A Weekend In Review
I'm not fond of Mondays. I don't exactly hold to the office mentality of Mondays as the low day of the week, because generally they're like any other day of the week for me. Still I have felt increasingly tired over the last week despite getting more rest, and today is no different. Either way allow me to garner up enough motivation to relate on some items I was involved in over the weekend. First, my wife & I celebrated one year of marriage. It was nothing crazy, but a simple night with a pleasant dinner out, topped with heart-felt gifts exchanged between us. I wrote her a song, and played said song for her. She created a memory journal for us to work through together. It was definitely a lovely and enjoyable evening. This past week I finished _Neil Postman's_ "Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140094385/qid=1124713417/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9520689-5413435?v=glance&s=books&n=507846. It was an interesting book, though I felt he could have cut the book down about 30 pages and still made his point very well. Many times it felt like Postman didn't know exactly where to fall on the technology. Bringing a 'hate the sin, love the sinner' mentality to television, at times Postman seemed at odds with himself over whether the content of the medium was a greater wrong or the medium itself. Consistently stressing that content is dictated by the medium, Postman seems wary at times of outrightly condemning the television as a deluge which is flooding away Western society's Age of Exposition. At other points he seems to easily make this step. There were many points I definitely agreed with Postman and have increasingly noticed the subtle 'entertaining' factors within television more so recently, which has resulted in further time spent somewhere else - because, frankly, there's a point where you just get tired of being entertained. It's like eating too much cake. I might love cake, but after awhile too much icing just makes you sick. Still it seemed Postman's 'climatic' points were anything but that - 'climatic'; but retrospectively, what other alternative is there then what he bared out? Despite my questions on the book, I still would highly recommend the book. It's a great discussion starter and he brings up some great points. Yesterday I finished _Michael Shaara's_ 1987 best seller "Killer Angels":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345348109/qid=1124713941/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9520689-5413435?v=glance&s=books&n=507846. Now living only an hour north of Gettysburg and being the history buff I am, believe me I knew a ton already about the Battle of Gettysburg. I can remember attending reenactments of the battle over the July 4th holiday multiple years. I also am a huge fan of the 1993 movie "Gettysburg":http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107007/, which was based off of Shaara's novel. Despite of all that, I tore through this book. I literally mowed through 300 pages in 2 days (something I haven't done since college) and at the other end I have a new appreciation for " Lieutenant General James Longstreet":http://www.civilwarhome.com/longbio.htm. It's simply amazing at how many wars are won and lost on the waves of pride, stupidity, and arrogance. If Robert Lee had actually listened to Longstreet's stalwart advice of moving to more favorable ground instead of ordering the death of almost 8,000 men in Pickett's ill-fated charge; America today could very well be two countries. A moving historical fiction novel, I highly recommend this book. Lastly, I'll briefly mention that I'm working my way through the first season of the HBO Series "Carnivale":http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319969/. Pretty much the series is set during the depression and Dust Bowl in the 1930's. A young man who has special 'gifts' (ie powers) is taken in by a traveling carnival show. It's a very intriguing series, though HBO has currently discontinued the series after only two years. There are portions of the show I could do without (it does have a TV-MA rating), but thankfully there's a fast forward feature for a reason. To get an understanding of the styling and concept, take a look at the show's "opening credits":http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/behind/credits/index.html -- which reportedly took six months to create.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 7:04am. It has been filed under Thoughts, Books, Television, Joshua, Events.
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Finally! 3 loving people have cared enough to share their thoughts with me. Why don't you join the party?
wow. those are amazing opening credits.
HBO puts out some great series; too bad network TV doesn’t even get an ounce of a clue.
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Paul wrote on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 8:49am.
i adore killer angels. congrats on 1 year!
priscilla wrote on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 9:06am.
happy anniversary!
Casey wrote on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at 10:21am.