Comfortably Glum
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "getting_bitter" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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04:04 am
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A trip to Beatzo's
My first real post in four years. Yup, so it goes.
So I like books. I like the look of them, the smell of the older ones, the feel of the pages. I like buying books, collecting books and obsessing about books. Reading books? Truth be told - meh. About a third of my collection remains unread, to be honest. Still, the buying goes on.
This brings me on neatly to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8) beatzo , one of the coolest human beings I know. A reformed quizzer, unspecified techie (AFAIK) and India's semi-official Comics Deity. I first met him at one of those glorious, sepia-tinted Daly Memorial Hall Sundays back in, I dunno, 2003 or so. The man was kicking arse in the name of his Lord (whoever that may be). Won regularly, and was always a contender. A mean quizmaster, too - recollections of his two comics quizzes remain some of my happiest quizzing memories.
Sadly, his job required him to globe-trot for a few years. After stints spreading the light of comics (I assume) in America and Eastern Europe, he returned to Bangalore a while ago. This news did not affect me much at the time. I was glad he was back (and was looking forward (indeed I still am) to his next comics quiz), but I was otherwise unmoved.
I saw him at a couple of quizzes, did the hi-nice-to-see-you-again-where-have-you-been thing. He was fine, he said, and he happened to mention that he was selling off some of his books and comics - reason being, he was getting rid of them to make room for more original comic art (see his much-envied comicartfans.com page above).
My heart jumped. "Seriously?", I squeaked. For his collection was, and is, legendary, and rightly so. Think of just about any book you've wanted to read, and literally any comic book or graphic novel. Chances are, he has it, most probably in single-issue, trade paperback and Absolute Edition versions.
I took him up on his very generous offer, and made arrangements to go to his place in Jeevan Bhima Nagar. I was bursting inside. I could not wait for the day to come. In my excitement, I let wicked_boredom in on the news, and asked him to come along. I would come to regret this decision, as you will see.
We made our way to Jeevan Bhima Nagar on a cool Friday evening. I was feeling a little gouty, so we took an auto. beatzo met us, bought us a couple of coffees and proceeded to take us to his home.
You know the ritual when entering someone's home for the first time - take off shoes and socks, make complimentary noises about the house and try not to knock anything over (that's mine, at least). Well, I managed the first two pretty well, but how I wasn't knocked off my feet I'll never know. For you see, hanging on his walls as cool as you like, the man had art. Comic art. Original comic art. By the likes of Frank Miller, Osamu Tezuka and (I think) John Romita Sr. These were stonking enough, but I knew these pieces didn't make even a tenth of his original comic art collection (and the best was yet to come - the heart attack happened later, when he showed us his Sandman page). Dazed, wicked_boredom and I followed him into his room.
Reader, I could not speak for the salivation. For five full minutes. Three full-size cupboards stuffed with books, and four more cupboards and an overflowing shelf full of all manner of single-issue comics lovingly mylar-bagged, TPBs, cartoon collections, digests, MAD paperbacks, collector's editions and Absolute Editions.
Ah, but there was a proviso - he was not liquidating his entire collection. He only wanted to make some space in his place, and any potential purchases had to be cleared by him first. I could totally relate - comparatively new as I am to collecting, I still feel a deep attachment to my books and comics, and I suppose this attachment must multiply with the size of one's collection. Still, even if he wasn't willing to sell me his complete run of Miracleman (insert Muttley grumbling here), there was an Edenesque garden of delights to choose from.
I will not bore you with the bargaining, begging and pleading that ensued over the following four hours (getting him to part with 100 Years Of American Newspaper Comics proved especially difficult - a two-day job, in fact, but more of that later), but in the end, wicked_boredom and I staggered away from his place, struggling to lift our bagfuls of books and considerably poorer as a result. We weren't finished, though, and I promised to coime back for more the following day.
A word about the rates he charged - unbelievably good (think Blossom in 2004), and eminently bargainable. He was a saint in that regard, and in many others as well. There would have been much fiddling, fumbling and juggling of books on the way home if he hadn't very kindly lent me a large bag in which to carry away my spoils.
As wicked_boredom and I sat in the Koramangala Empire eating a well-deserved late dinner, we marveled at our good fortune, and at our hitherto undiscovered propensities to spend. We also talked for a while about how seeing all those books and comics might be a hint towards our own futures, if we were lucky. I didn't contribute much to the conversation, though - in my mind, I was making a list of all the stuff I was going to pick up the following day.
You'd better believe I got up bright and early the next morning and made my way towards that earthly paradise once again. beatzo welcomed me in and I got down to it once more. I had much to do - try and get all the stuff I wanted, plus pick up all the stuff wicked_boredom had asked me to, not to mention wheedling my way towards getting that American Newspaper Comics collection. This took another two and a half hours, and at the end of it all, wicked_boredom and I were happy, delirious, ecstatic - and Rs. 16,000 poorer, both of us having spent roughly half that. The amount we had spent made only the slightest dent in our happiness - me more than him, for he had snapped up a first-edition signed(!) copy of the Season Of Mists TPB, for which I hate him more and more with each passing day.
He also picked up a lot of Rolling Stone back-issues and MAD paperbacks, and various other comics and books. Me, though? Well, here's my haul:
What can I say? I went mad. My collection of comics and classic sci-fi will never be the same. Oh, and I also got Sherlock Holmes Of Baker Street and Starship Troopers, but I'm reading them both right now and I can't be bothered to go downstairs and get them out of my bag. I also have the strongest desire to throttle the guy who cleaned out his Flashman collection before I got the chance.
So, all in all, one of the greatest weekends of my life. Much thanks to beatzo , that magnificent, munificent fellow, and to wicked_boredom for his help, although I'll never forgive him for that Gaiman grab. Oh, and the man might be having another sale soon, so you can expect a post similar to this one in the near-to-middle future.
p.s. He asked me to send him a list of the stuff I had taken, and this is my way of complying with his request. Hence the breaking of the four-year silence. And beatzo , sorry for taking so long. I was stricken low with a long bout of laziness and gout (but mostly laziness), and it took me a while to recover :)
p.p.s. beatzo is also the in-house graphic novel critic for Rolling Stone India. Navigating through that ass site is worth it for his quite excellent reviews, as is buying the magazine (pretty much the only reason to, IMO).
Current Location: Bangalore
Current Mood:  satisfied
Current Music: some very synthy eighties thing, the name of which escapes me
Tags: books, comics, sci-fi, spending spree, squee
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01:09 pm
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Writer's Block: Name your talent
I would like my pre-puberty voice back. Not that I'm unhappy with my present rich, deep tones, but it was a blast to be the only guy I knew who could hit all of the high notes in the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel's Messiah.
Current Location: work
Current Music: the aforementioned Chorus, playing in my head
Tags: writer's block
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05:56 am
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A small digression before I restart this blog in earnest
| getting_bitter's LJ stalker is e_nnui! | | e_nnui is stalking you because your LiveJournal is just SO damned interesting. They are also not very liked around here! |
Current Mood: complacent
Current Music: The Who - You Better You Bet
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01:36 pm
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Quick I-have-nothing-in-common-with-Lindsay-Lohan post
There I was, minding my own business, waiting for some kind person to supply me with a scanner so that I could upload the Goa pics, when along comes this piece of news. Yeesh.
Also, found an awesomely awkward video a few days ago on the 'tube. Enjoy :-)
Current Mood: dizzy
Current Music: The Who - Join Together
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03:11 am
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I make offers people can't refuse, gihahahaha.
*grin*
Well, at least I'm better off than al_lude, who seems to have taken the result of his quiz to heart. The same goes for halfbrain, whose feelings are evidently a little mixed.
Current Mood:  thirsty
Current Music: Rock and Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter
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07:18 pm
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The first of a(presumably) long series of pithy thoughts:
Life would be perfect if one's download speed kept up with one's upload speed.
Current Mood: wise
Current Music: (again) Home At Last - Steely Dan
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05:37 pm
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I thought so
| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy | 
In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh.
You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum.
Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho |
Current Mood: still neck-pain-y
Current Music: I Got The News - Steely Dan
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04:27 pm
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A depressing week
First off, the death of Rajkumar (cue cackle and jig from Adi, to the tune of If You Come Today, which is a story in itself) hardly concerned me, but caused four-fifths of my fellow Bangaloreans to go into a positively dionysian rampage, killing, at the last count, 8 people in the process. This led one of the infinite number of Nikhils I know to suggest that I put in a question in the upcoming Utsav Sports&Entertainment quiz (more on that later) on how many people were killed in the Raj Kumar Riots so far. It's tempting, but I don't think I will :-).
Secondly, the college's main fest, Utsav '06, was postponed, and cut down from three to two days. Since I planned to put in many long audios and videos in the Sports&Entertainment quiz that I am (jointly) doing, the news came as a kick in the face. Damn it all.
Thirdly, the damned internet connection seems to be slowing down considerably. Speeds of above 30 KB/s seem to be a thing of the past, and I'm lucky if the speed goes above 10 KB/s. BSNL seems to be messing around with its broadband service drastically - wicked_boredom's connection has been on the fritz for the past two weeks.
Things seem to be taking a turn for the better, though - Aditya Subramaniam Namboodiripad is finally on LiveJournal! Go give moribund_dreams a kick, for choosing such a buggeringly hard-to-type name if for nothing else.
Current Mood: neck-pain-y
Current Music: Home At Last - Steely Dan
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05:52 pm
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The joys of CSNY
The story of how I chanced upon this band is almost as scandalous as the tale of how I got their albums, but Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would probably rate as my favourite band right now. A sampler:-
WoodstockWell I came across a child of God, he was walking along the road and I asked him tell where are you going, this he told me: Well, I’m going down to Yasgur's farm, going to join in a rock and roll band. Got to get back to the land, set my soul free. We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden. Well, then can I walk beside you? I have come to lose the smog. And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning. And maybe it's the time of year, yes, and maybe it's the time of man. And I don't know who I am but life is for learning. We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden. By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong, and everywhere there was song and celebration. And I dreamed I saw the bombers jet planes riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies above our nation. We are stardust, we are golden, we caught in the devil’s bargain, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Also, I'm rapidly working my way through Jeff Smith's Bone series. Brilliant doesn't come close to describing it. Many thanks to beatzo for the recommendation. In other news, Sohan Maheshwar/Nocturno/Nocturna/The Midnight Rider has resumed blogging, to the joy of Chetan Bhagat haters everywhere. Now this Sohan, apart from being a Blogspot leper and all too proud of having done some donkeywork at Google over the past few months, is a decent, mostly harmless chap, and his blog can be viewed here.
Current Mood: blissful
Current Music: Guinnevere - CSNY
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07:13 pm
[Link] | I'm bored. Entertain me.
Current Mood: headache-y
Current Music: Turn That Heartbeat over Again-Steely Dan
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