Do you ever find yourself wanting a book to take longer to read, because you just want it to keep going and going? Would you neglect your children (if you had any) in order to finish the chapter you’re on, and then read “just a little” into the next chapter, hoping they won’t notice? Do you find yourself thinking of who else needs copies of this book, and how you can afford to buy each and every one of them their own personal copy?

Yep. It’s one of those.

Ready Player One is the nerdiest 80s nerd book I’ve ever read. In the first chapter, there’s about a dozen offhand references to things I loved that originated in the 80s, starting with The Breakfast Club and Heathers. At some point, one character says to another “We can dance if we want to. We can leave your friends behind.” There are puzzles to solve that involve being obsessively knowledgeable about things like Quest For the Holy Grail or WarGames.

The whole thing reads like one giant text adventure. There’s crazy Blade Runner technology. There’s a terrible future and a beautiful virtual reality. There’s a quite touching romance, and a tournament that everyone in the world wants to win. A ragtag group of mavericks fighting an evil cabal who wants to destroy the purity of their world.

It’s just a whole damn lot of fun. Stop reading this post and go find it at your local library. Or buy it. It’s definitely a book worth buying. I’m probably going to buy a copy for myself.

All three concerts were significantly different. I believe they only played one of their songs at all three concerts (Lucky Man). The first night was very much a radio hits singalong night. The second night they played a lot of B-sides and rare songs, and the third night was a mix of the two. I finally heard them play Light Years, which has been a favourite of mine for a long, long time. We had great seats every night, and in Hamilton we had floor seats right at the front of the second block of seats, which meant we had tonnes of room and could see really well.

I forgot how much incredible music Pearl Jam’s made. I don’t tend to listen to a lot of straight-out rock any more because I’m old, have no street cred, and new music is so bad with the exception of Wilco. In the weeks since the concert, I’ve sifted through all of their albums again. There’s so much depth and so much musicality. With the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, I also sifted through all my Foo Fighters (I’m not actually a Nirvana fan), and they’re also wonderful.

I feel so old that I’m all like, “Remember when music was good?” and all that. I felt old when I just wanted the opening act to be quieter but they were just so loud and uninteresting.

First of all, LOVE your work. Downton Abbey is SO GOOD. I love it. I love that you always give Maggie Smith awesome things to say, and that your costumers have decided that she should look a bit like a bird. I love how mean everyone is to each other, especially O’Brien and Thomas, and I love how you make sure that Mary always messes everything up. The show is so pretty, and the first season was wonderful. I love that you picked that lady who played the British Prime Minister in Doctor Who to play against Maggie Smith. The sets are so beautiful, and I’m glad that the first episode of this newest season has lived up to what you did in the first season.

But.

If you do anything to mess up the relationship between Mr. Bates and Anna, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive you.

That being said, how awesomely evil is Vera Bates?

And I know we’re in WWI now, but please, please, please don’t kill off anyone. Please. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle that. Anyways, the first episode of season 2? So good. Keep up the good work.

Yours truly,
Shannon

The star of this film is one “Daniel Craig”, an Englishman trying to look and sound like an American westerner. He doesn’t look like a cowboy, but everyone pretends that he does. He randomly wakes up in a field, with a Futurama-style magic wrist thingy he doesn’t know how to operate and amnesia. Our English-American Amnesiac Cowboy manages to find a local town, full of old-timey people and one Douchey Entitled Son who enjoys shooting his gun. It is while in this town, that we learn our English-American Amnesiac Cowboy is actually an English-American Amnesiac Fugitive Cowboy, Jake Somethingororther. He is arrested and put in jail, along with Douchey Entitled Son.

This is when the newcomers arrive, borrowing a few of the locals in order to learn the ways of the American West. We learn that our English-American Amnesiac Fugitive Cowboy’s wrist thingy has powerful LED lights, that work via inductive technology, and that the newcomers have the charge station somewhere on their flying insect mobiles. Our English-American Amnesiac Fugitive Cowboy, apparently a Luddite, is scared, and clenches his fist, firing his magic wrist thingy and destroying the flying insect mobile. The charge is spent, and his magic wrist thingy is once again just an annoying bracelet.

The town’s remaining residents decide that they do not like the newcomers borrowing their friends and relatives and form a posse, of which one “Harrison Ford”, an American Hero of Awesomeness is the leader. Our American Hero of Awesomeness has a score to settle, as the newcomers have borrowed the Douchey Entitled Son, making the town safer for all. Our American Hero Father of Awesomeness has to team up with Our English-American Amnesiac Fugitive Luddite Cowboy to shut down the charge base for his magic wrist thing once and for all, making the world safe for Douchey Entitled Sons everywhere.

And then there’s this woman who never emotes, and doesn’t seem attractive, but must have mind-control powers, as everyone falls in love with her for no apparent reason. Also, she’s an alien. But a different alien than the other aliens.

Anyways, in the end, the locals team up with the remainders of the original locals to fight off the new invaders who are after their gold. They blow up the charge base, which makes it rain gold. Nobody gets injured by raining gold nuggets, and the town prospers, all by keeping the foreigners at bay. The Douchey Entitled Son and the other townsfolk are saved before the charge base is blown up, and they all have amnesia. Nobody tries to cure the Douchey Entitled Son. Instead, they convince him that he is an Upright Gentleman Citizen. Everyone forgives the English-American Amnesiac Fugitive Luddite Cowboy for his crimes, and he becomes an English-American Amnesiac Non-Fugitive Luddite Cowboy. An uneasy friendship has blossomed between our American Hero Father of Awesomeness and our English-American Amnesiac Non-Fugitive Luddite Cowboy.

The end. I miss The Adventures of Brisco County Junior.

A book that is not really a book might be more of a book than many others. This book here is really not a book it is a box of sheets and a leaflet. One could argue that is the stuff for discussion and aftermath of the book as it is still the authors take on the subject and it probably is but the book does not offer any format for this.

Maggie Smith playing a terrible old British woman? Fantastic. The wardrobes and the hats and the men in their hunting clothes? Awesome. The passive aggression? Rampant. That lady who played Harriet Jones in Doctor Who as Maggie Smith’s frenemy? Hilarious. Everyone constantly asking the eldest daughter why she doesn’t want to marry cousin Matthew? Gross. Thomas and O’Brian? Deliciously evil.

Downton Abbey is one of the most expensive television programs ever created and the reason for that is because it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m also guessing that Maggie Smith doesn’t work cheap. Whatever they pay her, it’s worth every penny. These people are terrible to each other in the politest way possible. I love the entire staff, the evil ones are fantastically evil and terrible. And Anna! Once you put her in modern clothing, she’s a total knockout.

So who’s going to like this show? Well, I’d say Jane Austen fans, but we all remember my attempts to read one of her books, which was a total disaster. People who like Harry Potter or other British stuff probably would enjoy it. I’m not sure who reads this blog, or else I’d name each and every one of you and then tell you how confident I am that you would enjoy it. If you want my opinion on if you should watch this show or not, please let me know. Maybe I can facilitate you by lending you my copy.

Overall, who doesn’t want to watch entitled British people being terrible to each other in awesome hats?

There’s currently three seasons. The first season of six episodes sets up the characters and some of the major story lines. It was a bit shaky, but I instantly fell in love with the Andy character, played by Chris Pratt who was on Everwood. Aziz Ansari’s character Tom steals almost all the scenes he’s in. The whole cast is absolutely fabulous. It took a while for the show to figure out the right balance between earnestness and silliness with Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope. She is a fantastic actress, and I now have a bit of a girl crush on Amy Poehler in addition to Tina Fey, Summer Glau, that chick who played Olivia on Fringe, and lots of other people.

Also, I now hate it when people use the word literally.

But despite the show’s silliness here’s the reason why I like it so much: The show makes you care about these characters. It’s got real heart. I’m not usually one to want to hook all of the TV show’s characters up with each other, as I think it’s often terrible and rarely improves the show. In Parks And Rec, I was happy when they hooked up Andy and another one of the characters, because I generally want these people to be happy. I love how committed Leslie’s character is to her job and how positive she is.

Parks and Recreation is a fantastic show starring very very funny people. It’s on NBC, and I don’t actually know what day or time it’s on, because I just discovered it all in one huge chunk on demand. You gotta watch it. I would suggest starting with season two. It’s great. It makes me laugh so hard.

Pop Culture Happy Hour
From NPR’s Monkey See blog. Most of the movies and TV that I have found within the last six months [Downton Abbey, Parks & Rec, Bridesmaids, etc.] that I love is because of the Pop Culture Happy Hour crew. Four NPR editors get together on a mostly weekly basis and talk about books, music, TV, and movies. There are usually three segments per show and each podcast lasts about forty to forty five minutes. At the end of each podcast, they have a segment of things that are making them happy this week. There’s a fun jingle, it’s a very cheerful podcast, and overall, I love it.

Q
Q is a CBC radio program that features long-form interviews. It gained a lot of internet exposure after Billy Bob Thornton sorta imploded. Jian Ghomeshi interviews authors, actors, musicians and all sorts of other cultural figures in a one-hour daily program. A lot of the new music I have found is because of interviews and performances featured on Q [Adele, The Secret Sisters, Janelle Monae, etc.]. Q is awesome and Jian is a great interviewer.

Search Engine
Search Engine is a Canadian podcast that talks about digital culture. Jesse Brown talks a lot about digital rights, usually related with the hijinks of the Canadian government or the CRTC. Each episode is about ten to fifteen minutes. I haven’t found any new TV shows to watch because of this podcast, but I do feel more informed.

This American Life
Ira Glass has an awesome radio voice. Every week, This American Life delivers long-form stories about stuff. Last week, it was about natural gas extraction and it made me mad. Two weeks ago it featured a segment about actors in jail performing act V of Hamlet. The stories are hard to pin down, but they’re always poignant and usually informative.

WTF with Marc Maron
This one isn’t for my Mom. Marc Maron has on mostly comedians and they have a conversation. About once every few weeks, this starts with Marc and the interviewee talking about why Marc didn’t like them in the 90s, then moves on to other things. Rarely is the interview extremely funny, and this is a great thing. Maron’s interview with Amy Poehler, coupled with hearing about it for a year on Pop Culture Happy Hour is led me to try Parks and Rec (which I will tell you all about later — spoilers: it’s great!).

RadioLab
Nerds talk about nerdy things. Awesomely.

So there you are! Podcasts I like. Do any of you listen to good podcasts?

You Are Not a Gadget - Jaron Lanier

Mr. Lanier wants the kids to get off his lawn. And his lawn is the internet. And from what I could tell, he misses the good old days, where people were creative on the internet. Because nobody is creative on the internet anymore. Mashups aren’t creative, and people are only making mashups now.

The author really enjoys coining new phrases as well. He used the term ‘digital technomarxism’ more than once. I believe he also said something about digital socialism, and probably digital capitalism.

So here’s his argument about why people aren’t creative on the internet any more: people use Facebook, and people can’t be creative on Facebook because they’re too busy playing Farmville, which is dumb. Facebook users are dumb. Facebook users don’t engage in meaningful ways. Facebook has made online interactions shallow and pointless, rendering humanity into a hollow shell of its former self. Memes are dumb. The internet is full of dumb.

Ugh. Does he not remember how dumb the internet was in 1997? The Internet was always dumb. It was just like it is now, except it was full of terrible animated gifs, personal websites with “under construction” signs, and it was way slower. Now, there’s more people to spread the dumb around.

So back to the book. I was expecting something different than the guy who came up with virtual reality whining about how the internet is shallow. It was written in really lofty prose that led me to believe the guy thought he was significantly smarter than he was. I didn’t find the book put together a cohesive argument about whatever this guy was trying to tell me. I’m not sure what he was trying to tell me. It feels like there were six or seven different things going on that never really fit together, and I wouldn’t like you to read it.

Now, back to the Internet being full of dumb: everything is full of dumb. Newspapers are full of dumb. The radio is full of dumb. Television is full of dumb. I don’t know much about telegraphs, but I’m betting it was full of dumb, too. This isn’t new. Most content, in any medium, isn’t brilliant. Most of it is mediocre, some is awful, and some is brilliant. I think it’s all about finding those little niches where you can engage in the stuff you love and find brilliant.

That’s why I won’t be passing this book along to any of my brilliant and wonderful friends. I don’t want them turning dumb.

Player One: What Is To Become Of Us - Douglas Coupland

This book actually comes from the CBC Massey Lecture series. It was delivered in five evenings over five hours, and all in all, it feels rushed because of it. Like most of the later Coupland books, a group of disaffected people end up in a room, interacting with each other in monologue format, while the world collapses around them. This time they’re in an airport bar. A couple meeting for a first-time hookup, a bartender, a rogue preacher, and a semi-autistic young woman. Peak oil hits, there’s snipers on the roof, and everyone is going ape-shit. And these people sit in bar and hide out.

Coupland seems to be repeating a lot of his “greatest hits” in this book.  It is as if he took one part Girlfriend in a Coma, mixed it with one part Generation A, and added some stuff about peak oil, just to be modern.  Which isn’t to say the book is not enjoyable, it is. It’s just to say that there’s nothing new here. Douglas Coupland only seems capable of writing in one “voice”. He’s very good at it, and his books are excellent, I just wish I could come across a new Douglas Coupland novel not already know what’s in it.

This was a Bookstravaganza book. It tied with Emma by Jane Austen, so I’m reading it now. I will post a new list probably in the next week.