Sunset in the Park in Sunset Park

Took a nice late afternoon run in the park, sun all golden syrupy through the orange leaves. I don't run much anymore--although it was my religion for a few years there--so the elemental joy of it came as a nice surprise.

Finally watched O, Brother today and yes, it was better than Legally Blonde, but only a tetch.

Couple of things in hindsight about LB: one, it was co-written by someone I went to junior- and senior highschool with, although we weren't friends. But she was the friend of a friend, and I remember being shocked to learn, in the seventh or eighth grade, that she used to diet and try to lose weight. It seemed like such a weirdly premature concern to me at the time, but I guess the dieting thing starts early with some girls.

The other thing is that the soundtrack featured one of those punky/poppy buzz-guitar kind of songs that only seem to exist in Hollywood movies and not on the radio or MTV. A Josie and the Pussycats/Go-Gos cuddle-core kind of kind of sound...which parenthetically I think is all wrong for a movie about a sorority girl, because they listen to Dave Matthews and whatever their boyfriends listen to. But I love that kind of music...

I was thinking about Toni Tennille the other day...I don't know why...and I realized that she was really just trying to fuse her love of the Beach Boys with her love for musical theater, but the world didn't get it...I felt troubled for her.

I finished Desperate Characters...it was OK. It's undeniably well-written, sharply observed stuff. It's fun reading about Brooklyn circa 1970. But it is an unmitigated downer...Why is it that good writers write unhappy books? I can't think of the last time I read fiction that was uplifting. I also find it interesting that from the 1970 perspective, being 40 was over-the-hill, established, frumpy, stodgy. I dunno, maybe it still is, but half my friends (amd almost all my 5 sibs) are in their early 40s and the majority of them don't even have matching dinner plates much less the rest of their lives in order. Well, my sibs are all pretty organized house-wise, but you get my drift, don'tcha?