another thing

[verbicide]

Today really didn't suck.

I got up, fixated on the tv, and got everything to work. TiVo, vcr, dvd, ps2. RAWR! I am somewhat startled we left the house today. Or ever.

We went to a storage boxes store in U Village where we got some nice red boxes for cds, and a big woven basket for vhs tapes. We went to Target and bought some cubes for my dvds and a linen loveseat slipcover, drill bits, and this really pretty black wooden box with flowers painted on it (can't describe, must show), another cube storage thing for discs in my office, and a little square dish with a dragonfly on it.

I took my dad out to lunch at CPK and then we trundled home to assemble things.

AND, I unpacked 9 boxes of books, while my dad hung up the mirror on the back of my bedroom door. (So now I can be appalled in full-length!)

I also realized how much I don't want some of my old books and vhs tapes (that I am never going to read or watch again). But I don't feel any clingy need to hold onto them. So once things here are completely unpacked, it's going to be off to Twice Sold Tales and the library donation bin. I can't imagine anyone wants my vhs tapes of Terminator (I and II), Goodfellas, or the Lethal Weapon movies, but I'll make a post and send out an email just in case.

And my god, will I ever read the Wheel of Time again? No. I hate it now. Hate. I'm not going to re-read it. I'm not remotely interested in those characters anymore. I should give up that boxful of books already.

I think I'm going to take a stab at selling trade paperbacks of comics I'm never going to read again. In particular, Preacher, which upon re-read I've decided I don't like. And maybe Astro City, which I do like, but not enough to likely read again. Though I almost feel I should try re-reading them again to remember how much I liked them and maybe not want to sell them. Because that makes sense.

I think I'm going to go back to the storage box place when I've sussed out what's staying and what's going, because I'd like to find better ways to house the stuff I decide to keep. Also, motherfucker do I need more bookshelves. My two puny shelves are bursting. I think I'd just been piling all new books next to my bed, so when I tried to fit them all into the shelves...it was not so much gonna happen.

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Dibs on Astro City if you do decide to get rid of it.

Preacher is what made me finally give up on Garth Ennis.

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Oh, WORD. Man, there's only so much of people pissing on things I can take.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

And you know, that wasn't even it for me. Debauchery and skank I can handle, but I just wanted to slap both Jesse and Tulip the entire time for their self entitled lameness.

[archaica.livejournal.com]

(literally and figuratively)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I will letcha know about Astro City. I have 5 or 6 (I think) trade paperbacks and then some single issues.

What else have you read of Garth Ennis that you can recommend?

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I've never read any Hellblazer. Is it something where I can just pick up those particular trade paperbacks, or do I need to start from the beginning? Or is Hellblazer just so cool that I should just start from the beginning anyway?

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd recommend that you start with the first Hellblazer collection, Jaimie Delano's "Original Sins," to get a handle on the cynical, chainsmoking, manipulative protagonsist and up to speed on things like supernatural junkies, demon yuppies, the Damnation Army, etc. (You could actually go back a little further than that, as the character first appeared a few years earlier in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing--another worthwhile supernatural horror series, but I'm trying not to pile up too much reading for ya ...) Then I'd recommend the trade collection "Rare Cuts," which includes a number of stories about Constantine's past by Delano, Ennis, & Grant Morrison--very, very good stuff. Then I'd skip right to Ennis' "Fear & Loathing." (There are earlier Ennis stories, but they're not indispensable.) Constantine's a bit older, more sure of himself by that point, but it's helpful to know how he's gotten to this point. Then I'd go right to Ennis' last story cycle, "A Rake at the Gates of Hell."

& if you're still interested after that, there's Paul Jenkins' & Mike Carey's later runs on the series--both very different, interesting. (You can just skip anything by Brian Azarello, OK?)

If you'd like a loaner, I have the mentioned collections. We could arrange a drop in the usual place ...? :)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the guided tour (seriously). I'm intrigued. I actually have the first two trade paperbacks of Swamp Thing. I haven't read it yet, but I have it.

I would love to take you up on your offer--but why don't we hold off until I know I have time for it. I'm hoping in about two weeks if that works for you? :)

Also--have you read Y: The Last Man or Fables? If not, maybe we could do an exchange if you're interested!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

You read my mind about "Y: The Last Man"--I was going to ask ... :)

2 weeks sounds fine. Let me know when you have a specific date in mind. I think I'm busy that Tuesday night, but otherwise flexible.

(Also, I've got Moore's complete run on Swamp Thing, & most of Hellblazer in one form or another, if you find that you're interested ...)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Let's talk as it gets closer, but maybe the second week of Feb? I have French on Tues, so that wouldn't work for me either. And I'm generally flexible, too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

K.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Ever read Ennis' run on Hellblazer? It got off to an awkward start, but ultimately produced a couple of the series' most memorable story cycles: "Fear and Loathing" & "Rake at the Gates of Hell" (both now collected in trade paperbacks). His character Kit probably the strongest single personality ever featured in the series--moreso than protagonist John Constantine himself. "Heartland," a later one-shot story about Kit set in Belfast (with Constantine nowhere to be seen) is also an amazing piece of writing. (Reading an issue or two of Preacher, I sometimes wondered whether the same person was capable of writing "Heartland" & that, if you'll pardon my Anglo-Saxon, nihilistic crap ...!)

(Ennis' Hellblazer also works better if you're up on your Irish music, especially the Pogues during the Shane MacGowan era. Ennis kind of uses it as the background music ...)

Mind, I like Hellblazer's current writer, Mike Carey, much more than I liked Ennis.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're getting covered on the Ennis stuff. I think his Hellblazer run is actually second only to Jamie Delano's. And I definitely recommend the Alan Moore issues of Swamp Thing.

Other Ennis stuff I kind of liked (although I might not after getting my fill with Preacher: True Faith and Goddess. More the former, I think, in that he had something to say, albeit sacreligious.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I feel weirdly ashamed to admit it, since it's such a classic, but my brief attempt to read Swamp Thing fell flat. I think it was because I found the art such a turn off.

Does it get better? Or is the story just really worth it?

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the art is kind of dated and weird. I'm not sure where you started from (the first Moore issue, maybe?) but the Moore stuff definitely gets better. As for whether the art gets better... not sure.

I need a better comics icon.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I think it was the first Moore issue. Yup, just checked; I have Saga of the Swamp Thing and Swamp Thing: Love and Death. I'll have to give them another try. But so much of what captivates me in comics is the art, so it's hard to ignore.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I hope you can stick with them, I love that stuff. And it lays the groundwork for stuff that happens later on in Sandman and Hellblazer. (Particularly in Murder of Crows, which reprints the American Gothic storyline.)

I do know what you mean about the art, though. I've had series I've loved ruined for me by the art. The current art in Hellblazer, for example is really hard for me to wade through.

[richboye.livejournal.com]

And my god, will I ever read the Wheel of Time again? No. I hate it now. Hate. I'm not going to re-read it. I'm not remotely interested in those characters anymore. I should give up that boxful of books already.

What was the proverbial straw that broke the equally proverbial camel's metaphorical back?

(And ya, I 've come to hate about 88% of the story, but I still cannot help but want to depict them all, dammit!....)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

You know, it's been so long, I can't remember. An ex-boyfriend got me into them (by actually reading them to me) and I became mildly obsessed, found the newsgroup, etc. But somewhere along the way, the editing sucked so hard, and the characters were so ludicrous. I just didn't care anymore. I hated the evil Aiel group. I can't remember what they were called. I hated all the knotted storylines that weren't getting resolved (it's why, I believe, that I instinctively hated Lost so early on--I'd been burned that way before). How each book comprised 4 days instead of 4 months.

And I'm glad you still depict them. I still love looking at your drawings, because after all--I don't have to know the story to appreciate beautiful art!

[richboye.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I too went through the urge for the Great Purge when I recemtly moved - ye gods, why on earth did I ever start taping entire series like _the Simpsons_ or _STNG_? This was way before DVD collections, but I cannot think that I ever actually sat down and cracked out a viewing of taped, archived series - those went in the garbage.

Also, I had tons and tons of books - I didn't throw those out, though; but I packed them, moved them, unpacked them and and *then* decided that I didn't want them and gave them away. This, as you may recall, was after I had to have them carted up six flights of steps, no less. Stupid, stupid.

On the bright side, I now have my nice tall bookshleves artfully arranged, with all the extra space from the Great Purge. I even now have little spots to display my Alex Ross figures (ye gods, such I geek I am....) But they just add to my eclectic esthete - I also have my great-grandfather's old naval issued spy-glass (allegedly - it is stamped in German with an eagle and the words Kaiser Wilheim), a sextant that I found at a yard sale, and a radiometer that spins so neatly when the sun is out - it's a very nerdy but cool looking set-up, I have, I tell you.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I've purged much over the years, but moving in here makes me realize I have miles to go. Just too much stuff I need to let go of.

Ouch again about the six flights of stairs. *shudder*

[lietya.livejournal.com]

The nice thing is, selling the old stuff you don't want anymore can sometimes fund the acquisition of some nice new things for your new place. Not that I'd know personally. :)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Oooooooo yes. I especially am finding that with my movie collection. I've got so much, and even more on the way. There's just no room for it all right now!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I, too, have a gajillion now-redundant VHS tapes taking up way too much of my storage space ... Maybe I can sell them to someone somewhere they don't have DVDs, yet? For, like, the cost of shipping ...?

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no one's going to buy them, huh? Unless they're some particularly obscure film that isn't on dvd yet.

I think the local library is going to be getting a donation from me soon :)