Summer so far

It's been a Peter Gabriel, Lolita, freezer-pop, Elmore Leonard, Six Million Dollar Man, Dennis LeHane, Van Halen, Farnesworth Invention, Little Debbie Swiss Cakes, pizza-on-the-grill, stray cat, Rent at Columbus Children Theater kind of summer so far. A bit on each:

Peter Gabriel isn't the coolest with the critics or the Wilco, Weezer, or Stones crowds, but I've been a fan since waaay back. Summer tends to be a time to look back rather than forward, and I'm following up last year's "Every Rush album in order" summer with a Peter Gabriel summer, though not in order, cuz I don't have them all yet. Highlights: Security, the one I first fell in love with, so I was, what, a sophomore? I thought I was younger. That always happens. Anyway, still love that album. Peter Gabriel 1 is much better than I expected, 2, I thought, is kind of weak, 3 is great fun, and immediately brings me back to mowing my parent's lawn listening to the cassette on my Sony Walkman. Next up are his Genesis-era albums, which I never listened to. Love his newer stuff. Have been playing In Your Eyes and Washing the Water on the piano.

I've been wanting to read Elmore Leonard for a while, and now I am. 'sokay. I'm reading Pagan Babies. No I'm not. I'm blogging. So I'm not very drawn to it. But the characters are fun. Doesn't live up to what I've heard about him. Maybe I grabbed the wrong one, but it's the one the library had.

I finally read Lolita, which I thought would be a funny choice to read on a trip to an educator's conference, and it was. Odd glances on the plane. Amazing novel, and it put me through things no novel has before. Much creepier than I expected - even hard to read at some points. I almost didn't get to part two after the last sentence of part one. Amazing voice, and I didn't expect it to be so funny. Then I watched both movies. Kubrick's is great - Shelly Winters is fantastic and James Mason is great, but I'm becoming increasingly okay with my annoyance at Kubric. The 1997 Adrienne Lynne version is very good and captures the tone of the novel well.

Freezer pops are summer. But whichever brand made yellow "Pina Colada" is not the brand for me. I eat, like, forty freezer pops a day.

Talk about looking back. I've got two pirated Six Million Dollar Man DVDS - the pilot and the bigfoot episodes. Youngest-son really liked it, and the rest of us had a blast, so I wanted more. But they haven't been released in the US.

So I bought the second season from Amazon.do.uk, and figured out how to hack my DVD player to be region free. Came in the mail yesterday. Haven't watched them yet. Excited, though.



At the beach I was looking for a pulpy but good mystery-thriller sort of thing, and I remembered reading that Dennis LeHane is one of the best, and I know he wrote for The Wire, and he wrote Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, which got great reviews, so I bought a used copy of Shutter Island, and spent the week laughing at it and sharing with my wife one implausible cliche after another. Then I came home, went to a movie, and saw this on my popcorn box:



I sent that picture to my wife, who also said "No way!" Then, just now, I find out it's being directed by Martin Scorsese. So maybe I'm an idiot.

Van Halen, Roth-style. Still awesome. At the library, I found a CD of Van Halen covers done by bluegrass bands. Extra awesome.

Farnsworth Invention, a great play by Aaron Sorkin. I saw it at the Alley Theater in Houston. Loved it.

Little Debbie Swiss Cakes do not allow me to sleep whenever they are in the house. They are never in the house for long.

We bought a new grill. It has defined our summer meals, including pizza on the grill, because I married oddly. But it was delicious, except for the one that caught on fire and almost burned our house down.

My daughter has fallen in love with a stray cat that has been coming around.

Took my oldest to see Rent at Columbus Childrens Theater. It was quite good. Having never seen the show before, he loved it.

A bit of summer so far. Now I'm just chewing up a rainy Saturday afternoon.