I love it when an adaptation of a book is so good that you don't even care if they were entirely true to the book. I'm watching the three-part BBC version of Sarah Waters' book, Tipping the Velvet. It's about Nan King, daughter of an oyster-hall family, discovering she is a lesbian in the 1890s when she falls in love with Kitty Butler, a dance girl who does a routine dressed as a boy.

The book is stunning and painful, and the mini-series, so far, is touching, erotic and beautifully-acted. I highly recommend it.

Today, the rain broke and it is so bright and blue here that birds are peeping their guts out. Seriously, they're chirping at the top of their lungs like they're at a cheerleading rally or something. I think they're actually just shouting, "holy fucking shit, it's beautiful and we don't have to keep bailing out the nest!"

Birds probably don't swear, huh?

So I spent most of the last two days writing and fine-tuning a narrative summary (five pages!) for a grant for Word by Word that we applied for through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Let me just say that if this grant comes through, you'll hear a lot less kvetching and moaning about all the work I have to do. I love the show, absolutely adore it, but you know, there's that little thing called compensation. Now that I've been at it for two years as a volunteer, my reserves wear thin at times. But I have a VERY good feeling about this. A very, very good feeling!! Lookout Terry Gross! (kidding...)

I will leave you with this artsy quote from Albert Camus:
"Works of art are not born in flashes of inspiration but in a daily fidelity."

And today's key word is: Beyonce.

JPR