The Book Signing and Its Aftermath. Well, the big 300th birthday party is now its own history. For the most part it was a big success. We ended up getting pretty good publicity on the book signing with Howard Bryan for Albuquerque Remembered. We were listed in the Weekly Alibi, The Albuquerque Journal, twice in Friday's Albuquerque Tribune. Dave Schneider from the Tricentennial committee plugged it in a radio interview, and we got listed on their website and in the official program. We ended up selling 40 books in about 45 minutes. This is phenomenal, yes, but the signing was scheduled for three hours! Oh well. Howard was happy, I was happy and we had five other people order signed books after they sold out. Pretty...pretty...pretty good. The celebrations themselves went well too, except many people were disappointed that the mayor aborted plans to run anywhere from 5 to 30 cattle through Old Town as part of the Entrada reinactment of the Spanish settlers arrving in Albuquerque. Only a few sheep made the cut. In truth, the mayor made the right decision as they would have been range cattle trying not to freak at the city sights around them. One can only imagine what would have happened if the cattle got loose from the herd and trampled some tourist lady.
Oh Grandma, Not Again! One week after my complements on her new CD and a well-received performance at the Tricentennial celebration, boozy grandma Lynn Anderson has gone and done it again. About a week ago, Lynn rear-ended a car near Taos, and was apparently under the influence of demon alcohol. The big "oops" here is that this constituted a violation of the parole she was still under for her last DWI in 2004. Lynn, dammit, give up the booze already!
Quick Picks. In movies, United 93 is one of the hardest to watch movies ever, but absolutely riviting, fascinating and brilliantly well-done. As close as one can get to a "you-are-there" slice of a painful, tragic moment in history. Do not miss it. On DVD I've caught up with a number of movies I missed in the theatre. Serenity is the big screen version of the short-lived sci-fi show Firefly. It was sort of like "Quantrill's Raiders in Space" with a nice mix of sci-fi and western elements. Different and fun. The Aristocrats is a documentary on the dirtiest joke ever told. The joke is retold and examined by about 100 different comedians. I found it interesting and enjoyable, but don't watch it if you are sensitive to subjects like sex, bodily function and incest. I recommend it mostly to students of stand-up comedy.
The Ice Harvest is a nifty little film noir/black comedy hybrid from Harild Ramis, starring John Cusack as a mob lawyer who steals $2 million from his boss on Christmas eve, with the help of his pornographer friend Billy Bob Thornton. The film has a great seedy atmosphere, some nice old-fashioned touches and some very dark humor. It is also very violent in spots. For those looking for something a bit differnet, this might do the trick.
Oh Yeah, thanks to the urging of Susan's kids, I'm now on MySpace. Check it out and be a friend!