Any weekend that starts with something imploding can't be all bad.

[lagilman]

(they blew up the old Coliseum this morning, a little off schedule but with a satisfying and town-shaking boom. And yes, ""Atlantic City" is in my head and won't get out.)

After that, the finish of my proofing job seems almost anticlimactic, but still satisfying. I was turning pages at the end, caught up in the action, occasionally thinking "ooo, nice bit there, Gilman." Am pleased, yes. I think this is best book of series - maybe not as slam-bang as Staying Dead but richer and more textured in the storytelling and characterization, as indeed it should be, four books in. Plus, payoffs! I haven't actually opened the bubbly yet, but the bottle is chilling and the glasses are ready.

I'd be happy that the plate has been cleared off, if only a little bit, except that it's done just in time for something new to hit on Monday. My life. Thankfully, I have people who drag me out for socializing on a semi-regular basis, so I don't go all 'heeeeeere's Johnny' on the cats...


other peoples' work:

Finally finished reading "Mojo: Conjure Stories" (edited by the luminous Nalo H). An interesting collection, as much for the stories that didn't work as the ones that did. Triggered some bubbling in the back of the brain - will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes out of it. One thing that I did find was that so many of the stories went on a paragraph beyond where I felt the story should have ended - enough that I started wondering if it was an authorial thing, or an editorial thing.

Also, "Sleeper?" Still moments of pure funny, even through the Woody Allen-hate.
"This is Norman Mailer. He was a very great writer. He donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School for study."
"There's only one thing to do. We have to steal the nose."

Comments

[lagilman]

Oh, he's always been creepy. That was part of what was funny, back before it was, well, creepy. *wry g*

One of Woody Allen's saving graces, for me, is the line in "Midsummer Night's sex Comedy," when the aliens, on leaving, tell him to "go back to making the funny movies. We liked those better." It's true. "Bananas," "Sleeper" and "Take th Money and Run" are still classics. "Hannah and Her Sisters" was the last first-run movie I was able to watch.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"I like your earlier, funnier movies" is a quote from Stardust Memories, a movie all about how incredibly annoying it is to have a fanbase. (I think. I only watched it once, in 1980, and was duly insulted.)

Bullets over Broadway is actually excellent, and Woody isn't in it at all.

[lagilman]

"I like your earlier, funnier movies" is a quote from Stardust Memories, a movie all about how incredibly annoying it is to have a fanbase. (I think. I only watched it once, in 1980, and was duly insulted.)

I managed to miss that one. As I said, I prefer him when he's channeling his inner comedian (his "Without Feathers", a collection of some of his routines, still hits me every time as the forerunner of Steven Wright's deadpan delivery:

"How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not "the thing with feathers". The thing with feathers has turned to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich."

"Why does a man kill? He kills for food. And not only for food: frequently there must be a beverage."

etc.)

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

The only Woody Allen movie I have ever been able to watch all the way through was "Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask". Especially the control tower during ejaculation scenes.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

"We are the chorus, and we agree" is one of our family catchphrases. (That's from either Without Feathers or the other collection whose name I disremember.)