[Insert Oscars blog here]

Ok, so I liked this post so well I eschewed doing one myself. Just call me lazzzzzzy. Seriously, as everyone has noticed, my brief movie comments have totally stopped because I have no time for frivolities like films these days. Or maybe just no motivation to spend a lovely afternoon indoors. A couple of questions--

• Isn't Wallace & Gromit claymation rather than animation, and therefore deserving of its own award? Maybe the Gumby Oscar?
• Who the hell went to see The New World? And why are they pretending it's non-fiction?
• Am I the only person in Memphis who has yet to see Walk the Line? And does that make me a bad person? Or just a disloyal citizen?

mememememememe

Four jobs I’ve had: store buyer; event coordinator; obit writer; bookstore manager/barista

Four movies I could watch over & over: The Godfather 1 & 2; Better Off Dead; Heathers; Fight Club. Or not. I hate watching the same movies over & over.

Four places I’ve lived: Only have 3: Midtown Memphis, Knoxville, TN, and Ames, Iowa.

UPDATE--per Shae: Four fiction books I can't live without: Too close to call; I love fiction. Esp. Haruki Murakami, Nick Hornby, Jane Austen & John Irving. I could go on & on, though....

Four non-fiction books I consider essential: Connected by Shaviro; Linked by Barabasi; Breaking the News by Fallows; and Evidence of Harm by Kirby.

Four TV shows I love to watch: Gray’s Anatomy, General Hospital, How Do I Look? and Charmed. (Well, that was embarrassing!) Four places I’ve been on vacation: Last four in reverse chronological order: Harrisonburg, VA; Las Vegas, NV; Washington D.C; and Cancun.

Four websites I visit daily: Times Online; The Onion; New York Times; myspace (yes, that is lame) Four of my favorite foods: hot wings... Big Ed's pizza... Bosco's seared tuna salad... and a dirty vodka martini (it has olives, right?) Four places I’d rather be: on the beach in Southern Cali; travelling; the Wilco show next month; at an art museum Four albums I can’t live without: As of this moment (I hate to commit to this one) they are: Harlan T. Bobo's Too Much Love; Wilco's Being There; Imogen Heap's Speak for Yourself; and The Best of Velvet Underground.

Four bloggers to pass it on to: mL; Paul; Shae; and PN. Pass if you've already done it & I just missed it.

Where the hipsters are

So I found the place where all the hipsters congregated last night: at the Deli for The Glass/Augustine/Blair Combest show. It was fun to laugh at them, but you have to remember they are still people. (That keeps you from laughing too loud.) Of course, I missed Blair Combest because the show actually started on time (who'd have guessed?) but I really enjoyed Augustine. The Glass is good but a little louder than is entirely necessary. I actually wore a pair of earplugs the whole time, though, so this morning I can hear just fine. I love planning ahead. We also planned ahead & brought our own booze just in case the lines at the bar were horrendous, but then I found a very tall young man to get my drinks for me. (By young I only mean 3 years younger, but... still younger than I.) He looked like he could have been in Weezer but of course he was not---he was just wearing the glasses for effect. Weird for someone to wear contacts & fake glasses at the same time. Anyway, we headed to the Deli after a quick drink at dish, which was preceeded by a forgettable dinner at Rio Loco downtown (my dinner was fine---I had the tilapia---but no one else seemed impressed). The rest of the night was spent at the Lamplighter, always a place to go after a show. We went around 1:30 but the beer didn't follow the vodka & tequila very well. (I should have stuck with tequila, which always works with beer, but I didn't know we'd be going to a beer-only place late night. Again, planning ahead would have helped me out here.) And now it's back to reality (and more philosophy reading) for Serrabee. . . .

Fit a rock & roll bed into a camper van

Someone actually made their way here by googling that phrase, and I just had to use it. Now I wish I had a campervan of my own, with a rock'n'roll bed to boot for Bonnaroo. Doesn't it sound heavenly? Just see who will be there: Radiohead Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Phil Lesh & Friends Beck Elvis Costello & the Imposters Bonnie Raitt Death Cab for Cutie moe. Bright Eyes The Neville Brothers Bela Fleck & the Flecktones Buddy Guy Damian Marley Ben Folds Robert Randolph & the Family Band Dr. John Matisyahu G. Love & Special Sauce My Morning Jacket Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Steel Pulse Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove Cat Power Medeski Martin & Wood Nickel Creek Gomez Atmosphere Steve Earle Blues Traveler Amadou & Mariam Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Dresden Dolls Son Volt Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Jerry Douglas Soulive Rusted Root Devendra Banhart Band Donavon Frankenreiter Mike Doughty Sasha Grace Potter & the Nocturnals The Magic Numbers Bill Frisell Seu Jorge Bettye LaVette Dungen Shooter Jennings Rebirth Brass Band Robinella Andrew Bird Steel Train Jackie Greene Devotchka The Wood Brothers dios (malos) Toubab Krewe The Motet Marah I-Nine Balkan Beat Box The Cat Empire Okay, well, I don't know half the bands here, either, but it's quite an impressive list just for its length.

Summertime rolls (in)

It's so warm & pleasant today that several people wore flip-flops to class. I was thinking of why I hate winter so much that I wouldn't even consider living in Canada. While this is not really a weather blog, I'd like to share my top ten reasons why I DO like winter here. Everybody already knows the negatives, and I wanted to be more upbeat on such a pretty day.

1. Coffee is better when it's cold. Not that that stops me from drinking it in summer---I drink it just about every morning anyway. It's like a religion for me.
2. Hot showers. I take pretty cold ones the rest of the year, but I love a hot shower in winter. Again, I shower year round (though somehow it's less of a spiritual experience than the coffee drinking).
3. Snow/snow days. There's a lot of drama surrounding the snow day, and no other season can beat that feeling during the first fluffy, serene snowfall of the winter.
4. Looking forward to spring. It's often better than the actual season to anticipate it. (Spring in the Mid-South is a very wet season.)
5. The night sky. It's much clearer on average, so you see more stars.
6. Corduroys. Comfier than jeans or dress pants, and they make a statement. I missed them in the 90's.
7. Not shaving every day. Legs, I mean; I still shave elsewhere on a daily basis, but if there's no yoga class or date that day, the legs are strictly optional. This also goes with #4.
8. Quieter neighbors. Mine only refrain from blasting their crappy car stereos, letting their kids run amok in the street, and mowing for a few precious months every year, and I love it.
9. Hiatus on the zoo smells. Also the Siamang monkey love noises I can hear from my backyard in July & August.
10. Appreciating the warm days you do get. Like today.

almost famous?

I was just chased thru the parking lot by a homeless dude yelling, "That's her! There she is!" like I'm some one famous. Or a criminal. That is probably the most excitement I'll have all day. It's certainly the tops so far; but it's only 5:30.

Why, God?

I've been listening a lot to the cable station that plays all the 80's music (the one with some cutesy name I forget) and cursing cassette tapes. Why, oh why, was the music of my youth not on vinyl but on that r-evolutionary medium? I said this weekend that I should have been a child of the 60's---this is just further proof I was born in the wrong decade. Gone, long gone, are all my lovely tapes of Love & Rockets, Chili Peppers, Robyn Hitchcock, X, U2 (except Rattle & Hum, a birthday gift because of the significance of Pride to that sacred day), Prince, Sting, Corey Hart, Midnight Oil... I could go on & on, hating technology all the while. It would suck to have to buy all the same crap over again. That's worse than depreciation, like a reverse investment or something. I thought I was buying the music but I was just buying a flimsy tape. Part of the problem is just thinking of all the shi!t I used to own and don't want to buy again. The other is that my sister & her (now) husband (then boyfriend) made me a bunch of mix tapes that I could never recreate today. Neither could they; in fact, once I asked him about a specific song from a mix he'd made me---a version of the Carpenters' "Superstar" that was really echoey and spooky, about as different from Reuben Studdard as you can get---and he claimed he'd never heard it. I now think it was Sonic Youth. Plus, then I'd probably just download it all and my system will either crash or get very obsolete very quickly. The funny thing about watching that station is that you figure out what those lyrics and titles really were (what I knew as the Psychedelic Furs' "Hardware Days" was actually "Highwire Days"---believe it or not---just as the Boomtown Rats sang "Lookin' After #1" and not "Lookin' Out for Another 1" as I thought). Also, now that I'm older and more widely read, I see lots of literary and historical allusions in titles. Not to mention more musical references now that I listen to a wider range than pop.

Afraid to say it

I have become a slacker blogger lately, but I still love you. By way of explaination, not only am I taking a full load of courses, but I also work 20 hours every week. So when I'm not working or doing homework I just don't want to be sitting here on my @$$. No offense, but I'm not trapped at a desk 40+ hours every week with not enough to do---like many of you are. Yes, I know that's why you have so much free time to read about my vastly interesting life. Now get back to work. I'm taking a quiz online tonight. More on that later.

Diet Dr Pepper and Beef Jerky

Not the healthiest lunch, I know, but I have to eat on the go. I have class all morning & work all afternoon, so I'm lucky to get anything. I wonder how much we really are what we eat? Cause I don't want to be a soda & dried meat. Gross.

What exactly is "full responsibility" anyway?

I'll bet that's what the President is asking after this afternoon's interview with Cheney. Ha. Seriously. Whatthehell is the point of even saying anything at this point? This was a pretty minor incident that happened SATURDAY, 4 count 'em 4 days ago. Why the silence over the weekend? We were told that White House officials wanted local authorities, or representatives of Mr. Whittington, to release the information and make the most direct statement or some such bs. What's the point of being Vice President of the most powerful nation if you can't get a few simple facts straight, and deliver them in a timely manner to the voting public? I think they were waiting for the guy to die, because how long does it really take to get a few tests to see if there's buckshot in your pericardium? Yeah, I know the doctors are pretending that some of the shot traveled through the bloodstream to arrive at the heart, but I believe that as much as I believe most of the crap doctors paid by the government tell us. Now we will likely never know what happened, because of the delay in dissemination of information and the secrecy surrounding people the VP has or (may have) shot (or had shot by a 3rd party). And Bush was once again waiting in the wings, not quite a player in the situation. He is reported to have told Cheney to handle the situation however he felt best---not exactly the definitive sentiments of a strong leader. I can't wait til 2008. (That's my new mantra.)

"Crooked Teeth" is stuck in my head

So I just got back from the basketball game a while ago---we won, of course---and I saw some of the weirdest halftime sh!t ever. First of all they had the winners of the Worst Dressed Dance Team 2005 award (if there were such a thing, they'd have won it). Then they had the Elite Special Tigers, which was---you guessed it!---mentally handicapped grade-schoolers doing cheers (well, sort of doing them) in front of thousands of people. It was painful to watch---all of it. They need more stuff to do than go pee & buy a beer at halftime. I have to have more reasons to get out of my seat & wander around aimlessly. I need a destination or I might get lost in the FedEx Forum, too.

Happy Valentine's Day part 2

Happy Valentine's Day part 1

WTF, Wilco?

Looking online at concert dates, trying to decide whether to see them in Nashville or Knoxville, I noticed Wilco's playing Meridian MS, for some reason---a town the size of my pinkie finger, and Wilco's playing a show there. We can't even get a Coldplay show in Memphis but they get Wilco. If any DC4C fans living in the Durham, NC area need a ticket to the show w/Franz Ferdinand, Chris of Signifying Nothing has an extra. I assume when he says "date" he means female, but maybe you should ask him yourself. In other news, Memphis' own Len is retiring from the blogosphere for good (he says, but he may be like other mid-South bloggers & not be able to resist return appearances). He will be missed, but I hope he's on to greener pastures---blogging, Friendster, myspace can all take up time in your real life that could be used to improve yourself, so I get the need to get away from that. I do. But my concern is that the Memphis blog scene seems to be shrinking rather than growing, which is the reverse of the phenomena I see in other cities. Anyone who has something to say should be putting it out there, even if it's not getting a million hits a day or benefitting you directly. Sometimes the things you say have a sort of delayed reaction. You have to be patient to contribute to any sort of discussion.

Days of Future Past

As you all know, I'm a very forward-thinking gal, and so of course I'm already thinking about spring break---only a month away, so you can't be too prepared. I'm spending some time back in Ktown with the family, of course, which is what single people do on vacations when all their friends are married or fully employed. But each visit makes me think of the possibility of moving back there, which seems to have so many objective postives and subjective negatives that I wonder if I'm just being silly. As Carrie Bradshaw would say: I had to wonder... Is there a point where your future begins to look like your past? Seriously. Many people I know do fun stuff when they're younger but when "settle-down" time comes (whenever that may be) they go back & emulate the previous generation in the exact same crap we all said we'd never do like our parents did. Take careers, for example: we all believed we'd never work jobs we hated just for $$ reasons, and a ton of people I know do just that. I hated school for some of the same things I've hated about several places I worked: pettiness in co-workers, nonsensical and ineffective rules, paperwork/homework to fill the time, et cetera, ad infinitum. Same thing goes for the way we raise the next generation: we say "I'll never do that to my kids; I'll be different," and we end up making most of the same mistakes our parents made with a few thrown into the cocktail of psychic f-ups. Anyway, that's my little rant on why my life looks so little like that of my parents and their entire generation when they were 30. I think I want to change careers every 8 or 10 years, never settle down per se, and confound the conventional education/marriage/kids/retirement process. I was so grown-up acting as a child that now I just want to start being more & more silly as the years go on. Feel free to join me in living life backwards.

A great pic-me-up, if you've got one.

I sooooo want a pug now.

No longer greatest, only a memory

So, in case you haven't heard, Cat Power cancelled for the show this weekend (as well as her whole US tour, so I can't be mad as it sounds serious). But that leaves me with the ballet as a Sat. night option; not bad, but not very rock'n'roll, either. My hope all rests with the Son Volt show at Newby's tomorrow nite. I'm sure Jay Farrar won't let me down. ps Here is my radio blog and another one which is, I must admit, better. Give 'em a listen if you don't have cubicle neighbors who'd be annoyed. I love Cat Power's version of Wonderwall---that's one of those songs I never liked by the original artist, and I find myself liking every re-make I've every heard. Ryan Adams', this one, and of course the Mike Flowers Pops was tops.

This is for my homies at the joints downtown

Paul Ryburn asks why servers can't take sanctioned smoke breaks together. Maybe it makes me sound like Tha Man, but I think it's a good rule. For one thing, you don't really want all your staff on break together anyway, even if you're not busy just then. I also wouldn't want to have to walk thru a cloud of secondhand tobacco smoke to get to the front door of my dinner place. Plus I think restaurant workers have just about the highest rate of fraternity & sorority of any industry, even to the point where it becomes detrimental to their work. Who hasn't overheard too much personal information from servers over lunch at the local bistro, or been witness to a loud conversation between bartender and waiter while having a romantic dinner? I say, keep all of that in the kitchen or elsewhere out of sight. Not that I've ever worked as a server, but I've been a patron plenty o'times.

RIP

Betty Friedan, one of my heroes, has finally given up her battle against the oppression of women in America. I remember reading The Feminine Mystique at about 14 years old and really digging the message. In tribute, I think I'm going to join NOW or NARAL this week. Finally (I'm not much of a joiner, ya know). But, hey, you can't be too sad about someone dying at the age of 85, now can ya?

Red Vines is West Coast

You've seen the original Lazy Sunday Narnia Rap---but have you seen the West Coast response? So very funny... the 1st skit that's made me proud of fellow Memphian (and now worthy of the World Famous tag) Chris Parnell. And I quote: "Step off, little girl, that's my m*therfVcking brush" I think it's that rare response that's better than the original!

The Greatest and The Weirdest

Had a weird weekend somewhere between spring and winter (in that order). On Fri. night I headed to an art opening in balmy mid-Southern temps, and last night went to my local pub to watch the Tiger game (yay! we won once again)---finally feeling the February winds. In fact, my fence was repeatedly blown open yesterday as well, to the point I thought it must be someone doing it intentionally. I guess I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart (what a silly conspiracy that would have been). ML & I jointly revealed our blog names to another local blogger at the P&H Cafe, which just made me giggle. We've been communicating for months but apparently he never knew he knew us already. That sentence makes no sense, but it is true anyway. The internet makes strange bedfellowes of us all sometimes. We got tickets for the Cat Power show next weekend, and I'm going to get her new album The Greatest (recorded here in Memphis) sometime this week, I hope. I always hate buying the record after the show and wishing I'd had it all along, which is what I usually do. The weirdest thing is on teevee right now---Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. It's this bizarre time-filler they came up with to waste the afternoon away, with puppies playing on a tiny (puppy-sized) replica of a football field. It's kinda taken away my desire to watch the real bowl game.

RETIREMENT PLAN

This is an email my friend forwarded to me. It is not only worthy of another foward but publication here:

If you had purchased $1,000 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49. With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000. With WorldCom, you would have less than $5 left. But if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling price, you would have $214. Based on the above, current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. It's called the 401 Keg Plan.

Okay, the punchline is a little silly, and I think it must be outdated (the "one year ago" reference is like a carbon system) but I feel it has far-reaching implications for the Health Savings/Spending Plans being proposed. Plus, I like beer. Even in cans.

Here we are now, entertain us

I just liked that title cause I feel stupid and contagious right now. Ha. Sorry, I'm a little thin on the humor. I think this is what happens to my head when I sneeze --- or it feels like it's happening. Yes, a blog about my infectious disease is a bore; sorry, dolls. I just can't face the State of the Union address or the fact that Justice Alito will be around for the rest of my consciousness or the thought of yet another Hollywood award show coming up and all the gay cowboy gorilla controversy it will all bring. I'm so very tired at the thought of it all. Sorry, gang, but I'm off to better clue-hunting pastures until next time. I have to recover or this g*dd@mn cold is going to be the death of me. Seriously.