New business idea
A couple of weeks ago, I said I was thinking of getting rid of my DVD collection. I mentioned this to a couple of friends over dinner at the weekend, and we hit on another way to make money from them.
A new project was born:
Billy Crudup aside, I think the best casting a bunch of (relative) unknowns is the best thing that could have happened to this movie. Although I would have liked to see Neil McDonagh as Ozymandias - he's particularly good at playing loathesome cunts. #
Despite some huge faults, I really enjoyed Disturbia, so the movie would be in good hands. And I have my fingers crossed they can bring Shia LeBeouf in to play Yorick. #
The template is getting a little stale now. I still think Rushmore is the best thing he's done. #
Summer Reading
I finished reading the new Harry Potter yesterday. The last 200 pages were read by the pool while working on my tan. And it’s made me think - of all the books I’ve read in the last few years, my favourites have all been the ones that I’ve read while sunbathing. It’s a beautiful, magical quality of books that you take from them what you put into them: the time, the location and how you’re feeling when you’re reading all dramatically effects your enjoyment of a particular book1.
This probably explains why I hate Wuthering Heights so much. Being stuck in a classroom and forced to learn rote analyses is never going to do a book any favours.
But some recent examples
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Suzanna Clarke
This is a dense, dense book. Each one of its 1000+ pages is packed to the brim with some of the most florid, beautiful English I’ve ever read. But as terrific as this was, it posed a bit of a problem. I’d been mainly reading it before bedtime and I was averaging maybe a page a night before my brain would just shut down. And after two weeks of reading, I was maybe 40 pages in.
But then we went on holiday to Rhodes. A totally relaxing holiday with nothing planned except spending at least a week lounging by the pool, sipping on little drinks with umbrellas in them. And, by Christ, I flew through the book. It was a bit unusual, being whisked away to a damp, grey Edwardian England while I was relaxing in the Mediterranean sun, but I still fell in love with this book. So much so, I bought a first edition hardback copy off eBay, just to treasure.
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
I hate ‘high fantasy’ as a genre. What’s more, I hate ‘high fantasy’ books that run into long series. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Robert Jordan - you’ll never see a fucking penny from me.
But all those long evenings playing Oblivion on the 360 must have softened me up. I guess I was ready to dip my toe in the water, and a couple of things about this book grabbed my attention: Edge magazine had written some very favourable things about it. And then I found out that it started out as a bunch of blog posts before the author got a book deal on what he’d written, which was bound to endear me to it. So I bought the book as something to read while I was relaxing on the beaches of Cape Cod.
The Lies of Locke Lamora is an incredibly entertaining piece of fantasy, made all the more enjoyable (and accessible) by the author’s amazing gift for storytelling. When I don’t enjoy a book, I’ll speed-read it and skim over passages. With Locke Lamora, I made sure to read every word. I fell in love with it. And now, whenever I think of the book, I’m reminded of being on a beach in Harwichport and all the nice feelings associated with that (being completely relaxed, full of beer and lobster the whole time). And vice-versa - when I think of our holiday, I’m reminded of the fantastic book I’d read.
The only bad thing about it? It’s book one of a NINE-part series, with the second book coming out next week. I’ve started reading a series of fantasy books! (But let me reiterate my previous sentiment - fuck you, Robert Jordan, I’ll never read your books.)
So what about you guys? What are your favourite summer reads?
- Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule. Before Harry Potter, I spent a few days by the pool reading Stephen King’s Cell, and I fucking hated that book. [↩]
Summer is here
Well, summer has certainly begun here. And it’s almost making me wish we’d been sent to Addis Ababa instead. There, it’s a relatively cool 20°C. That’s not so different from Dublin. Except for the slightly increased risk of malaria.
Artist’s impression of me, today:
Is this a joke? I honestly can't tell. And take a look at the cast list - did every British actor suddenly decide to take a pay day? Christ. #
They eat horses, don’t they?
Nike+
For all the marketing fuckery, the Nike+ is a nice piece of kit. After my 60GB iPod died, I bought a refurbished iPod Nano and figured while I was at it, I may as well spring the extra $30 for the Nike+ pack (for the record, you don’t need Nike trainers to use it - I found that dropping the sensor into my iPod sock and tucking this between the tongue and laces of my New Balance trainers works just fine.) It’s good fun, and if you’re running on the road or cross-country, it’s amazingly useful for keeping track of your distance and pace. Personally, if I couldn’t keep track of how far I’d run, I wouldn’t be running.
And the website is a fantastic part of the package too. It’s built up a huge community of really nice, supportive people. It’s incredible to see a web forum that isn’t full of antisocial jackholes. As well as the forums, there’s also the opportunity to set up ‘challenges’ among friends. First person to run a total of 50km wins.
I finally found a decent route for running near me - along the banks of the Tibur. And when we move into our new apartment, we’ll be right across the river from Circus Maximus (where they held the chariot racing) and you better believe I’ll be running there - I AM SPASTICUS.
Anyway - anyone else here have a Nike+? Mail me if you want to set up a challenge.
Quicktime Tips
- If your quicktime gets its knickers in a twist and starts taking forever to open files, it’s probably a busted codec. You could spend hours installing and reinstalling the various bits and pieces, or you could just do the smart thing and install Perian.
- Very useful, strangely undocumented feature: If your movie is too quiet, even when the volume slider is at max, just hold down shift and press the ‘up’ cursor. You’ll get a couple more volume levels out of it yet.
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