Miscellania

Wow, didn't realize it had been almost ten days since the last post.

Movies I recommend, though I only rent videos and DVDs, I don't go out to the movies: The Transporter (flashy, fun, action, shot in France), The Legend of 1900 (just a real cool story with great music by Ennicone), Tears of the Sun (captivating and great), The Pianist (stunning and totally great).

Iron butterfly. It's not a reference to the band. It's a coined term, I think. Is there an actual definition for iron butterfly? I don't believe I've seen one, but it makes no difference - I have one.

Someone I know refers to certain people, but in particular women, as butterflies - people whom, as much as you love them, delightfully flit around, are less than dependable and by whom you are delighted when they manage to do what they say. They are wonderful in their own way as long as you understand their qualities and keep them firmly in mind - you can fully appreciate butterflies still and they can be a bright spot in life.

So then what is an iron butterfly? A woman who might retain a trace of whatever one could appreciate about a butterfly, as above, but who is most decidedly not one. An iron butterfly is a woman who can be counted on, who is not innately silly but is level-headed, but yet still retains the "fairer" qualities of a woman. This may sound very unpolitically correct, sexist or whatever; I happen to like the concept. If you are offended, then you have arrived at the wrong blog, so godspeed.

Found a weblog (a 'blog - I didn't know what they were either) featuring some of past great cycling personages - check it out:

http://tour-de-france.blogspot.com/

Bottecchia was an Italian cyclist in the Twenties who was quite promising (quite) and had had some very good results in the Tour de France, when he was found alongside a vineyard in Italy, his bike with him, dead. His murder has never been solved, but a friend of mine is hoping to either elucidate it, or make it an even bigger mystery.

Song recommendation: Howlin' Wolf - Red Rooster, but the false start version in which he is jamming with the likes of Eric Clapton, Hubert Sumlin, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Stevie Winwood and others. From The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, also on Chess' Howlin' Wolf His Best, Vol. 2.

And now the latest in research...
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnat tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fcuknig amzanig huh?

What's your favorite Dylan song? I like Lay, Lady Lay, Jokerman, Not Dark Yet, Blind Willie McTell, Girl of the North Country, Hurricane, Tangled up in Blue.
http://bobdylan.com/songs/

The song referred to below is When I Paint my Masterpiece.

Welcome to my corner of the universe. I had some great ideas for what to put here, but now I need to fall back and think about it. So just bear with me, I guess.

Here's something to start: Earth at Night

Good or great books: The Da Vinci Code, Bridges of Madison County, Eaters of the Dead. Yeah, not very literary, but hey, I liked them.

Was that Botticelli or Bottecchia? The former was an artist, the latter a cyclist. Dylan sang about one of them - the streets of Rome are filled with rubble. Got me a date with Botticelli's niece. Could just as easily have described Bottecchia, though.

Wonder if my friends will find me here...maybe if I leave some breadcrumbs.