What It Is: 8/18/08

What I’m reading: Finished that book on Steve Ditko by Blake Bell, started When Genius Failed, Roger Lowenstein’s chronicle of the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, and am continuing with Montaigne’s essays (still reading his Apology for Raymond Sebond).

What I’m listening to: Boxer, by The National, Songs from Venice Beach, by Ted Hawkins

What I’m watching: Fourth season of The Wire. And, um, Enchanted. Listen: it was just starting and I thought there might be some neat art direction to contrast the mundane world with the cartoon-fantasy world. There wasn’t, but we still had some laughs over the way Patrick Dempsey’s hairstyle changed from shot to shot. We thought it would’ve been funny if he ended up with a high-top fade in one scene, then dreadlocks in another. And I thought it was a great idea to cast Idina Menzel in a movie with musical numbers but not give her a singing role! I’m going back to the Wire. Chris just beat a dude to death.

What I’m drinking: Cerveza de la Pacifica

What Rufus is up to: Still getting freaked out by thunder, still willing to walk up to anyone he meets, tail a-wag.

Where I’m going: Nowhere special, which is sad, since the summer is just about over.

What I’m happy about: That my wife made tongue tacos for lunch on Sunday (a process she began on Saturday)! And I did some manly-ass work out in the yard, ripping up forsythia and digging up some of my dad’s illegal dumping — including cinderblocks, carpeting, paint trays, metal pipes, airplane cable, something with vacuum tubes, and gas cans — to open up space around the big-ol’ rock in the backyard.

What I’m sad about: That I consider landscape work manly.

What I’m pondering: How Russia’s invasion of Georgia may have backfired.