25/50 - The Final Countdown

Yo yo yo, it’s ya boy Perspicacious P aka tha Vanilla Thrilla aka Black Tiger Woods aka White Falcon aka P-Euro. It’s been a hot minute since I last stepped to y’all, I apologize. Sometimes you run the game, sometimes the game runs you. And in the end, the game is a motherfucker. 

Enough of my trials and tribulations, however, it’s time to get down to some reviews. In the many months since I last saw you, I ended up finishing my quota of 25 books, and only 17 were them Shel Silverstein joints. I even got to 30, and would have had a couple beyond that, but the shitass mailman seems to always misplace my orders from Amazon. I’ve lost three books and a t-shirt, although the t-shirt was a case of me entering the wrong address online. But still. I got like one number wrong. If I see some guy in my apartment complex wearing an Ireland t-shirt, he will get questioned, you best believe that.

OK, on to the wisdom. Due to the sheer number of things reviewed, we’re going Twitter-style. Which is probably good since most of you are Americans and barely have the attention span to get through the first eight minutes of the Real Housewives of Jersey Shore or whatever is hot on TV these days.

Books:

The Brooklyn Follies – Paul Auster (Book 21 of 25)

Read this in like one night it was hella good. I was going through a NYC obsession and felt well-sated when it was done.

Moonwalking with Einsten – Joshua Foer (Book 22 of 25)

Read this for a book club that I never joined. It's about the power of memory or some shit but I forgot the rest.

Winter Journal – Paul Auster (Book 23 of 25)

Paul Auster's autobiography -- well-written and engrossing but he was sort of a douche toward women and totally glossed over an abortion.

Unfamiliar Fishes – Sarah Vowell (Book 24 of 25)

Vowell brings the heat again in a book about white settlers in Hawaii. Kind of a sad story, but hey, Hawaii is a state now!

The Big Rewind – Nathan Rabin (Book 25 of 25)

Raw autobiography of a dude who lived in a group home, but he forced a few too many pop culture references in that got a bit distracting.

Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Book 26 of 25)

Mystery/love story that takes place in post-Spanish Civil War Barcelona. The amazing writing and ill story had me from the jump.

Kingdom of Shadows – Alan Furst (Book 27 of 25)

Another book about shadows! This time a WWII spy novel! Shit was pretty fucked up back then!

Spies of the Balkans – Alan Furst (Book 28 of 25)

Another WWII spy novel, but it took place in the Balkans, so it was even more fucked up!

Night Soldiers – Alan Furst (Book 29 of 30)

More spies! More Balkans! More WWII! More fucked up shit!

Movies!!!111!!!

Matrix Revolutions (Movie 31 of 50)

Finally saw it like 10 years late -- not nearly as bad as everyone said it would be. The lesson: always set the bar low in life!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Movie 32 of 50)

What I liked most about this was how realistic it was.

American Flyers (Movie 33 of 50)

A movie about cycling whose most memorable character was Kevin Costner's mustache.

Quicksilver (Movie 34 of 50)

I don't know what the odds were of me seeing two movies about bike messengers in 2012, but apparently they were pretty high. Kevin Bacon!

Iron Man 2 (Movie 35 of 50)

I don't remember anything about this movie but I bet it was better than 2 Girls 1 Cup although 2G1C did have a dope soundtrack.

Michael Clayton (Movie 36 of 50)

As if society needed more proof, a George Clooney thriller about how lawyers are all douche bags. Why didn't I go to law school again?

Taken 2 (Movie 37 of 50)

Slightly more believable than Crank 2.

Thirteen Days (Movie 38 of 50)

Movie about Cuban Missile Crisis but, more importantly, Kevin Costner's character has the same last name as me.

Cloud Atlas (Movie 39 of 50)

Watching Inception backwards in Icelandic would have made more sense than this, although it was still slightly more believable than Crank 2.

Argo (Movie 40 of 50)

Ben Affleck has really fallen off since the days of Gigli and Bennifer.

Wreck-It Ralph (Movie 41 of 50)

More believable than Taken 2.

Skyfall (Movie 42 of 50)

Didn't quite match the hype, but I still enjoyed it. Not enough of Daniel Craig in a speedo imho.

Chasing Mavericks (Movie 43 of 50)

I was disappointed because when I heard it was a surfing movie, I thought it was about the internet.

Silver Linings Playbook (Movie 44 of 50)

Maybe my favorite movie of the year. I will hopefully write a longer review on this soon. Great writing/acting/directing.

So there ya go people. I still have to watch six movies this year, and I hope they are that Seth Rogen/Barbra Streisand movie six times in a row.

We out.