But now, I can't get that song out of my mind. I'll be singing it all day.
Diamonds Daisies Snowflakes That Girl...
****
I keep watching that video and I'm laughing because I keep thinking ... If Jeddie watches it, that song and those lyrics are going to make his head explode.
Haven't had much time to prepare for live blogging The Oscar's tonight over at newcritics. Since I haven't seen most of the movies nominated, I figured I'd spend yesterday preparing myself as much as possible. Figured I'd use The Google and read up on as much as I could. Didn't work out that way.
Haven't seen Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson, Peter O'Toole in Venus, Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness or Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. I did see Leo Dicaprio in The Departed. He was really great. Never really appreciated him before I saw him in this movie. He was so good. I hope he wins best actor, but I'm not so sure he will.
Haven't seen Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children, Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond or Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. But, I did see Mark Wahlberg in The Departed. I don't think he should've been nominated. His part was over-written and he over-acted in his over-written role. I did see Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine. Even though I don't think his character was all that much of a challenge for him, I predict he'll take the Oscar home for best supporting actor. Maybe.
Haven't seen Penélope Cruz in Volver, Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, or Kate Winslet in Little Children. But I did see Helen Mirren in The Queen. I'll bet anyone a gazillion dollars that Helen Mirren will win for best actress. No. I'll bet anyone five gazillion dollars. No. A gazillion gazillion dollars.
Haven't seen Adriana Barraza or Rinko Kikuchi in Babel, Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal or Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls. I did see Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine. She was just great in that movie. I loved her. She was perfect in every scene. My favorite scene being the one with her and Alan Arkin in the hotel room together talking about how worried she was about being in the beauty pageant. And she says to him, "I don't want to be a loser." The whole movie's worth seeing for how she delivers that one line. I'm not sure she'll win though. Although, I'd be really happy if she did.
I bet Martin Scorsese wins best director for The Departed. Which brings me to why I didn't use The Google yesterday as much as I should have to read up on all the movies. In the middle of reading about Babel, I went downstairs to make a sandwich and Taxi Driver was on. It had just started. Had to watch it. Two hours gone in the blink of an eye. Well, except for the climactic, violent scene at the end where Robert DeNiro's character kills all the dirty, rotten scumbags. That seemed to go forever.
Watch it!
5 second in: He blows that guys fingers off. Ew!
10 seconds in: Neck shot! Ew!
45 seconds in: Man! That old guy takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. He is totally relentless. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
1:03: Guy with the plaid suit comes downstairs. Gets it in the face! Watch his cheeks flap around. Pop, pop, pop! Ew! Ew! Ew!
1:23: The old dude just won't stop. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
1:43: "Don't shoot him!" The old dude gets popped! Right through the head! Blood all over the wall! Ew!
2:48: The most cheesey, overblown, schmaltzy music to ever play in the background of a scene in the history of cinema begins.
3:04: Most memorable scene of the movie to me. When De Niro raises his hand to his temple in slow motion, blood dripping from his finger, eyes half closed. Pphuh ... Pphuh ... Pphuh.
Then the slowish motion aftermath of the violent scene begins with that overblown, dramatic music. Note Harvey Keitel's eyeball pinky ring 4:59 in. Gross eyeball ring covered in blood! Ew!
The Skimmer came downstairs as this scene was wrapping up.
"Oooh, you watching Taxi Driver?"
"Yeah! You just missed all the blood and guts! But, listen to this music! If it doesn't stop soon, I'm going to give myself a mohawk and blow my own head off!"
Which got me thinking about the sountrack of The Departed. Seemed to be an uninspired selection of songs to use, at least to me. Scorsese has used most of these songs before, or songs just like them, to add drama to scenes. Like Sean said over at newcritics:
Remember when Scorsese had an ear for music? Remember “Be My Baby” floating over the opening of “Mean Streets?” There was a time when he could throw Bach, Bad Brains, and “Someone To Watch Over Me” into the mix, using each for effect or counterpoint or whatever. Now he’s sounds like he’s stuck on the same ipod playlist. How many times is going to use “Gimmie Shelter?”
They didn't actually use Gimmie Shelter. They used Let It Loose. Same difference.
There's not an Oscar category for best soundtrack. Just best original score and best original song. But, I'm confident to predict that if there was a category for best soundtrack, the soundtrack from The Departed would not win. I'd bet you a gazillion gazillion dollars.
I was planning to spend a few hours today reading through that linkfest above to prepare myself for my live blogging gig tonight over at newcritics. But, The Skimmer just called me down for breakfast and The Exorcist is on! It's just starting!
Ew! She's looks so scary! All yucky! Oh! My virgin ears! Look at her tongue flicking in and our like that! Ew, ew, ew! The holy water cuts her! Yuck! Gack! The beds knocking against the floor! It's floating! Get the bible! The crucifix! Something! Ew! Look at the green slime oozing! Ick! Ew! Blech! Gross!
Joe The Animator, came to my house early yesterday morning. We had to be at a meeting at 8am and for some reason it was beyond him to Yahoo map the address. He said he'd rather follow me there because he had never been there before. I had never met Joe The Animator, but when he showed up at my door, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He and The Skimmer discussed Animation type things as I gathered everything I needed for the meeting.
"Want some coffee?" I asked.
"No thanks. I don't drink coffee. The caffeine and everything."
"Oh, okay. Let's go. Can't be late!"
"Just don't lose me."
"I won't lose you."
We went out and each got into our cars and pulled out of the driveway.
There's an unspoken agreement when two people are going somewhere together in different cars. The leader being the only one who knows where they're going. They have to adjust their driving to each other's driving. They have to work in tandem. That's The Deal.
I knew there was going to be trouble one minute in. I, being someone who drives 42 if the speed limit's 35, knew I had to slow it down. Joe The Animator was opposite of me. If the speed limit was 35, he drove 23. I knew it right off the bat when I watched him count to three ... one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, in my rear view mirror at the first stop sign. I was now going 17 in a 25 and the hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up. We weren't even out of the neighborhood yet!
I took Bruce Springsteen out of the CD player. It's hard to drive in slow motion when Badlands is pumping full blast through the speakers. I sifted through all the CDs in my glove compartment for the right music. Normally, I wouldn't do such a thing while driving, but I was basically standing still, so there was no danger.
I decided Pink Floyd's Animals would be a good soundtrack. I needed to mellow out. It was going to be a long trip.
I took the back roads to the meeting. There were several stop signs along the way, but only a few lights. I dreaded the treacherous yellow light. No way was this guy going to run a yellow light. So, every time I'd come upon a light, even if it was green, I'd stop to make sure we'd both make it through.
What I was desperately trying to avoid was having to do that pulling over to the side of the road routine admist rush hour traffic to wait for Joe The Animator to catch up.
Joe The Animator must have never heard of The Deal people have when driving together like this. For most of the trip, the speed limit was 45 and I think I got up to 37 only once. When Pigs (Three Different Ones) came on. My adreneline must've started to flow. I lost my head!
Ha-ha, charade you are. Whoooooo!
Oh no. I forgot about Joe The Animator! Where is he? I looked in the rearview mirror. Phew. I think he had dropped back into Central Standard Time. But, I knew he could easily catch up. If. he. would. only. put. a. little. pressure. on. the. gas. peddle! Not seeing that happening, I pulled over. Let two cars pass me and pulled back out in front of Joe The Slow Poke.
Normally, I'd consider that a failure of my driver leader abilities. Not this time. I cranked up the music even louder. We were 36 minutes into a 22 minute trip. I took a deep breath.
We made it through a couple more stop signs and came upon another light and I didn't even stop to wait. I thought Joe The Slow Poke Who Lives In A Time Warp could use a little adventure. He made it through!
Whooooooo!
We pulled into the client's parking lot 15 minutes late, and each got out of our cars.
"Hey, blue girl. I know a faster way we could've gotten here."
"Are you sure I can't just leave this thing here? Why do I have to make an appointment?"
"It's our policy."
"Well, that stinks."
"I'm sorry."
"You're sure."
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"Let me ask you a question."
"Okay."
"Can a person be extra hard on a computer? Really, really abusive to make it blow up?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've fried three Macs in, like, three years. What do I do that's different than what other people do?"
"Do you ever turn it off?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you use it a lot?"
"Um, yeah. But, don't most people use their computers a lot these days? Am I really that unique?"
"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe you just have bad luck."
"I'm thinking I do. At least in this area. What if I type really fast, banging on the keyboard constantly like there's no tomorrow? Does that hurt a computer?"
"Have you had to replace the keyboard?"
"No."
"Shouldn't matter then."
"All the letters are rubbed off the keys on my computer. Does that make any kind of sense to you? That letters can be rubbed off a keyboard?"
"Yours are rubbed off?"
"Yeah! What's with that?"
"You do use your computer a lot. You want the extended warranty?"
"Um, three Macs in three years. Letters rubbed off the keys. Bad computer karma? What do you think? Let me ask you something else. Why would Apple build something into their system and if you use it, you could destroy your computer?"
"I don't know. I've got to check that out. That's a bad glitch."
"Yeah, I should say so. It's criminal if you ask me. Do you know how much music I lost?"
"I lost $5,000 worth of music in my i-Tunes library once."
"Ugh."
"Leave your Mac with me. I'll try to get your music for you."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I love a challenge."
"Great! That's great. If you do it, I'll burn some CDs for you. A little Captain & Tenille, some Olivia Newton-John..."
/puzzled look...
"I'm just kidding. But, that'd be great if you could get my music out of there!"
"I'll give it a shot."
"Thanks Cute Mac Hipster Boy."
...Didn't really say that, but thought it. We'll see if my new "Mac Expert" comes through.
I hired a "Mac expert" last week to "fix" my computer.
Today I discovered that this "Mac expert" upgraded some feature where there's a glitch in Apple's software and if this "image" thing gets "damaged" or "moved," your entire "computer" is "ruined."
So, I may not be around for a few days while a new "Mac expert" fixes my computer "again."
Lost files? Check.
Lost music? Check.
Hate computers? Check.
Hate people who have forced me to do these "upgrades"? Check.
Hate too strong of a word? Um, no. I'm feeling like an "expert" at it right now.
I'm getting a little tired of Meeting Cute below. So, I thought I'd update my blog with Singing Cute. Yeah, I'm know I'm cheating a little this week here in Blog Land. Lots of videos and mp3s. But, I did write about Whippets! I had to have scored some points there.
Who's keeping track? How many points do I have total? Anyone know? Is there someone out there who knows when I cheat and when I don't? Is there someone out there, a great Blog Post Tracker that keeps some sort of Excel spreadsheet on all of us? Tsk, tsk, tsking us when we don't post things up to snuff? And nodding their head in approval when we labor over some post that'll be forgotten within mere minutes? Is there such a person?
Well, get ready to tsk, tsk, tsk, Great Blog Post Tracker of the Internets, cuz I'm cheatin' again! And yeah, it the worst kind of cheating there is...
The dreaded YouTube video.
Duh-nuh-nuh. Duh-nuh-nuh....
This video of Fleetwood Mac performing Angel is a little disjointed and weird. Starts out focusing on Stevie Nicks in the studio with some members of the band and some engineers. Has a little segment where she's talking way too serious about the meaning of the song, cuts to the performance (where they play the song way too fast) and then ends with her doing ballet. I'm not sure what year it's from. 77 or 78, I'd guess.
I love this video. First, Stevie Nicks looks adorable in it. But, that's not the only reason. I love the part at the beginning when they're all in the recording studio. I love that. And I miss that. Not that I've done it all that much. But, I loved it when I've done it. It was fun when I recorded Christmas Time Is Here in a recording studio, but there wasn't anyone there with me to help me with my chord changes like LIndsey helps Stevie. If Jeddie Ningo would ever want to get together in person and record Angel and help me with the chord changes, that would be so great. It was fun the way he and I did that Christmas song (more fun for me, lots of work for him) but, there's still nothing like it -- being with someone, right next to each other, who's as passionate as you are about making music and feeding off of each other's energy.
My very favorite part of this video is the Singing Cute moment. It's about 6:35 minutes in. She and Lindsey are singing together on stage and he's teasing her and she's happy he's teasing her. You can see it in her face. I know those two had a stormy relationship, but I don't know all the details. I've just always blamed him for it.
I'm probably wrong. But, her expression at 6:35 minutes in makes me totally blame him. So, stop tsking me!
Watch for yourself and tsk me in the comments if you think I'm wrong. Or nod your head in approval (in written form, of course) if you think I'm right. Or set up an Excel spreadsheet and email it to me. Whatever you want to do.
Just let me know what you think. You'll score points if you do.
Almost to the point where I was going to hold my breath until I passed out today, just to throw a little temper tantrum to make myself feel better, The Skimmer said I should make a list of everything that we were working on so that we could sit down and make a plan.
I had things to do, for God's sake! Headlines to write, conference calls to be in on, photos to find, files to create, copy to write, commas to add, commas to delete, emails to return! I had no time for this list. This plan.
"C'mon. Make a list. We'll go downstairs and figure it all out."
"But, I've got so much to do!"
"Just make the list. I'll meet you downstairs in 15 minutes." Sassafrassarassafrassa, fine. I'll make the list. So we can make a plan. Whatever you say, Bucko! So, I made my list, printed it out and went downstairs.
The Skimmer was reading through the list as I was scavenging through the refrigerator and pantry for something to eat. Something good to eat. Something chocolate.
Oh. My. God. There are some of these left! I thought to myself as I quietly retrieved them from the pantry and put them on the counter next to the coffee maker. I checked the box. There were five left! Five of my very favorite cookies ever in the whole entire history of the universe. I was so happy.
We sat there talking about our plan and every now and then I'd get up and go get a cookie. Oh, man. I love these cookies, I thought to myself. Every bite is like a little munch of heaven. A little thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin enriched with niacin, made in a nut free/peanut free facility, little munch of heaven.
"So, if you'll burn that disk for me, I'll get that part of it done, ok?"
"No!"
"What? Why?"
"Oh, no..."
"What?!"
"I ate the last cookie a few minutes ago and I didn't realize it was the last cookie."
/silence
"I'm so depressed. I didn't notice it was the last cookie. I didn't savor every bite. And now they're all gone. Look. The package is empty."
"Will you burn that disk for me?"
"Yeah. Why not. What else do I have to live for?" I slouched back upstairs and found the file The Skimmer needed and burned it onto a CD. Gave it to him and continued to add commas to copy, delete commas from copy, write headlines and return emails.
A few hours later he poked his head in my office.
"I'm going to the store."
"You are?! There's 9,000 feet of snow out there and it's still falling! You'll never make it! What are you going to the store for? What do we need?!"
"We need a couple of things. Let me have your phone. I'll be back."
"Ok. Just be careful."
It was well after 7pm and I needed a break from comma placement, so I went into our bedroom and watched Hardball for awhile. I heard The Skimmer pull into the garage. He had been gone for over an hour. The road's must've been bad, I thought to myself. Another 15 minutes passed and I was tired of listening to Chris Matthews interrupt whoever it was he was talking to, so I thought I'd go back into my office to start working again. It was going to be a long night.
When I walked into my office, there was a pretty red, wrapped box sitting on my chair. I had bought the wrapping paper for my niece's birthday last year and I recognized it right away. It had a little, funny mask design all over it.
The Skimmer was nowhere to be found, and it was quiet upstairs, except for the sound of Mr.Blue Sky coming from my son's room down the hall. I unwrapped the box.
It was a box of my favorite cookies in the whole entire history of the universe.
And I thought to myself, this is the very best Valentine's Day present I've ever gotten. And I decided, I like this guy. And his plans.
Recent Comments