Standing on a beach with a gun in my hand, staring at the sea, staring at the sand . . .

. . . The Cure, Killing an Arab

I don't know why everyone is so impressed that President Bush read The Stranger on his summer vacation. I mean, if I could read it in high school, he can certainly read it now that he's 60. I'd only be impressed if he read it in the original French.

Besides, reading is not the same as understanding.

More significantly, is anyone else bothered by the sheer coincidence that the book is about killing an Arab?

(For a more humorous interpretation, check out Salon for the president's book report. And yes, it's definitely worth sitting through the ad.)

Speaking of el Presidente, the good folks over at Bring it On! think that this video is discreetly making fun of him. What do you think?

30 Days of Truth: Day 24

Today I'm supposed to make a playlist for someone, and explain why I chose all the songs.

I used to make mix tapes all the time -- later, they evolved into mix CDS. And I still occasionally do it -- just not for other people: I make them for me.

Occasionally, my mixes have a theme. Sometimes they just have a mood. Most often, they are just an attempt to capture a moment in time, musically. Sometimes, then, the moment in time or the mood or the theme intersects with a particular relationship, and later, when listening to the CD, I realize that it's all about that relationship -- good, bad, or indifferent.

This, my dears, is why I liked High Fidelity so much.

Some years ago, I had a boyfriend who made me mix CDs: they were always attempts at a theme, and were, by and large, intended to be funny. I tried to make him a mix once. It had no focus, no unifying theme, no real thought. It was merely a collection of songs that I thought he would like. I wish I could take it back, for many reasons.

Last year, I was dating someone who asked me to make him a CD with a collection of things that he might like or that would expand his musical knowledge. I started working on it, but then I decided it (he?) really wasn't worth the effort. After all, a mix CD is a gesture of love.

So, reconciling all that with the mission at hand, I'm going to post a playlist for all my writer and blogger friends, about the things we love: writing and reading and books and authors. Because you're awesome.

1. Moxy Fruvous: My Baby Loves A Bunch of Authors (Speaks for itself.)
2. 10,000 Maniacs: Hey Jack Kerouac (Author, best known for On the Road.)
3. Ryan Adams: Sylvia Plath (Poet and author of The Bell Jar. Sadly, best known for committing suicide by putting her head in the oven.)
4. Vampire Weekend: Oxford Comma (A song about punctuation, at least in title.)
5. Elvis Costello: Every Day I Write The Book (Speaks for itself.)
6. Bruce Springsteen: Dancing in the Dark ("I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book.")
7. The Beatles: Paperback Writer (Speaks for itself.)
8. U2: Stranger in a Strange Land (Title of a novel by Robert A. Heinlein.)
9. Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit (Based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.)
10. Guns 'N Roses: November Rain (Allegedly based on the short story Without You by Del James.)
11. Metallica: One (Based on Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.)
12. Led Zeppelin: Ramble On (Filled with references to J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.)
13. The Police: Tea in the Sahara (References to The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.)
14. The Cure: Killing an Arab (Based on The Stranger by Albert Camus.)

Yesterday: Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.
Tomorrow: Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.