TV. fringe

basically, this show is x-files 2.o, but since i liked x-files, that is a good thing! the show is about a woman who works for the a government organization who works on strange cases with a crazy (literally) old scientist and his reluctant son. each week they tackle a new case, but its a show by jj abrams of 'lost' fame, so there are also some strange conspiracy goings-on thats always taking place just below the surface.

the three main characters are quite likable, especially john noble as the strange old man. the cases themselves are pretty interesting and deal with some sort of unusual fringe science (thus the name of the show). the weekly mystery is fun, but its the overarching 'pattern' that really draws you in. the first batch of episodes has come to a close and fox has picked it up for the full season, so there will be more to come. i'm certainly hooked at this point and look forward to the little glimses we see each week of the bigger picture.

AUDIO BOOKS. holidays on ice

david sedaris seems to be universally loved for his short stories and essays. ive listened to a couple of his audio books before, and actually had the pleasure of seeing him live. ive enjoyed his other stuff; i really liked a few of his short stories in 'dress your family in corduroy and denim', so i thought i'd give this one a try.
but after listening to it i am begining to wonder what the big deal is. some of his stories are interesting, but many of them fall rather flat. this one is a bunch of them that have to do with the holidays, and i must admit, i wasnt really that impressed.

BOOKS. colbert bag

you know how barnes and noble has those black and white line illustrations of different famous authors up on their walls? well i was in there recently and saw this book bag. i guess technically stephen colbert has written a book and is famous, but it still seems a bit strange...

AUDIO BOOKS. the great gatsby

it is considered a great american classic, but i had never read this book. i figured i should fix this terrible oversite, so i recently listened to it on audio book. i went in blind- i had no idea what it was about or anything. the story is set in new york's long island sound, a place that in the 1920's (when this book was written) was a haven for rich new englanders. gatsby, a self made millionaire, has devoted himself to getting back the girl he lost five years earlier to a rich man. he makes his millions and then tries to woo her back. the story is told from the voice of a man who befriends gatsby, but doesnt belong in the rich circles that the rest of them inhabit. there are trips to the city, dinner parties, and fancy drives, but all of it is shown to be so shallow.
fitzgerald does an amazing job of drawing you into this world of excess and extreme shallowness. the lost love story is captivating, but over it all is a sad sense that even if everyone gets what they want they still have nothing of value. its tragic conclusion, like that of a greek tragedy, is sad but inevitable. a truly moving story, and an incredibly interesting glance into a time long since past.

AUDIO BOOKS. making money

this is the follow-up to pratchett's other book 'going postal'. it continues to follow the adventures of moist von lipwig. he has already fixed the post office, he got it running smoothly and actually making a profit! now the king wants him to set his sights on the banking system in the city. he finds himself in the thick of a huge change happening with the local gollum population. he has to fix up the mint, stop a war, and keep himself from getting caught in the crossfire of a treason plot. its a good story, but nowhere near as good as 'going postal'. pratchett isnt quite able to recapture the fun and wrecklesness that made the moist character so much fun in his last outing. the treason plot slows things down, and the gollum story seems like it would be better suited for a different book.

BOOKS. quack shack

why didn't anyone tell me how great childrens books are now? this past weekend i went home and saw my nieces and nephew. they had gone to the library recently and came back with this gem. the book is ridiculously simple, but completely hilarious! it starts by introducing a family of words, like 'the ick family', and then takes a few pages to introduce some of the words in that family, 'chick', 'lick', 'sick', etc. and then it combines the words to make a funny image: 'chick sick' the images are great too, everything has a face on it, and their expressions are really funny! the best was 'chick kick!' which had a little duck dressed rambo-style, kicking at a couple of worms that are flying backward through the air! genius! the ack family: quack sack! the ock family: locks rock! the kids and i laughed at this book for about a half hour! i looked in the back and there is a whole collection of them- i am really eager to check out 'snow bow' next!
(more pics)

TV. season passed

each year i try out a few of the new shows that come out for the new tv season. usually i get burned and pick all the ones that end up getting cancelled after just a couple episodes (take 'do not disturb' or 'carpoolers' for example). but sometimes they are really good, and they actually stick around! usually i am interested, but the networks arent. recently though, there have been a few shows that the networks stick with, but i loose interest. i tivo shows and watch them at my leisure, but sometimes i just dont care about them any more. here are a few shows that i started with, but for one reason or another, ive decided to give up on. these are the shows that have suffered the terrible tivo fate called: season pass delete!

pushing daises: i joined this one right from the first episode. the story was strange, but strange in an adorable way. each episode has a narrator who speaks in rhyme, and the whole thing has a strange 'tim burtonesque' quality to it. the first season was really enchanting, the story of 'a pie maker who could bring people back to life if he touched them once, and back to death if he touched them again, and the girl he loves who he brought back to life, but now couldnt touch' was great, but i just dont care anymore. this show didnt have any new episodes after the writers strike last fall, and i guess a year later, i'm just not interested anymore. too bad, it had a good first run.

my name is earl: again, i've watched this one since it first came on. i really like jason lee, and was interested in seeing this show. to be honest though, i cant say ive ever really liked it. some of the stories were fun, and the characters of randy and joy were often amusing, but i rarely laughed, and certainly didnt care about the characters. i guess this one could have been deleted a couple of years ago and i most likely wouldnt have even noticed. it was mostly just a filler before i got to watch the good stuff: 'the office'.

chuck: the ads for this one last year looked cool, so i watched the first episode. it was a bit of fun, but what really hooked me was the fact that in that first episode they played a song by brothers martin, which is jason and ronny martin- the men behind two bands i really love: starflyer 59 and joy electric! right there, i was hooked! any show that supports my man ronny is worth me watching. so i watched the rest of the season and really enjoyed it. i would still be watching it this season, actually, but the awful truth is this: my tivo can only record two things at once, and 'chuck' is on opposite 'how i met your mother' and 'the sarah conner chronicles', so unfortunately, chuck gets cut. it looks like fox is moving 'sarah conner' to fridays in february, so i think i may give chuck another try!

ugly betty: granted, i shouldnt really even be admitting to the fact that i watched every episode for the first two seasons, huh? oh well- whats done is done. i'm not sure what i liked about the show in the first place, but what ever it was, it is long gone. and now, so is the show.

AUDIO BOOKS. i am legend

wow. this is, without a doubt, the greatest audio book i've ever listened to.
i saw the movie and enjoyed it, but hated the ending. i had heard that the book ending was a bit different, so i was curious to find out how that one went. after listening to it, i have to say that the movie really dropped the ball on this one.
the story is of robert neville, the last man alive after a deadly virus killed off the rest of the population. he struggles with survival as he finds that this virus has turned some survivors into vampires. he tries to deal with keeping them out during the night as well as what it means for him to be the last human alive. the twists and turns the story takes are unexpected, but perfect. the ending? brilliant.
as always with audio books, a lot of the fun is listening to a good story well told, and that falls on the reader to perform the material in a fitting way. so many books fail because of the person performing the book. in this case, the guy they got to read the story was perfect- alternating between gruff, confused, joyful, and many other emotions. he hits it out of the park!
i cant really do justice in explaining just how amazing of an experience it was to listen, with bated breath, to this story as it unfolded. if you have any interest at all in audio books, you MUST listen to this one!

AUDIO BOOKS. going postal

ahh, the masterpiece! after listening to a bunch of terry pratchett's books based in disc world, i must say that this is by far the best!
it centers on a crook named moist von lipwig (yes, the character's name really is moist). he is given another chance by the king, and this time he has to take on the role of postmaster and try and start up the postal service which has been in decay for many years. he gives it the old college try and much to everyone's amazement, including his own, he starts to find success! this causes the natural showman to up his game and start making ridiculous claims that he then has to try and keep up with.
the characters are fantastic, the writing is witty and crisp, and the story really drew me in- this one is a blast!

AUDIO BOOKS. wintersmith

the last of the tiffany aching trilogy, this book focuses on her encounter with the god of winter. in this story tiffany accidentally finds herself the object of the wintersmiths affections. she has to use her witching ways to try and convince this god that she isnt really that into him. if she fails? eternal winter! fortunately she has the 'wee free men' to help her out! this one is certainly the weakest of the trilogy, but it was still great fun to listen to and see how it all played out.

AUDIO BOOKS. wee free men

this book is actually the first one in the tiffany aching trilogy. unfortunately, i didnt know at the time, so i started with the second book first. there were a few references to events that took place before that story, so it was nice to catch up on what i had missed.
in this story tiffany first meets up with the little creatures known as the 'wee free men'. in the story tiffany's little brother gets snagged away to another dimension and she must go in after him and get him back out. along the way she meets these strange creatures and becomes their queen (as often happens). again, i was continually impressed with pratchett's cleaver wit and his characterization of these little blue men had me laughing the whole way through! 'what do we do men?' 'drink!' 'and?' 'fight!' 'and what else?' 'we drink and fight!'

AUDIO BOOKS. a hat full of sky

the only other audio book that my library had by terry pratchett was this one. its the second book in a trilogy, but i didnt exactly know that when i listened to it.
this is the second adventure of tiffany aching, an 11 year old girl who is training to become a witch. she goes to live with a witch to learn the ropes, but is always plagued by these little blue men called nac mac feegles. they are scottish and use funny terms like 'crivens!' and 'waily waily waily!' they try to help tiffany, but usually end up making matters worse. the story revolves around a scary entity known as 'the hiver' as he tracks down tiffany. a fun book- i think i found my new favorite characters: those nac mac feegles are hilarious! and stephen frears, the man who reads all of pratchett's books, does an amazing job of creating all the different characters and even does a great job with the scottish accent!

AUDIO BOOKS. thud!

i had no idea what i was missing. you know how people say 'you havent lived until...'? well now i know i hadnt lived. now that i have been introduced to the universe of 'discworld', i now realize that i can start living!
my only introduction to terry pratchett was through 'good omens' an apocalyptic book pratchett co-wrote with neil gaiman. i saw this book, 'thud!', on a shelf in the library and recognized the name (and enjoyed the cover art), so i gave it a try. it is set in discworld, a world created by terry pratchett (he has written dozens of books set in this fictitious land) that involves all kinds of fantasy characters: vampires, orcs, werewolves, witches, elves, zombies, dwarfs, etc. just about anything you can name. they all live in this world and are all used by pratchett to comment on our own culture in very comedic ways. these books are really funny! its obvious pratchett is british, because his writing has that sort of monty python style of humour (notice the british spelling).
this particular story is set in the city of ankh-morpoc and follows the watch as they try and solve a case that involves ogres and dwarfs and a historical battle in coom valley. the watch must solve the case of the dead dwarfs or face a civil war between the two species. the twists and turns along the way are brilliant, as well as the funny commentary on everything from art museums, to cell phones! this is the book that got me hooked on discworld!

AUDIO BOOKS. digital fortress

ok, i'll admit it, i got swept up in that whole 'di vinci code' nonsense a couple years ago. i read the book and really enjoyed it as i was reading it, but once i was done with it i realized just how badly it had been written. i even got suckered in to 'angels and demons'. those two books, as well as this one, suffer from the same problem: terrible writing! each chapter is only about 10 pages long and they all end in a cliffhanger, it sucks you in to the peril and quick moving pace that you forget to realize just how stupid the story really is!
digital fortress though, is not fast enough paced to distract you from the bad writing. this one is about a government organization that decrypts emails and stuff in order to catch bad guys. they run into this code that is supposedly unbreakable and they have to try and break it. as it goes along it pounds you over the head with the same basic information and constantly refers to how smart the characters are, yet when faced with a problem they take forever to solve it! most of the puzzles and challenges they face i was able to figure out as soon as it is presented, but they dont get to the solution until after about twenty minutes of guess work. a sure sign of a lazy writer: when a character explains something and then another character replies 'so you saying...' and then just rephrases what was just explained. and this happens all the time in this book! it was about a 6 hour book that could have easily been whittled down to about two hours if the characters had any brains about them at all. oh, and this is a technology based thriller, so it is wildly out of date to boot. definitely a waste of time.

AUDIO BOOKS. cs lewis

ive been a big fan of c.s. lewis' christian writings since i first read 'mere christianity' my freshman year of college.
i found this collection of lewis' books and figured i'd catch up on some of them. ive read a couple of them before, so two of them were new to me.
The Problem of Pain: this book goes through and tries to answer the question of why God would allow pain in this world. it was very fascinating and went in directions i hadn't expected. he spent some time looking at what perfect man was like in the garden before sin, and even spent a chapter looking at the question of if our pets will be in heaven with us!
The Screwtape Letters: i had read this one before, but it was really cool to hear it read. it just allows the mind to wander even more and imagine what is going on. this is a correspondence between two demons: screwtape, the mentoring uncle, and wormwood, the novice demon trying to corrupt his first soul. the fun of this book is that it turns the faith jurney upside down- these demons are happy about bad things, but frustrated by the good things that happen.
The Great Divorce: unlike the title suggests, this book has nothing to do with a failed marriage. the great divorce referred to in the title is actually in reference to the divorce between heaven and hell. in the story a man arrives in the afterlife. he somehow finds himself on a visit to heaven. while there he observes many people in heaven trying to talk with those who they loved on earth who ended up in hell. they try to explain to them what happened and how they can make things right. its an odd little story with some rather strange doctrinal overtones, but an interesting portrait of heaven, none the less.
Mere Christianity: what can i say, really? this is one of the finest books ever written. it is lewis' defense of chrisitanity in general. the first part of the book takes us logically through an explanation of how this faith makes sense. the second part is a study of God, and the third part is a look at how it all effects our life.