For All Your Reviewing Needs

One reason I feel compelled to keep up with my writing is that I can learn from my mistakes, my thoughts, my feelings, my past actions. It's like a form of meditation. Focus on the important stuff, push away the negative and the insignificant. 

I'm struggling to find a focus of my blog - reviews? Personal thoughts and happenings? Ideas and theories? Fashion and photography? A blend of some or all of the above, whatever strikes my fancy? Maybe it doesn't matter, as long as I'm consistent. 

It's important for me to keep an offline journal at some point, but the benefits of an online one is somewhat easier access to writing it down as the mood strikes me. Will this clash with my wanting to keep things consistent? I'm not sure. You gotta start somewhere, right?  

Couldn't really have asked for much more this past weekend.

I gots myself a studio apartment, in the neighborhood I wanted to be in! It feels like a luxury having a permanent address once again. I'm on vacation in Connecticut right now, but I get back to Austin Wednesday night, and can move in on Thursday. It'll be a slow start since I'll need to furnish the place, get internet hooked up and all that, but it'll be nice to have my very own place.

These are a few pictures, but of the model unit. I wish my place came furnished like that. Maybe I'll make it look even cooler.

Because I've neglected this blog for far too long, I'd like to start it up again. It's going to be a mix of occasional reviews based on films/music/books I've experienced, as well as a blog for my life and adventures in general.

We are reunited with Smiley, Bartleby and three young Bone scouts by the names of Ringo, Bingo and Todd. After setting up campfire, Smiley recites tales of Johnson Bone, the founder of Boneville. Smiley describes Johnson Bone as a "fighter" and an "adventurer", defeating Old Man Winter himself, gearing up for an all-you-can-eat contest, and getting into wild and crazy adventures out in the wilderness. Todd seems less than impressed with Smiley's tales, and before going to bed sneaks into Smiley's tent to pass out with Smiley's huge story-telling sombrero on his head. What ensues is a crazy and wild adventure with Big Johnson's mission to save the wildlife critters from the terrible clutches of the Rat Queen and her son.

There is definitely no shortage of adorable woodland creatures Jeff Smith first introduced us to in the Bone series, all attempting to get Johnson Bone to defeat the Rat Queen and her son, some having more faith in Johnson than the others. Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski do a fantastic job of creating big and playful personalities for all the animals, including a shy little turtle named Porter who is brave enough like all the rest of them to pop out of his shell to help defeat the menacing and evil Rat Creatures.

Jeff Smith keeps up all the action and adventure that his original Bone series includes, although with Tall Tales I find some of the situations to be a little more goofy and silly compared to adventures than Fone Bone and the gang find themselves in. But then again this is in the perspective of the little Bone scout Todd, and it does give the readers the sense of how wildly imaginative and daring a little child (Bone)'s mind can be.

Little Squirrel Gives It: 7/10

 

So far this season I've got the impression that the current season is going somewhat slow, taking its time to build up to the tension, but with episode four all hell seems about to break loose.

Tension occurs with Skyler and Walter after looking over Skyler's script on how to present their fabricated story concerning Watler's 'gambling problem' to Marie and Hank. Skyler makes sure to mention how 'terribly terribly' sorry Walter is, and resting pretty much all of the blame on his shoulders. She also takes this opportunity to have the last say and be the one of reason and logic in all of their decisions, whereas Walt is starting to cave under the demands of his wife, yet no one can really say that Walter is making the best decisions or keeping a low-profile, either (hundreds of dollars spent on champagne, anyone?).

We also get to see that Hank now possesses Gale's lab notebook, and while Walt tries to misdirect Hank in all the details and, ahem, who else might be involved (W.W. for Walter White? Surely not), we can still feel the anticipation of what Hank may find out next. Also in Walt's favor, here is one scene where we finally see what keeping his cool without being too obvious or let emotions and anxiety get the better of him.

The audience also anticipates another crazy curve potentially coming up this season, where Saul Goodman assesses Walt's situation and informs him of someone he can get in touch with that'll solve all his problems, but will also involve Walter and his family forming new identities have them disappeared, untraceable by anyone that might be after them. Even though Walt quickly dismisses this idea, it's gotta make you wonder...

As for Jesse, he's quickly falling into a downward spiral, retreating inside himself as to not actually acknowledge Gale's final farewell and what reality has come to at this point. Walt tries to get him to remember any and every detail during Gale's shooting, but Jesse wants none of it and forces Walter out. And, of course, it's Jesse that gets taken away by Mike, for exactly what reason and to exactly what destination.... we'll have to find out in the next episode.

Also quite possibly the best moment of the show, ever;

The Wanting Seed 
Anthony Burgess

The only other Burgess novel I've read besides this one had been A Clockwork Orange (which is definitely up on my top ten lists of favorite novels). It's pretty hard to beat A Clockwork Orange considering it's up there on my favorite novel(la)s of all time, but The Wanting Seed did have similar running themes, namely corruption of the government and the issue of free will and individuality.

The novel introduces us to our two protagonists, Tristram Foxe and Beatrice-Joanna Foxe, who have just lost their first and only son. The government is enforcing population control, stating by law that each couple is only allowed one child, and that heterosexuality is frowned upon. Initially Tristram is unaware that his wife is having an affair with his brother, Derek Foxe, but after Tristram finds out he kicks Beatrice out and she goes to live with her sister, Mavis, and Mavis' husband Shonny. Tristram is sent to jail after accidentally getting mixed up in a protest, and during his time in the cell the outside world and laws are changing rapidly.

Burgess describes the government as going through three stages; Pelphase, Interphase, and Gusphase. Pelphase is characterized as believing that individuals are inherently good and that society runs smoothly based on people's intentions to do good. Interphase occurs when the government is dissatisfied when realizing that people do not always act in good ways and thus try to control and enforce laws on society, leading to the eventual Gusphase. However, this is not a linear cause of events, but rather a cycle that gets repeated over and over throughout history. Burgess cycle shows us how history repeats itself and how society is never inherently just or evil, that good and evil fluctuate over time and each individual in a society have the capacity to do both good and evil. Even with our protagonists, they each make decisions that hurts the other or goes against what the reader may believe to be the 'right' choice.

 Sexual orientation is also a running theme in The Wanting Seed. Because of the heavy enforcement of population control, homosexuality is encouraged and seen as superior to heterosexuality. The government views homosexuality as something to aspire to, something that is fluid, but it is apparent from Derek's attempt to come across as a homosexual man, yet having a sexual affair with his brother's wife, that fitting in with a homosexual orientation is possible, but biology still plays a role in one's sexual orientation.

Also towards the end of the novel, Tristram gets involved in the war, but a war that is portrayed as having no significant impact, and no clear cut enemy to fight against. Violence and death occur not as an attempt at change and overthrowing the current order of things, but rather as another means of population control that those with higher status have complete control of. Tristram is the only individual in the last nine months that survived the so-called 'war', and manages to escape, just at the same time that the cycle of Pelphase is beginning. The struggle between man's good intentions and freedom rising and falling with man's cynicism and inability to be good is something that history, and our future, will never escape from.

Little Squirrel Gives It: 6.5/10

I created this blog in order for me to practice my writing (specially when it comes to writing reviews/organizing my thoughts and opinions), and for other people to read and discuss my reviews. I don't expect it to be limited to one form of art either, I'll be reviewing graphic novels, books, films, and TV shows. It's been a while since I've done this so my writing may be a bit rusty, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

First on my list to review: Cairo, G. Willow Wilson's first graphic novel. She also does a series called Air, which I highly recommend.