is that you can find a million wonderful tidbits about things that make you happy (I know, I know, you can also find things that will utterly depress you but let's not talk about that).
From MentalFloss: The Origins of Your Favorite Muppets
This makes me so happy I could cry:
And this one...Colbert giving the smackdown to Cookie Monster, who gave in to peer pressure and is now touting healthy food, oh sigh.
Last night Joe and I hit up the Roxy to see one of my all time favorites, Peter Murphy, play. The opening act, Ali Eskandarian, was, arguably, one of the worst I've ever seen, even more so than the woman who opened up for Morrisey last summer.
It was a short and early show because the Roxy has an annoying tendency to shut everything down by 10PM so that they can open it up as a club later. But WOW, what a great short show it was. There was so much energy and we were up pretty close. Overall, it was one of the best shows I'd seen (and I've seen hundreds, really).
He played "Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem," which is probably my all time favorite song. And "Huvola" was gorgeous and beautiful. The only thing missing from the night was "Cuts You Up," which was supposed to be an encore song but the Roxy was making them go fast. He did do "She's in Parties" as well as two Bauhaus songs from the new album.
I left feeling happy. Just plain, wonderfully happy. The music was wonderful. I had danced all night. Joe had a good time. The evening was oddly foggy but still warm. And we capped it off with a drink from the bar at Rialto, our favorite restaurant.
Yes, a good time really was had by all!
]]>Joe snagged this huge freaky fish pillow as part of his Yankee Swap at work. Romeo promptly took it over. Go kitty!
In a rare move, I went to see a movie by one of my favorite authors (Neil Gaiman) although I had not yet read the book (in my defense it was originally a graphic novel and I just haven't read many books in that genre). Maybe that was okay, because I absolutely loved the movie. It's good not to feel frustrated about cut scenes or ending changes (which I understand happened in this case), or characters not being represented like I thought they should.
I will go get the book, but for now I'll continue to think about Stardust the movie, which my husband and I went to see today (after much hemming and hawing on his part because he doesn't really like movie theaters). What a beautiful, beautiful, sweet, funny, exciting, well-done film.
Clare Danes played Yvaine, a fallen star. Charlie Cox plays Tristan, a boy who is on a trek to find the star and bring back the star to a local girl who he wants to marry--although he doesn't realize that the star is actually a woman. And Michelle Pfeiffer--oh I have always loved her and in this she was magnificent--played a perfectly beautiful and perfectly hideous evil witch. De Niro played Captain Shakespeare, a closeted gay pirate. Absolutely brilliant performance.
One of the key witchy things that happens in the movie is a few scenes of divination by looking at entrails. Icky, but I thought it interesting because in ancient times, divination through entrails after a ritual sacrifice was very common. I have several scenes in my novel about divination along these lines. If the liver was a certain shape or color it meant something. If there were deformed or missing organs it might mean another. In the case of Stardust, the entrails told the witches where to find the star.
Overall this is an enchanting fairytale that kids and adults alike will love for many years to come. Definitely will be snatching this up on DVD when it comes out!
]]>Tuesday is JUST around the corner!
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I posted this to my Last.fm as well and rather than write something new I chose to be lazy...
Last night's Fountains of Wayne show at the Paradise here in Boston was absolutely great. We got there a bit early and scored balcony spots so we had a killer view. The show was sold out but being up high we weren't packed in with the masses which was nice--both Joe and I don't have any sort of height advantage so it was a very good thing to snag that spot.
They didn't play very long, unfortunately, because they got started late. They didn't have time for full setup before the show so they took 45 min after the opening band, Robbers on High Street, in order to do sound checks which was frustrating. Joe and I were shocked that ROHS said who they were--opening bands never tell you who they are and you end up leaving thinking--Oh, I would have checked them out but I never found out who it was. They were decent but their best song was the last song when the bassist suddenly turned into a horn player. They should go more that route--that was where they started to shine.
Back to the sound check--one of the most icky, horrible EXTREMELY GROSS things about the night was the way one of their roadies did sound checks--pretty much licking and pushing his entire mouth around the microphones. It was just plain nasty. Everyone around us was cringing and shuddering. Joe joked that if the entire band came down with "the hep" that we'll know why.
Unfortunately, they didn't play 
Red Dragon Tattoo,
which is one of my all time favorite songs by any band and that made me
sad. But other than that, it was a lot of fun. They sounded fantastic,
just very well put-together. Someone to Love was one of the best songs of the night, as was It Must Be Summer. I was surprised though, that they didn't do Hotel Majestic--that's one of the better tracks on the new album, IMHO.
I love their music primarily because the songs go beyond just a snappy beat. They tell stories about people that are really like you and me, in situations and with feelings that the listener can easily relate to. And well, they ARE very snappy and singable and fun.
Oh and it was even more awesome that we scored Kojak-style parking. We
drove up and lo! and behold! a spot RIGHT in front. Doesn't get better
than that!