What I’m Reading, Watching, Thinking:

Update September 26, 2012

This is a bit of a diary entry, also serving to highlight or publicize books and movies, events, my work, what have you. I’m sincerely trying not to post political missives in this season of hyperpartisanship – look to Facebook updates for those.

So, what have I been reading:

Something now which I really enjoyed and would recommend for anyone who likes smart, campy humor and essays, in the same vein as David Sedaris (also his sometime mentor and collaborator, but maybe not quite as sidesplitting) or Augusten Burroughs (but maybe a little deeper). This was David Rakoff‘s Half Empty, 10 essays on various subjects ranging from the trials of the publishing business to visits to dream factories to cancer. And that last one, riveting and humorous, deeply human –  it’s what took him earlier this year, at age 47. It was the memorials on NPR surrounding his death that led me to this book – I wished I’d found his work sooner, but there’s more, including two other books of essays, “Fraud” and “Don’t Get Too Comfortable,” which I look forward to reading.

Also, (and not to get political but. . .) still working on George Lakoff and Elizabeth Welling’s Little Blue Book, a handbook on ways to promote progressive values via language. Hopefully some of that will find its way into my more opinionated pieces. Definitely worth considering if progressive rhetoric is of interest to you!

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I’m a loyal fan, that’s why I guess I’m now viewing the 8th and final season of Entourage via Netflix DVD. After viewing the first four episodes, I’d say the series is going into some darker places yet again and I think that’s good for it. I’ve mainly been interested in the series for its portrayal of the business side of Hollywood, since I did work in that part of the industry and found the depictions of studio execs and agents fairly hysterical (and so right on the money – I would not have been a viewer if it were not for Jeremy Piven). I know less and care less about movie stars, especially straight fictional movie stars, however, I always did think that to rise to the level of where Entourage’s “star” (Vincent Chase, played by the capable Adrian Grenier) is, he’d have to be more of an asshole than depicted in, say, the first five seasons at least. Now he’s more human, more calculating, and for me, more real. Some viewers might find that less appealing but I like the honesty.

Also, I ended the summer with a mini-filmfest, right here in my living room, of Roman Polanski DVDs, focusing on those films I had not seen (with the addition of “Rosemary’s Baby” which I just wanted to see again).

My list included “Death and the Maiden,” “Macbeth,” “Repulsion” and “Knife in the Water.”

Of those four, I personally enjoyed the oldest two (“Repulsion” and “Knife in the Water”) more. “Repulsion” is about a girl (Catherine Deneuve) who is (probably?) sexually repressed and who goes batshit crazy as a result. Murderously crazy. Quite claustrophobic but also scary and riveting. Also have to say I loved the mid-sixties London locale. Watching the rabbit carcass slowly decay was creepy in its own right!

“Knife in the Water” is Polanski’s first film, made in Poland, foreshadowing how violence finds its way into all these movies, and indeed into his life. I saw what I assume to be a gorgeous restored print on DVD. The movie itself is about a male/female couple who invite a male hitchhiker along on an overnight sailing trip. The hitchhiker has a knife. You know this isn’t going to be easy-breezy! BTW, I also enjoyed what this film said about consumerism in 2012, by looking back to the norms of early 60s Poland, which, of course, was Communist and still reconstructing from WWII.

Oh, and btw for you crackerjack video editors out there, I’m waiting for somebody to do a mashup of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Mad Men!” The costumes and art direction are exactly the same period and I know it would work, and be outrageous.