More Reviews Of Things
I recently read Joan Didion's book (no, not her RECENT one! Do I look, um, not poor to you?) The Last Thing he Wanted (I would underline this but I don't know how to do that).
It was something of a departure from her usual work in that it featured the usual wealthy idle middle aged lady as the main character, and a journalist alter ego-other person to go with her and they were in South/Central America with jacaranda bushes, but it also featured a Tom Clancy plotline, curiously enough. It's as though she were retelling the story of one of his original characters. Very strange and very successful, but somewhat jarring. This gave me an inspiration; I could parody famous writers by retelling a simple story, such as humpty Dumpty. Yes, I know it's been done, but I could do it again.
I also got a Netflix subscription a couple of months ago so we have seen many movies; Trey also got from somewhere (I refuse to believe it could have been I, but he claims I got it) Evil Dead 2, which was, well, completely unlike most of the movies I watch. Trey loved it. I don't know which one is likely to kill more brain cells, watching Next! (a really inane MTV show written by 11 year old girls) or Evil Dead 2, a really inane movie written by 11 year old boys. I will say that Evil Dead 2 takes more acting talent, because I should think is very hard to convincingly portray emotion when playing against foam rubber props, and artificial rednecks. Next! at least has a few so-bad-it's-good moments; such as when a young man tells a young woman, I'd like to go out with you again, you're hot as balls. Next is much less messy than Evil Dead 2, which features oceans and oceans of fake blood, vomit, etc; Evil Dead 2, however, has "special effects" featurings, well, oceans of fake blood and rubber creations whirling and menacing the unfortunate protagonist. Trey said that there are some more Evil Dead movies after this, and proceeded to explain what Evil Dead 3 was about, but all I will say is that I got some good grading done while adamantly not watching the movie. Trey is so strange like this; on the one hand, he likes Evil Dead 2, and wanted to see some more of them; on the other hand, he reads my Economist and liked The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Unpredictability itself.
Well, we saw Dead Ringer, starring Bette Davis, and that was excellent and had many twists and an interesting crime-does-not-pay story; it took what might have been a fairly conventional story about a twin who murders her twin and added a lot of drama to it. Also I saw Happy Endings, which was excellent; a real Romantic Comedy for people who cannot convince themselves that Julia Roberts' life on screen has any relevance to their own; and we saw Lost Boys of Sudan. Trey objected to the last because he did not like it when the Sudanese people talked about how they thought all American blacks were thieves. It was OK but not as good as I had hoped. Not necessarily worth the time.
I did a Good Thing last week; The car was acting up once again and would not start at the Sam's on Mountain Industrial. It clicked but would not turn over. I thought it was the battery; so we went back inside. If we purchased the battery, then they wouldn't put it in that day, because they were all backed up. This irritated me. So what you're telling me I should do, I told the service person, is I should buy the battery, get the car jump started, take it home, and then do what exactly? It doesn't do me any good to buy a battery if you won't put it in. This argument was moot as they did not sell that sort of battery anyway. Of course, this car takes some kind of SPECIAL battery for some reason, that only 3 stores in the world sell on alternate Tuesdays from 1-3 PM and they are all located in Germany. Then we tried Pep Boys, as it was on the way home. They had the battery, but it would cost $90.00 and they did not seem willing to install it, and I just don't feel like doing it. We went to one AutoZone, which had the battery, it cost $66.00, but they would not install it for "security reasons." The AutoZone near me on Columbia was friendlier, but they did not have the battery. A gentleman (and in using the word "gentleman", I am stretching it far beyond any meaning ever intended for the word) came out and looked at it and reminded me that the battery was a 6 year battery and that there was no sense in replacing it, especially as it had been replaced when I had the transmission switch replaced about a year ago? year and a half ago? and that it should go back to the dealer. I was girding my loins for a battle with the dealer (for those of you who are wondering how exactly one does that, it meant that I was trying to convince Trey to let me have his car to drive to work on Monday and he could get the car towed and then I was trying to think of how I would retrieve it). It could be the alternator, I thought, and then I remembered that the battery posts were very badly corroded. Sunday, I cleaned the battery posts, and that was all it needed! So I am happy about that! It does pay to be smart.
It was something of a departure from her usual work in that it featured the usual wealthy idle middle aged lady as the main character, and a journalist alter ego-other person to go with her and they were in South/Central America with jacaranda bushes, but it also featured a Tom Clancy plotline, curiously enough. It's as though she were retelling the story of one of his original characters. Very strange and very successful, but somewhat jarring. This gave me an inspiration; I could parody famous writers by retelling a simple story, such as humpty Dumpty. Yes, I know it's been done, but I could do it again.
I also got a Netflix subscription a couple of months ago so we have seen many movies; Trey also got from somewhere (I refuse to believe it could have been I, but he claims I got it) Evil Dead 2, which was, well, completely unlike most of the movies I watch. Trey loved it. I don't know which one is likely to kill more brain cells, watching Next! (a really inane MTV show written by 11 year old girls) or Evil Dead 2, a really inane movie written by 11 year old boys. I will say that Evil Dead 2 takes more acting talent, because I should think is very hard to convincingly portray emotion when playing against foam rubber props, and artificial rednecks. Next! at least has a few so-bad-it's-good moments; such as when a young man tells a young woman, I'd like to go out with you again, you're hot as balls. Next is much less messy than Evil Dead 2, which features oceans and oceans of fake blood, vomit, etc; Evil Dead 2, however, has "special effects" featurings, well, oceans of fake blood and rubber creations whirling and menacing the unfortunate protagonist. Trey said that there are some more Evil Dead movies after this, and proceeded to explain what Evil Dead 3 was about, but all I will say is that I got some good grading done while adamantly not watching the movie. Trey is so strange like this; on the one hand, he likes Evil Dead 2, and wanted to see some more of them; on the other hand, he reads my Economist and liked The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Unpredictability itself.
Well, we saw Dead Ringer, starring Bette Davis, and that was excellent and had many twists and an interesting crime-does-not-pay story; it took what might have been a fairly conventional story about a twin who murders her twin and added a lot of drama to it. Also I saw Happy Endings, which was excellent; a real Romantic Comedy for people who cannot convince themselves that Julia Roberts' life on screen has any relevance to their own; and we saw Lost Boys of Sudan. Trey objected to the last because he did not like it when the Sudanese people talked about how they thought all American blacks were thieves. It was OK but not as good as I had hoped. Not necessarily worth the time.
I did a Good Thing last week; The car was acting up once again and would not start at the Sam's on Mountain Industrial. It clicked but would not turn over. I thought it was the battery; so we went back inside. If we purchased the battery, then they wouldn't put it in that day, because they were all backed up. This irritated me. So what you're telling me I should do, I told the service person, is I should buy the battery, get the car jump started, take it home, and then do what exactly? It doesn't do me any good to buy a battery if you won't put it in. This argument was moot as they did not sell that sort of battery anyway. Of course, this car takes some kind of SPECIAL battery for some reason, that only 3 stores in the world sell on alternate Tuesdays from 1-3 PM and they are all located in Germany. Then we tried Pep Boys, as it was on the way home. They had the battery, but it would cost $90.00 and they did not seem willing to install it, and I just don't feel like doing it. We went to one AutoZone, which had the battery, it cost $66.00, but they would not install it for "security reasons." The AutoZone near me on Columbia was friendlier, but they did not have the battery. A gentleman (and in using the word "gentleman", I am stretching it far beyond any meaning ever intended for the word) came out and looked at it and reminded me that the battery was a 6 year battery and that there was no sense in replacing it, especially as it had been replaced when I had the transmission switch replaced about a year ago? year and a half ago? and that it should go back to the dealer. I was girding my loins for a battle with the dealer (for those of you who are wondering how exactly one does that, it meant that I was trying to convince Trey to let me have his car to drive to work on Monday and he could get the car towed and then I was trying to think of how I would retrieve it). It could be the alternator, I thought, and then I remembered that the battery posts were very badly corroded. Sunday, I cleaned the battery posts, and that was all it needed! So I am happy about that! It does pay to be smart.
posted by SavageATL at 11:56 AM
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