Fair enough! Thanks for the response.

Used Cars is a gem. That'd make a great triple feature with Easy Money and Slapshot. Simple plots, charming wiseasses and a welcome surplus of nudity and vulgarity.

Currently on Mason & Dixon (~200 pages), it's pretty clearly my favorite read of his so far (with GR, Lot 49, Inherent Vice and half of Against the Day for comparison). I know I'm missing countless allusions, but so far Mason seems to be the most real person in any of the stuff I've read of his so far, which is a…

Reading that during my lunch breaks at my (thankfully now formerly!) thoroughly rote and unfulfilling analyst position was rather profound.

so stupid.

Have you read Special Topics? I had to quit that (which is pretty rare, I stick through alot of stuff even if it's not the most enjoyable), it was just far too pleased with itself at every turn.

Dispatches, by Michael Herr. I'm sure he's following in the wake of Hemingway and others, but man, the way he wrote in that about the madness that had to have been Vietnam is mesmerizing. I'm constantly floored by writers who almost seem forced or compelled to invent a way of writing; marrying nouns, repurposing…

Grimace Owns You.

Nicely done.

I could see it being as simple as Green Bay catches fire down the stretch, snags a wild card and beats the Boys in Dallas in the 2nd round.

And right on with Pine. I don't demand that he win awards for that, but it's more I'm glad that, in the evolution of his career, he landed this role. Sometimes it's enough to demonstrate to directors / casting people that you can do a certain thing; in this case, it's that he can brood and do a low-key performance…

Yeah I think the whole racist angle was maybe that movie's way of working in some No Country element to the "old man has been left behind by the world" plot. His being outwardly racist to his partner (it's joking, but very hard joking) I think is mostly to tell the audience that he's a different, older breed. I…

They call that "Dicapriacting"

I really only know Pine from the Star Trek movies, so my opinion has just been that he's charismatic and unfairly handsome. It was good to see he's got some real chops and I think he could do solid work with an actor's director like Jeff Nichols or somebody.

Bridges was basically doing Rooster Cogburn again, maybe with some Bad Blake thrown in. It was fine, a little hammy. I thought his best bit of real acting was in that conversation with Pine near the end.

Over the break I re-started Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, and I think I'll definitely finish this time. I hadn't read any of his stuff in awhile, and I've never loved it, but I had forgotten how I read him (which is usually just focus on the largest narrative and don't fret when you inevitably come upon allusion…

Black Books is great, I should give that another whirl.

I think he and the kid who plays Neckbone complement each other quite well. Neckbone easily could've been the annoying friend, or maybe the one who antagonizes Ellis (if I'm remembering the names correctly), but as I recall he's a pretty decent and loyal kid, which makes a lot of sense when you see how Shannon, as…

Maybe not Groundhog Day, but he was pretty funny.

What the hell are you on about?