September Round-Up

Remember September? Wasn't it awesome?

OK. Maybe not. But I know I did some stuff. Let's see what it was, aside from spending a LOT of time watching TV pilots and writing about them, that is.

Movies Seen: Eight. Which is a lot less than my usual total, and none were in a theater. I guess it was all that TV. The best was "Away From Her," although I probably watched half of the movie through tears. Not a happy movie.

Books Read: Three and they were all humor related. The first was a very light look at brain surgery called "I've Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse?," which, being partially illustrated, was a quick read. The second was a collection of essays and such by Roy Blount, Jr. called "Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South." I enjoyed a lot of it, but it's long, and covers a lot of his career, and it was a little annoying to find him repeating the same jokes in many, many pieces. I understand a good joke shouldn't just be told once and then placed into a vault never to be used again, so the fault is probably in reading all these pieces all at once. It would be less annoying if I'd read his, "Do you believe in infant baptism?" "Believe in it? Hell, I've seen it done!" joke once ten years ago, and then again this year, instead of reading it three or four times in the same book. Is all I'm saying.

The last book was "Dark at the Roots" by Sarah Thyre, who, if you have never heard of her, you might know best as the actress who played the gym teacher on "Strangers With Candy." (She's also married to Andy Richter, which puts them in the running for coolest Hollywood couple up there with Amy Poehler and Will Arnett.) The book was a(nother) memoir about a wacky childhood, and was pretty funny. I've got to give her props for being brutally honest about some of the incredibly embarrassing things she did as a kid, some of which I had never heard anyone admit to doing before. And no, I'm not going to tell you what those things are. Get the book. It's at the library!

Fancy Dinners Out: Two. One at Two (for two at six. Ha!), and the other at Street. It was prime rib night when I went to Street, and you can't really go wrong with that. And at Two I had a salad that came with both a poached egg and some steak. And I can't for the life of me remember what the dessert I had was. I guess it wasn't that good.

Live Shows Seen: One! Morrissey at the Filmore. It was kind of a rocky show. His mic cord kept getting stuck in some flowers that were on stage (he does like to whip that cord around) and during the very dramatic "How Soon Is Now?" his mic cut out a few times, and he was not pleased. Some fans also yelled something like, "Thanks for showing up this time!" at him because of his cancelled tour earlier this year. Which caused some other fans to scream apologies about his awful fans.

But he did take his shirt off. Twice! At first it was disturbing, but then I learned to love it. He's pushing 50, and taking that into consideration, he doesn't look that bad shirtless. (His pants, however, were all kinds of horrible.) If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, here's some grainy footage from a show in Bakersfield.



Shoes Bought: None! Wow! I need to work on that!