- Taylor Hicks wins 'American Idol'. I really stopped watching this show after the initial mass auditions, but remember Hicks and was glad someone less traditionally 'pop-ish' won. I'm mainly mentioning this story because I read in another article that the 63 million votes cast was "more than any president has received", which is actually pretty sad when you think about it. (However, later I realized that this is not the same as "more than total votes cast in a presidential election".)
- On the drive to Green Bay last weekend, I had a chance to really listen to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's new "Stadium Arcadium". Very good album, maybe not as good as "By the Way", but similar in its more mellow and mature Chili Pepper style.
- Enron's Lay and Skilling convicted finally. You know, I wonder how much this whole trial cost, and what it compares to the actual cost of the Enron collapse.
- I am currently reading "The Da Vinci Code" (I know, I know, way behind everyone else). I've been pretty aware of the controversial concepts brought forth in it, but have been pretty much blowing off the controversy because it is fiction. However, now reading it, I think I understand some of the concern. I had assumed that the controversial info (which I will not mention for the one or two people who have not read this yet) was discovered by the characters as they progressed through their quest; which should be fairly obvious as fiction to the reader. Instead, these things are stated flat out as facts by the "educated", "professorly" characters as being without a doubt, obvious, accepted fact, etc. and reinforced with a statement in the front of the book claiming this info is fact. They don't even say "some theories say...", or "some speculate..", so I can see how people might get confused what is history and what is fabrication. A ton of what is presented is extremely far from proven fact. (Didn't the guy who "discovered" the Priory of Scion evidence, Dossier Secret, later admit he created it all? Other claims about the Council of Nicaea and such are also pretty much proved otherwise. Etc.) I got to say too that I really don't think Dan Brown is a good writer. His text is flat and straightforward and not very creative writing, but the plot is pretty exciting. I think the scavenger hunt/puzzle solving aspect of it is really what saves it and makes it a kind of fun read. But, it also follows the same formula as "Angels & Demons" of find puzzle, solve it quickly, rush to next stop (or run away from someone), find puzzle, solve it quickly, rush to next stop, etc.
1 comment:
I didn't read the book either, but we listened to the book on CD during a long car ride last year. That's the way to do it. I enjoyed it, but since I already knew the premise of the book, it wasn't quite as powerful. Holly has Angels and Demons so maybe I'll read that one some day. She really enjoyed that one too.
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