Wednesday, March 20, 2002 posted by Jen at 3/20/2002 11:09:00 PM
Oh, we're loving The Amazing Race in my house. The suspense! The tension! The little old ladies getting stuck in the airport! Greatest reality show ever -- at least this season. Greatest because it's got all the bells and whistles and gimmicks of the genre, but it's capitalizing on something that's real and familiar to anyone who watches -- namely, that travel's a bitch.
Meanwhile, Survivor's disappointing me. Or maybe it's just suffering in comparison. With The Amazing Race, there are heroes and villains -- and they're not always the same people from week to week, but there's always someone you're cheering for, and someone you're hoping gets the crappy cab driver, the flat tire, the bad directions, the bum knee. And, given how many people and how much distance they're working with, the producers do a great job of establishing everyone as individuals -- even, to a certain extent, the identical twins.
With Survivor, it's all villains, all the time. There's nobody I want to root for, too many people to root against. And the characterizations have gotten really lazy. Hmm, a brainless, busty blonde. A homophobic, sexist, blue-collar guy with a funny accent. A black man who doesn't want to work too hard. Haven't seen people like these since...well, since last Survivor. Even the gross-out stuff feels like old hat -- I'm sorry, Sarah's bumpy legs couldn't hold a candle to Colleen's scabby, crusty, bleeding legs. Eating rancid tuna isn't as bad as drinking blood. And nobody's as evil, or as completely absorbing, as Richard Hatch. Alas.
So tomorrow I'm off to New York City. I was planning on reading Everything's Eventual on the train, but have discovered, somewhat to my chagrin, that I actually remember almost all of the stories in Stephen King's from their previous incarnations in the New Yorker, online, and from the Blood and Smoke audiobook. Rats.
But a little good news -- the Amazon paperbacks have arrived! (God, I'm starting to feel like I'm announcing the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau or something.) Anyhow, get 'em while they're hot, and while shipping is free.
And stay tuned for IN HER SHOES. I hope to have chapters up soon!
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Tuesday, March 19, 2002 posted by Jen at 3/19/2002 07:36:00 PM
And also, Barnes & Noble online has paperbacks of GOOD IN BED ready to ship, if your local bookstore doesn't have 'em yet.
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posted by Jen at 3/19/2002 06:13:00 PM
I've been meaning to write about Graceland, which is where Adam took me on my special secret surprise pre-birthday pre-book-tour weekend, but I'm really still kind of confounded. For one thing, it wasn't as big as it felt like it should have been -- just your average nice-sized house that looks kind of average in a land of Toll Brothers monstrosities. And the 1970s decor is not aging well. The Pool Room was pretty, but the Jungle Room just looks kind of cheesy and sad.
And strangest of all was the absolute lack of context. Touring the house you're never told that Elvis was anything other than a sweet singin' man who swiveled his hips, loved his Mama, wore a lot of outlandish jumpsuits, and had a bad problem with the prescription drugs (no, the taped narration doesn't shy away from mentioning it). There's no sense of what he meant in terms of the history of pop music the youth revolution, no instance where he's placed in the larger cultural context of the Beatles and Nixon and the Vietnam War.
I can remember when Elvis died. But I can't remember listening to much of his music. There was much more Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in our house, and I know Elvis mostly from songs about him -- Chuck D. and Dan Bern.
Adam and I spent large portions of the weekend talking about who the modern-day Elvises (Elvi?) are. Like, which rock star's house can you imagine paying twenty-five bucks to tour thirty years from now? I thought about MC Hammer, but I'd want to see his house for all the wrong reasons -- not because he was a pop icon, or important in the scheme of either music or pop culture, but because it would be the perfect example of wretched 1980's excess, a cautionary tale of having it all and losing it all.
We also enjoyed some delicious barbecue. And the Peabody ducks. Of course, ever since he heard about them Wendell had decided that his every entrance and exit should be heralded with a John Philips Sousa march. Which makes things kind of noisy around here.
Meanwhile, from the post-Rosie front, two fabulous examples of why committed gay couples should be allowed to adopt -- the news that Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton have availed themselves of a tot from Cambodia, and that newlyweds Liza Minnelli and David Gest are eagerly seeking a ready-made brood of four.
I mean, really. If we're letting these people adopt, why not the nice gay men in Florida?
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Monday, March 18, 2002 posted by Jen at 3/18/2002 09:09:00 AM
Here's where I went last weekend. Details to come soon.....
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Welcome to A Moment of Jen, author Jennifer Weiner's constantly-updated take on books, baby, and news of the world. Email me at jen (a) jenniferweiner.com.
