Fries and Ketchup: Things to Peruse This Weekend

Links
-Over at The Faster Times, Jason Diamond did a nice write up on the current state of the hockey goon. Reading it made my head hurt (just joking): "Who Will Protect the Hockey Goons?"


-Also, at TFT, here's an article on Denis Johnson's new book: "Life Overflows With Life: The TFT Review of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson." I haven't read the book yet, but I am a fan of Denis Johnson, especially his Vietnam War epic Tree of Smoke, and will be adding Train Dreams to my queue so to speak.

-Over at Pitchers&Poets, there's lots to read right now. Ted, who runs the site with Eric Nusbaum, carefully analyzes the performance art of Detroit closer Jose Valverde: "Theater in the Round: Jose Valverde, Ritual, and Performance."  I also officially contributed to their discussion on Chad Harbach's novel The Art of Fielding this week: "P&P Reading Club: Bryan Harvey on The Art of Fielding Chapters 34-52."

-And speaking of The Art of Fielding, here's a gchat discussion of the book between Josh Spilker and myself over at ImposeMagazine. Warning: It contains plenty of spoilers.

Now Reading
-I go in and out of love with baseball, but the playoffs and The Art of Fielding have left me in the mood for reading some more literature on America's pastime, so this week I started Michael Chabon's Summerland. And if you're not currently reading anything, feel free to join me.

Worth Watching
-Finally got around to watching Everything Must Go starring Will Ferrell. It's not groundbreaking, and it's not a movie anyone is going to watch over and over again, but if you are someone who's never really appreciated the scope and range of Ferrell's talents, like my fiancee was before she saw this film, then it is an eye opening film in terms of how one views him as an actor: He's not a funny man trying to be serious, but a serious man who's spent a lot of time being funny, or something like that, which makes watching him take on a serious role much different than several comedians who have tried the same thing.

Politics
-I almost forgot to include the most important protest of our times. You've probably already seen this, but it's worth another look. I literally laughed out loud for five to ten minutes the first time Russ showed it to me. In fact, I might still be laughing.