Wednesday February 22nd 2012, 10:03 pm
I’ve been meaning to write up a simple blog for some time now about Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels. We caught onto this character much like many others, through the HBO series True Blood. We adored the show, note the use of past tense here. Wendy and I decided we really should give the novels a try. And we’re caught up completely until the soon be released next installment. While they really aren’t meant to be highbrow literature, there is a certain kind of magic to them. Highly imaginative, charming and relatable in many ways. Granted some installments read better than others, but after immersing ourselves into the long running series, we’ve concluded the HBO version just really ticks us off. Sad to say, but true. It doesn’t hold a candle to the original books in terms of craftsmanship of character, or development of story. I’ve always been one to be somewhat lenient in adaptations from novels to film or television, but what the producers of True Blood have done is really unconscionable. After roughly the second book, the HBO show completely goes in every opposite direction with plot and character possible from the source material. It doesn’t remain “true” to the spirit of the book series at all, ironic considering they use the word in their title. It just really is not necessary to change every aspect of everything, and thats mostly a true statement. It says to me that there is some form of arrogance in this treatment of the source material, that the producers of the show think they know better than the author, to such a degree that they’ve thrown out just about everything except some names and a plot point or two. But even the plots they lowered themselves to address have been warped and distorted, and sucked the charm right out of them. Read the books, ignore the show, you’ll be much happier for it.
Wednesday February 15th 2012, 2:48 am
I’ve just come to realize from a comment someone has left that the subtitle on 2306152 blog page found at the tab above has been unfortunately misleading. Everything I write for that blog has a place in reality, it is not fiction. It is a daily chronicle of my life, sometimes in abstract terms, while others are much more direct and highly personal. Like the ones of this past week for example. The daily blog is my attempt at capturing a year in my life, from the mundane to the very intense, while mostly trying to do it in one single paragraph a day. But the latest post was a very emotionally tough one, and based on the comment left, some of you may feel I’m being hurtful by exploiting pain untruthfully. But I assure you there isn’t one word that isn’t true in this blog. And I felt it important to clarify that right now. The misleading subtitle will be changed as soon as possible to “a yearlong blog experiment”.
Friday February 10th 2012, 7:38 pm
I’ve been a bit neglectful on mentioning music that has been running in the house lately. As always, an eclectic mix new and old stuff. So here is a list…
The Black Keys – El Camino
Puny Human – Revenge Is Easy
Orange Goblin – Coup De Grace
Orange Goblin – Frequencies From Planet Ten
Radiohead – Amnesiac (expanded edition)
Jesus And Mary chain – Psychocandy (expanded and remastered)
Jesus And Mary Chain – Darklands (expanded and remastered)
Jesus And Mary Chain – Automatic (expanded and remastered)
Jesus and Mary Chain – Honey’s Dead (expanded and remastered)
Jesus And Mary Chain – Stoned And Dethroned (expanded and remastered)
Debbie Harry – Koo Koo (new remastered version)
Mumford And Sons – Sigh No More (limited 3 disc version)
The Smiths – Remastered Box Set (of all their albums)
Adele – 19
Adele – 21
The Cars – Move Like This
Rush – Permanent Waves (Remastered)
Rush – Roll The Bones
Killing Joke – Absolute Dissent
Tricky – Knowle West Boy
Ramones – Subterranean Jungle (expanded and remastered)
Ramones – Too Tough To Die (expanded and remastered)
Simple Minds – New Gold Dream
Simple Minds – Empires And Dance
Simple Minds – Real To Real Cacophony
Simple Minds – Sparkle In The rain
David J – Not Long For This World
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut
Soft Cell – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret
Prince – Around The World In A Day
Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
Steppenwolf – For Ladies Only
Blondie – Atomic (single)
Stephen Colbert with The Black Belles – Charlene II I’m Over You (single)
Neal Heft – Batman
Wednesday February 08th 2012, 8:59 pm
Just watched the news today, and I’m elated over the landmark decision for the state of Washington on Gay Rights issues. Congratulations! And this is truly inspirational and hopeful to finally have the same thing here for citizens of California.