Page Turners
I’m quickly drawing near the end of Love in the Time of Cholera, which I’ve been making slow, somewhat steady progress in for the last few months. It’s a great book, but it’s not a book you can just pick up and read in bits and pieces. There are very few easy break points to set it down, and every event and thought in the story flows easily into the next, implications and emotions unfolding in slow arcs across large chunks of pages. You can’t just read a little bit, because a little bit isn’t enough.
And of course, I’ve had a shitload of comics to read lately. I even went so far as to avoid picking up this week’s batch (100 Bullets #51 and Love Fights #11, a good haul, quality wise). But, I finally finished reading the Maxx, which i thought ended really appropriately. It’s a shame that Kieth’s Friends of the Maxx series didnt’ stick around as long as it could have. But really, Zero Girl and it’s sequel fit so well in that vein that it might as well have been part of that series. Different characters, similar themes (especially the bit about shame), and since the Maxx ended with one of many possible universes ending and splitting off into variations, then it could be seen as a new “bubble-universe”. Hmmm.
So Transmetropolitan was pretty disappointing. I like the idea of a comic series centered around a journalist, as it gives the series a real freedom to find different milieu in which to explore, but so much about this book was really uninteresting. The suppporting characters are all pretty wooden, and there’s no insight into anyone’s motivation, except for the occaisional superficial plot device (Spider’s editor likes money! Deep!). The plot had very little tension. I really couldn’t bring myself to care what was going to happen, and didn’t feel like the level of conflict built very convincingly. And the setting was pretty cliche Blade Runner/Neuromancer sci-fi drek. I don’t think I’ll be looking much further into this series.
Played some music with Josh tonight. We kicked around some funk, played a little Radiohead, and chatted about 4-tracking for a while. I haven’t been making music outside of my laptop much lately, so it’s nice to play with someone else every once in a while.
A Ghost is Born is really growing on me. I thought there were a few good tracks at first, and the rest of it didn’t grab me right off the bat, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. “I’m a Wheel” is the only song I don’t think is absolutely great at this point. The dynamics on this album are really wide, which is great i this age of overcompressed LOUD ROCK ALBUMS. Makes it hard to listen to in the car, but my car speakers are blown anyways. I hope they plan a US tour soon, because I’d love a chance to see them live.
I’ll be off to see the New Trust and the Polar Bears at the Phoenix tomorrow night. Haven’t been there in a while. Should be interesting….
More later….
