I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor

Well, it was an eventful weekend, Lone Reader. Friday night was a dance party at my house. It was good, but not great. I think it suffered from lack of people – there were about 14 people, and we needed another 5 or so to make a dancing core that really busts it. There were good times, though, and now I have enough left over beer and snacks to feed an army. Plus I have three new CDs of dance music…ex-cellent.

The kids were at the ex’s house for the weekend. I missed them so much. Why am I still not used to it? I know it’ll get easier, but when? So, I had a pretty low-key weekend after the dancin’. On Saturday night I stayed in and watched The Spiral Staircase, a 1945 film with Dorothy McGuire and Ethyl Barrymore. It was pretty dang creepy, about a serial killer picking off women with disabilities one by one.

Yesterday I went to hear the Stan Bann Big Band at Centennial Lakes in Edina. You know what? I know it’s an artificial landscape meant to evoke a reverie of Venice, but I kinda enjoyed it. The weather was lovely and people were in paddle boats, listening to fine tunes in the open air. There were also racing boats like in Stuart Little. (No mice in natty nautical wear, though.)

I finally finished the biography of Elvis Costello, Complicated Shadows. Elvis was apparently not such a nice guy back in the day. That whole “angry young man” thing wasn’t too far off the mark. The book did give me an appreciation of why he does projects like recording with the Brodsky Quartet or country music. I had seen it as the work of a dilettante or a man with too many sycophants around to stop himself from vanity work. I still don’t know that I want to listen to it, but I do think it’s the work of a man truly passionate about many, many forms of music. Now I’m starting the book She is Me by Catherine Schine. The NYT described it as “tragedy and farce in the age of Ikea.” Well, we’ll just see about that, Claire Dederer.

I’m very tired…am I not sleeping well again? I hope not. That’s the first sign of the apocalypse of my fragile state. Overly dramatic? Perhaps. Too many question marks?? Always.

With punctuation and adoration,
Velma