re forever divine /
They’ll never know the baby’s mine…”

Coinstar Rejects.

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I used to post about this on the blog all the time; I think it needs its own category here on Snip.

I do not use change. Any change given to me when I buy lunch or stamps or snacks or what have you is dumped into my bag and then dumped into a change jug when I get home. When it gets full, I cash it in and it’s generally about $200 (given the size of the jug, the fact that I dump ALL change in it and only dig out quarters for laundry occasionally). It is always a surprise to find what Coinstar rejects when I take it in as often there is change from countries I have never been to so clearly I got handed this AS IF it was legitimate currency when someone was giving me change for a purchase. Shortly after a Coinstar run, I become a Change Nazi, carefully looking over everything they hand me back. But of course, shortly after that, I forget…

Anywho, here’s this week’s round of Coinstar Rejects:

  • One Boston T token.
  • One Canadian 10-cent piece
  • One dull British 10-pence piece
  • One sparkly French Franc. Hello they don’t even use these in France anymore, but someone in the US is giving me them as change? Lame!
  • One dirty 25-centime piece from the Dominican Republic. Hello!

Crap!

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Great Lake Swimmers are playing Schuba’s June 30…but waaaaaah I am already going to Ravinia that night to see Lyle Lovett (and I’m the glue between the two other people going, so I can’t really back out w/o it being very awkward all ’round). I’m not a huge Lyle Lovett fan but he, his music, and his banter are really the perfect Ravinia concert. You’re outside, you’re eating olives and hummus and chips and drinking wine and you have a citronella candle and a chair and there are blankets and tables and people and you’re chatting with friends, and there’s music and talk coming from the speakers and the HAPPY is just all around, and it’s just lovely. And Lyle does a great show for that type of venue.

But daaammmmmmmmn. I have missed GLS a few times now. Once I had tickets and didn’t go. Once I bought tickets not realizing I had already bought plane tkts to NY that weekend. Ugh. Will it ever happen? Their albums are just beautiful.

DVD: Elizabethtown.

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Truly bizarre. Hyperbole in EVERY scene just wears ya out. Disjointed, unconnected, illogical. There were so many things that were bizarrely wrong with this movie. A few random cute moments…that made absolutely no sense within the context of the movie. And a million more nonsensical and noncute ones. Cameron Crowe = unusually off his game.

DVD: The Italian Job

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Actually pretty entertaining in a goofy lighthearted way. It’s just a few kisses and gropes away from being a good movie. I mean, come on, people, is that too much to ask in a movie with two hot leads?

p.s. and for my fellow Buffy fans, hello Oz is in this! And he’s got some really funny lines!