Epimetheus speaks!
Year-in-review meme spotted on britgeekgrrl's LJ: post the first sentence of the first entry for each month of the year that's winding up. Apparently this is intended partly as a half-assed form of bibliomancy and partly as a tongue-in-cheek "all my sins remembered" exercise for the blogosphere.
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, which probably speaks volumes about my willpower, or lack thereof; similarly, I haven't consciously vowed to read "x" number of books a year, although I do tend to make extremely loose reading goals for myself, such as "Read more about ancient Rome" or "Read more about Africa."
As a once and former Marvel Zombie, I've been struck at various points over the last three or four years at how Timely (bad comic geek pun; sorry) some of Marvel Comics' storylines from the early-to-mid-1970s are today.
Well. It's been nearly two weeks since I've been officially moved in to the new place (and three or four days since my Internet connection was restored), and my body has more or less recovered from the terrific shocks sustained during the course of my frantic exertions (only a dull twinge in my ribs; hands healed enough so that they're like dry and crusty meat -- what goes into Wendy's chili, BTW -- instead of nearly-mooing hamburger; knees calmed down to DEFCON 4).
Finished re-reading Robert A. Heinlein's "comeback" novel ("comeback" since it was the first novel since 1973's Time Enough For Love -- arguably since 1966's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress -- to have received wide acclaim in the science fiction fan community) Friday (NY: Ballantine Books; 1982; ISBN 0-345-30988-X; mass market paperback; Fourth Printing, May 1984; 357 pps.) on Wednesday, 22 March; I originally read it while at university almost exactly twenty years ago.
Just received the new issue (June 2006; No. 550) of Vanity Fair yesterday (Saturday, 13 May) -- the one with the full portrait of Anderson Cooper on the cover.
Caught an episode of Stage to Screen on BBC Radio 4 the other day (originally broadcast on Tuesday, 30 May 2006 at 1330 GMT [that's 830 EDT]; due to be repeated on Saturday, 3 June at 1530 GMT [1030 EDT]; or you can listen to the archived audio until the next show is broadcast on Tuesday, 6 June), in which host Paul Gambaccini looked at the transformation of Cabaret.
Just finished watching -- finally -- Season 5 of The Sopranos on DVD.
Managed to redress a woeful gap in my film education: I finally watched High Noon last night.
Finally resumed my sloooooow slog through Anthony A. Barrett's Caligula: The Corruption of Power (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990 [first published in the UK in 1989 by B.T. Batsford Limited]; trade paperback; ISBN: 0-300-07429-8; 334 pps.); I'd set it aside out of frustration at how many frickin' highlighters I was using on it (five, all told; don't ask) and at how disjointed it was: it seemed to me that, in lieu of a narrative, Barrett's book was one interminable chain of conflicting accounts and countervailing interpretations, briskly seasoned with every variation of "it is difficult to know" and "the records don't show" you can think of.
The new documentary Jesus Camp -- which has yet to open in the metro Detroit area -- sounds like one of those films that I probably shouldn't see in public for fear of being jugged for disturbing the peace or swearing in front of women and children.
Yes, yes, it's meme time -- again.
Managed to catch up with first part (12 episodes) of the sixth and final season of the multiple award-winning HBO series The Sopranos on DVD over the Thanksgiving break; apparently there will be 8 more episodes airing in January 2007, and then no more.
*Blinks*
Well! That certainly was a year well-spent! I simply can't imagine why I should feel the tiniest pang of regret for having pissed away another year in pseudo-intellectualized circle jerkery! No, sir!
....
I may have to rethink my resolution not to drink myself into a blind, convulsive stupor....
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, which probably speaks volumes about my willpower, or lack thereof; similarly, I haven't consciously vowed to read "x" number of books a year, although I do tend to make extremely loose reading goals for myself, such as "Read more about ancient Rome" or "Read more about Africa."
As a once and former Marvel Zombie, I've been struck at various points over the last three or four years at how Timely (bad comic geek pun; sorry) some of Marvel Comics' storylines from the early-to-mid-1970s are today.
Well. It's been nearly two weeks since I've been officially moved in to the new place (and three or four days since my Internet connection was restored), and my body has more or less recovered from the terrific shocks sustained during the course of my frantic exertions (only a dull twinge in my ribs; hands healed enough so that they're like dry and crusty meat -- what goes into Wendy's chili, BTW -- instead of nearly-mooing hamburger; knees calmed down to DEFCON 4).
Finished re-reading Robert A. Heinlein's "comeback" novel ("comeback" since it was the first novel since 1973's Time Enough For Love -- arguably since 1966's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress -- to have received wide acclaim in the science fiction fan community) Friday (NY: Ballantine Books; 1982; ISBN 0-345-30988-X; mass market paperback; Fourth Printing, May 1984; 357 pps.) on Wednesday, 22 March; I originally read it while at university almost exactly twenty years ago.
Just received the new issue (June 2006; No. 550) of Vanity Fair yesterday (Saturday, 13 May) -- the one with the full portrait of Anderson Cooper on the cover.
Caught an episode of Stage to Screen on BBC Radio 4 the other day (originally broadcast on Tuesday, 30 May 2006 at 1330 GMT [that's 830 EDT]; due to be repeated on Saturday, 3 June at 1530 GMT [1030 EDT]; or you can listen to the archived audio until the next show is broadcast on Tuesday, 6 June), in which host Paul Gambaccini looked at the transformation of Cabaret.
Just finished watching -- finally -- Season 5 of The Sopranos on DVD.
Managed to redress a woeful gap in my film education: I finally watched High Noon last night.
Finally resumed my sloooooow slog through Anthony A. Barrett's Caligula: The Corruption of Power (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990 [first published in the UK in 1989 by B.T. Batsford Limited]; trade paperback; ISBN: 0-300-07429-8; 334 pps.); I'd set it aside out of frustration at how many frickin' highlighters I was using on it (five, all told; don't ask) and at how disjointed it was: it seemed to me that, in lieu of a narrative, Barrett's book was one interminable chain of conflicting accounts and countervailing interpretations, briskly seasoned with every variation of "it is difficult to know" and "the records don't show" you can think of.
The new documentary Jesus Camp -- which has yet to open in the metro Detroit area -- sounds like one of those films that I probably shouldn't see in public for fear of being jugged for disturbing the peace or swearing in front of women and children.
Yes, yes, it's meme time -- again.
Managed to catch up with first part (12 episodes) of the sixth and final season of the multiple award-winning HBO series The Sopranos on DVD over the Thanksgiving break; apparently there will be 8 more episodes airing in January 2007, and then no more.
*Blinks*
Well! That certainly was a year well-spent! I simply can't imagine why I should feel the tiniest pang of regret for having pissed away another year in pseudo-intellectualized circle jerkery! No, sir!
....
I may have to rethink my resolution not to drink myself into a blind, convulsive stupor....