The Greatest Feeling In The World, Etc.

I'm currently holding my recently-turned-one-year-old daughter (pictured to the left), and she has fallen asleep resting her head against my chest. At the risk of coming across as too syrupy sweet, let me just say that holding her brings me a certain inner calm that I cannot really describe.

Misc. topics:
It's been called: Bill Murray wins. John Belushi gets a distinguished mention, and endless speculation as to what might have been. Steve Martin garnered strong support. Gene Wilder made quite a late surge, but ultimately succumbed to the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome. Keep your eyes open for more from Will Ferrell...

I caught a bit of Cool Hand Luke on, of all places, the History Channel. I'm not going to get into a full-blown "greatest movie" discussion. Suffice it to say, I'll never understand how/why Paul Newman did not receive the Best Actor Oscar for that role.

Saw a request for a new Robert Plant album, which I don't have. I'll keep an eye on the used CD bins. Also, I saw a request for the debut album from the Counting Crows. I never had that one either, although I did have the follow-up, Recovering the Satellites. I say "did have," because I cannot find it. I do recall "A Long December" being one of my very favorite drinking-alone-until-I-passed-out songs, when I still did that type of thing. I suspect alcohol was involved in the disappearance.

My earliest recollection of the Counting Crows was hearing the song "Mr. Jones". I had a mixed reaction to that song, initially. I recall finding the "sha la la la..." too derivative of Van Morrison. However, the "I want to be Bob Dylan/Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky/When everybody loves you, son, that's just about as funky as you can be" verse definitely resonated with me. (I'll admit I had to look up the exact wording on their website--my memory was failing. Oddly, the "sha la la la..." was not listed in the lyrics. Do I have the wrong song?)

In any event, the only Counting Crows I could find in my collection was their 'best of' CD, Films About Ghosts. Just sitting here, that strikes me as an amazingly pretentious title. But, what the hell... My main complaint, as I scan the song list, is that they left out "Daylight Fading", one of my very favorites. That's a fine example of why I have found myself buying fewer and fewer compilations. Alas, I think I'll sign off before this morphs into a full-fledged Counting Crows post. After all, I haven't listened to their music in quite some time. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer not to comment too much without re-listening...