Top 5

It’s been ages since a Top 5 (or 10). Let’s!

1. GO, the movie. I started with “Beat the Devil” in the DVD player, then decided I wanted to see Kirk Douglas chew the scenery in “The Champion” instead, but I couldn’t find my copy anywhere. Tripped on “Go” and decided it was perfect for my state of semi-ironic exhaustion. I was right. Funny, interesting, dark. And Sarah Polley. And Katie Holmes.
   

2. “Direct from Brooklyn,” by They Might Be Giants. If you own only one music video collection, make it this one. Fascinating, full of their quirky music and equally quirky visual style, and they included the two Tiny Toons cartoons based on their songs “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, which rock. Also, they have a new desktop application for TMBG fans, the TMBG clock radio, so check out the site.
   

3. Elizabeth McCracken’s “Niagara Falls All Over Again”, a delightful romp through the lives of a pair of vaudevillians turned radio stars turned movie stars turned TV stars. I’ll confess to an inexplicable weakness for anything that shows an affection for vaudeville and early radio, when just about anything passed for entertainment (as opposed to today’s television? Okay, good point . . . ). This is well-written, touching, lyrical, and with enough detail to really bring the characters to life. Loving it. (I should admit that I once wrote a short story that was remarkably close to this in subject, tone and language, so maybe I was in love with this book before it was written.)
   

4. The Y. Time to head back indoors and run the track and soak in the whirlpool. Time for bedtime hair to still smell of chlorine and to be a little loose about bedtime if it means we got a little swim in of an evening.
   

5. Christmas cards. Created, ordered and delivered, baby! Here’s this year’s pic, unlikely at best but showing our lovelies off in their rock star mode (which Rebekah, at least, has been in since seeing “School of Rock”).