Hello Imogen. I’m glad to hear that things are progressing with the retooling of your old house. I wouldn’t really worry if things aren’t happening as fast as you wanted, because they usually don’t for anybody. When you were talking about telling your house that it was going to be OK, it made me smile. I drove past the house I grew up in a little while ago, and I was a little sad, because they were putting vinyl siding on over the wood sides. I can still remember my dad painting the house. They also let the fire pit that we had in the back yard go to shambles, and that was also a bit sad, but I guess time moves on.

I just finished reading Salmon of Doubt, which you suggested months ago. I had never read The Hitchhikers Guide, so I read the first book in that series before I read Salmon, because I wanted to have a taste of Adams writing before I read something that was a collection. I liked both of them. Here are a few of the highlights in Salmon for me. I think the letter he wrote to Disney was amazing, I couldn’t stop laughing. I liked his whole take on money on page 140 in my copy, how it is a fictitious entity. The dialog with the cab driver was great. And this quote: “Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there’s no point trying to look in that direction because it won’t be coming from there.”

I have a book suggestion for you. One of my top three favorite film directors is Akira Kurosawa. If you haven’t seen his films, you should, but he wrote a type of autobiography called: Akira Kurosawa Something Like an Autobiography. He walks through his early life, and since you like the Japanese culture, I think you will like it a lot. If you want something to laugh and for me causes reexamination, I would suggest J. D. Salinger’s: The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey.

Thank you also for your music selections. I’m trying to get through them, and will let you know what I think soon, which I’m sure you are on pins and needles to hear what I think. I’ve been listening to a variety of stuff. The Kings of Leon-Because of the Times, U2-Pop, Madonna-American Life, Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon, and Rage Against the Machine-The Battle of Los Angeles, to name a few.

Alright, well I gotta roll on to Indiana to return my sister’s car that she has let me borrow. Speaking of that, I hope your driving test goes well. I’m sure you’ll do fine, although you might want to wear your hair down, because it could get cramped if it was up:) I hope you have a good weekend.
 

Hi Immi,
moving onto video-posts I think is a pretty inspired idea. That said, I always thoroughly enjoy your written posts.

One question though; are we going to see the rest of your house? I'd love to see some before/during/after shots etc etc. Maybe next post :)

Oh yeah, and when are you coming to Brisbane/Sydney to perform??

Take care. I can't wait for that album! :)

Jonathan Vogt.
 

*thinks back to 'golden ticket' video*....

soooo, um....have you ever explored the origins of this fascination you seem to have for mice and similar vermin? did you have a 'ben' in the heap household growing up, or when you went away to school, that has not been memorialized in verse (yet)? or will you let slip a few years from now that the entire s4y album was, in fact, inspired by a small family of field mice that oddly wound up in the city? i can totally see how that could be the case....yup. riiight.

anyway, just throwing that out there for your consideration....;o)
 

Mice? Pah, I say, and again, Pah. The mighty groundhog is the King of the Rodents.

They might have laughed at me when I left Essex's fair shores and came to live in the middle-of-nowhere, USA, but they'll pay when I return at the head of a groundhog army. Oh, oh, how they'll pay.

Good luck with the house.

You'll need it when the Day of the Groundhog comes.
 

Pinky-orange kitchen...hmm. Could it be "salmon"?

Fishy.
 

As a man, my understanding of different colours is fundamentally limited, but I do recall being told that somewhere between pink and orange lies 'peach'.