Sleepwalker’s soapbox

da Vinci Code diary Pt.2

350-odd pages into it now and a lot of the holy grail stuff has come out. I dunno about this. All this time, I’ve taken Indiana Jones’ last crusade as the truth and this is just too hard to fathom. I would be interested to find out just how much evidence there is out there for Dan Brown’s version. The lack of a bibliography (at least in the copy I’m reading) is a bit suspect.

This far into the book and I’m still enjoying it. I feel baited by the short chapters, telling me that ‘the next chapter is only a few pages so don’t stop now!’ but that’s fine with me.

There are big gripes that I have though.

One, it reads like a PC adventure game. Find the clues, talk to people, get to the next clue.

Use Priory key on keyhole.

Use Langdon on Sophie.

OK, so it’s not Leisure Suit Larry.

Two, character development so far is pretty much at zero. You’d think 600 pages worth can fit in more characterisation.

Three, I don’t see why two people wanted by the police would waste so much time telling each other about the history of Western civilisation.

That’s all. I’ll happily read on.

__________


TV diary

Granted that it’s not really The Practice anymore. It’s more like the Alan Shore Show. But The Practice may actually be better this season than ever before. Gone, at least, is the annoying Bobby Donnell. He and Lindsay had gotten away with far too much (basically two murders) for the old version of the show to continue. Gone also is the excruciatingly skinny Lara Flynn Boyle. As pretty as she may be, she needs to eat more! In a hurry! The only bad loss from the show is the cute (but ultimately not much use) Lucy Hatcher (Marla Sokoloff).

In their place, James Spader is eating up his Alan Shore character – possibly the best-written, most fascinating character on TV). I’ve always had trouble swallowing the ‘misunderstood bad guy’ characters but Alan Shore I find totally likeable in all his corruptness. Much like my other favourite bad guy, the John Malkovich character in Dangerous Liaisons, you probably wouldn’t want to know him in person but he’s endlessly fascinating to watch.

All the usual David E Kelley madness is still there. I’m lapping this up. And I can’t wait for the Alan Shore spin-off coming after this season’s over.

__________

Georgia diary

I’m going back to basics. Learning the most basic songs that I never really got a full grasp on, the 12-bar blues and so on. I realise now that playing 4 comfortable chords in a few songs over and over will probably get me nowhere.

And I have decided to not buy a new guitar for a while. For all her shortcomings, Georgia has treated me pretty well so far.