I feel conflicted about this:
On one hand I'm really pumped to do this, I've been talking about it for about nine months (it feels like I'm finally having my baby) and this is my first major step on the road to being a real cartoonist.
But on the other hand, it's real. In other words, I can't be fucking around any more and blowing it off. I really have to do it. No more, I'll do it on Saturday or I want to watch the Sox. I have to buckle down and work. And with school, the wedding work, and real life I'm not going to have a lot of time to just dick around.
That may mean that some of my blogging time may be cut back. I know you will all survive, but that's the way it may have to be for a bit. Not sure about that though, I'm sort of just thinking out loud.
Tuesday's class was pretty good, we started our Photoshop class and the professor looks exactly like Larry David from "Curb Your Enthusiasm". I mean exactly. He also talks a bit like him and acts like him. Every time he would open his mouth, I thought he was going to say, "Are you my caucasian? Are you my caucasian?" or "Fuck Huuuuuuuuuuuuugh."
I love that show. When Aly and I cancelled HBO last month, I knew that was the show I was going to miss most, even though there hasn't been a new episode in over a year. That's amazing, how can there not be a new show in over a year? Especially with a program like this? It's well received, the buzz around it is tremendous. I guess Larry David just works when he feels like it.
Must be nice.
Went to the Sox game on Monday night. They played the Reds in Fenway for the first time since 1975 and they won. Eric Milton got his ass handed to him, giving up another couple of homers, including one from Manny that probably shouldn't have been one. Ramirez lofted one towards Pesky's pole and Reds rightfielder Wily Mo Pena went over to make the catch, and the ball was actually in his glove for about three seconds. Then he hit the wall and the ball popped out of his glove. The ump signaled a homer and Manny had his 13th and Matt Clement improved to 7-1.
Before the game, the Sox P.R. staff decided that it would be a good idea to rename the left field foul pole the Pudge Pole after Carlton Fisk's famous dinger in game six of the 1975 series. The Sox haven't really been swinging and missing, but this was a terrible idea. The reason why the name Pesky Pole is so revered is because it just happened. You can't force this kind of manufactured nostalgia on Bostonians (or really anyone in the Northeast) because most of us have a cyncial streak a mile wide and our bullshit detector is finally tuned. This was definitely bullshit.
I finished this book yesterday:
The skinny: I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I think that if I read this book prior to "DaVinci Code" I would've liked it much more. The reason, to me this was a carbon copy of his previous book (or vice versa).
Essentially, they are the same thing. Both of them take place in less than a day; both of them have a strong, foreign bad guy being manipulated by a powerful, shadowy figure; both have surprise endings (which were actually quite good) as well as other very similar plot points.
Another thing that sort of bugged me was how obvious it was that Robert Langdon was really how Dan Brown sees himself, a dashing, brilliant, ladies-man adventurer. Which is fine, I'm all about literaryly stroking your ego, but in this book, it was way over the top. And I sound like a complete hypocrite, because when I write fiction and use myself as the main character (under a pseudonym of course) I make myself sound and act way cooler than I really am, but this was a bit much.
And Brown is terrible at writing sexy scenes. These were uncomfortable at best, clunky and plodding at worst.
Having said all of that, I did like it. No one will ever confuse this with the great works of the last 500 years, but I do think that Brown has a talent for writing page turners. I enjoy that he gets straight into the action, no fucking around. Bang, first page, someone dies. Within five pages, Langdon gets involved and it goes on from there.
Like the "DaVinci Code", it's obvious Langdon knows his shit, so while in actuality you are reading a simple paperback mystery, you feel a bit smart because you're reading about high felutin' stuff like art and architecture. In his acknowledgements, Brown said that he met with the Pope in order to get info about every day life in the Vatican and it shows, he's a hell of a reporter.
Overall, this was a good read and it captured my attention. Good for you, Mr. Brown.
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