Minor Changes

To those who pay attention to my sidebars (perhaps at least one of you does):

-"Lyric Box" has become "Quotable Notables." The content of this feature will now include more than simply excerpts from songs. Any type of statement I find striking may now appear there.

-"The Last Twenty Movies I've Watched" has been cut back to "The Last Ten." This change has been motivated by the philosophy that "sometimes less is more." Once again, the reason for maintaining the sidebar at all is to keep my friends aware of what this lover of films has most recently viewed. This way, if you are inclined to ask my opinion about a movie you yourself have viewed or are contemplating viewing, my list can serve as an means for starting a conversation.


Regarding another recent change: I finally posted the reviews on Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy and Lullaby I previously promised to provide.

The Always Funny "Rampage"

This Saturday, July 5th, UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin will be airing live on PPV. The main event is a Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, reigning champ and the #1-ranked, 205-lb mixed martial artist in the world, and Forrest Griffin, the first-ever 205-lb winner of the UFC's reality show The Ultimate Fighter and undeniably the most popular personality ever to come off that program.

Those who have followed the sport closely in recent years know that Rampage is also the reigning "King of the Interview." There is no one else in the sport of MMA as consistently laugh-out-loud funny as this man. Maybe no one else in sports period. To give a prime example of the man's wit, here is a comment he makes in the online preview video for Saturday's title clash (see 86.ufc.com):


"I'm the champion. I wanna keep my championship belt. I wanna be the best fighter that the UFC has ever seen. If anyone tell me I'm not gonna win this fight, they can kiss my natural black ass. And my ass is naturally black. I'm tellin' ya."


I just encountered this quote this morning and was compelled to share.


As a visual example of Rampage's other hilarious antics, here is a photo of him from the weigh-in of UFC 75:

Those are some colorful drawers.

Pictures of My Girlfriend...and Her Wonderful New Haircut

It has occurred to me that many of you do not know what my girlfriend Elizabeth Coody looks like despite the fact we've been dating for several months now. Those of you on Facebook have had access to photos of her beautiful person but not others, due mostly to my own negligence in keeping this blog up-to-date. Without further delay, I present to you some high quality pics of a high quality woman.

Here Elizabeth is using the label on a stairwell door of the local art museum to identify her cultural and genetic heritage.



This shows the two of us striking a pose during a tasting at the local winery.

On June 13th, Elizabeth got the haircut she'd been desperately wanting for many months. She has received nothing but high praise since losing ten inches of her locks.

I have been especially pleased with her new look. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing (in other words: fly) but now her neck is exponentially more kissable and I no longer get ensnared in her hair when we nap together.

Finally: Her new 'do in action! Elizabeth pets a goat at the annual wool market held in Estes Park, CO.

Choke

Just yesterday I completed my third Chuck Palahniuk novel of the summer. My friend Dave Winters, who is both an English teacher and the most loyal reader of Palahniuk's novels I know, told me that Choke is the funniest of the man's books. Compared to the other three books I've experienced, I'd have to say Dave is right.

Despite its laugh-out-loud level of funniness, I found myself disappointed with the overall story of the novel. That is, until I reached page 270. The turn that occurs on this page begins bringing all the threads and themes of this book together in an excellent way. It also provided me a laugh so profound that I cackled for two minutes straight and for another whole minute later in the day when I recalled what I had read hours before. You might say that the entire book builds up to this one fantastic gag. The remaning 23 pages clarify the "message" the author seeks to convey through this book. The ending of the book not only validates all the content that comes before; it is also satisfying in and of itself. 4 out of 4 stars.

As for a summary of the book's setting, I don't think I could do any better than the one provided on the back cover: "Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be 'saved' by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, go on to send checks to support him. When he's not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park."

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If my summer reading is to include yet another novel by Palahniuk, I anticipate that it will be Fight Club. It is Palahniuk's first and most famous novel, and Dave Winters tells me it is still his best. Given how much I have enjoyed books like Choke and Lullaby, Fight Club has to be pretty damn excellent. The only reason I've stayed away from it thus far is that I've seen David Fincher's film adaptation of the book many, many times.

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One final tidbit about Choke: A film version of the novel will be released in late September.

Summer, Summer, Summer Ti-iiime!

[Blogger's Note: Reviews for the last two books covered by this post were added on 6/29/2008.]

So I survived the end of my first year of Ph.D. classes. The last quarter went the easiest of this year's terms, though it wasn't a cake walk by any stretch. It took me pulling a near-all-nighter to finish my Heidegger final paper on time, but I did! I finished '07-'08 with a couple of A's and maintained the first 4.0 GPA I've ever had in my life. Next year's challenge will be whether or not I can maintain this level of performance while beginning my work as a Teacher's Assistant. I should also mention that I was surprisingly nominated and- even more surprisingly -elected to an At-Large position on the Ph.D. student council. I don't know what I'll be doing, but at this stage, I simply hope it doesn't take up too much time. :)

My summer officially began at 10am on June 6th when I turned in the aformentioned paper, and since then I've been a busy little bee. I've mostly been reading...that's right!...reading for pleasure. In the last two weeks, I've finished four books. Here are some concise "reviews" of the texts that have been occupying me during the summer thus far.

With World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, author Max Brooks transitions from the full-on humor of The Zombie Survival Guide to pure fiction. Despite the necessarily gruesome details that crop up from time to time throughout the book, the work as a whole may not qualify as "horror." Brooks spends most of his time talking, not about the specific antics of the undead, but about how the world's nations deal with the mass panic, rampant misinformation, and societal breakdown that follow the outbreak of zombie-ism on a massive scale. As the title suggests, the book is arranged in the form of interviews with persons who survived the Zombie Apocalypse. The list of witnesses span a diverse range, from a teenage computer hacker in Japan to a general in the South African army to the former Vice-President of the United States. Brooks' careful consideration of how the world might react to a global epidemic of disease and violence, coupled with his impressive attention to detail, make the not-so-distant future he envisions highly believable. This book is fantastic, far exceeding the great expectations I had for it. And given how much I enjoyed The Zombie Survival Guide, that's quite the compliment to (the man I have been told is) the son of Mel Brooks. 4 out of 4 stars.

I've just learned this morning that an abridged version of World War Z has been recorded as an Audio Book featuring a full cast of voice actors. Among the talent collected for this project are Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Das Boot's Jurgen Prochnow, John Turturro, my main man Henry Rollins, and Luke Skywalker himself: Mark Hamill. I'm going to have to check this out.

Survivor, published in 1999, comes from the pen of Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced paul-UH-nick), author of Fight Club. The story is told from the prespective of Tender Branson, whose lucrative stint as a religious personality in popular culture has just come to an abrupt and disreptuable end. Branson is the last surviving member of the apocalyptic Creedish cult colony. Having spent several years in the "outside world" as a missionary of sorts, Branson receives word that the Creedish leaders recently declared that "the end is here" and the entire colony "delivered" itself to God through mass-suicide. As one of the hundreds of Creedish who were sent out into the world, part of Branson's religious training is that, upon receiving news of the colony's demise, he should immediately deliver himself over as well. But he's enjoying his time in the world too much to end things so soon.

Branson's decision to defer self-termination turns his life into an everyday experience of guilt and self-condemnation. When he becomes the last Creedish known to be alive, Branson gets pulled in by a fast-talking agent who makes him the face of a pre-fabricated, multi-million dollar media campaign. As unsettling as the dramatic lifestyle change proves to be for Branson, it is not his only cause for concern. He suspects that several of the most recent Creedish suicides were not exactly voluntary. Once he begins receiving threatening phone calls, he becomes convinced that many of his religious kin have been murdered by someone with intimate knowledge of the cult and that Tender Branson is likely the killer's next victim. I really dug the outlines of Creedish life and teaching Palahniuk creates for Survivor. Yet, in regards to plot, I thought the second half of the book did not fulfill the potential developed in the first half. The book's climax was neverthless satisfying. 3 out of 4 stars.

Not only is this text both intellectually stimulating and written for the non-specialist, it will bring to light details about the story and characters of Tarantino's films you may have overlooked. There is also more than one quotation drawn from the original scripts...material that was cut before principle photography began but is nevertheless illuminating and enjoyable. The only reason(s) I am not giving the book a full four stars is that at least two of the essays are not as clear or organized as they should have been, and the volume as a whole contains far too many typographical errors for a book with not one but two editors. 3.5 out of 4 stars.

I enjoyed this book so much I read it cover to cover in about 36 hours. Better than Survivor or Rant (the other Palahniuk book I've experienced up to this point) yet not quite as satisfying a read as Choke. Nevertheless, an engaging novel. I think the book's greatest strengths are its basic premise and its narrative structure. Its only real weakness is that the polemic Palahniuk communicates through the story isn't articulated with as much skill as those in Choke or Fight Club. (I only have the movie version to draw on where the latter book is concerned. However, given what Palahniuk says in conversation with screenwriter Jim Uhls in a DVD commentary, the author seems to think that the film sufficiently captures the spirit of its source material).

On a related note, the thematic climax of the book seems, in no small way, to undercut its dramatic climax. With only ten or so pages left, I had the sense that the trajectory of the plot was going to require another act in order to provide the confrontation between protagonist and antagonists the book seemed to be building toward. To Palahniuk's credit, the climax he does provide stands as a genuine resolution. It simply is not of the sort I had anticipated, and my vivid imagination had me psyched up for one hell of a dramatic climax. :)

At the end of the day, this is the author's creation and not mine, and I respect his creative choices. The book he has written is excellent and well worth your time. 3.5 out of 4 stars.

The Colts' 2008 Schedule

http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=schedule

I was just checking this out the other day during a study break. Here are some quick observations from yours truly. In addition to the given Divisional match-ups against Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Houston, Peyton & Co. will:

+Play the entire AFC North: Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Cleveland.
+Play the entire NFC North, including a season opener against Chicago, games against Minnesota and Detriot, as well as a clash with the now Favre-less Green Bay.

+Once again host New England (November 2nd's Sunday Night Game).
+Once again travel to San Diego (November 23rd's Sunday Night Game).
+Have their bye week early (Week 4). This disappoints me a little. I always prefer my team(s) to have a bye closer to mid-season.

Looks like another tough season for the boys in blue. We will have to play pretty much all the best teams our superior conference has to offer while still competing in the league's toughest division. Should be fun to watch!

...unless, of course, this is the year that Jacksonville finally passes us up. Then it will be horribly unfun to watch, and I will be tempted to gouge out my eyes rather than watch a second of those Jaguar jerkheads celebrating victory over my team. Then again, let's be honest, Jack Del Rio. You will never get the better of the Indianapolis Colts. All that really remains for history to reveal is what lame excuse you and your players will make up when we thump you this season.

The Skullet

"It's Nature's mullet."

I said this on Thursday evening at my Ph.D. program's Spring Soiree. Elizabeth and I were still laughing about it the next day. If you're unfamiliar with this follicle phenomenon, there is a prime example of one to the left. For a more popular example, picture Hulk Hogan without his bandana.

Party in the back. Vacancy in the front.