I read a book. No, really...
Just a quick note on a few books that I've read recently:
Live From New York, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
Live is a kind of spoken word history of Saturday Night Live, from its genesis to its most recent incarnation. I've always liked the Studs Terkel and Peter Golenbock approach to history, letting its participants and witnesses speak for themselves.
Most interesting is the discussion of the show's early days, and how the SNL writers and cast were just kind of free spirits roaming around the NBC building. Probably the best words come from Bill Murray, who shouldered the brunt of the workload as far as the cast went in the last couple of years of the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players after Aykroyd and Belushi left for part-time schedules and greener pastures.
And, of course, you miss not hearing from Gilda Radner or Jon Belushi--though think of the book sales had Shales and Miller actually achieved interviews with the two late stars.
I also enjoyed the section about the Jean Doumanian years. Doumanian succeeded Lorne Michaels as the SNL cartel following Michaels' falling out with NBC execs. I liked hearing from a few of those players (Tim Kazurinsky, Joe Piscopo and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss among the bigger names), as this is probably the time from SNL least remembered by anybody. I was sad that Eddie Murphy didn't have anything to say--he's severed any ties he's ever had with SNL.
However, the book goes from extremely interesting to watching the paint dry as you hit the newer casts. By the time Myers and Carvey, and then Farley, Spade and Sandler hit the show, SNL was less the maverick force it was in the seventies, and more a part of the establishment. The cast weren't having to fight for the show's survival as much as the first few years' casts, and the feuds go from the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players vs. the Establishment to Victoria Jackson thinks Nora Dunn is a bitch.
And by the time the book hits the Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Molly Shannon years, nobody has anything really groundbreaking to say. Though I enjoyed the section about Norm MacDonald's turmoils with the Weekend Update desk.
There's also a theme that runs through the entire book, which is not entirely surprising though more entertaining than you'd think: Chevy Chase is a dick.
On the whole, it's a decent read, though more for the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
Island of the Sequined Love-Nun, by Christopher Moore
A friend lent me this, and during my excursion to South Cakalaki last weekend, I finished it. Moore's a funny writer. And despite the fact that I didn't enjoy this story as much as Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, I probably got just as many laughs from the situations.
The story concerns itself with an alcoholic pilot of a Mary Kay-type company who crashes a plane during a tryst with a hooker. And in a zany series of misadventures, associates himself with Kimi, a hooker of the transvestite quality, and a chain-smoking chief of a cargo-cult on the Micronesian island of Alualu.
Like I said, the laughs are there: Mr. Moore can turn a comic phrase like few others nowadays (the women will be shitting coconuts!). But the story itself was a little predictable.
Tietam Brown by Mick Foley
I'd have read Mick Foley's book whether it was getting the good reviews or not. I really enjoyed his two autobiographical ventures about his time in the squared circle, so I'd have given his novel the benefit of the doubt. He's proven that he's a natural storyteller (and probably a better writer than even he's given himself credit for).
That said, Tietam Brown is surprisingly good. It's actually one of the better novels I've read in a long time.
Foley's hero is a teenager named Antietam "Andy" Brown V. His father is the IV in that line, and only recently (after years of foster homes, orphanages and a short incarceration) has the younger Brown come to live with his father in a family way.
The younger brown has fought the rage within him his entire life, and now feels like he's won at least a couple of battles and is at a point in his life where he's on an even footing with the world. And things go awry.
There are two tones to the book. The first lasts the first third or so of the book. It's kind of smiley, and a little coy, maybe. Ingratiating, definitely...Foley uses a couple of lines that are so cheap for laughs that it's annoying (he parodies the Mastercard "priceless" advertisements).
But as the younger Brown begins to open up to the girlfriend who's taken him under her wing, just about everything else that can go wrong does. And the book gets a little dark....and as Andy loses the girlfriend and has to look into his father's past, it gets awfully bleak.
But I couldn't put it down, is the thing. I don't get sucked in to many stories. But I got sucked into this one as I went to bed last night. Up until 2 finishing the thing.
Foley's Tietam Brown is engaging, and really touching. Actually made me want to cry a little, at one point, when Tietam's coming back to town, and seen his former girlfriend in a different, maybe hypocritical, light.
Foley's been on the WWE shows pitching the book (he's a former WWE World Champion)...and I see the benefit of having the forum to get a few sales, but I can't imagine this being the book for a lot of your typical wrestling fan. But then, I'm a rasslin fan, and I maybe I'm a little more typical than I like to think some days.
And lastly:
Orbiter, by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran
In my attempt to get the comic medium out there in your eyes just a little bit, Orbiter is probably the best Science Fiction story I've read in a year or more.
We join the story years after the U.S. Space Program has been dismantled following the disappearance of a space shuttle in orbit.
The shuttle has mysteriously reappeared, with but one of the original crew.
Orbiter was written before the Columbia breakup this past February. Ellis says in his foreword that he and artist Doran were both completely devastated by the accident (as a lot of us were), but hoped their graphic novel illustrated at least a little the need for us to get back up there into space. Because we don't know what we're missing.
Personal aside: Given the cowboy nature of our government (and I'm not just talking George W.), you'd think we'd have already jumped back on the horse that bucked us off, but that's just me.
Give Orbiter a shot. I feel it's the beginning of a much larger story from Mr. Ellis (whose blog, by the way, you can link to on my sidebar...or here, if you're lazy)
Just a quick note on a few books that I've read recently:
Live From New York, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
Live is a kind of spoken word history of Saturday Night Live, from its genesis to its most recent incarnation. I've always liked the Studs Terkel and Peter Golenbock approach to history, letting its participants and witnesses speak for themselves.
Most interesting is the discussion of the show's early days, and how the SNL writers and cast were just kind of free spirits roaming around the NBC building. Probably the best words come from Bill Murray, who shouldered the brunt of the workload as far as the cast went in the last couple of years of the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players after Aykroyd and Belushi left for part-time schedules and greener pastures.
And, of course, you miss not hearing from Gilda Radner or Jon Belushi--though think of the book sales had Shales and Miller actually achieved interviews with the two late stars.
I also enjoyed the section about the Jean Doumanian years. Doumanian succeeded Lorne Michaels as the SNL cartel following Michaels' falling out with NBC execs. I liked hearing from a few of those players (Tim Kazurinsky, Joe Piscopo and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss among the bigger names), as this is probably the time from SNL least remembered by anybody. I was sad that Eddie Murphy didn't have anything to say--he's severed any ties he's ever had with SNL.
However, the book goes from extremely interesting to watching the paint dry as you hit the newer casts. By the time Myers and Carvey, and then Farley, Spade and Sandler hit the show, SNL was less the maverick force it was in the seventies, and more a part of the establishment. The cast weren't having to fight for the show's survival as much as the first few years' casts, and the feuds go from the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players vs. the Establishment to Victoria Jackson thinks Nora Dunn is a bitch.
And by the time the book hits the Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Molly Shannon years, nobody has anything really groundbreaking to say. Though I enjoyed the section about Norm MacDonald's turmoils with the Weekend Update desk.
There's also a theme that runs through the entire book, which is not entirely surprising though more entertaining than you'd think: Chevy Chase is a dick.
On the whole, it's a decent read, though more for the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
Island of the Sequined Love-Nun, by Christopher Moore
A friend lent me this, and during my excursion to South Cakalaki last weekend, I finished it. Moore's a funny writer. And despite the fact that I didn't enjoy this story as much as Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, I probably got just as many laughs from the situations.
The story concerns itself with an alcoholic pilot of a Mary Kay-type company who crashes a plane during a tryst with a hooker. And in a zany series of misadventures, associates himself with Kimi, a hooker of the transvestite quality, and a chain-smoking chief of a cargo-cult on the Micronesian island of Alualu.
Like I said, the laughs are there: Mr. Moore can turn a comic phrase like few others nowadays (the women will be shitting coconuts!). But the story itself was a little predictable.
Tietam Brown by Mick Foley
I'd have read Mick Foley's book whether it was getting the good reviews or not. I really enjoyed his two autobiographical ventures about his time in the squared circle, so I'd have given his novel the benefit of the doubt. He's proven that he's a natural storyteller (and probably a better writer than even he's given himself credit for).
That said, Tietam Brown is surprisingly good. It's actually one of the better novels I've read in a long time.
Foley's hero is a teenager named Antietam "Andy" Brown V. His father is the IV in that line, and only recently (after years of foster homes, orphanages and a short incarceration) has the younger Brown come to live with his father in a family way.
The younger brown has fought the rage within him his entire life, and now feels like he's won at least a couple of battles and is at a point in his life where he's on an even footing with the world. And things go awry.
There are two tones to the book. The first lasts the first third or so of the book. It's kind of smiley, and a little coy, maybe. Ingratiating, definitely...Foley uses a couple of lines that are so cheap for laughs that it's annoying (he parodies the Mastercard "priceless" advertisements).
But as the younger Brown begins to open up to the girlfriend who's taken him under her wing, just about everything else that can go wrong does. And the book gets a little dark....and as Andy loses the girlfriend and has to look into his father's past, it gets awfully bleak.
But I couldn't put it down, is the thing. I don't get sucked in to many stories. But I got sucked into this one as I went to bed last night. Up until 2 finishing the thing.
Foley's Tietam Brown is engaging, and really touching. Actually made me want to cry a little, at one point, when Tietam's coming back to town, and seen his former girlfriend in a different, maybe hypocritical, light.
Foley's been on the WWE shows pitching the book (he's a former WWE World Champion)...and I see the benefit of having the forum to get a few sales, but I can't imagine this being the book for a lot of your typical wrestling fan. But then, I'm a rasslin fan, and I maybe I'm a little more typical than I like to think some days.
And lastly:
Orbiter, by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran
In my attempt to get the comic medium out there in your eyes just a little bit, Orbiter is probably the best Science Fiction story I've read in a year or more.
We join the story years after the U.S. Space Program has been dismantled following the disappearance of a space shuttle in orbit.
The shuttle has mysteriously reappeared, with but one of the original crew.
Orbiter was written before the Columbia breakup this past February. Ellis says in his foreword that he and artist Doran were both completely devastated by the accident (as a lot of us were), but hoped their graphic novel illustrated at least a little the need for us to get back up there into space. Because we don't know what we're missing.
Personal aside: Given the cowboy nature of our government (and I'm not just talking George W.), you'd think we'd have already jumped back on the horse that bucked us off, but that's just me.
Give Orbiter a shot. I feel it's the beginning of a much larger story from Mr. Ellis (whose blog, by the way, you can link to on my sidebar...or here, if you're lazy)
posted by Tommy at
14:53
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