Thursday, October 27, 2016

Overheard at Booth 4: Tale of the Unknown Island

Tale of the Unknown Island

Jose Saramago


Quite a nice little introspective story, a great read for a long bus ride from downtown to the suburbs.   

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Overheard at Table 3: Lucky and Otis Discuss Cancer

Lucky Moran: You're part Indian, right?

Otis Redwing:  You already know that.  Plus, the preferred term is "Native American."  I'm part Creek and part Cherokee, if you want to be specific.

Lucky: I just wanted you to know, if I ever get cancer . . . I want you to call me "Chemo-sabe."

Otis: I really don't know why I hang with you.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Overheard at Booth 2: The Mermaid (2016)

A brilliant movie!  Lively, funny, sweet, bizarre, weird!   Funny thing is, I could tell that there were probably a lot of puns or jokes that just didn't translate into English well, so there are many subtexts that English watchers might miss... but still, this is a hilarious movie -

also, I think it's mentally and emotionally healthy for American audiences to watch foreign films.  So many American movies are the same: Action, Blood spatter, Sex.  Not necessarily in that order.  Foreign films often offer different perspectives and just seem to be a darn lot more fun!

Check this movie out - whole family!







Thursday, October 13, 2016

Overheard at Table 1: Knock Knock (2016)

This is the kind of movie that makes you wonder if the lead actor has severe money problems.




Thursday, October 6, 2016

Overheard at Table 4: Hurricane Matthew

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning and they were talking to a reporter that they had down there in Haiti, and I knew, I just KNEW, the moment I heard the question, that there was going to be some lame-ass answer, and they asked, "What was the Hurricane like in Haiti?" and there was this millisecond where I was just cringing, and then the answer:

"Well . . . there was a lot of rain, and a lot of wind."

And I said NO SHIT!  Out loud!  Even though it was only me in the car.  Of course!  It's a HURRICANE!   By the very definition there is a lot of rain and a lot of water.

I want description.  I want imagery.  I want that reporter to say something like, "The rain came tearing through the island like a frat boy on a 'roid rage after slamming down tequila shots!"  or  "The wind blew harder than a coked-out porn star!"

That may not be poetry, but it damn sure beats, "there was a lot of rain.  there was a lot of wind."


Sunday, October 2, 2016

Overthought at Table 3: The Nihilist Observes

Woman, elegant in the beauteous wisdomic creases of time and energy spent all these years wuietly observing the eccentricities of her husband, sits in her black shawl intricately laced with embroidered roses, skimming through pictures of her daughter and her daughter's daughters. 


Woman, you are so much more than your children.


The overhead music turns to jazz, with a trumpet swaying and jarring its load, a tempestuous shakeaway of the calm acoustic almost-tango that had bee playing when I came in for my Italian roast.


Two women, brunette and slim, in jogging attire and the skin going slack on their legs, bruising from being mid-40s, ask for pumpkin spice lattes.  It's that time of year.  The end of summer and the hint of fall in the air.  Around here when the temperature suddenly dips to 78 we tend to whip out the Halloween displays.


The elegant woman's elegant husband returns with their coffees.  He is portly bellied, with a thick white Vandyke that snows down to the open top button of his shirt.  A perfect archetype of a leatherworker making embroidered cowboy belts and hats in Santa Fe.  


We are all so much more than these bodies.  We are a sum of all these moments.