The past few weeks I have submersed myself in All Things Culture, from books and movies to music. Summer is certainly a time to try something new.

Today, I began a seven-novel path to discovery when I cracked the binding of Matthew’s paperback copy of “The Gunslinger” by Stephen King. (For those of you who don’t know, it’s part of King’s “The Dark Tower” series.) Twenty pages in and I am hooked. It’s good to know I have six other books lined up to read. I’ve been having poorer luck than usual selecting books. This may be the corner where I’ll turn.

Yesterday I saw “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with Matthew. Good stuff. The music was fantastic and odd at the same time. I downed one too many Dots and fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls in the theater, yet remained wet-mouthed for even the smallest sliver of dark chocolate. In recent weeks, we also watched “The Notebook,” “War of the Worlds,” “Be Cool” and “Friday Night Lights.” I’m hearing good things about “Wedding Crashers” and may have to feed that guilty pleasure of bad summer movies.

The more I listen to Tilly and the Wall, the more I find myself ready to dance.

I’m looking forward to Jenny Lewis’ solo album, due out later this year on Conor Oberst’s Team Love record label.

And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t planning on borrowing/buying the upcoming Saddle Creek DVD documentary.

We’re nearing the two week anniversary of this year’s Fourth of July celebration and I’m just getting around to posting some of my favorite photos. The site was the Crosby-Kunold-Burket-Swanson-Golden Funeral Home in downtown Omaha.

Our host: Brian Leimbach, Crosby employee and Matt’s friend since preschool.

Enjoy.

Early in the day, with the annual Photo in Front of the Sign.

Brian Leimbach, our host.

Matt sending a bottle rocket to the moon.

Matt sending yet another bottle rocket to the moon.

Ignoring the funeral home’s parking sign.

Cock fighting at its finest.

The sound of silence does little for me in terms of motivation when I’m running on the treadmill two (sometimes three) mornings a week at the YMCA. I bring along my iPod but am consistently left clueless as to what should pound in my ears when I run.

I often find myself wasting precious running time in the locker room, giving my thumb a workout (instead of my legs and heart) as I scroll through my collection of 3,683 songs.

Help!

Here and now, I launch the proverbial gauntlet and encourage you, gentle reader, to help me create the ultimate workout playlist for my iPod, based on my music library.

In exchange for your detailed and diligent work, I will provide you with the mp3 files you arrange for this much-needed playlist.

Fin.

Three of Saturday’s events are heartily awarded my gold stamp of approval, based on activities earlier in the day:

• “First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image” at the Durham Western Heritage Museum.

• Delicious deli sandwiches for Matthew and me at Spirit World.

• A loaf of onion-dill-rye bread from Great Harvest Bread Company.

Omaha author Timothy Schaffert, my former editor at The Reader, has organized the first-ever (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest later this summer.

P.S. Timothy’s new book, “The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God,” will be published later this year by Unbridled Books.

To you and yours, Happy Fourth of July!

Fireworks lit up skies above midtown Omaha Friday night.
Photo by Chris Machian/MachianPhoto.com

The PR firm I work for has hosted this massive outdoor concert every Fourth of July weekend at Memorial Park. Last night’s show, which we guess attracted more than 50,000 people, featured Three Dog Night and the Doobie Brothers.

There were literally people everywhere. Walking posed a problem, as the massive waves of bodies didn’t move as fluidly as one would hope.

The weather was ideal for an outdoor musical experience. I’m told last year’s show was literally rained out.

I answered questions at the information tent and stuffed myself on a slice of cheese pizza, an ice cream sandwich and an ice cream cone, not to mention a huge glass of lemonade.

At the end of the evening, my only duty was to power up a massive generator for outdoor lighting. Two tries and I was successful.

Earlier in the day, I watched a parking lot to ensure only staff and volunteers parked their vehicles there. One gentleman, and his teenage son, tried to park in the lot. When I told him no, he replied:

“Why are you torturing us like this?”

So riddle me this: How can an annual outdoor concert that is absolutely free and open to the public be considered torture?

Thanks to circle7 for sharing this one.

Which Family Guy character are you?

I’ve been tagged by Shannon, my Bend friend, to list my current six favorite songs. I should explain that current, for me, can mean this week, this day or this hour. It changes constantly.

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

(1) “Let It Rain” — Tilly and the Wall, Wild Like Children

(2) “Fix You” — Coldplay, X&Y

(3) “So Weit Wie Noch Nie” — Jürgen Paape, DJ Kicks

(4) “Carry That Weight” — The Beatles, Abbey Road

(5) “Another Travelin’ Song” — Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

(6) “Streetlights” — Josh Rouse, Nashville

*In an effort to keep this going, I now call upon jpel, cindy0240, shawnwrites, mathkiss, marq_manner, ecotopian, thisvintagegirl and missbunnie to do the same.

This comes from my good friend, Tony Dreibus.

Newspapers and People

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country — if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country — and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.

10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country — or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided, of course, that they are not Republicans.

11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

12. None of these is read by the guy who is running the country into the ground.