Oh snap

To my fan:

I'm soooo sorry.

I got super caught up in pretty much everything--from work to finishing up grad school (which I think is done, but I'm sure NYU wants to bleed me some more) to just having a life--that I just didn't have time to talk about the interesting things that I've experienced.

I was, you know, experiencing them. But lets get back into the swing of things with some of my favorites from the past almost-year.

First off: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's a book. With the BEST TITLE EVER. Written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, it's quite possibly my favorite book of the past year. Besides the outstanding, easily accessible writing, it's a quite touching story about the Isle of Guernsey during World War II. At once charming, funny, and a little sad, I blew through it in no time, and pretty much fell in love.

And yes, maybe I love it so much I will marry it.

What makes it rather unique is that it is an epistolary novel, as it is a collection of letters and telegrams that combine to make a single story.

I actually was talking about it at a friends house, and his mother overheard the conversation and was curious about it. When I sent her the book, she loved it, too (but since polygamy is illegal, we couldn't both marry it), and decided to buy it for all her friends for Christmas.

It was a Festivus miracle!

Moving on, I'm still really into what I'm seeing as the "Motown Revival." What Amy Winehouse ostensibly started was this return to an old-school sound, and other artists I may or may not have mentioned in previous posts--Jamie Lidell, Duffy (the remix of "Mercy" with The Game is fantastic), and, not surprisingly, Al Green--have all found their ways into my iPod because they just make great, head nodding music.

One of my favorites, though, has been Raphael Saadiq's latest offering, The Way I See It. This is fun, upbeat R&B, and songs like "100 Yard Dash" and "Staying In Love" are great because they could be played in the 1960's just as easily as they could today. And, in case you're wondering, Mr. Saadiq used to be the lead singer in Tony! Toni! Toné!

Finally, I figured I'd end with a shout out to the best cartoon for adults on television: "The Venture Bros." If you haven't seen this gem, let me urge you to figure out when it's on The Cartoon Network, and set your DVR to stun (and, come on people--if you don't have a DVR, isn't it about time to start re-examining that thing you call your "life?"). It's a strange pseudo-Johnny Quest spoof that follows Dr. Venture, his two teenage sons Hank and Dean, and their bodyguard Brock Sampson (played by the most excellent Patrick Warburton, aka, David Putty.) as they avoid being killed by super-villains (such as The Monarch, who dresses up like a butterfly, Dr. Girlfriend, who looks like Jackie O but has a man's voice, and Phantom Limb, who is a walking torso) and go on crazy adventures.

Now I love cartoons, and I still think the peak of "The Simpsons" stacks up against the very best of television, period. "South Park" is still excellent, "Family Guy" has it's moments, and although there really aren't any new episodes, "Futurama" continues to be one of my all-time favorites (despite the atrocity they called "The Beast With a Billion Backs," which was pretty much perfectly reviewed here), but right now, the cartoon putting out the most consistently funny, truly ingenious work is "The Venture Bros."

Go Team Venture!

(Glad to be back)