What I saw and read November 19 - 25

Books:

1. I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
I loved, loved, loved this book. Funniest thing I've read in a long time.

2. The Totalitarian Temptation by Jean Francois Revel
Like George Orwell and Hugh Nibley this book really helped me to see the world more clearly. I heavily underlined every page. I will now search out all of his other books.

Movies:

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Duel
3. McClintock!
Pretty good until the ending where John Wayne chases his shrewish wife through the town and then spanks her. She is in her underwear and the townspeople are laughing. Seemed kind of mean spirited.
4. Beowulf
Awesome. As over the top as any movie I've seen since 300. And I really dig the changes Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery made to the poem.
5. Pixar Animated Shorts
6. The Man Who Wasn't There
This Coen Brother movie doesn't do much for me.

TV
1. Southpark
The best Southparks are also the most painful. Sure the show has a lot of crass humor, but the stakes are real to the characters. When they get hurt, they really get hurt. And when Kyle finds out that the girls voted him the ugliest boy in school - it hurt. Very tender.
2. The Soup
3. The Soup Presents
4. The Wrong Trousers - Wallace and Gromit
5. Pushing Dasies
I think I misjudged this show. Very funny and I'm ready to come back. I promised my inlaws that the show would be clean but within the first five minutes there was an erection joke. The TV set almost got turned off.
6. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
7. The Office

What I saw and read November 12- 18

Books:

1. Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane.
One of the best mysteries I've read in a long time.
2. Behind the Mouse Ears by David Koenig
One of the best behind the scenes books about Disneyland. Talks about sex, death, lawsuits, drugs, pranks and hippy riots. Excellent.

Movies:

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by that Coward Robert Ford
Cassey Affleck was amazing.
2. Way Out West - Laurel and Hardy
3. The Circus - Charles Chaplin
4. King Kong (1933)

TV

1. The Soup
2. The Office
3. 30 Rock

What I saw and read November 5 - 11

I'm off to Louisiana tomorrow so this week I'll only give the list.

BOOKS
1. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
2. Anime Explained - a reference book

MOVIES
1. Shrek the third (blech)
2. Miller's Crossing
3. Nightmare Before Christmas

TV
1. The Office
2. The Soup
3. 30 Rock

What I saw and read October 29th - November 4th

Books:

1. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
This may be the scariest book I have ever read. Twice I had to put it down when it got too dark at night. One of those nights, I was so scared when I woke up at four a.m. that I didn't go and use the potty. I just suffered with a full bladder for the rest of the night.
But it is also the one of the most life affirming books I've read in a while. I love this book. I felt like I was thirteen years old, reading Salem's Lot for the first time. Highly recommended.

Movies:

1. Monster House
2. Blood Simple
I'd seen it before but didn't love it then like I do now. My 3rd favorite Coen Brother movie. Behind Miller's Crossing and The Big Lebowski.
3. Ratatouille
Pixar has made three perfect films - Toy Story, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. (Notice I didn't say Toy Story 2. Everybody loves that movie but not me. It does nothing for me. I blame myself.)
4. The Big One
Now I only have one more Michael Moore movie to see. Sicko. I liked this one. Perhaps it is my favorite so far. I also liked Roger and Me (although I'm disappointed to know that he actually did interview Roger Moore and didn't include it in the movie.) Bowling For Columbine was half insightful and half retarded. Fahrenheit 9/11 was shallow and glib. I expected to leave the theater either furious at President Bush or Michael Moore. Instead I left the theater bored.

TV:

1. The Office

2. Book TV debate about Christianity with Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza

3. Southpark

What I saw and read October 22 - 28

Books:


1.Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston
I loved this. Funny and fast. If you like noir books, read this.

2. Invasive Procedures by Aaron Johnston and Orson Scott Card
I enjoyed it.

Movies:

1. Barton Fink
Not my favorite Coen Brother's movie but the detectives are hilarious.

2. Evan Almighty
This was a huge surprise. I thought I might be mildly amused at best, but I really got into it. I loved this movie.

3. Galaxy Quest

I think this is a perfect movie.

TV:

1. Inside Saddam's Reign of Terror
National Geographic special
2. The Office
3. How I Met Your Mother
This show cracked me up. I can't believe I haven't seen it before. I will definitely keep watching.
4. The Soup
5. Meet the Press
6. Aliens in America
Somebody told me this was like Freaks and Geeks. No. Freaks and Geeks is ultra-ultra real. They never sacrifice a true moment for a joke. Aliens in America is more like Malcolm in the Middle. Pretty good, but the characters are pretty cartoonish. Maybe I just saw a weak episode. I'll try it again. Every joke seemed like it would be funny. I bet if I saw it on a script page I'd crack up, but for some reason the episode didn't do it for me.
7. 30 Rock

What I saw and read October 15 -21

I'm going to go fast this week. Not take a lot of time.

Books:

1. Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush by Robert Draper

This is an excellent book. The author received an amazing amount of access. The book is very tough but fair. I imagine those who lionize president Bush will like him a tad less and those who despise him will begin to like him just a little bit more. Highly recommended.

Movies:

1. Ace in the Hole:
Kurt Douglas is amazing. This movie was excellent. Brutal.

2. Die Hard:
Haven't seen this for about twenty years. It pretty much holds up. Too long though.

3. For Your Consideration
I am a huge fan of This is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman. Not so much for A Mighty Wind and Best in Show. I prefer the movies about a small group of people (The band in Spinal Tap and the actors in Guffman) interacting the entire movie than the ones like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show, where it follows several groups of people who only interact at the end. So while For Your Consideration isn't as funny as Wind or Show, I still like it better since it follows the actors of a movie. Pretty good. Didn't love it though.

4. Meet the Robinsons
I loved this movie until the main character goes into the future, then I was bored. In thirty years, giant octopuses can be trained to be butlers? Really? And frogs can be trained to act like the Rat Pack? But the first thirty minutes were magical.


TV

1. 30 Rock
2. Pushing Daises
I don't know, I liked it but I think I'm done. Too twee. Too cute. I liked the movie Amelie but I think I would have thrown up if I'd had to watch another hour.
3. South Park
Fantastic and a two-parter. I can't wait to see how it ends.
4. Sarah Silverman
So-so.
5. The Office
I watched it twice. It was my favorite episode this season so far.

Books, movies and TV October 8 - 14

Books:

1. Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby

This is the second time I have read this. I love all Nick Hornby but I especially like his non-fiction and criticism.

I think I met Nick Hornby once. I was on a London bus with my wife, two children and about one hundred and fifty pounds of luggage. (No joke we were moving to Wales.) I was really scared that I wouldn't be able to find the stop for Stoke Newington. A kind man with a shaved head told me it was a little ways away but don't worry, you haven't missed it. Every three minutes I'd ask again If I'd missed it. Finally he said, "I'll let you know where it is." And sure enough, he did. So thanks Mr. Hornby.

Oh yeah, the reason I thought it was Nick Hornby is because he lives near Stoke Newington and a year later when I saw him give a reading, he looked and sounded like the kind man with the shaved head. I wished I'd have known it was him so I could thank him for The Polysyllabic Spree.

Since the book is about an obsessive soccer fan, it hit a chord. I'm an obsessive movie watcher. Always have been. My earliest memory is in a theater watching R2D2 get zapped by Jawas. Many is the night that I sit in bed while my wife wants to talk about the welfare of the children and I can't concentrate because I am mentally going through the movie release dates for the next nine weeks and listing the movies I have to see - sort of want to see and don't want to see at all.

When I was about ten, both Teen Wolf and Back to the Future came out about the same time. I was already a huge Michael J. Fox fan because of Family Ties, but these two movies shot me into ultimate obsession. I made myself a Michael J. Fox scrapbook that consisted of the newspaper ad for the two movies glued into a spiral notebook. Page after page of either Michael J. Fox either checking his watch next to a flaming tire track or standing there with wolf chest hair coming out of his shirt.

I can't find the notebook now. No doubt my mother (who normally saves everything) stumbled upon it and recognizing it as the work of someone dangerously unhinged, the work of someone who would no doubt be disappointed with Michael J. Fox (perhaps when the Keatons go to England) and seek revenge. (What other conclusion could one come to?) I'm sure she threw it away and I'm glad.

Very wise.

2. Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground - Robert D. Kaplan

I highly recommend this book. I learned a lot. For anyone who has any opinion about the armed services. Very informative.

Movies:

1. Hudsucker Proxy

Even the Coen Brother movies I only sort of like - I really, really like. Perhaps even love. (I'd seen it before.)

2. Hold that Ghost

Abbot and Costello (I'd seen it before.)

3. The Wistful Widow of Wagon's Gap

Abbot and Costello. (I'd seen it before.)

4. Here Come the Co-eds

Abbot and Costello. When I was a kid I was frightened that I would die before seeing every Abbot and Costello movie. I can now scratch this one off my list. (As an adult, I'm scared I will die the moment I see all of their movies. I refuse to watch Little Giant.)

TV:

1. King of the Hill
Meh.

2. Sarah Silverman Program
Meh.

3. Southpark
Meh.

4. The Office
Meh. (I think the problem was with me this week since everything I watched kind of bored me.)

5. Pushing Dasies

I don't know if I can watch this one anymore. It is too much. I'd love it if it was only a half an hour but about twenty five minutes into it I get feeling a little . . . I don't know . . . like I've just eaten a plate full of powdered sugar.

6. Freaks and Geeks season opener.

Work of art. Not many perfect tv shows, but this is a perfect show. I will no doubt be writing about this show many times on this site.