What It Is: 4/6/09

What I’m reading: Franny and Zooey, and Top 10 Season Two.

What I’m listening to: Who Are You, some Neko Case.

What I’m watching: The final four and the premiere of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which was scheduled on HBO to take the slot of Eastbound & Down.

What I’m drinking: Plymouth, Q Tonic and lime.

What Rufus is up to: Taking a 5-mile-plus hike up in Wawayanda on Sunday. And spending Monday in my new office, where he can chill out during the forecast thunderstorm.

Where I’m going: Nowhere in particular, although I may be heading into the city Thursday to gather up a friend of mine (and his dog) to attend our seder.

What I’m happy about: Baseball season starts! Springtime is here! Oh, and that my pal Chip Delany was profiled on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.

What I’m sad about: That I’ve never tried Cel-Ray. I oughtta break my “gin, water & black coffee” New Year’s Resolution for that.

What I’m pondering: Whether Salinger has actually been writing all this time he’s been in seclusion. After reading all of his collected non-Catcher stuff in the last two weeks, and re-reading Ron Rosenbaum’s 1997 essay on his pilgrimage to Salinger’s driveway, I have a strong feeling that even if he is writing, he has no intention of publishing any of it. Guess I oughtta read that Hapworth 16, 1924 and see if that changes my mind.

Wham! Bam

In honor of April Fools Day, Popmatters decided it was time to goof on an album that sold a bazillion copies and launched the career of George Michael, whose first solo album sold a mind-blowing 20 million copies. (I’m partial to Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, but my wife is partial to Andrew Ridgeley, so hey.)

  1. Wham!’s Christmas Conundrums (Shouldn’t that be “Conundra”?)
  2. Wham!’s Fashion Revolution
  3. Make It Best: Single by Single
  4. And just for Amy, Andrew Ridgeley: An Appreciation

What It Is: 3/30/09

What I’m reading: Finished Zot! 1987-1991 (which belatedly gets added to my “comics you can show your girlfriend” canon), read Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction, and started his Nine Stories.

What I’m listening to: A funny conversation between Bill Simmons and SNL’s Bill Hader (lengthy MP3 download here). Here’s an exceedingly silly clip (1 min., mp3) about a rejected SNL skit idea.

What I’m watching: Some NCAA, and Man on Wire.

What I’m drinking: Much of a bottle of white wine on Saturday, but without the sluggishness/headache I usually get from whites. Yay!

What Rufus is up to: Going to the local kiddie-park on Saturday so he could get affection from lots of kids and parents. I realized that made him happier than going to the dog park, where he tends to shun the other do gs and . . . seek out affection from lots of kids and parents. He also bore up to the Sunday-night thunderstorm for a bit, but eventually got freaked out and hid in the guest bedroom for a while. Once the hail started, we were tempted to join him.

Where I’m going: Nowhere!

What I’m happy about: That Man on Wire managed to be even more joyful than the segment in Ric Burns’ New York documentary about Petit’s wire-walk. Here’s my ramble on Petit from a few years ago.

What I’m sad about: A lifelong friend of mine appears to have become totally unhinged. It’s such a textbook-clean snap that I find it more disturbing than if he just started evincing some signs of “strangeness.” I’m hoping it’s just stress/exhaustion, but I don’t want to write more until we get a clearer idea of how he’s doing. It’s just been weighing on me for the past week, the idea that someone can just so utterly break apart in such short order.

What I’m pondering: Why the French get Philippe Petit and America gets Evel Knievel.

My next job title

We get a lot of fun/strange product-new press releases and conference announcements by mail at our magazines. I find it funny that people spend money on print mail for this stuff, rather than using e-mail, but I guess they think that editors prefer retyping press releases and manually scanning images.

Sometimes Mr. Postman brings us bad news. Until last month I had no idea that there was an annual conference called Mega Rust, and now . . . well, I’m just insulted that they never sent me an invitation. Sob!

Today’s mail brought a new product announcement for a new crane from Air Technical Industries. I was about to throw it out when I noticed the headline of the release:

VERSATILE MULTI-TASKING JIB-MASTER

If I saw a help-wanted ad with that headline, I’d send ’em my resume on the spot!