Friday, August 20, 2010

No Gnu's is Good Gnu's (with Gary Gnu)


Yeah, its The Great Space Coaster. Deal with it.

I got nothing. I spent the past two days in South Texas, visiting colleagues in Corpus Christi and Kingsville. Returned home, ate some food, watched Monday's Bourdain on Rome, swore to get to Rome some day, then went and read some Jimmy Olsen comics.

I'm a bit wiped and will likely turn in early.

Not much of a pop-culture-tastic week.

I recently started using Google Sites to create a bucket list of books I'd like to read (or listen to), movies I need to see, and albums I need to add to my collection.

I figure this is good as the list will be a sort of nagging reminder that I need to get some of this stuff out of the way when I'm considering what to read, watch or listen to next. The book list is still very short, and I don't think I ever want to have more than ten or fifteen books on the list at one time, lest I decide its impossible and give up.

So, right now I'm listening to a very good audio book of Catch-22 and reading Lonesome Dove, which Jamie shamed me by reading last year, thus becoming more Texan than myself by at least a factor of three.

Catch-22 is brilliant and maddening and kind of reminds me of The Admiral. Not that The Admiral is maddening, but I think the sense of humor Heller demonstrates in the book is the sort of thing that The Admiral (a) finds amusing because (b) The Admiral has a pretty wicked sense of humor that I don't think many people really realize is there. But, no kidding, The Old Man is hilarious.

People always ask me where I eat when I travel. I always disappoint them by telling them the truth. I like to eat in the lobby restaurant of whatever hotel I'm staying. I don't expect a good meal, but nobody looks at you sideways for sitting there with a book, nobody wonders why you're eating alone, and the places are usually so empty, nobody cares if you sit and read for an hour (as long as you tip well. And I do.).

Last night the bartender/ hostess at the Hilton Garden Inn asked what I was reading, what with the massive brick of a book that is Lonesome Dove (which is why I've never read it. ADD usually means I'm good for about 400 pages and then done). I was surprised anyone under 25 had read the book, let alone also watched the movie.

Anyway, I'm not getting to West Texas anytime immediately, so I figured South Texas was as good a place as any to get into the book.

Next week: Waco. Then Brownsville in October.

5 comments:

J.S. said...

Hey, nice post. You managed to be pretty entertaining with nary a mention of a comic book or movie. When I travel I usually just order a pizza.

J.S. said...

Also, thank you for reactivating the part of my brain with Gary Gnu. What show was he on?

The League said...

...thanks?

It was The Great Space Coaster. I watched it in the summers when we lived in Houston. It was on after The New Zoo Revue.

rhpt said...

You go to Waco alot

The League said...

about once a month.