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Shantaram. It is a name meaning “man of peace”. It’s a book. A very long book. A 936 page book. By Gregory David Roberts. A very long book. And worth every delicious moment spent reading.

It’s an amazing mix of thriller, drama, memoir, cultural immersion, love story, criminal methodology, big thoughts, and little ones, too.

Our lovely mortgage officer, Dinika, loaned it to Jamie & I. This was a while back. Jamie read it right away; I, didn’t. I admit it, I was daunted by the book’s physical heft; a book you could kill someone with. But finally, I started. Now I’m just past the halfway mark and loving each and every one of its many pages. It’s an amazing ride, a wonderful education; a tome to savour.

What’s it about? Briefly, it’s a novel about a man who escapes from an Australian maximum security prison (where he has been justly jailed for various criminal offences) who’s run from the law takes him eventually to India. Bombay/Mumbai to be exact. There he meets a cast of characters from ex-pats from across the globe, to make-shift slum dwellers, to Mafia kings. And his life is changed. Boy, that really doesn’t sound interesting. But really it is. It is phenomenal.

The author, Mr. Roberts, is a man who escaped from an Australian maximum security prison (where he had been justly jailed for various criminal offences) who’s run from the law took him eventually to India. Bombay/Mumbai to be exact. There he met a cast of characters from ex-pats from across the globe, to make-shift slum dwellers, to Mafia kings. And his life was changed.

I’m anxious to see where he and the character wind up. So back to reading I go.

Nite,
k.

**Two things, while digging up the links for this piece, I discovered that the novel is in film pre-production; starring and produced by Johnny Depp. I have mixed feelings about this. While I understand the desire to film this story, it is an amazingly visual piece, I worry that even a longish film won’t do the story justice. I would much prefer to see it done as a BBC mini-series. While it wouldn’t reach the mass audience that a “major motion picture” would, it would allow the tale to take its time, unfold as it should. Just compare the TV & film versions of, for example, The Singing Detective, TV/film or The Lives and Loves of a She Devil, TV/film (as simply, She Devil, to witness what a vast difference an extended time-frame can make. I hope it comes out well.

Also, I thought I should mention that when I link to amazon or any other such selling entity, I’m doing so only to help ya along should you wish to seek out the whatever for yourself. There’s no payback on this end other than the joy of spreading the word of things I like.

Nite,
k.

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To the mega-media conglomerate that Jamie works for, for their two awards from the Commercial Closet Association. Admittedly, it was the same ad winning in two categories, but still…

The Commercial Closet Association has quite an interesting site, rating the best and worst gay portrayals in commercial media.

I’m particularly fond of the Norman campaign.

Also, congrats to the creators of Homestar Runner (a fav of mine) for not selling out recently to offers from Comedy Central to move Homestar off the net and on to the tube. Yay, Homestar! Special thanks to Jamie for bringing that to my attention.

Oh, and it’s two days now until Jamie and I close on our Co-op. Two more days… two long, long days… and counting.

And on a more serious note, I would’ve thought that by age 44 I’d stop producing zits. Not lots, not often, but right now, one, annoying as hell. These are the things I obsess over so I don’t have to think about the real problems in the world, like Greenland.

But if I start writing about Greenland now, I’ll never get to sleep tonight. So my zit and I are joining Jamie for a good night’s sleep.

Nite,
k.

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I am not a procrastinator.

I seem like a procrastinator to, well, most people who know me. But I’m not a procrastinator.

Take this site for example; a year or so ago I moved my site to its current host. They supply many, many, options for blog/web publishing that can be effortlessly installed onto your site. While this is, indeed, not unique, it was daunting.

I decided to install, for reasons that memory fails to retrieve, Drupal. Drupal was, well, simply, much more than I needed. And thus daunted by the myriad of options, doohickies and whistles, I wrote one post crowing my entry into the blogging world and then promptly ignored my site.

For about a year.

Until I came to my senses yesterday and decided to switch to WordPress. This switch effectively killed two birds with one stone.

1. One: It meets my needs (although arguably, who needs to blog?).
1. I need a heart transplant.
2. I need to get out of the way of this speeding truck.
3. I need to see Jello Biafra at the Knitting Factory because he comes to the East Coast so rarely.
4. I do not need to blog. Although I’m sure that someone actually does.
2. Two: Jamie already uses WP and thus is readily available for assistance.

So, yesterday I installed WP and today, Jamie gave me a list of all the cool toys he uses on his site, queerspace.com. And I’ve spent the day fiddling and uploading and cropping pics for the front page. And now, it’s 1:30am and I’m busily writing this post.

Jamie will be pleased. Jamie will be overjoyed.

You see, Jamie is convinced that I’m a procrastinator.

Jamie has also said that I think too much. There will be no argument here; I do think too much. This is why I can’t sleep. This is why when he’s calling me from the other room, I don’t hear him. I admit it, my head is obsessively caught up in thought.

I am not a procrastinator; I am an over-thinker.

This is not new, I’ve been overthinking all my life. It’s not what I do, it’s who I am. I’m not saying it’s pretty, but for the most part, it has served me well.

Have you ever seen the mini-series The Singing Detective, not the movie, which I’m sure is lovely, with Rob’t Downey, Jr. and all, but the mini-series? Michael Gambon’s character is an over-thinker. If you have an over-thinker in your life, I urge, no, compel you, to rent it from Netflix or where ever else you procure you home viewing matter. This work is required viewing, both for your sanity and the sanity of your beloved over-thinker.

If you’ve not seen it… no, just go and rent it. I know, it’s three disks, it’s seven hours long, but the disks and hours fly by and even if you know no over-thinkers (and if you say you don’t, well, I’m sure you do or perhaps are one yourself), it is worth the time simply for the brilliant writing and amazing performances.

So anyway, I love my dear darling husband who spent all day packing up the apartment for our impending move, cooking lunch and answering my WP questions whilst I searched for plugins and such, but he’s wrong on this account. I am not a procrastinator, I am an over-thinker.

And if you are reading this and it’s, oh say, June 15th of this or next year and it is still the second post, well then, ok yes, indeed, I may be a procrastinator. And then, maybe, if I have time, I’ll work on it.

Nite, k.

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