QOTD: "If you want to be contented, you should be a dog." - Ian Shoales
Reading: Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa
Listening to: Warren Zevon, Life'll Kill Ya
Decluttering accomplishments: Mostly trying to reduce my apartment's resemblance to a bookstore
As you might guess from what I'm listening to, I consider Warren Zevon's to be the most significant celebrity death of the week. Oh, sure, Edward Teller was probably smarter, Johnny Cash was probably richer, and John Ritter was ... well, actually, I can't think of any positive trait he might have had that Warren didn't. But none of them wrote "Werewolves of London."
While I'm on the subject of music, will somebody please pass a law requiring anybody playing Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" to use headphones? Both Kurt and Kelly think it's hysterically funny and watch the video of it about 6 hours of every work day. The worst part is that it gets hopelessly stuck in my head and I have to play other stuff at home for an hour just to stop humming that bloody song.
Also, regarding music, how on earth could Rolling Stone's list of best guitarists not include Django Reinhardt? Damn near every jazz guitarist admits his influence. I realize they're somewhat short on non-rock and on non-Americans (Ali Farka Toure did make the list) but Django was important.
As a final musical note, I was totally fascinated by the chant at the end of Whale Rider, which I saw this week. I enjoyed the movie overall, but the chant was a particular highlight. It also reminded me of how much I like the art of the South Pacific, in general. And, of course, the scenery is enough to make any sensible person want to book a flight to New Zealand right away.
My other entertainment of the week included the monthly story swap that Washington Storytellers Theatre puts on. It was particularly good this time and I'm starting to know more people, which is nice. I told "Why I'm Not a Millionaire" and got an excellent reception. On the way home, I was waiting for the train at Dupont Circle and noticed something rather odd going on. Two people (a man and a woman) were on the opposite platform, and they started tossing coins back and forth with a woman on my platform. The three of them obviously knew one another, but it was still very weird. Only a couple of other people seemed to notice this was going on. Or maybe I'm just not urban enough or cool enough to hide it when I notice weirdness going on.
We also had our annual picnic at work on Friday. The weather had been gorgeous - warm, without being hot, and nice and sunny. Just about when the picnic started, so did the rain. We did have a covered pavilion for the food, so it was okay, but certainly not ideal. And driving home was decidedly unpleasant. On the other hand, a dreary weekend was far more conducive to getting stuff done at home.
Finally, I did update the FAQ, but not anything else yet.
Copyright 2003 Miriam H. Nadel