Day 23

Well, Act I issue is solved.  I don't love what I've come up with, but some times you have to go with what you have.  The great is the enemy of the good, and all that.  I have having to settle, but I have confidence (usually) that enough of the rest of the play is better than good to justify having part of it be only good to mediocre.  Now I'm onto the last huge unresolved issue in it, which occurs in Act III.  Have a feeling this will take considerable effort and time.  Let's hope not.

All my new books have arrived.  JG Ballard, Gene Wolf, Herodotus, Eco, and Marriane Moore.  Before moving on to one or more of them, I spent last night reading some of the critical essays at the back of Crime and Punishment (love me the Norton editions).  Interested to learn that Chekhov and Nabokov both spoke slightingly of Dostoevsky, though I guess it's not surprising given their respective temperaments.   I think I'll read some JG Ballard stories next, though the first one I've looked at ("The Watchtowers") does give me pause.  I'm not sure I understand it.  I mean, I understood what happened in it, but I don't think I understand what the ending is supposed to signify.  I don't suppose any of you all have read it?

I think I might rewatch Solaris today, or at least the first hour.  And jog.  I've stopped jogging everyday because of how my much it hurts my knees, but when I don't jog I'm more susceptible to lightheadedness, in the evenings.

Man I am old.

Yesterday I saw last season's winner of So You Think You Can Dance (Lauren) next to me coming out of Whole Foods.  She was tiny but muscular.  Wearing long men's basketball shorts.  Other celebrities I've seen at close contact in LA: Carol Burnett, Barbara Streisand and James Brolin (we sat at the table next to them at dinner one night), Warren Beatty, Toby from the Office, and David Caruso.

The David Caruso thing was somewhat funny.  About two years ago, when we'd just moved to the valley, the wife and I went to dinner at a neighborhood restaurant called Stanley's.  The place was recommended to my wife for its turkey burgers (I think?).  Inside, it was not at all impressive (I thought).  Kind of cheap looking, with plastic-y tables and fake ferns and an overaggressive lighting scheme.  Just an overall feel of...I don't know...something attached to a LaQuinta.  We sit down and order, and while we're waiting, I notice a man, eating with a much younger...Hispanic woman, at the table next to us.  He looks familiar, so I keep staring at him, trying to figure out who he looks like.  Then I realize: he has the exact same haircut and color as David Caruso.  But I know it's not David Caruso because this guy is much chubbier, and, up close, has a face like that of a long-term cigarette/cocaine addict.  (It's ravaged and broken).  So I tell my wife, whispering, "he looks just like David Caruso."  To which she says: that IS David Caruso.  Turns out he's a regular there.   It was embarrassing.  I'd been staring at him, on and off, all night.  I guess he thought I was awed to be near him (or I hope he thought that).  Really, I was kind of freaked out by how terrible he looked.

Well that seems a little mean.  But he did look bad.  I'm sorry, David.  But it's true.

Is this the most mundane and least interesting blog post ever?  I don't mean just on my blog: I mean on all blogs that exist in the universe.  It may be.  Well, maybe tomorrow I'll write something about Islamic Art.  Or ballet.  Or the Japanese Tea Service.  I know nothing about any of those subjects, as it happens.  But I can't let that stop me.  To educate and serve; that's my motto.