Saturday, August 22, 2009

My VMA votes . . . .

It's that magical time of year again, MTV's Video Music Awards are just around the corner. Here's my picks:

1) Best Female: Taylor Swift, "You Belong to Me"
2) Best Hip-Hop: Eminem, "We Made You"
3) Best Male: Eminem, "We Made You"
4) Best New Artist: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"
5) Best Pop: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"
6) Best Rock: Green Day, "21 Guns"
7) Breakthrough Video: Gnarls Barkly, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"
8) Best Video (that should have won a Moonman): Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"

Crossing my fingers!

Vote here:
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/categories.jhtml

Cut the ribbon: This Side of Paradise

. . . and the reading marathon of the Everyman's Library 100 essentials begins. I'm starting things out with a bang by reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, and, incidentally, the novel that made him famous: This Side of Paradise. He was only twenty-two when he wrote it. Wow.

The first draft of the novel was rejected by the publishers, so Fitzgerald had to revise things before they took it up. He revised with fury and passion: if this novel didn't make it, he knew he'd lose his chances forever with the lovely Zelda Sayre.

Zelda, a well-to-do southern belle, broke off her engagement to him after about a year, when it seemed like Fitzgerald's career was going nowhere. After This Side of Paradise turned him into a celebrity, she decided she liked him after all. Sounds like true love. Fitzgerald was so smitten that he took her back . . . but he always held it against her.

Rightly so.

I don't like her.