Saturday, January 15, 2005

Breakfast at Tiffany's and Ralph Stanley

The lower back pain I'd had intermittently over the holidays moved between my shoulder blades and up one side of my neck early yesterday evening; consequently, I've tried not to move around much today. I read the Truman Capote novella and am very glad I saw the movie first; all the deviations from the text would have infuriated me otherwise. The story's much stronger without the silly affair between the narrator and his married lover and I much preferred Capote's ending (and beginning) rather than the one served up in the movie. Still: Audrey Hepburn. R. and I agreed that if the movie were remade today we'd be stuck with a Julia Roberts Holly Golightly; after reading the story today I'm going to say Gwyneth Paltrow might be a better choice.

We saw Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (with opening act Jim Lauderdale) last night. Dr. Ralph was feeling under the weather; he played the banjo only once (sob) and sang "O Death" with a cough drop tucked in his cheek. Still, the band was definitely worth hearing even so and I took fiendish delight in spotting the "Kerry/Edwards" stickers still on the tour bus (front and back bumpers) as we walked to the car afterwards. Jim Lauderdale had an eerie tendency to mimic the singers who've recorded his songs, and after he mentioned Buddy Miller had sung back up (along with several others) with him on one of his songs (can't remember the title, had never heard it before), I kept hearing in my mind how the song would have sounded if Buddy Miller had been singing it and it was all very weird. I need to look at liner notes to determine just which songs Lauderdale's co-written with/for the Millers.

I'm really looking forward to the Steve Earle concert Thursday night.

I think I'm going to commit to reading Don Quixote this year and start tomorrow on the 400th anniversary of its being made available to the public (actual publication date the preceeding December). Intrepid readers Sandra at Book World and Stefanie at So Many Books like the idea of reading three chapters per week and that would work well for me, I believe.

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