Chris Nicholson's Writing Weblog
March 26, 2005 • Saturday
The only thing "cherry" about Cherry Nyquil is the color. I promise you it's not the taste.
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March 25, 2005 • Friday
I have, as of this week, officially caught my fourth cold of the winter. (Not the official winter, bracketed by December 21 and March 20. Rather, the observed winter, bracketed by the day the temperature fell low and the day it rises again.)
Four colds in one winter — that's unprecedented for me. This cold isn't as bad as the one that knocked me out in February. This is just a normal, run-of-the-nose cold. I'm not comfortable, but I'm getting work done.
How I'm catching these colds is an elusive matter. This is the first winter I've been working from home. So I know I'm not catching them during water-cooler conversations with my co-workers.
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March 17, 2005 • Thursday
One of my favorite books is Tony Horwitz' Confederates in the Attic, which, to be brief, chronicles Horwitz driving around the American south asking people why they're still mad about the Civil War. But I didn't even own a copy of the book until this week.
Not being a Civil War buff, I probably never would have thought to read Confederates .... That I did read it was happenstance.
Upon returning from a two-month trip to Australia in 2001, a friend of mine, Long Island wedding photographer J.P. Vellotti, gave me the Horwitz book One for the Road as a welcome-home gift. (The text is about Horwitz' adventure of circumnavigating Australia by hitch-hiking.)
I read and enjoyed One for the Road, and mentioned as much to Peter Francesconi (who doesn't have a website I can link to), my editor (at the time) at USTA Magazine. Pete then suggested I read Confederates in the Attic. I didn't ask to borrow the book, but he brought it to the office anyway. So I read it. And loved it.
And then I had to give the book back.
Last weekend I related this story to my friend Deb Ferreira (who also doesn't have a website). Tuesday I received a package from Amazon.com containing a copy of Confederates in the Attic. A note on the delivery memo read:
"Chris, you really should own a copy of your favorite book. ... Deb."
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March 15, 2005 • Tuesday
I recently finished reading the Pete Hamill novel Forever. At more than 600 pages, reading it took ... well, you know.
Good novel. At times, the language is simply beautiful to read, especially in the early chapters.
Plus, it's a great story that moves the reader through 250 years of New York City's history. What amazes me most is that no one is making a movie based on this book. Yet.
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March 13, 2005 • Sunday
Happy Birthday to my step-father, Pat, who today turns to some age over 40.
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March 12, 2005 • Saturday
The March/April issue of USTA Magazine includes an article of mine about Mark Miller, a Chicago man who introduces sports to youngsters in Illinois. Through his Munchkin Programs, Miller teaches children the value of physical fitness and self-esteem.
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March 11, 2005 • Friday
I saw Million Dollar Baby a few weeks ago, before it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I'm not surprised it won, but the movie didn't strike me as Oscar-quality. (In fact, none of the nominees did, though Finding Neverland was close.)
If you've read this blog in the past couple months, then you know in January I read F.X. Toole's story "Million $$$ Baby," which the film was based on. While sitting in the theatre viewing the film, I began to contemplate the common theory that the book is always better than the movie. The truth is, I've never found that cliché to be true. Nor, however, false.
For instance, The Shawshank Redemption was slightly better than Stephen King's story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” On another King note, the film Lean on Me was better than "The Body." However, Sebastian Junger's book The Perfect Storm was better than the following film (if only for reasons of depth and analysis), as was F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gastby better than its celluloid counterpart.
(Let's not even begin comparisons of the Harry Potter books and films. I’d have a hundred million worldwide children practicing Cruciatus curses on me.)
While thinking about the issue more, a pattern did occur to me: In each case I could remember, whether I preferred book or film depended on which I encountered first. I saw Shawshank ... before I read it; I read ... Gatsby before I saw it. Was my opinion tainted by first impressions?
Apparently not. Just now I scanned my bookshelves and found this: October Sky. It’s one of my favorite modern books. I loved the film, but I liked reading the book even more. I read the book in 2004. But I saw the movie in 1999.
The same, I’ve realized, goes for John Irving's The World According to Garp, which I first saw as teenager and then read in my late 20s.
What about the works of my favorite writer, John Steinbeck? When it comes to The Grapes of Wrath, I didn't make it through the book or the film. Of course, I was 13 at the time. Perhaps, 20 years later (and hopefully at least 10 years more mature), I should give them another chance. The book first.
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March 10, 2005 • Thursday
As reported yesterday morning, my sister Katie and I traveled to Manhattan for a matinee of Spamalot, the Broadway musical based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The show was excellent. It certainly made me laugh more and harder than any stage musical I'd seen before. The writing was pretty solid — British humor at its best. The performances were great too, especially those of Hank Azaria and David Hyde Pierce.
Today is back to work for me, conducting a couple phone interviews and returning messages from yesterday. With any luck, I’ll also fit some writing in my schedule.
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March 09, 2005 • Wednesday
O.K., my own mother is now claiming that she doesn't know enough about what's going on in my life because I haven't been updating my blog as frequently as usual. That's got to be a sure sign of a new world, eh?
Today I'm going to New York City with my sister Katie to see the musical Spamalot. It's been a busy week (and month) for me, so tomorrow will be a welcome day of leisure and quality time with a sibling.
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