Totally random stuff

Tonight, we watched In Her Shoes. I cried much of the way through it.

Today, I got the story-to-screenplay of Brokeback Mountain. It fascinates me to see any screenplay on the page. I’m always amazed at how the director/ actors/ cinematographers/ film editors/ sound people take so few words and turn them into a movie. I really don’t see how making movies can be anything but the most fun job on earth.

I’m watching the commentary begin to come in for SOMEONE LIKE YOU. No matter what, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I wonder if people who make movies read novels and think, “I really don’t see how writing novels can be anything but the most fun job on earth.” It is. And sometimes, it isn’t.

The news is so depressing. Does anyone think being president is the most fun job on earth? I’ve always heard clowns are unhappy beneath their makeup.

I’ve gotten an enormous amount of stuff accomplished over the past week. Yet the one thing I haven’t done is fulfill a promise to my writing partners.

I’m never caught up.

Currently reading…

You just can’t beat for sheer fun with language. The first book of his I ever attempted to read was Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and after a few pages of going, “Huh?” and “Do what?”, I put it down and vowed never to try again.

A few years later, my brother told me that I must read Another Roadside Attraction. Maybe I just needed to be older, because suddenly I plugged in to the way Robbins writes and became an ardent fan. To the point that if I ever had written that Master’s thesis that I didn’t write, its subject was Tom Robbins’s work.

Maybe it’s better than I left him in the realm of pleasure and didn’t turn him into another halfhearted academic exercise. Although I wasn’t as deeply thrilled with his later works (Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, Villa Incognito), even those are crisper and more inventive than almost anything else I read.

The ones I enjoy most–in addition to Even Cowgirls… and Another Roadside Attraction–are Still Life with Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume (the latter’s descriptions of New Orleans remain among my favorites), with Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas and Skinny Legs and All in that middle land between the ones I love and the ones I sort of love.

Trivia: Tom Robbins played the toymaker in one of my favorite quirky movies Made in Heaven, and I just discovered he’s also in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, a film I haven’t seen.

Wild Ducks Flying Backward is not a novel, but a collection of shorter works and essays spanning Robbins’s career. Sometimes he’s playful, sometimes profound, but Robbins is always a master of words, whether with imaginative metaphors or frivolous puns. I just love him, and Marla, if you’re reading this LJ entry, thanks again for this book.

…in the jungle…the mighty jungle…

I had no idea there was actually a term for this until I read Hot Toddy’s blog: earworm

‘Earworms’ Bother Women, Musicians Most
by Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News

Feb. 27, 2003 — They bore into your head. They won’t let go. There’s no known cure. Earworms can attack almost anyone at almost any time.

No, it’s not an invasion of jungle insects. It’s worse. Earworms are those songs, jingles, and tunes that get stuck inside your head. You’re almost certain to know the feeling, according to marketing professor James J. Kellaris, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati.

Nearly 98% of people have had songs stuck in their head, Kellaris reported at the recent meeting of the Society for Consumer Psychology. The 559 students — at an average age of 23 — had lots of trouble with the Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” Jingle and with the Baha Men song “Who Let the Dogs Out.” But Kellaris found that most often, each person tends to be haunted by their own demon tunes.

“Songs with lyrics are reported as most frequently stuck (74%), followed by commercial jingles (15%) and instrumental tunes without words (11%),” Kellaris writes in his study abstract. “On average, the episodes last over a few hours and occur ‘frequently’ or ‘very frequently’ among 61.5% of the sample.”

Here’s the students’ top-10 earworm list:

Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” jingle.
“Who Let the Dogs Out”
“We Will Rock You”
Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle (“Gimme a Break …”)
“Mission Impossible” theme
“YMCA”
“Whoomp, There It Is”
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
“It’s a Small World After All”

Stuck song syndrome annoyed, frustrated, and irritated women significantly more than men. And earworm attacks were more frequent — and lasted longer — for musicians and music lovers. Slightly neurotic people also seemed to suffer more.

Kellaris hasn’t yet found a cure. Women are more likely to try to get rid of the offending ditties. Men are just as likely to do nothing as to fight their earworms.

What helps? Kellaris doesn’t know. But he found that when people battle their earworms, nearly two-thirds of the time they try to use another tune to dislodge the one that’s stuck. About half the time people simply try to distract themselves from hearing the stuck song. More than a third of the time people with songs stuck in their heads try talking with someone about it. And 14% of the time, people try to complete the song in their heads in an effort to get it to end.

Confidential to some TJB readers

Dear Rusty in Indiana, Shoshana in New York, and Chris in–somewhere–

We LOVE hearing from readers who’ve enjoyed the Timothy James Beck novels, and we answer all of our e-mail. But occasionally, our responses are marked as SPAM by Internet providers and returned to us as undeliverable.

Sometimes, the Internet is a bastard, but y’all are great, and we appreciate your kind words and interest in the novels.

Not really spam,
Timothy, Timothy, Jim, and Becky

Another Self-Interview

Here are my answers to questions originally directed to Fabrizio Moretti, drummer of The Strokes, in Jane magazine.

What do you think happens when you die?

We change into another form of energy.

What word makes you cringe when you hear it?

Moist.

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter, and why?

February. Manuscript deadline.

What’s the craziest place you ever had sex?

Alabama.

Would you rather lose all your hair, like Phil Collins, or make a sex video, like Tommy Lee?

This question makes me grateful I’m not a celebrity.

The self-interview concept is from Shawn at everythingandnothing.

One of those anniversary kind of dates

As some of you know (and THANK YOU for the e-mails, cards, notes, LJ posts), March 26 was…um…the yearly anniversary of my 35th birthday. Vigilant readers of THE DEAL may remember that Aaron was thrown a belated surprise birthday party at a local Houston restaurant, Ming’s, and Tom and some of my friends thought it would be fun to do the same for me.

It WAS fun, and not just because of the presents, eggrolls, and the delicious cake. The company was EXCELLENT. I know I have the greatest friends in the world. I got birthday cards from as far away as Sweden (my college roommate), e-mails from all over the country, and phone calls from near and far. Even though I couldn’t be with all my friends, I promise you were well-represented by the wonderful gathering at Ming’s.


Thanks Lindsey, Lynne, Amy, Richard, Tom, Tim, Rhonda, Marla, and Nora for being there, not just tonight but for years spanning 1968 until now. You’re wonderful, and I love you all.