The answer is YOU

[vovat]

bethje and I watched Friday the 13th: Part 4 last night. For some reason, it was called "The Final Chapter," even though there were six others made after it. As usual, a lot of the characters were teenagers whose only goal was to get laid, and whose only purpose was to get killed off by Jason. (I think you're doing pretty well in a Friday movie if you manage to have the sex BEFORE dying.) This time, however, one of them was Crispin Glover, which was pretty cool. The film also stars Corey Feldman as a little boy who can make masks and fix things, and who eventually defeats Jason in a profoundly stupid way.

petie_s linked to this article, which consists of excerpts from one-star Amazon reviews of classic books. I love the ones like A Clockwork Orange and Lord of the Flies, where the reviewers totally miss the point. And that review of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe just HAS to be a joke. On the other hand, I think a few of the reviewers make somewhat valid points, like the 1984 person who says it's all subjective, and the person who wanted to read Naked Lunch because Steely Dan referenced it. I mean, the phrasing leaves something to be desired, but name-checking strikes by a favorite artist strikes me as a perfectly valid reason to want to check something out. I mean, I probably never would have gotten into XTC if it hadn't been for that kind of thing.

Regardless, it's apparent that these "reviewers" had read at least PART of the books (a very SMALL part in the case of the Tropic of Cancer person, but still), which is more than I can say for some of the reviewers of Al Franken's new book. Beth told me yesterday about how there were so many reviews on there by people saying things about how they hadn't read it, but they knew it sucked because Franken is "a walking joke" who's spreading left-wing propaganda or whatever. One of these reviews actually says, "Al Franken is what McCarthy was warning America about in the 50s." PLEASE tell me that's a joke (whether or not it walks is unimportant {g}). Really, what are these people hoping to accomplish? Do they think someone will look at them and say, "Well, I WAS planning to buy this book, but now that I know Al Franken is a LEFT-WINGER, I don't think I will!" Really, I'm very much in favor of Amazon's open-review policy, and I think I can often get a better sense of whether something is good or bad from those than from so-called "professional" reviews, but I don't think they should include "reviews" from people who haven't even seen what they're supposedly reviewing.

Incidentally, all those comments on Franken's promotional video make me want to see it. I think I'll wait until I'm on a faster Internet connection, though.

I got the Fastbacks' The Question Is No in the mail on Monday. As with most of their albums when I listen to them the first few times, it's pretty catchy, but not much stands out for me yet. A few songs that do strike me as better than the rest are "Run No More," "Above The Sunrise," and "Lose." My favorite is actually "Everything I Don't Need," but that might just be because I already knew it.

Comments

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

i love corey feldman, and though he was ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE in that movie, even *I* thought that was the STUPIDEST WAY TO DEFEAT A KILLER EVER.

"omg, jason! look! i shaved my head!" and then jason was all "holy shit! cute corey DID shave his head! i'ma die now. *explode*"

or, you know...something like that.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, Jason has some weird psychological issues. Didn't someone defeat him in one of the earlier movies by pretending to be his mom? But even that wasn't as lame as the defeat in Part 4.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I actually really like "Don't Eat That It's Poison" from that record. Well, and the aforementioned "Everything I Don't Need". I _think_ I actually like that version better, even, but I'd have to a-b them.

I will need to pick up the new Al Franken book, but more importantly, Chris Elliott's new book. Because while I like Franken, I love Elliott.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I just listened to the two versions of "Everything I Don't Need" back-to-back, and I liked the version on The Question Is No better. It was more upbeat, I think.

"Don't Eat That It's Poison" is pretty good, although I don't think it's one of my favorites from the album. The "oo-oo-oo-oo" part at the beginning is cool. And it has a great title, too.