Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sudden sleepiness
posted at 8:57 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Do you ever just -poof- go out like a light? I find that, fairly often, after about 15 minutes at my desk in the morning, I could put my head down and go to total sleep. It doesn't happen at home or on the train or in bookstores . . . only at my desk. Since I love and enjoy my work, it's not a question of disliking being there. I can see the screen perfectly well so it isn't a question of eyesight. I get enough sleep to be alert (everywhere else) so it's not sleep deprivation. Also it seems connected to a recent change in the air conditioning/heat which is a bit higher than it used to be (a/k/a warmer) so I wonder if there's something less than ideal in the air. Food helps, too, so I must remember to eat more! (Ha ha, just kidding.)

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Thursday, January 14, 2010
14
posted at 11:54 PM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
The mid-January winter cold got me - not the environmental kind of cold although that's ongoing at the moment - the internal, stuffy head kind that I swear my body demands every year like clockwork right about this time and you can look at my time records if you don't believe me.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Who'd've thought?
posted at 11:27 PM | Permalink | 4 comment(s)
Today is the 12th anniversary of the wedding of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn. Weird and disquieting though it was/is, twelve years is enough time that perhaps we can (try to) let it go from our gossipy consciousness and just think of it as a marriage.

Then again, it's also the day when it was announced that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have split up after twenty-three years together. It's always sad when families come apart even if no one feels animosity or anger.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Falling stars
posted at 9:21 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
What is it about celebrityness? What makes it apparently so damaging? Why do many celebrities take many lethal drugs - or least drugs that are lethal in conjunction with each other - and why do they party so unbelievably hard and without let-up? Do you know anyone who can party that much and still function at all? Why do they all seem to forget that what got them their success was almost always dedication and single-minded focus and, oh yes, talent and love of creativity and their art? Do piles of money and vast amounts of fame radiate a blinding light that makes it impossible to see or even remember one's extraordinary talent, artistry and self-discipline? Think Brittany Murphy, Elvis Presley, Jean Seberg, Heath Ledger, Rudolph Valentino, James Dean, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Anna Nicole Smith, River Phoenix, John Belushi, Freddie Prinze, Rebecca Schaeffer, John Kennedy Jr. . . . . Although death isn't always the result, the own-foot-shooting of people like Tiger Woods, Lindsay Lohan, the Olsens, and Michael Jackson are in the same category. It's so very very sad and puzzling and it seems so unnecessary and preventable.

Update. Today's quote of the day: "Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." (Robert Bulwer-Lytton). I'm not sure how it applies but it seems relevant.

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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Book of the weekend
posted at 7:51 PM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Am (audio)reading "On Chesil Beach" which is read by the author himself. Turns out that the voice of Ian McEwan - his real voice, not his literary one - is very nearly the same as Ian MacShane's (notably of Deadwood and Lovejoy) and Bill Travers's (Wee Willie Geordie and Born Free). Interestingly, Travers was in at least two episodes of Lovejoy; that must have been odd, audially, since their voices are so similar.

Chesil Beach is an interesting departure for McEwan. He is known and highly touted for intense and psychologically violent stories such as Atonement and The Cement Garden. His prose, however, is remarkably both elegant and accessible. Often it is the case that a careful literary craftsperson is not particularly relaxing or easy to read but McEwan is all that. I'm not going to comment on the story on Chesil Beach right now because it's quite unexpected, but I will write again on it when I am done. In the meantime, already I must say that I recommend it.

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