31 Songs

Yet another wonderful meme from Nenette. Perhaps someday I’ll become brave and/or inspired enough to have an original subject. But for now, I like music, so here’s my list. I think you were supposed to discuss a song a day for a month, but that sounds like commitment. Also, I might have added a couple of categories.

day 01 - A song from the first album you ever brought: Video Killed the Radio Star – the Buggles. Before it was MTV’s first song. WAY before. It was on my “Rock 80” K-Tel album. I would have thought I would have hated it by now, but I still like that song. Event better by Radiohead.

day 02 - Your favourite single: I don’t have a favourite single. I waffle between liking current, classic, bad pop, sappy drippy crap and heavy, hard rock. The one consistency is I won’t listen to country. OK, Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd.

day 03 - Your favourite album track: Secret – Maroon 5. It’s very, um… sensual.

day 04 - A song by the first band/artist you saw live: Lucky Ones – Loverboy. [Sigh] I know. I was 13. Gimme a break.

day 05 - A song from your teens/childhood: Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics. I got up at 3:00 am to watch the “video segment” of the Labour Day telethon put on by the local rock station. They played this video. Then I went back to bed, happy. Didn’t understand a damn thing about it, but it was just so cool to watch a video.

day 06 - A song by your favourite band/artist: 38 Years Old - The Tragically Hip. “See, my sister got raped, so a man got killed”. This could go under the “best lyric” category too.

day 07 - A song that reminds you of a season: Fire & Ice – Pat Benetar. Uh… Winter? Really, just wanted to get a Pat Benetar in here.

day 08 - The song you play the most on your mp3/iTunes/etc.: Technically, it shows up as Gettin’ Over You - David Guetta & Chris Willis, featuring Fergie & LMFAO. But it’s possible that my daughter is tainting my results. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

day 09 - Favourite new release (has to be less than 2 months old): Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me – Finger 11.

day 10 - An awesome driving track: Radar Love – Golden Earring.

day 11 - A song that reminds you of your best mate(s): The Baseball Song - Meatloaf. Some of my besties even know all the words to the play-by-play. Yes, I know it’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

day 12 - A song that makes you laugh/smile: In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

day 13 - The song that contains your favourite lyrics: Crossfire – Brandon Flowers. “Our dreams will break the boundaries of our fears”. Also: “Lay your body down, lay your body down, lay your body down… next to mine”. OK, that one sounds pretty basic in writing. Sung, it’s really nice.

day 14 - Your favourite acoustic cover/track: Overkill – Colin Hay.

day 15 - A song of an album that has brilliant cover art: Time – Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon). While I still had “student-deco”, that was a staple of my décor.

day 16 - Your favourite TV theme tune: Mad About You. Maybe I just liked the show.

day 17 - A song that reminds you of a holiday: Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel – The Broslofskis with Stan & Eric. South Park. Yuh-huh.

day 18 - A song that makes you think of a family member: White Wedding – Billy Idol. My dad wanted me to play this at my wedding. Yeah, he’s heard it and he knows what it’s about.

day 19 - A song you never get sick of hearing: Crossfire – Brandon Flower.

day 20 - A guilty pleasure song: Take it Off – Ke$ha. This song angered me as it was to the tune of “In the Land of France Where the Ladies Wear No Pants”. And then I started liking it. And then I was ashamed. And then I stopped caring. And then I bought it. And now I’m back to ashamed. Wait! Nope, don’t care.

day 21 - A song you can’t help but sing along to: Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ - Journey. I don’t even really like that song. Oh, who am I kidding? Just about any song that comes on the radio. Yeah, I’m “that guy”. In the car next to you… And who am I kidding? I love that song.

day 22 - A song that reminds you of your bf/gf/partner/etc: Ain’t No Other Man - Christina Aguilera.

day 23 - A song you play when you want to relax: Into the Mystic – Colin James. I heard this once on the radio when I needed to relax and didn’t know it and it was magical, so I bought it.

day 24 - A song you play before a night out: Wild Flower – the Cult.

day 25 - A song from a band/artist you’ve just ‘discovered’: Crossfire – Brandon Flowers. Okay, so he’s the singer for the Killers, but apparently they wanted to take a break & he didn’t & I love this song. This song might be kind of haunting me. I’d also file this under “A song that nobody seems to get but me”, since I keep playing it for people, and they keep responding “meh”. Morons. All of you.

day 26 - A song off of the last album you brought/last track you downloaded: Paranoid Freak – The Trews (SO glad I bought that after T’Pau, so I don’t have to cop to that).

day 27 - A song no one would expect you to love: The Fear – Lily Allen. The explicit version. Of course.

day 28 - A song you would sing at a karaoke night: not opening this up for debate, lest someone actually hold me to it.

day 29 - A song that makes you sad: Save a Prayer – Duran Duran. But it’s a “good” sad.

day 30 - Best angry song: Harder to Breathe – Maroon 5. “Not fit to fuckin’ tread the ground that I am walking on”. You can’t help but feel better growling that. Of course, depends at whom you are angry, because in the next verse “clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat; hoping somebody, someday will do you like I did” doesn’t apply for me. Usually.

day 31 - Your least favourite song: Pretty much anything by the Guess Who, Or Burton Cummings; Michelle – the Beatles. I know! I’ve never really liked that song. (I prefer My Michelle, by Guns ‘n’ Roses)

day 32 - Best use of bagpipes in a song: It’s a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll - AC/DC. Duh.

day 33 - Your favourite song of all time: Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel.

31 Movies

I just wanted to see if I could name 31 movies. And possibly send a ripple through the Internets with a post from this source. (Start small, nice & light. See where it goes!)

This was under the direction of Nenette, who, herself, stole borrowed it. She's the source of my bestest memes.

Day #1: Favourite Movie – The Shawshank Redemption.

Day #2: Least Favourite Movie – The Crush; Crash. Anything David Lynch.

Day #3: Favourite Comedy – The Landlord (Will Farrell). OK, so it's only 2:21 long, a real one: Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. "I can't do 'this' (hand gestures to self) and 'that' (hand gestures to kids)" I use that All. The. Time.

Day #4: Favourite Adventure – LOTR. Once you get past the Ghost Pirates, and realize you can just sit and watch Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen for 9 hours, all is well.

Day #5: Favourite Horror – None.

Day #6: Favourite Suspense/Thriller – Toy Story III. Seriously! At the end, I thought I was going to have a stroke.

Day #7: Favourite Animated Movie – Kung Fu Panda. There is no secret ingredient.

Day #8: Favourite Guilty Pleasure – Troy. Except I don't feel guilty. It still counts if I *should* feel guilty, right? right?

Day #9: A Movie You Never Expected to Love – Pulp Fiction; The Dark Knight.

Day #10: Biggest Let-Down – Charlie's Angels. Although, to be fair, I didn't expect much. Yet, still, it disappointed.

Day #11: First Movie You Saw In Theatres – Phantom of the Paradise. I think. There was probably something earlier than that.

Day #12: The Last Movie You Saw in Theatres – Monsters vs. Aliens (I don't get out much)

Day #13: Favourite Documentary – Fight Club.

Day #14: Favourite Satire – Legends of the Fall. There's no other way to watch that movie.

Day #15: A Movie with Your Favourite Actor – Elizabeth – The Golden Age.
Cate & Clive

Day #16: Favourite Movie Based On a Book – Fight Club

Day #17: Favourite Movie with an Actor You Hate – Inception. Can't stand Leo.

Day #18: Movie You Can Watch On Loop – Groundhog Day. Seriously. Also, Shawshank.

Day #19: Favourite Movie Based On a Historical Event – Defiance, Munich.

Day #20: Favourite Movie Based On A Historical Figure – Elizabeth

Day #21: Favourite Musical – Grease. In fact, the only musical I come close to liking.

Day #22: Most Over-Rated Movie – Titanic. And yes, I've yet to see it.

Day #23: Most Under-Rated Movie – Defiance. It was better than Schindler's List, in my opinion.

Day #24: Movie With Best Soundtrack – The Matrix

Day #25: Favourite Black and White Movie – Casablanca

Day #26: Cheesiest Horror Movie – All of them. Any of them.

Day #27: Favourite Oscar-Winning Movie – Gandhi

Day #28: Favourite Made-For-Television Movie – Thorn Birds. Shut up.

Day #29: Favourite Movie Based on a Television Series – Starsky & Hutch

Day #30: Favourite Re-Make – I'd like to see Inception remade with anyone but Leo. Even Carrot Top. Or Emo Phillips.

Day #31: Favourite Sequel – Empire Strikes Back

There it is. It wasn't as hard as I thought! Now show me yours. In the comments or your own link.

Things that make me happy

I've been in a funk.

Mostly a blogging funk, but when we had to cancel the family road-trip to the west coast (breaking my mom's heart) due to automobile kerfluckedness, THEN suffered a self-imposed home-exile due to abhorrence to dealing with lice or lice-related issues any more than we had to. We did some fun stuff on our holidays, but still, it was no road-trip, and couldn't even be considered a bait-and-switch.

Then there was BlogHer. I didn't go last year, it didn't even occur to me to go (it did occur to me to make fun of it). This year was the same, except it DID occur to me to go. I'd befriended some pretty cool people in February (I mean IRL, they were already befriended) and there were mutterings of several of them going. Plus it was in New York. NEW FREAKING YORK! I don't have a bucket list, but if I did, going to New York would be on it (Chicago? check). I would have loved to see them all again & party in New Yawk. Seeing the photos, and even the videos, made me so sad I was shocked at myself. There isn't necessarily "always next year", as the people I want to see won't necessarily be there.

I decided to battle the crappy feelings by taking Nenette's lead (sure it was a month ago. I told you: blogging funk. I PASSED UP A MEME for crying out loud!) & coming up with some of the simple things that make me happy. I used her criteria: none of the obvious – family, friends, socio-economic status...

The happy list (in progress):

1. Pasta, specifically spaghetti, with butter & salt
2. My Ecco shoes – I've always heard tell of the magic shoe that feels like pillows on your feet. These are them, for me.
3. My bed. I was nearly 40 before I threw a hissy fit and got – no, invested in a real bed. Not going into what we had before, because this is about what makes me happy!
4. Sushi. With my GFs; with Max; with the kids; when Max makes it; with my sister. All are completely different experiences and all make me happy.
5. My sister's expecting. In February. I'm so freaking excited, but it's just not What We Do to be all weepy & squealy (besides, she'd slap me). I'm glad Norah did that when she found out. It was like I was jumping and squealing vicariously through her. She is going to kick my ASS for putting it here. HA! If she ever read it!
6. Taking photographs (with film). Haven't done it (really done it) in a long, long time, but it did make me happy.
7. Minesweeper. Shut up.
8. Washing my face. After some 35 years of fighting with skin products, I was looking up some Major Home Exfoliation Ritual that I think I found through Bionic Beauty and at the end of it they said, "or just use a rough face cloth & hot water" (???) so that is all I do now and it feels sooooo good. Add a touch of light moisturizer, and it sure doesn't hurt the happiness scale that Max says "mmm you smell so good"
9. Elizabeth I
10. Lasagne
11. My parents' cottage lot. It has coexisting promises of a future of family gathering & relaxing solitude at the same time.
12. xkcd
13. Getting @ replies
14. When the clock reads 12:34
15. Seeing hot-air balloon in the sky (haven't seen any this year, wtf?)
16. Painting my toes. Well, ok, my toe-nails. Although with my skill-level, I should just stick to calling it "painting my toes". But whatever, it makes me happy.
17. Getting a pedicure. Thanks to Rougie, I'm going to go by myself on my birthday (unless I get a better offer???)
18. Working in the garden

Wow. Lots of simple stuff makes me happy. What makes YOU happy?

(OMG! I really want some buttery/salty pasta RFN!)

Out of Water

I was born at a very young age in a galaxy far, far away – not a Ford Galaxie, that's probably where I was conceived (did you see what I did there? Ford actually made the Galaxie, and they existed at the time of my conception. That's called "research".) Actually, it wasn't all that long ago, and it was less than a mile from where I sit right now (crap, it's more like 5 km. What is that in dog years? I'm tired of research). I've lived here about 99% of my life (sunovabich, you're going to make me calculate this, aren't you? K: 3/41=7% of my life *not* living here. I'll take this opportunity to say "look waaaay up. What does that banner say?")*

Alright, so you'd think I belong here. But some of the typical conduct of my fellow citizens leaves me flummoxed. Here are but a few of the things that highlight how I may not belong here.

I:

• Don't vacate the city for the lake every summer. Yes, I need a second whole household to maintain and manage, because clearly I have too much time & money
  
• Hate the Guess Who. As in, *hate*. Can't stress this enough. It may or may not be that I've manufactured this entire post in order to be able to state that.
  
• Don't hate Toronto. More indifferent. And pity. They *so* want to be a world city. Not going to happen. This is Canada. That would be grandstanding.
  
• Didn't swoon over IKEA's announcement to open here (disclosure: already own everything, which makes me a good, cheap Winnipegonian; disclosure #2: I'll be there - with my paycheque in hand – the day they open; disclosure #3: I may have emailed them about it back in the day)
  
• Don't hijack any discussion of Neil Young with "he's from Winnipeg, you know". He left. I'm over it.
  
• Know where my turn signal lever is and know how to use it. And do. But not for hours at a time.
  
• Can use an acceleration lane.
  
• Don't make monthly shopping trips to Grand Forks (disclosure: Girls' GFF Weekend. Not my choice destination, but hey, I can spend money. And hey, it's my GFFs!)
  
• Don't pine for the Jets and hyperventilate when the league utters the word "expansion". They're gone. Get over it. In fact the only *possible* way to get them back is to let them go, move on and grow as a community until we earn them on our own merit. And for the love of Christmas, don't fucking call them "The Jets" if that miraculously happens. How about: The Wholesalers? Eh? Eh? Nice ring to it.
  

I've got about 15 or 200 more ways that I don't or haven't fit in to the various groups and communities I am either forced to, or really want to be a part of. What of you?

*And, ok further: a goodly chunk was spent just outside the city – some might call it "the country" – but really, our community was here, as it sure as hell wasn't out there. I have a long history of not fitting in. Also: damn right I double count that time as time toward my God-given right ability to call myself a country-girl. It probably landed me a husband, so I can't let it go now.

Chartreuse? Pear? Pistachio?

We're pretty green, but pretty much everything we do is for another reason.

* We use a "reel" mower because Max doesn't want to deal with gasoline (I threatened that if he dies, the first thing I'm doing - assuming it's summer - is buying an electric mower)

* We drive one car because it's too expensive for 2 for our needs.

* We compost - again, Max liked the challenge and now it's a habit

* We don't use weed killer because I've found they just don't work on dandelions like pulling them out. Or any other weeds for that matter

* We don't drink bottled water because it's just too expensive considering it's basically tap water that someone else bottled (this was hard, since it's sooooo convenient - and actually got me drinking water regularly) Cost of bottled water (cheapest I've found): appx $0.1275/L; cost of tap water: $0.003111222/L. I could get 41 bottles of tap water for one bottle of the cheapest.

* We use reusable grocery bags... sometimes. We've got about a dozen of them, but if they make it to the car *I* usually forget them there & don't think about it until I'm at the checkout. My weaselly solution is that I give the plastic ones to my sister to reuse as dog-poo-bags (sorting out the ones with holes in them is up to her!)

* We've got a front-load machine, but only because less water saves $$
[have been planning to replace the toilet for years. Let's see: 7L - current 13L toilet - 6L "green" one - x 15 flushes/day x 365 x about 4 years we've been "meaning to" X $0.003111222/L = $477 wasted since we figured it would be a good idea. Can't recall the exact time; have never counted number of flushes; didn't account for leap year! Also didn't account for many times using the 3L flush which would make our 7L difference 10]

* I, um... drink wine from the box. Because there's um... much less... um... packaging.

* I bring stacks of (printed one side) paper home from work for the kids to draw on. THEN (depending on the artwork) it goes into the recycling. This is a cheap thing... Do you know how much art these kids produce?

On the other hand:

* I don't give a crap about watering my lawn & garden (i.e. I'll do it) - don't bother selecting low-water plants.

* I will usually drive if I can.

* I will usually turn up the heat if I can get away with it. Put on a sweater you say? Yes, I'll do that. And then I'll turn up the heat anyway.

* I live in urban sprawl. Yes, it is an "older" (beautiful) neighbourhood and the anti-sprawl crowd for some reason looks favourably on my 'hood. But the lot sizes are the same - and sometimes smaller - in what "they" generally consider to be the blight on our urban environment [the evil suburbia]. Also, because I have a back lane AND a sidewalk AND a front street (and grid is not the most efficient layout of pavement to reach every property), I consume more infrastructure than I'm generally given credit for. If we're talking density, I'm not in a particularly dense area. Screw 'em all. I like my neighbours, but not in my lap. Subject for another post? If I get around to it [ha!]

Anyone else a lazy shade of green?

Welcome to the (30) Rock I Live Under

I started a post about how miserably frustrated I am and how it seems to be affecting many aspects of my life. I started it well, all day yesterday and today - it was a running dialog in my head. But then I went & bought some shoes AND was walking around soccer thinking "hey, I have a job that is currently frustrating - but I *have* a job and I do quite enjoy it; my parenting failures are mostly to do with my otherwise-induced frustrations - but I *have* a family & that's what I always wanted; My outside interests are going under-fulfilled, but they are *interesting* interests and I can work on them."

In other words, I told myself: Suck It Up Princess. And then decided to go with lighter fare:

-------------------------
For most of my pop-culture laden life, during times of conversation when the following topics came up, I had to navigate carefully under the radar, so as not to blow my cover that I have not partaken in That Which Everyone Knows. Here are but a few:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Apparently there's a movie coming out now. But did you know that before the TV show there was [gasp] a movie?! Crazy, eh? AND it was a good movie. It had great lines in it like "I didn't even break a nail!"; "Excuse much?"; "rude or anything"; and my favourite: Paul Ruebens' death scene (ooo sorry, spoiler. Your own fault for putting everything into a knock-off w/o checking out the original!) "hhhhehhh....... hhhhehhhh...... hhhhhhhhhhhhehhhhh!" Also? Donald Sutherland? and Luke Perry? Give your head a shake. The Old-school was a thing of beauty. Wait. This is about what I *haven't* seen. I haven't touched the TV series.

2. Slapshot - We don't tend to get excited about too much up here in mellow-down Canada. One of the things we do is Gun Control. That clear, I'm kind of afraid to admit this, since I'm pretty sure there's a law on the books that says in spite of gun-controls, you can be shot for not seeing this.

3. Caddyshack - I'm also kind of sure that not seeing a Bill Murray movie can get you at least knee-capped here.

4. Titanic - I can comfortably say will N.E.V.E.R., under my own steam, watch this movie (notwithstanding being trapped on a transatlantic flight where the alternative is a chatty halotosian - even then, depends what they're talking about). It's not even the principle, as I would watch any of these other items.

5. Rocky Horror Picture Show - Just never happened.

6. J&K+8 - what.ever.

7. Survivor - OK, one episode - enough to not bother going back. I can't stand the drama.

8. Pretty much any reality TV show. I *have* a reality, I don't want someone else's thrust at me. Except Elimidate. That was awesome. They were so indignant!

9. The Office - Regrettably, from what I understand.

10. Star Wars Episodes I, II & III - and yes, I call myself a Star Wars fan. Also, I will be in a cold, cold grave before I call I, II & III the "first" [shudder] movies.

11. Harry Potter anything

12. Any season of Idol, past the schadenfreude rounds

13. Lost

14. 24

15. Star Trek TNG movies (seen all the others) - also regrettably.

16. Bourne franchise - I'd still like to see these for some reason.

17. American Pie franchise - one time? at band camp? I suggested to Max that we should see these this movie so as to understand the pop culture references. He said "you already know it". Maybe not, but it was a compelling enough argument to not bother.

BONUS: Shows that I'm pretty sure I've seen all episodes of because at various times they were syndicated at 10:00 - exactly when I needed a half hour shut-down period:

M*A*S*H; Night Court; Cheers; The Simpsons (well up until several years ago, then I gave up); Law & Order (though, I have to say that I saw the bulk of them when I was on my first mat leave and it was on - somewhere on the dial - four different episodes a day)

Your Turn: What does The World think you should have seen that you either (a) haven't bothered or (b) would rather jab a pen in your own eye than partake in?