chit chat and a few reviews

If anyone hasn’t been to B&N lately, they have the coolest thing that I purchased yesterday. On that rack where they sell the tiny boxes of stuff like for your desk (the mini-yoga book, etc. -- I have the wee little garden gnome), they have a box of Office Space flair. Needless to say, I scooped it right up. Not only is it the most hilarious movie, but it’s great for my job, since the kids are always bringing up stuff from there in class. I stuck two on my jean jacket collar that are completely appropriate for work: the "Did you get the memo?" one and the "We need to talk about your TPS reports." one.

And here are some recent book/film comments:

Three books I just finished:
1) Manic by Terri Cheney. Not the best book writing-wise, but if it’s completely accurate (it’s supposed to be true), it really gives you an idea of how insane life is if you’re bipolar. Unbelievable.

2) Confessions of a Slacker Mom. Okay book, but really just a big preachy tale about how the author’s parents are the best models in the world. Some stuff is just plain common sense.

3) Confessions of a Slacker Wife. Same author, of course, but this one was better. Had some funny stuff in it. I posted an excerpt earlier last week.

I also watched a few things:

1) Shut Up and Sing. A documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the fallout after their anti-Bush statement at the beginning of the Iraq fiasco. If you’re not one of my chosen few, groovy right-wingers, you should watch this. I don’t remember a lot of it, but it was very interesting.

2) The Storm. A PBS Frontline about Katrina. Not incredibly interesting, but it did make all the government officials look like the idiots that they are.

3) No Country for Old Men. Slow-moving, which of course any Cormac McCarthy book will be, but it was a good movie. Javier Bardem certainly wasn’t the jolly Spaniard from the Oscar broadcasts in that movie... and the commercials essentially ignored the fact that it also includes Tommy Lee Jones (I love him), Woody Harrelson, and Josh Brolin.

4) Spun. An indie movie about meth addicts. It’s got Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Jason Schwarzman, Mena Suvari, Debbie Harry (Blondie), Eric Roberts, and John Leguizamo in it. Definitely not for the easily offended, but it was pretty good, and definitely shows the grossness of meth heads that I’ve seen - the rotting teeth, the sores, the unbelievably sick living conditions.

Whoa! The washing machine is going insane. Okay, moving on...
Next, I’ll be reading The Birth House, which is our next book club pick, and Created in Darkness by Troubled America, which is supposedly a collection of funny essays - my new favorite book genre.