On Track

One of my favorite forms of procrastination is reading other people's blogs. To me, blogs are essentially this incredible, crazy little place where people are talking to themselves but the whole world can listen in. Trippy, eh?

Anyway, one of my favorite blogs to read is MartinSays.com, which belongs to Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls. Usually it's hilarious anecdotes and various challenges accompanied by videos he shoots (yes, he's a very multi-talented artist, kids) and updates on the goings-on of the band.

Yesterday, he posted some very good news: BLG have finished writing their new album and plan to start tracking as soon as they get home from tour. There was also bad news: He lost his sunglasses. Well, you win some, you lose some, Marty--keep writing so that I can keep procrastinating.

Wanna get inside his head? Check it out here.

DVRs everywhere are busy

Happy Inauguration Day, everyone!

I left my TV on at home today--wasting electricity, I know--so that my little Chihuahua could also enjoy this historic moment.

Did you volunteer yesterday like Obama--excuse me, President Obama--asked us to? I'll be honest, I thought about it, but then forgot until today.

Commiserate With Me

In case you live under a rock--or somewhere warm, in which case I am insanely jealous and demand you send me a little bottle of sand immediately--it's extremely cold here in Cleveland, like, step-outside-for-one-second-without-gloves-and-you'll-never-type-again cold. Seriously. I'm wearing three layers today, not counting my coat. And my arms hurt from doing yoga last night for the first time in months. And I'm out of coffee, but the prospect of facing sub-zero temperatures for a $5 soy latte is not enticing enough to lure me from my desk. And I want to make a Pear, Raspberry And Oat Loaf when I get home, but sadly, I don't have pears, raspberries or oats at home. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a summary of my daily dilemmas.

Did I mention it's impossibly cold out?

Blogdog

Mondays are known as heralds of responsibility. So in honor of carefully budgeting one's time and not procrastinating, my husband and I went to the movies. (Wait, the first half of that sentence doesn't quite match the last half...). All movies are $5 on Mondays at the independent movie theatre just up the road from our casa, so we ate a quick dinner of veggie Italian sausages (not a meal I'd recommend be consumed quickly. They're quite spicy, but delicious) and bundled up.

We had planned on seeing Milk, but I literally had taken two steps in the door when the man in the ticket booth yelled that Milk has just sold out. So instead we saw Slumdog Millionaire, which just cleaned house at the Golden Globes. I had high hopes, since so many people were heralding it as the sleeper hit of the year. It was a great story, I particularly liked the beginning of the story when the brothers were young. (Maybe "liked" isn't the right word since some of th events were pretty horrific, but at least I thought that was the most compelling part of the fim.) Not to rain on everyone's rupee parade, because I really did like the movie, but it got a little formulaic and predictable toward the end.

Then we went home, I curled up with our Chihuahua Jack and took a nap while Robb read the last few pages of his law school assignment. Not bad for a Monday.

Kernels Of Truth

I like to think of myself as the kind of person who likes winter. I love snow and thick, comfy sweaters and big mugs of hot cocoa. So I wasn't too disturbed by the blizzard that hit Cleveland this weekend. It's actually kind of nice (minus the slushy, slippery roads). I especially enjoy relaxing on a cold, winter night with a good book.

As many of you know, I had a serious bought with a Twilight obsession a few weeks back. The good news is that I've started reading a new book that isn't from the Twilight series. (The sad news is that I'm doing so in part to slow down the process of finishing the series. I only have two books left to go, then it will be over!).

Anyway, the book I'm reading now is The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. My husband read the book, and recommended it to me, and it really is eye-opening and heart-breaking at the same time. Nearly three years ago, I made the decision to become a vegetarian based on a variety of reasons (health, treatment of animals, social justice concerns, environmental concerns) so I've done my research on the devastating affects our diet can have on our planet and the beings, human or otherwise, that we share it with. This book takes it to whole different level as Pollan breaks down our modern food chain, link by link. The results are shocking and compelling--and I'm still on the chapter about corn! I never thought corn could be so interesting, but the developments that have shaped the corn industry which has in turn shaped the factory farm industry and the processed foods industry is fascinatingly horrific.

We are what we eat--we've heard that mantra a million times--so as Pollan says, we are a lot of chemicals and corn, and even more petroleum. Check it out.

525,600 blog posts

How do you measure, measure a blog?

Okay, enough parody because I'm really excited to be seeing Rent tonight. It's one of my absolute favorite musicals (and let me tell you, I love me some musical theater), but I've yet to see it on stage. As much as I love the theater, it can be downright expensive. How did I see Les Miserables? In a high school gymnasium. It was great though! It was no Broadway of course, but the high school drama group's performance was fantastic and made me realize what it is I love so much the stage in the first place - it can go from the flashing lights of NYC to the snowy parking lots of Lima, Ohio.

I was always involved in my high school drama group (more often as chorus girl #9 than as a speaking role, but that wasn't the point) and for my first two years of college before some daunting classes set in, and it was fantastic every time. There's something about the stage, the lights, the smelly costumes, the nerves and the cold sweat that trickles down your back as you stand on a darkened stage, listening to the overture, waiting for the curtain to rise.

I love movies, but they're no match for live theater. Sometime I wonder why we're compelled to pretend to be other people, to tell stories, to capture and portray emotions that aren't ours. I'm no expert, but I think it has something to do with the understanding we all crave. We all want to be understood and to understand each other, and sometimes the best way to do that is with a story and song. That, and there are so many great stories in the world, it seems a shame to waste them.

We All Grow Young

I didn't get to see a ton of movies over the holidays (Doubt and Frost/Nixon are high on my soon-to-see list), but I did take $8 and three hours on a Tuesday night to go see The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button at my local AMC.

First off, the CGI was nothing short of phenomenal. How they got "old Brad Pitt's face" so convincingly on all of those different bodies was impressive. I felt that the plotline however was kind of flat. My husband compared it to Forrest Gump, and I would agree, but I would say that the characters in Forrest Gump were more dynamic and the story overall more compelling.

Ruminations about age and growth and death as presented in the film were intriguing, but I felt like they really could have been explored and exemplified a lot more. As **spoiler alert** Benjamin reverse-aged back into an infant, there was the tension and inner-conflict of Cate Blanchett's character as I expected, but given the three hours the characters had to work within, I would have expected my own expectations of what reverse-aging would be to be challenged. Maybe I was tired of sitting on the theater seat, or maybe I'd had to much popcorn (is there such a thing?) but I left the movie feeling that my pre-conceived notions were reaffirmed rather than challenged.

I'm not saying it wasn't a good movie--because it was--but I guess I was expecting more than I, well, expected.

Has anyone else seen the movie? Do you agree or did you walk away with a different reaction?

Back In Black

Happy New Year, everyone!


What's that? It's the 6th? Okay, so I'm fashionably late. Give me one good example of how punctuality really made a difference--and no fair choosing something like a coordinated military strike because that will never apply to me--who would trust these hands with anything explosive? Honestly. I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year, and you get all uppity.


So how were your holidays? Did you also spend a shameful amount of time reading the Twilight series? I know I did. I racked up quite a few miles on the auto visiting family over the holidays, but thankfully was able to keep my food indulgences in check. (My husband and I made a valiant effort to go vegan for a month. We'll talk about that later. I don't think punctuality contributed to its demise.)


So after a fabulous holiday break, we're back to work. Actually, we work back to work yesterday, cranking out a lot a really great stuff for '09. Seriously, I'm super excited about it and you should be too. There are so many talented bands right now, it kind of makes me freeze up whenever I open my iTunes. (I still haven't downloaded the upgrade so I can have iTunes Genuis. I'm way behind the curve on that one.)


So what to listen to, what to listen to...