Cafe Hitch-hike

2004-08-02

Closer to London

Oooh, my eyes are at the point of glazement. Catalogs, catalogs, and more ordering catalogs of books! I've gotten less selective with these books because I've discovered there is a cookie-cutter way of book selection at this-here public library:

1. NEVER include books with more than 300 pages.

2. ALWAYS pick books written at the 8-10th grade reading level MAX.

3. NEVER pick anything with a scholarly bent.

4. ALWAYS get the Janet Evanovich and other trashy writers or else the 50+ year old women will scream hell and highwater!

You see, the library operates with an assumption that everyone in this community are working class dolts who do not have higher-level reading interests or want to even attempt that. I say, "WRONG! DEAD WRONG!" We get plenty of people who want books with a little more challenge, but oh-god-no! Don't tell my supervisor that!

I also pick books for multicultural fiction. One of the sups doesn't like to buy too many of those titles because she says they always get stolen or destroyed. I think she doesn't just want them in the library to begin with. Oh, yeah, and certainly we shouldn't have "too much" titles for our growing African American and East Indian population! (Can you say "Examples of White Privilege?")

(**End of Librarian's Rant**)

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I went to see Manchurian Candidate this weekend. Denzel rocks, Streep was the perfect incestual mega-bitch, and Liev was menacing (yo, I've loved him since Daytrippers, ahhhh, what a darling). However, what grabbed my attention was that Closer, formerly a London Westside play, is coming to screen. I totally regret-regret-regret not seeing it while I was there in '98 (along with Sir Kevin Spacey in Iceman Cometh). If you want to see a more scathing commentary on present sexual mores, watch this. I only read the damn thing, and it made me so queasy!

Closer is about the doomed romantic trysts of a obtiuary writer, a dermatologist, a photographer, and a vulnerable exotic dancer. They sort of girl-swapped, not swinging but just broke up and ended up with each other. Everyone's devious, pathetic, manipulative, hurt, and blatantly sexual. Nobody wins, everybody loses, and the end just broke me up inside.

While I was watching the trailer, I was amused to see Julia Roberts had a part in it. Hahaha, the thing is she probably won't have to act to play her part.

It stirred me some more... London... My God, what an enhanted place... I was there for a little over 2 months and I did everything (yes EVERYTHING) I enjoyed the most to the fullest. Looking at the trailer really, really stirred the memories of that vast city and the people I met there, the experiences I had, the wishes that surfaced... I don't have enough time to write about this 'cause this place is going to close soon, but it feels weird to be reminded of something so intense that I otherwise I thought I forgot about or just moved on from it.

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