Last night on Earth

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t expecting the world to end today.

Of course, I spent the day (while watching over a steadily improving but still sick dog) watching The Last Man on Earth and finishing The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. So it’s not like I didn’t have apocalypse on the brain at least a little bit.

The movie wasn’t great. I like Vincent Price, as well as the novel on which the movie is not too unfaithfully based. But it’s a little too slow and then drags near the end. (The more recent Will Smith version is even less faithful, but it turned out to be one of my favorite movies of 2007. I may have been alone in that.)

The book, on the other hand, was pretty great. My thanks to Heather for recommending it. I started out just kind of liking it — it’s gone a killer premise, but also a likable and engaging narrator — when the mystery at the heart of the novel really kicked into gear, I just couldn’t put it down. I read the last two thirds of it just today, just finishing a few minutes ago actually, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Oh, and somewhere along the day, I finished decorating the tree. Well, except for a few ornaments we’ve left for my sister, when she and her husband visit for Christmas. But it was starting to look silly, this fake tree just sitting there, nothing on it.

I think the holiday season has officially begun.

Random 10 12-12-12

Last week. This week:

  1. “Los Angeles, I’m Yours” by the Decemberists
    Oh what a rush of ripe élan
  2. “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” by the Beatles, guessed by Clayton
    The higher you fly the deeper you go
  3. “This Old Porch” by Lyle Lovett, almost guessed by Clayton
    He says the Brazos still runs muddy
  4. “Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart” by Johnny Cash, guessed by Clayton
    At the Indianapolis of your heart I lost the race
  5. “Just Like a Woman” by Bob Dylan, guessed by Occupant
    With her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls
  6. “Set the Fire to the Third Bar” by Snow Patrol w/ Martha Wainwright
    As drunken men find flaws in science
  7. “Silver Rider” by Robert Plant
    Sometimes your voice is not enough
  8. “Do You Realize??” by the Flaming Lips
    It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
  9. “Needle in the Hay” by Elliott Smith
    Falling out, 6th and Powell, a dead sweat in my teeth
  10. “Hey You” by No Doubt
    You’re just like my Ken and Barbie Doll

And, unless the world actually does end, we’ll do this again next week. Good luck!