Monthly Archives: October 2012

A Brilliant Day with a Brilliant Book

How would I define a perfect day? Lying in bed reading all day and finishing a great book as the sun is setting. That was today and I couldn’t be more happy with the book which was my company, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.

It’s a funny title, for a fun, historical, interesting, and captivating book written by Mary Ann Shaffer and completed by her niece Annie Barrows after Shaffer faced health issues. The novel follows letters to and from Juliet Ashton, a writer from London, who becomes enchanted with the Island of Guernsey in the English Channel after it’s occupation by Germany in World War II.

Anyway, my mother was the one to recommend this book to me, so here is the letter (okay, well.. email) I wrote to her about the book:

“I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I called to tell you I finished it, but there was no answer and I am happy there wasn’t. It forces me to write a letter. Keep in mind I may be in a sort of mania, since I am slightly sick and spent the whole day in bed blowing my nose and reading.

this is the bed i read in all day. really, i just like to show off my canopy whenever i have an excuse.

“Oh reading! This book rekindled my love of it. Lately as I have been reading I’ve fallen flat. I finished On the Road yesterday and I loved it. It was brilliant. It was a book about being transient, but I looked at the time he was writing of as unattainable to me. I read it while I rode the subway stopping mid-sentence to look up and remind myself of my location. My location within the same America Kerouac explored, but he experienced America in a way I will never be able to (although I doubt I will stop trying anytime soon.)

“The Guernsey Literary Society was less about location, less about going. It was about finding people you love and care about and learning about them and with them. Their location on a beautiful island constantly smelling fresh salty air was merely a happy coincidence. What brought them together was books and a desire to communicate, which is a thing our society never let’s go.

this isn’t from guernsey, but it’s a house on an island. i took it on a trip to canada this summer and while i was reading i thought back to it.

“One unrelated point: Isn’t it interesting that On the Road and The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society are discussing a time only five or six years apart. I could not imagine two more opposite perspectives on the world. Anyway, I thought the book was tons of fun. I love you and every book you recommend very much.”

After editing that ‘letter’ and putting pictures in I realize how lazy it is to simply reuse a letter and plop it into a blog post, but the world is full of lazier things, I suppose. In conclusion, read this book, or read any book, or just spend a whole day reading. It’s very restorative. Tomorrow I have to return to the real world and find another book to read on the subway.

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A New Kind of Board Game

Coming soon to Hasbro: Autopsy!

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I Felt Like Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Last weekend I went to Brooklyn for an amazing Mountain Goats concert. It was super good.

Here is the setlist from the concert. It was an amazing collection and between all the songs John Darnielle explained where he was coming from. It gave me a whole new appreciation for his new album Transcendental Youth, which you can stream for free from Rolling Stone.

In other NYC news: I ate a falafel (and dropped a lot of it on myself) right outside of the Comedy Cellar. I imagined Louis CK coming by with a slice of pizza. We would stare into each other eyes and eat together forever. But that didn’t happen.

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Romney Night Lights

Like any good American I watched Friday Night Lights. It taught me a lot: what football is, that Taylor Kitsch is very good looking, and where babies come from.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one to be informed and transformed by the show on Texas high school football.

Mitt Romney made his facebook cover photo the motto of the Dillon Panthers, “Clear Eyes. Full Heart. Can’t Lose!” (I have no idea if that is the back of Romney’s head or of Coach Eric Taylor. Either way, it’s extremely square.)

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5 Life Lessons I’ve Learned from Vampires and Werewolves

Did you know nearly every confession in the history of the world has started with the statement, “I was on Netflix and…” Well, here mine goes: I was on Netflix and I’ve started watching The Vampire Diaries. That’s really only half the confession. The other half is I’ve been watching Teen Wolf since it came out last summer.

But it’s not my fault. They just know the formula too well:

Drama + Attractive People + Dangerous Mutations = Kendra’s Dream TV

Well, here are the five life lessons (they are mostly dating tips, but still) that I’ve learned from Teen Wolf and the Vampire Diaries:

1. Your boyfriend is probably a stalker if… a) he finds out where you live. b) he sits outside your window while you sleep for “protection.” c) he knew that you were adopted, before you knew that you were adopted.

2. Before you move into a new town check how many people work for animal control. If they offer 24 hour service you should NOT move there.

3. If you think you have met the love of your life and it turns out they are supernatural, leave them. You haven’t been to college yet. Once you take a few classes in women’s studies you will understand that maybe he is controlling and the fact that he could eat you is feeding into larger issues not just in your relationship, but in the overall pattern of a patriarchal society.

4. Don’t run into situations like you’re special. You aren’t. Maybe instead you should stay at home with a good book and a cup of tea and do what humans do best: avoid issues, be lazy, and forget about the people you’ve fucked over.

5. Silent and brooding can be sexy, but it also might be a trap. Sometimes when people are quiet it means they’re shy, but still have important things to say. And sometimes it means they’re stupid.

With these life lessons under my belt I’m considering making my own tv show about a Faun who has to keep his goat feet a secret from everyone, including the love of his life. (She’ll never go to prom with him if she knows about his heavy hooves!)

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