What It Is: 10/6/08

What I’m reading: Finally wrapped up The Long Goodbye, almost a month after picking it up. I just haven’t given myself time to chill out and read. Also, I finished Montaigne’s essay Of presumption. More on that later this morning.

What I’m listening to: Distant Early Warning, by Rush. Not again and again, but a couple of times.

What I’m watching: The new Chris Rock HBO special, which wasn’t as good as his previous one. Also, we watched Casino. I realized that it’s the first Sharon Stone movie I’ve ever seen. I thought she did a good job, but the movie overall was pointless. I don’t understand what the movie was ABOUT. I mean, it was the story of how the underworld overextends itself and violent retribution gets meted out on as the criminal world eats itself. How that differs from Goodfellas, I don’t get. DeNiro and Pesci are just caricatures; I couldn’t see any motivation for why they acted the way did. They were simply Great Gambler Who Gets To Run A Casino, and Psychotic Muscle Who Reprises His Role From The Previous Scorsese Crime Movie. The behind-the-scenes aspect of the casino world was entertaining, but ONE-HUNDRED-AND-SEVENTY-EIGHT MINUTES? To find out that mobsters will order the executions of other mobsters? Awesome payoff, dude! Anyway, like I said, Sharon Stone was the best part of the flick; maybe I oughtta snatch up one of her earlier movies.

What I’m drinking: Amy & I opened a bottle of Bogle Petit Syrah on Saturday night, but that was the only time I’ve had a drink since Sept. 26 (the day my conference ended). We left a third of it.

What Rufus is up to: Being scared shitless on Sunday by AfroHuskie, the 17-year-old Dog of the Living Dead down the street. I’d heard about this dog from his owner (his real name is Bandit) a few weeks ago, and we finally met him tonight. I have never seen a dog in such a age-induced state of decrepitude; Rufus’ encounter with him was so unsettling that he literally did not crap on his evening walk.

Where I’m going: We were planning to go to Warwick Applefest yesterday, but I was really zonky and out of it and we decided to stay home and veg. No travel plans this week.

What I’m happy about: Shana tova! Happy new year for Jews!

What I’m sad about: The New York Sun was shut down this week, as was the Dirda on Books weekly chat at the Washington Post; at this rate I half-expect the Hernandez Bros. to quit making comics.

What I’m pondering: What to do with my old iPhone. Also, does anyone know if an EMP would wipe out flash memory? I’m just pondering, is all.

7 Replies to “What It Is: 10/6/08”

  1. I seem to recall the costumes being pretty great for Casino, but I haven’t seen it since the theatrical release. But that is a long running time and a lot of effort for ’60s and ’70s reproductions.

  2. He took a buyout a while back, and has been working freelance for them and others. Now they’ve decided to cut the weekly book chat, in favor of some sort of discussion group.

Leave a Reply to GilCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.