Books and movies and stuff...oh my.

I couldn't think of anything for the third category. I would have said music, but I'm not going to talk about that. Stuff, however, is just broad enough to cover what I want it to.

So, books: I'm currently reading "A Devil's Chaplain" by Richard Dawkins. There will be a review up today or tomorrow (haven't decided yet when to post it), so keep checking back to see if there's a link for it. I'm also read "The Meaning of it All" which is a collection of 3 lectures given by Richard Feynman in 1963. The man was brilliant. He was funny, erudite and still relatable. He was about 80 miles above everyone's head, but you still manage to understand what he wanted you to. And he was so kind about everything. Switching from his book to Dawkins is like going from eating chocolate ice cream to chewing on a jawbreaker. I like Dawkins, don't get me wrong. He's incredibly smart, but he's a jackass. He's pompous, arrogant and nasty. And it's annoying, because he's so convinced he's right -and he often is, too.
That's part of why I like him.
I'm a jackass.

Additionally, some of you may not know this, but in addition to writing for Examiner.com, I also write for Helium.com -the nice thing about that is I can write a lot more loosely on Helium. I have a couple of movie reviews, and some political stuff as well. It's not all books, all the time there. Granted, Examiner is like my best friend where Helium is more of an acquaintance that I'd hang out with once in a while, but there's probably still some fun stuff on there for you to read. I like it, anyway. If you check it out, you'll notice a lot of duplicated articles from Examiner. Some of them were stolen from there and put on Helium, and some of them it's the other way around. Regardless, there's stuff on each of them that isn't on the other, so I think it's worth checking out, but that might just be me.

I'm still watching Now, Voyager...I don't know why, but when I watch a movie by myself, it'll take me two or three days to finish it. I get distracted. I check my blog for comments, I tweet, I check Examiner to see what's going on there. In short, without other people to watch the movie, I'm more interested in my own life. Which is funny, in a way, because I prefer to do most things alone as it is. Either way, N,V is a great movie. I'd definitely advise checking it out. Bette Davis has an unusual sort of beauty, but beautiful she was.

Gigi

Has anybody else seen the movie Gigi? I have -I'll be honest, it's not my favorite. Leslie Caron (who I loved in the movie Lili, which has an oddly similar title) came off as more irritating than spunky, and it bothered me. She was a great actress, but this musical just doesn't do it for me. Regardless, I have always wanted to read the book Gigi.

Sadly, but not shockingly, my library does not have a copy of it. What they did have was "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette" -a biography of the woman who wrote Gigi. And wow. Just...wow. The woman was fascinating and bizarre and brilliant. It's a long book (500 pages) and I had it finished in about 2 days. I could not put it down from the moment I picked it up.

You know how a lot of artists are temperamental and weird and get in trouble all the time?
That's Colette. She lived in the late 19th and early 20th century, acted onstage, had lesbian and bisexual relationships, got married and divorced, wrote scandalous books -and didn't care what anyone thought of her. She knew what was up. And she just lived the way she wanted to. Fascinating, grumpy woman.

So of course I wrote a review of the book, which you should go read (the review or the book? Both).

A Scanner Darkly

Funny story about the title, actually. Once when I was watching the movie, a friend asked me what I was doing via text message. I answered "watching a scanner darkly" and he replied with the question "Why are you brooding over a copier?".

I've never been sure if he was kidding or not.

Regardless, the book is amazing, creepy, sometimes funny and overall a total trip. It broke my heart in more than one way, more than once. It's wonderful. The movie isn't bad either, so if you're looking for something to do this summer, check it out, for sure. Read the book first though. The book is better. The book is always better.

Here's my review. Comments are of course one of the biggest things I want, but just read it...if I can get one person to read a book (or not read a book, depending on what the review says) then I've done my job, and I'll feel like I accomplished something worthwhile. Failing that though, just leave me a comment. ;)