Birmingham Doin's

I stopped by Reed Books at its new location across from Safari Cup Coffee over the weekend. You'd better RUN down there, because they had a bargain shelf out front; all hardbacks $2. On the shelf was a copy of A Day in the Life of America, in better condition than my copy. $2. I paid a zillion dollars for my copy, and I don't regret a penny. This book is a beautiful record of early Eighties America. It always cheers me up (although the book doesn't shy away from the dark side of America). Even if you get there too late for this glorious book, though, it's still worth a trip.

Thanks to Jonathan Goldstein for inviting me to his party! Sadly he held it in Mountain Brook, a neighbourhood which was designed to keep the riffraff out by confusing them into terminal lostness. By the time I found the joint everybody was leaving. I grew up in a neighbourhood like that, so I remember the heady feeling of security one gets from knowing that no one can ever find you through all the twisty labyrinthine streets and the scary trees with faces on them, but now I live in a grid layout city and I appreciate the clarity.