Random Babble.
Gorilla Tango started their new improv show formats last week. All are improvements on the old shows, especially the now competitive short form show on Thursday and the musical longform on Saturday. Turn off the damn TV and go, Sparky, it only costs an Abe and a George.

My old pals Kari Simmons and Todd Lowry have moved a couple of their shows closer to my home base. They are now doing weekly shows at the Sheraton Old Town Q-Bar on Thursdays, and they'll have their full combo at the La Posada downtown the first Saturday of every month. We saw them last Saturday, and they were smokin'! Kari could kick the ass of any of those wannabees on American Idol, and Todd plays piano like a madman. If you love jazz, soul and pop standards, there's no better lounge act in town, mister.

If you want to see a movie that will lead you down an engrossing, but traditional plot path, then in the last act, pulls it out from under you and take a totally unexpected path, then rip your emotions, expectations and preconceived ideas out of your guts and stomp all over them, then go see Million Dollar Baby. It made me bawl like a two year-old. Awesome performances by Eastwood, Swank, and Freeman, all of whom deserve their Oscar nods, and brilliant less-is-more direction by Clint Eastwood. After seeing the film, it is my favorite for best picture, but I've seen all the nominees except Aviator, and I loved them all. A really excellent crop of nominees this year.

Business is slow as hell, so I've been getting in some reading. Here's what has passed before my nose lately.
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, by John Mortimer. Another great mix of courtroom suspense and wry humor. This one goes back to Horace's first and most career making case, as he, a junior lawyer, must defend a young man of killing his father and his old WWII buddy. Laugh-out-loud funny and a damn good story too. If you are not familiar with Rumpole's adventures in British justice, Mortimer's stories were brought to life by the great actor Leo McKern in a long running British TV show.
Bad Company, by Virginia Swift. Sue turned me on to this author. She is actually a UNM History professor called Virginia Scharf. This is a very fun, if slightly overlong mystery set in Laramie, Wyoming. The heroine is Mustang Sally, an ex-hippie folk singer turned History professor at UW. Here she gets involved in a brutal rape-murder of a teenage girl and some shady land dealings. Well drawn, likeable characters, complicated situations, and a breezy pace make this one a reader.
Double Play, by Robert B. Parker. This is a rare non-series book by Parker, who is best know for the great Spenser series. This one is about a ex -Marine who comes back from WWII to find his wife has left him, despite his being wounded and labeled a hero. Totally drained of feeling, he gets a job guarding a mob-boss's daughter, and eventually ends up as Jackie Robinson's personal body guard. This is an AWESOME book, some of Parker's best writing ever. Not a mystery, but a unique work that feels like an old film noir movie, mixing personal memoir with social commentary,
romance, and a story about someone regaining their soul. Buy it NOW!
Grift Sense, by Jim Swain. I love hard-boiled fiction, and this stuff is HARD! Picked this up the other day 'cause it was cheap and sounded good. This one is about Tony Valentine, a "consultant" who specializes in exposing gambling cheats and cons. Here Tony heads to Vegas to unravel a scam involving a supposedly dead hustler and an "innocent" dealer. Sleazy, funny, and very page-turning. I've got about 60 pages left in this one, and I don't think it'll let me down. Definitely want to read more of this guy's stuff. Go to his ULTRA-COOL site.
Evan's Gate, by Rhys Bowen. Another in the wonderful cozy series featuring Welsh cop Evan Evans. This time Evan deals with a missing child and accidentally digs up the bones of a young girl in his own front yard! Bowen always weaves a complex, fun tale, and this one doesn't disappoint. I can almost smell the fresh North Wales air when reading her books. This was also nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.