Wednesday
17Feb2010

"my year of gaiman" part 5 - the sandman, volumes 1-5

it's been almost a month since my last post. i had thought about doing a post for each volume but i didn't want to interrupt the flow of the stories once i got into them.

i've never been a comic reader but this series has kept me engrossed from the very start. the story of dream and the rest of the endless is handled rather eloquently, and sometimes violently by neil and the immensley talented artists that were involved.

some of the stories are not for the faint of heart. from a masacre in a diner led by someone that i like to describe as "bat shit crazy" to convention of serial (cereal) killers to the skinning of a dead mans face.

the series is recommended for mature readers and for good reason the scenes described above are rendered uncomfortably beautiful. the depiction of hell by the artists are some of the most disturbing images i have laid eyes on. it seems the artists were in my head because that is what i picture hell to look like.

i've started with volume six so you can expect another post in this series in roughly a month.

Tuesday
16Feb2010

going off the grid (sort of) for awhile.

"It's no big deal, it's just -- we have to go away and ... and dream it all up again."

that is a quote from bono of u2 at the end of a series of shows in the late 80's. it's not totally in line with what i've been thinking, but i've always liked it and i wanted a reason to put it in a blog post.

you can read the full explanation as to what he was talking about here.

now. on to ME.

earlier today i tweeted that i would be "going off the grid" for awhile. i got a few responses after that which i appreciate more than i can possibly express. those that responded know who they are, and i thank them. those of you you didn't respond, it's all good, i still love you.

other than a few direct message conversations i've had with a select few people, i've tried to keep a lot of talking about my personal life out of twitter, because i just didn't want to come off as whiny and bitchy about it. believe me, given the chance, i can be quite whiny and bitchy about it.

for the better part of the last six months, i haven't been in a good place, or to put it more simply, i've been pretty fucking sad. that came immediately on the heels of what i can honestly say was the best four months of my life. as you can probably deduce i am talking about a relationship. i won't, out of respect for her, go into too many details. all i will say is i was never happier than i was during those four months.

i was doing ok after a few months, that is to say i hadn't holed up in my apartment hiding from the world. i had moments of happiness, and moments of pretty severe depression. to the point where i went to couneling. yes, i went to counseling over the breakup from a girlfriend. if you are going to judge me for that then fuck right off because i don't want to hear it. i went to someone that knows me very well. the same person who counseled me during my divorce. yes, i'm divorced, if you have a problem with that, again, with the fucking right off. i am divorced, not a leper. i have come to terms with that part of my life. if you would like to know more than i might be willing to talk to you about it, just not here.

to cope with what i was feeling i dove back into one of my first loves, music. i blogged about that a few months ago so i won't go into too much detail, but you can read about it here.

again, this year, i was doing ok, then two seperate things happened, about a week and a half apart that really threw me, and brought back a lot of emotions that i thought i was passed but i had merely just pushed as far down and away as i could. out of respect for those involved with both of these events i will leave out the details, although there are a couple of you that know of at least one of these events, and i thank you for your words of encouragement.

now, some of you might be saying, "tell me about this off the grid comment!" ok, i'm going to do that now.

i need to cut the cord from the internet a little bit. i need to get back to doing the things that i love doing. playing and writing music. seeing my family, and just generally living life. i've been on twitter since '07. there have been a lot of ups and downs in my activity on the site and the last few months have seen quite an up tick in my "tweets". i need to back away, i think i've lost sight of what i have because i have been focusing on what i don't have. that has to change if i am ever to be truly and completely happy.

with that being said, there's a reason why the title of this post has (sort of) in it. i'm not going to completely abandon all twitter and online activity, i'm just going to scale it back a lot for the time being.

some things you will notice:

-i will still send out the ocasional tweet, but i am not going to be glued to it as much as i have been
-you will still see occassional tweets come from other services like last.fm via twitterfeed, tumblr, and formspring (so yes, you can still ask me questions)
-an occasional increase in traffic for a particular event, for instance if the usa (men or women) make it to the gold medal hockey game, or the closing ceremonies.

i am still going to be somewhat active on Facebook, just not on the level i was before. if you feel the need to keep tabs on me you can friend me up there. for those of you who are worried that i'm going to run off and join some cult, or completely drop off the face of the earth i'd be more than happy to let you bug me via text or phone call, just DM me on twitter and i'll give you my number. if instant messaging is your thing then you can DM me and i'll give you those details too.

one last thing. if i happen to knock in a goal during my thursday night soccer games, you damn well know i am going to let twitter know about it.

not really sure how to end this, so i'll just say goodnight. and expect another post possibly later on tonight, i owe you all a "my year of gaiman" post, as i am halfway through the sandman series.

Tuesday
02Feb2010

"my year of gaiman" - update

i know i haven't posted since january 22nd when i posted about stardust, but worry not all, i am still reading.

i am currently reading the sandman series and the plan is to wrap them up in two seperate posts. i am reading the series in the 10 volume format. i am on volume 3 right now and will post my thoughts after i have finished up volume 5 and again after volume 10.

want to follow my progress? well you can follow me on twitter where i chat about it occassionally or you can check out goodreads profile, which also posts to twitter and facebook.

Friday
22Jan2010

"my year of gaiman" part 4 - stardust

i read this one in 4 days. 4 days!?!?

like i posted yesterday on twitter, i guess i like to read. who knew. :) to which i got an awesome response from one of my favorite twitter friends, @kapnkaty

well said as always kap'n. :)

of the four gaiman novels i've read so far, only american gods has taken more than 7 days to read, but then it is a long book, and so far still my favorite.

there isn't a whole lot, if anything, that i can say bad about this book. like the other three that i've read it had a plot point that completely off guard. so with that said, off we go to the spoilers.

*SPOILERS*

i kept read tristran's name as tristan, i chalk that up to being a richard wagner fan. one of my favorite wagner operas is tristan and isolde.

i never saw it coming that tristran was the next lord of stormhold.

why is it that in all the books i've read of neil's so far that there has been a woman in the main character's life that really kind of treats them like shit? let's review:

-in american gods while shadow is in jail, his wife cheats on him. i totally related to that, and i don't mean the jail part.

-in anansi boys charlie's future mother-in-law is one of the biggest ball busters ever to be committed to the written page.

-which is only surpassed by richard's fiancee in neverwhere.

-and finally in stardust the woman who he loves, who has accepted a marriage proposal from someone else, tells tristran that if he brings back the star that they saw fall, she will give him anything he desires. bitch. you knew what he wanted. :)

and while the male leads in neil's novels always seem to be treated like garbage by the women in their lives, they always end up in the end in a place, or with someone that is better for them, or where they ought to be.

quite possibly my favorite part of the book was the sky ships that fish lightning. something about that reminded me of something that would come straight out of child's mind, and i mean that in the best possibly way. i think it is just brilliant writing. just think about it. ships high above storm clouds fishing for lightning. :)

*END SPOILERS*

i thought about trying to rank these four novels in the order in which i enjoyed them the most but i don't think i can. they all pulled me in and kept me hooked for different reasons.

what's up next you may ask? well that would be the sandman. i got volumes 1 and 2 from amazon today. i'm not sure what to expect. i've never been a big fan of comics or graphic novels so this is really all new territory to me.

i'm sure it is going to be at the very least, an interesting journey.

Monday
18Jan2010

"my year of gaiman" part 3 - neverwhere

after being completely, and totally blown away by american gods and anansi boys, i couldn't wait to start neverwhere.

my verdict?

mind=BLOWN

i honestly didn't think i could be i completely and totally impressed and in love with three books in a row from the same author, but neverwhere along with american gods and anansi boys has proved me wrong. most of this is going to be a spoiler, so i'll just alert you now.

*spoiler(s)*

first of all, like charlie in anansi boys i thought richard was a bit of a push over at the beginning of the book, which i believe was neil's intention. i loathed his fiancee jessica and her over bearing mother. if it weren't for mr. croup, mr. vandemar, and islington, those two might have been the characters i detested the most.

i completely fell for the set up in neverwhere. i was completely convinced that the marquis de carabas was going to be the one that betrayed them and was really the one that hired croup and vandemar to kill door, not islington.

with that said i was completely shocked that hunter was in on the betrayal, although she gained some sympathy when she admitted her betrayal.

the idea of the "fallen" angel, islington in this case, is often a cliche, the idea was handled wonderfully as was the dispatching of the angel along with croup and vandemar. that was wonderfully written and one of my favorite parts of the story.

i was quite happy that in the end richard decided that he wanted to go back to "london below" and be where he really belonged

*end spoiler(s)*

next up is stardust which i have already made good progress on. if all goes the same as with neverwhere i should be done with it inside of a week. after that i am probably going to start on the sandman series.