2 + 2 = 5.

1) "Good Love" by Prince.
This track appeared on the old iPod thanks to the shuffle function. Thank you iPod shuffle function for reminding me that even Prince's outtakes from the mid-80s are brilliant. This one, a reject from Lovesexy, is four minutes of poppy synth-bliss with Prince singing about Picadilly Circus, cherry pie, Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony, and crack addiction. Only Prince. (Well, only Prince circa 1987.)

2) Getting a postcard for Coke-Free J.A.P.: A F*cking One-Woman Show in the mail.
Usually I get lots of sad, desperate junk mail from actors inviting me or the office or someone who worked in the office 10 years ago to attend some weak actors' workshop or a dull university showcase. Not today. Today's special. Today I got an invitation to Coke-Free J.A.P.: A F*cking One-Woman Show Just to clue you in, the image on the front of the card is of a woman cupping her ample bosom as it spills from her nightie. Oh and the title is underlined with a line of (airbrushed) cocaine. And the tagline is: "Ninety days off Coke. First Blind Date. He's Toast."
I am so tempted to go.

3) Sharon Waxman's Rebels on the Backlot.
I'm working on a proper blog entry on this one, but let me just say that this book is like crack . Ms. Waxman is not the most interesting writer and the book is riddled with factual errors and goofs, but it's filled with eyewitness accounts of the making of some of the best films of the '90s and I can't put it down.

4) My dream on 1/24/05.
In it I watched the new P.T. Anderson film. I can't tell you a thing about it other than it wasn't set in the Valley and it was shot in a really gorgeous, tropical location. God knows it's probably the only new P.T. Anderson movie I'll be seeing in the next five years.

5) Manohla Darigs on Hustle & Flow.
For days everyone has been talking about how brilliant Hustle & Flow is and how exciting it is that the little film secured a 15 million dollar deal at Sundance. Blah blah blah. I am wary any time a movie at Sundance is sold for that much money. (Remember Happy Texas? Remember Spitfire Grill?) This one has just been the untouchable, belle of the ball. Leave it to my girl Manohla Dargis to cut it down to size in the pages of the New York Times. Her verdict: "Hustle & Flow is rubbish. But it is precisely the kind of rubbish movie executives seek at Sundance, hoping that the film's beats, pimp hero and putative exoticism will attract young audiences." For whatever reason, that makes me feel better.