Picks for November 2008

Magazine: the November 7th issue of Newsweek, right after the election, was stellar. "Secrets of the 2008 Campaign" was some of the finest reporting I read about the entire election process. These Newsweek reporters were bound to secrecy for the length of the campaign, and finally revealed what they saw and heard in this issue. Absolutely mesmerizing.

Music: I recently found my piano lesson book from when I was ten years old, and started playing the pieces to see if I remembered them. They were under a bit of a haze of a few decades, but they started to form and shine themselves up pretty quickly. I don’t remember loving this book at all at the age of ten. I remember it being torture—the nun who was my piano teacher was unforgiving and a taskmaster. But something about it must have resonated, because I saved the book for all these years, and I felt quite a tug of longing and nostalgia when my fingers remembered the notes, and the compositions came to life.

Film: I really liked the new Coen Brothers film, ‘Burn After Reading’, although it was a bit cold emotionally. I suppose I would watch George Clooney read a physics textbook without complaint. And Brad Pitt was hysterical. But let’s talk about 007. I can’t say that I’ve ever willingly sat and watched an entire James Bond movie in my entire life, but ‘Casino Royale’ was on pay-per-view a few nights ago, and I was tired, so I sat. I was completely taken with Daniel Craig. Why didn’t anyone tell me there was a new Bond, and he was this fine specimen of manhood who looks phenomenal in a tuxedo and gives the word ‘laconic’ a sexy definition? I really liked it, I have to say. Looking forward to ‘Quantum of Solace’. So glad it’s not all about the gadgets.