I’m heading to Arizona for the weekend – Phoenix and Sierra Vista (See tour page for details).

Which reminds me of a fine film I’ve watched far too many times to still be deemed mentally healthy.  My last year of college (I talk about this briefly in my shows these days), I moved out of an apartment and into half of a garage, shut off the cable and the telephone and the water to save money for a wedding ring.  Before I killed the power altogether, I used to watch the only four movies I owned again and again: Forest Gump, Independence Day, Braveheart and Raising Arizona. 

I only watched while I ate and then I hit pause and headed out the door again for class or work.  I wonder if watching in such short bursts burned these flicks onto my brain more easily than all the stuff in my textbooks because I have almost every line of dialogue from these four movies memorized still and I can’t remember for the life of me the difference between a Neopolitan and German 6 chord.  And, really, how useful is that stuff in books anyway compared to movie dialogue.  Lines from Raising Arizona are particularly useful to have in one’s verbal arsenal: amusing to me, confounding to others.

You’d be amazed how many ways one can use “Boy, you got a panty on your head” or “Not unless round’s funny.” Amazed.  Truly useful stuff.

I’ll blog again from Arizona this weekend…or my name’s not Nathan Arizona.