Another Weekend

Saturday afternoon I went down to Park Slope with the intention of getting a book or two at 7th Ave. Books, my favorite used bookstore.

On the way there I discovered that there were people having stoop sales on nearly every block. And, since Park Slope residents tend to be well-read, every stoop sale was selling old books. I hit about five different stoop sales, and picked up about 12 books before I even got to the used bookstore. And none of them were more than a dollar apiece!

Misha and I went out for drinks Saturday. At the bar, I overheard a girl behind me say she was going to a Cinco De Mayo party and remembered that a guy I work with was having a party, so we hopped a train up to Hamilton Heights and drank with a bunch of young twenty-somethings whom we found completely uninteresting.

There were bowls of NYC Condoms around and I inexplicably grabbed a handful and stuffed them in my pocket, as if I will have a need for them ever. Last time I actually bought some they sat around for a couple years until the time came to use one and it exploded into a cloud of dust as I tried to put it on.
If anybody does have a use for them, let me know, I'll send 'em to ya.

Afterwards we went to a bar in the East Village that Misha had stumbled into Friday night and was excited about because they let you smoke inside and girls danced on the bar. They were showing the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight there and it was packed and we had to wait until the fight was over and the place cleared out before folks started lighting up. Then a not-so-attractive girl got up and danced on the bar. It was not the diamond in the rough dive bar Misha had raved about and I left shortly afterwards.

Saw Spiderman 3 this afternoon and was completely bowled over by how incredibly lame it was. I usually accept the inevitable cheesiness factor when I see a Sam Raimi flick, but watching this made me feel like the fat, Gluttony victim in Seven, being force-fed Kraft Mac And Cheese dinners. The last half-hour, I think, was actually directed by Oprah Winfrey, and each character got to have a five minute crying scene where they got in touch with their feelings and sought forgiveness. I was waiting for Dr. Phil to step up to Spidey and The Sandman and help guide them through their emotions. Aunt May had so many "old wise man" speeches, I fully expect her to be sporting a Fu Manchu 'stache and living at the top of a mountain in Spiderman 4. When it intends to be funny, the movie is pretty good. The Bruce Campbell scene is classic! But Sam Raimi's never been very good at subtlety and when he tries to tackle intimate human emotions, the movie blows up in his face. Please Sam, do a non-Spiderman movie soon! You've clearly OD'ed on the guy.

Reading is FUNdamental

Currently reading Chris Elliott's novel The Shroud of the Thwacker. Very funny book. As was expected, after having discovered his book Daddy's Boy at a thrift store six years ago. Both are highly recommended.

Also on my suggested reading list is my friend Chris Sullivan's novel-in-progress, That Book I Was Telling You About.

And much to my joy, I have discovered a cornucopia of old pulp novels from the 30s and 40s available online at Blackmask Online. These are all stories whose copyright has run out, so they can be put on the web in their entirety. Tons of The Shadow and Doc Savage stories!

I'm gonna get culturalized!

I've been reading a lot lately, and it occured to me that I should set some sort of quota for myself. Billy Merritt mentioned in class the other day that he used to try to watch a movie a day. He said it's always good to have an arsenal of stories in your head to use in improv scenes. I thought that was a good idea. I always watch several movies a week anyway, so I thought it'd be a cake walk.

To complicate matters, I've decided to also try to read one play a week, one short story a week and one poem a day. Perhaps I'll be able to tackle one short story a day, but I'm giving myself some leeway here.

I thought it would be an interesting undertaking. So I've made February my Culturalizin' Month*.

As my birthday is the 28th, it'll give me something worthwhile to celebrate (rather than one more year under my loosening belt).

And as my brother observed, "Way to pick the shortest month, jackass!"


*(I am not sure whether my movie picks will necessarily fall under the category of "cultural", but I'll make an effort)

What Makes You Happy

I have been challenged to come up with a list of 100 things in life that make me happy. That is a tall order. I've thought about it for a day and only come up with 14 things so far.

However, today I found something that makes me happy right now, so I'll share it:

A year and a half ago my friend Shana told me she had a read a book by Paul Feig, the creator of "Freaks and Geeks", called Kick Me and she said his stories reminded her of me. I was intrigued to say the least. When I finally read the book, I not only agreed with her (his stories ARE similar, in fact the one about climbng the rope in gym in second grade and having his first "orgasm" happened to me as well, so it looks like I can't tell that one anymore) but I laughed my ass off.

It inspired me to start writing stories about my own pathetic experiences growing up, and I started this blog to let people read them. If you read my stuff and enjoy it, you owe it to yourself to check out the work of a true master and read that book. Funny, funny stuff.

Today, while at work, I discovered his latest collection of memoirs Superstud: Or How I Became A 24 Year Old Virgin and bought it immediately. What I have read so far is hysterical. And painfully familiar.