Category: Funny

you haven’t seen this little romantic comedy gem but you’ll enjoy it

David Evans2 Comments

My wife and I recently rented I Could Never Be Your Woman, and I really liked it (so much that I’m writing a review of a movie in English, not my norm).  My thoughts:

I don’t know why this went straight to DVD, but I really enjoyed this silly little romantic comedy about a twentysomething television actor who falls in love with a fortysomething producer. Michelle Pfeiffer (the fortysomething), continues to look absolutely stunning at age 50 (in real life). Paul Rudd is very funny and has a dance routine that rivals Napoleon Dynamite‘s. As a conoisseur of Jon Lovitz, I know he is most hilarious in appropriate doses: this movie gets it just right! Fred Willard plays Michelle Pfeiffer’s boss who is obsessed with youth jargon; he isn’t at his A Mighty Wind (Wha’ happened?) best but still does nice work. And the icing on the cake is not one but two cameos from Henry Winkler, with one Fonzie “he-e-e-ey” and one shot of him reading Sartre. (I love Henry Winkler.)

I gave it an 8 / 10 (which equals great but not life changing); my wife gave it a 6 / 10 (fun but not exceptional). Content: PG-13 but I honestly can’t remember why. Surely some language, and it implies the existence of sex.

squatting in Rio

David Evans1 Comment

I checked out of my hotel this morning but this afternoon found that my room key still worked and that no one had checked in.  So I used my laptop in the room for a while rather than in the lobby.  (I didn’t use any amenities, just sat and typed and called my wife on Skype.)

Then my nerves got the better of me and I retreated to the lobby.  But it was mildly exciting.

UPDATE:  Maybe it wasn’t just my nerves.  A colleague in the room next door was trying to reach me shortly after the events described above and knew I was squatting, so she went to my room and knocked boldly.  A naked (except for a towel) man who had clearly just woken up came to the door. 

I must have missed naked man by minutes. 

This is what I call living large (now that I’m not getting drugged and strangled).

my dubious popularity among African students

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In March of 2008, I published a short review of the Senegalese classic novel, The Beggars’ Strike, by Aminata Sow Fall.  A number of the comments on that post have suggested that the book is assigned reading somewhere:

  • i am a student i realy realy enjoy the play (feb 2009)
  • Hi, please i need urgent help on my project topic IRONY OF FATE IN AMINATA SOWE FALL “BEGGAR’S STRIKE”. Will be very happy if anyone can help me with relevant materials to aid me in writing my final year project. Thanks alot!!!!!!!!. (may 2009)
  • please i urgently need help on writing on discussing the general setting of the beggar’s strike in relation to the writer’s handling of the theme. thanks (july 2009)
  • can i please know how dose the setting of the book relates to its theme? (july 2009)
  • hi, i need the summery of the novel the beggars strike please kindly send it to my mail box which is –. thanks in anticipation. (july 2009)
  • sir the book has really tells us africa background, however sir i want to know the theme of oppression in the novel (july 2009)
  • I love this novel but i need to know if it is totaly a satire (nov 2009)
  • pls can u summarize the entire book (dec 2009)

and much more!  I only wish I could be of more use.  Maybe I could post a couple of sample term papers based on the book?  Alas, mine is a paltry little review…

To a Bed-Bug, by Sam Mbure

David Evans1 Comment

I wonder how long, you awful parasite,
Shall share with me this little bed,
And make me, from my sweet dreams be lost,
By sucking blood from my poor head.

I should but say man has much
Blood, which you and your families do feed
On; for supper, dinner, and lunch,
And besides, you do in my bed breed.

Clever thou art, tiny creature;
You attend me when I am deep asleep;
When thou art sure, I can’t you capture,
Just at the time I snore deep.

‘Tis so strange that before twilight,
The bed clear of you would seem;
For not one of you is in my sight;
As if your presence was in a dream

Sam Mbure is an active Kenyan writer; learn more about him here. 

Some months ago I posted my own poem about a cockroach I met in Sierra Leone.  If you read it and compare, it will be clear that Sam is a professional poet and I am an economist.  I am grateful to never have – to my knowledge – encountered Sam’s awful parasite.  Something to look forward to yet in life.  I read his poem in Wole Soyinka’s Poems of Black Africa.

the original spider-man comics: awesome (review)

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I recently got these from the library.  I read some to my 3-year-old, but then I couldn’t wait.  A rollicking good time.

first-class entertainment

This collection of the original 22 magazine appearances of Spider-Man* is awesome. I’m not an experienced Spider-Man fan; I mostly know him from the recent Tobey Maguire films (good, better, bad). Spider-Man is a great character: trying to do the right thing and beat criminals while struggling to make financial ends meet (at one point he tries to convince a sports card manufacturer to make Spider-Man trading cards – to no avail), trying not to lose his temper with kids at school (remember he’s just a teenager), and seeking to maintain a relationship while constantly disappearing (to turn into Spider-Man). His adolescent arrogance often gets the better of him and his luck turns sour as often as sweet (except in a fight, in which it turns sour less often 🙂 ).

The dialogue in these comics is hilarious, often because of its clunky exposition. I’d say “unintentionally,” but Stan Lee – the writer – seems savvy enough to see the joke. Here are a couple of lines I loved:

Dr Doom, in a thought bubble: “When one is a master of science, as I am, there is nothing which cannot be accomplished!”

Mysterio, in the midst of a battle with Spider-man: “I might as well tell you the whole story – for I shall see to it that you never tell anyone else!” [followed by the whole story**]

The book is full of visits from other superheroes: the Fantastic Four appear most prominently, but we also see the Hulk, and have cameos from the X-Men, Giant-Men, the Wasp, Dr Strange, Iron Man, and many more. The villains are endless and creative: my favorite is the oh-so-dated leopard skin pants-wearing Kraven the Hunter. And there isn’t a period in the whole book: all exclamation points and question marks.

This is first-class entertainment.

* Includes Amazing Fantasy #15, The Amazing Spider-Man #1 – 20, and The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1.

** Reminiscent of that scene in The Great Muppet Caper when Miss Piggy asks her new employer why she just told her all about her personal life, to which the employer responds, Exposition!

my secret

David Evans1 Comment

I always keep a book to read at the office when I need a break.  Right now it’s Robert Bates’ new book, When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa.

 

BUT hidden under a pile of papers is the other book: Marvel Comics’ Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 1.  The first Spider-Man comics ever, filled with nuclear radiation and sprinkled with Cold War terror.  Best line ever, from The Vulture:

 

Your flippancy is wasted on me, spider-man! you’re just whistling in the dark! i know an icy fear must be gripping your heart right now!

the unforgiving tree

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For everyone who found Shel Silverstein’s story The Giving Tree problematic:

[Comic from Perry Bible Fellowship Comics]

In fact, I just discovered a whole symposium on The Giving Tree,* in which an ethics professor, a rabbi, several religion professors, and others think deeply about this tale.

* in a 1995 issue of First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life

[Hat tip to Sarah of Sarah’s Pensieve]