Sunday, August 17, 2008

G

G already? This year is flying by.

Book:
Mad Dogs by James Grady (332/"Yeah"): This would probably make a decent movie. The premise was rather unique. It was about five CIA agents who had gone insane due to things they had witnessed on the job. Sure, there are stories with rogue spies, but the concept of these men and women who are broken protecting America is one that I had never thought of before.
Anyway. These ex-spies are in an insane asylum in Maine (which is top-secret, because, naturally the US Government doesn't want to acknowledge that the CIA employs humans with faults) and their doctor winds up being murdered. The way the death goes down, it's obvious that they are being set up to take the fall. So they escape to track down the killer(s) and clear their names.
The whole idea of 5 people who have spy knowledge, but are also slightly off-kilter mentally being hunted *and* hunting others is just really, really cool. Like I said, it would make for a fun movie.
And the book is pretty good, too. At least for the first 200 pages or so. Around that point, something happened and I just lost interest. It was a struggle to finish the book, and I have to admit that there were moments/pages where I was skimming rather than really reading everything. Not sure exactly what the problem was - it may've just been me. I mean, I did pick up 4 "G" books, and 2 of them I didn't even open. (The other one I read about 2 pages of). And then today when picking out the "H" selection, I had a very rough time finding anything to grab me, so maybe I'm just in a reading lull. It happens.

Music:
On a Wire by The Get Up Kids:
What is it with music in this gimmick? I am having the hardest time finding stuff that is better than just "Okay". This disc by The Get Up Kids (whom I've at least heard of, although I don't think I know any of their songs off the top of my head) was just "okay". Not bad, but nowhere near great or even memorable.
I also picked up my first Soundtrack - it was for Garden State, and I was all, "It's got the Shins. And I've seen the movie, and enjoyed it, and enjoyed the music, so this should be a good one."
But. Um... It wasn't? Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, but all the songs sounded like whiny emo crap that just irked me. [shrug]

Movies:
I watched Grumpy Old Men which was slightly amusing. The Sunshine Boys/The Odd Couple did it better, but whatever. There are worse movies out there. Like God Has a Rap Sheet. I managed to get to the 50 minute mark before deciding that no, it wasn't going to get any better, and turned it off. GHaRS was about 8 characters thrown together in a New York City jail cell, wherein one of them is an elderly crazy looking guy who claims to be God. They're supposed to discus religion and politics and philosophy from the various points of view, but I don't think they got that far in the movie because it was just dull. The God character was intriguing, but not enough to continue wasting my time.

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