Monday, March 31, 2014

the weekend

finally the spirits lift and the world is good again.  if that ain't a bit melodramatic but to hell with it.  i kinda gave in and accepted my state which allows for a kind of forgiveness for being a human being.  at any rate, the weekend was wonderful.  not much doing.  but below are a few cribbed highlights.

--spending friday night with some writer friends at the local beer watering hole, pangea.

--the last genet: a writer in revolt by hadrien larouche [arsenal pulp press; 2010].  a study of jean genet's political activities and writing from the late 1960s to the end of the writer's life.  genet was an early love of mine particularly his novels like the thief's journal.  this book by larouche is i think the only study of its kind.  it reads like a political history married to a travel narrative while having an affair with a biography.

--the hall of uselessness: collected essays by simon leys [new york review book classics; 2013].  i don't know leys work but had pulled this book off the shelf last month at the local BARNES AND NOBLE and read a short essay on leys' desire to create an anthology of the history of tobacco and tobacco use after considering the critic richard klein's book cigarettes are sublime.  i loved the clear lucid cadences of leys' sentences.  the book lodged itself in my thoughts so i returned to the bookstore saturday night and bought it. 

--the season finale of the walking dead.  this series in its weaker moments plays like a soap opera.  but in its sublime moments this tv show is some of the most audacious and daring storytelling in current broadcast.  the season finale was a real nail-biter and heart-pounder.  it had a few moments of mawkishness between characters.  the writing, particularly the dialogue, was a bit flat in spots.  the set pieces and the foreshadowing of later events were spectacular.  the producers and writers have challenged their audiences by traveling in to some very dark terrain.  this series is now very strong tea.

--hanging with nick and anna, especially as we did some chores and shopping.  the weather turned rainy with patches of sun breaking thru the grey clouds.  very very lovely weather that can make even the grumpiest of us burst into song and laughter.  anna and nick was the life blood pumping thru and preventing the hardening of this old heart.

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