(no subject)
Well, this is my first official posting on this thing, and I have to admit it's quite awkward. People who use lj seem to go on about everything that's going on in and outside their head at that moment, as though the world were their personal audience at every posting. Me, I figure the only people who will see this will mostly be those I force to. So I figure that I'll begin with some of the things I'm up to. Enough insecurity, on with the show....
Just finished watching the second episode of 'Carnivale'. I'm always late with these things. I hate watching shows that are the hottest thing, no matter how good they are. Since we don't have HBO, my sister would watch the episodes from her friends who would tape them. She managed to follow the story and discuss it with them, all without missing a beat. Me, I decided not to watch it with her. Sure, I knew I would enjoy it...the story seemed right up my alley. Good and Evil, battling it out Biblical style in the great dustbowl era of America? It was a given that I'd be a fan. Yet I stayed away. I distracted myself with other shows and films. So now I am catching up. While superfans are catching episodes as they are freshly squeezed out, I'm following along at a good distance, just slow enough to not catch up. I'm enjoying the show, watching the mystery unfold serial style, and it's got great atmosphere all dusty and yellow, yet I can't say I'm grabbed by it. Not like I had been with 'Twin Peaks'. That show had and has me. I don't think I'll ever be owned by a show again the same way as I had with 'TP'. I have to admit 'Buffy' comes close. It goes without saying that I watched those on DVD.
As for books, just finished Hemingways 'The Sun Also Rises', another brick in my 'catch up with the classics' quest road. I enjoyed it. All dialogue and little detail, accept when it came to the bull-fighting scene. Heard he was a nut on the subject, to paraphrase 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Good for him. Don't know whats next though, either Faulkners 'Go Down, Moses' or something shorter. My attention span gets a little shorter with every Diet Pepsi I drink. For fun, it's McMurtry's 'Streets of Laredo'. Some of the most uncomfortable characters I have ever read. His writing is really quite brutal and shocking, as i learned when some rather likable characters get offed extremely bluntly. No melodrama here, my guess is McMurtry's Old West is probably the closest thing we have to a window back to that time. Cormac McCarthy's is as well. He writes it as being grim. People die from acts of chance and nature, not romantic showdowns or predictable good beats evil square offs. The good guys are bad and the bad guys are much worse. Brilliant stuff. And Captain Call's the man!
And finally, my time in North America is soon drawing to a close. Once I get my hands on a letter stating I have all my requirements for my degree, I'm applying for a job teaching overseas. Japan is the goal, but it seems to me that places like Korea or Taiwan are going to be stops first. Until then, I'm sucking on the marrow of a bohemian lifestyle. I'll pick up some pride when I get on that plane.
Be seeing you....
Just finished watching the second episode of 'Carnivale'. I'm always late with these things. I hate watching shows that are the hottest thing, no matter how good they are. Since we don't have HBO, my sister would watch the episodes from her friends who would tape them. She managed to follow the story and discuss it with them, all without missing a beat. Me, I decided not to watch it with her. Sure, I knew I would enjoy it...the story seemed right up my alley. Good and Evil, battling it out Biblical style in the great dustbowl era of America? It was a given that I'd be a fan. Yet I stayed away. I distracted myself with other shows and films. So now I am catching up. While superfans are catching episodes as they are freshly squeezed out, I'm following along at a good distance, just slow enough to not catch up. I'm enjoying the show, watching the mystery unfold serial style, and it's got great atmosphere all dusty and yellow, yet I can't say I'm grabbed by it. Not like I had been with 'Twin Peaks'. That show had and has me. I don't think I'll ever be owned by a show again the same way as I had with 'TP'. I have to admit 'Buffy' comes close. It goes without saying that I watched those on DVD.
As for books, just finished Hemingways 'The Sun Also Rises', another brick in my 'catch up with the classics' quest road. I enjoyed it. All dialogue and little detail, accept when it came to the bull-fighting scene. Heard he was a nut on the subject, to paraphrase 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Good for him. Don't know whats next though, either Faulkners 'Go Down, Moses' or something shorter. My attention span gets a little shorter with every Diet Pepsi I drink. For fun, it's McMurtry's 'Streets of Laredo'. Some of the most uncomfortable characters I have ever read. His writing is really quite brutal and shocking, as i learned when some rather likable characters get offed extremely bluntly. No melodrama here, my guess is McMurtry's Old West is probably the closest thing we have to a window back to that time. Cormac McCarthy's is as well. He writes it as being grim. People die from acts of chance and nature, not romantic showdowns or predictable good beats evil square offs. The good guys are bad and the bad guys are much worse. Brilliant stuff. And Captain Call's the man!
And finally, my time in North America is soon drawing to a close. Once I get my hands on a letter stating I have all my requirements for my degree, I'm applying for a job teaching overseas. Japan is the goal, but it seems to me that places like Korea or Taiwan are going to be stops first. Until then, I'm sucking on the marrow of a bohemian lifestyle. I'll pick up some pride when I get on that plane.
Be seeing you....