"Blimps Go 90"

I'm sitting here, listening to "Blimps Go 90" by Guided By Voices (off the excellent low-fi album ALIEN LANES) and I'm pumped. My choice in music reflects something big (to me) that happened (or rather, what I happened upon). Today, through a series of strange (and not so strange) happenings, I have finally gotten my hands on Thomas Pynchon's latest (final?) novel AGAINST THE DAY. I'll spare you the details (long and windy)...suffice to say, I've been trying to get it from a library for months now, and today it practically fell into my lap.

Anyway, I'm excited. I read the first 15 or so pages before class...it was great! So far it's about this club of adventure seekers called "The Chums of Chance." They fly around in a giant hydrogen powered gondola. They have a dog, who can not only read...but speak (sort of, he growls but they all seem to understand him). Coming in over 1,000 pages I'm not sure if I'll finish it by April ll (when it has to go back to the library) but I'm going to give it a shot (thank God for spring break).

Speaking of the break, after tonight I'm done!! Until April 2, that is. The big camping trip seems to be moving along nicely. Me, Leah, Jimu, and Rusty are going into the big scary woods of Southern Missouri for a few days of "Survivor." Frankly, I'll be surprised if one of us DOESN'T DIE...Ha-ha!!! Leah has no idea what she's in for (she really wants to go camping, me and Jimu are old hands at it). So far it looks like the weather is going to cooperate (always nice). I'm going home to KC sometime this weekend to fetch my folks tent. I plan on taking my camera to capture our last moments alive (a-la THE BLAIR WITCH). Expect to see some pics late next week (either on this blog or on CNN when my camera is found in the woods by some hiker).


Yes...that's a nickel...the book is that big...

Going back to Pynchon, I've already started taking notes over AGAINST THE DAY (yes, it's that kind of book...there are 100's of characters and I'm trying my damnedest to keep them all straight). Since I'm already treating this thing like homework, I thought I'd start making AGAINST THE DAY-specific posts every now and then. I realize that no one on earth would want to read these...so just skip over them. I'm going to make them though, because I'll be able to access/refer to them later on when I'm reading the final 500 pages or so (and need to know what the hell happened in the first 500 pages). Wish me luck, also, if you're so inclined...I'd like to read this along with someone else. We could have a book club-type exchange. Anyone interested feel free to email me at: Limemonkeyx3@yahoo.com