ULYSSES * SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A NUT * VALENTINE'S DAY * BIG LOVE * DETROIT 187

Ulysses - We finally watched the 1954 Kirk Douglas version of The Odyssey, and although it was entertaining, it didn't quite live up to our hopes. Peter and I both wanted it to seem bigger and more epic. Instead, it came across as a fairy tale type story on our paltry 50 inch high definition TV screen. Maybe this one had to be seen in Cinerama! Ulysses (Odysseus) was smaller than life rather than larger than life, the gods weren't in our faces as we'd hoped, Penelope was stiff and fake, and the suitors didn't seem to number 120 strong. Cyclops was good, though, and it's a great example of a Kirk Douglas 1954 genre film. Which it's not a film, it's a movie. A young Anthony Quinn as the arrogant Antinuos brought to mind Leonard Cohen, so he wasn't all bad!

Valentine's Day - I'd DVR'd this movie ages ago and finally watched it the other night while doing stuff in the living room. (read multi-tasking). It's about a Valentine's Day in L.A., and the ensemble cast does a credible job of telling multiple happy, sad, then happily ever after stories. It's a sweet thing to watch when there's nothing else on.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut by Jill Kargeman - Here's a book for all those 30 something women who "don't have time to read". Jill's autobiographical essays about her nutty life in New York are fun and light reading. She's an almost Nora Ephron for her generation, without Nora's understatement. Jill spoon feeds you. It's fine, though - she's sweet and sassy.

Big Love - The final episode aired Sunday night, and it was perfect. It really was a show about big love, and the writers were in evidence all over HBO, discussing their show. The characters were always talking about their lives on earth and the impact those lives would someday have in the life they would eventually spend with heavenly father. Each character continued to be true and complicated in this last episode, and we know that they will each be OK as they move past us into tv history.

Detroit 1-8-7 - This excellent series about the Detroit Police Department Homicide Detectives wrapped up its first season last Tuesday. What a great show, and not just because I'm from Detroit and crave to see it all the time. (Even though what I see is so different than the memories - half of it you can't see because the buildings are literally gone). This one was also wrapped up with a bow, and was as stomach churning as ever, with so much room left to expand these characters even more. Will Fitch end up with Sanchez? Will McDaniel ever return to Tuscany? Will Mahajan find true love? Exactly who is Lt. Mason? Will Washington always be a mensch? I hope it continues.

And now, to get on with my day. I hope that I'll take a walk, even though it's super cold outside. I hope that I'll get a whole category of paperwork off the dining room table, and I hope that I'll go through two boxes and find places for the stuff that still resides on the dining room floor. I hope I put some ads on Craigslist. I hope I refer back to this list throughout the day and that I'm accomplishing these tasks. They sound simple, but oh, because we have no storage or closets, they are fraught.