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My final shoot is tomorrow and i am flipping out. gha so stressed it's crazy!
Mark Haddon
Summery:
The story revolves around the Hall family. The family consists of George, a hypochondriac who is convinced he has cancer even though his doctor has diagnosed him with eczema. Jean, Georges wife, who has been having an affair, Katie, their daughter, who is a single mom who is getting married to Ray, who George and Jean think is the wrong man for her and Jamie, Katie's gay brother.
Review:
Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime) had much to live up to with A Spot of Bother, and I don't think he lived up to expectations. The Hall family is stereotypical and kind of dull. They each have their problems and one goes from siding with George to Jean to Katie to Jamie to even Ray. By the end it's hard to tell who you should care the most about, or weather you should care about any of them at all. With that being said, this was by no means a terrible book, just mediocre, and that, I think, is the real crime in this Novel.
Story:
**
Structure:
***
Wings Won!
Watched Iron Chef America and Chopped with my dad
Went out to lunch, to old navy and the hospital with my mom
got up far to early and am going to be far to late for the little sleep i got last night
I ended up cooking dinner with my dad, which was fun, but we did this because my mom was in Ann Arbor with my Grandma till around 2. It was still nice to have a family gathering. I got to see everyone. We got to celebrate Matthews birthday. My Grandma gave my mom a book of Slovak recipes, I've already made cookie dough from it (it's chilling right now). Then my dad and mom talked about my dad's side of the family, which doesn't really happen. It was really nice.
I have to go to target tomorrow to see if they have any of those vacation feeders for my fish. I know I'm not gone for very long, but I think five days will be a long time for a fish to go without food, especially over the holiday season.
Night all, Hopefully I'll be seeing most of you in the next 72 hours!
Jonathan Safran Foer
Summery:
Oskar Schell lost his Father two years ago during 9/11. He wears his heavy boots all the time trying to cope with his death until one day he accidently knocks over a blue vase and finds a key with the name Black written on it. Oskar thinks finding the lock to the key could bring him closer to his father so he goes on a search of every Black in New York City. Oskars most trusted person is his Grandmother, a woman with her own sad story from Dresden. Her husband, Oskars Grandfather, left before his son was born. Now with the past and the present colliding there are heartbreaking stories told from every direction.
Review:
The middle of last week Foer spoke at one of the Chicago Public Libraries and I decided to go, knowing from the start that I do not want my beliefs about food changed. (His new book, Eating Animals, is about factory farming and his choice to stay a vegetarian.) What I was surprised to find as he read sections of his work of non-fiction was how poetic his stories of his family were, which leads me to why I decided to go back and reread one of my favorite novels.
The three stories (Oskar, Thomas, and the Grandmother) and all unique and compelling. Foer has a way of making his characters real while setting them in intense and terrible situations. Every time I reread one of my old favorites I get slightly panicked that I will have outgrown them. I am pleased to say that once again that wasn't the case. I may be older, but Oskar is still easy to relate to. Thomas's stories are still beautifully tragic, Foer takes you on journeys that you may not want to always go on, but you enjoy none the less. The purposes of the pictures is clear, but often times they are unnecessary and sometimes unsettling. A great read.
****
Structure:
***
- Music:Hometown Glory - Adele
didn't get much done today. Ended up watching the Departed and Pirates 3. It's almost 2:30 but we DVRed the 1st Pirates movie so i might start that as well. I need to get quite a bit of homework done tomorrow. Really not looking forward to that, but it must happen.
Derek leaves tomorrow. It will be a little more lonely here once he and Amanda leave, but this does mean not sharing a bathroom for a while
Derek's friends are in town, they wanted to watch the last 3 episodes of glee and the top model finale, all of which Amanda and I had already seen. I really wanted to watch Love Actually tonight. Oh well.
Classes were their usual mix of hell, amusement and uselessness. I went to the Foer reading at the library. He's a surprisingly funny guy. I'm glad I went, even though no one went with me. I don't have any plans on reading the book he just put out about the meat industry, but at least he didn't make the night about the ethics of eating meat, but instead about factory farming and childhood and questions.
It was raining pretty hard when I left this morning so logically I wore my rain boots. Of course I do not have a pair of socks that are not completely destroyed so I ended up getting those terrible sores on my heels from where the rubber boots met my skin. I hate that. It hurts and I know I won't want to wear any kind of shoe tomorrow because of it. That isn't the society we live in though.
I miss you all. I'll be home next Wednesday, but I'm sure you all have plans already.
J.D. Salinger
Summery:
The Glass family is messed up. The first section consists of Franny visiting her boyfriend, going off on rants about phoneys, religion and English Departments across the country before having a breakdown and passing out. Zooeys story takes over where Franny's leaves off. Franny is sleeping on the couch as he reads an old letter from one of his brothers in the bath. His mom barges in berating him with questions and musing. Zooey eventually does talk to Franny showing his intellectual, egotistical side, talking about religion and calling Fanny out on her Jesus Prayer, leaving her in tears before he goes to impersonate his brother in a phone call to Franny.
Review:
I truly enjoyed this novel, if you can even call it a novel. One thing I have always loved about Salinger is how real his characters are, even when they are completely fucked up in the head. Franny's self doubt and Zooeys pompous attitude make for intriguing interactions with everyone they come in contact with. The whole of the Glass family is fascinating, if not tragic, making me want to delve deeper into their story.
I got coffee with Shapiro today. Weirdest thing ever. Seriously guys, he went on and on about some guy he dated that got him to do coke, then some girl, then how he never went to class and got kicked out of fullsail, did more coke, did some weird job. He went on about how everyone hates him and blah blah blah blah. It was weird and uncomfortable. I guess some people never change, and that really is very unfortunate.
I have to edit tomorrow, and hopefully mix my minifilm.
I've been really sleepy during the day lately, so I take unfortunately long naps and am wide awake all night. This is stupid.
I made Cheese sticks on a whim, like the ones Colleen used to make us. They were pretty good for being home made. Also made baked potato soup for dinner and watched the Amazing Race with Amanda, and then Tough Love and the sex rehab show because nothing was on and trashy tv passes the time.
Stayed up talking late with Amanda. It was pretty cool. We are going to make some extravagant dinner tomorrow. I think it will be epic.
Went to the Art Institue and saw the mini rooms, paperweights, Renior and fucking Monet.
Had death by chocolate at Bennigans
Went to payless so Carol could by shoes
Wallgreens so my mom could buy dog biscuts for buddy
The Library to see the garden on the top floor, but it was closed for a function
CVS to buy batterys and Up
went Grocery shopping at Target
took a brief nap
went to Tamarind for dinner, felt like a fool
Rushed to the Shakespeare Theatre, saw Richard III, sat in the corner in the first row, could barely see anything and missed the scene with the ghosts because the fog machine shot right at me, making it inpossible for me to see my own hand, but it was kind of cool.
came home, watched SNL, talked
wrote an LJ entry about my day and was kind of disappointed.
We are seeing Richard III tomorrow, so hopefully that will be awesome, but that does mean I need to fill up the day from 9:30, when breakfast has been insisted upon. seriously, 9:30? It's not like I wanted to put the day off till noon, but this is still my weekend. I don't care if you're going to get up super early. The building has free coffee. I'm not sure where we should get breakfast tomorrow, since Carol hates walking, but i guess I won't care much in the morning. I do want to go to the Art Institute, but I doubt we'll go. That being said I really don't want to go to the Museum of Science and Industry.
I had written much more, but LJ decided to delete the part where I talk about my mom coming to visit and all the things i need to do tomorrow. Fuck you LJ
