CITY MOUSE/COUNTRY MOUSE

one thing i've learned is that nature is best served by my not interacting with it. plants die in my presence. i don't want them to...i play them Mozart, water them...but they keel over within days. as you can imagine, this does wonders for my self-esteem. i should do as David Rackoff suggested - "if you want greenery...order the spinach".

i grew up in the country. the first thing i ever drove was a tractor - and not one of those weekendlawnboy riding mower jobs, but a real fullsize International Harvester. we had five acres with fruit trees & gardens, and it was my chore to keep 'em looking spiffy. my Italian Dad had that 'the land, boy, the land' thing working, and he also loved the idea of sticking it to The Man by growing much of his own food. well, i fucking hated it - it was just hard, stoopid work...and so i ignored all his lessons on how to tease something edible out of the mud. and lit out for The City the first time i saw a chance.

so i don't know squat about gardening/plants/food plants/plant food.

please look at this picture:












see these herbs? there's thyme, oregano, sage, etc.

(aside: one of the most wonderful events of my life was when my friend Babbette Vosh cooked me dinner in 1981. her house was way up in Les Alpes Maritimes north of Nice. i asked her what we were going to have, and she said she was going to make me ratatouille...but first we had to go 'shopping'...which involved walking up the hillside and harvesting thyme, oregano & rosemary. they are friggin' weeds (!) and grew wild everywhere. so much for the magical secret of Prevencal cooking!)

so my reasoning is that...if i plant 'weeds', and weeds come up...no disappointment, right? but i'm afraid this is the best these plants are every going to look - lush, green and full of promise. i will put them in the ground, give them loving care...and i predict that they won't make it to July 4th.

they've got me buying dirt. in a bag. we live on a big dirt ball...i have to get more from a store?

















well, i read the instructions, and stuck the starts into the ground.












poor little thing...

AM UPDATE: the squirrels got the starts sometime during the night. a new Personal Best - in less than 8 hours = gone...

NP: Robert Plant (ba-dah-boom- crash!)

PEEVE DE JOUR: where's a Mexican illegal alien/migrant farm worker when ya could really use one?

N.B.A.T.W.P.:

The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
11141 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
(800) 223-4700

(located within the Institute's Gund Building at the corner of East Boulevard and Bellflower Road in University Circle. Free, lighted parking is available in the adjacent CIA lot, located on the north and east sides of the building off of East Blvd.)

Sunday, April 23, at 9:05 pm
New 35mm Print! New Translation and Subtitles!
CLASSE TOUS RISQUES
aka THE BIG RISK
France, 1960, Claude Sautet

Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, and Sandra Milo star in this little-known, newly-reissued gangster classic by Claude Sautet, a director better known for his quiet portraits of the French bourgeoisie (A Simple Story, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud). Belmondo plays a young thief who’s dispatched to help a veteran thug (Ventura) return to Paris after a thrilling daytime heist in Italy. Admired by both Jean-Pierre Melville and John Woo, this lean thriller “is a tough and touching exploration of honor and friendship among thieves” (The NY Times). “One of the highlights of the movie year…A great specimen of recovered cinema treasure.” –Entertainment Weekly. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 35mm. 103 min.

www.rialtopictures.com/classe.html