Picks for September 2006

Book: I decided there were too many classics and not enough time, so I’ve gone back into the original list I made for myself many years ago of essential books to read before I die. I have started with "A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man" by James Joyce, and I’ve also picked up "Moby Dick", but trying to read both at once is giving me vertigo. So Herman Melville will have to wait for me to finish with Joyce. Is it redundant and obvious to say that reading Joyce is like giving your mind a bath? Think of your mind as a toddler who has been out playing in the mud for about two weeks, and Joyce is the perfect mother who takes the toddler in and runs a nice warm bubble bath, and cleans off every last trace of filth. Okay, think of yourself as an adult toddler who has been playing in the mud of popular culture, reading ‘People’ magazine and celebrity trash, and poorly executed memoirs/emotional vomitus, and Joyce is the owner of the Ultimate Spa, who will remove every last trace of dangling participles, narcissism, split infinitives and obsession with television actors from the folds and creases of your body and mind. Think of Joyce as someone who would cringe at the above metaphor. I almost feel like I don’t deserve him. He’s James Joyce.
                               

Music: Everyone keeps asking me for the list of 100 Essential Country Songs my father gave me when I was 18 years old. In due time, my friends, in due time.

In the meantime, I am very proud of my husband, Mr. L, and the work he has done with Shawn Colvin on her new record "These Four Walls". My particular favorite: "Venetian Blue".
I have also been loving Tim and Neil Finn in every possible record and venue. They never cease to inspire me as a songwriter.
Also, I was in a restaurant in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago, and they played the band Morphine over the sound system the whole time we were having lunch. I forgot how much I like that band.
At this very moment, I am listening to Queen, as my son feels it is the best background music in which to launch a toy dinosaur attack against a castle full of plastic insects.
         
       

                        Film: I haven’t gone to see many films lately, only "Hollywoodland" and "Open Season". "Hollywoodland", although well-done and interesting, was just too depressing. It raised all kinds of questions for me about the life you want and the life you have, how to be gracious when you get what you want but when what comes with it carries a high price, etc. etc. I did think Ben Affleck and Diane Lane were very good. I saw "Mission Impossible 3" on an airplane and it was a lot of fun. Ka-boom.

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