norman mailer on charlie rose

Norman Kingsley Mailer was on Charlie Rose yesterday and so if you check it soon, you can watch it for free on Google Video. He was somewhat synchronistically (or purposefully) paired up with fellow author Martin Amis, son of Kinglsey Amis.

I’ve not watched the episode yet myself and, to be honest, not yet finished Mailer’s new novel, but am enjoying the latter and looking forward to watching the former.

(And while you’re at Google Video, take a look my production company’s films.)

the da vinci comedy

Using up some of my gift card funds I decided to purchase one of these cases for my iPod. It came with a free trial membership at Audible (supposedly a month long membership, but in signing up it came up as just 14 days). In poking around the site deciding how to use my one credit, I came across the audiobook copy of The Da Vinci Code. Given all the hubbub (and the upcoming movie and being a somewhat reformed conspiracy buff), I’d been considering adding it to my reading list for a while, but not been curious enough to actually buy a copy. So I downloaded the audiobook and have been listening to it the past couple days.

It is hilarious. The writing is, well, clearly aiming for those people who consider reading the credits on a movie to be challenging (I don’t need to hear the dead guy’s four line message repeated twenty times, especially when you’re trying to explain what just one line means. Heck, I’ve heard it enough I could now recite it backwards in pig latin while drunk). The exposition sequences are even more ponderous than the description of the tabernacle in Exodus. And for characters that are supposedly such brilliant thinkers and have amazing storehouses of knowledge of these secret machinations they sure are slow to reason out what’s going on and what each little clue means.

On top of it all, so many of the “facts” and theories are either wrong or just lack any real reasoning. The best debunking I’ve found in the tiny bit of searching I did (I don’t plan to do any more as I’ve got much better ways to spend my time), is this write up, Crash Goes the Da Vinci Code. On a few points, that piece’s arguments don’t quite hold up to the light of reason (or historical evidence), but it does point out the flaws and inaccuracies in some of the more outrageous claims.

Overall, it keeps making me think of the Celestine Prophecy, which I will admit had gotten me on the verge of believing back when I read it in high school. In my defense, I was in high school and it was around the time that I was toying with a belief in the Force. (pausing while the laughter subsides) Anyway, back to the funny book for me. (And for the one (or more) of you waiting for the political invective to shoot forth and burn out your eye sockets, it’s coming soon. And it’s bringing a local friend.)

four eyes wide open

I’ve been silent for a few days. Hadn’t intended to be, but I’ve been caught up reading this book of works by Charles Williams. That’s not what’s forced my fingers to the keyboard (though I have been writing down thoughts as I read, thoughts I intend to share in the not too distant future).

Earlier this evening I was watching the the viral video podcast from Search for Video and came across part five of another podcast. Some documentary about a pair of independent filmmakers taking their film to the Slamdance Film Festival. The film is Four Eyed Monsters. While I know almost nothing about it, I can’t recommend the podcast highly enough.

In one of those not-so-odd coincidences that happens with how fast stuff spreads on the net these days, a few minutes later I was listening to the Buzz-o-phone podcast (you call up the 800 number on that site and leave a less than 2 minute long message that is then spit back out to the world in handy dandy podcast form) and the founder of the site spent two minutes promoting the film as well. I don’t recall seeing it mentioned much of anywhere else yet so hopefully it’s about to burst out into full everybody-has-to-blog-about-it glory.