How Cool is Kristin Shaal?

First, she gets to hang out with the Flight of the Conchords all the time, and now this!

Man, I wish I was her friend.

I <3 Wall-E

In general I'll take any excuse to go see a kid's movie. Aside from the fact that I'm currently at the stage in my life where I find six year-olds to be annoying, content created for them often seems to be extremely entertaining. Proving, once again, that since I'm a grown-up now...it's my turn to decide what that means.

Of course I was chomping at the bit to see it, basically anything from Pixar (except that disaster "Cars" yech) is guaranteed to be awesome. Wall-E is the little robot that everyone wants for their very own. He has personality, an almost painfully cute curiosity about his environment, and a tendency to be friendly to anyone and anything he comes across. The result, aside from a wonderful and humorous love story in which the robots seem considerably more human than humans, contains some interesting ideas about the environment and technology. Wall-E is truly green! He charges via solar panels in what seems like nothing flat. One of the more amusing scenes was Wall-E in the morning, his solar charge is winding down and the alarm goes off, acting as an alarm clock, and Wall-E sleepily gets himself ready for the day. SO CUTE!

I'll try not to give anything away, seeing as many people have yet to see it (it's having been released only Friday). Like many other Pixar films, the themes are not restricted to children. Wall-E deals with falling in love, loneliness, the basic need to do good, helping others, curiosity, and, of course, the future. Some have said that the film is essentially very dark or hopeless. And if you look for that message, Wall-E certainly provides that. But I think that, at its core, it is a story about hope. No one can deny that we're screwing things up. But, Wall-E, though he has not been a party to the destruction, does all he can to help in the reconstruction. And through it all manages to make us laugh at his discoveries and childlike sense of wonder. I will definitely be seeing this one again, and I encourage everyone else to as well. But bring a kleenex. If you have a heart at all, this one will touch it.

Shop Victoriously!

Backstory: My brother plays the drums in his school’s marching band. He’s very good, as is the band in general. A few months ago it was announced that the band had been invited to play in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In New York, on Thanksgiving (duh). So my mother, after hemming and hawing, decided to book us rooms at the Algonquin hotel. The choice delights me because the Algonquin has a huge literary history, which I love, and super swanky digs! The choice delights my mother because it is right on the parade route meaning we wont have to navigate New York on Thanksgiving day in the wee hours of the morning. All we have to do is fall out of bed, wrap up warm, and walk downstairs.

Frontstory: As I was thinking about all this I thought, hey, its going to be New York on Thanksgiving… that means it’ll probably be pretty cold. Maybe I should get me a nice pair of snow boots. And if you’re going to look for snow boots, really only one brand springs to mind. Uggs. I looked around for a cheap pair, in the process finding a site that sells cheap and real Dior, Chanel, Prada, et cetera! And cheap Uggs. However that site didn’t have them in my size, they only went up to a 9, but I need a 10.

On to… ebay! Yes, that darling little site where so much is on sale for so cheap. I bided my time well though. Too many times have I been outbid at the last second, so this time I only watched… never bidding. Until 2 minutes from the end of the auction. I was in a mini bidding war, but at 32 seconds the other person dropped out and the beautiful boots were MINE!!!! I WON!!!

And they’re so pretty. I can’t wait for them to get here even though it is currently 90 degrees outside. And if, once they get here, my mom likes them, I’ll buy her a pair of the smaller ones so her feet can be comfy and warm too. VICTORY!

Kids These Days

Via Bust

Back when I was a 'yoot' bright colors were in. As were, underage drinking, the brand new world of drugs, gangsters, prohibition, wait... did I slip from the early 90s into the early 30s?

Yup. There is a new underground movement afoot. It apparently started in London and has since hopped the pond and has taken roots in New Amsterdam. Yes indeed.

Last weekend, a much more refined crowd made their way to Governor's Island for a "Lawn Party" (Lawnapalooza?) where they, assumedly, sipped prohibition-era cocktails, sported flapper-dresses, admired the latest in model-Ts, and, generally, enjoyed themselves.

I, for one, am all for this new craze. Flapper dresses, cute vintage shoes, sidecars, big old skool megaphones?! come on, this is awesome. We all knew that a few years ago the big band style was really in, but now it looks like we've moved into the 20s, screw the 40s and 50s. I am totally behind this, and not only because its totally out of the Gilmore Girls episode of the Life and Death Brigade shenanigans and Logan is hot, oh no. Its because I love me some nostalgia. Especially nostalgia for times so long gone that no one really remembers them and the only things left are stereotypes and happy things. Forget about the real dangers from prohibition, forget about the racism, sexism, and every other -ism. Lets just do the charleston and wear cool suits.

And all that Jazz.

Miscellany

Ok, so since few thing have happened of great import, but many small things have happened, these will be little McNuggets of blog.

On Thursday I got an email from a friend letting me know that Kathy Griffin will be coming to the DAR Constitution Hall in September and that tickets for the Friday night show would be going on sale the next morning at 10 am. SO! How could I pass that up? I was packing books up to ship to the Library of Congress at 9:58, and scurried back to my cube to get on ticketmaster. I bought 2 orchestra seat tickets at 10:05 and was totally happy with that! Still am, though now a bit perturbed at ticketmaster for all of the stupid fees and nonsense that they tagged onto the price. Whatever, Orchestra seats, row S. I’m happy.

One of the boys that I grew up with just became an eye doctor. He claims I have to call him Dr. Perry. I said he would always just be booger-breath to me.

After sitting around in my living room for a month, the letter I wrote to Kittle was finally sent on Saturday. What really lit the fire under my butt to do so was that I got 2 from her and my May letter was still sitting there. Yikes! So I sent that Saturday and wrote another one on Sunday, so she’ll get two in close succession. Which should make her happy.

Mika is coming home! For a visit! Happy!

There are a ton of movies that I want to see this summer. Good thing Tiff isn’t leaving until the end of the summer because we have some serious movie watching / drinking to do. Short list of movies that I want to see:

Wanted
Wall-E
Hellboy 2
(maybe) Kung Fu Panda
Mama Mia
Hancock
The Mummy 3
Hamlet 2
Son of Rambow
Igor

As you can see I will be spending plenty of my hard earned money at the box office this summer. Though hopefully less than others as I usually buy a senior citizen ticket. I just have to make sure that I don’t get in the assistant manager’s ticket taking line. Stupid little pimply brat!

The Stars Are Stacked Against You, Girl. Get Back In Bed.

There really are some days when Mary Chapin Carpenter’s fictional horoscope should be heeded.

Today actually started well enough. A lovely dream, awakened quite peacefully by a combination of cat and alarm clock radio. Even time for a little breakfast. Then I got to work and really wished I’d stayed in bed.

I totally screwed up. I know it. I admit it. It was totally my fault. And that sucks, because I fancy myself Wonder Woman and I hate screwing up. I really do.

Plus I’m either getting a cold or having massive allergy attacks for no reason. Either way, I’m sneezing like a … actually I don’t have a simile. I’m sneezing a lot. There.

It doesn’t sound too bad when you put it down on paper (or screen), but I feel like crawling under my covers and returning to my lovely dream. There was a beach in Australia and a beautiful young man. Nuff said.

History boys

The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.

That is a quote from the most awesome History Boys. I have used it before because it really is a great line, one that really is true to all things, reading, but also just thoughts. Finding out that you are not alone in how you feel about your life is really affirming. So I present, from the musical Avenue Q, this song. I was shocked at lyrics and how they were everything that I have been feeling over the past year. Honestly.


I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!
I wish I could go back to college.
In college you know who you are.
You sit in the quad, and think, "Oh my God!
I am totally gonna go far!"

How do I go back to college?
I don't know who I am anymore!

I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door!
Ohhh...
I wish I could just drop a class...
Or get into a play...
Or change my major...
Or do my T.A.

I need an academic advisor to point the way!
We could be...
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!
I wish I could go back to college!

How do I go back to college?
I wish I had taken more pictures.
But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God..."

"These kids are so much younger than me."

If You Like Joy!

Going Off the Rails on a Crazy Train

Its been one of those days wherein I sit and consider myself and my life. That never ends well, such a deep level of introspection. It makes one really consider ones life choices and ones place in the universe. Hardly happy time. Deep Thoughts are really best left to those who are accustomed to them. Me, I tend to think happy, light thoughts. Such as: I like zebra print. I wonder where that pen went. Can the fishes see it’s snowing? Etc.

Therefore, Deep Thoughts, when they do find their way into my consciousness tend to hit like a bag of garbage dropped out of a 3^rd story window onto concrete. Big, splashy, smelly, and unwelcome. Plus they then seem to seep into every other thought. “I’m hungry” becomes, “Why am I hungry again? Am I really so fat as to need food every 5 hours? And what’s to become of all the starving children in Africa?” Such things make it really difficult to enjoy ones lean cuisine.

Basically, as soon as the starving children, in the country of your choice, are introduced its all over for the happy thoughts. Happy thoughts tend to shrivel like a snowflake on a toaster in the face of thoughts like, “What am I doing with my life? What paths did I take to end up here? Do I really want to be here? Where do I really want to be anyway?”

Too deep for the likes of me. Good thing I’m eating Mexican food and watching Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant run from spies tonight. Things such as that have clear answers, namely, “Yes, I do like my meal” and “Is that the bad guy?” clear cut, no gray areas, and everyone is happy at the end.

WWJJD?

Q: What Would Joan Jett Do?

A: Rock Hard!

Backstory: one of my friends is really into searching the paper for Things To Do (caps intended). She tends to find things that I am not particularly interested in or are too expensive for the amount of fun I would get out of them. However, sometimes she totally scores. Her most recent score was to inform me that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were playing at the Fairfax County Fair. Yes, I know, Joan Jett should not be reduced to playing a county fair, but the crowd was enormous and I think Joan and the various Blackhearts had some fun.

Tickets to the fair were $7.50 ahead of time or $10 at the door/gate. Lauren bought both hers and mine ahead of time, and I dragged my dad along after much nagging, and he bought his ticket at the door.

Joan et al were set to play at 8, so we got to the stage at 7:10. My mama raised me right, you get to things early. Which is perhaps why we got to sit in the 5^th row of seats, behind the crowd at the base of the stage (which is where I wanted to be, but I had Dad with a bad knee and Lauren who is roughly 84 years old).

Let me say that Joan Jett, despite being as old as my father, is hot! Seriously. She was rocking a pair of hiphugging leather pants and a bikini top. That’s it. The end. She is still rocking the semi-mullet that is dyed far too black, and the heavy duty eye makeup. On the street or in a concert crowd, this would look trashy, on stage and because she is Joan Jett, it looked super cool.

Basically she rocked. She did old favs (Bad Reputation, Love Stinks, Crimson and Clover, I love Rock and Roll, the Mary Tyler Moore Theme), and new stuff from her new album ‘Sinner’* (Androgynous, Change the World, Riddles, Little Liar). As she was wrapping up, a storm on the distance threatened to encroach on the show, lightning bolts were clearly visible and lighting the sky, though there was no rain. The best part was that when she did the “AOW” from I love Rock and Roll, a huge lightning bolt lit up the sky and the zig zag was visible. Now that’s rock and roll!

*Joan explained that when one mentions the name of the new album, one must also shake ones finger and look accusingly at those around you. Sinner!

The Blackhearts were also entertaining to watch. Specifically the lead guitarist. He was a great guitar player, and also seemed to have studied “How to look like a Rock God in 10 Short Lessons”. He had all of them pretty well mastered. The Jump From the Amp, The Really Wide Stink Bug Stance, The Windmill, The Jump Too High and Almost Knee Yourself In the Nose, and plenty more. Quite entertaining. Plus Lauren named him Lucille 2, a brownish area with points.

Joan even had her own mirror holder. Yes indeed, her Keyboadist came out with a full length mirror and a towel sos she could attend to her running eye makeup. Afterwards she addressed the crowd saying, “I have my own mirror carrier. Now that’s a diva."

Now that's Rock and Roll!

Spontaneous is my Middle Name!

Sometimes being a grownup sucks. Yes. But! And that’s a big but (geddit), sometimes being a grownup is a little bit cool. You see…

Yesterday at work a company wide email was sent around by someone whose name I did not recognize. The email was one sentence, simply that he had 2 tickets to that nights Nationals/Cardinals baseball game, the seats were in the outfield, lower level, they were in the kitchen and it was first come first serve. I needed a refill on my coffee anyway, which is pretty much my default position at this point, so I wandered into the kitchen. There were the tickets, as promised, taped to the refrigerator. No one else about… snatch. Mine! So, my mom and I went to the Nats game on only a few hours notice!

The game was great, and the seats were decent. In fact the seats were great, my only issue was that we were sitting exactly underneath the JumboTron®. So, we could see the game, but not any instant replays, and the only scoreboards we could see were the skinny side ones. That’s OK though, because part of me liked that. I was watching the game. In live action real time. I didn’t have to be glued to yet another screen.

There were a few “close calls” as in I said “eep” and covered my head with my hands, certain that I was about to be knocked unconscious with a stray flyball. But no such thing occurred. Everytime the ball came near us the outfielders caught it and saved my life.

Sitting in front of us at the game was a cute little Irish family, clearly tourists. Mom, Dad, and 3 little boys. Over the course of the game I caught all their names, Patrick, Brian, Sean. Irish if I’ve ever heard one! Also, my joke was that the children were a Neapolitan. One had brown hair, one had striking red hair, and one was blonde. The blonde Sean was about 3, and cranky. But also giggly. It was pretty clear that he was a generally happy child, but it had been a long day. He “wanted” a lot. As in “I WAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT IT!” but that’s OK. He was too cute for me to get annoyed at all. In fact, when Dad and older brothers went to buy souvenirs, blonde Sean and I started to play a game with his program and the convenient holes in the back of his seat. Little kids are so easily amused.

Mom and I had to bail at the end of the 9^th inning. The game ran to 10 innings, but we had to go in order to be home at a less obscene hour. On the train on the way home, someone had an iphone/blackberry, and was keeping us updated. The Nats won. Natch.

Hot Child in the City

Hot Child in the City.

Running wild and looking pretty

Whew! Another exhausting weekend.

First of all, my wife and best friend graduated this weekend, along with other good friends of mine. So off we went to Macon to witness it. We were all set for the boring speeches and the like, until Carrie was pooped on by a bird during the prayer. Like, really pooped on. I heard a “splat”. It was so funny that for the rest of the day one of us would burst into laughter, causing the rest of us to burst out laughing. The best part about it, I think, is that the bird had clearly not fully digested his recent meal of blackberries. So the poo was a lovely lilac color. Even more appropriate because Carrie is obsessed with purple. It was purple poo!

Sunday was awesome because Regina Spektor was giving a free concert as part of Shalom DC, in celebration of Israel’s 60^th birthday. She was awesome! And sooo cute. She is a really tiny person, with a pretty big voice. It was especially adorable when she played the guitar (her usual instrument is a piano). The guitar was big and green and she looked a little like a small child playing with a toy. We got there a little early (probably why we got to stand right at the railing and see her up close) so we also caught Oscar the Grouch and his Jewish cousin. Plus Mandy Patinkin. Who, to eat up time, had the whole crowd of 50,000 say his line from the Princess Bride! AWESOME! I brought both the Princess Bride and my Regina Spektor CD in case they could get signed, but the event was too big for that, had they traversed into the crowd they probably would have gotten mobbed.

Then last night, the girls (plus Airman) went to go see the Sex and the City movie. Carrie and I sat next to each other and gasped and freaked out with every little thing that went on. Seriously. That movie is amazing. My favorite part is that Charlotte totally steps up and gets really mad, justifiably, at someone who does something really crappy. I’m trying not to give anything away, but I will say that an enraged Jew nee Presbyterian in Vera Wang is not to be trifled with. Love!