pop culture consumption (oct - dec)
I resolve to do these monthly for this year, because this post just took me an hour an a half to write!
I made a final dash in December to bring the total up to something a little more respectable, and managed to read 29 for the quarter, but I still missed the 100 mark.
recs in bold
anti-recs in italics
64 Serenity: Better Days - Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews (comic)
This threw a few curveballs plotwise (Simon/Inara what?) and I can't really remember much of it now.
65 Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken
More adventures of plucky orphans with villainous relatives in glum times. I think I would've really loved these if I'd read them when I was young.
R Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
I still love this a lot, even though on every reread I find more and more of his flights of fancy too much. But I still get a lump in my throat when I get to the end.
66 Then We Came to An End - Joshua Ferris
I'm in awe of the technique in this, how he manages to write in the 'we' the whole way without sounding stiff and affected, while bringing out individual characters and their voices and stories. The epilogue is a bit too neat, but otherwise I really liked this and I found it hilarious.
67 The Pinstriped Prison - Lisa Pryor (NF)
This is an interesting polemic about how corporate culture is draining intellectual resources from lesser paying sectors, such as research and welfare, that could use the mindpower and creativity of the Australian young minds. I think she's too close to her subject, which both helps (she's had firsthand experience of what she's writing about) and detracts (she's got an obvious and admitted chip on her shoulder about private schools and corporate culture and the interrelation thereof).
68 Bizarro World (Bizarro no.1) (comic)
My favourite three stories:
- The Power of Positive Batman (Aarong Bergemon/John Kerschbaum) - Batman goes on break. And Superman ends up being the Joey Potter to Batman's Pacey. :DD
- Dear Superman (Dylan Herrocks/Farel Dalrymple) - Flash wishes the world would slow down for him. Succint, lovely art, and it made my heart ache for the character.
- The Break (Eric Drysdale/Tim Lane) - "You know, we should all just "hang out" more". The JLA go on vacation and have fun. <333333
There were other cute stories, but these three were simple, and managed to make the superhuman human.
69 Feeble Attempts - Jeffrey Brown (comic)
Simple drawings, rather wordy, but some of them were perfect in capturing mundane life and its resonance for the individual. The 9/11 one, a longer piece, is my favourite one - it just manages to convey all the anxiety and then growing disaffectedness that observers acquired because they just didn't know how else to cope with such an event.
R Thud - Terry Pratchett
Better on reread.
70 The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
I disliked both Roger and Bethany, and I really vehemently hated and was bored by the characters in the "novel" (I think you're meant to, but it didn't make their sections any easier to read) and the tone of the whole novel is so jaded and ugly about humanity and writing that it left a bad taste in my mouth.
71 Emiko Superstar - Mariko Tamaki, Steve Rolston (comic)
Minx. I had serious issues with what Emi does - she copies out diary entries of the young trapped suburban mother she's babysitting for, and turns that woman's pain into performance art in order to impress a bunch of sleazy disaffected hipsters. Sure, in the end she helps the mum escape her life, but she never owns to her dishonesty, and she still gets a happy ending.
72 Sleepwalking and Other Stories - Adrian Tomine (comic)
Some are good, others less memorable. Not as much of a gut punch as Summer Blonde.
R Alec: King Canute Crowd - Eddie Campbell (comic)
73 Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
Took me two tries to get into this. I found his writing really annoying and anvilicious, but it is an intriguing premise. I think the show definitely improves on the book.
R Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Reread after seeing the movie. Still fantastic and sad. :(
74 Last Days of Summer - Steve Kluger
I know *nothing* about baseball, and I still ridiculously charmed by this book. Joey's a mouthy little kid who keeps writing annoyed fan letters to Charlie, the baseball star, until Charlie finally gets riled up enough to write back. Their friendship is really sweet, and the book is hilarious. And I normally don't like epistolary books, but the voices in this are so clear and warm that I didn't mind it at all.
75 The Hidden Land - Pamela Dean
DUDE. >:( I was so angry at the ending of this that it negated my enjoyment of the meta of telling stories that most of the book deals with, as the kids find that the story their living in their fantasy land isn't the story they wrote originally. BUT THE ENDING. There is a third book, right?
76 Rats Saw God - Rob Thomas
Decent read, but I was a bit distracted by seeing where a lot of Veronica Mars elements came from, and how the tv series did it better.
77 Token - Alisa Kwitney, Joelle Jones (comic)
...I can't even remember what this one was about. Another Minx book.
78 Fluffy - Simone Lia (comic)
This is so so lovely. Michael has a talking bunny named Fluffy who thinks he really is Michael's child, and refuses to believe he is a bunny. Michael is a lonely bachelor who runs home to Italy to avoid his stalker/girlfriend. It's odd and cute and sad and yet affecting.
79 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
The writing alone, LOL.
80 Jake, Reinvented - Gordon Korman
Great Gatsby as a high school AU. Not bad actually, though the happy ending (ostensibly Nick/Jordan) takced onto the end annoyed me.
81 Planet Simpson - Chris Turner (NF)
I looooove pop culture geekiness, and this was just AWESOME. It's a critique and unashamed love-in of all things Simpsons from a cultural studies POV, and it's fascinating, well thought out, and crammed full of Simpsons trivia. It's maybe a *tad* too long, and some of the sections are not as well researched and backed up as others, but overall this was just such a fun read.
82 The Chameleon’s Shadow - Minette Walters
She's my favourite crime writer, and this was a return to form. I liked the main character, an angry, bitter and damaged returned Iraq veteran who gets caught up in the serial murders of old men who were paying for sex. It's got a really twisted conclusion, and while I'm not sure she exposed enough clues along the way for the reader to accept the perpertrator as revealed, but I really liked the tension of the investigation. She's another writer who uses a lot of epistolatory text, but again, she manages to write in character very well.
83 The New York Four - Brian Wood, Ryan Kelly (comic)
Minx. Wow, I really hated this one. All the storylines were unfinished, and it was so down on all four main characters.
84. Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1
Yay, more UA!
85 Rebel Angels - Libba Bray
86 The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen
I loved this one too. Wes is another one of her really dreamy boys who lead her repressed teen girls to find a happier way to deal with life's hurts. And yet I really liked Marcy, and I thought Dessen wrote all the relationships well, as she always does.
87 Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger
This is really classic chick-lit. Three best friends with different lives try to find true love in the city. Oh I remember now, I had serious issues with the undercurrent of conservatism in relation to male/female relationships that is cloaked in a supposed "free love" ideal.
88 Here There Be Dragons - James A. Owens
These are *fabulous*. Three young writers - Jack, John and Charles - are told they are the new caretakers of the atlas of all the imaginary worlds of Western myth and literature. It's a classic quest narrative steeped in the knowledge and awareness of many quest narratives before it, and it's got a lot of sly hints to who these three writers will grow up to be, and the meta and adventure are just a lot of fun.
89 Genius Squad - Catherine Jinks
Better than the first book because Cadel mixes with other genius kids, and the scheming/intrigue is a bit more interesting.
90 Ink and Steel - Elizabeth Bear
Densely written, and a bit too confusing and packed at times, but I couldn't care less because it's Marlowe/Shakespeare slash. YAY!
91 Pop Babylon - Imogen Edwards-Jones & Anonymous
Nothing new, and I love that this is filed under non-fiction at my local library. True scandalous tales and statistics from the music industry fictionalised as a year in the life of a manufactured boy-band. I think she'd be better off writing these as actual non-fiction exposes, because the fictional prose is crappy.
92 The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owens
See 88. This is the sequel, with a twisty plot amalgamating myths and tales from all over the map and time, from Greek myths to Peter Pan to the Pied Piper. Lots of fun.
Jan - Mar (20)
Apr - Jun (26)
Jul - Sept (18)
Stats for 2008 -
total (new): 92
rereads: 6
male/female authors: 53/52
nonfiction: 10
comics: 23
1 book every 3.7 days
Nanny McPhee
Adorable. Requires a huge suspension of disbelief by the end, but it clips along at a good pace, the children are never overly cute, and it has a gentle sense of humour. Also, lovely set decoration - that house is amazing.
Burn After Reading
This has its moments of brilliance, but the total is not as good as the sum of its moments. But J.K. Simmons is awesome, as always.
Brideshead Revisited
While it is lavishly beautiful, and I was touched by some of the moments, overall it was not great. It's very ordinary in direction, has some odd shaky camera moments quite out of character for the material, and the story itself remains unbalanced, with the first half much more intriguing than the second. I found it hard to see the love triangle as presented on screen, and once Sebastian and Lady Marchmain were shuffled off-screen I found the movie much less compelling.
Mr and Mrs Smith
So there's the flimsiest of plots that doesn't really make sense, and it's hyperviolent in the most ridiculous way. Brad and Angelina are HOT though, and it's fun enough.
High School Musical
...I caved. And I liked it. The songs are mostly catchy (I could not get that final song out of my head. And the only song I ff'd during was V.Hudgens' solo) and it's literally good clean fun.
High School Musical 3
It references the musicals of the Hollywood golden age! It is bright and shiny and ridiculous! Is it any surprise that I really really liked it? :)
Enchanted
Umm...is that it? There were too few songs, the dancing was kinda weak, and the climax was confusing. There were some great moments towards the beginning of the film, but it got less and less enjoyable as it went.
Slumdog Millionaire
Decent, enjoyable-while-it-happens movie, but really quite predictable, and hampered by some gaping plot holes that are ignored in favour of hurtling toward the inevitable happy ending (and the big song and dance routine, which was fun). Dev Patel is the weakest link in an otherwise decent cast full of appealing and capable child actors.
Twilight
LOL. It's still an improvement on the books - Bella actually has people at school she occasionally interacts with in a friendly manner! She is at least 40% less whiny! - but oh, so many improvements could still be made. Catherine Hardwicke's direction is so-so; she brings more depth to the relationships between Bella and everyone apart from Edward, which the book barely bothers with, but the pacing stutters, languishing between overly long and longing looks between the teen lovers (who lack chemistry, unfortunately) and confusing and poorly edited action sequences full of obviously fake special effects. The make-up artists for the vampires should be ashamed of themselves - these are meant to be incredibly attractive people? REALLY? All the actors do the best they can with the unfortunate material of the whisper thin plot and the ludicrously overdramatic relationship drama between Edward and Bella, but in the end it's still an (enterainingly) awful movie, as evidenced by the raucous laughter in our cinema at key points like Edward's ~~sparkling~~.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
This was tedious, for most part. Skipped most of Lena's storyline, because as pretty as Alexis Bledel is, she has very little presence in the role. All four girls seemed to be in four separate movies, and the neat ending to try and bring them back together seemed a bit fatuous. Very pretty scenery on location (in Turkey and Greece). Meh.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I cried. Actually, I got teary twice, both in the last half hour of the movie. It's not a complete downer of a movie, but it has a bittersweet tone to it. A rumination on time, aging, family and love. I think it's very accessible, apart from its length, which is a leisurely 2.5 hours that is filled with details and tangents that really enrich the world of the story. There's a lovely sense of humour and whimsy. I only found one particularly jarring note, and that's the bird-shaped symbol that could've done with better CGI, which is surprising considering the very well done aging effects. Cate Blanchett is amazing, beautiful and a little cruel and silly in her character's youth, softening to wistful beauty as she grows old, particularly in the last sequence where she cares for a series of ever younger Benjamins. Tilda Swinton is great too, in a small but lovely part. Brad Pitt is fine, and his beauty is used to great effect here. The cinematography is beautiful, as to be expected, and overall it's a sweet movie.
Jan - Mar
Apr - Jun
Jul - Sept
Stats for 2008 -
total: 45
new: 41
rewatch: 4
1 film every 8.1 days
I made a final dash in December to bring the total up to something a little more respectable, and managed to read 29 for the quarter, but I still missed the 100 mark.
recs in bold
anti-recs in italics
64 Serenity: Better Days - Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews (comic)
This threw a few curveballs plotwise (Simon/Inara what?) and I can't really remember much of it now.
65 Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken
More adventures of plucky orphans with villainous relatives in glum times. I think I would've really loved these if I'd read them when I was young.
R Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
I still love this a lot, even though on every reread I find more and more of his flights of fancy too much. But I still get a lump in my throat when I get to the end.
66 Then We Came to An End - Joshua Ferris
I'm in awe of the technique in this, how he manages to write in the 'we' the whole way without sounding stiff and affected, while bringing out individual characters and their voices and stories. The epilogue is a bit too neat, but otherwise I really liked this and I found it hilarious.
67 The Pinstriped Prison - Lisa Pryor (NF)
This is an interesting polemic about how corporate culture is draining intellectual resources from lesser paying sectors, such as research and welfare, that could use the mindpower and creativity of the Australian young minds. I think she's too close to her subject, which both helps (she's had firsthand experience of what she's writing about) and detracts (she's got an obvious and admitted chip on her shoulder about private schools and corporate culture and the interrelation thereof).
68 Bizarro World (Bizarro no.1) (comic)
My favourite three stories:
- The Power of Positive Batman (Aarong Bergemon/John Kerschbaum) - Batman goes on break. And Superman ends up being the Joey Potter to Batman's Pacey. :DD
- Dear Superman (Dylan Herrocks/Farel Dalrymple) - Flash wishes the world would slow down for him. Succint, lovely art, and it made my heart ache for the character.
- The Break (Eric Drysdale/Tim Lane) - "You know, we should all just "hang out" more". The JLA go on vacation and have fun. <333333
There were other cute stories, but these three were simple, and managed to make the superhuman human.
69 Feeble Attempts - Jeffrey Brown (comic)
Simple drawings, rather wordy, but some of them were perfect in capturing mundane life and its resonance for the individual. The 9/11 one, a longer piece, is my favourite one - it just manages to convey all the anxiety and then growing disaffectedness that observers acquired because they just didn't know how else to cope with such an event.
R Thud - Terry Pratchett
Better on reread.
70 The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
I disliked both Roger and Bethany, and I really vehemently hated and was bored by the characters in the "novel" (I think you're meant to, but it didn't make their sections any easier to read) and the tone of the whole novel is so jaded and ugly about humanity and writing that it left a bad taste in my mouth.
71 Emiko Superstar - Mariko Tamaki, Steve Rolston (comic)
Minx. I had serious issues with what Emi does - she copies out diary entries of the young trapped suburban mother she's babysitting for, and turns that woman's pain into performance art in order to impress a bunch of sleazy disaffected hipsters. Sure, in the end she helps the mum escape her life, but she never owns to her dishonesty, and she still gets a happy ending.
72 Sleepwalking and Other Stories - Adrian Tomine (comic)
Some are good, others less memorable. Not as much of a gut punch as Summer Blonde.
R Alec: King Canute Crowd - Eddie Campbell (comic)
73 Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
Took me two tries to get into this. I found his writing really annoying and anvilicious, but it is an intriguing premise. I think the show definitely improves on the book.
R Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Reread after seeing the movie. Still fantastic and sad. :(
74 Last Days of Summer - Steve Kluger
I know *nothing* about baseball, and I still ridiculously charmed by this book. Joey's a mouthy little kid who keeps writing annoyed fan letters to Charlie, the baseball star, until Charlie finally gets riled up enough to write back. Their friendship is really sweet, and the book is hilarious. And I normally don't like epistolary books, but the voices in this are so clear and warm that I didn't mind it at all.
75 The Hidden Land - Pamela Dean
DUDE. >:( I was so angry at the ending of this that it negated my enjoyment of the meta of telling stories that most of the book deals with, as the kids find that the story their living in their fantasy land isn't the story they wrote originally. BUT THE ENDING. There is a third book, right?
76 Rats Saw God - Rob Thomas
Decent read, but I was a bit distracted by seeing where a lot of Veronica Mars elements came from, and how the tv series did it better.
77 Token - Alisa Kwitney, Joelle Jones (comic)
...I can't even remember what this one was about. Another Minx book.
78 Fluffy - Simone Lia (comic)
This is so so lovely. Michael has a talking bunny named Fluffy who thinks he really is Michael's child, and refuses to believe he is a bunny. Michael is a lonely bachelor who runs home to Italy to avoid his stalker/girlfriend. It's odd and cute and sad and yet affecting.
79 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
The writing alone, LOL.
80 Jake, Reinvented - Gordon Korman
Great Gatsby as a high school AU. Not bad actually, though the happy ending (ostensibly Nick/Jordan) takced onto the end annoyed me.
81 Planet Simpson - Chris Turner (NF)
I looooove pop culture geekiness, and this was just AWESOME. It's a critique and unashamed love-in of all things Simpsons from a cultural studies POV, and it's fascinating, well thought out, and crammed full of Simpsons trivia. It's maybe a *tad* too long, and some of the sections are not as well researched and backed up as others, but overall this was just such a fun read.
82 The Chameleon’s Shadow - Minette Walters
She's my favourite crime writer, and this was a return to form. I liked the main character, an angry, bitter and damaged returned Iraq veteran who gets caught up in the serial murders of old men who were paying for sex. It's got a really twisted conclusion, and while I'm not sure she exposed enough clues along the way for the reader to accept the perpertrator as revealed, but I really liked the tension of the investigation. She's another writer who uses a lot of epistolatory text, but again, she manages to write in character very well.
83 The New York Four - Brian Wood, Ryan Kelly (comic)
Minx. Wow, I really hated this one. All the storylines were unfinished, and it was so down on all four main characters.
84. Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1
Yay, more UA!
85 Rebel Angels - Libba Bray
86 The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen
I loved this one too. Wes is another one of her really dreamy boys who lead her repressed teen girls to find a happier way to deal with life's hurts. And yet I really liked Marcy, and I thought Dessen wrote all the relationships well, as she always does.
87 Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger
This is really classic chick-lit. Three best friends with different lives try to find true love in the city. Oh I remember now, I had serious issues with the undercurrent of conservatism in relation to male/female relationships that is cloaked in a supposed "free love" ideal.
88 Here There Be Dragons - James A. Owens
These are *fabulous*. Three young writers - Jack, John and Charles - are told they are the new caretakers of the atlas of all the imaginary worlds of Western myth and literature. It's a classic quest narrative steeped in the knowledge and awareness of many quest narratives before it, and it's got a lot of sly hints to who these three writers will grow up to be, and the meta and adventure are just a lot of fun.
89 Genius Squad - Catherine Jinks
Better than the first book because Cadel mixes with other genius kids, and the scheming/intrigue is a bit more interesting.
90 Ink and Steel - Elizabeth Bear
Densely written, and a bit too confusing and packed at times, but I couldn't care less because it's Marlowe/Shakespeare slash. YAY!
91 Pop Babylon - Imogen Edwards-Jones & Anonymous
Nothing new, and I love that this is filed under non-fiction at my local library. True scandalous tales and statistics from the music industry fictionalised as a year in the life of a manufactured boy-band. I think she'd be better off writing these as actual non-fiction exposes, because the fictional prose is crappy.
92 The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owens
See 88. This is the sequel, with a twisty plot amalgamating myths and tales from all over the map and time, from Greek myths to Peter Pan to the Pied Piper. Lots of fun.
Jan - Mar (20)
Apr - Jun (26)
Jul - Sept (18)
Stats for 2008 -
total (new): 92
rereads: 6
male/female authors: 53/52
nonfiction: 10
comics: 23
1 book every 3.7 days
Nanny McPhee
Adorable. Requires a huge suspension of disbelief by the end, but it clips along at a good pace, the children are never overly cute, and it has a gentle sense of humour. Also, lovely set decoration - that house is amazing.
Burn After Reading
This has its moments of brilliance, but the total is not as good as the sum of its moments. But J.K. Simmons is awesome, as always.
Brideshead Revisited
While it is lavishly beautiful, and I was touched by some of the moments, overall it was not great. It's very ordinary in direction, has some odd shaky camera moments quite out of character for the material, and the story itself remains unbalanced, with the first half much more intriguing than the second. I found it hard to see the love triangle as presented on screen, and once Sebastian and Lady Marchmain were shuffled off-screen I found the movie much less compelling.
Mr and Mrs Smith
So there's the flimsiest of plots that doesn't really make sense, and it's hyperviolent in the most ridiculous way. Brad and Angelina are HOT though, and it's fun enough.
High School Musical
...I caved. And I liked it. The songs are mostly catchy (I could not get that final song out of my head. And the only song I ff'd during was V.Hudgens' solo) and it's literally good clean fun.
High School Musical 3
It references the musicals of the Hollywood golden age! It is bright and shiny and ridiculous! Is it any surprise that I really really liked it? :)
Enchanted
Umm...is that it? There were too few songs, the dancing was kinda weak, and the climax was confusing. There were some great moments towards the beginning of the film, but it got less and less enjoyable as it went.
Slumdog Millionaire
Decent, enjoyable-while-it-happens movie, but really quite predictable, and hampered by some gaping plot holes that are ignored in favour of hurtling toward the inevitable happy ending (and the big song and dance routine, which was fun). Dev Patel is the weakest link in an otherwise decent cast full of appealing and capable child actors.
Twilight
LOL. It's still an improvement on the books - Bella actually has people at school she occasionally interacts with in a friendly manner! She is at least 40% less whiny! - but oh, so many improvements could still be made. Catherine Hardwicke's direction is so-so; she brings more depth to the relationships between Bella and everyone apart from Edward, which the book barely bothers with, but the pacing stutters, languishing between overly long and longing looks between the teen lovers (who lack chemistry, unfortunately) and confusing and poorly edited action sequences full of obviously fake special effects. The make-up artists for the vampires should be ashamed of themselves - these are meant to be incredibly attractive people? REALLY? All the actors do the best they can with the unfortunate material of the whisper thin plot and the ludicrously overdramatic relationship drama between Edward and Bella, but in the end it's still an (enterainingly) awful movie, as evidenced by the raucous laughter in our cinema at key points like Edward's ~~sparkling~~.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
This was tedious, for most part. Skipped most of Lena's storyline, because as pretty as Alexis Bledel is, she has very little presence in the role. All four girls seemed to be in four separate movies, and the neat ending to try and bring them back together seemed a bit fatuous. Very pretty scenery on location (in Turkey and Greece). Meh.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I cried. Actually, I got teary twice, both in the last half hour of the movie. It's not a complete downer of a movie, but it has a bittersweet tone to it. A rumination on time, aging, family and love. I think it's very accessible, apart from its length, which is a leisurely 2.5 hours that is filled with details and tangents that really enrich the world of the story. There's a lovely sense of humour and whimsy. I only found one particularly jarring note, and that's the bird-shaped symbol that could've done with better CGI, which is surprising considering the very well done aging effects. Cate Blanchett is amazing, beautiful and a little cruel and silly in her character's youth, softening to wistful beauty as she grows old, particularly in the last sequence where she cares for a series of ever younger Benjamins. Tilda Swinton is great too, in a small but lovely part. Brad Pitt is fine, and his beauty is used to great effect here. The cinematography is beautiful, as to be expected, and overall it's a sweet movie.
Jan - Mar
Apr - Jun
Jul - Sept
Stats for 2008 -
total: 45
new: 41
rewatch: 4
1 film every 8.1 days