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Nothing more British than taking the piss. Taking flags too seriously is an American thing. You tell me who the real patriots are here.
We're going down the shitter aren't we?
I managed to get some time to read today. I mean, I've had little but time for most of the last 3 and a bit weeks, but aside from some audio book listening I haven't done much reading. But I am feeling sharper and keen to wean myself off crap TV and mindless phone games (though did play a bit of Susie Dent's Two Words today, which is a neat take on Scrabble) and I chose a short and gripping book, the new novel by Jonathan Ames - A Man Named Doll Having interviewed Jonathan for RHLSTP and having been a long time fan of his, I'd been lucky enough to one sent an advance copy of this one - it's out next month. I'd taken it to hospital with me on the day of my operation, but it had been stuck at the bottom of a bag, unread and I found it again today and dived straight in. It's a modern take on a detective noir story and the brilliant writing immediately immerses you in the world of being a PI in LA and the story washes around you as you follow the protagonist Happy Doll as he attempts to find out who killed his friend and why. The economy of the writing is impressive and as you boulder toward the conclusion and see how few pages are left, it's exhilarating to try and work out how it's going to get resolved. It's witty and funny and philosophical too and the web that Happy finds himself in in the end is pretty dark. It just felt good to get swept up in a book again and I was just sad that it was so short. I hope there's more to come from this character. And if you haven't yet discovered Ames, then lucky you! There's loads of great work to catch up on.
My wife had listened to my podcast with Mary Lynn Rajskub and mentioned the bit about “Dude, Where's My Car?†and we realised neither of us had ever seen it. So we decided to give it a go. It was probably a mistake with the benefit of hindsight. Not that it was an all together terrible premise, but it's 21 years old and even though the characters are virginal naif idiots (very much - in fact too much- in the mould of Bill and Ted, without the charm and wit) it strikes the wrong tone too often and like a lot of comedy of the time is transphobic, homophobic (though Stifler and Kutcher do kiss), a bit racist and fails to be as funny about teenage boys attitude to women as Wayne's World (because the film wants to have its cake and eat it, so it is just misogynist). There are a few funny moments and Mary Lynn is good in the few bits she's given and up to a point it's so wilfully stupid that you nearly go along with it. But it ultimately feels like a soulless cash grab, trying to repeat the success of Dumb and Dumber and the other films I mentioned and probably not worth visiting two decades on. Though quite interesting as an historical document about how what is acceptable in comedy can change quite quickly.
It wasn't even on any of the platforms we've paid for, so I had to pay £3.49 for the privilege. That's the real insult.
I suspect I will be the only person to read this Ames novel and watch Dude, Where's My Car? on the same day. Now there's a challenge for you.
