September 16, 2007
This week’s Studio 360 was very good, about “On The Road” and “Into The Wild” and happiness.
What makes me happy?
Damned if I know.
Nothing right now, that’s for sure.
People are too freaking impatient these days.
“Into The Wild” was a terrifying book. I think Sean Penn is going to make a fantastic film of that. As usual with films, I will probably never see it. I don’t know why I never get to the movies any more, but I don’t. I’m sure the wingnuts will go crazy if the film does any sort of business at all, crying about how un American he is and all that garbage. But frankly, he’s more clearheaded about politics than they are. I’m at the point where there is very little about America’s sins that I am unwilling to believe. In Harper’s, the essayist asked if one can name a part of the Bill of Rights that George Bush has not attempted to invalidate, and, beyond the quartering of soldiers and the right to bear arms, the essayist’s answer is “None”.
The oleaginous little liar Ari Fleischer is now with a cockamamie organization running pro war TV advertisements. When asked if it was deceptive to run an ad where a wounded soldier emphasizes “THEY attacked US”, when in fact they (the Iraqis) didn’t, he responded that, well, if there’s another attack, we’ll compare it to September 11. Of course. You can compare any two things you like, but for the comparison to be FAIR, the two objects being compared should be RELATED. But what would Ari Fleischer know about fairness?
The woman who wrote “The Lovely Bones” has a new book coming out. As cliché as it was to read that, that book blew my mind. I remember a certain loud mouthed co worker who saw me reading it and kept commenting about how she couldn’t read that because it was so SAD. She couldn’t get over the fact that the narrator was already dead as the story begins. (It’s pretty obvious, so I’m not giving anything away.) She couldn’t get past the crime to the story of how it changes the town, and she was tripping over herself to condemn the fact that such a horrible thing could happen.
This woman was one of the loudest people I have ever met, and one of the hardest to be in the same room with. Her voice was grating, nasal and Long Islandy, and she was one of the sorts of people that have to add their experience to whatever is being discussed-the living, breathing voice of conventional wisdom. Unimaginative, boring, deeply obnoxious, but willing to tell you what you should do and what you should say. Someone who likes to brag about being a reader, but never actually reads.
First of all, if I’m reading a book, leave me the hell alone. If you are compelled to say something, and it is negative, again, leave me the hell alone. It’s the same thing as someone commenting on your dinner choice. I’m not asking you to eat it, and I’m not asking you to read it.
Denis Johnson has a new book which sounds pretty good, too. I have always heard a lot about him, but I’ve never read any of his stuff.
IPod skipping behavior: Sorry, Bruce. You’re a great artist, as close as my generation gets to Dylan, but I was a teenager in 1984. I heard “Born in the USA” enough times that summer to last a lifetime.
That summer is linked, for me, with the trip to Cape Cod with my friend’s parents to their beach place. I wound up dating, years later, his sister. That didn’t end so well. Only because I was a prick, though, it wasn’t her fault. That summer was “Abracadabra” (Alan Parsons Project)?, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Tears for Fears, Dire Straits. I wasn’t so much a Madonna/Tears for Fears person, though. I was too metal. Would have gotten more girls if I hadn’t been so metal, that’s for sure. There were no metal girls at my school.
At the time, though, I wanted her(my friend’s sister’s) friend in the worst way. (In the back of a Volkswagen?) No, but she was the one for me at the time. Oh well.
I still, nearly 20 years later, miss her, though. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t screwed it up. It is my very firm belief that every human adult has one that got away, an intended object of their love that they spurned, or that spurned them, that they regret. She is mine, no question.
If my wife ever reads this, I’m toast. Not because I’m ashamed, but because she’ll misunderstand and blow it all out of proportion.
One weird thing about IPods is, if you have live albums loaded on them, as I do, you get the patter for the next song on the live album, without the actual next song, because obviously they engineered the next track to begin where the music does.
Why do people feel the need to be SO FREAKING LOUD! Shut up, already.