When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around

Despite the extra-long title to this post, which is lifted directly from a Police tune from Zenyatta Mondatta (both the tune and the album are highly recommended), the world -- at least not mine -- isn't running down. Although based on the fact that I'm working my ass off and not getting enough sleep might eventually mean I'll be run down. For now, though, the Tuesday deadline looms large and the weekend appears as nothing more than a rest stop on the dash to that finish line.

I've been concentrating on getting a particular project wrapped up, and it's essentially a matter of organizing 19 pages of raw data and making sure it's accurate, and since that's the bulk of what I've been handling over the past 36 hours, my head feels like it's about to explode. Talking to a friend in Bangkok last night, I explained what I've been doing work-wise and that I'm pretty much at the point of going blind, and he suggested it was perhaps another activity that was contributing to my eventual blindness, but I assured him I would much prefer that activity to what I've been doing. It's not as productive but it has my current project beat hands down ;-)

The last few days in NYC have been nasty and cold, and I find that being locked in an office with a keyboard and a pile of paper in the inbox, coupled with gloomy, dank skies devoid of sunlight, are a recipe for being low, as the Cracker song goes. So upon returning home, I kept the lights down, fired up a havana candle and a Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler playlist on iTunes. It's interesting; usually Knopfler's stuff is rip-roaring and powerful, but the iTunes mix as (randomly) constructed seemed to be dominated by moody, evocative stuff from his solo catalog, especially the tunes from Sailing To Philadelphia (excellent album, absolutely incredible), The Ragpicker's Dream (not quite as good but a few awesome -- awesome -- tunes) and a smattering of Dire Straits stuff. Nothing quite like the threesome of "Romeo & Juliet," "Where Do You Think You're Going" and "You And Your Friend" to wrap up an otherwise excellent playlist and an aggravation-filled, snowy, slushy, crappy week. I'd spend a little phone-time with my other half and then lie down, but I don't have the time -- I've got to get back to work ;-)

I didn't want to wind down this particular post without mentioning today's incident in an Atlanta courthouse, where a prisoner awaiting trial for rape killed three people, including a judge. Upon hearing the news, I instantly thought about my girlfriend's father, who is a federal judge, and I was a bit stunned, as I am sure most people were upon hearing/reading the news. Neither of us understood how a prisoner in shackles could get ahold of a deputy's gun, storm into the courthouse and kill a judge, but I have it on good authority that the movie version is already in the works, with Rob Reiner as The Judge, Wesley Snipes as the prisoner, Ileanna Douglas as The Deputy who gets shot (but dies in the hospital) and Sandra Bullock as the cute but determined and baggage-laden federal agent who tracks down the bad guy in the parking lot of a Quickie Mart as he attempts to put on a newly-purchased pair of sneakers.

If this real estate tax consulting gig doesn't work out, I'm joining Chili Palmer in Hollywood and become a casting agent. Anyone who needs representation, call me.

We'll do lunch.