Thursday, September 03, 2009

Gardens, Monsters, Last Lines

Green beans and cucumbers
Green beans and cucumbers,
originally uploaded by dkun.
So, here is the picture of the recent green bean/cucumber harvest. Alas, these are the only 2 cucumbers we were able to grow. Soon they will be pickles. Oh yes, yes they will. Tasty tasty pickles. Hopefully. As mentioned the green beans have been the big winner this summer (oh and the snap peas, can't forget them). This represents only a small amount of what we've grown, but this was the single biggest batch we picked. And they are mighty fine. We've had some decent tomatoes and some decent peppers as well. All in all the garden has been a success. And I just found out that lovely wife planted some spinach for a fall harvest. So yay for that. Next year we'll have a slightly better idea about what we're doing.

I have finally finished all 18 volumes of Naoki Urasawa's Monster. It was quite the ride. I'm uncertain how I feel about the ending (and really given the buildup that occurred across 18 volumes, I'm really not sure what would have worked) but I can wholeheartedly recommend the series. If you have access to it, track it down. It's a pretty fascinating ride. Politics, questions of humanity, intrigue - this series has just about a dash of everything. It really is pretty amazing how much stuff is crammed into the story. The few knocks against it are the constant introduction of new characters (even at the end) which can be pretty difficult to follow (wait, who did what to who and when?) and the fact that the story really does cover a lot of ground. It can be difficult to keep track of (even with the helpful charts at the beginning). (And yes I'm aware I just said that was a positive as well, thanks) So yes, Monster good. Letter 'd' approved.

And lest you think I forgot, here's another last line. This time it comes from The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine (Amazon link, yo) by April Lurie. It reads, "From the audience, Headbone calls out, 'Dylan! Studmeister! Give us lessons!'" It's been a while since I made note of this particular line, so I have no scathing commentary. I will simply say that if anyone should be using the term studmeister, it's definitely someone named Headbone. (Based on the blurb I have a sneaking suspicion that he's a band member. A particularly gnarly one at that dude. But that almost counts as research, so ignore that bit.) I am glad to see that Headbone is interested in learning something. Especially as the book is now over and he will never get the chance.

We recently caught the first few episodes of Hamish Macbeth, a Scottish TV series based on the M.C. Beaton books. It's good. It takes an episode or two to make sense of the accents, but after that it's an amusing little police show. Robert Carlyle makes an excellent Hamish (and a good zombie as well - 28 Weeks Later says hi) and the girl who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films does a good job as one third of the main love triangle. Also worth tracking down.

And I think that about does it. Family is in town at the moment and will continue to arrive through Saturday. It will make for a busy weekend, but it will be nice to see everyone again. So happy early Labor Day to all. (And who let it be September already?!)

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