Either More--Or Maybe Less?--Than Meets The Eye

I'm reading Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy.  It's the first novel in a trilogy that continues on with Malone Dies and The Unnamable.  I've read the first two books in the trilogy before; the third I couldn't finish.  Here's how it's described in the inside jacket of the Everyman's Library edition:

The third novel consists of the fragmented monologue--delivered, like the monologues of the previous novels, in a mournful rhetoric that possesses the utmost of splendor and beauty--of what might or might not be an armless and legless creature living in an urn outside an eating house.

Enticing, isn't it?  (My favorite part: "might or might not be.") Also, is it just me, or is that almost an exact, word-for-word description of the plot of  Police Academy V?  Just saying...

World Cup So Far

I've watched about ten of the games in the World Cup so far; I've seen all the major teams play at least once and am therefore more than qualified to competently assess the entire tournament, and, in fact, all of World Football.

Some random thoughts:

- The Team To Beat for me, is Argentina.  They made a fairly solid South Korean team look like amateurs. The score finished 4-1, but it could have been much higher.  Their defense is average, at best, but oh my God can they score.  Exciting; electric--if you watch any games from now on out, try and watch theirs.  Even if they lose, it won't be a 0-0 draw.

- I read an article last week comparing Ronaldo to ARod; at the time I thought it was unfair to Ronaldo.  Now I think it's unfair to ARod.  Whiny, pouty, and given to flopping on the ground in "pain" whenever an opposing player even breathes on him, he is by far my least favorite player in the game today.  Luckily, I think the Portuguese are probably not getting out of group play.  At least, I hope.

-The US were obviously robbed of a victory today against Slovenia.  All the articles I've read about it thus far have said something along the lines of "Well, it was a bad call, but these things happen."  To which I say: YEAH WELL THEY#)@$* SHOULDN'T.  Taking away that victory from us is very likely to cost advancing beyond the first round.  Can't there be replays on goal kicks?  Can't it be reviewed after the match?  And why oh why was such a terrible ref allowed to work our game?

Yes, I know: we shouldn't have let the Slovenes get two goals in the first place.  Well, we did.  And then--we scored three more.  THREE MORE.  Three is more than two.  Therefore, we should have won.  Check that: we did win.  Okay?  We won.  WE WON.  So why are we only getting credit for a draw?  Why?   Somebody tell me??

GOD I HATE SPORTS.

-Except Argentine football.  That, I do not hate.  Maradona (who, by the way, my wife and I once saw in person, in the Lima airport) gives a press conference like no one else.  It's like...if Rasheed Wallace were made a coach, and given the freedom to say anything he liked, whenever he liked, that's what Maradona is.  The man is totally out of his mind.  But in the best possible way.  And, he's got his team playing well.  That must mean something.  Right?  

"...to get some printer toner or to take the cat to the vet..."

The best sitcom on TV right now is called Peep Show.  It's on BBC America and is, as you would assume, Albanian.

Wait, no.  It's British.  There's no Albanian TV network broadcast in America.  Although if there were, I'd watch it.  (Assuming it were shown in English.  Which seems unlikely.  More unlikely than the existence of an all-Albanian TV network broadcast in America, even.)

Peep Show has two stars.  David Mitchell is one of them.  The clip above is written and performed by David Mitchell.  It is, I think, hi-larious.  Also smart.  Much like the show.  And, while we're making lists, the British themselves.

"I Want To Be You When I Grow Up"

I've watched this three times today.  It's made me cry every single time.  If you're not watching So You Think You Can Dance....you should be. You really should be.

"Gay Men Playing With Barbie Dolls"

Lindy's West's take-down of Sex In The City Two is one of the sharpest and funniest film reviews I've read in a long time.  Warning: bad language abounds....

An End To Being Lost?

I've been following the countdown to the end of Lost with mounting interest. As friends and readers may know, I've long maintained that the show's creators would never in a million years be able to resolve even a small percentage of the many many contradictions, questions, and impossibilities the show's employed throughout the years to keep viewers watching.

Bear in mind that almost from the start, they promised just the opposite. They had a plan, they said.  It would all tie together.  Just keep tuning in.  Trust them: it would all cohere.  THEY would never be so cynical or lazy as to trick their viewers into watching by dangling before their all-too trusting eyes a carrot they could never, ever reach....

The video above shows all the questions that the show didn't answer.  There are, you'll note, a lot of them.

Contradiction, mystery, paradox, impossiblity...they don't necessarily give your writing depth.  They don't necessarily give it power.  They don't necessarily give it meaning.  Sometimes all they do is make you look ridiculous.

It's Almost Here

Unlike John over at ASWOBA, I always get excited about the World Cup. I don't pretend to be a die-hard soccer fan, but I have watched most of the major matches from the last two World Cups and I've gotten a lot out of them. (Having a DVR, by the way, makes this a LOT easier).

I feel a little bit ambivalent about putting up an ad on this site, but, well, this one's pretty great. It considers the consequences for a handful of the world's best soccer players of what they do and don't do on the pitch. The section with Wayne Rooney is particular memorable, although my favorite moment right now is the insane lounge singer guy that appears about a minute in. (Anyone know who that is?) Okay, enjoy.

BTW: Hawaii pics and recap coming up in a few days....

It's Been A Long Time Since I Bink And Rolled

I got an iPhone a few months ago. Thus far the thing I like best about it is that it allows me take pictures of my dog whenever I want. Is this useful? Of course not. Does it justify the outrageous 30$/month surcharge AT&T charges customers for 'data transfer?' No it does not. On the other hand, I now have over 100 pictures of The Bink at my fingertips whenever I need them. And that is pretty great.

My wife and I depart tomorrow on vacation (we're going to Kauai). We're going to lie in the sun, hike in the rain forest, and (maybe) surf in the ocean. The only thing we're not going to do is see our dog. Luckily I'll have my photos. Here are some of my faves....

Here he looks like both wise and ancient. I call it my Tolstoy shot.

Dramatic, huh? Every hour or so he comes up to my chair and turns that look upon me. I'm never quite sure what it means.

Nothing fancy here: just straight-up cute.

Of all of the many arch-villians who plague our neighborhood, there's only one who's evil enough to agitate the Bink like this. The Mailman has drawn nigh....

When you nap as hard as Bink does, it's important that you stretch when you get done. Otherwise, you risk a serious injury.

Sleeping for the Bink is not a stationary experience.

Cities and The Sky

My recent rereading kick has lead me back to Italo Calvino's wondrous Invisible Cities. Below I excerpt a passage from near the end of the book.

* * *

Summoned to lay down the rules for the foundation of Perinthia, the astronomers established the place and the day according to the position of the stars; they drew the intersecting lines of the decumanus and the cardo, the first oriented on the passage of the sun and the other like the axis on which the heavens turn. They divided the map according to the twelve houses of the zodiac so that each temple and each neighborhood would receive the proper influence of the favoring constellations; they fixed the point in the walls where gates should be cut, foreseeing how each would frame an eclipse of the moon in the next thousand years. Perinthia--they guaranteed--would reflect the harmony of the firmament; nature's reason and the gods' benevolence would shape the inhabitants' destinies.

Following the astronomers' calculations precisely, Perinthia was constructed; various peoples came to populate it; the first generation born in Perinthia began to grow within its walls; and these citizens reached the age to marry and have children.

In Perinthia's streets and square today you encounter cripples, dwarfs, hunchbacks, obese men, bearded women. But the worse cannot be seen; guttural howls are heard from cellars and lofts, where families hide children with three heads or with with six legs.

Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong and their figures are unable to describe the heavens, or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters.

Zero Point Four Grams??

That Mitchell and Webb Look is a skit show on BBC America. Well worth checking out. The clip below should be especially appreciated by the Bond fans among you.

The Wombats are Revealed

First passage: My Antonia by Willa Cather.

Second passage: Keats's letters.

I reread Willa Cather a few months ago. I'm going through a rereading phase. Rereading's the only way to understand a book. That's what I say. You only read so you can reread. Who said that? Someone. But it's true. True-ish, anyway.

Anyway: My Antonia. Much better than I remembered. I read it first in Iowa, where I felt the need to read books about settlers and the prairie. But it holds up. Holds up well. I then read O Pioneers, thinking I might go on a Willa Cather kick. (Good band name). O Pioneers didn't do as much for me. Though oddly it was at about this time that Levi's Jeans started showing those adds where pagan worship in blue jeans was accompanied by some prophet-sounding dude reading aloud from Whitman's poem "O Pioneers", which of course is where the Cather book takes its title from.

Now I'm reading my American History textbook from 11th grade pretty much exclusively. Because I have many students right now in AP US History. Which is pretty cool.

By the way, I've decided on my two favorite periods in US History. They are:

1) 1795-1815: Adams' presidency up to War of 1812. (XYZ affair. Rush-Bagot treaty. YES!)

2) 1890-1915

Maybe something to do with the national mood as the centuries turn? Not sure.

I'm kind of reading Wolf Hall, though I'm not making much progress.

Keats was a poet by the way. French. A Parnassian. He wrote Les Fleurs du Mal. Also, a few early episodes of Hawaii Five-O. (Little known but true).