1.  I have found my dream job.

The other night I had a friend over and we celebrated our collective birthdays by watching movies of the 80s.  On the agenda was Dirty Dancing, Say Anything, Footloose, St. Elmo’ Fire, Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club.

Throughout the evening I peppered my friend with behind-the-scene facts from the movies and where-are-they-nows about the cast.  (Shut up.  I know it sounds annoying, but she asked for the information… really!!  We even broke out imdb.com at one point.)

This brings me to my dream job – I want to record DVD commentary for movies and TV shows.  As anyone who’s ever met me can attest, I can easily rattle on for the length of a 90-minute movie with useless trivia and boring celebrity facts. 

How to get someone to pay me for providing the service, though is yet another matter.

2.  Twitter fun

I was on the computer yesterday working on National Novel Writing Month.  (I’m at approximately 17,000 words so far and while I”ve accepted the fact I’m not going to make it to 50,000, I want to finish as much of my story as I can.)  Anyway, I happened to have my Twitter account up and running and one of the people I follow is Jim Beaver – an actor, writer and Hollywood historian who I like very much.

I generally read Twitter and update about once a week at the most.  (Clearly have not caught on to the whole “real time” aspect of it.)  Well, yesterday Jim Beaver had a constant Twitter stream going out to chronicle his trip to Disneyland with his daughter and a party of 10 others – mostly children.  He stood in line most of the day and must have had a lot of time on his hands, because his account of waiting for the rides was hilarious. 

I know I’m not a parent, but I’ve taken my nephews to an amusement park and anyone who has (or even knows) children can relate to the ups and downs of such a trip.  His last tweet sums it up pretty well.  “Took 12 people to Disneyland today. Exactly 17 hours, $971.00, 1 lost kid, 1 found kid, and 3 lost kids’ shoes…”

Other favorite tweets include, “Restaurants open. trying to carry 5 trays of food worth $60,000 dollars.”  and “Does Disneyland provide euthanasia? Or do you have to do it yourself?”

3.  Michael Chabon – Gentlemen of the Road

I forgot that I promised to talk about the second of the books that I’m currently reading that I don’t really enjoy.  Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE Michael Chabon.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my favorite books of all time and Wonder Boys is also right up there.

I first started reading Gentlemen of the Road about a  year ago and put it aside because I couldn’t get into it.  Usually that’s the death knell for books as far as I’m concerned.  I have too many books waiting for my attention on the nightstand for me to waste time on a book I don’t like.  That said, because this was a Michael Chabon book, I tried again.  

I’m more than 3/4 of the way through, so this time I will finish, but it’s been a struggle.  I’m not sure what the problem is.  The descriptions are rich and the characters are unique, but yet the book has utterly and completely failed to grab my interest.  For me, an emotional hook to a novel is a must.  It must have either a hero to root for or a three-dimensional villan to loathe.  Either way, I need to feel a stake in the outcome of the plot.  I generally don’t like stories – like this one – where I’m just a passive outsider, watching it unfold, but not really caring about the outcome. 

If you’re looking for a technically well-written novel and beautiful language, give Gentlemen of the Road a try.  If you’re looking for a story you cam emotionally invest in, then give this a pass and re-read Kavalier and Clay.

Coming Soon:  A recap of NaNoWriMo 2009