Vernon Duke's thoughts of Paris Ring True

I was recently reading an essay by Art Buchwald, who spoke with Vernon Duke, the composer of the song "April In Paris," and how he tried to describe Paris to E. Y. Harburg, the lyricist.

In the essay, Harburg asks Duke 'what's the feeling during April in Paris?' Duke says, "I always had the feeling that in Paris in the spring, something wonderful should inevitably happen, but it never did," which helped Harburg with the lyric:

April in Paris

Who can I turn to?

What have you done to my heart?

My husband and I formally began our efforts to conceive a second child when we went to Paris, with our eight year old daughter. I was ovulating, we were in love with life and Paris, and I was certain that the timing would be perfect. Financially, we were finally at a good station in our lives. Shortly after, we took a half year break when I accepted a new position. But alas, three years later, we still have not succeeded in getting pregnant. I hope we do soon. My body aches to have another child.

Blue Lights

Blue lights on the rooftops
endless windows of street shops
glistening sidewalks filled with feet
cars doubleparked in the street
summer is here
it's the end of the day
it's just beginning
I hope the blue lights will stay.
-By Linda Sheridan

Gus Van Sant

I met director Gus van Sant recently, to participate in a roundtable session for his new film, "Last Days", a film based on a fictitious character loosely based on Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, that focuses on the final days of his life. The film stars Michael Pitt, who starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" (he was at the roundtable as well.)

While I am a fan of some of van Sant's earlier works, ("My Own Private Idaho," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," "Drugstore Cowboy,"), I can't say this new film is great. The camera lingers for painful lengths of time to watch the main character, Blake, stumble and mumble through the woods behind his crumbling mansion, swim, make mac 'n cheese, and avoid those looking for him. There are some interesting visual and sound cues, but it's just not enough to make me care about this character...(to be honest, I felt sorry for Courtney when he died, but I had no personal grievances about what he'd done, I felt it was extremely selfish.)

The link to where my review is at the right, at www.tailslate.net. Run by my brother-in-law Michael, writing reviews and doing Q&As has given me the opportunity to interview some great actors including Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside"), Daniel Day Lewis, Rebecca Miller and Catherine Keener ("The Ballad of Jack and Rose.")

TomKat-Triple Threat

I guess I need to get a life, because here I am writing about these two again. I feel their relationship is impacted by three factors-Scientology, Tom's midlife crisis, and yes, perhaps, a little bit of being in love. The media seems to forget how anyone, in the first flushes of a new romance, acts goofy, needs to be near their beloved every second of the day, and drools on their every word. I've been there. That said, it did seem a little frightening that immediately following Cruise's proposal atop the Eiffel Tower (I'm a francophile, and I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and the view is very beautiful and romantic, so I'll give him props for that), they held a press conference to announce their engagement! That's kind of scary.

Manhattan's Faux Suburbia-The Upper East Side

After leaving the cinema the other night, my friend and I thought we'd grab a cup of coffee and dessert. It was about 10 p.m. at night, and as we walked along the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I was blown away that, considering we live in "the city that never sleeps," everything was CLOSED, save for a couple of bistros. About the only place that was open was Serendipity. On a lark, we went inside, thinking we could get a table and some hot chocolate (it was a Monday night.) "There's an hour and a half wait," said the maitre'd. Hell with that, we said. Guess anyone else craving dessert went there, too.

We meandered around the city, now to find on the block next to Bloomingdale's a Home Depot with a fancy facade. Home Depot??? When I can see a few avenues down the Plaza Hotel? It was too bizarre.

After traipsing around some more, and having no luck finding an open place for dessert, we spotted a couple with ice cream cones and salivated. "Where did you get the ice cream cones?" we asked. "There's a Mr. Softee truck parked on Lex," the woman said. Mr. Softee!! on the Upper East Side. Works for us.

We grinned and fled to Lex to grab a couple Vanilla cones that cooled our palette and satisfied our quest.

Cruisin' into Midlife Crisis

I'm so sick of hearing about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and their "bizarre" romantic behavior in the media. Is it to plug their new films? Perhaps. Does it have to do with Scientology? Don't know. What I do think, is that Cruise seems to have a case of midlife crisis! Courting a young woman who was smitten with him as her teen idol, this guy is all about soaking up the adulation. I wonder what his poor kids are thinking when daddy is acting like a lovesick fool on tv. It's nice to see your parents be romantic, but Katie's not their mom, not to mention she's only about 15 years older than they are.

Four o'clock pit stop

It's taking some used to handling this blog, but I'll get it.

So much to discuss...

Recently, there's been two books published about women who have severed friendships, and how this impacts their lives, in many cases, it's been agonizing.

I've been dealing with this on a personal level myself, and I hate to say it, but I don't feel so traumatized by the experience...I haven't dared to ask the friend who I have distanced myself from, but I've a feeling she's alright. We were inseparable in high school and college, but once I married, we began to drift apart. We tried to keep it going for some time afterwards, but we've gone in completely in different directions, myself a wife, mother and writer/editor that has a busy schedule, and she a budding thespian. I'm very proud of her work and talent, but I've found that despite my numerous attempts to see her perform, the conversations after the show would still revolve around only theatre and not much more. Calls are nonexistent at this point, and emails far and few between. I don't feel bad about it, I just don't...feel.

Music, some new releases on the horizon, White Stripes and Coldplay next week. We'll have input then! I'm missing Jeff Buckley too, his anniversary was on May 29 (1997). What a lovely and promising voice.

Movies-Read the book "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants," then saw the film with my daughter. Quite good, but not the same as the book, alas. Excellent performances by America Ferrera. Will discuss it more at length down the line.

Television-I'm seriously addicted to "Gilmore Girls," as much as I was as a child to "Little House on the Prairie." I had zilch interest in the show when it first aired, finding the mother a bit too 'buddy' like with her daughter, and sometimes she still irritates me, but she seems better. And I love Rory, and Luke is one of the sweetest male characters on television.

Other hot shows on tv now-"Lost" and "House". Love them both. But now I have to wait till next September for new shows!!!