Sunday, April 27, 2008

Excuses, Excuses

I'll be the first to admit that posting has been rather lax on this blog as of late. I've decided that I need a little encouragement so I'm turning to NaBloPoMo next month. The theme for May is "Voices". I think I'm going to take a bit of a twisted approach to this, inspired by songs I heard in my car after work on Thursday and Friday.

I frequently listen to either The Current or KOOL 108, especially since the latter seems to have returned to oldies instead of "Superhits", which I found to a particularly horrible descriptor for "we were oldies but decided to replace most of the 60s with the 80s because people seem to have an obsession with reliving the 80s right now for some reason." Much like most people have finally neglected the leggings (unfortunately "most" does not equal "all" - I'm looking at you, Lohan!), KOOL 108 threw the 80s away like a moldy loaf of bread.

On Thursday, I had spent a horrible afternoon cleaning out a lab at work. Nothing says disgusting more than striping away years of drawer labels and chemical buildup from cabinet fronts and bench tops with razors and methanol. Then I got in my car and the most awesome thing ever came on the radio. Yes, awesome. The 80s revival still has a stronghold on my vocabulary. The Current was playing "Jump Around" by House of Pain. As a child of the 90s, all middle school dances ended with this song. It gave you an excuse to dance in the only way you knew how to other than forming a conga line or doing the Macarena. I opened my sun roof and bobbed my head along like the dorky white girl that I am.

On Friday, I ended up having to go buy a new cell phone as I had managed to loose mine and kept getting emails from my mother asking why my phone kept going straight to voicemail when she called. On my way to Woodbury, the Current had a news story on discussing electronic beeps, how annoying some people find them, and why almost all devices seem to have them these days. As a sort of tongue-in-cheek move, at the end of the story they played "I Hear the Bells" by Mike Doughty. As if the cheery melody isn't enough, this is a song that includes the lyric, "You snooze, you lose/Well I have snost and lost." This song usually grabs my attention no matter what I'm doing. Bonus: The album this is on, Haughty Melodic, was produced by Dan Wilson (of Semisonic fame) and recorded in the studio in his Minneapolis home so it's got local ties, too.

Mainly what I'm planning to do is a lot of music blogging. It will probably always be about some song I hear throughout the day and will probably make me come off as a pretentious music snob with bad taste and a tendency towards the nostalgic. When possible, I will provide links to the songs I'm talking about, most likely to the song's last.fm entry. In the case of these two tracks, the full tracks are available but in most cases it will be a 30 second clip. Knit blogging has lost some of it's thrill for me so I'm going to try music blogging for a bit. Feel free to tune out if this isn't your thing. I'll probably still knit blog some during the month. I just need a break and I'd like to treat this a bit like a writing exercise. Yes, I am that big of a dork. You should probably just run away now before I infect you all.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Weird Rant Time

So, I watched American Idol last night. Yes, I watch American Idol, it has great snark value. Last night I paid a little more attention than usual because it was Andrew Lloyd Webber night and I am unabashedly a musical theater freak. Right off the bat I had my hopes dashed as I had really been wishing that just because Andrew Lloyd Webber was the mentor didn't mean it was going to be all ALW songs. I was hoping for the broader theme of Broadway. Instead, not only was it ALW, but the pothead dreadlock kid had to go and sing "Memory" and I cannot stand Cats. It is one of the most horribly over-hyped musicals ever.

Another thing, if you're going to do ALW, can't you just have someone that's been in a lot of ALW shows be the mentor? You know who has done a lot of ALW stuff? John Barrowman.


I think we can all agree that that would have been much prettier to look at than ALW. Get on it, Fox. I realize that he's on like every second of British television that he can possibly be on right now but I have faith. You bring him in next season and I'll watch. It wouldn't even be for the snark value, my mouth would be too busy drooling over the pretty.

In conclusion: Next season do Broadway and bring in John Barrowman. He won't be all awesome in the vintage RAF gear but it will still be gorgeous.

Monday, April 14, 2008

On Demand

I'm posting again since Lisa demanded an update and I am nothing if not a people pleaser (90% of my job is being a brown-nosing sycophant these days). I am out of Sock Madness as I was only finishing up the cuff of the second sock of the second round when my division was full up. It's kind of nice being done with it but I wish it had started now instead of when I was working 52+ hour weeks. Maybe I'll try again next year.

I'm on the second sock of a pair I started for my sister last week out of Fleece Artist and I also started a pair of Endpaper Mitts for myself as I was in the mood for stranding. Rogue would be finished if I hadn't realized a mistake I had made in the cap shaping of the first sleeve when I was completing the second sleeve. I just need to go back to the beginning of the shaping on the first sleeve and then it's time to block. Yes, I'm finishing a wool sweater right as they're starting to predict highs in the 60s and 70s. My common sense astounds me.

Finally, since I've now seen this on Lisa, Sarah, and Courtney's blogs, I thought I'd do it to.

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows" ever. Below is the list and here be the rules:

1. Bold the shows you've watched every episode of
2. Italic the shows you've seen at least one episode of
3. Post your answers


50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City

45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers

40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python's Flying Circus
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted

35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood

30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf

25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office UK
22. The Shield
21. Angel

20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who

15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld

10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24

05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons

I watch entirely too much television.
Powered By Blogger