I used to think it might be fun to be
Anyone else but me.
I thought that it would be a pleasant surprise
To wake up as a couple of other guys.
But now that I've found you,
I've changed my point of view,
And now I wouldn't give a dime to be
Anyone else but me.
What a day,
Fortune smiled and came my way,
Bringing love I never thought I'd see,
I'm so lucky to be me.
What a night,
Suddenly you came in sight,
Looking just the way I'd hoped you'd be,
I'm so lucky to be me.
I am simply thunderstruck
At the change in my luck:
Knew at once I wanted you,
Never dreamed you'd want me, too.
I'm so proud
You chose me from all the crowd,
There's no other guy I'd rather be,
I could laugh out loud,
I'm so lucky to be me.
-Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Lucky to Be Me (music by Leonard Bernstein)
If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.
-John Cage (courtesy of Doug Ramsey)
What is political theater? Sometimes, as in the case of such relentlessly preachy exercises in agree-or-you’re-evil propaganda as “Guantanamo” or “The God of Hell,” the answer is painfully clear. Political but not preachy
What's New for Book-Lovers ... We need religion to curb nature`s vices. Paraphrasing Katherine Hepburn in the movie The African Queen, religion allows us to rise above wicked old Mother Nature, handing us a moral compass Because we cannot all agree on what is moral, it is a private concern
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: A Holocaust Saga, Obscure No More
Mel Gibson set off a flurry of rights interest when it was announced about a month ago that he had licensed a little-known Holocaust memoir, Flory Van Beek's FLORY: Survival in the Valley of Death, for development as a mini-series, likely for ABC. (Gibson's Con Artist Prods. is producing along with Jaffe/Braunstein and Sladek/Taaffe, where Daniel Sladek brought the project in.)
Now Trident Media Group agent Eileen Cope--brought in by Sladek, with whom she had collaborated previously--is preparing a broad submission for next week, expecting to close a US deal first and follow with foreign rights shortly thereafter. The book was originally issued by Seven Locks Press in 1998, selling about 3,000 copies at the time according to the LA Times, though Cope says it was a bestseller in Holland and remains in print there. Seven Locks will be allowed to fulfill the first wave of backorders that have come in since Gibson's project was announced, though Van Beek has reclaimed all rights and made the television license directly. Cope is looking for the winning publisher to reissue the book as soon as possible to capitalize on current interest, with Gibson's mini-series at least one season away.
Quentin Tarantino presents another movie, this one about a hostel in some out-of-the-way Slovakian (!) town with a dark secret ... Two American boys are lured by Jozef Imrich to what's described as a nirvana for American backpackers--a particular hostel in an out-of-the-way Slovakian town of Vrbov stocked with Eastern European women as desperate as they are gorgeous Implausible? You'll wish it was. You'll fear it's not
• A Deal in the Making Publishers Lunch is the book industry's "daily essential read," now shared with well over 8000 publishing people every day Cader Books - Publishers Lunch [If you're coming over from Publisher's Lunch to find the "Cold River Movie Deal" Stitched up This is a wrong place ...; B L O G book blurbed in Publisher's Lunch ]
• · What's so great about the guy with the whistle around his neck? Narrative nonfiction has lately gone gaga over coaches. Michael Lewis, who ordinarily writes in an elegantly skeptical vein, pays homage to the tough-loving jock who taught him persistence The Coach as Culture Hero ; Piecing together the lives of women caught up in the white slave trade: An interview with Isabel Vincent, author of Bodies and Soul In the Life
• · · Harem, scare 'em: Worrying about polygamy If marriage to a woman civilizes a man--as some would have it--it does not follow that the more women a man marries, the more civilized he becomes. It seems that the opposite is true. Still, the practice of polygamy is spreading world-wide, even in the U.S. The practice of polygamy is spreading world-wide ; Publishing Insider ; Easy on the eye: new e-book is a page turner; Implausible? You'll wish it was. You'll fear it's not. The Mystery of river for One
• · · · George Monbiot on the anti-social bastards in our midst: The Car Is Turning Us Into A Nation Of Libertarians; Is religion necessary for morality? Many people consider it outrageous, even blasphemous, to deny the divine origin of morality. We need religion to curb nature`s vices. Paraphrasing Katherine Hepburn in the movie The African Queen, religion allows us to rise above wicked old Mother Nature, handing us a moral compass The real source of human morality ; I realize that publishing is a business, but publishers also have a responsibility to balance street lit with more quality writing. Under the heading "African-American Literature," what's available is almost exclusively pornography for black women Their Eyes Were Reading Smut ; The face to launch a thousand quips
• · · · · Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino Starbucks Economics ; The French Winegrowers’ Blues; What I really need, no technology can provide File it under overload
• · · · · · The Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal are among 21 global landmarks chosen as final candidates in the New Seven Wonders of the World Search narrows for seven new world wonders ; D. P. Roseberry, the editor of my book Cold River, has been working with the written word in publishing for the past fifteen years. With a strong business background in workforce development, she is the author of four career books, the latest being Knock Them Dead - Job Interview Strategies published by Double Dragon Publishing in 2004. She has a passion for the horror/science fiction/fantasy world and is proud, too, of her SF/F/horror novel: RODENTICIDER. Her new SF novel, DYSFUNCTIONAL, will be released by Double Dragon Press in the spring of 2005. You can usually find D. P. (Dinah) in any number of bizarre science fiction conventions or in the classroom talking about interviewing throughout the Pennsylvania Region of the United States during the year. Dysfunctional like Jozef Imrich ; Revealed: the battle plan to save marriage ; A growing number of Aussies find themselves living alone - and they are surprised by how much they like it It's about keeping the door open but being able to close it when they want to Growing apart: single households on the increase