gogo

They're too cute!  Love the costumes, too!

TSJ, is this the picture you want?

My cousin's baby as Rapunzel:

TSJ, your girls are adorable!

I heard a comedian say recently that Jaden Smith is so bad, he's actually killed his father's career.

Finally finished this one:

If you want to be so paranoid you never leave the house again, I highly recommend it!  Really fascinating, including the history of HIV.  Current thinking is that it's been present in humans for 100+ years, and there are fascinating biological/social/political theories in this about how/why it jumped from Africa to Haiti to the rest of the world.  Also: SARS, Ebola, West Nile, Lyme... all the biggies!

Currently reading:

to be followed by the first two volumes of Saga (), and the Hunger Games and Catching Fire (in preparation for the movie in a few weeks).

I know, I couldn't figure out a better way to phrase that!  I also didn't get enough sleep last night.

Thank fucking God there was. I actually fell asleep at a decent hour last night.

I think I gained 10 pounds during the 2010 post-season, I ate pizza while watching nearly every game.

We've been watching old cartoons with the kids.  They've got sort of a Morris the Moose thing going on:

Children of the Candy Corn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYHR_laVaj4

The receipt for buying a donut bit is excellent.

I was just coming in here to say that!  Every time I buy a doughnut, I think that.  (I bought doughnuts this weekend, and giggled as I did so.)

My sisters and I all use the same transit stop to get to work, and the escalators are rarely in service.  We will often mention to each other that the escalators are still temporarily stairs.

Low bar.

This place is fun. Come for the b-sides, stay to head butt the rams.

Better men than you have been suckered in, then chased away by torch-wielding villagers.

I've been holding off listening to this until I can just sit and appreciate it, but it looks great:

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/10/cl_special_a_jay_smooth_autumn_mixtape.html

She talked on her podcast about attending a few shows on that tour.  She also mentioned trying to get backstage at one show, but being blocked by Bob Dylan's people (I think that was the story, I listened to it a while back), but she said she was texting with some of the guys in Wilco that night, and they were going to get her in to a later show.  So it sounded like she's been friendly-ish with them for a while.

(I'm "meh" on most of her stand-up, although I do think she's had some funny and/or touching moments.  And I like just listening to her talk (her podcasts, other interviews, etc.), more so than when she's performing.  I'm not a fan of her impression of her mother...)

I would suggest picking up the first trade paperback collections of one of the following:

Excellent, thanks!  I'll report back as I make my way though the list.

I am happy to see another comic reader here on VC. I have become quite obsessed with them recently. I have not read Fables, but it is on my 'to-do' list. There are so many great 'adult' (for lack of a better word; I don't mean T&A but stories/art targeted at non-children) titles out there right now, it feels like a golden age. 

I don't read a ton of comics, and I was never able to read the individual issues, I always wait until there are a few collected volumes to plow through.  But in the past few years I've read The Unwritten, Walking Dead, Locke & Key, and Fables, and enjoyed all of them (in order, probably The Unwritten is my favorite, then Locke & Key, Fables, and Walking Dead last; a bit too much gore in that one...).  I'm also open to suggestions!

OK, so since I checked in a month ago, I've read the next 10(!) volumes of Fables, plus

and now I'm in the middle of

I'm all over the board!

Oh, and for the Faulkner roll call from several weeks back:  I've only read Go Down, Moses.  I've had The Sound and The Fury and As I Lay Dying cued up for years, but never seem to get to them.  Important things like graphic novels about fairy tales and the stories of the people behind classic 70s sitcoms just seem to keep taking precedence...

5+ years after I started this thread.  My dad has since passed away, but he and I both became addicted to podcasts in the years before he died.  Mostly comedy for me.  For several years now, my favorite has been Walking the Room.  I also enjoy The Dork Forest, Never Not Funny, The Bugle, Dana Gould, Doug Loves Movies, Greg Proops' The Smartest Man in the World, and the occasional WTF and Nerdist.   I listen to most of these only sporadically.  Note to podcasters:  an hour plus, twice a week, is too much and too often.  You can have an hour a week, or if you get a really good guest, split that one into two segments of no more than 45 minutes each.  I just don't need 3 hours of content from you every week, there's no way I'm going to be able to keep up.

Thank you everyone.... I really appreciate the input.  Based on your advice, a couple other recommendations, and a trip to the local library, here's what I'm taking with me.  I have no illusions that I'll read them all, or even more than maybe 2, but I figure some may not click and I'll have some choices.  I also have an upcoming long trip to China after the vacation, so I'm hoping to have some carryover reading enthusiasm for that...

 

The Last Girlfriend on Earth

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain

Skinny Legs and All

The Business (Iain Banks)

Learning How to Die (been a while...)

 

Will report back later.... thanks again!

tas

Very late to the game on this one, but this summer I read Ready Player One and really enjoyed it.  It's a little bit young adult-y, but the whole premise is built around modern (set in the near-future) teens immersing themselves in 80s pop-culture references, so I had a lot of fun with it.  i described it to my 16 year old niece and 14 year old nephew as "the Hunger Games takes place inside World of Warcraft".  They didn't believe me at first, but then each of them devoured it in one (long) sitting.  (My sister told me that she went out to work one morning and left my nephew sitting on the couch just opening the book; when she came home six hours later, he was in the same place, and practically yelled at her "I really have to go to the bathroom, but this book is too good to put down!")

Anyway, late in the season for a beach read, but could be a good distraction on a long flight.

Happy birthday, Natalie!  Miss you.

I'd rather see a show about journalism, with the backdrop of the personal relationships of the characters to each other.  Every time this happens, I've started to question it, and it takes me out of any connection to the story.  Even if they're just showing the stories that have these personal connections with the staff, would those connections really come up all that often?

Does Emily Mortimer's character suffer from Avian Bone Syndrome in this?

The show would be much more fun if she did!

And since I'm not only bothered by the depiction of the women in this thing... How realistic is it that every story that comes up, either someone on staff has a personal relationship with someone who can serve as a source, or will refuse to be a source because of the personal relationship, or else the story is just dropped in the producers' laps?  (Occupy Wall Street lady just happens to tip them off about someone who can serve as a source on a story that she doesn't even know they're working on; Maggie's roommate knew Casey Anthony; Maggie dated a guy in college who refuses to appear on the show after she's the one assigned to do the pre-interview; Don just happens to play tennis with a guy who can either confirm an ugly quote, or trade coverage of that quote for an early break on the Petraeus scandal...)  Is this really how journalism works?  I'm willing to accept an occasional lucky break or interesting coincidence for dramatic effect, but this happens far too often on this show.

since my penis precludes me from having credibility on issues of feminism, I'll just cite an article that reflects my feelings and slowly back away from the computer.

 

LINK

a.  I'm not questioning anyone's credibility on these issues.  I'm just stating my own case, trying to back up why I feel the way I do about these characters.  If the writer of this article disagrees with me, so be it.  We're all entitled to our opinions.

b.  "This is the writer that gave us Abby Bartlet, CJ Cregg, and Nancy McNally."  This might be exactly why I'm so disappointed with the women on The Newsroom.

Maggie goes from being a grunt intern to an associate producer and then is given the Africa assignment.  How is she under- or poorly-written?

Jim seems to be the character most painted as not being able to cut it at his job because of relationship issues--taking the stint on the Romney bus.  (While Maggie sucked it up and stayed on doing her job, and well)

I never really saw anything in Maggie's story line that would give her credibility as an associate producer, and the Africa assignment seemed like she was getting thrown a bone, as much as anything she'd earned.

And Jim is just an asshole.  That thing that he was doing to Lisa in the last episode, harassing her at work after she'd already been warned by her boss to get rid of him, is exactly the same thing he did to her in the dress shop in the first season.  Her job matters to her, Jim, just because it's not THE NEWS doesn't mean that it's not worth even acknowledging that it's happening.