I decided to read “The 120 Days of Sodom” by de Sade, because I truly wanted to see what it’s all about (and, rereading the Bunuel book, I was reminded by what a big deal he was to the Surrealists). And so I have been reading it. It’s filled with the most vile, depraved things you can imagine, and probably a few you’ve yet to imagine, yet the structure of the book is exceedingly complex and well thought-out, and the writing is razor sharp. In other words: nauseatingly seductive, disquietingly engaging. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to read the whole thing. Just goes to show that there’s nothing new under the sun.

Last night I was on my own, and the evening consisted of getting incredibly stoned and watching “Little Caesar.” You know, the gangster movie that catapulted Edward G. Robinson to icon status. Great movie, though not quite as good as the original “Scarface” in my opinion. Excellent DVD; all kinds of neat bonus stuff (vintage trailer, newsreel, short subject with a very very young Spencer Tracy, bizarre Merrie Melodie cartoon).

This morning NPR was on and I was in the kitchen, Andy was still in bed. I heard him shout, “Moron! You moron!” After breakfast Andy and I had some extremely hot euphemism while standing in the front hallway (which ended with me saying, “Oh, so you’re going to wax the floors today?”) and then later on we tried out this new little coffee place on Broadway just south of Belmont. He read his book (“The Future of Ideas”) and I read de Sade. Disconcerting. Anyway, the cafe is so new there aren’t even any hours posted yet; yesterday was their opening day. Hope it stays afloat. Nice atmosphere, the owner/barista was very polite, and of course it’s quite closeby. Once it gets “discovered” it will most likely be packed all the time. Such is urbanity.

Tonight Andy is going to a b-day thingy with Newberry folks at the Red Lion Pub on Lincoln. I might just have a repeat of last evening, maybe stay on the gangster track.

So yeah. Odd weekend …