Media-crity

This is why I have always and will always love Martha Stewart.

Snoop Dogg making mashed potatoes with Martha Stewart.

Highlights include Martha reminiscing about how she and the d-o-double-g met and reading emails Snoop sent her and stumbling over his terminology, including pronouncing “boo” as though his intent was to frighten her; Snoop asking what they’re making and Martha saying “Mashed potatoes!” impatiently as though he’s asked this 7 times already; Martha getting flustered when she realizes that they’re using white pepper and demanding that someone bring them some black pepper; Snoop admiring Martha’s mixer color choice; Martha trying to sexify Snoop’s bottle of Cognac (which he adds to his potatoes) and exposing the bottle’s breast; Snoop digging his fingers into Martha’s potato bowl and her not removing his hand with a finely-honed Santoku.

It was a slow day,
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road,
There was a bright light,
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry

And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere,
Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all o-yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry don’t cry

CON: Got stood up without a phone call
PRO: I have an awesome husband who drove me 2 hours so I could see an artist he hates

CON: Didn’t get to see Malin with Matt like I had been looking forward to
PRO: DID get to see Eric, which is always awesome

CON: Left my license at the bar somehow
PRO: … I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Sigh. No one’s answering at the Iron Horse.

BONUS that made it all worth it: Another fantastic show. Eric’s review here.

He did all of my (most recent) favorites: Little Star, Aftermath, Riding on the Subway. I am a happy girl. Or at least as happy a girl who doesn’t have her license and doesn’t quite know where it is can be.

Lisa has thrown down the gauntlet, suggesting that we (the people whose blogs she reads) make an effort to post about 10 things on a topic every week.

This week is 10 Favorite Websites. For me, this changes a lot depending on what I’m obsessing over.

1. Universal Hub: Adam, the webmaster, combs a ton of RSS feeds looking for interesting, breaking, quirky stories about Boston. It’s the first place I check when something breaks because it gives me what people are saying, not just the quick hit blurb the mainstream news has. There’s a real community feel there that makes it more personal than going to boston.com or WBZ’s website which, most of the time, doesn’t even have the story up right away. I also enjoy his snarky headlines/comments on some of the stories.

2. Facebook: Enough said. I can’t get enough of finding out when my friends are making dinner or going out or using the bathroom!

3. Twitter: Like Lisa, I was suspicious of Twitter. It seemed pointless. But now, especially with the search feature, I’m a convert. Plus it’s nice to have somewhere to make a note of odd things I might encounter but don’t know who to tell, like the man riding a unicycle like a road bike a few weeks ago.

4. Center Field: A fantastic Sox blog with a plethora of Pedroia-related posts. That gets an A+ in my book.

5. Call of the Green Monster: He’s been on hiatus since August but it’s still full of side-splitting baseball-related (okay, mostly Sox-related) parody stories. I was going to link my favorite post but I couldn’t pick one, so go read all of them.

6. GMail: I love love love GMail because I was able to link it to my home email, allowing me to check all my email accounts in one place AND not have to deal with my hosting provider’s crappy webmail anymore. The search function is phenomenal. And it has gchat.

7. Goodreads: I’m not as active on Goodreads anymore but I do go back from time to time. I love being able to go back and see what I’ve read or what I thought about a certain book.

Flannery’s book montage

Powered by Goodreads.com

(this is getting hard)

8. Pandora: Streaming radio that plays songs based on a particular artist. I’ve had great luck finding songs this way.

9. Extra Bases: Boston.com’s Red Sox blog.

10. Group Recipes: They call it a Food Social Network but I call it a damn fine way to store recipes, and find new ones. The best part is the tag system, which is true of so much of the internet. You can search by flavor, season, cuisine, anything.

Manny Manny Manny. End of an era. I’m relieved, depressed, dejected, nostalgic, and absolutely sure that this was the right decision. My feelings are scattered around and my head refuses to accept it. It’s gonna hurt the first time I see him in Dodger blue. On a baseball-level I absolutely support this.

On an emotionally-involved fan level, this sucks. A lot.

I’ve spent the day interpreting Maroon 5 lyrics to apply to the situation. Thus, to sum up my feelings, I give you this:

I never knew perfection til
I heard you speak, and now it kills me
Just to hear you say the simple things
Now waking up is hard to do
And sleeping is impossible too
Everything is reminding me of you
What can I do?

I’m not fine, I’m in pain
It’s harder everyday
Maybe we’re better off this way?
It’s better that we break, baby

And also this from MLB.com:

By nightfall, Epstein and Boston had to deal with an exit poll. The Red Sox were off Thursday. When they file into their Fenway Park locker room on Friday night for a series opener against Oakland, Ramirez won’t be there for the first time since Sept. 24, 2000.

But whatever they say, they’ll look more comfortable. It isn’t easy walking on eggshells for weeks. Now that their feet are firmly back on the ground, they have the traction to run down some renegade Rays.

Damnit.

Well, there’s this great interview with the producers from EW. A highlight:

According to the good-humored exec producers, they always knew they weren’t exactly making The West Wing, but they never anticipated the trouncing they took from critics last season. ”I’ve literally made a many, many s—ty movie in my career, and I’ve never gotten such hateful reviews,” says Rosenberg (Kangaroo Jack, Con Air). ”To me, the show’s a cardigan sweater. It’s a Joni Mitchell record on a rainy day. It’s a cup of hot chocolate. You may not necessarily like hot chocolate or Joni Mitchell or cardigan sweaters, but why would you violently hate hot chocolate and Joni Mitchell and cardigan sweaters? There are shows like Who Wants to Marry My Cousin’s Wife? that got better reviews than October Road. It’s a cozy show about a writer who comes back to his hometown and falls back in love. You would think we were decapitating bunny rabbits. Like it was Michael Vick’s 101 Dalmatians.”

Then there’s Ryan Adams. He apparently loves this show so much that he’s recorded music specifically for it AND made a music video with them. I knew I liked that Ryan Adams, endorsements by Jesse Malin and Eric Danton aside.

I’ve been pretty absent, but I haven’t had much to talk about. Here are the three main things happening in the week since I’ve posted:

1. Nursing school

My application for the program I reeeeaaaaalllllly want is due 11/1. I really don’t think I’ll get in, but I guess I have to try. My big hold ups are the essay (working on it) and prereqs (ohgodbiochema&p)

2. Rock’n'Roll

Eric was awesome and emailed me Monday to offer his extra ticket to The Hold Steady at The Roxy. I didn’t have to think twice. He does this stuff for a living so here’s his write up. It was an exhilarating musical experience that I would not have missed for the world. I hadn’t heard much of Art Brut, the opener, but I will be finding more and more. I am rather well-versed in The Hold Steady’s work but it was something else to be in the crowd watching lead singer Craig Finn just go completely insane.

3. Baseball

Does this need any further explanation? Wow. Twice in 3 years! Incredible to watch, though tonight’s game was just pretty sad.

Also, Blogger’s post page is incredibly slow. I have such a lag on my typing that I will type an entire paragraph and then wait 30 seconds to a minute for all of the text to actually appear. Anyonme else have this issue? Forget about making any typos. It’ll be too late by the time they appear.

Got my new phone working! It arrived last week but was defective. It’d exit out of menus on its own, shut off at random, the backlight would stay on or turn on for no reason. The new one, however, is everything I dreamed it’d be.

Among it’s cooler features is the VCast Song ID feature. I can start up the app, hold the phone to the music source, and know what I’m listening to! It’ll even email the info to me so I can look up the whole song when I get home. No more frantically deciphering/memorizing lyrics to later Google or, failing that, email Eric asking what song it is.

I’ll be emailing the new number out shortly, don’t worry!

This is some quality TV on the Independent Film Channel: R. Kelly’s “Trapped in a Closet”

In honor of the impending move, I have created a new mix called “Going Places.” It’s either songs that mention specific places or are about leaving. I kept the place songs loosely grouped and ordered from furthest away to closest. I also tried to keep the general moving songs together. Oh, and I know “2000 Miles” is really a Christmas song but I love it so much I had to keep it in.

This is way easier than typing out all the titles and artists. I wish I had thought of it sooner.

A fun little survey from Alan.

A) Four jobs I have had:
1. Temp
2. Marketing Assistant
3. Office Worker Extraordinaire
4. Daycare Worker

B) Four favourite places I have lived:
1. West Hartford, CT
2. Hartford, CT
3. Clifton, NJ
4. Ridgewood, NJ

C) Four favourite places I have been on vacation:
1. Playa del Carmen
2. Wildwood
3. Disney World
4. Galway

D) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Speed
2. Saved!
3. Dirty Dancing
4. A Walk in the Clouds

E) Four big movies I’ve never seen:
1. Citizen Kane
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Gone with the Wind
4. Fight Club

F) Four TV shows I love to watch:
Since it’s summer, these answers are a little different
1. Without a Trace
2. Various flavors of Law & Order
3. Next Food Network Star
4. various MSNBC documentaries (Lockup, Dark Heart Iron Hand, To Catch a Predator …)

G) Four of my favourite singers/bands:
1. The Hold Steady
2. Jesse Malin
3. Bruce Springsteen
4. Colin Hay

H) Four of my favourite singers/bands that people outside of Canada have actually heard of:
I’m not Canadian, eh?

I) Four of my favourite non-alcoholic drinks:
1. Diet Raspberry Snapple
2. Diet Coke
3. Tea
4. Water

J) Four of my favourite alcoholic drinks:
1. Girly bottled drinks like wine coolers
2. Banana margaritas
3. Malibu bay breeze
4. Diet Sprite and Stoli Raz

K) Four things I do just for me:
1. Sleeping
2. Watching crime shows
3. Keeping up with the news
4. Going for drives on nice days

L) Four of my favourite foods:
1. Mozz and good bread
2. Cheesesteak
3. Mac & Cheese
4. Cheesecake

M) Four sites I visit daily:
1. LiveJournal
2. Facebook/MySpace
3. NEY
4. Other blogs

N) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. On vacation somewhere
2. Seeing The Hold Steady live (Boys and Girls in America has been my mopping soundtrack today)
3. Living in Boston
4. New Hampshire

Eric’s blog review reminds me that it was “Downliner” and not “Brooklyn” in the aforementioned three-fer. I always get those two mixed up for some reason. In any case, I also love “Downliner” so I was happy.

Eric is the best because he brought me to see Jesse Malin tonight at the Iron Horse and oh my god. From looking at his pictures you’d think he’d be shy and awkward. Not so! He comes alive on stage. He’s mesmerizing to watch. He played pretty much all of my favorites, doing a three-fer with “Prisoners of Paradise,” “Black Haired Girl,” and “Brooklyn.” (I think that was the lineup anyway) He also did a slammin cover of “Hungry Heart,” and the cover of The Hold Steady’s “You Can Make Him Like You” was an awesome surprise.

I’m still on such a high that I can’t really form the words to describe how good it was.

The opener, Garrison Starr was an Amy Ray clone. She talked like her, she sang like her, she moved like her, she dressed like her. She was awkwardly charming, telling rambling stories to introduce her songs. She also kept making funny jokes about how she was “keeping [her] career a secret.” I was just blown away at how similar she was to Amy.

One of the best moments, though, was when a man came up to our table. He recognized Eric from across the room and came up to introduce himself and say what a big fan he was. Eric reacted in typical rock star fashion and looked at me apologetically and said “This NEVER happens.” I still want to know how much he paid him but alas the man disappeared into the crowd.

WHY in 2007 are CDs so hard to open? I mean, are both the shrink wrap AND the seal really necessary? If so, how about making the seal from something that peels off in, say, two pieces instead of 143 individual ones that you find stuck to your clothing and couch for weeks?

All that aside, I am thrilled to have Jesse Malin’s latest, Glitter in the Gutter in my hands. It’s just finished importing so I’m having my first listen right now. Already I can say that I am very excited for “Happy Ever After (since you’re in love 2007)” because I love love love “Since You’re In Love” off his previous album, The Heat. I’m also excited to hear the song Eric played for me with guest vocalist The Boss himself, “Broken Radio.”

Just hearing his voice again is giving me chills! I’m surprised I didn’t spontaneously combust when I heard him and Springsteen doing a song together. Let’s hope I don’t this time either.

A long long time ago … well, okay, Sunday. On Sunday, Nate was coming back from Providence and wisely decided to pull off and close his eyes for a bit. Not-so-wisely, he accidentally left the headlights on and awoke to a dead battery. He got it jumped, got ready to continue on his own, and was confronted with the dreaded “CODE” display on the radio. He called me, hoping for a quick resolution. Since I had solved this problem for someone else once before, I knew what to do. I took the serial number from him and called Honda. Well, due to the decline in customer service these days, Honda’s CS hotline is not open on Sundays. Blast.

Monday came and I got in touch with Honda. In no time I had given the CSR the serial number and VIN and gotten my code. Later that day, I gave it to Nate to try. He tried, it didn’t accept it, and then it locked him out of trying again, having reached its maximum number of attempts.

For one reason or another (one being that our hood release latch snapped off …), we found ourselves unable to attempt to reset the radio to try the code again until tonight. I scoured the internet, found what needed to be done, and we headed out with our pliers and flashlights. We attempted to remove the proper fuse, almost got it … then flung it off into the darkness, never to be found again. SUPER.

We hop in the car and head out in search of an automotive shop. Just in the nick of time, we run into Sears Automotive, locate the correct fuse pack, pay, and eagerly run back to the parking lot. Right there, in the daylit glow of Sears, we jerryrigged our hood open with the pliers once again and slipped the fuse in. I turned the car on, turned the radio on, put the code in and … NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! KHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

Ahem.

The display read “Err1″ meaning “Uh-uh, not that one!” And do, this comedy of errors begins anew at 9am eastern time.

IN THE MEANTIME. Honda. Something’s got to give. I drive a 1999 Civic with a factory radio. Nobody but NOBODY wants it. There’s got to be a way to disable that thing!

To add insult to injury, Nate’s iPod has up and died, too. There were no slots open at the Genius Bar for tonight so we’ll try THAT again tomorrow.