I walked over to the bookstore today, across Sunflower and over the 'Unity Bridge' (has to be the gayest name for a bridge ever, not that there is anything wrong with that-vote no on 8) past the Rolex display case that had a new watch in it with a walnut face and all diamond dial that I will buy one day and into the bookstore.
I took the escalator up to the second floor and went straight to the V's to re-read 'God Bless you Dr. Kevorkian' but upon pulling it out I thought better of it and put it back.
Do you know what the brushes on escalators are for? I do now. It was on the today show but that's not where I found out about it. I learnt it from a book.
After putting 'God Bless You ...' back in its place I went to the O's and pulled from the shelves 'Everything That Rises Must Converge'.
I took it to an empty desk I found and started to read the introduction. I quickly learnt that though her stories are some of my favorites I couldn't give two shits about Flannery's life story. So i turned to the first page of the book, page 1.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
My Life
The Game came out with this rap song a couple weeks (months?) ago and though I hate Lil' Wayne, the Game has some pretty good lyrics.
Amongst my favorites--especially to sing out in the lineup--is "We are not the same, I am a martian; So approach my phantom doors with caution."
You know what I like about The Game? He goes there. He was arrested for pulling out a gun at a pick-up basketball game in longbeach. Now most of you literaties out there who might be reading this blog for my insightful literary reviews will probably scoff at that as "low" or "detestable" but I ask of you: What is the difference between that and a Cowboy pulling out a revolver during a poker game in the 1880's? We all laud over Val fucking Kilmer because he's a cowboy, and cheer kids on when they choose to be the cowboy in cowboy and indians games but a black man does this now and it is despicable.
More old west style regulation I say.
Reminds me of a point I heard my grandpa make. He said that the reason chivalry and conduct was so important two centuries ago was because everyone was capable of carrying firearms and at any time you could be put into place by a Colt revolver if you stepped out of line--so people didn't.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Back Again
I am back yo.
I guess it is only applicable that I do the usual 20th century lit ball washing and get down to business telling you all how much I enjoyed "Hocus Pocus" just now. Kurt did a good one this time. It is a light read and I think I will need to read it again but for now I recommend it to be read and check back soon for whenever I re-read it so I can give some actual insight into it--or, never mind, you guys probably aren't looking for my insight so I will end this all with this: read "Hocus Pocus" by Kurt Vonnegut, it is worth it.
I guess it is only applicable that I do the usual 20th century lit ball washing and get down to business telling you all how much I enjoyed "Hocus Pocus" just now. Kurt did a good one this time. It is a light read and I think I will need to read it again but for now I recommend it to be read and check back soon for whenever I re-read it so I can give some actual insight into it--or, never mind, you guys probably aren't looking for my insight so I will end this all with this: read "Hocus Pocus" by Kurt Vonnegut, it is worth it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Delusions of granduer
Come on, just cause I get five people a day reading this thing I'm now thinking I'm hot shit. What a good writer I am. Well, thanks to all you five people. I'm sure not one of you is into the rap element of this blog so right here and right now, I promise to put up a post with another youtube video of another rap song--just to alienate you all just a little more.
If its any consolation, my girlfriend thinks I'm full of shit too and hates that I love rap music.
If its any consolation, my girlfriend thinks I'm full of shit too and hates that I love rap music.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Me and Richard Parker
The thing about this book is that on the cover it has reviews by many publications and more than one cites the book as a fantastic defense of zoos and I can't help but think that the reviewers completely missed the boat (no pun intended for those who have read the book) on what this book is about. It is a deep look into the world of religion and the practicalities of a world where exposure to every religion known to man from here to almost eternity. Deeply metaphysical this book is an unbelievable read that kept me interested until the very end upon which I was left scratching my head trying to contemplate the questions evoked by the author.
I highly suggest you run out right now--it is only 10 pm as I write this and I know Barnes and Noble is still open for another hour--and buy this book and begin reading it and do whatever it takes to avoid the trappings of merely taking the story of face value as those so wrong reviewers did and delve into the metaphorical. Yann wrote a masterpiece for us readers and he deserves the courtesy and respect that we should read the book and try to understand at least all that he meant for us to and hopefully more than that.
You can expect some more entries on this book in a little while. Read it and wait for my oh-so-intelligent-wannabe-literate writings about it as I finish The Cave by Jose Saramago (I know, I started that book a couple month ago but I got sidetracked by that hoosier Kurt and his great book Timequake.).
Sunday, August 17, 2008
More ballwashing for Kurt.
A little more ballwashing but I promise tomorrow I will have a new book to tell you all about from a new author, it is a really good one and couldn't get the pictures to upload via my blackberry so I had to save it until I got home and I am home now but this little excerpt from the book I just finished for the second time around seemed for some reason very appropriate to my mood.
"At ten o'clock the old, long-out-of-print science fiction writer announced it was his bedtime. There was one last thing he wanted to say to us, to his family. Like a magician seeking a volunteer from the audience, he asked someone to stand beside him and do what he said. I held up my hand. "Me, please, me," I said.
The crowd fell quiet as I took my place to his right.
"The universe has expanded so enormously," he said, "with the exception of the minor glitch it put us through, that light is no longer fast enough to make any trips worth taking in even the most unreasonable lengths of time. Once the fastest thing possible, they say, light now belongs in the graveyard of history, like the Pony Express.
"I now ask this human being brave enough to stand next to me to pick two twinkling points of obsolete light in the sky above us. It doesn't matter what they are, except that they must twinkle. If they don't twinkle, they are either planets or satellites. Tonight we are not interested in planets or satellites."
I picked two points of light maybe ten feet apart. One was Polaris. I have no idea what the other one was. For all I knew, it was Puke, Trout's star the size of a BB.
"Do they twinkle?" he said.
"Yes they do," I said.
"Promise?" he said.
"Cross my heart," I said.
"Excellent! Ting-a-ling!" he said. "Now then: Whatever heavenly bodies those two glints represent, it is certain that for light to go from one to the other would take thousands or millions of years. Ting-a-ling? But I now ask you to look precisely at one, and then precisely at the other."
"Ok," I said, "I did it."
"It took a second, do you think?" he said.
"No more," I said.
"Even if you'd taken an hour," he said, "something would have passed between where those two heavenly bodies used to be, at, conservatively speaking, a million times the speed of light."
"What was it?" I said.
"Your awareness," he said. "that is a new quality in the Universe, which exists only because there are human beings. Physicists must from now on, when pondering the secrets of the Cosmos, factor in not only energy and matter and time, but something very new and beautiful, which is human awareness."
Trout paused, ensuring with the ball of his left thumb that his upper dental plate would not slip when he said his last words to us that enchanted evening.
All was well with his teeth. This was his finale: "I have thought of a better word than awareness," he said. "Let us call it soul." He paused." (excerpt from Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut [pg241-242])
Deep huh?
"At ten o'clock the old, long-out-of-print science fiction writer announced it was his bedtime. There was one last thing he wanted to say to us, to his family. Like a magician seeking a volunteer from the audience, he asked someone to stand beside him and do what he said. I held up my hand. "Me, please, me," I said.
The crowd fell quiet as I took my place to his right.
"The universe has expanded so enormously," he said, "with the exception of the minor glitch it put us through, that light is no longer fast enough to make any trips worth taking in even the most unreasonable lengths of time. Once the fastest thing possible, they say, light now belongs in the graveyard of history, like the Pony Express.
"I now ask this human being brave enough to stand next to me to pick two twinkling points of obsolete light in the sky above us. It doesn't matter what they are, except that they must twinkle. If they don't twinkle, they are either planets or satellites. Tonight we are not interested in planets or satellites."
I picked two points of light maybe ten feet apart. One was Polaris. I have no idea what the other one was. For all I knew, it was Puke, Trout's star the size of a BB.
"Do they twinkle?" he said.
"Yes they do," I said.
"Promise?" he said.
"Cross my heart," I said.
"Excellent! Ting-a-ling!" he said. "Now then: Whatever heavenly bodies those two glints represent, it is certain that for light to go from one to the other would take thousands or millions of years. Ting-a-ling? But I now ask you to look precisely at one, and then precisely at the other."
"Ok," I said, "I did it."
"It took a second, do you think?" he said.
"No more," I said.
"Even if you'd taken an hour," he said, "something would have passed between where those two heavenly bodies used to be, at, conservatively speaking, a million times the speed of light."
"What was it?" I said.
"Your awareness," he said. "that is a new quality in the Universe, which exists only because there are human beings. Physicists must from now on, when pondering the secrets of the Cosmos, factor in not only energy and matter and time, but something very new and beautiful, which is human awareness."
Trout paused, ensuring with the ball of his left thumb that his upper dental plate would not slip when he said his last words to us that enchanted evening.
All was well with his teeth. This was his finale: "I have thought of a better word than awareness," he said. "Let us call it soul." He paused." (excerpt from Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut [pg241-242])
Deep huh?
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