Reading: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Music: Matthew Sweet
TV/Movie: It Came From Hollywood
Link o' the Day: CastleFreak Midnight Movie Double Feature


I'm reading Microserfs right now by Douglas Coupland and am finding it an interesting experience somewhat. It has much in common with Coupland's later work, Jpod, in that it's about a small group of verk geek-intensive computer programmer types (at Microsoft in Seattle) in their early 20s to early 30s. Like Jpod, there is a single focus character whose parents enter the story, pages with random arragements of words, and an abundance pop-culture references. The novel takes place in the mid-90s so it's not too far off from thge contemporary world, but in reading you can't help but say to yourself, "Huh, if they knew then what we know now..."

It's a fun novel, a little more clumsy than Coupland's later novels, but that's to be expected. It's not bad by any stretch. I wish I had read it when it first came out--it would have blown me away. Granted, there's an o'erabundance of GenX-style philosophical meanderings, but it resonates with me and mine. It's downside is that I'm probably the oldest someone can read this book as.

I'm enjoying it, but it's not Coupland's best. His better days were ahead of him then as they still are now. It's fun watching how a novelist grows over 15 or so years. I can't wait for his next book.

(Unrelated) Final word...
Ben lies.




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I'm behind on my writing, but ahead on most everything else. Today I should be able to focus on the writing end of things once I get some morning tasks out of the way. Post cards. Medical journal. Some edits. One thing I need to do is get a bunch of stuff back out into markets. I have a few stories that need to make the rounds, and a stack of poems that need to be sent to journals.

Always good to be busy.


Rumor has is... The ancient Mayans developed a beverage remarkably similar to our modern coca-cola using cane sugar, kola nuts, arrowroot, and cocaine leaves. A form of carbonation was achieved by having priests blow into the beverage through a reed, forming a "holy" bubbling. The result was quickly capped and buried for a year before drinking.

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Today's link goes to Chris Reilly's CastleFreak Midnight Movie Double Feature. Chris has taken on a mission to bring back the midnight movie/double feature experience by dredging up great unsung classics in movie-horror and science fiction. Interpsersed are ancient animated calls to go to the lobby for all your epicurean desires, classic cartoon shorts, and background information on the features. There is a lot to be seen--impressive as the site has only been up for a couple of weeks. While the video is embedded into a Blogger page, it's surprisingly decent quality--especially in sound. I've yet to find a way to enlarge the viewing screen, but after a few minutes of viewing, you kind of forget it's a small screen and you're just enjoying the flick.

This is a must site for movie buffs--especially of horror, science fiction, and the so-called "cult" variety.

Enjoy!