Media circus! Books, theater, TV, and music
Random thought: rosenho got me to download Brimstone, starring our own Magnificent Bastard as the Devil. He's less creepy as the Devil because he's having such a good time and he's so explicit about his commitments. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the show, but watching all of the episodes was worth it to see Glover yell out "I never loved anything but God! And that was a long time ago!" Mmm, yeah.
Bad idea: wanting to vid Electronic's "Patience of a Saint" just to be able to show a shot of Lana emoting on the line "I'd rather watch drying paint." And yet ...
The other vid idea, so bad it's good: Scully, to the Go-Go's "Vacation." Really, is there any better song for an all-entrails vid? If there is, let me know.
Philip Baruth, The X President: I really enjoyed this book; the best comparison I can make is to Jennifer Government, though the writing style is very different. The setup is so engaging that I didn't realize it had gone on for a hundred pages until I thought about it. It's 2055; America is losing the Tobacco Wars, badly. The biographer of "BC," the ex-president, who's still alive due to advances in medical technology, is drafted by the military for a sensitive operation that could change everything and then some. "BC" was an affectation, especially since George Stephanopoulos and James Carville appear full-named (though perhaps not in the roles you might expect). The "if this goes on ..." aspects of the future were very well done, especially the militarization of society, and there were bullet trains, a special favorite of mine. Though the end unravels awkwardly, I enjoyed the reflections on what it means to make history and what it means to live in a proud nation losing an almost endless war. Sal Hayden, the narrator, asks of the second Sonny Liston/Floyd Patterson fight: "What's it like to be rapped unconscious and come to in a world where another man wears the god-size belt?" It's really a question about America. Also, in a different context: "it's like a slumber party with your very best girlfriend in the world, with the added possibility that she may kill you." First person present tense, I should mention.
Ray Bradbury, Let's All Kill Constance: This maddeningly elliptical short novel centers on Constance Rattigan, aging (or is she?) movie star whose misadventures seem to be catching up with her, in the form of an old address book that is a Book of the Dead - everyone in it is dead, except for the ones circled in red, and those are the ones who are dying. It seemed almost a parody of noir, with each non sequitur in the dialogue hinting at adventures in the characters' pasts. Aside from a cute reference to Fahrenheit 451, I didn't like it.
P.J. James, The Murder Room: Adam Dalgliesh, poet and police commander in charge of special murder investigations, is getting on in years. He's fallen in love, which is a very minor subplot, so minor I almost hesitate to mention it because it plays about as significant a role as personal relationships on Law & Order, which is to say not much. And that's an important fact about Dalgliesh's character. When one of the three heirs to a museum - the one who was going to shut it down - is killed, in a manner resembling that of a famous murder commemorated in the museum's most macabre exhibit, Dalgliesh is called in. As usual, James is a keen observer of life's little disappointments, and age is creeping around everyone's door. I wasn't in suspense, but I was by no means bored.
Laurell K. Hamilton, Seduced by Moonlight: What? Like you didn't at least think about reading it too. It's hard to figure out what to say about the latest Merry Gentry book, in which Merry has even more of the sex that Anita didn't let herself have until recently. As usual, Hamilton takes outfits very seriously, though she's constructed a world that takes outfits very seriously so at least that makes sense within her framework. Merry wants to be pregnant, but isn't; more people threaten her, and her alliance with the Queen grows deeper and more troubling for everybody. I'm likely to buy the next book (though I like Anita a lot better, for all that her powers also seem to double each year, because as a human she's supposed to be damaged by everything she does, whereas Merry's sidhe nature makes her unsympathetically cavalier about the gore and the sex), but this really fits the definition of "the kind of thing you'll like, if you like that kind of thing."
Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey, Elvenborn: Unlike Hamilton, Lackey is a writer I've long given up on. Sure, I keep the Last Herald-Mage and Arrows of the Queen trilogies, because for adolescent superpower angst they really deliver - and the Last Herald-Mage was my first taste of mainstream gay fantasy. But I began to gag at the later Valdemar books; mix Twu Wuv with talking animals too many times (not that way; get your mind out of the gutter!), and I'm out of there. For Andre Norton, however, I took the plunge, and it wasn't painful. This book is the third in "The Halfblood Chronicles," about a world ruled by cruel, nearly immortal elves. Now, the elvenlords' powerless children are in revolt, along with some high-powered halfbloods and rogue humans. The bulk of the story concerns Kyrtian, a smart elvenlord who happens to be a wonderful master, allowing his human slaves plenty of freedom within the confines of his lands. Because Kyrtian understands military strategy, he's appointed by the elvenlords to run the campaign against the various rebels. I liked Kyrtian, though I had the same uneasy reaction to his status as good master versus all the other bad masters as I now do to the social structure on Pern. Competent, beach-novel size fantasy, enlivened at the end by a dark trip into the elvenlords' past.
Gene Weingarten & Gina Barreca, I'm With Stupid: Weingarten is the Washington Post's humor columnist, former Czar of the Style Invitational, and the previous author of a hilarious book about his hypochondria and subsequent diagnosis of hepatitis. He met Barreca - well, they didn't meet in person until after the book was published, but he called Barreca after finding out that she was a professor of feminism and humor, and, thinking that this was a gold mine, called her up. They did a column and asked readers who was funnier; Barreca trounced him. They've been writing joint columns together once in a while ever since. This book is mostly a collection of the columns, with a bit of new stuff. It's hysterically funny. I can't even discuss the chapter on great male achievements, one of whose examples is a pair of roommates who lived - in Pennsylvania - on fried potatoes and burritos exclusively for so long that - well, I'll let Gene do the interview:
Gene: Fruits and veggies?
Seth: No.
Gene: Why not?
Seth: Too much hassle.
Gene: Good reason! So, Seth, things were going great until one day something happened. Can you tell the readers what happened?
Seth:
Gene: Don't be bashful.
Seth: We got scurvy.
The really sad thing is that when I related this anecdote at a small gathering at astolat's, at least two women volunteered men of their acquaintance to whom the same thing had happened. Scurvy! I love Gene and Gina and urge you to buy this book if you've ever wondered what the heck is up with the opposite sex.
Bad idea: wanting to vid Electronic's "Patience of a Saint" just to be able to show a shot of Lana emoting on the line "I'd rather watch drying paint." And yet ...
The other vid idea, so bad it's good: Scully, to the Go-Go's "Vacation." Really, is there any better song for an all-entrails vid? If there is, let me know.
Philip Baruth, The X President: I really enjoyed this book; the best comparison I can make is to Jennifer Government, though the writing style is very different. The setup is so engaging that I didn't realize it had gone on for a hundred pages until I thought about it. It's 2055; America is losing the Tobacco Wars, badly. The biographer of "BC," the ex-president, who's still alive due to advances in medical technology, is drafted by the military for a sensitive operation that could change everything and then some. "BC" was an affectation, especially since George Stephanopoulos and James Carville appear full-named (though perhaps not in the roles you might expect). The "if this goes on ..." aspects of the future were very well done, especially the militarization of society, and there were bullet trains, a special favorite of mine. Though the end unravels awkwardly, I enjoyed the reflections on what it means to make history and what it means to live in a proud nation losing an almost endless war. Sal Hayden, the narrator, asks of the second Sonny Liston/Floyd Patterson fight: "What's it like to be rapped unconscious and come to in a world where another man wears the god-size belt?" It's really a question about America. Also, in a different context: "it's like a slumber party with your very best girlfriend in the world, with the added possibility that she may kill you." First person present tense, I should mention.
Ray Bradbury, Let's All Kill Constance: This maddeningly elliptical short novel centers on Constance Rattigan, aging (or is she?) movie star whose misadventures seem to be catching up with her, in the form of an old address book that is a Book of the Dead - everyone in it is dead, except for the ones circled in red, and those are the ones who are dying. It seemed almost a parody of noir, with each non sequitur in the dialogue hinting at adventures in the characters' pasts. Aside from a cute reference to Fahrenheit 451, I didn't like it.
P.J. James, The Murder Room: Adam Dalgliesh, poet and police commander in charge of special murder investigations, is getting on in years. He's fallen in love, which is a very minor subplot, so minor I almost hesitate to mention it because it plays about as significant a role as personal relationships on Law & Order, which is to say not much. And that's an important fact about Dalgliesh's character. When one of the three heirs to a museum - the one who was going to shut it down - is killed, in a manner resembling that of a famous murder commemorated in the museum's most macabre exhibit, Dalgliesh is called in. As usual, James is a keen observer of life's little disappointments, and age is creeping around everyone's door. I wasn't in suspense, but I was by no means bored.
Laurell K. Hamilton, Seduced by Moonlight: What? Like you didn't at least think about reading it too. It's hard to figure out what to say about the latest Merry Gentry book, in which Merry has even more of the sex that Anita didn't let herself have until recently. As usual, Hamilton takes outfits very seriously, though she's constructed a world that takes outfits very seriously so at least that makes sense within her framework. Merry wants to be pregnant, but isn't; more people threaten her, and her alliance with the Queen grows deeper and more troubling for everybody. I'm likely to buy the next book (though I like Anita a lot better, for all that her powers also seem to double each year, because as a human she's supposed to be damaged by everything she does, whereas Merry's sidhe nature makes her unsympathetically cavalier about the gore and the sex), but this really fits the definition of "the kind of thing you'll like, if you like that kind of thing."
Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey, Elvenborn: Unlike Hamilton, Lackey is a writer I've long given up on. Sure, I keep the Last Herald-Mage and Arrows of the Queen trilogies, because for adolescent superpower angst they really deliver - and the Last Herald-Mage was my first taste of mainstream gay fantasy. But I began to gag at the later Valdemar books; mix Twu Wuv with talking animals too many times (not that way; get your mind out of the gutter!), and I'm out of there. For Andre Norton, however, I took the plunge, and it wasn't painful. This book is the third in "The Halfblood Chronicles," about a world ruled by cruel, nearly immortal elves. Now, the elvenlords' powerless children are in revolt, along with some high-powered halfbloods and rogue humans. The bulk of the story concerns Kyrtian, a smart elvenlord who happens to be a wonderful master, allowing his human slaves plenty of freedom within the confines of his lands. Because Kyrtian understands military strategy, he's appointed by the elvenlords to run the campaign against the various rebels. I liked Kyrtian, though I had the same uneasy reaction to his status as good master versus all the other bad masters as I now do to the social structure on Pern. Competent, beach-novel size fantasy, enlivened at the end by a dark trip into the elvenlords' past.
Gene Weingarten & Gina Barreca, I'm With Stupid: Weingarten is the Washington Post's humor columnist, former Czar of the Style Invitational, and the previous author of a hilarious book about his hypochondria and subsequent diagnosis of hepatitis. He met Barreca - well, they didn't meet in person until after the book was published, but he called Barreca after finding out that she was a professor of feminism and humor, and, thinking that this was a gold mine, called her up. They did a column and asked readers who was funnier; Barreca trounced him. They've been writing joint columns together once in a while ever since. This book is mostly a collection of the columns, with a bit of new stuff. It's hysterically funny. I can't even discuss the chapter on great male achievements, one of whose examples is a pair of roommates who lived - in Pennsylvania - on fried potatoes and burritos exclusively for so long that - well, I'll let Gene do the interview:
Gene: Fruits and veggies?
Seth: No.
Gene: Why not?
Seth: Too much hassle.
Gene: Good reason! So, Seth, things were going great until one day something happened. Can you tell the readers what happened?
Seth:
Gene: Don't be bashful.
Seth: We got scurvy.
The really sad thing is that when I related this anecdote at a small gathering at astolat's, at least two women volunteered men of their acquaintance to whom the same thing had happened. Scurvy! I love Gene and Gina and urge you to buy this book if you've ever wondered what the heck is up with the opposite sex.