What...

...I'm listening to: Danielia Cotton. She is a young lady from rural New Jersey (I didn't know there was such a thing) who can sing blues based rock n roll like nobody's business. She has a CD out called Rare Child and every song is a gem. If I had to describe her sound, I might compare her musically to the Black Crows, although Cotton is a lot less trippy-dippy than the Crows, with a more stripped-down vibe happening. Cotton's lyrics are more personal, and the music more straight ahead rock and roll. For someone from New Jersey, the music has a bit of a 70s southern rock sound to it. So, take the Black Crows, Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Aretha Franklin and some funk and you've got Danielia Cotton. Whatever, she makes great music to listen to while you're in the shower or working out or doing something that needs an energetic soundtrack. I hope she makes more CDs and goes on a big honkin' tour that makes her a household name.

...I'm reading: No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin. There's not a lot of people named Doris anymore. Maybe that's why I like Goodwin, because she's a Doris, a throwback to another time. And she's a baseball fan; she's been known to wax rhapsodic (do what now?) about the Brooklyn Dodgers. She's a good writer as well. She knows how to tell a story and takes you to the place the story is happening so you can see it clearly in your mind. This particular book contains a plethora of stories, all about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and what it was like to be in the White House, in Washington, and in America, from the time just before Pearl Harbor through the duration of World War II. It's an excellent read but it's gonna take me awhile; it's over 600 pages. I'm a little slow. (Make of that comment what you will.)

...I'm watching: "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3". I visited New York City for the first time last month and in preparation I wanted to watch a movie I hadn't seen since I was a kid in the 70s. I thought "Pelham" would get me in the mood to ride the subway, which it did, or it would frighten me from ever riding the subway again, which it did not. The film stars Walter Matthau as a transit cop and Robert Shaw as the leader of a small gang of men that hijack a subway train in (or rather, under) Manhattan. The film has a cheesy 70's quality about it, there's a lot of swearing, simply because they could do that in movies whereas they couldn't before, and New York looks dirty and dangerous, the way we like New York to look, the way it should be. Anyhoo, it's enjoyable viewing, and it has an interesting cast. Besides Matthau and Shaw, there are Jerry Stiller (Ben's dad) as a subway cop, and Doris Roberts (Raymond's mom on "Everybody Loves Raymond") as the mayor's wife. The other subway hijackers are played by Martin Balsam, a young Hector Elizondo, and Earl Hindman, who went on to be the guy behind the fence on the sitcom "Home Improvement." "Pelham" was obviously an influence on Quentin Tarentino. In "Reservoir Dogs," as in "Pelham," the bad guys all refer to each other by fake names that are colors, such as "Mr. Blue," and they all dress alike.

I watched "Pelham" once all the way through before my trip, and then last week did a viewing where I fast forwarded to all the really good parts, mostly when either Matthau or Shaw is on the screen.

One thing I will say that I found funny in a way, is that the hijackers demand only $1 million for their 18 hostages. A million dollars just is not thought of as a lot of money in a day and age where even mediocre baseball players are multi-millionaires.