Reading: old For Better Or For Worse collections
Music: Todd Rundgren: Nearly Human Tour (live in Japan)
TV/Movie: What Dreams May Come
Link o' the Day: "My Summer Job" by Michael Lukas

A bit of the lazy Sunday afternoon. Well, not entirely lazy. I've been three thousand words into an article, and making notes for an additional one. Later on tonight I have some freelance typesetting and some writing to do, so I'll be keeping busy enough, I'm sure. But the day feels lazy. (I shouldn't really be saying this so casually. I have loads of e-mail to catch up with.)

Overall it's been a pretty nice weekend. Pretty Maggie and I went out to celebrate her new job at a wonderful restaurant we literally stumbled across in North Attleboro called Hearth and Kettle. I ordered a tasty Portuguese-style fish. Pretty Maggie ordered a Fisherman's Platter which was so huge that not only could she not finish it, but felt full just by looking at it. Tasty food tho, and only mildly pricey. We'll be going back there, I'm sure.

I asked in my previous posting if anyone had any good slushpile stories. In addition to that, does anyone happen to know of other places online where one might find a database of response times? I know about the Realms of Fantasy one, the Black Holes site, and sff.net's newsgroup on response times. Any others that anyone can think of?

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I'm very happy with this DVD of Todd Rundgren: Live in Japan. I bought the video over ten years ago and it's definitely seen better days. This is nice, crisp, clear, and I can catch certain musical subtleties that were harder to catch in the original. It also looks like it's been re-edited quite a bit. There are some angles and montages that were not on the video version.

And if anyone has ever watched a concert video from Japan... is it just me, or do Japanese audiences seem overly polite? Quiet, even. Huh.

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We watched What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. last night. I'm surprised that this did soe terribly at the box office. I thought it was a brilliant piece of work with some very subtle storytelling in spots. I loved Max Von Sydow's appearance as well. Visually, it's a stunning piece. Pretty much everything about it comes across very strong, but not overwhelmingly so. The DVD showed an alternate ending which I thought was just as good as the original ending, although I probably would have cut out the last two minutes or so. Too much of a good thing, perhaps?

Loads better than Toys. And Cuba Gooding, Jr. shows how much of an excellent actor he is. I thoroughly enjoyed Instinct as much because of Gooding as I did because of Anthony Hopkins (who, btw, did a lousy job in Titus).

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Today's link goes to an interesting article I found in the course of doing some research on slush piles. It's "My Summer Job" by Michael Lukas from the Brown Alumni Magazine (Sept/Oct. 2002). Working as a slush pile reader. White socks need not apply.

Cheers!