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August 24
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Baiocco
gave
 
to:
Roughing It (American Library)
by Mark Twain
bookshelves:
fiction
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: terrorists
read in August, 2008
Baiocco said:
"This is the first Mark Twain (wouldn't Twayne be a cooler spelling?) that i read besides Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer back in 7th and 8th grade and it was pretty funny but I had to throw in the towel on it. Twain was kind of a famous guy when this was w...more
This is the first Mark Twain (wouldn't Twayne be a cooler spelling?) that i read besides Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer back in 7th and 8th grade and it was pretty funny but I had to throw in the towel on it. Twain was kind of a famous guy when this was written (pre Tom Sawyer) and back then only Presidents were really famous (writers were not). But he, his wit, and his yosemite sam white moustache managed to be and when the civil war broke out the Union immediately felt that Twain was pro Union since he was anti-slavery. This was true and Twain did write some essays supporting the Union cause but then in an pretty individualistic and aristic move in my opinion, joined a confederate militia of 16 people to see what life was like on the other side of the mason dixon. Now, how many rebel artists today can find themselves in the position of being an important voice for freedom and democracy then go ahead and shirk every responsibility and join a terrorist organization just to get an idea of what was going on elsewhere. Is that comparison valid? its close; you get the point. Anyway, two weeks into his stint as a militiamen of the Confederacy his brother (who was the secretary to the governor of the Nevada territory) sent him a telegram to come out west and write for the papers. This book Roughing It is a series of reports about that trip out west and the subsequent adventures that took place. Its very funny and Twain's voice is pitch perfect wit, but it does get a little boring. I'd be hard pressed to find someone who "Laughed out Loud" through this book, but it does make you chuckle. I'd be harder pressed to find someone who rolled through this book because, to be honest, its slow. maybe thats just the way Twain is. I don't know. I didn't care much for Huck or Tom Sawyer save for the characters he created. I'd easily have prefered them written as a comic book, the way all America's best wit should be done....less
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Baiocco
marked as to-read:
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Paperback)
by Stephen E. Ambrose
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Baiocco said:
"I guarantee you that I will never read this book. Why is it on here? Who am I?
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Baiocco
gave
to:
Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West)
by Sam Shepard
bookshelves:
plays
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: People who thought KID A was a breakthrough direction for Radiohead
Baiocco said:
"Seriously? Saturday night at midnight and I'm writing a book review for Sam Shepards' Seven Plays. It must be really good. or I suck at life. While friends from the west coast are texting me about seeing Radiohead and Wilco I'm finishing Buried C...more
Seriously? Saturday night at midnight and I'm writing a book review for Sam Shepards' Seven Plays. It must be really good. or I suck at life. While friends from the west coast are texting me about seeing Radiohead and Wilco I'm finishing Buried Child which is one of the most alive and weird plays I've ever read. In fact, to keep with relative comparisons, its kind of like when Radiohead recorded Kid A and abandoned that droopy super self-aware bit for utter paranoia and raw panic. So awesome and so exciting and about as subtle as an epilectic seizure. Sam Shepard holds no qualms about prefering to be a rock star and his plays have that rock star fascination and bravado to them. I read True West in college and thought it was aight--tight dialogue but in the end the two brother characters just basically switched personalities which was kind of trite to me. and all the proffessors said Aaahh, and all the color girls said do da do do do da do. So I kind of forgot about Shepard and the picture of him on the cover in 100 percent super serious artist phase was pretty annoying.
But in my quest to re=read and chronicle every book on my book shelf in my old bedroom at my parents' house I picked it up again and read his other plays and couldn't believe it: they were so awesome. The dialogue was completely alive and just when things seemed to be going in one direction on a conversation or plot, BAM! he switched it up with a left hook out of nowhere (leftfield?) and knocked me on my ass. And that wasn't the point either, the point of the play. It wasn't just about a set up and a surprise ending. His dialogue was alive in that it was constantly setting up expecations, hitting you with sometihing different and weird, and then going on in that direction until you got comfortable with the characters and their reactions and he hit you with something else, something left. So amazing! Really. Sam Shepard. You are awesome. Why do you look so serious on the cover of your book? Why would you put your glaring mug on the cover of a book filled with words and no pictures? Is it because you are an actor? Days of Heaven was one of Terrence Mallick's best movies, but it wasn't near as good as Martin Sheen in Badlands.
Ps--this girl came into the liquor store off the 6pm train looking for a job because shes an off Broadway actress and it doesn't pay too well. I asked her what play she's doing and she said "Cowboy MOuth" by Sam Shepard. NO fucking way, I have his plays right here, and pulled forth this volume with Mister Intenso on the cover. "He's baddass" she said. I know. Can you get me a job in your theater? I asked. Maybe. I can introduce you to the artistic director if you want. Yes. Thank You! Sam Shepard I am glad I didn't give up on you just because my lazy college professors wouldn't delve deeper into your play catalogue. You are the man!
Anyways, read this if you get a chance....less
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Baiocco
marked as to-read:
The NO Plays of Japan: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Arthur Waley
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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August 11
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Baiocco
gave
to:
August: Osage County (Paperback)
by Tracy Letts
bookshelves:
plays
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Baiocco said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
I've still yet to see a contemporary play that really makes my hair stand up, but this was pretty decent. Especially the young girl Jean character, who unfortunately had to be made into a stoner, which is pretty cliche....less
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Baiocco
gave
to:
Woody Allen on Woody Allen (Paperback)
by Woody Allen
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in August, 2008
Baiocco said:
"I've only seen five woody allen movies (Zelig, Annie Hall, Reconstructing Harry, Sweet and Lowdown, and Match Point) but I feel like I've seen them all. I don't know if thats a good thing, but in reading these interviews between the film maker and t...more
I've only seen five woody allen movies (Zelig, Annie Hall, Reconstructing Harry, Sweet and Lowdown, and Match Point) but I feel like I've seen them all. I don't know if thats a good thing, but in reading these interviews between the film maker and the Swedish film critic Stig Bjorkman wherein the two go through each and every WA movie from 'Take The Money and Run' to 'Manhattan Murder Mystery', I got a clear sense of what was happening in those movies. Frankly, that wasn't so interesting, and kind of repetitive. The cool thing about this book is that Woody Allen is an artist in the true sense of the word in that he processes his life by creating art, so his output is prolific as hell and encompasses periods of both personal joy and disaster. He never took time off to "work on his personal problems", but rather worked through them on the screen. This means that his work at times might be repetitive or lost or mediocre but at least honest. Honesty seems to be the thing that propels him, personal truth, being able to rationalize every single situation so he can find the impetus to function as the ammoral asshole that he is, loveably.
The bad thing about this book is that Woody Allen is expert at dodging personal questions that have to do with anything but his movies, and reverent interviewer Stig Bjorkman never pries too hard. I guess that's why a vanity project like this gets greenlighted by Woody Allen, who seems to function best in a world where his work can answer for his own insecurities. No harm in that though, I could care less if he fucked his adopted daughter or if he drinks acai berry tea in a dayglo sauna to come up with the plots for his thinly veiled satires of he and his friends' romantic entanglements. The only thing that matters is if I laugh or cry at his movies.
The good thing about this book, is hearing Allen talk about his early days as a joke writer. Have you ever tried to write a joke? Its not that easy, especially if you don't get a chance to tell it yourself, or set it up. Woody was a natural at writing jokes, skits, gags and premises and this part of the interviews was great and spoke to where such talent came from, how naturally it flowed, and what he did to make money in the meantime.
Since the interviewer is Swedish, there are an obscene amount of references to Ingmar Bergman. To the point where many of these interviews turn every Woody Allen interview into a Bergman homage, which I'm sure was not the intention of the director. ...less
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July 14
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Baiocco
added:
An African in Greenland (New York Review Books Classics)
by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, A. Alvarez
bookshelves:
autobiography
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: Travellers
Baiocco said:
"I had very high expectations for this book and even travelled to a library three towns away to check it out. It was about a boy from Africa who sees a picture of an eskimo in Greenland and plans a voyage to go there. The scenes in Africa were great...more
I had very high expectations for this book and even travelled to a library three towns away to check it out. It was about a boy from Africa who sees a picture of an eskimo in Greenland and plans a voyage to go there. The scenes in Africa were great, exotic, foreign, mystical, but once he begins describing his reactions to the 20th century inventions and western world attitudes that are foreign to him, I realize they are, unfortunately not foreign to me. So there wasn't much interest and insight keeping me in there (ooh, couples 'swinging' at a disco), and I'd much rather have read a book like an extension of the first 50 pages where we encounter giant pythons and learn witchcraft. ...less
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Baiocco
gave
to:
All of Us: The Collected Poems (Paperback)
by Raymond Carver
bookshelves:
poetry
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: alcoholics or addicts in recovery
Baiocco said:
"I read one Raymond Carver story called Cathedral recommended by my friend Jason and it kicked ass. It was about an aloof alcoholic whose wife invites over an old friend of her younger years who happens to be blind. It was terrific.
I don't like ...more
I read one Raymond Carver story called Cathedral recommended by my friend Jason and it kicked ass. It was about an aloof alcoholic whose wife invites over an old friend of her younger years who happens to be blind. It was terrific.
I don't like reading too many short stories by the same writer that are terrific because my expectations get too high and they usually turn out to all be terrific in the same way, a way probably unknown and unintened by the author, but a way nonetheless as I come to see as a formula. Then it is ruined for me. So when I find a few short stories by one author that I really like, I tend to back off. Flannery O'Connor is the same way. maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald too. When I came across some poems by Raymond Carver, I figured it was a safe bet that it would be different. And it was different in that they were not terrific. Most of them I wouldn't even regard as poems except to say that they were printed down the middle of the page. I was ready to close this book forever, but then over the next few days I began mentally narrating my work day in this Carver blunt pessimistic prose style and I realized that maybe there was more to his poems then I was originally looking for. Something seemed to sink in. I'm not sure exactly what, but it kept this collection glowing in my normally cynical poetry short list. Maybe it'd do the same for you?...less
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Baiocco
added:
Never Let Me Go (Paperback)
by Kazuo Ishiguro
bookshelves:
fiction
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Baiocco said:
"I was really looking forward to this novel when it was recommended to me by a coworker who so far has had pretty a practically flawless record of recommendations concerning books, plays, music, wine, restaurants, or train schedule times and routes bu...more
I was really looking forward to this novel when it was recommended to me by a coworker who so far has had pretty a practically flawless record of recommendations concerning books, plays, music, wine, restaurants, or train schedule times and routes but The New York Times ruined Never Let Me Go for me. While someone in the Arts section was attempting to review the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (why would you review that? its only one and a half steps up the officiality ladder from a random blog) they mentioned Never Let Me Go and in doing so blabbed the whole twist ending which I quickly learned Ishiguro's novel completly relied upon, despite the irresponsible journalist ensuring me that despite spoiling the ending, the language and the prose will yadda yadda yadda melt your heart/make you want to live a more energetic, passionate life something or other. Of course I was only 20 pages into it, but everytime I tried to take interest in the prose and the characters I lost it because the tension was all taken out and my precience was overwhelming. Thanks NY Times... You fucking Suck!
ps--don't pretend you didn't receive my email last fall when you kept incorrectly referring to a picture of Mos Def as Talib Kwali during one of your 'highly insightful' Hip Hop Record Reviews. Not even an acknowledgment of the error in the following day or week's issue? Aight, I see how it is.
PPs--If I've spoiled an ending or two in my book reviews I sincerely apologize. I will use that Good Reads spoiler alert option. I never realized how much it sucks to have the ending ruined, but now I'm learning.
PPSS--Spoiler Alert!! We're all gonna die and go to the heaven of our minds deepest belief. it will probably be just like life now except without all the fear, pettiness and anxiety....less
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June 24
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Baiocco
gave
to:
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories (Paperback)
by Delmore Schwartz
bookshelves:
shortstorycollection
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Baiocco said:
"I got this book of short stories by Depression Era writer Delmore Schwartz specifically to read the title story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" because I couldn't find it on the internet. Luckily I found it at the library. I'm realizin...more
I got this book of short stories by Depression Era writer Delmore Schwartz specifically to read the title story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" because I couldn't find it on the internet. Luckily I found it at the library. I'm realizing the less you pay for books the better, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a) an idiot b) a publisher or c) someone who works at Anderson's on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont. Yo Anderson's Higherups, are you insane? You're prices are ridiculous and your selection sucks. What reality do you live in where you think you can get away with charging over $20 for a book? I just got my $600 Economic Stimulus check from the government and I'm going to spend none of it at your shitty ass store. I'd rather donate $100 to the library than buy anything from you. Maybe I will. Yeah right, not until they update their audiobooks from cassettes to cds.
Anyway, Im sure your town has a store like Andersons that makes a mockery of independent bookstores and you can choose to deal with it however you wish, but the most you should pay for a book is $10 in my opinion. But back to In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. The title story was about this kid who wakes up in a movie theater in 1909 and watches an awkward silent picture of his parent's courtship on the screen. It is kind of a dream, but thats only inferred, not fact, and yes it does have that lame ending where its like "oh, it was all a dream", but the story is pretty good. The kid is now a product of divorced parents and as he watches their courtship which he feels was a mistake and ultimately led to their divorce and his shattered ideals, he can't help his anger and keeps yelling at the screen. The people next to him in the theater don't understand whats going on and want him to shut up. Finally he gets thrown out of the theater just as his father proposes to his mother. Really creative and very emotional. It has that watching a trainwreck but being unable to look away feel to it and turned out to be Delmore Shwartz's first and most influential short story. He was later commited to an insane asylum and died shortly thereafter.
So I read that story, but the real gem of the piece was a 60 page novella type story about a circle of friends and how they relate to each other and the Depression sagged economy around them. Sounds pretty relevant for today. Overeducated mid twentysomethings, underemployed. It's called 'The World Is A Wedding' and despite lacking a central narrator or hero it is a great story about how we all play a part in the world if we look at it like a wedding. There is the bride and groom, the happy parents, the disappointed parents, the ex boyfriend who is still friends with enough people to be invited to the wedding, the younger siblings and cousins who couldn't give a shit about why they are gathering together, but are just glad to dance around and enjoy themselves, the drunks, the boyfriend and girlfriend who will probably marry next, the widow who will never marry again. Its kind of like that Shakespeare 'all the world is a stage' idea except less of a celebration of life and more of a deconstruction of it. William Carlos Williams thought Schwartz made a beautiful coral island that glimmers in the sunlight just below the surface of the shallow water and though it is beautiful on its own, it expects sooner or later to rip a hole in the keel of some great passing ship.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
There is also a great passage from one of the characters who is an unsuccessful though undetered playwright named Rudyard speaking of the difference between courage and inspiration. They two are completely different parts of the brain and only inspiration can keep an artist going, courage really has nothing to do with it....less
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Arr to tha Bee!!!
