Nookie

My husband was just gifted a Nook by his company, which in turn means I was gifted a Nook by my husband. I like that it is slim and sleek, although I wish it had a color screen because I think it might be best for magazine and newspaper reading since I love having a real book in my hands. I also think it is wonderful for travel since you can bring a ton of books without overloading your luggage - gone are the days of filling my suitcase with five novels only to be finished by day three of my vacation.

Upon using it, I was surprised to find that I didn't miss the tactile sense of having a book. I thought that pushing a button and waiting for the next page to load would be annoying, but it really wasn't, and it wasn't any more uncomfortable holding the nook than holding a book for hours at a time - and I could do it one handed WAY more easily. reading only one (small) page at a time did slow down my rate of speed somewhat (I typically read about 100 pages an hour), but not so much that I wasn't still able to finish a 322 page book in one day.

So far, there is only one aspect that bothers me about the nook. Typically, I just browse the book shelves for something that appeals to me and pick it up on a whim - usually in the chick lit or thriller categories. Sure, there are books with reviews so intriguing that I just have to read them for myself, but in general it is pretty random when I buy a book. And I know that after I read it, if it isn't something I see myself rereading over and over, I can sell it back to the half price bookstore, or share it with family if it is good enough. I can't do that with the Nook. Sure, there is a program where you can lend the downloads for two weeks or so, but you don't have anything physical to lend, and you definitely can't sell it back and get money to buy a new book. Which means that the money I spend on ebooks is literally only for the WORDS of the book. Which means I better be damn sure I want to read that book, because I'm not "investing" in anything physical that I can maybe recoup some of my expense from. And that level of pressure has made it very hard to choose what to download. I don't plan of ever giving up real books, so when browsing the ebooks I find myself thinking, "no, not that one, my dad will want to read that too" or "that one is too frivolous and stupid to merit a download." It seems like only the most important and personal of books are going to fall into the slim category of being download worthy, and that is really not how I read.

Although, I am admiring the fact that nobody can see what it is I'm reading. Maybe I'll take up romance novels.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 7

I'm not going to talk about what you think I'm going to talk about. Ok, I'll mention it: The shake up this season, pairing contestants with "all stars" from past seasons. Doesn't bother me. I kind of like that they have decided to showcase the contestants on their own paired with people who are not also competitors - allows focus on who you really want to vote for, and eliminates the risk of any contestant being unfairly paired with an anchor that brings them down. I think they still could have had a top 20 - it is a really a shame that more talented dancers couldn't have been included and showcased within this season, but whatever. Just keep the talent and amazing choreography coming and I'm happy.

No. What I want to talk about is that stage. It is awful. Fox are you .listening to me? IT IS AWFUL! The back wall is all lit, making it VERY hard to see the dancers at times (which, um, hello? is kind of the point), and I apologize to whatever theater it is and whoever chose the location, but every piece performed on that stage, no matter how intricate the costumes and intense the dancing, looks like a really expensive, super fancy high school talent show. Bad bad bad. I get that this stage is bigger than the old one, but honestly, all that does is make the contestants look small and inadequate because no matter how they try they cannot fill the space.

The old stage could be viewed from all angles - allowing the television viewer to see each piece from the most important angle, and as a result feel like a much more intimate part of the show. With this new stage we only get to see from the front (and blinded by lights half the time), which limits our involvement in the dance. before it was special to see it at home - we got a better look than the studio audience. Now we are relegated to the cheap seats. The old stage allowed the dancers to enter from all angles - down stairs in the back, up from the audience in the front, making each piece exciting and interactive. Now we have stage left and stage right; pedantic and predictable, and it cripples the creativity of the choreographers. The old stage had versatile, but subtle lighting, and a lighter colored floor. as a result you could see each dancer and each movement perfectly for the brilliance it was. This stage has blinding back lighting that causes glare in the camera ALL THE TIME, and a black floor which disguises the dancers' movements if they are in any dark costumes. Tonight Alex Wong did an amazing leap front and center stage that was almost completely obscured by the camera angle and his black pants blending into the floor. Criminal. And shame on the producers/directors/set designer/location scouts/whoever is responsible for this travesty of a stage. You want to perk things up after season 6 ratings were low? Don't worry about the format. Worry about the stage you are putting your dancers on. Go back to the old set and let them shine.

The Ghost Writer

This movie could have been really great. Nice cast (Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams) decent plot (a ghostwriter for the former British Prime Minister gets caught up in intrigue) - it could have been a nice bit of thriller. But instead it just kind of settled for going nowhere. There were no clues, no unraveling of secrets or twists, just lots of bleak, colorless scenery which was meant to be sinister but struck me more as morose.

Did the movies suck? No. I certainly did not spend the two hours in the theater wishing I was elsewhere, but neither was I riveted and energized by the snail's pace of the story telling and the depressed, introverted characters.

Best line of the movie: "They can't drown two ghost writers. They're not kittens."

Best scene in the movie: the very. last. one. And honestly, that scene alone is worth watching the whole movie for because while I may have not felt excited or enthralled during the movie, I sure felt that way leaving. (because of the last scene, not because it was finally over, haha)

Basically, it was a movie with a lot of potential that someone just got lazy about. I would imagine that it is hard to write a good twisty, thrilling screenplay, and clearly the people involved in this film not only agreed, but found it unnecessary. It's too bad.

ps: this film is by Roman Polanski, so if you do want to see it, please try your best to do it for free. That depraved fugitive doesn't deserve a single red cent or glimmer of recognition as anything other than a criminal and pervert. Hollywood should be ashamed that they continue to work with him or recognize his work in anyway, but then they never have been too big on morality. As for me, I am embarrassed to say I paid $2 to see this movie in a theater. I can only hope that the theater owners get most of that rather than it contributing to a child molester's evasion of justice.

Book Club Book Four

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This was an interesting book. The story and the characters were so full of sadness hopelessness and isolation. Lonely in personal prisons of their own mistakes and pasts, and not interested in redemption or happiness. And yet the book itself I didn't find sad. The writing was so stylized and beautiful that it kept the reader at a distance from the characters - they were more like a beautiful picture full of sorrow that you might look upon with interest and detachment rather than friends you might suffer and grieve with.

This can serve as either a condemnation or recommendation of the book, I suppose, depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, I don't feel like it is generally a good idea to keep the reader at a distance from the characters and story of a book because it doesn't serve to keep them interested and motivated to see it through to the finish. On the other hand, in this instance I think if you truly empathized with the people in this book you would be too depressed to finish the book - these characters have given up on themselves in so many ways.

I have a hard time deciding what I want to say about this book - the writing is so elegant and lovely; the story so dark and somewhat uneventful. I think if the writing hadn't been so enchanting, the characters so damaged that I kept hoping for some happiness for them, I would have been bored to tears and unable to finish. As it was I breezed through with my hope for their hopelessness and the rhythm of the words.


Up Next: Nada. The book club has been canceled due to only 4 people showing up (2 of whom hadn't even read the book). So I guess I'll just try to review anything I read that is worthy of it - which won't be much since I revel in the quick, trashy read. Have any suggestions or books you'd like to see me review - send 'em to practicalpablum at gmail dot com.