August brings the sheaves of corn

MUSICAL DISCOVERIES
I think I was too busy reading (see below) to discover any new music this month.  However, I will give a quick shout out to Florrie, who has some fun dance tunes, a bunch of which are free over at her site.  I especially enjoy her collaborations with Fred Falke. Thanks to @boogdogdc for putting Florrie on my radar.

MINI MIX

"9.09 PM at the Beach"-- Fred Falke

"Panic Attack (Fred Falke Club Mix) -- Florrie

"Relax" -- Calvin Harris

"Last Ones Standing" -- Example
"Skin Tight" -- Scissor Sisters

''Secret Sunday Lover" --1gnition

"You Can Dance" -- Bryan Ferry

FILMS

Charlie St. Cloud

Salt

Tales from Earthsea

Cairo Time

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Middle Men

Farewell
Animal Kingdom
Piranha 3D
Mesrine: Killer Instinct

NETFLIX QUEUE

The Answer Man

Interview

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Rome Season 1
Another Country
Dr. T and The Women
Rome Season 2
Superbad

COOKING

Lemon squares

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

Spanakopita
Grilled steak quesadillas

BOOKS

Tales of the South Pacific, James Michener

I absolutely fell in love with this book.  I saw South Pacific, the musical, at Lincoln Center and learned that it was based on Michener's book, which I realized I had sitting at home with my tropical book collection (Kon Tiki, Aku Aku, Hawaii, et al), previously used for decorative purposes only. I am glad I saw the musical before reading the book because it was fun to see what parts of the stories Rogers and Hammerstein borrowed to create their own tale. The descriptions of the occupied islands are so detailed and lush, I felt like I was there along side the Naval officers and SeaBees. All the characters were interesting people and mythical in stature. They were all people with whom I wanted to spend time and get to know better. They were inherently human, but also larger-than-life. When I finished the book, I felt like I was leaving behind a great group of new friends. The Pacific Front of WWII is not something we spent a lot of time on in school, so the book was a learning experience as well. Australian and Kiwi pilots sound like some of the coolest cats around, and I had no idea either country was involved in the conflict to the extent that they were. One of the top five books I've read so far this year.

The Anatomy of Story, John Truby

I strongly disliked this book because it was trying to systematize something I inherently and instinctively know how to do. It stresses me out when I am forced to think about and analyze something that I normally do without consciously thinking about it. Of course, I once again have my excellent prep school education to thank for helping me to become the writer that I am. Additionally, my storytelling and structuring skills are aided by the fact that I read so many books and see so many films. Along the way, I have picked up what works and what doesn't, what makes a good story and what makes a bad story. I read this book because I wanted to be able to better edit screenplays and it had been recommended to me for that purpose, but I can't say that I really learned anything valuable about writing or editing from this book. I did learn a little bit about myself, as well as the person who recommended the book to me, so it wasn't a complete waste. My biggest revelation was that any piece of writing tells a story, be it a screen play or a Master's thesis. So while the majority of my writing has been academic in nature, I still have learned the structuring and organizational skills necessary to telling a pretty compelling story.

The Upside of Irrationality, Dan Ariely

This book was also a bit disappointing, as it was not nearly as good as Ariely's previous book, Predictably Irrational. Here, Ariely takes a more personal and individual approach to behavior economics, and I found that many of the conclusions reached could not be easily extrapolated to greater purpose. However, the sections on work ethic/motivation, the "IKEA effect," and the concept of "not invented here" were quite interesting on a personal level. Also, Ariely's account of his horrible experience with Audi was highly entertaining and illustrates some of the fundamental problems with customer service by which we are all plagued. Not a must read by any means; at least wait for the paperback and save a few bucks.

One Day, David Nicholls

After two disappointing non-fiction books, I was rewarded with my second piece of fabulous fiction this month. Another book with which I completely fell in love. Part of the reason I liked this book and connected with it was that many of the early chapters felt extremely close to home for me and led to a lot of meaningful self-reflection. Again, I found myself genuinely caring about the characters and wanting to know as much as I could about them. The concept of checking in on the characters once every year for twenty years worked very well and propelled the story forward in a highly effective manner. It also made me realize how quickly time slips by and how trivial the majority of life can be. Sometimes I cheered the characters on; sometimes I wanted to slap them for making incredibly stupid decisions. Like the characters on Battlestar Galactica, Emma and Dexter seem like real people who are neither good nor bad, but simply doing the best they can from moment to moment. I was a bit disappointed by the ending of the book, though I have to give Nicholls credit because I certainly didn't see it coming at all. However, by the end of the story, I cared so much for the protagonists that even a weak ending could not diminish my adoration of the book. One Day is already being made into a film, and I can understand why. The last part of the book, with flashbacks galore, is just begging to be made into montages on celluloid, set to hip 80s Brit-rock. I was much more taken my the book when the characters were in their 20s and early 30s than in the later part of the story when they were in their late 30s and early 40s. This book would be interesting to read again in about 14 years to see how my perspective on the book and my own life has changed in that time.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr

This pessimistic view of the Internet and how it is affecting us and individuals and a society fits in with my owns views on this topic quite nicely. Many of the points that Carr makes are things I had considered on my own previously, as I am an extremely conscientious user of technology. However, it's nice to know that people have done formal studies on the nefariousness of the Internet, and that it is sort of a scary thing that is going to change our lives no matter what. Yet it is comforting to know that the extent to which technology changes our lives is still within our control. I am glad I experienced the majority of my childhood and adolescence without Web access (we didn't have an Internet connection at home until I was 16; I've had 160% more time without the Internet than with it), so now I have a broader perspective on the new technology that enters my life on a daily basis. It's sort of like in math class when our teacher would make us learn how to solve problems by hand before we could program our TI-83s to do them for us. I am grateful that I know how to do things without the Internet (long live libraries and books!), even though I definitely appreciate the convenience and entertainment it brings into my life.

The Secret Life of Lobsters, Trevor Corson

This book was fascinating. I had no idea that lobsters are such advanced creatures with amazingly and carefully calibrated senses of smell and highly evolved behavioral patterns. There were so many random lobster facts in this book, and it was fun to learn them all. Corson's mixture of perspectives, from scientists to fishermen to the government, paints a compelling picture of the lobster fishery in Maine. While I don't have as much to say about this book as others I have read this month, it is a truly enjoyable read and I whole-heartedly recommend it if you like lobster (don't worry, you will still want to eat them), fishing, oceanography, behavioral science, New England, the book Cod, or random facts/trivia.

The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs

Prior to reading this book, I am hard pressed to say I had encountered a secular Jew who is as whining, kvetching, and neurotic as a religious Jew. Congratulations, A.J. Jacobs, you managed to be just as tiresome as several real fellow Jews I know or have known! (At least for the first two thirds of your book.) Also, I wish one of your advisers had told you about the little pink-covered moral/ethical/spiritual dilemma workbook that I had in Hebrew School when I was twelve. I think it would have helped you better understand some of the Torah's ambiguities and G-d's true intent with some of his commandments and laws. Because it seems that at twelve, I had a better grasp of this than you did at 38. While based on an interesting premise (I have often contemplated what role laws developed for ancient desert living have in today's world and society), I mainly found this book to be gimmicky and self-indulgent in execution, and often wanted to tell Jacobs to buck-up and stop having such weird parenting philosophies. Maybe if he had stuck to more of the Bible stuff, and less to his personal neurotic stuff, the book would have been a stronger one. As it is, my interest in Biblical law kept being interrupted by my thinking what a wired guy Jacobs appears to be. He often alludes to scholars, religious leaders, and other people with whom he met, spoke, or consulted. However, he never shares the details of these encounters or what they added to his experiment. I wanted more of that kind of thing from this book - more actual Bible, Old or New Testament, odd sects, Mormons; I don't care, just more about the religious aspect of it all. Perhaps these glaring omissions are due to the fact that the book covers 387 days and yet is only 332 pages long.  I guess in the effort to produce an easy-reading, light FM best seller, depth is not a virtue. Yet, like many of the other books I have read this month, Living Biblically was a good catalyst of self-reflection, and I did enjoy reading it and feeling like I was learning something, both about the greater world and myself.
At the Mountains of Madness & Other Tales of Terror, H. P. Lovecraft

So this is another book I've read because it is soon being made into a feature film. And it will make a good feature film - the production designers have exhaustive direction from the source material. However, it makes a terribly dull book. Mountains most reminded me of Turn of the Screw, in that it is competently written, but quite dull.  Lovecraft really likes to repeat himself and drag things out for absolutely no effect other than to slow down the story and make it boring in places where that doesn't need to happen.  Lovecraft also really likes the word "cyclopean" to describe architecture; he even uses it in a couple of the other stories included in my copy of the book. Someone please posthumously get this man a thesaurus.  I suppose for all it's technical faults, Mountains does have a compelling premise that was years ahead of its time. However, I take exception to the whole "Less is more" thing when it comes to spooky stories. If I can't be sure of what is really going on, I can't be that spooked by it, at least when it comes to the written word as a medium. Robert Venturi's "Less is a bore" philosophy would have greatly enhanced all of Lovecraft's stories (the others included in my book are The Shunned House, The Dreams in the Witch-House, and The Statement of Randolph Carter).

Echo House, Ward Just

This book is epic in scale, yet a mere 328 pages. This is a testament to Just's inimitable command of the English language and his talent for finding the perfect turn of phrase or coupled sentences to express an idea, such that it seems that idea, concept, or moment could not be expressed or described in any other way. There were so many passages which I reread two or three times because I was in awe of Just's power of expression. Just's writing reminds me most of Fitzgerald's, but with added gravity. His insight into a microcosm of society is uncanny. I highly recommend this book, even though my words are not adequate to do it justice.