Some Random Addictions

I was thinking today about the fact that we all have our addictions. Some people are addicted to love or sex, some to drugs or alcohol, some to twinkies or chocolate.
Most of my addictions don't seem that harmful, but who am I to judge?
1. Books: Working at a bookstore is quite possibly one of the more detrimental things I have done to my finances. It is nearly impossible for me to go a week without purchasing another book to add to my collection. Most of the time I will read the book, but quite often I don't. The book gets put on a shelf for me to admire and dream about reading one day when the mood strikes me. I am forever taking home stripped mass markets (we only need to return the front covers and so I take the books themselves from the recycling bin). These mass markets are pulpy messes that balloon when exposed to the slightest amount of moisture and refuse to sit like good little books on my shelves. I tend not to read most of these. Publishers send us advance readers copies of various books they'd like to read, fall in love with, and promote the hell out of. These are not copies destined to be sold and when no one else wants them, and even sometimes when they do, I am quick to shove them into my bag and stack them neatly with the rest of the books I am hoping to delve into.
My room is silly with books.
2. Television: Without a doubt my greatest addiction is television. I watch everything. Well, not everything, I have some limits (Two and a Half Men!) There is always something on I want to see: an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, the other Discovery program on black holes, a Friends rerun I have not seen in a few years, the new South Park that will undoubtedly mock a very current affair, yet another show about the great white that will tell me how misunderstood it is, Tyra Banks announcing America's Next Top Model or on occasion a well crafted, well acted show like Battlestar Galactica. All of these and more. I need them all, and I'd have an IV directly into my bloodstream if I could. I mock those naysayers who tell me how bad TV is for and how it pollutes my brain. Sure, some shows do and those are the final resorts, when I'm too tired to sleep, too tired to read, too tired to think. But there are brilliant television programs on that can inspire, amuse, and educated. It is one of our greatest common mediums and has provided much social lubricant over the years.
Of course, though, I do love a good football to the groin bit just as much as the next man.

Vindicated!

For years I've been telling people how much I didn't like the movie version of "The Shining". I know Stanley Kubrick is this big time genius, yada yada yada, but the movie just didn't do it for me. (Though I did love the constant use of the Dies Irae music in the background)
The novel "The Shining" while a scary scary horror story, really tells the story of the disintegration of a man and his family. All the horrible images and all the violence means nothing if you have no connection with the characters - and that is basically what happened in the movie.
So much of what draws me again and again to the book is slow and painful ruination of Jack Torrance by the evil that dwells within the Overlook hotel. He is not a bad man, he is not an evil man. He is corrupted. In the movie, Jack Nicholson plays Torrance as a jackass from the get-go. There is always something dangerous about him, even before he sets up house in the Overlook. And while his madness is frightening, it is not surprising or shocking. It is just a fulfillment on a promise made definite by the early scenes.
No one else seemed to have my problem with the movie. Everyone just talks about how spooky it is, how Nicholson was a genius, and how much they loved the word "redrum". And I've been stewing quietly in my own juices, till tonight.
Tonight, for various reasons, I had to watch the A&E Biography on Stephen King. You get how poor he was growing up, how much he wanted to be a writer...you know, all the stuff that makes for a good rags to riches story.
They were discussing the movie version of "The Shining" and how excited King was to have Kubrick at the helm. That is till he saw the movie. He firmly believed the while the movie as a movie looked beautiful and was engaging, it did not tell the story he had written. After this film King reserved the right to decide who can and cannot direct the films based on his books.
So after all these years and telling my opinion to anyone who will listen, I am at peace. Stephen King agrees with me and all is right with the world.