Lucinda's luxurious lyrics lulling...

Listening to Lucinda Williams' Little Honey, which I finally broke down and (found!) bought myself. I have hereby bought my first Lucinda Williams cd, after all of the cds SOO's given me just bursting with her songs. Mr. Fox asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said that, so then I thought I was being silly and should treat myself to what I wanted...

So much to discuss! Where do I start??? The physical act of writing has been crummy lately, but I've been getting tons of insights and everything I see, hear, read, feel seems to be influencing. I should be woken EVERY morning by one of my doctors calling me and gamely diagnosing my fictional character for me via the telephone. LOL. He's a good sport, he is, for taking the, "Uh, did your nurse tell you the question's not about me but about the character in my book...?" so very well. And the last line of my horoscope (Tarot.com) is telling: "Staying true to your character today is the best course of action."

Amusing me lately are these:

Code names for the future first family.

Apparently, I grew up in one of the best places to raise kids. But I'm no longer anywhere near such a place...

Enjoy the Rachel Getting Married website, then go enjoy the movie. It's a bit tough, but sooo beautiful and extraordinary. And I'm not just saying that because Demme somehow, magically picked my brain and filmed MY WEDDING years before it takes place. Seriously. I wasn't the only person to think so. Two people who know me both independently told me, "It was weird to watch your perfect wedding in the middle of that movie." Before I said anything about it. Between the multicultural aspect (for no explained reason, but which felt so right for the family and the couple), particularly the Indian influence (THAT CAKE! THOSE SARIS!) and the loose collection of musicians constantly playing and demonstrating, that is my wedding. Almost exactly as I've described it to friends. One part talent show a la Dr. Angelou's family Thanksgiving celebration, one part ongoing, random music concert and lots and lots of friends and family being angsty and loving and impossible and gorgeous. Seriously. On the other hand, if I ever do make a movie, I want to make it just as Demme et al did with this one. He invited his friends and family to be extras, guests at the wedding, armed guests/extras with cameras and had everybody at risk to the camera constantly, including the musicians, who played whenever and however they wanted. Seriously, SO COOL. (Somebody could give me the soundtrack for my birthday... if they wanted...)

Speaking of music, saw a great show at Circle Bar earlier this week: Simon Lott, Helen Gillet and Lucas Davenport. Check any and all of them out if you get the opportunity, highly recommended.

So sitting here at Cheers, I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than 8 or 9, entirely self-possessed, walk into the coffee shop with a copy of Twilight under her arm. She went and ordered a TALL coffee and then, equally self-possessed, walked out. It touched me and scared me to see her reading that book. It's a great book and I'm glad to see an 8 or 9 year old reading such a large book (not that the vocabulary would be too tricky...) BUT part of me wanted to stop her and go, "PLEASE don't grow up looking for love like this. Love like this in real life is SCARY. It's all well and good in a novel, but loving somebody or being loved like Bella and Edward love each other in these books is NOT something you want to aspire to. It's debilitating and dangerous." I like the books a whole lot, but it really scares me to see young folks looking at love through this lens - probably like it scared people when Wuthering Heights came out. Or even Romeo and Juliet, probably.

Now, I'm going to have to use this nifty little tool that comes to me by way of both After the MFA and GalleyCat and get some writing done.