Sunday, November 26, 2006
The long weekend report
Bad news: I was unable to get a picture of the Battle Across Time Recovery Unit vehicle before it traveled back to the dimension/century from which it came. The good news: neither I nor reality were destroyed by the thing's presence.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's back to the long, hard slog of work. The main incentive behind my keeping my current job is the opportunity to work from home, which I was lead to believe would happen sometime after the start of 2007. However, I received an email last Wednesday asking if I'd be interested in working from home beginning in December. I couldn't reply in the affirmative fast enough. Let's hope it works out, or it's back to a daily scouring of online job listings.
After months, years really, of mental preparation, this week I intend to begin reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Even after conquering the mammoth Infinite Jest, which surpasses GR by a good 300 pages, there's something quite intimidating about nearly 800 pages of V2 rocket-related fun written by Pynchon. The fact that it took me three starts to finally finish Vineland is a major factor.
The long weekend allowed me the opportunity to see a few new films: Stranger than Fiction, Borat, and Departed. Stranger Than Fiction was really good, much better than I had anticipated really. It takes a few ideas from Charlie Kaufman, and Maggie Gyllenhall's character (a tax-evading, anarchist baker who somehow lives in a sweet Lincoln Park-esque brownstone and miraculously falls in love with the tax man) is a tad shallow, but Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman are great in their roles, and the major themes explored in the film are interesting.
Borat was more or less what I expected. As a fan of Ali G, watching Borat bait people into saying incredibly racist/misogynist things makes for uncomfortable but ultimately entertaining viewing. A film that is actually worthy of the praise it's gotten.
Departed was good, but not great. Within the New York/Mafia genre, it's a classic, but it isn't anything new. I thought it borrowed a few too many things from Donnie Brasco and Serpico, but Jack Nicholson is classic Jack, so I can't complain too much.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's back to the long, hard slog of work. The main incentive behind my keeping my current job is the opportunity to work from home, which I was lead to believe would happen sometime after the start of 2007. However, I received an email last Wednesday asking if I'd be interested in working from home beginning in December. I couldn't reply in the affirmative fast enough. Let's hope it works out, or it's back to a daily scouring of online job listings.
After months, years really, of mental preparation, this week I intend to begin reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Even after conquering the mammoth Infinite Jest, which surpasses GR by a good 300 pages, there's something quite intimidating about nearly 800 pages of V2 rocket-related fun written by Pynchon. The fact that it took me three starts to finally finish Vineland is a major factor.
The long weekend allowed me the opportunity to see a few new films: Stranger than Fiction, Borat, and Departed. Stranger Than Fiction was really good, much better than I had anticipated really. It takes a few ideas from Charlie Kaufman, and Maggie Gyllenhall's character (a tax-evading, anarchist baker who somehow lives in a sweet Lincoln Park-esque brownstone and miraculously falls in love with the tax man) is a tad shallow, but Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman are great in their roles, and the major themes explored in the film are interesting.
Borat was more or less what I expected. As a fan of Ali G, watching Borat bait people into saying incredibly racist/misogynist things makes for uncomfortable but ultimately entertaining viewing. A film that is actually worthy of the praise it's gotten.
Departed was good, but not great. Within the New York/Mafia genre, it's a classic, but it isn't anything new. I thought it borrowed a few too many things from Donnie Brasco and Serpico, but Jack Nicholson is classic Jack, so I can't complain too much.
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