Book Review - Bossypants by Tina Fey

Originally I was going to post something called "Music I Don't Regret Not Paying For," but then I realized a) That title ends in a preposition, and b) I've reviewed a lot of music lately and need to shake it up. So in the effort of looking more cultured and well-read, I've decided to review the last book I finished - Bossypants by Tina Fey.

I don't normally go for memoires by celebrities. I have Tony Dungy's and President Obama's, though I haven't read them. I probably will someday, but basically... enh. Similarly, the thought of reading anything "written" by Snooki or Tim Tebow fills my throat with bile. 

[Break for rant about Tim Tebow: Look. He's a good football player. I don't know that he's a great football player. I respect the fact that he is committed to Christ and pursuing holiness in a career where that is incredibly difficult. But. I hold by my belief that NO ONE would care he's a virgin if he was an uggo. People only care because the thought of a hot guy not gettin' any is seizure-inducing to our society. Also I think it was kind of tacky to do an anti-abortion commercial during the Super Bowl. I mean, I get using your influence for something you believe in, but why should anyone care what a college quarterback (or Justin Bieber) thinks about abortion??? Also, I think he's really over-hyped and that anyone obsessed with him is secretly in love with him.]

ANYWAY. Tina Fey is amazing. I never loved Weekend Update more than when she was hosting, although Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers are about as good. Mom Jeans is probably my favorite SNL commercial ever. I love Date Night (and even enjoyed Baby Mama). Oh yeah, and SHE WROTE MEAN GIRLS. One of my favorite movies of all time, I've probably seen it more than any other except the Fifth Element. 

That being said, I don't go for 30 Rock. Tracy Morgan bugs me. That blonde chick really bugs me. And Alec Baldwin is one of the celebrities I loathe the absolute most. So even T-Feezy isn't enough for me.

By this point you're probably saying "OK WHAT ABOUT THE BOOOOOOOOKKKKKK?" Well, it was wonderful. It was hilarious. It was personal. It wasn't really sentimental. It didn't take itself too seriously. Which was a welcome change from other memoires. 

Basically, the reader is taken on a journey through Tina Fey's life - her early childhood and family, her formative high school years in community theatre, college and improv school, work at SNL and 30 Rock, and motherhood/wifehood. Throughout the book, I got a sense that she is truly humble, modest, and self-deprecating. There was a bit of a "Who am I to be writing a memoire?" mentality that shined through. I think this really helped to make Tina Fey seem more "normal" and relatable. She's not some fancy celebrity, she's an awkward teenage girl that somehow is a grown-up in Hollywood/New York. She takes road trips to see her in-laws and is frequently covered in various bodily fluids from being a mom. 

In addition to the autobiography, there's certainly a feminist theme throughout the book. What I appreciate about this was that it wasn't shoved roughly down my throat, but really simply presented. Most the time it was things like "Would you ask a man how he deals with juggling being a boss and a father?" or "Men don't have a monopoly on comedy." It was really interesting.

But overall this book is FUN. It's easy-to-read, it's funny, it's unpretentious. I read in like two afternoons. One of those at work. It's just really great for sitting down and reading something light. It was an excellent break from the "How much more can I eff up my characters" awesomeness that is A Song of Ice and Fire. 

So basically, read it. Perfect for lazy Sunday afternoons or right before bed. 

Hit-and-Run Blog Post

OK guys, I know I'm only like a week into this new blog and I'm already late, but cut me some slack - I'm trying to figure out school stuff, I got promoted at work, my house is being remodeled, and when I get a day off, I like to SLEEP.

But in the interest of consistency, here is a list of the three pop-culture-related things that have consumed most of my free time over the last week or two.

3) A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin

In particular, A Dance With Dragons

I'm a huge Fantasy fan. The more epic, the better. I plan on doing a full post on this amazing series as soon as I finish this book, but for now you just need to know that you should read it. Like most Fantasy, there's magic and monsters, but breaking with tradition, it's mostly on the periphery. The books are FAR more concerned with the characters. The focus is truly (at the beginning anyway) about the noble Starks and the villainous Lannisters and their competing interests in Westeros. Of course as the series progresses , the scope begins to pull out and we see how truly complicated both of these families (and the other thousand or so characters) really are.  So, do yourself a favor and read the first book, "Game of Thrones," and then watch the truly spectacular HBO adaptation that I cannot praise highly enough.

2) A Very Potter Musical

To be totally hipster for a moment, I actually knew about this almost as soon as it came out. But I was at camp and couldn't watch it. Then I either forgot about it or repressed it. Why would I repress something so awesome? It's simple really. You see, as long as I hadn't seen this musical, then there would always be more of the Potterverse out there for me to explore. I think subconsciously this tempered the blow of the movies ending, and stopped me from crying (too much) over the end of this chapter of my life. Of course, when I finally did watch the musical, I was both giddy from something new, and totally depressed when it was over. Like ASOIAF, I plan on doing a more in-depth post about just how deep my love of Harry Potter runs, and how it has impacted my life. 

1) MINE-EFFING-CRAFT

Also known as Minecraft. It's like... Legos meets the Sims meets Sim City meets crack. You start out as just a dude (sorry ladies). All you can do it harvest wood and dirt with your bare hands. But as you collect these basic resources, you learn you can make tools. Wooden axes, shovels, picks, and swords allow you to collect more resources, faster. With wooden tools, you can get stone, and make stone tools, which allows you to get iron, which allows you to get diamonds, gold, "red dust" that can be used to make electronics, and so much more. You can combine sticks and coal to make a torch to explore caves and dungeons. You can melt sand to make glass to build an awesome house. You can build a boat to explore the seas. You can shear sheep to get wool, and harvest flowers or squid ink to dye new clothes. You can even feed bones to wild wolves to tame them into partners. 

OH YEAH, and at night, ZOMBIES COME OUT TO KILL YOU. So you can make armor, swords, and bows and arrows to fight back. 

This game is the very definition of "sand box." It's still in the beta testing phase now, which means a) it's CHEAP ($20), b) it's constantly improving, and c) when the final version comes out, YOU GET IT FREE. GO. BUY. NOW. minecraft.net

Anyway, I love you all, thanks for being part of my world, and now I'm going to go to Chick Fil A.

Best Non-2010 Pop Culture I Found in 2010

Hola amigos! Welcome to another edition of A Main Nerd Tellurian Things, your favorite source for potentially-polarizing and largely ramblicious opinions on all things pop culture!  Originally I was going to do a post on my top five movies of the past year, but I have decided to wait until I see True Grit.  From what I’ve heard, it has the potential to rank highly on that list.  So for now, I’ve decided to comment on the best pop culture I found out about this year – sometimes years behind the curve.

Movies

I saw a lot of movies this year.  So there were a lot of contenders for this category.  Donnie Darko very nearly took this spot, but I’m gonna have to give it to Kill Bill.

Now, I don’t claim that this movie (I’m considering the two of them to be a single unit) is perfect.  I definitely think Volume 1 is the stronger, more entertaining of the two.  That being said, Volume 2 had the training scenes with Master Pai Mei, the fight with Elle, and the confrontation with Bill.  I certainly understand when people say the end is anti-climactic – and compared to the House of Blue Leaves sequence, it kind of is – but I think it’s perfect because emotionally it is both more satisfying and more necessary.  Anyway, I think this movie is smart, funny, bad-ass, and somehow also has an emotional core that allows you to relate to and care about most of the characters – even the villains.  I can’t believe I waited so long to see this.

Television

As many movies as I saw this past year, I saw infinitely more television.  Like, for each movie I watched, I watched at least one season of TV.  I am unashamedly addicted to television, and I hope that never changes.  So with this much TV being watched, narrowing down a top pick was… daunting to say the least.  I mean, this was the year I started watching Community, True Blood, Psych, possibly Mad Men (I don’t remember if it was late ’09 or early ’10), and Airbender, among others.  So, for the sake of my sanity, I’ve decided to break up this category into two subsets: Live Action, and Animated.

Live Action: Arrested Development

I saw part of this show when it was on.  Like, half of the episode where Charlize Theron leaves.  And I totally didn’t get the appeal.  I – like the rest of the world – simply wasn’t ready for the unadulterated brilliance of this show.  I love the running gags (especially “Mista Eff,” “FOR BRITISH EYES ONLY!!” and when the Charlie Brown music plays every time George Michael is sad.  Not to mention the chicken impressions.), I love the completely moronic and immoral characters, I love the meta references, and I love Ron Howard.  It’s pure gold, and I’m so glad I got to finally experience it for myself.

Animated: Cowboy Bebop

I’ve already blogged about how much I love this series.  I love the western-in-space premise.  I love the noir elements.  I love the “big plot” (which only consists of about five episodes), and I love the stand-alone episodes.  Which is not normal for an arc-heavy guy like me.  I love the characters.  Ironically, though animated they are more fleshed out than most live-action characters.  They’re flawed, but they’re real.  They’re heroic, but they make big mistakes.  They rarely get along but they’re family.  This show is virtually perfect in my eyes, and I do not regret buying the whole series with my Christmas money.

Music

I love music – a lot – but I’m not really one of those people that “can’t live without it.”  I certainly was, especially during my angsty teenage years, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve really learned the value of silence.  And of becoming more selective of the music I do listen to.  In theory anyway.

I guess my point is that I don’t have a lot of music.  I’ve never filled up my 20 GB iPod, I’m shamed to say.  And I’ve made even less of an effort to hunt for new music – at least until I started this blog.  So there were fewer candidates in this section.  The winner?  Without a doubt, the award goes to Janelle Monae.  I’m obsessed with her.

I love that she is so weird.  Her albums are one long story about an android in the future who falls in love with a human, is hunted by bounty hunters, and who becomes the prophesied savior of robotic kind.  Seriously.  I love her crazy hair, her tuxedo, and her sweet dance moves.  I love that she really truly believes that music can save a life.  And I love her music.  Do yourself a favor and listen to her.

Books

I wish I read more.  So much more.  I recently found a list of speculative fiction, and I think I’m going to make it my mission to read them all.  That being said, I read quite a bit this year, especially this summer.  I started the Sword of Truth series (then bailed six books in because it was pretentious, preachy, and lacking in subtlety).  I read some great Christian literature, including some by CS Lewis and John Piper.  I read some silly zombie books and started the Interview With a Vampire series.  But ultimately my favorite book I read this year was The Hunger Games. A story of a future America devastated by war and transformed into twelve districts run by a wealthy and cruel capital, 24 teenagers from across the districts are chosen to compete in a reality TV fight to the death, designed to remind the districts that the capital is boss.  The protagonist is a strong, resourceful, jaded and deeply scarred girl named Katniss, who is among the most BAMF main characters I’ve ever read.  I love the idea and the execution, so much that I read the first book in about 5 hours.  I will probably go read number two after I post this.

Comics

It was a solid year in comics.  Some decent events, some great new properties blowing up, and just generally solid direction for most of what I’m reading.  Without a doubt my favorite new comic has been Morning Glories, but this year I also discovered The Unwritten.  I’ve already written a fairly incoherent post about it, so I won’t go into too much detail, but allow me to say this: it has me intrigued.  Like a lot.  It has managed to creep me out, keep me guessing, and vastly entertain me.  An essay on the nature of story, and so much more, I highly recommend this series for any fan of great classic fiction (and/or comics).

Aaaaaand that’s it for that.  I’m looking forward to this year in pop culture, pretty much across the board.  Hopefully I’ll be here to vomit my opinions of it into the aether.

Coming soon: My top five movies of 2010, and – I’m really excited about this – a series of posts by guest authors.  I haven’t gotten all the details ironed out, but expect to see some of my good friends sharing their thoughts here, and maybe,maybe, seeing mine on some other blogs.  I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

Book Review - Towers of Midnight by Jordan and Sanderson

NOTE: THERE ARE SPOILERS APLENTY HERE.

Eight-ish years ago, I started reading the Wheel of Time series.  At the time, it was eight (maybe nine?) books long, each 800-900 pages.  There were to be twelve books in the main series, with three prequels.  Eight years later, it is thirteen books long, each 800-900 pages, only one prequel, and one more book on the way.  The author, Robert Jordan, died of amyloidosis while writing the last book – which has since been divided into three.  By the time the last book comes out, I will have been reading it for ten years.

Which is nothing compared to those fans who started reading when the first book came out in 1990.  But still.

So what did I think of Towers of Midnight?  In short, I FREAKING LOVED IT. I read all 850 pages in under a week.  Not a personal record, but impressive nonetheless.  So why did I love it so much?

Well, for starters, TONS happens.  All the myriad plot lines finally get caught up to the present, and they actually begin to converge.  Characters who haven’t seen each other for months and months in the book (or up to fifteen YEARS in real time), finally meet up.  Stories are swapped – marriages, deaths, and adventures.  Characters who were thought dead to most are revealed to be alive!  Alliances are forged, and confrontations happen!  Prophecies come to pass, and new ones are revealed.  It’s awesome.

But I think the main reason I loved ToM so much was because the theme is totally about growing up.  It’s about characters accepting the changes that have happened in the world and in their lives.  Perrin – FINALLY – after YEARS of angst, finally accepts not only his cool powers, but also the mantle of responsibility.  And the fact that sometimes he needs to yell at his obnoxious wife (don’t worry, she actuallywants him to), and sometimes he needs to let her walk into danger.  Gawyn – another disgustingly angst-ridden boy – realizes that his whole life can’t revolve around the woman he loves, nor can it be consumed with jealousy and hatred.  Faile – my least favorite character by FAR – even manages to look at life from her husband’s perspective, and tries to put aside silly feuds for the greater good.  Galad, who has long been defined solely by his good looks and Puritanical outlook on the world, falls in love and learns that the world is shades of grey.  Nynaeve – by far my favorite character – learns how to submit to her former protege/now leader for the good of the hierarchy.

Plus there’s all the earth-shattering awesomeness that happens.  Perrin versus Slayer in the Dream World, teleporting everywhere, shape-shifting, and generally making the laws of physics their bitch?  Ummm that was awesome.  Egwene facing down one of the Forsaken?  Gawyn taking out three super-powered ninja assassins?  Rand single-handedly destroying thousands upon thousands of Trollocs and saving a town (or nation)?  Mat and Thom versus the Aelfinn and Eelfinn?  Not to mention Aviendha’s vision.  Which blew my freaking mind and terrified the crap out of me at the same time.  Plus the great cliff-hanger ending.

Alright, so beyond the great plot, what else did I enjoy about the book?  Well, the writing is much improved.  Now, I’m not someone who can easily distinguish various voices.  I can’t tell when one writer writes an episode of TV versus another.  I also have a hard time gauging when an actor is good or bad.  So I didn’t really notice how “off” Sanderson’s – the second author – narrative voice was in the last book.  But I will tell you that ToM sounds vastly more like the Jordan-only novels now that I think about it, which is great.  I think the series is in a really great place right now, with a TON of action still left to happen (like the Black Tower civil war I TOTALLY thought would happen this book and the ENTIRE Last Battle), a ton of great character interactions coming up, and so many prophecies needing fulfillment.  And I can honestly say I don’t know how the series will end, and whether it will be happy, sad, or totally Pyrrhic.

So basically you need to buy book one and start reading it now so you’ll finish the 12,000 pages by March 2012 when the series ends.