Slap hap happy new year!

Just watched The Holiday on tv. It was a bit awkward at first, but then it got quite good. Even made me all teary once or twice. Kate Winslet's a great actor.

Now I'm watching a Vicar of Dibley marathon. This is the first New Year that Fernando and I are spending alone. In past years we either celebrated with Pablo and Delyriam, or with Maewitch and the crew, or Fernando was working. But this holiday season I've had zero plans, zero commitments... Fernando is playing a little Warcraft, then he's going to join me at 11:00. We'll probably rent Julie and Julia, and have some of the sparkling wine my boss gave us.

Sherry's having a little snooze next to me. The Demon Spawn is curled up in a basket looking cute. Ahhh I feel relax-ed.

Ghosts of Bloggies Past 1

Since I'm re-reading my old blog, I'll post anything funny I find. This is a passage from a web site where you can submit lyrics you heard wrong. (I just like the categories the site gives you to fill in.)

Tears for Fears: Break It Down Again

The real lyrics were:
"Head strong like a horse" and later "Hot tips for the boys"

But I misheard them as:
"I'm hung like a horse" and later "I touch little boys"

The embarassing moment of revelation:
Singing along in the car with my parents

Age when I discovered just how wrong I had been: 25
I think my version is better than the original: Yes
I've convinced others that my version is correct: Yes
I take interesting medications: No
Submitted by Dennis Brennan on 1998-02-28 00:00:00

another contender for fromage of the year?

you twit

I haven't used my Twitter account for much, other than to follow a couple people, and to auto-post book reviews. I've decided to start posting short summaries of my Great Attraction blog entries. So if you find my posts too long to read, twit away!

The Story of Me: In 2009

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event. Oscar Wilde

Just reading vegan-whole-foods-chef Jae Steele's end of year list, and I liked her categories. So I decided to try them out myself, and tossed in a couple more that I thought of...


Favourite learning experience: Taking a First Aid course.

Best health move:
Dancing in the kitchen while filling the dishwasher, and cooking.

Favourite new health tool: A new battery in my ipod.

Favourite new recipes: Avocado-green-apple salad (adapted from 100 Recettes 100 Vedettes.) Celery soup (I think I adapted it from some internet recipes.)

Favourite comfort food: Curly pasta with lemon juice and olive oil.

Favourite Party In Your Mouth food: You know... when it's the start of your weekend and you make something really nice? Jae Steele's guacamole.

Favourite drink:
Rooibas vanilla soy milk latté at Starbucks. (But what I drank the most was my own latté made with Almond Sunset herbal tea.)

Best writing accomplishment: The query letter. Now if only I could get back to working on the outline...

Best blog accomplishment: Generally maintaining a 5 day/week posting on A Great Attraction.

Favourite garment acquisition: New jimjams.

Favourite tv show discovery:
Welcome Back Kotter (rediscovery); Gavin & Stacey; Spaced.
Purposely avoided too many new shows.

Favourite movie: I don't watch a lot of movies--probably The Hangover.

Best cultural move! : Finally going to Stratford. Runner up: Getting back to reading about a book a week.

Saddest moment: The Night They Drove Old Nombly Down.

Most memorable This Is My Life And It's Pretty Great moments: * Getting home after work and listening to CBC radio 1 while chatting with my cats and making supper. * Watching tv with Fernando, on the couch, and fending off Haley when she tries to lick our ears. * Anytime I spend the day reading and listening to music.

Motto of 2009:

"Every morning, I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." (Robert Orben)

Fromage Video of the Year?

Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway

Mabel's Techno Corner!

Ever wonder how to uncheck a large number of songs in iTunes (songs you don't want to delete, but don't want to play either, like Christmas songs) ?

No Mabel, of course we haven't wondered... cause we don't own 534 Christmas songs.

Well, just in case you know someone who does, here's the solution I got from googling--never knew you could do this:

"pull all your tunes (the ones you want to uncheck) into one folder, then control click one of the tunes and they should all be unchecked, not just in the folder but in the library."

cover land

I'm sure I've posted the Jenny Owens cover of "Hot in Herre" before. The cover is so good, it makes me like the original. Written by The Neptunes (Pharrell and his partner.)

original by Nelly


Jenny Owens Young: "get up up on the dance floor!"



Here are some covers by Jamie Cullum, that I just discovered...

"Don't Stop the Music" - original by Rihanna


by Cullum - fantastic!


"Frontin'" by Pharrell


by Cullum


My fave Britney Spears song "Toxic"


the Yael Naïm cover.


Now that's how covers are supposed to work. They shouldn't sound like the same version with a new singer--you've got to bring something new to the song.

And if you really prefer rock versions to pop music, there's a whole series of "Punk Goes Pop" albums. Here's a cover of Huey Lewis' "Power of Love" !



Man, checking out this Punk series... most of it is People Unclear on the Concept. Who needs a supposedly punk version of The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger?" It's already a rock song. Same with The Roots' "The Seed 2.0". And Punk Goes Heavy Metal?? Heavens.

books and blogs and cuts

I figured out how to put dates into the books I've read in facebook--I'm adding the date to the tags. Of course, you know me... I'm going back through my entire list of books and trying to identify when I read them. For the older ones, the tags are elementary school, high school, univerisity1, coles, chapters and university2. But now I'm reading through my oldest blog entries for any mentions of books I was reading, so I can be more accurate with those.

And I came across this funny entry, describing the various ways to "cut" someone in the Regency period:

To renounce acquaintance with any one is to cut him. There are several species of the cut. Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, &c. The cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. The cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. The cut sublime, is to admire the top of King’s College Chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. The cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose.

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

This is the song that Pink sang to Carey Hart, that got them back together. Awwww...

That's her actual wedding dress. ...Though I'm not sure she wore roller blades at the reception. Though knowing Pink, she might have.

toonz toonz toonz

While looking for "Stranded in the Jungle" I found an album on iTunes for $5.99 with 122 songs--the sexistly named Original Soul Men Classics (even though there are some women on it). I'm quite enjoying it (and discovering where the Beach Boys got half their material from.)

My fave BD!

I bought and read in one evening the new Les Nombrils bande dessinée. So good! And didn't end on a cliffhanger like last time. I wonder if there will be a fifth. Ahhh so good.

yoopi!

So like... for YEARS now I've been thinking about this old TV science show I used to watch as a child. I could remember the music, and the voice of the male host, and the format, but not the name. I just knew they always ended each segment with a little phrase like "isn't that amazing!" or something like that. When I described it to my family, no one remembered it.

Then I was watching a Kotter episode today and Epstein said: "What'll they think of next" obviously quoting from a show of the time. And I was all: EUREKA!

That's the show! What Will They Think of Next! It was a Canadian show, but also showed in the US. But there are no clips on the internets anywhere. I'll hum you the theme song:

laa la la la laaaaaaa
la-la la-la laaaaaaa
la
laa la la la laaaaaaa
la-la la-la laaaaaaa
laaaaa
laaaaaa
laa
laaaaaa
laaaaaaa
laa
laaa-la-la laa laaa
la-la-la-la laaaaaaaaa

WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT aired weekly, I think Nickelodeon aired it on weekends. It was basically the two of them talking about what the future was going to be like. They would talk about new technologies, innovations, and that sort of thing. At the end of each segment, if I remember correctly, one of the two would state “What will they think of next?”

I remember one episode talking about how one day, you would be able to go on your computers and look at the showtimes at your local movie theatre, or see what stores were in your local mall. I watched this in amazement, not knowing that computers would be able to do such things. This was in the days even before the Commodore 64, where they were just hooked up to your TV to type text in.

Ghosts of Christmases Past

Jacob Teddy Marley

Hungrily eying the ornaments.

My brother, apparently outgrowing his jammies.

My Donnie Osmond doll!
(Manlier than Ken. I never owned a Ken doll.)

NUTTY NUMBERS
(We used to get these albums of novelty songs.
They totally rocked.)
Disco Duck!
"I don't like spiders and snakes
and that ain't what it takes to love me
like I wanna be looved youuu."
Pepino, the Italian Mouse
Mr. Custer
Norman
Rama Lama Ding Dong
Little Red Rented Rowboat
Don't Go Near the Eskimos
James (Hold the Ladder Steady)
Chick-a-Boom (back then I thought "chick" meant a chicken)
and the best...
Stranded in the Jungle!

The Hulk, and suntanning doll
My hair must have been changing to a darker blonde.
Looks like I have really excellent streaks!

What is that watch I'm wearing?

With muthah

With fathah

"We are the wee tin soldiers who like to play all day!"
My brother is the tallest soldier.

...
Flashforward several years
(The above photos I have because my dad got his slides converted
to jpgs. So then it's years of regular photos, all in photo albums.
And then my photos, not in e-form.
We pick up the Christmas story when I finally get a
digital camera.)

Fernando and his first nephew, on nephew's first Cmas.

Not sure which winter, but this is when we get to see Mr. Gilby,
when he comes back to town each winter.

2005 tree
Believe I was in school at the time so not much of a Christmas
In fact, ever since I started university in '92, and then went straight into
a retail job, I've never had a real Christmas break.

Very rare balcony snow leopard

The Great Sibling Christmas of 2007
Theme: Swellegant Christmas!

Me and Fernando
(he sat on the couch and sewed)
I'm drinking from the drunken-sot-Santa mug

Playing mini-croquet
(Ever since Pablo and I read Harpo Marx's biography
we've wanted to play croquet.)

Fernando's sister by the Christmas tree.
Since we were at Pablo's apartment, I tried to make the tree
look Cool Yule and masculine.

2008
Ohhh Nombly's last Christmas

And Haley conspiring to knock over the tree

Christmas Present:

I didn't put up a tree this year--there isn't a single decoration.
The gift my parents' sent is sitting behind by Oscar Wilde doll.
That's about it.

Bah Humbug!

books books books and did i mention books?

Since the hero and heroine in the last romance I read were both unusually tall, I couldn't help but compare it the whole time to Heyer's The Toll-gate. So instead of reading The Golden Mean, I decided to re-read TG.

Heyer has some romances where the romance gets resolved about half-way through, and the rest of the book is the resolution of the mystery story. They're as good as her romance-onlies, though. I remember enjoying this one quite a bit.

Meanwhile I've also amassed a pile of magazines to read. I try very hard to ignore magazines most of the year, but at Christmastime something comes over me. I guess cause we used to like buying magazines for New Year's and doing all the quizzes. The glossies still callll to me.

In other news... I had to work today--my boss asked another manager and myself to come in for four hours on our day off. But of course then I had other work to do, so stayed about 7 hours. But I had some gift cards burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought Fernando a bright green faux-cashmere scarf which was on sale, the fourth Les Nombrils where the girls fight to get back the plain one's boyfriend, Vanity Fair and Vogue, and the recently released pocket book of Still Alice (said to be Excellent, about a woman with Alzheimer's.)

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be buying books. It's soooo haaaaaard. I wanted to buy The Children's Book too, because it's also supposed to be super excellent. But I stopped myself. And I resisted the new Adrian Mole in hard cover--will wait for the paperback. So I think I was pretty good.

techie error

Some html shmoop got into my books posting, so the words were cut off on the right side of the screen. Fixed now.

What to read next...

I'm almost done The Naked Baron. It has likable characters, and the hero and heroine actually like each other which is refreshing! More inner dialogue than I like. But I enjoyed her sex scenes, --they were hot-to-trot without sounding ridiculous.


I might read The Golden Mean next. I got it as a freebie, and wasn't that interested in it, but it's been getting a lot of acclaim and good reviews. It's about Aristotle, and Alexander the Great as a boy. Guess I'll start it and see if I get sucked in.

My music roundup for 2009

Alright... the music round-up is tougher, because there's so much more of it than the books. I bought or Zamzared or library'd or downloaded 2130 songs this year. This is just 109 of those songs, so I did pretty good, don't you think? It doesn't include albums/songs I had before that time but listened to a lot, like Alicia Keys' previous album. If I lurved 4+ songs from one album, then I put it under Albums instead of with the singles.

Not listed in any particular order.

TOP ARTISTS (that I remember most lurving)
K'naan
Alicia Keys
Wyclef Jean


Top Rock - or Acousticee Songs
Sun City - Artists United Against Apartheid
Shining Light - Annie Lennox
Never Gonna Cry Again - Eurthymics
I'm On Fire (live) - Bruce Springsteen
Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen
Imitosis - Andrew Bird
Plenty is Never Enough - The Shins
Moon and Moon - Bat for Lashes
Folding Chair - Regina Spektor
It's a New Day - will.i.am
Peace Train (live) - Cat Stevens
My Madrigal - Patti Smith
If You Ever Did Believe - Stevie Nicks
Out of Our Heads - Sheryl Crow (except the terrible chorus)
Manos al Aire - Nelly Furtado
Your Daddy Don't Know - The New Pornographers
All I Really Want to Do - Holly Palmer
The Chain (live) - Ingrid Michaelson
Le Mot de passe - Patricia Kaas
Speak Your Heart - The Orchard
It's Still Rock & Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Pick Up the Phone - Dragonette
Falling Down - Tom Waits
Beast of Burden - Bette Midler

Top Dance (I was really into dancy hippy hoppy this year)
Numba 1 - Kardinal Offishall
Cruise Control - Mariah Carey
Get Your Number - Mariah Carey feat. Jermaine Dupri
Young Girl - Pharrell
Frontin' - Pharrell
Angel - Pharrell
Fast Car (Fugee remix) - Wyclef Jean
Mr. Autotune - Wyclef Jean feat. Nick Cannon
Suga - Flo Rider
Bulletproof - La Roux
Wrong - Depeche Mode
Row Row Fight the Powah - Iwasaki Tarou Remix
Clumsy - Fergie
Glamorous - Fergie
Knock You Down - Keri Hilson feat Kanye
Time - Timbaland
Sweet Revenge - Chris Cornell
Autotune the News #6
Tik Tok - KE$HA

Pop Ballad-ish
The Beautiful Ones - Mariah Carey feat. Dru Hill
I Want to Know What Love Is - Mariah Carey
H.A.T.E.U. - Mariah Carey
I Need a Love Song - Babyface
Not Anymore - LeToya
Never Ever - Ciara
Beautiful U R - Deborah Cox
Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie
Papers - Usher
Camouflage - Brandy

Rap
Quiet Dog - Mos Def
Let Me See Your ID - Artists United Against Apartheid
Revolution - Arrested Development
Slumdog Millionaire - Wyclef feat. Cyndi Lauper
Suicide Love - Wyclef feat. Eve
No Flowers - The Grouch & Eligh feat. Paris Hayes
I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman - K-OS
The Warning - Eminem
He Got Game - Public Enemy

Funk-ee-soul
Walk On By - Melanie Fiona
You Stop My Heart - Melanie Fiona
The Way I See It - Anastacia
medley of songs by Prince on his guitar, live
Get It Up - The Time
The Stick - The Time
Walking on the Chinese Wall - Philip Bailey
Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder
Fire Escape - Diane Birch
Just My Imagination - The Temptations
Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones

Reggae
S-Craving - Tarrus Riley
Start a New - Tarrus Riley
King Without a Crown - Matisyahu
You're Beautiful - Jacksoul
Me Believer/Summer Holiday/Love Letter - Yellowman (just never get tired of it...)

Countryesque
Use Somebody - Brooke White
Rhiannon - Brooke White
Pass in Time - Beth Orton
Amen- Kid Rock
Travelin' Thru - Dolly Parton

Other
Mausam Achanak Ye Badalu Kyu - Alka Yagnik, Shaan, Harry Baweja, Anu Malik
Confession Part III - Weird Al Yankovich ("Gonna tell you everything I left out of parts 1 and 2...")
Billie Jean - The Lost Finger
K'naan performing some songs live with stripped down band
Both Sides Now - Measha Brueggergosman

Fave Covers:
Careless Whisper - Seether
Stand by Me - Playing for Change
Crimson and Clover - Prince
I Feel 4 U - Duke Special
Purple Rain - Martin Sexton
I Would Die 4 U - Richard Swift

Fave 80s:
Rap-O Clap-O - Joe Bataan
The Screams of Passion - The Family
The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Blind - Talking Heads
If a Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up) - Vanity 6

Non-vocal
Alexa de Paris - Prince
Star Wars 3 love theme on the uke
Never Let Go of Your Hand - Waitswatcher
Bamboozled theme - Terrence Howard
Theme from Indecent Proposal - perf by City of Prague Orchestra

Holiday:
O Come O Come Emmanuel - Sugarland
Star of Wonder - Tori Amos
Soul Cake - Sting
Jingle Bells - Earl Scruggs
Gee Whiz It's Christmas - Diane Birch


ALBUMS
Mamer - Eagle
K'naan - Troubadour
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
Eurythmics live
Prince - Prince (his first album)
Janelle Monae - Metropolis
N.E.R.D. - Seeing Sounds
Keith Urban - Greatest Hits
Beach Boys - Endless Summer
Billy Ocean - Greatest Hits
Leonard Cohen - variety of albums & songs, and all sorts of covers
The Police - variety of albums & songs
E.L.O. - All Over the World (best of)
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Rough Trade - Birds of a Feather (best of)
Lady Gaga - The Fame
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Sean Kingston - Tomorrow
Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life, and Romance 1600
Outkast - Big Boi & Dre Present...
Jazmine Sullivan - Fearless
Sugarland - Live on the Inside
Rolling Stones - Forty Licks
Alicia Keys - The Element of Freedom

Books - My best of 2009

What were your favourite books this year?

Here's mine... though sometimes I get mixed up about whether they were strictly from This Year. I track my reads on facebook, and it doesn't show the date when added.

Literary: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Juniot Diaz
About a Dominican- American family and how they became cursed. Loved it because...
- original style
- exposure to a culture I don't know well
- characters I cared SO much about (never wanted a guy to get laid so much in my life)

Humour: Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison
I loved E. Lockhart too, but no one holds a candle to Rennison. Diary of a 15 year old British girl who isn't terribly bright but is full of moxy. Loved because...
- hiLARious first person narration (best since Bertie Wooster)
- hiLARious use of vocabulosity
- main character so full of sass, you wish you were her
- great side characters
- BEST CAT IN ALL LITERATURE!

Trash: The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous - Jilly Cooper
Usual Jilly Cooper novel--that is, a giant cast of upper crust Brits drinking, horse-riding, and bonking their way through the English countryside. Loved because...
- a couple of her most stoopid, lovable characters
- her baddies are so bad, but get their due
- characters are totally outrageous (the grown-up version of the previous book)
- funny
- she's great at building up romance

Comics: Top 10 - Moore & Ha
Though I also read Watchmen and From Hell, I loved Top 10 more than these other Alan Moores. Watchmen is heavy-deep with great characters, but Top 10--about policing a society where everyone has super powers--is...
- chock full of charming characters, whose lives you really care about
- suspenseful little mysteries going on
- super creative characters and stories, that make full use of the world Moore's created
- the illustrations are filllllled with little jokes

Bande Dessinée: Les Nombrils - Delaf & Dubuc
Okay I also read two Aya books, which were much better quality graphic novels. But um... Les Nombrils has me hooked. (Must get fourth book!) About a plain girl who's best friends with two completely self-involved and stupid sexed up hot girls.
- some really odd-funny storylines and jokes (like the boy they love, only because he rides a motorcycle... the site of John John on a squeeking bicycle was so funny)
- likable heroine, and her hate-lovable best friends
- a sweet romance

Cookbook: Get It Ripe - Jae Steele
I don't think I bought it this year, but it's become my most reliable standard. The recipes (vegan) are so simple, un-process-food-ee, and taste great. This year I bought a brunch book, and a raw desserts book, but I haven't used them a lot yet.

Romance: Nobody's Baby but Mine - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
If I've read a couple of poorly written books, I turn to Phillips to cleanse my palate.
- solid writing
- good pacing,
- probably most important... when hero and heroine in her books have Witty Repartee not only is it actually witty, but the woman holds her own (I big failing in to0 many romance novels, in my opinion, where I always feel like the woman is "losing" the argument)

Mystery: Night's Child - Maureen Jennings
I only read a couple mysteries this year, but I would read another Jennings. Liked it better than The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which didn't live up to the hype.
- 1900s Toronto, which is cool
- likable and flawed hero
- well-constructed mystery

French: Morlante - Stéphane Dompierre
Okay I only read two French books this year, but this was by far the better one (I don't care how many awards it's won, Nikolski just didn't do it for me.) Loved it because...
- pirates!
- a psychokilling anti-hero who just wants to be left alone to write his novels!
- great side characters
- some really good jokes
(But it's dirty as hell, so if you draw the line at reading about a woman pirate masturbating on the nose of a man she's just killed... then better stick to Pirates of the Caribbean.)

Business/Self-help: The Speed of Trust - Stephen Covey Jr
I didn't read much non-fiction this year (offline) but I really liked this one. Bit overlong, but a pretty good encapsulation of how I think businesses (and life) should be run. Be honest, be ethical, recognize others, take responsibility, admit mistakes, etc etc. Pretty basic stuff and yet... hard to find sometimes. Or basically, act the opposite of the characters I love to read about!

Other genres...
I think I only read 1 fantasy I think--Neverwhere--and I wasn't enamored. No sci fi. Didn't reach much in the way of kids books.