The Life of a Bum...

This summer I lived like a bum. Or like one of those pathetic middle-aged men who still live with their mother. On Monday, this bum-lifestyle will end for me. In many ways, it already has ended. Which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. When you're a bum, you have all the time in the world to philosophize and post on blogs. But at the same time, you have no obligation to think and so your mind turns to mush, and so your philosophizing is less and less fruitful. It's a conundrum.

Anyway, so basically what I did was eat, sleep, read, and watch TV and movies. So here are a few of the books I read, tv shows I watched, and movies I saw:
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - I first heard of this book when I saw the commercial for the TV movie adaptation with Jon Voight. Anyway, the book was mediocre for me. It was a short read though. So short that it might be possible to finish it in one trip to the bathroom, if that is the kind of book you're looking for.
Pride and Prejudice - I enjoyed this book a good bit. It's ol' school.
The Genuine Article - this historian's account of early America was really interesting, but it turns out that my attention span for nonfiction isn't that great so I read it super slowly and didn't finish it before I had to return it to the library. The historian acknowledges lots of different interpretations of history, which I found refreshing and a bit scary. Scary because, in my opinion, he showed that past history is really determined by the thinking of the time in which it is remembered. He sort of pointed out how historians have changed over the years and what effects that has on how history is recounted. Anyway, it was interesting.
The Notebook - this book is SOOOO cheesy. Apparently it is loosely based on the writer's wife's grandparents. Anyway, ultra cheesy. That's not to say I won't rent the movie ;)
All the President's Men - before I read this book, I knew generally what Watergate was, but this book, written from Woodward and Bernstein's perspective, was fascinating. It plays out like an old fashioned detective story. Keeping track of all the people involved was a little confusing though. I'm going to check out the movie just so I can make a bit more sense of everything.

After seeing Episode III of Star Wars, I decided to try to watch the entire series in order. And I have to say that I actually appreciate Episodes I & II more, in terms of the laying out the larger story about the rise, fall, and redemption of Darth Vader. And also in terms of watching how the democracy every so slowly changed to an empire by the manipulations of Senator Palpatine. Also, on A & E, I watched this documentary called "Empire of Dreams" which was about the making of Episodes 4-6. Lots of really interesting tidbits that I'd never heard before. It's still showing on A & E at various times so I definitely recommend checking it out.

I also got DVDs of two TV shows. One was PBS's Manor House. This is just my kind of reality TV. Basically, they tried to recreate the social hierarchy that existed during the Edwardian era in Britain. They got a family of 4 to live as the Masters in this Manor House and then they had about 12 servants who basically lived to cater to their every need. The sort of labor that was required to be a servant was probably the most interesting part of the show for me. It was astounding. And also it was interesting to see how the Masters were completely oblivious of the degree of work that was done for only their benefit. I'm glad that that kind of system doesn't exist anymore. Although perhaps it does in other parts of the world.

I also have watched Season 1 of Arrested Development which is absolutely hilarious. I don't know how to describe it. But I recommend it highly.

I only got cable and internet today at my new apartment so I was trying to find things in my DVD library to watch for the past few days. I had purchased a used copy of Stuck On You at Blockbuster several months ago but I never watched it until yesterday. It wasn't the greatest movie ever although parts of it were pretty funny. The best part was at the end though. Greg Kinnear does this rendition of Summertime which is awesome. I tried to find the mp3 but it wasn't anywhere and it seems like there wasn't a soundtrack released for the movie, so I recorded the mp3 here. It's cool so listen to it.