Sunday, July 30, 2017

100 Books I Have Actually Read


  1. The Lord of the Flies
  2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  3. The Covenant of the Crown
  4. The Andromeda Strain
  5. The Theory of Poker
  6. The Graduate
  7. The Federalist Papers
  8. Blind Ambition
  9. The Ten Cent Plague
  10. Seal of Approval
  11. Supergods
  12. The Selling of the President
  13. The Hobbit
  14. The Lord of the Rings
  15. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby
  16. Starfarers
  17. The Stand
  18. The Shining 
  19. Pet Semetary 
  20. Hotel
  21. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  22. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
  23. Cruel Shoes
  24. Pure Drivel
  25. FUCK: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
  26. Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
  27. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
  28. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
  29. Amusing Ourselves To Death
  30. Understanding Media
  31. The Influencing Machine
  32. Einstein's Dreams
  33. I'm OK; You're OK
  34. Tales of the City
  35. Maybe the Moon
  36. The God Delusion
  37. The Last Temptation of Christ
  38. Maus
  39. Watchmen
  40. Superman: Last Son of Krypton
  41. A Christmas Carol
  42. Dune 
  43. Destination: Void
  44. The Outsiders
  45. A Complete History of American Comic Books
  46. The Face Is Familiar
  47. St. George and the Godfather
  48. The Foundation Trilogy
  49. The Caves of Steel
  50. The Naked Sun
  51. The End of Eternity
  52. Robot Dreams
  53. Robot Visions
  54. Tales of the Black Widowers
  55. Inside the Atom
  56. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective
  57. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
  58. The Innocence of Father Brown
  59. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  60. A Study In Scarlet
  61. The Hound of the Baskervilles
  62. Ten Little Indians
  63. 1984
  64. Animal Farm
  65. All The President's Men
  66. The Final Days
  67. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
  68. The Boys On The Bus
  69. Without Feathers
  70. Side Effects
  71. The Catcher In The Rye
  72. The Hotel New Hampshire
  73. The World According To Garp
  74. The Cider House Rules
  75. A Prayer for Owen Meany
  76. In One Person
  77. Slaughterhouse Five
  78. Cat's Cradle
  79. Welcome to the Monkey House
  80. Roots
  81. Assassination Vacation
  82. The Wordy Shipmates
  83. On The Road
  84. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  85. Fahrenheit 451
  86. MASH
  87. The Once and Future King
  88. Atlas Shrugged
  89. Grant Morrison and the Super Hero Renaissance
  90. Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation
  91. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
  92. The Wizard of Oz
  93. The Yearling
  94. The Metaphysics of Star Trek
  95. Hell's Angels
  96. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  97. Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72
  98. The Great Shark Hunt
  99. Kingdom of Fear
  100. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners In Power

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Prez's Half-Brother Arrested in Kenya

It's getting to be a tradition with Democratic presidents: The embarrassing brother--who is usually an addict of some sort. Jimmy Carter had the hard drinking Billy, Bill Clinton had cocaine addled Roger, and now Barack Obama has George. According to a report CNN.com, the president's half-brother currently sits in a Nairobi jail on charges of marijuana possession and resisting arrest.
Between the economic crisis and this, it seems that people named George have been nothing but trouble for our new prez.
Link

Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Leaders We Deserve

Apparently, the Senate majority leader is an idiot.
Harry Reid was on Meet The Press this morning making an ass of himself by displaying for the entire nation to hear his utter lack of command of the English language as he contended repeatedly that his objections to the appointment of Roland Burris to the fill Barack Obama's seat is not to Burris himself but results from the controversy surrounding the criminal activities of the "appointee".
You moron! Roland Burris IS the "appointee"; i.e. the person who has been appointed. Obviously, Captain Opposite was referring to the charges surrounding Illinois' governor, Rod Blagojevich, and alleged attempts to "sell" the aforementioned Senate seat. Blagojevich, is the "appointer", the person making the appointment. By using the wrong wrong word, Reid inadvertantly contradicts himself and generally ends up sounding like a complete moron.
Apparently, new MTP moderator David Gregory, who let this gaffe slip by repeatedly without correcting his guest, is equally stupid--or maybe he was making a misguided effort to be "polite" to Reid. Tim Russert would have set Reid straight right away, I'm sure.



Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A Series of Unconnected Thoughts About The New TV Season

I might just check out the premiere of Reaper tonight on the CW.
The premise doesn't appeal to me at all, but some of the talent involved does. Frankly, I think the casting of Ray Wise (Twin Peaks' Leland Palmer) as Satan is simply inspired. Plus, tonight's debut episode is directed by none other than Kevin Smith.
I might take a look at Bionic Woman tomorrow night as well...though I strongly suspect that it won't last out the season. The reason is that, quite simply, revivals of classic TV shows never succeed--at least not on the broadcast networks. The revamped versions of The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and The Fugitive testify to that. They have been known to work in syndication or on cable and one of the most successful cable revivals has been Battlestar Galactica, with which the new BW shares an exec producer. So perhaps there's a chance that the few episodes that do make it air might actually be worth watching.
The only show you could say that I'm sort of in any way looking forward to seeing is Chiristina Applegate's new sitcom Samantha Who? set to air Mondays on ABC. Applegate plays a woman with amnesia who finds out that before she was a horrible person. (Though I would have to disagree with Applegate's contention in a TV Guide interview that she's never played a bitch before. Generally, Married...With Children's Kelly Bundy was more of a slut than a bitch, but she could be quite bitchy on occasion.) I just hope they follow the lead of NBC's hit Thursday night comedy line-up and do the show without a laugh track. I hate laugh tracks. I also hate How I Met Your Mother, which has nothing to do at all with this post, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Friday, September 21, 2007

New Seasons of Legion and Batman Begin Tomorrow!

I swear that I have not been looking forward this much to a new season of Saturday morning cartoons since I was a kid. Tomorrow brings the season premieres of The Batman and Legion of Super-Heroes on Kids' WB.
Legion cemented its place as one of the best super-hero cartoons ever with its season ending two part adaptation of the Legion's classic battle to stop the Sun-Eater. Every comics fans even passingly familiar with pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion lore knew where this story was going, but watching it get there was a hoot.
My only problem with Legion is that we still haven't seen my favorite Legionnaire, Wildfire, not even in the climactic struggle with the Sun-Eater. I hope this means that the producers have plans for him somewhere down the line.
I also hope that we see more of Matter-Eater Lad.
The Batman is my favorite of all the filmed adaptations of the Dark Knight's adventures so far. Most Batman series or movies have picked up with Batman firmly established as Gotham"s Guardian, complete with Robin and a pretty chummy relationship with Commissioner Gordon and the police. This show, on the other hand, shows us Bats at very early stage of his career, hunted by the police and as distrustful of them, and just about anyone else, as they are of him. We've actually gotten to see the character grow and progress over the course of four seasons. The series overarching story arc has concerned Bruce Wayne learning to trust others enough to let them into his life and work with them. First, he forges a tentative relationship with a police detective, then gains the trust of the commissioner. Next, he takes on a sometime partner in Batgirl before taking in fellow orphan Dick Grayson not only to work with him as Robin but to live in his house. Finally, at the end of last season, we saw him move into the wider community of super-heroes as he joined the Justice League.
From the promos I've seen for the new season, it looks like we're going to be seeing a certain Man of Steel guest starring on The Batman this season. I think it would be cool, don't you, if old Kal-El was reluctant to join the League and it was Bats, of all people, who manages to convince Supes of the advantages of being part of a team.