Fallout Shelter
Up-front disclaimer: any sanctioned excuse to have fun at the office is always a good thing.
With that context in mind, the company cookout/picnic today was still pretty miserable — the sum of a condition-red air pollution day, an office building situated next to I-35 and near Love Field Airport (for what's likely some of the least clean air to start with), plus a really smoky grill, a sky that looks like a giant brown scab, and hot humid weather on top of it all.
My burnt eyes are still recovering.
All in all, I feel like I've gotten a taste of what the day after a nuclear strike would be like (all I need now is to stick my head in the microwave, and I think it would be just about complete).
Anyway, enough complaining from me. I had a tasty hot dog and got to wear shorts to work — that should be good enough, right? Right. Okay.
* * *
Last night I finally finished reading London Fields, and also completed the Trois Couleurs trilogy by watching the final film, Red.
First, regarding London Fields — it's a great book, and I definitely enjoyed it, and the characters sort of unwittingly crept into my psyche (I caught myself typing "innit?" on AIM several times in the last couple of weeks), but, well, if Martin Amis would give me the chance to rewrite the ending for him, I'd jump at it.
I should probably clarify. The events in the ending are just fine. Sure there are some little plot twists that are a little silly, but House of Sleep was one of my favorite books ever, and that book contains the silliest ending plot twist I'd ever seen, so it's definitely a forgivable characteristic.
No, it's the pacing. Toward the end of a 460 page book, I think it's fair to expect the climax chapter to be more than 8 pages, and the denouement more than 3 or so. I'm wondering if Amis was tired? Anxious to be finished? I don't know.
More baffling is that the author threw in a handful of random, new, and often only vaguely implicit relationships between some of the characters in the last 20 pages, and never resolved them. I'm not the type of reader who wants everything explained to me, but if it's something that's pointed out to be intentionally but still not elaborated upon, it starts to feel like a game of "I had something to tell you but forgot what it was. Any ideas?"
Anyway, if I were writing an Amazon review or something, that would lop of the fifth star, in my opinion. Good stuff, cheers, 4 stars, but kind of sudden toward the end, innit?
On the other topic, regarding Red — good movie, but I'm at a loss with this, as well, as to why, of the three films, it was the one that earned the high accolades. I found it more engaging than Blue, but not near as interesting as White, and with approximately equal artistic value. This third film also seemed to leave a lot of things hanging, with an ending I found less a "moving emotional climax which ties the three films together" (as I'd read somewhere) and more a bizarre sudden coincidental event that has almost nothing to do with the plots of any of the films, except the inclusion of their main characters.
It would be like claiming that "Wow! Those 10-10-321 commercials, in a dramatic, emotional 30 second catharsis, really elucidate the deeper universal connections between ALF and Emmitt Smith!"
Okay, no, I confess, not that bad. It's definitely not what people claim it to be, though, and I'd have preferred either that Red ended before the ferry scene, leaving things totally in the air without any failed attempts to bring meaning to them, or further afterward, bringing some closure to the young judge situation. (I'll say no more for fear of spoiling things. Go watch the movies, and then come back for more).
So, I guess it's no secret that I'm just one big ball of disappointment today. (Gee, you think?) I acknowledge, though, that none of this stuff really matters, and I'll be perfectly fine once I get a little beer in me or something.
Not to mention, the White movie is still one of the best films I've ever seen. Maybe I need to watch that one again to get my happies back.
With that context in mind, the company cookout/picnic today was still pretty miserable — the sum of a condition-red air pollution day, an office building situated next to I-35 and near Love Field Airport (for what's likely some of the least clean air to start with), plus a really smoky grill, a sky that looks like a giant brown scab, and hot humid weather on top of it all.
My burnt eyes are still recovering.
All in all, I feel like I've gotten a taste of what the day after a nuclear strike would be like (all I need now is to stick my head in the microwave, and I think it would be just about complete).
Anyway, enough complaining from me. I had a tasty hot dog and got to wear shorts to work — that should be good enough, right? Right. Okay.
* * *
Last night I finally finished reading London Fields, and also completed the Trois Couleurs trilogy by watching the final film, Red.
First, regarding London Fields — it's a great book, and I definitely enjoyed it, and the characters sort of unwittingly crept into my psyche (I caught myself typing "innit?" on AIM several times in the last couple of weeks), but, well, if Martin Amis would give me the chance to rewrite the ending for him, I'd jump at it.
I should probably clarify. The events in the ending are just fine. Sure there are some little plot twists that are a little silly, but House of Sleep was one of my favorite books ever, and that book contains the silliest ending plot twist I'd ever seen, so it's definitely a forgivable characteristic.
No, it's the pacing. Toward the end of a 460 page book, I think it's fair to expect the climax chapter to be more than 8 pages, and the denouement more than 3 or so. I'm wondering if Amis was tired? Anxious to be finished? I don't know.
More baffling is that the author threw in a handful of random, new, and often only vaguely implicit relationships between some of the characters in the last 20 pages, and never resolved them. I'm not the type of reader who wants everything explained to me, but if it's something that's pointed out to be intentionally but still not elaborated upon, it starts to feel like a game of "I had something to tell you but forgot what it was. Any ideas?"
Anyway, if I were writing an Amazon review or something, that would lop of the fifth star, in my opinion. Good stuff, cheers, 4 stars, but kind of sudden toward the end, innit?
On the other topic, regarding Red — good movie, but I'm at a loss with this, as well, as to why, of the three films, it was the one that earned the high accolades. I found it more engaging than Blue, but not near as interesting as White, and with approximately equal artistic value. This third film also seemed to leave a lot of things hanging, with an ending I found less a "moving emotional climax which ties the three films together" (as I'd read somewhere) and more a bizarre sudden coincidental event that has almost nothing to do with the plots of any of the films, except the inclusion of their main characters.
It would be like claiming that "Wow! Those 10-10-321 commercials, in a dramatic, emotional 30 second catharsis, really elucidate the deeper universal connections between ALF and Emmitt Smith!"
Okay, no, I confess, not that bad. It's definitely not what people claim it to be, though, and I'd have preferred either that Red ended before the ferry scene, leaving things totally in the air without any failed attempts to bring meaning to them, or further afterward, bringing some closure to the young judge situation. (I'll say no more for fear of spoiling things. Go watch the movies, and then come back for more).
So, I guess it's no secret that I'm just one big ball of disappointment today. (Gee, you think?) I acknowledge, though, that none of this stuff really matters, and I'll be perfectly fine once I get a little beer in me or something.
Not to mention, the White movie is still one of the best films I've ever seen. Maybe I need to watch that one again to get my happies back.