Author Archives: Duff

Best of May

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in May was Star Trek. I saw things that considered themselves more important than that movie, but they didn’t live up to their own forecasts.

The best book I read in May was a three-way tie between The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris and two really awesome sci-fi books: Wanderlust and Grimspace both by Ann Aguirre. But you know, unlike with going to shows, I’ve been reading a LOT this year (June was the first month of 2009 to see me read under fewer than 10 books), and for the most part I have really liked the stuff I’ve been reading. So you know, pinning it down is a bit…silly. Mayhaps. 🙂

The best gig I went to in May doesn’t exist (as with April and March). (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in May were new albums from Telekinesis!, Eminem, Green Day and Phoenix. Perhaps I’ll get caught up on album reviews soon and come back and give ya a link. 😉Write-up here.

Best of April

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in April was Sunshine Cleaning. Not mindblowing but certainly worth seeing.

The best book I read in April was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Really intense and thoughtful. Wasn’t totally thrilled with the ending, but that wasn’t enough to make me stop thinking about it and recommending it to people.

The best gig I went to in April doesn’t exist (as with March). (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in April were new albums from Gomez and Great Lake Swimmers, two of my very favorite bands. And my favorite single was “Lights Off” The Dears.

Random personal highlights: I paid a visit to my friends in Milwaukee. Was that the month the Settlers of Catan craziness started? I think it may have been. One of several goodbye parties for Jen & Naz (fun party, sad occasion.

Lowlights? You know, at this point, really, I don’t remember! Fortunately for my mental health, I tend to only jot down the good things.

Best of March

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Oh good grief, I am so far behind on my own recordkeeping. Maybe I should toss it all!

The best movie I saw in March was The Reader which I was oddly unprepared for the subject matter of but thought Winslet’s performance was really tour de force.

The best book I read in March was… Wow that one is really hard to narrow down (especially after all this time!). I’m going to call it a tie between “City of Refuge” by Tom Piazza, which was really heartbreaking fictionally as the Katrina situation was in real life; “Bone Crossed” by Patricia Briggs, because honestly that woman cannot write a book that doesn’t keep me up all night savoring every word; and “The Girl Who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson, a satisfying sequel that had me on the edge of my seat.

The best gig I went to in March doesn’t exist. (I have NOT been going to shows this year. Not sure what’s happening there.)

My favorite tunes in March were new albums from Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Boy Least Likely To, and U2 and I was really digging these singles (still am, frankly): “Afterglow” Kate York, “Airport Surroundings” Lonely, Dear, and “Sweet Dream” Greg Laswell.

Random personal highlights: I applied for a ginormo lifechange which you may know I am now about four weeks into; Lauren and I went on a photowalk in the wastelands of downtown Chicago; awesome dinner out w/ Monica, Jen and Cinnamon (all part of Jen’s extended goodbye series); and I’m not even sure at this point what some of the notations in my calendar mean so we’ll just leave it at that.

Lowlights? Who knows. It was just so long ago now! 🙂

Fantasy/Mystery: “Cry Wolf” and “Hunting Ground”, both by Patricia Briggs

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I’ve talked a LOT about Patricia Briggs here, all of whose books I love, particularly the Mercy Thompson series.

These books take place within the same universe, concentrating on events in Bran’s pack instead, particularly his son Charles. While I think they discussed the concept vaguely in the Mercy books, these books also focus on Anna, who is an “omega”, a sort of “powerful submissive” who can stand up to alphas in a way no other wolves can.

Just as with the Mercy books, the action is great, the romance is great, they feel very real and believable and oh my god I cannot wait for her to write another one!!!!!

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for August.

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Bought:

  • Sea Lord, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • My Life in France, by Julia Child
  • Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch
  • Cry Wolf, by Patricia Briggs
  • Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs

Read:
  • Sea Fever, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • Sea Lord, by Virginia Kantra (iPhone/kindle)
  • Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill
  • Carved in Bone, by Jefferson Bass
  • Cry Wolf, by Patricia Briggs
  • Happy All the Time, by Laurie Colwin
  • Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs
  • White Time, by Margo Lanagan (stories)

DadReaction: The Ugly Truth

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Alternate title: Cinematic Horror.

Good. God. Worst. Movie. Of. The. Year. Perhaps the Decade.

Added treat. Sitting in front of some…well, clone of the neanderthal in the movie who thought the film was high-larious. Bellowing guffaws at (all AND ONLY) the grossest parts. And, oh, there are many.

At one moment I thought: this is the kind of movie you hope your mother doesn’t know you were at.

At one point, Katherine asks Gerald why he loves her–for a second, I thought he was going to say “Because the script makes me!” NO other reason.

DadReaction: The Proposal

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Alternate title: Movie Moan.

Spectacularly funny beginning. In a way, they did to The Devil Wears Prada what His Girl Friday did to the Front page–switched the gender of the assistant/reporter. Bullock v. good here, kid adequate. But if you can imagine Streep and Hathaway becoming lovers in Prada–go ahead, try it. No really, are you trying? Okay, now you’ve got some idea of what goes spectacularly wrong with this flick. The romance is EMBARASSINGLY UNBELIEVABLE. Wow. CANNOT express how unbelievable. Also, the dad is simply from some other, horrible movie about a father who drives his son to suicide. Just warps the comedy. (It’s like the public humiliation of the girl in Much Ado About Nothing–you never get back to the lightness.)

What’s truly disappointing about all this is that Bullock and what’s his name–the Boy–have pretty good comic timing: verbal and physical. They step on each other’s words and look awkward when they’re pretending to be cuddly very well. Also, so much of the humor is good, like the beginning set-up. But then, just as it goes for simple romance, it goes for simple laughs. Compare the super set-up of the dog/eagle joke with the non-set-up of the
nude collision joke. (When’s the last time you took a shower without knowing where the towel was? First grade?)

I’m really sick of movies that take hyper-competent women, send them to somewhere with–I don’t know–TREES, and assume they will become completely helpless. I mean, they won’t even be able to carry a suitcase. PLUS: she’s supposed to be Canadian. Just who in Canada can be surprised at living conditions in Alaska?

You keep thinking of different ways the romance could have gone–including nowhere, with some other development of these two: what’s wrong with mutual respect? Is romance the ONLY way we grow? Why not have the kid have an older brother that she falls for? Or–geez–why not have her take on the dad? She eats guys like him for breakfast in her job–she can’t manage it in Sitka?