I re-discovered something last week that I had forgotten about. I was on my way to Borders to see how much a book about the Beatles I wanted was going to cost me. I had gotten into the habit of going to Borders to buy books I was interested in and then it occurred to me that once I read them, they did little more than take up space in my home and make me thirty bucks poorer. It’s cool to own books I suppose because of things one might assume if they see that one owns a lot of books. “Oh, he’s smart because he owns books.” Yeah, but most of my books are about comedy or baseball so be careful in assuming that means anything other than I’m kind of a dope with a Borders discount card.
So I was on my way to Borders when it proverbially hit me. There is such a thing as a library. I headed over to the library for the first time in years. When I was younger I went to the library almost daily mostly just to get out of the house. There is not much in the way of ‘space’ at home for a kid who has to share an 800 square foot house with his four siblings and his parents. It’s a pretty sad thing when the library is more appealing than home but that’s a whole other therapy session.
When I walked in I went back to the biography section and got a little carried away I think. I not only picked up the Beatles book I was looking for but also a biography on Babe Ruth and Ben Franklin. All ‘B’s mind you. I’m not sure what I was thinking but now I’ve got roughly 1500 pages of reading to knock out in the next few weeks. On the plus side I’ll know more about John, Paul, George, Ringo, Ben and The Babe then I had ever anticipated.
I wanted to read about the Beatles because they are the greatest group to have ever existed. Whether or not you like them it is a fact they changed music forever and there will never be another band like them. I wanted to read about Ben Franklin because I’ve always quietly admired him. Here was a guy who could have been president but was smart enough to realize it was way too demanding of a job. I wanted to read about Babe Ruth because he is one of the greatest baseball players to play for my favorite baseball team. I love baseball. I love the Yankees and I love reading books I didn’t have to pay for so there ya go.
Other than recent trips to the library to overindulge on books about people whose names start with ‘B’ my life has been pretty uneventful. No new surgeries, which is fantastic. For the first time in a long time everything is pretty much alright.
RIGHT NOW
SONG - All of them off of The Beatles Love album - This album was originally arranged as the soundtrack for the Cirque de Soleil show of the same name in Vegas and has since been released as an album. This album is an incredible and worthy testament to the genius that is the Beatles. Also, I get to hear the music without having to see a bunch of agile Frenchmen doing things with their bodies that I’m pretty sure they shouldn’t be doing. At least not in public.
MOVIE - Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest - It’s not the type of chest you’re thinking either because that would just be gross.
FREE RINGTONES! - This is for real. You can download free ring tones of me at www.newsok.com/news9/ringtones/ so you can tell all of your friends that I not only write great but I sound twice as good as I write. For the record that still only makes me one quarter as talented as any given Ogle but a fella’s gotta start somewhere!
- Joel David
www.chkona.com
www.myspace.com/joeldavidd