Blogger's Block

You may have noticed that my blogging's slowed to a sloth's pace. I'm just rarely in the mood for it, which is funny because it nags on my mind all the time. Every night I seem to come home and think "tonight I'll polish off that ridiculously overdue year-end post" then inevitably I'll busy myself with other random stuff. I almost never make new year's resolutions, but in general I figured I should read more. Right now I'm in the middle of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and another book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee (yep, "8" is her middle name).

Some other stuff I've digested lately:

• Mike Dawson's 2008 graphic novel Freddie & Me: a Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody, which as its title suggests is an autobiographical story punctuated by the author's experiences and memories of being a Queen fanatic since childhood. Sweet, funny, and a insightful rumination on memories, of course accompanied by an awesome virtual soundtrack... while reading it I listened to an all-Queen playlist that eerily would match up with moments in the book. The detailed drawing and storytelling style are reminiscent of Alex Robinson, who quite possibly (unless I'm imagining things) makes a cameo on page 2 of the book. Highly recommended.
  Arno - I Want to Break Free [originally by Queen]
  
  
• I recently watched Woody Allen's 1985 film The Purple of Rose of Cairo about a character who literally steps off the screen of a 1930s Hollywood film after being smitten by Mia Farrow who's sitting in the audience. The fallout of this unprecedented occurrence are hilarious and brilliant. Lots of fun, but also a little heartbreaking. Reportedly this is Woody's favourite of his own films.
  
  
• Last night I read this massive tome of a graphic novel called Girls by the Luna Brothers. I had never heard of the book or its authors, but it was hard not to take notice when I saw it at the library since it was all black with nothing on the cover except the word "Girls" in silver writing, not to mention this thing was nearly as big as an encyclopedia. Inside was a blurb from Joss Whedon that said "It’s like watching a movie. I haven’t read a comic like that since I can remember", which was good enough for me to haul that thing home. He was right. I opened it and read it for the next couple hours straight as if I was sucked into a movie. Knowing absolutely nothing about the story was awesome since it completely switched gears from one thing into another and I was as much in the dark as the characters themselves as to what was going on. In a way, it had the same what-the-hell-is-going-on aspect as The Happening except it was, you know, effective.
  
  
• I also went to see Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler last weekend. Pretty much everything everyone's saying about Mickey Rourke is true and all the behind-the-scenes wrestling stuff is quite fascinating. Surprisingly humourous as well, which I wasn't really expecting. I'd love to read about real wrestler's reactions to the film. Apparently Rowdy Roddy Piper saw it and wept. [OK, I just googled and found exactly what I was looking for: a roundtable discussion with some former pro wrestlers including Piper talking about The Wrestler.]