Strangechord

Had a very busy past week:

· David Sedaris on the 25th was a treat! He read all new material and answered questions from the audience. I read some of his work over the phone to my mom the other night because I knew she would love him, and she later trotted down to the biggest bookstore in Fairfield (Iowa) - Revelations. She asked one of the owners, the most book-knowledgeable, for either Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day, and the woman looked at my mom blankly. Not only did the store have no copies of any of his books, but the owners hadn’t even heard of him. That’s small town midwest for you. So Mom has the two on order and is going to try to enroll Revelations into stocking them.

· Attended a free Macromedia morning seminar at the Portland Convention Center last Tuesday. It was my second free seminar with them and I love that they do this. Easy-as-pie online registration, free coffee as you walk in, nice facility with two giant monitor screens to follow the action, and the instructors are succint, easy to follow, and personable. They stepped the participants through building a pretend business site from scratch, beginning with Dreamweaver 4, then on to graphics in Fireworks 4, a side excursion into Flash MX, then tied it all back into Dreamweaver. I purchased Macromedia’s products about a year ago and have yet to really tool around with Flash and Fireworks as much as I’d like. I took tons of notes at the seminar, however, and don’t feel nearly so frightened to take on the programs. Seriously, check out their events page; most seminars are free, cover the gamut of skill level, and may be in your city.

· Ever since I left full-time work and have been back to school, I’ve had a chance to indulge in movies more frequently. Seen in the past week: The Paper Chase (1973) - not particularly memorable, but nonetheless, an interesting view into 70’s Harvard law student life, PBS Eleanor Roosevelt documentary (2000) - wonderful, inspiring long look at this woman’s life, Speaking In Strings (1999) - an Oscar-nominated doc about Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the “bad girl” of the classical music world, a gutsy, frank, passionate violinist anyone can relate to, and finally, The Piano Teacher (2001) - whoa mama! the more I reflect on it, the more I like it, this is an intense, gruesome, complex film.

· Received recent issues of many of my favorite magazines all in the past week: To-Do List, Utne Reader, Adbusters, and a particularly scrumptious issue of Bitch (buy this issue if you haven’t already - they’ve really outdone themselves this time).

· You will now see my May calendar on your left. Bought my tickets already for Cranes on May 11th!!!!!!!! I have loved this goth band since 1995 and I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that I’m going to be seeing them live in a small venue. Few good readings at Powell’s Books in May, including Al Franken on the 10th and Rick Moody on the 19th. God, I love living in Portland!