A Woody Allen evening. Last week was also Woody Allen related. Bill hasn’t seen much, if any Woody Allen films. I have seen quite a few, and quite a few times. So I’ve been renting them through Netflix. Last week was Annie Hall. Classic 1970’s film that Bill hadn’t seen before. In a way it’s like seeing them for the first time through his eyes. But then again I can watch these over and over, and I have.

It was fun to see Annie Hall and look at Manhattan as it was in 1975. Definitely not how it is now. Not as sanitized. And the rent for Annie’s apartment with the terrace was $400. Outrageous! It really is a classic film, great scenes and really funny lines. I am amazed how some of the lines have worked their way into my everyday language. Due to copyright laws they can’t be reprinted here. That, and I’m lazy.

Tonight we watched Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days. I first saw Hannah up in Boston, 20 years ago, could be very close to the day. I was with Steve Saporito and we took the train from Newark NJ to Boston to see the Fall in their first American appearance on this particular tour. It was damn cold out and we had nowhere to go so we went to see Hannah and Her Sisters.

I loved it and got choked up at the end. Great characters and stories. As I get older I find some things in the movie ring true. And I am still knocked out by the restaurant scene where the three sisters sit and have a heated discussion. It opened my eyes to some New York City architecture. Lot’s of actors that are famous today, playing minor or background characters. Sam Waterson, who is one of Bill heroes playing a love interest for Dianne Weist and Carrie Fisher.

Bill was hooked up to IMDB and kept checking who’s who. Julia Louis Dreyfuss and John Turturro. We watched Radio Days afterwards, and I pointed out Seth Green. That was fairly easy since he plays Woody Allen and therefore in almost every scene. I didn’t really like Radio Days when it first came out. Found it too nostalgic, but with time passing by and me becoming nostalgic, for someone else’s nostalgia.

Bill would love to act in a Woody Allen film. He’s finding the characters to be so finely tuned. And the writing is great too. I also have Sleeper and Manhattan in my Netflix queue, but now plan to add Purple Rose of Cairo, after seeing Jeff Daniels at the end of Radio Days. Jeff reprises a character from Purple Rose. Perhaps two characters?

Now we’re watching the Aristocrats. Very raunchy. 180 degrees from the pristine Manhattan humor of Woody Allen. It is really nasty.

Right now it’s snowing very hard and quite windy. The Nor’easter has arrived, promising 12 inches but probably delivering only six. Weather and men, who knew they would be so similar?

also feeling a whole lot better. 24 hour bug, ya heard?

Did not sleep well last night. I tried, woke up at 3 thinking it was 6. Not a good way to sleep. Tossing and turning and when I finally fell asleep it was time to wake up and go to work. And what fun that turned out to be. The sheer stupidity of some people is overwhelming sometimes. But I was able to escape once or twice and run some errands so that wasn’t so bad but all the day did was drag.

The Ipod healed itself somehow. From Friday night to Saturday morning all it did was reload from my home pc. Took about 8 hours to move 6000 plus tracks from one thing to another. I know, it wasn’t worth the drama, but I’ve been called a drama queen before and if the tiara fits…

Bill and I recovered from the counseling last night. Sufficiently so that we are planning a visit to Washington DC around Easter to visit my dear friend Billie. I knew Billie through Jet. Sisters 3 we were. Kate, Tasha and Cindy. Now Kate is gone and has been replaced by Judy. So Cindy and Judy hope to spend some egg rolling time in DC with Tasha. Of course it’s all up to Tasha if she is ready.

Bill has never met Billie so that should be interesting. Protective older sister he/she is. I enjoy visiting Chocolate City. It’s a place where I can let my hair down and actually dance. I look forward to dancing with Bill and Billie, that is, if we go out. It all depends if Billie is on top of Tasha’s game, health wise.

Been listening to Laraaji’s ‘Day’s of Radiance’ produced by Brian Eno and is part of Eno’s Ambient series, making it ‘Ambient 3’. It is really soothing and up and something else. Multi layered zithers. Walked to work listening to that on the Ipod.

Odd thing about the Ipod: One of the last albums I played on the Ipod was ‘Sandinista’ by the Clash. Though everything seems to be running ok now, I am hesitant to play it for fear that it might happen again. And if it happens again, no big deal, there’s always the mini. It was weird for me to use the Ipod, I felt like I was thrown back a couple of months into 2005. I am so attached, or addicted to the Ipod, even feeling smug and superior when I see an Ipod not as sleek as mine.

That’s so not me. I am generally humbled and get humbled around most friends and family so ego is not a problem here. More like the lack of ego.

Now I am playing the ‘Rain Song’ by Led Zeppelin. The memory of this now is driving to Sandy Hook in the summer of 2005. Annemarie at the wheel, me being co-pilot as usual, and Earl and Stine (now Mrs. Julio Lopez) sitting placidly in the back seat. It was a rainy weekday, spent most of the time checking the weather reports. I was determined to have a good time.

And I played the ‘Rain Song’ as well as other rain themed songs, like ‘Rain’ by the Fabs. It seemed to work, we had a pretty good day at the beach, which was relatively empty from the distant clouds.

And here are some pics from way back when:

Annemarie

Earl

Stine (Mrs. Julio Lopez)

Chewbacca (Philip Seymour Carey)