Books: 20th Century Post-Modern Fiction

I know you're going to find this extremely hard to believe but when I was at university, I was bloody naughty. My weekends started at 11am on Wednesdays and only ended approximately 48 hours before the next one started again. I will never really know what possessed me to take a course in "20th Century Post-Modern Fiction" because up to that point, the only book I had read and finished for academic purposes had been Elidor which I read when I was 12. It was one thing passing psychology and sociology because of my amazing ability to retain what I heard in class but this course actually required that we read the set books and that was beyond my remit at that time.

There were six books set for the course, three to be studied each 6 week term. The books were Perfume by Patrick Suskind; Gilles et Jeanne by Michel Tournier; If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino; The Trial by Franz Kafka; Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

I am extremely proud to announce that I finished one of those books by the end of the semester and I handed in a brilliant essay on it too.  That was Perfume and in fact, it is one of my favourite books ever.  I wrote a review of the film here.

In later years, I read Gilles et Jeanne too but that is only because it was about 50 pages long or something.  So, the purpose of this post is that I am atoning for my sins and I intend to read the remaining books.  I finished The Trial by Franz Kafka some weeks ago and I will review that next week.  I also started Nausea on Friday morning and hope to finish it while on holiday.  Wish me luck!  These books are not easy reading!!

Emm's Obsessive TV list

I'm going to be in South Africa for the next two weeks so my apologies in advance if I post less than usual. I used to maintain this obsessive little list when my blog was still over at TV.com and I think now is a fantastic time to update it. I'm so behind on current TV and I keep promising I will catch up in the summer dry spell but I don't know anymore...

Last edit: 11 October 2009

Almost current

• 24: Season 6 - Episode 1: Twice now Stephen and I have started watching season 6 and twice we've trailed off and stopped again. There is nothing at all wrong with this season, Ste and I just suck like that sometimes. Must catch up!
• 90210: Season 2 episode 03. This show is my guilty pleasure. I love it!
• Desperate Housewives: Season 3 - Episode 14: Oh my hat. I am two entire seasons behind here. I'd forgotten how good this season was - I really need to start watching again.
• Dexter: Finished season 3: This show rocks. It is even better than the books it is based on.
• Ghost Whisperer: Finished season 4: Blah. Hope next season is better.
• Gossip Girl: Season 3 episode 03. 
• Greys Anatomy: Season 5 - Episode 16: I’ve watched 6 episodes since March.  No wonder I don’t know what is going on!!!
• Heroes: Finished season 3.
• House: Season 6 episode 02.
• Melrose Place:  Season 1 episode 3.
• Merlin: Up to date! Season 2 episode 5.  Absolutely fabulous!
• NCIS: – Finished season 6.
• Nip/Tuck: Season 5 - Episode 12: My gosh! This season started in October 2007 and only ended at the beginning of this March! How warped. Haven’t watched anything since March.
• Prison Break: Season 4 - Episode 6: Bah. Will I ever finish it?
• Private Practice: Season 2 episode 15. Love this show.
• Rescue Me: Season 4 episode 5.
• Sarah Connor Chronicles: Finished season 1
• The Shield: Season 6 - Episode 1
• Rome: Finished season 1
• Supernatural: Finished season 4. 

Hopelessly behind

• CSI: Season 6 - Episode 18: I'm going to cry. I'm officially three entire seasons behind.
• CSI Miami: Finished season 4: Stephen says we've watched this season, but I'm not convinced. This makes us two-and-a-half seasons behind.
• CSI New York: Finished season 2: Poo. Also 2.5 seasons behind.
• ER: Season 13 episode 20. Getting there.
• Law & Order: Crap. I have no idea even which season I'm up to here.Will have to just start watching whatever comes on TV then. They've been going 18 years with this one.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent: I love Vincent D'Onofrio but I honestly think I've only watched one season out of the seven Criminal Intent seasons.
• Law & Order: SVU: Once again, completely lost as to where I am in this show. Bah.
• Lost: Season 3 - Episode 13: Come on. Does anyone actually bother watching this anymore? Can someone just give me a 10 line summary of the story please?
• Numb3rs: I've no idea where I am as Ste always watches this without me. I'll have to fit in with him.
• Spooks: Up to date! Finished season 7
• Weeds: Season 2 - Episode 9
• Without A Trace: Finished season 4

Catching up on older shows

• Angel: Finished season 1
• Buffy: Finished season 4
• Dead Like Me: Finished season 1
• Hotel Babylon: Finished season 1
• Spooks: Season 2 episode 4
• The 4400: Season 4 - Episode 2: This is a great show - glad I started watching it again.

Shows on hiatus

• Being Human: Up to date! Finished season 2.
• Doctor Who: Up to date! Finished season 4. I really, really, really love Doctor Who. It has to be my favourite show ever and the Tenth Doctor is my favourite doctor ever. I am pretty excited about the new Doctor, Matt Smith though.
• Sarah Jane Adventures: Up to date! Finished season 2.
• Thief: Up to date! Finished season 1
• Torchwood: Up to date! Finished season 3: Second best show evar!

Ended shows

• Robin Hood: Finished season 3.

Band: Taxi Violence

I promise that I have been planning to do a post on the excellent South African band Taxi Violence for months and that my decision to post had nothing to do with the taxi violence in South Africa yesterday.

The first time I heard Untie Yourself on the radio, I thought Muse had a new song out. This is such a fantastic, bold and emotionally charged song and I was quite surprised to hear that it was by a South African band. (The Muse comparison alone should hopefully send you clicking on all the cool links below!)

Untie Yourself is the title track from the band's first album and is a firm favourite on my iPod as it reached the "songs to play over and over again on repeat"-playlist.

Click on the album cover and it will take you to Rhythm Records where you can preview all of the songs on the album and buy the mp3s.

In addition to the Untie Yourself, I also recommend Rock Out and Waking Up.

I would absolutely recommend Taxi Violence to all fans of indie and alternative music as well as lovers of fantastic South African bands such as Parlotones, Evolver and Prime Circle. This is an extremely well produced album with an international sound. Taxi Violence are working on releasing their second album right now and I think we can only expect excellent stuff from them in the future. If you prefer to download your mp3s from Amazon, they have four tracks available:

MySpace
LastFM
Taxi Violence official website
Legal Taxi Violence downloads

Book review: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I've taken a couple of chances in previous months when it comes to young adult or children's literature. I'm not exactly the target age group but the magic of books like JK Rowling's Harry Potter series is that they captivated the imagination and attention of people young and old.

Inventive, original and skilful authors like Rowling, Nix and Horowitz have woven such fantastical stories that I've found myself transported to other worlds and unable to put their novels down.

Unfortunately, this book is not one of those masterpieces. I simply didn't enjoy it all that much and I found it hard to care about the characters. This was compounded by the fact that there was little to no character development in the book. It is the story of a boy who discovers that his father is Poseidon, god of the sea and he embarks on a quest to prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. Too many of the scenes seemed to be executed in a hurried manner and Riordan just tried to fit too many clever facts into the story. I found Riordan's storytelling to be lacklustre and the whole book reminded me of the watered down colours of old 1970's cop shows. The world of young adult storytelling is a much more vibrant, colourful place these days and Riordan has no time to sit on his laurels and fancy himself a clever storyteller.

The "Percy Jackson" franchise has been called a "Harry Potter" clone but it really isn't. It is children's or young adult fiction with a fantasy or supernatural theme but any further comparisons are pretty contrived (albeit funny - check the reviews on Goodreads).

I'll give this book a three out of five but I do think that perhaps the series could get better in later installations. I might give the second book a chance to see if Riordan settled in a more pleasing style. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Film: Pink Panther 2 (2009)

I'm actually struggling to formulate proper sentences in compiling this review for Pink Panther 2. What I want to say is "boring, unoriginal, unfunny, predictable, stupid" and leave it at that.

For once, I completely agree with the critics at Rotten Tomatoes because like them, I also give it a 1 out of 10.

The main reason I give it one star is to rate it at all. Any less and your vote doesn't count, if you know what I mean. I'd just join the hordes of people who were stunned into silence by this ridiculous, terrible film.

It might appeal to some though - Stephen giggled throughout the entire show and seemed to enjoy it. He knew I wasn't too keen on seeing it in the first place, so he was quite concerned at times when I held my head in my hands and appeared to cry in pain. Nevertheless, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

It is even worse than Twilight.

Film: Marley and Me (2008)

As the owners of a particularly naughty and destructive Labrador, it was an absolute given that we were going to see Marley and Me, the new film starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston.  This is a wonderful film based on John Grogan's memoirs Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog.

This was a lovely, tender film that received good reviews on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes (user reviews) but was slated by critics and dog haters alike.  Before I got puppies, I was also a dog hater and I my stomach too would have turned at the sight of someone using the same spoon as a dog. 

I must say that basing a complete live action film on the life of a dog is pretty ambitious.  For starters, it is never going to have a happy ending is it?  I did enjoy this film a lot but I have to be honest; being a faithful retelling of actual events, it does get a bit tedious at times.  I do understand all the criticism then but on the other hand, this film is a must for any dog lover and I do recommend it. 

Awww - how can I give that gorgeous little Labby face anything other than a four out of five???

TV: Spooks season 1

A couple of months ago, I was lamenting about how awesome Spooks season 7 was and how I would now have to watch the whole of Spooks seasons 1 to 6 now because of that awesomeness. 

How convenient then that new digital channel Watch decided to start airing Spooks from the very first episode immediately after season 7 finished?

We're about half way through season 2 now and I have trying to figure out how on earth we could have missed an absolute gem of a show like this.  Could it be that airing so soon after our wedding, Spooks was just too gritty, realistic and riveting for honeymoon couple Mister and Missus Emm?  I have no idea but thanks to the digital age and reruns, we're now catching up and making up for our mistakes.

I'd be interested to know when production began on Spooks because it aired a mere 8 months after the 9/11 attacks and it is a ambitious spy drama after all.  But while it does make mention of the attacks and the changes taking hold of the world at that time, it doesn't focus solely on Islamic fundamentalists like so many other spy shows began to do.  Even shows that I loved and respected, like JAG, showed a sharp change in focus and storylines at that time.  It was understandable, of course, in fact I imagine that television played a major role in helping people comes to terms with what had happened in the world; but it is a welcome change in Spooks.

Spooks is famous for killing of its characters but I am happy to say that apart from knowing everyone is going to die, we've not encountered any other spoilers.  That wasn't a real spoiler, by the way, because not everyone dies and I didn't tell you who was left behind so yeah, not a spoiler.

And what would one of my posts be without a gratuitous screen cap or photo of the hot leading man?

[photo source]

Matthew MacFadyen is without a doubt the star of the show in the early seasons and he is excellent as senior case officer Tom Quinn.  He is absolutely gorgeous and I can't get enough of this brooding, serious man.

Actress Natasha Richardson dies

[photo source]

The beautiful and talented actress Natasha Richardson died last night, 18 March 2009, aged just 45 years old.  Natasha had sustained a serious head injury following a seemingly innocuous skiing accident on Monday.

I have been a fan of Natasha's for as long as I can remember but my favourite role of hers was as Offred in the 1990 adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.

There are countless articles circulating at the moment detailing Natasha's wonderful contributions to both stage and screen; talking about her famous family and the loved ones she left behind.  I'm not going to go into details right now as I am just too sad and all too painfully aware of just how fragile our human bodies are.

Book review: 1984 - George Orwell

Rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've known the story of 1984 my whole life. For as long as I can remember, my Mum used to tell me about 1984 and how Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was better. I've always known about Newspeak, Big Brother and thought crime and I watched the film starring John Hurt several times.

Strangely enough though, I never read the book up until now. I guess I believed that because it was a classic, it would be too difficult for me to read. Well, it is an extremely easy book to read and it is exciting, romantic, interesting and as relevant today as it was in 1949. This is a timeless, magnificent book but it is really creepy to see that we didn't learn the lessons that Orwell was trying to teach us.

For the uninitiated, 1984 is a novel set in a dystopian future where communism spread uncontested across Europe at the end of World War II. This lead to the development of a totalitarian force governing England and the United States. The Party controls every aspect of both living and working and party members are watched and kept under constant surveillance at every moment of their days. The ultimate aim of the Party is to control thoughts and their greatest tool in achieving this is to control reality an memories by altering all written and broadcast materials to suit their propaganda stories. The population is kept in a state of near squalor with severe rationing continuing far longer than is necessary and relations between people are kept to a minimum. Sexuality and passion are completely controlled and outlawed.

1984 is a true masterpiece and I would certainly recommend that everyone read the book - at least once.

Film: Bolt (2008)

I must say, I was a little confused about this one.  I thought we were watching the film that had won Best Animated Feature Film this year but that was WALL·E.  Well that explains it then - Bolt was cute and funny but I didn't think it was Oscar material.

We decided to watch Bolt yesterday because Keira, my almost-three-year-old godchild was visiting.  It was a lovely, original story about a dog called Bolt who is the star of his own fictional television series and does not realise that it is all just a story.  In a bid to save his "person" who he thinks is in danger, Bolt is accidentally shipped off to New York and has to make his way back to Hollywood.

It was a cute story and it made us all laugh quite a lot (toddlers and adults both!) but it was just missing something.  I thought Bolt was really well done and I loved how John Travolta did his voice but I didn't think the cat, Mittens, was particularly well done.  Not that Susie Essman did the voice badly, it's just that the cat character was obviously written by a dog lover. 

It's really obvious that Bolt was done by the same people that did The Incredibles in that the animation, voices and humour are all similar.  It's just that The Incredibles was that good and as I say, Bolt was a sweet story but it's just not all that great.

It was entertaining though and I give it 5 out of 10.

Books: The Great Audiobook Debate

I started chatting to a couple of people the other day about audiobooks.  Being of a school going age, they considered listening to audiobooks to be a form of cheating really; the sort of thing you would only do if you couldn't be bothered to read the books.

In the past couple of years, iPods and personal mp3 players have opened up a whole new world and audiobooks have emerged as a new and exciting media.  I have listened to all seven books in the Harry Potter series read by Stephen Fry.  They are really excellent and I would recommend them to anyone.

Audiobooks are perfect for people who commute by plane, bus, train or car.  When I was driving, I found that my concentration kicked in when it needed to but do be careful as almost-missing-train-stops is a hazard of listening to audiobooks!  It makes journeys rush by and you often find you absorb more of a story than when you were racing through it to reach the end.

Neil Gaiman has noted that in an interview here (unfortunately, I cannot embed the video).  His publisher has made the most awesome widget ever where you can listen to the first chapter of his The Graveyard Book. 

I will give a month's free 125x125 advertising to anyone who can find me a widget like that for the Harry Potter books!

As a fan, someone who likes to devour everything in a particular series, I now see the audiobook as a necessary addition to that obsession.  Books, films, tv series and audiobooks.  Hmmm, that reminds me.  I think I'll run off and look for Anthony Horowitz and Garth Nix audiobooks.

Oh, by the way.  The Twilight series audiobooks were ruined because the narrator sounds like Marge from the Simpsons.  I honestly think they need to be re-recorded and have someone that sounds like Kristen Stewart narrating.  The narrator does not sound remotely like a 17-year-old girl and unfortunately, this series is written in the first person for the most part.

Finally, one word of advice when choosing an audiobook:  make sure you are choosing the unabridged version as abridged audiobooks are horrible things that just give snippets of the book.

Book review: First They Killed My Father (A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers)

On Monday I finished reading First They Killed My Father which is the autobiographical story of a young girl's experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.  I've read a lot of books like this and I usually find them uplifting but this book just made me sad.  In Rwanda, you see people's incredible resilience and determination to overcome the prejudices of the past.  When I read the story of the boy solider, A Long Way Gone, I was heartened by the knowledge that he had escaped that life and become a strong and motivational person.

The problem is that I cannot derive anything positive at all from what happened in Cambodia. For four years the Khmer Rouge government systematically worked, starved and tortured to death 20% of the population. The reason that I picked up this book in the first place is that they have started genocide trials in Cambodia now and I wanted to understand why. I have collected a couple of links over at my other blog to make a start at understanding what happened.

This excellent and tender book details the experiences of a 5-year-old girl as she experiences starvation and the loss of her family members. She acknowledges at the start of the book that her brothers and sister helped her with the book and this accounts for the strong recall of conversations and events. This is a book rich in details about both the cosmopolitan life in Phnom Penh in the early 70s and the desperate futility of the Khmer Rouge regime.

I would unequivocally recommend this book to everyone that I know. I think everyone should read it to understand both what happened and the necessity behind bringing the Khmer Rouge members to trial. It is a really easy book to read and you will find it quite difficult to put down.  But yes... in the end it is a very sad story.  I have the most uneasy feeling that in 30 years time, we will be reading similar stories about Darfur and we'll be left wondering why we didn't do anything about it.

Season: Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1

Would you believe that until 13 January 2009, I had never seen one single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I don't know why. I loved Charmed and I watched X-Files religiously but Buffy was for teenagers, wasn't it?

For some time it had been dawning on me that I would need to catch up though. The mounting interest in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse was totally lost on me as I had to admit that not only had I neglected to watch Buffy, I'd missed Angel, Firefly and Serenity too.

And then there was the conversation I had with a colleague about the ridiculousness that is the Twilight series. Well, it's about a human girl that falls in love with a vampire, I said. "So it's like Buffy", said he. No, I said, see, he doesn't drink from humans and he drinks from animals to survive. He's a good vampire. "So it's like Buffy and Angel then", he said. And so the conversation continued. I was torn between my frustration with the Twilight series and my stubborn desire to prove my colleague wrong, what with him being a bit of a know-it-all after all.

The only solution was to watch the show.

Enough of my close friends are Buffy addicts for me to have been adequately prepared for the show: this is a show that does not take itself seriously and silliness and hilarity often abound. Look out for the allusions, I was told, and appreciate the high-school-as-a-nightmare representation.

In the end, my preparations weren't necessary. Half way through the first episode, at the moment when Buffy first met Angel, I was absolutely convinced and I finally understood what the fuss over David Boreanaz is all about. I thought my Blackheart obsession was bad but I can see my Angel obsession going to a whole other level!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is good and the first season has been a load of fun. As I write this, I've already watched half way through season 2 and I've just met Kendra the Vampire Slayer. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the Buffy seasons but I know there is lots of heart ache for me in the future (given that I have a chronic inability to avoid spoiling TV shows for myself) but yes...

Verdict: definitely worth watching if you are among the other 1% of people on earth who haven't watched this show yet.

Gratuitous Angel Back porn picture: