New David Sedaris

Just recently I found an essay that David Sedaris wrote for The Guardian this past summer. It's called "Chicken Toenails, Anyone?" and it's one of the funniest things he's written in a long time. He comes down pretty hard on both Chinese food and Chinese people and certain people have complained in print.

In tone, the essay would've fit in perfectly in Sedaris's earlier collections like Barrel Fever or Naked.

I have no problem with people complaining about Sedaris or his writing. But I totally disagree with the critisism that he's recieved for this essay. He doesn't say anything that is untrue, and it's unfair of other writers to call him racist or even insensitive.

What I really want to write about is the piece that Alex Heard wrote a few years ago in The New Republic. Heard's essay bothered me then, and it bothers me even more now. I'm going to go into full detail later this week. If you'd like to read it yourself there's a link to it on Sedaris's Wiki page.

The Vampire's Assistant

I really like this movie. It's on now, but I first saw it last fall when I was staying at my friend's house while I had a couple days off and he was at work. I got to sit on his recliner drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. That was a good time.

Anyway, I can't stand the lead- he seems like a goody-goody in real life, Steve is more interesting. I like the monkey girl and John C. Reiley is really good.

Shockaholic

Shockaholic (2011) Carrie Fisher

This weekend I bought Carrie Fisher's new book, Shockaholic. She's already done four novels, all loosely based on her life, starting with her best known: 1987's Postcards From The Edge which was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep, Shirley McClaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, and Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Mike Nichols (Dreyfuss is thanked on Postcard's acknowledgements page; he went through rehab around the same time that she did).

Around the same time that the Postcards movie came out, Fisher realeased her second novel, Surrender The Pink. I read in an old Entertainment Weekly interview that Steven Spielberg bought the movie rights before the book was even finished. Reading the novel you can see why there is no Surrender The Pink- The Motion Picture. I started reading with a lot of interest because the book is supposed to be based on Fisher's relationship with Paul Simon and the two of them are an odd pair that I find interesting. But the book is made up of the kind of dialogue that dragged down Postcards- the worst part of her first novel were the sections where the characters had converations about their feelings.

I haven't read the two newer novels, Delusions of Grandma from the 90s or The Best Awful from around 2005 but from what I understand Delusions is more of an invention and Awful is almost entirely drawn from real events in Fisher's life, from the birth of her daughter to her ex-husband leaving her for a man to her cable TV interview series to her opiate relapse (Oxycontin) to her stay in a mental hospital.

A couple years ago Fisher went on what she called her "one and a half woman show" Wishful Drinking and released a book based on that material. It was a great book with some interesting stories, but most people felt the same way I did: the book was too slim and most subjects were touched upon too briefly.

Her new book, kind of a Wishful Drinking II, is Shockaholic. While this one is also too slim (162 pages) it covers its subjects in more detail. In this case I wish there were more subjects and a little less detail. There are really only five main subjects: her ECT treatments, Michael Jackson, a 1985 blind date with Chris Dodd (plus Ted Kennedy), her step-father Harry Karl, and her father Eddie.

All of it is interesting, especially the MJ section, but I was hoping for more stories about the movies she made, and I don't mean Star Wars. I'd like to here about The 'burbs and The Time Guardian (though she does mention Hollywood Vice Squad and Liberty.

Anyway, while the book is needlessly vulgar in spots, it's well-worth reading and a lot of fun.



Note: The top image is the one that's on the cover of my book. Before Shockaholic was released I saw the bottom image on Amazon. I belive the bottom image was used on non-US editions of the book, but that's just a guess.

Pod (1990)

Pod (1990) The Breeders

HMV makes cool ads

Here's a little Hips and Makers and Strings.

Ramona

I love The Real Ramona and everything related to it. The other day I saw this cool promo for TRR; I wish I had it. I love the album cover, the black background with the fern, the postcard, the photo of the band at the beach, the cover photo and the way that they use that image on the inside of the sleeve- everything.

I read somewhere that Kristin Hersh was working on a follow-up to Rat Girl and it's supposed to focus on the recording of The Real Ramona. I hope it's true; that'd be awesome.

So much time on the computer

I waste a lot of time.

I'll have two days off in a row and I just sit at the computer looking shit up. Say there's a movie on, like the other night, when The Town was on TV. After I had to go to Wiki and look it up- who was in it, stories about the production, the stars. From there I go to other pages: actors, then movies they were in, then other actors.

Ben Affleck is a good director. I can't even think of any flaws. None. And he does a good job of involving the audience. You feel protective of the bank robbers, even Jeremy Renner. He's so believable and you don't notice at all that he's acting. I think he was nomintated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oh wait, I thought of a flaw. I forgot, there was one thing that bothered me: I don't wanna give anything away so I'll just say that I don't believe that Renner's sister would be given the information that she has and gives to the FBI. I think it would be too risky to tell her, especially considering the heat that the robbers are under at that point. They're so careful so it seems like a huge lapse.

But anyway, it's an awesome movie. Good story, the car chases- especially the one in the middle of the movie- are unnerving and realistic (no, I've never been chased, but I witnessed part a police chase last week and it was freaky), and the breakfast scene with Affleck, his girlfriend, and Renner is wicked suspenseful.

Back to Jeremy Renner. He's the best thing about the movie; it wouldn't be the same without him. I never saw (and don't really wanna see) The Hurt Locker but I do remember seeing him years ago in one of his earliest movies, maybe his first starring role: Jeffrey Dauhmer in Dauhmer. I didn't see the whole thing but one scene sticks out in my memory. It's a scene where Dauhmer is in his late teens or early twenties and he's been living with one of his aunts and his father comes for a visit. His father goes through his closet and finds a mannequin or something and other creepy stuff and then he sees a lockbox that belongs to him and he demands to know why his son has it and what he's keeping inside. They argue and finally his father is about to smash the box open and at the last moment Dauhmer says that he's hiding porn magazines inside and he doesn't want his aunt to know and his father backs down. It's a strange scene because as you're watch you're on Dauhmer's side; you don't want his father to find out what's really inside, even though the discover would end up sparing the lives of innocent people. It's funny how movies can end up messing with your sympathies. Or scary, really.

Anyway, time to get ready for bed. If you're a loyal follower of RJ Bttles then I've got good news: I'm going to be here a lot more, maybe even everyday.

Good night.



One more thing. As you know, I don't like combovers. They're stupid and they annoy me. But I think I know the point when I became really hostile towards them- it was an episode of Dateline or 20/20 and Jeffery Dauhmer was being interviewed along with his father and the father had a total combover. That pissed me off. I wanted to punch him in the face. His son tortured and killed people and deprived families of their loved ones, and he's afraid to appear bald on TV. What a fucking dickhead. If I was the interviewer I would've brought it up. First question, probably.