I just wasted two hours of my life watching Salt. Movies about Russian spies that have any potential of sucking should not be allowed to be made. Sadly this film was. The worse, and highly unbelievable, scene was when Salt (Angie) would repeatedly taser a cop to thrust his leg forward, to apply pressure to the accelerator. I don't think this can work. Yes, when someone is tasered they violently shake, but I don't  think they thrust their foot down on the pedal. Then this great scene end with of course, Salt driving the car over a bridge, and she walks away without a scratch. The tagline for the film should have been, if you going to drive a SUV off a bridge, grab onto a backseat and you'll be okay!

Well, at least this Christmas season I got to watch one of my favorite movies of all time, and my definitely my favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation. It is one of funniest films I've ever seen, but the thing I love about it is that every time I watch it I noticed another small joke. As a kid I watched it with my parents on t.v., but more than a few years we bought it on VHS. We realized one Christmas how raunchy it is. there more than a few swear scenes I don't remember seeing. I do remember being really young and after the massacre scene of Clark not getting a bonus, he asks his father how he got through the Holidays. He responds by saying he got a lot of help from Jack Daniels. As a kid I always wondered who Jack Daniels was.

One argument I had with my best friend growing up was which Christmas movie is better, Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story? I present a simple argument of why Christmas Vacation is better.

1. the cast: Chevy Chase, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Randy Quaid, etc.
2. written by: John Hughes
3. the setting: Chicago!

Do I need to say more? I think I may not marry a woman if she believes A Christmas Story is a better film.

Aunt Bethany 

"Oh, did I break wind?"

I really have been enjoying The Prestige by Christopher Priest. It is so exciting to see the similarities to the film, but the differences as well. The main differences I've noticed so far are that the novel is framed by a descendant of one of the magicians almost a century later. It is so interesting to see what Christopher Nolan took and left out of the novel, and thinking about the possible reasons why. And a 100 pages or so in, is as good as the film.

At the same time, I am also really enjoying In the Middle of the Night. The last short story I read, Crossing Over, involved a gut wrenching scene, with black face, that left me thinking: wow I feel bad for that character (who was white). I don't think there are many authors that can pull that off, and it excites me that I will be begin a class led by Daniel Stolar in a week or so.

While skimming through Largeheartedboy's blog, I stumbled upon his best of 2010 lists, and his best short story collections list in particular. One that particulary caught my eye was "The Name of the Nearest River" by Alex Taylor. It is now being shipped to Mayfair, my local library. Another that caught my eye, months ago was the graphic novel was Dark Rain, by Mat Johnson and Simon Gane. River is about tales from the south , and Taylor has been compared to Faulkner. I feel, lately, that if somebody is compared to a classic, such as the Tallest Man being compared to Bob Dylan, and those comparisons are coming from reliable, thoughtful people, they tend to be true. I hope I am correct in that assumption. Dark Rain is about post Katrina N'Orleans. It is not at currently at the library, but Johnson's other works are.

Largehearted has features where the authors list music that goes with their work or was listened to while they wrote or whatever. Johnson and Taylor listed R.L. Burnside, Townes Van Zandt and Junior Kimbrough. I love this section, music notes, and I aspire to list songs that either inspire me, or that i was listening to before or while I write.