2007 — Day 84 - it ain't half cold, Mum!
Last night's entertainment was Jake Kasdan's excellent 1998 detective movie Zero Effect. Also thoroughly recommended to all but the least/most jaded. Well, our dinner guest enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed his company. But (and this was my third viewing) I still don't see how she worked out his name right at the end! Yesterday afternoon, by the way, had James Robertson Justice strutting his unique stuff in Very Important Person on Channel 4, made by the chap who went on to do Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines — they don't make 'em like that any more!
Walking up an appetite department
Yesterday's fresh air walk had two goals: change the PIN on my newest replacement card, and see if Jonathan was back in his bookshop yet. He wasn't, but I still succumbed to Lives for sale edited by Mark Bostridge. An interesting set of pieces by over thirty well-known biographers on their art, craft, and some of the pitfalls.
With luck, today's fresh air will find me in Southampton this morning. Though whether I will be successful in scouting for Big Bro's desired slide scanner remains to be seen. Besides, he's currently in Hong Kong. Surely the things are cheaper there than over here?
All Trussed up
Change of plan. While She has agreed to work until 2 pm I get to catch the new Lynne Truss radio comedy in — heavens! — in about 90 seconds... Almost as funny as the news, following, that "the average cost of a heterosexual wedding in the UK is £16,000". (The pink pound, by contrast, clocks in at £4K to £6K.) What with that, and the plans to appoint a Tsar of childhood obesity (doubtless to be dubbed the Fat Controller) I think I shall revert to my MP3 library and my struggles with Linux server.
As I was poised with my finger over the "record" button just when Mr Postie started bashing on the front door I can now report that I have the third of the lovely acoustic CDs from Juana Molina; this one's titled "tres cosas" and is from 2002.
It's Friday; what do you expect?
A happy hour in the Oxfam bookshop, that's what. But I definitely need one of these new-fangled "browse the web while you're out and about" PDAs to be able to keep tabs on the current contents of my little library. That wouldn't have stopped me buying a second copy of Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton, however, as their 1965 Pan paperback edition was in (somewhat) better shape than my existing copy of the same edition. It was 99p versus the 12p I originally paid nearly exactly 15 years ago (sad, knowing that, in some peoples' eyes). But I might not have bought the duplicate copy of the Taschen book about Egon Schiele though I'm sure I'll be able to find a good home for it. I have slightly less excuse for this duplication, too, as I bought Copy #1 in September a mere six and a half years ago. <Sigh>
However, A Zen Romance by Deborah Boliver Boehm was a new title. It looks to be a fascinating memoir of her "adventures" in a Japanese monastery in the late 1960s. Then, while waiting in Waterstones for She who must be adored, I found a new one by Joe Eszterhas, too: The Devil's Guide to Hollywood. It's a niche genre (inhabited for the most part by William Goldman) but I'm a sucker for these insider accounts from highly successful screenwriters.