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The life of a porn addicted housewife.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

What Entertains You? 

What entertains you?
Movies? Music? Television? Books? Sports?

I am an avid reader (as you’ve seen from one of my many piles.) I go through spells where I read a book every couple of days. Then again it might take me a couple weeks or more to finish one. Regardless of the speed I am reading at, I always have at least one or two books going at a time.
Yesterday was my quarterly Barnes& Noble run. Every time Ap0k gets his bonus I head straight for book heaven.
Yesterday’s trip was fun. My daughter followed me around the store reading me entries out of the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records. While a tad annoying at times, some of the stuff she read me was pretty interesting.
I ended up getting the following:

*Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. This is one of those books that I have been meaning to read since the day it came out. For some reason I always had a brain fart and could never remember it. The only reason I remembered this time was because I happened to actually see it sitting on a shelf.
*The Getaway Man by Andrew Vachss. Ogri initially pointed me in the direction of this author and after reading just one of his books I fell completely in love with him. He is a complete old school throwback. You would swear that you were reading a pulp novel from the 50’s.
*Breakout by Richard Stark. Stark is the pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake. He uses the name Richard Stark when he wants to push his stories over the edge a bit. Either as Stark or Westlake, you will never be disappointed.
*American Tabloid by John Ellroy. This novel is based on the tabloid scandals of the 60’s that everyone was (and still is) fascinated with. This is the first time I am reading this author so I am looking foreword to it.
*Books 2, *3, *4, *5, and *6 from the *The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I read the first book in the series on the plane ride to and from Chicago. I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not because it seemed to have such an odd plot. The stories revolve around Precious Ramotswe. She owns the only detective agency in the small town of Gaborone, Botswana. She solves lifes’little everyday problems for people such as tracking wayward husbands and catching thieving employees. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing. Top notch.
*Scary Monsters and Super Freaks by Mike Sager. This is a collection of journalist Mike Sager’s work spanning the 20 years he wrote for Rolling Stone and GQ. Some of the figures he writes about include John Holmes, Easy E., Rick James, Rodney King, and many others. This one looks like it is going to be a great read!
*The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures edited by Mike Ashley and written by some of today’s top detective/mystery writers. This one will be good for when my attention span is not that great.
*Murderers’ Row edited by Otto Penzler and again written by some of today’s top detective/mystery writers. This collection of stories all revolve around a baseball theme. I am happy to see the Troy Soos has a story in this collection as his baseball mysteries are among my favorite books period.

As you can see I went all out and now I have enough to last me for a while. Getting me out of Barnes & Noble is a task. It usually involves bribing me with food. I am such a book whore!

I got totally sidetracked on the entertainment thing didn’t I? Back to that now:

Movies are entertaining I guess. My attention span isn’t long enough to watch most movies. It has to really catch my attention before I can sit through a whole film. The ones that do suck me in usually involve the mob or a war. I can’t stand “chick flicks” at all. Yuck! Give me a good mafia beating though and I am hooked. Once in a blue moon a comedy will interest me, but not often. I guess I find sitting and staring at a TV or movie screen for 2 hours to be just too boring. I have to be able to get up and wander around.
It also doesn’t help that so many of today’s movies are nothing more than retreads of old TV shows and movies that were crap the first time around. I am also not thrilled with a lot of the new “stars” like Lindsey Lohan and Jessica Simpson. Even established stars like Tom Cruise aren’t worth wasting my time on anymore. Johnny Depp on the other hand, I could watch him wash dishes.

I definitely find music entertaining. I pretty much like all forms of music to at least some extent. There are even a few country songs that I actually like. For the most part I listen to 70’s Funk, Disco, 80’s Pop, and newer Dance/Club music. Unlike some people, I am not looking for any deep meaning in song lyrics. No artist has ever “changed my life” with their music (well except for Prince, but he is THE Artist!), and no song has ever made me change my political views in the slightest. When I listen to music I want it to move me physically not mentally. When I want something political or deep, I will read a book or a newspaper.

Television tends to bore the pants off of me almost as bad as movies do. While everyone else was glorifying “Friends” as being the best thing since sliced bread, we watched the Discovery Channel or TLC. Yes, I will admit that my guilty TV pleasure is American Idol, but we are all allowed to have our one crap program. Normally we only watch things like Overhaulin’ (Chip Foose is AMAZING!), Miami Ink, Rides, What Not To Wear, Property Ladder, etc. While I wouldn’t say they were the most exciting shows on the planet, they are at least mildly interesting. I do like some shows like House MD, CSI: Miami, and Grey’s Anatomy. The story lines of those shows, while totally unbelievable (which is a good thing!), are much better than the vast array of sitcoms and reality crap shows. I do like 2 ½ Men. The humor of that show is more subtle than most sitcoms. I hate sitcoms that are in your face and demand that you laugh even if it isn’t funny.

I like to watch sports. Football is cool, though it is getting to be so full of prima-donnas that I am starting to get annoyed with it. Baseball is great because you can have it on in the background and you almost never have to look at it. I think baseball commentators make pretty much the best background noise around. I prefer to watch more obscure sports like the Strong Man competitions. Those guys kick some major ass! There is nothing sexier to me than a guy who can carry a refrigerator on his back while he’s running a race. Seriously! I like to watch pool (billiards) when I come across it too. But right now my absolute favorite sport is Ultimate Fighting Championship. These guys put boxing to shame! If I ever have to walk down a dark alley at night, the UFC guys are the ones I want to go with me!

I guess I would have to say that what I find most entertaining is my trusty old computer. I can read, write, listen to music, download any number of things, play games, chat with my friends, etc etc. When most people talk about their entertainment system, they mean their TV, stereo, and DVD player. My entertainment system is my computer. It has everything I could ever want (including TV if I would hook the cable back up to it.)
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