Insomnia - Part II; Rain and Thunder - Part II; More on Insomnia

In the last entry, I mentioned that I didn't go to sleep until around 6 am Saturday. Sunday morning was very similar, except the time was around 3. And this morning was a repeat with a time of around 3.

It's like a warped form of jet lag.

Saturday's thunderstorm provided some rain, but more is needed. It did manage to knock down a scattering of tree limbs - all from the pine trees. So I spent about an hour Sunday wandering the yards picking up dropped limbs.

I was trying to figure out if there was a collective term for limbs - either as a unit, which might be pile, or a as an accumulation of individual units. So I went to the definitive source, James Lipton's "An Exaltation of Larks." But it does not have a listing for either case. I'm puzzled by the omission of "pile of limbs," seems like that would be fairly obvious.

By the way, the earliest recorded listing for "Exaltation of Larks" is in the "Egerton Manuscript" of 1450.

Surprise, surprise! This is the same James Lipton who hosts Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio."

Actually it's really about what I wind up doing when I can't go to sleep.

Saturday morning I watched a 1997 movie on HBO called "Inventing the Abbotts". I saw about 70%, I'd guess. And I kept thinking I don't recognize ANY of these people. One of the women looked vaguely familiar. Well, the two male leads were Billy Crudup and Joaquin Phoenix. I have no idea why this didn't click. The woman was Liv Tyler - Arwen of "Lord of the Rings." Even without her elfish ears, she looks elven.

One comment about "Abbotts." I'll quote from Roger Ebert's review. "The film's art direction is uncanny. It doesn't look like a period picture; it looks like a movie that was actually shot in 1955. Looking at the old cars and the storefronts and the front yards and the clothes, I was reminded of 'Young at Heart' or 'A Summer Place." Actually I spent about an hour thinking it was a 40-year-old film.

Sunday morning was "School Ties". I've seen bits and pieces now and then, but in this case I saw the last hour. It has a bevy of striking-looking actors. Brendan Fraser was truly gorgeous.

(Matt Damon was also present. I like him as an actor, and I certainly like his looks. But it's amazing how he always manages to look the same. And I think his role as Jason Bourne is great. He appears to be a very busy guy. IMDB lists him in seven upcoming productions. Did you know he is scheduled to play a young James T. Kirk in "Star Trek XI"?)

"School Ties" was not on HBO, so the version I saw was censored. In the message boards, there was mention of something that I couldn't figure out. The last lines are as follows:

Charlie Dillon: (Matt Damon) You know, I'm still gonna get in to Harvard. And in 10 years no one will remember that any of this happened. But you'll still be a goddamn Jew. David Green: (Brendan Fraser) And you'll still be a prick.

The version I saw had eliminated the gd from the first part and totally left out the second part.

This morning's video treat was John Water's "Pecker". Never heard of it. And for a Water's film, fairly tame. The lead is called "Pecker" because he pecks at his food like a bird.

OK! Enough dribble.

PAX!