There is snow. It may not be much snow, but it's white and powdery and falling from the sky and enoughing to obscure the ground. This makes me happy. Snow makes me happy. Cold without snow just seems pointless. We took George out for a walk in the snow, bundled; George loves the snow more than me. He gallops in it. It makes him feel young and spry.

Before we went walking, and then again after, we watched the 1985 movie AMERICAN FLYERS, which is a bicycling movie by the same writer, Steve Tesich, who won a best original script Oscar for the wonderful (really, see it) 1979 bicycling in Indiana movie BREAKING AWAY. AF is not so good, it's all right and the bicycling parts are good and it's an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours if you like bicycling at all. It's directed with a heavier hand than would have suited the script, Kevin Costner has a giant mustache, and the soundtrack is one of those pure '80s travesties, all horrible chords and songs with the chorus repeating the title of the movie and (worst) synthesizers. Eek.

Interestingly enough I just did a search on Tesich and his sister (who is still very angry about the subject of the site and his death) has a website with his and her essays and letters about Yugoslavia and Serbia and the U.S. actions in those places in the '90s. He was just fifty-four when he died. (The site says Oscar winning director but I believe this is a translation/language issue.) Very sad.

Here's a quote from Tesich about outlining (he was also a respected playwright):

So I made an outline. Well, you know, days are going by, and I am not writing anything because this thing is laid out in front of me. It's as if you get every brochure for a trip you are going to go on and you get the minutest details of every step along the way. Well, I really doubt you're going to then get in the car and go. You know, it's like, why bother if it's all laid out in front of you?

earworm: anything without synthesizers

rec: BREAKING AWAY

namecheck: Eddie "Cameo Cannibal" Merckx