Paul Newman

Paul Newman died. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-newman28-2008sep28,0,2676793.story I think the world is a little bit sadder place today because he's not here, but it's also a much better place because he was here. I discovered him when I was 17 and saw The Sting at the BYU Varsity Theatre. I went because Robert Redford was in it, and he was hot. But about halfway through, I started noticing the other guy. He was pretty hot, too, for one thing. He looked like he was always thinking about a really good joke. I've watched the poker scene a million times, but I still love every minute, and it seems like he thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. Off screen he did some amazing things, but he didn't make a big deal about himself--he was married for 50 years, raised 6 children, drove race cars, and founded a successful charity. He lived a full life doing what he wanted to do and being good to people along the way. This week, I'm having a Paul Newman film festival.

Running, or, Not Dying of Boredom While Running

I'm training for the CIM (California International Marathon), which means I can't skip a necessary run. Saturday was one of the rare occasions when none of my running buddies were available and I had to do 10 miles by myself. Listening to music wasn't working for me, but luckily, I had some 1948 Sam Spade radio mysteries on my ipod (doesn't everyone?). Yeah, pretty geeky, but they were so entertaining, it was my easiest 10-mile run ever.

Anyway, when I got home, I added some podcasts for next time, and also found this great website. http://librivox.org/ It's run by volunteers, and their goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. They have books in 10 different languages. If you're looking for current literature, this is not the place to go, but for catching up on all the books you wrote papers on in college but never read, or practicing your foreign language skills, it's great. And by the way, if you're interested, you can volunteer as a reader.

Speaking of podcasts, my daughter works for the BYU Writing Center. They have a new weekly podcast about language and composition. http://wordofmouth.byu.edu/ It's still in the "coming soon" stages, but it should start in the next week or two, so check it out.

Bill Simmons again

For some reason, the Bill Simmons link disappeared from my post, so here it is again: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/index

Batman

I finally saw Dark Knight last weekend. It was very dark and the joker was horrific, but I liked it a lot. Heath Ledger is amazing. I keep wondering what incredible roles he would have created if he had lived a long time. I love that he took so many risks. Christian Bale is great, too, but I still prefer Michael Keaton. He is such a hot Batman. Harvey Dent was perfect. I love superhero movies.

Anyway, thinking about Heath Ledger got me started on a new top 10 list (new for me, anyway)--riveting performances in a movie. This is different from an amazing scene, or from a great ensemble performance. It's a performance by an actor (or actress) where you are mesmerized every time they appear onscreen. The quality of the movie is not relevant, and it doesn't count if they're riveting just because they're so good-looking! So far I've come up with the following, in no particular order, but I'd love to hear some other opinions.

Heath Ledger in Dark Knight
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean
Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and The Godfather
Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful
Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind