Miss Wyoming
Susan Colgate and John Lodge Johnson, an ex-child star and big time Hollywood film producer, are the lead characters in this book.
Not the most promising start, but Coupland beautifully realises these cliches as real people with all the neuroses, strengths, flaws and past history that you could ever wish for.
Told as usual with his fabulous style, I really enjoy this book, but the plot is pointless and inconsequential and rests on the strength of the characters. If you can't enjoy the characters then the book will mean nothing to you. I recommend this if you already like Coupland's work.
The Wrestling
Excellent look at British professional wrestling, told essentially in the words of the participants. Professional wrestling is remembered in the British collective memory as a naff spectacle of deeply unfit men participating in obviously fake matches in the afternoon on ITV. It was like that, but also it was home to some intriguing personalities and an interesting mat based style in comparison to the major US promotions. British wrestlers knew their stuff even if the stars ended up being big fat men like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks who won through their sheer size. This book gives an historical overview of the wrestling and a personal view of the business as told in the wrestlers, promoters and managers own words. Highly recommended to anyone with a passing interest in professional wrestling.
Tony Benn
Saint Jude's Infirmary
Nick Doody
Richard Herring
Get Up Stand Up, The Three Tuns, Edinburgh
It's not often you find yourself at the very epicentre of extreme cognitive dissonance but I managed it last night.
As mentioned before I'm friends with the guys in Saint Jude's Infirmary and I went along to this gig because of the early start and finish suiting my commuting schedule. I knew it was a night of comedy, music and politics, but I really wasn't prepared for how weird it was to watch your friends be supported by Tony Benn?
First off they showed a trite and overly simplistic film pushing the anti-WMD agenda. I happen to agree with that agenda but I do wish that they didn't talk down to people so much.
Then Tony Benn wanders up to the stage and for the next 45 minutes or so talks about politics. The man is still pretty sharp for 81 years old, but his talk was filled with crowd pleasing rhetoric and very little of actual substance. He took some questions but they were all soft soap stuff. Mind you it wasn't really the kind of crowd where you could ask him difficult questions about his role in government, etc.
Next, Saint Jude's Infirmary, who I continue to have no perspective on. It's hard to be objective when you know people quite that well.
The first comedian was Nick Doody, who was really quite funny with his drink and relationships stuff, I quite enjoyed it.
Last act was ex TV comedian Richard Herring, who did a blue act with an absurd interlude about potatoes, apples, French and English - the pedantic little bugger. I laughed but it wasn't that great.
So yeah, from left-wing politics to knob jokes via the music of friends in the space of a couple of hours. Really weird experience.
Watchmen
I normally don't blog about comics since, strictly speaking, even in trade paperback form they're not novels. Even the majestic Sandman series consists of short stories and novellas. Moore and Gibbon's classic, however, is beyond all doubt a true graphic novel.
Watchmen is about a subtly different version of now, where "superheroes" or masked vigilantes really existed, and the consequences of their existence for every living person.
It's a densely layered piece making the best of a medium that is both visual and written. The central narrative unwinds beautifully, the characters are exquisitely portrayed, and the questions asked resonate in your mind for years.
It's a piece I have read many times, and yet I continue to find new details in it even today.
I recommend this book to anyone, with no hesitation.
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