Sorry it's not a movie review (Ryan), but I do plan to catch up soon. It's been a busy day, so I've gotta whip up a quick post.

Another of my audiobook experiences, Moll Flanders was written by Daniel Defoe in the 17th century. Apparently in that day, it made quite a splash because of how shocking the material was. Basically, a woman narrates her history, which begins as a series of unfortunate circumstances in her life, and ends with her having a history of many many husbands and countless children, some of which were even conceived out of incest. She even resorts to a life of street crime and travels twice back and forth between America and England.

I think Defoe expects that Moll's story is entertaining for its shock value and a moral example of how not to live one's life, but stylistically speaking, it reads like a long list of love affairs and crimes that could provide its readers with plenty of ideas on how to swindle other people. It doesn't possess a lot of flourish, nor does it contain a genuine sense of self-reflection like that of Robinson Crusoe. It's a bit like watching reality tv, actually.

Moll Flanders just wasn't my bag, but I guess can understand why it entertains. I'm on to The Secret Garden right now, which I had to give up on the audio of because the tapes were old and messed up, so I'm finishing it manually this week. I'll review that after I've written reviews of all the movies I need to catch up with, which are (coming soon!): Atonement, Walk Hard, The Decalogue (actually 10 movies), Across the Universe, American Gangster, Paris Je Taime, Sweeney Todd, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Shall We Dance, and A Short Film About Killing.

I just read that Goose Gossage was voted into the Hall of Fame today. It's kind of crazy that now all these players from when we were kids are being immortalized in Cooperstown. Before Trevor Hoffman, before Marc Davis, there was the Goose. I still have three or four "Goose Saved the Game" pins. Even though he played for the dreaded Yankees, he had some amazing seasons with the Padres, including the 1984 NL Championship season. I'm glad he finally made it in.

Last year I participated in a challenge with some friends to watch 365 movies in 365 days. I finished this task in early November. Yeah, crazy me. So now I'm kind of burned out on movies and have decided to catch up on some TV shows I either missed or couldn't watch because they are on channels I don't have. It helps that thanks to the WGA strike my DVR is pretty empty these days. I started off with season one of Dexter and I have to say it was amazing. I couldn't stop watching. Michael C. Hall is just as awesome as I expected him to be. I didn't know how he would follow up his amazing run on Six Feet Under and I certainly wasn't expecting this but I'm glad he did it and pulled it off with flying colors. I highly recommend checking this one out. I'm currently watching season four of The Wire, which is amazing, as expected. If you're not watching this show, you're really missing out. On deck: Twin Peaks, Weeds, Entourage, and Battlestar Galactica. Feel free to comment with your suggestions.