Abandoned books and/or movies #13

These are the movies that I have started and then stopped watching over the last six months or so. The ones marked with a * are movies I have seen before.

Downhill Racer-- Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, skiing-- I had wanted to see this movie for many years. However, I didn't like it.

The Americanization of Emily-- James Garner is a plus; World War II is a plus; Julie Andrews is a minus. I tried to like this one but couldn't.

Getting Straight-- I'll watch almost anything Elliott Gould does; apparently not this one, though. 

Black Cat, White Cat*-- The best romantic comedy ever made about Gypsy mobsters in the former Yugoslavia. I actually love this movie; I just wasn't in the mood for it on that particular day. I own the soundtrack as well-- it's great, too.

Hidden Fortress-- They say that this movie by Akira Kurosawa (above) inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars. It was pretty good, but I kept falling asleep.

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy-- I was on a bit of a Woody Allen-kick at the time. This pretty much put an end to it.

What Have I Done to Deserve This?-- Directed by Pedro Almodovar; I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided I wanted to watch this one.


Something Wild-- Boring; I stopped when they got to the high school reunion.

Up in the Air*-- I enjoyed this movie when I saw it in the movie theaters.

Salvador*-- I'm not sure you could pay me to sit through an entire Oliver Stone movie these days, not even if it has Jim Belushi in it.

Three Kings*-- In my mind, I love this movie and was really, really looking forward to watching it. It features one of my favorite living white American male actors (George Clooney) and my favorite African-American rapper/actor/director of all time (Ice Cube). For some reason, though, I just wasn't interested this time around.

The Getaway*-- I really like this movie and was quite excited to come across a very cheap DVD copy while out shopping one day. It probably just wasn't the right time to watch it.

The French Connection*-- A hard-hitting portrayal of the reality of life on the police force or neo-fascist swill? You can decide for yourself and let me know.

The Hit*-- I'm not sure why, but this movie failed to grab me this time around. 

Alphaville*-- Boy, do I remember liking this movie way back when I saw it at college.

Shaft*-- I had just watched Across 110th Street and figured I wanted to see another blaxploitation movie. It turned out that I didn't.

Abandoned books and/or movies #12

These are the books that I started and then stopped reading over the summer.

Maggie the Mechanic-- Jaime Hernandez

Two Love and Rockets books was probably more than I needed to read. This one-- the third in a row-- was definitely too much.

Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label-- various authors and photographers

This is a coffee-table book about Def Jam by Def Jam. The pictures were pretty good (such as the one of LL Cool J above), but I wasn't all that interested in reading the text.

 The Clay Machine-Gun-- Victor Pelevin

I've read this one before but not recently. When I started reading it again, it seemed like a good idea to re-read a novel that mixes the Russian Revolution, Buddhism, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (among other things). After about forty pages, it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Here are some of the movies that I started watching but did not finish this summer.

Repo Man

I love this movie and have seen it many, many times. This time I watched about forty-five minutes and then decided that, instead of finishing it, I would go to bed.

Continental Divide

I had heard for years about how terrible this movie is-- it's a romantic comedy starring John Belushi as a big-city newspaper reporter trapped out in the wilderness. I finally decided to find out for myself. I made it twenty-one minutes before I had to turn it off.

Six Degrees of Separation

I have seen this one a few times and always liked it. This time around I couldn't get into it, though. I'm not sure why. It did inspire me to re-read The Catcher in the Rye, however (or maybe that was the other way around).

Abandoned books and/or movies #11

These are the books I have stopped reading over the past three months.

Rat Girl-- Kristin Hersh

Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar: Stories of Food During Wartime by the World's Leading Correspondents-- edited by Matt McAllester

Intern Nation-- Ross Perlin

Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper-- Geoffrey Gray

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts-- Julian Rubinstein

Los Macheteros: The Wells Fargo Robbery and the Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence-- Ronald Fernandez

Foucault's Pendulum-- Umberto Eco

Ocean's of Words-- Ha Jin

Sleeping Where I Fall-- Peter Coyote

A Radical Line-- Thai Jones

The Making of Black Revolutionaries-- James Forman

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour-- David Bianculli

What I have been reading lately #49/Abandoned books and/or movies #10

Two books that I finished:

Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure-- John Otis

Pretty much what it sounds like-- three American contractors (spies) crash in the Colombian jungle and are captured by guerrillas from the FARC. The soldiers from the Colombian army sent out to rescue them get distracted by a large stash of money they find buried in the ground. I won't give away what happens next.

War by Candlelight-- Daniel Alarcon

Above: The cover of the US edition, which I read

Below: The much better cover of the UK edition

Daniel Alarcon is originally from Peru but apparently grew up in Alabama. This collection of short stories is written in English and is his first book. I enjoyed reading this book, but now, just a couple of weeks later, I can't remember much about it.

One book that I did not finish:

Endless Horizon: A Very Messy Motorcycle Journey Around the World-- Dan Walsh

At first I was really enjoying this, but then I wasn't. So I stopped reading it.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #9

Punk Rock Dad - Jim Lindberg

Jim Lindberg is a member of the group Pennywise, and he and his wife have three young daughters. Lindberg wrote this book to tell what it is like to try to be a member of a punk rock band and also a parent. I got pretty far into this book (127 pages to be exact) and was actually enjoying it, but I got distracted and never was able to get restarted.

I did not actually try to read the following two books, but I did get them from the library and skim them. They are both in the same vein as Punk Rock Dad-- books about the punk way to do things.

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth About Reality - Brad Warner

Brad Warner was also in a punk rock band (Zero Defex) and then later moved to Japan to teach English and then go to work for the studio that produces the popular Ultraman television show (see photo at the bottom). Warner is also a zen monk.

Punk Shui: Home Design for Anarchists - Josh Amatore Hughes

If you are looking for a short guide to decorating your house according to the principles of punk shui, then this is the book for you.

Below: As promised, it's Ultraman

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #8

Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (Large Print Edition)- Stuart Stevens

I originally read this book almost twenty years ago. It is about a guy who drives his friend's car across the Sahara desert.

Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry - Todd Farley

Todd Farley worked for a long time scoring standardized tests. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of inaccuracies, problems, and places for random weirdness in the scoring of standardized tests. This book probably would have been better as a long magazine article.

Driving Like Crazy - P.J. O'Rourke

The title is actually a lot longer than just three words. The book is also.

Vrooom!! Conversations with the Grand Prix Champions - Peter Manso. (No picture available)

This book was written in 1969, I believe. If you would like to learn more about Grand Prix racers and what they think about modern art, H. Rap Brown, and the Vietnam war, this is the book for you.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #7

The Fourteenth of July and the Storming of the Bastille by Christopher Prendergast

The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle

Oddly, both books are about France during the revolution and Napoleonic era. More oddly, I was enjoying both books but decided to stop reading them anyway.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #6

Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob by Matt Birkbeck

Despite what I had hoped, this book is not about Sammy Davis, Jr. It is really about a lawyer named Sonny Murray who attempted to help Sammy's widow, Altovise Davis, deal with the millions of dollars in debt that Sammy left behind when he died. While it was interesting for a while, I gave up halfway through-- I felt that I read enough about insurance policies, legal documents, the Internal Revenue Service, and stolen jewelry.

I did learn two fun facts, however-- Sammy Davis, Jr. was obsessed with the video arcade game Pac-Man and spent hours and hours playing it each day. Additionally, both Sammy and his wife were close personal friends with Donald Rumsfeld, who would later go on to become Secretary of Defense under President Bush.

Above: Pac-Man

Below: Donald Rumsfeld

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #5

Finn McCool's Football Club: The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead by Stephen Rea

Stephen Rea is from Northern Ireland. His wife is from North Carolina. In 2004 they moved to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Stephen Rea found a pub called Finn McCool's where he liked to hang out, drink, and watch European football matches on cable television. He and his friends there formed a soccer team of their own. Soon after that, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. After the hurricane was over, some of the members of the team moved back to New Orleans, began rebuilding, and reformed the team. Later, Stephen Rea wrote a book about the whole thing.

The book covers three areas:

• Watching, talking about, and occasionally playing soccer; these parts of the book were boring.
• Stephen Rea's views on U.S. life and culture; these parts were uninformed and often insulting.
• Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; these parts were interesting-- I tried to find and read most of them.

The Monkees: The Zany Adventures of Davy, Peter, Micky, and Mike -- Those Lovable and Wonderful Monkees by Gene Fawcette and Howard Liss

This book was published in 1966 for an original price of 50 cents. It is a comic book about the Monkees having adventures on a dude ranch, at a beauty contest, and battling corrupt Mexican inventors. For obvious reasons, I was unable to finish this book.

Abandoned books and/or movies #4-- more information about false memory #2?

Black and Honolulu Blue: In the Trenches of the NFL by Keith Dorney

In 1979, the Detroit Lions went 2-14, tying them for the worst record in the NFL that year. 1980 was a much better year for Detroit - during the offseason they drafted Billy Sims and started off the season 5-1. In the middle of this, veteran defensive back Jimmy "Spiderman" Allen recorded and released his own version of the popular song "Another One Bites the Dust," in which he explained how the Lions were going to defeat all their opponents. The lyrics included such statements as, "Come and watch the Detroit Lions that no one seems to beat," and "Last year's team was 2 and 14, but this is the year for New Orleans" (ie, Super Bowl XV, played in New Orleans). The song was a fan favorite in the Detroit area.

Despite the fact that Detroit finished the season 9-7, tying for first in the NFC Central Division and just barely missing the playoffs, the Lions were ridiculed for years to come because of Allen's song. According to Keith Dorney:

• That stupid song was rubbed into our faces time and time again and was played by our opponent's band after every away loss we suffered for years to come. How humiliating it was to hear Bamp, bamp, bamp. Another one bites the dust! as we walked off the field after a loss. (page 37)

Click here to find a link to the song. It is at the bottom of the article, before the comments section.

Click here to find out more about false memory #2?.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #3

Sometimes when you are reading a book, you realize that you want to stop. Sometimes that happens with movies, too. Here are some recent examples:

Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass. Famous German author admits that he voluntarily signed up for the Waffen-SS as a youth during World War II.

The Black Arrow by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Adventure story set in England during the War of the Roses. I read it once as a kid. I have tried (and failed) twice as an adult.

Rebels Without Borders by Marc Vachon. True story of a Canadian hoodlum who becomes a logistics expert for an international medical relief organization. Not as interesting as it might sound.

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Slugger by Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg. Discussed elsewhere.

The Italian Job. Boring movie from 1969 that was remade into another boring movie in 2003. I actually have watched the 2003 version twice but could not quite make it through the 1969 one.

Escape from New York. Way back when, movie director John Carpenter needed to find a place that looked like Manhattan would look if they turned it into an island prison colony run by the prisoners and then the prisoners went wild. He chose downtown St. Louis, which is the only reason I would ever watch this movie. I fell asleep on the couch about halfway through.

Below- downtown St. Louis

The Sixth Man: A Season Inside the NBA Playground by Chris Palmer. Do you know those little, tiny square candy bars that are about two centimeters across? This book has the same relationship to a real basketball book that a little, tiny square candy bar has to a real, full-size candy bar. (The "season" in question is 2004-2005.)

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #2

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Slugger; written by Jean Rhodes (professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston) and Shawn Boburg (reporter at The Record in Bergen County, New Jersey); authorized by Manny Ramirez (leftfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians).

Fun facts you might learn if you read this book:

• As a child, Manny Ramirez suffered from an "intense fear of the dark." (page 23)
• Manny Ramirez's great-grandmother worked as a nanny for the children of the Dominican Republic's "tyrannical dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo." (page 15) (Trujillo pictured below)

• In high school, rather than attend class, Manny Ramirez enjoyed hanging out in the lunchroom and talking to his girlfriend Kathy, friends, baseball fans, security guards, and cafeteria workers. (page 73)

Above, Manny Ramirez versus a fly ball

I read up to page 91 (out of 304) in this book, when Manny Ramirez was a junior in high school. At that point, I stopped reading, because I decided that the book was boring.

Note: Becoming Manny was published in early 2009, so it does not cover Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Manny Ramirez returns from his suspension tonight, in a game against the San Diego Padres.

Abandoned books/Books about hotels

I recently stopped reading Arthur Hailey's (above, holding a copy of a different one of his books) novel Hotel.  I managed to read more than sixty pages of this novel, which is set in New Orleans in the 1960s and concerns a once proud hotel that has fallen on hard times.  Hailey also wrote such classics as Airport, which spawned a series of popular movies.  Abandoning this book made me remember other books that I actually did finish and that were mostly or partially about hotels--

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Tintin in the New World by Frederic Tuten

I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

A Riot of Our Own- Night and Day with the Clash  by Johnny Green and Garry Barker

The World of Suzie Wong by Richard Mason

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #1

Below is a list of movies and/or books that I have given up on/walked out on/refused to finish lately.

Movies:

1. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.  I think was about an all-Indian football (soccer) team in London trying to keep from going under.  I also think it was a musical.  I made it through about an hour before turning off the DVD player.

2. Gomorrah.  A gritty, realistic look at modern-day gangsters in Naples, Italy.  It was really quite boring, actually.  I walked out of the theater after about thirty minutes.  This movie got rave reviews, but not from me.

3. Shanghai Knights.  Having sat through Shanghai Noon and The Big Bounce, I thought I could watch anything with Owen Wilson in it.  This movie proves me wrong.

Books:

1.  The Dream of Heroes by Adolfo Bioy Casares.  I've read this at least two or three times before, and it's great, but I couldn't quite manage another attempt.  It's an Argentinian novel set in the 1920s about a young man who has a mysterious vision on the third night of carnival in 1927 and sets out to discover the vision's meaning.  I highly recommend this book.