briny shadows

Lucy's birthday tonight, so went to East Melange in New Haven. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but Lucy's into it, so I ate with her and two second-year law students. Great guys, really funny, sweet, and out-going. Was surprised. Had birthday vanilla mochie... I don't care what the NYTimes says, mochie has a weird texture, too smooth.

Finished Fires today. One page had the phrase "briny shadows," which is just a perfect phrase, and described the contents of a monster's house -- and included a Billy Collins' book, which is an extremely funny detail... and probably isn't something most people caught. Nick has amazing control, and while not alot seems to happen, that just shows how good a writer he is. I try to pack too much action in to too little a space. He gets the details in. Really nice. The ending's a little too neat for the rest of the novel, and I am annoyed at the similarities in plot, but really, they're superficial, so I got to get over it. And stop comparing myself to more succesful people, especially ones who read this blog. Hi, Nick!

Duke Ellington's Ocht O'Clock Rock came up on the iPod today and I was astounded by how gorgeous a piece of music it is. In fact I think it's one of those perfect jazz songs that just gets better and better every time you hear it. Most of Chet Baker's stuff falls into that category, as far as I'm concerned, and so does Ocht O'Clock Rock, though in a different way. I just appreciate it so much. Give it a listen.