The Worst Ever

Longest Break Yet

I know you'll be devastated, but I've decided not to blog this summer. I'll miss reviewing the summer movies, but I want to do something else for a while.

This time, I'm not going on vacation. There are other projects that I need to work on -- projects that will, I hope, help me become a more serious and more imaginative writer. I need to concentrate on these. And because I'm an unbelievably slow worker, I won't have time to provide even the meager fare that I regularly offer here.

I'll check in on September 8, the Tuesday after Labor Day. Have a great summer.

OK, That Was Fun

Real content tomorrow!

Subjective or Objective?

I liked the cover of the most recent issue of The Onion's Weekender magazine.

The Roundup

You know the drill:

• J.G. Ballard, the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash, died while I was gone. See tributes here and here.

• The Elements of Style turned 50.

• Carol Ann Duffy became Britain's first female poet laureate, its first Scottish poet laureate, its first openly bisexual poet laureate, and its first female, Scottish, openly bisexual poet laureate.

• James Wood assessed Ian McEwan in the London Review of Books.

• Dom DeLuise died at age 75.

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has a trailer.

• Speaking of which, I demand you watch the trailer for David Lynch's A Goofy Movie.

• Megan Fox's costume for Jonah Hex looks very, very painful, and she will probably explode if she attempts to eat a grape.

• I know you want to see a Ferrari accidentally crash into a Sbarro during a Nicolas Cage movie shoot.

• I know you also want to see Wolverine: The Musical.

• I'm looking forward to this Mike Tyson documentary.

• I haven't Trekked myself yet, but if any of you do it for yourselves, let me know how it turns out.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

When I said I'd return on May 5, I didn't recall that May 5 is a holiday.

Enjoy commemorating the Battle of Puebla.

See you tomorrow.

Vacation #83521334

I know, I know -- I've hardly written anything since my last vacation.

Sorry.

I'll return on May 5.

Happy Easter

Go look for some eggs.

Quick Roundup

• Unfortunately, not all movie critics find themselves able to afford such concision in their negative reviews.

• You must see the poster for Crank: High Voltage.

• Hey, look, that jerk Obama just ruined our chances of seeing another Harold and Kumar movie.

• A South African website got an early peek at J.M. Coetzee's upcoming novel Summertime.

• WTF?

Another Birthday

The Literary Saloon points out that the larger website to which it belongs, The Complete Review, turns 10 today. I've had The Literary Saloon, an excellent blog for news about foreign fiction, on my blogroll since The Worst Ever began, but if you haven't checked out The Complete Review, it's worth a look. Since 1999, it has published 2251 book reviews, each with links to and quotations from other reviews. It's one of the few really useful literary sites on the net.

The webmaster, M.A. Orthofer, estimates that he's written roughly 95% of The Complete Review's and The Literary Saloon's content himself, which is pretty extraordinary and which reminds me that, if I'm not a total bum, I should pretty soon get to writing some book reviews for my own blog.

In any case, I send my congratulations. I hope, for your sake, reader, that The Worst Ever doesn't last nearly long enough to celebrate its own decennial.

Failure

Didn't I say I was going to ease back into this? I'll have something for you tomorrow.

Sorry.