Watch, Listen & Read

Despite beautiful weather and numerous activities here on the Alabama Gulf Coast and in Pensacola, Florida, Doug and I enjoy quiet time -

watching a good movie through Netflix.

Our last two DVDs were very enjoyable. The 2005 British comedy, Kinky Boots, was about a family-owned shoe factory reinventing itself in a very competitive marketplace. Producing quality men's business shoes could no longer sustain the company so the new president, the only son of the recently deceased father, had to search out a new demographic - it was great fun watching Kinky Boots! Released in 2006, I Served the King of England was set in pre-World War II in Czechoslovakia. English subtitles didn't distract us at all in watching this insightful, poignant and frequently comedic 2-hour movie.

listening to a good audiobook.

The Orange Beach Public Library is great so when staff suggested Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, Doug checked it out. And even though it's in two parts, 16 discs each, he's finding it quite enjoyable and informative to listen to while working on deadlines. He just finished two finishes for Playboy and is now focusing on commissioned work for a CD cover for the Sad Salamanders, a California-based jazz group.

reading a good book.

Doug is nearly finished with the 240-page The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant. It's the story about one man, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin, and one tree, a 300-year-old Sitka spruce nearly 50 meters tall; the book has been praised for making people change their views about nature. And because Doug's listening to Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth he thought it would be interesting to read Pillars of the Almighty, featuring photographs by f-stop Fitzgerald of "soaring arches and haunting sculptures" of world-famous cathedrals.


(blog entries by Heidi Hutson)