Today's Book: Up In Honey's Room (2007, Elmore Leonard)
Not really a page turner. Despite the fact that the story concerns a Nazi spy ring and an escaped Nazi prisoner, there really is no good guy/bad guy tension here. Everybody acts quite civilized towards one another with the occasional murder (but it's nothing personal!) along the way. Instead, it's the witty dialogue that keeps the interest and makes this one a fun read.
Today's Tune: Wild Horses
It wasn't long after I bought an eMusic subscription that they announced that they had aquired the Rolling Stones catalogue. I no longer had the vinyl so 30 cents per tune to get MP3 versions didn't sound too bad. However, when I tried to buy them, I got the message that Canadians were not allowed to buy any of The Rolling Stones recordings! So, what was I left with? Lottsa cover tunes.
This morning zip-your-rip offered up the Living Guitars version of Rolling Stones favourites. Mr Zip attributes the Living Guitars stylings to one Al Caiola (can't be bad). Played his "Wild Horses" - that's a good one. Now I need another version. Maybe eMusic has some interesting cover versions. Howabout Otis Clay? Sure, I like Otis. I bought one of his LPs once in a Woolworth for about 50 cents. It was 50 cents well spent but that was quite some time ago. Wonder what Otis sounds like today? Mighty fine I'd say.
Today's Movie: 白毛女 (1951, Wang Bin & Shui Hua)
This story is often mentioned in autobiographies of those who grew up in China in the 1950s. Since it was made in 1951 this must one of the very first Chinese Communist Party propaganda movies. It is not nearly as well made as many of the Communist propaganda films that came later. But even this is one is well worth seeing, especially the second half of the movie when Xier gets her white hair and goes to live in a cave. The fact that it's also a musical only adds to the sense of weirdness in the second half. There are better Communist Party propaganda movies but I wouldn't want to miss this one either.
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