Beast

On the flip side of Caley, I have a hard time understanding the praise for Interstellar. I don't want to hijack the thread because I assume this discussion has been done to death on the board elsewhere, but while it looks fantastic, the plot/characters is so by-the-numbers in the worst possible way. Not meaning it had to be super original or mind-blowing, but there's nothing surprising about it at all. Maybe my expectations were too high cause of Nolan/2001, but I was left bored and wanting more. The fact that the message of love was able to get to so many people's emotion is kinda surprising to me. Many better movies have been able to do a similar thing in less obvious ways. I also disliked Inherent Vice. Like Interstellar, visually fantastic. Everything else blah. I've seen basically everything I plan on seeing this year and that includes the majority of "BIG" films. Here's my top 15. Whiplash Calvary Snowpiercer Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel X-Men: Days Of Future Past Edge Of Tomorrow 22 Jump Street Nightcrawler Gone Girl What We Do In The Shadows Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Birdman Captain America: The Winter Soldier Life Itself Ones I disliked the most would be Monuments Men, The Babadook, Under The Skin, Starred Up, and Inherent Vice.

I thought the stuff about him trying to go back to WCW as a job guy was interesting.

Agree that the Jackrum reveal was a shame. It was inevitable after a certain point, but I felt it took away from his role rather than add to it. Maybe if (almost) literally every other major character didn't have the same plot twist, it would have been acceptable.

And I certainly would try another one of his books. There seems to be a lot of topics covered and some sound very intriguing. Like the Mort stuff for instance. Maybe sometime down the line.

Sorry to say I didn't love this. Took me two weeks to get through the last half as I just had a hard time reading it for extended periods, especially once I realized nothing surprising or at least that interesting was going to occur after a certain point. The comparison to Whedon is perfect. I can respect the smart writing, but I don't think I like it very much. It gets kinda cutesy at times which totally took me out of it. Yes, it's intelligent, but it doesn't flow well enough for a non-fan. As for the plot, I was digging it until the main theme started to become overly intrusive. By the end, I just wasn't having it anymore. Kind of like Sideshow Bob's rake bit extended out to an entire episode. The feminist women in war references worked, but the latter half just seems like lazy writing to me. And the reveals only work in the farcical sense, which doesn't jive with the rest of the story.

Looks good. I'm aware of the series, but have never read any of them. I assume they are not meant to be read in order, considering each book sounds so wildly different?

Going to the used bookstore Sunday so would love if we had a September pick before then.

Yes. If you find various articles about greatest teams of the 90s, they are usually mentioned near the top. They're record was comparatively better than any team this year so far, with most teams just hitting their number of wins as of now, with about twenty or so more games played. I just didn't realize how great they were until this book.

Bill Murray was so bad his first year on SNL, he actually did a sketch where he spent the entire time apologizing for how unfunny he had been. Eh, that was on his sixth show out of like 100 so I wouldn't put too much weight into that. His overall legacy on the show is pretty solid. On his side of the 75-85 bracket, I'd say only Radner and Belushi have arguments over him.

Hell, I'd say Hooks/Dunn/Jackson is better than Fey/Poehler/Rudolph or any combination of females from the past ten years.

Curtin shouldn't be losing to Short and Hooks shouldn't be losing to Schneider. That's the biggest drawback of opening this up to the general public who usually vote based on name recognition. Despite the rules specifically stating the voting should be based on "work done on SNL".

What's up with the intro to the quote basically being the same as the quote that follows?

Finished this already since it's a subject I enjoy and I was able to get through it quickly. I didn't realize how stacked those late 70s/early 80s teams were, which makes it all the more surprising that they didn't have more success. I had a harder time getting through the rest of the book knowing that 1981 was their peak. Even though Keri at times tries to play devil's advocate or take the less popular opinion on things like Jeffrey Lauria, I still think the entire Expos franchise history is a collection of very poor decisions and lack of foresight, but I enjoyed reading about them. I also enjoyed the anecdotes and sidebars, but then again I do have the prior knowledge needed.

Already started reading it. Yes, I am a fan of baseball and its history, but this is an incredible book so far. What an interesting topic and very well-written. Really happy with this pick.

Not sure what the rules are here regarding downloads, but if you type in "up up and away jonah keri epub" on Google, you'll find the book immediately.

Ended up flaking on last month's, but this one looks fantastic. Great pick.

Michael McKean, Chris Elliott, Janeane Garafalo, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Martin Short are other examples off the top of my head of people with established comedic voices who then joined SNL. It's a bit hit or miss, success-wise. Typically doesn't work out that well.

Looking forward to reading it, but since I got the Library of America version I couldn't help but read LOLITA first. I'm about 100 pages in and while I love Nabokov's style, I am amazed that a tale from the POV of a pedophile is considered a classic. I don't mean that it shouldn't be considered classic, just that I can't believe people could get past the many descriptions of the young girl's body to see how great it is. Absolutely fantastic writing though. So I'll be joining in the BOTM discussions, hopefully before the end of the month. But eventually.

One I picked up also has Lolita which I'm excited to read as well.

Oh man, syked to read that. I don't know too much about it, just remember hearing stuff about "metafiction". Great pick!

Brackett and Altman changed a lot with updating the setting to the Seventies actually the least of the insults. Brackett apparently didn't think much of the book and considered it full of cliches. The movie works a lot better if you aren't familiar with what Marlowe is actually supposed to be like.

I am so happy this was chosen. I had seen the film before so I was kind of not looking forward to reading the book (because I figured it would just be like watching the film again), but this book was awesome. Maybe because of all the parodies and tributes to this type of story I was always hesitant to delve into the literary noir world, but Philip Marlowe is a top all-time character in my view now. I have never read a book (or series of books) where the 1st person narration sounds so authentic, not necessarily the wording, but the emotion revealed. In either "Goodbye" or "The Little Sister" or both, there are a few passages where he explains how fearful he is when confronted with a gun that are unlike anything I've ever read in a story of this type and from a character like himself. I did take a look at the film again, but it pales so much to Chandler's version. Gould is totally miscast or at least the way the character is written is all wrong. I do love Sterling Hayden as Wade though. If only Bogart was able to make more after "The Big Sleep". But yeah, so far 2 for 2 with books chosen for this guys. It's nice to have something to look forward to every month.

Finally got to this point after reading The Lady In The Lake and The Little Sister first. Lake was good although the twist was obvious from the beginning and I did not like Sister much. GOODBYE though is killer. I agree with Marlowe expressing readers' thoughts. I have never been so in tune with a fictional character who is so unlike me like this. I enjoy that he seems like a thoroughly decent guy with a set of ethics who nonetheless performs a job that is looked upon with disdain. I still do not know how he is able to turn down so much work and money in this and previous stories. It's like he is a reluctant P.I., and just does it to have interaction with the world. Almost comes across as Zen in many of his conversations with more emotional men like Wade. I also dig that just like Chinatown, we only know what our POV character does. But unlike Chinatown, Marlowe has so much to say (or think) about everything and everyone that it just feels so complete. I have seen the film and although I am picturing Lennox as Jim Bouton and Wade as Sterling Hayden, I still see Marlowe as Bogart. I am looking forward to researching the film eminently. I feel like I will have a greater grasp, or at least interest this time. Also, has anyone read Inherent Vice by Pynchon? It's basically this 10 years later with Marlowe as a hippie. Not nearly as God though, but still a good read.

And somehow you mistyped Flair vs. Eaton when the Clash IV main event was Horsemen vs. Midnights. Guess we all make mistakes.

So I picked up the Library of America collection that has everything from The Lady In The Lake on from my local library and decided to start from the beginning with "Lake", then "The Little Sister", and then "The Long Goodbye". I'm halfway done with "Lake" and it's so, so, so great. So it may be a few more weeks until I finish "Goodbye", but I am definitely looking forward to reading more.