Multimedia
One of the things I like about my LJ is that it's a good thing to post to when I need to keep myself awake. I'm currently on the overnight shift and it's been one of those weeks where sleep has been difficult to come by for some reason. It's moments like those that caffeine and non-idle hands come in exceptionally handy. I think that the sleep deficit I've been running for the last year might have something to do with my lack of productivity in the writing department. I simply cannot write when I'm tired. Instead I just stare at my computer wondering why I ever turned in on in the first place. Well, the sleep deficit isn't the only thing... I've managed to get some Farscape episodes at a non-extragant price. Rather than putting down on shocking price of $120 for 22 episodes, I've been getting season 1's "Starburst Edition," the third and final season 1 installment coming out in the middle of March. Playing $45 total is a lot easier on the wallet than the other price. Also picked up Farscape's "Peacekeeper Wars," which is the series ending mini-series. Best $15 I've ever spent, but I'm sure to post more about that later.
Another thing that I do to keep awake when I don't have work to do is read. While the hands are mostly idle, the brain is not and that's a good thing. I'm currently taking a short hiatus from Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and have read other things at work. I start my wife's old copy of "The Chronicles of Narnia." They are quick reads, but I thought they were a bit on the boring side. For the last couple of days, I've had Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" with me. Currently, I'm halfway through my second read of the book.
The thing of Dan Brown's stuff... it is obvious that he does a lot of research when he's writing his books, which is particularly obvious with A&D and "The Da Vinci Code." Some of that research has lead to some contraversary, which is obvious from some hysterical books released in the wake of "Da Vinci" meant to debunk it. What these morons don't seem to get, for some reason, is that "The Da Vinci Code" is *freaking fiction*! Anyway, upon rereading A&D something else has jumped out at me. I don't think that some of the actual writing is that good. Maybe uneven is a better word for it. As a fountain of to display his research it's great. As a vehicle for interesting character development it's not. Paragraphs are commonly interspersed with italized thoughts from the characters, which something of a pet peeve of mine even if it might not be technically bad writing. His characters commonly "groan," often say obvious things for the sole purpose of... well, I'm not exactly sure. Pushing the dialogue along when that isn't necessary? Then again, there is a fascinating speech by a character in the middle of A&D that speaks very nicely to the idea of religious faith and how it fits into a commonly secular world. So yeah, uneven might be the right word. "The Da Vinci Code" is better in the writing department, but even still it's the research that keeps it afloat more than pearly prose.
I've since put Dan Brown aside and moved on to another hack writer: Stephen King. I use "hack writer" as a term of endearment, so don't get me wrong. I've been reading King's stuff since I was ten and he's always been a favorite of mine. I'm just saying Nobel isn't exactly knocking. Truth be told, I'd love to be a hack writer... I'm more minimalist in my writing, more King than Hemingway and that's typically how I like my books too. I've just finished "One Hundred Years in Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is one of those Nobel-winning books. He seems to be a rarity in literature (or at least of what I've read) in that he manages to cover five or six generations of a family in the span of 400 hundred pages seamlessly, almost as if it was told slowly and patiently yet all in one breath at the same time. It's something I could never do, nor honestly, would want to do. It's not my style. Give me dialogue, baby!
That was a bit of an aside. Anyway... I'm now reading Stephen King's "The Stand." God, I love that book. It's one of my favorites. It's got great characters and a rivoting plot that just keeps on pushing you further into the story. I've only just started it now, so I won't go into great details. I think "The Stand" is Stephen King's best work and is the book that should show people that he deserves to thought of as a great writer, hack or not. By the way, his part-time gig with Entertainment Weekly is always an interesting read too. I certainly look forward to that feature more than the quiz or the Stupid Questions (their name for it, not mine!).
On the movie front, I've recently watched to little-movies-that-could. "Garden State" was so good! Nicely (and subtlely) acted and and a great story. "Napoleon Dynamite" was... okay. I love stupid comedies, so there were definately parts that tickled me. Still, it seemed disjointed and relied a bit too much on "gosh" and "geez" to get the laughs out rather than being funny. "Garden State" didn't use the sledgehammer. You just got little bits here and there, like the gas pump or his new shirt.
One more thing before I end this overly long post. I think that Barenaked Ladies' "Pinch Me" is a severly underrated song. While it's one of the few that managed to get airplay in the U.S. on more mainstream stations rather than the self-described alternative stations, I think it should have been the song that really had them take off here rather than being just one of those bands that people like but can only name one song of theirs (in their case, that would be "One Week"). "Pinch Me" is what they call a happy little song about depression and it is certainly easy to listen too. Nice melody, mellow vocals, kick-ass bass line. It's lyrics like "You try to scream, but it comes as a yawn," that really make you realize these guys are really talented.
Hmm, post too long. But I'm still awake! So, uh, mission accomplished, I guess...
Another thing that I do to keep awake when I don't have work to do is read. While the hands are mostly idle, the brain is not and that's a good thing. I'm currently taking a short hiatus from Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and have read other things at work. I start my wife's old copy of "The Chronicles of Narnia." They are quick reads, but I thought they were a bit on the boring side. For the last couple of days, I've had Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" with me. Currently, I'm halfway through my second read of the book.
The thing of Dan Brown's stuff... it is obvious that he does a lot of research when he's writing his books, which is particularly obvious with A&D and "The Da Vinci Code." Some of that research has lead to some contraversary, which is obvious from some hysterical books released in the wake of "Da Vinci" meant to debunk it. What these morons don't seem to get, for some reason, is that "The Da Vinci Code" is *freaking fiction*! Anyway, upon rereading A&D something else has jumped out at me. I don't think that some of the actual writing is that good. Maybe uneven is a better word for it. As a fountain of to display his research it's great. As a vehicle for interesting character development it's not. Paragraphs are commonly interspersed with italized thoughts from the characters, which something of a pet peeve of mine even if it might not be technically bad writing. His characters commonly "groan," often say obvious things for the sole purpose of... well, I'm not exactly sure. Pushing the dialogue along when that isn't necessary? Then again, there is a fascinating speech by a character in the middle of A&D that speaks very nicely to the idea of religious faith and how it fits into a commonly secular world. So yeah, uneven might be the right word. "The Da Vinci Code" is better in the writing department, but even still it's the research that keeps it afloat more than pearly prose.
I've since put Dan Brown aside and moved on to another hack writer: Stephen King. I use "hack writer" as a term of endearment, so don't get me wrong. I've been reading King's stuff since I was ten and he's always been a favorite of mine. I'm just saying Nobel isn't exactly knocking. Truth be told, I'd love to be a hack writer... I'm more minimalist in my writing, more King than Hemingway and that's typically how I like my books too. I've just finished "One Hundred Years in Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is one of those Nobel-winning books. He seems to be a rarity in literature (or at least of what I've read) in that he manages to cover five or six generations of a family in the span of 400 hundred pages seamlessly, almost as if it was told slowly and patiently yet all in one breath at the same time. It's something I could never do, nor honestly, would want to do. It's not my style. Give me dialogue, baby!
That was a bit of an aside. Anyway... I'm now reading Stephen King's "The Stand." God, I love that book. It's one of my favorites. It's got great characters and a rivoting plot that just keeps on pushing you further into the story. I've only just started it now, so I won't go into great details. I think "The Stand" is Stephen King's best work and is the book that should show people that he deserves to thought of as a great writer, hack or not. By the way, his part-time gig with Entertainment Weekly is always an interesting read too. I certainly look forward to that feature more than the quiz or the Stupid Questions (their name for it, not mine!).
On the movie front, I've recently watched to little-movies-that-could. "Garden State" was so good! Nicely (and subtlely) acted and and a great story. "Napoleon Dynamite" was... okay. I love stupid comedies, so there were definately parts that tickled me. Still, it seemed disjointed and relied a bit too much on "gosh" and "geez" to get the laughs out rather than being funny. "Garden State" didn't use the sledgehammer. You just got little bits here and there, like the gas pump or his new shirt.
One more thing before I end this overly long post. I think that Barenaked Ladies' "Pinch Me" is a severly underrated song. While it's one of the few that managed to get airplay in the U.S. on more mainstream stations rather than the self-described alternative stations, I think it should have been the song that really had them take off here rather than being just one of those bands that people like but can only name one song of theirs (in their case, that would be "One Week"). "Pinch Me" is what they call a happy little song about depression and it is certainly easy to listen too. Nice melody, mellow vocals, kick-ass bass line. It's lyrics like "You try to scream, but it comes as a yawn," that really make you realize these guys are really talented.
Hmm, post too long. But I'm still awake! So, uh, mission accomplished, I guess...