Of books and movies and music and vacationing family

Chanel and the girls are in Las Vegas right now. Fittingly, I borrowed Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again from the library on Wilcox. I read about it in a Kerouac piece found in Atop an Underwood, one of my favorite gifts from Chanel. She wrote something so beautiful on the inside that every time I read it I feel like the world is mine to conquer.

I just finished Dos Passos' The 42nd Parallel, a fantastic book about America right before WWI. It opened my eyes to a lot of things. Many of the feelings expressed by concerned people about the so-called war in Iraq were expressed by similar-minded people in 1914. I always thought every American was in full support of the U.S.'s efforts during the great world war, but this book has shown me this is not the case. I had pictured in my mind rationing and sacrificing for the greater good, but there were people that thought it was a mistake, and that we were only in the war to send the working class to the battlefield in order to avoid strikes and unions. In one particularly moving section, a group of people are kicked out of a restaurant because they won't stand during the playing of the National Anthem. One of the people say "You show your support by standing during the National Anthem, I show my disapproval by remaining seated." The group is physically removed, a person in the crowd asks the band to play the anthem, and everyone tries to sing the song, only nobody knows the lyrics.

The 42nd Parallel is really good, and becomes quite a fast read once you are absorbed into the characters and their lives. I was really drawn to J. Ward Moorhouse, probably because I love advertising and he becomes quite the tycoon.

I am going to start reading You Can't Go Home Again, and should be finished by 2011.
This afternoon I took advantage of the alone time by watching Woody Allen's film September. I think it's excellent, even though it's a drama and very depressing. Allen seemed to write the film without trying to be too funny or too impressive, and I think that's when he's at his best. I recommend that you watch it, as long as you are not single or prone to fits of depression.

Right now I'm digging Coltrane's A Love Supreme. The love he is referring to is God's. In his words, "This album is a humble offering to Him."




Ok, I'm going to read now. I have a big empty house and I've got to do something with myself.