1*4*03

Today I turn thirty-one, and this town has gotten about fourteen inches of snow in the last twenty-four hours. Since the weather precludes any birthday visits to, say, famous museums or remote picnic spots, we are spending the day watching "catalog" (that is, "no longer new release") movies from the video store's generous program of "seven movies for $7.77 for seven days." So far we have seen Diane Keaton's bizarre documentary called "Heaven"--an amusing if dry compendium of the ravings of "ordinary" people and cuts from old fantasy films and evangelical propaganda. The person who chose this movie is also a big fan of "Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees" and Orson Welles' "F for Fake," both great-sounding movies that send me quickly into slumber. I have high hopes for some of our other selections, including "Easy Living" with Jean Arthur and Ray Milland, Busby Berkeley's "42nd Street," and "Road to Morocco" with Crosby and Hope. Then perhaps there will be some birthday bacchanal.