I need to watch TV more

I miss things like this! I thought it was funny enough that dude claimed there were no homos in Iran, but man, I wish I’d been the one to write this little ditty.

Peter Cameron Scores with a Coming of Age Novel for Teens

Someday this pain will be useful to youPeter Cameron is not an overly prolific author, but I do savor each of his works when they are published. His latest novel, Someday this pain will be useful to you, is an elegant coming-of-age tale about 18-year-old James. Living in Manhattan, disdainful of people his age, enamored of the idea of buying a big house in the midwest, James Sveck has a wry, if immature sense of humor and an annoying propensity to focus on correct grammar when engaged in conversation.

James parents aren’t completely equipped to help James navigate this tricky transition from high school to college. His mother has just returned from Vegas after her third marriage… without her husband. His father is concerned that when James orders something pasta instead of steak in the executive cafeteria he comes across as faggy. When James runs away from a school trip to DC, he ends up seeing a psychiatrist, who he challenges at every turn, but in a refreshing turn, is unable to outwit. James has also got a crush on the man who works with him at his mother’s gallery, but when a case of poor judgment alienates him, he is left with only his aging grandmother, who he adores, to turn to for solace.

Cameron has created a unique, teen voice in Someday this pain will be useful to you, one that rings true, and is able to balance the many portraits of suburban and rural voices of youth in literature. His prose is economical and graceful, and his resolution satisfying without answering all of life’s questions.

Austin Grossman Does Superheroes Right

Soon I Will Be InvincibleWith the success of such movies as SPIDER-MAN, BATMAN, and THE X-MEN, and television shows such as “Heroes” and “So You Want To Be a Superhero,” it’s no surprise that an influx of novels about superheroes has appeared, much to this comic book geek’s delight. The first of the genre that I have embraced is Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible. Grossman is clearly familiar with the superhero world in comics, and he uses that world as the setting for his novel. There are two points-of-view in Invincible, bouncing back and forth between the villainous Dr. Impossible, and the newest member of the crime-stopping Champions, Fatale.

Grossman does a great job getting into Dr. Impossible’s head. After coming so close to conquering the world so many times, sent to prison, escaping, and repeating the cycle again and again, it’s interesting to see what motivates this super-genius to keep going. It seems that super-villainy is just hard-wired into his head. He’s got one more idea up his sleeve, and when the opportunity presents itself, he does the expected: busts our of prison, rebuilds his weapons and tries to take over the world.

Having disbanded a few years ago, the Champions come together again due to the mysterious disappearance of the best and brightest of their members, CoreFire. He was the most powerful of them all, unbeatable and charismatic, so when he seems to be missing for real, the Champions, Blackwolf – the Ultimate Crimefighter; Damsel – First Lady of Power; Elphin – Warrior Princess; Feral – Savage Street Fighter; Mister Mystic – Man of Mystery; and Rainbow Triumph – Teen Idol with an Attitude, feel duty bound to reunite and solve the mystery. To their ranks, they add a couple of newcomers; Lily, a mysterious, superpowered outcast from the future, and Fatale – the Next Generation of Warfare. It’s understandable that Grossman choses Fatale to be the readers’ entry into the superhero world. She’s new to the game, having received her powers after a freak accident destroyed most of her body and being transformed by new technology into a cyborg agent. Fatale is thrust into the glamorous world of the superhero elite all the while feeling she must constantly prove herself just to stand among them.

While the book is an entertaining read, and I do recommend it, I think the problem with using Fatale as one of our narrators is that when the finale arrives, and she is not a part of it, the reader is left on the outside looking in, when it would have been nice to have our point of view in the midst of the action. It’s like being sidelined for the big finish, and it’s a little distracting. Still, Grossman’s world is certainly representative of our own if it were populated by men and women with extraordinary powers.

Cheez-Whiz is PEOPLE!!!

I just saw a Kraft Cheese commercial that began with a very disturbing line.

Of course, milk comes from cows … but cheese comes from people.

What do you make of that?