Instead of seeing Chicago, which I figure will hang around the cineplex for a while yet, on Sunday afternoon I jumped at the chance to see a furrin movie, City of God. It was based on a true story about gang violence in a Rio de Janeiro slum during the 1970s. I would say it owes not a little to Pulp Fiction, including the use of flashback, the segmentation of the plot into discrete, separately titled stories, and the hip retro gangsters (one of which, an Afro-Brazilian in slick threads and Jeri Curls, seemed modeled on Samuel L. Jackson's Jules Winnfield). But the cinema verité stylings--grainy film, intentionally choppy or out-of-focus shots--were more sophisticated and compelling than anything in Tarantino.

Two more strangers have told me I need to get married: a secretary in the campus business office and a hairdresser at MasterCuts. I lost track but that makes 5 or 6 people to say this since I came to west Texas. Along those lines, I did see an interesting online personal from a 32-year-old professor (presumably at Texas Tech), but two big problems: (1) no picture, (2) under "religion" she entered "Unitarian Universalist." That's interesting because St. Christopher's is right next door to the Lubbock UU congregation, but being a staunch Trinitarian I don't think it would work out. Plus I assumed that, her being a professor and I an ex-professor, we would have a lot in common, but for all I know she might teach Poultry Science. At least I have the cold comfort of knowing that the prediction I made in my inaugural entry is being fulfilled.

On a positive note, I found a used copy of Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love.