Z

Done! 26 weeks of library visits. Crazy.

It's late, so I'll make this brief. I'll simply say that I enjoyed all of the Z selections. They were Annika's recommendation of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October [280/after], Zox's A Line in the Sand, and the 1964 classic, Zorba the Greek.

All 3 were enjoyable and fun. I'm so glad that I ended this on a high note. I only wish I'd been able to articulate more what I appreciated about them all. Oh well. On the bright side, I definitely broadened my horizons somewhat when it comes to musical artists, authors, and even got to sneak in some movies I'd never seen before, but had always wanted to. So this was an interesting experiment, although I'm not likely to repeat it anytime soon.

To quickly recap the (half)year's picks, and give them grades here's how it would go:

A
Flight by Sherman Alexie -- A
We Can Breathe Under Alcohol by An Angle -- F
In Stitches by The Actual -- A
American Dreamz -- A-

B
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow -- A+
23 by Blonde Redhead -- D
Blackboard Jungle -- C-

C
Winkie by Clifford Chase -- D
Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (sort of) by Will Clarke -- B+
Delivery Man by Elvis Costello & The Imposters -- C+
Capote -- C

D
Walpuski's Typewriter by Frank Darabont -- C
Beyond by Dinosaur Jr -- C
Good Night, Witness Light by Daphne Loves Derby -- C
We All Belong by Dr Dog -- A
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels -- B-
The Descent -- A-

E
Category 7 by Bill Evans -- B+
The Vegas Years by Everclear -- D
What Are You On? by East River Pipe -- C+
Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996-2006 Vol.1 by The Eels -- A+
Earth vs The Flying Saucers -- C-

F
Bottomfeeder by B.H.Fingerman -- A
Critically Ashamed by FM Static -- D+
Holding a Wolf by the Ears by From Autumn to Ashes -- F
The Frighteners -- D

G
Mad Dogs by James Grady -- B
On a Wire by the Get Up Kids -- I don't remember, but in the 'review' post, I claimed it was just 'okay', so... C?
Grumpy Old Men -- C

H
Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston -- A+
White Chalk by PJ Harvey -- B-
Keep Your Eyes Ahead by The Helio Sequence -- B+
Hoffa -- B

I
Setting Free the Bears by JOhn Irving -- C+
Returning to the Sea by Islands & Inland Traveller by Isolation Years -- I don't remember enough about either album to grade them properly, and my reviews didn't help.
Impostor -- C+

J
V: The Second Generation by Kenneth JOhnson -- B-
Chase the Light by Jimmy Eat World -- C-
Joy Ride -- C

K
Tick Tock by Dean Koontz - F
Yours Truly, Angry Mob by the Kaiser Chiefs -- B+
King Kong -- A-

L
No book, and can't remember enough about the Liars albums to grade them (doh!) and Last Man on Earth gets a D+

M
Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez -- B
Heretic Pride by the Mountain Goats -- A
Rabbit Habits by Man Man -- C-
Haarp by Muse -- C
@#%&! Smilers by Aimee Mann -- B+
Marathon Man -- A-

N
Fear Itself by Johnathan Nasaw -- C+
Nirvana by Nirvana -- A
North Country -- A-

O
Because it is Bitter, and Because it is my Heart by Joyce Carol Oates -- A-
Stop the Clocks by Oasis -- B+
Blame it on Gravity by the Old 97s -- B+
The Out of Towners -- B+
Omega Man -- C-

P
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk -- A+
Pretty. Odd. by Panic! At the Disco -- A
The Fragile Army by Polyphonic Spree -- A-
Texas by PlayRadioPlay! -- A-
Platinum Blonde -- B-

Q
Smoked by Patrick Quinlan -- B+
The best of ? and the Mysterians -- C
The Quiet American -- B-

R
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex -- A+
Don't You Know Who I Thought I Was by the Replacements -- C-
Rendition -- A+

S
The Almost True STory of Ryan Fisher by Rob Stenett -- A
Don't remember enough about either musical artist (again!) and the Station Agent ranks a B.

T
The Orion Protocol by Gary Tigerman -- B+
Pass once again on the musical selection (so much meh that it doesn't even register in my memory banks six weeks later)
There Will Be Blood -- A+

U
Vacation by Olin Unferth -- B+
18 Singles by U2 -- A-
Under the Influence of Giants by Under the Influence of Giants -- I don't remember, but I liked them at the time of the review. Um. A B, then?
United 93 -- A+

V
Starbucks Nation by Chris Ver Wiel -- D-
The Best of the Vines -- A-
Vacancy -- C

W
Mr Sebastian and the Negro Magician -- A
Brain Thrust Mastery by We Are Scientists -- A
Get Behind Me Satan by the White Stripes -- A
Westworld -- B

X
X-Men the Last Stand -- B+

Y
The Highly Effective Detective by Richard Yancey -- A-
Show Your Bones by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- A
The Eraser by Thom Yorke -- A-
Year of the Dog -- A

Z
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny -- B+
Line in the Sand by Zox -- B+
Zorba the Greek -- A-

Whew!!

Y

Hard to believe that this A to Z project is just about over. I have no idea what we'll do next weekend when we don't have to go to the library.

Books:
While I don't normally read mysteries (not sure why, they just don't seem to 'speak' to me when I'm looking for things to read), last week when I went to the libe, there were very few Y authors to choose from, so I grabbed The Highly Effective Detective [294/good] by Richard Yancey. I was happily impressed. Teddy Ruzak, the main character, is not only highly effective, but highly amusing. He shares quite a bit in common with Columbo, at least in regard to how he seems to think. Columbo gives the appearance of being disorganized and scatter-brained. Teddy...actually is.
But somehow he manages to solve his case (and a much larger one that he stumbles upon) in the process.
Supposedly this is going to be a series, and when I went to Amazon, I saw that one other novel featuring Teddy (and presumably his brains-behind-the-scenes-secretary, Felicia) has been written. Once it arrives at the library, I have a feeling I'll check it out.

CDs:
There were a slightly wider array of Y artists in the music, so I was able to get two CDs this go around. Both appealing, amazingly.
Show Your Bones by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Really really good. I'd heard "Gold Lion" on the radio before, and found it supremely infectious. The rest of the disc is just as good. Hilarious comment from Steph while listening to it in the van today:
Steph: "Whoever this is, is too repeaty."
Me: [laughs] "The name of the band is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs."
Steph: "Well, there ya go."
And then, later, track 9 began skipping, which caused Saren to comment, "Wow. They really *do* repeat a lot."

Steph does have a point that a lot of the lyrics are repeated during the songs, but that's the job of pop music. If a song repeats the lyrics multiple times, it's more likely that it'll stick in your head later.

The other disc I got was Thom Yorke's solo work, "The Eraser".
Now, I like Radiohead, but I don't find them the be-all/end-all that most critics seem to. I can take them or leave them. Thom Yorke sans Radiohead is ...actually better. But I think the best way to sum him up is: He straddles the line between genius and annoying. And mostly stays on the genius side.

DVDs:
Slim pickings in the movie department, but I was able to find a film I liked: Year of the Dog.
I was surprised to like it, because it starred Molly Shannon, who I typically find irritating. But the writing seems to play to her strengths, or maybe it's because she wasn't trying to be ha ha funny in this movie. Either way, Year of the Dog was an interesting film about people, animals, relationships, and obsessions, and how they can interact. Molly Shannon's character, Peggy, loves her dog, Pencil. But after Pencil unexpectedly dies, Peggy realizes that she's filled her life's emptiness with her dog. The film chronicles her attempt to fill the void left from Pencil's death.
One thing to note is that the trailer and the poster for the film market it as a light hearted romantic comedy. No. Not nearly at all, really. But if you ignore that aspect and just watch the movie as it really is - a tragic character study - you'll probably enjoy it a lot more.

X

Books:
Bah ha ha ha ha.
Um. Yeah, no. I was unable to find any authors whose last name began with the letter X (I thought of later, reading Malcolm X's autobiography, which may have been cheating, plus, all of the books have so far been fictional) so I read nothing [0/ ]this week.

Didn't fare much better in the other realms, either...

CDs:
The only artist at the library was X, with their album Los Angeles, which ...I actually didn't listen to all the way through.
It's not that it wasn't good, it's just that I wasn't much in the mood for punk music. [shrug]

and

DVDs:
X-Men: The Last Stand was the only X movie that the library had in stock, so, I picked it up, despite having not seen the previous two stands that the X-Men made. Going in blind, as it were, may have been helpful, actually, because I seem to remember that when X-Men 3 came out that many people were moaning about how horrible it was.
I rather enjoyed it, for what it was. I mean, sure there were a good many moments that had me rolling my eyes and/or sighing, but overall, it was a pleasant 90 or so minutes. It was interesting to see how much Heroes really has "borrowed" from the X-Men, and now I finally get all the references people were making to Jean Grey/Phoenix during the Dark Willow crap from Season 6 of Buffy. (Wolverine didn't need to stab her, he just needed to talk to her about purple crayons!)
So, I don't know that I really need to see parts 1 & 2, but I'm not unglad that I saw 3, if that makes any sense.

Overall, I think we'll call X my "free pass" letter. Hopefully "Y" yields better results.

W

Books:
I read Daniel Wallace's Mr Sebastian and the Negro Magician [257/know]. Steph had read it before, and had enjoyed it while reading it, but warned me that she hated the ending.
I had a similar experience. For the majority of the novel, I was under the spell of the story(ies) of Henry Walker, Negro Magician, and his encounters with the Devil (one Mr. Sebastian). Each chapter was another section of Henry's life, as told by a different character. Having all these differing points of view made getting at the "truth" of Henry's life a mystery, much like life itself. Everyone has their own perspectives and nobody really has the full story.
I didn't hate the ending, but I did feel that it sizzled out and was just simply... there. Again, I guess, somewhat like life. There is no real resolution, and you're left wanting more than you've gotten.
But Daniel Wallace (who also wrote Big Fish - which I've seen in movie form, but have not read) is obviously a great writer and adept storyteller, so I'd recommend this easily.

CDs:
Two W cds, both remarkable! Hooray!
Brain Thrust Mastery by We Are Scientists is their second album (i've heard [and enjoyed] the first already) and I think they keep getting better. This was just a great album.
And, of course I've heard of The White Stripes before, and I knew I liked the singles on the radio I've heard (except for Icky Thump, which continues to be a horrible song), but I wasn't sure if they'd withstand the test of an entire album. So I picked up Get Behind Me Satan, and was happy to find that they freaking ROCK. So much goodness. This album certainly makes up for Icky Thump.

DVDs:
I watched Westworld, and practically the entire time watching it was thinking, "Man, I'm amazed this hasn't been remade already. It's ideal for a remake!" After it was over, I saw on IMDB that it is being remade next year. I don't know whether to feel vindicated, or just sad. On the bright side, it appears that Michael Crichton was the one who helped write the remake (he wrote and directed the original) so ...maybe it won't suck?
The '73 version was enjoyable enough, for what it was. I almost felt that a better movie might have been seeing Peter Benjamin's character dealing with the aftermath of Westworld's meltdown. Also, due to being a 21st century (digital boy [heh]) movie-viewer, I kept expecting some "twist" - perhaps Josh Brolin to have been a robot all along. ...and hopefully I didn't just give the makers of the remake any ideas. Because, seriously, that would be crap.

V

Books:
Starbucks Nation by Chris Ver Wiel [241/handshake] started off with a decent enough premise - a Hollywood writer, who despises the LA culture, sees his dead writing partner at a Starbucks one afternoon, and gets into the limo with him.
However, the execution of the story SUCKED. The book is supposed to be funny (all the quotes on the back cover say so, and I can tell by the way that it's written that it's supposed to be a biting satire) but the problem is that it just isn't. funny. at. all. Dean Koontz is more amusing. And that's not really physical possible.
I forced myself through the damn thing, though, because I didn't have any other V novels, and because of the old stand by of, "I thought it would get better".
Maybe I just didn't "get it", because the 5 reviews at Amazon were all positive (and gushing about the humor) as well, but man. Huge disappointment here.

CDs:
I picked up The Best of the Vines by The Vines for my listening pleasure. And was overall quite pleased. The Vines have only been around since 2002, so it is a little surprising to me that they have a Best of album already, and I had only ever heard two of their songs before, but I did like the rest of the tracks as well. (Although the slower songs aren't quite as enjoyable as the harder songs like, "Get Free", "Ride" or "F.T.W.") Still, The Vines are a decent enough band, and so I was happy with that selection.

DVDs Netflix:
I checked out Varian's War from the library, which is a movie based on actual events - about Varian Fry, an American journalist who pulled a Schindler's List during World War II.
However, I couldn't watch the entire movie because the disc was scratched and after about twenty minutes in, became unplayable. [sigh]
So, figuring I needed a V movie, I turned to Netflix, to see if there was something there to watch on the computer. I found Vacancy, a 2007 thriller starring Kate Beckinsale and Owen Wilson. (ETA -And by "Owen", I mean "Luke". Doh!)
The movie is pretty lean, at 85 minutes, and the first 15 of it or so is actually rather slow. Once the action begins, it does kick into gear and become ...well, "enjoyable" is too strong a word. Um. "There"? "Adequate"?
I think overall that it had potential to be truly frightening - there was some true tension for about ten, fifteen minutes when the couple begin to realize that things are Not As They Should Be - but sadly it winds up being just another slasher flick.

Time to go to the library and see what the Ws have in store!

U

Books:

I seem to have a knack for picking out first-time books. Vacation [215/jumped] is a first-time novel by Deb Olin Unferth (although she's written and published short stories previously).
The story was at times confusing - although often I think it meant to be, in an attempt to convey the muddleheadedness of the characters it was tracking - and at times it was funny, and at times it was heartbreaking.
...you know, I kinda suck at reviewing things. Publishers Weekly had this to say about Vacation:

In this enthralling headscratcher of a first novel, Unferth (the story collection Minor Robberies) weaves an intricate tale of quests and escapes, of leaving and following. As a child, Myers falls out of a window, shattering his skull and unknowingly living the rest of his life with a misshapen head. Years later, he follows his wife, who spends her evenings following a man she doesn't know. The man, whom Myers identifies as a former classmate of his named Gray, is unaware that he is being doubly tracked. The marriages of both men fall apart, and Myers finds himself on vacation, traveling in search of Gray while Gray's ex-wife and daughter look for him, too. The problem is that Gray does not know where Gray is. If this all sounds puzzling, it is; still, with grace and skill, Unferth manages to weave together the most far-fetched of events. A subplot involving a dolphin untrainer and a woman in search of her birth father is distracting, and Unferth's wordplay can verge on the excessive, but a poignancy emerges in spite of Unferth's post-modern indulgences.

And that accurately sums it up. So, thanks for that, professional critics!

CDs:
I was happy with the two musical selections this go around. U2's 18 Singles was, well, eighteen tracks from U2, so that was familiar.
And then I also listened to the self-titled album from Under the Influence of Giants, which was surprisingly good. I especially enjoyed "Ah Ha!", "Stay Illogical", and "Lay Me Down". All around catchy pop songs that aren't played on the radio, but certainly could be, if, you know, radio stations didn't suck.

DVDs:
Because I felt like depressing myself horribly (and because there were no other decent "U" titles to choose from), I watched United 93, the fictional interpretation of what happened to the final hijacked plane from September 11th.
I did find the movie interesting in how even the air traffic controllers at first didn't really comprehend the severity of what was happening. The whole situation was just so outside the realm of consideration of the American people at that time... And, I have to applaud that the filmmakers did a fair job of humanizing the terrorists, as well as the men and women on board the plane. Considering how sensitive a topic 9/11 is, I think they did a very good job of staying pretty neutral and just presenting the movie as a story based on actual events without stating a political agenda.
Plus, Sledge Hammer was in it. Cool!

T

Books:
I quite enjoyed Gary Tigerman's The Orion Protocol (316/are). It was a sci-fi/thriller with just enough plausibility in it regarding the conspiracies relating to the government and NASA to make you go, "Hmm." or at the very least, "Huh." (I suppose if I were younger and more impassioned, (and if these were factual events) I would get outraged over them, but really, with conspiracies my attitude now is, "Yeah, so the government doesn't want to tell the truth. What else is new?")
Anyway. Basic plot of the book is that when the astronauts landed on the moon all those years ago, they discovered that someone had beaten us there. An abandoned alien mining station was investigated, and of course, kept secret. (The reason being that the government doesn't want widespread panic. Apparently the Brookings Report [an actual document from the 60s] recommends that evidence of extraterrestrial life be suppressed by government agencies. [although reading the wiki article, it appears that Tigerman made the Report more nefarious than it truly is. Ah well, artistic license.])
Anywhat. After discovering that there is a much more advanced civilization out there, the Orion Protocol was developed - also secretly. In fact, so secret, that not even (every) US President knows about it.
In the novel, there's a newly elected President, who has one of his staff members try to unearth what exactly the Orion Protocol is.
Interesting coincidence: the President in the novel is never named (simply refered to as "Mr President" or "the Commander-in-Chief", etc), BUT! He is described as fairly young, quite athletic, very well liked, tall and skinny, and he ultimately believes in doing the job for the people, not being a politician.
Also amusing- at one point, his staff member asks him if he wants to continue hearing some news, and he responds, "You bethca". Heh.
AND! John McCain is mentioned (by name!) near the end (appearing on a CNN discussion program). Just how much does Mr. Tigerman really know? [eyebrow]
Anyway, it was an entertaining read.

CDs:

I wasn't super impressed with either music selection this go around. Although one was better than the other. That was Kill the House Lights by Thursday.
Thursday is somewhat punkish, sorta metal, angsty rock band, that wasn't supremely great, but did manage to grow on me.
The other band was awful. ...In fact, I can't remember what the other disc was. But I do know that when I put it in, it started off good - kinda distorted/Sonic Youth type of sound, but then the second song was exactly the same. But worse. And when I got to the third track, and it too was super-distorted noise, I skipped through all of the tracks, and found that ALL of them were. Yeah. Um. No. It's a shame I can't remember what they were called so I could warn everyone away from them, but it's not likely that you'd stumble across them anyway.

DVDs:
There Will Be Blood delivered on it's title, although I expected more. The movie itself was compelling/almost greatness, just like pretty much everything that Paul Thomas Anderson has done. Daniel Day Lewis totally deserved his Oscar. I felt that the movie could've been about 20 minutes shorter and that probably would've made it absolutely perfect, but overall still a great movie that I'm glad I watched.

S

Books:

I checked out Rob Stenett's The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher (323/sound).
Quite enjoyable. The book is about this: Ryan Fisher, an atheist real estate agent, decides on a whim to place an ad with a Jesus fish inside a Christian paper. His sales begin to skyrocket, as his clients assume he his a Christian as well. To sell this lie a little better, he decides he better go to a church.
After attending for a while, and through a series of sitcomish circumstances, he begins to pass himself off as "Pastor Ryan".
And then he figures that he could probably start his own church.
And he does. Even though he doesn't believe in God, or Jesus, or any of the religious trappings that go along with running a church, he begins to grow his congregation and before you know it, he's attracting the ire of the other church leaders, religious fanatics and even Oprah Winfrey invites him onto her show to discus the state of religion in America.
The book does a nice job of looking at the state of religion in America, and makes some really good points about what a church should do and what people go to churches for.
The author is apparently a Christian - there were interviews at the end of the book, and the book was also labeled "Christian fiction" - but the story isn't preachy at all, and the fact that the protagonist is an atheist is highly commendable. (He never does convert, and there's no bashing of his belief [or lack thereof]) Plus, the book is highly readable, and while not really laugh-out-loud funny, it did cause me to smile for many of it. It was truly a "feel good" book.
It made me want to start my own megachurch and/or become a pastor. :) I mean, how hard could it be really?

CDs:
I grabbed two CDs this go around. Neither were remarkable, though.
Say Hi to Your Mom's Ferocious Mopes has a great title (and great band name) but sadly musically was just kinda meh.
Saturday Looks Good to Me's Sound on Sound was better, but really only just.

DVDs:
The "S" movie I watched was The Station Agent. I thought the performances were good, and I liked the characters, but there didn't seem to be a point to the movie. Maybe I was just missing something? [shrug]

I've already picked up the T choices, but I'm not super impressed with the music. So, that being said, I'm open to suggestions for anything coming up (U - Z). And remember that if you want to see whether I'd be able to check it out, you can go here to see if the library is carrying it.

R

Books:
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex [426/Boov] may be a young adult book (that's where it was shelved at the library, after all), but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of it. Pardon my language. The characters are great, the story pretty unique, and best of all - it was actually funny. The basic plot: After an alien race called the Boov have landed and conquered Earth (renaming it Smekland, after their beloved Captain Smek), they relocated all humans to reservations. (We get to keep Florida! Since all humans eventually move there anyway.)
Eleven year old Gratuity (her friends call her "Tip") Tucci does not trust the Boov and so she did not relocate - because the night before they made their presence known to humanity, she witnessed them abduct her mother.
After hiding from the Boov as they move into the abandoned city, Gratuity begins to make her way to Florida to find her mom. Along the way, she encounters a 'fugitive' Boov (named J.Lo [ha!!]) who joins her on her quest. A road-trip novel follows.
I haven't returned The True Meaning of Smekday yet, because I plan on reading it aloud to the girls. I know Harper will love it, if for no other reason than Tip's cat is named Pig. But the book itself is pure joy for anyone.

CDs:
I think I wasn't in the mood for music this week, because I only gave Don't You Know Who I Thought I Was - The Best of the Replacements by The Replacements one listen. I enjoyed it, but wasn't overly wowed. [shrug]

DVDs:

Rendition, was superbly well done, in my opinion. The movie is about an Egyptian-American who gets detained for questioning after American Intelligence links him with a terrorist organization. His family at home begins to investigate after he doesn't arrive home after his flight [he was detained in a Washington layover].
The movie gets it's point across without being preachy, and the acting is top-notch. Overall, a great film that I recommend.

Q

Books:
I picked up the debut novel by Patrick Quinlan, Smoked (276/dead) for my Q book.
This is a page-turner thriller about Smoke Dugan, a bomb-making expert who, a few years back, "retired" from the mafia after one of his explosives was used to cause a plane crash. His retirement consisted of him assassinating a mobster, stealing 2.5 million dollars, moving to a small town in Maine, and changing his name.
All's good, until the mob finds him. (They always find ya.)
The characters in this novel are most definitely the highlight. Even if some of them are rather unbelievable, and the twists that occasionally happened required a bit of suspension of disbelief, the ride is enjoyable enough that that's overlookable. (Overlookable?) The one thing that was interesting was that nobody was safe in this book. Many thrillers that I've read introduce characters - especially quirky ones - and the writer falls in love with them, thus keeping them alive longer than you'd expect. Not so with Smoked. Turns out that mob life really is pretty deadly, and putting your guard down for even a minute can result in a messy end.
Which was cool. It gave the book a more sense of urgency.

CDs:
I only listened to The Best of ? and the Mysterians: Cameo Parkway 1966-1967 once, but I guess that's because I just wasn't in the mood for multiple listens of groovy-late-60's rock-pop. It was enjoyable, but not fantastic.

DVDs:
Michael Caine rocks my socks off. I don't think I've ever seen a bad performance from him, and his turn in The Quiet American is no different. The movie itself is good, not great, but Michael Caine totally steals the show. Not much else to say about that.

P

Books:
I've read books by Chuck Palahniuk before- Fight Club and Choke, and I'm fairly certain I've read Survivor, although I can't really remember anything about it if I have, other than vagueness of what the plot is.

But anyway, since I knew I enjoyed those previous novels, I decided to pick up some other Palahniuk books.

Lullaby (260/life) is amazingly good. It's about a reporter - Carl Streator - who discovers that there is a thing called a culling song - an eight line lullaby from Africa - that has the power to kill people when read to them. (Or even simply thought at them, as he finds later)
Realizing that such a weapon would spell certain doom for humanity, Carl hooks up with a real-estate agent (Helen), her Wiccan secretary (Mona), and her secretary's boyfriend (Oyster) in order to obtain all the copies of the spell and destroy them.
At least that's what Carl wants to do. Seems that everyone has a different idea of what to do with the power of the culling song ...and the other spells that exist.
With Carl killing people with his thoughts alone, you'd think that it would be hard to feel sympathy for him, but after reading some of the saddest twists ever, I ended up pitying Carl. Or at least understanding him better. And he truly did want to control his power.
...anyway. After reading the book, I wiki-ed up 'culling song' just to see if they truly exist. That took me to the entry on the novel, and I found out that Palahniuk wrote the song after his father and step-mother were murdered, they caught the guy who did it, and he was asked to sit in on the trial that would decide if he got the death penalty or not. Knowing that personal bit to the story made the impact even more powerful.
So, yeah. Lullaby is highly recommended.

CDs:
All 3 P CDs were good! Amazing.

Panic! At the Disco's new one: Pretty. Odd. is too. damn. catchy.
At least, the first half is. It drags for a little in the middle, then picks back up again at the end. But good god, I spent more hours last week with bits of We're So Starving, Do You Know What I'm Seeing?, She's a Handsome Woman, and The Green Gentleman [Things Have Changed] stuck in my head than I'd like to admit.

I also greatly enjoyed The Fragile Army by The Polyphonic Spree. But, then, I knew I liked that band, so I expected to be happy with this album. They just make you happy.

What surprised me was the last disc. It was Texas by PlayRadioPlay!
The singer's voice is emo, the lyrics are angsty and juvenile (or amusing and juvenile, depending), and the music is a mix of electronica, and synth-pop. Which makes it sound like it should have every strike against it. And yet...I really liked this disc. Go figure.

DVDs:

I watched Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde, which was enjoyable and fun, although not nearly as good as You Can't Take it With You or It's a Wonderful Life.

O

Books:

On a recommendation from Kirk, I picked up the Joyce Carol Oates book, Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (405/part) for my "O" book.
The novel is about a small town in the 1950s where a murder takes place and how it impacts the lives of Iris Courtney, a white teenager who witnessed it happen, and Jinx Fairchild, a black teen who committed the crime.

This was the first book by Oates I've read, and I will definitely pick up more in the future, because she is a very talented writer. However, this novel did seem uneven to me. The parts that were good were really good, but certain characters [Leslie Courtney, and the entire Savage family at the end] just did nothing for me. What's amazing though, is that even during the sections that didn't hold my interest, the writing was top-notch. If that makes sense.
And as stated, the novel was overall quite good, so I'm glad that I read it. Thanks, Kirk!

CDs:

Both of the "O" artist CDs I got were actually good! What are the odds?
I grabbed a "best of" album from Oasis - Stop the Clocks is a 2 disc compilation of the Gallagher Bros' work, and was quite enjoyable. Although I'm a little peeved that neither disc had "You All Everybody" on it. ;)
The other disc I picked up was Blame it on Gravity by the Old 97s.
Awesome CD that, if I still had in my possession, would definitely be on repeat right now. Just a lot of fun. Also, someone needs to make a Chuck related fanvid to the song "Dance with Me". Seriously.

DVDs:
I picked up 3 DVDs, but only got around to watching 2. They say that's not bad, though.
The one I didn't watch was Off the Black, but it looked interesting. Some other time, perhaps.
I did watch The Out of Towners, which was a nice distraction. Jack Lemmon's increasing frustration through the film = LOLness.

I also watched The Omega Man, which ...man. The 70s were, in many ways, really messed up.
But, at least now I've seen all 3 movie versions of Richard Matheson's novel, "I Am Legend". Maybe I should read it someday.

M + N

Two letters for the price of one.

Books:
In the M books, I read a book involving a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost, some zombies and dark magic. There were plenty of times when this book tried to be funny, and wasn't, and a number of times where it was mildly amusing and/or clever, but nothing truly hilarious. The story moved at a pretty brisk pace, and while it wasn't superb or anything, it's not like I went in expecting high literature.
No, I didn't read Twilight, or any other Stephenie Meyer book. Instead, I read Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez. (268/night)
The story was about one of those road-side diners you see in movies (and on freeways in the middle of America), only this one has a problem with zombie infestations. Duke (werewolf) and Earl (vampire) are travelling through and opt to help the owner (a large woman named Loretta) clear them out. Eventually they discover that there is someone behind the rising dead and they deal with that individual, but I don't want to spell out the entire story. Like I said, it had moments of funniness - the local law enforcement is comprised of one man: Sheriff Marshall Kopp (ha!!); doing true Black Magic requires you use Pig Latin; zombie cows - but it wasn't laugh out loud funny. I'd probably read another Martinez book just to pass time, but I won't actively seek him out.

I also picked up (and started to read) Steve Martin's Shopgirl. I didn't finish reading it, however, simply because I ran out of time. Sure, I could've kept it for longer, but I moved on to the N book, and simply wasn't in to it any more. [shrug] The 30 or 40 pages I read were good, though. I like Steve Martin.

For the N book, I grabbed Fear Itself by Jonathan Nasaw. (327/Pender)
This was a page-turner thriller about soon-to-be-retired FBI agent E.L. Pender, and his replacement, Linda Abruzzi, who track down a serial killer named Simon Childs who kills people with phobias...by first using their fears to torture them. Yeah, it sounds a little convoluted, and it is, but it's also something I couldn't put down, because chase scenes, whether on film or in books, are just compelling to me.
Apparently, Pender has been used in other novels that Nasaw has written, and he occasionally made references to past cases, so maybe I'll seek those out someday down the road.

CDs:

The "M" music selection was huge! I got 4 albums for that week:
Heretic Pride by the Mountain Goats [great band, always like stuff from them]
Rabbit Habits by Man Man [eh. Turned out to be 'experimental' and 'noise' for my liking]
Haarp by Muse [Muse is a good band, but this was a live album, and not one of the better live albums. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it when I put it in]
@#%&*! Smilers by Aimee Mann [another great artist, and this was good stuff too]

The Ns were Nirvana's Nirvana [probably simply because I was blogging about them recently]
and Norma Jean's Redeemer [which turned out to suck horribly because it was thrash-metal-growl-instead-of-really-sing nonsense]

DVDs:
I watched Marathon Man ("Is it safe?" Yikes, dude!) which actually started pretty slowly, but by the end really really had my interest, and Metropolis, which was bizarre and awesome and oddly compelling.
And then the Ns were Network (so many great quotes from this one! "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!!" "You have meddled with primal force of nature, and you. will. atone!!!" "I just ran out of bullshit, you see.") which was great, and also North Country, which made both me and Steph cry (if you've seen it, you know the scene I'm talking about).

And now it's time to go out and pick up the Os.

L

is for lazy, apparently.

Book
As She Crawled Across the Table by Johnathan Lethem was the "L" book I picked up, but I don't know how many pages it has nor what the final word was, because I didn't read the entire thing. I managed to get about 30 pages in - and it wasn't bad, my mind was simply elsewhere, and I wasn't able to focus on novel-reading this week. I didn't have a backup book, so for the first week in this experiment, I don't have a complete book to report on.

CD
I grabbed two CDs from the band Liars ("They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" and "They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top"). Both were standard CD fare - meaning that they were okay, but nothing outstanding.

DVD
I checked out two L movies - "The Last Man on Earth" which was a take on the novel I Am Legend (done before The Omega Man and I Am Legend). This movie came out in 1964, and had Vincent Price in the lead role. It was also completely cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. I loved the "acting" that the child who was dying of the disease portrayed. And the "nighttime" shots of him driving that are in broad daylight. And the montage of Vincent Price doing vampire hunting is classic.
It wasn't a bad movie overall, I mean, it entertained me, and that's all I'm asking for in a 60s horror flick, so kudos.

I also picked up "The Life of David Gale", but we didn't get around to watching it.

K

This'll be brief, as it is very late - we just returned from having a date night out, we went to dinner & saw "Burn After Reading", which is very funny - plus I don't have a lot to say about the K items. Well, except...

Book:
I actually grabbed 4 books this time around. I picked up Tick Tock by Dean Koontz as well as Odd Thomas by the same. I also grabbed The Colorado Kid by Stephen King and A Disorder Peculiar to the Nation by Ken Kalfus.

I read all of Tick Tock (325/you), and was upset with myself for days afterward. WHY do I continue to torture myself with Koontz books? I know they're going to suck, and yet...
As I was reading this one, I was thinking, "Well, this is undeniably a lame-ass Koontz book - it's got the too-perfect protagonist, the beyond-perfect-and-also-independently-wealthy-female-love-interest, it's set in California - at night - while raining, and they're up against unbelievable odds. But at least there isn't a dog."

And then I got to page 125, where Scootie was introduced, and while I didn't say, "Oh for fuck's sake" and throw the book (I was on the bus at the time, and would've probably hit another passenger), I really wanted to.
It's not that I dislike dogs, it's just that Koontz puts an uber-intelligent canine in every.single.story. And he sings their praises non-freaking-stop. Just...enough, dude. We get it. You like dogs. How about making some realistic human characters instead? Or realistic dialogue. Or cut back on the similes. Or remove some of the editorializations (surprisingly this story didn't include any digs at psychology or proselytizing for Christianity, but nearly every other novel he's written in the past ten years has). Or learn what true humor is (Koontz is like a robot who has looked wit up in the dictionary, but doesn't quite grasp how it works).
Bah!

I started reading A Disorder Peculiar to the Country on September 11th, which was apt, since that's when the novel takes place (to begin with). I quickly zoomed through the first 110 pages, and then stopped for the night. ...and then I just lost interest somehow. It was good while it lasted, but once I put it down, I simply couldn't get back into it. [shrug]

I didn't even crack Colorado Kid or Odd Thomas. But after reading Tick Tock, I have sworn off Koontz (again) for good. Well, except for whenever the 3rd Frankenstein book comes out. I'll read that, just because I need to know how that story finishes. But, seriously. If I ever think about picking up another Dean Koontz book, smack me.

CD
I heard the new Kaiser Chiefs song - "Never Miss a Beat" on the radio about two days before we went to the library, and I liked it, so when I saw their first album, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob", I figured, "this might be good!"
And it was!

DVD
I got the 2005 King Kong remake, partly because the K selection was pretty slim, and partly because I'd never seen that. While it's a bit long at 3 hours, I got to say, it was a very engrossing movie, and the T-rex/T-rex/T-rex/Kong battle was AWESOME.

J

Book:
V: The Second Generation by Kenneth Johnson (443/future)
Remember the series V, from the 80s? The one about reptilian aliens that arrive en masse on Earth, claiming to want to help us, but are truly here with sinister plans? Well, Kenneth Johnson has gone and written a sequel to it. I watched most of the series as a child, and of course, thought it was fantastic stuff. But, most of my memories of it have faded, so I have no idea how it would stand up now (I'm betting time hasn't been entirely kind). Regardless, V: The Second Generation read like fanfic. Sometimes really good fanfic, sometimes really bad, but overall, it just felt like an overlong continuation of a series from way back then. But, then, I did read the entire thing, and it did have moments that I could easily visualize as being a movie or tv show [don't know if that's a good thing or not] and there were certain subplots that held my interest, so, um.... I guess the bottom line is that I would not really recommend the book, unless you are like a die-hard V fan.

CD:
I picked up 2 discs - The Jesus and Mary Chain's 21 Singles, which I didn't get around to listening to all the way through (doh!) and Jimmy Eat World's Chase This Light, which I did.
I've heard the first single off that album - "Big Casino" on the radio plenty o' times, and it's...decent. It's also pretty much what you can expect of the whole album. Catchy tunes, mehdiocre lyrics, and just more or less an Everyband type of sound that doesn't really stand out in any way.
A coworker told me that their album with the trophies on the cover ("Bleed American") is better, but I've not heard it, so I don't know.

DVD:
I watched Joy Ride, which was a better-than-average-but-still-pretty-much-shite thriller about a psychotic trucker with the ability to time travel who decides to stalk a couple of twenty-somethings.
Um. In the movie he can't truly time travel, at least it's not explicitly stated as such, but it's really the only way to explain how he's able to do the things he can do and know exactly what our 'heroes' are going to do before hand.
And, slight spoilers for the crappy movie ahead, what is the deal with horror/thriller movies always having to leave things openended for a sequel? I mean, seriously, what would've been wrong with having the time travelling trucker dying and staying dead? One self-contained story is plenty sometimes. No need to keep things going on and on.
I also picked up Junebug but we didn't get around to watching that. Maybe when Steph gets to the Js she'll grab it. It looked more like her type of flick anyway.

I

Before getting started on the blogathon posts, I figured I'd get my Library A to Z entry out of the way.

Book:

Setting Free the Bears by John Irving (280/bears). This is John Irving's first novel, and also, the first novel of his I've ever read. I've seen several of his movie adaptations, of course, but never actually read any of his books - I tried to read A Prayer for Owen Meany years back and couldn't get into it.
I don't know if I'd read another Irving book, because, while this book was impressively written, it was just difficult to get through. Particularly the middle section (entitled "The Notebook") where the narrative switches to another character, and focuses in depth on his mother & father's history before he was born. Since this was taking place in Austria during World War 2, it goes into a lot of the history of the area and was just not nearly as interesting as the other parts of the book.
Eh. I'm not expressing myself clearly, but I just know that while this story was okay, it wasn't something I'd recommend or force myself to do again.

CD:

The "I" music selection was not very large, unfortunately. Most of the discs were Indigo Girls or Iron Maiden selections. But I did manage to pick up two CDs from artists I've not heard of previously, and surprisingly, they turned out to be better than average! Hooray!
I picked up Returning to the Sea by a band called Islands reminded me of Of Montreal, which is a good thing. They've got titles of songs like, "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby", and "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" (which turned out to be the weakest song on the disc, in my opinion, but still). Overall, it's upbeat and funny and good stuff.
I also got Inland Traveller by Isolation Years, which appears to be a Swedish rock/pop group (according to Wikipedia, and also based on the fact that all the singers names appear to have umlauts). It's not a perfect disc, but I enjoyed the songs to a degree where I'm willing to add them to our iTunes library.

DVD:

I grabbed two "I" movies, but we only watched one. Impostor was a scifi movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel, and starred Lt. Dan as a government agent who might just actually be an alien spy with a bomb in his chest.
There was, of course, a twist ending to the movie, but it turned out to NOT be what I had suspected, so bravo movie-makers for actually blindsiding me! (Of course, the movie still wasn't spectacular, but then I wasn't going in expecting anything remarkable. Just wanted an entertaining 90 minutes or so of popcorn fluff. And that's what was delivered.)
Also grabbed The Illusionist, but never got around to viewing it. Maybe some other time.

In regard to the blogathon... I'm not certain I'll be posting every hour today. Or even twelve times. There are other things to do today (library trip for example) and frankly, my heart isn't totally in it. We'll see how the day progresses.

H

Book:
Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston (305/button).
This book made me want to steal money from the mafia. That's what Henry Thompson, the protagonist of this fast-paced noirish story, did. 4 million dollars, to be exact, and he winds up paying for it in many many ways.
In looking this up at Amazon, I discovered that this was actually the 2nd in a trilogy of books. Once I've got more free-time to read [got to move on to the "I"s right now] I may just have to look up the other two novels. Because as Six Bad Things was ending, I realized that I really didn't want it to. I liked Henry, even though he often makes really bad decisions, and people who are close to him generally end up, you know, kinda dead. So having two other stories about him? I'm down with that.
Huston writing grabs you, and definitely leaves you wanting to know what's going to happen next. Recommended.


Music:
I picked up 2 CDs this go around. PJ Harvey's White Chalk and The Helio Sequence's Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Harvey was okay, but nothing great (pretty much the standard when it comes to music lately, it seems)
The Helio Sequence was a mix of pretty good and decent, with the 2nd listen having things grow on me more. We'll download this disc, and I suspect that certain tunes will get a fair amount of play as I listen to them more.

Movies:
Watched Hoffa yesterday. Good movie. A little long, and some scenes struck me as unintentionally funny [mostly the riot scenes...for whatever reason, mob violence tickled my funny bone during this flick], but overall a pretty decent bioflick. Not anything I'd own, but certainly not a waste of time or anything.

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.

F

Books:
B. H. Fingerman's Bottomfeeder (268 pgs, last word - "everything") is pretty damn good.
It's the story of Philip Merman (like Ethel, but no relation). Philip is 54, but doesn't look a day over 27, which is how old he was when was attacked and left for dead in a subway station.
Turns out that, yes, Philip is indeed a vampire.
And as such, he needs to eat. And, yes, it needs to be human blood.
So Philip tries to choose victims that nobody will miss - homeless, criminals, the mentally insane.
This works for him, more or less, until one day when he meets another vampire who shows him a different way to survive, and he begins to question his lifestyle.
The ending was one I saw coming a million miles away (well, not the end-end, but a particular plot twist was truly not a surprise) but Philip has such an enjoyable voice that going along for the ride with him as your guide more than makes up for it.
I'd recommend this. It's certainly a unique take on the vampire novel.

Music:
FM Static's Critically Ashamed was...I don't know. It reminded me of Bowling for Soup or Fountain of Wayne. You know, one of those bands that believes they're clever and/or edgy with juvenile type lyrics, and would probably get played ad nauseum on Mix 94.1.
The other F disc I picked up was Holding a Wolf by the Ears by From Autumn to Ashes. Which turned out to be a death-metal band. So, you know, not good.
F bands = Fail, apparently.

Movies:
We watched The Frighteners. Although why I have yet to figure out. It starred Michael J. Fox, was directed by Peter Jackson, and was about ghosts scamming people. Sounds like a perfect combination for fun. Except that it sucked out loud. Too much CGI, too many outrageous storylines, too many jokes that just didn't work. Blah.