Thoughts While Watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

• On first seeing Chevy Chase in the audience: "what is Dick Cheney doing here?"
• Was Meg Ryan supposed to be Tom Hanks' date? Gee, I guess real life is just like the movies!
• Justin Timberlake: "Bringing Sexy Back?" Really?? More like "Bringing my paper back from the end of the driveway."
• Best line of the night: "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's not Leonard Cohen" (said by Leonard Cohen, quoting music critic/rock producer Jon Landau).
• Madonna: Although she still appears to be unfamiliar with the concept of sincerity (at least in front of an audience), she did seem to be more forthcoming than usual, offering up her take on confronting a sea of girls all dressed exactly like her, when she first played Madison Square Garden ("freaked me out"). She also finally lost the Brit accent, thank gawd!
• Best performance: Joan Jett on the Dave Clark Five's Bits and Pieces.
  

Guilty Pleasures? Bring 'em on!

Following in the illustrious footsteps of the Disorganized Librarian, I hereby list my own Guilty Pleasures:

• The Planet's Funniest Animals
  
• CBS-FM (Yay! They're back!)
• Singing show tunes incessantly, much to the consternation of my friends and co-workers
• Any so-called food product that lists high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient, but particularly those put out by Drake's and Hostess
• Nathan's Famous chili dogs w/fries
• Pepto-Bismol Maximum Strength (perhaps this belongs on some other list)
• The Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle (harder than New York magazine's, easier than The Times)
• Poppit!
• Page Six
  

And, lest we forget those old guilty pleasure standbys:

• Sex
• Drugs
• Rock 'n Roll

Spitzer? I Hardly Knew Her!

Just returned from a whirlwind trip to Albany (Come for the beautiful scenery! Stay for the burgeoning political scandal!) where I schmoozed with the powers that be (Hannon, McDonough, et al) to help increase funding for New York State libraries. Of course the minute that I hit town all hell broke loose with our soon-to-be-ex-governor. I can only hope Paterson doesn't forget the little people!

Why I Did Not Like Michael Clayton, or: Calling Erin Brockovich! Calling Erin Brockovich!

WARNING!! SPOILERS APLENTY!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY SEEN THIS MOVIE!!

• Because, if you're a "fixer" at a giant law firm, why would you be surprised that phones are being tapped, and Bad Things Happen to Good People? Like, isn't that your job, man?
• Because, if your company is being sued by 468 people for billions of dollars and The Wall Street Journal is doing an expose, wouldn't you think that at that point your product would not be doing so well? At the least, I'm sure you could buy stock very, very cheap!
• Because, if someone is having a meltdown in a closed door meeting, taking off his clothes, ranting about a 15-year old memo, why bother to kill him? Just slap the thing on YouTube!
  
• And where was the rest of this guy's legal team? No one knew that he had turned against the firm to side with the plaintiffs?
• Can you really fake a death with no body?
  
• And would the police really show up to arrest someone without physical evidence, and also, um, before the fact (the fact being bribery, which looked extremely coerced, in my opinion)?
• What I liked: The performances and also the end credits: oy, that face!!
• For a much better movie (at least in my opinion) on a similar subject: The Constant Gardener.
  

"How fierce is it?"

Pretty fierce. Congratulations to Christian Siriano, the fiercest competitor EVAH, on winning Project Runway, Season 4. I have no doubt that it's only a matter of time before you rule the entire planet. Just don't let it go to your head (Oops! Too late!). Congrats also to the runners-up, Rami "I have a passion" Kashou, and Jillian "What just happened?" Lewis, who developed stunning dress collections for New York's Fashion Week at Bryant Park. Bravo!

My Left Eye

Finally caught up with two movies I've been wanting to see for a while:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, concerns a man who suffers from a stroke while in mid-career and is completely and utterly paralyzed - the only thing he can move is his left eye. Beautifully photographed (I think it won an Oscar for best cinematography), this film manages to be moving without being unutterably sad.
I also saw the quasi-Tarantinoesque In Bruges (2007), about two hit men on the lam in Belgium. With a screenplay by the Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh, who wrote the very witty, very violent, play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a few years ago, which I saw and very much enjoyed, this is very much in a like-minded vein. I recommend both of these films highly.