Stuff I've Been Reading 5

BOOKS READ:

• The A-List - Zoey Dean
• Hollywood Car Wash - Lori Culwell
• The Wal-Mart Effect - Charles Fishman
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
• Best American Non-Required Reading 2002 - ed. David Eggers

Upon finding out that I hadn't read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Lilly was kind enough to immediately purchase a copy for me because she thought it was just my type of thing. She's right, of course, it's exactly the type of book I like. I mean, it's about comic books! And it has big words I have to look up in the dictionary, and it qualifies as a big important novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize, in 2001.

I'd always known the name "Michael Chabon" because he's unavoidable once you read Eggers and McSweeney's and he's prolific and ubiquitous once you're aware of him, but I hadn't ever read any of his works. Why is beyond me. Amazing Adventures is not only brilliant but also highly entertaining and poetic. I hate that it's been out for eight years and I only discovered it now. The next author I really need to explore is Dom DeLillo because he's been recommended more than once and I don't want to pass him up anymore, just like I did Chabon.

"I was afraid that the book, on its surface, would be off-putting to women readers. It's about comic books, and in my greatly enlarged recent experience it's become clear that women have a very negative attitude toward comic books. They didn't grow up reading them, for the most part.

I was surprised that my wife thought it was a good idea, then again with my agent, another woman, then my editor, another woman - in spite of the fact that all three of them reacted positively I still have this fear. It probably reaches deep down into my childhood history as a geek, being interested in comic books and getting nowhere with girls. Those two things going hand-in-hand. But the response has been very positive; women readers are finding lots to enjoy."
-Interview with M.Chabon, Powell's-

There's really no denying it, comic books and super heroes are cool again. Which means, Soon I Will Be Cool (err, Invincible). Okay, fine, maybe not, but geeks have inherited the planet and I'm ready for my time in the sun. Mainly because I'm pale as a sheet from never being awake during daylight hours. I need summer, and beach time, like right now.

While waiting around for my roast beef sandwich at a deli where long waits are par for the course, I saw that the counter girl was reading Card's Speaker for the Dead. While Ender's Game is quite a popular (relatively) sci-fi book among the normal girl set, I was very impressed that she was onto the sequel and seemed to not be able to tear her attention away -- she was almost done -- to accept my cash at the register. That's awesome.

The Cool School (2008)

San Francisco is an excellent destination for watching films, I gotta say. How else would I have been able to catch a movie about the Los Angeles modern art scene from the late 1950s through the 1960s, embodied by the Ferus Gallery on La Cienega. While names like Walter Hopps, Ed Kienholz, and Irving Bloom didn't ring any bells -- thus the promotion of the film using more familiar names like Frank Gehry and Dennis Hopper (despite being mostly minor commenters) -- the documentary was fascinating.

I'm hardly studied in art enough to really understand abstract expressionism, installation art, or most of the actual pieces the film displayed but it doesn't matter because in the end it's about a group of people carving out a moment (if not an actual movement), much like Dogtown and Z-Boys and grabs your attention irrespective of previous expertise on the subject.

One of the things mentioned in the movie was the requirements for creating an "effective" art scene. It consisted of having artists to create, galleries to display, critics to praise, and ultimately, collectors to buy. I have often wondered why certain cities seem to have an art scene and some don't and this formula sheds some light on the linear pieces that have to be compiled to create something out of nothing.

City Lights

I've been looking for the heart of San Francisco for a long time. I feel like every time we come up here, I'm trying to figure out what defines SF. I'll go to other cities craving certain foods, particular experiences, and looking forward to getting something unique to that area. With San Francisco, I can never seem to find it. I've done Fisherman's Wharf, the Mission, North Beach, Union Square, J-Town, Inner Richmond, Financial District, the Marina (where my sister lives), Haight-Ashbury, and spent a whole day wandering all over the city on foot.

Reputed for great shopping, good food, and a potpourri of people and experiences, I'm usually underwhelmed by all of the above and more impressed with SF's bookstores. The landmark that's made the most impact on me? The Six Sisters of Full House fame. Seriously. I haven't found much in the city to be overly excited about or that different from something I couldn't readily find elsewhere. Yet many people I respect and admire pledge allegiance to the Bay. I must be missing something.

Maybe the answer to the whole "Who is San Francisco" question is that it can be anything you want it to be? It can be an excellent night life city or it can be the domain of outdoorsy types -- or you can mix and match pleasures. On the plus side, there's certainly a lot of culture and interesting activities going on, but I'm rarely here long enough to consistently partake in much of anything. Perhaps therein lies the problem. San Francisco seems like it might only reveal its secrets to me if I stick around for awhile.

If that's true, then it's perhaps the most commitment-centric city I've encountered so far. Commitment. Sigh.

Band-Aid

Lester: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.
William: Well, it was fun.
Lester: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool.
William: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.
Lester: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don't have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we're smarter.
William: I can really see that now.
Lester: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love... and let's face it, you got a big head start.
William: I'm glad you were home.
Lester: I'm always home. I'm uncool.
William: Me too!
Lester: The only true currency in this bankrupt world if what we share with someone else when we're uncool.
William: I feel better.
-Almost Famous-

More Than Meets the Eye

Every geek knows who that is in the picture right? It's Snake Eyes! The most popular mute ninja on Earth. There's a GI Joe movie being made right now, out in 2009, and it probably won't have much to do with the original cartoon -- or the classic animated movie -- but it should be amazingly cool nonetheless. The costumes will be sick at least (compare the movie version of Snake Eyes to this image).

I remember the joy of owning my Snake Eyes toy, the one with his pet wolf. It was all unique and stuff until they started re-releasing the original figures. I think I still have this version of him. Yes, there might be a tin of GI Joes somewhere in my closet. So what? You don't keep your childhood toys around?

One of the best things about GI Joe was how real life people started appearing in the cartoon. Sgt. Slaughter anyone? Everyone knows he became a Joe, but how about William "The Refrigerator" Perry? I'm pretty sure I mail-ordered away for both of them. Oh and the vehicles! The vehicles were always so intricate and well designed. I had a boat, a motorcyle, and a jeep-tank thing. Of course, twenty years later, I only have a white Honda Accord. And not even one ninja assassin friend to speak of...

More importantly, was "Scarlett versus Lady Jaye" the "Ginger versus Mary Anne" of my generation? Should it be?

Anyway, the movie stars Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Rachel Nichols, Sienna Miller, Ray Park, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Should be interesting.

Five unforgettable GI Joes
Storm Shadow
Tomax and Xamot
Quick Kick
Zartan
Jinx

It's Like, Right Now

So a friend was contacted by a producer at Current TV to possibly have one of his projects showcased in the future. "Current TV? Never heard of it." Well, apparently it's like MTV plus YouTube and is definitely the most interesting thing happening on television. Strangely, it was started by Al Gore. Maybe he really did invent the intranets.

Users create "pods" which are uploaded to the site and then fans can vote for these pods to receive their own spot on television. Each pod is typically only a few minutes long -- perfect for your miniscule attention span -- and many of the topics are on things you'd never see anywhere else. Pods on pre-fabricated houses, an insane no-holds barred shooting range in Kentucky, a Wax Poetics magazine feature. Check out what Current's playing right now.

Another cool thing is that many of the ads on Current TV are also viewer generated. So you make an ad for say, T-Mobile or Toyota, and if it airs, you get paid.

The most impressive thing about all this is that the production values are really really good. I'm not sure how it happens, if producers come to film your idea when you've been chosen for distribution, or only the cream rises to the top, but the segments are all nicely filmed, produced, and edited. It's what MTV could have been and what YouTube wishes it could be. It's the future!

Our first great find on Current TV was "Joe Gets." It's just a series of little clips where this guy goes around learning about different skills, jobs, and lifestyles. Joe Gets Air, Joe Gets Saddled, Joe Gets Goth, Joe Gets Served.

The first one I watched was Joe Gets Pix. Anyone who says "you're a hungry hungry hippo" to a model while trying to get her in the mood is pretty awesome. The one-liners, quips, and reactions that Joe dishes out is hilarious.

If Joe looks familiar it's because he was on Beauty and the Geek where he was voted off pretty early and didn't get to display his sense of humor at all. After that, he was just an average schmo submitting stuff to Current but he got promoted and picked up after his videos consistently rose to the top of the rankings. Now he's the funniest man on television.