the boys in the band

Rewatching Baz's Romeo and Juliet. As cute as Leo and Claire were in the meeting scene (and I still love Des'ree's "Kissing You") my real enjoyment of this film, when it came out in 1996, was all the shirtless co-stars.

Benvolio!

TYBALT!

MERCUUUUTIOOOO!!!

Sherry still...

won't eat unless I give him a cuddle first. Just now I had to bounce him around on my shoulder in time to Jimmy Cliff singing "Vietnam."

(Is there a more cheerful sounding protest song out there? Heavens.)

a little commercial break

"He might die of embarrassment before being digested."

I went into the kitchen and listened to CBC radio "Wiretap" while making and eating a sandwich, and I heard the last part of this story. The part I heard was about Jonah trying to get a girlfriend after living in a fish, and I thought it was sweet. I'm listening to the rest and it's more moving than funny. It's from the narrator (Jonathan Goldstein)'s book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!

"Out of the fish's eyes I saw where Moses and the children of Israel had marched across the ocean's floor. I saw their footprints stamped in the mud."

Scenes from a marriage - Jack Bauer

My husband is trying out a new job at work, and today he's working on improving his speed.

Last night Living room
Mabel - You should pretend that I've been kidnapped, and if you don't get the work completed on time, I will die.
Fernando [nods]
Mabel - Or they will send one of the cat's body parts every hour you fall behind. ...First you'll get a severed ear. Then a paw.

Today, Fernando wakes up early.

Mabel - Are you going back to bed?
Fernando - I'm going to make some cheat sheets for work.
Mabel - Go back to bed, get a little extra sleep.
Fernando [gravely] - I can't, otherwise my wife will be killed. ...It's going to be like 24 today.

PS

Still a great video. Considering it was made in the 80s, that's saying a lot.


(Or try this live version where everyone, Paul included, is having an awesome time.)


And my favourite Paul Simon song. The first time Trevor Payne played this for us in Cegep I just about fell out of my chair. The drums! The horns! On a good stereo it comes across like a Phil Spector Wall of Sound.

more 80s on sale

Come on. You know you need Billy Joel's Glass Houses. "Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk--it's still rock n' roll to me."





Or Paul Simon's Graceland?

80s

With the arrival of the internets, have you ever suddenly come across a song that you had completely forgotten you once LURBED? I'm sampling an old Tina Turner live album that I loved as a teenager, and came across this duet with Eric Clapton:



Of course, nothing tops her Bryan Adams duet. Those two had a really rare electricity together. Sexual chemistry, but also just great theatrics. Awesome. AWWWEsome.


Speaking of the 80s, iTunes is having an 80s sale. So I finally caved and bought the Traveling Wilburys album I've been eyeing since it came out. Now there's an example of something I didn't even care for in the 80s, but I seem to have grown into. I suppose it was inevitable since my dad raised us on ELO. I've got the Lynne sound burned in my music-psyche.



And finally, another of my forgotten-faves, from Men at Work: