The International House of Bacon

Hey, Paft, I haven’t forgotten about you.

Books:

Ultimate Spider-Man: Irresponsible/Cats and Kings/Ultimate Six/Superstars/Hobgoblin/Warriors - Brian Michael Bendis: I don’t want to say I disliked the latest batch, but…well, some of this was weak. I can forgive the Ultimate Six diversion as an obvious crossover with a comic I don’t read, but I have to say that Black Cat is annoying as hell, and the whole Hobgoblin thing didn’t do it for me, either. Still soldiering on - I have library leads on all the available trades, shockingly, so I’ll be caught up at some point this summer - but a few of these were more than a little rough around the edges.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake - Sloane Crosley: When people close to my age get to do essay books, I worry. When the first essay tries to paint their life as something worth reading when your initial response is “like hell it is,” it gets worse. This book did both, but I stuck it near the potty and read an essay at a time, and it was a lot of fun in a lot of places. Felt a wee bit sanitary for what I expected, maybe, but still worth a read if you like realistic, nonfiction essays. I have little to go on outside of Chuck Klosterman, and while she’s no Klosterman, it was a pretty fun book.

Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton: The problem with science fiction and fantasy is that the books are so long and the worlds created so vast that it’s nearly impossible to come up with a competent ending. Tad Williams does it well, Orson Scott Card generally does it well, but beyond that, well…. Judas Unchained is the 800+ finale to the 800+ page Pandora’s Star. The ending gets telegraphed 200 pages from the end, and everything gets tied together as neat and tidy as it can. This is a condemnation of the end, but not of the book series itself, which was nearly flawless in every other way. There was one other character set I would have loved to see more of, but where would it fit after 1700 pages?

The Willoughbys - Lois Lowry: Lowry tries to lampoon every recent kids book of note. Mostly succeeds. I didn’t want to like this, but I did. It was a quick, fun read, and there’s not much else to say about it.

Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah: I didn’t expect this - a book that tries to show life for a Muslim teen in Australia as normal as possible ultimately fails because it’s too normal. Take away the religion angle and this book ceases to even be a little interesting. The thing is, in these times, a book like this can help simply by existing, but only if it’s worth people’s time. Nothing this dull will catch anyone’s interest, and that’s a shame.

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow: Now, compare it with this, a book that is a wee bit hysterical in its “relation to reality” premise (Homeland Security and the government as a bunch of American-values-hatin’-thugs), but it is Cory Doctorow and we know his gig. The good point (and the cool thing is that you can download the book free and legally) is that the story is so strong and the storytelling voice so good that you can let go of the agenda for what’s otherwise a good time. He also lists off a lot of his favorite organizations at the end, which only helps in the educational process in terms of pushing access. It’s pretty win-win, and it’s a book I think everyone (literally) reading this would enjoy.

Racial Paranoia - John L. Jackson Jr: A surprisingly competent book on racial dynamics, political correctness, etc. Nothing crazy special, fairly academic, not partisan in any specific direction, but an interesting read in an area I don’t really read much in these days.

Airhead - Meg Cabot: New Meg Cabot YA! Squee! Okay, that’s out of the way - it’s the most absurd premise since the modern Arthurian Avalon High, and ends more abruptly than most of her serials, but still a fun read. I still can’t not recommend a Meg Cabot book.

Movies:

Iron Man: If every superhero movie was like Iron Man, I’d like more superhero movies. Perfectly paced, just enough of everything - absolutely wonderful movie. Robert Downey was perfect, I don’t think I can consider this to have any significant flaws. Maybe Gwyneth Paltrow, but I’m hard-pressed to find any female secondary character in a superhero movie who comes across well. No fault of theirs. But yes, if you haven’t seen it yet, do it. DO IT.

John Waters: This Filthy World: A taped version of his one man show/speaking engagement. A surprise 7 minutes or so about Kroger Babb mixed in with stories and anecdotes, a really good, fun thing to watch. It may still be on demand in some areas.

The Film Crew: Killers From Space: Yeah, not so good. Yikes.

Richard Pryor: Here and Now: What’s weird about Richard Pryor today is that he’s not shocking anymore. What was likely cutting edge even for 1983 (the time of this performance) is still great today, but is similar to a lot of things now - and only because of him. It reminded me of why I enjoy reading Robert Benchley, why I enjoy old movies, etc - it’s not necessarily that they’re better, but it opens up a new understanding for me, which is always great.

Billy Madison: Why did I find this funny when I first watched it? I saw this on on demand while laid up on Friday, and said “oh, I remember liking this.” The only thing that was even remotely funny was the “O’Doyle Rules” repetition, and only because of a college memory attached to it - I had otherwise forgotten that it was from this movie. Holy crap. With that said - still seeing Zohan this weekend if possible.

Spider-Man: Speaking of crap - okay, listen. I love the Spidey comics. Everyone tells me that this is the superhero flick to beat all superhero flicks. Someone has GOT to explain to me what makes this movie worth it. I somehow suffered through two hours of Tobey Maguire being annoying, Kirsten Dunst being Kirsten Dunst, Willem Defoe trying too hard, and just some of the absolute lamest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. I shouldn’t say that - I did see about 20 minutes of Rise of the Silver Surfer and THAT was absolute crap - but the only redeeming quality was JK Simmons, and he didn’t get much screen time. This was just…wow. Horrible. Simply horrible.

Okay. Very few links today, just musings on what I’ve heard in the crossfire of the last few days and other meta notes. I essentially didn’t check my Google Reader regularly again until Saturday morning, so I missed about 800 possible links, and didn’t follow up on others - I’ll start catching up on links as the week progresses, and I have some other things mostly prewritten that’ll post at some point later this week. That doesn’t mean I’m completely unaware of what’s been happening, though.

* First, the DNC meeting was actually rather riveting to watch. I love this sort of thing, which was fascinating, and most of my thoughts may be completely off-base if Clinton in fact drops out later this week, but I have to say: a) that the DNC made rules that they have no way of adequately being able to force compliance on (re: primary dates) is ridiculous, and to penalize voters for those issues when the voters have even less say in it makes even less sense, b) Florida getting half-seating makes sense given the bylaws as I understand them, c) Barack Obama absolutely, unquestionably, unfairly benefited from the Michigan resolution. I understand why you assume that he would have gotten the remaining delegates, but that ornery Ickes guy got it right - the Democrats have a rule for uncommitted delegates already, and there was no logical reason to suspend those, especially when it hurts a candidate that much as a result. There was no good answer for Michigan, but I really think they picked the dumbest one.

I don’t think the DNC will remain fractured long-term. People are angry, but this isn’t THAT dramatic in the grand scheme of things - if you’re so aligned to a party as is, you’re looking at party over person already. I do think, however, this may be a harbinger of things to come in the general - Obama’s going to lose a bit of support in the general based on these shenanigans, and the Democrats have all but lost the “make every vote count” narrative that has worked generally well for them since the 2000 debacle. I’ve been wrong before, but that was some nasty stuff I saw there.

As for Clinton? I don’t think she’ll resign/concede, I think she’ll “suspend,” allowing for a challenge at the convention and the possibility of buyer’s remorse to set in on the Obama side while not having to work too hard. I hesitate to say that she was screwed by the system, since she ran a pretty horrid early campaign, but if the superdelegates are going to get behind Obama on this, I think that’s a mistake given the electoral maps. But hey - I’m jut a bystander.

* Scott McClellan’s book? Honestly, who cares? Really. At this point, assuming the leaking we hear is within context, we have a guy who stuck around for years doing something he was uncomfortable with for…what? And he was so comfortable being duplicitous in that role that we’re ready to trust him now because he’s saying things we want to hear? Okay. I mean, truly, I didn’t care about Feith’s book, I didn’t care about O’Neill’s book, and I don’t care about McClellan’s. Sadly, when the book proposal gets leaked, you know this is going to take up some cycles, and that’s just pathetic, and I don’t care any further.

* Obama left his church. We’re supposed to believe that you can’t ditch a crazy uncle, unless that crazy uncle possibly goes too far by calling you a politician, and maybe if that family decides to mock your Democratic opponent. I mean, I wonder if this helps him long term. I can’t imagine anything with this church can help him at this point. I dunno. It’s all so stupid and weird - to think that if he had left a year ago he could have avoided this should infuriate any Obama fan.

* I’m cautiously monitoring The Next Right. It’s a new conservative blogswarm created in part by Dale Franks (QandO) and Patrick Ruffini, and populated with mainpage guys who are conservative bloggers NOT in the Malkin/LGF mold. While I’m afraid of it turning into a conservative-style Daily Kos, I was cautiously optimistic enough to sign up for an account, and I’ll be crossposting New Hampshire information there unless it devolves into a morass of xenophobic lunacy.

* Speaking of xenophobic lunacy, Rachael Ray’s man hands are much more offensive than any scarf she may have been wearing. Enough already, please.