Caught in the Carousel

Favorite Books So Far This Year:
1. Remains Of The Day—Kazuo Ishiguro (the correct spelling—I checked.!!) 2. Lenin's Tomb—David Semnick 3. The Greatest—David Semnick 4. Atonement—Ian McEwan 5. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being—Milan Kundera

Favorite Films
Really Enjoyed Batman, Hunger, Burn After Reading, Downfall

Can't remember what I hated film-wise—I try not to go to the ones I think I'm gonna hate. Then I'm less likely to piss and moan about them.

Music wise: What have I being listening to??

Someone bought me Ray LaMontagne's new one—heard some stuff from it. Maybe I'm alone here, but I kinda liked when he was unapologetic sad, seemed more honest—seems like someone had a word in his ear and said, "lighten up—you bastard—and write up-beat happy songs."

I hate when they do that.

The Postal Service was a find this year for me—as was M. Ward—love, love them. Would know the Death Cab For Cutie stuff better, but I actually think now I've changed teams and I'd go with the Postal....

Had a friend who was crazy about Cake and we listened a lot to them—"I Bombed Korea" every night was on—as I tour America, watching the debates for the U.S. election.

The weirdest sushi meal I ever had was in Nashville. It's always late at night when I get hungry, you know, you finish the show and run out into the night, never quite sure where the hell you're going, only that you'd kill for lovely warm cafe's and restaurants, cause I wanna escape the hell-holes I've been trapped in for the night. This place, I was informed, stays open till late and was good, great!! A shocker—the loudest—really, really the loudest fucking place—let alone restaurant I'd ever walked into. The only people in the place were the staff, always a bad sign, they looked like they were having an impromptu party, another bad sign, kinda like, this place is hell, any minute we're gonna lose our jobs, let's have a party and get bombed!! The whole thing was a disaster, chatted to the waitress, she seemed sweet and utterly lost, what was good on the menu, where we were from. all of it. A mystery. My fried Eel—HUGE—came out with an American flag and sparklers...ha ha, I could have cried. Thank you, Nashville.

Finally—and this is true: Went to this restaurant in Berlin where the waiters are all blind. The place is in complete not darkness, but blackness—you cannot see anything. Think Tommy utter blindness. You ring ahead and make your order before you get there and then you are led into the seating area. What happens, forget about the food, it's not about the food, it's the experience—what it's like not to have your sense of sight, all those hand gestures, eye contact, all of it gone. It's very...intense...and how helpless I felt, even with my good friends around me, hearing their voices in a new way, every nuance, the funny sounds of people at the other tables dropping their forks and spoons.

Bring on the light, 2009.

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