My Month of Entertainment – June 2006

This is going to be bad. Real bad. Let’s just say that this month was something of a perfect storm. June saw a bonus sale for employees at Barnes & Noble (I work there on the weekends), a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” DVD sale at B&N, and a lot of traveling (I always spend more when I’m traveling, even when it’s stuff that I could buy at home...you figure it out because I can’t), not to mention a nice “The Butterfly got a new, higher-paying job...hooray!” end-of-month splurge. I’m posting this before the actual end of June to guilt myself into not spending any more money on this crap over the next three days.

So anyway, here’s the carnage...hopefully this will shame me into spending less next month. Hopefully.

Books

A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby – And...
Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby – And...
How to Be Good, Nick Hornby – That’s right, I’ve got ‘em all now...except Songbook, anyway. Like probably thousands of others, I see Nick Hornby as a much more talented, much more British version of myself. Similar tastes, similar sports and music nerddom. I’m almost afraid to read Songbook because I’ll just be mad that I didn’t write it first.

Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Alan Moore – I guess I should really be glad that I’ve never attempted any drugs beyond alcohol and Benadryl. I get addicted and obsessed with things pretty easily. As it relates to books and music, once I have one album/book from an artist, I need them all (see: Hornby, Nick). A friend of mine has pretty much read every graphic novel that ever existed, and for the moment, I’m trying hard to stick to Alan Moore. But even within the Moore realm, I’ve already special-ordered the other two books of the Top Ten series and all five books of the Promethea series. I need help. Can you help me?

Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed and Why, Gerald D. McKnight * - This is a loaner from Berlin Niebuhr, but since it’s staring down at me from my bookshelf, I’m counting it. Lord only knows when I’ll get to it. I need to quit my job and just read all day. Then again, I wouldn’t have money, and money pays for My Month of Entertainment.

Clemente, David Maraniss * - Also a loaner, only Berlin wants this one back, ASAP, so I started it this week.

Bob Dylan: Performing Artist: The Early Years 1960-1973, Paul Williams – I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago and (of course) stopped by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sadly, this was the only Dylan book in stock that I didn’t already own. Once I got over the pitiful sadness of that last sentence, I snatched it up. Focusing on his performances and not just his bio make it an interesting read, but it makes me no less pitiful.

The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball, Scott Gray – This was a natural progression from the Baseball Prospectus stat nerd book I read last month. The one nerddom I have that Nick Hornby doesn’t appear to is baseball statistics nerddom. That makes me proud, I think.

The Death of Rhythm & Blues, Nelson George – Nelson George is one of my absolute favorite writers. He’s probably the most astute, prolific writer of hip hop (and ‘black music’ in general) around, and he knows his stuff. If I find myself disagreeing with him, I tend to go back and read the passage again because I’m probably wrong.

CDs

John Coltrane, Giant Steps – There’s a music store on State Street in Madison that has a decent selection of cd’s and dvd’s, but it has a neon sign outside advertising the “jazz room” downstairs. Being that my parents are moving from Madison and that I was making my last trip there for who-knows-how-long, I had to buy something there. Was looking for Coltrane’s Ascension, since that’s supposed to be one of his weirder ones (and I like weird jazz much more than standard jazz...which is why Miles’ A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Mingus’ Black Saint and the Sinner Lady are my two favorite jazz albums), but they didn’t have it, so I got this. Not bad. Not weird enough, but not bad.

Lizzie West, I Pledge Allegiance to Myself – At some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll need to post a review of this album. Lizzie West is one of my favorite female acts right now, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s keeping folk music alive (even though she can be found in the Pop Rock section of your local record store, if at all). She combines a unique voice with interesting instrumentation (you’ll hear some drum loops, some reggae bass with horns, some straight-up acoustic guitar)...you’ll hear lots of things, but each song has a reliable groove. She plays Columbia (MO) a lot, too, so she gets some bonus points for that.

Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere – I haven’t bought a good hip hop album in quite a long time. There’s a long list of hip hop acts I follow, and nobody’s putting anything out right now. Jurassic 5’s coming up at the end of July (after a mere 4-year wait), but Gnarls Barkley is the closest it’s come for me in a while. I don’t know if this counts as hip hop, but it’s fun. The songs are short, the beats are creative, and, well, Cee-Lo’s insane...sorry, craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazaaaay.

Counting Crows, New Amsterdam, Live at Heineken Music Hall – I’ll be posting a review of this at some point as well. I have no idea why they released this set of performances from early-2003, other than a) fulfilling label requirements and/or b) they’re touring this summer and wanted to have something new to sell. That said, it’s quite lovely. Counting Crows are one of those bands who surprise you constantly. I made a mix cd of CC music a few years ago and was shocked by just how many songs of theirs that I liked. I really struggled to cut it to 20 songs or so, and that was before their latest album came out. I’m sure everybody has bands like that.

Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way – Copy #2, this one for The Butterfly.
Dixie Chicks, Top of the World Tour: Live – It was bound to happen that I picked this up. It’s solid. It’s twangy, much more so than Taking the Long Way, but there are quite a few good songs. Twang or no twang, they’re great musicians.

DVDs

Pittsburgh Pirates: 1979 World Series Collection – Oh yeah. The glory days. Back when I was 1. Announcers: Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell. That’s worth $70 right there.

Huff, Season One – I wrote about the show here, surprised with just how good it is. Of course, Showtime, like our Internet connection, goes in and out, so we’ve managed to miss something like the last four episodes. Bitches man. But we’ve got a few discs’ worth to watch right here. This is what’s great about discovering a show midway through the second season (like we did with Veronica Mars). You find out you like it, then you have 1.5 seasons of episodes to watch. Yaaaaaay.

Entourage, Season Two – Hug it out, baby.

The Spike Lee Joint Collection (Crooklyn, Jungle Fever, Mo Better Blues, Do the Right Thing, Clockers) - This set was $22.95. Seriously, how was I supposed to pass that up? Never mind that I’ve only actually seen Do the Right Thing...as long as I like one of the other titles, this was worth the money. And how can I not like Mo Better Blues? It comes very highly recommended. Wish I could say the same about Crooklyn...

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg * – Another loaner...this from a friend at Barnes & Noble. It comes highly recommended. I asked if it was a documentary or a work of fiction, and the answer was “yes.”

Three Kings – This is one of the hundreds of movies I have on VHS that I look to own on DVD at some point once the price gets low enough. If I were smart, I’d have gotten this (and the next one on the list) at half.com, but I’m not, so I didn’t. Great movie, by the way.

Clueless – It was $9.99 at Best Buy. And it’s for The Butterfly. Honest.

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So here’s the pop quiz for the month:

1) With all the money I spent on entertainment this month, what else could I have done?
2) Which Hornby book should I read first?
3) What are your two favorite jazz albums?
4) Which Spike Lee joint should I watch first (Do the Right Thing doesn’t count)?