1. The new year greeted me with a nasty head cold that lasted longer than it should have because I tried to go back to work too soon out of boredom.
2. My two week long holiday vacation was nice. Stayed at home mostly but did make one brief trip to Nashville to see some old pals and a couple of new ones.
3. Ate some good grub recently, guess something's gotta replace the drinking:
A. Banh Mi from Lee's bakery on Buford Highway.
B. Tortas from Holy Taco in East Atlanta.
C. Al Pastor torta from El Pastor on Buford Hwy. Sort of like a Mexican gyro, meaty, greasy, good. And huge and cheap.
D. Bbq at Jack's in Nashville. I like the shoulder and the sausage best, but the brisket is pretty good too. I prefer the KC style sauce with some Texas as backup when I want a bit of heat.
E. Burgers at Flip, the hot new spot in Atlanta. I had the pork belly and the hangar steak, both were very good. I didn't try the Foie Gras milkshake. Nor the Krispy Kreme.
4. Saw a few movies recently:
A. The Wrestler. Much better than I would have thought. Rourke is, as everyone is saying, perfect for this part. What I liked best was that a movie was the perfect means for this story. Nothing was really missing, nothing was really extraneous. It worked.
B. Gran Torino. Was there a cliche or stereotype that didn't make it into this movie? Sort of Dirty Harry meets the after-school special. Still managed a certain charm but come on. This could have been so much better.
C. Nobody's Fool. I'd never seen this before and I had just re-read the book. Paul Newman was excellent but this was an example of a movie being a terrible vehicle for a story. You simply can't do justice to the narrative complexity and depth of character development present in the novel in ninety-some minutes.
