It's June already!

crazy. since I'm too busy to blog much anymore, I'll just make a list of things rocking my world lately:

- fundraising for breast cancer (I've raised over $1000 in the first 3 weeks) and walking a whole lot to train and get in shape
- The Cure
- beets, quinoa, and salmon. YUM!
- the Phillies (always)
- my 1st Phish show coming up this weekend!! and now my friend Pete Brown who I haven't seen in like 6 years is coming and I'm so stoked to see him.
- THE SUN!!!!! my god I love summer
- my neighborhood. It's just so lovely and filled with such friendly people. I am so lucky.
- going to Portland in 2.5 weeks for Katherine's wedding!!!
- THE BRAND NEW BIKE I JUST BOUGHT!!!!!!!! I should pick it up this week. I can't wait to ride it. Oh man I am going to bike every day.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

I registered for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and have committed to raising a minimum of $1800 and walking 39.2 miles in 2 days in October. I'm doing this in honor of my grandmom, a breast cancer survivor, and for all the women (and men) who weren't as lucky as she was. My friend Olivia registered with me and we will be walking together.

I'm also doing this to help the world in one small way. I found out recently that someone I used to be really close with and his mother may have cancer, and it's a shame that I'm unable to be there for him. Of course I hope he doesn't have cancer and lives a long and healthy life, but that relationship had become very unhealthy for both of us. He made it clear that I could not be in his life and also respect myself, but I will also be walking in honor of him and his mother. Getting in kickass shape in the meantime will be a bonus!

Please help any way you can! Visit my page and donate. ANY AMOUNT HELPS.

I'm super stoked to begin training and fundraising to meet my goal. I'll be blogging my progress. THANK YOU for your support!!

wowzers

i've been so busy i haven't even had time to blog about the awesome birthday i had with my friends, drinking and eating and laughing with my favorite nyc people, and then heading to philly/cherry hill to see the disco biscuits and the phillies with julia and spend some time with my mom. last weekend was insanely fun, which i needed because work the past few weeks has been out of control busy. but i've been so busy outside of work i haven't been able to think about it much except when i'm there kicking ass and taking names. i think that's a good thing.

today i'm off and leaving my house soon to head to goshen, CT to hang with katherine!! i hope we go to the bar with the peanuts on the floor, or get lost in the woods somewhere with a case of beer.

aaaaaand bill cosby is in 2 days.

RIP Harry Kalas, the Voice of the Phillies

Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas died today at age 73, in the broadcast booth just hours before today's game. He was the voice of the Phillies since 1971, a Hall of Fame inductee and one of the greatest announcers in baseball history. Today is a sad day for baseball fans. Harry the K will be missed.

A cool tribute I read about was Victorino, Stairs, and some other players gathering in the dugout before the game (which I'm surprised they played, but at least they won it for Harry) to share a cigarette. Harry was notoriously always smoking, and Victorino thought it would be a good way to pay some respect. Thank you, Victorino.

Awesome Show!! Great Job!!!

Phillies: 8
Rockies: 4
FINAL!!

w00t!!!

and I've been doing this for the past hour or so. 108, 489... this is too good.

Day 100 of 365. - "Kites in a Storm"

Day 100 of 365. - "Kites in a Storm"
Originally uploaded by ArchedRoof

whoa - kites are awesome.

p.s. yeah, it's 8:15 on a saturday night, i'm still in my PJs and have done nothing today. Except watch Cadillac Records (with Beyonce as Etta James, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Adrien Brody as producer Leonard Chess, and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters - I don't know why this movie slipped through the radar, it's really good) and this movie Robot Stories (four short films), digitally hang out with Julia for about 7 hours, watch baseball, and dick around online. Thank god it's nasty out today, because I really enjoyed the excuse to be a bum.

Another Friendly Game of Baseball

The Phillies have been disappointing so far, but it's nothing new for them to start out slow each season. Plus I think they all partied a little too hard during the off-season after winning the World Series (they definitely deserved to). But party time is over, guys. Time to step it up.

The Red Sox just beat the Angels in a very exciting tug-of-war game ending in an excruciating 9th inning with Kendrick fouling 7 times with 2 outs and the bases loaded...but Jason bay was on fire tonight, Penny got the job done in his Red Sox debut, and finally Kendrick flied out to the right field to end the game. After what tragically happened to the Angels rookie pitcher Adenhart, I can't talk any shit about their team. Except to say that Bobby Abreu is an inbred douchebag who should've stuck with the Mets.



But I guess I shouldn't badmouth the Mets when the Phillies aren't winning games... but then again, badmouthing the Mets is my job as a Phillies phan. And it's so easy. Ugh but they're winning right now... Phillies start soon, I need to ra11y.

And you ask what is all of this called? It's just a friendly game of baseball.

The Feldman Haggadah

The Feldman Seder last night was wonderful. I ate wayyy too much and had to leave before dessert (probably a good thing) but it was so nice, as it always is, to spend time with my family. Every year, as I'm sure is customary for all not-too-religious families, we light-heartedly complain and groan about the readings and ask, after every song or prayer, "Are we done yet? When can we eat?" This year, my dry-humored uncle Donald passed around the Feldman Haggadah, a photo-copied 2-page joke he told us to look over and then dinner could be served. "Just kidding, we have to read the real one," he said, but we all died reading this thing.

It goes like this:

Opening prayers: Thanks, God, for creating wine. (Drink wine.) Thanks for creating produce. (Eat parsley.)

Overview: Once we were slaves in Egypt. Now we're free. That's why we're doing this.

Four questions:
1. What's up with the matzoh?
2. What's the deal with horseradish?
3. What's with the dipping of the herbs?
4. What's this whole slouching at the table business?

Answers:
1. When we left Egypt, we were in a hurry. There was no time for making decent bread.
2. Life was bitter, like horseradish.
3. It's called symbolism.
4. Free people get to slouch.

A funny story:
Once, these five rabbis talked all night, then it was morning. (Heat soup now.)

The four kinds of children and how to deal with them:
Wise child - explain Passover.
Simple child - explain Passover slowly.
Silent child - explain Passover loudly.
Wicked child - beat brow in front of the relatives.

Speaking of children:
We hid some matzoh. Whoever finds it gets five bucks and a scratchoff!

The story of Passover:
It's a long time ago. We're slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We cry out for help. God brings his plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through. The Egyptians aren't so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without being persecuted again. (Let brisket cool now.)

The 10 Plagues:
Blood, Frogs, Lice - you name it.

The singing of "Dayenu":
If God had gotten us out of Egypt and not punished our enemies, it would've been enough. If He'd punished our enemies and not parted the Red Sea, it would've been enough. If He'd parted the Red Sea (remove gefilte fish from refrigerator now.) etc.

Eat matzoh. Drink more wine. Slouch.

Thanks again, God, for everything.

SERVE MEAL

Say Grace. Drink more wine. Sing some more songs. Try to stay awake. Who knows one? Who knows two through thirteen? Dad bought a goat for two zuzim. Everyone beats up everyone until God steps in.

Go to sleep.

It was definitely sad without my Nona, but I think we all tried to be funnier and in our best spirits to make each other less sad, and it worked. My aunt brought a box of things she'd found in Nona's apartment when cleaning it out, and brought me a huge envelope filled with all the cards and letters I ever sent to my Nona - she kept them all. I read through them on the train home and totally teared up but it was more of a happy memory than a sad one. On every single card, in various handwriting over the years, I always wrote "I love you very much!!!!" and it made me happy to see that, knowing how happy my Nona would have been reading it and how much I'm sure it meant to her. I'm glad I was a good granddaughter, and I miss her, but I know she had a happy life and loved her family as much as we loved her and always will.

*tears* I know. But seriously. Sometimes I get so busy I can't see my family as much as I'd like to, but they will always be the most important thing to me.

Happy Pesach!

I am working a short day today to head up to my uncle's in Peekskill to have Seder with my family (dad's side) as I do almost every year. Today is always one of my favorite days, because I get to eat delicious food (way too much of it) and spend quality time with some family I rarely get to see.

This year will be a little sad because it'll be the first year without my Nona, and I know that when we listen to the old cassette tape of her and my grandfather singing from about 25 years ago, as is our tradition, we are all going to tear up. But I know it will still be an enjoyable Seder and we'll drink and be merry as she would want us to be.

I am definitely looking forward to eating. My aunt Susan makes the BEST matzoh ball soup in the world (I know her secret!), and we always have really great Greek family recipes like lamb and meat pie (cooked with matzoh, of course). I haven't eaten a thing yet today - not to fast, really, but because I've been slacking on breakfast lately - and my stomach is ready. Now if only I knew there would be some surprise guests tonight and could hope to meet a nice single Jewish man... j/k, I don't even care that much if I end up with a Jewish guy. But maybe it would be nice.

ambien rambling: APRIL!!!!

it's time. to write about april. i think i've mentioned this before, and you can see in my handy calendar over there that april is a kickass month. but april. is. the. month. of. cosby.

THE MONTH OF COSBY. shirts are officially in the works. pictures TK.

for those of you who have been unfortunate enough to not have experienced the house of cosbys:



there are also house of cosby 2, 3, 4, and i think 5, but don't watch anything else - it's crap (or, it would seem, porn).

today i trampoline-worked out and it was awesome. it was seriously an aerobic workout and i feel like if i do that every day for a half hour, i could get in great shape fast and have muscles and things.

ALSO: PHISH JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THEY ARE PLAYING FENWAY PARK ON MAY 31ST. I have always wanted to go to Fenway Park, and seeing Phish there would make it that more awesome (although I'd settle any day for seeing the Red Sox and that, too, would be awesome) but whoa man. I'm going broke buying all these Phish tickets so I entered the lottery for two. A new friend told me he forsees this being a beneficial decision. When I asked him if he could see into the future, he neglected to comment further. But, luck is luck. and it's mutha-LUCKIN april.

Bacon!!!!

Bacon Salt, Bacon Vodka, and now this:


see more pwn and owned pictures

Camp Bisco!!

I just saw the initial lineup for Camp Bisco 8 and couldn't pass it up. I just got an early bird ticket. Make up for last year and do this year right (namely: bring a tent this year!). If anyone wants to go, holla!

The Thing I Did(n't Do).

This Thing We're Doing, the ambitious project my cousin started to blog 25 days in one month, didn't quite happen for me. I did post 25 times, but I don't think they were all 25 different days. Maybe it still counts? I swear I can attain goals. Sadly (for the project, but not for me), I've been Doing Things instead of Doing That Thing. I know I haven't really been blogging much, but I've been tired and busy and doing fun things and loving that it's almost getting warmer out. I definitely feel spring fever in the air. People are out and about and talking to one another (me) and I like it. Last night at a bar, while waiting for a date, I even got a "so, do you come here often?" which would've been funnier if the guy weren't cute.

This morning I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I'm super tired. Otherwise I'd probably have more interesting things to say and maybe have even thought of a good April Fool's joke. But I got nothin. Time to do laundry and dick around until Lost comes on.

Great post, I know. Cut me some slack?

movin on up (3 flights

movin on up (3 flights of stairs): helped julia move into her new very cute apt today. quite a workout, ready for a meal and a beer.

w00t!!

So tickets for Phish at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in August officially went on sale today at 1pm. I had somehow gotten lucky and won 4 tickets in the Phish lottery the other day (I'm never lucky! but I was!) but had already promised Beth & Eric (and Eric's friend) first dibs a long time ago. Which is totally cool and I'm super excited to go with them, but I was feeling slightly bummed because I wanted to go with Julia, Olivia and Sarah too. So Julia, Olivia, Sarah and I ALL went on livenation.com today and hit refresh every 0.2 seconds to try to get tickets. I also suggested that Julia try calling them on the phone a few minutes early and schmoozing someone until 1pm. Tickets sold out online in FOUR minutes. Sarah, Olivia, and I all struck out.

Well, this is old news, but Julia is my hero. She scored 4 lawn seats and offered two to Olivia and Sarah so now all of my best friends (who like Phish) and I (and a wildcard!) are going to Phish in August!!! It will be our second show of the summer!!! Man this summer is gonna rule.

Les Get it On

Friday! Les Claypool! Tonight!! YES!!!



A little while ago, my cousin blogged about beavers (kinda) and I left her a comment directing her to the Primus' video for 'Winona's Big Brown Beaver' which is awesomely bizarre. She suggested I tell the story of how I met Les Claypool on my blog, so here it is:

After high school, I was working at CD World (r.i.p.) with my friend Jon who was my introduction to Pink Floyd (I will forever be grateful to him). Jon's uncle was the stage manager for Phil Lesh, who was touring at the time. One day Jon asks me if I want to go see Phil Lesh with him, for free, and go backstage and all that. Duh, yes. And who was opening? Les Claypool. Jon and I were both somewhat obsessed with Les at the time, and Jon had built his own bass in woodshop our senior year. He'd told his uncle about the bass, and I guess his uncle had said something to Les Claypool about it. So we go to the show, we go backstage before it starts, it was some venue in North Jersey where backstage was just a big parking lot, so we saw all the tour buses and a few people just hangin around. Jon's uncle is showing us around a bit, and then Les Claypool just strolls by.

"Oh hey, Les," says Jon's uncle. "Remember I told you about my nephew who built the bass?"

And here is where Les Claypool, with the first words I've ever heard him utter off-stage, spoken in his strange nasally voice, solidified his reputation as the weirdest motherfucker alive:
"Oh, yeah, did you uh, didja make it out of chocolate?"

Jon just looked at him. I just looked at him. Neither of us could speak for what seemed like an entire minute in bizarro world.

"Um, no?" Jon said.

"Oh, well you should've, that would've been really cool."

And that was our conversation. I'm not a shy person, and don't think I really get starstruck (though haven't many too many famous people) but the weirdness of his question left me completely dumbstruck. And in an awkward finish, Jon's uncle snapped a photo of Jon and me with Les, which I have but don't have a scanner. To this day, if I ever see Les in person again, I only hope I'm armed with a chocolate bass.

Russian Chamber Chorus

Tonight, I'm going to see my friend's boyfriend sing with the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York. Guys in tuxes + chorale music + sitar = a classy night. And you can't be a nerd if you're classy, right? RIGHT?

You Are Now Entering Nerddom

I have to confess this before it gets any worse. I am NOT a sci-fi geek, sure I watched Star Wars as a kid but not Star Trek, and I could probably count the science fiction books I've read on one hand, and even those fall under the classic or literary fiction category (e.g. 1984, Brave New World). Ok, sure, I love the Transformers and Labyrinth and JJ Abrams shows and all of that, but - ok fine I'll just spit it out. It hit me today that I am simultaneously reading two books in which Slans are discussed. Let me explain. I've never heard of a Slan before, because, as I said and as I swear is true, I am not a sci-fi geek. I've never read A.E. van Vogt's novel Slan. Yet on my commute this morning, I began the chapter entitled "Telepathy" in the really awesome and NOT nerdy book by Michio Kaku called Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel.

I probably need to explain more: this book is seriously cool. OK, yes, I think teleportation and robots are really awesome subjects and yes, I chose, of my own free will, to read this book. But dude - you can't even get through one relatively mundane sentence in the Preface without being blown away. Case in point: "While interstellar travel for our civilization is clearly impossible, it may be possible for a civilization centuries to thousands or millions of years ahead of ours." That's a relatively mundane sentence compared to, say, this: "In high school...I built a 2.3-million-electron-volt betatron particle accelerator, which consumed 6 kilowatts of power (the entire output of my house) and generated a magnetic field of 20,000 times the Earth's magnetic field. The goal was to generate a beam of gamma rays powerful enough to create antimatter." See?? This shit is fuckin' cool.

So back to what I was saying, this morning I get to the chapter on Telepathy, which begins by Kaku describing Vogt's novel Slan, in which the protagonist, a "slan," is one of a dying race of superintelligent telepaths. In keeping with my insistence that I'm not a total nerd, Kaku goes on to discuss why telepathy isn't scientifically possible now and how real-life people, like the CIA in the 70s, have tried to use telepathy and what a truly telepathic person might be capable of, if telepathy truly existed, which it doesn't. This is cool! ...Right?

OK. Fine. I know, you're right. It's borderline nerdy. But then what worries me is that on my ride HOME from work, IN THE SAME DAY, I read yet another passage about Slans, IN A DIFFERENT BOOK. Granted, this one has nothing to do with teleportation or robots and WON THE PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION so I thought, hoped, that I would save myself from becoming too nerdy if I read it simultaneously along with Kaku's book. But shit. In Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (which I started reading today after receiving it from a thankful editor at Viking/Penguin who offered to send me a book after I expedited a request for him last week; naturally I said yes and asked for this, which I've been dying to read), the protagonist is Oscar, "a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love." Sounds good, right? Well, it is. I'm 50 pages in already and can't put it down (I had to break to blog about these freaking Slans) but it's like I'm being stalked by the nerd police, if police were out to make you do stuff instead of getting you to stop doing stuff.

Observe:

Oscar had always been a young nerd - the kind of kid who read Tom Swift, who loved comic books and watched Ultraman - but by high school his commitment to the Genres had become absolute. Back when the rest of us were learning to play wallball and pitch quarters and drive our older brothers' cars and sneak dead soldiers from under our parents' eyes, he was gorging himself on a steady stream of Lovecraft, Wells, Burroughs, Howard, Alexander, Herbert, Asimov, Bova, and Heinlein...Could write in Elvish, could speak Chakobsa, could differentiate between a Slan, a Dorsai, and a Lensman in acute detail, knew more about the Marvel Universe than Stan Lee, and was a role-playing game fanatic.

I'm going to take comfort in the fact that, with maybe the exception of an H.P. Lovecraft story I had to read in college (fine, it was a science fiction writing class, happy? but I didn't do that well in it.), I've never read any of those authors and have no idea where Elvish and Chakobsa come from. Yes, I know Stan Lee but we've all seen Mallrats.

So STOP CALLING ME A NERD!!! For god's sake.

I'm fine. Really.

And I'm gonna go read some more about Oscar.

Here, have a picture of a panda in a tree.

Wiccit

Even though it turned out to be false, the reason M.I.A. naming her baby "Ickett" cracked me up so much is because of this guy named Wiccit from Ithaca. Everyone knew Wiccit. He is truly impossible to describe... let's just say he gave himself the name Wiccit...after the Ewok, and he always dresses like this:



I liked Wiccit, we were friends in a way, but he was definitely strange. And still is. A couple weeks ago, this video started circulating around the internet, and quickly became the talk of all IC alumni. This other guy we all knew, Josh Yampolski, directed it. The collaboration of these two is unprecedented, outrageous, and, uh... well, watch the video. But, warning: if you are prone to seizures and/or have a low threshold for things of low, shitty quality, you should still watch this. But be prepared. I had to blog about this for all my dedicated readers who may not have seen this yet. And for those of you who know you want to see it again.

All My Single Sprockets

I haven't posted much the past few days because I haven't done much. I'm taking antibiotics for this cough and therefore resting up, trying to get healthy so I can enjoy all the fun stuff I have coming up soon. Hopefully it works. Here is a fun picture taken at Beth's the night before St. Patty's Day, after we gave up on Single Ladies and put on various hats.

Wedding DJ

So my awesome friend Katherine is getting married to Warren in June in Hood River, OR. They live in Portland. Katherine's friend Erin, who also lives in Portland, and I are co-Maids of Honor. Very happy. A little while ago, Katherine asked me if I knew any good DJs. (Ha! Do I breathe?) As it turned out, I happen to know of a pretty rad DJ named dmoefunk who, lo and behold, lives in Portland. I sent Katherine his myspace page. I figured it was a long shot, but he is a really fun DJ and has mentioned playing weddings on his podcast before. Well I just found out that Katherine booked dmoefunk to DJ her wedding!! I'm so excited!! Not only will her wedding be the most fun ever, but he also apparently loves DJing weddings AND charges a fraction of what normal wedding DJs or bands charge, and - bonus! - I feel like I have actually done something to help her with the wedding like a good maid of honor! Everybody wins! Yay dmoefunk for making my day.

Close to Me/You

"Close to You" and "Close to Me" rule. Please observe:

1. Burt Bacharach wrote "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and it is delightful. Dusty Springfield and The Carpenters sang it. It was Homer and Marge's wedding song in The Simpsons Movie. You know you sway every time you hear it.

2. A haunting version of 'Close to You' appeared as an extremely awesome scene in the very bizarre but amazing movie Mirrormask. Check it out:

3. The Cure wrote 'Close to Me' which, I've come to understand, is the almost greatest song ever. #4 and #5 prove why.

4. The Kleptones, under-appreciated and widely unknown mash-up masters, put out the amazing album '24 Hours' (available for free download on their website, along with everything else they've done) mixed The Cure's 'Close to Me' with Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Boxer' with Asheru's 'Think About' rap over it. This actually is the greatest song ever.

5. Lady Sovereign uses The Cure's song as the music for her new single, 'So Human.' It rules. Go get it.

Hypothesis proven.

I leave you with a picture of the first Closer in Phillies history to pitch a perfect season, Lights Out Lidge.

Beyonce Go Bragh

I'm not even close to being Irish, so technically, I'm not required to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at all. But I always do, even if it just means wearing green. This year, I actually did all my celebrating last night at my friend Beth's. Her sister Taylor was visiting and the three of us apparently decided it was a good idea to mix as many un-matching things together as possible: we drank Baby Guinness shots and white wine, ate a ton of cheese and sushi, watched 'Dream Girls' and then dressed in matching Sprocket outfits and tried to learn Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' dance.

Single Ladies Video
Believe me, it's even harder than it looks. We gave it our best shot for quite a while, and semi-nailed about one of the moves but eventually ditched the video for a good old aerobics dance party.

Today, we decided to abandon our plans to go to the parade once Taylor and I confessed we both hate parades. Instead, we ate homemade brunch, drank tea, and walked a few miles from Battery Park City to the South Street Seaport and, as three good Jersey girls, we shopped and ate in a mall food court. It was exhausting and funny, and in retrospect I couldn't be happier to not have been stumbling around midtown. I'm no Beyonce, but I'd choose a synchronized dance over being hit on by a bunch of drunk Irish dudes any day.

Babysitting

I just babysat for the kids upstairs, two boys who are 8 and 10. Man, it's great work! I made $70 for 4.5 hours, and all I did was play Foosball and this board game called Labyrinth which is actually really hard (I'm not the best strategizer), make some ravioli, talk about science, and watch Get Smart (the movie, which I had hoped would be a lot better than it was). I totally need to put up fliers in my neighborhood to get more gigs like that.

Oh Yeah

I almost forgot the most important thing: idaft.

work it. do it. (makes us harder better faster stronger.)

Phish Phriday

I just stopped at my neighborhood bodega to grab a few beers, and right as I walked in, the guy in the back said to another guy, "You eat meat on lent? I don't eat meat, but I eat cigarettes and pussy" (I walked in mid-conversation; this wasn't at all directed at me.) Nevermind the fact that you don't eat cigarettes - that's funny.

Today is Friday the 13th, the second Friday the 13th in a row, and the second of three in 2009. Three Friday the 13ths in one year only happens once every 11 years. Personally, that means 2009 is supposed to be a very lucky year for me, and today one of the luckiest days. The third will occur in November, the 11th month, so that will pretttty much be one of the luckiest days ever. If you're superstitious. I am. 11 is (if you couldn't te11) totally my number. Nobody understand this better than Julia; for some reason the number 11 brings us good luck and has been the number behind a lot of awesome things. Maybe it's a Hurley thing, or the opposite of one. I do think things happen sometimes that seem like fate, but if you believe something enough, you create your own luck. I believe in fate, but I also believe that we control our own destinies. Maybe that's a contradiction, I guess I'm just somewhere in the middle.

I have felt pretty great all day. I woke up and listened to Phish in the shower (an old tape mix someone made for me about 11 years ago - last night I pulled out my cassette collection) which got my day off to a nice start. I had a bacon cheeseburger from Lucky's for lunch. Now that March is (Ican'tbelieveit) almost halfway over, June is getting close. Which means I'm going to see Phish soon, for the phirst time! I'm super stoked. Plus of course, last weekend they kicked off their tour with three shows in Hampton. I read a few articles and saw the set lists last week and, well, it got me back on a Phish kick for sure. The set lists are insane, and from what everyone is saying, they still have what it takes. All three shows are available for download on LivePhish.com (when I downloaded the first show yesterday, it was free, now it says it's not, I don't know what's up with that). I just put on the 3/6/09 show and it is rocking so far. The applause when Phish takes the stage for the first time in 4 years is out. of. control. Man, it sounds like so much fun, I can't wait to experience it!!

Of course, tonight is 2020 Soundsystem, so I don't want to get too ahead of myself. The show is at Le Poisson Rouge, which is French for "The Red Fish." I love fun Fridays! I feel like tonight is gonna be awesome. I love that feeling. I hope everyone is having a good, lucky day - not an unlucky one!

And on that note, you know you love this:

2020 soundsystem

I'm super-psyched to go see 2020 Soundsystem tomorrow night. It seems nobody I know has ever heard of them, which is understandable since they're a UK band that rarely tours here. One of the reasons I was so psyched to go to Camp Bisco this past summer was to see them, and I went, but didn't see them, because I had to take care of a friend who was sick. But! I get to see them tomorrow night with one of my favorite friends, Sarah, who I hardly ever get to hang out with anymore except we're making a valiant effort lately and doing pretty well! In an email today from some promoter, I got a link to 2020 Soundsystem's last live show at Studio B. Listening to it now. I'm very excited to dance tomorrow.

Life is what we make it

Life is what we make it
Originally uploaded by aknacer

I have subscribed to Flickr's Top 5 photos of the day on My Yahoo! for the past year or so, and I quickly noticed that almost every day, 1 of the top 5 are by this guy, aknacer, or his girlfriend, Rosie. So I read into some of their comments, and discovered that these two lovely creative people and talented, creative photographers actually met on flickr. It's one of the greatest modern-day love stories I've ever heard. He's from NC, she's from London, they met because of their photographs and fell in love. Now they're engaged and have a whole flickr world of people, including me, rooting them on and helping them out. Their story is beautiful and inspiring to me, and I always love seeing their photos. They both seem to have really positive and optimistic outlooks on life, too, which I also find very inspiring. Their story gives me hope, and I know the same is true for many, many people, which you will be able to see if you read even one comment string for one of their photos. They have a blog together, which aknacer links to under this photo. Also check out one of my favorite projects they've put together, this video made by putting together still images from the first time Rosie visited Aaron here in the states. Aww!! The video is here, under "NYC Roadtrip" : http://nacedesign.com/blog/archives/category/the-life-and-times-of-arf


Separately, both Aaron (aknacer) and Rosie (rosiehardy) take really awesome photos, and they each have their own very unique style and are both super creative, and insanely busy. They both seem to live and breathe photography. And together, they take beautiful photos like this.

And here is one of my favorite pictures Rosie has done. (Sue, this is the crane picture.) Rosie posted this when I was in my major origami crane phase, and then when my Nona died, this photo was a big inspiration for me to make cranes for her funeral. I make 36 of them, for "double chai" which in the Jewish tradition means double life. I strung them together and they went into the casket with her. I will forever be thankful that I did this and had the courage to speak at her funeral. It wasn't easy.

Music Takes Me Up

When I owned my one and only car, this was one of the bumper stickers. My other bumper sticker was the Dark Side of the Moon album cover. When I was driving around Cherry Hill, NJ and Ithaca, NY between the ages of 17-19, I apparently wanted the world behind me to know one thing: I am a hippie. Well, those days are behind me now, gone but not forgotten. I like to think I'm a pretty responsible and mature adult now, but if any part of that hippie in me has survived, if any one thing has grown with me and remained close to my heart all my life, it is music. My tastes have evolved, but music has always been extremely important to me: playing it, learning it, listening to it, dancing to it, living it. Bill Cosby said, "Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes." Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be an error." I couldn't agree more with both wise men. Sure, without music, life would still be worth living, I guess. Nature and stuff is cool. But to me, life without music would be sad and boring.

Why am I telling you this? Today a note thing was going around on Facebook - 20 Albums That Changed Your Life - and I have just been thinking about how important music is, and how hard it is to pinpoint the 20 most influential albums in my life thus far. Music has been crucial in my mental and emotional growth, in so many ways. I've gotten through the hardest and saddest times of my life by finding solace in music; I've had the best, most fun times of my life experiencing music.

I did make a list on the fly:

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
2. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
3. Radiohead - The Bends
4. Daft Punk - Live at Coachella
5. Charlie Parker - Bird
6. Younger Brother - Last Days of Gravity
7. Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia - Friday Night in San Francisco
8. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
9. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
10. Nirvana - Nevermind
11. Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
12. Joni Mitchell - Blue
13. Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
14. De la Soul - Stakes is High
15. Jay-Z - The Black Album
16. Fiona Apple - Tidal
17. Kleptones - 24 Hours
18. Weezer - Pinkerton
19. Pixies - Doolittle
20. Velvet Underground - Peel Slowly and See

There is a story for every album listed, and I can remember where I first heard it or at least a specific time in which I was listening to it and realized that it had profoundly affected me and deeply moved me in some way.

...but all day since I made the list, other albums have been popping into my head that I feel should be there too. Jethro Tull's 'Benefit', for instance - I heard this when I'd started studying the flute and it blew me away that a flute could be part of a rock and roll band (not to mention Jethro Tull's awesome musicianship, lyrics, and overall kickassness). Rusted Root's 'When I Woke' - I listened to this album at least twice a day for over a year straight. They were one of my first concerts. Digable Planets' 'Reachin'(a new refutation of time and space) and Jurassic 5's EP were two of the albums that made me fall in love with hip hop (I'm white and grew up in Cherry Hill, so cut me some slack if I was a little behind the times). Fela Kuti's 'Expensive Shit' turned my world upside down freshman year of college (and the same can be said of everyone in my Political Economy of African Diaspora Music class in which we were all introduced to Fela - it spread over Ithaca like wildfire). Countless recordings of the orchestral works of Debussy, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel... these all had a major impact on my life throughout high school and influenced me and my music education in huge ways. And motown! What would I do without motown?!

I could go on and on, forever, and the list will be never-ending and ever-evolving, as my tastes evolve, as I discover music I haven't heard before, and as new music is made. If it's frustrating, it's the most pleasant frustration I've ever known. I will gladly revise my list forever and be changed by music in different ways forever. More than anything, it's what gets me out of bed every day and helps me dream peacefully at night.

And on that note, today's song is, for once, applicable.
I'm *this* close to figuring out how to embed an mp3 so you can press play right here in the blog, but still bear with me. And anyway, this video has a singing lemon and a dancing banana and I like it.

i just set up my

i just set up my phone so i can blog via text message. let's see if this works. technology rules!

Happy Purim!

Today is typically the day on which the Jewish tradition is to drink until it's impossible to stand, but seeing as it's Monday, I did not drink. I did, however, eat a corned beef sandwich at Katz's Deli and get some dessert treats at Russ and Daughters (first time there!). The woman who weighed my one hamentashen and one chocolate-dipped macaroon was so nice! Apparently we both really like those chocolate covered jelly rings even though we can't explain why, and we both have developed a taste over time for dark chocolate. Yay!

Now I'm home and am about to continue catching up on Lost. I only have 7 episodes to watch before I'm completely caught up for Wednesday's new episode. That means I've watched 4.5 seasons (almost 90 hours) in the past month. It's insane. I'm ready.

The song of the day has nothing to do with Purim, but I discovered J. Boogie's Dubtronic Science a while ago (most likely through NPR) and I like them. Their songs have wicked grooves and make me jam on the subway. Because embedding videos from YouTube is so easy and I still can't figure out how to embed an mp3 (one of these days, I will), today's song is in video form again. Visuals are cool, you know you like it.

Lions and DJs and Shaft, oh my!

Check out this video mash-up by thesmokeeater(s), DVJs from Amsterdam who found me on MySpace. I hardly go on MySpace anymore and usually ignore friend requests from bands/DJs, but I do appreciate a good mash-up so I checked them out. Glad I did! In the same vein as Mad Decent's video podcasts (which I love), thesmokeeaters combine awesome musical mashups with cool pop culture visuals. It's fun for the whole family... or you know, your ears and eyes. It's very cool that DJs are getting so creative and branching out into live performances with VJs doing visuals, artists painting live, and even real instruments. Definitely makes going to a show more fun than watching a guy press buttons on his laptop. Of course, many DJs are and have been way past that, but it's good to know that more are straying from that awful hipster uninspired norm. Today's theme is brought to you by the letters M, I, and A, by total coincidence.

Classic Times

I had an awesome night last night with my friends Julia and Diana. Julia came up from PA and we all went out for Mexican food and drinks at this place La Taqueria in Park Slope. It was the first time all three of us have hung out in about three years, and, despite many whispered conversations between Diana and Julia about Lost revelations I'm not yet privy to, it rocked. It was just like old times. We went to Union Hall, and I quickly remembered why I don't go there anymore: it's way too crowded and filled with yuppie hipsters. Nonetheless, free karaoke in the basement was surprisingly awesome. We all sang - even Julia and me, who weren't wasted. Everyone danced with everyone. Diana sang with everyone. The guys running it got up and did a killer Guns n' Roses song. So fun!

I've been super happy all week, spending a lot of time with friends, feeling like a huge weight has been lifted. And now today feels like spring, and the World Baseball Classic game is on my TV right now. Oh, how I've missed seeing Jimmy Rollins play! Seriously, every day just gets better and better!

Today's song goes out to M.I.A. because she named her son Ickett. N.A.S.A. - Whachadoin?

**update** Turns out M.I.A. didn't name her son Ickett. I'm not sure what she means by "LOTS OF LOVE STICKIT!!" but I'm pretty sure it means she's still crazy (in a good way).

Daft Punk Tron 2011

ummmmmm Billboard just announced that there is a remake of Tron scheduled for release in 2011, and Daft Punk has been signed to do the soundtrack. News can't get any more awesome.

I'm on a boat

I have only one thing to report on Day 3, and it's the song of the day, which is definitely this, in video form:

Undated

It's Day 2 of This Thing We're Doing (my wonderful cousin and me) and I'm still up for the challenge, though I don't have much exciting news from today. Had a good laugh at work when we received an undated check for a permissions fee. Since it wasn't dated, we couldn't process the payment, so we tried calling the woman (her # was on her check) and the # was disconnected. So I pulled the backup and found an email address, wrote to her, said it would probably easier if she told me what date she sent the check and I could write it in with her approval, or of course if she wanted me to return it and send a new, dated one, to just let me know. [Note that this check was enclosed in a returned, signed contract, which she dated December 2008 (yes, our mail is slow sometimes.)] She emailed back almost immediately saying "Oh sure, why don't you date it August 19, 2009, oh but that's too late to cash isn't it, why don't you date it today?"

Please note the quotes signifying that this is her response verbatim, and a few other things:

(cuz - I <3 lists too.)

1. This woman is clearly out of her mind.
2. Why would we date it August 19, 2009? Really, why? Aside from the fact that it would then be about 6 months overdue and we'd have to just keep it in our check drawer (we don't have a check drawer) until August 19th, at which time we'd have to have a large notes reminding us to a) enter the check on that day and b) find it; does that date have any significance whatsoever?
3. Once this woman realized that was not the best option, she did not edit her one-line email, she simply added to it: "oh but that's too late to cash it, why don't you date it today?"

So I dated it and processed the check, ran it to my supervisor, we cracked up, end of work day, end of story. Really, though, ftw?

Season 4 of Lost is sick so far. 2 episodes in. New characters coming to the island (to save them?) and some realligned trust issues. I'll binge watch the rest of the season this weekend and am pretty excited.

I noticed yesterday, at the start of This Thing We're Doing, that I posted a new song that I like. Or at least it's new to me. How bout we keep that up and listen to a song a day? This is a good purpose for me to blog 25 days this month: share 25 awesome songs. I've been catching up on old NPR All Songs Considered podcasts and have heard some great stuff, in addition to my infinitely growing music collection. Until I can find the happiest, best way to post music here, I'll probably do it a bunch of different ways and sometimes direct you to other sites, which I'm a fan of doing anyway. Knowledge is power, or cool. Whatever, have some.

Today's song is from Eric Chenaux, Canadian lyricist and guitarist who writes simple, beautiful, lulling, sweet songs. Check him out. "Rest Your Daylights" is the song that hooked me first, but I think I love everything he does. It has nothing to do with crazy check lady or Lost, but I never said I was going for a theme here.

The Pursuit of Happyness

I just (finally) saw The Pursuit of Happyness. What a film! a) I love Will Smith; b) His son is so cute, and (surprise) super talented; c) I cried my eyes out. When he hits rock bottom and is sleeping in the bathroom at the train station, I lost it. I looked around my apartment at everything I have - most of it completely unnecessary - and started to cry because I feel so lucky. I've definitely had moments, recently, when I've had to struggle to pay the rent and to eat and have been terrified that I won't make it, but I've managed to scrape by. And I know that no matter how bad it gets, I still have a home, a family, awesome friends, and lots of useless crap - I still have my life. Then when he's told he gets the job - holy stock broker batman, that was the end for me. Maybe I'm over-emotional lately, but that was an incredibly beautiful film. The happiest endings are those that arrive after the most tragic and sad events. I think a main reason this movie struck such a chord in me is for that reason. I know that the hard time I've been going through - winter, bad relationship ending, sickness, etc., will end, and the result will be a happiness greater than if I hadn't gone through any hardship.

Along these lines, I want to recommend an album I've been loving a lot the past few days - partly because the songs are about loss and sadness and stuff I can relate to right now, but also because every song is so heartfelt, haunting, beautiful, prolific, and the vocals are killer. It's sorta indie/rock/country/bluegrass. Check out The Avett Brothers from North Carolina. I love every song on their album "Emotionalism." (see? I am emotional lately.) But it also has some happy, rockin songs so it encompasses all emotions, including happiness. And it's just a great album. Listen to 'Paranoia in B-flat major'

trudging along

i didn't like today. it was monday, it snowed a lot, my commute to work was crowded and long, and my nasty cough isn't getting better. but now i'm home and trying to un-gargamel myself.

on the bright side, i am still reading "the unbearable lightness of being" and liking it a lot. i read a passage today in which kundera talks about tereza reading 'anna karenina' and the symmetrical composition of anna meeting vronsky when someone is run over by a train, and then at the end, anna throws herself under a train. (i've never read this book but i think i will/should at some point.) kundera writes,

"[this] may seem quite 'novelistic' to you, and i am willing to agree, but only on condition that you refrain from reading such notions as 'fictive,' 'fabricated,' and 'untrue to life' into the word 'novelistic.'

i am always very drawn to any kind of literary theory in which the essence of fiction vs. truth is pondered. i wrote my senior thesis on this subject and am constantly trying to prove this very philosophical theory that fiction is not false: it is often capable of revealing truths more than real life can. and this is why i love fiction.

also on the bright side, i renewed my mlb.com audio pass today so i can listen to all the phillies games, and listened to the phillies come back from a big deficit to beat toronto 12-6. yeah, it's only spring training, but good news is good news.

i'm going to try to do this thing my cousin is doing and blog at least 25 days this month. let's see how i do.

phinally

i just managed to get mlb.com live audio running for free and am now currently listening to the phillies play live in the grapefruit league game against the rays.

baseball season is back. all is now right in the world.

phillies won 12-5!!!

while i try to figure out how to embed a song, click here for a link to download Bobby Burnett singing "Goin' Back to Philadelphia, PA" which they play whenever the Phillies are winning.

LOST; found

So I've been in somewhat of a twilight zone lately, being sick with something or other for the past few weeks and spending most of my time meanwhile watching LOST from the beginning. I'm now 6 episodes into season 3 and I am beyond addicted. I've had many freakout moments and I have many, many questions. But I'll save my LOST talk for my LOST friends when we can freak out and ask questions in person, as we now tend to spend a great deal of time doing. While I'm all depressed and holed up in the winter, watching LOST is great for filling the time, and every time that Mamas and Papas song comes on, it just wipes all my troubles away. Listen and smile.

Nobody can tell ya;
There's only one song worth singin'.
They may try and sell ya,
'cause it hangs them up
to see somone like you.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sing along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You're gonna be knowing
the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough goin',
just to do your thing's
the hardest thing to do.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

Thinking positively towards the future, I've been spending my non-LOST sick time making sure many awesome things are planned for the near future. Julia just planned the most kickass bday weekend ever for me by securing Disco Biscuits tickets and Phillies tickets for the weekend of April 17th. A few days after that, Ratatat with Olivia. Then later that week I will hopefully head to CT to kick it with Katherine. And then, it's the Weekend of Cosby. Julia and I will head to somewhere near Scranton to see Bill Cosby live; there are really no words for our excitement. We have lots of Cosby things in store, so stay tuned. Also coming up: 2020 Soundsystem, MSTRKRFT & Bloody Beetroots (together in 1 night), and Les Claypool. Lots of dancing in the next two months.

June will also be an amazing month because I'll get to see Phish for my phirst time with some of my best phriends. I know that, to some people, Phish touring again means more than anything in the world and they would give up everything just to have tickets in their hand. But I am really glad that for me, it simply means having a lot of fun with people I love, because that is really the greatest thing on earth.

Then about 2 weeks later I head to Portland, OR for 11 days for Katherine's wedding! The flight is booked. The maid of honor dress is in my closet (it's my favorite color and has pockets!! Thank you Katherine!) Lots of awesome things on my calendar.

I feel the depression of winter lifting. It's still freezing in my apt. but I hear birds chirping when I wake up in the morning. Baseball season has begun. I'm starting to feel productive. My friends are happy and making positive changes (new boyfriends, apartments, weddings...). I feel like the new year is really beginning now. We're all wiping toxic things out of our lives and making fresh starts, feeling stronger (harder better faster). Maybe the more LOST we watch, the more we find ourselves? Or maybe I just want a good excuse for watching 8 episodes a day every weekend... either way, things are looking up.

and the winner is...

I didn't watch the Grammys, but I actually agree with some of the awards this year. Though I have yet to hear it, Album of the Year went to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for Raising Sand. Will definitely be checking that out tonight. Al Green finally won an R&B award - two, actually - for two songs off Lay It Down. He's won Grammys before, but never in the R&B category. Radiohead's In Rainbows received a much-deserved win in the Best Alternative Music Album. And Daft Punk's 'Harder Better Faster Stronger' won Best Dance Recording. Now daft what I'm talkin' about.

*update* Justice won a Grammy in the best non-classical remix category for their remix of MGMT's 'Electric Feel.' Sweet!

Let's hope the Oscars make as much sense.

Bye Bye Miss American Pie

50 years ago today, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Big Bopper James Richardson died in a plane crash while touring the midwest. What's known as 'The Day the Music Died' is remembered today in various ways: Iowa's Surf Ballroom, where Holly, Valens, and Bopper played their final gig, hosted a tribute concert last night; NPR pays homage with a news story complete with audio clips; and South Florida's beloved festival Langerado kills the music in its own way. It is indeed a sad day in history.

We can forever look back to the tragic event and remember the trio with thankful ears, knowing that although Buddy Holly would probably still be selling out MSG today, he inspired countless musicians in his place, not to mention the lyrics to everyone's favorite Weezer singalong and the Don McLean song you know you're singing in your head right now (cha cha told me it was the most annoying and overplayed song of all time, but extensive and torturous research has convinced me otherwise). We may not all want to hear La Bamba too many times or recognize the poetic genius of Chantilly Lace, but Ritchie Valens and James Richardson both contributed to the rock and roll movement that has led to pretty much everything we know and love today.

So with a respectful nod to the past and a hopeful look to the future, just remember what we were all doing on the day the music died: we were singing...

woo super bowl sunday

i didn't have any super bowl plans this year, so i'm kickin' it at home alone today, cooking, cleaning, eating, not cheering for either team in any way whatsoever but watching the game as i end up doing every year. i could care less about football and find the game itself mostly boring (with the exception of the occasional insane play or injury), but i dig the commercials and halftime show (like most girls), and i do appreciate a good sports announcer. jennifer hudson just sang the national anthem and sounded great - game on. i did watch about a half hour of the puppy bowl and caught its national anthem, sung by a parrot, which was cool but decidedly overall less exciting than the super bowl.

i pigged out most of yesterday and continued with BLC (bacon, lettuce, cheese) sammiches for breakfast this morning - yes, plural - and decided the rest of my day should involve some exercise and decent food. so i walked around a few blocks and vacuumed. should have probably enjoyed the warmish 50-degree day more, but the promise of the FL sun and my sunshine in a few days keeps me from feeling too guilty. and so, instead of eating a bucket of fried chicken by myself as i considered, i had a delicious roundish meal featuring leftover roasted carrots & parsnips and a chicken cutlet, plus some wild rice (packaged) and brussels sprouts gratin with bacon. the brussels sprouts were kind of a hybrid of two different alice waters brussels sprouts recipes and they came out amazing. i have allowed myself to believe that eating brussels sprouts and bacon together cancels out the bacon (please don't try to convince me otherwise).

one notable bit of music news is that (i'm a little late getting to this) hype machine, aka music bloggers around the world, voted fleet foxes the #1 album of 2008. this makes me happy not necessarily because its my #1 choice but because every music magazine (well, at least spin and rolling stone) voted TVOTR's album #1. truthfully, i've listened to the TVOTR a lot more than fleet foxes, but i think both are equally amazing and that fleet foxes deserves some recognition for creating what was arguably 2008's most beautiful and original indie album. here hype machine offers a podcast show of their top 10 albums in full. the full list is here.




2009 looks promising musically as well, kicking off with the release of andrew bird's 'noble beast' which i cannot get enough of - it's seriously amazing - and, of course, success in getting phish tickets to camden in june, and thanks to my very good friend eytan, a promise to go to the friday jones beach show as well. despite many efforts, i've never seen phish live, so i'm pretty ph'ing stoked to finally live my 18-year-old dreams. lots to look phorward to.

The Iceman Cometh

As a newish but diehard fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I just got a very nice little accidental information surprise while searching for a book at work. Until now, I was unaware that "The Iceman Cometh" was a famous play by Eugene O'Neill (also wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire") which Amazon sums up like this:

O'Neill mined the tragedies of his own life for this depiction of a ragged collection of alcoholics in a rundown New York tavern-hotel run by Harry Hope. The saloon regulars numb themselves with whiskey and make grandiose plans, but they do nothing. They await the arrival of big-spending Theodore Hickman ("Hickey"), who forces his cronies to pursue their much-discussed plans, hoping that real failure will make them face reality. Hickey finally confesses that he killed his long-suffering wife just hours before he arrived at Harry's, and he turns himself in to the police. The others slip back into an alcoholic haze, clinging to their dreams once more.

O'Neill's play was clearly the inspiration for Charlie's masterpiece: "The Night Man Cometh" was already genius but this gives it a nice satirical literary twist and adds some funny insight into the writers' view of the characters on the show. I love finding out things like this.

Welcome President Obama!

I wrote a bit about the inauguration yesterday on my other blog but just to reiterate: yesterday was a very special day. I wasn't feeling very well and was in a terrible mood for no real reason, but still Obama's inauguration and the festivities that followed brightened my outlook. The first inaugural Neighborhood Ball - the first inaugural ball to be open to citizens and also the first to be fully broadcast on television - was surprisingly impressive. I didn't catch the entire thing but what I did catch was awesome.

'Jay-Z' and 'beautiful' never went together so well in a sentence as they do when describing his performance last night. He actually looked handsome in a fitted suit and black plastic glasses as he crooned to an insanely large and diverse crowd. Then Alicia Keys did her thang - who doesn't love her? Then this weird jumping dance troupe came on wearing these crazy kangaroo-ish pogo sticks, and acrobats fell from bouncing ropes in the ceiling. Hostess Vanessa Williams (whose father was an eye donor) looked normal, and I realized at one point that these gigs must pay a fortune.

Then Shakira came on, and she sucked. Her dress was too tight and she sang off-key and her song wasn't good, and she tried to play the harmonica and sucked at that too. I didn't know who she was until I looked it up today, but my notes during the show read: who the f is chiquita? why is she famous?! Well I still don't know why, but I'm not a fan.

And then... Obama!!! He did a mini-interview and then... wait for it... he danced to Stevie Wonder!! Our new president danced to Stevie Wonder! Stevie - now he can play the harmonica. He sang "This whole world will be all about love again." In one of the night's best moments, the Obamas danced to Beyonce singing "At Last." Obama's first words to the ball's attendees were "How good does my wife look?" On ABC's special afterwards, Beyonce was interviewed and could not fight back the tears. "It's probably the most important day in my life. He makes me wanna be smarter, he makes me wanna be more involved. I'm embarassed but I'm so overwhelmed!"




Leo DiCaprio came out and introduced the Bidens for their dance. Joe Biden made a little speech and said "The reason I wanna keep talking is cause I can't dance...but I sure like holdin' her..." and he and his wife (who looked incredibly stunning) danced to a cover of Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?"

Then Sting, looking oddly sexy in an old British drunken sailor way, came out and sang "Brand New Day" with Stevie Wonder on harmonica (while Shakira cried backstage).

I flipped to another channel during commercial and when I flipped back, they cut into Obama who was talking over "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" about the importance of America working together. Then, a group of aerialists took over the stage and did crazy things while the lights went all berserk and dub house music blasted. The audience was visibly confused as this continued into the closing credits, with some official-looking Inauguration 2009 White House seal filling up the screen... the dub house music continued in the background.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was, as I anticipated, pretty funny. But I wonder where they'll get their jokes now. Clearly, they wonder too, as this was the main topic of the episode. Jon Stewart made fun of Elizabeth Alexander (Obama's inaugural poet) and even Maya Angelou (the last inaugural poet, for Clinton - Bush didn't have poetry at his inauguration), admitting "I'm not into poetry." He praised Rev. Lowery for his awesome "when brown can get around..." speech-closer and added some of his own: "When we rise above the minutia of fuschia." But at one point, Stewart and correspondent Jason Jones admitted sadly that they didn't know how they'd make fun of Obama. Correspondent Wyatt Cenac came on and apologized that he had nothing funny to report - that "The new president is cool. He was dancing to Stevie Wonder 2 hours ago. I want to make fun of it, but I can't - he's too good. And I'm black!" aaand then he asked Jon Stewart for pot.

Probably the most awful yet most sadly articulate clip was with correspondent Samantha Bee, who tried to give Jon Stewart a report of all ten balls the Obamas had to visit last night...but Jon Stewart would not let her get a sentence out without making a sexual innuendo joke. "We're headed in a new direction" became "Did you say nude erection?" It was incredibly immature yet demonstrated a new point, something we're not used to: Without resorting to "balls" jokes, how are we going to make fun of Obama? The world may be headed in a more intelligent direction, but comedy may be going the other way.

Southern Oregon Coast

Southern Oregon Coast
Originally uploaded by rasone

this photo just blew me away. oregon is so beautiful, and a perfect example of its stunning landscape is captured so well here. not that i know much about photography, but this is an awesome sight.

man, i want to move to oregon!!

Same Zip Code, Different World

Today, supposedly the coldest day in 2 years, I had to pick up a package from the post office. I knew it was the fleece blanket I'd ordered from Target, so I definitely wanted to pick it up asap. There is a post office right down the street from me - just 1 block away - but I went there and the attendant told me that because of my zip code I had to go to another post office about a mile away. Makes sense. So I bundled up, put some Kleptones on my headphones, and walked over. It was extremely cold, but I entertained myself by reading the progressively more ridiculous awnings and advertisements decorating store windows. I was entering the heavily Jamaican neighborhood around Church Avenue and Flatbush, where you can get vegetables from "The Farmer in the Deli" or frozen goat meat for 99 cents a pound. Did you know there is a Jamaican Rolling Stones? According to a flier, they have a new single coming out - "Taste the Flava". The McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Kennedy Fried Chicken all within a one block radius seem to be enjoying good business, but Veggie Garden Healthy Foods was closed by the health inspector. Naked mannequins line a sporting clothes store window splattered with "Clearence" signs. And of course, the post office is next to a DNA Testing Center - "Does he really have his father's eyes?" Things that make you go hmm.

My fleece blanket looks pretty warm, and I think I've made a good segue to watch Knocked Up, which I surprisingly haven't seen yet. Stay warm.