I just saw this story on the news. I am so scared.

The Sandra Bullock movie that my rents rented last night was Murder by Numbers. Wasn’t very good at all. It made me think Warner Bros. decided to make another creepy homicide thriller, the main two $selling points$ being Bullock (yawn) playing the detective, and two larger-than-life, philosophical, Anton Le Vey-minded (’Do as thou wilt’) high school boys as the cold-blooded murderers. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. My parents regretted renting it.

However, all was not lost, as the movie recalled The Last Supper to my mind. I rented it this evening. I had seen some of it at a friend’s house, some years ago, before dozing off. I’m infamous for falling asleep during films. I think the flashing screen and the dark room propels in mind to sleep, or something. The Last Supper is dark comedy about a collective of five liberal grad students who share a house. Once a week they invite someone of an opposing ideology to supper, during which they debate. On one occasion their guest turns out to be a Fascist Nazi, whom is fatally stabbed in the back after pulling a knife on one of the students. The murder catching them unawares, the students have absolutely no idea what to do, and end up rationalising the killing as a good, utilitarian deed. Soon they are inviting all sorts of their political enemies to the table (priests, anti-abortionists, Heston types, an abstinence spokesgirl, etc.), poisoning their wine, and then burying them in the back yard under tomato plants. Things, of course, begin to fall apart, and go badly for the five.

I’ve thought for some while that I wrote Cameron Diaz off too quickly. She’s really brilliant when she plays off-kilter roles, like in this movie, or in Being John Malkovich. Not to imply that she wasn’t great in My Best Friend’s Wedding or anything. Perhaps she’s at her best when playing the roles of extreme characters.

My parents have decided on buying an ARTIFICIAL Chirstmas tree this year! What in the world happened to them in the year and a half I was absent?! First an artificial fireplace, and now fake plastic trees. What’s next, TV dinners every night? Help! Help!

I love the smell of commerce in the morning.

No, not really. Not at all. But I couldn’t resist using that Kevin Smith quote. I woke up early this morning (6:30!!!) and hit the stores with my sister and her boyfriend. Purchased lots of good objects on sale: classic black dress for holiday parties and what not; great burgundy leather handbag; leather driving gloves; a shirt, new pair of Mary Janes; and my mum and pop bought me this really warm and classy coat for my birthday. As of yet, my two sisters have not sold me into slavery. But I’ve got my fingers crossed, even so.

However, the best thing I came upon today was this little children’s book I found in a bookstore for only two dollars. A beautifully illustrated collection of Oscar Wilde’s children’s stories, which to my absolute delight, includes “The Happy Prince.” My only fear is that my future children, upon having these stories read to them, will develop Wilde’s character by osmosis, and grow into a band of conniving, rebellious, nihilistic, sarcastic Dorian Grays, with advanced and sardonic verbal repartees, and smacking wits. Heaven forbid. Yikes.

My parents rented some silly Sandra Bullock movie, and I think they want me to watch it with them. Here goes.

From LouReed.com:

For sure Edgar Allen Poe is that most classical of American writers- a writer more peculiarly attuned to our new century’s heartbeat then he ever was to his own [sic]. Obsessions, paranoia, willful acts of self destruction surround us constantly. Though we age we still hear the cries of those for whom the attraction to mournful chaos is monumental. I have reread and rewritten Poe to ask the very same questions again. “Who Am I” and “Why am I drawn to do what I should not.” I have wrestled with this thought innumerable times: the impulse of destructive desire — the desire for self mortification. To my mind Poe is father to William Burroughs and Hubert Selby. I am forever fitting their blood to my melodies. Why do we do what we should not? Why do we love what we cannot have? Why do we have a passion for exactly the wrong thing? What do we mean by “wrong.” I became enamored of Poe — once again — and when given the opportunity to bring him to life through words and music — text and dance — why I leapt at it — I surged towards it like a Rottweiler chasing a bloody bone. I read and then recited him out loud and for the first time understood “The Tell Tale Heart.” I dreamt and imagined and then saw the early performance come to life in the Thalia Theater in Germany (who commissioned me to write this) where the thrill of it’s existence only made me hunger even more ardently for its American counterpart — its final rewrite — the yearning finally fulfilled by the mad presence of Willem Dafoe, Steve Buscemi, Fisher Stevens-the magnificent Elizabeth Ashley, the transcendental Amanda Plummer and castigating Katy Volk of the Wooster Group — musicians magnificent galore — D. Bowie, the gospel glory of the 5 Blind Boys from Alabama, the mind tearing heart rending sax playing of the incredible Ornette Coleman, the ethereal vocals of Antony, a descendent perhaps of Little Jimmy Scott, Jane’s passionate cello-loving arrangement by her of my guitar solo-strings — real strings — Rob Mathias taking my guitar line and building a universe with it — Steve Bernstein’s power melodic horns — all these pieces together forming for me a universe of sound I’d only dreamed of. My fellow artists. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart and reel with happiness at the cd’s existence. My band — Mike, Tony and Fernando, the magnificent production of Hal Willner. I owe them all the greatest thanks. This is a record made of love.
— Lou Reed nyc 2002

I am highly anticipating this release. I cannot imagine anything more menacing and eery than Lou Reed, Willem Dafoe, Bowie, and Buscemi collaborating on adaptations of Poe’s poems. It’s too bad Burroughs is dead. He would’ve fit in perfectly. The album is due to be released on January 3, 2003.