book

i finished gangs of new york by herbert asbury. it`s a bit shit. the best bit is the bit about the draft riots, but even that gets a bit tedious; with him talking about 14th street and 34th street and precinct 8 and 66th street, it's all a bit boring. the biggest problem is that it's a bit samey. he describes, what feels like, hundreds of gang clashes that they all become on big bloody crushed anonymous body. he hit him, she cut her, they beat them... yawn yawn yawn.

the best bit about it, apart from the ok bit about the draft riots, is the language. he talks about sling shotting and blackjacking someone. the process of sneak thieves and inmates working in the brothels; people live in tenements and get violent tremens after drinking at the ball.

i started reading the story of english by 3 guys whose names i don`t remember at this moment. it`s pretty good. also reading a play about denmark; where everyone speaks english.


films

mystic river: good.
bourne conspiricy: good.
school of rock: good.
barry lyndon: ok.

barry lyndon had a great duel sequence in it.