Ramblings about reading, part I

One of my new year’s resolutions was to keep track of all the books I read this year. As to be expected I’m already off to a bad start. With all those papers that are due this month, I am mostly reading mind-numbing articles and insomnia-curing essays as well as my own “exhilarating” writing. Every now and them I have some time in between to seek solace in some real literature.

I decided to start the year with an easy breezy book, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It was the first novel of his that I’ve ever read and alas I won’t be reading another too quickly. It was a story full of fantastical elements like talking rats, angels, monsters, knights and what not but even though it had fairy tale allures; it was bland, predictable and a bit tedious towards the end. The style was simple and although I hardly ever read fantastic fiction, I felt I’d heard it all before but with the ruckus around Stardust these past few weeks I thought I should give one of his novels a try. Maybe I made a bad choice with Neverwhere (which was originally a televison series on BBC) or maybe I’m just not into Gaiman. Who’s to say?

The second novel I’ve read this year was Douglas Coupland’s latest expedition into postmodern paradise, The Gum Thief. The story consisted mainly of letters left by two Staples employees during their breaks in which they communicate their hopes, aspirations and even a novel to each other with some interruptive notes of secondary characters. His approach as usual is innovative and the story is sweet and simple although less wacky than we’re used to. The end was a bit disappointing but then you can’t win them all.

Now It's back to the papers for me, joy!

My hair, my precious hair

Today I handed in my first "exam" paper. It was a nasty little SOB on Don Delillo's, in my opinion, god awful and highly overrated Underworld. Only 5 more to go now... Seeing as I survived this ordeal, I decided to treat myself to a haircut. It had been a few months and my hair started doing a weird outwordsy flippy thing. I've never had much luck with hairdressers and this experience wasn't, as to be expected, any different. I just wanted it trimmed but came out looking like a nun. It was bad, so very bad. All I could do to keep myself from a) crying or b) slapping the woman at Kreatos in the Nationalestraat (Antwerp) was to go home and salvage what was left of my ever shortening hair. I frantically went to work with a pair of scissors, shampoo and a blow dryer and this is the final result. Trust me, you don't want to see any before shots. They will already haunt me and the people I encountered on my way home forever.

Happy New Year

I would like to wish you all lots of love, health and happiness in 2008.

Yours truly,

Ginny Jones

Green Greetings

A couple of years ago, Jim Carrey portrayed an American Christmas icon, a character loved by young and old but not very well known in Belgium until then. He has a fat little tummy but he isn’t Santa, he’s fury but he isn’t Rudolph (who has always been a personal favorite of mine), he’s green so he’s none other than the Grinch. The Grinch who stole Christmas to be precise.

The Grinch (among many other popular characters) was created by Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. He was an American author and cartoonist whose children’s books have now become classics. Plump and outlandish creatures were his trademarks combined rhyming texts and dynamic drawings. 1957’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a prime example of his quirky yet heartwarming creativity. In this story, the Grinch is a bitter little critter living in a cave on Mount Crumpit looking down on Whoville, home of the merry Whos. Besides being fat and fury, he has another problem namely his heart is two sizes too small. Luckily he has Max, his loyal pet pooch who has to masquerade as a reindeer when the Grinch decides to go down to Whoville to put a stop to all this Christmas nonsense. If he can’t have fun, no one can. But naturally it wouldn't be Christmas (or a children’s book for that matter) if all wasn’t well in the end.

If you want to indulge in some good old-fashioned holiday fun, I suggest you sit back and enjoy the merry musings of Dr. Seuss and have a wonderful Christmas!

Indie Apples

Not a lot of people know that Edward Burns besides acting in also writes and directs many of his movies, if you know Edward Burns to begin with. He isn’t a very popular nor commercial actor but has mainly caught hold of the public eye due to his own indie flicks (hence the probable Edward who? reaction in Belgium) and appearances in Saving Private Ryan, 15 Minutes and Confidence to name a few. And of course his own brain children: The Brothers McMullen, Sidewalks of New York and about eight others.

His latest movie Purple Violets, won best narrative feature at the Savannah Film Festival and thus caught my eye. Specializing in relationship comedies, this movie is once again a prime example of his low key, narratively blessed and New York based fables. Boy (Patrick Wilson) meets married college sweetheart (Selma Blair) and decides to wander down the familiar yet a little more complicated road he travelled many years ago while his best friend (Burns himself) tries to rekindle a romance with the one who got away (and still holds a grudge, namely Debra Messing). A complex, contemporary love story with a few aspiring writers thrown in just for the hell of it.

But that’s not why I’m writing about it. It has another very unique quality, namely that it’s exclusively available on iTunes as of November 20th. It hasn’t been released in theatres or on DVD, at least not yet. Despite getting critical acclaim, the movie wasn’t able to find a distributor, not only did iTunes solve this problem but it is also a great opportunity to get notice seeing as iTunes has already become a household brand and makes the future of many indie movies look brighter.

Independent releases often get trapped in a few art house theatres, if released at all (which is the case in Belgium) and thus aren’t able to reach the broader audience they deserve. Purple Violets’ fate was sealed until Burns decided to go Apple, this way he has the chance to promote his film for free to the millions of people who have iTunes. Officially it's the first full-length feature to open on iTunes and already it shows a lot of promise seeing as it is a more efficient and profitable way for filmmakers to find an audience and the deal is also aimed at winning attention for the iTunes movie category.

Burns: "My style of filmmaking is dying on the vine. These small, talky movies have a hard time finding an audience theatrically, so you need to adapt. There are still people who want to see this nontraditional type of film, and now there are nontraditional ways to get them out there."

Earlier this year Hotel Chevalier, a short prequel to Wes Anderson’s The Darjeerling Limited, was also released exclusively on iTunes and features a very nude Nathalie Portman for those who are interested (alas not available in Belgium).

Here he is

Something completely different now. Last week my friend Véronique gave birth to a beautiful boy named Aiden and made me godmother. Once again I'd like to congratulate the proud parents with their bundle of joy.

Guess who?

It's been a while since I've posted anything substantial (excluding my Halloween bit) on my blog. The reason why, is a lack of time and slow fleeting bursts of inspiration. I can either let my City fall into the tragic spiral of forgetfullness or just bite the bullet and once again share my rambunctious ramblings with the world. Clearly, I chose the latter and while I sit here (behind my dumpling's laptop while he is out there creating tantalizing tunes) there is only one thought one my mind. Namely, how for the love of all things sacred can one make any sense of Ulysses without Spark Notes? Probably not what you were expecting, am I right?

Almost two months ago I embarked on the already tedious affair that I like to call my Master's degree in English Literature. Finally I got to chose my own courses which also sounded fun, in theory. On the other hand, the hours are minimal yet the work load is driven to an unprecedented high. Since I've started, I've been reading at a speed of almost 1000 pages a week. Don't get me wrong, I love to read otherwise English Lit would have been a slightly masochistic choice but come on! Over the past few weeks I have been annoyed by Proust's passive whining, unimpressed by DeLillo's Magnum Opus, fascinated by Kafka's dark and mesmerizing mind (it wasn't all bad, ok), bored by Doctorow's historical hickup, indifferent towards Camus' indifference, aggrivated by basically all things Russian (don't even get me started), gobsmacked by Boem Paukeslag, entertained by Vonnegut and then there was a novel by Gadda that I just skipped altogether. I'm probably leaving a few out but forgive me due to temporary overload. Basically, we have to read one book a week for each class combined with some articles, essays, whatever dribbled out of the pen of people who have to much time to read, think and supposedly "write". I'm not big on criticism if you hadn't noticed already.

All that reading has gotten me sidetracked from the main attraction, namely my thesis. In an earlier post I said I was probably going to do it about Dorothy Parker but alas she lucked out. She wouldn't have been offended but knowing her she'd have obliterated me with a poem like any dignified lady would. This year I'll be focussing on Blonde, not just any blonde but one in particular: Marilyn Monroe. A few years back Joyce Carol Oates, a celebrated American author and one of my personal favorites, wrote a novel that got her another nod at the National Book Awards and Pulitzer Prize, namely Blonde. This 939 page masterpiece (hey, I don't do easy ok) is a fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe. The main character is based on Monroe's life and Oates has also added her own personal touch to the mix. My job, by reading an endless amount of biographies and historical accounts, is to see what's real and what's fiction and what Oates' fictional elements add to Monroe's life in contrast to actual biographies. Basically why fiction if you've got facts? So the next few months I'll be delving into every aspect of 1950ies America from Hollywood to politics with Marilyn, naturally, inbetween.
Now you know where I've been hiding. What's your excuse?