new heroes last night

was kind of a total snoozer. the "cliff-hanger" ending wasn't even that engaging and the new characters were annoying. a lot of the mystery is gone from the show so i think that's kind of a problem, the momentum just isn't there. as the roomie said, "it feels like a middle-of-the-season episode." which is totally true.

the dotytron always comes back from teaching his after-school program with hilarious stories to tell. apparently the teacher they had last year was "soooo booooring" because it appears he just stuck to a rigid lesson book and had them plod their way through it. dotytron made a "music appreciation" cd with a wide range of songs on it, from the simpsons theme, to classical, to jazz, to classic rock, and had the kids pick out what they could hear. apparently it went over like bananas. then he had them list some of the music that they liked. the answers were hilarious. one kid like classical music (especially mozart) and hip hop. most of them liked pop music, some of them got really specific with the bands they liked, and it was interesting to see that classic rock was still a huge influence, as well as some prog (there's something kind of wrong with a kid listing rush as one of their favorite bands).

i recently finished reading miranda july's book "no one belongs here more than you". for those of you who have seen her palme d'or-winning movie "you, me and everyone we know" it's very similar. the short stories all share faintly tragic, absurdly comedic stories (all written in the first person) about the tentative and grotesque connections between people in all their lumpy, endearingly misshapen glory. it exposes the dark side of people, but not in a mean, todd solondz kind of way, it's not vicious. it's more the quiet, confused, strange and quirky side of people, that flirts with darkness but maintains enough self-aware humour to prevent it from becoming savage, keeping the stories safely on the humane side.

she has a particular gift for getting the tone of children right. the kids in her stories and in the movie were probably the most convincing of all the portrayals and her dialogue, often involving stilted conversations riding a wave of awkward misunderstandings, isn't mannered, and reads as true. overall, i really enjoyed the collection and i would recommend it.

tonight for dinner i think we're having halibut with tartar sauce, green beans, and some as-yet-to-be-determined starch.

fin.