Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Grind

I'm in a back-at-work funk so I'm finding it hard to think about what I might blog about.
Antique Roadshow?
Maybe, but the show really speaks for itself. Awesome.
What I achieved on my holiday: a vegetable garden, a drive to Adelaide; purchase of The Wire. That's it.
Meh, it's a holiday - what are you gunna do?

I'm reading Don DeLillo's Underworld at the moment and it's helping me realise that American modern classics are hyperbolic, self-indulgent, wordy wastes of bookshelf space (someone suggest something that will change my mind, go on). I'm impressed with his tenacity, I mean I can't believe he wasn't bored with himself after the first 700 pages. I'd give it a 3/10 for persistence. Why stick with such an alienating and peripatetic format? I'm guessing that by asking that question I'm making myself look shallow and stupid, but at least I didn't enjoy Shadows of the Wind. FOR FUCK'S SAKE PEOPLE.
If anyone ever reads this blog, I recommend reading Kate Grenville's The Secret River and M.J Hyland's How The Light Gets In. Not just because they were both nominated for the Booker but because they're both a brilliant read.

I saw An Inconvenient Truth last night. Sigh. I hate our government. How heartbreaking to think that Al Gore was a whisker away from being the US president. Still, maybe he would have found himself hamstrung by bureaucracy in that position and as a (relatively) free agent he can set his own agenda for influence. I think it's an impressive film for Americans to make.

That's all for now.