The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: side_show on October 23, 2005, 03:53:51 pm
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Hi all, sorry about last month, and posting this poll later than usual, but hell I was too damn busy making art of my own!
For anyone unfamiliar with the Book Club, for Oct & Nov we were reading Katherine Dunn's novel Geek Love, about a family of travelling freaks. The traveling freak showed turned into a cult of apendage severing outsiders, and the narrator, Olympia's (an albino dwarf) intense love of the cult leader, also her brother puzzeled many of the readers. When I had read the novel the first time, I had made the inferrence that Olympia's daughter (born perfect except her tiny tail) was actually her brother's child, not from the other trist she had, which really helped me understand the strange love Olympia had for Arty. Reading it again, I have no idea where I got that from - it doesn't seem to be there at all.
Anyway, November is a great month for reading - it's time to enter hibernation mode for most of us, and other than helping make props for a play about bats, I will have a lot of free time on my hands, and hopefully you will too.
Here are the straggler books that we still haven't read from the list we made in summer, vote away.
Also, I think December would be a great time to compile a new list, with all sorts of great books coming out and/or being gifted over the holiday season. Please post your nominations here! Unlike last time, should be blow the doors open and make a list of any readable materials including graffic novels, non-fiction, short story collections, etc? As long as everyone remembers to make suggestions that can be obtained anywhere in North America (and possibly the UK) then I think this could be fine. Thoughts?
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Also, I think December would be a great time to compile a new list, with all sorts of great books coming out and/or being gifted over the holiday season.
Are there any great new books due out this winter?
I guess I haven't really been looking for any at the momentm what with trying to catch up with the stack I have to read anyway, and all the graphic novels/TPB's I have to read...
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I checked out two books at the library; a biography on Douglas Adams and a history of Buddhism. I have renewed each, and am coming up on the new due date. I haven't finished the first yet.
It amazes me how some people can read so voraciously. And I was an English major in college.
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Anyway, November is a great month for reading - it's time to enter hibernation mode for most of us, and other than helping make props for a play about bats, I will have a lot of free time on my hands, and hopefully you will too.
Are you doing Bat Boy, the Musical?
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Anyway, November is a great month for reading - it's time to enter hibernation mode for most of us, and other than helping make props for a play about bats, I will have a lot of free time on my hands, and hopefully you will too.
Are you doing Bat Boy, the Musical?
Gosh I really do hope so. I'd fly to Winnepeg to see that.
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Also, I think December would be a great time to compile a new list, with all sorts of great books coming out and/or being gifted over the holiday season.
Are there any great new books due out this winter?
I guess I haven't really been looking for any at the momentm what with trying to catch up with the stack I have to read anyway, and all the graphic novels/TPB's I have to read...
Neil Gaiman has a new one arleady out. I forget the title. Has anyone read it yet? I just finished Neverwhere, and it was good, but not nearly as good as American Gods.
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Anyway, November is a great month for reading - it's time to enter hibernation mode for most of us, and other than helping make props for a play about bats, I will have a lot of free time on my hands, and hopefully you will too.
Are you doing Bat Boy, the Musical?
Gosh I really do hope so. I'd fly to Winnepeg to see that.
Well it's called Silverwing, and basically the main character is cast out of his community for being different (too small), and then he and another kid ophaned by her community (an albino) befriend some cannilbals unaware of the cannibals plan to eat them. But since their all bats, it's okay to do the play for children. I still don't get how this works.
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Neil Gaiman has a new one arleady out. I forget the title. Has anyone read it yet? I just finished Neverwhere, and it was good, but not nearly as good as American Gods.
Anansi Boys. Haven't read it yet, but I've heard it's good.
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Neil Gaiman has a new one arleady out. I forget the title. Has anyone read it yet? I just finished Neverwhere, and it was good, but not nearly as good as American Gods.
Anansi Boys. Haven't read it yet, but I've heard it's good.
It's a quasi-sequel to American Gods. Some characters appear but supposedly to don't have to have read AG first. I'll wait and read them in order. But I still have Memories of Ice and 21 more Discworld books to get through first.
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I checked a book out of the library for myself for about the first time in ten years. The Duke of Havana, the narrative of Orlando Hernandez's odyssey from Cuba to Costa Rica to Yankee Stadium. I have until November 12. I'm with Gimpson--I vaguely recall a period in time when I read a lot, but now I wonder how that's even remotely possible.
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Okay, honesty here people: I'm feeling a huge amount of apathy for the book club. Are we seriously going to continue? There really wasn't much interesting conversation about Geek Love to be had, and, well, I don't know, I'm already bored of the whole thing. Blame it on my total failure to post anything stimulating. Only 9 votes, 5 for American Gods? How many of you who voted for American Gods have already read it and are just coping out? (I'm suspicious because I already read Geek Love before we selected it, but maybe I'm the only jerk here). What's the verdict here people?
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I only joined the book club to be close to you, Smells.
Of course, I'm a Philistine who didn't actually read either book so far.
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i did not read Geek Love because i did not want to.
i have not read a gaiman book toher than the one he wrote with pratchet and would be interested in reading a book by him that he did not write with anyone else so i voted to read that one.
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I've been voting for American Gods every time because I bought it back in July and haven't gotten around to reading it yet. But now I'm all tied up with Memories of Ice which just came out Tuesday. I've been waiting for this one for months.
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I think the book club is a great idea and we ought to be good at it. It would give us something to talk about when there are no new comics, and all. I could make a lot of excuses for why I can't seem to manage to read the books, but they are all pretty lame. I am sorry.
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I mean to read the books, but my real life keeps eating me, and I apologize. I support the continued existence of the book club, though.
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I was really hoping Ghostwritten would win, because David Mitchell is pretty much God. American Gods is cool too, though, because I have already read it and would very much enjoy the opportunity to Complain About It On The Internet.
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This isn't about the book club, but it is about a book. I wanted to thank Bozack for bringing my attention to Truly, Madly, Viking, which I am using as an example in a presentation on romance novels that I'm doing for my cultural studies seminar tomorrow.
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This isn't about the book club, but it is about a book. I wanted to thank Bozack for bringing my attention to Truly, Madly, Viking, which I am using as an example in a presentation on romance novels that I'm doing for my cultural studies seminar tomorrow.
Just out of curiousity, how long did it take to read it and where would you rate it's literary and entertainment values 1-10?
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Unfortunately, I didn't actually read it.
Yet.
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This (http://www.cartoonbank.com/assets/1/121538_m.gif) was in the New Yorker that came today. (Which I also won't get around to reading most of, probably.)
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This (http://www.cartoonbank.com/assets/1/121538_m.gif) was in the New Yorker that came today. (Which I also won't get around to reading most of, probably.)
That's just great.
Well alright, I'm on a bloody waiting list to get American Gods from the library, but it's going to take over a month to get is, probably more like 6. I've been seeking out used copies, since it's over $30 Canadian for a new copy, and I say boo to that. I say we move forward.
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I checked out two books at the library; a biography on Douglas Adams and a history of Buddhism. I have renewed each, and am coming up on the new due date. I haven't finished the first yet.
It amazes me how some people can read so voraciously. And I was an English major in college.
Oh crap, the familiar brain! Maybe you and me are amigos?
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I will be amigos with you if we are amongst smart people who, in a discussion will say, "This reminds me of the character of Pietr in Warshanovopovolov's The Republic Or My Dinner and his struggles with Der Komisar," and all we can say is, "uh, it kinda reminded me of that one episode of South Park where Mr. Hanky almost died."
Because inevitably, this is the kind of thing that happens to me, and ju NEED amigos then, you see.
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I will be amigos with you if we are amongst smart people who, in a discussion will say, "This reminds me of the character of Pietr in Warshanovopovolov's The Republic Or My Dinner and his struggles with Der Komisar," and all we can say is, "uh, it kinda reminded me of that one episode of South Park where Mr. Hanky almost died."
Because inevitably, this is the kind of thing that happens to me, and ju NEED amigos then, you see.
oh, well really i just sit there and drink.
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oh, well really i just sit there and drink.
That works too! Cheers!
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oh, well really i just sit there and drink.
That works too! Cheers!
Brilliant! Should we have, like an official book club meeting where we all meet at a specific time in December in a chatroom and discuss the book, or even just Achewood as a whole, while drinking? That sounds like holiday fun to me! I feel like we need to spice it up anyway!
Also, the book is at the library for me, and I will start reading it next week.
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Doesn't sitting around in IRC drinking give you like 80 Sad Nerd points? Because lately I've been getting close to having my probationary Almost Cool card revoked.
Of course, if people are going to get drunk and wander into private chat for drunk cybersex, that might be worth the revocation.
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Well, does having a drunken cyber book club still earn you sad points if you do it SOCIALLY? Like, you get together with other drunken nerds and nuetralize each other cause you're not alone? And the cyber thing, I think that'd be pretty awesome. We just need to all cyber in the same chat. At the same time. While getting progressively closer to Blackout. And we should vote a sober person to record the conversation.
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Doesn't sitting around in IRC drinking give you like 80 Sad Nerd points? Because lately I've been getting close to having my probationary Almost Cool card revoked.
Speaking as a heavy IRC user, drunken IRC is in fact a pretty sad nerd act. The two people I know of who did it regularly are the saddest nerds I know.
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This may just be the Jack talking*, but of the people I converse with on the Internet, this is the only group that I could see myself enjoying sitting down on an IRC channel and having an hours-long chatfest with. With or without liquor, but the Jack is saying "definitely with."
* and there was certainly enough Jack to start talking
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Wait.. drunken IRC is bad?
Shit... you guys... man..... kill me now.
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I am all for drunken anything.
Also, I just got the book today, so I'm thinking, maybe we extend this a little for a time over the holidays when we may actually all be drunk and at home at the same time anyway?
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IRC book club would be very cool methinks, apart from anything else a real time conversation with people from this board would be the Business. I'd like to see how the standard of witty reparte fairs without several hours to agonise over comma placement. My prediction: Reasonably well.
Any chance if this happens it could be a weekend though? I'm on the other side of the world here which means I'll either be getting drunk at like noon or 2am depending on when you guys have it.
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got the book this weekend at a, barnes and noble?, there was a coffee counter int he middle of the store, so i thought i'd get a cup of coffee before i had to get back to the hair dresser to pick her up.
i'd heard comedians on several occassions make jokes about starbucks propensity to name their "drinks" stupidly and especially their sizes. i've also heard for years that starbucks is shit coffee. in the 90s my parents went to seattle to visit friends and brought me back a starbucks t-shirt. i'd never been to a starbucks.
so i had american gods and a stephenson tome in a little bag in my hand and i waked up tot he counter of what was a starbucks in the middle of a store and i immediately thought "ha ha, they make jokes about there being starbucks everywhere, haha, this one is INNA STORE!" and i looked that motherfucker right in the eye and said "i'd like a regular coffee, please" and she looked right at me and said some words.
i didn't know what words she said, at first, because she WASN'T SPEAKING fuck*ng ENGLISH. i believe i politely said "please?" or "huh?" and she repeated her self and used the word "size" this time.
i said "um, i'd like a regular coffee, nothing fancy".
she asked me what SIZE?
i told her i would like a small coffee, regular, nothing fancy.
she repeated some words i was not familiar with, and then my brane recognized that i needed to look up at the sign with prices and shit on it above my head in an attempt to bivouac myself into the comfort of context.
and, like a bad cliche, the heavens opened and a beacon of light shone down upon the price sign above my head and i realized that those comedians who joked about the sizing at starbucks were not joking. THEY WERE NOT TELLING JOKES. they were simply complaining.
because a tall is a small, and then it's a grande, i think, and then somehting else.
so i looked at this woman, straight in the eye, and i said, i said to her i said:
"so. a tall is a small?"
and she looked me in the eye and with out an OUNCE of irony nor any impression of any familiarity of this conversation in her past she looked me in the eye and she said to me she said:
"yes"
so i told her i'd like a tall regular coffee.
it was quite possibly the worst coffee i've ever had.
to explain, i drink a lot of coffee. i enjoy coffee. i'm addicted to coffee, and i enjoy the addiction. however, i don't drink good coffee, i drink folger's or hills brothers and i don't believe i've ever ground coffee. i love gas station coffee and coffee and waffle house.
i don't drink particularly good coffee. on occassion, i drink instant,only i use creamer with it because it's not real good.
i've had good, expensive coffee before. and i thought, hey, this is good. and as soon as it got to gulping temperature, i drank it all. and that's why i drink cheap coffee.
so, this small/tall cup of starbucks coffee that i payed one dollar and seventy cents plus tax for sucked. it was burnt and it was not anything to write home about prior to it being burned alive.
so, that being said, i've been reading american gods, well, religiously since i got it, and it is gripping. dude can write a fuck*ng sentence, that's for damn sure. i feel connected with the characters, i feel sympathy for the characters. the plot is pulling me along.
i really liked good omens, it made me feel cheerful. i'd assumed it was the pratchett i was liking. apparently the gaimon was just as good.
after finishing this book, i plan to read his other books. i have even decided that it is not an impossibility that i might read his sandman books, provided i can kick a goth kid after finishing each issue.
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interesting.
The starbucks staff must be specifically trained to enforce the starbucks sizing lingo, because I ran into the same thing the only time I ever got a coffee there. I'm opposed to starbucks on so many levels that I only enter the place when forced to, and even then usually only get a cup of water, also I refuse to give that place a big "s". but I've been physically in one on a few occasions, and every single time I see the staff enforcing their weird sizing names. Also, I'm sure I've heard a comedian do a bit about the same issue, so it sounds like it's a global issue. Even when I repetedly asked for a small, it seemed that the staff was unwilling to serve me until I said "tall" instead, and it made me feel all gross and sticky to say it.
Thank you for complicating what should be a simple human exchange with awful branding language, starbucks. Thank you.
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Thank you for complicating what should be a simple human exchange with awful branding language, starbucks. Thank you.
the marketeers, they hold the strings.
they like to fuck with things just because they can.
the oval table of the Illuminati council is a thing to behold,
ancient woods, rare metals, an amalgamation of form and function,
of art and science.
it is, however, surrounded by highchairs.
what is the resultant difference between a mature pyromaniac who understands the consequences of his actions and yet continues on because it is love tha he feels when he watches it all burn, and a small child who has no comprehension and thinks the fire is pretty?
i must confess that i drink "fancy coffee" on occassion, i will mix half coffee and half capiccino concoction from the machine at gas stations.
yesterday, i tried english toffee. it was divine.
don't look at the liquid, however, unless you really like the rainbow sheen you see on gasoline and other oils.
you people should be reading the book, it is excellent.
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so i looked at this woman, straight in the eye, and i said, i said to her i said:
"so. a tall is a small?"
and she looked me in the eye and with out an OUNCE of irony nor any impression of any familiarity of this conversation in her past she looked me in the eye and she said to me she said:
"yes"
so i told her i'd like a tall regular coffee.
it was quite possibly the worst coffee i've ever had.
Don't know if you've ever worked in the service industry, but I guaran-fuck*ng-tee she gets this everyday. She knows that it's fuck*ng stupid that a Tall is a Small, and while the first 30 times it was pointed out probably produced a chuckle or an ironic glance, she's fuck*ng sick of it by now. She's probably polite (probably because she's required to be), though, and realizes that many people are encountering this for the first time, and so instead of rolling her eyes and grumbling, she just politely answers the question, but she's far too sick of humoring people to do anything else. All I'm saying is that probably she's not stupid, she's just stuck in this job because they actually pay pretty well (relatively speaking anyway) and doesn't want to be there anymore than you do.
But yeah, Starbucks sucks. I hate all the fancy naming and shit like that too, but it sucks mainly because it's so expensive. I don't think it's the worst coffee in the world, but it's not that good. However, I read an article a while back that claimed Starbucks coffee does contain more caffeine than your average cup of coffee, so if you use coffee simply as a drug delivery vehicle, you may not be getting ripped off at all. I find that Vivarin works best though.
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I have never had any problems ordering a small or large beverage at Starbucks without using their lingo. Maybe it's the way I look at them.
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Me either, and I've been through 3 different states and a bunch of airports ordering it.
It's no different than McDonalds - check it out - there is no small and the staff are trained to believe thet, and I quote, 'nothing is small at McDonald's'.
So a regular is what you want to call 'small', at at Starbucks, more stupidly. the small is tall.
Also, I have drunk 1-2 cups of Starbuck's coffee every workday for months now ($1.46/cup in my personal mug) and it has been good each time. Maybe you just didn't like the coffee of the day that day? Some are better than others.
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My SO switched to a local coffee company and now won't to go back to Starbucks because it always tastes burned. She says that she never really noticed until she started going somewhere else and tried to go back.
As for sizes I have that problem with beverages and pizzas all the time. At least with pizza the sizes are usually consistent. My uncles owns a pizza place so I asked him why he calls the smallest pizza offered a medium. He said a medium pizza is 12" almost everywhere, so it's less confusing to start with medium than to be the one pizza place who calls 12" small.
Also, wft is up with "Great Biggie"?
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I've always enjoyed Starbuck's espresso based drinks. I can't recall if I've ever had their regular coffee.
Generally I'm a pretty straight espresso or Cafe Americano kind of guy. If I wanted sweet I'd go get a milkshake.
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McDonalds doesn't have small over there? That is creepy, especially because over here at least their small is pretty small, wonder if sizes are different over there.
Movies are like that here too, in fact the biggest movie chain around here doesn't even have medium any more it's Maxi, Mega and SuperMega. To be fair the popcorn is pretty big, like bigger than my head, but still it seems a bit much. We have words for these things and it's not like I'm going to be tricked into getting the supermega just becuase it sounds good, if anything wouldn't that put people off because it sounds just TOO big?
As far as I know the Starbucks thing stands here too, but I don't go in for coffee and when I do I just go straight expresso, I don't care for the taste much whatever syrup they pour in there so I figure I may as well feel the damn stuff.
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have i worked in a service industry?
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yes.
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the book was good.
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Maxi, Mega and SuperMega.
Wait were you reading the options off a feminine napkin dispenser, because that's what that sounds like. And you should let them know that the next time you are there. I demand it.
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Also, a popcorn as big as your head = small around these parts.
The biggest bag is like a 2 gallons and you get free refills.
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I'm glad I don't drink coffee when I consider Starbucks. I've only been inside one once, and I was the only person not wearing fleece. I felt like I was judged and found lacking.
American Gods is good stuff. Everything about it just feels authentic, like it's a novelization of actual events. I didn't find a single character to dislike except the ones who I was supposed to dislike, and I really understood why I disliked them.
Something I found amusing: Just after I finished this book, I noticed car commercials in the Orlando area that had the tagline: "Believe in Hientzelmann Ford." Creepyfunny.
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feminine napkin dispenser
Damnit SS, I like popcorn, I don't need to be thinking about that when I order it.
As it happens I was at the movies last night and got to examine the sizes in more detail and you are right Dawg, the small ones around here are as big as your head too, I guess 'as big as your head' is the upper limit in my mind for something you should be planning to eat.
Out of curiosity are we allowed to start discussing the actual plot of the book yet or should we wait till everyone is finished?
Also, since it's been an ongoing discussion since the book was released, any thoughts on the nameless god?
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Oh yeah, do we still want to do the drunken chat room thing? I'm still up for it.
I can talk about how I tried in vain to read American Gods. Sorry folks, it's just not my thing. I'm about 200 pages into it and I feel like reading it anymore is like some sort of punishment for some wrong I did in another life. I'm a very speedy reader - I've read three other books while struggling with this one.
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Oh yeah, do we still want to do the drunken chat room thing? I'm still up for it.
I can talk about how I tried in vain to read American Gods. Sorry folks, it's just not my thing. I'm about 200 pages into it and I feel like reading it anymore is like some sort of punishment for some wrong I did in another life. I'm a very speedy reader - I've read three other books while struggling with this one.
Really? It's on my Top Ten favorite books of the last 10 years or so. Although I didn't read it, I listened to it. Maybe you should try that. It was a hella audiobook.
Have you read/enjoyed other Gaiman?
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Yeah, I tried to read some of his comics, but again, I had the same issues as I do with the book - I found the premise really interesting, but the delivery just bored me to death. I don't know, he spends too much time on the things I don't care about and too little on the things I want to know more about.
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I agree, AW. One of the best reads in years. I have talked to people who don't like it, and every time I have the same reaction. I just roped a friend into reading it, and she's loving every word.
Oh, and Bozack. Did I ever thank you for suggesting the book? Well, thank you.
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I don't know, he spends too much time on the things I don't care about and too little on the things I want to know more about.
Would you elaborate? What did and didn't you care about and why? If you remember.