02 Sunday Aug 2015
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01 Saturday Aug 2015
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*4 Little Girls (HBO now)
*Inside Out (big screen)
*Masters of Sex season 3 (showtime through Hulu)
*True Detective season 2 (HBO now)
*The Brink (HBO now)
*Ballers (HBO now)
*Nurse Jackie season 7 (showtime through Hulu)
*Ray Donovan season 3 (showtime through Hulu)
*Uranium: twisting the dragon’s tail (PBS)
*Fiddler on the Roof (purchased from iTunes)
***
I would like to start by admitting the embarrassing obvious fact in July I watched quite a bit of television and did not do that much reading. In my defense, I started writing down more of what I watched than what I read in July. But it’s a weak defense because I know I spent more time in front of the television than in front of a book or kindle.
I do not have cable, satellite, or any way to watch television other than the Internet, but there is a huge amount than can be watched that way. Let me list the sources of television programming I have: PBS, amazon and amazon prime, Hulu (which I recently upgraded to include Showtime), HBO Now (through iTunes), netflix (which I cancelled this month because I have so many other things to watch), plus a weather channel. I use a roku box and an AppleTV to get all this programming from the Internet that comcast sells me for about $54 a month plus tax and modem rental. I did subscribe to cable for about six months but I got tired of fighting the commercials and dealing with Comcast’s less than stellar DVR. (Why they don’t rent TIVOs to their customers is a question that needs to be asked much more often by their many dissatisfied customers.) I discovered that it was far more satisfying to purchase episodes of Mad Men, Modern Family, and the Good Wife than to watch them over cable. But that’s just me; your mileage may vary.
Random thought about TV watching. David Bianculli’s TV Worth Watching page is worth checking on a regular basis.
Fiddler on the Roof we watched at the request of Ola, Monika’s mother, who bought the movie for us because she really wanted to watch it again. I enjoyed it, but not as much as she did. Once you have seen a movie several times, or if you saw it at an important time in your life when you were younger it has an effect on you that can be hard for others to fully appreciate.
Marta was the biggest fan of Inside Out, which should not be a surprise since it is about the mind of a twelve year old girl who has recently moved across the country. Certainly the story is unique. I have now seen it twice and enjoyed it both times.
This month is the anniversary of the ending of World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima; this inspired PBS to have a series of movies about nuclear power. Twisting the Dragon’s tail is narrated by a physicist and tells the story of how humans discovered and harnessed uranium. PBS also broadcast The Bomb, as well as a documentary about Fukushima. Oh, and now that I think about it, I did also watch a Frontline documentary about El Chapo Guzman.
Despite Mitt Romney and other republican politicians’ efforts, PBS and NPR continue to produce excellent work. As far as PBS, I consistently enjoy watching American Experience, American Masters, Frontline, Point of View, Nova, and Nature.
Since I just started this project a few days ago, I’ll keep this entry short
01 Saturday Aug 2015
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Books Acquired
*Rob Dunn The Man Who Touched His Own Heart
*Harlan Coben The Stranger (from overdrive library program)
Books Read
*James Angelos The Full Catastrophe: travels among the new Greek ruins (kindle)
*Kelly A. Jones Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (kindle)
*Nick Hornby Ten Years in the Tub: a decade soaking in great books (hardcover public library book; finished the first 70 pages)
***
Let just start this essay off by pointing out that I only started this project a few days ago. So, the list of books I acquired and the list of books I read is rather short because it only represents about a week of literary activity.
The reason I decided to start this essay, which will hopefully become a regular monthly entry on this site is because of Hornby’s book — which is an anthology of essays that Hornby used to write for The Believer magazine describing his book buying and book reading activity each month. If you have not had a chance to read any of these essays I would strongly recommend them; Hornby is a pleasure to read. Each and every essay I have read so far contained several chunks that I was required to share with family and friends by reading aloud. Hornby’s project inspired me to start a similar one myself in which I would, on a monthly basis, catalog my reading and book acquiring activities. And, OK, let me admit here that I did seriously consider writing regular blog posts about reading before, but this is the first time I have actually done so. I also would like to have a monthly blog post about the stuff I’ve been watching on screens (television and movies).
Enough background. On to the reading.
Angelos’ book was only published a couple months ago and, so, gives a very up to date look at economic life in Greece. The overwhelming message I got from reading the book is that Greece has deep, longstanding, systemic economic problems. Greek politicians have long promised jobs in exchange for votes. Many civil servants in Greece are guaranteed jobs with little serious evaluation — one interesting point is that those who work in front of computers are given an extra six days of vacation for the hardship. Corruption is endemic — one island, called the island of the blind had an incredible number of people claiming to be blind so that they could get blind person pensions. And, as can be expected, many of these people were not blind — some of them even drove taxi cabs. To carry out such a scheme, there were not only people claiming to be blind, but at least one doctor, and several bureaucrats in on the scam as well. One question that I don’t think is asked often enough about the economic problems of Greece is how it is that the German bankers who loaned so much money to both the country and to individual Greeks did not bother asking hard questions about these loans until after 2008. It seems that everyone wanted to be part of the party and as long as the money was flowing, no one was going to ask if it might ever stop. Needless to say, things in Greece are quite dire now.
Jones’ book is much lighter in tone, being a book for young people. The main character in the story is Sophie, a 12 year old girl who has moved from a big city living in apartment to a rural farm. The novel is told in letters, which is certainly not the most dominant narrative method in children’s literature. Her unemployed father desperately searching for a job and her overworked writer mother play an important part in Sophie’s life, but they are not the focus of the story. As you can guess, the chickens are the most important part of the story. I am not sure what else I want to say about the story; I enjoyed it but it was not my favorite story or even my favorite children’s story. But there are far worse ways to spend two or three hours than by reading Jones’ book. If you want an more in depth review, let me provide a link to Betsy Bird’s review. Bird is a children’s librarian in New York City and a force to be reckoned with in children’s literature; she seems to be constantly reviewing books and writes long and thoughtful entries. Her blog is worth checking frequently.
Short month, at least as far as reading, which means this essay is short. I promise to make the next one longer.
24 Wednesday Sep 2014
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Like many people, I’ve consistently preferred Murakami’s short stories to his novels. His novels often, when closely approached, appear as if sparsely pixelated; they are less noun-y, less particular, more dream filled and ruminative. I used to think of this as a fault. Colorless Tukuru Tazaki may be Murakami’s least vivid novel of all, and yet it has changed my thinking on how his novels airiness can work. I now understand better what at times irritated me about the books I found myself hopelessly reading, on after the other.
–– Rivka Golchen “The Monkey Did It: the facts in the case of Haruki Murakami” [review of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage] Harper’s Magazine October 2014, pp. 88-89
23 Tuesday Sep 2014
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The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka is a collection of poems about the late heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson. I have meant to watch the Ken Burns documentary for some time now, so when I happened to see this book in the public library I decided to grab it. I read most of it in coffee shop over a couple of mornings; lately I seem to be more successful reading there than at home.
Anyway… I liked a lot of things about this collection. Writing a poem about a historical figure reminded me of a couple of other books I enjoyed:
1) Frank X. Walker’s two books about York, the African-American slave brought along on the Lewis and Clark expedition and
2) Campbell McGrath’s Shannon, another book about another member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Shannon was lost from the group for a number of days before re-uniting with them.
As for Matejka’s collection, The Big Smoke, here are some excerpts that I enjoyed enough to jot them down in my notebook and type up here later.
from the poem “Chicken & Other Stereotypes”:
The officer said, Nigger where’s the chicken & started inspecting / the seats of my automobile. before / I could say anything … he still kept searching. ? I finally told him, “Mr. Officer, please understand: no stolen chicken ever passed the portals of my face. The chickens see the gleam / in my eye & keep out of my way.
from the poem “Gold Smile”:
Before we got into the ring, I told Tommy / the only reason I got gold uppers was to make/ every bit of my food twice as expensive.
Finally, this excerpt from the poem “Cooking Lessons” brings today’s NFL and its issues with players and domestic violence to mind:
Belle, I wouldn’t put / my hand on you if you’d do / what I say. If you’d just do what you’re told, I wouldn’t / shake you that way. / I wouldn’t raise a hand. / I wouldn’t have cut my knuckle on your eyetooth. I wouldn’t/ have sparred with a grease fire / in my fist until the cut healed. …Belle, as long / as you do what I tell you, / you get to cut a swath/ with the Heavyweight chamption of the World. / You get to travel / first-class, on steamers/ with Kings & Queens.
After I read that poem I wrote in my notebook that the poem made me think about mainstream America’s response to violence. On the one hand,
1) people are/were surprised and shocked by Johnson’s womanizing, involvement with prostitution and his beating of women. And yet,
2) people are/were awed and amazed and impressed by the violent athleticism Johnson showed in the ring as he violently beat his opponents.
I believe the world of American professional sports in the early twenty-first century is not so different than it was in the days of Jack Johnson approximately one hundred years earlier.
I think if I was more familiar with the biographical details of the life of Jack Johnson, then I would have enjoyed Matejka’s book a bit more. The book has inspired me to take a look at the Ken Burns documentary about the boxer. I do think I most enjoyed the poem “The Battle of the Century” the most; it was the longest poem in the collection. My only real criticism of the collection is, at least in my opinion, the overuse of the ampersand. I sometimes felt the author was a little too enamored of the late LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka’s fondness for this typographical symbol.
scott lives in Jersey now 