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Tue, 05 Apr 2011

BOOKS & MOVIES

Just for fun, I started working on a text file that lists all the movies I've watched and books I've read in 2011. The idea came to me when I realized that I frequently forget certain types of movies I've seen. Sure, I remember the biggies. And I remember anything I've discussed with anyone. But I watch a lot of movies alone in the middle of the night. These films are usually pretty bad, and pretty forgettable. It would be fun, I thought, to keep track of them and post them here at the end of the year, and while I'm at it, why not keep track of books, too.

Oy. At the end of 2010, I think I read a decent number of books. But guess how many I've read so far in 2011? Four. That's right. Four. I am mortified.

It gets worse. Two of those four books were graphic novels, and one of those had hardly any words in it. Basically, I read two novels while flying to and from LA at the beginning of March, and those were the first novels I'd read since December.

When I think about it, I'm weird when it comes to reading. I absolutely love it. Hell, I have a degree in it. But for some reason, it's easy for me to fall out of the habit, and once I'm out of the habit, it doesn't even occur to me to pick it back up again.

On the other hand, when I do get into a book or even a chain of books, I don't want to do anything but read. I sink into those other worlds. I dream about them. I daydream about them.

A few days ago, I was struggling to fall asleep when I heard a noise on the porch. I had ordered a new case for my camera, so rather than lay there and think about it, I decided to head down and bring my parcel inside. But there were two parcels, and the second one turned out to be David Foster Wallace's new posthumously published novel, The Pale King, which I'd pre-ordered months ago and wasn't expecting for another two weeks.

I had to start digging into it, of course, even though I was dead tired and up way too late. I burned through about 50 pages, and haven't picked it up since. This is partially because: 1) It's an unfinished novel and it shows, and 2) One of the major themes of the book seems to be boredom. This is maybe not a great book to choose to break myself out of this literature-resistant phase I seem to be going through.

TELEVISION

When I had the idea for that text file I mentioned, I thought about making another one to keep track of all the TV I watch. Of course, I wouldn't be able to fill it in retroactively as I did with the book and movie lists.

If I did this, I wouldn't include shows that I watched in marathon form on DVD. I'd only include shows I'd seen as they aired, or on TiVo soon after they aired. I seriously considered this for about 20 seconds before shame made me put the idea on the back burner.

Such a list wouldn't be much fun for me to look at. I think it would just be embarrassing and stressful, like looking at a list of all the food I eat, or a list of all the money I spend. Sure it might be useful for persuading myself to watch less TV and/or better TV, but what fun is that? I have no desire to go on a TV diet. And any personal blog is bad enough when it comes to assholes looking at your life and judging you for sport. I don't need to give these people itemized lists of detailing how many hours of Jersey Shore I've watched in the past year. (Okay, I've watched every second of it, if you must know.)

MUSIC

Speaking of TV and lists and Jersey Shore, I've really been getting into MTV lately. Well, "really getting into" is a bit of a stretch, but it feels like it to me. What I should say is that I've been getting into watching music videos on MTV.com.

My technique is to start out watching actual MTV in the wee hours of the morning, when they still shows videos. I wait for a decent video, which mainly happens during their show Subterranean, which is the new name for the show that used to be called Alternative Nation and before that 120 Minutes. When I see something I halfway like, I go to MTV.com, find that video, and then watch related videos. If I find something I really like, or even kind of like, I go to Amazon and find that song. Then I look for related songs on Amazon until I find songs that are free, and then I download the free songs.

(Why is it I haven't been reading, again?)

I've thought about making a text file listing all the songs I've downloaded, but once again shame dissuades me. I think the stuff I've been listening to is decent. I mean, I like it. But music fans are so damn judgmental.

I have to keep some things to myself.

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