Friday, December 08, 2006

Have you seen the new Al Yankovic video?

I made the mistake of upgrading to Blogger beta on Friday, and have not been able to post a new entry since. I keep getting an error message saying Blogger is not able to complete my request. If and when these technical difficulties ever resolve themselves, I'll be back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Who's asking: Jennifer Lechner, Freeport, ME

I had a different question ready to go this morning, but after Jen called this morning -- and I watched this video -- nothing else could possibly occupy my attention. Not only is this the funniest, smartest thing I've seen in ages, but I also want to say that Donny Osmond is smokin' hot, even dancing like a fool. He may be the one Mormon who could persuade me to try plural marriage.

The distraction was welcome, because the weather's rotten and I'm supposed to go to Cambridge this afternoon for Kate's Christmas party. Rather than try to drive all the way there myself, I think I will see if I can make it to Portland, and then take the bus from there. This will mean radical changes to the rest of my weekend's plans, but sometimes I need to pay attention to my anxiety.

This week I've been trying to catch up with things that have stayed on my to-be-read pile until I had time to give them the attention they deserved. My attention span is still not what it should be, but I still have three or four books I'd really like to finish between now and the end of the year.

What I Read This Week

Michael Connelly, Echo Park. LAPD Detective Harry Bosch looks for resolution to a 13-year-old case, and confronts his own failings as well as those of this colleagues. This is not one of the stronger entries in the series, but that's like saying that a particular piece of bacon is done less well than its companions. I'm fascinated with the way that Connelly is isolating Bosch, book by book, and wonder what this is leading to.

Mark Billingham, Buried. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is called in to help find the kidnapped son of a former high-ranking police officer. Less emotional, more ingeniously plotted than the last two Thorne novels; I prefer the more emotionally-wrecked Thorne, but it feels like Billingham is sharpening his tools for the next novel. Can't wait for that one.

Jean H. Baker, James Buchanan. Yeah, okay, I read this one for work. It's a short biography of our 15th President, who makes most historians' lists of Worst Ever. Buchanan was a political genius whose lack of vision and will led directly to the Civil War. It's rather a tragic story, and worth reading for the light it casts on current events.

Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. This first novel's made a lot of "Best of 2006" lists, and maybe my expectations were too high. It's the story of Blue van Meer's senior year of high school, during which her favorite teacher, Hannah Schneider, is murdered. Blue, the daughter of a widowed university professor, sees the world -- and tells the story -- through a prism of books, but this gimmick never paid off as much as I wanted it to. Some reviewers compared Blue to Nancy Drew, but I'd call this book "Harriet the Spy," as retold by Nabokov. The moral is that grownups betray the teenagers they're responsible for, which is neither insightful nor newsworthy. Meh.

6 comments:

Jennifer Lechner said...

I was aware that I do not lead the most exciting life since I spend most of my days at home with a small child. Maybe that is why I am so tickled by this video and have done NOTHING all day but watch it and ROTFLOL. And Donny Osmond is NOT smokin' hot-that is just disturbing. Much like your crush on James Gandolfini.

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

The Donny Osmond thing may be generational. I thought I would add an update -- the weather here was and is going to be too grim, and my car is not reliable in bad weather. To my profound frustration and disappointment, I'm staying home tonight, and won't be at Kate's. Buy a book for me.

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

Converting to the new Beta Blogger format is proving disastrous. The system hasn't let me on all morning -- sorry for the delay in posting.

We got six inches of snow in Augusta yesterday. A friend who's a car insurance claims adjuster (you knew I'd have one eventually) says they are completely swamped. It looks like staying here was the sensible decision, but several reports make me even sorrier I missed things last night, for a whole host of reasons.

Anonymous said...

so what does Al parody in this video?
Sue

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

Gosh, Sue, you don't recognize it? It's a song called "Ridin'," by Chamillionaire -- the real words are "ridin' dirty," instead of "white and nerdy."

Anonymous said...

I've not seen the Weird Al video--in fact, I haven't watched MTV in YEARS. It used to be my "ersatz-stereo system", but, somehow, I hardly even listen to music now. (ok, I listen vicariously through the walls of my daughters' bedrooms) Coincidentally, I saw the RIDIN' "real" video at McDonald's recently, while lunching with Therese & her friend, Lisa, so, now that I think of it, I'm not totally out of the loop.
Sue