remembering "Catcher in the Rye"

Today, the little bit of my face not covered with scarf and hat actually ached. So let's just say it's cold, and leave it at that. I went to CBC this afternoon to tape my piece. Oh the memories - mike and headphones in a big studio. I love radio, used to do a lot of it and miss it. It was good to be back. Karen the producer is hoping to let me know exactly when the piece will air on the Sunday Edition, 99.1 on Feb. 9 - it's a 3-hour program, so it would be good to know.

Two not-very-good viewing experiences - the rented film "Museum Hours" and the documentary "Salinger." Pretty bad, both. "Museum Hours" was recommended by an artist friend, but ye gods, I only lasted half an hour - interminable, pretentious, boring. "Salinger" - well, who can forget the first time they picked up "Catcher" and began to read? I lived with that book in my heart for months, and then the whole Glass family - felt deep and mature, at 16, as I read those beautiful stories about Seymour and his siblings. The documentary makes clear how damaged Salinger was by his experiences during WWII - he was in active combat for too long and was present at the liberation of a concentration camp (and after the war, married a woman who'd been a Nazi, too strange). How obsessed he remained, his whole life long, with very young girls. How difficult and neurotic he was in later life. I was interested in all that, but the doc had danger music, some actor miming typing and standing on a stage in front of giant pictures from Jerry's life, every single person who had an opinion spouting off - it was silly, overdone, much too long.

Thank you, El Critic, for your definitive cultural judgements.

Things are heating up with the book - I'm negotiating with the publisher now, and once the contract is signed, we begin work, finalizing content and discussing design, especially the cover. This is the joy of self-publishing: If I'd gone the regular publishing route, I'd still be waiting to hear back from a publishing house on whether they were interested or, more likely, not. If they were, it would be at least a year and a half before the book appeared.

Whereas I finished receiving the last editing comments in December, will sign a contract in January and hold a book - at least, that's the plan - in May. Stay tuned. In the meantime, with a definite plan in hand, I can start planning my early spring getaway. Paris, Rome and London - here I come!

PS Someone just sent me a video of - yes, it's true - Stephen Harper playing and singing "Hey Jude" to Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife. Mind-boggling in its grotesquerie. He should be forbidden by the highest laws in the land to play Beatle songs. That horrible man, that sublime song - for a moment there, my synapses snapped.

Speaking of synapses, there have been fab shows on TVO about brain plasticity, often featuring an extremely handsome Australian TV guy with a wolf tattooed on his back. Today he tried to throw darts with his left hand and failed, spent a month visualizing doing so successfully - without actually doing it - and when he tried again, had vastly improved his score. Just with his brain.

Too bad our Prime Minister is without one.