It has been a very boring week on this end. I got in trouble at work, I saved my boss a couple of GsI counseled D through three breakups and four reconciliationsbasically I feel as if Ive broken even. The only lasting impressions made upon me this week are from three works. Here we go
The first is the novel I just finished: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I think the sum of its parts is better than its whole, personally, but I see why it is such a popular book. Its not this Hollywood (here comes the Hollywood bashing) idea of a love story. They like to make love and romance into a gamethere are strategies and everything is solved within the time it takes to watch a popular sporting event.
Sometimes I feel like love is a war. Often romanticized, played up and down for different audiences, serious business, and the winner gets to write history. Thus, in this war I can think of myself as a conscientious objector. Basically, a person who has a number of reasonable points on why hes not in the fray, but is really a coward who is afraid what will happen to him once he hits the frontlines. (Over think much?)
The next thing is a documentary I just saw: Control Room. It follows the Al Jazeera network through the second Gulf War. (Gulf War II? Someone is going to copyright one of those phrases.) Ultimately my impression is that there are two main differences between Al Jazeera and Fox News (although they do lead into each other).
The first is geography. If Fox News was a Qatar based network with reporters and producers from Iraq, Iran, and the Emirates, they would look very much like Al Jazeera. The second is the way they are biased. Of course Al Jazeera is biasedeven its defenders would not argue that. Their bias however does not necessarily come from an agenda (like the F word network) but from a context filled cultural viewpoint. I wont sit here and defend everything theyve done, but I think Rumsfelds condemnation is far from fair.
The last thing is a painting I saw. It was nothing particularly special. Im rarely moved by static art or poetry. I have nothing against themits just not how Im wired. It was called Happy Ending. It wasvaguely expressionist (give me a break here, I study insurance) picture of a woman standing by a lake. It is a bucolic scene (in the best sense of the word). I think it just reminded me of this quote by Neil Gaiman. He wrote it as GK Chesterton in a fictional novel. I think Ill end this post with it.
The first is the novel I just finished: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I think the sum of its parts is better than its whole, personally, but I see why it is such a popular book. Its not this Hollywood (here comes the Hollywood bashing) idea of a love story. They like to make love and romance into a gamethere are strategies and everything is solved within the time it takes to watch a popular sporting event.
Sometimes I feel like love is a war. Often romanticized, played up and down for different audiences, serious business, and the winner gets to write history. Thus, in this war I can think of myself as a conscientious objector. Basically, a person who has a number of reasonable points on why hes not in the fray, but is really a coward who is afraid what will happen to him once he hits the frontlines. (Over think much?)
The next thing is a documentary I just saw: Control Room. It follows the Al Jazeera network through the second Gulf War. (Gulf War II? Someone is going to copyright one of those phrases.) Ultimately my impression is that there are two main differences between Al Jazeera and Fox News (although they do lead into each other).
The first is geography. If Fox News was a Qatar based network with reporters and producers from Iraq, Iran, and the Emirates, they would look very much like Al Jazeera. The second is the way they are biased. Of course Al Jazeera is biasedeven its defenders would not argue that. Their bias however does not necessarily come from an agenda (like the F word network) but from a context filled cultural viewpoint. I wont sit here and defend everything theyve done, but I think Rumsfelds condemnation is far from fair.
The last thing is a painting I saw. It was nothing particularly special. Im rarely moved by static art or poetry. I have nothing against themits just not how Im wired. It was called Happy Ending. It wasvaguely expressionist (give me a break here, I study insurance) picture of a woman standing by a lake. It is a bucolic scene (in the best sense of the word). I think it just reminded me of this quote by Neil Gaiman. He wrote it as GK Chesterton in a fictional novel. I think Ill end this post with it.
October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale.
Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: it is simply a matter, he explained to April, of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.
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....I've already said to much.