Life is too short to spend it watching movies like this. I haven’t a clue how it ends; I bailed out after watching more than I should have. Jamie Lee, Jamie Lee, ye of the exquisite A Fish Called Wanda—how could you let yourself fall so far from grace?!

Fascinating book, but once it gets into Mary’s captvity in England (which is where I am currently reading), it is painful to read. If Fraser intended to convey some of the frustration and futility Mary must have felt caught in the web of Elizabeth’s prisons, then she succeeded. Perhaps a little too well.

Wow. A teen book? Hmmm. Not sure about that one. I like the title, though.

Not long ago, I got a yen to have a copy of the song “Daydream”. Maybe it was sentiment or maybe it is just that I always liked that song and it isn’t a bad thing to have a bout of nostalgia as long as you don’t overdo it and bore others silly with it. So I ordered this CD. Wow! I can’t believe I missed the Lovin’ Spoonful the first time around. Of course, it might have had something to do with being a pre-teen and living before the days pre-teens had credit cards and vast amounts of pocket change to buy things like LPs and stereos on which to play them. I never caught onto what versatile musicians these guys really are. This CD has 25 of their songs on it and each song is a little gem with its own unique character. Worth checking out.

Hmmm. Bee Gees, Roberta Flack, and Billy Joel with a Caribbean beat.

I think this is the kind of CD that could inspire homicidal rages if I listen to it too long, but it might be fun to have in case I ever decide to do a hurricane party or something.

My daughter bought me this camera for Christmas, so I have used it about nine months now and I love it. It shoots great photos and is very small and portable. I have taken it to Hawaii, New York, and Greece for vacation and pretty much everywhere else that I go. My daughter thinks she created a monster, but when I am not using it, she loves to play with it, too, although her favorite thing to photograph seems to be herself. My only gripe is not really with the camera, but with me - I forget to recharge it sometimes and so I find myself without it. The battery lasts awhile - I went for four days taking photos on vacation before recharging, but I think I need to get a spare battery or three just because I can be so lacksadaisical sometimes.

According to my daughter the bartender (of two weeks duration) nobody - and I do mean NOBODY - orders this drink, only they must because it does, after all, exist and I ordered it Friday. I thought it would be some fruity chick drink, but it is actually what I wished I had been drinking the last time I went out to the Harp. It has an intense citrus-acidic bite that is very refreshing on a muggy Houston night on the patio of the bar.

I’m a little more than halfway through this. I have been reading it for three days straight, pretty much straight-through except when I stop to clean house or sleep or work on the bathroom or go out with friends - you know, the usual. And during those three days, I have dreamed - intense dreams that I cannot remember when I wake up except the flavor of them hangs on in my subconscious and hangs over me like a pall. I think it is really because of this book, which is amazing in its own way - very intense and raw and immediate - and even though it is speaks of people and events long gone now, it is still immediate and in the face as if the events and the people are forever young and forever now, so fresh and real are Kerouac’s words. This is writing like many writers only wish they could write which makes the fact that it was written in a three-week period when the writer was less than 30 years old nothing short of amazing.

I’m not sure if I like the book because it cuts close to the bone oftentimes and is fascinating the way really gruesome car wrecks can be fascinating, but I will definitely finish it - hopefully today - and wish that it was longer.

Classic jazz. One of my favorite recordings.

Some people do not know that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road on a long roll of paper, so that the work would have a flowing continuity to it. (OK, I admit it—I did not know this until my friend told me. Then I totally pretensed myself and pretended I knew it all along.) Then Kerouac took the work on the scroll and rewrote it for the novel. This book is a transcription of his original scroll. Never read the novel, but I am going to try to make it through this book.