Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tech Talk - Ipod Classic

Its my birthday coming up and I've used this opportunity to replace the ipod that was stolen when we went to phuket (see previous post).

It fits nicely in the the Bose speaker dock and thus truely portable music has been restored to the Snell-Soto household once again.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

NZ Vs Australia - Four Nations Rugby League Final


I'm still buzzing this morning after an incredible performance from the Kiwis in the final last night.


The boys were under the pump for the first 30 minutes and were not playing well. Australia will regret that they did not put more points on during this period. The aussie commentators were continually trying to write the kiwis off (Phil Gould - tosser) and just after him making the comment that the kiwis were " out on their feet", the winning try was scored with time up on the clock.


In Benji Marshall, NZ has a champion player and leader and last night he really showed that.
Now come on All Blacks, the Kiwis have showed you how to do it in the big games. Get it done next year!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Book Review - The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen


WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS EXTREME OVER ANALYSIS AND MAY BE PRETENTIOUS TO SOME READERS.


This novel was first released almost 10 years ago to significant critical and commercial success. ‘The first great American novel of the 21st century' is one example of the many plaudits that have come its way. Following his latest release, ‘Freedom’, Franzen adorned the cover of Time magazine, an extremely rare event for a fiction writer in this day and age.

The Corrections is the story of an American family. The elderly parents live in a dull mid western city and their three grown up children have moved away. The matriarch of the family wants to have one last Christmas together as a family and the narration follows their history both individually and collectively. Along the way Franzen weaves socio-economic, medical, racial and sexual issues and in doing so makes a hugely powerful statement on the state of not only the modern family, but society on a broader level.

It’s an incredibly ambitious novel and when released on 11 September, 2001, it was at the forefront of an increasing critical introspective examination within popular culture of the dysfunctional behemoth that is the US of A. Expanding further on the historical context that applies here, aside from 9/11 and the can of worms that opened, the watershed movie in American cinema, American Beauty had recently won the best picture Oscar. These 2 projects explore similar themes; however Beauty didn’t go far enough in challenging the facade of the American dream enough to be judged a masterpiece. The Corrections does. It lays out on the table the themes and characters of this family tale, then picks each up and dissects it under a surgical strength lamp.

Nothing escapes Franzen’s microscope. He delves into the dark moral crevices between our comfy sofas to such an extent that only a saint would not blush on occasion when what he finds is a little too close to home. And it’s all carried out with plenty of humour and use of metaphor and imagery that challenges and interests on every page. As for the characters, we care, despite all there faults. For all its heavy themes, it’s a novel with heart. Masterpiece.