Yesterday afternoon I jumped on a bus by myself and went to the Village and saw “Vera Drake.” A wonderful movie. Quite difficult, wrenching to watch, but not a false note in characterization or period detail in the whole film. I really felt like I WAS in 1950 London, where people still talked about the blitz and bartered for things like sugar and tea. Imelda Staunton was superb. She really ought to win for Best Actress this evening. My gut is telling me she won’t (I think Hillary Swank is the odds-on favorite) but she deserves to. What we see onscreen is so remarkably like a real woman that it’s almost impossible to feel like you are watching a performance. This is in no small part to Mike Leigh’s meticulous script and direction, which steadfastly refuses to moralize or point fingers. How tricky that is with abortion. Now that “Secrets & Lies” is finally on DVD, it’s time to put it in the greencine queue.

Soon I will shower and dress and go out for my errands. Grocery shopping for Oscar Party goodies, ice, limes, and I think I’ll get myself over to Best Buy finally; I still have a gift card I got at xmas that I haven’t used.

The heat in this apartment is insane! They just like to, umm, overheat in the wintertime. Our inside thermometer was reading 85 at one point & so we opened all the windows we could.

Andy is online, and for the past 45 minutes or so he’s been seeking out MP3s of TV theme songs. He started with “Barney Miller” and just went from there. Gotta shake my head.