Couch Potatoes?

Tomorrow on the ABC, a doco about James Lee Burke on the Sunday Afternoon Arts spot (if you live in Australia or have access to iView). I've been following Burke's writing since the early eighties when I purchased a copy of In the Electric Mist With the Confederate Dead, based purely on my liking of the title. The book set me off tracking down everything I could by what I now consider to be one of Americas' best writers (and after the recent death of John Updike), perhaps the best living author I know of.

Electric Mist was recently made into a movie with Tommy Lee Jones (Americans seem to enjoy those double names) which wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I felt did justice to the story and showcased both the writing and Jones' abilities. Burke's detective stories set in the south swamplands have a richness of writing that earned him the Pulitizer Prize with his wounded detective Dave Robicheaux and I look forward to seeing how the doco hangs together.

This is also the Week of the Boot and in this household Origin mania will take over for a few days in the lead up, watching and re-viewing of NSW destruction on my screen. I was never a lover of the game and I have a rather painful memory of my grandfather taking me to a local match as a boy (God bless him) and me showing total disinterest in the event. It wasn't until I was well into my thirties that I was invited by a client to a match at the old Lang Park. I had quickly taken a crash course in footy etiquette and that night (even though Qld Lost) I realised I was watching sport played at an elite level and was surrounded by men who fervently believed in their tribal roots and the abilities of their representatives to do them proud.

I was fortunate to watch the game played with great skill, wonderful passion and surrounded by people of humour and spirit. This Wednesday I'm hoping to see my team win State of Origin for an incredible record-breaking 6th year in a row, knowing friends on the other side of the planet will be viewing with fingers crossed and knowing smiles as they watch the spectacle unfold. (Queenslander!!)

Burn brightly Maroons!