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.
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