Not All Who Wander Are Lost

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

From the vague creamy center of a long weekend, some recent subjective choice consumerism from a variety of media. What can I say; I teach this stuff.

1. It Was A Dark And Silly Night, the third installment of the Little Lit highbow comic collections, just came out; like its predecessors Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies and Strange Stories For Strange Kids, it is gorgeous, well-written, broad, deep, and singularly unique. Edited by Art Spiegelman (yes, he's the guy who did Maus) and his wife Francoise Mouly (a comic artist in her own right), these nominally-for-kids coffee table art books feature short pieces by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Jules Feiffer, Daniel Clowes, Maurice Sendak, and David Sedaris, and read so beautifully, it will be years before I can bring mysef to let Willow play with "Daddy's books," even if they have such funny and wonderful pictures and stories in them.

2. The gods smile on me and they always have. Having signed up to teach the Mass Media Messages course this winter term on the subject of Reality TV, I find Bravo airing a five-part series on The Reality of Reality TV. Recording three repeat episodes back-to-back this afternoon; from what I've seen in the background, the universe has once again found me the perfect secondary texts for the class. Now all I need is some recordings of Survivor, Trading Spaces, and Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, and I can rest on my fat butt until the course begins, secure in my preparedness.

3. Thank God Monk was a repeat this week, or we wouldn't have discovered The Handler, a new show (CBS, Fridays at 10 pm) which is everything reviewers said it was and more. See, this guy works for the FBI planting undercover sting agents in difficult situations; the show attends equally to both the stories of each sting and to Joe Pantoliano's title character, the node holding it all together. The show promises vastly different storylines, ample guest star characters, and a smooth ride for all.

4. I have a tiny silver pencil after a post-brunch meander through Northampton with Darcie and Willow this morning. Also, a roughpaper cartoon lamp that looks like a television, and a red pen with a tiny working etch-a-sketch on it. All are for my new desk at work. Got Darcie a tape measure and a kiss token (no, not a KISS token, ew); got Willow a bathtub puffer fish that squirts when squeezed. Had juice with unexpected Ginny before leaving for home again.

5. I want The House Carpenter's Daughter , the new Natalie Merchant album badly. She produces with banjo, sings very oldschool American folk tunes, from what I heard on The River yesterday, to say she has mellowed it down is quite the understatement. Saw her two summers ago at Clearwater the year I went by myself by mutual agreement, Darcie being 8 and a half months pregnant at the time, and she was already leaning into this style; I'm glad to see it, as it suits her warbly voice so well. The new release is number 48 on Amazon.com; they say that customers who bought this CD also bought -- and tell me this isn't cross-genre appeal in a nutshell -- the following list of new music:

Soul Journey ~ Gillian Welch
North [LIMITED EDITION] ~ Elvis Costello
Identity Crisis ~ Shelby Lynne
Some Devil ~ Dave Matthews
Sacred Love ~ Sting
Life for Rent ~ Dido
Chinatown ~ The Be Good Tanyas
Dark Chords on a Big Guitar ~ Joan Baez

[Why no link to amazon? Call it a stab at the consumer in me and in all of us. When I remember, I always buy local, and recommend either the same or, of course, buying direct from the artist's home page. Amazon.com makes consumerism so easy, you can get there on your own if you really feel a need to save a buck in return for pepetuating the mad accelleration of information ownership. Silly rabbit -- don't you know information wants to be free?]