Monthly Archives: March 2008

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

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Well it’s Wednesday and I am so over Wednesday. A lot of hype and what have you got to show for it? Just a hump in the middle of a 5 day work week. True it’s a steep enough hump to get to Friday going downhill. I’m cool with it. Last night, watched TV, Scrubs, Daily Show, Colbert Report and it was all good. Come 9:00 I had no idea what to watch. I do love TV, it has been my erstwhile companion for most of my life. A perfect companion that gives and gives. The babysitter I couldn’t shake, nor did I want to.

I scanned to see what was on and decided to give The History Boys a chance. I did rent it last summer, but I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was the season, maybe it was me. In any event, I was enraptured by the movie. Totally captivated. It really is a great movie. Great script by Alan Bennett. Great directing by Nicholas Hytner and great acting all around. I loved it. The soundtrack had instrumentals by New Order, The Clash, The Smiths, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and Pigbag, with the final song, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered sung by (who Julio and Stine call the whiner), Rufus Wainwright.

I can’t recommend this film enough and I regret not seeing it on Broadway. Man was I stupid or what two years ago? Ok maybe stupid is too harsh. Then again I was working with a bunch of snobby Brits and the idea of seeing more Brits on stage was something I would go out of my way to avoid, which I did. And I am developing a crush on Frances de la Tour. Just something about her. I was fascinated by her in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, and she’s great in the History Boys, where she actually has lines. Richard Griffiths is touching and the boys are all handsome and endearing. It really made my night which carried over to good feelings for today.

My sister Annemarie had a successful Laughter Yoga group which was a good thing to hear. Spoke with my brother Brian. His son is back in school which is a hopeful thing. Brian and his daughter Cassie are going to our cousin Neil’s wedding party on Friday night. Bill and I canceled due to expenses and the fact that Bill’s not really up for that sort of thing right now. I asked in January if they were going to the wedding party and I had no response which lead me to believe that they weren’t invited. Obviously it turned out that they had been invited. It would be nice to go but then again, after arranging to take the day off, I rearranged it so I would be in anyway. Got to put in a full week of work sometime.

I have a wedding card which I’ll send off, once again apologizing for not being able to go and see that wing of the family all together again. One was missing when Bill and I went to Neil’s house for Thanksgiving in 2005. There is still most of the year ahead, so who knows? Perhaps if Annemarie and the Arcata contingent we can make a day trip down there and say hello. Beats saying hello with a corpse in the room, wouldn’t you think? A reunion of sorts. Works for me. Go rent The History Boys. I don’t think you’ll regret it. And if you do, I’d love to hear what you think of it. Scripps is fine, you’ll see.

Here’s something from YouTube regarding The History Boys.

Actually on 11.9.08 I’ve noticed that the videos are no longer available via YouTube. Bah!

Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)

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Scrubs is on, so I must be writing. It’s Tuesday, not such a bad day. Things are slow going for me at work, but it’s cool. I did get the bonus but a chunk of it went to Bill’s father’s funeral cost. What could I do? Bill was stressed, looking for money and I had some coming my way. I was able to take care of that and gave him the money hoping that I would get it back when he would be able to pay it. I’m not going to go crazy over that. I bought Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool the other day after the parade. In the UK it was known as Jesus of Cool, but here in the US it had to be called Pure Pop For Now People. I must have been on a kick, since the next day I bought Blondie Eat To The Beat, and a Madness single, Michael Caine.

All three were as good as I remembered, but didn’t give me the thrill I once got, but that was about 30 years ago. Things that thrilled me 30 years ago, just don’t cut it like they used to these days. I’m sure you can relate, if you’re over 30 at least. Last night was very mellow. Mellow enough for me to go to bed before 11:00. Not much on TV, I watched some more of the Clash Live: Revolution Rock which was cool. Even picked up the bass and tried to figure out some Paul Simonon bass lines. That also set the stage for me to play Big Audio Dynamite on the way to work this morning.

I also read some more of Hotel California. Manson is on the fringes of the scene, Buffalo Springfield broke up, Stills is a jerk, Gene Clark of the Byrds is slowly losing his mind and Jackson Browne is still a cute teenager. That’s where I’m at on that. My brother Frank recommended the book to my sister Annemarie much to her chagrin. I thought that was interesting, that he had read the book. Very similar to me writing about listening to the Electric Light Orchestra and Harpy commenting that he was listening to them at the same time, and it happened once again with Harpy, me writing about watching The Namesake, when he was watching it himself. Can somethings can be too much in sync?

Now it’s Tuesday night, not planning on doing much. Had a turkey sandwich for dinner which was filling. Not a Dagwood sandwich, but better than what I had for lunch when I was growing up. Some turkey, some mayonnaise on white bread, and it usually wound up in the bottom of my book bag to be tossed at the end of the week. Did I eat lunch in grammar school? I remember some dodgy Chinese lunches, every few months, sponsored by the school. Some Chop Suey which was really horrible and put me off eating Chinese food. Still not too keen on Chinese food to this day and I haven’t eaten Chop Suey since. I’d be so screwed should I find myself over in Asia. Maybe I just haven’t found the right place.

Here’s a funny video sent to me from Betty Colatrella.