Bane, existence, etc.
Christmas cards people.
This is what I have spent my week doing. My boss's f-ing Christmas cards.
And they're far from done, which means... yeah, I don't have much time to do what I'd rather be doing... Namely, you know, not working, counting down the days till vacation, Internerding, etc.
This is what my college education has come to.
Compiling 800-some names, checking addresses, buying stamps, and on and on and on. I won't bore you with the details.
Before I go back to Christmas Greeting Hell, I'll bore you with a few bullet points:
Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto is far better than the talking CGI Robins in the film's opening sequence would lead you to believe. If you make it past that treacly bit of sub-Amelie whimsy, Jordan delivers a glam-Candide that features a great performance from Cillian Murphy, a perfect wall-to-wall pop soundtrack (Nillson! Dusty! T. Rex! Van!), and cinematography so rich I wanted to eat the celluloid. - "Conceived"--the new single from Beth Orton, produced by ex-Sonic Youther/Wilco mixer Jim O'Rourke--is an obscenely proficient bit of folk-pop; I can't ask much more out of an Orton single. Double props on the marxophone solo.
- I can't believe how much I loved David Mamet's Spartan. Val Kilmer works better than expected--although he does occasionally chafe against the dialogue (I'm thinking specifically of a speech he stumbles over that begins "You don't gotta...")--and who would have thought that mother-fletchin' Ed O'Neil could rip the shit out of Mametspeak?
- Confession: I've made it this far in life having never read Nabokov. Based on guilt and Girish's VN gush, I finally picked up Lolita the other day and... What the fuck is wrong with me? Seriously. The prose is so rich and diabolically clever, I... yeah. I... I have no excuse. It's a crime that I hadn't picked it up sooner.
Realted: the cover design to the 50th anniversary edition is excellent.
Related, the second: Christopher Hitchens on Lolita.
That's it for now. More soon. Maybe. Hopefully.
posted by Ben @ 9:56 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I'm with you on Spartan. It was terrific.
Cool. Never saw the Hitchens thing before.
Benny, I can't believe you've never read Nabokov. The opening alone is better than most things that have been written. Oh, and there's kid sex, so it's basically the best thing ever, no?
DVD-- It's the weirdest thing, 'cause I remember actively avoiding it for quite sometime. Then, based partially on my Veronica Mars-related K. Bell crush, I Netflixed it. So good.
G.-- Glad I could help.
N.-- I know, I know. It's so embarassing. It's one of those books where I keep thinking to myself: "Slow down and enjoy it." It really is one of the greatest things I've ever read. And not because of the kid sex, perv.
I always read it slow like molasses.
And my copy's tattered and marked up and stuffed with marginalia.
I should pick up that attractive 50th anniv. edition and start all over.
Good to know, Tim.
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