Bread and circuses..

(Blog note: for some strange reason, I’m not getting the email notifications about posted comments like I used to. Haven’t figured out if it is a problem with Blogger or if it’s just the fact that I’m a damn AOLer and I wouldn’t be surprised if AOL decided to delete every email that I receive that isn’t spam. So, if I haven’t commented on your comment yet, trust me, I am reading them and will account for them in the future. Oh, and if you deal with me in real life and are sending me emails and wondering why I’m not responding that might be an AOL problem as well. Of course, that is assuming that people are sending me emails. And we know what assuming does…)

(I completely forgot that the Barry and LeVon pudding sketch contains “Cook, then chill. That’s what I do…I cook and then I chill.” I used that quote for years. Back in college, to keep my interest in EE courses I would start each day’s notes with a random quote and that one made the cut. One day when I’m really bored or out of material I’ll post a semester’s worth. It’s like reliving your life through song lyrics.)

It’s been an interesting weekend. Went to the Royals game (weaseling my way into the corporate box along the way) and it was a fun and crowded game. (Admittedly, free food and drink does make EC a happy boy.) I’m stunned, there were more people at the Royals game, who are currently playing the season in hopes that the entire team doesn’t get demoted to AAA, than were at Sox Park for the White Sox game, who are trying to have the division wrapped up by August. There is something wrong with that picture, though it does give me a lot more faith in this town. They do support their teams and you can’t fault them for it. Plus, the Royals actually won and got twelve hits, which means that I win a dozen free doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. As a single guy, a dozen Krispy Kremes will serve as breakfast, lunch and dinner for a good portion of the week. Sure, it might not be a healthy lifestyle but what is in our fast paced, hectic world.

One of the neat things that has happened since I came back from Nola is that I am reading a lot more, which is a good sign that my mood has changed. Of course, my reading material would indicate otherwise. I finished Nick Hornby’s new novel “A Long Way Down”, which is about four people who meet each other on the roof of a building on New Year’s Eve. It’s an interesting book at parts but I don’t think that I would call it Nick’s best work. Each of the four characters serves as a narrator with the point of view switching every few pages. It’s a tough thing to try and he does it pretty well but he still falls victim to what I’ve found with every book that tries this: about a quarter of the way through you like one of the narrators and would like everyone to just shut up and have just this guy explain everything. Still, anyone who can mention the Drive By Truckers in a book gets my props.

I also picked up Sarah Vowell’s “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, which is an extremely good read. I like her style and pace on this collection of essays. It’s all very easy and readable with no sense of her showing off. All the esoteric information that she provides just seems to flow with the story and it makes for a very enjoyable read. Plus, I might be stealing part of her style pretty soon. See, while I desperately want to write my novel that is really hard work but a collection of essays on society is an accomplishable task. Of course, I would have no hope of getting mine published unless I changed my name to David Sedaris but it is an idea.

The five random CDs of the week
1) The New Pornographers “Electric Version”
2) Kelly Hogan and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts “Beneath the Country Underdog”
3) Jay Farrar “Sebastopol”
4) Ryan Adams “Heartbreaker”
5) Sinead Lohan “No Mermaid”