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Jan 31 movie: Mystery Street. Nice little detective movie starring Ricardo Montalban. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Ricardo Montalban? I really do. The later, campy, "KHANNNNNN!" stuff is tons of fun, but I most enjoy his early, serious film work.

No big stars in this B movie, but it's worth watching for a couple of reasons: first, the plot is largely a forensic/procedural mystery, with a Harvard medical examiner helping Montalban find clues to the crime. That's pretty common now, what with CSI (and Quincy!), but unusual fifty years ago.

Second, the racial implications of Montalban as a detective are nicely understated, and not at all patronizing (unlike the subplot about the African American who wants to be a lawyer in In This Our Life). I think it's only even mentioned explicitly once, when an arrogant suspect comments on Montalban's accent, brags about his own position as a pillar of the community, then says "I'm used to being treated with respect." Montalban calmly replies, "So am I!" I expected the movie to be about Montalban overcoming prejudice, but it's actually about him solving a crime. I read an interview once in which Montalban expressed frustration at Hollywood for using him as a sort of "generic ethnic" (Portuguese in this film), and pride at never having played a role that was demeaning. I imagine that must have limited his choice of parts.

Haven't had much time to post the past couple of days, so here's a quick movie run-down:

The African Queen. Can you believe I had never seen this one before? Great movie about Hepburn and Bogart traveling down a treacherous river in Africa with a plan to destroy a German ship during WWI.

Holiday. Starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and written by Philip Barry and Donald Ogden Stewart, this could be seen as a practice run for The Philadelphia Story. But I must admit, it didn't engage me nearly as much. I can't recommend it unless you're a big fan of Hepburn or Grant.

In This Our Life. Fairly wretched film about a horrible woman (Bette Davis) who steals her sister's (Olivia de Havilland) husband, drives him to suicide, commits hit-and-run manslaughter, frames someone for it, gets caught, then conveniently dies in a car crash. 34 year old Davis was wearing heavy make-up to make her look like a young girl, which lent the film a creepy "Baby Jane" overtone. I almost turned it off mid-movie, except for an interesting sub-plot about an African American man trying to become a lawyer. Progressive stuff for 1942. The other odd tidbit is that Davis and de Havilland's characters are called Stanley and Roy. I'm guessing the movie is based on a book in which this is explained.

I had a great birthday, y'all. Thursday was the actual day, and Georg and I went to Nana's for dinner. I'd never been there before. It was great! We had a fabulous raw tuna appetizer, then for the main course I had duck and Georg had rack of lamb. The duck was "poached in olive oil" which made it very tender. I guess that preparation is sort of like confit? Anyway they had gone to the trouble of trimming off the fat, which I greatly appreciated. Most restaurants don't do that. It was served with roasted root vegetables and chestnut/duck ravioli. I never had duck with a side of duck before.

The desserts were equally wonderful. We shared blood orange ice cream (tasted a lot like a creamsicle, only less sweet) and triple chocolate Boston cream pie. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't know what Boston cream pie was. The only thing I'd ever eaten before by that name are the Boston cream donuts from Dunkin Donuts. So I was expecting a chocolate cream pie. Actually it was an incredibly rich chocolate cake, with chocolate cream in the middle, and instead of frosting, chocolate sauce poured on top. Wow! It was amazing, and very very rich.

Yesterday I was hoping to get some sewing done. I had this outfit picked out to make for my birthday, but was too busy last week to get it done. It has some nice details like underlining, bound buttonholes and piping at the collar and cuffs, so it's taking a lot longer than a typical outfit. But I at least wanted to have some time to sew as my birthday present to myself.

But I ended up having a lot of work to do, so that had to wait. At least I had some time in late afternoon to clean up for the little party Georg threw for me. Nothing fancy, just a few friends. It was fun! At least, I had a great time. My friend David gave me a spectacular painting that he did just for me! On Christa's suggestion we're going to hang it over the mantel and move the piece that's there now.

There was only one mishap -- a glass of red wine spilled on the tablecloth -- but we washed it right away and it's barely noticeable. We're going to try a miracle treatment I read about online (Dawn dish soap mixed with hydrogen peroxide) to see if we can get it the rest of the way out. And the best part is, Georg did all the dishes after the party! What a guy.

Lina had the time of her life. She seemed to think that everyone was here for no other reason than to pay attention to her. Thirteen was terrified, of course, but she was pretty brave about the whole thing. When the door closed on the last guest, Thirteen sighed heavily like she could relax for the first time all night, and went to sleep. Lina collapsed about ten minutes later and is still sleeping it off. We've been protecting her from any excitement for so long, it was really nice for her to have so much fun.

Now I have Stoneline. Wish I could stay home in my PJs! But those taxes have got to be done.

The Cotton Boll is having their annual sale today, tomorrow and Saturday. Fabrics are on sale in the Chapel Hill store, but the big event is the demo model sewing machine sale at all three stores.

If you have any interest in owning a quality sewing machine, this is a great time to do it. I bought a Viking 400 from their demo model sale 8 years ago, and it's still a fantastic machine. I love it as much as I love my Mac. (and that's saying something!) My only quibble is that, since it's European, I can't buy basic bobbins or presser feet from the fabric store. Have to get special ones that fit the Viking. But still, it's a great machine.

So, Lina had her follow-up appointment today. The good news: The plate in her leg is stable, the bones healed very well, and the arthritis in her knee didn't get any worse. They showed me the X-rays, and the plate is huge! Way bigger than I imagined. It's got three or four giant screws in it too. I had envisioned delicate little screws but these looked like drywall screws. They almost looked like they should be sticking out the other side of the bone. I asked for a copy of the X-ray but they said no because it would be too much hassle for them to duplicate it for me.

The doctor talked to me a lot about rehab exercises. She's still limping and the leg with the plate (I will not call it "the bad leg," that's a defeatist attitude) sticks out at a funny angle when she stands still. He said the range of motion exercises aren't necessary anymore, but there are other exercises we can do to retrain her to walk evenly. We get to do longer walks, "obstacle course" walks on uneven terrain like the Duke Forest trails, and we can work up to jogging together again. He even gave me a couple of papers he had written on dog physical therapy (apparently this is an area of interest for him).

I don't have to retrict her movements at all anymore. Yay! No more walking around the yard in my pajamas in the middle of the night so she can go to the bathroom! I asked him about letting her sleep on the bed. He said that jumping isn't good for her, and recommended that we get a ramp so she can get up without having to jump. But he did reluctantly say something to the effect that the occasional jump wouldn't kill her. So we are going to both sleep in the bedroom tonight and see how it goes. Yay! No more air mattress!

Now the bad news: They think she has Cushing's disease. Apparently this is overproduction of hormones by the adrenal glands. The doctor said that her body shape (narrow waist but low, big abdomen) and that bald spot on her back are both indicative of Cushing's disease. They did blood work while she was there and she has a couple of indicators there too. I don't know what they are though. The doctor told me but I'm looking at the handout and it only says the abbreviations "Alk Phos 166" and "ALT 86." I can't remember what those mean.

Anyway, they said that I should see if my regular vet can do a more definitive test for Cushing's disease. Apparently not all vets can do it. They think that if she does have it, we caught it really early so she should respond well to treatment. I read online that there are a couple of different drugs that manage the symptoms pretty well. Without treatment, it causes all kinds of nasties including skin and gum infections, diabetes, liver and kidney failure and heart failure. So I'm really glad he noticed it. I never heard of Cushing's disease so I certainly wouldn't have been looking for the symptoms.

This was my day:

8:00 At desk, answer emails, do some web work.

9:30 Start trying to get Lina out of the house without Thirteen.

9:45 Lina is in car; we leave for vet hospital in Raleigh.

10:30 Check in at vet hospital. Try to calm Lina, who whines frantically the entire time we are in the building, except when she's growling at other dogs in waiting room.

10:45 Apologize profusely when Lina takes humongous crap on waiting room floor.

11:10 Finally get to see doctor. Lina is still whining.

11:30 Doctor keeps Lina for X-rays. Pay the bill (ouch) and head for Hillsborough.

12:15 Arrive at Hillsborough DMV. Determine that they do not have a separate line for renewals, and that the entire line is outside, and that it is too cold to read while standing outside. Put book back in car.

3:15 Sit at the desk of a very nice man who gives me a new license. He is surprisingly pleasant for someone who's been dealing with DMV Madness for weeks.

3:25 Head back to Raleigh. Stop on the way and grab a bite of lunch at Subway. (The verdict on the low carb wraps: not exactly gourmet eating, but they'll do in a pinch.)

4:15 Arrive at vet hospital. Lina is still whining, louder now. Doctor tells me that the anaesthesia has messed with her head and is making her cry. I tell him that she's always like this at the vet.

5:15 Leave vet hospital. Lina whines the whole way home.

6:00 Arrive at home. Thirteen practically (but not literally) jumps for joy when we come in. Call Stoneline and postpone work tonight. Email Lisa and beg off from Angel night.

6:15 Lie down on couch with a Tivo full of movies.

And that, friends, was my day. I truly understand "hurry up and wait" now.

Details later. Now, must rest.

Jan 27 movie: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. A lesser Preston Sturges movie, a bit too zany for my taste. Too many pratfalls and too much yelling. And stuttering for comic effect isn't easy to pull off; too often (as here) it's just painful. Still, it is Preston Sturges, tackling the rather shocking subject of a pregnant teenager who may or may not be married. Betty Hutton is luminous as always, although I was disappointed that she doesn't sing. I'm glad I saw it, but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

The coolest ad on TV right now: The new Volkswagen Phaeton spot. Because it features "Fiery Yellow" by Stereolab (the last track on Mars Audiac Quintet). An ad which prompts me to fill the CD changer with Stereolab albums is a good ad indeed.

The DMV is closed today. Dammit dammit dammit. I called before driving out there, but the line was busy. Which led to the (false) assumption that someone was there answering the phone, and that same someone would give me a new license.

Tomorrow is all booked up for me, so I'm going to have to go back on Thursday. That's the last day -- if I don't get it then I'm screwed. On the bright side, I'm getting my hair cut this afternoon. On the other bright side, the roads are totally clear.

I forgot about the weirdest thing that happened during my show yesterday: I accidently bumped into the mic while talking, and got a shock right on the center of my upper lip. Ow! Georg told me later that he heard the shock, a distinct pop, but didn't know what it was until I said what had just happened.

The moral of this story is: when the humidity is low, don't touch the mic. Especially not with your face.

It's hard to tell from inside the house how much ice we got. Not enough to knock out the power (yay!). The road appears to have been plowed, but hardly anyone is driving. I hear a car go by every few minutes, but at this time of day there'd normally be a constant flow of traffic.

I realized this morning that haircut or no haircut, I have to go to the DMV today. Because Wednesday is completely booked up (have to go to Lina's appt in Raleigh in the morning, and do the quarterly taxes and W2s for Stoneline in the afternoon) and Thursday is the day it expires. Which is cutting it way too close. Damn. In a perverse way I'm sort of hoping I get a terrible picture with a stupid look on my face. Because then it won't matter that my hair looks so bad.

My friend Chandra suggested I should just let it expire, go next week, and pay whatever fine they ask. Not because of the haircut, but because the lines are so bad. She said she'd heard of people getting there when they open and waiting all day without getting their license. But according to the people I know who've actually been there in the past couple of weeks, it's bad but not that bad. Besides, I've had enough horrible run-ins with the DMV to think that deliberately letting my license expire would be a very bad thing.

Once, years ago, I accidently let my insurance lapse. I had two cars at the time (thank god) so I said that I hadn't driven one of the two cars at all the whole time I was uninsured (Which was more or less true, though probably not entirely true. But I did drive one of the cars more often). I had to turn in the plate of the car that I had been driving, and the guy at the DMV gave me some kind of extension on the other car so I could keep driving it. After a month I had to bring evidence about which car I had been driving (letters from my boss, neighbors, etc) to a hearing where they could have taken away the plate for the other car too. But fortunately they did not, just charged me a fine. Oh and my insurance went up too. Which made no sense -- I wasn't in an accident or anything. But anyway, the point is that DMV are not into cutting people a break because of circumstances. So I don't think I'll be waiting until next week to get my license renewed.

Jan 25 movie: The Lady Eve. I'm sensing a pattern in the movie list: I love the screwball comedies. Not that this comes as a surprise. I watch them a lot: the good ones over and over, and even the bad ones usually have something to recommend them at least once.

The Lady Eve is one of the good ones. Barbara Stanwyck plays a con artist with a heart of gold, and Henry Fonda plays the scientist she falls for. I read a book once, years ago, that talked about how the screwball comedies of the 30s and early 40s were uniquely focused on the female stars. (Wish I could remember the title!) The Lady Eve was one of the movies profiled in the book and it's true; the movie is all about Stanwyck, and she's fabulous. Fonda is great too, of course. Nice supporting work also by Eric Blore, Charles Coburn and Eugene Pallette.

I love one scene where a bodyguard with suspicions about Stanwyck poses as a waiter so he can keep tabs on her. He keeps trying to serve from the right, causing much consternation to the well-heeled guests, and eventually drops a roast into Henry Fonda's lap. The first time I saw this movie, I didn't know that formal rule about serving from the left. I could tell it was funny, but I had no idea why. It's interesting how sixty years can completely change the context of a joke.

Despite the snow and ice, I wasn't housebound today. I had to go out to do my radio show. The roads were a mess, but I'm so timid about driving on snow and ice that I go really really slowly -- never get over 15 mph and 2nd gear -- so I'm pretty safe. Even if I went off the road, at that speed I'd just slide into a snowbank without hurting myself. (I know; it's happened before although not today.)

I had a great time and had way more human interaction than I usually get at the station. Not only did the next DJ show up (thank god!) but Marty came in to do his PSA thing, and someone else came in to do some stuff in the production room. He introduced himself and I immediately forgot his name. I hate when I do that. There were also several calls: one guy called to request a song by Lo Fidelity All Stars which turned out to be indecent, thank you very much! Then Sylvia called to chat about some fabric, and might have walked over to show it to me but ended up doing a phone interview with a musician instead. Then someone called just to tell me how much she was enjoying the show and how she was going to listen on her computer at work every week. Aw, shucks!

Best WXDU news: the Icicles EP is back! Yay! It must have just been misfiled before. Worst XDU news: We do not have a copy of "Antmusic." How can that be?

My hair appointment today was indeed cancelled. The shop called to tell me that David (my hairdresser) would be coming in an extra day over the weekend or something. I explained to the guy how I'm desperate for a haircut, I'm already 3 weeks overdue and my license expires on Thursday and etc. He said they'd work something out. I'm hoping that means David will fit me into a cancellation tomorrow. I bet there will be lots of people who still won't want to drive.

Woke up this morning to icy, empty roads and the power still on. Ahh, what a relief! We had taken showers last night in case we had no hot water this morning, but thank goodness it wasn't necessary.

Unfortunately I may still have to go out today. I already wrote to cancel my client meeting, but I have a hair appointment in Chapel Hill at 11:30 and my show at 2. I'm really concerned about the haircut because I already had to reschedule once, and they made me wait three weeks that time. My hair is driving me crazy; I don't want to wait another day. Besides, I've been putting off renewing my drivers license until the hair appointment (that may sound vain, but for gosh's sakes, I'll have this photo for six years. Might as well try to make it a good one), and the license is going to expire on Thursday. So I really need that haircut. I called my hairdresser and left them a message asking them to call me back if they're open today.

Speaking of which, I found out why the DMV has been such a madhouse. Apparently on February 2 the regulations will change, making it much harder for legal immigrants to get a license. So the DMV is being flooded with people trying to get a license while they still can. Georg said he's been seeing people lined up outside the Chapel Hill DMV (on 54) before they open every morning. If they're going to discriminate against legal aliens, why couldn't they schedule it four days before my birthday instead of after? I blame John Ashcroft!

Jan 24 movie: Bubba Ho-Tep. Don Coscarelli directs a story about Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) living in a retirement home in Texas, which is under attack by a soul-sucking mummy. All movies should be like this.

Bubba Ho-Tep was way more funny than scary, but did well at creating a creepy atmosphere. Coscarelli certainly understands the principle that the monster is more effective if you never get a good look at it. I wish all horror directors were down with that concept! We saw it at the Nevermore film festival at the Carolina, in a sold-out show. I missed a few of the jokes because of the noise from everyone laughing and cheering, but the movie was much more fun that way.

Even better, after the movie we went over to Lisa's place for her birthday party. Much fun was had by all. We had lots of cool retro music (we can ride the boogie!), answering machine messages from Latin singers from New Jersey, impromptu knitting lessons, the creation of a new drink (the "frisky," Fresca and whiskey, and no I did not have one), and I hear that after Georg and I left at midnight things really got fun.

About twenty minutes ago the snow changed to sleet. Looks pretty nasty out there. At least it's still below freezing. A little bit warmer and it would be raining, and then we'd be in for another ice storm like last year. We had no power for 2 1/2 days last year. I don't want that again.

On the bright side, I walked the dogs a half hour ago. The timing was perfect: they got to play a bit in three inches of fluffy powdery snow. And (I hope) they won't want to go out again anytime soon.

Jan 24 movie: Keep The River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale. Independant Film Channel has some annoying habits, like running the same movies over and over. But I'm thrilled with them for having done "Reality Night" a couple of days ago, allowing me to see Lost in La Mancha and this documentary about Tobias Schneebaum, the artist/anthropologist who lived with cannibals in Peru and New Guinea in the 60s. The movie shows him returning to the communities he had lived in and meeting people who remembered him; they also show him in his native environment of New York. The movie is compelling because Scheebaum is such a compelling subject. There's a brief allusion to accusations that he compromised his anthropoloical work by "going native," and there's probably another movie there, but for the most part the filmmakers get out of the way and let Schneebaum's nostalgic travels be the focus.

Probably the most sensational part of the movie was Schneebaum's struggle to come to terms with having participated in an attack on another village and a cannibalistic ritual while in Peru. But for me the most affecting moment was his reunion with an old friend/lover in New Guinea who he thought was dead. The man kisses him easily, as if they've only been apart for a few months, but Schneebaum holds back, saying that he couldn't stand the pain of losing the relationship again. Moments like that, with such genuine emotion, are why I love documentaries.

So Lina goes back for her follow-up appointment on Wednesday. It's been almost 8 weeks and her fur has almost completely grown back, except this one spot on her backside that didn't grow back at all. That spot is where they gave her the epidural. I wonder if that inhibited her fur from growing back, or if it's just a coincidence? (In that photo by the way she's sleeping on the air mattress. If I don't put it away immediately when I get up, she sleeps on it instead of her bed. At least she doesn't ty to get on the air mattress while I'm still in it! There isn't enough room for both of us.)

And so she's not left out, here's one of Thirteen. I don't know why but she usually sleeps sideways on that bed, with her head up against the hearth. There would be plenty of room for her if she'd just lay the other way.

It's snowing! Has been for at least a couple of hours. I checked weather.com and it's supposed to continue all day, but turn into ice in late afternoon. That means no driving for me, which alas means no Firefly night at Shayne's house. I was really looking forward to it too. I had only half-committed to the series, wasn't watching every episode. Then I saw the one where they go to the big hospital and I was hooked. Immediately after that, the show was cancelled. Figures!

Jan 23 movie: Cold Mountain. When I heard this had been directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) I crossed it off my list. But a friend saw it and spoke well of it, so when my friend Patricia suggested it for our evening out last night, I figured what the heck. And I did enjoy it. It's beautifully filmed (although, boo! on them for filming in Romania instead of North Carolina) and I found it emotionally engaging. The best part of the movie is Renee Zellweger (boy I never thought I'd write those words) who saves it from taking itself too seriously. Philip Seymour Hoffman also has a nice small part.

Possibly the biggest relief of the movie was the younger villain, the blonde guy who might have been albino but I think was actually just very fair. He spent most of the movie with this glint in his eye that screamed "I am going to go medieval and scenery-chewing on y'all's asses in Act 3," but somehow was prevented from doing so. whew!

Jan 23 movie: Lost in La Mancha. Fascinating documentary of Terry Gilliam's doomed attempt to make a movie about Don Quixote. This was an eye-opening look at the practical side of movie-making: scheduling and fund-raising and so forth. It reminded me a lot of the book The Devil's Candy, about the production of Bonfire of the Vanities. But while Bonfire of the Vanities suffered a sort of death by a thousand cuts -- an endless series of small bad decisions which added up to a very bad movie -- the problems that beset Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote are more of a train wreck. It's sad to watch Gilliam go from giggling with joy at his screen test for three burly giants, to waiting helplessly while insurance agents decide the fate of his movie.

(Also, Georg is right: the actor who played Denethor in Return of the King looks a lot like Terry Gilliam. I'm glad I didn't notice it at the time, that would have been distracting.)

While upgrading Movable Type, I seem to have momentarily knocked out the comment feature. Everything should be back to normal in a moment.

I've added the 'most recent comments' thingie to the side of the page, to make the comment threads easier to follow, and also started giving titles to posts.

[Later: Everything seems to be working now. Please let me know if you encounter any weird error messages. Or banal error messages for that matter.]

Good news on the art car front: The Houston parade has a new sponsor! Pennzoil had been the primary sponsor, but dropped the parade when they were bought by Shell. Now they have a new sponsor: Everyone's Internet. In honor of the new sponsor they've renamed the parade "Everyone's Art Car Parade." I think that's a nice sounding title. Way better than "Pennzoil Art Car Weekend."

This is great because they won't have to cut back on events, and I'll probably get a travel reimbursement again. The announcement had a list of other sponsors, including Whole Foods. Hey, I think Whole Foods should sponsor my car! After all, half the members of our entry (Georg and our friend Chris Lewis) are Whole Foods employees. They don't even have to give me money or anything. I just want, say, a big plastic shrimp on my car that says "Whole Foods Seafood" or something like that. Wouldn't that be great?

Today's been a good day. Georg had the day off (yay!) because he has to work on Saturday (boo!). Unfortunately I couldn't spend the whole day with him because I had work to catch up on. I worked in the morning while he fooled around on his computer, then we went out to lunch and picked up our Bubba Ho-Tep tickets from the Carolina.

My folks sent me a nice card with some photos from Thanksgiving, including this really good one of my sister and me. There was glitter inside the card so the photo is all glittery & kind of looks like it was snowing inside the dining room.

In the afternoon I met with a new client. I thought she just wanted some basic maintenance, but she actually needs to completely overhaul the site, so that's good. She lives in a gorgeous 1920's house on Gregson Street, a couple of blocks up from where I lived in college. The layout of the house was exactly like a place where Georg rented a room when he first moved back down here. Except the house Georg lived in was falling down around their ears, and this one had been lovingly restored. Also the house Georg stayed in had a speakeasy in the basement, which probably isn't true of Nancy's although I didn't ask.

After that I had Stoneline, which is always nice, I love seeing them. Then I went over to the station and gave Christa a hand with Divaville since she was feeling under the weather. Didn't end up eating dinner until about 9:30, but I feel nice and full now, all settled in with my flannel jammies on. Wish I could lie on the couch and watch a movie (I have Lost in La Mancha on the DVR) but I have some more work to do. Boo!

This morning Georg and I reached an important consensus: Someone dorky who used to date our friend is not allowed to like a cool album that we like. We want to be able to make fun of everything about them. Having to pause and say, "well, that is a good album" just won't do.

Jan 21 movie: The Philadelphia Story. This is another first for the movie list: I'm writing the post before watching the movie. Because I know I'm going to watch it tonight, but I've seen it so many times I don't need to refresh my memory before writing this. The Philadelphia Story is the perfect screwball comedy. The humor is just the right level of wacky, the romance is utterly charming, and the clothes are fabulous. My two favorite moments in the film are 1: little sister Virginia Weidler pretending to be eccentric, speaking French and singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"; and 2: drunken Jimmy Stewart bursting in on Cary Grant in the middle of the night and constantly repeating his name. "C.K. Dexter Haven! C.K. Dexter HAAAYYYYVENNNNN!"

I've always wondered if the sleazy tabloid in the movie, Spy Magazine, was the inspiration (in name at least) for the Spy I loved reading during the 80s. And I have nothing else to say about this movie except: if you haven't seen it yet, you're in luck! It starts at 8 tonight on TCM.

One more post then I'm finally caught up. Yesterday I had my last 9-noon show. Starting next week I'll be on every Monday from 2-4 pm. I'm really looking forward to the change. The three-hour shows were starting to feel like a drag, and I was also finding it awkward when urgent client emails came in first thing in the morning but I couldn't begin to deal with them until after 12:30. Plus it will be nice to be on every week.

I got two requests yesterday. Alas, one was for the Rolling Stones. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I can't stand the Rolling Stones. I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. But the guy was really nice, and I try to fulfill requests if I possibly can. After all, it means that someone was listening and enjoying enough to call and make a request ... which was completely inappropriate for my show. But let's not dwell on that part.

I gave him my usual "I don't know if we have that, do you have an alternate request" speil, and he gave me something else -- Acoustic Syndicate -- which I couldn't find anywhere. So I felt obligated to play the Stones. He even requested a specific album (Exile on Main Street) so I couldn't look for something obscure and old and un-Stonesy.

So I played "Happy," and followed it up with "Can't Be Funky" by the Bush Tetras. Hearing them sing "You can't be funky if you haven't got a soul" made me feel a whole lot better about having just subjected myself to the Stones.

Looking forward to Monday afternoons! The best part is, the person on before me (Sarah R.) is really nice. And her musical taste and mine don't intersect at all, so she'll never play the stuff I like from the playlist.

Now I'm settled in with a mug of cocoa and Buffy on TV. Time for a nap, or least for some quality vegging out.

I stopped by Untidy Museum today with some sewing samples. Michelle wasn't there but I talked to her partner Jennifer. I think the polka dot dress was the most impressive thing in terms of the construction and workmanship, but she was most taken with the fur sleeves on the Ethel jacket. They already have a couple of people sewing for them and she showed me what they're doing: short, full skirts with funky trims and embellishments.

Jennifer gave me a piece of fabric and asked me to make a skirt out of it. At first I thought she was going to give me this really cool thick woven gold and brown fabric, but then she opened it up and discovered that it's actually a poncho. She wanted to keep the poncho so she went back and got this much less interesting floral cotton. In a way I'm glad, because that gold/brown fabric screamed to be made into a simple A-line. It would be all wrong for this cutesy embellished look, with appliques and flounce trims. Which I confess I'm not that fond of. It's going to be kind of weird to make something that I would never wear myself, but then again it matters more that their customers like it.

The silly thing is, I forgot to ask her what they pay! Well it's only one little skirt, it will take me a couple hours to do it. So if the money isn't enough to be worth doing it again, I won't feel like I wasted too much time on this one.

In other sewing news, I stopped by Grannies Panties which has a bathtub full of fabric for $1 a piece. I didn't find anything really cool, but did get a couple of pieces that will make good linings. One of the pieces still had a Piecegoods remnant tag on it. Their tags had inspirational messages on the back, so we always used to call them Piece Gods. That was the fabric store I used to always go to when I first started sewing. We didn't have JoAnn's or Hancock in the area yet.

Jan 20 movie: Return of the King. This is the first movie of the year seen in a theater. I actually had tickets for opening night, but I was sick as wasn't able to go. Georg and I finally went with Sylvia last night. I enjoyed it a lot. Not as much as the first one, but way more than the second. (Come to think of it, that's how I felt about the Matrix movies too, although ROTK was way better than Matrix: Revolutions.)

I'm not a fanatical devotee of the books, although I have read them. Okay, many times. But I don't object on principle to all changes. Slavish authenticity just isn't possible when adapting a book to a movie, especially not with a rambling epic like Lord of the Rings. I felt like Jackson got the first movie just right: the tone was perfect, most of the characters were just as I imagined them, and the changes made sense. The second installment I found more problematic: it seemed like they jettisoned a lot of material that I wanted to see, in favor of a bunch of junk that didn't make any sense.

This time, I think they did much better. [minor spoiler alert] There was only one change that ticked me off: Frodo believing Gollum and turning his back on Sam. I guess they were trying to show how much the ring had messed with Frodo's head, but it really wasn't necessary, in my opinion, and damaged Frodo's character, made him seem gullible. On the other hand, I think they totally made the right call in dropping the stuff about the destruction of the Shire. [/spoiler]

Sylvia hadn't read the books in a long time, so it was interesting to get a fresh perspective. We agreed that it made us sad when they killed the oliphants. It wasn't their fault, they weren't evil! We also agreed on how sympathetically Gollum was portrayed. I felt glad for him that his last few moments were happy; Sylvia wished that he hadn't died, but had been rescued and redeemed! Can you imagine the hue and cry from LOTR fans if they had made a change like that.

Sylvia also noted that the movie was almost entirely a white man's story. Which is true (Eowyn is the only woman with anything to do, and the only swarthy people we see are the bad guys riding the oliphants), but this was actually much worse in the books so it didn't really bother me.

After seeing the knit caps on Gina's craft page, I decided that I wanted mine to have a roll instead of ribbing at the base. So I ripped out what I had done and started over. (Good thing I'm working on small projects that are easy to do over!) I'm really happy with how it's looking, but I think I'm at or past the point where I need to decrease stitches for the top. That's a bit intimidating, so I started on the scarf instead.

I got some pink yarn to go with the red and orange, and I think the colors look pretty good! I don't, however, like the way it curls up, ending up about half the width that I wanted. Is there a way to fix that? Blocking or something? The sweaters I have with ribbing lay pretty flat. Maybe I should switch to a seed stitch or something.

Jan 20 movie: Harvey. Jimmy Stewart stars as Elwood P. Dowd, an amiable drunk whose best friend is a six foot tall invisible rabbit. The basic sweetness of the film is somewhat undercut by some unpleasant events -- for example when his sister tries to have him committed (which in itself is bad enough), the doctor mistakes her for the patient and has a male orderly forcibly carry her off, lock her in a cell, then strip her clothes off and put her into a bathtub. Still the movie is basically kind-hearted. Stewart is funny and charming, although I heard that he wasn't happy with his performance. Later on he did a revival of the stage play with a darker, crazier edge to the character.

Jan 19 Movie: Midnight. I have a weakness for screwball comedies starring Claudette Colbert, and this is one of the best. Colbert is a golddigger in Paris who somehow ends up posing as a Hungarian baroness, and evading cabdriver Don Ameche, with the help of John Barrymore. Mary Astor also costars, as well as a British guy who should have been Noel Coward but wasn't. Robert Osbourne said that Barrymore had a hard time with this production, even needing cue cards at times. That's sad, but cue cards or no he still brings the funny. The best scene of the movie is Barrymore pretending to be Colbert's sick daughter in Hungary, braying into the phone about alcohol poisoning. This, It Happened One Night and The Palm Beach Story are my favorite Colbert movies.

You know, you take one day off from writing in your diary and somehow catching up seems like a terrible burden. Well, probably things wouldn't seem to bad if I'd had a good night's sleep in the past few days. The dogs' bad habit of wanting to go out at 3:30 am has been in full force. And of course, they want only me to take them out. Even on my nights to sleep in the bedroom, they ignore Georg on the air mattress and scratch at the bedroom door to wake me up. Plus I've been a busy little social bee lately, much moreso than usual. Which is great but means staying out late, which makes the 3:30 wake up calls worse. This morning Georg sweetly snuck out without saying goodbye so I could sleep, but Thirteen started scratching on the bedroom door while his car was still warming up in the driveway.

Well I shouldn't complain since they're both healthy and their bad behavior is my fault really (if I didn't let them get away with it, they wouldn't do it). Still, it would be nice to sleep the whole night once in a while.

I've been thinking some more about Michelle at Untidy Museum wanting someone to sew for her. And today I followed a link to this website. I could so make all those clothes. All of them! The sleeveless dresses look like an easy day's work and they're getting over a hundred dollars for each one. I have a couple of patterns that are just as cool as the coolest things in their collection (like a minidress with side cutouts, that I made for myself but haven't had the nerve to wear). I could do this!

The only thing that would be new for me is working in vinyl, but it can't be that hard. I bet all you need is a special needle and special thread. The most serious stumbling block for me is resizing patterns: I have no idea how to do it. And my pattern collection is all in my size (well, duh). I could be a great mod seamstress, but only for women who have the exact same measurements as I do. I wonder if there's a book available on pattern resizing?

Knitting circle last night at Lisa's place was great fun! Lisa showed extreme patience teaching Christa, Mary, her mom, and me. (Actually, I already knew how to knit but wanted to learn how to shape hats.) I was working on a matching hat and scarf; I think Christa said she wants to make a baby blanket as a gift; and Mary and Lisa's mom were just learning, with no specific project in mind as far as I know. For inspiration, Lisa's mom brought a scarf that a friend of hers had made; the friend sells them for $60! It was made of that "eyelash" yarn, all fringey.

Jan 18 movie: Night on Earth. This is my favorite Jim Jarmusch movie. It's about five taxi rides that take place simultaneously in five cities: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. I guess you could call it a "slice of life" movie because each segment is basically just spending time with the characters, getting to know them. No life lessons or morals are learned, no one changes (well, with one major exception). So it's five slices of life, in five cities. My favorite segment is the one in Paris, with a fed up driver from the Ivory Coast and a harsh blind woman. You think he's learned something from her in a "very special episode" sort of way, but the seconds after he drops her off make it clear that he's exactly the same guy he was before he met her. I love this movie.

Lisa asked me the other day if I was wigged out about eating beef. Which made me realize that I've heard surprisingly little about the issue on the news and so forth. Before it happened, I had expected the first case of mad cow disease in the US to cause a general panic. (In fact, in my own selfish way I was kind of hoping a decrease in demand would cause beef prices would drop a bit, since they shot up late last year). But the general reaction seems to be "meh."

I did some reading, talked it over with Georg, and decided that for my own eating habits:

• whole cuts of beef are safe.
• ground beef and sausage is safe if I know where it came from. For instance Whole Foods grinds their own, in the store, from whole cuts. So I'm comfortable eating it.
• ground beef and sausage are risky if I don't know where it came from. The cheaper the meat, the more risk. I might change my mind about this when things settle down and we know more. But for now, no ground beef or sausage from restaurants or bargain markets.
• high risk organs like sweetbreads, tripe and tongue are definitely to be avoided, but I wouldn't have eaten them anyway.

Whole Foods also claims to only use cows that had a vegetarian diet, no cow cannibalism for them. So I feel pretty good about continuing to buy beef from them. Thanks to Georg's employee discount card, we would almost always get meat from them anyway. And I wasn't exactly a fast-food junkie (I think I may have eaten at Wendy's once in the past year). So this hasn't required much change in my shopping and eating habits.

The weird thing is, I thought I was being fairly low-key about the whole BSE issue. What with continuing to buy beef, even ground beef, it seemed like I was taking a relaxed approach. But from talking to other folks it seems like maybe I am wigged out, at least in comparison. No one else I talked to has even stopped eating restaurant hamburgers. What are you doing? I'd really like to know. Do you still eat beef? Ground beef? Tongue? (If you weren't eating beef before, I'd still like to know how you feel about mad cow disease.)

Q: How do you know you've been watching too many soaps?

A: If you're upset with someone, you turn your back on them and face a window while talking to them.

No, I don't do that. Just saw it on TWoP and thought it was hilarious. My addendum would be, every time someone asks you a really important question, you pause for 20-30 seconds and stare at them, wait for commercial, then answer.

Jan 18 Movie: Night and Day. Largely fictionalized Cole Porter biopic is more fun after having read a Porter biography (Noel and Cole), which makes the fictions more glaringly apparent. In the movie Porter is not only a WWI war hero, but a proud, self-made man who refuses the money of his well-to-do family and his millionaire wife Linda (they marry later in the movie than in real life) because he wants to succeed on his own. Hilarious scenes include Porter working at a department store music counter, writing songs on his lunch hour, when at that time in his life he and Linda were actually busy giving and attending parties at their Upper East Side penthouse, their Paris home and their Venice hotel suite. I read that Porter could have been successful much sooner if he'd been more serious about his work and devoted less time to his high society lifestyle. (I wanted to write "jet-set" but I doubt they were called that in the 1920s.)

Alas, having read Noel and Cole made me enjoy the music in the film less. Because apparently the producers had originally planned on cameo appearances by all the Broadway stars to do the songs they had made famous. But then for budget reasons they decided to use no-name studio singers instead. Watching some fairly unremarkable singer do "I've Got You Under My Skin," when I knew it should have been Ethel Merman, kind of stuck in my craw.

Another note of historical revisionism that stuck in my craw: they show the opening night of The Gay Divorce, sans Fred Astaire of course, but the playbill uses the censored movie title "The Gay Divorcee." (Apparently the movie board felt that a divorce could not be a happy event, but a divorcee could be happy about getting one.) I guess when practically the whole movie was made up out of whole cloth I shouldn't waste my time even noticing a tiny detail like that.

There was one bonus in the film though: a small appearance by Alan Hale Sr. as a Broadway producer who rejects "Mrs. Otis Regrets" because "I hear it here" (taps his ear) "but I don't feel here" (thumps his heart). I've been thinking about having an "Alan Hale Sr. Month" sometime this year, and seeing as many of his movies as I can. That would be fun.

I mentioned about a week ago that I had ordered a really stylish Swatch with the last of my Xmas money from my folks. I had ordered it from overseas, not Squiggly.com which I had ordered from before, but a different one. They said delivery would take 5-10 business days so I thought I'd definitely have it by my birthday.

Well, yesterday morning I realized that it had been a week and I hadn't heard anything back from them. Wrote to ask about the status of my order, and mentioning that I really wanted to have it by the 29th. Got a message back today saying that my watch is out of stock, but they expect to get more next week, but they couldn't confirm delivery by the 29th. I must say that really annoyed me. Their website said it was in stock; when were they planning to tell me it wasn't?

They asked me if I wanted to cancel the order. So I wrote back saying yes, cancel my order, then went to Squiggly.com and ordered it from them, which I should have done in the first place. I feel kind of bad about canceling the order from the first place, but that whole exchange just gave me a bad feeling. If they had written back right away to tell me it was out of stock, I might have paid for express shipping so I would get it in time. As it is I think they should have offered to upgrade my shipping for free, but they didn't.

I could have asked them to give me a free shipping upgrade, but because of the time difference email exchanges take a full day each time. Besides, they wrote back to me from an AOL account, which I don't take as a sign of a professional operation. So I thought it best to just cancel the order and try Squiggly.com while there may still be time.

My post from earlier