The summer is coming to an end. I'm sitting in the waiting room while my car gets checked up, and since they offer free wireless here (thanks, Honda!), how about an update. Over the past few weeks, I've been working an easy-but-tedious job, and so I've been listening to a lot of books on tape. In fact, in addition to the handful of books I actually physically read, here's my reading list since the end of April:
Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policeman's Union [thoughts]
Stephen Fry - Rescuing the Spectacled Bear
John Hodgman - The Areas of My Expertise
Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns
Chuck Klosterman - IV
Chuck Klosterman - Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
Jonathan Lethem - Men and Cartoons
Jonathan Lethem - The Disappointment Artist
Howard Marks - Book of Dope Stories
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
David Rakoff -Fraud
Ian Rankin - The Naming of the Dead
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter 7 [thoughts]
Louis Theroux - The Call of the Weird [thoughts]
Kurt Vonnegut - A Man Without A Country
Sarah Vowell - Assassination Vacation
Sarah Vowell - The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Knowledge is power. From now til December, it's only gonna be this and this for me. Weep.
Wrapped up in books
"You're gonna eat your babies!"
Just a quick heads up: the newest episode of Louis Theroux Meets... aired in the Old Country on Sunday night, and luckily for those of us on this side of t'Atlantic, it's already up on YouTube. It's entitled Louis Theroux Meets The Most Hated Family In America. Them being the Phelps family from Topeka, KS. Better known as "the people who picket dead soldiers' funerals".
His shows have moved away from the funnier material of yore (Bodybuilding, Infomercials) to more mature, serious subject matter. This episode is more in line with the Wrestling or Black Supremacists episodes, in which Louis himself looks visibly more shaken than usual. Especially when he's told that the thought of him going to hell gives one Phelps great joy. As usual, it's great television. His interview style and approach is so unassuming, it's interest to compare it to Sean Hannity, or even Tyra Banks, both of whom appear in the episode (in clip form), shouting at the Phelps. Louis doesn't get angry, and so he gets more out of his subjects. They still seem to hate him though.
Watch it! Part one here, then follow links for other parts.
Wherever I lay my phone that's my home
Hello. What's new? Just a quick post this evening. Mostly just links to other sites, to be honest. They can't all be "The first time I saw Super Furry Animals" you know.
First up, The Times' Entertainment section may well be following this very website. First up, there's an interview with Louis Theroux, ahead of his brand new Weird Weekend in Las Vegas, airing in the UK in early February. And the same site's music podcast is great. Not only is it great, but the last two editions focus on Gruff Rhys and The Hours. The latter is especially fun - listen out for Antony Genn's story about jumping off a bridge in Sheffield.
Sticking with the 30-minute-plus downloads, go over to Fluxblog and check out the clip from the Best Show on WFMU, which is fantastically funny, in a demented caller kind of way. There's a description of Shakespeare which is best described as inaccurate.
The latest edition of Observer Music Monthly is up - there's a feature about the best gigs that various people have seen. Maybe I'll do a post in here soon about mine. And Akira the Don, who's written a few interesting articles for the Guardian Blogs, has a new one about drugs in music.
And last for tonight, cos I want to go to sleep, Status Ain't Hood does well to articulate all I love about the new Bloc Party record.
Today's embed: Super Furry Animals, from their 1999 peak, with two songs live. Enjoy!
