Archives for August 22, 2005

(1) The computer is the worst enemy of a workaholic with a chest cold.

(2) The iPod is his best friend (especially if he sleeps in a loft).

(3) Don’t watch Red Rock West when you have a fever.

(4) Good movies for invalids: Barbershop, Clueless, Defending Your Life, Speed. (Did you realize that Clueless is now ten years old? Wow.) Also good: Nero Wolfe, Patrick O’Brian, twice- and thrice-read theatrical biographies.

(5) Soup gets tiresome.

(6) Insofar as possible, don’t let unwashed dishes pile up in the sink. The resulting spectacle is depressing and inhibits recovery.

(7) If you have to choose between staying dirty and taking a cold shower, take the shower.

(8) There is no truer friend than the one who offers to run errands for you.

(9) When buying groceries under the influence of antihistamines, don’t just look at the pictures–read the labels.

(10) All cabbies are sadistic psychopaths. Show no weakness!

(11) Yours is not the only blog in the ‘sphere.

– Gene Bertoncini, who plays for happy eaters on Sundays and Mondays at Le Madeleine, is appearing this Thursday at the Jazz Standard in a “celebration” of the release of Quiet Now, his second CD of unaccompanied solos for acoustic guitar. As I wrote in the liner notes for its predecessor, Body and Soul, Gene is

one of those musicians whom I seek out, no matter where they’re working. That’s the nice thing about living in New York–you can really keep up with great artists like Gene–and that’s why I can say with certainty that his playing has gotten better with every passing year. The emotions grow steadily deeper, the harmonies richer and more oblique, the textures more eloquently spare. He was never one to throw around his technique, but now he doesn’t waste any notes at all: every one rings true….

For more information, go here.

– Last Dance, Mirra Bank‘s 2002 cinema-verit

– Weekly salary paid to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1937 for screenwriting duties in Hollywood: $1,000

– Weekly salary paid to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1937 for screenwriting duties in Hollywood: $1,000

“To have no pride as an actor is fatal. To have the right amount is almost impossible. It gets in the way of good work; the lack of it prevents your taking chances, daring to go further than you have before, risking whatever reputation you have–not with the public, but with your director or playwright. You need to know they will allow you to rehearse awkwardly, embarrassingly, in your search for certain elements in the play. Not carelessly, but with the kind of abandon that only comes with real love.

“To have no pride as an actor is fatal. To have the right amount is almost impossible. It gets in the way of good work; the lack of it prevents your taking chances, daring to go further than you have before, risking whatever reputation you have–not with the public, but with your director or playwright. You need to know they will allow you to rehearse awkwardly, embarrassingly, in your search for certain elements in the play. Not carelessly, but with the kind of abandon that only comes with real love.

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important post…I promised you reader movie rants, and they are forthcoming–just not this weekend, which is now last weekend, alas. And I still have a long night ahead of me before I can rest up for next week, which has insidiously but surely turned into this week, right under my insufficiently efficient nose. Wow: I am really, really bad at Sundays. I’ll be back during the week with the goods. Have a nicer Monday than my Sunday, please.

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important post…I promised you reader movie rants, and they are forthcoming–just not this weekend, which is now last weekend, alas. And I still have a long night ahead of me before I can rest up for next week, which has insidiously but surely turned into this week, right under my insufficiently efficient nose. Wow: I am really, really bad at Sundays. I’ll be back during the week with the goods. Have a nicer Monday than my Sunday, please.