Salinger documentary

I'm more interested in the man than the movies based on his books:
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/01/29/well-probably-never-see-a-movie-version-of-catcher-in-the-rye-but-a-jd-salinger-documentary-is-ready-to-go/

Funny Friday clip

I'm newly obssed with Louis CK. He's added to my all time favorite list of comedians, which includes Daniel Tosh, Nick Swardson, Kevin Nealon, Jim Gaffigan, and the late Mitch Hedberg.

LCK talks about the differences between the sexes.

Shiny happy Apple fans holding hands

So, although I shy away from conformity, I allow myself to indulge in a few hysterical trends.

Gossip Girl
Jersey Shore
anything Apple.

I've been an evangelical Mac convert for going on 2 years. Mostly, I made the change because I wanted a laptop, and always seem to be catching a godamned virus. Maybe it's because I open up all those solicitations for penis pumps. I don't know.
I digress.

Through working in publishing, I've had both a Sony E-reader and now a Kindle, which I'm glassy eyed over. Most of what I read, I don't have to pay for, which is a luxury most people don't have. There's really no point in measuring how much greater the kindle reading experience is versus the e-reader. Amazon designed a great product, that feels very natural in your hands. My favorite feature is the digital dictionary, and note taking feature. Oh also, you can freaking e-mail yourself documents to your kindle in any format. That coupled with $9.99 books and a plethora of free public domain books (mostly classics I've been meaning to read) adds up to one satisfying device.

Ok, now that the I-Pad has debuted, the gloves come off between Amazon and Apple. Company similarities? Both are super customer-centric. The great difference lies in Apple's commitment to make equally sleek and user-friendly products. Since Amazon is an e-commerce company, they obviously don't have practice manufacturing devices outside the kindle. Unless Amazon gives it a stunning facelift, I think people are going to snuggle right up to the i-pad. Look at what a great viewing experience the ITunes store provides - besides being filled with a great selection, the layout makes you want to stay there and keep browsing.

This is where Amazon needs to make a change, like now. The browsing experience on the kindle sucks. Mostly, you are limited to NYT bestsellers, and "new and notables," which includes a random assortment of sci-fi/romancs, free classics, and the occasional nice find. Amazon allows you to buy books or send a free excerpt directly to your kindle from your computer. I find myself doing that rather than searching directly on the device. Now that's a major problem, and a weakness that Apple will easily take advantage of. When you connect to ITunes through a i-phone or i-pod touch, it is apparent that it was carefully designed with the browsing customer in mind.

Though I'm as warm and gooey as the next girl for the IPad, I'm sticking to my kindle for now. Yes, partially because I just bought it in January. Mostly, a dedicated e-reader is my general preference. I'm very easily distracted, so if I had the option to hop around from my book to e-mail, facebook, and twitter - I'd never finish a page. But you better believe I'm going to find out who the first person in my office is to buy one, and beg them to let me play with the I-Pad. Because this is an i-pod on steroids, and that's way cool.

Too many plates spinning: Nobodies Album Review

Nobodies Album
Caroline Parkhurst
On sale June 2010

Two coworkers, who are huge Caroline Parkhurst fans recommended I check out her new book, The Nobodies Album. I’m a sucker for a great opening sentence, and boy does this book have one.
“There are some stories no one wants to hear.” Bang – instantly intrigued.
However, this book happens to be filled with a few stories that no one needs to read.

We are introduced to our narrator, Octavia Frost, who is on a flight to her editor in New York to drop off a final draft of her next book. It's an ambitious project in which she takes excerpts and final chapters from all her books, and reconfigures the endings. Almost immediately after arriving in the city, she sees a billboard sized headline in Times Square that her famous rock star son, Milo, has just been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Bennita Moffet. Though they have been estranged for many years, Octavia boards the next plane to California to try to see her son.

It’s hard for me to say a book is bad, when the writing is so good. This is one of those cases, because Parkhurst is a descriptive, beautiful writer. She enables the reader to really understand Octavia, and her motivations for choosing to write about the tragedy that struck her family, which lead to the dissolution of her relationship with Milo. There are two major flaws I found, that prevent me from loving the Nobodies Album.

My first problem is with the vignettes sprinkled through the book, from Octavia’s rewritten stories collection. Though they are intended to drop clues to help the reader figure out how Octavia’s husband and daughter were killed years ago, they instead feel very random and rambling. It seemed to me that they are Parkhurst’s own notes that she was never able to develop into fully fleshed out stories. The idea was better than the execution – it’s hard to make the real author separate from her writer character.

Once the reader is taken back to the main story of Milo the murdering musician, the finale is less than dazzling. Avoiding any spoilers, I'll just say that the crime is solved in a most unsatisfying manner. There was a grand buildup, and a tiny whimper of a resolution.

It makes for a good, quick beach read, which is why I decided to keep reading, and put down The Fountainhead until I got out of vacation mode, and could give it my complete attention.

Oh no she didn't - mission statement

Yes she did. Start a blog that is. Not sure if I'm going to show this to anyone. Depends on what kind of crazy content it includes, I suppose. Part of the reason I thought this was a good idea, is because memories are stored online now. No more ordering photo prints and filing them in an album. It's cleaner, more convenient, and you can spellcheck. I've kept a journal since 7th grade, though most of it is complaining in my messy handwriting. Maybe it's because I've passed that seminal quarter century mark, but I'm all about self improvement these days.

The name, you might ask? Well, SARS is my nickname, cuz my loving is infectious. Most of my life is lived in my head, so I'm trying to turn my inner critic outwards. Keep it simple - write sentences that learn me stuff. Why is a movie, book, idea, news headline great or shitty? Who knows, but I'm going to get some practice learning how to review. Because I'm feeling some early Altzeimer's from not discussing half of what I read or watch.

If funny happens, grand. Mostly I want to develop ideas that interest me, and see where they go. Expect to see stuff related to:
book & movie reviews
notable NYC highlights
awkward pictures of people on the subway (if I can get away with taking it unnoticed)
tech news
and obviously a steady stream of goofy blog links, youtube videos, and other delightful online vices.

Also, this gives me the option to power down. If someone asks me a question on a day when I'm not in a talkative mood, I'll just roll my eyes, and mouth the words, read my blog. Because that sounds fun and creepy. Yes, things that are fun and creepy will also be part of this project. Executive decision.

Awkward moments
Lines I lift from my favorite comedians
That's what she said jokes
Really weird, enjoyable websites will also get a well deserved spotlight.

This might turn out to be an unwanted gauge of my unproductiveness - who wants to guess the ratio of pracatical stuff to crap that just makes me laugh? I'll show you all, I can do both...I think.

Later skaters.