Musings, Part X

- Not That High School Musical. Glee is actually not bad, it's got a pretty good cast from what the pilot shows and it was actually a pretty fun hour.
- I hope he's screaming in agony in hell: The Fuhrer Returns to Berlin, This Time Saluted Only By Laughs. I think the combination of the play, and the banners that replace the swastika with a pretzel (genius, by the way) is the best thing that can happen to Berlin. They acknowledge the burden but slap the man responsible in the face, well, metaphorically. Satire at its best.
- Well, whenever I get homesick I can just go here: Disney Buys Land for Future Resort Hotel at National Harbor.
- Hubble! A Space Mission Worthy of Our Attention.
- Designing 'Up'-Well-Rounded Boy, Meet Old Square. I still think Carl's adorable. Grumpy old man or not, he's cute. And he's a balloon salesman? Awesome.
- Do two occurances qualify as a curse? I have now been to a concert at the DAR Hall here in DC twice now, once this past October for Jason Mraz and once last night for Keane. Each time there was a woman near me who was either high off of something (I'm going with drunk) or just really was the type of person who needed to go to a concert in a club without seats so everyone was being loud and dancing along. Last time the woman wanted people to be standing because heaven forbid we use the chairs we paid for and some of us are still getting used to the concept that concerts mean more than staying still and quiet while appreciating the music quietly until a piece is over (and make sure it doesn't have multiple movements because clapping after one? total faux pas). Last night the woman must have not had any bones because she was all over the place dancing, security managed to calm her down though I think, all I cared about was that she was out of my line of sight.
Beyond that, the concert was great. Wow are they energetic. Lights, always moving. You could tell that the lead singer was absolutely drenched in sweat by about the 5th song. Putting aside the energy he put into the performance, those lights have to be incredibly hot, they're certainly bright enough on my end. Great group, great songs, great supporting acts. Mat Kearney (the one I'd heard about) even quipped about his claim to fame saying that you write these songs for yourself and friends and someone decides a doctor should make out to it and you say of course that's what you wrote it for. Grey's Anatomy used "Breathe In, Breathe Out". I think my ears have fully recovered.
- Also, trying to ride the Blue/Orange lines of the Metro through the downtown stations around 5:30 is akin to suicide or hell or a highly concentrated new Disney attraction line. Crazy, insane, I'm so glad I live on the Red line, though it has it's crazy times as well.
- So, I confess I have read the first 3 Twilight books. I have an electronic copy of the 4th and I guess I'll read it one day (I've skimmed enough to get the main details) but I'm currently in no hurry. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Yes, it's an interesting take on the whole vampire-human thing with werewolves thrown in because they always seem to be the other piece of the triangle. I liked the first but then...they got whiny. Bella got on my nerves and I never cared for Jacob. And I like vampire stories in general, it's kind of fun comparing the different ones and how they deal with the whole human-interaction thing: sun, no sun, how to kill them, blood issues, etc. Maybe my problem with vampire book series is the style of Meyer's writing and her tone. Perhaps these books will be better, there are certainly more of them and hey, adults are the focus, not teenagers who I suppose are inherently whiny. Vampire-Loving Barmaid Hits Jackpot for Charlaine Harris.
- Question: Who's the Longest-Running Fictional Character Ever? Sort of who you'd expect.
- By the way, love the originality of NCIS: Los Angeles. I was really pulling for a new intialization, as NCIS was the spinoff from JAG. Alas, not to be.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle's on Hulu? Score.

Musings, Part C

- It takes all kinds: The Oddest Book Titles Have Their Aficionados, Too. What I want to know is if the How to Avoid Huge Ships is available for my Kindle. I’d even take the Waterproofing Your Child or People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It. For the latter, hasn’t that been covered in countless horror/thriller flicks, notably The Sixth Sense?

- I love musicals. I’m impressed by them, when written well I find myself humming the tunes and getting the soundtracks. Sometimes things are really better when random/not so random musical numbers are added in. However, why make one out of Little Women? I guess it could work but why would you do it? There’s nothing wrong with leaving Little Women to the book and the movie versions. I haven’t yet seen the earlier version(s) but I really enjoyed the Winona Ryder one in the 90s. Christian Bale was in it, with longer hair and a happier disposition to his character, Gabriel Byrne, a much younger Claire Danes and Kirsten Dunst before both got big. And Susan Sarandon as Marmie? Excellent.

- Democracy has color. Perhaps one of the best illustrations I've found recently of this is the blog And the Pursuit of Happiness with it’s entry on Alexis de Tocqueville Mixing history, a description of a Vermont town’s town hall and a student council meeting in the Bronx it gets at a pretty good description of the character of democracy, it is personal, it is colorful, it is vibrant, and yes, it can be used for everything from lunch to nuclear power plants. And the illustrations remind me of books I read as a kid. Like the Hundred Dresses or that one book about the bridge in NYC as a necklace because the girl could fly or something. Something like that. She has done children’s books…just not the ones I remember.

- People are lovely: Kansas Church Says It Will Protest at Whitman High in MoCo Seriously? Doesn’t this church have something else to do? The only thing the name of a school can lead it is maybe a leg up professionally if you go to a nationally recognized one. Otherwise, a school is a school. And Walt Whitman? One of the country’s best poets ever. You people need to grow up.
- Finally, something unites my love of movies with my love of Legos: Lego Movie Stills/. The Blues Brothers dance in the church one has to be my favorite. The find is all thanks to Pop Vox, Newsweek’s entertainment blog. Who knew blogs were so useful in finding weird, random stuff? Yes, that would be apparently everybody.

- It’s Cherry Blossom season (well, few weeks) here in DC. The Tidal Basin turns into the picturesque area you always see in pictures, not that it isn’t pretty otherwise it’s just that the flowering trees add so much to the picture that it’s like a whole other area during the season. For allergy sufferers like myself it depends on the day, sometimes, whether you shake your fist at the trees or welcome them with open arms. We’ll see how it goes on my end. At any rate, cheers Japan.

Musings, Part B

- I really wish I could write one of NPR’s This I Believe essays. Problem is, I’m sure my one overarching belief, if I indeed have one, has been said already by one more eloquent than I. I tried once. Couldn’t manage to get it right. I tried to write about the importance of the space program. Something about the majesty of space tied with anecdotes of watching them lift off in my backyard at home. Because I could and did. We’d watch the countdown on the TV then race through the house to the backyard and look east and watch the small glowing dot rise above the houses with the smoke trail behind. We even got tickets a couple times and watched it down at one of the viewing areas close by the cape. Now that’s spectacular. And night launches? Every bit as amazing as pictures tell you. Anyway, too bad I couldn’t crack it. Perhaps one day I can write about my belief in the power of a book and make it sound different from something they’ve already got.

- Why is it that for some bands the song(s) I love from a particular CD isn’t (aren’t) the single(s)? Cases in point, Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” was huge, probably thanks to Grey’s Anatomy, but I liked “Open Your Eyes” much better on that CD (Snow Patrol’s, not the GA soundtrack). And The Fray’s first CD, “How to Save a Life” was the single (also probably thanks to GA) but “Little House” was a much better song in my opinion. I’m not sure what the single is from Snow Patrol’s latest, but I adore “The Golden Floor”. Simply love every second of it. It’s also a good thing I buy the whole album when I like a song on it or else I would have missed some great stuff that takes a few runs to appreciate. Like Keane’s latest, Perfect Symmetry, at first (few) listen I didn’t think it was as amazing as Hopes and Fears, on which I love almost every song equally, I didn’t even think it sounded like the band in the first place. Now I think it does and there are some great songs on there. Hopes and Fears is still the best of their 3 though.

- I wonder if it’s weird to miss Battlestar Galactica already, not because of the story or characters, because I’m kind of still ticked off about how all of that ended up (Kara just disappears, really? Lee’s left all alone, really? Baltar gets a happy ending, really? Blah blah, life isn’t fair, whatever. This is fiction. Thus happy can happen. Of course not that BSG was ever really happy…whatever, not the point of this tangent) but because it means the music is over? By music I mean the fabulous soundtrack provided by Bear McCreary. I don’t think I’ve ever spent two weeks listening to related soundtracks in this fashion before. Sure, I tend to listen to things on repeat after I first get them but not at the exclusion of other new things. And never have I tried so hard to find a particular (non-canon/slightly canon/writers messing with fans) couple’s theme before. I think I nailed it down though. I think.

- Third related music musing in a row, it really is true (at least for me) that the first version of a song you hear is your favorite/becomes your standard. The first version (believe it or not) of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” I heard was Bear McCreary’s in BSG. Now I find the Jimi Hendrix version to be…eh. I mean, it’s still a good song, lyrics wise, but there’s something about the way McCreary used the guitars and had the group do the lyrics that just…it’s been described as an eerie version, which okay it sorta is but it’s a cool version too. It sounds…modern, I guess. More rock like, or at least alternative (which, by the way, does alternative just mean no long guitar solos? Or is it just modern/current rock? Whatever, it’s still my genre of choice though I should probably look up a musician’s definition of it sometime beyond knowing which bands fall under the category). The same thing applies to some of Frank Sinatra’s hits. I just don’t like his version as much as say James Darren’s or Harry Connick Jr’s. Except Fred Astaire’s version of “Night and Day” I don’t like as much as the newer versions, say the one in De-Lovely or by others though I’m sure I heard Fred’s first. Maybe his is just a standard of how I don’t like it to sound. Hmm.

- The idea of Twitter annoys me. Maybe because I heard about it first from the Daily Show episode that talked about the non-State of the Union presidential address where Stewart talked about Senators and Representatives “twittering” during the speech, thus not really paying attention. I blame Twitter for Facebook’s new design. I liked my status thing. I liked it being called a status, not a “share” thingy. If you have random comments about stuff, use a blog…I hereby promise to go over 140 characters in each post. Still though, NPR’s pop culture blog’s, Monkey See, positive comments about Christopher Walken’s does cause curiosity to bloom, however unwillingly (Tweets of the Rich and Famous ). And I have hereby committed a listed internet discussion mistake (Ten Toxic Things You Should Never, Ever Attempt to Discuss on the Internet ). Whatever. I love my Mac. There, another. Others that I have comments on: home schooling is a mistake and I love Coldplay’s “Clocks” and “Trouble” because I appreciate a good piano part in a rock/pop song. I have no real feelings on the others…I’m sure I could come down on one side or another though.

- The thinking, connected, informed person’s Urban Dictionary: Schott's Vocab For a more regional Urban dictionary, it seems the Dictionary of American Regional English, On to Z! Quirky Regional Dictionary Nears Finish, is close to being finished. I wonder if all the stuff from my Baltimorese shirt will make the dictionary. Maybe those are mostly dialect instances though. What’s weird is that I kind of want a set of the regional English dictionary. Because it looks like a set, 4 volumes at least. I think they’re supposed to have an online version though. Which would be equally cool. Amazing how a punishment my fifth grade teachers had, copying the dictionary starting from page one (one kid made it to the middle of the A’s) now seems like an interesting read.

- I think this is my problem with CBS: Open Up For More of What's on CBS's Menu See, I like the quirky, the out there, the non standard. I adored Pushing Daisies which ABC cruelly dumped, though I do admit I like Better Off Ted which seems to have been put in its place. Maybe it’s just that I don’t care what the critics like or don’t like. I make up my own mind after reading a summary. If it sounds interesting, I give it a go. And yes, I do watch The Mentalist.

- Hooray for DC: Prime-Time Location I love Bones. It’s interesting, the corpses are always…interesting and its set in a DC. I say a because it’s the Jeffersonian not the Smithsonian and that graveyard in the pilot near the Washington Monument? Doesn’t exist. And if it did, no way would that girl have been able to be buried there. I’m sure its hard enough to get into Arlington. Still, its nice to see pretty aerial shots of the Mall.

- Oh, Broadway. I love Guys and Dolls and totally agree with Jeremy McCarter, Back on Broadway, that it is one of the best musicals out there but Oliver Platt as Nathan Detroit? Oliver Babish as Nathan Detroit? The lard seller whose name escapes me but married Lena Olin in Casanova as Nathan? Really? I mean, I know that in the movie version they had to add another song to appease Frank Sinatra but he’s great, amazing, as Nathan. I even love the song they added, Adelaide. I can sorta see Lauren Graham as Adelaide but she will always be Lorelai Gilmore (even with admitting the whole going back to Christopher bit of the last season which I refused to watch until he was gone again) to me. But Oliver Platt I can’t see. Nathan is more wiry and slinky, quicker, slicker than the eloquence and presence Oliver Platt usually brings to roles, at least those I’ve seen and can remember off the top of my head. I wish the cast the best and if I were in NYC I’d see it but I just have trouble picturing it in my head.