Anything happen while I was gone?
Flaked out there for a month or so. Got busy, then just didn’t miss it like I hoped I would. But I’ve got time now, for a little while it looks like, and therefore I have no excuses. And I feel like a hypocrite, making fun of lurkers while I’ve been lurking on your blog the whole time. I’ve had some thoughts, but instead of actually writing, I’ll just talk about my media consumption.
Been Netflixing Mad Men: Season 1. Man oh man! People were right about it. Check this out:
That’s just the opening credits! Wait’ll you hear them start talking!
I mentioned Amazon MP3 before. But I’m becoming a loyal fan of it now. You know that album you wanted to buy, but felt like it could wait? Well, it’s only $5 now at Amazon. They’ll price albums low for a week or so, and this week is a really good one. I picked up TV on the Radio’s Dear Science and Beck’s Modern Guilt for $10 total yesterday. If you don’t have Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend, get them now. Vampire Weekend is excellent, but if you’re not interested, I guarantee you’ll like Fleet Foxes. I recommend listening to it while working outdoors, preferable fixing a mile or so of fence. If that’s not likely, then just listen to it with hot coffee in hand and a good window view of trees with leaves falling.
I bought a bunch of books, but got behind reading. I’m still working through Angela’s Ashes. It’s from my memoir phase, which included A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Killing Yourself to Live (sorta qualifies), and the unlikely-to-be-finished Chronicles. I broke up the reading with a poetry kick: Charles Bukowski’s The Last Night of the Earth Poems. Per Allie’s recommendation, I also started GK’s Good Poems. And if you know me well, you’re waiting for me to say that I’m writing poetry.
Had a great movie on my DVR for a couple months, and I didn’t even know it. Brick. I heard that Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the long-haired kid from 3rd Rock) was in a some good movies lately. The Lookout was so good that I noticed he was also in Brick, and recorded it too. Really cool. It’s a modern-day high school film noir. Very interesting. Watch it with the volume way up, because everyone talks low and strange. Very cool, though. It will make you wonder why so many contemporary movies suck, when really creative stuff is made to look so simple. The director’s next movie is The Brothers Bloom, which I thought looked just okay, but now I’m curious.
And now the trailers for all those movies:
