Thursday, July 26, 2007

James Ellroy

A question in comments from RDR reminds me that the third (and final) installment of the great Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy is due at the end of the year, though there does not seem to be any evidence of that on Amazon (or anywhere else on the interwebs), so count me a little dubious.

RDR was asking about the proper order of the LA Quartet books. As you might have guessed, there are four of them, published thusly: "The Black Dahlia" (1987), "The Big Nowhere" (1988), "L.A. Confidential" (1990), and "White Jazz" (1992). A few comments: The first three are astonishingly good. I read them back-to-back over several weeks in the mid-90s. "White Jazz" is a different kettle of fish altogether. In terms of the way it is written, it is--how shall I put it?--experimental, an experiment that didn't work very well for me. As I recall (though, admittedly, it has been a while since I read it), it's mainly the rat-a-tat dialogue that Ellroy is famous for--though on a whole new level--without much of a narrative to hold the story together. Anyway, start with "The Black Dahlia" and see if you get sucked in.

Posted by jwb at 9:38 AM  · 2 Comments   

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Compared to what--bubonic plague?

Note to self: Blog more about Canada. We managed to awaken Marty from his slumber. In defending Conrad Black, he invokes the "hot daughter" defense--though, surprisingly (to me), not the "hot wife" defense--though neither will get you very far, I suspect, with Pat Fitzgerald. In contrast, the Scooter Libby defense--"I'm tight with Dick Cheney"--might work a little better.

Note to Marty: Mark Steyn is an idiot.

Oddly, I keep coming across mentions in peculiar places of my alama mater. First, we've been watching the first season of the Sopranos. In episode six (I think), we learn that "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero has two children at Villanova. Second, Tim Donaghy--the disgraced NBA ref (and possible relation of Jack Donaghy?)--is also a graduate of that fine school. I trust there are some famous Villanova grad out there who aren't benefitting from criminal activity.

I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's recent films, especially the (in my judgment) unfairly maligned "Life Aquatic." Therefore, I'm been fairly excited about the forthcoming "The Darjeeling Limited." However, the trailer they've just released is really boring. Methinks they've got some work to do.

This, in contrast, is completely badass. (To spoil the surprise, it's the trailer for the Coen Bros.' film of C'mac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men.")

I appear to have unleashed a hornet's nest--yeah, I know that's a mixed metaphor, but it's the best I can do on short notice--with my comments about Camelot. I'll try to say something constructive about that tomorrow.

Posted by jwb at 3:47 PM  · 5 Comments   

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Other than that, he's alright

1. So the Beckhams have arrived in America. I'm more interested in David than Victoria--and in David's exploits on the pitch rather than how hot he looks in a sarong--but Jenn made me watch the special about Victoria the other night on NBC and, I've got to admit, she's far more self-aware and funny than I ever would have guessed. Who knew? We should get our first look at Becks on Saturday when LA plays Chelsea. I'll admit to harboring no illusions about Beckham being the savior of American soccer (whatever that might mean), but, when he plays well, he is fun to watch. There's an entertaining debate of sorts going on at The New Republic--home of soccer dorks who also write about politics--on this very topic between Aleksandar Hemon ("Why David Beckham Sucks") and Alex Massie ("The Case for David Beckham"). Hemon's piece is more entertaining, but I think Massie wins the day.

2. In other sporting news, have you been watching the Tour day France? I have, though I'll admit to having some trouble getting in to it early on. (The Floyd Landis scandal, regardless of whether he cheated, has been dispiriting.) But I've been getting more into it as the race has gone on. It's still pretty wide open and promises to be pretty exciting right up until the end. I wish I could root for Levi Leipheimer, but he hasn't got much personality. I have a suspicion tha Andreas Kloden is going to take off in one of the stages in the Pyreneas and may arrive in Paris in the lead.

3. Speaking of Canada, there's a delightful essay in today's Times by one Will Ferguson about how Conrad Black's former countrymen feel about his recent conviction for various dastardly deeds. I say "former" because Lord Black--as he will soon be known by his fellow inmates in what I'm sure will be a very luxurious English prison--renounced his Canadian citizenship so that he could become a member of the British House of Lords. He's now trying to get it back so he can serve his time in a Canadian prison. Needless to say, but Canadians don't seem to have much sympathy for Mr. Black. (As Mr. Ferguson says, "there is nothing so frighteningly passive-aggressive as a well-irked Canadian.") In closing, I'll note that I usually don't by books with the word "dummies" in the title, but I may have to make an exception for Mr. Ferguson's "Canadian History for Dummies."

4. How marriage is like--and not like--tape.

5. As a kid, I loved "Excalibur" and have been disappointed with more recent efforts to do justice to the King Arthur story (especially this one). Don't you think it's about time we had a decent update on the King Arthur story? Is this it? I'm not so sure--though it seems promising.

That's it for now. More anon.

Posted by jwb at 2:46 PM  · 6 Comments   

Thursday, July 12, 2007

I'm constantly trying to better myself in any way that doesn't involve reading


Sorry 'bout the long break, but, for reasons I won't go into here, we took June off from our (admittedly already rather unhurried) blogging schedule. So what did we miss? Paris Hilton went to jail and Scooter Libby didn't. (Apparently, Paris doesn't have as much dirt on Cheney as Scooter--though, of course, it's hard to blame Scooter for not wanting to rat out a guy who shot an old friend in the face.) Oh yeah, did you get yourself an iPhone? Me neither. Of course, "The Sopranos" is no more. All things considered, the ending was pretty good. I'll give David Chase an A-. Summer TV now officially sucks. When the best thing on the DVR is a bunch of episodes of "The Dog Whisperer," you know you're in trouble. Anyway, in no particular order, here we go:

1. Herewith a cool clip of the Smashing Pumpkins from Wednesday night at the 9:30 Club in DC. (Via Stereogum.)

2. Lohan has been reading Machiavelli. Let me suggest that this is not a good thing--sort of like giving the car keys to the family dog.

3. I'll assume that you, like me, have always wanted to have a secret compartment hidden behind a bookcase. Well, here's how to build one. (Via Boing Boing.)

4. This may be a wee bit controversial, but I'll admit to thinking in the past that Jessica Biel was a bit mannish. Let me take this opportunity to formally retract said views.

5. Speaking of hot chicks, is there anyone alive who's hotter than Monica Belluci? I think not. Check out the trailer for "Shoot 'Em Up", also featuring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti. It reminds one of those great Guy Ritchie shoot-em-ups, though without the funny accents. Speaking of Clive (who, come to think of it, sort of has a funny accent), have you seen "Children of Men"? Rather dark I would say, but visually really quite stunning.

6. Since we're on the topic of movies/trailers, unlike this guy, I actually think the teaser trailer for "Get Smart" is kind of funny.

7. Also, Steven Soderberg's "The Good German"--much discussed on this here blog--arrived yesterday from Netflicks. I'll file a formal report about it next week.

8. The very cute Buzzy Barry is now nine months old. I, alas, don't have any recent pics of him. (I'll try to remedy that over the weekend.) In place of a cute Buzzy pic, here is my cousin-in-law Mark Kenny walking on his hands at the opening of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in NYC a few weeks ago.

UPDATE: I see I forgot to include the link for "Shoot 'Em Up". Here it is.

Posted by jwb at 8:22 AM  · 6 Comments