Reading PhDs.

Yikes. I will be directing Two Gentlemen of Verona in less than two months and I've started to do my work. I'm currently reading the (copious) notes in The Arden Edition of the play, penned by William C. Carroll. The guys who write these things are so... I'm not sure what the word I am looking for is: perhaps "specialized." This guy is going on and on about Ovid and other writers that pre-date Shakespeare. It's not boring by any means, but it sure is dense. I started reading the notes over some Panang Chicken down at the Thai restaurant next to my house. I am trying this new Thai restaurant because I decided that I don't like the food at my old Thai hangout.

I have been watching a lot of movies, too. This weekend it was Jarmusch's Down by Law which is really great (I've decided that I really like Jarmusch), James Ivory's Heat and Dust (My Merchant Ivory obsession continues unabated) and Blake Edwards' Days of Wine and Roses, which I advise you to avoid. It's supposedly a classic alcoholic movie (along with The Lost Weekend which I also found dreary), but I didn't like the characters and alcoholism is nothing if not frustrating as a condition. Read Dry instead.

These recent hot days are nice. The reason I think I love them so much is that they compel me to do absolutely nothing. On cooler days I feel I must be out and run around and go to the grocery or the dry cleaners or visit people I like. When it's hot like this. I don't feel the need to do any of those things. I feel the need to be in my house and sit on my ass... like I did all weekend.