Watch the Edge

Selene's Hollywood Confidential - 3

2011-03-08T11:32:00.001-05:00

Episode 3, the finale.

Paula Deen Riding Things

2011-03-03T16:32:00.003-05:00

My submission to the blog du jour, Paula Deen Riding Things.

Make one of your own, yall!

Selene's Hollywood Confidential - 2

2011-03-01T14:19:00.001-05:00

Episode 2

Selene's Hollywood Confidential

2011-02-22T13:31:00.002-05:00

Episode 1

Go Cheeks Go

2011-02-14T13:17:00.001-05:00

No Scrubs

2010-03-31T00:57:00.003-04:00

I don't think you'll find any other video that has a turtle necklace, a Short Circuit 2 poster, and Trudy Wiegel's serial killer boyfriend Craig in it.

Moderately Social?

2010-03-05T07:22:00.007-05:00

This is one of those mornings when I'm discovering all kinds of new stuff online. You know, when you have eight browser tabs open because you don't want to miss anything, and the only site you've intentionally visited so far is Facebook? I like Facebook, and I like the people I follow. They post such interesting stuff. This is what I've uncovered so far:

Dinah Leffert via Jill Abrams
Jill, by the way, is Boycotting Sea World Until They Remove Killer Whales. Good idea! I mean, I'm sorry that woman died, but what did people think was going to happen when they take a creature out of the wild and stick it in the equivelant of a hard plastic kiddie pool? It is called a killer whale, after all. I've only been to Sea World once, and that was on a church youth group trip. It sucked. The girl who rode in the back of the van ate all the Rice Krispie Treats on the way out.
Killer Whales are getting lots of Facebook exposure. Writer Armistead Maupin shared this story from Huffington Post.
Bryan Thomas. These are pretty much naked, but not too naked. And yes, I have Safe Search turned off. You get way better stuff that way.
Alexandra Billings posted this, which I found very funny:

Via a Google Search for Dinah Leffert, I discovered Tweeps Info, which gives you hard-to-live-without data about any Twitter user you may be curious about. For instance it claims I am "tweeting about @hollywest, twitter, and @arngrim. He is an occasional Tweeter with an average of 1.52 tweets per day, and tends to be moderately social. He rarely uses hashtags, and is a frequent URL sharer." Moderately social. Hmmm, that's about right. But what's this 1.52 tweets a day shit? Are they using the New Math to calculate this? Which day was this? I haven't tweeted anything since January. And what did I ever tweet about Twitter? I mean, really.

And just for fun, I know you want to know what Tweeps Info has to say about Kirstie Alley: "Right now, Kirstie Alley is tweeting about love, green, and soup. Kirstie Alley is a Twitter addict with an average of 26.71 tweets per day, and tends to be very social. Kirstie Alley doesn't use hashtags, and is an occasional URL sharer."

Jamie Lee Curtis was on Twitter when I first noticed Kirstie Alley. Ms. Alley was determined to publicly out Twitter J.L.C. as a celebrity imposter. I guess she figured the real Ms. Curtis wouldn't have tweeted: "@kirstiealley Too bad your Twitter isn't hooked up to your treadmill."

The soup pic came from a Google Image search of "love green soup." I should feel bad that I swiped someone's green soup photo (to me it looks like the Crayola paint we used to have in grade school art class), but after scanning the original blog, it seems she lifted it off Google Images also.

Okay, now I'm going to go ~~watch the Kung Fu video~~ look at the Bryan Thomas pics again.

RuPaul in a loin cloth

2010-01-15T23:38:00.001-05:00

I personally believe, that Wee Wee Pole is the best band name ever.

Statue of Liberty in shocking pose

2009-12-05T12:59:00.004-05:00

I haven't been able to ween myself off serious news blogs like TMZ and Crazy Days & Nights, but I have managed to switch to reading the new posts as a list in my blog reader, forcing myself to choose which posts to open, rather than reading all of them. I usually just pop open the stuff that catches my eye, like Twilight Stars Snatched from Burger King.

What caught my eye at the bottom of this story was the mention of the Subservient Chicken, some new promotional gimmick from Burger King which allows computer savvy users (i.e. you can type) to issue commands to a virtual chicken. Of course, it's not a real chicken; it's just a guy dressed up in a ratty chicken costume, complete with lots of tail feathers and a somewhat disturbing garter belt. Unable to resist, I typed in a few commands, just to see how smart and/or willing to comply this chicken is:

Do a cartwheel

Dance like John Travolta

Pose like the Statue of Liberty

Well... two out of three isn't bad. And, honestly, this does not make me want to run out and buy a chicken sandwich. But please do kill a few minutes ordering the chicken around.... I'll buy a Whopper for the lucky person who can make the chicken redecorate.

Life Has Been Hell...

2009-11-25T13:02:00.004-05:00

...for the girl who rolled her eyes at Susan Boyle.

Poor thing.

Sandra Lee

2009-11-23T13:03:00.002-05:00

I've always enjoyed the fact that she redecorates her "kitchen" for every episode... and her outfit always matches the décor.

Going Rouge

2009-10-28T12:55:00.004-04:00

Clever. Going Rouge is being released the same day as Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. I know which one I won't be reading.

Aunt Barbara for Dollar Store Pasta

2009-10-06T00:37:00.002-04:00

Aunt Barbara on Facebook

Jolene Sugarbaker's Experiment

2009-08-23T11:16:00.002-04:00

More Jolene Sugarbaker:

Leslie and the LY's

2009-08-22T12:58:00.002-04:00

Columbine by Dave Cullen

2009-08-11T17:44:00.007-04:00

I recently finished the audiobook version of Dave Cullen's Columbine, a set-the-record-straight report of the 1999 Colorado school massacre, and the two young men behind it. It's a riveting account, detailing the planning, the attack, and the aftermath, debunking many of the myths that still pervade more than ten years later. Perhaps most chilling is the scope of the attack Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had hoped to unleash. I'm not sure if I was struck more by the missed opportunities others had to possibly thwart what happened at Columbine, or how things could have been considerably worse.

This is something I would definitely recommend, especially the audio version; narrator Don Leslie did a first-rate job of reading Dave Cullen's book.

ALSO: The author answers lots of readers' questions about the book (you may wish to wait until after you've read it), and has some interesting things to say about being a writer as well.

Another interesting note -- this book was to be featured during a full hour of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which was scheduled to air on the tenth anniversary of Columbine. Unfortunately, Winfrey opted not to broadcast it after review, feeling the episode focused too much on the killers.

The end of Benjamin Justice?

2009-08-08T11:30:00.004-04:00

Last summer I read the first book - Simple Justice - in the Benjamin Justice mystery series, written by John Morgan Wilson. I began to read the subsequent titles, and enjoyed the series more with each installment. The protagonist is a gay former crime reporter for whom a career-ending scandal (think James Frey or Jayson Blair) has brought him to rock bottom. The journey Justice takes to redeem his life occurs over the course of Wilson's eight novels.

Earlier this year, I finished the latest: Spider Season. While the book was very good, the novel's ending made me feel Wilson was wrapping up the story of Benjamin Justice. I had previously discovered John Morgan Wilson is one of many "mid-level" authors whose diminishing sales (in large part, because of used book purchases via Internet book stores like Amazon.com, for which the author and publisher receive no compensation) mean a series contract is not renewed, so the air of closure to this book made me curious if this had happened.

Recently, I searched for news of a possible ninth installment in the series, and went straight to the writer with my questions. Here is (in part) what I wrote:

[I] just wanted to send you a note to let you know how much I enjoyed the Benjamin Justice series. Is there a new B.J. mystery in the works? I have read a couple of items online about uncertainties with your publisher and how sales have eroded, in part, because folks are selling used copies of your works on sites like Amazon. After reading about that, the conclusion of Spider Season seemed to have a note of finality to it. I hope that isn't the case.

In any event, best to you in whatever future writing projects you pursue.

John Morgan Wilson was kind enough to reply, and I hope he won't mind my posting his response here:

Michael...

Thanks for the encouragement and support. Alas, my publisher has not renewed my contract for more books in the Justice series, so it is probably at an end. The chain bookstores will no longer carry authors whose sales figures have fallen below a certain level and with Internet used book sales cannibalizing our credited sales, it's difficult to keep our legit sales up. Yes, I wrote Spider Season with this in mind, and hope it brings a sense of peace and closure to the Benjamin Justice saga.

Thanks again, John

While this confirmation disheartens me, I'll try to remain hopeful that another publisher will see an opportunity here, and keep this series alive.

Visit John Morgan Wilson's official website and learn more about the Benjamin Justice mysteries.

Rosie O'Donnell: Life After "The View"

2009-08-04T15:23:00.001-04:00

Alexis Cohen

2009-07-26T12:01:00.001-04:00

Two-time "American Idol" hopeful Alexis Cohen was struck by a vehicle early Saturday and killed. While I think the show is kinda dumb, I do remember seeing this young woman on both of the seasons she auditioned (her first is embedded below; here is the second), and thought she was pretty funny. I just saw her on the Vote for the Worst blog recently, talking about how she'd been shut out of a third attempt to audition.

Rest in Peace, Glitter Girl...

Twitter

2009-07-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

I like Twitter. I like the short messages. I like the simple layout. I like that it's not overly customizable (like Myspace), leaving your screen full of clutter and embedded objects. And animated glitter graphics. But Twitter's kind of like blogging. I only do it when I remember to do it. And usually when I remember to visit, several ~~hours~~ days have gone by since my last visit, so it's impossible to get caught up on all the stuff that happened since my last visit. I don't have a ton of contacts on Twitter (relatively speaking), but still I follow over 100 accounts, so that tends to build up if I'm not watching.

My biggest complaint about Twitter is that there isn't really a way to separate out some of my favorites I follow on Twitter. I have tried using TweetDeck - which allows a Favorites column - but it didn't seem to update like the main column did. And TweetDeck somehow forces me to stay connected, because it updates faster than I can read what's already there, so I end up spending way more time on Twitter than I need to.

I thought, what Twitter needs to do is let a user select his or her favorites in a way similar to how Google Reader works, where your favorites are separated out and sent to you as they update. And then I realized there is an RSS feed for each Twitter user... so my desire for this was as easy as adding my favorites to my Google Reader. Worked like a charm, and even sends the @replies, too.

This should work out well for me, because I actually use Google Reader at least twice a day. Of course, if I add too many Twitter favorites to my subscribed feeds, I could end up with a similar situation... a bunch of stuff that I don't have time to read.

How the tweets of @HollyWest appear in Google Reader

Sue Grafton's U is for Undertow

2009-07-10T16:46:00.005-04:00

From the Product Description:

Calling T is for Trespass “taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific,” USA Today went on to ask, “What does it take to write twenty novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?” It’s a question worth pondering. Through twenty excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice. And so it is with this, her twenty-first. Once again, she breaks genre formulas, giving us a twisting, complex, surprise-filled, and totally satisfying thriller.

It’s April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s thirty-eighth birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey’s help in locating the child’s remains and finding the men who killed her. It’s a long shot but he’s willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he’s the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?

Grafton moves the narrative between the eighties and the sixties, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp-tongued, observant, a loner—“a heroine,” said The New York Times Book Review, “with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive.”

U is for Undertow will be released December 1, 2009.

Sue Grafton's website

Madonna, before "Like a Virgin"

2009-07-10T13:26:00.000-04:00

From 1984:

The Big Red Exclamation Point

2009-07-05T18:31:00.006-04:00

So I log into Twitter and notice one of the accounts I usually browse for new tweets has been suspended for suspicious activity. I think this is weird, and then thirty seconds later, I return to my own Twitter "home" and notice my own account has been flagged, with a bold red exclamation point:

"ACCOUNT SUSPENDED: This account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information."

Well... shit.

I filed a query with the Twitter Department of WTF? -- given that 95% of the souls that follow me are similarly suspended for stunts like "Oh gawd, I just turned 18 today and my parents aren't home and I think I am going to get naked on my webcam, on this link here..." I am not too optimistic that this will be resolved in a timely manner, if at all.

WWMKD? (What would Mrs. Kutcher do?)

Update: Now, when viewing my blog, a pop-up box reads: "A username and password are being requested by http://twitter.com. The site says: 'Twitter API.'" Something's up. I removed the Twitter widget from the sidebar, but who knows what is causing these issues.

National Bomb Pop Day

2009-06-25T09:27:00.001-04:00

Today is National Bomb Pop Day. Even as a kid, I don't think I ever ate one of these. We were more of an Artificially-flavored Banana Popsicle kind of family. But I do have a Bomb Pop story. Years ago, I had a conversation with an actor of adult films, who explained to me the best way to perfect the art of deepthroating (when is National Deepthroat Day, anyhow?) is to use a Bomb Pop.

He claimed that this specific frozen treat was not only the ideal shape and length (don't buy the pack of mini Bombs, my friends), but that the Bomb Pop was much colder than the average ice cream novelty, and would numb the back of your throat, disengaging the pesky gag reflex. Apparently this is a trade secret passed around from porn star to porn star. Who knew?

Book 10 of 10: The Spellman Files

2009-06-21T23:49:00.006-04:00

Yes, I know I'm a day late finishing the Spring Reading Challenge. And once again I've thrown out one of my original choices for an alternate pick. My final book for the Challenge was supposed to be a title recommended by Holly West (who suggested the reading challenge three months ago): Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I did start reading the novel as my first book, but ended up waylaid. Recently, Holly also suggested The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, so I ultimately went with that.

Categorized as a mystery, it wasn't a traditional one from the start. Told in a somewhat non-linear style, the plot centers more on the dynamics of a family-run detective agency. Despite the fact that the actual "case" didn't kick in until halfway through the book, and that it was more of a subplot, I enjoyed the book, and will probably end up reading the next one in the series. After reading countless mysteries that all seem to be pushed out of a similar mold, it was a nice change to read one that took a chance on being different.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

So... I only managed to read 3 out of the 10 titles I'd chosen for the Challenge, but that doesn't surprise me much. I have maintained a "To Read" list for as long as I can remember, and it's difficult for me to adhere to any kind of structure when it comes to selecting books to read. The seven books I haven't gotten to will remain on my list, and I'm sure I'll get around to reading them (eventually).

Three of the other selections (Dead Until Dark, Summer Sisters, and Suicide Notes) were already on my To Read list, and another three (Remember Me, The Thorn Birds, and Nights in Rodanthe) were random picks. I did manage to choose mostly non-mysteries, and even the two that I did select for the Challenge were a lot different that most of the ones I normally read. Of course, now I have two mysteries that are part of my "regular series reads" to finish: Jonathan Kellerman's The Web, and Lawrence Block's The Devil Knows You're Dead. I guess I can't give them up cold turkey, at least for three months. Had I been able to, I might have finished the Spring Reading Challenge on time.

Aunt Barbara and the gang

2009-06-16T18:41:00.000-04:00

Book 9 of 10: Summer Sisters

2009-06-15T20:48:00.005-04:00

With only two books left to read in the Spring Reading Challenge, once again I've blown off my list of selections and pulled a title off my bookshelf: Judy Blume's Summer Sisters. While I've read a few of her books for younger readers (when I was a younger reader), I'd never tried any of her adult titles.

Summer Sisters immediately seemed like it was set up to be one of those novels that was written to be adapted into a film like Beaches... you know the type: opens with a present-day scene and then flashes back to tell the story of the two primary characters, and works its way back to present day, with plenty of conflict along the way. Not really. While an easy read, there was a large cast of characters, and nothing too exciting seemed to happen to any of them. In fact, the only thing that really intrigued me was the ending.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Happy Flag Day

2009-06-14T06:57:00.000-04:00

iGoogle

2009-06-04T00:14:00.004-04:00

Now that Twitter is so yesterday, the Stars have to find another way to shine. If you use the Google Homepage, you've probably seen the new celebrity iGoogle Showcase featured. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are front and center, as are the likes of Martha Stewart and Donald Trump. Yes, his top widget is the feed to his own blog. I'm sure Oprah will have one soon, just as soon as Gayle figures it out.

While I don't give a hoot what celebrities have on their iGoogle page, I am a big fan of iGoogle, and use it as my homepage, so consider this my official plug. When I'm not dodging the paparazzi, I'm at home basking in the white light from my serene Fresh Lime theme. I don't normally have the widgets open (it looks too cluttered), but I do often auto-expand the Top Diggs of the day, and BeTwittered, a clever all-in-one widget for Twitter, which I use to champion the career (and mental recovery) of Susan Boyle.

The Google Reader and Gmail widgets (when collapsed) make handy notifiers for new posts and messages, and the Google Bookmarks have replaced my actual browser Bookmarks. It's nice to be able to to easily categorize them, and to access them from any computer, in case I'm online at the airport, or using one of the public laptops at Promises. The Youtube widget is very functional as a search tool, when I need to find Betty Butterfield videos quickly.

I am a fan of iGoogle's tabbed browsing, which lets me keep lesser used (but useful) widgets at close reach (kind of like my ex-husband, Bruce): the Unit Conversions widget (when you want to know how many ounces of fat make up one pound), and this designer calculator by Michael Graves. And be sure to slap on a Sticky Note (in six fashion colors) when you need to keep a Post-It like reminder close at hand:

So what are your favorite iGoogle widgets? Do tell.

Gotta Love Google

2009-06-01T23:57:00.005-04:00

While trying to find cover images of the three books listed in my last post, these came up on my Google Image Search:

Are You There God? It's Me, Harry...

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About This Guy*
(*was not online)

Twilight of the Suicide Notes

Book 8 of 10: Suicide Notes

2009-06-01T23:34:00.000-04:00

It may sound strange to start off a review of a book that was published in 2008 with an anecdote about a book that was published in 1970, but that's what I'm going to do. Actually, my little story takes place in 1980 or so. I was 9 years old and in the 5th grade. I loved to read and made at least one trip to the library weekly, to stock up on books. As a rule, I'd find an author I enjoyed, and then would return to (hopefully) find other titles he or she had written. A friend of mine had read Judy Blume's Blubber and passed it on to me. Having liked it, I decided to try another Blume book. I can still recall leaving class during the allotted time to visit the library. I grabbed a random title from the stacks and hurried back, so I'd have time to start the book before the free period ended. I had just returned to my desk when there was a knock at the classroom door. The library aide - who was also a member of the church my family attended - quickly conferred with the teacher, and then strode over to my desk and quietly instructed me to return the library. "And bring the book you just checked out," I was told.

All eyes were on me as I stood up and exited the class, my heart pounding in uncertainty. Had something happened? Kids were only called out of class when there was a family emergency, or they'd misbehaved. The aide said nothing as we made quick time back to the library. Once inside, she shut the door and told me to place my book on the counter. "And select another title, if you'd like," she said politely. Confused, I wandered back to the stacks and pulled out something I'm sure I'd already read, and checked it out. As I did, she leaned over and said, "The book you had taken was not appropriate for you." I'm sure I was embarrassed, not to mention bewildered. Returning to class once again, some of the other kids whispered queries about my fast exit, but I only shrugged. For the remainder of the afternoon, I dwelt on what had happened. And, with curiosity getting the better of me, I did what anyone would do: I stopped in at the public library on my way home from school and checked out the same book:

I don't remember much about reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, only that it wasn't nearly as good as Blubber, and that the plot seemed to revolve around girls and their periods. Ahhhh.... At least that explained the library aide's reaction. Had I been a little more bold, I probably would have told her I knew just about everything there was to know about periods, "pads," cramps, and - especially - PMS, since my mother had been griping about those things for as long as I could remember. Anyhow, the book didn't scar me for life, and I remember thinking: what's the big deal?

Fast forward to 1982. I was 12, and starting to get curious about sex. Judy Blume can only teach you so much, so I made another trip to the library. In a town of less than 2000 people, it wasn't like they had a bumper crop of books on human sexuality; more like one or two. The first was an academic work whose title escapes me. The print was small and the language was over my head. The second one had the more hopeful title of:

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*but were afraid to ask) seemed to be just that, only it had a bright mustard yellow dust jacket with the word SEX stamped in bright red on the cover. Okay, I was a little bit nervous about checking that one out, but once I got it home, I ended up with quite the education. Masturbation. Sexual Intercourse. And then I came to the section on Homosexuality. At 12, I was slowly realizing that something wasn't quite... normal. And after reading this book, not only did the author (a medical doctor) name my affliction, he gave me an idea of what the future had in store. The "disease" was not only a mental illness, but would send me into dark places like parks, bars and the public restroom at the local bowling alley, all places where other homosexuals congregated. These men would meet up for illicit sexual encounters, and this would be a matter of course until you met a guy with a knife, who would proceed to remove your genitalia.

If that wasn't bad enough, I was informed that my uncontrollable lust would cause me to seek out select items from the supermarket produce section in an attempt to quench the sexual hunger when another homo wasn't around to do it for me. God, no wonder I was such a messed up teenager. I can remember having a panic attack every time I set foot in a bowling alley, and getting sweaty palms just looking at a salad bar (just kidding on that last one).

As I became more aware of my sexuality in the 1980's, there just wasn't anything out there to assure me I wasn't a fucked up mentally ill nymphomaniac waiting to happen. I do remember sneaking peeks at titles like Confessions of Danny Slocum, or Larry Kramer's Faggots, which opened with a lovely passage detailing one of the most mind-boggling gay sex acts ever conceived... not exactly what you want to be reading to convince yourself that you're not doomed to a life of depravity. Those books, and others like them, only cemented the stereotype that I seemed predestined to live out. Yeah. David Reuben, M.D. fucked me up.

This past weekend I picked up Michael Thomas Ford's Suicide Notes. He's a gay writer who pens stuff about gay characters. I'd read a couple of his novels and enjoyed them and assumed this one was in a similar vein. Only it wasn't. Suicide Notes is a novel for young adults. The premise was simple: a series of journal entries written by a 15 year old guy who's undergoing a 45-day stay in a psychiatric hospital after he's cut his wrists for undisclosed reasons. Knowing what I do about the author and his other work, I was pretty sure it would end up being about a gay teenager. I confess I was a little shocked by the sex in the book. When did young adult books get so randy? I certainly wasn't offended by the material, I was just somewhat surprised that books for teenagers have gotten so progressive. And reading it, I thought back to my experience with Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and wondered if there were people who'd yank a kid out of class because he or she had taken this out. Probably... but I'd like to think a kid who'd been denied this title would be resourceful enough to find another way to read it.

After I finished the book, I thought about my other experience, with Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, and wondered how my growing up might have been different had something like Suicide Notes been available 25 years ago. And you know what? It would have made a big difference. So kudos to Ford and other writers who write honestly about such topics, and to the publishers who put it out there for kids who need it... not just the gay ones, but the straight ones who will read it and see their gay and lesbian classmates as more than just a stereotype put out there by television, comedians trying to be edgy, or bigots.

With the fight for gay rights dominating the media of late, I always think the big changes are going to come about not because of the fight adults are engaging in (though it certainly helps), but because of the enlightened attitudes of (most) younger people who see the world and its people in a different way. You know, they probably think: what's the big deal?

My rating of Suicide Notes: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Nurse Jackie

2009-06-01T09:09:00.003-04:00

How do you shed one of the most iconic characters of American television and move on to something else? If you're Edie Falco, this* is a good start.

*UPDATE - Showtime deleted the first episode of "Nurse Jackie" from Youtube. Boo.

Quween

2009-05-28T22:41:00.005-04:00

I'm not really a fan of those videos where the paparazzi ambushes a celebrity and asks them a stupid question (like Shirley MacLaine being asked what did she think of one of Lindsay Lohan's drunken escapades), but I thought this one was kind of funny, for obvious reasons.

Now, Funny Or Die has followed it up with this:

Katharine McPhee in Paparazzi Protection from Katharine McPhee

Book 7 of 10: Nights in Rodanthe

2009-05-26T19:29:00.004-04:00

Nicholas Sparks is one of those authors that everyone who buys his stuff in hardcover swears you have to read. Of course, these are also they people who swear you have to watch "The Bachelor" and those Lifetime TV movies starring Nancy McKeon.

With time running out on Holly's Spring Reading Challenge (I keep typing "Contest," in hopes that there is some sort of prize, I guess....), I went off in search of the American classic, The World According to Garp. Instead, I snapped up Nights in Rodanthe, by Nicholas Sparks. Jesus, at this point, would anyone be surprised if Books 8 and 9 are penned by Danielle Steel?

On the plus side, it's a fast read, clocking in at just over 200 pages.

On the down side, not much happens, and it kind of reads like the guy wrote it in the limo while he was being hauled around to promote the book that was published before it, because he heard that Diane Lane and Richard Gere were looking for a new movie to make together.

I don't know if Nights in Rodanthe is typical of Sparks' stuff, but it didn't really motivate me to read anything else by him. Though it had a few moments, I doubt any of it will stick with me.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Related link: an enjoyable review of the film based on the book.

It's all on Amazon

2009-05-19T22:53:00.002-04:00

Yes, that's right. A casket. But not just any casket: The Socrates. And the good news is, it's half off. One of the product features is that it's "handcrafted with love and care." I don't mean to be a cynic, but how much love is someone going to put in to handicrafting caskets named after a guy who was forced to commit suicide?

Now for the bad news. Free Supersaver Shipping™ does not appear to be available for this item. In fact, it looks like seven days is the fastest possible delivery time, which means you're either going to have to plan ahead, or delay the funeral for a week. And, sorry folks, giftwrapping is not available for this item.

Curiously, people who were interested in this item also bought the following books:

Single White Psychopath Seeks Same
Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)
The Summer I Died
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

And not to be outdone, similar products include:

a blood presser monitor
a heart rate monitor
a step counter
and exercise

Reading...

2009-05-13T22:35:00.001-04:00

Just some random stuff...

I finished book 6 of 10 in the Spring Reading Challenge: Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Müller. I don't even know where to begin a review a book like this, so I don't think I'm going to try. It's short (less than 200 pages) and is a first-hand account of a young Jewish man who spent three years inside the concentration camp. Very graphic in its details, but an important record of the horrors that occurred there.

While reading the above title, I alternated between that and a new (to me) mystery author: Chris Grabenstein. The first book in his series is Tilt-A-Whirl, a police procedural set in an oceanside resort town in New Jersey. I liked it a lot, and I'm already looking forward to reading the others.

Folks who grew up with "Little House on the Prairie" might be interested to know that both Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim have bios coming out. M.G.'s is out in June, and A.A. just struck a deal with a publisher to put one out. I'm not much of a celeb bio reader, but I will probably read both of these. Speaking of celeb bios... Barbara Walters' Audition? Not so hot.

I just started French Pressed, book 5 in Cleo Coyle's series set in a Manhattan coffeehouse. That seems to be the "in" thing for newer mystery series, the "theme" mystery. They are too lightweight to be considered hard-boiled, but the sex/violence factor is high enough to knock them out of the cozy sub-genre. The theme in this case is coffee... lots of coffee. I'm not a big coffee aficionado, so it's a bit much in some of the books, but the recurring characters are interesting enough to keep me reading subsequent books.

On my "To Read" list... The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and a copy of John Jakes' California Gold, which I found at a Humane Society thrift store for 50 cents.

Book 5 of 10: The Thorn Birds

2009-05-10T10:21:00.005-04:00

I had selected Pompeii for my "Historical Novel," but switched it to Colleen McCullough's First Man in Rome, which has been sitting on the shelf for awhile. When it came time to read it, the book had mysteriously vanished, so I went to the public library to fetch a copy... and came home with The Thorn Birds instead.

All I knew about The Thorn Birds was that it was set in Australia and the plot centered around a young woman and a Catholic priest who had a thing for each other. Instead of centering on a quick fling, the 500+ page novel actually spans 50 years in the life of an Irish family who takes up residence in the Australian Outback, where they work a large sheep ranch. The book's strength lies in McCullough's depiction of life in the Outback. As a typical 1970's "epic," the pages are fraught with drama and disaster. The whole "forbidden love" thing, which carries on throughout most of the novel, was probably considered pretty hot stuff thirty years ago, but it seems fairly flat by today's standards. Points for McCullough's storytelling, and the fact that it's a quick read.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Book 4 of 10: Dead Until Dark

2009-05-08T08:15:00.001-04:00

It's been nearly a month since I posted my last entry in The Spring Reading Challenge, and now I realize with about five or six weeks left to complete it, I'm not even halfway through my list. Due to availability issues with some of the titles I've selected, I had already elected to swap some of the books out for other stuff. Since I recently received Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris, from the very cool PaperbackSwap.com service, I decided to make that my selection for the "Novel in a Genre I Wouldn't Normally Read," which isn't entirely true, since I have read the three novels in Harris's other series, which focus on a young woman who can determine how a person died by standing on their grave. When I accepted the challenge, I had also hoped to read ten books that were not in the mystery genre. Dead Until Dark is categorized by the publisher as Fantasy/Mystery. Oh well.

The first in a series (and now an HBO series), the book centers on Sookie Stackhouse, a young waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, who has her own supernatural side: she can read the minds of others. This fact is overshadowed by the quick revelation that some of the "others" are vampires. Instead of penning a typical vampire tale where creatures lurk about - alone - at night, Harris has created a modern-day world where the undead now live openly among the rest of the population (after dark, of course). Technology (and Oprah), have brought the once hidden vampire culture out of the closet, as it were, and - as with any misunderstood minority population - there are varying reactions to their open existence. Many react with revulsion or distaste, while others are drawn to these strange immortals, Sookie being one of the latter.

The mystery of the novel involves a growing number of possible vampire victims in small town Bon Temps. Each are working class women with a taste for sexual flings with vampires. One such vampire, Bill, connects with Sookie and enlists her help (and telepathy) to uncover the killer, who may or may not be one of his own. The first half of the book was somewhat slow-moving as Harris brought many characters into the story; plus an unusually high body count (mortals and undead alike) made things a bit hard to follow. But once Sookie and Bill embarked on a new relationship, the novel hit its stride and the pace quickened.

By then, the vampire society reminded me - strangely enough - of a Mob-like subculture; a mysterious organization living by their own rules, and meting out their own brand of justice. To me, the book seemed to focus more on Sookie's being drawn into the group than on the mystery itself. And while the mystery element is adequately administered, it seems clear that Sookie's journey into this strange and conflicting realm will be the core of the series.

An interesting twist on an arguably overdone genre, coupled with an edgy approach to the some of the more salient aspects of vampire life (and lust), makes me eager to read more of this series.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Miss California

2009-05-04T11:20:00.003-04:00

The latest PSA in support of the National Organization of Opposite Marriage:

Bea Arthur & Esther Rolle on The RuPaul Show (1998)

2009-04-30T23:12:00.006-04:00

I don't think I ever saw "The RuPaul Show," but just found out Bea Arthur and Esther Rolle appeared in 1998:

World of Wonder

Sara Benincasa and Margeret Cho

2009-04-30T07:11:00.002-04:00

Margaret Cho joins ~~Sarah Palin~~ Sara Benincasa in the tub...

Bea Arthur: "Dancing with the Stars" makes me want to throw up

2009-04-27T16:49:00.005-04:00

This story about Beatrice Arthur @ The Unabashed Queer was the best thing I've read about her in the past few days. This is exactly how I would expect her to act.

Now I just need to read something that tells why she hated Betty White.

Tap into the Power

2009-04-27T10:23:00.004-04:00

Early WWW propaganda video made to dispel the myth that people addicted to the Internet wouldn't have time to do their hair.

The Color Purple

2009-04-27T01:02:00.004-04:00

From Los Angeles Craigslist:

FUCK A MAN IN A BUG COSTUME - 42 (CULVER CITY)

"I want to fuck in my LITTLE PURPLE BUG COSTUME.
Prefer to bottom but not required.
Must like bugs or at least the color purple."

Let's make Whoopi

Twitter bio of the week....

2009-04-20T08:30:00.004-04:00

"BIO: a man who equally loves his wife and strangers' uncut black dicks...."

"There is no need to force your beliefs on the whole society"

2009-04-16T22:27:00.007-04:00

Question of the day: Why is it when anyone posts an anti-gay (or is that Pro-Straight?) comment on a gay friendly site, it always includes the words I've used as my post title? And then ends up looking like:

"What kind of harrassment are you talking about? If you gay people want to live a gay lifestyle there is no need to shout about it. Just live it quietly, there is no need to force your beliefs on the whole society.

Just live your life quietly. No need to push your GAY propaganda onto others. Dont forget that you are a minority in this country or all over the world, and it will forever remain that way. Stay in your closets, and do what you please, but there is no need to spread this lie.

Being GAY is a choice, you are not born with it, dont let people lie to you.

Every living being on this earth was created by God, and He wasnt wrong when He created a woman for the man, He didnt create a man for the man, He didnt create a woman foe a woman, in the beginning it was ADAM and EVE, NOT Adam and Steve. And Because God was the beginning, and He is the end, this law shall remain FOREVER as long as life on this planet called earth shall remain.

Even animals know that a male needs a female to mate, and vise versa. Humans especially need to know that....the woman was created for the man, and the man for the woman.

Everything else is a lie, and sooner or later those who live a gay lifestyle will come to realize that, that WAS and IS and Forever WILL BE true.

So you can tweet all you want, but the lie that is hidden behind Homosexuality will still come to light and people will come to know the TRUTH. That homosexuality is a choice that people make, it is not something to be proud of, It is something that they need help with to be free from it.

Make a choice today to be who God made you to be. If you were created a woman, you were created so, for a reason. If you were created a man, be a man, act like a man and dont act like a woman. You will never be one.

Perfection is.....man + woman = marriage = children = future

Whats your future???
Do you even have one???
Think today, while its not to late."

I'm glad he or she believes "there is no need to force your beliefs on the whole society." You need not worry that "Anonymous" had to type all of this out one character at a time, since most of these Biblebytes were clearly lifted - typos and all - from the Reverend Jerry Falwell Memorial Copy-n-Paste center at LoveTheSinnerHateTheSin.org.

And as for the beaten-to-death "Adam & Steve" comment that was already overused when Anita Bryant started tossing it around in 1977, I have only this response:

Book 3 of 10: Remember Me?

2009-04-13T22:47:00.001-04:00

One of the reasons I accepted Holly's Spring Reading Challenge was to read something other than mystery novels, which have comprised the bulk of my reading material for a long long time. I'm still reading mysteries (in between books I've selected for that Challenge), but now it seems like I'm fixating on a new category of book: Chick Lit.

After taking on White Oleander and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, I perused my list for another title, and decided on The Graveyard Book, my "Newer Novel" choice. I ducked into my local library (whose online catalog showed an available copy), and could not locate it on the shelf. Unable to find any of the other picks on my list, other than Jurassic Park, which I still haven't convinced myself I'm going to read, I scanned some of the other titles in the New Releases section, and plucked up Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. The book description promised "wicked humor and delicious charm," and sported a bright red cover with a perky yellow sunflower on it. I don't judge a book by its cover, but I am easily swayed by bold primary colors.

Remember Me? is a novel about Lexi Smart, an Englishwoman in her twenties with a boring desk job, a boring boyfriend and a gang of friends who also work with her. It opens on a night when she's out with her friends, and has some sort of accident. She wakes up in hospital, unaware that (due to another - separate - accident) three years have passed. Three years that she is unable to remember. She quickly finds out she's married (to a hot guy), is a reality TV star, and has ascended to a high-paying leadership position in the company she works for.

My first impression was that the novel was written to be adapted into a comedy film. The premise is there, but the material falls pretty much flat. In short order, Lexi is released from hospital and returns to the posh loft she shares with her husband (that she can't remember). He seems unappealing from the get-go, as does the "new and improved" Lexi. In the last three years, she's upgraded her wardrobe, her appearance and her group of friends. As it turns out, the old ones want nothing to do with her because she - horrors! - expects them to show up for work on time and take only one-hour lunches. Much of the novel's 400 pages is taken up with the mundane office relationships, including a scene where low-carb-eating Lexi tries to win back her old friends with muffins. The book meanders around with subplots about the affair she may or may not have been having, troubles with her teen sister, and culminates with her attempts to save the department she manages from closure. The "big deal" she may or may not have up her sleeve (she can't really remember, after all) is thrown in, and a tidy ending wraps everything up.

The book was a fast read and wasn't poorly written; the plots just seemed pretty boring and many of the characters could have been a lot more interesting. I'm not sure if it'll end up a movie, but if it does, you'll likely wish you'd waited to rent the DVD to watch on some night when you have nothing better to do.

My rating 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Censorship @ Amazon?

2009-04-12T22:28:00.005-04:00

Yes, it's a Big Penis...

I haven't looked into this beyond the post I just read, but Matthew Rettemund's blog entry Amazon Skips the Good Parts makes it seem like Amazon.com is gearing up to start picking and choosing which types of works they will - and won't - promote.

I can say that I read Boy Culture and don't remember it being overly "adult." The Big Penis Book, however, has a, well, big penis on the cover. The book's jacket slips off to reveal the basis of the bulge. Cool, eh?

You can sign the petition against this new policy

Book 2 of 10: Fried Green Tomatoes

2009-04-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

Unlike the first book I'd read in this challenge, I'd already seen the film version of Fried Green Tomatoes. I'd heard comments about the novel over the years, as well as had Fannie Flagg's books recommended to me, so this one had been on my "need to read" list for awhile. Having seen (and enjoyed) the movie, it was clear that I would compare the two as I worked my way through it.

The story is essentially the same: anxious middle aged Evelyn Couch from Birmingham, Alabama meets octogenarian raconteur Mrs. Threadgoode while visiting a local nursing home, and listens to tales about the folks from nearby Whistle Stop, where the older woman had spent her life until now. Like the movie, the book jumps from present day (which was 1986) to the 1920's and 30's, where Whistle Stop's two most prominent characters - tomboyish Idgie Threadgoode and well-respected Ruth Jamison - own and operate the popular Whistle Stop cafe. The novel is told in relatively short chapters, many of which are columns and articles from local newspapers, helping to keep the story fast paced and engaging as the timeline bounces back and forth. Characters who had only fleeting roles in the film are more involved here: Sipsey, the black woman who cooks at the cafe, and her family, as well as hobo Smokey Lonesome, and the son Ruth and Idgie raise together. The present-day Mrs. Threadgoode also has a supporting role in the Depression era sections of the book, clearing up the impression I'd had from watching the film that the older woman and Idgie could actually be the same person.

I'd heard before that Fried Green Tomatoes is "a lesbian novel," and I suppose that's true on some level. While by no means explicit in its depiction, the intimate relationship between Ruth and Idgie is certainly clear. I'd read recently that Mary Louise Parker (who portrayed Ruth Jamison in the movie) had pressed - along with the support of co-star Mary Stuart Masterson, and Fannie Flagg (who adapted her novel for the screen) - to keep the lesbian relationship intact. The director, producers and studio rejected this approach, opting to make the pair merely good friends. This decision didn't hurt the film on its own merits, but I'm certain many who had read the novel first were disappointed by how the relationship changed in the adaptation. It's been said that even a well done film is never as good as the book, and I was pleased to discover that was true about Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Book 1 of 10: White Oleander

2009-04-07T00:30:00.000-04:00

Today I finished the first book of ten in Holly's Spring Reading Challenge. I'm not at all into writing book reviews, so I'll just say a few things about this one. I enjoyed this pick. Janet Fitch's White Oleander is the story of a teenage girl who moves from one bad foster home to another, after her mother is incarcerated for several years.

What I found engaging about the book is that Fitch could have written the character as a two dimensional and stereotypical "bad girl," as many authors would have. Instead, the book is a lyrical and descriptive (first person) account of girl growing up under equally appalling circumstances as she moves from one surrogate parent to the next, all the while trying to discover who she is.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

The Spring Reading Challenge

2009-03-19T19:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I read about the Spring Reading Challenge on Holly West's blog. It sounded like fun, so I decided to put together a list of my own. I've actually given up a lot of TV, and have spent quite a bit of my spare time reading in the last year or so. I've always enjoyed reading, but it seems like I'm in to it more now.That said, I have an almost-steady diet of mystery novels. I'm at different points in various mystery series (some I read more diligently than others), but I've decided to accept this challenge as a way to broaden my book horizons, so to speak. So the ten books I'll be hoping to read will not be mysteries. Here are the categories I've chosen, and the titles I'm planning to read for each:

A Non-Fiction Title - Eyewitness Auschwitz (Filip Muller) A friend of mine told me about this one.

An Historical Novel - Pompeii: A Novel (Robert Harris) Before I started reading mysteries, historical novels were my favorite genre.

An Oprah Pick - White Oleander (Janet Fitch) Out of 60+ books, I've only read four, so there were plenty to pick from. I selected White Oleander because it was already on my "To Read" list.

A Classic Novel - The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) I've never read it, but I'm looking forward to it.

An Older Novel - The Desert Rose (Larry McMurtry) Published in 1983, I'm mostly interested in this because it's set in Las Vegas over 25 years ago. I've read a handful of McMurtry's books, and I'm curious to see how I like this one.

A Newer Novel - The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) This is actually a book for young adults, but it's new and getting good buzz.

A Novel in a Genre I Wouldn't Normally Read - Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) I wouldn't usually consider reading a science fiction novel, and I honestly had no idea where to start, so I checked the Top 100 Sci-Fi Books list. Most of the sci-fi stuff I have perused in bookstores are thick epics that carry on over several volumes. Jurassic Park seems pretty safe. I'm probably the only person who's never seen the movie.

A Novel I've Always Meant to Read - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe (Fannie Flagg)

A Pick from the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" List - The World According to Garp (John Irving) Surprisingly, I've read more from this list than I would have thought, and there are several I'd like to read. I had completed about 25% of The World According to Garp in its audiobook format, but lost track of where I left off during one of the story-within-the-story sections, so I've decided to obtain the print version and give it a go that way.

Holly's Recommendation - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) When I accepted this reading challenge from Holly, I suggested that she choose one of the ten books I'd put on my list, and this is her pick. Looks like I'll be reading a mystery after all. :)

I guess it's time to get reading. Thanks for the challenge, and good luck to everyone else that's participating.

My Oscar Picks

2009-02-22T16:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't seen any of the nominated films, so this is entirely a wild guess on my part:

Best Picture: Slum Dog Millionaire
Best Actor: Sean Penn
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis
Best Director: Gus van Sant
Best Screenplay (original): Milk
Best Screenplay (adapted): Slumdog Millionaire