STUFF I'VE BEEN READING AND WATCHING

Didn't do a whole hell of a lot this summer, aside from having altercations with crackwhores, spending time in airports (not unlike a certain senator--although I wasn't soliciting undercover officers for sex), getting drunk and/or stoned, and working, working, working. I've also done a bit of reading and TV watching, because--shit--what else am I gonna do in my free time besides update my blog and/or stare at my computer screen with increasing frustration while I try to get the last 50 pages of my novel written? Seriously, that wasn't a rhetorical question. What the hell else am I gonna do???

Some books I read:
Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery by H. Paul Jeffers


Still working on this one--I can't get enough of lurid hollywood bios of dead stars, even one as cheesey as this. I'm only a casual fan of Sal Mineo, and was surprised to learn that he actually had a career beyond Rebel Without A Cause. All the dirt in the book makes me want to watch it again to see if I can pick up on all the gay subtext supposedly buried in the relationship between Sal and James Dean's characters.

A Thousand Strokes of the Brush Before Bed by "Melissa P."


Ugh. Just....ugh. Contrived, conventional, and BORING. "Based on a true story" my ass. True stories are juicier than this. For a far superior read about a similar "sexually insatiable teen" (I hate even typing that. Such a cliche!) check out Innocents by Cathy Coote. No one's heard of it but me, of course.


History Lesson for Girls by Aurelie Sheehan


I ADORED this one. Definitely the best novel I've read all year. I reviewed it in the next 360, which is (supposed to be) hitting newsstands next week.

Some stuff I watched:
American Dreamz

Rented this on DVD recently, mostly because Hugh Grant was in it. Surprisingly good, surprisingly cynical too--which of course I loved. Cynical about America, cynical about Bush (Dennis Quaid plays a Bush-like idiot President), cynical about popular culture (including American Idol), cynical about pretty much everyone and everything. And the ending is fucking awesome.

Half Nelson

This one was amazing. I hadn't heard much about Ryan Gosling before, but he is brilliant in this (he plays one of those hip/inspirational teachers who really gets through to the kids...and who also happens to be a crack addict). Nothing about this movie is what you'd expect, and that's why it rocks. Even as a crackhead, Ryan Gosling is pretty fine. Even if he's not British.


I'm Alan Partridge

This is the summer I discovered the genius that is Steeve Coogan. I think I love him. I want to have sexytime with him and make him have liquid explosion. (NOTE: you have to imagine that last bit in a Borat voice, or it doesn't work). And I don't even care that (Coogan) had sex with Courtney Love in real life or that he's (allegedly) a cokehead. I find him oddly, insanely sexy and I'm not even embarrassed about it. Anyway, this show (and Steve, as Alan Partrige)? Fucking hilarious. The night I watched this DVD for the first time, I had a dream that I actually did have sexytime with Alan Partridge (not Steve, but Alan. He was even in full Alan makeup). And then he kicked me out of bed, which is oddly telling about the current state of my sex life.