Amadeus

Ry and I went to see the near-epic director's cut of Amadeus last night, which was an exceedingly pleasant way to spend three hours. While I haven't actually had time to give this the fuller thought it deserves, I'm sort of chewing on the idea that the film is really an exploration of and warning against the seven deadly sins. Salieri obviously covers envy and anger; Mozart has dibs on pride, lust, and gluttony; and, although to a lesser degree, Constanza embodies greed and sloth.

More (possibly overwrought) analysis of this soon, maybe.



It's that kind of day.

Taxing

I made a quick trip to the Rincon post office this afternoon to drop off some bills, and I could not help feeling smugly superior to all the people queued up to mail their taxes. Every local news program around the country will have a segment on tonight about how many people waited until the last minute this year to send in their returns, how long the lines were, how chaotic the state of postal affairs. And while I must admit to be a Procrastinator Patty in many aspects, I just don't understand why so many people put off the tax thing so long, then subject themselves to the lines, the tension, the utterly wasted time.

But then, I also don't understand why, despite the prominent signage and ad nauseum announcements about having your ticket and id ready when going through airport security, people still scramble to dig said documents out of the deepest depths of their baggage only when they reach the front of the line with 35 people behind them.

I digress.

While looking for reviews of David Gates's Jernigan, which I just read, I came across the following sites:

Jernigan's Taxidermy specializes in longhorn mounts and stuffed armadillos
Dennis Jernigan seems to be a man on a mission
I know nothing about conformations of folded proteins in restricted spaces, but Dr. RL Jernigan sure does
Gates's protagonist would have a field day with the works of Brenda Jernigan