Sweeney Todd

A very short review.

Go see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Go on.  The rest of the world's not doing anything special today.  We'll wait for you to get back.   

Trust me, you won't regret it.  

Audiobook Review: Napalm and Silly Putty

Basic Information
Format: Audiobook (Two Double-Sided Cassettes)
Author/Narrator: George Carlin
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
ISBN-10: 1565114507

(As an aside, I'd just like to note the hilarity of the Amazon page on this work. As of this writing, it lists the number of pages. In an audio book.)

Synopsis: George Carlin reads one of his bestselling books of comedy and observation. Pretty straightforward.

So I've been a Carlin fan for a long time now. Well, a long time relative to my age. I know my grandmother would be terribly amused that anyone in their 20s (gasp, a personal detail) claims to have done anything in particular for 'a long time', but perspective is everything.

At least, it is for George Carlin. Napalm and Silly Putty is an audiobook filled with humor from an intentionally skewed, borderline psychotic perspective. For Carlin fans, you recognize the drill by now: Carlin's cranky, agitated, self-involved and bored, looking for amusement, which is fortunately abundant because life is an endless parade of hilarious affliction and suffering.

Before I talk about the actual content of this book, I think it's useful to address two aspects I've seen in other reviews, and noticed about his books myself. First, people tend to read or listen to a Carlin book and think, "I've heard a lot of this shit before!". Well, yeah. You probably have. There's a lot of overlap between his comedy tours from tour to tour, between his books and his comedy, and so forth. He readily admits so in live performances. There's actually a lot of fun to be had if you go to a couple shows distantly spaced in a tour, watching the work and humor change and evolve, seeing which jokes he keeps and which he chucks. The same is true here; sure, some of the material comes from earlier comedy tours, but it's placed in the context of a book, surrounded by other material, and presented in a different format.

Which brings me to the second issue. Half the amusement, easily, in Carlin's work is his delivery. I tried reading another Carlin book in dead-tree format and didn't get through it, even though my brain tried to supply his voice in my head. He's funny as hell in person, or as in the case here, on tape. In print, you lose a lot of the subtlety, the sarcasm, the little vocal tricks and cues that make up his work. So, if you are going to get a Carlin book, I think audio is the way to go.

All that aside, how is Napalm and Silly Putty? Well, for the most part, it's very funny. At times outright hilarious. Carlin makes the most of the format, delivering his humor in a more laid-back, warm and friendly until he kicks you in the ribs, Grandfatherly tone, and it works. The material is great too, some of it older, much of it stuff I'd never heard before.

Unlike his standup, there are no particular constraints on time or length of a routine. Many pieces are one sentence quips or observations, which can be somewhat jarring if you're not expecting it. Others run as long as he feels like, going into something in greater detail than in the time limited, eternally-preparing-for-the-next-HBO-special format he does his shows in. Taken as a whole, that makes this audiobook presentation worth listening to on its own to a Carlin fan, as it effectively is giving him another medium to work in.

Particularly noteworthy bits, to me, included his take on Entropy and the related fall of Western Civilization. Always the dedicated charitable soul, Carlin wonders how he can help to advance these noble, and quite inevitable natural processes.

There's an extended piece on Jesus writing a tell-all book that's sure to have angered the handful of conservatives who could bring themselves to be exposed to alternative ideas. There are lots of Carlin's typical observations on the precise state of decay of American society (usefully seen, now, as an attempt to appraise his success in hastening its demise).

Finally, you get a lot of little one-liners and puns you're not going to find anywhere else in his body of work. These for me are really hit and miss, but it's nice to have them. It's sort of like seeing a character actor branch out into another genre of film; they might not be as consistent there as you like, but you get to experience something new, and challenge your own preconceptions at the same time.

Overall, I can heartily recommend this as an excellent companion for a long car ride. Let Carlin be your 'content provider', as he puts it, and you'll feel the hours slide by, along with the road under your wheels. If you listen to cassettes somewhere else, it's still funny of course, but damn if this isn't a perfect piece of roadside entertainment. Not to mention, outside of cars, who does listen to cassettes these days?

Pros:
--Lots of new material
--Book format allows for experimentation

Cons:
--Experiments don't always succeed, here or anywhere else

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Flight Volume One

Basic Information:

Format: Graphic Novel Anthology
Authors: Various
Illustrators: Various
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN-10: 1582403813

Synopsis: A volume of visually arresting illustrated stories on the topic of flight from a wide variety of artists. Pretty self-explanatory really. Everything from high fantasy to indie relationship comics to steampunk and more, so long as it soars above the earth, it might well be in here.


Flight is one of those books that you have to read yourself to really understand. Like many anthologies, you'll find some items that you like a lot more than others, but unlike many of these anthology books, Flight is jam-packed with incredibly high production values and consistently well written stories.

As mentioned in the Synopsis, the unifying theme for Flight is, well, flying. It doesn't matter what sort of flying, or who is doing the flying, so long taking to the skies is involved. Some stories simply try to describe the act and joy of flying itself; others tell adventure tales, or explore the human condition using flight as a metaphor.

The other unifying theme for Flight is artistic quality. Almost with exception, every story is jam packed with gorgeous, somethings heart-breakingly gorgeous artwork. If ever you wanted to just gaze on a bunch of beautiful comics, this is the place to start.

Some highlights:

Hugo Earhart by Jake Parker
--Gorgeous art with a high-adventure story.

Outside My Window by Khang Le
--A wonderful story in a bottle about love and captivity.

Faith by Erika Moen/Hope Larson
--Moving, short, and something I could not disagree more with, ideologically. I love it anyway.

Beneath the Leaves - Jump by Rad Sechrist
--Lighthearted fun that makes you long for better cartoons in general

I Wish by Vera Brusgol
--Great story about dreams, growing up, and facing a strange, strange world.

I have to stop or I'll recommend just about all of them. Pick it up already.

Pros:
--Fantastic Art, Stories
--Wide Selection of Topics and Authors

Cons:
--Hmm. It doesn't come with free cocaine?

Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Thief of Always

Basic Information:

Format: Graphic Novel
Author: Clive Barker
Illustrator: Gabriel Hernandez
Publisher: IDW Publishing
ISBN:1-933239-38-7

Synopsis:
Harvey Swick is a very bored young man. Trapped in the 'great gray beast February', he is desperate for an escape from his mundane existence. Luckily for him, he's given a chance to get away from it all by a mysterious stranger who appears in the dead of night, and transports him to the Holiday House, a world where years pass in a day, every night is Christmas, and every wish is granted. Predictably enough, things aren't entirely what they seem, and Harvey will have to discover the secrets behind the House, as well as the price you have to pay for your dreams.

Review:

Thief of Always made a great first impression on me. I was sitting up late at a relative's house, with nothing else to do, bored in the dark hours of early morning. Therefore, the feelings of ennui and shadowy boredom evoked by Hernandez' art and Barker's writing struck home immediately. Even though a wish-fulfillment story is a fairly standard trope, Thief of Always starts off feeling fresh, and vividly evokes the emotions of a idle childhood, of heartsickness and depression and the lingering hope of a better, sunnier day. This for a person who hates the sun.

For a time, at least, the story grabs hold of you. It's quite moving, and Hernandez keeps pace with his gorgeously murky watercolored look. Harvey falls deeper under the spell of the House, and so do you, even as both reader and protagonist slowly but inevitably become aware of the rotten underbelly to a place where all your dreams come true.

It's only when Harvey makes his escape from the House, and the book moves into its third act, that the wheels come off the wagon, but when they do, they come off HARD. Horror-fantasy cliches abound, and neither Barker's writing nor Hernandez' art can cover their stink on the page. Particularly annoying is an egregious example of what I'd call "Horror Protagonist Syndrome", which can be defined as the process by which a character in a horror story deduces, on the basis of little or no evidence, under enormous stress and time constraints, the precise course of action to Vanquish Evil and Save the Day.

Why are we expected to put up with this sort of lazy writing? Why do we have to see, again and again, a climactic scene where someone just happens to figure out the magic artifact to break a spell, the secret to the puzzle that locks the maze, the precise method to kill the monster, completely without in-story justification?

It's an insult to our intelligence as readers. It's boring and trite. It's also a great way to ruin an otherwise fascinating story, as it does here. Pity.

In spite of the thousands of wish-fulfillment stories in our culture, Thief of Always had real potential. Pity Barker tossed it down a well for a tidy resolution.


Pros:
--Gorgeous Artwork
--Moody, Evocative Writing

Cons:
--Lazy, Sloppy Conclusion

Rating: 2.5/5