Saturday, August 20, 2011

Kicking Television.

I've been coasting horizontally on a long drawn out fix of the devouring of  hours of TV via my laptop. With nobody left to run with and barely any social activity to my name, other than the occasional playdate/smalltalk combo, and being crippled half assingly by a writers block brought on by or combatted with the hollow wail of liquid courage, I've been taking the easy route to escape. A horse/lap top shortcut through the breezy, pixilated Leone canyons,while digital indians crouch topside, waiting with arrows raised. Arrows named Fringe, Californication, Sons of Anarchy, Nurse Jackie, Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Big C and No Reservations.  I camp out at a coffee shop, nursing an iced coffee until the ice cubes get crushed in my teeth and download whole seasons of these shows that I've been privy to hearing about around the cyber cooler. Sneaking home in shame, is my middle name, while hoarding a bundle of tired torrents like they were vintage Kirby Comics.   

I plank out on a bruised mattress night after night after the kid is asleep, headphones grafted...and drift off through 4-5 episode druggy chips of TEEEVEEE. WHHEEEEEEE. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.  Then , for all you legal freaks, I delete them.

Hooked like a savant. Counting plot twists and characters like dropped toothpicks. Forgetting everything by the next episode. Repeat. Nightly.

The half action of filling space void of comfort, contact and conversation is a sickness. And TV is such a pill. An extra strength, fast action gel- cap of a pill.   I'm all "caught up" with these shows. And ready for more. I've got to get all Nance Reagan and just say no.

Gotta get back to the books. Reading is a challenge, a commitment..1 percent physical, 96 percent mental, 3 percent spiritual.

Reading takes time, more time than a child- rearing, breed focused, ladder- calling life will allow. 

But what a world made of words are books. Different for everyone in interpretation, critical for a steady feast of education.

I'd like to share back and forth what we want to/will/are reading right now.  How big is your pile? How strong is your urge? Drag us to your recommendations AND condemnations and please allow you to introduce yourself.

I'm finally getting back to:   I Am Ozzy-By Ozzy
                                          Mr. Peanut-By Adam Ross
                                         Chronic City-By Jonathan Lethem
                                         The Wisdom of the Heart-By Henry Miller

all purchased/borrowed over six months ago.

I want to read :                   Life-By Keith Richards
                                          Moby Dick-By Melville
                                         On Writing-By Stephen King
                                         Open Up and Bleed(Iggy Pop bio) -By Paul Trynka

laying around on a shelf or in a small pile wherever a flat surface commands space in my apt.

 I will peruse:                     The Pleasures of the Damned-Poems 1951-1993 By Charles Bukowski.

Just bought it.



And You?
















6 comments:

  1. Finished reading "The Last Days of John Lennon" by Frederick Seaman. Yoko Ono is definately a nutjob and a half. I'm presently reading "No One Here Gets out Alive" by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman. (It's about Jim Morrison) All of it between chapters of Jean M. Auel's "Land of the Painted Caves".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sista Sea5:31 PM

    "The Pearl Beyond Price" ~A.H.Almaas
    "The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature" ~Stephen Buhner
    "Markings" ~Daj Hammarskjold
    "Mars" ~Fritz Zorn

    ReplyDelete
  3. Drew, tell me more about "Land of Painted Caves" .

    Sista, I need to return that James Patterson books on tape box set you lent me. Thanx.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Seano - I got sucked into watching TV series via Netflix. I hadn't watched much TV in years and had heard about some shows in passing so now I watch from Season 1, Episode 1 all the way to the end and then start a new one. Its probably not the best use of my time. Right now I am in the middle of Mad Men which I find fascinating because if the era, holy shit, hard to believe things were so different not that many years ago. It follows right along with history so I think JFK is going to get shot soon....

    As for books:

    Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (trying to finish for the second time)

    Memoirs of a Beatnik, Diane di Prima (someone told me she reminds him of me)

    The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Alfred McCoy

    Have you ever read "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg? Its just a little tiny book and I have two copies let me know if you want one. You're already a good writer but many writers love this little book (me included).

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Land of the Painted Caves" is the sixth book in Jean Auel's Earth Series, staring with the "Clan of the Cave Bear" (Remember the crappy movie starring Daryl Hannah? The book's much better)Basically it's about a little girl that gets ophaned by Neandethal tribe, gets kicked out of it, searches for others like her, finds her man and gets "mated", he brings her to his people, has a kid and studies to become a shaman. The last couple of books gets a bit tedious to read-flashes back and forth to often.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just read "Life" and it was incredible, totally written in Keith's voice, and very honest.

    I highly recommend reading John Fante (one of Hank's hero's) - specifically the Arturo Bandini books. I'd start with "Ask the Dust".

    Also "Journey to the end of the Night" by Céline will kick your ass.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_End_of_the_Night

    ReplyDelete