--Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart. At any given time I usually have a smallish paperback book that I carry around to read while waiting (doctors offices, oil changes, etc.) in addition to whatever is perched on my nightstand. This has been that book for me lately and now people all over the waiting rooms of Durham think I'm The Crazy Guy Who Giggles While He Reads. The chapter in which the protagonist writes a grant proposal for a Holocaust museum is beyond hilarious. And if you can make that funny, you're a freakin' genius. My habit of reading authors' second books first continues to pay off.
--In the mood for old (read: mid-1980's) horror movies, I rented Reanimator and John Carpenter's The Thing this past weekend. For fairly obvious reasons, I appreciate the satirical take on the culture of academic research in Reanimator much, much more now than when I was 12 (or however old I was when I last saw it). And I realize I'd really like a Mistkatonic Medical School T-shirt (though one of these might be OK) just to see who gets it.
The Thing scared the hell out of me when I was little. It's still pretty scary. The scene where the guy being treated with a defibrillator (he's really The Thing! Watch out!) is on the table and his chest opens up into a gaping maw of teeth and bites off the doctor's hands is a classic that will make you appreciate how much CGI sucks. (I watched that part a few times.)
--I re-read The Watchmen last week for probably the first time in over 15 years, in advance of the movie coming out in March. (The trailers make my head tingle.) There is no way the movie can be as good. And I will still go see it the night it opens.
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The scene that creeped me out even more in The Thing was when the severed head grows spider legs and runs around. Ugh, gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
My big time waster lately is catching up on missed episodes of Always Sunny on hulu.com. Wish my friend had never told me about the site. Then again, maybe not.
The head does that after it pulls itself off of the body of the guy that does the chest thing. The tongue lashing out, grabbing the table leg, and slowly dragging the head across the floor is also very effective. All in all, it's a really creepy sequence. Stan Winston was the shit (did you know he died this year?)
Yeah I try to just forget that hulu exists. Always Sunny is hysterical.
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