Johnny Waco's 10 Current Addictions (+ 1)
Submitted by JohnnyW on Wed, 02/18/2004 - 04:49
Tags:
- Veronica Mars - Season Two on DVD
- Victor Hugo/Toilers of the Sea - book
- Robert Louis Stevenson/Weir of Hermiston - book
- There Will Be Blood - movie
- Teaching college English again--finally!
- Shelfari.com - website
- Diet Coke with Lime - drink
- Houston Astros - pitchers and catchers report in about two weeks;)
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - TV show
- wikipedia - web site
- rediscovering listology (which I have to do every couple of years or so...)
Author Comments:
Great idea for a list! I wish I'd cloned this one earlier.
Cloned From:
I got Rig Rock Deluxe for Christmas in `96 and I love it. I play it on most trips I go on where I have to drive over 100 miles. Does it seem ironic to listen to big rig trucker songs in a Mazda?
I feel your pain; my '98 Saturn isn't exactly "Rolling Thunder." But a good set of truckin' songs makes even the smallest car seem invincible, right? I'm glad you like the cd so much; I didn't even know it existed until a month or so ago. I envy you the seven year head start you've got!
Johnny Waco
We have a '97 Saturn. :-) Hey, I don't think you were around at the time last year, but this December you should make a point of being around Listology so you can participate in the Secret Santa. If you're interested, of course...
Well Jim, I hope you have been able to avoid becoming a part of the "Cult of Saturn"! I got invitations to their annual picnic every year for awhile, but I guess my warranty ran out or something because they quit asking; of course, it may also be that I never went...
The Secret Santa sounds great! It makes me feel bad that I missed it last Christmas. I will do my best to remember.
Johnny Waco
I do believe The Tempest is my favorite Shakepeare, tied with King Lear. Also, through a set of happy circumstances, I own a copy of Lost in Translation, although my wife hasn't freed up time to watch it with me yet, so I still haven't seen it.
Yeah, The Tempest is one of my favorites as well, along with Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra . King Lear is incredible, with powerful poetry and themes, but as much as I hate to admit it, it's just too unrelentingly bleak for me.
I actually just read The Merchant of Venice for the first time yesterday, but I need some more time to think about it; I liked it quite a bit, but I'm troubled by Shylock's forced conversion to Christianity.
Johnny Waco
I think The Merchant of Venice is really inconsistent, especially with Shylock. Some of what he says is dead-on, very well-spoken argument for tolerance, but then he really gets unjustly screwed at the end of that play. I'm not sure what Shakespeare's opinion of him is, or of Jews in general.
I'd have to re-read it, but my recollection jibes with AJ's feelings.
Yeah, some of Shylock's speeches generate real sympathy for him, but the relentless anti-Semitism of the other characters (even those who are sympathetic) and his disturbing forced conversion really contradict. My gut feeling is that Shakespeare was more sympathetic to Jews than many of his fellow countrymen and tried to portray that in The Merchant of Venice, but prevailing attitudes dictated that he couldn't go too far with it: audiences simply expected Jews to be evil, and the commercial aspects of the Elizabethan theater caused Shakespeare to bow to what the public wanted. An interesting comparison is in I Henry IV, where Joan of Arc is treated in a similar way; she is a wonderfully strong, sympathetic hero most of the way through the play, but when the English capture her she turns suddenly into a whore and witch; it's as though Shakespeare wanted her to be likable, but as an enemy to England, she simply had to be smeared and punished in the end.
Johnny Waco
Hmm, I know that Shakespeare frequently ran into trouble with Puritan censors, so much so that his character Malvolio in Twelfth Night was designed to make fun of the censors. Maybe Shakespeare originally wrote the play with all ending happily, but the Puritans made him change it to a more disturbing, anti-Semitic ending.
Oh, BTW, I hate to be such a smartass, but the play you are talking about is I Henry VI, not I Henry IV.
No offense taken; thanks for correcting my mistake. All those Henrys get so darn touchy when you mix them up...
Johnny Waco
Hey, Johnny's gotta brand new bag!
Great list! I envy you that Tanya Tucker album...
Isn't Gulliver's Travels just a kids book? ;)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
The Tucker album is crazily consistent, especially the first disc. There doesn't seem to be even one weak track. And her earliest stuff, from when she was fourteen: who would ever guess she was that young just listening to it?
You know, the sad thing is that I've taught Gulliver's Travels four times in World Lit classes, and I've always had a mostly indifferent response to it. I finished it for this semester with yesterday's class, and I had maybe two or three students out of thirty smiling or laughing at some of the most absurd, clever, and right-on satire ever written. Maybe many of them think it is just a kid's book, and because they're sophomores (gasp! so mature!) it's beneath them. Who knows? I just continue to laugh as I talk about it, and let them think I'm borderline insane...
Johnny Waco
That is a shame. Gulliver's Travels just might be a sort of humor that doesn't connect with too many of us nowadays, and that is only our loss.
I will HAVE to pick up the Tucker album at some point!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs (who is recovering from a week-long illness, hence his tardiness at responding to the site...)
PS - My wife passed her exams!
Congratulate her for me! Does she have a dissertation topic yet?
Johnny Waco
Wow, yes, pass along congrats to your wife! That's great news! Sorry to hear you were sick, but I'm glad you're on the mend.
Indeed, many kudos to your wife! I'm glad to hear that!
Ah, The Ramayana, an epic even more fun to read than it is to pronounce. Reading this side by side with Homer's Odyssey, I have a hard time believing that their cultures weren't in more contact than earlier historians suspected.
Bummer of an ending, though; I'll stick with the opinion that is tacked-on. :)
Tell me about Heavenly Pop Hits, if you please...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yeah, the similarities are definitely there. I taught The Ramayana back to back with The Odyssey, and there are a lot of details other than the obvious struggles to get back home that echo. There's the obsession in both with whether it's a woman's nature to be faithful, but both Penelope and Sita vindicate themselves. Also, the test in both where only the man who can string a special bow will be worthy to marry either Penelope or Sita, and of course no one can do it other than Odysseus and Rama.
Heavenly Pop Hits is a recent greatest hits album for The Chills. It has I think sixteen songs, and every one is a winner. Like most good greatest hits, it's amazingly consistent. Favorite songs include "Heavenly Pop Hit," "I Love My Leather Jacket," and "Wet Blanket." I'd recommend it.
Johnny Waco
I will have to check out the Chills collection. It sounds groovy.
I loved Targets, though, as it goes with many films, I haven't rewatched it since high school. The A&E network used to show it often...
I want to take your class! I love the Odyssey and the Ramayana!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs (strongly feeling the urge to go back and to finish college...)
Targets is great; I love this story Count Orlok (Boris Karloff) tells during the movie about a servant meeting Death in a marketplace in Baghdad. It was a simple story, but the way he told it made it so creepy; I thought it showed what a fine actor Karloff is, especially at creating quiet menace.
Johnny Waco
Between viewing the original two Frankenstein films and Targets, can anybody doubt that Karloff was quite the actor? The casting was quite inspired as well, contrasting film horror with the real deal. A shame the film is largely forgotten by most today, as it is a true 70s classic. So many films seem to get shuffled off of the main road of film criticism and fandom, awaiting discovery by us awestruck wanderers...
We go around, around, around, around, around...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Targets is brilliant.
But this list goes to 11...
I have got to check out the M.I.A. album, eh?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yes, it's never been easy to contain myself; if I upped the list to fifteen, I'd end up with sixteen items...
I think you'd definitely dig the M.I.A. album. I've had snatches of the songs stuck in my head for most of the week, and the crazy thing is, I don't even mind!
Johnny Waco
I thought about ordering the album tonight, but I had to place an order for two new pairs of work pants and a pair of jeans instead, so the music may be on hold for a little bit, especially if I want to nab that DVD of Bringing Up Baby this weekend!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Ah, well, a good pair of pants is nothing to be scoffed at. And I just checked M.I.A.'s official website, and it's not even up yet despite being emblazoned across the back of the CD. Now I'm miffed...
Johnny Waco (who feels personally ignored by M.I.A.)
What do you think of Heaney's Beowulf translation?
I like it quite a bit; it's very readable and the tone seems appropriate for the story. I wish more poets would try their hands at translations because I also love Merwin's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Johnny Waco
Is'nt F for fake wonderful?
My Orson welles obsessed boyfriend bought it and we both love it.
Yes, I loved it! Of course, with his voice and way of telling stories, I love just about anything with Orson in it. The scenes between Picasso and the girl were so great, with the intense photos of Pablo situated behind real blinds.
Your boyfriend is obsessed with Orson Welles? Sounds like a real catch...;)
Johnny Waco
Oh he is. :)
Ah ha! So Bad Day at Black Rock panned out for you, eh?
Oh yeah, I loved it. It might be a few days (or a couple of weeks), but I'm thinking of putting up reviews for all the controversial classics films in one list. So I will let you know in more detail what I think.
Johnny Waco
F for Fake: I have NOT seen it, but found an interesting discussion about it on an IMDb message-board. One of the IMDb-users thinks that Truffaut actually directed it. He says: At the end of the film, where Welles is standing in a doorway explaining that everything that you had seen in the film was "fake", he shuts the door behind him to reveal a mirror on the door. Whe [sic- when] the door shuts, it reflects an image of the camera that was shooting Welles. The man shooting the camera is Truffaut. Well, just for information.
The Haunting: I hope you mean the original film by Robert Wise, which is truly excellent.
That is fascinating! I need to go back and rewatch the ending, but if Truffaut actually directed F for Fake, it certainly would fit in nicely with the film's obsession with cons and sleights-of-hand. Thanks for the knowledge.
And absolutely yes, I meant the Wise-directed The Haunting. Was there really any doubt? :)
Johnny Waco
Sandinista!!!!
Pretty damn good...
Johnny Waco
Oh I know :)
Ah, Posner's Case Closed, the book JFK conspiracy nuts really wish you wouldn't read. I swallowed it whole a decade ago and really haven't concerned myself with little men on grassy knolls since. (Well, at least not seriously...)
I need to track down that Pope book, as it is obviously up my alley. The Bob Newhart Show is one of the best ever to air, and I find myself using Wikipedia more nowadays than I ever thought I would.
Ride's Burnin' (from Tarantula) is playing at the moment. :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
As I told my students, you don't have to agree with Posner, but you have to deal with every point he makes. Amazing documentation and a fearlessness when it comes to addressing all the coincidences and "evidence" theorists use. It made a believer of me.
And you know I love Ride...
Johnny Waco
November 21 - 3-D episode of Medium. Glasses will be in TV Guides.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Sounds "specs"tacular...
Boy, that's a bad pun.
Johnny Waco