Looking for the Perfect Metaphor

Well, we ended up finishing in 11th place. Shit started going downhill Saturday evening when we missed the question asking where the initial run of "Jelly Roll Blues" orthophonic records were pressed. We had the right answer but kept getting a busy signal when we tried to call it in. We made our comeback starting around 4AM but it was too little too late, unfortunately. It was a good time, though. I got home around 1 yesterday and went to sleep. Woke up sometime that night and chilled with Becca and Stevie before going back to sleep. While I am fully-rested, I sure don't feel like it. Must be the lack of Toad Hill.At any rate, I now have the Stevens Point contest to look forward to.

The museum for my trivia team, the Flying Zupan Brothers, is due to open on March 4th. By "museum" I mean a series of displays of some kind and a bar in a garage in Deerfield. One exhibit is called "Living Zupan". I asked Kias what it was to be but he didn't know exactly. Presumably this means a Zupan sitting before a bunch of books with a beer in hand and joint in mouth.

Claybourne is an audio drama that I discovered at the now-defunct mp3.com a few years ago. I managed to snag the first 8 episodes only and have been wondering how the series pans out. Looks like I'll have my chance soon as it will be podcasted! If anyone wants to hear some good radio drama from New Zealand, go to the Claybourne blog. You can get an RSS feed for updates.

I begin my literacy tutor training after work tonight. It'll be 3 hours so I'm hoping that it will be interesting in some capacity because, right now, I think I'll fall asleep if it's boring. After that, it's off to The Dulcinea's for a V-Day quickie. I feel bad because I haven't gotten her anything yet. I was considering that Make-Your-Own-Dildo kit but I want to be a bit more frugal as I'm looking at paying Dogger's mortgage. I'll find something. But I had better do it soon lest I end up sleeping with the dog. I'm looking forward to seeing her as I'm pretty frisky today.

Tomorrow is part deux of my Celtic music class. We're to cover bagpipes and dancing so it should be fun. Then training again on Wednesday. And Saturday. I think I'll be spending the evening with The Dulcinea on Thursday. Gaming on the weekend too. Busy busy busy.

I asked Lola for permission to see her naughty photos and it was granted. I've gotta say, she does like butt plugs and being tied up. But who doesn't?

On the ride home yesterday, I continued with The Perfect Age. I've got mixed feelings about the book. The relationship between Helen and her mother, Kathy, has potential but it just seems to be flat. There's too little conflict. I just don't find a girl in her late teens to be all that interesting. Only when thrown into conflict with her mother does she appeal to me because the contrast and comparisons between their situtations comes to the fore and lends the character of Helen some life. Let's face it, teenagers are generally boring and stupid. All they do is complain and wallow in confusion. Helen is young. She has precious little experience in life to draw on for reflection, not that teenagers reflect much. So it's interesting when mother and daughter use one another as mirrors, however dark. The one bit that really interested me was when the husband, Edward, fears that he's been cuckolded and tails Kathy as he suspects she's going for a rendezvous with her lover. Having been in the grips of the Green-Eyed Monster, I related very well to that scene. My only complaint was that his jealousy wasn't intense enough. You don't follow your significant other around on a whim. The confusion and jealousy is very intense and I don't think that came across in the book. Maybe it's just me being a man, though. I don't know what it's like to be female nor do I have any first-hand experience of relationships between mother and daughter. Perhaps there are cues in the story that womyn pick up on and I don't. "Oh, X happened so Y."

I find Kathy a much more interesting character than Helen. Reading about a teenager being confused is as exciting as watching grass grow. It's a given. Tell me something new, something interesting. But I can see the parallels between Helen and Kathy that are to make her interesting. Helen is in the process of becoming a sexual person. Kathy never liked sex much but is "discovering" it via her affair. Each of them hiding things from friends and family. Still, this side-by-side comparing and constrasting doesn't reveal much of interest - to me, at least.

Despite this, I'll still finish it. Heather has an easy-going writing style that I can get through fairly quickly. And I suspect my novel would be a piece of crap whereas she is competent. This being the case, I feel like I'm missing something. The other thing that I don't care for is the setting. It takes place in Las Vegas but it's the desert that gets to me. In general, deserts don't do anything for me. The images that form in my head of the scenario are bland. And I don't think Heather is taking advantage of it. Yeah, there's the metaphor of drought. Kathy is nearing middle age and menopause - drought. Helen is young and just discovering all the world has to offer so she works as a lifeguard at a pool and is thus always in or near water. As a metaphor, the desert is underused, in my humble opinion. Unused is the metaphor of Vegas itself. There hasn't been an attempt to use the glitzy, casino and tourist-ridden area in contrast to the areas where residents live as a metaphor. Hey, I dig metaphors.