my little blue dress

I really enjoyed Bruno Maddox's book (according to the cover, "a novel a memoir a novel") My Little Blue Dress. It starts off as the hilariously implausible memoir of an Englishwoman born precisely at the turn of the century; later, we come to understand that it is implausible because it is being forged, desperately, by one Bruno Maddox, whose story takes over the book. Um, yeah, it's really funny. Here, read the New York Times review, which makes it sound like a bit too much of an inside joke, but otherwise conveys the gist better than I'm going to.

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... except that it turns out my old GIbson has a different-shaped bridge. Mike at Gryphon supposed he could try to fit the pickup to the instrument, but he looked uncomfortable. His other suggestion was to use a contact transducer, which would be expensive and also delicate. Since the point of my pickup efforts is to let me loosen up more on stage, I don't think that's the right solution.

So, I'm back to plan A: Get a new mandolin with a pickup, or a new mandolin and a pickup to go with it. Sigh. Tried out what they had on hand at Gryphon, but wasn't grabbed, so I think it's back to Sylvan for a closer look at their selection.

D.O.A. is on. I liked that movie.

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Oh, also, I liked Identity. It's director James Mangold's fifth film (and the first he hasn't had a hand in writing); I've seen and enjoyed all of them except Heavy. (The others: Cop Land, Kate & Leopold, and Girl, Interrupted.) I'm probably the only person I know who eagerly awaits each new James Mangold film. He's not a flashy auteur (speaking of which, saw a trailer for the new Tarantino movie!), he just makes good, solid Hollywood entertainment. I say "just" as if good, solid entertainment from Hollywood weren't a rare thing.

Anyway. If you've seen the trailer and you've read Ebert's review you can probably already guess what the big twist is, but that's okay. The subtext transforms what is otherwise a pretty standard ten-little-indians setup. Ebert says it "seems to be on autopilot for the first two acts and then reveals that it was not"; it's probably more fun to watch if you already know what you're watching.

I don't have much to say, I guess. It was just a good movie. If you like that sort of thing. I was disappointed by the last scene, but disappointing endings seem to be de rigeur for the genre.

When is somebody going to give Clea DuVall a starring role?