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Well, it's not done yet, and I don't know how Thrilling and Insightful it is, but at least there's something for day one. I'll finish that part this weekend, and hopefully more.

did i say morning? i meant evening.

you see the problem here. i give priority to non-writing things like Enterprise, and my daily round of websurfing, and tinkering with my IRA portfolio, and sleep, and morning exercise class, and breakfast, and showering, and getting to work on time. some, though perhaps not all, of that needs to change.

This seems to be the only way I'm able to make progress: announcing here that by this time tomorrow (midmorning my time) I'll have at least the first day's writing in the New York City journal at regulus. I'll note here when it's ready.

non sequitur / I usually don't like it when a song gets stuck in my head, but this one is an exception: "Good King Wenceslas" is welcome to stay as long as it likes.

Which of course is how that song has managed to survive for hundreds of years, like a sort of disembodied musical parasite. .... there must be a better word but I'm not thinking of it.

Brother O'Mine and His Girl Friday drove from Las Cruces, NM to Los Angeles in one day, arriving thursday 11 pm. Expectedly, mother reports this morning that they're still asleep. But they're baaaaaaaaack....

Interested parties may telephone (or email) for details. No doubt the man himself will be sending out communiqués once he wakes up - they do have a 56K modem down there, at least.

(really a thought for yesterday evening, but i was too fed up then.)

It Is Wise To Get Enough Sleep.

Otherwise, you might find yourself viciously attacked by a wayward kitchen knife that has, unnoticed by your sleepy self, fallen from the top rack during the dishwashing. When you open the washer and start to pull the bottom rack out, it may swiftly swing round (due to the basic scientific principle of levers) and efficiently nick a small bit out of the side of one of your fingers.

bother. and ow.

I swear this is the last time I'll mention Lord of the Rings until the next time. : It doesn't bother me if/when people express neutral or negative opinions of it. I feel more sorry for them than anything else. I also enjoy recalling some words of Tolkien himself, in the Foreword (written in the mid-sixties):

The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print ten years ago; and I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, or to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short.

- John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, from the Foreword to the second edition (the current edition) of Lord of the Rings

How truly boring the world would be if everyone saw things exactly the same way.

P.S.: this is very funny.

of Academy screeners - the tapes (and, increasingly, DVDs) studios send out to people capable of nominating for the Oscars. People like... my boss.

thanks to an agreement with the other major tolkien fan at the office that he can have it for next (3-day) weekend, GUESS WHICH MOVIE I HAVE A DVD OF THIS WEEKEND

think i'll burn myself out?

naaaaaaaah

Setting: ABC's broadcast of the U.S. figure skating championships (day 1) last night. After learning (from the much-maligned 'personal story' feature) that Todd Eldredge is, at 30, one of the oldest skaters to still be competing (this will be his last try for an Olympic gold), and observing that he seemed like a nice guy whom I was inclined to root for anyway, he then went and won the championship by skating to music from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack! I know whom I'll be cheering for in Salt Lake.

NPR said yesterday that many Israelis are annoyed that the world is not reacting with a sufficient level of outrage over the Palestinean-arms-smuggling ship. That's because, if this were a movie, a heroic maverick Mossad agent would discover that the ship was a frame-up organized by the Israeli government or shadowy figures connected to same. Of course, this is not a movie. and Israel is not Hollywood.

I know, I know, but this is a good one. Borderline obsessive though I may be (ok, fine, drop the 'borderline'), at least I didn't come up with this idea. though i'm a little embarrassed to admit how much i like it.

During the course of my radio listening yesterday, among other things I heard a brief mention of car thieves. Later, KPCC's movie critics gave their year's best lists, most or all of which included Shrek; someone commented that Eddie Murphy as the donkey was the soul of the movie. One critic later noted that her top three were foreign films. (She's the one I never put my trust in ever since she admitted she didn't like Monty Python. She also is capable of choosing a 'difficult to watch' movie involving 'crippling brutality' as one of her ten best. to each their own; it's just that i don't use her as a guide to my viewing at all, at all. but i digress.)

So last night/this morning I dreamed that a gang of car thieves consisting in great part of struggling young European actresses, but also including Eddie Murphy, were pulling a heist on my apartment building's garage.

I'm watching the "New Year's from Vienna" on PBS, where Seiji Ozawa is conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in their annual New Year's Day concert, and apparently it is tradition for there to always be three encores. The first is a surprise, the second is the Blue Danube Waltz, and the last is the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Sr. It is also tradition for the audience to keep time by clapping along with the beat in the "chorus" of the march. I hope someone has written all this down so people will know to clap along just as joyfully with the Radetzky March a thousand years from now.

Perhaps it is simply cultural insecurity on my part, but listening to them I can't help thinking that Austrians (or at least these particular Austrians) are much more precise in this clapping than an American audience would be. Plus they paid attention to Ozawa and knew when they should and should not be clapping. I didn't hear a single person mess up.

Happy new year!

I heard someone call it "twenty-oh-two" today. maybe it was Peter Jennings last night. anyway.

Did you think I was done talking about Lord of the Rings? WRONG! Right this second, I mostly just want to point out a fellow book-lover's review here (MAJOR SPOILERS if you have neither seen the movie nor read the book). I can understand her uneasiness, though I think I let myself go with the flow of the movie more than she did. I post this particularly for any who have seen the movie but have not read the book. If the movies make more people read the books, they will find there the richness of details that the movie has no time to show (director's cut dvd!). That is my hope, my true agenda.

of course, I'll still be watching the dvd every day for the first several days after I get it.

ok, I'll try not to talk about Lord of the Rings any more for a while, at least until movie number two appears on the radar screen. I'll just sit here quietly and continue to glow happily.

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