It seems like the hinted-at Star Wars television show is coming closer to reality. I’m getting mixed reactions here, seeing as how the mighty Star Wars universe has been destroyed by the prequels as it is. Lucas is saying he won’t have a hand in the show though, and if it’s anything like the great Clone Wars cartoons were, then it could turn out to be something good. We’ll see where this develops to. In my mind this should be set in the days when Jedi were abundant and at their brightest, before Episode 1, while the article speculates between Episodes 3 and 4.
A Visit to Pixar. Very short article that discusses a visit to Pixar studios and what distinguishes them from other animation studios.
Stanton also said that the biggest reasons Pixar’s films are so good are 1) because the studio is made up of incredibly smart people; and 2) because it’s not in Hollywood. In fact, he said that if the leading lights of Pixar ever left the company, they’d probably leave the business altogether, because there’s nowhere else they’d rather work.
People are going to hate me for this, but this photo entitled “You beat 2 trees!” is just way too funny. I can’t remember when I laughed this hard; I had tears almost coming out.
I was really hyped up about this book. Pulitzer Prize winner, UCI alumni, doing screenplays for Spider-man 2. How could this book not be good? How could it possibly not live up to the hype? Well, somehow, it didn’t. Not for reasons you’d expect though.
Kavalier & Clay follows two cousins who break into the comic book industry in the era of World War II by creating their character “The Escapist” and become rich almost overnight. I won’t go too in-depth with the plot since a summary can easily be found on Amazon or anywhere else, but the book is rife with escapist themes - Josef Kavalier escaping from religious persecution in Poland, Samuel Clay escaping from a world that won’t accept him.
Chabon’s writing style is intent on filling his world with as many adjectives as possible. He gets descriptive with his…um, descriptions? I often got lost in all the commas he threw into his massive sentences, and the style wasn’t something I was used to. I can’t exactly say it’s a bad style, but just not something to my taste, especially with my admiration of Vonnegut and his simplistic no-frills writing style.
My ultimate disappointment though came in the story and plot itself. It didn’t really show me anything; I didn’t leave the world of Kavalier & Clay (One notable thing about the book is how Chabon mixes in real-world characters such as Orson Welles and Stan Lee with his fictional characters) with any added knowledge to my head, nothing to really contemplate or make me ponder. I ask myself if I gained anything from reading this book?
It sounds like I expect a fictional novel to preach to me, but I just never found myself enthralled with the storyline. Not a lot of suspense, not a lot of “I wonder what’s going to happen next” sort of thing happening. In short, it got tedious at times. Nothing memorable to come away with.
I really hate to issue this novel a rating of “Not Recommended”, but I just wouldn’t know how to sell the book to get other people to read it, yet at the same time it’s not like it’s some godawful book.
The next book on my reading list is William Boyd’s Any Human Heart. It would’ve been Ken’s (Bastard didn’t like my now infamous ketchup post. Infamous because I say so.) recommendation of Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan, but my second time checking it out of a library and again I didn’t get to it before it was due. Next time.
I thought I’d offer a tip my dad passed on to me a while back that has proven to be fairly handy. Here’s what you do anytime you’re at a fast food restaurant and order french fries or anything else that needs ketchup: ask them for an extra coffee or drink lid. Pour your ketchup into the lid and voila, you now have something to hold your ketchup for dipping. Much cleaner than pouring it into the paper bag or the plastic tray.
Bad part is all the funny looks I get from people when I ask for the lid. “You want what? A lid?”
Political Circus. Fun little flash game where candidates are fired out of a cannon and you must make them perform stunts and aim for bonuses in their bid for the presidency.
Amazon Customer Service Delivers Personally. Tale of a customer’s experience with Amazon and a product that is not delivered on time, ending with the customer service rep personally delivering the product on time. Kinda cool, hope it’s real though.
I got a fever! And the only prescription, is more cowbell! I’m surprised at how many people aren’t aware of this great SNL skit, featuring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken. Anywho, great shirt comes from said skit. Busted Tees actually has a lot of really great shirts, I just hate how everyone’s wearing these retro tees these days.
Syndicate this site