Tuesday, August 19, 2003 :::

long time, no post. let me think.

movies:

adaptation: worth a rental, i'd say. i really liked the first... 3/4 or so. the ending was really fucked up. i mean... yeah. wow. but very interesting, and funny in parts.

pirates of the caribbean: if you haven't seen this yet... well... do. i mean it.

johnny english: honestly not as funny as i thought it would be, but still pretty good. it started off slow, and sort of.. crescendo-ed in funniness. basically, if you think mr. bean is funny, you'll like this. and if you don't, you probably won't.

i think that's all i've got, moviewise.

so, onto books.

small gods by terry pratchett. not one of my favorite discworld books (out of the.. 7 i've read. i think.) i mean, i still liked it a lot and thought it was funny. but it didn't live up to its potential. or maybe i just like... the book's concept is vaguely similar to american gods but it's a completely different book. completely.

a walk in the woods by bill bryson. i love love love this book. and then, i was checking out booktapes to bring on our vacation, and they had this. so i made my family listen to it too, and they all loved it. and you will too. you'll love all of his books. siriuslee. he's hilarious and intelligent and just... read him. (i have an intellectual crush on bill bryson.)

the color purple by alice walker. i liked this a lot. at first i was kind of annoyed by the dialect-y writing. but you get used to it. and it's a great story. a little... a lot depressing at first. but then it's... mmm.. inspiring? good.

at death's door by jill thompson. so okay, move over movieverse kurt/ororo, cos i have a new het pairing now: despair/poe 4ever! whee. so i was so excited when i first heard about jill doing this, because i looove her art. (oh, i should say: this is a manga that jill did, it's sorta... death's pov of sandman: season of mists.) it's an interesting idea. it shows the gist of dream's plot, but it really expands on death's. (if you'll recall-- dream talks to death, and she shows up in a sweatsuit and says she's really busy-- it's because all the souls from hell turned up at her apartment.) so like i said, i like the concept. it's.. some sandman fans i know didn't like it, because it was "too cute". which... it's very, very cute. (and if you've seen strongbad's "japanese cartoon" email, she followed almost all the rules... let me think. really big eyes, check. really tiny mouth when it's closed, really huge when it's open, check. blue hair, check. [okay... it's blue-black on the cover, and it's black in the actual comic. but only because it's a black and white comic.] um.. yeah.)

so yes. it's very, very cute. but i love cute!death and cute!delirium. and, although cute!despair is a weird concept, it works. anyway... if you can stand the extreme cuteness (i love the extreme cuteness! although it weirds me out when delirium very occasionally shows up looking an awful lot like sailor moon.) and the simplification of a really cool and complex plot... look into this.

if, on the other hand, you share cain's disdain toward the l'il endless... stay away ^_^

dirk gently's holistic detective agency by douglas adams. i had to go all the way to texas to get a copy of this book. but i liked it a lot and i'm glad i finally read it! yaaay! v. funny. cheerier than the later hitchhiker books. very douglas adams. so if you like douglas adams, you'll like this. (and if you don't know if you like douglas adams or not, you should find out. you probably do.)

1602 #1 by neil gaiman. woooot! just... wooot! new comics from neeeil! awesome idea. and i'm a history nerd so i dig it even more. just.. yeah.

the simpsons and philosophy: the d'oh! of homer edited by william irwin, mark conrad, and aeon skoble. (aeon skoble... what a cool name.) anyway. i looved this book. but i'd imagine you'd have to be a pretty hardcore simpsons fan to really enjoy this. but i am one, and it's great. it's a collection of essays. some use characters from the simpsons to discuss philsophies (ie one is about maggie and the importance of silence), and some analyze the simpsons itself. i heart it. you might not.
::: frowled ~renata~ at 2:47 PM