07/06/19: I get e-mails from Kino Lorber, a company that puts out lots of good films on DVD. I bought many, many silent classics over the years, but they also sell art films and some just plain odd films. While I don't buy as many DVDs as I used to, when I see something I'm interested in, I either look for in on Netflix or one of the local cable channels. I recently recorded a film called Duck, you Sucker! (also known as 'A Fistful of Dynamite') starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn. I'm not really a fan of spaghetti westerns, of which this is one, but I like James Coburn, and the plot looked interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.
So today, Stephie and I sat down to watch it. Halfway through, I stopped the movie and told Stephie that I don't know why we're watching this, because Rod Steiger makes me think of John Belushi doing a joke accent on SNL, and James Coburn makes me want to put in a Flint film. Stephie got a big smile and said, "I was thinking the same thing!" So we stopped the movie and put on my DVD of Our Man Flint. I think we made the right choice. But every time the President called Lee J. Cobb's character, I thought my cell phone was ringing because I have the same ring tone on my cell.
06/25/19: My best buddy got married today! When Julie and Dan announced the wedding was on a Tuesday in Indiana, they assumed that not to many people would attend. (We were going to go, even before Dan asked me to be best man.) They had this great plan: a small ceremony in Dan's sister's back yard, then a party somewhere on the north side of the city for all of Julie's family and friends, then another party on the south side for all of Dan's family and friends. Little did they know that lots of their family and friends would make the trek out to La Porte for a beautiful Tuesday wedding! Congratulations, you two, and I hope you have a long and happy life together.
The picture here is the view from the back yard last evening. I don't know that I've ever seen a rainbow where you could see both ends touching the ground. I like to think it meant that good things were going to happen for the happy couple.
06/19/19: I got my first Chinese robo-call today. My desk phone rang, and when I answered it, I heard a recording of a woman speaking Chinese. I hit the speaker button on the phone so the guys in the office could hear. We all had a chuckle, then I hung up. A few minutes later my boss's phone rang, and it was the same recording. I heard that several other people in the office had the same experience.
We all thought it was kind of funny and mildly annoying, until I was talking to someone in another building who said that her department had the same bunch of calls. She told me that one of the women in her office speaks Chinese, so I asked her what the message was. It was a message claiming that the caller had kidnapped one of the recipient's family members and was demanding ransom. Even though it still was a scam, suddenly it wasn't so funny any more.
06/09/19: I went to the Printers Row Lit Fest today. I'd been a few times over the past couple of years as a vendor, but this time I was just browsing. I had met one of my fellow writers from the Goodreads Chicago Writers group and we had a nice chat about writing and trying to sell our writing, but after that I just wandered around.
I stopped by the Illinois Woman's Press Association, the group that I had rented table space from for previous shows, and chatted with the guy running the tent. I also stopped by the table of a few of the Tamale Hut regulars. But mostly, I just looked at books.
I didn't buy much, because as I browsed, I kept thinking about all the books I already have that I haven't read yet. I did, however, see one booth that had a long wall of non-fiction books for cheap, and I took the time to browse the shelves. One book practically jumped out at me. On its yellow spine was the title A Storm in Flanders. I pulled the book down and it was the story of Ypres during the first World War. Most of you already know that the current story I'm writing is set in 1925, and the main villain is a guy known as the Belgian. I haven't given much of his back story yet, but I hinted that he was shaped by his experience in Ypres during the war! I couldn't get to the checkout table fast enough! Now I just need to find time to read it.
I didn't buy anything else, but I did see the boxed set in the picture and it made me laugh. I've not read any of Philip K. Dick's work, but if I were interested, I can see starting with a boxed set that seems to be titled "Dick Dick Dick."
06/01/19: I was puttering around the house today when I noticed that the skies had darkened considerably from the morning, so I went out on the veranda to close the windows in case of rain. As I was doing this, it really started to come down, but it wasn't rain. It was hail. BIG hail. Large chunks of ice pelted the ground and anything that was outside. It was 80 degrees just an hour ago! Now tell me that we're not screwing up our climate.
Click a month or year to see all posts for that time:
2019
January February March April May June July
2018
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015
February March April May June July August September October November December
2014
January February March May June July August September October November December
2013
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010
January February March April June July August September October November December
2009
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2004
January February March April May June July August September October November December
2003
June July August September October November December
Show All Articles