RandomCha

Yesterday I bought “Stardust” by Willie Nelson on vinyl at the thrift store for 65 cents. Good buy, very enjoyable. Was reading about the album online … it’s sold over 4 million copies and “Blue Skies” was a #1 single on the country charts. Bizarre. An album of pop/jazz standards by a country/folk stoner produced by Booker T. Jones. Could anyone pull off something like that nowadays, or was 1978 just crazier and more open to variety than 2003? The majority of current Top 40 is just so pathetic. It’s enough to make one weirdly nostalgic for something like “I’m Too Sexy.”

Interesting & disturbing quiz … I recommend it. (Thanks to bandersnatch for the link).

Andy worked late tonight. I took the bus downtown to the Film Center and watched “The Phantom of Liberty.” I was alone; I couldn’t get ahold of anyone to go with me.

After it was over I caught a train going north. Leaving the station I crossed the street and on an impulse went to Dunkin’ Donuts and bought a medium coffee with cream and sugar. It felt good to stand there outside on the corner, the warm cup in my hands. It was cold but well above freezing, the pavement just glistening ever so slightly.

Walking east on Belmont there was a vague layer of fog hovering just below the tops of the trees. As I walked past the apartment buildings I thought about the people inside them: watching TV, asleep, sitting on a couch or lying across a futon. I thought about the empty apartments, waiting in silence for the people to come from home from the bars. I thought about my own apartment, also waiting for me, and my computer.

Well, yesterday I did some more legwork on “100 Spinning Plates.” It’s up to me to see that it gets published this year. I was rereading some old journals last week and was reminded that I finished the first draft over a year ago! Just shows how inactive I’ve been. True, there have been distractions, but … there’s always an excuse.

Chatted a bit over the weekend with Frank in LA. His feature, “The Cooler,” which he wrote and co-produced, starring Willian H. Macy, was the FIRST feature to get sold at this year’s Sundance. Wow. Lion’s Gate bought it and presumably will be releasing it later this year. What a whirlwind. I first met Frank in 1999 when I was out in LA doing that first cut of “Kosher Messiah.” So I asked him what his plans are now and he replied, “Sell another script and quit my day job.” Sometimes things happen fast, sometimes they happen slowly. There still hasn’t been a Chicago screening of “Kosher Messiah.” But this year …

I think I’m sort of broke right now. Having lots of free time has its price. Trying to get in more hours this week.

I rented my first W.C. Fields movie last nite (“The Bank Dick”) & I LOVED it. I’m thinkin’ of goin’ out and renting a few more, have a little marathon. Why has it taken me so long to see these things? Even more than the Marx Brothers, I think, his humor seems more chaotic, less concerned with even maintaining a plot or logic, and pretty much every character was ‘unlikeable’. I loved it. Sort of like vaudeville Ionesco, but also with a strong subtext of critique of the class system (almost Bunuelian). All that sounds like extremely pompous filmspeak, but you hafta trust me on this one …

Looking forward to seeing the Morcheeba show on the 30th.

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3 pints of Bell’s, one vanilla Stoli & 7-UP (tastes like creme soda), and I’m home now. Bowling: scored a 93. It was fun. Listening to Morissey, “Viva Hate.” It’s so cold outside that it’s dangerous. I’ve worked a total of 11 hours this week. O yeah … this is where I want to be. Online, typing things. Mother Country, I do love you.

(bonus points if you can tell me which song I’m quoting).

Andy & I watched a really terrible Doris Day movie last night on cable. It was so bad that it was a scream. Very fun. “Julie.” She has to dodge her psycho husband who is trying to kill her (Louis Jourdan, about 20 years before “Swamp Thing”). Heh. Robert Osborne said in his little intro that it was the lowest-budgeted film that Doris made in her entire career. I suppose she could do that kind of dreck now and then because she was so big that people would go see anything she was in.

Saw the new Criterion Edition DVD of Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and … at the risk of being beaten up by film purists out there, I have to say that seeing the original for a second time now, I prefer the Soderbergh verion. Not only is Soderbergh’s film more concise (which, in all fairness, Tarkovsky was never concerned with), it manages to have more philosophical and psychological depth with fewer words. Tarkovsky’s film is so talky! And the characters just aren’t as interesting. Granted that Soderbergh & company had much better resources and technology, but really Soderbergh’s script is just better. For Tarkovsky I much prefer “Stalker,” an ideal match between story, execution, and director.

I have not been called back about the DJ gig but it’s just as well. I sorta decided that I wasn’t interested. The interview went well and everything. the job itself would be a quite an opportunity and probably fun, but a lot of responsibility and commitment. They told me I’d have to undergo a 3-month ‘apprenticeship’ in the beginning, shadowing DJs for training and during gigs. And this would all be unpaid. Then, once finally ready to do a gig on my own, the pay starts at $15 an hour. Advance set up time (meetings with the client, set list work, etc.) is unpaid, transportation to and from gigs is unpaid. And seeing as how I’d hafta take a taxi everywhere …

I’d be forced to get a cellphone finally. I really could manage to do the job if I was so committed, holding onto the research job to pay the bills and adding in the DJ thing. But it would take a whole year of DJing before I could really start to live off it. And all my writing projects for the year 2004 would get shafted in a hurry.

I’m 27. If I’d heard of this job maybe 5 years ago, I might be more excited. But, as they told me, “weddings are our bread and butter.” And wedding DJing means basically only 4 kinds of music: 80’s, disco, Motown, Top 40. That’s what people want to hear. I could play that stuff, but …

O it’s a moot point anyhow. I haven’t gotten a call back. They must have assessed my misgivings.

Que Sera Sera.

Work is goin good; I think I might get a bonus this week. Yesterday I was working in Wicker Park and I saw the apartment building on Evergreen where Nelson Algren lived for 15 years. There’s a small plaque outside on the wall. A beautiful red sandstone building with carvings. He lived the 3rd floor.

At 12.30 I have an interview for a mobile DJ position (!) at Fig Media, up north in Edgewater. God knows how I bluffed my way into that. I’m not sure what to expect, but I think I’m well-prepared and it sounds like a cool place to work. Of course I’m still doing research interviewing for UIC but I think I could do both jobs if it was necessary. That’s a bridge to cross when I come to it …

For Christmas, Steven got me my own domain name! Wild! It sort of feels like having one’s own private island in the Carribean. http://www.randomcha.net. Right now it merely redirects you to my geocities site. Until I do something new. Doing a whole site from scratch would take lots of time and work, but would be pretty cool. Like I need one more thing to put on my to-do list. It’s real exciting though.

Saw “Cat People” yesterday at the Music Box with Steven & Leah (the 40’s original). One of the most amusing things about it is that the main cat woman character is named Irena, which is the name of Andy’s manager (the one he detests with such passion). I bet it’s easy for Andy to imagine her turning into a cat whenever she gets angry or jealous.

After the movie we ate at Sparky’s, a tiny 24-hour diner near Ashland/Belmont that Gavin swears by. It was darn good. The real deal. The owner, a small Asian woman, greeted us personally as we came in and then asked us if we would be coming back as we were leaving. Darn good french toast there.

Got the new Soft Boys album, “Nextdoorland.” Very amusing, catchy.