What's on My Mind, May 18, 2005

The Girl On the Bridge (La Fille Sur le Pont)
French film with subtitles, saw it on the Sundance Channel late night. As soon as Gabor meets Adele on the bridge, I was hooked. “I’m at the end of my rope,” she says. “You’re too young to even have a rope,” he says.

www.itconversations.com
My iPod is much happier because of this site, with downloadable mp3 interviews. Favorite segments include Barry Schwartz, Peter Whybrow, and Briane Greene. It’s like NPR without the commercials, solicitations, and mismatched filler music.

John Coltrane’s “The Kiss of No Return”
From his Bethlehem Years album. He just knew.

The Art of Living, Epictetus translated by Sharon Lebell
Wonderful introduction to Epictetus, simplified and watered down but a great primer. This book’s approach reminded me of The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama. I’ve been trying to balance my eastern philosophy reading (Thich Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche) with some western philosophy, this did it.

Lewis Black: Black on Broadway
This one’s currently on HBO. Hilarious, intelligent social and political commentary. “On the plane was a Time magazine and there was a 30 page article on diabetes, and I read every page. By the time that plane landed, I had diabetes.”

Lastly, I’m gonna miss new episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, but looking forward to getting it on DVD. In my opinion, it’s my generation’s I Love Lucy. I can treadmill to Raymond as well as Whose Line Is It Anyway? reruns. An hour passes, I’ve walked off 300 calories, and I’m happy. Cool deal.