What I’m Reading:

I picked up a short story collection by Philip K. Dick.

It is not uncommon to repackage a short story collection after a movie is made out of one of the stories therein to try to capitalize on the success of the movie, even though the story is often quite different. I didn’t even know Philip K. Dick had written Minority Report. I knew he had written Blade Runner, which is awesome, and also A Scanner Darkly which I have not seen, but that was it. So after I finished the titular story of this, I was amazed to discover the second story, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, was actually Total Recall, a movie that I have seen more times than I can count. Double my amazement when the next story was Paycheck! So, there were three sci-fi blockbusters in a row that I didn’t know he had written. That was a nice surprise. I was excited to see what huge movie might be next on the list, but neither of the remaining stories were movies, at least of the blockbuster variety. I will say that I thought one of those stories, Second Variety, was the best one in the book, even if the “twist ending” was painfully obvious. Looking up info on Philip K. Dick, I discovered that the movie Next is (very loosely) based on a story of his. So he’s got movies with Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Afleck and Nicholas Cage. That my friends is what I call not too shabby!

What I’m Watching:

Nora Robert’s Midnight Bayou, and on Lifetime to boot.

Oh yeah, just look at that cover baby. You may recognize Jerry O’Connel from such things as Sliders and as being the fat kid from Stand by Me:

Lauren Stamile took me a little longer to place, but she plays nurse Rose, Derek’s other woman on Grey’s Anatomy. Now why was I watching this piece of cinematic masterpiece you ask? Because it is filmed at Oak Alley Plantation in New Orleans, which I have toured.

I know after you saw that promo picture, you probably thought this was an awesome movie. It was not. After watching it, I am certainly not in a hurry to read a Nora Roberts’ book. Ever. However, I think this movie was to romance movies what Ice Spiders is to sci-fi movies and was enjoyable in much the same way. What can I say, there is something about the very poorly done, cheesy nature of these movies that appeals to me. But please don’t take that as a recommendation to watch the movie!

What I’m Listening To:

Better than Ezra is one of my all time favorite bands, and I think they don’t get nearly as much credit as they deserve. I remember one time they were playing at Purdue and we were pretty excited about it, but a lot of people were like, “Who are they? I’ve never heard of them.” Of course, once BTE took the stage and started reeling off the hits, those same people were like, “Oh yeah, I know that song. And that song. And that song…” Side note about that concert, BTE pulled a fan out of the crowd up on stage with them and gave him a guitar and actually let him play along with them…that was really awesome. I will also say that seeing BTE in New Orleans was one of the best concerts I have ever been to.

So lets go to the tape and check their record. Their first album, Deluxe, was released in 1993. Many would say this is the definitive BTE album, containing their biggest hit Good as well as Sara’s favorite, Rosealia. In ’97 they released Friction, Baby which contained some awesome songs like King of New Orleans and Desperately Wanting. Only a year later they released How does your garden grow? which has One More Murder and my personal favorite At the Stars. In 2001 they released Closer which contained the underrated Extra Ordinary as well as the original version of A Lifetime (later re-done on their next album). So that brings us to 2005, when they released Before the Robots, which is actually my favorite of their albums. 

That is a decade long career of consistently good albums and I don’t think they get enough credit for it. They’ve just released a new album Paper Empire, which I haven’t heard yet and can’t comment on, but with that track record, I’m willing to bet it is good. So, without further ado: