Books, Movies, Music

I didn’t think I’d become a Coldplay fan, but then I heard Don’t Panic in the Garden State soundtrack and I couldn’t help myself. Now I’m liking Clocks. My only problem with all this is that everybody else likes it too.

Ken Nordine may have the best voice ever. In the pantheon of deep soothing voices, Ken Nordine’s stands above The Magnetic Fields and MC Honky, and about on par with Barry White.

William Shatner has a new album out. Most people receive this news with a smirk, or a chuckle, or a dumbfounded look. Let me assure you, he can’t sing any better than you think, and probably not any better than in his previous albums. But here’s the thing: the first single Common People, really is good. Well, good in one way or another. I laughed the first time I heard it, and the second time, and again and again.

An iTunes user writes: “You will be amazed twice. Once when you see the [artists name], and the second time when you realize you love this song.”

In case the notion strikes me again, I’m putting these links here so I can find them in case the notion strikes me again. The aforementioned notion is one of wanting to do public performances of movies, who know why. This would be easy, except for copyright, so these links are for information about getting performance licenses for films.

• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s information on performance, with links to disributors.
   
• Swank deals movies for secondary performance markets, like college film departments, town recreation departments, and elsewhere.
   

Books:

The Art of Deception

Asmara

Bloody Saturday in the Soviet Union

The Cockpit

Dangerous Waters

Face to Face With the Bomb

Flight

The Iron Triangle

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

The New Roadside America

Parting the Desert

Reefer Madness

Small Things Considered

States of Emergency

An Underground Education

Wireless Hacks

Audio Books:

Bushwacked

In a Sunburned Country

Re-Reads:

Divided Highways

The Race

The Real Las Vegas

I should be keeping notes about these as I read them. As it is, I’ll just have to catch up later. Then again, I haven’t even listed my reading for the last part of 2003.

“The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.” –Edwin Schlossberg

80s revivals may be played out and we’re not yet ready for 90s nostalgia. Nonetheless, there are a number of songs of the time period that we’re a little ashamed to admit we love. Without knowing why, and in no particular order, here they are:

The Humpty Dance

Funky Cold Medina

Can’t Touch This

Ice Ice Baby

Do Me and Poison

Hotstepper

Mama Said Knock You Out

Goin Back to Cali

Parents Just Don’t Understand

Fight For Your Right

Walk This Way

And everything from Salt-n-Pepa and En Vogue

Oddly, very few of these fine tracks are available at the iTunes music store. Hmmm.

I found a collection of three books by The Disinformation Company on a shelf in City Lights. I’d already picked out my book (Toothpicks & Logos) when I saw Abuse Your Illusions, Everything You Know Is Wrong, and You Are Being Lied To lined up and beckoning to me.

I’ll have to take another look at them, but at least the publisher has an interesting story.

Speaking on language patterns around the time of the American Civil War, Bill Bryson states: …no nineteenth century journalist with any self-respect would ever write that a house had burned down, but must instead say that a great conflagration consumed the edifice.’

–Bill Bryson quoting (in part) Kenneth Cmiel’s Democratic Eloquence in, Made In America, an informal history of the English language in the United States.

I used to read magazines — I find it difficult to commit to things and magazines let me off easy, but I’ve been feeling unfulfilled by magazines lately (those who know me might also point out that I was somehow able to commit to marriage, and I’m still married over four years now). So I’ve been reading books left and right. Now, after the holidays, I’ve got a pile more.

Below is quick list of the reading material that will occupy me for the next few weeks. Many thanks are due to my family who were so generous this holiday season.

American Road,

Brothel,

Lies Across America,

The Lincoln Highway,

Science of Coercion, and

Thread Across the Ocean.

I’m all wrapped up by Flight of Passage, Rinker Buck’s tale of his 1966 journey cross country with his brother in an old Piper Cub. As much as it’s a tale of flying, it’s a tale of teenage angst. Both subjects that I identify with (but aren’t we supposed to grow out of teenage angst?).

One: I discovered Fictionwise.com, a source all types of fiction in eBook formats.

Two: Here’s the assignment that lead me to look for Fictionwise in the first place. Click for PDF.

[UPDATE] It’s funny how things circulate on the web. I’ve Googled myself enough to know how I show up in odd places, so I can understand how Derryl Murphy might have wondered how a review of one of his many stories appeared here. Any way, I got an email from him and he seems like an okay guy. At least we appear to have similar opinions/fears about copyright law (though I feel a little cheesy about using that story for trackback). Nonetheless, I guess I should should say that the review above was written for a class assignment for this guy.