Hitting the High Notes

The Dude mentioned Sam Smith in his post earlier today.  I really enjoyed his performance on SNL and have been listening to "Stay With Me" frequently over the past 48 hours.  It isn't surprising that I like this young man's style as I have always appreciated a killer falsetto.  Jordan Knight was my favorite New Kid on the Block for a reason.  (Man did he get up there for Step 3-- "It's just you and me.")  While I was in tween love with Jordan Knight, my mum was obsessed with George Michael, another man with a fantastic falsetto.  We listened to our mum's George Michael cassette tapes so often that I started to dislike his music for a short period of time.  (I think I was mostly freaked out by his song "Mother's Pride."  As The Dude knows, there are a few songs that disturb me to my core.  Number one with a bullet is "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by The Crash Test Dummies.  I swear to God that song hurts my soul.  Also on the playlist in my personal hell would be "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  These aren't songs that I dislike.  They are songs I feel queasy about.  And "Mother's Pride" makes me queasy.)  ANYHOW, enough about music that induces nightmares, back to the topic at hand.  After I had a reasonable break from being trapped in the car with my mum and her George Michael jams, I started to appreciate him again.  Some of my very favorite singers are falsetto vocalists, including Jeff Buckley, Art Garfunkel, and Michael Jackson.  And I can't forget another of my mother's favorites-- The Bee Gees/Barry Effin' Gibb.

Art Garfunkel's performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Maxwell's version of "This Woman's Work" never fail to give me chills:

End of quarter wrap-up

Couple of things:

• British singer that was on SNL the other night.  Weird/interesting style, but pretty solid voice.  Couple of links to his performances below.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/615364?playlist_id=2348

http://www.hulu.com/watch/615359?playlist_id=2348

• The movie 'Thor 2' or whatever was horrible and had no plot, real dialog or point.  Dropped a 2 on that flick.
• 'House of Lies' Season 3 ended last night and I was a bit shocked and disappointed about how lame and not funny this season ended up being.  Not sure where they are going with this series, but the comedy aspect is completely gone.  Bummer, really thought that series has promise after a big first Season.
•  Bruins are 1st in the Eastern Conference and League.  They have not lost in regulation since March 1st, won 9 road games in a row and have received points in the last 16 games.  April, May and June should be awesome with the way these guys are playing.  
• Today is opening day for MLB.  The Sox are playing down in Baltimore, game started at 3pm.  Don't really care too much about baseball this time of the year, but somehow screwed up my tickets and only have 2 games, Friday April 18th and Tuesday April 22.  I'll be wearing a hat and gloves for those games based on the way the weather has been trending lately.
• Headed out to San Fran to visit a buddy and we are hitting the Giants/Rockies game on Saturday, April 12th.  AT&T park has always looked cool due to being right on the water.  Looking forward to touring Alcatraz while out there as well.
• Modern Family and Parks and Rec have been pretty lame this season.  Seems to be a theme with TV lately, or maybe I'm just watching the wrong shows.  The 3 shows I have enjoyed this season are 'Episodes', 'True Detective' and 'The Walking Dead'.  Need to finish watching the season finale of 'The Walking Dead' this evening to see how things panned out.
• The Wisconsin/Arizona NCAA game on Saturday night was incredible - best bball I've seen in a while. Would love to see Wisconsin win the whole thing based on seeing the way they played the other night.
• Bentley Women's bball team won the Division 2 finals over West Texas A&M this weekend.  They went undefeated throughout the regular season and playoffs.
• http://bentleyfalcons.com/sports/wbkb/2013-14/releases/20140328k5hezh

A Magical Time of Year

Even though The Dude and our mum (and seven other relatives) have birthdays in March, I have always felt that it is a strong candidate for the most miserable month of the year.  There are no holidays that result in a day off in March and by this point in the year, just about everyone in New England is ready for the never-ending winter to wrap the heck up.  Although spring officially started last Thursday, the weather this week has been icy cold.  So I was pleasantly surprised to walk out of my house this morning into a very spring-like world.  The lovely weather immediately reminded me of the type of day each spring when our parents would bring The Dude's and my bicycles out from our basement.  I experienced a little jolt of joy as I remembered the excitement of hopping on my bike in the driveway at 8 Victor for the first time each year.  Bike rides were one of our favorite activities when we were growing up.  When we were little, we were only allowed to circle the block without adult supervision, so we would ride around and around (and around.)  Our mum took us for longer rides.  The evenings when the three of us would hop on our bikes to navigate around our little town were magical.  I treasure these childhood memories and I feel like I need to add some Wonder Years-caliber nostalgic narration about a "simpler time" to the photos below.  We sure were lucky.

Our first trikes

Our first bikes

Evidence that I did eventually learn to ride sans training wheels

Mo' Movies (Mo' Problems)

About Time (2013):  This movie was right up my alley-- a Richard Curtis romantic comedy starring an adorable Weasley and Rachel McAdams.  The love story between the two leads was sweet, but I was more affected by the father/son love story.  4 out of 5

Captain Phillips (2013):  Holy smokes was I tense during this movie.  The acting was great and the directing of the action scenes was impressive.  It was fascinating to see how a small boat manages to take over a large ship.  Tom Hanks' performance at the end of the movie was so so good. 4 out of 5

The Golden Compass (2007):  I recently read Phillip Pulman's The Golden Compass and am currently reading the sequel The Subtle Knife.  The books are decent, but the movie was lacking.  A lot of information was extracted and they chose to end the movie at an odd spot that was different from the book.  2 out of 5

How I Live Now (2013):  I came across this sort of by accident, but found it to be entertaining enough.  It was like watching two movies jammed together.  The fist half is a fish-out-of-water teenage love story and then it turns into a war film that doesn't pull any punches.  Some genuinely upsetting stuff in there that you would not expect half an hour into the movie.  3 out of 5

The Spectacular Now (2013):  I read this book last year and really enjoyed it.  The narration by main character Sutter Keely is entertaining and original, which nicely balances the pretty dark material.  It is presented as a teen romance, which it is, but it also focuses very much on addiction and family issues.  Movies almost never measure up to books, so it was no surprise that I preferred the book to the movie in this instance as well. I did think Miles Teller did a good job capturing the essence of Sutter.  3 out of 5

Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013):  This won the Best Documentary Oscar earlier this month.  I enjoyed it.  Spoiler alert:  Phil Specter is a douche.  3 out of 5

For the Win

Last night I listened to the most recent Judge John Hodgman podcast, "Arraigning Cats and Dogs."  He opens each podcast by quoting a piece of culture, often modifying the quotation to fit the case.  It is rare that I can identify his source material, so I was SUPER JAZZED when he started the case by saying, “You should see my corgis at sunset in the snow. It's their finest hour. About five o'clock they glow like copper. Then they come in and lie in front of the fire like a string of sausages.”

TASHA TUDOR!

I have mentioned before that my Nana gave me a Tasha Tudor book for Christmas one year and I then started collecting them.  I love her illustrations and also was really drawn to her out-of-time existence on her beautiful farm in Vermont.  On the podcast, Hodgman started talking about Tudor's books Corgiville Fair and Corgiville Christmas and it was such a strange experience to listen to him.  It was the kind of weird sensation akin to finding out that your boss dated your aunt in high school. . . or something.  Two worlds colliding, I guess.  Anyhow, that was my thrill for the day yesterday.  Happy Friday!

School Ties

While reading The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Carpenter Greene on the T this morning, I was delighted to discover that the titular character is a Wellesley alum.  There isn't much Wellesley discussion in the book, unfortunately.  I may need to follow it up with Elizabeth Percer's An Uncommon Education, which takes place at Wellesley College and is sure to contain plenty of nostalgia-inducing references to the school.  Realistically, I already have a solid half-dozen books on deck at home, so I am not likely to procure and read An Uncommon Education very soon.  Perhaps I will go home and flip through Wellesley College instead.

Hold the phone.  I just discovered that a hardcover copy of An Uncommon Education is cheaper than the paperback.  Sold.  My DVD player died this weekend, so now is as good a time as any to place an Amazon order.

T Minus 6 Days

I am not usually one to complain much about winter, but this one has been a doozy.  It has been freezing cold and we've gotten loads of snow.*  On top of all that, my roof has been failing since December, so I have been hoping extra hard for spring to arrive so we can finally replace it.  Spring officially starts on March 20.  We had a preview earlier this week when the temperature approached 60 for a day (before plunging back down below freezing.)  I am delighted that the start of Daylight Savings Time has resulted in the sun not setting until nearly 7pm.  Today I hung two air plants in my office, which feels vaguely spring-y, if only because they are green.

In addition to the imminence of spring, the book I am currently reading has been contributing to my happiness level this week.  I only have a few pages left in The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd and I am sad to see it end.  It is historical fiction, based in part on the Grimké sisters, who were abolitionists and suffragists.  Chapters are narrated alternately by Sarah Grimké, a white woman from Charleston, South Carolina, and Handful, the slave she was given on her eleventh birthday.  The story is compelling and the writing is strong.  I highly recommend this book.

Sarah and Angelina Grimké:  Putting the "grim" in "Grimké." 
Just kidding-- they were awesome.

*This is where I mention that my dad works outside and spends long hours in this nasty weather, so I should really keep the whining to a minimum.

Catching Up on Movies

Here's what I've watched since my last movie post:

Enchanted April (1991):  I am a sucker for British costume dramas.  Like season four of "Downton Abbey," Enchanted April focuses on a group of Brits in the 1920s.  The difference is that I love Downton and found the writing and acting in this movie to be painful.  For me to give this type of movie a "2", it must be pretty bad.  In my opinion, it was.

Fruitvale Station (2013):  Real talk-- I feel uncomfortable criticizing a movie about the final day of a young African-American man who was shot point-blank in a San Francisco subway station by a police officer while he was lying on the ground unarmed.  I have loved Michael B. Jordan since he was Wallace in "The Wire" and Vince on "Friday Night Lights," but I didn't love this movie.  3 out of 5

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013):  Catching Fire is my favorite of the Hunger Games books and I had heard that this movie was really good.  It had a lot to live up to and totally delivered.  It has been a few years since I read the books so I was surprised by a few characters and plot points I had forgotten.  I am looking forward to watching this movie again. 4 out of 5 (a high 4)

In a World... (2013):  This was a pleasant movie with a good cast.  I enjoyed it.  4 out of 5

Mary and Max (2009):  This strange animated movie is decidedly not for kids.  It is the story of a sad Australian girl and her sad pen pal in New York City, a man with Asperger Syndrome.  I don't know if I was more won over by the Australian accents or the bleak color palette and depressing lives of the characters.  I think a lot of people would be put off by this movie, but I liked it.  3 out of 5

Now You See Me (2013):  This was a decent thriller.  I didn't feel like watching it was a waste of time, but I wouldn't be particularly tempted to tune in if I came across it in a few years on TV.  3 out of 5

Fred Rogers - hero

Happy Birthday, Dude!

My parents delivered my best friend into my life when I was 19 months old.  The Dude, who has gone by various aliases, including Pooky Bear, Frank, PBoy, and Rugged, was a scrawny little boy with a big personality.  I didn't learn until I was older that when The Dude was a toddler he was close to death on a few occasions because of his asthma.  All I knew was that he spent a lot of time hospitalized and usually returned home with a new He-Man action figure.  In spite of his health issues, he was an extremely energetic kid.  I have no doubt that had he grown up in the last decade his teachers would have demanded he add ADHD medication to his big pile of asthma pills.  When The Dude was six years old our Grampy asked him if he was the smartest kid in first grade.  He responded that he would rather be the funniest kid in the first grade.  I assume he met this goal as he is the funniest person I know.  (Other goals he would have met with ease circa 1988:  worst penmanship, least capable of staying quiet, strongest reader, biggest scaredycat.)  When he was voted "Class Clown" his senior year of high school, I believe he felt a pride similar to a beauty queen being crowned Miss Universe.

These days The Dude is smart, hardworking, and successful, while still maintaining his juvenile sense of humor and his genuine excitement for life's pleasures.  He is apt to break out in song (a self-penned ditty called "I Deserve This") while indulging in a favorite snack or to dance his way down a store aisle  if one of his jams starts to play.  He launches into voices and impressions without warning.  I almost soiled his car several years ago when he looked at a Poland Springs bottle and screamed "IS THAT MY WATAH?!" in homage to Sean Penn's "Is that my daughter?!" scene in Mystic River.  Seriously, we almost went off the road.  No one makes me laugh harder than my brother.

This next paragraph might sound bonkers, but it is absolutely true.  Nearly a decade ago The Dude and I were living together in our great-grandparents' former apartment.  I went to visit my parents in Maine for a weekend and The Dude stayed back at the apartment.  In the middle of the night I woke up convinced that the smoke detectors were blasting in my parents' house.  I was sleeping in their basement and yelled to them.  My mum came down and assured me that there weren't any alarms going off, but I remained extremely agitated.  I started crying and kept repeating, "Something is wrong."  She was freaked out and had me come upstairs and sleep on the couch.  Within an hour, the phone rang.  The Dude had been mugged and assaulted.  Fortunately he and a friend escaped without serious injury, though he was bloody and shaken up.  The attack had happened right at the time that I had woken up knowing something was wrong. 

And now how to transition from that story. . . .

Very happy birthday wishes to my baby brother/dear friend/emergency contact/possible psychic connection.  May your day be filled with the love of your family and friends, a sufficient amount of sleep, a variety of delicious snacks, music, laughter, inappropriateness, and some sort of victory.  I look forward to celebrating with you, pal!

The Dude on his first birthday.  Possibly the only time he ever enjoyed chocolate cake.

FYI, y'all

I'm turning 32 years old on Saturday.