airtight plastic can

Scrabble on the iPhone
Casino Royale (IMDB)
Jonathan Lethem - Chronic City (Amazon)
Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here (lala)
Stereolab - Instant O in the Universe (lala)
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (lala)
Play-Doh

You may have noticed the more comprehensive list of media intake at the beginning of these posts. I hope you actually have better things to do than notice this, but in case you are noticing, thanks for noticing. And if I am to be honest about what media has been influencing me the most in this little bracket of time, I would have to include Play-Doh.

Maya cashed in a forgotten Toys-R-Us gift card on a 24-pack of lovely virgin Play-Doh, little cylinders of pure-color possibility. We used to spend many hours on Play-Doh monsters but the Doh and her interest in it seemed to dry up a while back so we moved on, separately a little. It happens.

But we are happily, if temporarily, back on Dr. Frankenstein duty. My dog-faced boy - were I more on my game I'd have named him Jo-Jo - seems appropriately concerned about his proximity to her fang-toothed, multi-eyed sea slug, and nobody wants a piece of "The Tunnel Worm."

As for everything else on the list, I've always liked this song

The Crystal Lake - Grandaddy

but Grandaddy is always a bit of a bummer to me. I'm starting to feel like I'm roommates with the guys in Chronic City, occasionally touching base for an hour somewhere in the house and otherwise forgetting they exist. The new Gil Scott-Heron is a revelatory thing about which I will have more substantial things to say, and Stereolab, like Play-Doh in an airtight plastic can, cheerily abides the ravages of time with nary a blemish.

Jaunty Monty And The Bubbles O...

I mused that Jason Statham should be the next James Bond while idly losing at Scrabble during Casino Royale this morning, but my wife intriguingly offered up Michael Chiklis (Vic from "The Shield.") He'd be a definite game changer for the franchise. She and everybody else with whom I am playing iPhone Scrabble is beating the pants off me, but I'm starting to get that it's the final score that wins, not the cleverness of the individual word choices, something that would be good to remember as I work on this book, which I am actually working on.