I had the pleasure of visiting Six Flags Magic Mountain out in LA the past few days and I gotta say, that’s one nice park. It’s super clean and has some truly amazing rides including their newest: a shiny orange and red flying coaster named Tatsu. Unfortunately, since the trip was almost all bidness, I didn’t get a chance to ride Tatsu. (Just Colossus)

I gotta remember to ride that beast next time whether anyone cares to join me or not!

There’s a line in José Saramago’s All The Names that reads:

“Meaning and sense were never the same thing, meaning shows itself at once, direct, literal, explicit,… while sense cannot stay still, it seethes with second, third and fourth senses, radiating out in different directions that divide and subdivide…”

The funny thing about that line is that is basically sums up my experience reading this book I picked up a month ago.

Saramago so masterfully fills this book to overflowing with metaphors, observations, misdirection, mazes, and more that I found myself a bit overwhelmed by the ever changing “sense” of the novel and focusing more on what would happen next in the plot. And when I was done, I almost felt dumb. As though I’d missed the many, many, many points Saramago was expertly, but also cryptically laying out before me. It’s really the type of novel, I’d probably have to read 2 or 3 times to feel comfortable with the material, which is amazing considering how short the book is. (Unfortunately, for me I guess, I don’t really read books more than once.)

Hmm, maybe I am dumb. I don’t know, but I probably should remember to try to read more studiously if I want to come away with more than who did what.

On a side note, reading through another Saramago novel made me realize more and more just how ham-fisted that play based on Blindness was. Oh well…

It’s funny, but I have a habit of not getting excited before taking a trip. Something about the lead-up time usually keeps the whole trip feeling more abstract to me until I’m actually getting off a plane at my destination. That’s not so with my upcoming trip to Japan. I’ve always wanted to go for as long as I can remember (which we know isn’t that long, I guess… but you get the idea), so I’m already super excited and I haven’t even made any plans as to where to stay or what to do once I get there.

I need to remember to get cracking setting up some kind of loose itinerary I can throw out the window once I’m there…

(Image: Japan-Kanamara Matsuri festival in Kawasaki, originally uploaded by BoazImages.)

Yeah, Kurt Vonnegut died today at age 84. From the Times obituary: “, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ ‘Cat’s Cradle’ and ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater’ caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan… Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz.”

Just some history to remember.