I did a little bit of writing this weekend, but mostly I read. I finished Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, the fourth of the Harry Hole books, and Killer by Jonathan Kellerman, the upcoming Alex Delaware book, one of the better ones in a while. Then, after watching the first few episodes of True Detective, I decided to check out the novel Galveston by the series creator, Nic Pizzolatto. The book was nominated for an Edgar and has recently been optioned for a movie. When I went to the book’s Kindle page, I discovered two things: One, that it’s on sale for $2.99 and two, that I’d purchased it in July 2010 but had never read it. I’m reading it now.
Pizzolatto counts among his influences Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron, John Langan, Simon Strantzas and Karl Edward Wagner. The book starts with the protagonist, a bag man living in New Orleans, being diagnosed with lung cancer. His day gets worse after that and he finds himself on the run with a woman young enough to be his daughter. Running toward Texas, as it happens. Both he and the young woman are from East Texas, but neither ever aspired to return there. I came across this passage: “An army of empty High Life cans covered the floor around the chair–an actual army, because I’d used a knife to cut little strips out of the can sides so that they folded down, like arms, and I’d pulled the tops upright to resemble heads.” That should ring a bell with anyone who’s been keeping up with True Detective. (see image)
I watched a couple of games yesterday while I was reading. The first was the hockey game between Detroit and Washington, which ended up being a high-scoring contest that ended in overtime. Then I watched the Big Game, as people who aren’t licensed to use the words “Super Bowl” call it. I didn’t watch any of the lead up to the game, though. As Dave Barry said, “Looking back, I believe the biggest problem with the Super Bowl was not enough pregame analysis.” Some of the commercials were good (I liked the Radio Shack one about the 1980s calling with cameos from many of the decade’s “icons”) but the game was a rout. When I saw Peyton Manning on the phone about 10 minutes in, I figured he was calling for a pizza, which would have been a really bad idea seeing as how there was a big game on at the moment, something he didn’t seem aware of. Either that or he was calling for a taxi or, according to one meme, his mother.
I ordered my pizza online at noon to be delivered at 5:00, which worked out well. The guy showed up at the door right on time.
The half-time show was good. We first saw Bruno Mars on an episode of Graham Norton and were impressed. I was hoping, though, that they stress tested that stage before everyone started hopping around on it. Having it collapse would have have been a bad scene.
