A word on contemporary European cars and fashion:

On my last visit, I was quite taken by the Renault "Twingo", a boxy micro-van one doesn't see in the States, since Renault pulled out of our market what - fifteen years ago? (Remember their "Le Car"?) Many strange models are available overseas which aren't seen here, perhaps for that same reason (like the machines produced by Opel) or because they're in violation of our safety regulations. Mercedes now makes their own micro-van, and it's very unusual-looking in contrast to their regular line. But the compact cars which really caught me eye this time were the Ford KA and the new Opel Corsa - the former because it's so radical, the latter since it's so rational. The ultimate squid is this micro called the Smart City Coupé, produced by a joint venture between Daimler-Benz and the "Swatch" company. An incredibly stylish auto, if price is no object, is the new Audi "TT" - one was on display at the Düsseldorf aerodrome. The fashion with European women? Those shoes with the two-inch soles are very popular now.

I've been making a mix tape, kind of a "desert island" selection. In this case, what does a psychoanalysis by "favorite song" reveal?

With A Girl Like You the Troggs Doncha Bother Me Stones Don't Bring Me Down the Animals Are You Experienced? Jimi Tommy Overture The Who Wasn't Born to Follow the Byrds I Got A Feeling the Beatles Shake Some Action Flamin' Groovies Whiz Kid Mott the Hoople Space Oddity David Bowie International Feel Todd Rundgren Dead Finks Don't Talk Brian Eno The End of the Line Roxy Music

God Save The Queen Sex Pistols Final Solution Pere Ubu The 15th Wire German Film Star the Passions Windows Missing Persons Space-Age Love Song A Flock Of Seagulls I'll Be You the Replacements <1> Crash The Primitives Nothing to Hold Me Jesus Jones Falling One Dove Dreams the Cranberries La Di Da the Murmurs

The unrealistic guideline was one song from each year, recorded chronologically, with a tendency towards the conventionally "heavy". I used one of my mid-80's TDK machined-aluminum cassettes, loaded with new Sony tape. Like so many of these projects, now that it's completed I'll rarely (if ever) listen to the finished product again. But the tape's there if I need it.

Saw the movie "Pleasantville". What was that all about? A clever idea (to someone who watches way to much television) stretched into a too-long movie, with a nebulous New-Agey moral and a plot-line ad-libbed as they went along? The film did have some good images, and lots of nice 1950s-isms, but it left me strangely irritated. Great to see J. T. Walsh one last time, though. Preview: "A Bug's Life". Um... didn't this just come out?