The Writer's Life 6/27

RIP Nora Ephron, 71, a prolific writer who also had great success as a film director. She was eulogized in an op-ed piece by Jonathan Podhoretz in today's NY Post. Ephron wrote several screenplays, including Silkwood (1983) and When Harry Met Sally (1989), which featured the memorable fake orgasm scene so wonderfully rendered by Meg Ryan, and the great follow up line spoken by director Rob Reiner's mom, Estelle: "I'll have what she's having." She also wrote the best-selling comic novel Heartburn, which was based on her marriage to her second husband, philandering Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. She wrote and directed the smash hit Sleepless in Seattle (1993), the most successful film ever by a woman at the time. She also issued several collections of essays. In her mid 40's she found marital happiness with her third husband, Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote Wise Guy, the book on which the film Goodfellas (1990) is based. She contributed a six-word biography to Larry Smith's collection: Not Quite What I Was Planning - "Secret to Life, Marry an Italian." Well done, madam.

Last night I watched another of the music tapes I made in '90's. It had its usual eclectic variety: pop, rock, swing, jazz, classical. Of the 30 or so performances, I enjoyed all but one: Smashing Pumpkins doing Bullet with Butterfly Wings on SNL. It seemed artless. White Zombie made two appearances, both from Letterman. They were so much fun. Springsteen did a riveting solo acoustic version of Angel Eyes at a Sinatra tribute. Alanis Morrisette let it all hang out on her breakout hit You Oughtta Know, which is so well-written I overlook the twisted logic of the line of her being more worthy of a guy's love because she went down on him in a theater. Then again, who among us hasn't been made crazy by love? The song raises rant to the level of art. Joan Osbourne did her big hit What If God Was One of Us? which is irresistible despite its likening the Almighty to a "slob like one of us," another in the long line of leftist rationales for bad behavior. Bon Jovi made two appearances from ABC's In Concert series: Hey, God and Wanted Dead or Alive. It came down to two choices in terms of which performance I would highlight: a breezy instrumental, L.A. Underground, featuring stellar guitar work by Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenhour or a rockin' rendition of Bach's Fugue in D Minor by Vanessa Mae on the Tonight Show. Mae is just to damn beautiful to pass up. She was only 17 at the time. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QNn56OWqKY

My thanks to the kind folks who patronized the floating bookshop today, especially Lev, who overpaid for the eight books he bought.

Visit Vic’s sites:
Vic’s Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic’s Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic’s Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic’s 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic’s 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic’s Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f