Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

To get to the World Cup - they suggest mass transit. Alternatives include Citibike, Shuttle bus, ride-shares (not recommended), and ferry. Apparently the buses are sold out. I don't know about the transit tickets. They've set up an entrance and kind of passenger tunnel on sixth avenue to Penn Station (it's located near sixth avenue) for just World Cup passengers. There's no parking at the stadium - you have to park across the street at American Dream Parking Garage - and parking spaces are going for about $225 a space.
You can't drop anyone off in front of the Stadium, you have to drop them a mile away. So rideshares are not recommended.

Honestly? Just stay home and watch it folks. Or at the various watch parties scattered across the city. ( Read more... )

Currently reading Withered Hill by David Barnett - which is best described as British Folk Horror. It's a psychological thriller that is kind of in the same vein as Harvest Home and the Wicker Man?

I'd tried reading it over a year ago. Put it down. And now have picked it back up again.

Here's the synopsis from Amazon:
( Read more... )
It's not that gory? Although there is gore and violence in it? It's mostly being stuck someplace - reminds me a little bit of From and Harvest Home.

Kind of slow paced, and a lot of jumping about in the timeline. It has a dual timeline narrative, but it jumps about in the timeline, and has departures from the timeline and Sophie's (protagonist) perspective. Most of the book is told from Sophie's perspective. [Sophie is a twenty-something living in London, down on her luck, doing temp jobs, until she eventually lands a job at a mysterious data center - and that's when she begins getting weird messages about Withered Hill.]

At least the author tells you about the departures from Sophie's perspective and timeline. And the point of view is a kind of first person distant, which is my least favorite. Where you have a narrator telling you what Sophie is doing and why, but from a distance - which makes it hard to emotionally invest in the character. It's why I keep giving up on it, I suspect? First person distant doesn't really work for me? Also, I find Sophie a tad on the annoying side. She's kind of passive, lets things happen to her, and an addict. I'm not sure I'm supposed to like her? Which is kind of interesting to me.

At any rate, after reading the synopsis (which I don't remember reading) - I'm reminded of why I picked up the book to begin with - and will most likely plow through.

I'm on a horror kick at the moment. I prefer horror novels to television shows and films, mainly because I've a visual memory - and once I see something, it's hard for me to forget it? And horror for some reason or other sticks in my head. Plus I have sleep issues, nightmares, and I do not need help staying awake. To this day, I regret letting people persuade me into watching Nightmare on Elm Street. (I knew the plot, my brother had spoiled me on it - already. He'd see horror flicks and tell me the plots, because I found watching them difficult at times.) It's the scene where the bed grinds Johnny Depp into hamburger meat and spits him up onto the ceiling that I'd very much like to forget? I saw it over thirty years ago in 1985, and I still remember it. I also remember all of the Shining, all of Carrie, all of Halloween, all of Aliens...I can rerun the flicks in my head. Most movies live rent free in my brain, in particular horror movies.
Yet, I've a strange curiosity about them? So instead of watching a lot of them - I read the reviews, which isn't very satisfying. Mainly because the plots of horror films tend to be nonsensical or like reading about somebody's bad acid trip. There's a lot you can do with film - that let's face it - cannot be translated to the page.

Oh speaking of films, apparently Ryan Gosling got fired from the Lovely Bones at the age of 27, for putting on weight for the lead role. He gained 60 pounds drinking Hagen Daz ice cream like water to prepare for the role of the grieving father - which he assumed would have gained weight as a result of his grief. But alas, the director, Peter Jackson, completely disagreed, and fired him on the spot. As a result he was unemployed for a bit, and struggling to find roles. His mistake wasn't checking with the director first, although Jackson isn't necessarily known for his communication skills. Jackson said a mistake was made in initial casting, and quickly remedied. They hired Mark Walhberg instead. I've read the book and seen the film - the Lovely Bones, it's not worth the price of admission. Neither are memorable. Both are slow as molasses. And I didn't care about anyone in it. It was a book club pick and I struggled to get through it.
The book is much much better than the film, which kind of dumped everything that worked in the book.

Off to watch Vox Machina, then bed.

Oh picture from today's walk around Battery Park, another NY oasis.