And You Thought The Birthday Festivities Were Over

My Penpal sent a surprise birthday package to me at work today, and I have already covered how I love receiving stuff at work. So, I eagerly awaited my lunch when I could open it and enjoy.

I am now the proud owner of the hardcover version of Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy. Both my Penpal and I wanted to read this when it was first released, but never got around to it. I sent her the paperback version because I couldn't find the hardcover anywhere. The bonus about this copy, then, is it came with two dustjackets! I think I will send one to her, so she can wrap it around some other book...it will look great.

The other grand surprise was the DVD package of Funny Girl and Funny Lady. Ms. Streisand played an enormous role in my teenage years, and Funny Lady played a formative piece in my development. As for Funny Girl...I had never seen it before meeting my dear Penpal, and it was her favorite Streisand film. So, to be the proud owner of both of these means a lot. It's hard to choose where to begin: The Roller Skate Rag or How Lucky Can You Get?

And that is the natal Month Celebration Wrap-up Folks!

New Music Tuesday - Mea Culpa

So there I was at work this morning, and a very familiar little guitar riff came on the radio.

"Oh, it's the Manhattan Transfer doing "How High the Moon"from Bop Doo Wop...I'd know Wayne's guitar intro anywhere. How cool they are playing it on the radio..." I thought to myself.

THEN I realized it was really the Les Paul/Mary Ford original recording. And THEN I realized what an incredible job Wayne Johnson, the MT's guitarist had done on their recording. It sounds just like Les Paul. To duplicate such a distinctive sound and way of playing is very difficult, and Wayne's homage is extraordinary.

So, my music assignment today is for you to listen to both of these versions. Also, check out this great site - about a quarter of the way down the page is a photo of the set-up Les Paul used to record the song. Cool.

Since I am on the subject, I think that my favorite guitar solo of all time is "Sing Joy Spring" from the Manhattan Transfer's 1987 Live album. I am also a huge fan of Jon Hendrick's lyrics for the song, but Wayne's solo is sheer perfection to my ears.

Sideways

Finally got around to watching Sideways.

My fears were realized. I really disliked this film. I thought the men characters were despicable and the women were ridiculous. Not having any characters to relate to or even like, or care about, made for a tedious viewing. The scenery was nice. Virginia Madsen is easy on the eyes, and for a moment, after she arrived on the scene, I thought there was some hope for the film. But no. Her character was stupdily annoying, too.

Waste of my time I tell you. But God bless the folk at Film Snobs for sharing my pain.

Sideways: D Virginia Madsen: B- California: A

Security Breach - A Sign From God

So, I went into my garage this morning and saw all of the crap (which, ok, is minimal, but still) strewn about the passenger seat of my car.

The crooks made off with my portable CD player and my cell phone charger.

What is annoying about this, is the fact that they couldn't clean up after themselves (not being interested in my window scraper, extra pens and napkins, a space tail light bulb and the car's owner's manual), and the fact that I leave my car unlocked because the lock doesn't work on the driver's side, and the passenger door doesn't even open - I hope that freaked them out a little) AND that I have an electric garage opener...it never occurred to me that someone would just go and pull it up...

It is definitely time to move.

Mercury Butt Syndrome

I intended to get to bed early, and foolishly turned on the TV for a few moments - only to discover the main cause of a drastic condition I deem "Mercury Butt Syndrome" was on.

Yes, anytime VH-1 is doing and "I Love the..." or some countdown I just can't get up off the couch and end up watching like 4 or 5 episodes....

It's so ridiculous.

Power Review

I was scheduled to sit down with my manager and assistant manager today to have my quarterly review (and raise), but when the time rolled around, I was on a roll cleaning out our "backyard" (the alley) and finally getting many pallets of product into the store. So I asked if we could just have a power review and I could keep on working until it was all inside the stockroom. So my manager helped out and we made four stacks of boxes that touched the ceiling. My manager had the "honor" of getting the last two boxes onto the stack using his patented "free throw" technique. It is pretty amazing to watch. Lots of skill, there.

As for the review, it went very well, and I am nicely compensated - again.

Always Nice To See You

MyFriendJason stopped by ye olde workplace bright and early this morn. He wanted to pick up some boxes for his move before we fed them all into the bailer. And he did not come empty-handed.

He arrived with a lovely triple grande latte from Starbuck's.

New Music Tuesday - Brazil Rules

It's getting to be that time of year, and I wanted something great and fun.

So today's acquisitions are: Rosa Passos' Amorosa and the big excitement of FINALLY replacing my vinyl with a shiny CD of David Byrne's Beleize Tropical: Brazil Classics 1, one of my all-time favorite recordings.

To re-visit Brazil Classics 1, well, I still love the opening track Ponta de Lanca Africano, by Jorge Ben, which is so good that it is easily worth the price of the CD. Other classics are Caetano Veloso's Ile Aye and San Vicente by Milton Nascimento. I am so very ecstatic to have these songs back in my repertoire!

Ms. Passo plays a fine guitar, and is a pleasant vocalist. The CD is a lovely mix of acoustic bossa nova. The stunning opening track, Voce Vai Ver, is again, so good that I would have gladly payed the price of the CD just to have that track.

The summer is off to an auspicious start.

The Case of the Atrophied T Rex Arm

Seems my friend H__ went and hurt herself and had to go to the hospital. She has a deep muscle strain or something like that, meaning that for two weeks she can't lift anything over ten pounds.

I thought that she needed some cheering up, and that lifting a fork full of orrechiette pasta was no where near ten pounds, so I took her to Sergio's for dinner. Sadly, it was too cold to sit outside, but we still had a great time.

When her two weeks of recovery are over, I told her left arm would be all weak and skinny and atrophied, just like a Tyrannosaurus arm. Useless and feeble. Artists who use their hands (and she is left handed as well) don't think those kind of statements are funny...

To appease her, I agreed when she suggested that we get a movie. Her choice was In Good Company, which I had forgotten starred Scarlett Johansson -sigh. It was a quite enjoyable little entertainment. And most rare - it had a good ending, not the trite, usual Hollywood romantic, wrap-it-up ending. Did I mention Scarlett Johansson's gravitational pull of quiet fascination?

In other recovery news, my PDXTraveller received the results from her battery of tests, and they were ALL NEGATIVE!!!!!

Let the pigeons loose, and the celebrations begin! She is off to begin classes for her Master's degree, and I hope that the sun shines on her for a long, long time!

If I Were A Rich Man

Well, if I were rich, I would have blown a ton of money at this auction.

Getting the urge to unburden yourself, to clean your closets and lighten your load is great. When you are Barbra Streisand, it is another animal all together.

So Mrs. Brolin was divesting herself of a lot of personal clothes, wigs, jewelry, a vehicle, stage props from her concerts, set models from movies she directed...and costumes from those movies.

There were many nice things to be had, and many items went for reasonable amounts. But in my opinion, there were a few "must haves", and one item in particular that if I were independently wealthy, I would have bought in a heartbeat, to give to my dear friend, my Penpal.

And that would be Judy Maxwell's cap from "What's Up, Doc?". As these things happen, it was one of the most expensive items of the auction, going for $9,600.

It would have been worth it.

One of the most recognizable items was the white sailor top Barbra wore on her guest appearance on the 1963 Judy Garland show. It sold for $28,800. Also of interest, was the blue sailor dress worn in the concert segment of the 1965 television special My Name Is Barbra (which features the amazing "I'm Five"), which brought in $14,400 to Streisand's coffers. And if you thought you could get a bargain on the SUPERMAN T-shirt from the Streisand Superman album, that little piece of cotton would have cost you $6,000.

I have the catalogue from Streisand's 1999 Christie's auction, when she unloaded her collection of Tiffany works and art nouveau furniture...so I am hoping to add this catalogue to my collection as well.

Let's Hear It For Civilization

For some strange reason, I have Sunday morning off, just like the normal folk.

Imagine a Sunday of Starbuck's, the New York Times, leisurely sipping your latte outside while reading and listening to the birds chirping on a sunny, pleasant morning... yep, that was my morning.

I met H__ for brunch, and strolled into work relaxed and tranquil.

My PDXTraveller called me at work in the evening, and I was relieved to hear her voice - she sounded much better than I was led to believe. She was even making jokes and things seem to be ok. Her tests will be back soon, so I am keeping her foremost in my thoughts until then...

Thoughts On Sports

There are only two times that I ever touch the sports page of a newspaper: during the summer Olympics to read about the US Swim Team, and during horse racing season.

The front page of the NY Times section this morning showed Afleet Alex winning the Preakness, after crossing paths with Scrappy T and almost stumbling. Jockey Jeremy Rose grabbed Alex's mane and pulled him up, not only keeping him from falling, but managing to come ahead and win the race.

(In other related horse racing news, the Kentucky Derby wining Giacomo was named after Sting's son, and is owned by Jerry Moss, co-founder of A&M Records, with Herb Alpert of Tijuana Brass fame)

So, I got to thinking about what these things have in common, and I guess that I am not found of sports that last a long time - both horse races and swimming races are over relatively quickly.

As a child, my weekends revolved around getting home from whatever we were doing in time for my mother and her husband to be able to settle in for marathon sessions of watching football or golf and yelling at the tv. And sorry if this offends anyone, but there is nothing stupider than spending an entire afternoon sitting on your ass watching golf. Really. The old adage about watching paint dry is true here...I mean, fine, go play golf if you must (which I personally find equally boring and hot and lacking purpose)...but to WATCH it? Oy.

And both sports are really based on individual skill and talent - I guess I am not a big fan of the "team".

Buddha and Bullock

To focus my day, I thought that cleaning the house after visiting Starbuck's would be a good plan. After a hour or two, I had compiled a tidy list of cleaning supplies I needed, which meant I had to run around town for awhile, which meant that I screwed off most of the day with shopping.

But, judging from yesterday's event, I must have been a spiritual place, because I found a wonderful Buddha head sculpture which has a place of honor in my newly cleaned and tidy home. Now I have to see about getting my altar table back from BC...

For my evening entertainment, I went to see Crash for two reasons. One, it was getting very good reviews and two, somehow Sandra Bullock slipped in a movie and I knew nothing about it.

Crash is absolutely wonderful. It is powerful and magical, and sadly real. It is the story about race relations and the inherent distrust of the Other every single group in the world has for another group. It is intelligent, realistic, painful and true.

And surprise of all surprises, Sandra gives an amazing performance. She really can act. I am formally retracting my earlier statement in the Miss Congeniality 2 review about if I wanted to see acting I'd go to a Julianne Moore film. If you want to see acting, go see Crash. Everyone involved has given a passionate, moving performance.

A Phrase I Could Do Without

So I got an email from my PDXTraveller, which included the following phrase:

I may have cancer elsewhere

Black type on a white background. Amazing how such a short little sentence can disrupt your whole existence.

The world is never as simple as being black or white - it is always a shifting gray, and sometimes it is very cloudy, and hard to find your way through.

It's My Friday

A few times a year, my store sends out a flyer, which means we become even more busy than we regularly are. Because of this condition, I took for a team, and stayed an extra couple of hours today, before punching out for my weekend.

As it also happened to be payday, I did a little shopping on the way home, picking up a lovely book of Edward S. Curtis photos and, something I never, ever do - I bought a shirt - FULL PRICE - at the GAP. I scope out things all of the time, and bide my time waiting for the inevitable markdowns. But what can I say - this one so fulfilled my deeply buried but omnipresent desire to be a seventies guitar player... just had to have it.

My Stressful Hectic Morning

Well, it had to happen eventually.

This morning was the most hectic, hardest morning I have had at work. It took divine intervention to get everything off of the floor and out the backdoor into the parking lot (which we refer to as our "backyard") before the store opened at 9 am.

I spent until 1 in the afternoon stacking and shrinkwrapping nine (9) pallets of backstock. Let me tell you, Faithful Readers, that is a LOT of boxes.

But, just when you think your day is going to hell, what should happen but someone who has the day off drops by at 8:50 in the morning with a real Starbucks triple grande latte just for you...

So, I guess it really wasn't so bad after all.

Events of An Uneventful Day

I was so eager to get off of work today, that when H__ called at 5 pm asking me to go look up a definition she needed to complete her current art project, I was not as pleasant as I should have been.

Once I was sitting in the nice, comfy chairs at the barnes and Noble, sipping a double espresso and flipping through a dictionary, I felt much better and became much more civilized.

I dropped in on H__ to see how the projects were progressing, and we ended up taking a walk and dropping by a diner - what is greater than that - for dinner.

On our back to her place, we longingly stalked the beautiful apartment building down the street, and our thoughts turned once again to finding a place to call home...

New Music Tuesday - Electric Oasis

I like quite a bit of world music, and have recently discovered a passion for trance/chill beats.

So when I saw this CD, I had to have it, and I have been very pleased with it. A lot of great beats under some beautiful Arabic melodies. As the marketing says : Where ancient Arabian melodies meet contemporary grooves to create the new heartbeat of the street. Perhaps a bit overblown...

I listened to this with the gang at work, and most everyone really got into it. It's good to work to; it's aurally interesting and stimulating - certainly not something that you have heard before. Song titles such as Scheherazade, Move Your Belly, Sandstorm, Mirage, Blue Bedouin capture pretty clearly what you can expect. Naked Rhythm (Alex Spurkel and Avi Sills) and Ro-Je are favorite artists on the disc, and Naked Rhythm has some MP3's from the disc posted here for your listening pleasure.

And you get a lot of music on this disc - for better or for worse.

The Makings Of The Next Blockbuster

So early this morning, leaving Starbuck's heading to Kent to go to the library, I heard this story on NPR.

It seems police in Kent, England found a man dressed in a formal black suit and tie, soaking wet, walking along a beach. He could not communicate with the authorities, so they took him to a psych hospital, Medway Maritime Hospital .

While he was there, the only communication he provided was to draw a (very nice) picture of a grand piano. They took him to the chapel, where there was a piano and he played lovely classical music for several hours.

His identity remains a mystery.

No Refunds, No Returns

I spent most of last evening ill-advisedly working on my great, fabled novel. It is my deepest wish that one day in the very near future I will complete it and put it to rest. It seems I was neither emotionally or intellectually strong enough to deal with things the writing required of me last evening, and a mild gloomy depression has taken up residence.

When I got to work this afternoon, my heart was just not into it. Not that there was a single thing I could have realistically been doing that I would have found satisfying...
So I asked a fellow manager that since I used my day off poorly, if I might have a “do-over.”
That is not one of the benefits my company offers... Go figure.