My Life's Soundtrack

I did this on Facebook, and am now trying it a second time on my blog.

So here's how it works...

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For the first question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button TWICE
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...just type it in man!
7. Tag 10 people, and they have to do it too :)

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE

Opening Credits:
Wooderson-The Gaslight Anthem

Waking Up:
Drop Me Off-Dr. Dog

First Day at School:
Do Ya Wanna-The Kooks

Falling in Love:
Pans de Cheval--Panic at the Disco

Losing Virginity:
Milk & Money-The Fratellis

Fight Song:
Hostile, Mass-The Hold Steady

Breaking Up:
Sketchy Metal-The Hold Steady

Prom:
Smile-Pearl Jam

Life:
The Swish-The Hold Steady

Mental Breakdown:
Go Easy--Ryan Adams

Driving:
Come on Eileen-Save Ferris

Flashback:
Encore Break 1-Pearl Jam

Getting Back Together:
Home Field Advantage-Drive-by Truckers

Wedding:
Wonderful Man-My Morning Jacket...

Birth of Child:
Celebration (Kool & the Gang) -- covered by My Morning Jacket

Final Battle:
Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?-The Gaslight Anthem

Death Scene:
Steam Engine-My Morning Jacket

Funeral Song:
The King of Carrot Flowers, pt.2&3-Neutral Milk Hotel

End Credits:
Into The Night--Alkaline Trio

Keeping Your Head in the Sand

Apparently things are bad for publishing now.

This is what I hear, despite my best efforts. At the beginning of the school year, I decided to stop reading most blogs. And I've done a pretty good job of it. I'm out of most of the loop with all the gossip that goes on. I do my darndest to stay out of the drama.

But apparently between the time I gave up blogs and now, the economy has tanked and publishing has gone into another Armageddon. Layoffs, restructuring, and all around doom and gloom. I'm trying to avoid this as well. I mean, I already know more about the business side of things than I actually want to.

And it's been tough. I don't always read Sarah's blog anymore. But I do read her Twitter account, and most of the links she sends through have headlines about the failing publishing industry. I do not read the articles (unless they have funny pun headlines. Then I can't resist.)

But, as a writer trying to finish a book, I can't read all this stuff. I can't have that much knowledge about a bad situation, because it'll freeze me up. I'm sure other people have gone through it too. You see what's going on with publishing, and you want to be published so badly, that you change what you're doing. You don't write the best book for you, you write something you think will hit on the market.

And in my case, that tends to lead to a feeling of Painting by the Numbers. That's never what I sent out to do.

So I bury my head in the sand. I focus on writing the best book I can, and then pretend that everything is okay in the world of publishing. So, when I'm done with the book, Al and I can still go out to find a place for it.

I don't want to freeze up. I don't want to look at what's going on in the world and let it dictate what I'm doing. If I do that, I sell myself out.

Let me use one of my true loves as an example. Right now the RU basketball team sucks. The message boards are lit up. 80% of the people out there want the head coach Fred Hill fired. But Fred believes in what he's doing. He sees a better team out there than the one he fielded last year. He's not out reading the message boards. He can't do that, because if he does, he's likely to react to them, and make a mistake or an overreaction.

That's how I feel about publishing right now. I just ignore it. I tune out Sarah's Twitters (minus the funny headlines) and I just try to keep writing. Keep revising.

Because that's the best option.

An Appropriate Old Favorite

Some Thoughts on the Rutgers Basketball Team

-Guard Mike Rosario is exhausted. Most of his 3 point shots are hitting front rim, and then he overshoots on the next one. His best moments are when he drives to the basket for lay-ups. But it looks like all the pressure on him to be the guy, plus taking on the top defenses is taking its toll. I think he'll learn, but he needs some rest.

-PF Greg Echinque is really playing tough, but he can't be the only one to grab rebounds. He's doing the best he can. He played a lot of yesterday's run with 4 fouls, leading to some easy basket though, as they went right at him and no one came to help. I have high hopes for him in the future as well.

-This team plays its best when it's playing team ball. When we move the ball around and wait for an open shot. When we do that, or even get out on a fast break, we look good.

-HOWEVER, there are too many times this reminds me of the 02-03 RU squad. Remember when we played UNC down there and Herve and Shields had great games? But both Sherrod and Coleman wanted to be the heroes, and took some awful shots at the end of that game to put us into trouble. That's what I see with Inman and Farmer. Last night, a few times, we looked like we are about to make an early run... Score, stop, and come down the other end, and it looked to me like Inman wanted to be the hero. He'd drive to the basket, flip up a shot, it wouldn't go in. THEN he wouldn't get back on defense and SJU would score.

-What is coach Fred Hill telling this team? We need someone to step up? If he is doing that, then it's not working because of what's being said above. Too many players are trying to be the man (Rosario, Inman, Farmer, Chandler) and they're not playing team ball.

-This team cannot get a clutch rebound. How many times last night did we get the stop we needed only to have the ball go off Hamady or Inman's hand and lead to an offensive board for SJU? Our forwards would then immediately be out of position and SJU would get a lay in for a score. It happened at least four times last night. It drives me nuts. GRAB THE FREAKING BALL! Too many times are guards are having to grab the boards.

-Which leads to... an inability to run. Either our guards have the ball too deep and we can't get out on fast breaks because the defense gets back OR Hamady or Inman DO get a rebound and look around too slowly for us to be able to push the ball.

-We need a Marquis Webb. A guy who can guard anyone on the floor. We could have put a player like Webb on Paris last night or any of the small forwards we've played and slowed them way down.

-If we get a JUCO PG next year to go with Miller and Mitchell, we are going to be a lot better. Not NCAA better, but a lot better.

-The Cincy loss has just demoralized this team. They aren't coming out with fire right now.

-I'm not going to call for Fred Hill's head yet. In fact, if we fire him over the next year or even two we'll probably lose a bunch of players to transfer. I'd love to wait until after Rosario's jr year to see where we are. If we let go of Hill then, a decent coach can come in and probably make some noise.

-That said, the keys to me wanting to keep Hill are... NO TRANSFERS and bring in a JUCO PG. If players start to transfer out, we're in a whole lot of trouble and Hill has to go.

La La La La, La La La La, Gitmo's World

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Gitmo's World - Death to America

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Upcoming Event:

Next Tuesday, January 27th, at 7:15, I'll be at the Kenilworth Public Library talking about my books WHEN ONE MAN DIES and THE EVIL THAT MEN DO. I'll be bringing a few copies to sell, and be chatting it up with anyone who wants to be there.

So, if you're in New Jersey, and have nothing to do, feel free to show up. Though you do have to call and register. Here's the info:

548 Kenilworth Boulevard
Kenilworth, NJ 07033
Phone: (908) 276-2451
Fax: (908) 276-7897

No One LIKES the Dark

The Snuggie (the blanket with sleeves) and Me

Sometimes, when I'm cold, I try to read with a blanket on. And I can't. You see, my arms are caught and I can't even open the book, no matter how good it is.

But then, I saw a TV commercial!

The Snuggie, the blanket with sleeves. Suddenly I'm warm, and have the freedom to do what I want to, and what I need to!

Like change the channel. Or answer the phone. And look remarkably happy!

Plus! I can read the book, be deep in thought, and not hurt my eyes because The Snuggie, the blanket with sleeves, comes with a free booklight!

And now I'm comfortable, warm, and productive!

Dave's Seen a Million Faces

and rocked them all.

Live Blogging: The X-Files: I WANT TO BELIEVE

Gonna pop in the DVD right now. So get yours in too and let's play along!

7:46: DVD is in the X Box--heh, X-Files on the X Box and getting ready to start. Hopefully it's a fun flick to tease.

7:47: Now I checked out on the X-Files series about a season after the movie came out, when the story got too dense to comprehend. I hope this is a standalone so I'll be able to understand it.

7:48: It looks like the FBI has been hired to clean the litter in some snowy land while a blind man wanders in front of them. Meanwhile, in the dark some lady turns her car off creepily.

7:51: This is very bizarre editing.

7:52: Hey, there's Scully reading from a script and using big medical words which she can't possibly understand!

7:55: Mulder's wanted by the FBI? MWAAAAAHHHHHH? For what? Oooh, and he's got a shaggy beard. ACTINGGGGG!

7:56: My computer screen went blank for a few seconds. Conspiracy? Mos' def'! (Meanwhile, Scully's worried about Mulder and the "effects of long term isolation". I'm worried about the effects of horrible dialogue.)

7:59: OH GOD! Mulder and Scully are waiting outside an FBI conference room. Scully turns and looks at a picture of George W. Bush and at top volume the infamous X-Files theme plays. I nearly vomited at the awfulness of that gag. Feel free to make up your own one liners.

8:03: Terrible dialogue, terrible dialogue, terrible... Scully, there have to be better more professional ways of finding our you're religious. And this movie is obviously half-assed written for the hardcore fans. The X-Philes if you will.

8:11: I love Billy Connolly. I love when he hits his knees. And he's not blind, that was my mistake. (Though he just said, "I don' know I canna see.")

8:14: So far this movie seems to be about loves of camera movement, "cool" shots, bad dialogue, and little story.

8:17: Um. Mulder and Scully are sleeping together? What the hell? I am so lost.

8:19: THEY HAVE A SON??? This looks like the X-Files jumped the shark completely and now... they're just dealing with it.

8:20: Why's he shaving? Oh I know why... ACTING!

8:23: Ooooh, now forced tension. And awful soul searching. Can someone fill me in on what the hell I missed?

8:28: There's an interesting movie here. There are some very neat ideas to comment on. It seems they're finally digging toward them a bit now.

8:46: Phone call break. Not missing much.

8:57: Back. Billy Connolly still rules.

9:00: I really like the scenes with Scully trying to save the kid.

9:04: Seriously, there's an interesting movie here. It's here. It's here.

9:08: Hm. A neat little twist here. My opinion may be changing.

9:13: I can't help but wonder what the Cigarette Smoking Man is up to.

9:16: Running action scenes are good. This one works well.

9:19: The intercutting editing works much better in this scene. Oh by the way. EWWWWWW.

9:31: This movie is a bit confusing. Like most X-Files episodes.

9:38: Smart that they can bring back old characters from the show without explanation. It makes a "god in the machine moment" a bit more believable.

Because I Miss Them

They return in less than two weeks!

REVIEW: Ed Brubaker and Scott Phillips' SLEEPER

Holden Carver is a super hero spy undercover in a terrorist organization. When his handler is shot and put into a coma, Carver is left afloat in between two organizations, trying to stay alive and not give up his cover.

That's the basic set up for this four graphic novel set. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that. But man is it good.

What Brubaker does best, from his run on CRIMINAL to this series to CAPTAIN AMERICA is take the stock character and dig deeper to let this character shine beyond their initial appearance. In the SLEEPER series alone he has characters such as Blackwolf, Miss Misery and Grimm.

While these characters in lesser hands would be just super heroes and villains defined by their powers alone, Brubaker looks into the soul of the characters to find who they really are. And using that information, he ratchets the suspense up to the highest levels until you don't know who's is on what side. Particularly the relationship between Miss Misery and Carver--which really pulls the last 12 issues of the series along.

Scott Phillips dark, noir-ish art is fantastic and perfectly fits the mood.

A true cat and mouse spy thriller set against the backdrop of a superpowered world. Once I got into the series I couldn't put it down.

I believe the novels are hard to find, but if you can dig some up somewhere, read them immediately.

Dave White as a Teen: Munitz

Another term in the Dave White High School lexicon.

Munitz (moo-nit-z) came from my friend's father. He claimed it was Italian for junk or garbage. I'm not sure, I've never looked it up. In fact, it could have been Italian-Jersey slang--for all I know. (If you've ever seen The Sopranos, you know what I'm talking about.) This father was known to coin phrases and words that we'd use... another example was "yopel," which I think was a mispronunciation of yokel.

But munitz. Munitz took on a whole new level. It was up there with snuffed in terms of high school vocabulary. We basically used it as a substitute for shit, much as we used snuff as a substitute for fuck.

"Go pick up that munitz."

"What's all that munitz on the floor?"

Hell, one of our friends role as a staff member for the band was "Captain of Munitz." He basically did anything. The word just showed up all the time.

The thing about these two words, snuffed and munitz, is they rose and fell much like that episode of Seinfeld with HELLOOOOOO. It cracked us up for months, and then just as suddenly went away. In fact, there were always stragglers still trying to use the word.

The one interesting part of these two words were staying power. Snuffed came and went like a candle flame, while munitz had a bit more length. In fact, if you run into some of my friends, there is still a slight chance that munitz will be used in conversation.

But snuffed, you never hear any of that anymore.

And at this point, I'm sure you're just plain tired of reading this munitz.

New Jersey, The Promised Land: Corrupt Politicians

New Jersey has had its share of corrupt politicians. We are, perhaps, the most corrupt state in the Union (and yes, that makes us awesome). If you remember about 3 years ago, we had a governor named James McGreevey. He was married, handsome, young, a typical politician. Except he was gay. And he was outed, and was forced the resign. Now, that's not a huge deal... I mean the whole hiding you're gay thing while having an affair behind your wife's back... that's kinda messed up. But there's more to this story. You see, all the government employees wanted Jim to resign before the date he picked because it was too far off. And if he didn't resign soon,t he press was going to start digging. And find stuff.

Bad stuff.

New Jersey's a corrupt state. I'm sure all states are corrupt, but I mean, we are REALLY corrupt. We have another governor make a big deal about speed laws in NJ, and then break his leg in a car accident speeding. The very first state governor was a cross dresser. Between 2002-2004, the US Attorney got 58 convictions on NJ officials. They used to trade housing and jobs for votes!

And why does this make our state great? Because we survive. We thrive. We take our government's best shot and say "Meh." Recently, the AD of Rutgers got fired for not particular reason other than politics...and, as the man said, no one is going to take the rebirth of RU athletics away from us. We move on.

Meanwhile you have Illinois (#13), who is dealing with their own scandal. The governor is all over the place for trying to make a few bucks on a Senate deal. Big whoop, I say. Don't try to be NJ, be yourself. There's no reason for it. You have your beloved President Elect, with his hope and his smile and his optimism. Take that. Don't try to be dirty, don't try to be scummy.

We're the masters at that. We're better than you. You are copycats. And not even good copycats.

Lame copycats.

The Nermal to our Garfield.

I mean, we gave the world Woodrow Wilson.

We are screwed up.

And we love it!

Donald Westlake, R.I.P.

I'm going to miss the regulars in the bar.

That's what I'm going to remember most about Mr. Westlake. The characters who showed up in the Dortmunder novels, sitting at the bar talking about whatever what was on their minds. Those characters, those ridiculous moments made the Westlake books so entertaining.

I was introduced to Dortmunder though my father, who had also introduced me to Robert Parker and Elmore Leonard. But this time it wasn't through books, but the movies. He sat me down to watch THE HOT ROCK after seeing the Robert Redford movie SNEAKERS. I'm still find myself saying Afghanistan Bannanistan. I tracked down most of the Dortmunder books from there on.

The man could pen any kind of novel from the dark Parker novels to the comedic. I stood next to him once, listening to him talk to Duane Swierczynski at the Edgars a few years ago. He seemed like a guy you could just sit down, have a beer with, and listen to for hours.

Just like the regulars in Dortmunders bar.

A good man, a great writer. He'll be missed.

MOVIE REVIEW: Hancock

Frustrating.

When it comes down it, that's the most positive and negative review I can give this movie.

If you haven't seen this movie, Will Smith plays a drunk, loser super hero who destroys everything in his path. The city hates him, the criminals hate him, and he hates himself. Until he meets a PR man who wants to change Hancock's image.

From then on the movie becomes a fun, fast paced, yet ultimately predictable and irritating film. There's a big twist in the middle of the film, but if you've seen the previews or even look at the current movie poster (not the one above), you know what that twist is. I saw it coming from a mile away.

The problem is, the movie never sufficiently explains away the twist. It tries to, but it all relies upon a huge coincidence at the beginning of the movie to make it work. The movie then tries to say things that happen are fate, which is fine, except the key character in the twist argues that fate doesn't exist, and everything is a choice.

From then on the movie becomes a predictable romp through super hero tropes, big fights, and explosions.

Fine, right?

No. The most interesting part of the movie is the twist, which leads to plenty of questions. None of these questions are explained away in a satisfying manner. There are snippets of dialogue that attempt to leave clues for the viewer to figure it out, but the clues aren't good enough to explain these questions. I feel, for a blockbuster like this, the movie would have been better served to simply come up with an answer to these questions, rather than leave it up to the viewer. It seemed more an attempt at creating LOST like fan questions, rather than a fun story.

What did you guys think?

Oh, and of course, HAPPY 2009 everyone!