For the second night in a row, I slept like a wee bonnie babe. Or a rock -- whichever one wouldn't be up crying all night! In other words, I slept great. The nights were so cool and breezy and not at all humid. And for some reason, these last 2 mornings the cats let me sleep in until 5:45 AM, so that was a nice little break, as well. And both nights, I had incredibly clear, lucid dream recall and was able to get all the details down in my little dream notebook before they escaped me into the ether with the morning light.

I'm telling you, I am getting so psyched about Bill Brent getting here in just a few weeks! I know, I know -- we have to actually work while he's here. If you aren't aware that in the last year, I've had FIVE books come out (!!), it could be because  I never seem to have enough time to promote everything -- which is the main reason why Bill is coming here. But we're also going to do other stuff, a lot of which involves my favorite thing on earth -- YES! Watching old movies!!

It turns out that during the summers around here, more and more places are doing that "old movies under the stars" kind of thing, where you go to a big park at sundown and put down a blanket and watch old movies with 17,000 other people. My Man Godfrey happened this past Friday night. Another one of my all-time favorite William Powell films!! Good thing I've seen that a zillion times (and also own it on video and DVD), or I would have been devastated to have had no one to go see it with. Bill and I have at least decided we are going to see Rear Window this way -- out there under the stars -- and maybe a few other films.

And also during the summers around here, the incredible Ohio Theater shows old movies (indoors) and it turns out that the night before my birthday this year, they are showing one of my all-time favorite Cary Grant - Katharine Hepburn films, Bringing Up Baby! -- and Bill has yet to see that classic film! (Yes, I have so many all-time favorite films that I have to create sub-categories, and sometimes sub-sub-categories, in order to justify having so many all-time favorites. I even have an all-time favorite James Cagney- Humphrey Bogart- directed by Raoul Walsh film category!!) (And if you think that The Roaring Twenties is at the top of that list, you are so fucking correct!!) Bill is so lucky that the first time he will see Bringing Up Baby the film will be on a big screen.

Back in the old days -- and not just in New York City, but here in Ohio, as well -- there were always local movie houses that showed "revivals." So I have been blessed that I've seen so many old movies on the actual "big screen." When I lived in what used to be called Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, there was the Hollywood Twin just a few blocks up 8th Avenue from me, and then when I lived in the East Village, there was the great Theater 80 St. Mark's. It was just 4 blocks from my apartment.

I have so many great memories of seeing old movies at Theater 80: Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, Philadelphia Story, My Man Godfrey, and The Thin Man, are stellar stand-outs. I saw a ton more, but those movies stand out as being instant, eternal favorites. And there is nothing quite like seeing one of those classic films for the first time. And on the big screen is even better. I have a feeling my birthday this year is going to be one of the best ones ever!! Yippee ki yi yay, gang!