My Media Week

anniemcq tagged me, and hey, why not? I actually got some answers for this one.

BOOKS

I was slogging through The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, but last night I finally gave it up at about the halfway point. No engaging plotlines, no likeable characters, no emotional punch at all. So I donated it to the Dick Paxton Memorial Library, the odd assortment of reading material shared among the ushers. I don't know who Dick Paxton was, but I guess he must've liked a good read. I'm sorry to dump this crap on you, my coworkers. I picked it up because I had a Book People gift card from my birthday and Capote on the cover looks exactly like the French professor in whose class Mrs. Rodius and I met.

I don't know if this counts as a book or as a "what I'm listening to," but I'm counting it as a book. And it's a fantastic book. When I finish it, I think I'll do a whole review, because I love, love, love it: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

In place of Capote, I just started Last Seen in Massilia by Steven Saylor, which I also picked up with the gift card because it was on sale and finished off the balance on the card nicely. By the first page and a half, I don't think I'm going to dig it much, but sometimes I'm wrong about these things.

MOVIES
My last three Netflix returns:

Oldboy, which should've been right up my alley, but somehow wasn't. Very strange, very violent, very sad. Maybe if they make a big budget American remake, I'll dig it. The twist was a little icky for me.

Brick, which also should've been right up my alley, but also somehow wasn't. It had Claire from Lost, Eden from Heroes, and Tommy from 3rd Rock from the Sun. It also had an annoyingly pretentious dialog style that presumably was supposed to anchor it firmly in the film noir style by reminding us of hip '40's slang that might be rattled off by the likes of Humphrey Bogart. But coming out of the mouths of 21st century high school students, it just sounded stupid. And the nicknames were pretentious, too. Brain. The Pin. Tugger. Eh, not bad. But not great either.

'Allo, 'Allo!, Season One. It's not really a movie, but it was a DVD on Netflix, so I'm counting it. Screwball physical comedies are sort of out of character for me, but this one was a nostalgic choice. When I was in jr. high and high school, Pops and I used to spend every Sunday night watching British comedies on PBS together, and this was one of them. It wasn't as funny as I remembered it, but nothing ever is. It was fun reliving it again, though.

MUSIC

Lemon Jelly. I have '64-'95, LemonJelly.KY, and Lost Horizons. I don't know anything about this group, even that they were British or a duo, until I just linked to the Wikipedia article. I heard "Space Walk" on Paul Oakenfold's compilation, Perfecto Chills, and absolutely loved it. So when I saw some more Lemon Jelly, I grabbed it. Now, of course, "Space Walk" is a Friskies cat food commercial, which makes me very, very sad. It's not the greatest workout music I've ever heard, but it is hypnotic and beautiful. And when you don't really like working out very much, hypnotic can be helpful.