Kenny's Head

Loved the stuff with Derry…nasty fucking town, that. That was a nice surprise, and overall a good book. What is your favorite(s) by King?

It sure is, and I’m curious to see…well, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who is planning on reading it. I’ve still got about 500 pages to go myself…now that the parents are up, I’m off to read more after this post (and maybe catching up just a bit more on my dashboard) so they can snag the computer.

My all-time favorite is the Dark Tower series. I’ve mentioned my Vicodin overdose in the past…the only reason I didn’t try again or do something a little more fool-proof was because I decided that I couldn’t let myself die without seeing how that story ended, and I’d only read the first four books at that point. The end really pissed me off, yet it was perfect at the same time. And given my own situation, the song Someone Saved My Life Tonight doesn’t only bring back memories of Eddie, but of that time of my own life. It was kind of fitting, because Stephen King kind of saved mine.

I want to read the new Dark Tower book, The Wind Through the Keyhole, that comes out in April, but since it takes place between parts IV and V, I feel like I need to start over from the beginning. Since my copies of the books have disappeared as life happened, it’s gonna have to wait until I can pick them all up again.

If I’m going with an individual work, I’ve gotta go with The Stand. It’s truly an epic tale with amazing characters. Although it took me a long time to forgive Stephen for what happened to Nick.

The Eyes of the Dragon is rather underrated, but I thought it was a great departure. I actually need to re-read this one as well…it was probably my second or third King book that I read, and it’s been a REALLY long time. I didn’t even know how intertwined the books were at that point…I bet I missed a lot. I first picked up on that in Insomnia, when there were references to the ka-tet from The Dark Tower.

It gets special mention (I mean the book It, not “it” as in a continuation of the last paragraph), because it was the first King book to really repulse me with a visual that was planted in my head as I read. The refrigerator almost made me puke. I never really had a fear of clowns, but Pennywise was something else…especially with my Disney love, the thought of something that was supposed to be entertaining to kids being evil was a new dimension of fucked-uppery for me. It would be like Mickey or Goofy coming up to me 

Best movie adaptation goes to The Green Mile…I remember buying each part of that story as it came out as a serial novel, one part per month for six months, reading it in a day, and then being mad that I had to wait for the next part. But through it all, I had images of the characters in my head. When the movie came out, I saw John Coffey on the screen…not Michael Clark Duncan (who I wasn’t familiar with before that movie, so maybe that helped), but John Coffey. Exactly how I had pictured him when I read the story.

There are so many more that I love…it’s really hard to try to pick a favorite (so I went long-winded to try to include more, but there are just to many that I love for different reasons)…The Shining, Under the Dome, Bag of Bones, The Dark Half, The Talisman…it’s just too many to list them all and the reasons I love them.

Stephen King is just one of those authors that just makes me want to write. Terry Pratchett has the same effect on me, even though he’s a world away from Stephen King…in more ways than one.

I’m reading Stephen king’s new book, 11/22/63. It’a about a guy who goes back in time to try to save JFK from Lee Harvey Oswald.

I know, didn’t sound very Stephen King-ish to me either, but now that I’m a little over 300 pages in, I’m hooked. And it’s about quite a bit more than the JFK assassination…but that’s the easiest way to describe the book without much in the way of spoilers.

But it’s part of what got me thinking of the time travel thing earlier. When you read Stephen King, and have only slept for two of the past 24 hours, things like time travel start to seem reasonable.

Of course, I’ve also reached a point where I’m thinking that there’s only so much that the average person can do to alter the grand scheme of things, for good or for bad.

I could really use an “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment right about now.

Oh, by the way…you know how Stephen King sometimes ties his books together with overlapping characters/plot points?

Beep beep, Richie.

I still haven’t figured this whole Klout thingie out yet.

It’s OK, Klout hasn’t figured Klout out either. Though I did make fun of them once and drop from a 64 to a 42.

I think it’s like favstar for the serious side of twitter (like people who use it for business and foursquare and stuff), and just as meaningless in the long run.

Giving Klout points for being influential in the topic of another competing theme park 5 miles away from Disneyland…that’s how Klout works, right?

Yesterday I gave Coca-Cola points for being experts on Pepsi, and I gave Pepsi points for being experts on Coca-Cola.

After all, I’m supposedly influential on the topic of Lagos, and I think that this post is the first time I’ve even typed the word Lagos. I assume it’s not supposed to make any sense.

With all the talk about tax breaks for the rich, why aren’t higher wages for everyone else a topic of conversation?

Mitt Romney and other people who make millions of dollars without lifting a finger could be taxed at a higher rate, and that still wouldn’t make a bit of difference to someone trying to scrape by on $8 per hour, who has to choose between paying the gas bill or getting their medication.

It just seems like the discussion has been steered away from anything that would make a real difference to most people. Instead of pushing for the punishment of the rich, let’s talk about raising wages for everyone else. Higher wages = more taxes, which helps fight the deficit (assuming that Congress doesn’t piss the extra money away, which is a huge assumption).

This is the problem with having a bunch of wealthy people making the rules. They are out to support their own interests, not everyone else’s. There’s a reason that the average Congressperson’s wealth has increased 2½ times in the past 25 years, while the average American’s wealth hasn’t changed.

Let’s start electing poor people and watch shit get done. It seems like, in an internet age, it shouldn’t require millions and millions of dollars to run a campaign.

I don’t know…I’m no economist, but it makes sense to me.

Ugh! “unobtainium” was about the worse name anyone could think of. Cameron clearly lost a bet. Story is just a blatant Pocahontas rip-off so not worth your time unless you enjoy the special effects/CGI. Otherwise it doesn’t get any better.

Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves, from the looks of things. But I can forgive an unoriginal story if it’s well told. This doesn’t appear to be.

In 3D, utterly amazing - once you get past the first hour. Otherwise, not much to it.

Yo, that movie ain’t gon’ be good on a TV. You should have seen it in 3D :(

As amazing as I imagine it would look in 3D, effects do not make for a good story. I can be blown away by special effects and still feel like it was a waste of time if the story is as poorly told as this one appears to be so far.

And I’m certainly not going to go out and buy a 3D TV or anything because it’s the only way certain movies are worth watching. A good movie maker would make a movie that is still good without the gimmicks.