A long day. I worked at my freelance client in New Jersey, then came back to New York to do more work on another project. Then I took a break for dinner downtown with a friend, and now I still have some more emails to answer before I go to sleep.

I saw Casino Royale last night and I want to jot down some thoughts about it, but I'm just too tired now for anything extensive. One thing I can say quickly is that the girls who had bit parts as hotel clerks and cocktail waitresses were more sexy and attractive than Bond's leading ladies in this one. Yes, they're definitely working a new angle on 007 when the poor guy not only doesn't get the cream of the crop, but has a hard getting them into bed as well.

The movie is best if it's not thought of as a Bond movie, but just an action-packed thriller about a super-efficient secret agent who has a hard time getting laid. Almost sounds like a comedy when it's put that way, but it wasn't.

Daniel Craig was a strange James Bond...more like an anti-hero in a 1950's B-film than a suave British agent. He grew on me as the film progressed, but I never really found him all that engaging. Again, the movie worked best for me when I told myself to forget he was supposed to be James Bond.

Now here's a great twist for the next one: bring Sean Connery back, but as the villain to Daniel Craig's James Bond! That would be crazy, no?

This has been a work day for me. I spent several hours on the computer getting stuff done on two freelance projects. I had a late lunch of won ton soup about two-thirty, and now I feel as if I'm going to fall asleep at the computer.

However, I'm going to meet a friend in a little while and we're going to catch the latest James Bond flick, Casino Royale, which should wake me out of my stupor. I hear it's pretty violent. I don't care, as long as the Bond Girls are fetching. And Judi Dench as Bond's boss "M" is always entertaining, giving 007 a raised eyebrow or two.

I remember seeing Judi Dench in a 1964 British whodunit called The Third Secret; the star was Stephen Boyd, and if I recall correctly, Judi just had a small part as a girl who worked in an art gallery. She almost could have been a Bond Girl herself 43 years ago; she looked pretty cute.

This week I'm going to be a citizen of New Jersey as much as New York; I'll have to commute two or three times to the Garden State (why do they call it that? it's never struck me as particularly garden-like) to work at my freelance client's office. I'll have to find a new book to read on the subway and bus. I just finished a terrific 1957 thriller by the late Margaret Millar called An Air That Kills. She was a fine psychological suspense writer who really had a beautifully descriptive style that brought her characters to life in a few sentences...and she didn't stint on the murder and mayhem that gave her books some incredible twist endings that also had tragic, emotional resonance.

The only thing that bothers me lately about reading all these thrillers is that their grimness has been getting me down a bit more than usual. Perhaps as I get older, I have a greater need to be amused than to be thrilled...

Maybe I should get an issue of MAD magazine for my commute tomorrow morning?

I did stay in last night, and it was my decision, not that of my "Mental Mommy," the stern superego I carry around in my head. (See my previous, somewhat tongue-in-cheek entry, for more on Mental Mommy.)

After I had some Chinese take-out, I decided to watch the 1960 Steve Reeves flick The Last Days of Pompeii. The story took place in the Italian town just preceding the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in August, 79 A.D. Unfortunately, this movie wasn't very good, and barely retained any of the elements of the wonderful nineteenth century novel by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton on which it was based. The actresses were the best elements of the movie, although I know some folks would also get off on watching Steve Reeves display his tremendous physique in his designer mini-tunics. Christine Kauffmann (who was married to Tony Curtis at one point) played the virginal heroine, and although her acting wasn't much above the basic ingenue level, she was gorgeous to look at; easy to see why she turned Tony's head. Barbara Carroll (whom I'd never heard of before) played Julia, the evil blonde femme fatale. Barbara had a figure that rivaled Jayne Mansfield's, and she sure looked great in form-fitting gowns. Va-va-voom! No wonder the volcano exploded.

Also included on the DVD I rented was a bonus silent Italian-made version of the story. The Timeless Video DVD boxcover said this bonus was from 1913, but after reading up on the film in the authoritative book The Ancient World in the Cinema (Yale University Press), it seems to me this was actually a 1926 Italian version. In any case, this silent movie, although presented in a choppy print and with a voiceover narrator, was much closer to the novel and much better as a film overall. There were spectacular recreations of Pompeii and its arena. One of the best characters in the original story is that of an evil, lecherous, and nihilistic high priest of Isis named Arbaces, and this 1926 epic also featured the character prominently, played by a charismatic actor unfortunately not identified in the skimpy credits!! The Steve Reeves version featured Arbaces too, played by the prominent European actor Fernando Rey, but he didn't have too much to do; whereas in the 1926 version Arbaces schemes, kills, debauches, entraps, and in one cool scene, tries to win over a new protege by giving him a huge platter of flowers, underneath which is a beautiful and saucy girl for the protege's enjoyment.

That's the old boy from the book--that's Arbaces!

For the life of me, I can't understand why Hollywood, with all its resources today, doesn't undertake the definitive version of the original novel, which was an incredible blend of romance, action, mysticism, lust, gladiators, and Mount Vesuvius to tie it all together. If you ever find a copy of The Last Days of Pompeii, give it a try. If you can make allowances for its slower nineteenth century pace, you will be rewarded with a fantastic story that has a memorable love triangle and a truly poignant ending. Another thing I can't understand is why this book is not readily available at Barnes & Noble in their inexpensive editions of classics! Get with it, B&N! Sir Cranky commands!

Winter. Sunny but so cold today. Everybody's all covered up. There is even a draft on my ass as I sit at my desk twenty feet away from my windows. It flows through my studio apartment and out through the door, even with insulation.

I shouldn't have had coffee and Nutter Butter cookies at 5:30. My appetite for dinner is messed up now.

But I needed the coffee to keep me company as I finished up some work. Coffee is my pal.

I can always eat dinner later. I'm the boss! Although sometimes I think I'm bossed around by my Mental Mommy, scolding me for ruining my appetite or not making enough money.

Sigh. SIGH!! S.I.G.H.!!!

Time to chill out with a book or a movie. I'm glad it's Friday. I was busy all week, but it seems like a blur now...

A stripclub tonight? It might be too cold to venture out. Or is that my Mental Mommy talking?

I rented a DVD of The Last Days of Pompeii; maybe that's the lineup for tonight.

I better get up and move around. There are icicles on my butt...

Okay, I'm making with the hyperbole again.

So whaddaya gonna do, Mental Mommy, spank me?

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Should not have opened my big mouth...

Worrying about money dulls my soul, makes me feel tight and tense. There is less pleasure in reading books and watching movies, and certainly less pleasure in tipping strippers. In fact, I find myself avoiding stripclubs more because I feel poor and therefore somewhat emasculated there.

I don't think I have eaten as much bologna since I first lived in New York over the summer of 1971. A cheap food. I was going over my finances last night, planning for taxes, trying to figure out how to put money in the IRA, and finish off paying last year's credit debt which I incurred paying taxes. My weary mind finally gave up and I just took a long shower.

I tell myself perhaps I worry too much, and that things will work out; but then I tell myself, "Maybe things work out BECAUSE I worry too much." See why I needed that shower?

People tell me I should sell stuff on ebay, or start a website for profit, but those are all cyber equivalents of opening up a store, and entrepreneurship is something you have to really be into. I found it hard enough being a shoe salesman and dealing with customers when I was in my early twenties; I don't think that dealing with buyers through the mails and Internet is my cup of coins.

Yet the world is changing and I may have to adapt in ways that may not feel readily comfortable, but which perhaps I could learn to live with.

We are living in the technological future NOW, and it is changing many businesses and altering people's livelihoods in a way perhaps not seen since the innovations of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

Sigh. The future certainly seemed more fun on The Jetsons...