And 2007 is off to a roaring blaze. Beck and I spent New Year's Morning staring outside at the cold rain and decided it was a good day for a coffee / cozy fire combo, the cozy fire portion decidedly lacking from our abode. So we made the short trek up to Blackstone Coffee and hunkered down in decidedly-undoghaired leather seats next to a fake fire with some coffees made with fake milk. We listened to some nice tunes (Velvet Underground and the Dead, among others), lunchtime regulars' flirtations with the by-rule (and equal opportunitably questionably) consistently cute coffeehouse girls (seriously, that place is like the cuties version of a Russ Meyer film) (Ha ha) and cuddled up with our books, Beck with an Annie Proulx novel and me with...
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: NR, largely so Nyet survives.
Besides, one could argue that pornography is by definition not art (it being "creative activity of no literary or artistic value"), so a non-rating seems in order. Just kidding. But really, I may not be able to define "bodice-ripper," but I know it when I read it. Ha. Okay, really, Outlander is an exciting book; Gabaldon is an excellent storyteller who does manage to weave a tale that throws the reader into the forests of the Highlands with her characters. I actually felt that the best aspects of the story centered around the political intrigue surrounding Jamie and his various relatives. Without ruining too much, there's a complicated dynamic between Jamie and his uncles, and everyone has multiple motives to oust one another. That sets a cool "trust no one" tone for the book, and the narrative weaves nicely around these bits, leaving things to be revealed for several hundred pages. So I liked that aspect. Some (some) of the fight scenes were nice and breathtaking, something that I personally find very hard to pull off, so kudos to the author for that. And, for all it's over-the-top goofiness,I'd be lying if I didn't say that jamie and Claire's relationship is largely well crafted.
But... and there's always a but, especially in the novel... there were a lot of missteps throughout. The bodice-ripping is, predictably, corny as hell, "I felt his readiness" being perhaps an all-time classic bad euphemism (apparently "it's my readiness in a box" didn't fit the beat). But it was really what felt like gratuitous rape scenes and an obsession with homosexual rape-torture that was pretty off-putting. Jamie and Claire's interactions alternate between vomit-inducing-ly sappy, hideous (the whole "I must beat ye and teach ye a lesson" section was painful), and really, bizarrely stone-faced. I suppose I found it uneven.
These are a lot of complaints - I was overall entertained and interested enough to want to find out what happens next to young Jamie and Claire, but I asked Beck in lieu of reading another one. Maybe that sums it up best.
And for the record, all this time I've been accusing Beck of reading bodice-rippers, I was right. She now can claim no rational defense.
Back into the blog - so I sat at Blackstone, hiding my copy of Outlander behind a copy of War Peace, hoping no one would see through my veneer (while coincidentally reading about someone's veneer being seen through. Repeatedly.) (The seeing through happened repeatedly, not the reading). Two coffees worth of time spent, Beck and I traveled to the S where, as fate would have it, we ran into Ben and a skinny stranger who looked like a cross between Jay Clyne and Brian Baker. I am probably the only person in the known universe for whom that has meaning. Anyways, it turned out that when the Ali is away (in LA for a vacation), the Ben will... invite a Physics PhD friend over to visit. I for the record, have no physics PhD friends (that I know of), so that makes the score of the Ubernerd Games...
Ben: 6.022 * 10^23; Nyet: 6.626 * 10^-34
So it turns out Ben and friend Dave are having gnocchi for dinner, making it from scratch, and would we like to eat with them. Heck yes. It being New Year's Day, I invite them over to watch football; they decline as they are watching the extended version of The Two Towers, further cementing Ben's victory. So long story short, we make it over and have a great meal of broccoli, salad, butternut squash soup, gnocchi and homemade tomato sauce. Awesome. The actual gnocchi-making process was hilarious, involving a furious debate about the consistency of the dough and should we / should we not add more flour, leading to the inevitable comment that you cannot deflour gnocchi, or at least not while a group is watching, nyuk, nyuk. Beck kept this vein up with a well-timed "debriefing" pun later, and I threw down with a "medicine is for chumps, I mean chimps" while explaining my med school history for the umpteenth time. All in all a great time: Dave went to camp with Ben and Ali, college with Ben and Ali, and somehow it doesn't slip out that Dave used to date Ali until about 3/4ths of the way through the night. Woah! Easily the best husband / former boyfriend relationship I have ever seen. Kudos to ben, or maybe I should avoid him for the next few weeks lest that embittered rage surface.
(The best part is that Ali called here last night to wish happy new year's, said she had heard that we had dinner with the twosome, and then asked how I liked her ex. When I said he seemed like a cool guy, she replies "Yeah, I used to do him.")
(That's Ali!)
So Tuesday was Beck's first day in the ER and my own first day in a special corner of hell where we spent HOURS talking about myspace and facebook and IMing and the new computer system. Blargh! I trekked home to an empty house after that amazement, ran 6 miles (woohoo!) and settled down to prepping for classes and several episodes of Angel. One episode in season 4 left. I hate Connor. Lonely night; beck got home late and I passed out more or less immediately after she sat down to eat dinner at 11:15.
Today was the first day back with the kiddos. All good. Back in the swing (though they admittedly remember nothing). Nice to start with a 3 day week, 4 day week, 4 day week, 3 day week combo. Cool.
I'm going to go watch the ND / LSU Sugar Bowl now. No one mentions that this is southern Louisiana home of pickpockets and loose women v. the Catholic Church, and or the supporters of God's mysterious ways v. Katrina victims. These are the angles I would really like ESPN to comment more upon.
And as a reward for reading the slew... here are highlights from the captain insane-o Boise State Oklahoma game the other night:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: NR, largely so Nyet survives.
Besides, one could argue that pornography is by definition not art (it being "creative activity of no literary or artistic value"), so a non-rating seems in order. Just kidding. But really, I may not be able to define "bodice-ripper," but I know it when I read it. Ha. Okay, really, Outlander is an exciting book; Gabaldon is an excellent storyteller who does manage to weave a tale that throws the reader into the forests of the Highlands with her characters. I actually felt that the best aspects of the story centered around the political intrigue surrounding Jamie and his various relatives. Without ruining too much, there's a complicated dynamic between Jamie and his uncles, and everyone has multiple motives to oust one another. That sets a cool "trust no one" tone for the book, and the narrative weaves nicely around these bits, leaving things to be revealed for several hundred pages. So I liked that aspect. Some (some) of the fight scenes were nice and breathtaking, something that I personally find very hard to pull off, so kudos to the author for that. And, for all it's over-the-top goofiness,I'd be lying if I didn't say that jamie and Claire's relationship is largely well crafted.
But... and there's always a but, especially in the novel... there were a lot of missteps throughout. The bodice-ripping is, predictably, corny as hell, "I felt his readiness" being perhaps an all-time classic bad euphemism (apparently "it's my readiness in a box" didn't fit the beat). But it was really what felt like gratuitous rape scenes and an obsession with homosexual rape-torture that was pretty off-putting. Jamie and Claire's interactions alternate between vomit-inducing-ly sappy, hideous (the whole "I must beat ye and teach ye a lesson" section was painful), and really, bizarrely stone-faced. I suppose I found it uneven.
These are a lot of complaints - I was overall entertained and interested enough to want to find out what happens next to young Jamie and Claire, but I asked Beck in lieu of reading another one. Maybe that sums it up best.
And for the record, all this time I've been accusing Beck of reading bodice-rippers, I was right. She now can claim no rational defense.
Back into the blog - so I sat at Blackstone, hiding my copy of Outlander behind a copy of War Peace, hoping no one would see through my veneer (while coincidentally reading about someone's veneer being seen through. Repeatedly.) (The seeing through happened repeatedly, not the reading). Two coffees worth of time spent, Beck and I traveled to the S where, as fate would have it, we ran into Ben and a skinny stranger who looked like a cross between Jay Clyne and Brian Baker. I am probably the only person in the known universe for whom that has meaning. Anyways, it turned out that when the Ali is away (in LA for a vacation), the Ben will... invite a Physics PhD friend over to visit. I for the record, have no physics PhD friends (that I know of), so that makes the score of the Ubernerd Games...
Ben: 6.022 * 10^23; Nyet: 6.626 * 10^-34
So it turns out Ben and friend Dave are having gnocchi for dinner, making it from scratch, and would we like to eat with them. Heck yes. It being New Year's Day, I invite them over to watch football; they decline as they are watching the extended version of The Two Towers, further cementing Ben's victory. So long story short, we make it over and have a great meal of broccoli, salad, butternut squash soup, gnocchi and homemade tomato sauce. Awesome. The actual gnocchi-making process was hilarious, involving a furious debate about the consistency of the dough and should we / should we not add more flour, leading to the inevitable comment that you cannot deflour gnocchi, or at least not while a group is watching, nyuk, nyuk. Beck kept this vein up with a well-timed "debriefing" pun later, and I threw down with a "medicine is for chumps, I mean chimps" while explaining my med school history for the umpteenth time. All in all a great time: Dave went to camp with Ben and Ali, college with Ben and Ali, and somehow it doesn't slip out that Dave used to date Ali until about 3/4ths of the way through the night. Woah! Easily the best husband / former boyfriend relationship I have ever seen. Kudos to ben, or maybe I should avoid him for the next few weeks lest that embittered rage surface.
(The best part is that Ali called here last night to wish happy new year's, said she had heard that we had dinner with the twosome, and then asked how I liked her ex. When I said he seemed like a cool guy, she replies "Yeah, I used to do him.")
(That's Ali!)
So Tuesday was Beck's first day in the ER and my own first day in a special corner of hell where we spent HOURS talking about myspace and facebook and IMing and the new computer system. Blargh! I trekked home to an empty house after that amazement, ran 6 miles (woohoo!) and settled down to prepping for classes and several episodes of Angel. One episode in season 4 left. I hate Connor. Lonely night; beck got home late and I passed out more or less immediately after she sat down to eat dinner at 11:15.
Today was the first day back with the kiddos. All good. Back in the swing (though they admittedly remember nothing). Nice to start with a 3 day week, 4 day week, 4 day week, 3 day week combo. Cool.
I'm going to go watch the ND / LSU Sugar Bowl now. No one mentions that this is southern Louisiana home of pickpockets and loose women v. the Catholic Church, and or the supporters of God's mysterious ways v. Katrina victims. These are the angles I would really like ESPN to comment more upon.
And as a reward for reading the slew... here are highlights from the captain insane-o Boise State Oklahoma game the other night:
No comments:
Post a Comment