Poll Vault

Ah, that's good wordplay.

Now that that's out of my system, let me know if you have problems with that poll. It won't let me vote, but maybe it's just me. I'll try to fix it, but maybe it will be best, if you can't get it to work, to just leave your vote in comment form on this post.

The contenders are (in no particular order):

1) The Big Hunt (Dupont Circle): Name aside, this place is pretty cool; they have an excellent selection of beers on tap, and their happy hour is $2.50 Rolling Rock, Bud Light, Lite Ass Brew & Bad Ass Amber, $3 rail drinks, $1 off all other drinks and draughts, and half-price burritos on Wednesdays (the bean and rice one is pretty good, for what it's worth).

2) Luna Grill and Diner (Dupont Circle): It's a really cool place, and the food and drinks are affordable and delicious. I know that they have Samuel Adams Summer on tap, and that the (veggie) burgers are great, and big. I just really like the atmosphere, and I think it could be a nice quieter place to have a Book Club meeting.

3) James Hoban's (Dupont Circle): It's a big place, which is good because you know you'll be able to get a table. Also, if it isn't 100°, they have very ample outdoor seating too. They also have Guinness (natch'), and that's a good enough reason for me.

Happy Voting!

Our next meeting: Wednesday, August 4th

I hope that you are all enjoying The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that you are looking forward to next month's book club meeting. We've picked the first Wednesday in August to hold our meeting and it will likely begin between 5 and 5:30p.m. somewhere around Dupont.

If you have a suggestion for where we ought to hold the meeting, please let me know. If the weather is nice, it would be wonderful if we could find a place with ample outdoor seating that isn't too loud. Daniel will put a poll up in a few days and all the members can vote on the location of our discussion.

Finally, Dee suggested that we read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird next month, as it is the 50 anniversary of the book coming up this Sunday. I haven't read the book since high school, and I think it's a great idea. What are your thoughts?

Joan of Arc is One Bad-Ass Beeyotch

Greetings, fellow book-clubbers!

I hope you are all enjoying this lovely weekend. Whether you'll be cheering "Hup, Holland, Hup!" or "Viva Espana!" at your television this afternoon, I trust you'll enjoy the World Cup final as much as I will.

So, it's been entrusted to me to "recap" our Very First Book Club Meeting! We met at the lovely M Street Bar & Grill (I think that's what it was called, right?) and we discussed our Joan of Arc/Mark Twain musings over a pitcher of sangria. For the record, I would like to motion that all future book club meetings involve alcohol. What's that, it's been seconded? Great, let the motion pass!

Instrumental for book discussion.

Although some of us didn't actually finish the book (I'd like to take this opportunity to employ a very Professor Umbridge-like "Hem, HEM"), we still managed to have a fairly productive discussion. John even bookmarked pages and made a compelling case for the tale's consistent allusions to a play: it was in three acts, and Twain consistently used language such as "The stage was set..." (John, I'm sorry for not doing justice to your enlightened analysis - if you have questions, I suggest you put them to him directly!)

We did a lot of talking about how, to be frank, it got kind of annoying how Twain's narrator was all "Oooh, Joan, you're so AWESOMEEEEEEE like omg!!!1" We get it, she's pure, she's righteous, she's radiantly beautiful. Listen, Mark Twain, we get the feelings of guilt and inadequacy from our mothers, we don't need you chiming in too. Seriously, every time the girl made a basic leap of logic, everyone goes, 'HOLY SHIT HOW DID YOU DO THAT WITH YOUR LADYBRAIN?!"

Mesdames et Monsieurs, I have concluded that one... plus one... is actually two!! Bow before my genius.

We discussed this fascination with basic rational thought. For example, at the beginning of the book (which is all that some of us actually read) the narrator gives us this whole bit about how everybody knows that dragons have gold and blue scales, and some people believe that they're actually just gold, but how dumb is that, amirite? There's also a bunch of this business with L'Arbre Feé de Bourlemont: the narrator berates people for believing in something with no evidence, while simultaneously revealing that he has no evidence for his own beliefs save the hearsay of previous generations. We discussed how Twain poked fun at religion here, and yet seems to hold Joan in high esteem for her loyalty and unswerving devotion to her faith. Thoughts?

(PS, I am in no way doing justice to our actual discussion, if there's stuff I really missed in my sarcastic summary, please leave it in the comments below!)

One thing we all agreed on was that Joan, schizophrenic or not, was a fucking badass. Girl is a teenager, and leads her country to the kind of victory it will not see again for... well, let's not talk about that, actually. Point is, she's the youngest person in the history of EVER to do something that cool, with no training, relying solely on her charisma and her faith in her own abilities to get shit done. RECOGNIZE.

Finally, we also had an interesting discussion on the death penalty. Yeah, I don't know either.

Moving on!

Some time at the beginning of August, we will meet to discuss the Hound of the Baskervilles, which I am SUPER PSYCHED about! I started reading on Project Gutenberg (see Daniel's last post), and let me tell you something: I fucking love Sherlock Holmes.

"Yeah, I'm Sherlock Holmes, bitches. I will smoke my pipe, solve your mysteries, and still have time to bang your mom before lunch."

I'm currently on Chapter 4, and let me tell you - this shit is awesome. It's only 4 chapters in, and dude has already made everyone else look as dumb as Sieur Louis de Conte and smoked "an incredible amount of tobacco." Nice.

Currently, I am enjoying this awesome book whilst drinking some Earl Grey tea, with milk of course. It makes me feel so erudite I can hardly stand it. I propose that we all get bubble pipes for our next meeting.

Let me point you to a couple more things that may heighten your enjoyment of this book. First, to get in the mood, last night I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie, with Robert Downey Jr. Personally, I love that now I picture yummy Ironman whenever Holmes is totally owning Dr. Mortimer and Sir Henry.

And Jude Law. Did I mention Jude Law? Mmmm.

I'd also like to bring the awesome Kate Beaton to your attention. She writes amazing comics, mostly history and literature oriented. She has a couple on our original bromance:
Also, try this one. Awesome!

Okay, I will leave you to your Hound of the Baskervilles reading, but I hope you're loving it as much as I am! Looking forward to discussing with you all soon!