There are men with loud machines all around me today. Across the street they are cutting down palm trees. Next door -- I'm not sure, but I think they are digging up a swimming pool.
I identify, BK...a condominium is going up on the lot next to ours. It's big, and it'll be
ug-lee!. The neighborhood association did everything it could to prevent its' being built in the first place, and then to at least get it down to a reasonable size...all to no avail. For the last few months (with a respite during the coldest months of winter), we've been treated to
men with loud machines every day of the week. Yes, they work weekends.
On to happier things with the
Topic of the Day:For
movies, I was going to go with
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which I genuinely, truly adore. But since someone else has taken it, I'm going to choose Tim Burton's
Mars Attacks!, a movie chock-full of disreputable satire...and lots and lots of Hollywood stars dying hilarious deaths. I honestly think
Mars Attacks! is Tim Burton's finest movie to date, and just may be a work of genius. But apparently, I'm the only person on earth with that opinion.
For
musicals, I'm going to stay with my first choice, even though some one else (oooooooooohhhh!) beat me to it:
Dear World.
For
play, I'm going with
Dracula by Balderston and Deane. It's really not all that great, but I've enjoyed many productions of it over the years.
For
book, I'm going to choose something really obscure. A science-fantasy novel called
Autumn Angels by Arthur Byron Cover. I've loaned copies of this one-printing, paperback-only original out over the years, and they never,
ever get returned. And every time I see a copy of it in used bookstores, I always buy it. If anyone on this site has actually read this book, I will be bowled over in delighted astonishment.
For
CD: I'm happy to say I totally love Rhino's
Golden Throats anthology. William Shatner's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"? Leonard Nimoy's "If I Had a Hammer"? Sebastian Cabot's "It Ain't Me, Babe"? Pure genius. But nothing is quite as brilliant as Jack Webb's "Try a Little Tenderness". Absolutely, utterly priceless.