I don't have any idea if anyone even reads my stories, but if you do, and you can find just one thing on here, (a book, movie, venue, artist or musician) that makes your world a little better place, or more colorful and fun to be in...well, then I've succeeded. All I know, is for me personally, I'm always looking for those "spice of life" discoveries. This Sunday Judy & I woke up to a beautiful sunny day( for Jan.) and decided it was a great day for a road trip to the Lou.. (St. Louis). I threw in a CD of Lucinda Williams (one of those discoveries that Patty Abbott led me to) and you just couldn't help but feel free as "Can't Let Go", "I Lost It" ,"Concrete & Barbed Wire", "Right in Time" and "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" helped set the mood. Great stuff! I dare you to listen to those 1st 2 tracks & tell me that you're still depressed. Once we got in town we headed to The Moolah Theatre, to see "CRAZY HEART". Over the next 2 hours I sat on my cozy leather couch and was transported to another place and time. Jeff Bridges gave a lifetime performance as country western singer "Bad Blake". I wont ruin it for you, but I will tell you to go see it, or rent it. The soundtrack is top rate & includes songs by Waylon Jennings,Lightnin Hopkins, T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham and of course Jeff Bridges and Colin Ferrell ( by the way..they can sing). We left the Moolah and headed to a couple of my favorite bookstores, BIG SLEEP BOOKS & LEFT BANK BOOKS in the Central West End. Of course we found a couple books we had to have..we always do. Then we headed to U City and Vintage Vinyl & Subterranean Books before catching the late afternoon showing of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" at The Tivoli Theatre. I was pretty excited about seeing this show. First, it was Heath Ledgers last film & most importantly it had Tom Waits playing Mr. Nick (The Devil). I was hoping for so much more than I got. It was pretty slow and the plot lines were a bit jumbled at times. However, I don't care if you saw the worst movie of the year, if you saw it at the Tivoli it was worth it. Finally, we stopped for a burger & hit Borders to pick up the "Crazy Heart" soundtrack before heading home. This was an unusual trip as we skipped Ted Drewes on this occasion (it was winter). As I hit the Illinois border and darkness fell, I stuck in a CD of Ramblin Jack Elliott and "Soul of a Man" and for a moment " all things were right with the world".
