Well, shit. It's August -- wait, it's August? How'd that happen? There were at least two occasions in July when I was all set to post a blog update, but it just never happened. And so, for all intents and purposes for this blog, I did not exist during the month of July. I'm okay with that. Here's what I would've mentioned, had I not been such a slacker:

1. Infinite Jest. Still going strong, though I've slowed down my pace due to other things going on (see point number 2). The goal is to finish the book by August 14th, which is when I'm leaving to go to the Outer Banks. 12 days. About 300 pages. Should be easy enough, hopefully. Still an awesome, awesome book.

2. My off-off-Broadway acting debut. Huh? Yes. Got wrangled into performing in this really really really really really bad one act play. It was fun, but not for reasons that rehearsing should be fun -- instead, it came down to just making fun of how horrible the script was. But yeah, it had a one week run, five performances. Right in the heart of the theater district downtown in Manhattan. Crazy. I'm a superstar now, I should have you know. Part of the reason I was distracted during the end of July was because I was out partying with the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Paulie Shore. Good times!

3. Futurama. I'm glad it's back. It had a phenomenal return episode, then got a little bumpy as it found its feet again, but has steadily improved since episode 2. Last week's episode featured time travel, which is pretty much the way to win me over. (In anything. Entertainment, sci-fi, love.) Here's to hoping they've gotten whatever kinks out they needed to get out, and now they've hit their stride and will continue to go strong. Either way, I'm glad it's back. I do enjoy those characters very much.

4. American Idiot (the Broadway musical). My sister came up here to spend a few days palling around with me in the city before seeing my play and promptly leaving in the very early A.M. the following day. During that time, we got cheap tickets to see the new Broadway-ed version of American Idiot. Consensus? So-so. The good: solid soundtrack that doesn't suffer from too much Broadway-ization. A few songs are Broadway-ed up, but, for the most part, it's pretty good. I never really listened to the album, but it definitely make me want to go back and dig out the old CD. The bad: there's basically no book. It's like they assumed that the songs themselves were strong enough to carry three (!) storylines. The songs are good, but they're not THAT good. Also, don't even get me started on the main dude's talking voice.

5. Inception. I've seen it twice now -- once with friends, the other with my sister. I like it. Quite a bit, even. But I don't love it. It's a great excuse to set up four or five super awesome sequences, but the rest of it seems kind of uneven. Also, can we all agree that Ellen Page's character is hella annoying? And it's totally not her fault -- the script makes her an auxiliary to the story instead of a character. Still, totally worth seeing on the big screen for those cool shots alone. But it's already at the #3 slot on IMDB's top 250, and I don't agree with that. It deserves to be on the list -- somewhere in the top 100, even, for sure -- but #3? (And Toy Story 3 is still up there, at #10. Another movie that's good, but not THAT good. [I just did that "THAT" thing at the end of the last paragraph. Sorry.])

6. Concerts. Haven't been to any since the Josh Ritter one way back when, I don't think. But I picked up tickets to see the Avett Brothers at Radio City. Seems like an odd venue for them, but I'm excited. Show's not until October, though.

Okay, I guess that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll intend to update this blog, but then put it off for a month.