Archive | books RSS feed for this section

“Middlesex” the TV Show?

7 Jul

middlesexIn an afternoon dominated by a strange funeral and pocked by other, smaller bits of bad/weird news, I almost forgot to mention that I came across a rumor on the pop-culture site Pajiba (whose writer, in turn, heard it from B&C’s website) that Jeffrey Eugenides’ fantastic novel Middlesex is – allegedly – being considered by HBO for adaptation into an hourly TV series.  To which I say, “Hell Yes!”

Assuming that the personnel rumors are true, I don’t know how Rita Wilson will do as an executive producer, though I do know that she produced “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which is sort of like the lite, romantic comedy version of Middlesex, if that makes sense. So, that could be great!

And despite the rumored presence of Donald Margulies as head writer, I hope that Eugenides himself will be around as a writer or producer, as well.  In the novel, his incredibly well-crafted and personable narrator created a palpable sense of place, particularly during the bits set in 1980′s Detroit, and hopefully they’ll be able to get that transferred to the screen as faithfully as possible. Then again, if anyone other than Eugenides would get it right, seems seems like it’d be someone like Margulies, so… very cool.

With the right cast and timeslot, this could make for a fascinating, epic show.  When The Wire, The Sopranos, and Deadwood all went off the air (and John from Cincinnatti flopped), it felt like everyone was mourning the end of the golden age of HBO, but I dunno… In Treatment, True Blood, Big Love, the long-awaited pacific-themed follow up to Band of Brothers, and now Middlesex?

Sounds like a pretty killer line-up to me.

No Country For Old Jews

9 May
yiddish-policemen-book

Read this book.

Don’t ever let it be said that Hollywood never gets novels right.  Last night, I (finally) finished the last 100 pages of Michael Chabon’s spectacular The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, which had laid unopened on my bedside table for several months.  I just didn’t want it to end, and couldn’t quite bring myself to read to that last page.

Though I knew even before finishing that this was a truly special book (I even ranted a bit about it a few months back), now that I’m done, I’m going to go ahead and say that it was one of the most thoroughly enjoyable reading experiences I’ve had, straight through the last page of the story and into the book’s glossary of yiddish terms.

And in contrast to the somewhat meandering conclusions of most of Chabon’s other (wonderful) work, Yiddish Policemen ends with an exhilarating exclamation point – I was expecting to finally reach the last page and feel sad that my journey with these characters had ended, and instead, I found myself pumping my fist with a “Hell yes!”

What’s more, the whole time I was reading, it was clear that this story, this kosher noir set in a fictional land of Rebbes and Black Hats, of Verbovers and Rudashefskeys, where no one’s loyalties are set in stone and everyone’s packing a sholem… that under the proper guidance, this world would transition seamlessly to the silver screen.

So, upon finishing, I looked up who would be making the inevitable film adaptation, wondering who could possibly be up to the task… and really, it should have been obvious.  I mean, what filmmakers could tackle a realist noir set in an alternate version of the present, filled with murder and deceit and shocking violence? A painstakingly created universe populated with wonderfully strange, larger-than-life characters whose language is as twisty as it is brilliant?  Who could pull something like that off?

That’s right.  The flippin’ COEN BROTHERS have been signed on to write and direct the film.  I cannot tell you how freaking pumped this makes me. Really, the only way you can understand is if you go and get this book and read it now.  For real, you’ll thank me.  Not only will you get to read one hell of an amazing book, you’ll also be prepared for what will almost undoubtedly be the best films of 2010.

I can’t imagine a more perfect fit for this story, for these characters, than the Coens, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a movie to come out.

Nerd Cred

4 Apr

Ever since the “Which Buffy Character are You?” FB quiz said I was Willow and and the “Harry Potter Sorting Hat” quiz put me in Ravenclaw, I’ve been thinking of parallels between the Buffyverse and the Potterverse. Or should that be the Whedonverse and the  Rowlingverse?  Eh, probably the first one.

So, in an effort to elevate my nerd ranking from Orange (“Switched from D&D to GURPS in order to have more narrative freedom”) to Red (“Wears a brown duster every day until Universal announces a sequel to Serenity”), and also in honor of Buffy season 3 finally being available on Hulu, I sat down and had some fun with Photoshop.

The Scooby Gang = The Houses of Hogwarts

season-3-azkaban

Favorite season, favorite book. Good things come the third time 'round, apparently.

(more…)

In the Footsteps of Good Men

6 Mar

watchmen-page-1

…yeah, baby.

The Wolverine Dream

15 Feb

xmen01Last night I had The Wolverine Dream again.

You know the one; you start in a sort of nebulous dream-place, surrounded by nebulous dream-people, when suddenly, things start to take form, there’s an air of urgency, the people with you start to feel familiar, and then – attack!  You’re under attack by unseen forces! You aren’t sure what to do, then you look down at your hands and… snikt!

It was pretty cool. The Wolverine Dream is always cool. After I woke up and established that my skeleton had not, in fact, been fused with Adamantium (I’ll spare you the details on how I determined this), I got to thinking. The students at Charles Xavier’s mansion have, as far back as I can remember, captured my heart and imagination to a degree unmatched by any other fictional characters, comic-book or otherwise. Forget the Planeteers and the Power Rangers – what is it, exactly, about the X-Men?

The teenager factor. I have no doubt that this has been written about all over the place. The most powerful and least subtle appeal of the X-Men comics lies in the comics’ far-reaching metaphor for adolescence. As these teens near adulthood, boys and girls with the mutant gene discover that their bodies are changing in strange ways that they can’t control. They’re developing frightening, uncontrollable, and often dangerous new powers.  They try to hide their new-found differentness and almost always fail. Their physical appearance undergoes radical changes, often for the freakish. They become social outcasts. If any of this sounds eerily familiar to you, well, that’s not an accident.  These stories resonate with us because to one degree or another, we’ve all been there ourselves.

(more…)

Boy, That Michael Chabon Sure Can Write

31 Dec
the_yiddish_policemens_union_a_novel-119186000647639

I'm seriously.

I am reading Michael Chabon’s novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and holy crap, you guys. I’m about 3/4ths of the way through, and literally (and I mean, literally, I’ll prove it in a minute), every page is loaded with some of the most grin-inducingly awesome writing I’ve seen.

I’ve always really liked Chabon’s writing, but with TYPU he has outdone himself – not only does it feature his most colorful prose, it also has an actual, real plot, a noir murder mystery that has momentum, and takes place in something approximating real-time. The one thing that people could say to take away from, say, Wonder Boys or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was that they both contained wandering narratives that didn’t know how to reach a conclusion. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union addresses that issue with freaking aplom, and is easily Chabon’s best work.

To illustrate how great it is, I will now flip through the amount that I have read at random and pick little bits, one per two-page section – no cheating – until you are convinced that you need to go buy and read this book.

“The rest of Sitka’s homicides are so-called crimes of passion, which is a shorthand way of expressing the mathematical product of alcohol and firearms.” (p6)

“He returns the iron lid of his hat by half-inches to his head, the way you ease down a manhole cover.” (p. 91)

“The sight of that somber emperor, that mountain of dignity, that fearsome bulk mincing around in high-heeled shoes! A blond wig! Lipstick and rouge, bangles and spangles! It might have been the single most horrible feat of female impersonation Jewry ever produced.” (p. 121)

“A girl with a healthy appetite, that was his mother’s first recorded statement on the subject of Bina Gelbfish twenty years ago. Like most of his mother’s compliments, it was convertible to an insult when needed.” (p. 156)

(more…)

Things I Am Loving Today

3 Dec

1)  The 6 Parnassus

The 6 Parnassus, will you marry me?  We already live so close to one another, and spend so much time together, it seems like moving in and having a joint bank account is the next logical step.  I am loving you, The 6 Parnassus, because you do so much for me; you take me everywhere I need to go, you are quiet and considerate, and you are, if I may say so, quite the looker!  I am willing to forgive your shortcomings, The 6 Parnassus, such as when you tell me you are coming in one minute on nextbus, then move it to 2 minutes, and then vanish altogether, forcing me to wait a really long time.  I forgive these transgressions because that’s what love truly is – forgiveness.  So let’s do it!  It’s California, after all, and I’m sure that man/bus marriage is right around the bend.  Isn’t that what that Santorum guy said?  A quick jaunt to City Hall, and we could have it all; a house, a cat, and little buses scooting around, like The 37 Corbett and The 66 Quintara!

sf-5093

Your zero-emissions power lines are attached to my heartstrings.

2) The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I know you pretend to be gruff and unfeeling, but I see the real you beneath the facade.  You spend so many pages scaring the living Christ out of me with your vivid portrait of a dead world, and the bleak, last gasps of humanity, scratching along the surface, starving and eating itself, but what you’re really filling those pages with is joy and caring.  Because you do care, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and without you, I wouldn’t know that after the bombs fall, I should fill up the tub with water, and that if I need to put my scavanged food in a shopping cart, that it’s a good idea to carry spare wheels! The Road by Cormac McCarthy, you even let me know that when my gun is down to one bullet, I should carve false ones out of wood so that the road agents who would otherwise rape me and my son to death and then roast and eat our corpses will think I have six bullets.  I see right through you, The Road by Cormac McCarthy; you scare because you care.  I and my newly-updated 72-hour survival kit thank you, from the bottom of our heart and emergency-band radio, respectively.

the-road-cormac-mccarthy11

A spartan cover can't disguise the warm, caring soul inside.

3) Nervo’s Marshall Vintage Modern Half-Stack

Come over here, Nervo’s Marshall Vintage Modern Half-Stack, I want to get to know you better.  I think I am loving you, not only for your delightfully contradictory name, but for the sweet, sweet rock you produce.  After recording you on Sunday, I’m not sure I can ever go back to using a PODXT to record demos; even though it would save the trouble of lugging your gigantic ass around, I would miss your warm, crunchy, extremely high-gain embrace too much!  Nervo’s Marshall Vintage Modern Half-Stack, when you play a power chord, kitty cats are moved to learn the piano. When you play a lead line, an Obama supporter gets her wings.  Though I will never have the space nor the need to own one of you, I am happy to know that you exist, Nervo’s Marshall Vintage Modern Half-Stack.  You rule.

Bringer of the rock

Mic's-eye-view of the impending awesome.

The Problem With Paperbacks, Part 2

16 Aug

So, I had originally intended to fit the entirety of my journey into cheap paperback-land into one post, but the third book I cracked, Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, really merited its own post.

I have certainly read my fair share of Crichton.  There was even a time, right around middle school, when Sphere was one of my favorite books.  I also really liked Congo and Jurassic Park.  So, it was without hesitation that I grabbed State of Fear off the shelf at the bookstore; I hadn’t heard of it, but figured it was a safe bet.  Light stuff, with some basic brain activity encouraged.  You know, a fun techno-caper.  

Damn it. (more…)

The Problem With Paperbacks, Part 1

10 Aug

Summer provides a lot of free time in my schedule, and I try to take advantage of that and get some reading done.  Lately, I’ve had difficulty getting going on some of the more intense books on my list – I’ve yet to read One Hundred Years of Solitude, despite it being the most “Facebook favorite book’d” book in history, and even though the Llama and I had planned on both reading All The Pretty Horses at the same time, I can’t really get that one going, either.  Too much Spanish, or something.

So, on my way up the hill I decided to swing by the Overland Book Company and see what I could see and I was immediately drawn to the massive shelf of paperback mystery/thriller novels.  In my formative years, I probably ready a couple of hundred of these books, all by airport-reading luminaries like Koontz, Cornwell, King, Ludlum, and Grisham. I thought it might be fun to get some easy, disposable stories to tear through; at best, these books would be fun, engrossing page-turners, and at worst, they’d be forgettable.

Wow, was I wrong. (more…)

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.