THE BIG RAMBLE

My plan was to have posted a couple times this week but that obviously didn't happen. One reason was a misbehaving internet connection, which lead to reeeeeeeeally slow speeds when I could access things at all. Another was preoccupation with how I buy comics. Again. And a third was my typical ambivalence and angst about the whole endeavor. Or maybe I was just that I got hooked on watching "Undeclared" and "The Simpsons" Season 7 (plus commentaries!)...

So, comics. Back in October I decided to pick up the first issue of the latest DC company crossover, INFINITE CRISIS, which happens to be a sequel of sorts to its 1985 maxi-series, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The teenage me loved that series with its cast of hundreds even though it got rid of the whole concept of multiple earths within the DC Universe. None of which is really important to the story at hand. I picked up the next issue the following month and then started picking up a couple comics here and there - ALL STAR SUPERMAN and FIRESTORM and TEEN TITANS and so on. Reading IC was getting that inner fanboy hooked again; earlier this week I made out a comics order for March which included a bunch of DC monthlies. But I realized I can't go down that road again. I can't start with just one monthly - it inevitably leads to comics sprawl. Yesterday I traded in those issues for some store credit and have gone back to reading trades and original graphic novels once again. I don't have the money or space or any sustained interest in being a monthly comics reader. It's much safer to go the trade route. It's very black and white on my part but that's the way my personality is wired.

That wiring tends to cause problems, mostly with myself. I mentioned my ambivalence about this blog earlier and anyone who's been following any blog I've had (this is the third one) has seen that play out. I can sustain regular posts for a few weeks and then I fall off for a few weeks before finding the energy again, etc. I'm not saying that's unusual for these types of things; I'm sure the web is littered with occasional blogs. My absences stem from that black and white outlook; I'm caught between wanting to just do creative writing and to write about everything under the sun. Part of me thinks I should take any writing energy and follow my stated career goals of being a writer - a writer of novels and short stories and screenplays and so on. Let me creative work speak for me. Of course, the fact that I've done little more than take notes on stories for 15 years poses a bit of a problem - not that I can't start now. The other part of me thinks I should just try and write about books and music and movies and TV and comics and and and - I enjoy ingesting all of that and want to turn other people on to the stuff I love, maybe get some free stuff coming my way and so on. In the end it just leads to the afore-mentioned flurry of posts/dearth of posts cycle. I want to break that cycle but I still have no idea of which way I will go or if I can work that grey area in between.

Here's something I do know for sure - I will not be finishing Zadie Smith's On Beauty. I started it yesterday and made it about 75 pages in and I just don't like it. I really wanted to. Her debut, White Teeth, was highly enjoyable. I thought her second (The Autograph Man) was okay but reviews touted this latest one. I guess it was just how the script was supposed to go - brilliant debut, subpar second novel, followed by the fufillment of the debut's promise. Not for me. The writing style is unappealing and the characters and not interesting in the least. So long, Smith. On to the next book...

I've also decided I won't be picking up the new Strokes album either. Reviews for the new album seem to be following that critical script as well, with many positive reviews. I just can't get myself interested and the songs I've heard from it on KEXP haven't done anything to change that mindset. So long, Strokes. On to Tuesday's Cat Power and Jenny Lewis discs...

If you've read this far, thanks. Hope I gave you something for slogging through all that navel-gazing...