I am off tomorrow for New York City for what is guaranteed to be a very interesting trip. I am absolutely completely and utterly excited, and will fill you all in with pictures and stories when I return.
I finished Waiting by Debra Ginsberg over the weekend. It's a breezy memoir about her time spent waiting tables, over a course of twenty years. While I have worked in food service, I've never waited tables, and found her stories entertaining. It's a very easy read, and I was never scandalized by her tales of horrible customers and awful coworkers, but I did find them interesting.
One of the better novels I've read in a while was The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen. I read his very famous and highly acclaimed novel The Corrections earlier this year and enjoyed it, and picked up The Twenty-Seventh City this summer due partly to it being about St. Louis, where my parents live. Franzen grew up in St. Louis and his knowledge of the city is clear, and adds a certain depth to his descriptions.
The novel is widely sweeping and has a vast scope. It can be a little overwhelming at times, and periodically Franzen delves a little far into city politics and gets a little tedious, similar to his chapters set in the Baltics in The Corrections. However, I was interested throughout the book and found it to linger with me for a few days after completing it. I'm still thinking about it, and tying up loose ends in my head. It reads a little bit like a mystery, a genre I tend to stay away from. The Corrections is really, in my mind, a study of several characters, while The Twenty-Seventh City is a study of two characters set in a sweeping city story. I recommend it, especially if one is familiar with St. Louis, interested in municipal politics, or the mid-1980s, where the book is set.
Sure, it's marketed as a kids movie, but as the genre goes, this one was great. It was truly well acted and laugh-out-loud funny. It exceeded what could be called low expectations, but I've always loved the story and could have felt pretty betrayed had the movie been awful. If you have kids in your life, or want a good movie to see as a matinee as we hit the late summer movie drought, you could do far worse than Freaky Friday.
The Ohio State Fair is a huge deal here in Central Ohio, and after complimentary tickets fell into my lap my roommate Lauren and I thought it was worth a visit.
Click on "More" for photos and narrative.
Upon entry, the first thing that caught my eye was a tent filled with amateur boxing matches. There were children boxing, with a huge crowd surrounding them:
Next, Lauren and I decided that no trip to the state fair was complete without visiting an animal barn. Since she's recently returned from six weeks in northern England, we decided to help her reconnect with the sheep population:
As we strolled through the sheep barn, we realized that a show was going on as well:
We then realized that the free evening concert had begun, featuring country singer Terri Clark. Neither Lauren nor I knew anything about Terri Clark, other than her name, but we thought we'd check it out. We were given free assigned seat tickets at the box office, and found an usher, who led us into the theater and then, closer and closer to the stage. Our seats were in the seventh row, dead center. We were surrounded by Terri Clark fan club members. It was a little overwhelming. I snapped this picture of Ms. Clark:
We stayed for 45 minutes or so, and enjoyed the show. We tried our best to blend in, clapping along when appropriate, and trying to blend in with all the diehard fans singing along with everything.
All of the masquerading was energy-sapping, so we had to have a snack after that. Lauren chose the caramel apple, while I abandoned any sense of good eating and had the myocardial infarction on a plate that is a funnel cake:
Once I was covered in powedered sugar, we decided to pack it in and head home, leaving the fair and all of its glory behind:
This movie combined one of my favorite film people (director PT Anderson), with one of my most despised movie people (Adam Sandler, who I don't even feel comfortable calling a "film person"). Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed it. Emily Watson is divine, which should come as no surprise, and the breezy, nonchalant direction by Anderson is a welcome change from his sometimes heavyhanded work. Sandler, well, as much as it pains me to say it, Sandler's pretty good, and at an even 90 minutes, the film is a cool breath of fresh air.
I realized when I saw the guys from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (QEFTSG) on the cover of Entertainment Weekly that I was way behind in commenting on the show. I have to say, I was skeptical beyond belief. So much so, in fact, that I didn't even watch the premiere until days later when enough people had reassured me that it was not crap (including both non-online friends and trusted bloggers like Max). I love it! There's something so unbelievably warm about it. True, they're often cruel (Thom is, I think, the one who makes the remarks with the most edge [cf: "...and then you lost your mind?"]), but it's always clear at the end that they really want the straight guy to be comfortable and happy. I can't remember the last time a show made me smile so much. And clearly, given the buzz and the press, no one needs to be told to watch this show, but nevertheless, I had to mention it. That, and I have to declare Ted to be my brand new TV boyfriend, giving Zach Braff of Scrubs a well-deserved hiatus.
I was relieved to find out today that Television Without Pity will live on to see another fall season. I think that, short of ESPN.com, I've visited TWoP more in the past two years than any other web site, and it may even beat ESPN. I read recaps of shows I watch and shows I don't watch. The recaps are always funny, and are excellent Pop Culture cram material. The forums are extremely well-moderated (a must) and full of intelligent, witty, respectful people. Long Live TWoP!