Potpourri

The Beloved Spouse and I started watching Breaking Bad over the weekend. (We wanted to be sure it was worthy of us, and no one would pull a Deadwood and stop the series in the middle, okay? When we’ve seen all these episodes, we’ll check out that NYPD Blue show everyone is talking about.) Last night we saw the episode where Walter’s family has the intervention, to talk about whether he should get treatment. I can’t remember seeing a better hour of television.

A question for all of you who watched the show on AMC: did they censor the language? I can’t think of another basic cable show that showed bare breasts and allowed for this level of cursing. Even when Justified is rated for Nudity, it’s a two-second shot of Raylan’s ass.

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We watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on a lark Sunday night. Knew nothing about it, except people I trust had recommended it. Expected something along the lines of Way of the Gun and were taken by surprise. Great fun, with three leads who were born to work together (Robert Downey, Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan). That’s all I’m going to say, except to warn the people in the Midwest they’ll say “fuck” a lot.

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Read the following quote by James M. Cain in Brian Ritt’s Paperback Confidential:

I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hardboiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort.

I’m not big for posting quotes around the office, but want to think of this every day when I write.

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Patrick Stewart is appearing in two—count ‘em, two—Broadway plays simultaneously: Waiting For Godot and No Man’s Land. I was impressed, until it occurred to me he probably plays Godot, which frees him up to be in No Man’s Land.

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We were able to start on Breaking Bad because we finished our fourth (I think) viewing of The Wire last week. I cannot begin to say how much I learned about storytelling from this show, and yet the stories were not the best of it. The characters are so well drawn that, after the final montage, when you see what everyone (except McNulty) does next, you’re left with the feeling these people’s lives are continuing; you just don’t get to watch anymore.

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Football people are defending Richie Incognito’s excessive harassment of a Miami Dolphin teammate as part of football’s “warrior culture.” Two things:

1. Football players are not warriors.

2. The military—where the real warriors live—would not tolerate such behavior.

Crawl back under your rocks, Richie and his people. It ain’t selling here.

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Swear to God, this is the (next to) last time I’ll mention Grind Joint’s launch this Saturday, November 16, at the Mystery Lovers Bookshop, 514 Allegheny River Boulevard in Oakmont, PA. Ten in the morning. I’ll tell how the book came to be written, read a little, answer questions, and, hopefully, sign some books. It doesn’t sound like much fun to read it in black and white like this; I’ll try to do better in person.

 

(PS: I hate the smell of potpourri. I’ll come up with a better title next time I write a blog full of random thoughts.)