The Spirit Comic book adaptation wherein a dead man fights crime and woos the ladies.
Theater Location: Beltway Plaza (Greenbelt)
Noise Level: Too Loud
The Skinny: To quote from the movie, "Is it just me, or is that weird?" Yeah, it was weird, but I liked it, odd anachronisms and all.
Also the last Rorschach of the year.
9.91
I swear that the hill in Greenbelt National Park is getting harder, not easier. I'd like to blame it on the wind or the cold, but it was a stinkin' hot 45°F today. It's supposed to hit 50°F tomorrow. This is just so dang wrong. So dang wrong.
So, the hill is bad, but it's awfully pleasant to have a nice car-free road to ride through the trees on the other side. The cars were out in force on Good Luck Road, though, and the construction at Paint Branch Parkway makes for some skinny roadway for FUVs to share with little ole me, so I was glad to hit the NE Branch Trail and watch an airplane take off from the world's oldest continuously operated airport.
All-in-all a tiring short ride to finish out the year much later than I'm used to finishing out the year.
This is the sign outside our local mall, Beltway Plaza. It is named for that hot new bit of construction we lovingly call the Capital Beltway, completed in 1964. I'm not sure when the mall itself came into existence, though it couldn't have started later than the 70s with a name like that (and a logo to boot).
I stopped by today and took this picture of one of the holiday displays.
Ignore the creepy elves for a moment and tell me why there are so many ants painted all over the place. Are ants on snowmen a traditional image I have missed somehow?
At any rate, I doubted the veracity of the sign (in the top of the picture) that claims the mall has over a hundred other stores. I doubted that they had even a hundred including those stores on the sign. Here is what I found:
Stores at Beltway Plaza Mall
Well, check that out. I was wrong. I can admit it. Mistakes were made. You go Beltway Plaza with your more than 100 stores, you.
We popped over to Monticello while we were in the Charlottesville area. This was the home of Thomas Jefferson. I didn't remember that the building was made of brick. I guess I expected it to be constructed from nickel.
I also didn't remember it being so crooked!
The people running this place are real control freaks. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house. We could not lean in the doorways or on the walls. We were told to remove our gum and throw it away before entering the house. We were even told to turn off our mobile phones before going in. "Only 19th century sounds inside the house, please."
They locked up the smokehouse so that you wouldn't go into the empty room and stand in it or something.
(We could take pictures in the basement and the slave areas.)
Even the signs were controlling.
But the view from the grounds was lovely, even in winter.
A town in Virginia that so believes in the 1st Amendment, it put this installation up for people to express themselves however they want with chalk.
Which probably explains their willingness to name a restaurant this:
But best of all are the book stores.
We're here for a wedding and will be back in town tomorrow. The weather is horrendous: mid-60s and sunny.
I expect this week is going to be slow readership wise, so here's a list for those of you who bothered to drop in: Some of my choices for "bests". Keep in mind that these are books I read this year, so many of them were released before this year began.
One thing about this year is that I've spent a lot more time working from home, which is great for the environment and for treating my road rage, but it has really cut back on my book tales. Long bus and train rides are much more conducive to the short tale than walking down the steps.
All that is to say that this year I've read more books than I got around to writing about.
The Best Book I Read This Year: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party, M.T. Anderson
I believe that this book is filed under YA, but I can't for the life of me figure out why. It is a searing story set in New England during the opening of the Revolutionary War. A boy grows up among very strange experimentalists and slowly learns the reality of his own part in the goings-on. It's even deeper than that: it's a look at different attitudes and activities of bystanders and instigators leading up to the the first skirmishes of the war. It's a horrible book in the sense that it contains horrible acts and activities, but it is a fascinating and revealing novel that should not be missed. This is Book Thief territory.
The Most Fun Book I Read This Year: Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon
Jewish adventurers, who knew? This is a fun and light book about a couple of vagabond thieves who get caught up in a young person's royal intrigues. Sort of a Hope and Crosby kind of book. Short and sweet.
The Best Weird Book I Read This Year: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, Cory Doctorow
I'd like to say that City of Saints and Madmen was the best, but this one has more narrative flow, which is an important quality for me. It's the story of the son of a mountain and a washing machine as he battles to have a normal life while worrying about his responsibility for his brothers: a range of misfits including a set of three stacking brothers who can only eat when stacked together. Weird, but fun.
The Best Western Book I Read This Year: Territory, Emma Bull
I don't read a lot of westerns, but this one is also lightly a fantasy novel, so it slipped under the radar. Plus, I had a good enough experience with So Brave, Young and Handsome that it seemed safe to pick up. I'm glad I did. There is a sequel in the works, but this book takes us up to events before the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. Wyatt and his pals are here, along with a spunky newspaper reporter and a mysterious drifter. A little magic, a little romance, and a little magic. Nicely done.
I could pick the worst book I've read but it would involve a possible relative, so we'll pass on that! Plus, it's not so festive, eh? What are some of the best books you've read this year?
Here's to a literate new year.
All The Books I've Read This Year
Without Book Tales
(In No Particular Order, links go to LibraryThing)
With Book Tales
(In Order of Appearance, links go to my Book Tales)
This is one of my favorite pictures from this year. Can you guess what they're doing?
I'll provide the answer in the comments.
Here is a nice picture book for the holidays for you:
Click on the eyes to go to the LookyBooks site and see it a bit bigger. A nice format for viewing picture books on-line before buying.
I saw these while we were out and about today.
Available at Behnke's.
I almost was able to contribute to the production of this stuff this afternoon. As we were driving south on the Baltimore Washington Parkway, a police car entered from MD-197 and swerved into our lane, nearly running us off the road. A quick look at the driver explained everything: the stupid cop was talking on his cell phone.
The police car number was 4548. The incident occurred around 2:30 pm. The county web site is down today, so I can't see how to report this idiot.
Since I just finished reading The Graveyard Book, I thought I'd share some pictures of what I was imagining as the setting while reading it. These are from the necropolis in Glasgow:
