Illmatic's 20th Anniversary (Four Years Late)

 

 

(Since Nas has just released a stellar live version of Illmatic performed with a symphony, it seemed like a good time to publish this little write-up I did on the last re-release of Illmatic. A hip hop blog requested this write-up back in 2014, then promptly folded the day after I submitted it. I still don't know what happened. I hadn't thought about it since, until the live version was released. Four years later, it seems like a good time to finally publish it.)

 

Four times I have purchased the classic hip hop record Illmatic by Nas. Willingly. It wasn’t stolen. It wasn’t lost. It wasn’t given to someone else. Nope. I have all my copies. Well, that’s not exactly true—the cassette tape is long gone—but I do indeed have three CD versions.

 

Why, you may ask. Certainly, it is arguably the greatest hip hop record ever created. I’ll argue the point, but that doesn’t take anything away from the album. There are a lot of hip hop albums. There are a lot of great hip hop albums. Being in the conversation for “best” is high enough praise. Nobody needs to justify owning Illmatic. Still, none of this provides an answer as to why I own three of them.

 

So why indeed? Because I am an idiot, that’s why. Are you a record company that wants me to buy an album that I’ve already purchased? Slap some bonus tracks on it. Give me some remixes. Throw on some B-sides. Put a fancy title on it like Deluxe Edition or Anniversary Edition or Super Deluxe Ultra Supreme You Know You Want This Even Thought You Really Don't Need It Because You Already Have It Edition and I will most likely buy your album.

 

That’s how I’ve come to purchase four copies of Illmatic. I bought the cassette many, many years ago. Then I bought the CD. Then I bought the ten-year anniversary edition, which featured four modern remixes and two new recordings of songs that did not make the original cut. The remixes were OK and the “new” old cuts were strong, but did I need this edition? No. No, I really probably maybe kind of sort of did not. Then again, I really probably maybe kind of sort of did. So I’ve got it. And no, I do not regret it. No Nas fan would.

 

That brings me to 2014. The twenty-year anniversary. You know what that means--the 20^th Anniversary Edition! This time around we’ve got a bonus disc that promises more remixes, demos, and radio freestyles. Interesting. I like remixes, demos, and radio freestyles.

 

So I bought it. Was it worth it? Well, yeah, actually. The demo “I’m a Villain,” (the packaging says demos, as in plural demos, but there is only one), has been around for many years, but it’s great to have it in a better format. And the radio show freestyles are a nice touch. A very good extra. 

 

But the remixes are where it's at. These aren't slapped together remixes made by inferior producers here in 2014. These are the remixes from the original singles released when Illmatic was current. Many of them are rare and very hard to find. All of them are quality. Worth every penny. (It should be noted that three of these remixes were readily available on the From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes disc released in 2002, but they were in an edited form.) And unlike the 10^th anniversary edition of Illmatic, the liner notes are extensive and do the album justice. Being that I am a sucker for liner notes, this is good news.

 

There’s only one problem. This is a solid edition. For Nas fans, it’s a must purchase. But it’s not definitive. There’s so much more out there. Why weren’t the tracks from the 10^th anniversary included? True Nas fans still need both. Why didn’t they include “One on One,” the slept-on classic from The Street Fighter soundtrack that would have fit seamlessly on Illmatic? Furthermore, the re-release promotion promised demos. Not demo but demos. As in, more than one. Well, true Nas fans know well that there is a collection of his demos out there and they are amazing. Including them would have put this release over the top as a three-disc set. It would have made it a historic document unparalleled in the realms of hip hop. And no, that is not an exaggeration.

 

So that can only mean one thing. Yep. In ten years, I’ll be buying the 30^th anniversary edition. My fifth purchase of Illmatic!

 

And I’m looking forward to it.

Adolf Hitler in Oz

Review of Adolf Hitler in Oz

This might sound kind of funny, but to me, Oz is a real place.

Then again, maybe that doesn't seem so funny to you. Maybe you grew up watching the famous movie as many times as I did. Maybe you read some of the books, or saw some of the belated sequels. Maybe Oz is real to you, too.

So when I heard that Adolf Hitler was coming to Oz, needless to say, I was concerned. After all, we know what he did to Europe. Would Oz fare any better?

Review of Spectre aka Bond 24

James Bond has returned! This time it's in Spectre, a James Bond movie that functions almost as sort of a greatest hits set of the 23 prior films. Of course, there are plenty of references to the prior films starring Daniel Craig, and this movie does a good job of tying them all together. But the allusions go much deeper than that, with references to older Bonds. Some references are implicit (the skeleton imagery of Live and Let Die, a fight on a train out of From Russia With Love, battles up in the mountains akin to On Her Majesty's Secret Service) , others are more explicit, such as the return of Ernst Blofeld and the ejection seat.  

I enjoyed the film. It's entertaining. It's Bond. There's tons of what makes James Bond James Bond. But the truth is, while greatest hits sets have their place, I've always preferred listening to the original albums, with the songs slotted in their proper place rather than the haphazard running order in which those collections are often assembled. Ultimately, I feel somewhat the same with this film, with the parts never quite reaching a fully satisfying whole. Still, Craig continues to play the part well, and there's enough going on for most to find something to enjoy, and likely a lot more than that.

Compton: A Little City You Might Have Heard Of

Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre is a record by a 50-year old man, allegedly hip hop's first billionaire, and as such, perhaps it's not always clear who this album is for--old school rap fans, those into modern sounds, a wide audience, a limited one--but one thing is certain: it's not for lazy people. It's there in the song titles ("All in a Day's Work", "It's All On Me"), it's forefront in the lyrics ("Don't ever call me fortunate, you don't know what it cost me, So anybody complaining about they circumstances lost me"), and it lurks in the grooves, some of which do take time to absorb. But the effort is always  rewarded, as they consistently reward repeat listens. 

While not perfect by any means--the murder scene that closes "Loose Cannons", while cinematic, seems an odd fit; the clapping during the speech of "All in a Day's Work" is either pretend, phony clapping or clapping from phony people; at times, the vocals are over-processed and abrasive. Still, this is a master at work. Comparisons to Dre's previous albums are inevitable, but it's no matter; those weren't perfect, either, but we like them anyway (Eazy-E gay jokes and a barrage of misogyny were never going to age well). 

If we're willing to forgive the sins of Dre's prior albums, then so to should we appreciate Compton. As yet, that has not necessarily been the case; reaction seems mixed. Maybe when the DVD for the movie this album was inspired by drops, people will begin to catch on. Until then, for me it's Dre Day, and I'll be celebrating.

Thoughts on the Midnight Circus Reading

So Midnight Circus had its first reading, and it was glorious.

For those not familiar with Midnight Circus--not enough are--it is EAB Publishing's flagship publication, a quarterly literary mag that attracts talent from around the world. That's no joke; the submissions have come from a worldwide pool. It's awesome.

I happen to be the Production Manager of this fine publication, which is a pretty simple job despite the fancy title. All I do is make sure that every submission received is reviewed by people far more qualified than me. Well, those types of people are easy enough to find. Once the stories and poems are whittled down, I format the interior so that the scattered and various submissions become a book. It's fun. I get that little thrill that comes from creating a new piece of art without all of the torture and agony that often accompanies such an endeavor.
 
When it comes to the reading, I wasn't sure what to expect. As mentioned, this was the first one. Things usually go wrong the first time you try something. Would anybody show? Where was this UNO-Kaneko Library? Or is it the Kaneko-UNO Library? What was EAB thinking with this? Do people really come out to hear writers read?

Turns out, they do. Indeed they do. Somehow or another, I ended up with the job of adding chairs. Seems like a very Production Manager-y thing to me, so I was all for it. Seats would fill up, new arrivers wouldn't have anywhere to sit, and so I'd go to the back and grab more. Easy enough-- people seemed to arrive in pairs, so I'd grab a couple, set them up, and then grab a couple more, just in case, knowing nobody else would show up because we were already pretty full.

Then I'd repeat the process.

I think we added an extra 25 chairs to the 30 or so initially present--the people kept coming. It was great.

And why wouldn't they come, because the lineup was fantastic. Let's run it down. These aren't all names you might know now, but with any luck, you will soon. A.E. Stueve was killing it as MC. The readers: Jeff Lawler. Carrie Helmberger. Liz Kay. Kristen Clanton. Jeremy Johnson. Barbara Schmitz. Julie Rowse. Karen Shoemaker. All of them have appeared in Circus. Lots of talent, which was evident from the first reader, and they kept on coming. Honestly, this was the first reading I've ever attended, it always seemed to me that it would be a little awkward to hear writers read because it feels awkward for me to share my stuff. Well, I get it now.

Myself, I went through a bevy of emotions. This piece isn't about me, it's about a great night, but I can't help myself. As these creators kept reading, and knocking the breath out of the room, my thoughts went something like this:

This is great. Good stuff. Wow, great writing. This is really good. Ha ha, that was funny. So was that. Holy crap, I can't take it anymore--stop being good, people, you're making me feel bad. I call myself a writer? These are writers. I quit. I retire. Finished! Done! Matter of fact, I should just leave the room and return as a simple observer, because who am I to pretend I can lick these people's boots? Go out a wannabe writer and come back as whatever the hell I am.*

And so on. You know, self-doubt and all that stuff. But then something shifted, and while this great writing continued to come at me, I had a realization. An epiphany, if you will. I began to think crazy thoughts, like, well, maybe I do belong here. I thought of things I had written that might lack in certain areas, but can hang in others, and I thought, you know what, I could do this, too. My work could share the stage with these insanely creative people. Maybe I don't, um, suck? (Hey, why don't you buy my new short story collection The Legend of Hummel Park and find out for yourself, huh?)

So that was fun.

Great night.

*This presents a problem, because if writing isn't about figuring out who the hell you are, and who we are, then I don't know what it is.

Review of Lies Jane Austen Told Me

As a writer, I tend to believe that, ultimately, there are two reasons people write. Some do so simply because they want to, perhaps expecting notoriety, financial gains, personal entertainment, or something else. Others write because they have to. Myself, I have to write: there are stories rattling around in my head, stories of fiction, and they won't leave me alone until I get them out. I either write, or go nuts, probably.

I say this not to talk about my own writing, as much as I enjoy doing so, but to discuss Julie Rowse's book Lies Jane Austen Told Me. In truth, this is not a work I would have sought out—the dating life of a Mormon woman? No offense, but what do I care? Yet after blazing through the first 90 pages or so, I found myself enjoying the book and eager to read on. 

Still, as much as I was enjoying the book, I won’t deny that I would sometimes stop to grapple with a question: what made Rowse decide this story had to be told?  The book is well written, yes, and I was intrigued by a culture I knew little about. But that didn't give me my answer. What made Rowse want to share what is a highly personal story with the world?

Then, around the midway point, Rowse began to write of her fiancé. He had been mentioned, briefly, earlier in the text. At the time, I wondered why the mention had been so scant. Clearly, this was an important part of her story. Here was a woman who was dying to be married, born in a culture that apparently believed the ultimate goal of a female was to become a wife and a mother, and yet she only wrote briefly of a full-fledged fiancé without going into further detail?  

But as I read more about this man, it all became clear.  

Why did Julie Rowse decide to tell her story? I could be wrong, but I don't believe that she wanted to write this book. I am not certain she was bursting to showcase her personal insecurities and difficulties. No, I believe Rowse felt she had to write it, if not for herself, than as a potential warning for others. People who are willing to sacrifice their own personal integrity to live up to what we—all of us—believe society demands of us. Set in the context of this world, one that Rowse has respectfully brought us into (she is quite clear in stating the many benefits she has derived from her faith), this Mormon culture that seems to value one role for woman above all others, we are given a stark example of the many outside pressures people allow to measure themselves. 

This book dares to ask—is it worth it? Are there costs that we should refuse to pay? If so, what are they? What line are we not willing to cross to meet the expectations society has put on us?  

Rowse needed to tell this story. Chances are, you need to read it. 

(Full disclosure: I was given an advance copy of this book as EAB Publishing had published my last book. I did some minor copy editing on it while reading it. It had no impact on my personal thoughts of the book.)

Exhaustive Review of All Four Sherlock Holmes Novels and 56 Short Stories

There's no bigger waste of time than reviewing the Sherlock Holmes series. They are great, everyone that can read has read them, and no doubt everyone has enjoyed the 4 novels and 56 short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as much as I did.

Wait. You haven't read them? Oh, you read them many, many years ago? Or you read a couple of them, or maybe just one, because they made you in high school? My God, man, you've found an even bigger waste of time than reviewing the original Sherlock Homes tales, which is reading reviews of those tales when you could be reading them right now.

Review of Swiss Family Robinson

I love reading the classics, particularly adventure classics, but Swiss Family Robinson didn't do much for me. There were strong passages, but for the most part, the story consisted of the family finding an animal, which they would tame and make a pet of, or of them finding another sort of animal, which they would kill and eat. The Disney version wisely added pirates. This book could have used pirates. The end.

My Review of Bloody Lies

Say Nebraska decided to hold elections for something insane, like an official state crime. There would be little debate; the top spot would go to the infamous 1958 Charles Starkweather killing spree, which stretched from Lincoln to a few miles past the state border into Wyoming. Inspiring both films and music (Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, the films Badlands and Natural Born Killers, among others), the impact of that notorious crime has been widespread. 

But if it was up to me, we’d all take a closer look at another horrific tragedy: the murder of a happily married couple, the Stocks, while they slept in their farmhouse in Cass County, Nebraska. In Bloody Lies, author John Ferak gives us the opportunity to take such a look. This crime, and most especially the subsequent investigation, deserve as much attention, if not more, than the one glorified by movies and music. The lessons learned are simply too important to ignore. 

Bloody Lies opens with a description of the murder. It is frank and unflinching, but necessary for us to recognize the heinousness of the crime. Included with this are three photos of the victims. Needless to say they are hard to look at. Whether or not they were required is tough to say, but it cannot be denied that the pictures allow us to see for ourselves exactly how brutal the crime was.

From there, the book essentially splits into two halves. The first covers the investigation of the crime through interrogations, crime scene analysis, and so on. Ferak unreels the facts in it a straight forward fashion, letting the story speak for itself—and what a story it is. I was familiar with the generalities, having followed along in the Omaha-World Herald, yet I found myself enrapt. As uncomfortable as the material can be, the quick pace of the book kept me completely involved.

Ultimately, despite having solid alibis and dubious motives, two individuals are held responsible. Why? Because the police have a confession. We learn that this confession derived from an ethically troublesome and frightening interrogation of one of the suspects. Damn the facts, the investigators have what they want and they’re going to run with it. Reading the excerpts of the interrogation quoted at length, it seems clear that the suspect, Matt Livers, is all but fed a confession, the words very nearly put in his mouth. It is difficult to resist feeling anger when Livers, a young man that has a slight mental handicap, is instructed to “stand up” and admit his crime. Incapable of understanding the abstract meaning of the phrase, Livers literally stands up from his chair.

Review of Katydids and Poems for Kids

There are all kinds of good books, and I don’t much care where they come from, so long as they come from somewhere. Keep ‘em coming, I say. This one? Katydids and Poems for Kids: But Mostly Poems for Kids? I don’t know what recesses of Jeremy Johnson’s mind these poems sprung from. Like I said, I don’t care. I’m just glad they’re in print, where we can all enjoy them.

Now, I have met Jeremy, and he’s a super guy. But I’ll be honest. It’s a good way to be, because lies tend to trip over themselves, and we don’t want that. See, I wasn’t sure I wanted him writing kids that I would read to my poems—wait a second, let’s try that again. I wasn’t sure I wanted him writing poems that I would read to my kids. I wasn’t certain because that’s kind of a big thing, right? You can’t just sit there and read them any old thing. I’m trying to raise future high achievers in a way that I can live through them vicariously, because I haven’t done much myself, and I can’t risk feeding them rubbish.

So I did something very wise—I opened the book up and began to read for myself, before endangering my children’s futures. If it was bad, no big deal, because I can always spare the brain cells, being that I don’t drink nor read Shades of Grey books. I gots plenty of brane sales so it’ll be….good.

The Phantom of Faerie Mountain Review

This is a very enjoyable book. The characters are engaging and relatable, with the bulk of the fast-moving story taking place in a perfect Scottish setting. Abby is the heroine who gets sucked in to the action very early, literally landing on the hero, Rory.

It was refreshing to not have Abby's primary concern be sucking face with the hero. Her mind is on her mission, and Rory and Abby treat each other as people rather than objects of lust. The handling of Rory's Scottish accent was particularly well done--there's enough to absorb us, but it is never difficult to read. A mysterious hound, Finlay, dips in and out of the story to gently lead Abby on her way; I was reminded of Aslan from the Narnia series, without the baggage of having to symbolize a deity. The story has a satisfactory conclusion while leaving the door open for the rest of the planned trilogy, which is not always an easy feat to accomplish. Overall, I enjoyed it, and think most readers would as well (it is appropriate for all ages).

Rainbow Blog #7

Short and sweet today.

15

Big chapter, but let’s not dwell on that—let’s focus on this great line instead: “Months are different in college, especially freshman year. Too much happens. Every freshman month equals six regular months—they’re like dog months.”

 

Nailed it. So true. I can remember taking finals and looking back at the start of the semester like we had ridden to school on a horse and buggy. Then you’d go through it all again the next semester.

Lots of romance stuff in this one, and roommate's boyfriend is now roommate's ex-boyfriend. Well, he has been for awhile, but they neglected to tell..well, anyone really.

Rainbow Blog #6

All right, in the interest of preventing myself from rambling, and droning on and on, and beating a dead horse, and dragging things out, and to keep the posts clear and concise, and not bogged down with too much commentary, and to prevent them from being repetitive, and redundant, and filled with pointless information I have decided that we will limit each chapter to no more than 4 salient points going forward, to strive for brevity, so as not to take up too much of anyone’s time, including my own, in order to keep these brief and to the point, so as not to beat around the bush, and to prevent them from being repetitive, or lollygag, but to come to a direct point, to bring things to a head, swiftly and immediately, and to prevent them from being repetitive, without undue waste or mindless chatter. Thank you.

Chapter 13

1. Cath doesn’t want to go to a party that roommate’s boyfriend is having because there will be drunk people galore. “I don’t like to talk to drunk people.” I can relate to this as a fellow non-drinker. Sorry drinkers. But Cath, holing up in your room is not the answer, either.

2. THIS IS NOW MY FAVORITE CHAPTER. With all apologies, here’s the truth. Until I find a typo within your book, I’m sorry, I just can’t get all the way into the book. I start worrying that I’m reading the creation of some kind of robot or something, potentially sent from the future, because with each book I’ve had a part in, whether it be writing or editing, despite scouring them for typos or formatting errors they always find their way in. Frankly, it pisses me off. So I need to see a typo somewhere when I read, no matter how minor. I need to see the author “bleed” a little bit. I need to know they are human.

So, after 147 pages, I have seen Rainbow Rowell and her team of nearly flawless editors bleed. What is the typo? Oh, it’s no big deal: “and his face with filled with disgust and decision.” No big deal, yet it made me deliriously happy. Or maybe only a little bit happy, but deliriously happy sounds more interesting. #writerstryingtowrite

3. Nick is a perfect fit for Cath even though I don’t want him to be, yet in this chapter we’ve got roommate’s boyfriend making her read her stories to him and so he’s proving to be a good fit for Cath as well, just as I thought he might. And this is why I don’t do love triangles in my books. Because seriously, which one of these fine gentleman should she end up with? The guy who writes with her and seems to be a nice guy, or the one who is read to by her and seems to be a nice guy? I can’t decide. How could I decide as a writer? I couldn't. I'd stare at the computer for hours and hours. So I don't do love triangles for that reason. Well, that and I would be absolutely awful at writing them. 

4. Roommate shows up and there is some definite tension abounding. In abundance. Abounding tension abounds in abundance in chapter 13. Roommate knows there is some unspeakable chemistry floating in the air between her boyfriend roommate's boyfriend and Cath.

Rainbow Blog #5

One chapter today, which would be….

 

Chapter 12

*Roommate’s boyfriend appears and begs her to read him some of her fanfiction. Things are heating up indeed…

 

*Nick shows up later and he also got a bad grade on his assignment. Empathy occurs. UGH! This will only make Cath and Nick closer. We don’t want them closer.

 

*Roommate’s boyfriend “ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick up in the middle in sandy blond plumes.” Hmmm.

 

*But “(roommate’s boyfriend) wasn’t even that cute.” Uh-oh. I would kill for some italics here, because italics could change everything. You know, if Rainbow wrote he “wasn’t even that cute” it implies he’s cute, just not that cute. We can work not that cute. But the way it is written it implies he is not cute at all. Not sure we can work with that when my prediction is for Cath to end up with roommate's boyfriend.

*This will be the last one of these for a little while as I have a little project to work on for a bit...back with more soon though!

Rainbow Blog #4

Busy day today, yet I managed to read more than I planned so we'll make this one quick and dirty. These were workmanlike chapters, moving the story forward but not a lot of stuff to really go on tangents about.

Chapter 8
*Short chapter here, lots of talk about Nick's lips.

*Wren is on something called a Skinny Bitch diet. Good for her.

*Cath has gone boy crazy, apparently, but so far this has not resulted in her dating or doing anything freaky with boys. Which is OK, because that might make things a little awkward between Cath and me.

Cath wonders why the boys around her seem so different from those in high school, and wonders how it is possible that they have changed so much. They now have a "heaviness in their jaws" and their "chests (now) buttressed." I'll have to ask Abby if my chest buttresses. 





Chapter 9
*Cath is going back to Omaha to see her crazy and weird dad, but before that she decides to go get a Starbucks, which just so happens to be where roommate's boyfriends works. He gives her a drink...free. Big thing happened there and really took their relationship to the next step.

*Stuff happens with her dad and he tells her to talk to her mom, and Cath gets way too mad about it. I feel like I don't even know Cath right now seeing the way she's taking this news.

Chapter 10
*Some stuff happens, but only 4 pages worth. On to chapter 11.

Chapter 11
*Cath fails a writing assignment for submitting a piece of fan fiction. I agree with the bad grade but disagree with the professor's contention that it is plagiarism. Using someone else' characters in new scenarios is not plagiarism. This major setback for Cath leads us to a moment where I realize I have no idea of what it means to be a freshman girl in college...

See, to take her mind off her bad grade, Cath decides to hold an "Emergency Kanye Party." This involves blaring Kanye West music while dancing on top of your bed. Apparently she used to do this with her sister, but since they're not getting along so well right now, she's going solo.

So yeah, I have no idea what's really going on here. And I wonder what Kanye tunes she's playing? His music isn't particularly...danceable. I can't imagine dancing to Kanye west music. Not really. I guess there is a Fangirl playlist out there so I'll have to see if any Kanye tunes made it. (Two did: "I Wonder" and "Paranoid".)

Of course, I can't really imagine myself dancing to any music. Nobody wants that.

As you can imagine, roommate's boyfriend happens along and joins in. They dance... together (although Rainbow is sure to tell us "not too closely or anything"). This is turning into quite the love triangle. Nick, Cath, and roommate's boyfriend.

After the Emergency Kanye Party there isn't much more I can say about this chapter, my mind was kind of blown after that. It ends with Cath dining with roommate's boyfriend, so this was a big chapter for my prediction.

But I don't really know what happened here. The Emergency Kanye Party was not something I had expected. It's going to take me a little time to digest it. Guys don't have Emergency Kanye Parties. But maybe freshman college girls do...? This was a tough chapter for me--it almost felt a little voyeuristic. As a guy, it was as if I was given access to a world in which I did not belong. Sure, roommate's boyfriend was allowed in, but he's super sensitive, and blond, and constantly waving his hair from his eyes. There is no hair being waved from my eyes.

But Emergency Kanye Parties might become a thing. I mean, people are holding Emergency Kanye Parties on Youtube.

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This is getting heavy.

Rainbow Blog #3

Let's just jump right in. See the prior installments if you want to know what this is all about. And if you find out, let me know because I'm not quite sure what it's all about myself.

When last I wrote I had just finished up chapter 5. Hey, you know what comes after chapter 5? That’s right: chapter 6. Here we go.

 

Chapter 6

 

*Things are moving fast in the Nick-Cath relationship. Matter of fact Nick is doing a full-on Tom Cruise right now: “His eyes were set so deep, it made everything he said more intense.” If that doesn't sound like a Tom Cruise description than I don't know what does.

 

*Cath and Nick got an A on their group assignment. And now they’re going to be writing together…for fun. Hot and heavy indeed.

 

*Something’s going on with Cath’s twin sister Wren, but both Cath and myself are a little in the dark as to what.

 

*Hey, there’s a Husker game going on in the background during this chapter. I love the little references to local stuff like that. In a prior chapter, there was a mention of Valentino’s and I was all "hey, Valentino's, yeah!" I'm really looking forward to the first Runza mention.

There better be a Runza mention.

 

*All right, Cath goes out with her roommate and roommate’s boyfriend. Keep it on the back burner with this guy, Cath, and prove me right…you are supposed to end up with roommate's boyfriend!

 

*Cath is not calling her sister Wren and I have a feeling she is going to really regret that. Where did this come from? Seems kind of out nowhere for Wren to flake out in the way I think she is flaking out.

 

Or maybe it’s nothing. On to chapter 7.

Hey, here it is already--chapter 7! The bankruptcy chapter. (Lame little banker's joke for you there.)

 

Chapter 7

*I don’t know if I mentioned this, but Cath technically already has a boyfriend, Abel. But see, I knew early on that they weren’t going to last much longer, so I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. And yeah, they just broke up. See? He wasn't worth mentioning. Screw that guy.

 

*One of the justifications ex-boyfriend uses for the breakup is because her ACT score was 2 points lower than his new girl. Well, points for creativity…and points for douchebaggery.

 

*Rainbow, accurately, portrays text messages as not using proper capitalization and so forth. Am I one of the few people that try to be grammatically correct in texts? Well, as best I can anyway…

 

*OK, Cath and her sister are hanging out—false alarm.

 

I think.

 

*Cath thinks about both roommate’s boyfriend and Nick when they talk about love. This one might go all the way to the finish. She could end up with either one of them now and I would buy it.

 

*Uh-oh, roommate’s boyfriend is kind of macking on Cath’s sister Wren. Identical twin sister Wren. Hmmm. Not sure what that means. Perhaps all will be revealed in chapter 8...but probably not, we've got a long way to go.

Rainbow Blog #2

Ready to get owned Lincoln?

All right, on to chapter 5 of my reading of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. This is the first chapter I am doing after coming up with this idea…the previous four were done after the fact. So these are my thoughts as I read!

Chapter 5

-Good news, roommate’s boyfriend is back! And he’s alone, with Cath, in their room. And she’s sharing her food with him. Feeling much better about the chances of him ending up with Cath now.

-Cath and her roommate are making fun of people in the dorm dining room. They really need to stop being so unlikable if I am going to like them.

-Cath wonders how old roommate’s boyfriend is, but she’s also examining his receding hairline awfully close. She is clearly into him, but maybe not end of the book into him. I could be wrong about them being together at the end…

Rainbow Blog #1

For those not aware, Rainbow Rowell is an Omaha author who is freaking huge right now. How huge? Like they are making a major movie out of one of her books huge.

That's pretty huge.

I find this pretty awesome. Local writer makes good. What's not to love? Yet as big as she is, and as cool as that is, I have yet to read any of her books. I mean, I'm not her target audience, right? Her niche (a rather large niche) is that she understands females, particularly young adult females.

I am not one of those.

But I did follow her work in the Omaha World-Herald as a columnist. Rainbow is somewhat of a controversial figure in the circles I run with, for some reason, but personally I found her columns entertaining, particularly her exploits deep into geekdom, with stories about sampling the butter beer at Universal Studios or thoughts on the latest Star Wars film. It was a nice break from some of the other, more serious columns the paper runs (i.e. boring). 

Still, her column wasn’t for everyone. In fact, I have had actual arguments with people about whether or not Rainbow Rowell is a good writer. These arguments were silly because of course she is a good writer. The fact that you don’t like someone’s columns does not make them a poor writer. There's no denying that she was a good columnist.

But is she a good novelist? Well, tons of people like her, so…probably? Art is subjective. One man's trash, another's treasure and so forth. Of course, her target audience is primarily teenage and "young adult" girls. In other words, not me. Still, I'm curious. What does she have that I don't have? Why is she so successful when I'm so...not.

I don't know, and probably never will, but I'm going to give one of her books a read and figure it out!  (I am guessing it has something to do with the fact that she gets a segment of people, in this case those above mentioned girls, and I don't really get anybody, including myself.)

I decided to start with Fangirl, mainly because it was her latest release on the day I purchased it. Like most readers, I have a stack of to read books. Finally, this one came up. Then a thought occurred to me.

That thought? Simple: wouldn't it be funny if I kept a diary of sorts with random thoughts I experience while I read Fangirl? Sure it would. So here goes nothing, starting with the first four chapters. These are going to be pretty much stream of consciousness, so there's a good chance it will be terrible. Oh well. 

After planning on calling it Rainbow Diaries, it seems to me that Rainbow Blog sounds better--kind of reminds one of Rainbow Brite, no?

No?

Anyway, here we go. For those unfamiliar with Fangirl--like me, really--before I start here's a preview from our evil friends at Amazon. 

At first glance Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl has a lot in common with Eleanor & Park: idiosyncratic girl with troubled family meets good, normal boy and falls in love for the first time. But this is why Rowell is so talented--from the same basic ingredients she can create something new and special. In Fangirl, quirky introvert, Cath, is safe within the immensely popular Simon Snow (think Harry Potter) fan-fiction blog she writes with her twin sister, but college turns her life upside down, leaving her feeling like an awkward outsider. When she writes, Cath knows exactly what her characters should say to each other, but when it comes to forging real-life friendships, much less a romance, she hasn’t a clue. An immensely satisfying coming-of-age novel, Fangirl deftly captures the experience of discovering your true voice and clumsy, vulnerable, remarkable, first love.

Chapter One

The name of the dormitory is Pound Hall. That seems…dirty. Is this symbolism?

Page 9 and we’ve got a Soylent Green reference. If it was me, I would have explained what Soylent Green is seeing as it is an old Charlton Heston movie from the early 70s that most of her target audience will not be familiar with. But Rainbow doesn’t, and you know what, I respect that.

For the record, I love post-apocalyptic Charlton Heston movies from the late 60s and early 70s. I’d rate them Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and finally, Beneath the Planet of the Apes as a distant fourth.

Tthe Soylent Green reference has expanded to the main character's dad making a crack about his daughter Cath potentially eating an eyelid (for those who don't know Soylent Green, google search Soylent Green is People!!!). Eyelid one threw me for a loop—I think I would’ve went for a finger or something. An eyelid seems kind of random.

So far, the only character I like is dad (single father, widower, not ashamed to be a little cheesy). But, he's dropped his daughters off at school and now he's gone. On to chapter two.