David Cross: An Open Letter to Larry The Cable Guy

I can't wait to pick up a copy of this book from the library (it's waiting for me at the front desk)!

The following YouTube videos will play an excerpt from the audiobook I Drink For A Reason, by David Cross. The backstory is this: Larry the Cable Guy apparently wrote some stuff about David Cross in his book regarding a (mis)quote of David Cross in Rolling Stone magazine. "I have to warn you that this letter is nearly 11 pages long, but...who gives a shit? You're not reading it, I'm reading it to you—so don't be lazy." —David Cross


Part One


Part Two

February's Book

This month, my book is 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. I'm barely 37 pages into this book, and I am loving it. The book addresses issues surrounding the Euro-centric view that is taken, even by many well-established anthropologists, of Native American culture prior to the arrival of Columbus (although Mann uses the non-p.c. term "Indian" to refer to any of the natives, he explains why in the book). Mostly, the book contradicts the belief that pre-Columbian Indians were "sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them." What drew me to this book, besides the fact that J recently bought it, is the idea that many Americans use pre-Columbian Indians as a model for eco-friendly life, even though our preconceptions about these people are way off. It chalenges many of the ideas we have today about global development, more importantly how to fix the problems we are having right now, and I have to say that it's a pretty fascinating topic.

I just finished reading Devil in the White City, the biographical tale of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and how the fair created the perfect setting for serial killer H.H. Holmes. Devil in the White City is written with a kind of narrative that reads almost like fiction, and I thought I'd continue in that vein with 1491. Mann writes as an archeologist, a scholar, and just a regular guy who thinks the topic is pretty awesome, and the latter is how his writing comes off.

Loving Frank

I went to Western Pennsylvania this weekend because two of J's childhood friends were getting married. Going on plane rides means that I need a new book or two, and this trip was no exception. I picked up Loving Frank and The Boleyn Inheritance.

I haven't started reading the Boleyn Inheritance, but I finished Loving Frank this morning. I am a sucker for historical fiction; this trip felt like the perfect time to indulge that urge. Plus, the other book I had really wanted to bring was the Half Blood Prince, but I could hear J groaning when I picked it up, and he wasn't even there.

Loving Frank follows the life of Martha "Mamah" Borthwick, Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress, from around 1903 until her death in 1914. This oft overlooked woman is usually "a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect," but in this book she shines. We finally learn a little bit more about Mamah (pronounced 'May-mah') Borthwick Cheney and her role in the American feminist movement (which is slight but notable), and the book even seems to treat her as Wright's first real love. The book ends with the tragic and untimely death of Mamah and her children in Taliesin, the house Wright designed for Mamah and himself after he deserted his first wife, Catherine, and their six children.

I have always wanted to know more about this mistress that Frank Lloyd Wright had, mostly because I crave details about tragic and clandestine love affairs of most famous people, especially ones that I admire. It's hard to find information about Mamah, aside from summaries of her murder which are usually just in the details about the demise of Taliesin. She obviously meant a lot to Wright, but on the other hand they only knew each other for a grand total of nine years, and the affair coincides suspiciously with a huge artistic/mid-life crisis on Wright's part. Even Mamah, through the voice of Nancy Horan admits that Frank was already and always a shining star in this world, and would have been even without her in his life. This is not to discount her, but she certainly wasn't his first mistress, and even though it's very possible that they may have been happy together if she had survived, he didn't seem to have a habit of staying faithful to any one woman (which reminds me of Roman Polanski in some ways).

I was angered throughout the book by Frank and Mamah, two incredibly selfish people who destroyed the lives of their families in the pursuit of their own happiness, but I have a soft spot for FLW's architecture, which helps me overlook his shortcomings as a father. In Mamah's case, the destruction was quite literal, since both of her children died with her that day at Taliesin, but many other accounts seem to say that Frank Lloyd Wright's children did not appreciate their father's desertion very much. While I tend to agree with most of Mamah's feminist views, on principle, she seemed to be living a social experiment with Wright simply to push her own feminist agenda -- one that seems sad when you take into account her children.

In the end, it was a beautifully written book, even though I felt that it romanticizes the relationship to the point of making it seem silly. Mamah's obsession with Frank sounded very much like my high school crushes: childish fantasies where I could not see anything outside of my desire. The biggest difference is that I was a child, myself, and she was a woman with children. I have some sympathy for her because she grew up in a different time, but much of her relationship with Frank seemed unstable to me, and if she hadn't perished in that fire, I sincerely doubt they would have made it to the end. Still, this is conjecture based on pure (albeit thoroughly researched) fiction since much of her correspondence was burned with her in Taliesin. The book was thoughtfully written and felt true to the characters, but it was pieced together using Frank's life and a meager ten letters from Mamah to Ellen Key.

If your things are architecture, feminism, and historical fiction, I highly recommend this book, although I would also recommend it if you like Cosmo, Glamour, or Chick-lit. There's a lot more "Bridges of Madison County" in this book than there are accounts of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural influence on anyone but Mamah Borthwick Cheney.

Finishing Harry Potter >> Sleep

2:00 AM:
J rustles awake...
"I just finished Harry Potter. Go back to sleep."
"Was it everything you'd hoped for?"
"It was. And more."
"Does Harry die?"
"...I'm not going to tell you that! You have to read the book!"

J isn't a fan of Harry Potter (I know...I don't know why I'm still with him, either), but he was with me at midnight on the 21st when I went to pick up the latest Harry Potter book, and he didn't complain at all about my blatant neglect this weekend, while I read cover to cover without ever putting it down.

I don't have too much to say, except that it was brilliant, and perfect and totally warranted staying up until 2:00 in the morning.

Anyway, does anyone else watch Flight of the Conchords?

If you do, and you're a David Bowie fan like me, you were probably also very excited about last night's Bowie trib:



Space Oddity is probably one of my favorite songs, ever.

Why they call it raisin?

I finished reading two books on this trip (so far). The first one was My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. I recommend this one -- Emily is the one who originally told me about the book, but I didn't get around to it until I picked up The Tenth Circle at the airport on my trip to Lancaster. Because I loved it so much, I figured I'd give another Jodi Picoult book a shot and I was not disappointed.

I have to rant a little bit about Little Children, though.

Little Children was written by Tom Perrotta, who wrote Election, which I haven't read -- but I've seen the Reese Whitherspoon/Matthew Broderick movie based on that book, and loved it. I heard that Kate Winslet was going to be in this movie (Little Children) and so I implicitly wanted to see it, and by association, read the book. Never having seen a real preview, I couldn't imagine that it wasn't anything but fabulous -- and maybe it is. The book, however, is the worst piece of trash I have ever picked up, and I have picked up some pretty bad books in my life.

Aside from the story line, which was a little bit unbelievable, I had two major peeves with this book. Firstly, the toddlers in this book speak like little retarded children. I know I shouldn't say that, because it's fairly non-PC, but I swear to God. Children only speak as poorly as you teach them to speak. I suppose since on more than one occasion I caught adults in this book using improper grammar ("do good on a test" for instance), I shouldn't be surprised that the toddlers say things like "what you favorite color?" and "why they call it raisin?" Apparently, in Massachusetts suburbs they're raising some little ignoramuses -- Perrotta himself included. (and in no way to suggest anything about any friends I have who grew up in MA suburbs ;)

The second peeve I had was that the sex scenes were just appalling. They were clearly written by a man -- and they were degrading. Sarah was described in excruciating detail, and Todd would fade into the background. I mean come on. It was frustrating at best, and insulting at worst.

I already listed this book on half.com -- and I really hope some sucker buys it from me. Only because I lost the receipt. Because this book is so bad, I'd throw shame to the wind and return it. It sucked that hard.

Books As Movies. The New No.

Add two more to the list of books I've read whose movies I want to see because the book was so good (also because I do. not. learn):

Running With Scissors
The Time Traveler's Wife

They don't have any casting for the Time Traveler's Wife, but one of the imdb boards claims this movie is coming out in May 2007, and it's being directed by Gus Van Sant, so it has some promise -- or could be a major let down. Someone else recommended that we watch the Lake House while we wait for this movie. I don't like to agree with people who say blanketed inane statements like that ("Oh, hey, you liked this love story? Go see this chick flick that's kind of like it but not really. At all."), but I did think about The Time Traveler's Wife when I saw the previews for the Lake House. That's not to say it was particular to that movie though. I found it happening any time I heard about time travel or distance via time (the Machinist, for instance, gave me the same feeling, just because of the cut sequences). So anyone who doubts this movie can be well made because of the spliced time istn't remembering how successful it can be to a story (the Godfather II, anyone? If you watch it on TV, it's cut so that you see Vito's story, then Michael's story. It's so much better on DVD where the stories are spliced together. Or movies like Memento, where you see the past in snippets. It can work).

The reason I haven't learned, though, is because of my experience with many many great-books-turned-into-craptastic-movies: The Count of Monte Cristo, Vanity Fair, and my most recent disappointment, Everything Is Illuminated (which was the only one of the three that was actually a good movie on its own, but had very little to do with the book; just enough to distress me). The biggest thing about the movie Everything Is Illuminated that bothered me was the story altering portrayal of Alex's grandfather as a Jew, and subsequently, his flagrantly unnecessary suicide! The suicide does happen in the book, only after Alex's grandfather explains his story to Alex -- in one of the most excruciating parts in the book, Alex's grandfather recounts his betrayal of his Jewish friend, Herschel, and his justification for handing Herschel over to the Nazis. It's heart-breaking but, in a cruel human way, we end up understanding. Both book and movie are about the uncertainty and questions that bury 2nd and 3rd generation survivors, but they tell the story from two different ends of the spectrum -- and while the cast and setting were terrific, the movie script droped the ball where the book is wildly successful. The beauty of the book is that we finally understand, simply, that there are no easy answers -- that ultimately, the choices the characters have to make; the choices they had to live with, make their lives a big agonizing question. Making Alex's grandfather Jewish is a cheat because it simplifies his moral dilemma. Instead of living with the guilt of what he has done, he lives with the guilt of abandoning his faith -- which, as the movie shows, can be easily reclaimed. This change is what makes grandfather's suicide nonsensical. How do you redeem yourself after you've betrayed someone you love? How do you reclaim your youth or your innocence? How can you undo what you've done? These are the kinds of questions the book poses: the ones that cannot really be answered. The movie tries to provide some answers, but they only cheapen the journey. If you're going to read the book, watch the movie first. That seems to appease some people, although I then question their love of reading, because there's no way you can like them both tremendously, if you think about how the moive is less successful in all the wrong ways.

Anyway, like I said, Van Sant can either be wildly successful with the Time Traveler's Wife, or wildly WRONG. I am an eternal optimist. I think it can be done well, and I hope that Van Sant can be the guy to do it.

You Write Chick-Lit, For Crying Out Loud

I had a poorly written, riddled with curse words, "tell us how you really feel" entry about The Devil Wears Prada, but you know what?

This Times Review does it for me (re: the book).

Take that article, multiply it by 500, and you'll get an idea of how I feel about the movie.

The Devil Wears Prada

I hit a real low this morning when I realized I'd finishedThe Devil Wears Prada last night! I really don't have a clue what I feel like reading next. I have four new books I can get started on, or maybe more like eight...In Cold Blood, Expecting Adam, The Priestly Sins, Angela's Ashes, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, Everything is Illuminated, and A Room With A View. The last four have been on my "to read:" list since last year, the first four are relatively new.

First of all, I went into this book without any real prior knowledge. I try not to read reviews or summaries before I read books on the bestseller list. I did, however, know that this book was reportedly a roman à clef about a Vogue intern, and that the hellish boss was reportedly Anna Wintour. Whether or not it's true, the gossipy bitch inside of me read page after page with complete fascination. So, this is a good book - a great book if, like me, you can't help but raise an eyebrow when words like Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo, &tc. are thrown around casually - and want to know if all of the snippets you've read on the blogosphere about Anna Wintour are true or not.

It really was chick lit in the worst possible way, but like The Shopaholic Series, I loved the easy reading (i.e. not written particularly well) and the fast-paced story. I was not particularly impressed, however, by the predictable ending and the choppy way the story was written (Andrea is at Runwayfor a whole year, but somewhere between page 30 and page 130, we jumped from month 4 to month 7, and I didn't notice that three months of activity had passed), nor by the anti-climactic resolution between Andrea and Alex, or the way Lily's story was wrapped up - after it had been poorly "alluded" to (read: beaten into your brain repeatedly). Also, when she introduces herself to Christian as Andrea, and he calls her Andy right off the bat, I couldn't tell if it was a typo or intentional - and it bugged me for a few pages. Even when I found a typo in one of the copies of P&P that I have, I wasn't that bothered. And yes, that means I have multiple copies of Pride and Prejudice...

Now that I've read the book, and found all sorts of nitpicky things that annoyed me, I'm not sure what to think. A lot of people worship this book (at the orthodontist's office alone, I was approached by four residents who were lauding this book and told me that it was sooooo fabulous), but the reviews at Amazon.com are completely true. The book is not written well. The characters are flat.

But did I enjoy it? Yes. And unfortunately, an easy and enjoyable read sometimes makes it harder to jump into a book like A Room With A View or Anthem...

I Would Change Myself if I Could

I finally finished A Confederacy of Dunces today! I also started casting off on the shawl, which is fabulous, but tedious. Six hundred and forty eight stitches of casting off. Laura knows: It will take me days to finish this one last leg of the project. I mean, in this case it's somewhat justified as it's tedium is enough to make me restless, but then again, even when it was a simple garter stitch scarf (on size 19 needles, no less), it took me ages to get the last inch done (perhaps days? I don't recall, but it was absurd).

So, Dunces was...well, it was what it was. It's a Quixotic tale of this guy who is just the epitome of ridiculous. I have to say that my favorite character was actually Gus Levy, and towards the end Reilly started boring me a little bit. I have known people like Ignatius J. Reilly, and even though the book is well written, and everything really tied up nicely in the end, I can't say it's my new favorite book or anything, and it was just because of the characters and my inability to connect with them on any emotional level - well, except for Mrs. Reilly at the end, but really - it was about time she stood up for herself! Geez! I did appreciate the absurdity, though, and it wasn't as though I had to force myself to finish the book, but I won't be drunkenly trying to thrust it on anyone any time soon.

Next up is The Devil Wears Prada, because something tells me it will be easier to get through than In Cold Blood. I also have two books I picked up at the Salvation Army, that I might read right after The Devil Wears Prada. I'm too lazy to get up and check the titles, but one is a novel by a priest about a scandal in the Catholic church (I know, right?! It's fiction...but still!) and the other is a book about a woman who finds out her unborn child has Down's Syndrome and how she copes with it. Good stuff. I should get to bed before 3Am for once, though...I have a busy day tomorrow, what with finding expensive yarn for Emily, cooking dinner for the ingrates lovely ladies at WILG, and then hanging out with Emily and not watching anything on the TV...because...I mean nothing I watch is on on Wednesdays. Right, Em?

Now Listening: Third Eye Blind - Deep Inside of You

try to be a filter, not a sponge.

I just finished reading the perks of being a wallflower. Several things drew me into this book; first and foremost, its quotability. I think because of the narrative style, it seemed kind of simple and not necessarily quotable at first, but there were so many passages that just made me stop, put the book down, grab a pencil, and scribble the words down on whatever scrap piece of paper was next to me at the time. It got to a point where there were too many -- I may as well have been copying the book down by hand.

I did the thing at the end where I rush through it to get to the last sentence, because I can't help it and I love the book so much and it's just eating me away inside and I NEED to know what happens to the protagonist, but at the same time I'm frantic and panicked because I never want this book to end! (I just bought this book today and started reading on the T on my way home from that interview)

This book made me cry like I have not been able to cry for months. The presiding thought on my mind the past few weeks has been "I was 22-years-old when I forgot how to cry. I just stopped being able to do it." I just want to feel again. This book probably means a lot to me because of that.
Most notably, though, the narrative style, or something about the character reminded me of Matt. It was remarkable (I mean it as a compliment, though!). Matt is not a wallflower, and I can't really explain it. Go read his blog and read the book, and maybe you'll get what I mean. Or maybe you'll just think I'm crazy.

In case there's any interest, I also bought The Devil Wears Prada (like Dunces, I want to be able to see this movie when it comes out! Without feeling "guilty," that is), and the last book I picked up (my absolute CUTOFF) was In Cold Blood. I seriously flirted with getting the Tao of Pooh, as well, but put it down when I saw In Cold Blood. I'm strapped for cash as it is *blushes* but I can't help it, I'm a sucker for books!

I would like to point out, just for the sake of making this post longer and more boring, that I HATED the fact that this book was called, in some reviews, a "modern day Catcher in the Rye." Ugh.
Anyway, go. Read this book. I'll wait here.