everything but the girl

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LoveActually, which I had a holiday icon of at one point, and Serendipity. My kids have massive adoration for Wakko's Wish (Animaniacs ftw!) and the Tom & Jerry Take on The Nutcracker.

( Mostly oscars )
Organized by LoudTwitter

Long day driving up and back to West Palm to see my BFF from college, her husband and kids, and her parents, and her brother. Lovely afternoon - we saw a mama manatee and her baby! - although one kid tried to do a Pollyanna on the edge of the lawn where it drops off to rocks and water, one kid got both a fishhook in his hand and a splinter in his foot, and one kid said, "Rock Band sucks!" in front of friend's mom and 3 year old son. OOPS!

Finishing my spn_j2_xmas giftie tonight and tomorrow, and generally pleased with it. Finished a slew of document reviews for a client who wanted to close on something today - and they did! Finished my last two trademark apps for the year for a fun client. Finished making a massive batch of ginger cookies, which I usually try to do before Christmas, but at least I can give them around as a New Year's treat; I think I need to see what happens if I put dark chocolate chips into the mix.

Sent flowers with my co-panlists from 2008 and 2009 - as well as one of the expected 2010 panelists - to the memorial service for Eric Bowling that will be held in San Diego on Sunday. Anyone who wants the address, let me know.

And then I came home and read this morning's NY Times and they had an article about Good Riddance Day. Tonic.com wrote this:

Times Square Alliance — the same group that plans the big New Year's Eve bash — helped people officially shed what sucked about this past year.

On Monday, the group sponsored Good Riddance Day, which allowed people to literally shed their bitter memories and failures from the past 365 days or so. The way it worked was simple: folks lined up near the discount theater ticket booth and tossed their bad memories into an industrial-sized shredder. A big Dumpster and a sledgehammer were available for items that couldn't be easily shredded.

I'm going to suggest this locally for next year, but this year, I want to do it virtually - so I'm hosting this poll about the best of 2009, and I also want to know what you'd put into the Good Riddance shredder, or take a sledgehammer to. I'm the only one who'll see the text responses, but if it's ok for me to share what you write, just indicate that somehow - a * can mean it's ok for me to share it without your name, for example. Poll is public so anyone with an LJ account can answer - or OpenID, I think? - so feel free to share the URL around.

[Poll #1505341]

This, btw, is what I put onto the Wishing Wall:
Safe travels and joyous days for my family, friends, and all the friends I haven't met yet.

You gave me James Spader and Jon Cryer and a litle bit of Robert Downey, New Order songs and Suzanne Vega's Left Of Center, which I played on a cassette tape far too often my sophomore year of high school, and at my sister's bat mitzvah. You gave me something to say back in 2005 when my mom and sister really did forget my birthday, and made me try hats, and see pink as occasionally transgressive, and really well-matched with Doc Martens. You got me to look at La Grande Jatte as closely as I could, but I never got up the nerve to stand in a window and look down from such a great height. I already had Matthew Broderick, but you brought him, and Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey to everyone, and you gave me something to say when I'm calling my kids and they're not coming and I monotone "Buehller? Bueller?" and while they don't yet know exactly what that means, someday they will. You're why I just downloaded "Molly" and why I am rereading jlh's Duckie Dale/Cameron Frye fic, Sensoria as soon as I post this. You penned "demented and sad, but social" and it all got a little twitchy sometime after 1989, but that's ok because what you did between 1983 and 1988 created my teenagerhood, and we've wondered what happened to make you lose your edge after that, but really, we just thank you so much for what you gave us that made the 80s what they were.

Earlier today, I was thinking about making a hashtag on twitter for Songs That Kids These Days Wouldn't Really Get, and I was thinking about 'Hang Up the Phone' which Annie Goldin* sang on the 16 Candles soundtrack (and which someone was nice enough to upload to YouTube) because it's all about getting a busy signal when trying to call That Special Boy. And for those of you who didn't live through 1983, check out the vid for a very Seventeen Magazine view on what was fashionable back then - yes, I wore a neon blue shirt over a white tee, and rolled the sleeves, and paired them with acid-washed-to-almost-white jeans. And jazz shoes.

I enjoyed Michael Jackson songs well enough most of the time back in 1983 and 1985 and 1987, but I loved John Hughes movies - enough that I actually watched Career Opportunities when I was in college because he was John Hughes.

Tip of the cute fedora to you, sir, to the tune of an Echo & the Bunnymen tune. You'll be missed, but your works will live on.


* who played Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, who is going to be released from a CA prison shortly [random]

1. There's going to be a new auction for Firefly/Serenity fans on LisaWalks soon-ish!

2. I am up for sale in Sweet Charity! I have two vids on offer - one specifically crack, and one that's broader - anything in Heroes, Supernatural, Twin Peaks, Chuck, Merlin, Doctor Who (new), Torchwood, Leverage, LOTR or Watchmen (although a Watchmen request won't be done until a month after the DVD comes out). My most recent Sweet Charity vid was for la_perkins - it's a somewhat cracktastic gen SPN vid set to an adorably hilarious song from the Corb Lund Band - Always Keep an Edge on Your Knife - and all my Sweet Charity vids are here.

3. ignipes was doing Shag, Cliff or Marry, and I was curious who she'd give me, so I played.

The following presumes that I am not, nor have I ever been, married.

Ianto Jones, Peter Petrelli, James Potter

My first reaction is to cliff James Potter, because he's dead anyway, but shagging or marrying him would get me proximity to Remus and Sirius and there are worse fates than watching the two of them snog or be angsty about each other.

And I don't want to marry Ianto because he's a workaholic who's a little too devoted to his boss, and getting in the middle of that could be messy. Plus, I don't actually like the smell or taste of coffee.

I definitely don't want to marry Peter Petrelli because it would be far too weird for him to marry a girl who has the same name as his brother's (ex-)wife and have you seen the drama=angst in that family? Almost as potentially deadly as being married to James Potter.

Would like to shag him, though.

So I'd count on my sensibilities to convince James not to trust Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper, and marry James Potter, after shagging Peter Petrelli, and poor Ianto Jones would be cliffed, but I would hope for his sake that there's a TARDIS just below the drop-off to catch him because I don't actually want him to end up painfully dead.

If you want me to give you a set of three to Shag, Cliff or Marry, please comment!


thefridayfive: High School
1. Would you return to high school life for a week? Why or why not? For a week? Sure. Ideally, the week that I spent traveling around England during the last semester of high school - or the photo class trip to New York that I had the week before that.

Average, every day high school? Depends on the reason why.

2. Who were/are you in high school? Not around very much. I worked for two different tv stations from my sophmore year on, and had permission to leave campus at 2PM most days, so I didn't do many extra-curriculars, and I didn't do any sports. Any chance I had for a normal high school experience was eviscerated when I broke my leg two weeks before classes started for my junior year, making it impossible for me to get around campus easily, stay after for clubs, manage the swim team, or even get a ride to school with friends, as I was casted up to my hip.


3. What was/is your favorite high school hangout? What did/do you do there? Nothing in particular for my first three years, but senior year there was a little food court with excellent chineese and sushi that we went to a lot. My friend Chris and I ended up being extras when they filmed a Miami Vice episode there halfway into our senior year.

4. What were/are your favorite three songs in high school? Something So Strong (Crowded House), Cross My Heart (Everything But the Girl) and Breakout (Swing Out Sister).

5. What was the craziest thing you did in high school? I was the one who brought a bottle of champagne to the parties, and handed it around rather than drinking from it myself. I hated beer - still do.

fannish5: Name the 5 most memorable tv/movie soundtracks.
1. Reality Bites. I bought it for Crowded House's Locked Out, and I kept it for Lisa Loeb's STAY. Still one of my favorite soundtracks ever, and I still listen to it a lot.
2. Moulin Rouge. I love the Elephant Love Medley! I love how Baz managed to merge so many different things together - it was the perfect pastiche.
3. Mamma Mia - my kids love for me to play it, especially (for no explicable reason) Super Trouper and Honey Honey. There is no way to get it out of my head.
4. Hairspray! Loved the play, love the movie. Love the songs - and my eldest does a wonderful version of It Takes Two.
5. Beauty and the Beast. I had to get some Disney in here and while I probably love the actual songs in Lilo & Stitch and Enchanted as much to listen to, I have to include Beauty & the Beast because what could be better than songs about reading. "Isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part because - you'll see...."

I haven't seen any humor on my flist about the Republican budget Collection of Charts That Are Mostly A Series of Circles and Lines And No Numbers (which some Republicans in Congress who'd been working on an actual budget concept are somewhat nonplussed about) - but I have seen some on political blogs like DKos.

The brilliant Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight shared ( this )

( Nothing insightful - but technically spoilery.... )We got a sneak preview of Speed Racer, which I'd been looking forward to, but am less so now. I would've seen Iron Man no matter what, but I'm thinking of sending Aaron with the kids to Speed Racer - it just feels too fantastic without any purpose, to me, and while I sometimes love that, I'm just not sure about this. What's the buzz on it? Is it like Matrix 1 or Matrix 2/3?

Also, so much love for the Indiana Jones trailer, which I hadn't seen on a big screen yet. Huh, I think Iron Man is the first movie I've seen in a theater since National Treasure 2. But this is going to be a lovely summer - Batman is only a few weeks away!

ETA: New icon! (But if someone can help me do it with the text a bit crisper, I'd be thrilled...)

wendywoowho and I were just discussing whether Xanadu is more of a beer movie or a pina colada film, and whether Grease II is more beer-friendly, and I opined that The Pirate Movie calls out for rum-based drinks (and PotC probably does too).

What alcoholic beverages match best with your favorite films?

ETA: This bit from circa 1976 Sesame Street made me very happy tonight.

technosage gave me the letter "S", so here are ten things that are important to me that begin with that letter...

1. Split Enz! I discovered SPlit Enz about 25 years ago this month, when I came home from camp, turned on Mtv, and saw my first music videos. One was One Step Ahead by Split Enz, and within fifteen seconds, I was desperately, hopelessly, endlessly in love with Neil Finn. I didn't manage to get the album that the song was on, though, until 1987, which was about a year after I discovered Crowded House, which Neil went on to form after Split Enz disbanded circa 1984, but I always remembered the song, and when CH's fame inspired Chrysalis to reissue a lot of SE stuff, I started collecting it like mad - I have all the albums on LP and cassette, as well as various videos on VHS. I'm a lifetime member of Frenz of the Enz, and have been on the Tongue in the Mail email list since 1993 or 1994. (Also must mention Squeeze, whose Black Coffee in Bed I also discovered in that first week of Mtv; I adore their music but not to the degree that I love Spliz Enz or anything else Finn-ish.)

2. Strawberries! When I was pregnant with Harrison, I had to have at least a pint of strawberries each day. Midway through my pregnancy, I made my husband drive me to this Mennonite farm about an hour from our house, where they sell strawberries by the flat. I got 20 pints on that lovely Saturday, and the only reason there was still a pint left for my breakfast on Thursday morning is because I refused to let myself enjoy it the night before. (Also must mention Snozzberries, from Willy Wonka.)

3. Star Wars! We owned it on Betamax back in 1978 or maybe 1979. I'm not sure it was even really commercially available, but back then at-home video players were still unusual enough that most people got stuff to play by trading it from friends. I must've seen that film twenty times by the time Empire came out, and I saw ROTJ three times the first weekend it was in theaters. I can still tell you exactly where I saw each film, and where I sat in the theaters. When the 20th Anniversary releases hit theaters, I was living in NYC, and I saw SW the night it came out on the upper east side, then saw the next two on Saturday afternoons at the Ziegfeld. I own the originals on VHS and DVD, and when Episode 1 was about to hit theaters, I was six months pregnant and not using any vacation days because I was stockpiling for maternity leave, so I bought tickets for the 5:15 show and went with my husband and a few of our colleagues and I almost *wept* with the WTF-ness of the film. Yes, I saw the other two in theaters as well, and I actually do own them on DVD, but I can't bear to re-watch them all the way through. (Also must mention Star Tours: The Ride, at Disney:MGM in Orlando.)

4. Sirius Black! Back in 2001, JKR was asked if he was meant to be "dead sexy". She said yes. We didn't realise, at the time, that she meant both words equally truthfully. I'm not sure I ever really dealt with Sirius's death, and had copperbadge not started Stealing Harry shortly thereafter, I'm not sure I would've continued reading any fanfic at all. (Also must mention Severus Snape, who I do not actually love, but really respect and occasionally admire.)

5. Sabrina. I like the Audrey Hepburn movie - I really do. But I have this weird and bizarre love for the Greg Kinnear + Harrison Ford version, and my husband and I rewatch it regularly. It came out when we were in the throes of our wedding planning, and my husband has about 100+ first and second cousins, so we were inviting over 600 people, so when one of the characters, in talking about the wedding they were planning for David and his fiancee Elizabeth, says, "that's not a wedding, that's a town," it became our signature line for the rest of the planning process. (Also must mention Sebrina, Paste & Plato, which is a song by Jellyfish)

6. Schnoogle! It was supposed to be a site for fan "buttons" - which are now basically known as icons or avatars. Jana (aka GeorgeWeasley'sGirlfriend) made a bunch of them with fanfic-inspired ships like Ron/Pansy, Ron/Lavender (from AliciaSue's fics), Harry/Allegra, etc., and that's where we put them, and people took them and put them on their Geocities sites. Back then, domain names were "pricey" - 30-40 dollars - so when we decided to start what would become FictionAlley, we wanted to save the cash and re-use the domain name we already hance. And that's how Schnoogle.com became a place for novel-length fics. (Also must mention "squee" as one of my favorite fandom words. I just did a search for "squee" in the LJ section of my gmail to see how many times I've used the word since I got my gmail account in 2004, and it's so many times that it can't even count. It just says "hundreds".)

7. Supernatural! I'm not a fan of the horror genre. And I really didn't watch much TV between 2000 and 2006, so I wasn't really *looking* for another series to watch. But reading discussion of the series on my flist, and seeing some writers who I adored doing fic for SPN, I was intrigued enough to watch one episode. So I watched Playthings. And then I bought S! on DVD and watched all of it over about 2 weeks. And I fell completely in love with the series, and the mytharc, and the brothers and the whole damned thing. And the fanfic/fanart/vidding output in the fandom is perpetually, unrelentingly brilliant! (Also must mention Sylar, Simone and Suresh, as that's the only way I can figure to slow Heroes into this meme in any way. I <3 Heroes so, so much, and cannot wait for S2!!!!!)

8. Stephen Duffy! The original singer and guitarist for Duran Duran, but he left very early on, and was replaced by Simon. He went on to have a few major UK hits including Kiss Me (shown here acoustic-style a few years ago in Japan), then formed a band called The Lilac Time, who had terrific critical success, and not much commercial success. At various times, he's worked with Stephen Page of the Barenaked Ladies (he's the co-writer on Jane) and Robbie Williams (he's the co-writer on Radio, and produced some of Robbie's stuff), and eventually Nick Rhodes - Stephen found their original DD demos from 1979, and they rerecorded them as The Devils. (Specific mention to She Belongs to All, which always makes me think of Princess Diana, who died ten years ago today.)

9. Sidekick! I love my sidekick! It keeps me connected to the world and all of you! It gives me my email, most of the time, and lets me YM and AIM and read my flists and read fics and text people and take photos and stay in touch. I've owned Sidekicks since 2003 when the first colour one came out, and this SK3 is the first one I've had that's lasted more than a year; I've had battery and keyboard and screen issues before that with the other ones I've owned. It's like carrying a mini-laptop around, and it's perfectly suited for me, apart from the 6MB limit on the mailbox, which is frustrating beyond belief. (Also must mention Sanyo, who made my pretty pink cellphone, which I also like and use, but don't *need* in the same way that I need my sidekick.)

10. Soarin', Space: Mission, Splash Mountain and Small World. Three of my favorite rides at Walt Disney World. Soarin' is a virtual reality-esque "flight" over California, Mission: Space (which I wrote backwards here to make it S-compliant) is a centerfuge-based simulation of a flight from Earth to Mars, Splash Mountain is a water-flume ride, and you probably know that Small World (aka It's a Small World) is a boat-based ride through all the countries of the world, as depicted by little dolls. I love Disney, but these three rides are among my top ten favorite things to do at Disney. Yes, even Small World. I love watching it through the eyes of my kids, but I also just love the nostalgia trip I go on every time I take that ride. (Also must specifically mention the Swan Hotel, which holds so many terrific memories of Nimbus 2003, which was the first time that I got to meet hundreds of other fandomers at once; Nimbus 2003 changed my life, and was such a phenomenal weekend of wonderfulness!)



If you'd like a letter, leave a comment and I'll give you one!

Kid-free-yesterday allowed Aaron and I to see a double-feature of our own making: Superman Returns, then POTC.

First, the worst thing we saw was the trailer for Rocky Balboa. Yes, a new Rocky movie, 30ish years after the first. WTF? Why? What is the point? Wibble!

Aaron says the best thing he saw was the trailer for Spiderman 3, but I was getting popcorn and missed it. I hear it's somewhere on youtube?

As far as movies go, our spoiler-free reviews are, POTC? 8. Supe? 3.

( Spoilery reason for the love re POTC )
But before we saw POTC, we saw Superman.

Alas, Superman, you are not as fun to watch as Batman or Spiderman or any X-Men, collectively or individually, and I can't suss out why. But my major-comic-book-geek of a husband agrees that in many ways, Superman was ( ...galactically stupid... )

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ETA:
And, gacked form slytherincess and legomymalfoy, 1500 music videos from the 80s! I am off to hunt down Scandal's Goodbye to You and mabe the JoBoxers, too...

WOW! Aztec Camera's Somewhere In My Heart, which I saw *once* in 1987 on 120 Minutes! Also, Curiosity Killed the Cat! : looks for anything from Bros :

( Matrix spoilers - click at your own risk )
In case it's not obvious from the review, I did like it. I am glad I saw it. But on a lot of levels, I had a more enjoyable time at XMen. Maybe I was just too tired last night. Not sure. I will see it again, though, if I can.