Imperfect justice

There are two kinds of people in the country: those who believe it's worse to let a guilty man free than to lock up an innocent man; and those who believe it's worse to lock up an innocent man than to let a guilty man free. I belong to the latter, from which a long string of political persuasions follow.

clipped from news.yahoo.com DNA tests get man freed after 26 years DALLAS - A man who contended throughout his 26 years in prison that he never raped a woman who lived five houses down from him was freed Thursday after a judge recommended overturning his conviction. Charles Chatman, 47, was released on his recognizance as several of his eight siblings cheered. He was freed on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates. "I'm bitter. I'm angry," Chatman told The Associated Press during his last night in jail Wednesday. "But I'm not angry or bitter to the point where I want to hurt anyone or get revenge."

Nostalgia

Ran across this "Year's Best Books" article from 1984. Every writer needs a good press once in a while.

Term break

Classes start next week. I had a month off, during which I had hoped to finish the drafts of two projects. No such luck. It's not that I didn't work but that several unexpected interruptions refocused my time and energy. That's the way the mop flops, as Elvis used to say. Or, no biggie. You put one foot after the other and jump the puddles when they appear. You're still moving forward.

So I look forward to the routine of classes again. And I still have five free days now, with my syllabus done, to see if I can get cranked up on one of these projects. Onward, as I so often say.

Without Cinderella, this can do

WV really, really blew it, losing to a 28-pt underdog in a game that could have sent them to the national championship playoff. Last night they made up for it a tad. I taped the game and may watch it today since last night I was at First Wednesday.

Sports and art: many years ago, I was at Ashland watching plays for several days. The World Series also was going on, the year K.C. came from behind to beat the Cards. The 7th game was close, and I was watching it in the bar before King Lear started. The game was going to end after curtain, and I decided to watch the game and enter King Lear late, at intermission. How could I, a playwright, do this!? a colleague wanted to know. You answered it yourself, I replied. Because I am a playwright. I already know how King Lear ends.

clipped from news.yahoo.com West Virginia wins without Rodriguez Since arriving in the desert last week, the Mountaineers (11-2) said they had bonded behind interim coach Bill Stewart, who took over when Rodriguez bolted for Michigan in mid-December. And they vowed to rebound from a 13-9 loss to Pitt that knocked them out of the Bowl Championship Series title game. The Mountaineers were right on both counts, turning in an emotional effort and overcoming the loss of star tailback Steve Slaton to a first-quarter leg injury. Noel Devine replaced Slaton and ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns — a 17-yarder and a 65-yarder that clinched the game in the fourth quarter. GLENDALE, Ariz. - Rich who? The West Virginia Mountaineers didn't need coach Rich Rodriguez. They had Pat White, and their elusive quarterback led them to a surprising 48-28 romp over No. 3 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on Wednesday night.

A good birth

Both Andy at Blackbird Wineshop and I are delighted with our first night in the new First Wednesday series. We had a decent crowd, the readings went well, and the atmosphere for this sort of thing was perfect. I read a poem, Advice to an Artist on Choosing a Wife, and a very short story, Meeting Nicole Kidman; Evelyn Sharenov read a moving essay based on her experiences as a mental health nurse; Paul Pintarich read the opening of a hilarious novel-in-progress in which the protagonist is a male blow-up doll; and Judith Richmond sang three fine songs. Joshua Weber, also scheduled, came down with the flu and will be rescheduled.

Next month we'll show a short video, which I want to make a regular part of the evening. As a matter of fact, I received some compliments last night on my short video, "My Meeting With A Movie Producer," which actually is mostly autobiographical and only slightly exaggerated for comic effect.

First Wednesdays

One of our readers called in sick, so I have to cover for him. I was hoping I wouldn't have to read tonight. In fact, I'm feeling a little under the weather myself. And the sick one is not either of the two who warned me a few days ago they might be coming down with something. Might get interesting.

I hope there's a good turnout. Very short notice, we put this together so quickly.

I've been pampering myself all day -- I'm still in my bathrobe -- feeling the creeping virus waiting for an attack. We'll head out in a few hours and go from there.

I did manage to rewrite my syllabus this morning. An important chore done. I may go into the office tomorrow, do some uploading, check mail, and all that. I didn't get a fraction of the writing done over break I wanted to, for a variety of reasons, especially unanticipated ones (like B's health problems), but I'll be back in gear soon enough. Winter term is always the worst of the year, but maybe this year will be different.

D. B. Cooper

A legend and a mystery here in the NW.

clipped from news.yahoo.com FBI makes new bid to find 1971 skyjacker PORTLAND, Ore. - The FBI is making a new stab at identifying mysterious skyjacker Dan Cooper, who bailed out of an airliner in 1971 and vanished, releasing new details that it hopes will jog someone's memory. The man calling himself Dan Cooper, also known as D.B. Cooper, boarded a Northwest flight in Portland for a flight to Seattle on the night of Nov, 24, 1971, and commandeered the plane, claiming he had dynamite. In Seattle, he demanded and got $200,000 and four parachutes and demanded to be flown to Mexico. Somewhere over southwestern Washington, he jumped out the plane's tail exit with two of the chutes.

Rose Parade

From third grade into my second year of college at Cal Tech, I lived two blocks from the Rose Parade route, near its end. This was always a big day in our family, the neighborhood filled with tourists (some of whom would brazenly park and camp wherever they found empty space, including our lawn), a gigantic city festival and party in gear. As a kid I loved it, especially when we got to sleep on the street overnight to save parade spots (chaperoned, of course). I can get nostalgic watching the parade on television today.

When I first came to Portland and saw its summer "rose parade" I had to laugh. Nothing like the Granddaddy of parades, no siree. When I visited Pasadena after decades away, I surprised myself by feeling like I'd come home. I think it was the view of the brown San Gabriel Mountains, visible from any spot in town, including my bedroom window, perhaps most spectacularly from the Rose Bowl.


The Rose Bowl game was a big deal, too, usually watched on TV. My favorite RB experience was years later, as a grad student at the Univ. of Oregon, when I watched Stanford-Michigan (1970) with a friend, John Basham (R.I.P.), from Michigan. Jim Plunkett was the Stanford QB at the time. Michigan had a significant halftime lead, as I recall, and Plunkett came back in the second half on fire, Stanford finally winning.

Yes, I had a good childhood and it's good to remember it today.

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday

It's J. D. Salinger's birthday. 89, maybe? Our greatest recluse.

I've written a lot about Salinger on this blog and don't feel like repeating myself now. Here are some references:

• On Salinger
• Salinger's Teddy

Nothing cooking today but hanging out and watching football and reading. Tomorrow is a big day, our first night in the new First Wednesdays series. Two scheduled readers aren't feeling well, alas. I'll cover them and hope they come through.

Good response to the new issue of the review, over 100 first day visitors accessing over 400 files. Hypermedia and Art attracting the most first visitors.

Oregon Literary Review

The Winter/Spring 2008 issue of Oregon Literary Review is now online at http://www.oregonliteraryreview.org. Highlights include:

*Video interviews with blues musicians Mary Flower and Brad Crooks.
*Video readings by poets Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, Naomi Shihab Nye and others.
*Audio readings by poets from New Zealand and Palestine.
*Poets of Eastern Washington University Press.
*Paintings by women from the Oregon chapter of Women's Caucus for Art.
*Fiction by Alison Ruch and others.
*Claymation by Virginia Shank.
*Video by Andrew Klaus, David Bryant and others.
*Essays by Floyd Skloot, Sheri Reda and others.
*An interview with Dennis Stovall, Ooligan Press.
*Plays by Terence Kuch and others.
*"Alt-Everything," a book of essays by Terry Simons.

On First Wednesday, January 2, 2008, contributors and staff will be among those reading at the first in a series of readings-wine tasting at Blackbird Wineshop, 3519 NE 44th off Fremont, in Portland, from 7-9pm. Readings are free, $5 cover to participate in the wine tasting. To be considered for future readings, send work to editor Charles Deemer at charles@oregonliteraryreview.org.

Juno

Five minutes in, I was sure I would hate this film. I hated the artsy-fartsy credits, I disliked the sound track, and everything was coming off far too cute for my tastes. If I'd been alone, I would have walked out. But I was with my wife, so I settled in to spend two hours reciting musical scales and chords in my head.

To my shock and delight, half an hour later I was captivated by the charm and wit of this movie. It's a damn smart script communicated with stellar performances across the board. A really nice little indie film.

And earlier in the week, I was disappointed with No Country For Old Men but delighted with Charlie Wilson's War (if I have the name right).

The social life

At this stage of my life, I don't often enjoy social gatherings. I'd say 90% of the social situations I find myself in are not as enjoyable to me to being alone with a good book. This is especially true in recent years, after out-living every single one of my closest male friends. So it's rare for me to enjoy "a social evening" as I did last night.

We had T. from my piano class and his wife D. over for dinner. I made cassoulet, bought a good Petite Sirah wine (I would have bought it at the Blackbird Wineshop if I'd had time to drive so far -- I need to stock up), H. made salad and dessert. We made a bet about whether they'd be early or late. H. said late, assuming they'd get lost since our little house is off the street and not the easiest to find, especially at night. I said no way, T. struck me as a guy like myself, who might even make a dry run a few days before to make sure he knew how to get there. A guy who was habitually early. I was right.

D. and H. hit it off right away, so did she and I, and it was just a great evening of learning about one another. T., five years younger than I, is a Vietnam vet, who had a stroke a few years ago and took early retirement as a computer programmer. He also is recovering from a wild past. (I find folks with wild pasts a hell of a lot more interesting than clean upstanding types.) They're from D.C. originally.

I'm an early to bed guy, so when T. started yawning at 9, his bed time, I had to grin. We sent them home at 930 and expect to see them again. I had a terrific time, as I almost never do in social gatherings.

Meanwhile, I zillion things to catch up on, and I hope to make some headway today. First Wednesday is coming up, and my singer has a sore throat, so I've got to cover her in case she can't sing.

Good news

clipped from news.yahoo.com UCLA hires Rick Neuheisel LOS ANGELES - Rick Neuheisel is returning to college coaching at the school where he first found fame and success.

Extraordinary resources

clipped from ocw.mit.edu Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds. MIT is committed to advancing education and discovery through knowledge open to everyone. OCW shares free lecture notes, exams, and other resources from more than 1800 courses spanning MIT's entire curriculum.

Hospitality

Sketch welcomes B., who recuperates after a hospital visit.

Sketch, a rat terrier, is an aggressively loving dog. He will express his affection whether you want to receive it or not. He's over his unfortunate puppy habit of showing this by peeing on your leg (he did this regularly to the mailman), but he still will jump on your lap and try to lick your face at every opening. We haven't done a good job of calming him down.

Stress

Been a stressful two days, hanging at the hospital while B. underwent his procedures to check his pancreas and such. He flies home this morning. I'm spending the day preparing for dinner guests, a guy in my piano class and his wife, first dinner guests I've cooked for in maybe five years! Making a clone of the classic cassoulet.

I took my AlphaSmart to the hospital yesterday and did manage to get some writing done. I'm hoping to finish a new play by Feb. 1 for a competition but no biggie if I don't make it. It's fun to be writing for the stage after so long but I have no energy, none whatever, to enter the marketplace, so what I have in mind is putting together a collection of plays that can't be performed while I am alive. I also like the freedom this gives me to raise more hell than I would want to deal with if here ha ha. A collection of posthumous plays, perfect. Last words and all that. I was, after all, a playwright through most of my working career, even if I've called myself a retired playwright in recent years. It's probably what I'm best at. So I can let out all stops, write for my favorite audience (me), and define going in that these are "posthumous" plays, not to be performed in the years remaining to me. Which means that I shouldn't enter that contest, just in case I get lucky, although this one is a little tamer than what I have in mind.

But I need to get back to the new screenplay, and the novel ... oh my, so damn much to do. I've also fallen behind in piano studies and must catch up before classes start again. Where does time go?

I'm reading an extraordinary book, FAUST IN COPENHAGEN: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF PHYSICS, setting the early years of Quantum Mechanics, focusing on the personalities involved. Fell in love with Schrodinger so much I'm seriously thinking of writing something based on two weeks of his life when he combined erotic renewal with formulating his famous equations. A remarkable period in his life, about which little is know, leaving it open to dramatic invention and interpretation.

It was good spending time with B. He is his father's son, including embracing a number of Dick's vices. I fear, however, I'm going to outlive him, despite the guarded better news at the hospital yesterday than the news from the day before. His family line has paid dearly for their hard-drinking Idaho logging roots.

Note at noon

In the cafeteria at the Mt. Hood Community Hospital, where B, is having part two of his procedure for the bad pancreas. Good news: his liver isn't as damaged as the doctor suspected, so the procedure won't be quite as complex. He's getting a shot in the pancreas, something he'll have to do every several months forever, so he needs to find a place closer to home to get it done, probably Spokane or Lewiston.

I have a few hours to kill, hence bringing the AlphaSmart. See if I can get some scriptwriting done.

B. has been telling me his drinking stories. He was much worse off than I imangined, which of course is par for the course in this particular extracurricular vice. No one knows how bad it is until it gets completely unmanageable. We all have our stories of subterfuge.

Health concerns

Brad, my late best friend's oldest son, staying with us while he sees a specialist today about his pancreas problems. Major high-tech testing today, we'll know more later. He wasn't satisfied with the treatment/diagnosis he was getting at home in Moscow, Idaho. We're crossing our fingers for him. He's 49, too young for this shit.

Audio treat

Use npr link below to go to audio links.

clipped from www.npr.org Piano Jazz: 2007 Christmas Special Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, December 14, 2007 - Piano Jazz swings in the holiday season. Host Marian McPartland and her guests from seasons past, present and future share their favorite memories, as well as unique musical performances of Christmas classics and original holiday tunes.

Falling behind

In every American life, I imagine, comes the moment of truth when you realize that we Americans do not live longer than anyone else, are not the most literate nation, don't have the highest standard of living, etc. We don't even take the lead in technology these days.

clipped from www.npr.org U.S. a Late Adopter on 'Smart Phones' by John McChesney Morning Edition, December 26, 2007 · When it comes to cell phones that do more than just make calls, the United States is at a disadvantage. While consumers in many European and Asian countries routinely use their phones to dart around the Internet, Americans are still catching up.

A white Christmas in Pdx, sort of

I didn't hear a forecast for snow -- but snow it did! Not much, but it stuck, enough in these parts to qualify for a very rare "white Christmas." Take a look.

Merry Christmas, 1914

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Merry Christmas, 1914 On this day in 1914 the "Christmas Truce" of WWI, tentatively and spontaneously begun the previous evening at many places along the Front, held. This meant a day of anything from conversation to gift giving to soccer games to dining out: We ate their Sauerkraut and they [ate] our chocolate, cakes, etc. We had killed a pig just behind our lines. There were quite a lot of creatures rambling about the lines, including an old sow with a litter and lots of cattle and poetry. We cooked the pig in No Man's Land, sharing it with the Boche. This recollection and many others are in Silent Night, by historian Stanley Weintraub (himself born on Dec. 24th, 1929).

R.I.P.

I saw him in Germany when I was in the Army, 1960 or 1961.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Jazz great Oscar Peterson dies at 82 TORONTO - Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world's best known jazz pianists, has died. He was 82.

Adventure

What a movie this experience would make!

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Wilde in America On this day in 1881 Oscar Wilde embarked for America and a year-long lecture tour on such topics as "The House Beautiful" and "The Decorative Arts." He may or may not have told passengers that "the roaring ocean does not roar," or told a customs agent that "I have nothing to declare except my genius," but the captain did apparently express his regret at not having Wilde "lashed to the bowsprit on the windward side." Thousands flocked to see and hear him, and many so took to heart his proclaimed mission "to make this artistic movement the basis for a new civilization" that craft societies and museum patronage blossomed in his wake.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

I hope your holidays find you happy and productive, and the new year brings exciting new challenges into your life. Or not, as you wish. Mellow and unproductive can be nice, too.

In case you missed Santa telling the Christmas story when I posted it a few weeks ago, here it is again. He does a fine job, I think. The actor is the late B. Joe Medley, who died still in costume after a performance (not this play, another some years later).

White Christmas

The Irving Berlin classic, best performed by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters (yes!) in the 1950s.

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

Elvis

Blue Christmas
(words & music by billy hayes - jay johnson)

I'll have a blue Christmas without you
I'll be so blue just thinking about you
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree
Wont be the same dear, if you're not here with me

And when those blue snowflakes start falling
Thats when those blue memories start calling
You'll be doin' all right, with your Christmas of white
But I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas

Rudolph

Run Rudolph Run

Out of all the reindeers you know you’re the mastermind
Run, run Rudolph, Randalph ain’t too far behind
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph ‘cause I’m reelin’ like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a boy child “What have you been longing for?”
“All I want for Christmas is a Rock and Roll electric guitar”
And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a shooting star
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town, come on
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph, reeling like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a girl child “What would please you most to get?”
“A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, and wet”
And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a Saber jet
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph ‘cause I’m reelin’ like a merry-go-round

--Chuck Berry

Christmas tree

Little Tree

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid

look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't a single place dark or unhappy

then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

-- E. E. Cummings

Christmasy

Wrapped presents, which means I don't have to do them tomorrow. Actually feeling a tad in the holiday spirit.

Mahagonny on TV

A couple weeks ago, public television's Great Performances featured the L.A. Mahagonny that I'd flown down to see. I had TiVo record it but haven't watched it yet. Something to look forward to!

Controversial Santa

I know about Santa becoming controversial. In my play "Christmas at the Juniper Tavern", there were a few objections to the Christmas story being told by Santa (rather than by a priest, I suppose) in the play. This strikes me as being more "out there."

clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com Newcomer on block calls Santa display art, but Bremerton neighbors repulsed It's not so much the Santa impaled on the cross in front of Art Conrad's Bremerton home, it's the headless Santa that sings carols on his front porch that has neighbors crying humbug. "It's horrible and gruesome," said Vickie Marquina, who lives near Conrad on Olympic Avenue. "It's offensive, and Santa with no head is just horrid." Conrad, 52, who just moved into the house, said his Santa-on-a-cross is his personal protest against the commercialization of Christmas. By Susan Gilmore Seattle Times staff reporter

Finito

Uploading took a tad over an hour. Already found one typo to fix. Onward.

Back to writing

What a concept! But with the new review done except for touchup stuff, I can get back to writing, which I am eager to do. See if I can finish the drafts of two scripts I'm working on. Also, lots of catch up work on my piano studies. Get the new term started off with a high energy work routine. Routine is the name of the game, as far as I'm concerned. I belong to the Perspiration, not Inspiration, School of Writing, although inspiration does happen and is wonderful when it does. But you can't sit around waiting for it (especially on a bar stool, as so many "writers" I've met over the years seem to do).

Tomorrow I have presents to wrap and such ... then Christmas ... so I hope to begin on December 26th.

Uploading

Here I am at the university, uploading the 600M new issue of Oregon Literary Review. I'll give my editors a few days to look it over before officially releasing it. How long does it take to upload 600M via a T1 line? Hmm. Less than an hour, I bet.

Two cartoons I can relate to

Pretty much done

Well, the bulk of the work is done. Need to check links, correct typos etc. It's a huge issue in file size because of an increase in video files: the past issues have been around 250M, this one is 600M. No biggie, however, we have the space.

Later, I'll link to some highlights here.

I think I'll catch a movie today and relax.

This may be the day

I have a good short at finishing the new issue of the review today.

Watched an exciting if sloppy basketball game last night, Stanford women upsetting Tennessee in overtime.

Time to start editing.

Editing blues

Been at it about six hours today and definitely need a long break. I feel like I'm only a few hours from the end, so maybe I'll wait until tomorrow to finish up. I still have Monday in case something comes up; I'd like to let my editors look over the new issue for the rest of the week and release it near the end of the year. Man, more work this time around, mainly because of all the video to edit.

Home sweet home

Took two days R&R at the coast. Did the trick, glad to be back. More about the trip later.

R & R

Taking a day or two off before hitting the last twenty or so hours of editing. Hope to get the new review out before Xmas but it's still a horse race. But I definitely need a battery charge before getting back to it.

Exhausting deliberations

We, the jury, started our deliberations at 10 a.m. and we reached the required unanimous verdict five hours later at 3 p.m., taking only one 15 minute break to stretch. It wasn't an easy task because all of us pretty much felt the case was an unnecessary bullshit application of a stupid law to begin with -- but it's not our job to determine what the law should be. So we didn't particularly like arriving at a guilty verdict but we found no way to avoid it and uphold our sworn duty to apply what we thought were the facts of the case to the written law. But in a way, the whole affair was a waste of tax dollars, in our opinion. In the end we felt, as one juror put it, as if we'd just run a marathon. All of us were serious and focused, a great group to work with. But nobody was smiling. End of jury duty.

Space Patrol

Another 50s favorite. I was already a teenager by the time we had a TV in our house. A great blessing, not being raised by television (despite favorite shows)!

Crusader Rabbit

This sure brings back memories. In the 50s, used to race home from school to see this at 4.

Get out of jail card?

Our professional basketball team has a new look. Young guys who stay out of jail. The Jail Blazers, knock on my wooden head, may be a thing of the past. And our best play and #1 draft choice is sitting the season out after surgery, so the future looks bright.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Roy leads Blazers to 8th straight win PORTLAND, Ore. - Brandon Roy had 24 points and eight assists to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to their eighth straight victory, 88-76 over the New Orleans Hornets on Monday night.

How I think the day will go

To jury duty first thing in the morning. Expect we'll reach a verdict before noon, but I may be wrong. At any rate, when we're done, I'll go to the office and make the final downloads I need for the review. A good, busy day.

Next week B., my late soul brother's son, is coming to see a specialist about his pancreas problems and will stay here. I'll drive him where he needs to go. He is not at all happy with his treatment locally, which for him is Moscow, Idaho. Dick died from pancreatic cancer, so this is troubling. He's too young for this shit.

I still have a lot of work on the review but the difficult poetry section is just about done. The rest shouldn't be as time consuming to put together. It's a fine issue, except for music. My music editor disappeared on me. An unfortunate situation. I suppose I need to find a new editor for the summer issue.

Jury duty

I favor throwing random folks together to perform a common task. This is why I support a mandatory draft, although I would include other than military service in the mix. Jury duty also does this, and today I reported for service as summoned. I had a blast. The three highlights:

• Jury duty is a great people-watching environment. This morning there was a very strange fellow among us: long white hair and long white beard, coke spectacles, tall and skinny, who kept fidgeting and walking in place. Couldn't keep still. Well, as soon as we were seated in the jury room, he went up to the honcho and told her he was a psychotic schizophrenic. Man, did the lady honcho do a double take! He looked like he was telling the truth, so she excused him. And I began to wonder: did he exit the courthouse, pull off his fake hair and beard, take off his coke glasses, and grin as he walked to Starbucks up the street?
  
• In the waiting room, I was sitting next to a talkative, rugged individualist, anti-government, right wing fellow, one of my favorite conversation companions in small doses. We found some common ground and I ignored all our uncommon ground, which meant we talked about sports, where we BOTH were conservatives. Then, tah dah!, I got called to report to a courtroom.
  
• I was one of six selected to serve on a jury in a criminal case. Go back to finish tomorrow, so I can't talk about it now, but it's a fascinating case, and better, my five colleagues are fun to hang with, another professor like myself, a real estate guy, a computer geek, and two students. The waiting time isn't boring but hilarious because we all have similar senses of humor, it appears. So I'm having a lot of fun and actually look forward to returning tomorrow to decide our case.
  

So even though I didn't get any editing done today, I had a terrific time.

A gray day for editing

Got an early start and have put in a full day of editing the review, both html and video editing. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that. A dinner party tonight, then I have all day of jury duty tomorrow, so I needed to make real progress today, which I did. I think I can finish in two or three days now, hopefully by the end of the week.

Morning screening

We went to a film screening this morning, invited by an actress in one of my summer shorts, who also was in this. Not quite an hour long and like a lot of indie movies I've seen: strong theme, a series of situations but no real story; lots of good performances; too conscious of itself, in this instance reflected in over-editing and a maddening use of extreme closeups. Of course, the "in" crowd at the screening -- cast, crew and friends -- went wild about it. However, one neutral observer asked me, "How can a film seem long if it's not even an hour?"

All in all, you have to applaud any film that gets finished for no other reason than that they actually did it. No talking about it. Action. I'm glad I went.