Having finished Cold Days (WOW! I didn’t see *THAT* coming… but, I suppose, it makes perfect sense), I’m back to reading American Gods. Additionally, the Walking Dead vidja game has me wondering if I should read the comic or watch the show…
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
Watchin’ : We’re powering through The West Wing (in season 3 now), and I just finally caught up on Homeland. And I’m starting to get into the show Hunted, which is like a cross between Homeland and AMC’s Rubicon.
Readin’ : I’m still reading Angelmaker, which I should complete today or tomorrow; I’ve also picked up both Gatsby and Chabon’s The Final Solution again . Plus, I understand that Ian McEwen came out with a book recently that I missed hearing about, so I’ll probably go buy that today.
Every so often “Homeland” goes a bit off the rails plot-hole-wise, and veers a little too close to “24” (this happens maybe 2x per season), but generally speaking the writing, acting and direction are all top-notch.
Between you and me? I think the show is better. The character development is more in-depth and the overall story, though it roughly follows that of the source material, is just…better. The TV show introduces a few characters who don’t appear in the comic, too, and they’re great characters. I mean, you could do both, of course, but if you have to choose one: TV show all the way.
I gave up on the comic because it is pretty monochromatic emotionally. The show has shown the ability to vary tone a bit more. So another vote for show (but be prepared to yell at your screen a lot).
Agreed. The TV show does a much better job at getting you emotionally invested in the characters.
Well, I was watching my cat lick velcro.
It was the first time I caught her doing it.
I had to watch.
I wanted to see if she was going to get stuck or something.
Curiosity, etc, etc.
I’m reading Anansi Boys because I just finished Water for Elephants yesterday.
I’m watching Spider Man and His Amazing Friends circa 1981. Junior loves it, and he is relentless.
If you’re watching Spider-Man Cartoons for any other reason than nostalgia, Check out the 2008 “Spectactular Spider-Man” series. It’s golden.
Finished S1 of “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil.”
I repeat: if a recipe of 1/3 “BtVS”, 1/3 foul-mouthed Kevin Smith stoner movies, and 1/3 bizarre and inappropriate “Strangers With Candy” school comedy, capped with hilariously over-the-top “Evil Dead”-style gore and antics sounds like a good idea (spoiler: it is a GREAT idea), then I wholeheartedly recommend catching it on Netflix Streaming (or you can pick up the whole first season on DVD on Amazon for like 7 bucks).
That sounds kinda awesome.
It really is. I burned through the whole S1 fast; there’s a second season too, I will probably burn through that this week. (Sadly, no third, unless it gets picked up by some other network).
I was somewhat lukewarm on ep. 1, but by eps. 2 & 3, when they start doing callbacks to earlier jokes, I was laughing out loud – the show has a unique “voice”, and I was hooked.
And the eps are only 22 min. long, so if you watch 2 or 3 eps and aren’t just feeling it, you won’t have invested much time. If you have Netflix streaming it’s a freebie.
It is NOT, I repeat NOT, for children. The humor can be pretty foul.
I had never heard of this, but it’s already atop my list of favorite titles.
I caught you COLD. Voice is gone, a likely relief to my family. Last night, I made a pot of red sauce, and without use of the nose, could not tell how it tasted; family reported I did okay despite the handicap.
How are you liking American Gods? Amongst my most favorite books, but it would have been, since it reaffirmed my religious beliefs. Do want to figure out how to get to the scaffolding behind, maybe someday. . .
Heh. I made chili earlier this week under the same conditions. However, I started the process by dicing the garlic and onions and their strong aroma seemed to wake my nose up. Despite this, I still had to rely on my oldest boy to assure me that it smelled ok and I ended up making one of my better pots of chili. Perhaps being unable to futz with the spices worked to my favor …?
I like it a lot but, like you, it reaffirms my religious beliefs (or, so far, it’s hinting that it will). As it’s already coming across as if it were written for me, I find myself not trusting it… as if it were an attractive stranger coming up and stroking my beard.
“What do you want?”, I’m finding myself asking… rather than luxuriating in the attention.
Heh.
“Hey, Jay, I have this really nice Malbec for us to drink tonight.”
“A Malbec?! I don’t like Malbecs!”
[stroke stroke stroke]
“I’ll get the glasses.”
watching: bones season 5
reading: American Dervish. also read this week: PEI books that make me homesick (a holiday tradition), buffy the vampire slayer omnibus 6 (notably better than previous vols.), and I listened to I, Robot, and Angels and Insects. Weirdly, I preferred I, Robot in audio even though I don’t like that narrator, because I could tune out the infodumps – but decided I like Byatt better if I read her myself, even though the narrator was wonderful – because I *enjoy* Byatt’s infodumps and don’t like missing any of them.
I started watching Bones right after I had finished watching the series finale of Angel. I realized quickly that I had come to the party wanting to find more Angel, which of course I didn’t. So I gave up on it rather quickly.
Perhaps I should give it another try.
I watch it for the squints. 🙂
I’ve just finished The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. With the upcoming release of the last Wheel of Time novel, I’m getting ready to start reading the whole series again one last time.
Reading Lord of Light. The recent release of the Locus list of best fantasy and sci-fi has prompted me to fill some of the holes in my education.
I’ve been making my way slowly through Deep Space 9 and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon show. Former is great, latter is fine, but I’m not moving all that quickly.
I’ll dissent from the people who recommend the TV version of Walking Dead. It’s one of the most tedious shows I’ve ever seen (surpassed only by AMC’s OTHER snoozefest, The Killing). An actual event happens maybe once every six episodes. Just an appallingly crappy piece of crap. The comics are pretty good through the first four hardcovers or so, at which point they go right off the rails.
Maybe “recommend” is a little strong. It’s definitely problematic, to say the least, particularly in S2. But I still found it an improvement over the comic.
Right with you on The Killing. Whenever that one would come up in AVClub comment threads, it was usually via some variant of “Fish you, The Killing”, which never failed to make me laugh.
Lord of Light is awesome. As is the first set of Amber books.
Hm, I read Nine Princes a couple weeks ago, and I *hated* it. I need someone to explain the appeal.
It’s a larger-than-life epic told by a Phillip Marlowe-like narrator. For me, that’s enough right there. Also, if you keep going, there are some great things that even alluding to would spoil.
How far through DS9 are you? I found it pretty pedestrian up to season 4, but it really took off after that.
Watchin’ : We’re powering through The West Wing (in season 3 now), and I just finally caught up on Homeland. And I’m starting to get into the show Hunted, which is like a cross between Homeland and AMC’s Rubicon.
Readin’ : I’m still reading Angelmaker, which I should complete today or tomorrow; I’ve also picked up both Gatsby and Chabon’s The Final Solution again . Plus, I understand that Ian McEwen came out with a book recently that I missed hearing about, so I’ll probably go buy that today.
Every so often “Homeland” goes a bit off the rails plot-hole-wise, and veers a little too close to “24” (this happens maybe 2x per season), but generally speaking the writing, acting and direction are all top-notch.
Between you and me? I think the show is better. The character development is more in-depth and the overall story, though it roughly follows that of the source material, is just…better. The TV show introduces a few characters who don’t appear in the comic, too, and they’re great characters. I mean, you could do both, of course, but if you have to choose one: TV show all the way.
I gave up on the comic because it is pretty monochromatic emotionally. The show has shown the ability to vary tone a bit more. So another vote for show (but be prepared to yell at your screen a lot).
Agreed. The TV show does a much better job at getting you emotionally invested in the characters.
Well, I was watching my cat lick velcro.
It was the first time I caught her doing it.
I had to watch.
I wanted to see if she was going to get stuck or something.
Curiosity, etc, etc.
I’m reading Anansi Boys because I just finished Water for Elephants yesterday.
I’m watching Spider Man and His Amazing Friends circa 1981. Junior loves it, and he is relentless.
If you’re watching Spider-Man Cartoons for any other reason than nostalgia, Check out the 2008 “Spectactular Spider-Man” series. It’s golden.
Finished S1 of “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil.”
I repeat: if a recipe of 1/3 “BtVS”, 1/3 foul-mouthed Kevin Smith stoner movies, and 1/3 bizarre and inappropriate “Strangers With Candy” school comedy, capped with hilariously over-the-top “Evil Dead”-style gore and antics sounds like a good idea (spoiler: it is a GREAT idea), then I wholeheartedly recommend catching it on Netflix Streaming (or you can pick up the whole first season on DVD on Amazon for like 7 bucks).
That sounds kinda awesome.
It really is. I burned through the whole S1 fast; there’s a second season too, I will probably burn through that this week. (Sadly, no third, unless it gets picked up by some other network).
I was somewhat lukewarm on ep. 1, but by eps. 2 & 3, when they start doing callbacks to earlier jokes, I was laughing out loud – the show has a unique “voice”, and I was hooked.
And the eps are only 22 min. long, so if you watch 2 or 3 eps and aren’t just feeling it, you won’t have invested much time. If you have Netflix streaming it’s a freebie.
It is NOT, I repeat NOT, for children. The humor can be pretty foul.
I had never heard of this, but it’s already atop my list of favorite titles.
Here’s a trailer:
http://youtu.be/93id9Wn9Xok
I caught you COLD. Voice is gone, a likely relief to my family. Last night, I made a pot of red sauce, and without use of the nose, could not tell how it tasted; family reported I did okay despite the handicap.
How are you liking American Gods? Amongst my most favorite books, but it would have been, since it reaffirmed my religious beliefs. Do want to figure out how to get to the scaffolding behind, maybe someday. . .
Heh. I made chili earlier this week under the same conditions. However, I started the process by dicing the garlic and onions and their strong aroma seemed to wake my nose up. Despite this, I still had to rely on my oldest boy to assure me that it smelled ok and I ended up making one of my better pots of chili. Perhaps being unable to futz with the spices worked to my favor …?
I like it a lot but, like you, it reaffirms my religious beliefs (or, so far, it’s hinting that it will). As it’s already coming across as if it were written for me, I find myself not trusting it… as if it were an attractive stranger coming up and stroking my beard.
“What do you want?”, I’m finding myself asking… rather than luxuriating in the attention.
Heh.
“Hey, Jay, I have this really nice Malbec for us to drink tonight.”
“A Malbec?! I don’t like Malbecs!”
[stroke stroke stroke]
“I’ll get the glasses.”
watching: bones season 5
reading: American Dervish. also read this week: PEI books that make me homesick (a holiday tradition), buffy the vampire slayer omnibus 6 (notably better than previous vols.), and I listened to I, Robot, and Angels and Insects. Weirdly, I preferred I, Robot in audio even though I don’t like that narrator, because I could tune out the infodumps – but decided I like Byatt better if I read her myself, even though the narrator was wonderful – because I *enjoy* Byatt’s infodumps and don’t like missing any of them.
I started watching Bones right after I had finished watching the series finale of Angel. I realized quickly that I had come to the party wanting to find more Angel, which of course I didn’t. So I gave up on it rather quickly.
Perhaps I should give it another try.
I watch it for the squints. 🙂
I’ve just finished The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. With the upcoming release of the last Wheel of Time novel, I’m getting ready to start reading the whole series again one last time.
Reading Lord of Light. The recent release of the Locus list of best fantasy and sci-fi has prompted me to fill some of the holes in my education.
I’ve been making my way slowly through Deep Space 9 and the Clone Wars CGI cartoon show. Former is great, latter is fine, but I’m not moving all that quickly.
I’ll dissent from the people who recommend the TV version of Walking Dead. It’s one of the most tedious shows I’ve ever seen (surpassed only by AMC’s OTHER snoozefest, The Killing). An actual event happens maybe once every six episodes. Just an appallingly crappy piece of crap. The comics are pretty good through the first four hardcovers or so, at which point they go right off the rails.
Maybe “recommend” is a little strong. It’s definitely problematic, to say the least, particularly in S2. But I still found it an improvement over the comic.
Right with you on The Killing. Whenever that one would come up in AVClub comment threads, it was usually via some variant of “Fish you, The Killing”, which never failed to make me laugh.
Lord of Light is awesome. As is the first set of Amber books.
Hm, I read Nine Princes a couple weeks ago, and I *hated* it. I need someone to explain the appeal.
It’s a larger-than-life epic told by a Phillip Marlowe-like narrator. For me, that’s enough right there. Also, if you keep going, there are some great things that even alluding to would spoil.
How far through DS9 are you? I found it pretty pedestrian up to season 4, but it really took off after that.