And I had almost forgotten about the Rose Bowl Parade. I must be getting old. It's my favorite parade of the year (look at that, the best parade on the first day of the year -- after that, there's no comparing, you're done). I got up at 8:30 and DING the parade was going to start in 30 minutes. It would be amazing to attend the parade with all the good smells but I'd hate to deal with the traffic and I'd want to be seated/standing at the beginning of the route so that you could see everyone when they're still fresh. The best float was the one with Jack Hanna on it with beautiful organic animals. The best band was from England whose drummers on the upstroke came up to their noses. And I always tear up at the flyover of the Stealth. I don't know why. So then the morning was shot for getting anything done other than watching that.
We walked Tug. It's still icy out on the roads so that wasn't fun. It's been lightly snowing since then, not much really out there, just enough that when you're walking it sometimes blew into our faces.
After that I've just been reading BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway. This is a debut Irish author who got a good blurb from Ken Bruen. Here's a description:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Lifford, where murder makes the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland sizzle beneath the snow.Inspector Benedict Devlin is placed in charge of investigating the matter of Angela Cashell, who's been suffocated and dumped in a field on the first day of winter. Angela's
father Johnny, a chronic petty criminal, alternately baits and stonewalls Devlin. But his gibes are nothing compared to the torments Devlin endures when senile old Thomas Powell Sr. complains that someone's been messing about in his room at Finnside Nursing Home and Devlin has to deal with Miriam Powell, the flirtatious ex-girlfriend who married Thomas Powell Jr. The murder of an accounting student from Dublin, shot in the head before his car was torched, strikes fear into the locals but does nothing to clarify the situation. Rousing himself from a mixture of lust, guilt and rage, Devlin becomes convinced that the key to the mystery is a moonstone ring that was practically the only article of clothing Angela Cashell was wearing when she was found. The ring's checkered history links both murders to the disappearance 25 years ago of a prostitute whose friends in high places are in serious danger from her self-appointed avengers.
It's allright for a police procedural. I've been reading downstairs where the pellet stove is on and I've had the tv on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Love to watch him eat. So a nice day all around overall.
Apparently this afternoon Steve's Mom called; we were invited for dinner at the Madsens but Steve said no thanks. We're having taco salad tonight (num!). I don't think there's anything on tv much to watch so maybe more of the same for us this evening: me reading and Steve playing computer game.
I watched the DVD of The Duchess last night, starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. Period costume drama about the story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire who was a famed beauty and near-celebrity in England in the late 1700s. She is an ancestress of Princess Diana. Did I like the movie? No, I don't think so. It seemed soulless. The story of a young girl marrying a much older Duke; her sole purpose was to produce an heir. He, as true to his times, had many women on the side and women had no role. Blah blah blah. I don't know; maybe it covered a lot of time therefore one lost the depth of the story? Keira Knightly just doesn't age so we first see her as a 16 year old and she dies in her 40s though I don't think the movie actually went quite that late into her life. What was the message? It was typical for it's time period. Women in the upper classes had it good in that they weren't starving and had beautiful clothes but they had high expectations placed upon them to perform a certain way. I watched some of the extra features from the DVD; there was an inteview with Ralph Fiennes saying that it would be easy to play him as a bad guy especially as seen through our time's eyes but he tried to act and protray the values of the actual time period in which he was not necessarily a bad guy because that's the way it was. I know there are very good movies out there that can tell a story well but it seems like movies just don't have the time or depth in order to convey things they sometimes wish to tell. Perhaps the script originally was fantastic but time constraints and actors' demands, etc. all lead to quite an inferior product and we all troop to the movies and justifiably complain that there was no there, there.
Key words for me this year: simplicity, details, pleasure.
May 2009 bring everyone many opportunities to pursue their happiness.
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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