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Geek Love by Katherine Dunn - My wonderful garage saling friend, Debby, found this one at a sale and stated that she used to only want to be friends with people who loved this book. So that's why we get along so well! This is one to go into with no preconceived ideas - just know that it's a different kind of a story about a different kind of people with accordingly different kinds of lives.
I'll say that I long to see Arty as the writer saw him. I mean with my eyes, what he looks like. As you'll find out, you will see and know Arty soon enough. I did get to see Olympia somehow - and I saw the love. So, just read it. And let me know if you like it, 'cause although our friendship isn't riding on this one, I'll know a little more about you depending on what you thought of Geek Love.
I'm off to Italy after a week of heavy nightly partying with The Posse in sad celebrations of Pam's moving out of state. We did have fun. And now without our tireless leader and inspiration, we are left to carry the social torch of parties, supper clubs, exciting events and girls' nights out all by ourselves. Even the sky cried rain as she pulled away in her suburban off into the Chicago traffic. Her new neighbors and friends have no idea of the fun they are in for when she hits their town. 
Brilliant
For all you Woody Allen and Larry David fans, there's a new movie in town. It's got the un-Woody title of
Whatever Works, and it's about all the things I told my son it might be about as we drove over to the Wilmette Theatre this aftenoon and he asked what it was about. I like to know nothing more than the title and that certain friends loved a movie before seeing it, so I explained that Woody Allen was originally a stand-up comic who I saw in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace (I'm pretty sure) when I was 10 years old. I remember that he was really funny. The show was free, but you had to buy dinner for everyone at the table, so my dad was on the hook for three steak dinners for his hotdog-eating young family. Woody was a small bespeckled (probably very young) guy with a soft voice. The headliner at the show that night was the dancer George Chakiris, who had starred in West Side Story. We were there because George was greek and so were we, and because my dad loved comedians. After the show my dad wangled our way backstage to meet our fellow countryman. He couldn't have been nicer and signed a few menus that my mom probably still has, but that I haven't seen in years. But I digress.I told Peter that a Woody Allen movie was usually funny and witty, but not always a comedy. Larry David was sure to make this one enjoyable for us no matter what the story which would maybe be about relationships or a romance, and most likely be set in New York City.
Brilliant
Woody:
George:
I'm so tired right now.
When I was younger I had the wanderlust and loved to travel. By travel I mean going to new places and walking around cities and exploring countries and meeting new people and seeing what was what here and there. Especially places with beaches and water.
After years of marriage and a teenage son who doesn't love to travel, I have no idea whether I have the wanderlust anymore. Until I talk to a fellow luster, especially one who is really seeing the world. Like my friend's daughter who's been to countries and continents, beaches and villages for the past few years. She alights in our town, like a beautiful butterfly, a couple of times a year, and if I'm lucky I get to see and chat with her and hear about her adventures. Last time she was in town, she gave me a book to read.
The reason I'm so tired is that for the last few days and nights I've been circumnavigating the globe singlehandedly on a 26 foot sailboat with the author of
Maiden Voyage - Tania Aebi wrote the book with Bernadette Brennan of Cruising World Magazine, about Tania's 1985-1987 around the world adventure. Tanya left when she was 17, and returned at age 20, and grew up in a million ways on that amazing voyage. She saw the most beautiful places in the world while experiencing loneliness, companionship, love, days-long ocean storms, close calls, boating disasters and more.
I couldn't put the book down. Tanya is engaging, descriptive, serious and real. But, would I do it? No. I'm way to frightened of the ocean storms. When I return the book to my friend's daughter, I'm going to include a weatherbeaten copy of The Drifters by James Michener. This is one of my favorite books ever, and one I've read over and over again.
STORY OF THE WEATHERBEATEN COPY OF The Drifters. First you have to know that I have a new garage saling friend, Debby. We met years ago because of beading, but recently re-connected at the home of our mutual friend, Barbara, who I used to go saling with a long time ago. Barbara joins us on our adventures around the north shore, and on Saturday morning I met them at the annual bead garage sale, (yes, there are annual themed garage sales out there, but if you want to know more, you'll have to jump in and be serious because teaching someone this would take the years of experience that one brings to the search for necessary and unecessary treasure hunting) and I said,
"I'm looking for a couple of books; I want to find Maiden Voyage to share with sailors, and The Drifters for the person who leant me Maiden Voyage". So after the sale with the wonderful ladies who happened to have a brand new hot air popcorn popper for me (inside the house-there were some intense minutes of suspense to see if it could be sold) for our other mutual friend Nancy's daughter, we were wandering through a neighborhood garage sale and there was The Drifters. Weatherbeaten and well loved and well read by another young woman who wants to see the world. We agreed on 25 cents for this treasure, which could maybe buy her something in an exotic village somewhere on another continent. Or right here in the exotic north shore at another garage sale. So one down and one to go. What are the chances you ask? Well, they're pretty good actually. Like the philosophy goes....if you put it out there to the world, the world responds. Or like my mom says "if you ask you get, if you don't ask, you don't get."
Nothing to do With AnythingMy copy of The Drifters looks like the one at the top of today's blog.
The one I bought the other day looks like this only the cover is pink:
I was In Detroit last weekend and fell behind on everything including my blog, but here I am, back and ready to write. Peter was bored as he always is unless he's playing WOW or with friends, and wanted to see The Hangover again. Being the good mom who loves a funny movie, I complied and we went to the Fairlane Town Center movies near my childhood home. I was so happy to see that it's a great little multiplex, and that we pretty much had the show to ourselves.
The Hangover is funny, clever, suspenseful, hilarious, not too raunchy considering, and keeps you guessing throughout. It's a story about Stu and Phil and Doug and Alan. Stu and Phil take Doug to Las Vegas for a bachelor weekend a few days before Doug's wedding to Alan's sister. Although Alan isn't a part of their little group, they include him as Doug's brother in law to be. After the first night in Vegas, Stu, Phil and Alan wake up in their villa suite at Caesar's to a baby, a chicken, and a tiger in the room. The groom is missing, and they can't remember one thing following their first toast to the groom the night before.
If you want to laugh, this is your movie.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave - Excellent, wonderful, beautiful and so as not to give anything away, I'll quote the flyleaf: "This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one....day....Two years later they meet again...." It's a story about the world. And waht about the cover art? I know that you will fall in love with Little Bee. This is a story that will stay with you for a long time.
Just read it.
I Love You Miss Huddleston by Phillip Gulley - This memoir collection of first person short stories center on growing up in an Indiana town in the 1970s. Philip Gulley is an engaging teller of tales, with the craziest little edge of humor. I found it to be tremendously enjoyable and a quick little summer read.
Austin Lunch by Constance Constant - This is one of the very best books I've read in a long time. It's a memoir about a Greek Immigrant family who lived in Chicago during the depression. They were always able to keep their heads above water because the dad owned a restaurant called Austin Lunch. In 1984, Constance and her family discovered a sack of letters from America in the abandoned home of her grandfather in Greece. Those letters brought back the memories that were used to write this story. This is what it was like to grow up Greek American in the 1930s. It's the story of so many people I know and love, and it's so beautifully written that reading the book was like watching a movie of their lives. Thank you Constance Constant for this gift.
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist was a great little movie. It's a love story and a story about a quest of sorts, and a story about being young and cool and not cool. And not caring, and driving around and crossing paths, and being wild yet not wild. About being grown up yet not grown up, mature yet not really. Remember those golden days and years? It was really fun, even with the angst. Nick is played by Michael Cera who is pretty much one of my favorite actors nowadays, and if you ask me his name a minute after I write this, I won't know it. Nora is beautiful but doesn't know it; her confidence comes from who she is. And the music is great.
Playlists. The first notion of playlists for me was in the book High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The main character was a list maker, and in one of my favorite scenes from the movie, he talks about what it takes to make the perfect mix tape. Then we all got this ability to create our own song mixes on CDs using iTunes, and a new passtime was born. If you get a playlist right, the music can take you through anything. It soothes and comforts. It encourages and energizes. This doesn't happen naturally and rarely happens by chance. Some amount of thought has to go into which songs to include, and then the song order. Sometimes a song you love has to be sacrificed for the greater good of the mix. Sometimes the mix has to be scrapped in order to create the right compliments to that one song.
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I love Harold and Kumar. If you're going to watch, then try to see these movies in order. It explains a lot. First of all these two are really smart, drug habit notwithstanding. And of course so funny without even trying. I'll be in Detroit this weekend, and there's a White Castle a few minutes away, so you know where I'm going. I usually get one or two sliders, onion rings (I always want them to be better but they never are and I still get them anyway) and a small chocolate shake. Yum. H & K ordered about 35 sliders each. It was a very funny movie.
Paul Blart Mall Cop - We loved this. It's a great little family movie, and the title says it all. Paul is lovable, the girl is pretty, his family is sweet, the bad guys are bad, and the good guys are confident and typical. I love his segway riding.
Freakin' Fabulous by Clinton Kelly - Clinton is one of the What Not To Wear Hosts, an
d I picked this book off the shelf as a lark. However it would make a great gift for a college graduate or a young someone just starting out in their first place. It's kind of a style, etiquette, entertaining, decorating, cookbook combination, and I enjoyed reading through it. I can't wait to make some of the recipes which are classic yet modern.
