read this book. Read this book today.

I mean when I read a truly great book, I am pulled in two directions. On the one hand, I feel humbled and grateful for the opportunity to spend a few hours or days or weeks in the author’s world. On the other, my own small pretensions at the craft mire me in petty jealousy.

Being possessed of just enough skill to recognize it in others, to know mastery when I see it, is a bittersweet experience indeed. And rarely have I felt so humbled and jealous as when I finished reading Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora (5 stars, and more, if it was possible).

It is grand, ambitious, clever, funny, brilliant—and all this from a debut novel. I am unutterably jealous of Lynch’s accomplishment, and equally happy that I was able to spend a few weeks with Locke and Jean and the Gentlemen Bastards.

By turns ruthless^* and hilarious, Lynch could teach the Byzantines a thing or two about the complex scheme, the roundabout intrigue; his plotting is as graceful and labyrinthine as the concrete curves of highway interchanges.

But the best thing of all? This is book one of a planned seven, and the second is already out. But the pit in this cherry, the fly doing the backstroke in this bisque, is that the third book doesn’t come out until early next year. And so I find myself torn again. Do I begin Red Seas Under Red Skies right away? Or do I torture myself and wait so that the wait afterwards won’t be so unbearable?

^* Ruthless enough, like George R.R. Martin, to be truly unpredictable.

The Economist‘s Free Exchange blog posted about this map the other day, wondering how, even though nationally there are more single men than women in the 15-44 age group, there is such a dearth, particularly in the Northeast, of single men in big cities, and why there is a widespread perception that single women need to “fight” over the few remaining “good” men. S/he went on to attempt a complicated explanation using game theory as its basis.

Regardless of that, though, the post showed a remarkably arrogant eastern bias (yes, Virginia, there are other cities in the US besides New York), and failed to talk about the most interesting aspect of the map: the fact that in western cities there are far more single men than women, the opposite situation as on the east coast.

My theory as to the reversal of unfavorable gender ratios on opposite sides of the country is pretty simple: jobs. I think most people would agree that financial success or at least stability is a desirable quality in a potential mate, and in terms of well-paid singles, I think the demographics can pretty easily be put down (well, without hard data to support the idea) to the geographic concentrations of certain industries.

To elaborate, eastern cities like New York and Washington DC tend to have higher concentrations of jobs in finance, law, publishing, and the performing arts, while western cities like San Francisco and Seattle have higher concentrations of jobs in technology and science. The former industries have, I think it is fair to say, a much higher percentage of women than the latter. The reason young people come to urban areas is not to find mates, as the post would suggest, but to seek fortune, regardless of the young person’s gender. So people go where the jobs are.

And it follows, then, that more young professional women would then be more likely to go to New York, Washington and Boston, because the jobs in the industries more of them train for are there: financial firms, publishing firms, law firms, theaters. Conversely, young men with training in computer science or biotechnology will go where more of those jobs are: the west coast. Meaning that, in the end, there will be more well-paid single men on the west coast, and more well-paid single women on the east.

this past Thursday, and our first showing was last night. Brick Lane (3 stars), based on the popular novel of a few years ago, just didn’t do it for me.

While it was quite skillfully made, I felt like the story relied too heavily on stereotypes and wasn’t very engaging, which is probably more an indictment of the novel on which the film was based rather than a fault of the film itself (full disclosure: I haven’t read the novel).

Brick Lane is but one of a raft of novels about the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi immigrant experience that have been so popular in recent years, and I feel reasonably certain that there are other novels (my sister would probably say Jhumpa Lahiri’s) that take a subtler approach than this one seemed to, again assuming that the film is a fair standard by which to judge the book—which is, admittedly, risky, but the director said last night that the author said that the film captured the essence of the book.

Anyway. I felt the plot lacked a certain subtlety, was in fact a bit clunky. Also, the film relied too heavily on flashbacks and camera tricks to get the emotions of the main character across, when they should have relied on the gifted actress that was cast in the role. I’m not sorry I saw the movie, but I was not moved by it—and this film’s subject matter is a topic that has a lot of resonance for me.

I guess we both called it: the Bears drafted an offensive tackle in the first round, and a running back in the second round (which is about halfway done now). More on the other teams’ choices later…

I am in the throes of a full-blown obsession with David Cook’s 2006 album, Analog Heart (no longer available, sadly, for purchase anywhere I’ve looked), an obsession the likes of which I haven’t experienced since I got Spitz’s single collection albums last year (and they’re my favorite band). In the two-odd weeks since I got it, I’ve listened to Analog Heart in its entirety at least once a day. No kidding. In fact, I’m listening to it right now—I like it that much.

Who the hell dressed Keyshawn Johnson today? Green checks and a pink polka-dotted tie? Yikes.

Given up on:

• Allison & Lillia – Saw the first episode and it was aggressively meh. Seemed like it was trying to be Last Exile and Kino no Tabi simultaneously, but failed to capture my interest and didn’t match up to either stylistically.
• Itazurana Kiss, for the reasons I mentioned before.
• Bus Gamer – The animation isn’t bad, and neither is the plot, but the characterization relies too much on archetypes, and it just doesn’t seem all that interesting.

In contrast, here are the ones that look interesting:

• Kurenai – The more I watch of this one, the more I like it. It seems to have everything, from good animation and voice acting talent to plotting. My favorite thing about it, though, is the script. It’s so rapid-fire that it’s a bit tough to follow with the subtitles, but it’s natural and clever and effortless. Kurenai is going to be the best new release of the season, IMO.
• RD Sennou Chousashitsu – This is the latest Masamune Shirou offering, the Ghost in the Shell cash cow apparently having been milked dry after two television series and three feature films. Typical of Shirou fare, it has a complex, arcane plot that’s a bit difficult to understand just one episode in, but the animation is stunning, notwithstanding his tendency to draw his female characters rather too pruriently for my taste. That said, it certainly seems interesting so far. I’ll keep you posted on how this one goes.
• Amatsuki – Another high-value production, this one looks promising as well. Some story elements here are reminiscent of The Twelve Kingdoms‘ fish-out-of-water theme, but Amatsuki has its own identity. I’m looking forward to seeing how this show develops.
• Crystal Blaze – Almost forgot about this one. Sort of like a City Hunter for the 21st century—only, you know, good—Crystal Blaze has got some powerhouse voice-acting talent, including Shinichiro Miki and the great Yuji Ueda, and a very interesting plot so far. I am expecting good things.
• Finally, Nabari no Ou is the latest entry in the every-episode-is-a-cliffhanger martial arts genre. So far, while it’s not as well animated, plotted, nor characterized as Bleach, my hands-down genre favorite, it’s still amusing and interesting enough to continue watching.

Oh, and in other news, here are some ratings for series I’ve recently seen on DVD:

• Mushishi – 5 stars

  I actually saw 25 of the series’ 26 episodes as fansubs while the show was airing on Japanese TV last year, but at the last moment, the show got picked up for US release, so I had to wait until just a couple of months ago to get the final volume on DVD so I could see that last episode. It was no hardship to watch those 25 episodes over again, though, as the show is a gem. Contemplative and haunting, this beautifully drawn series was simultaneously disturbing and calming. Possibly my favorite part of the whole show was the awesome soundtrack, with a new composition being used for each episode’s ending theme.

  Speaking of late commercial pickups, I saw 76 episodes of the still-running Bleach before that got picked up, and over two years later, I’m only up to like episode 30-something on the DVDs. Sigh.

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – 5 stars

  I got the first volume of this series as a Christmas present last year, and it may have been one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten. This show is fucking funny, possessing that special brand of humor that pokes fun at both itself and the animation industry that I found so great about shows like FLCL and Ouran High School Host Club. If it was just a comedy, that would have been enough, but it’s got an interesting plot, is unpredictable, and is beautifully produced. Very highly recommended.

I felt like this. And since then, I have very carefully not thought about the f-word.

But like an oasis in a football-less desert, the NFL 2008 draft takes place this Saturday, Apr 26, at 2:30 PM ET, for those of you parched like I am for some pre-preseason analysis. Woo!

Other than the usual focus on building up the defense, which still needs doing (especially at safety), the Bears will need to do two things, IMO:

1. Trade for a good veteran running back, because let’s face it, Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson are not getting it done. And Benson the prima donna has had his chance.
2. Draft a great running back, because Garrett Wolfe ain’t getting it done either.

I consider the running back problem the the most important part of staffing strategy, though the quarterback position remains an issue, and there’s the new concern over the aging offensive line. Not to mention the loss of Bernard Berrian and Muhsin Muhammad to free agency, leaving a gaping hole in the pass offense, which won’t be that much a problem unless we have a competent, consistent quarterback. Basically unless Lovie Smith makes some tough decisions this preseason, the 2008 season will be worse than the 2007 one. The picture looks grim indeed.

#42: A watched download never finishes.