So I've kicked off my holiday-appropriate reading and film watching..thought it's a bit early. Last night I read "The Santa Land Diaries" again, and enjoyed it immensely. I especially like Santa Santa and the mean things Sedaris does (and how he takes pleasure in them): like tell a little boy all of the horrible things that will happen to him if he ( Read more... )

I just finished a fantastic novel called "Red Weather" by Pauls Toutonghi. This is Toutonghi's first novel, and it is an impressive debut. "Red Weather" is about Yuri Balodis's, son of Latvian parents, coming-of-age, and about Yuri's relationship to his father. The story is told by a nostalgic grown-up Yuri, which lends the book emotional weight ( Read more... )

I just finished "The Alchemist." It didn't exactly rock my world. Warning: spoilers. ( Read more... )

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Interviewed for a reporting job today. Strange interview. I was given a test on spelling, important people and historical dates, among other trivia. The test actually asked whether a meter or a yard is larger. Apparently, I passed, my interviewer didn't actually seem as interested in my answers as the questions and answers themselves. I guess if I ( Read more... )

Saw Nadar tonight at Union College. He was quite good, got me revved up to take action. I can't remember anything he said at the moment, but it sounded good, whatever it was. Something about corporations and filthy lying politicians and him being old enough to remember the 1939 world's fair. Someone asked him why he had to go spoil the 2000 ( Read more... )

Went to see the apartment in Saratoga tonight: it's excellent. Especially compared to my place in New Paltz. Plus, it's a hundred dollars cheaper than the one in New Paltz and heat and water are included! It's a steal. I am so very excited. I need my space from parents. Hopefully, my new roomie and I will get along. We get along at work. Oh, man, ( Read more... )

I'm moving to Saratoga! Wahoo. A) No more living with parents (though they will be ridiculously close. But I think I can manage them, if I'm not living with them). B) It's in Saratoga, which means there are cool plances to hang within walking distance, a college that has cultural events, Saratoga stake park. Exciting! Exciting! The problem now is ( Read more... )

In my new mission to fight for social justice, I ordered and picked up a number of new books on progressive politics. I started one today: Bill Moyers: Moyers on America, a collection of Moyers speeches and television commentary. Moyers is a reporter for PBS. In his writing, Moyers proves himself to be an elequont, impassioned and erudite invidual ( Read more... )

I've been doing some thinking (plenty of time for that at bookstore) and i've decided, once again, that revolution is called for. This was partly instigated by reading Cloud Atlas, which explores power in society. Who has control and how they do it. It's as if Noam Chomsky wrote a crazy-ass post-modern novel. Anyway, I will provide some quotes from ( Read more... )