Memoirs of Mirth and Mire

Being sick a couple of days either opens doors of opportunity for some annals of productivity, or it breaks you down.  In my case, I had one day of breaking down and another somewhat productive day, but the most productive thing I did was to finish a book!  When was the last time you could say you finished two books in one month?

Books in question were Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors.  Both very different pieces on the surface, and style-wise it was almost jarring to go from one book to the next.  Funny thing is, they also happen to be similar in theme in one form or another.

Scanner, outright, is a dense tale of paranoia, identity, and addiction all set within a dense science fiction backdrop.  Reading through the tale of Bob Arctor/Agent Fred, I got the sense that the backdrop was the least important part of the story, which, in my opinion, really exalts this book beyond most other sci-fi works.  Reading the afterword, it becomes apparent that there is much more to the story than an overarching drug conspiracy.  Dick himself was inspired by those he met in an addiction recovery facility and wrote Scanner as a memoir of sorts.  When he realized that no one would publish it as a straight tale of non-fiction, Dick Acquiesced and wrote most of it in his traditional science-fiction voice.  It would have been most interesting to see this outcome, but the end product doesn't lessen the art of his words.  It's bleak and admonishing of recovery facilities that attempt to break people down instead of building them up, but moreso, Dick emphasizes how the choice and the disease of addiction not only ruins lives and relationships but the very essence of a person's humanity.  Really, you think it's all about identity, but a little research reveals so much more.

Burroughs' Scissors is a hardly straightforward memoir of his early to mid-adolescence amongst his surrogate family and the relationship with his mentally ill and outrageous mother.  Similar in the sense that there is autobiographical material therein, the tone is where both pieces diverge.  While Scanner reads long and gripping, Scissors is a breezy work of paperback confession.  Most claim it as one of the funniest books of the past decade, and while most of it is quite amusing, it also contains shock value and the hard truth of abuse and loneliness.  Through a few passages, I shook my head at the sheer frankness and brutal honesty behind Burroughs' words and often found myself doubting their validity.  On the other hand, how could such outrageousness not be true.  In any case, Scissors contains the same bleak outlook of the early onset of a life unordinary, however, unlike Mr. Dick's cynical world-view, Mr. Burroughs tends towards optimism and hope for the future.  Triumph over adversity is a popular contemporary theme and Scissors makes no exception that this is truth.  What better way to present it then through the humorous eyes of the adult self.

So while I enjoyed both books, I would give the literary claim to Dick in this round, mostly because I felt that Burroughs tended towards the unnecessarily gratuitous.  Perhaps that is the point of abuse, to show how ugly it can be, but it was most cringe-worthy in reading.  Taking away what I will from both of them, these books were inspiring in the plainness and directness of their language.  They never tried to be cute or flowery and for this, I appreciate what I've read.

Devious Works

For some reason, I've sort of resurrected my DeviantArt site.  I don't know why, especially since Flickr now lets you filter your photographs and illustrations separately, so I guess it could be temporary. 

Sad thing is, I really don't have any current work that I've scanned in, so whatever's on there right now is pretty old and not that good. 

Ah, woe is me.

Sigh

With regards to my sister's recent post...  every time I read this strip, it just kills me.

I'll probably have more on this later.

Posts a-Plenty

Excuse me, while I go on an old-fashioned interweb rant.

So in my perusals, I've stumbled across many an odd little duck blog here and there.  Every now and then, one will stick out in my mind maybe because I like how they write or reflect or maybe because it's just habitual, but that's besides the point.  The purpose of a blog really does vary, but originally, the blog was an online diary of sorts which gave everyone the right to easily publish whatever they wanted to on the web.  When the blog boom hit, around the time of the last election, I think people were still a bit confused as to what this whole "web-log" thing was all about.  It's interesting to note how much it has grown in that time, with millions of people contributing to the ether every day.

What gets me, however, is how people use this medium in their personal lives.  Depending on how much you intend to share, private blogs are definitely the way to go if you are a private person, but the ones that are public can be somewhat scary.  Myself, I tend towards vagaries and allusions more than anything, at least I hope I do, except for the random "Look at me!" post every now and then.  When you start getting even bigger "Look at me!" posts from others, it tends to make you shy away from those sorts of happenstances.

For instance, I tend to get a lot of "the fabulous life of Me" vibes from many a young person's ramblings.  While there also tends to be a "Woe is me" stance, that's a bit more welcome than the former.  While I do tend to enjoy what people have to share about life in general, it gets a little incongruous when the tone of posting tends towards the pretentious.

Wait, is that what I'm doing right now?  Hrm...

Anyhow, I declare that there should be a return to humility for most people.  What happened to the tendency towards non-self-importance?  Does self-publishing really precede self-editing?  Should the internets be handing out "license to blog" cards to eliminate the chaff (yes that premise is ridiculous)?  Am I just the wrong audience?

I'm most certain that the last statement is the most true. 

One and Done

Granted, I figured they'd need another year before they could truly contend, seeing as four of five starters are sophomores and freshman, but I didn't think it would be as absolute a pasting as it was.  Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals put on a show in the first half and there was no turning back.

Lowlights of the season:  Getting crushed by Santa Clara at home and absolutely demolished by an Air Force.  Both teams that didn't make the tournament.

Highlights from this season:  Wins over Oregon, Washington State, and Virginia. 

Top two highlights:  Brook Lopez' unorthodox Block Party triple-double against USC and a 19-point comeback over then number-1 UCLA. 

Good times, next season should be great.

New Duds

After a few months of trepidation and some boredom over the old look, I finally have switched to the new Blogger 2.0!  You may notice some changes, obvious ones are the layout changes and title, but I have also been able to tag on a photostream at the bottom of the page (not that everyone actually reads that far down, but I thought it was neat). 

There are probably a few more changes coming, if I can help it at least.  Experimentation is key, right?

Right...

3 Hunny

There are four major Comic Book movies that I can think of off the top of my head being released in theaters this year.  There are also peripheral ones based on independent books, but the notable ones are always the big summer blockbusters from the big two.  Already, we've had one in theaters that had a stellar two weeks at the box office, but was a major critical disappointment (can it be a disappointment when you didn't expect much to begin with?) and the next two are dead-center tentpole releases.  Before we get to these two, we have one heck of an appetizer in 300.

In need of an education?  300 is based on the five-issue miniseries (now graphic novel) written and drawn by the acclaimed Frank Miller.  Some see him as the American Alan Moore, but with his recently drubbed - or maybe misunderstood - work, that title is dubious.  In any sense, the series itself is based on one of Mr. Miller's most storied passions, the Battle of Thermopylae.  Legend has it that the king of the Spartans, Leonidas, when confronted with the ultimatum of the Persian King, Xerxes, stood fast and rebuffed his request for tribute and submission instead gathering 300 of his best soldiers for a last stand at the Spartan cliffs.  Inspired by Leonidas' sacrifice, all of Greece united to destroy the Persian army and end Xerxes bid for world domination.  While there is much embellishment and reference to the pagan gods of old, the book is awash in what is perhaps some of Mr. Miller's finest artwork.  In this, the movie remains very faithful.

In quality, the movie also remains ever-faithful.  Leaning upon the prior example of Robert Rodriguez' adaptation of Sin City, Zach Snyder uses the source material as an effective story board from scene to scene.  While the results are not surprisingly stunning, the amount of detail packed into each effect left myself, as a viewer, more than impressed.  While you can refer to that era as the Bronze Age, it is never more apparent than with the brownish-gold sheen coloring most, if not all, of the cinematography.  Sheer eye candy.

Acting-wise, you see the birth of a new star in Gerard Butler.  His performance alone tethers every one of his soldiers to their intensity.  As a centerpiece to an ensemble, you could do no worse, but when you have supporting roles featuring Dominic West and Rodrigo Santoro, you elevate a bit more.  Although a few have argued that you certainly might need a baguette to go with the ham, when the action is this big, you expect everyone to act as big.  All the testosterone in the world must have been splayed on the celluloid before printing, because this film's cast has plenty to spare.  One regret is, of course, the lack of female roles, but actress Lena Headey does what she can and considering this film is a sword-and-sandles war epic, that's saying quite a bit.

I'd say I've seen the first great movie of this year.  I wouldn't recommend it if you're averse to gore (there's plenty of it) but the thrilling action and innovative visuals will more than plant this movie square in the consciousness of the American public.

At least until Spider-Man 3 is released.

Overall Score:  4 out of 5 stars

Bracket Bound

Alright, so Stanford made the tourney.  As an 11-seed, we're pretty strong, but facing Lousiville is less than ideal.  If this were at least 5 years ago, I'd be fairly confident, but with a young team facing it's first tournament in a couple years, it's a tall order.  Regardless, I look forward to filling out the bracket when the time comes.

A Night at the Museum

Main Man, Magritte
Originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

Friday evening, after a long and hard work week, Grace and I took a moment, not to decompress, but to drive out to Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for their "Treachery of Images" exhibit featuring the great works of Rene Magritte. After some wrangling of the parking lot attendant outside of the museum, we were on our way.

Since it was the final weekend of the show, the lines were understandably long and diverse. Surprisingly, the draw of Magritte spans several demographics of people. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since most consider his artwork to be an overarching examination of the contextual understanding of the human psyche. His work doesn't suck either.

Anyhow, the show was pretty large for such a relatively small section of the museum. We were treated to several of his more well-known works, and while Grace was very upset that we didn't get to see "The Son of Man", we did get to see "The Treachery of Images" close-up. I was most amazed that the paint still looked so fresh on the canvas and by the fact that many people were intrigued in the first place. Of course, I tried remember most of what we studied about Magritte in school, but seeing as it was almost 10 years ago, the details are a bit fuzzy. What I like most about his paintings is the unsettling nature of his imagery. I can use the most oft-used phrase that "It strikes me," but I'll refrain. Let's just say that most of his works are just dark and clever enough to elicit a few furrowed brows and perhaps a chuckle.

Our post-game plan was dinner, as usual. Since it was Friday (and since it's Lent) we hit up a nearby sushi place very worthy of a Yelp or two and called it a night.

What to do...

I've been neglecting the bloggerly duties, as I am wont to do in the first half of the year.  Maybe it's because it's busy, or maybe it's because I'm once again reevaluating goals and such.

In any case, I wanted to write up another short story, but I'm at a loss.  It helps when I'm listening to music, but even so, I've got nothing.  Besides drawing a blank, I've been trying to bone up on my sketching a bit.  Remind me again, should I be posting more drawings, more writings, or just random bits? 

Hrm...