Oh man...that's my favourite book of all times. I even have a half sleeve on my left arm dedicated to the scene where Bandini is fighting the crabs on the pier. That book is tattooed on me.
What do you think of it?
Whoa! That's pretty hardcore, dude... post a pic of that, yeah?
I think it's a really great book so far. Fante paints a very unique and vivid picture of the human condition. I can see why Bukowski jocked him so hard.
Here's a pic of when I first got it - you don't get to see it in much its glory though as it's just the outline. The colouring is what really wowed me about it when it was done - there's a lot of green/aqua tinges, and the crabs have subtle yellow sun spots on them. Not to mention the water in the background and sky, etc. Anyway, here's the tattoo:
ps. i'm practically inept at image sizing and shit. I have no idea how to use Photoshop. Excuse the large size.
I've been devouring all of those "new intellectual athiest" books. Right now, I'm on this one:
Which I'm really enjoying, but not as much as:
And I posted a Christopher Hitchens appreciation thread which no one responded to, so I'll post up the same clip again here to bask in his awesomeness (of being a really entertaining jerk):
How do these compare with "god is not Great" ? I'm reading that right now and it's pretty good. And I'm pretty interested in the subject.
"If you gave Jerry Falwell an enima, he'd be buried in a matchbox." Damn, such a good line.
God Is Not Great is good, but I find it a bit unfocused at times, especially in comparison with Dawkins' scientific precision and essay-like format. Dawkins really sets em up and knocks em down. Hitchens does what he does best in God is Not Great and offers passionate and angry rants over the course of 200 pages or so. Anyway, I recommend The God Delusion above and beyond the other titles I mentioned.
The books talks about the history of sugar as well as the impact it has had on the world and our health. I had always been ineterested in the chemical effects and social history behind sugar. There are a lot of boring chapters (for me, at least), but the bulk of the book is definitely interesting.
Have you read Sidney Mintz's "Sweetness and Power?" The definitive book on the social history of sugar, a good read too.
So far this is a great read, I've been pacing it, as Gibson only comes out with new books every 5 years or so, can't read it too quickly, savor the flavor
I read this in college and just picked it up again for the re-read. Really honest and interesting look at the conflict of being from the privilaged class but ashamed of and against the system that perpetuates the status quo...
From Amazon.com: Like many white South Africans of his generation, Rian Malan fled his country to dodge the draft. He felt incredibly guilty for this act, but would have felt equally guilty for not doing it: "I ran because I wouldn't carry a gun for apartheid, and because I wouldn't carry a gun against it." Malan, the product of a well-known Afrikaner family, returned to South Africa and produced My Traitor's Heart, which explores the literal and figurative brutalities of apartheid. Death is a constant presence on these pages, and the narrative is driven by Malan's criminal reportage. This acclaimed book intends to illuminate South Africa's poisonous race relations under apartheid, and few books do it this well.
I forgot all about the Corner. Thanks for reminding me!
"Dead Planet" is an excellent book about food politics and questions why our entire food system is in crisis. Topics include supermarket monopoly and how it effects consumer and farmer, how supermarkets refusing to build in inner cities are directly effecting the health of the poor, food slotting. Mad cow and avian flu are touched on lightly. Industrial farming has thrown many variables out of whack.
It's well written and researched. Quick reading, too. Highly recommended.
anyone recommend a good book on the recent rise of the russian oligarchs? im interested...and i could just read wikipedia, but i'd like to not stare at computer screen.
I've been devouring all of those "new intellectual athiest" books. Right now, I'm on this one:
Which I'm really enjoying, but not as much as:
And I posted a Christopher Hitchens appreciation thread which no one responded to, so I'll post up the same clip again here to bask in his awesomeness (of being a really entertaining jerk):
How do these compare with "god is not Great" ? I'm reading that right now and it's pretty good. And I'm pretty interested in the subject.
"If you gave Jerry Falwell an enima, he'd be buried in a matchbox." Damn, such a good line.
God Is Not Great is good, but I find it a bit unfocused at times, especially in comparison with Dawkins' scientific precision and essay-like format. Dawkins really sets em up and knocks em down. Hitchens does what he does best in God is Not Great and offers passionate and angry rants over the course of 200 pages or so. Anyway, I recommend The God Delusion above and beyond the other titles I mentioned.
Cool, yeah the best parts so far are when Hitchens gets extraordinarily huffy. Def have to check for the Dawkins book. Thanks.
What do they mean by restored? I read this a few years ago, one of my favorite novels of all time. I don't remember my copy saying anything about it being "restored" though.
Can't find a picture, but I'm Reading Werner Herzog's Of Walking in Ice. It's a challenge, really unorganized writing (by normal standards), but rewarding. Here is the amazon description: In the winter of 1974, filmmaker Werner Herzog made a three week solo journey from Munich to Paris on foot. He believed it was the only way his close friend, film historian Lotte Eisner, would survive a horrible sickness that had overtaken her. During this monumental odyssey through a seemingly endless blizzard, Herzog documented everything he saw and felt with intense sincerity. This diary is dotted with a pastiche of rants about the extreme cold and utter loneliness, notes on Herzog's films and travels, poetic descriptions of the snowy countryside, and personal philosophizing. What is most remarkable is that the reading of the book is in continuity with the experience of watching his films; it's as if, through this walk, we witness the process in which images are born. Although he received a literary award for it, this introspective masterpiece has lingered out of print since 1979. Beautifully designed and emotionally impressive, Of Walking in Ice is the first in a color-coded series of remarkable yet long-forgotten titles being republished by Free Association.
Just finished: Amazing woman who is strong, spiritual, patient, compassionate, loving mother to all, etc etc. I picked this up right after I read her son's memoir:
Good for people who are into psychology or family therapy concepts as both books obviously express their perspectives of their stories.
Patricia (Pat) Montandon is an author, humanitarian, and philanthropist who devotes her life to making our world a more peaceful place for all of humankind.
The seventh child of two Texas ministers, Pat moved to San Francisco in the 1960s. After five years with the San Francisco Examiner, in 1982, she left her post as a columnist to create Children as the Peacemakers, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to making peace happen through the creative participation of children around the world. The organization - honored with the United Nations Peace Messenger Award and nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize - has three main programs, an International Children's Peace Prize, which has reached out to thousands of children from 50 countries, Peace-Kids Peace-Clubs an interactive curriculum, and World Peace Missions where children visit with world leaders and share their concerns and desires for a more tolerant and understanding world.
Pat has made thirty-four international trips with young children, and has met with such world leaders as Premier Zhao Ziyang of China, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, Pope John Paul II, the late Indira Gandhi of India, Prime Minister Gro Harlan Bruntland of Norway, and Andre Gromyko of the former Soviet Union. Madam Jehan Sadat is also a prolific supporter of the Foundation.
In 1986, Pat pioneered The Banner of Hope, a mile-long, red-silk memorial inscribed with the names and ages of children from all over the world who were killed in war. The Banner of Hope was first presented in 1987 at the Kremlin for the International Women's Congress where it brought former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to tears. The Banner was also highlighted at opening ceremonies of the United Nations in 1987.
Pat's current project, Remember the Children of Beslan, was recently launched in memory of the children who were terrorized and murdered, on September 1, 2004 - their first day of school. In December 2004, a delegation from Children as the Peacemakers will travel to Beslan, Russia, to assure the grieving people that they will not be forgotten.
As an author, Pat's many books include Making Friends, the first Soviet/American co-publication by Raduga Press in St. Petersburg and Henry Holt in the United States. Whispers From God, an autobiography, will be published in 2005.
As an early activist of women's civil rights, in the 1970s, Pat founded The Name Choice Center to inform women of their right to keep their own name after marriage, and she has supported the Ms. Foundation from its inception. In 1980 she originated the Napa Valley Wine Auction, the most successful wine auction in the world.
and after all that. I would love to meet this woman someday.
I WISH I could read a book! Summer is usually my main time, but I was trying to catch up on about 300 articles and didn't read anything but. Now that schools back in I just read 60 essays by freshmen so I still don't have any leisure reading time really to get to a book.
I WISH I could read a book! Summer is usually my main time, but I was trying to catch up on about 300 articles and didn't read anything but. Now that schools back in I just read 60 essays by freshmen so I still don't have any leisure reading time really to get to a book.
shooooooooooooooooooooooooot.
you do sound busy. just a few chapters here and there before bedtime isn't that hard, plus its good for you.
I WISH I could read a book! Summer is usually my main time, but I was trying to catch up on about 300 articles and didn't read anything but. Now that schools back in I just read 60 essays by freshmen so I still don't have any leisure reading time really to get to a book.
shooooooooooooooooooooooooot.
you do sound busy. just a few chapters here and there before bedtime isn't that hard, plus its good for you.
When you get home, have to cook dinner, help your kid with homework and grade papers for a couple hours, the last thing you wanna do is read a book before you go to bed. Believe me.
elise thank you for bringing the Pat Montandon book to my attention. I started Wisley's book and have really enjoyed what I've read so far. Anyone have further recommendations on first hand accounts taking place in San Francisco or Hawaii? Autobiography of A Brown Buffalo by Oscar Acosta (Hunter Thompson's lawyer) has a good bit about SF in the 70's but then tails off as he moves away. Will post Hawaiian suggestions in a bit.
and after all that. I would love to meet this woman someday.
Just finished: Amazing woman who is strong, spiritual, patient, compassionate, loving mother to all, etc etc. I picked this up right after I read her son's memoir:
Good for people who are into psychology or family therapy concepts as both books obviously express their perspectives of their stories.
Patricia (Pat) Montandon is an author, humanitarian, and philanthropist who devotes her life to making our world a more peaceful place for all of humankind.
The seventh child of two Texas ministers, Pat moved to San Francisco in the 1960s. After five years with the San Francisco Examiner, in 1982, she left her post as a columnist to create Children as the Peacemakers, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to making peace happen through the creative participation of children around the world. The organization - honored with the United Nations Peace Messenger Award and nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize - has three main programs, an International Children's Peace Prize, which has reached out to thousands of children from 50 countries, Peace-Kids Peace-Clubs an interactive curriculum, and World Peace Missions where children visit with world leaders and share their concerns and desires for a more tolerant and understanding world.
Pat has made thirty-four international trips with young children, and has met with such world leaders as Premier Zhao Ziyang of China, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, Pope John Paul II, the late Indira Gandhi of India, Prime Minister Gro Harlan Bruntland of Norway, and Andre Gromyko of the former Soviet Union. Madam Jehan Sadat is also a prolific supporter of the Foundation.
In 1986, Pat pioneered The Banner of Hope, a mile-long, red-silk memorial inscribed with the names and ages of children from all over the world who were killed in war. The Banner of Hope was first presented in 1987 at the Kremlin for the International Women's Congress where it brought former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to tears. The Banner was also highlighted at opening ceremonies of the United Nations in 1987.
Pat's current project, Remember the Children of Beslan, was recently launched in memory of the children who were terrorized and murdered, on September 1, 2004 - their first day of school. In December 2004, a delegation from Children as the Peacemakers will travel to Beslan, Russia, to assure the grieving people that they will not be forgotten.
As an author, Pat's many books include Making Friends, the first Soviet/American co-publication by Raduga Press in St. Petersburg and Henry Holt in the United States. Whispers From God, an autobiography, will be published in 2005.
As an early activist of women's civil rights, in the 1970s, Pat founded The Name Choice Center to inform women of their right to keep their own name after marriage, and she has supported the Ms. Foundation from its inception. In 1980 she originated the Napa Valley Wine Auction, the most successful wine auction in the world.
and after all that. I would love to meet this woman someday.
Moby Dick isn't my favorite book ever *(that would be Sometimes a Great Notion...) but, it IS the BEST book I've ever read. (moby dick is number 3 on my Favorite list...)
I really think there is very little in any art form that is fuckin' with that book.
Comments
Great book.
Here's a pic of when I first got it - you don't get to see it in much its glory though as it's just the outline. The colouring is what really wowed me about it when it was done - there's a lot of green/aqua tinges, and the crabs have subtle yellow sun spots on them. Not to mention the water in the background and sky, etc. Anyway, here's the tattoo:
ps. i'm practically inept at image sizing and shit. I have no idea how to use Photoshop. Excuse the large size.
God Is Not Great is good, but I find it a bit unfocused at times, especially in comparison with Dawkins' scientific precision and essay-like format. Dawkins really sets em up and knocks em down. Hitchens does what he does best in God is Not Great and offers passionate and angry rants over the course of 200 pages or so. Anyway, I recommend The God Delusion above and beyond the other titles I mentioned.
Have you read Sidney Mintz's "Sweetness and Power?" The definitive book on the social history of sugar, a good read too.
So far this is a great read, I've been pacing it, as Gibson only comes out with new books every 5 years or so, can't read it too quickly, savor the flavor
So far
compared to some of his earlier works...
It's a fun read, i think, hopefully it turns around for you.
I read this in college and just picked it up again for the re-read. Really honest and interesting look at the conflict of being from the privilaged class but ashamed of and against the system that perpetuates the status quo...
From Amazon.com:
Like many white South Africans of his generation, Rian Malan fled his country to dodge the draft. He felt incredibly guilty for this act, but would have felt equally guilty for not doing it: "I ran because I wouldn't carry a gun for apartheid, and because I wouldn't carry a gun against it." Malan, the product of a well-known Afrikaner family, returned to South Africa and produced My Traitor's Heart, which explores the literal and figurative brutalities of apartheid. Death is a constant presence on these pages, and the narrative is driven by Malan's criminal reportage. This acclaimed book intends to illuminate South Africa's poisonous race relations under apartheid, and few books do it this well.
I should be done w/ it this week. Great Read! Anyone notice that Deandre plays brother mouzon's bodyguard in season 3 of the wire.
Next is this as soon as my wife is finished...
Tyreeka and DeAndre's brother, DeRodd, have also appeared - Tyreeka in an elections scene and DeRodd as Puddin in Bodie's crew.
According to the site DeAndre is working, doing well and living with his lady and their child.
and very excited about it
I forgot all about the Corner. Thanks for reminding me!
"Dead Planet" is an excellent book about food politics and questions why our entire food system is in crisis. Topics include supermarket monopoly and how it effects consumer and farmer, how supermarkets refusing to build in inner cities are directly effecting the health of the poor, food slotting. Mad cow and avian flu are touched on lightly. Industrial farming has thrown many variables out of whack.
It's well written and researched. Quick reading, too. Highly recommended.
This one's on the bedside table at the moment:
You'll want to avoid the Moncrieff translation, I hear.
Cool, yeah the best parts so far are when Hitchens gets extraordinarily huffy. Def have to check for the Dawkins book. Thanks.
What do they mean by restored? I read this a few years ago, one of my favorite novels of all time. I don't remember my copy saying anything about it being "restored" though.
In the winter of 1974, filmmaker Werner Herzog made a three week solo journey from Munich to Paris on foot. He believed it was the only way his close friend, film historian Lotte Eisner, would survive a horrible sickness that had overtaken her. During this monumental odyssey through a seemingly endless blizzard, Herzog documented everything he saw and felt with intense sincerity. This diary is dotted with a pastiche of rants about the extreme cold and utter loneliness, notes on Herzog's films and travels, poetic descriptions of the snowy countryside, and personal philosophizing. What is most remarkable is that the reading of the book is in continuity with the experience of watching his films; it's as if, through this walk, we witness the process in which images are born. Although he received a literary award for it, this introspective masterpiece has lingered out of print since 1979. Beautifully designed and emotionally impressive, Of Walking in Ice is the first in a color-coded series of remarkable yet long-forgotten titles being republished by Free Association.
I picked this up right after I read her son's memoir:
Good for people who are into psychology or family therapy concepts as both books obviously express their perspectives of their stories.
On the Children as Teachers of Peace website:
Patricia (Pat) Montandon is an author, humanitarian, and philanthropist who devotes her life to making our world a more peaceful place for all of humankind.
The seventh child of two Texas ministers, Pat moved to San Francisco in the 1960s. After five years with the San Francisco Examiner, in 1982, she left her post as a columnist to create Children as the Peacemakers, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to making peace happen through the creative participation of children around the world. The organization - honored with the United Nations Peace Messenger Award and nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize - has three main programs, an International Children's Peace Prize, which has reached out to thousands of children from 50 countries, Peace-Kids Peace-Clubs an interactive curriculum, and World Peace Missions where children visit with world leaders and share their concerns and desires for a more tolerant and understanding world.
Pat has made thirty-four international trips with young children, and has met with such world leaders as Premier Zhao Ziyang of China, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, Pope John Paul II, the late Indira Gandhi of India, Prime Minister Gro Harlan Bruntland of Norway, and Andre Gromyko of the former Soviet Union. Madam Jehan Sadat is also a prolific supporter of the Foundation.
In 1986, Pat pioneered The Banner of Hope, a mile-long, red-silk memorial inscribed with the names and ages of children from all over the world who were killed in war. The Banner of Hope was first presented in 1987 at the Kremlin for the International Women's Congress where it brought former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to tears. The Banner was also highlighted at opening ceremonies of the United Nations in 1987.
Pat's current project, Remember the Children of Beslan, was recently launched in memory of the children who were terrorized and murdered, on September 1, 2004 - their first day of school. In December 2004, a delegation from Children as the Peacemakers will travel to Beslan, Russia, to assure the grieving people that they will not be forgotten.
As an author, Pat's many books include Making Friends, the first Soviet/American co-publication by Raduga Press in St. Petersburg and Henry Holt in the United States. Whispers From God, an autobiography, will be published in 2005.
As an early activist of women's civil rights, in the 1970s, Pat founded The Name Choice Center to inform women of their right to keep their own name after marriage, and she has supported the Ms. Foundation from its inception. In 1980 she originated the Napa Valley Wine Auction, the most successful wine auction in the world.
and after all that. I would love to meet this woman someday.
shooooooooooooooooooooooooot.
you do sound busy. just a few chapters here and there before bedtime isn't that hard, plus its good for you.
Interesting and very well written.
When you get home, have to cook dinner, help your kid with homework and grade papers for a couple hours, the last thing you wanna do is read a book before you go to bed. Believe me.
and after all that. I would love to meet this woman someday.
But, as soon as my life settles down, I'm really excited about these two new pieces of fiction:
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (whose book DROWN is a KILLER)
and
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson...
(couldn't find images.)
Trying to get through it, but it's really boring.
[img]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:This_Side_of_Paradise_dust_jacket.gif[/image
EDIT: Those would be Moby Dick and This Side of Paradise
It was a good read - a captivating page turner through the middle but perhaps a little cliche at the end
I really think there is very little in any art form that is fuckin' with that book.
MOBY DICK =