"Hamlet"

a poem by Boris Pasternak, translated from the Russian by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France, and passed on to me by a Belarusian friend.

The buzz subsides. I have come on stage.
Leaning in an open door
I try to detect from the echo
What the future has in store.
A thousand opera-glasses level
The dark, point-blank, at me.
Abba, Father, if it be possible
Let this cup pass from me.
I love your preordained design
And am ready to play this role.
But the play being acted is not mine.
For this once let me go.
But the order of the acts is planned,
The end of the road already revealed.
Alone among the Pharisees I stand.
Life is not a stroll across a field.
(1948)

Friday I attended a midnight movie at the historic Kentucky Theater... The show was Taxi Driver. Brief review (minor spoiler alert): Taxi Driver was a fairly disturbing film. Robert DeNiro is just plain creepy, Jodi Foster looks like an emaciated orphan (she really plays a prostitute in the movie), and Cybil Shepherd actually looked attractive. The movie gets you wondering a) why did Cybil's character ever even go out on a date with a guy who was practically stalking her, b) why Cybil's character found it necessary to find him again in the end (IOW, what was fueling the connection or the attraction?), and c) how the h3ll Robert DeNiro's character became a hero. DeNiro's big bang rampage actually reminded me of Boondock Saints... and that movie is also messed up, but in a completely different way... see, I liked Boondock Saints even with all the cussing, violence, and blasphemy (I mean, there are hot guys with Irish accents in it, what more can I say?? ;)). Taxi Driver though I did not like, but I give it credit - it crawls under your skin. Perhaps therein lies its genius.

On Friday I also tried to apply my bookworm smarts at a round (read: hour and a half) of Trivial Pursuit Book Lovers edition... it was terrible! I kept going back to the category for "Classics" and I still did poorly... amazingly I got one question which was about Middlemarch. Suffice it to say, I wasn't the only one who found the game quite the challenge; after the "round" the other two players and I were all tied with only 1 piece each to our names.

Saturday I found myself back on the dance floor at a swing dance. It was a lot of fun, and I learned some new steps, like the Lindy Hop - or basically the dance steps used in the 40s Charleston.

Sunday I got to hang out with uber-cool Johnnies David Ferrell and Brad Dollard. I (finally) had my first experience of eating at an Indian restaurant. Really good stuff.

I bought an iPod a few days ago. Now I just need the MacPro to go with it...