In the past few weeks of inactivity I've picked up a few RSS subscribers, which means it's about time to chase 'em off with a typically uninteresting post. Courtesy of the ever-hospitable Pablo, I got to spend a four-day weekend in Ft. Worth catching up on my Asian food consumption and used book shopping. I also played D&D for the first time in 20 years. In the interim the rules have become a little more sophisticated, as have the refreshments; in high school we gorged on pizza and Pepsi, but the treats this time included Belgian ale and dried peas coated in wasabi.

On the way back to the Panhandle I stopped by Booked Up, Larry McMurtry's massive antiquarian book shop occupying four buildings on the town square of his dusty little hometown. I didn't find much in my budget except for a Western Rite liturgy printed by the Antiochan Orthodox Church of America--basically a modified Anglican Prayer Book service. If you want an antique leather-bound tome with little reading value--say, an eighteenth-century French legal code--and are willing to pay through the nose for it, then Booked Up is the place for you. For me, it's not really worth the detour, although I was pleasantly surprised at how scenic the landscape around US-82 was, rather like a poor man's New Mexico. (And the first American edition of Venus in Furs was an interesting curio, though I wouldn't have paid the thirty bucks for it.)

Consumed in January

Films:Bringing Up Baby (1938); 2046 (2004); Love Me Tonight (1932); A Good Marriage (1982); Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989); Top Hat (1935); The Sorrow and the Pity (1969); Nô (1998)--

Underworld: Evolution (2005); Good Night and Good Luck (2005).Books: Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One; Evelyn Waugh, Scoop; The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila By Herself. Booze: Bodega Norton Cabernet Sauvignon 2003; Bodegas Castejon Vina Rey "70 Barricas" Tempranillo 2003; Blackstone Merlot; Oak Grove Cabernet Sauvignon 2003; Chateau Grand Caillou 2000.