Media review

After re-reading my last post and taking my blood pressure, I realized I needed a glass of wine. No can do right now, though, so I decided to sit down with a book. If you've read my profile, you can see that I like Anne Rice. I have every book written by her, whether under her name or a nom-de-plume. She's a great author. I can pick up any of her books and completely FALL into the world she weaves. To me that's the greatest thing an author can do for me. I want to be able to pick up a book and forget what's going on around me. If an author can do that, I'm sold. I'll buy everything I can find by that person. Anyway, I'm reading Memnoch the Devil again. I realize that it's now been some 15 years since the first time I read it. That was probably the only time I read it. It scared the hell out of me. I hated it. But in a good way. It scared me because it drew me in so completely. You genuinely believe that what's going on in her books is really going on somewhere out there. And Memnoch the Devil is about the Devil, capital D there, coming to Earth to convert Lestat, the hero of Anne Rice's world, into helping him in a fight against God. But it's not the typical good vs evil fight we've all grown up believing. Instead, Memnoch fell because he was defending humans, and that all humans can pay for their sins and eventually be good enough for heaven. God, according to the book, doesn't believe we are worth redemption.

Now don't go getting all holy wrath, smite thee, get thee to a nunnery on me. I'm only telling you what's in the book. And why it took me so long to pick it up again. All the other Anne Rice books, I've probably re-read countless times. I can quote passages out of some.

It scared me in the same sense that I used to HATE Kevin Spacey for. The first movie I saw him in was Se7en. And he's only got a small actual acting part in it. But he scared the PISS out of me. I wouldn't see anything with him in it for a LONG time. I think at the time I was genuinely convinced he was a raving psychotic murderer. American Beauty was probably the next movie I saw with him in. He is a frighteningly good actor. Unreal. I also didn't like Edward Norton for a short time after American History X. But I'd seen him in other movies enough that I realized that wasn't really him. Edward Norton is also one of my favorite actors. I'd like to round out the list with Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman is such a good actor that a lot of people have no idea who he is. You've probably seen more movies with him in it than you realized. He was Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was Beethoven in Immortal Beloved. He was the terrorist in Air Force One. He was Lieutenant Gordon in Batman. And he was Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movie(s). He's been in a lot. You should definitely see movies with him in them.

Finally another actor I hate to admit is good: Leonardo Dicaprio. He played a retarded kid in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I thought he really was retarded. I thought he was two different people in The Man in the Iron Mask. Catch Me If You Can was OK, not the greatest movie. In fact I don't think I could sit through the whole thing. I heard Gangs of New York was really good, although I haven't seen it yet. But my point is that they're still good actors. I am less fond of actors who can't leave themselves out of a role. Tom Cruise is a classic example of this. Can you think of any role he's played where he wasn't Tom Cruise?

Anyway, feel free to leave me your own examples of media-type diversions that you were lost in. A book you couldn't put down. A movie you own multiple copies of because you wore out the first tape/disc. Hell, a TV show you own all 10 seasons of. Music you can't stop listening to. Whatev! I'm in the mood to see/hear/read some new stuff.