Two sips from the cup of human kindness, and I'm shitfaced

[vovat]

Last night, bethje and I watched Short Circuit 2. I thought it was better than the first one, since there was a lot more going on in terms of plot and characters. Incidentally, Beth noticed what appears to be a continuity error between the two movies. In the first one, the Indian scientist guy tells Steve Guttenberg that he's from Bakersfield, and his family is from Pittsburgh. In this one, though, he says he's actually from India, and he's studying for his citizenship test. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. {g}

Today, I went with Beth to buy her textbooks for the new semester. She also bought Twin Cinema, the new album by the New Pornographers, at the school bookstore. I'm listening to it now, and it's quite good. I think I like it better than The Electric Version, although not as much as Mass Romantic. Electric was a fun album, but I think most of the songs sounded kind of the same. Maybe I'm giving it too little credit, though. I should probably listen to that one again in the near future. Anyway, there's more variety on Cinema. I haven't picked a favorite song yet, but there are quite a few candidates.

By the way, while we at the school bookstore, I noticed that one of the books they were selling was (I kid you not) C. S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies. I sometimes wonder if the Dummies franchise has gone too far. {g}

After leaving the store, I dropped Beth off at work, and donated a bunch of her old board games that she never played to the thrift store. And now I'm at at the computer, posting this entry.

Comments

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Today at the grocery store, I noticed "Thirty Minute Meals for Dummies."

If you need a "for dummies" book to read a recipe, then perhaps you should order take-out.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Upon another moment's reflection, perhaps the "Narnia for Dummies" is in anticipation of all the English teachers out there that will use the movie as a carrot to get their students to read and discuss a book?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. I have yet to see a "Harry Potter for Dummies," but maybe that's coming soon.

The impression I got from paging through the Narnia book was that it dealt primarily with the religious themes in the books. And that's fine as far as it goes, but I think, say, an annotated Narnia book would be a better idea. In fact, I'd probably buy such a thing, or at least check it out from the library.

That actually reminds of an article I read on Slate (I think) that trashed the Oz books and talked up the Narnia ones. (As you've probably gathered by now, I like both a lot, although I'm more of an Oz fan.) It said something about the Annotated Wizard of Oz (which I do own) was a stupid idea, and how there would never be an annotated Narnia book, because scholars saw them as too religious. Something like that, anyway. I don't know how accurate this is, but I have seen a fair amount of criticism of the books for being "too Christian," or something like that. It strikes me as very much the same "If I don't agree with the views of this book's author, it must be bad!" attitude that is often associated with intolerant fundamentalists, only from the opposite side. I mean, I've never been particularly religious, but I found the Narnia books to be good, well-written stories, and not preachy at all. Just because they have a Christ figure in them, they're somehow Christian propaganda?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

She also bought Twin Cinema, the new album by the New Pornographers, at the school bookstore.

Amazon.com just sent me a "You Might be Interested In..." email saying I might be interested in that this evening, coincidentally.

Does this mean fate is trying to tell me I might be interested in that?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Does this mean fate is trying to tell me I might be interested in that?

Sounds like something he'd do. {g}

It's a good album, but I tend to think that their first one, Mass Romantic, is a better starting point for the band.