A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket. Book 1, The Bad Beginning.

You are reading the Lemony Snicket books, aren't you?

Good. Read them to someone else.

 
Almost Famous, a film written and directed by Cameron Crowe.

Almost Famous is like being in love. It's like the moment when your whole body flows into a song and you become part of the great current of rock and roll. It's every time you felt part of something greater, and it danced you.

It's also about a very particular place and time. Crowe labored to fill in the right details -- so we see albums and miniskirts and curtains from 1973. Almost Famous knows the words and the music.

And, it's about finding your right place in the world, and love sliding on glances from eye to eye, and how very flawed an artist can be and still produce something sublime.

I'm sorry I missed it in the theater. I devoured all the dvd extras the first time I rented it -- even reading the articles on my low resolution tv screen -- and I was as transported this evening on the second viewing. Feeling music like a river of electricity replacing my bones -- feeling young and devoted -- better than satisfied, I felt renewed. And Almost Famous rings of truth, too -- not the empty calories of feel-good formulas, but the living infusion of another's vision.

And one more thing -- let me get in print what I've been saying for some time -- Jason Lee will be a star.