Beautiful Meloncholy

Today I listened to a podcast called To The Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio.  This is a podcast that I really enjoy, but hasn't made it into my weekly rotation. And really it should, because the shows are really interesting and kind of similar to This American Life where they take a topics and do short news/non-fiction pieces about it.  The episode I listened to today was called Why Do We Love Sad Songs.  And I was introduced to this amazing piece of music called Adagio for the Strings by Samuel Barber:


It premiered on the radio in the late 1930s but gained popularity as song played at funeral after being played several times following the death of FDR.

Spelunking

In honor of finally being able to hear the latest series of Cabin Pressure, a BBC Radio 4 show that I adore, I thought I would write a post about discovering shows like Cabin Pressure.  While living in Ohio, I got used to listening to audiobooks from time to time (my local library had quite a selection).  So when I moved home, I tried the website Audible.com which lets you download a variety of audio programs which, fortunately for me, includes BBC radio shows.  The first thing I search for was David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who are the creators of a TV show I enjoy called That Mitchell and Webb Look.  And then I decided to look up actors that I really like.  The first was Marcus Brigstock, who wrote in and starred in a one season show called The Savages.  And I discovered this weird but funny radio show The Museum of Everything (which I can't really accurately describe). This was followed by searching for Benedict Cumberbatch (who Steven Moffat or BBC fans will know plays Sherlock in the updated series).  And through that I discovered the show Cabin Pressure which is a work place series that takes place in a small contract private airline.  I really love this show, it is a great combination of warmth, cynicism, and humor.  It doesn't hurt that is was written by John Finnemore who also worked on That Mitchell and Webb Look.  But I think on my favorite discoveries is Richard Armitage (of North and South and The Vicar of Dibley) narrating the work of Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency novels.  And so those audiobooks represent the meeting of two things that I love.  Until Alan Rickman starts recording audiobooks (can you believe that he doesn't? I would listen to him reading the phonebook), Richard Armitage will do in a pinch (I've listened to one several times while falling asleep).  By searching for actors that I enjoy, I was able to find other projects from these actors that I truly enjoy. 

Because it is that time of year

In honor of Thanksgiving this Thursday, I thought I would write about a few things that I am grateful for:

• My Parents: I am so grateful for my parents.  Most things that I like about myself or my tastes are either a direct result of them (like my love for Paul Simon and Masterpiece Mystery) or due to the way they raised me (like my work ethic).  I know we don't always agree on everything, but I know how lucky I am that my parents are so supportive and willing to help me (and really they have been so patient with the number of hobbies my sisters and I have picked-up over the years like beekeeping, raising goats, soapmaking, cheesemaking, and quilting to name a few). 
• My Sisters (and their husbands and children):  My sisters are some of my favorite people in the whole world.  Sometimes I complain about being the youngest but I know that my life has been easier because of my older sisters giving me advice and support (and their husbands in more recent years).  And I love being an aunt so I'm thankful that my sisters and their husbands have given the opportunity to spend time with all my nephews.
• My Job:  Since the economy is still crappy, I know I am lucky that I have a job.  But I am thankful that I have the job that I have now.  I really love my job and it has given me a chance to explore a new part of the country and do something I love.  And I really like my co-workers a lot as evidenced by the fact that one of my co-workers got me an Agatha Christie book (the HarperCollins reprints with the awesome covers) as a thank you gift and that my boss and I talked about how great Paul Simon's Graceland CD is over lunch last week.  I know that I was lucky to be able to leave a job I didn't like and have time to really think about what kind of job would make me happy and feel fulfilled (thanks to my family and Rachel suggestion that I see a career counselor).
• Technology: I know this sounds like a weird one, but hear me out.  I love my iPod and I use pretty much every day.  I listen to music or podcasts at work all the time and it makes the time fly by.  Because of the internet, Facebook, and Blogger to name a few, I feel connected to my friends and family as well as the world at large and more informed.  Plus, I am listening a Paul Simon concert from Indiana University as I write this and earlier today I watched 4 episodes of Law & Order.  
• NPR:  It's just awesome.  I get so much from listening to programs from NPR.  I learn so much and every week there is at least one super fascinating story that I hear on NPR that I try to follow up on or learn more about.  Ditto for PBS.  
• My Freedom:  I was reminded of this while I was driving to work listening to a story about Saudi Arabian women fighting for the right to drive (and vote and walk in public places with men to name a few things).  I think too often we take our freedom for granted so I want to remember how fortunate I am to live in a time and place where women have freedom.    

I'm in a quilting sprint!

I finished all the handquilting on a quilt that I made when I still lived in Ohio (so I think I've had it pieced for about 2 years).  I had it mailed to me during my six month stay in Vermont and made a lot a progress on it but I hadn't put any real work on it for about six months.  Then last month, I decided to get to work on it so when I saw my mother at Thanksgiving, we could put the binding on it and I could finish.  After about 2 weeks of intense quilting almost nightly (with episodes of Midsomer Murders keeping me company), I finished it rather quickly.  So spurned on by this success, I decided that I would finally finish the first quilt I pieced.  I have worked on the quilting on and off for about 8 years. I wish I were kidding but I'm not.  I set it aside for the first time to make a quilt for Bridget and then my sisters kept having babies (and I made a king size quilt for Rachel which took me about 3 years, I pieced that monster quilt throughout most of grad school).  Now I am closer than ever to finishing it, I have about 1.3 pieces of border left to finish.  Since this was the first quilt that I worked on, I can see how poorly my first attempts were and how much better my stitching has become.  I kind of want to rip out those old bad stitches but I sort of want to be reminder of how I started.  So now, I'm sprinting toward the finish line of Thanksgiving with a quilt that I made with my grandmother and for that reason alone, I will always keep it with me. 

What I've learned from Film Noir

I have seen 12 film noir movies over the past two weekends so I thought that I make a list of what I've learned from those movies (and well as the many many other film noir movies I've seen in the past):

• If you have to see a psychologist or psychoanalyst because you may have murdered someone, makes sure the person is of the opposite sex.  He or she will be more invested in your recovery because there is a 80% chance she/he will fall in love with you and help you clear your name. 
• Do not let yourself get locked in a house (yours or someone else) or a building. More than likely the person who is holding you hostage will be in the process of convincing anyone that could help you that you are crazy.  
• Do not install frosted glass in your house.  In the case of the above situtaion, it makes it that much more difficult to get someone's attention.  Plus your hostage takes could sneak up on you (I'm looking at you Ida Lupino in Beware My Lovely).  
• If you husband is trying to run you down on the street, make sure that someone else is dressed very similarly (and hopefully in cahoots with your murdering husband). 
• Do not work in a bank.  At some point someone is going to either force you to rob the bank or rob the bank and make you the fall guy. 
• If you are a twin accused of murder and your psychologist is doing a word association exercise with you, it does not bode well for your twin if you answer to "mirror" is "death".  And don't dress alike, especially if you are not under 5.  It's just creepy.  
• If you are dealing with twins and one might be evil, only talk to the twins in person not on the phone. 
• Cats can either help you or draw unwanted attention to you.  It's really a toss up.  But trust dogs, they are always in the right.  
• If you have escaped from prison with a group of men and you've decided that you are going after a stash of money, things are not going to end well for almost your entire group.  Best to escape with only one other person (and don't get attached then either).  
• Do not marry, work for, or live with a person that is very attached to the parent of the opposite sex.  And for goodness sake, don't stay in his or her motel!
• It is probably a good idea not to get in a car that you are not driving. 
• Don't be friends with a gossip columnist.  
• Sometimes the police a helpful and other times the police are completely useless.  So sort of like cats.  The FBI is usually helpful (like dogs). 
• If you are involved with a married man, he is never going to leave his wife.  If he has a first wife, more than likely he did not divorce her, he killed her.  
• And most importantly, do not be a push-over.  Be proactive, be aggressive, and be willing to trick your adversary in any way that you gives you an advantage, gives you extra time, or shows that you are willing to fight back. 

Tales from AFI

On Sunday, I watched 3 Film Noir movies: Laura, They Won't Believe Me, and High Wall.  I'll skip over Laura since it is probably one of the better known films.  They Won't Believe Me opens with the main character on trial for the murder of his wife/mistress (it isn't clear which murder he is being charged with, point is both are dead).  I have to say I enjoyed this movie because for once, it is not a bad woman leading a good man astray.  The ending was a little bit of a surprise mostly due to the change required under the Hayes Code.  The last movie from Sunday was High Wall.  The plot of the movie is the main character thinks that he strangled his wife but his a suffering from blackout due to a blood clot in his brain (which gets fixed by surgery).  Because of the black out condition, he is sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation by Dr. Ann Laurson.  She believes that he didn't kill his wife and tries to help him prove it.   I liked High Wall even though on the most basic level it is a less good version of Spellbound (with a less good cast). 

One other weird story from being that AFI for most of the afternoon: I went the bathroom before seeing High Wall and there was a man using one of the stalls in the women's restroom (and I only knew it was a man because he didn't close the door).  I am not 100% sure that he was drunk, but he did do a very theatrical burp that was reminiscent of Barney Gumble (from the Simpsons) (alcohol is served at the theater but you can only buy one at a time so the guy either went back multiple times or is a lightweight). 

One more thing, I am pretty sure that the AFI Silver was only theater in the DC metro area that was showing Margin Call because the line was huge for every showing (and it was showing in the biggest of the 3 theaters).

It's getting dark

It's the first weekend of the DC Noir Fest at AFI Silver so I spent most of my day in Silver Spring.  I saw 3 movies today so I thought that I would do a little write for all the movies that I am going to see over the next few weeks.
Experiment in Terror:  A bank teller gets grabbed in her garage and her attacker demands that she steal $100,000 for him or he will kill her and her sister (and he generously offers to give her 20%).  She calls the FBI and works with an agent (played by Glenn Ford!) to find the bank robber.  The movie was really enjoyable and it was interesting to see the what the idea of the FBI was in the 50s (because in the movie people called the operator and could speak to an agent).  The ending is really good and the climax takes place at Candlestick Park after a Giants-Dodgers game.
Crashout: Very rare movie, not available on DVD.  A gang of six men band together after a prison break (or crashout) with the plan of finding and splitting  a $180,000 one of them stole in a bank robbery.  And you can imagine how well this plan goes.  Someone in the row in front of me complained that the movie end very ambiguously without totally tying up the plot.  I kind of wanted to say both "Well, it is film noir" and "Um... try watching I Am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang, that might be most ambigous ending ever.  It just fades to black after Paul Muni's last line. " (and that movie made me love Paul Muni!)
Loophole: Another rare movie, not available on DVD.  A bank teller unknowingly gets almost $50,000 stolen from his drawer.  The FBI agents who work on the case believe he is innocent but the special investigator working for the bonding company representing the bank, does not believe him and start relentlessly pursuing the bank teller in an attempt to get him to reveal the location of the money.  After talking with the FBI agent, the teller (Donavon) remembers that there was a second bank examiner that counted the money in his drawer (and swiped the money).  Donavon crosses path with the actual robber a few times, which lead to someone in the audience yelling "Come On!" during the movie.  This is another interesting movie that is definitely of a very specific time.  It takes place during the height of McCarthy-based paranoia and the relentless pursuit of an innocent man is very reminiscent of that time. 

And once again it comes down the grammar

I don't know if anyone else is following this story (if you heard the Two-Way blog on NPR, you've seen the posts about it), but ESPN will no longer being playing a Hank Williams Jr. song to open Monday night football.  This is due to a Hank Williams Jr. comparing Obama to Hitler and then calling both Obama and Biden the enemy when talking about the golf game between Obama, Biden, Speaker of the House Baynor, and I think the fourth person was the Governor of Ohio (but I'm not sure).  So EPSN pulled the song and then Williams Jr. released these statements:

"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President.
"Every time the media brings up the tea party it's painted as racist and extremists — but there's never a backlash — no outrage to those comparisons... Working class people are hurting — and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change."

"I have always been very passionate about Politics and Sports and this time it got the Best or Worst of me. The thought of the Leaders of both Parties Jukin and High Fiven on a Golf course, while so many Families are Struggling to get by simply made me Boil over and make a Dumb statement and I am very Sorry if it Offended anyone. I would like to Thank all my supporters. This was Not written by some Publicist."

And this is my response: It is unnecessary to say that this was not written by "some Publicist" because I would hope that a publicist, who by the very nature of the job needs to be careful about what is being said, would know when to and when not to capitalize words.   And later he said this:

"After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run."

Again, what is up with the crazy capitalization?  He is protected by the First Amendment (and all of it's toes), but there is no reason to not follow grammatical rules. 

DVD recommendation

While I'm a run of movie recommendations, I am going to strongly encourage everyone to see the Japanese film "Departures" which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2009.  It is about a cellist who loses his job in an orchestra in Tokyo so he and his wife return to his hometown to his mother's house (his mother passed away 2 years earlier).  He ends up getting a job as a person who prepare bodies for burial or cremation.  Given the premise, there are many scenes that take place at funerals so the movie could have been depressing but there are so many scenes that are funny or touching that make the movie really enjoyable.  And the cello music throughout the film is really fantastic.   The movie is available on DVD and Instant Watch on Netflix.

I must admit I was wrong

Back in July, I did a little run down of all the trailers I saw during my Captain America/Harry Potter double feature and one of these trailers was for Steven Soderburgh's movie Contagion. I kind of blew it off saying that it looked like a remake of Outbreak.  However, due to the good reviews that I had heard/read, I decided to go see it this morning (and since the showing I went to was a 10:30, it only cost $6).  And I must say, I really liked the movie.  The cast is superb (and almost tailor-made to me it seemed) and included Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Gould, Jude Law, Matt Damon, Enrico Colantoni, Bryan Cranston, Demtri Martin (the first time you see him, he is a bioharzard suit and you only catch a glimpse of his bowl cut hair so I was hoping it was him!), and most importantly (because the character is fantastic!) Jennifer Ehle.  A (somewhat biased) reason that I liked it the positive light that both the CDC/WHO and science were portrayed.  And it reminded me that for about a year when I was 15, I wanted to be an epidemiologist (or at least work at the CDC, which I still think would be awesome).  It also reenforced my nerdiness because I thought that the computer modeling of the viral protein structure was cool to see. It was make you want to wash your hands constantly, but overall it was an enjoyable movie (though I wish the blogger with shady reasons for peddling a homeopathic "cure" for the flu got a bigger comeuppance). 

Reading history

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I have several very thick (500+ page) nonfiction history books that I plan on plowing through this fall and winter.  I have a book about the Balkans, post World War II Europe, English history, and the history of MI5 (plus I have a couple very long fiction books that I should start reading).  But the books I am starting with is And The Band Played On which is about the early days of AIDS research (including the actual identification of HIV).  I'm only about 30 pages into the book which opens around 1985.  And as I was thinking about it, AIDS has been a public health issue for almost my entire life.  So far it is kind of interesting to read about a world without the shadow of  HIV/AIDS. 

Art and Artist

As a lover of movies, books, art, and music, there is an idea that I think about from time to time which is can you and should you separate the art from the artist?  I think about this is for artists that I admire and those I don't admire (the artist personally not the work of the artist).  Would I appreciate Van Gogh's paintings as much if I didn't think about his mental anguish he underwent while painting?  But on the flip side, can I separate the ideals/beliefs of Richard Wagner from enjoying listening to the Ring Cycle?  When ever I see a Roman Polanski movie I think about this.  I enjoy his work as a director but I can't completely separate Polanski the director and Polanski the person. This kind of feeds into the idea that there is a thin line between genius and madness.  To what extent should we accept the madness to experience the genius?

Being an optimist

Two weekends ago I went to the AFI Silver in Silver Spring to see Hitchcock's Torn Curtain with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.  I didn't check the Metro website before I left so I didn't know that there was Metro station in Silver Spring was closed so I had to take a Metro Shuttle bus to the Silver Spring station.  Which means that I was about 20 minutes late for the movie.  But I actually didn't mind being late (I have seen the movie before).  It was kind of nice to go on the surface streets of Takoma Park and Silver Spring versus the elevated and relatively secluded location of the Metro Rail (though I did recognize some graffiti which allowed me to determine that I was close to the Silver Spring Metro Station.  But the most interesting thing about the bus ride was that it took me right based the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  It is a little strange to think that the center is closing in the near future but I was kind of cool to see the center before it closes.  But kind of sad as well knowing the history of the Walter Reed Center, both good and bad. 

East Coast Living

It has been quite an exciting week for me, here in Maryland. As you may have heard, on Tuesday there was a earthquake with an epicenter about 90 miles south of here. And it was my first earthquake. Thankfully, nothing was damaged (I was actually working in the lab at the time). And then this weekend, sometime Saturday afternoon, hurricane Irene is expected to reach my little part of Maryland on her way up the coast. Since I live a little bit inland from the coast, I'm hoping that the rain and wind won't be too bad but I am fully expecting to lose power at my apartment. I was hoping to move into my new room and out of the government housing but moving during a hurricane is just a bit too adventurous for me (but I smartly created a huge pile of stuff in the middle of my room that I can run into in the dark whenever I feel like it this weekend, so that should a good source of amusement). So I'm just getting ready for losing power on Saturday. I have some bottled water (and lots of Coke) and I plan on cooking stuff in the morning that can be eaten hot or cold as well as lots of candles for reading/quilting/creating a fire hazard. Mostly importantly, I've charged up my jump box so I can charge my phone or iPod when the need arises. So heads to people whose number I have, I may be calling you when I get bored. I do have 3 Netflix movies (as long as I have a chance to get my mail on Saturday before it starts pouring) to watch as long as the power hold out. It will be a very interesting weekend. On the plus side, now there will only be a few natural disasters that I have not experienced (maybe I should spend a year or two in Hawaii so I can experience a volcano eruption).

I might be the only one

If you haven't noticed, I am a bit of a film nut. In general, I prefer older movies but I enjoy more recent movies as well with a special enjoyment of period pieces. I especially love it when a movie is set in relatively recent time (20s-70s) and made by one of the old studios (Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount, etc) and instead of using the most recent version of the studio vanity card, the movie will use the vanity card from time period of the film. I just finished Fincher's Zodiac (set in the late 60s) and they used the both an older version of the Paramount and Warner Brothers vanity card. Another good example is Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong. Now if only RKO Pictures still existed!

Quite the quandary

So one my AFI memberships perks is half off a DVD from the Warner Brother Archive. A few years ago Warner Brothers basically released all the films from the Archives to be purchased on DVDs by demand for about $20 (so instead of making 10,000 DVD copies, Warner Brothers will produce one DVD when you order it) or you can download the film for $15. Now I am faced with a tough decision of what DVD to get and more than likely I haven't seen the movie, except I have found one so far that I have seen called Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (about Paul Ehrlich, those who have read Microbe Hunters will remember him). One of the first movie that looked promising was Above Suspicion with a Hitchcock style thriller with Fred McMurray and Joan Crawford. But then a few pages later I stumbled on Confession of a Nazi Spy with Edward G. Robinson which I confess was my laptop wallpaper a few months ago when it was on TCM. And since seeing the poster every day for about 30 days, I really want to see the movie. Most likely, I am going to look through the entire Archive and pick out a few gems. In the mean time, I am totally enjoying the made-for-tv movies and cheesy movies from the 60s-90s that are in the Archive. Let me just say there are multiple movies that feature ": A Love Story", including Champions: A Love Story and Divorce Wars: A Love Story. Any suggestions of old Warner Brothers movies worth checking out?

For your listening pleasure

And because I've been obsessed with this song since Saturday night (and as a side note, this is the same composer that wrote the music for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)



And does anyone else miss pre-Waterworld Kevin Costner? And Andy Garcia for that matter?

A Single Drawback

A drawback of living alone/with 1 other person, is that I am less motivated to want to bake something for the sole reason that fewer people means increased likelihood of having to throw away a stale baked good. Living with Rachel's family last year lead to baking in a weekly frequency to the point that I completely memorized a couple of recipes (pancakes and pita bread specifically). Now that I am living in a reduced household and without a mixer (when I moved out here, my job was temporary and to last 6-9 months), my desire/motivation to bake is greatly diminished. However, due a consistent craving for chocolate chip cookie dough and a well timed sale (thank you Target), I bought a hand mixer. And tonight, I made blueberry muffins using one of my favorite recipes from The King Arthur Cookbook. I have used all sorts of fruit in this muffin mix including blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, strawberry/blueberry combination, and once (for Ellis) chocolate chip. I love this recipe, the muffin always turn out really well with a nice crumb. And my favorite part of the recipe is that you alternately add flour and milk (which is similar to what you do when making a cake). What I love about this step watching the batter become too thick with the flour and then too thin with the milk until you reach this perfect balance between the two extremes. It's like baking alchemy. And it's delicious.

Please enjoy

For all you anglophiles out there:


The panelists are Richard E. Grant, David Mitchell, Fern Britton, Martin Clunes, Lee Mack, and Sanjeev Bhaskar (from the Kumars at no. 42) and hosted by Rob Brydon.

The End of Harry Potter

In the space of two days, I watched both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In general, the end of things always make me a little sad, and the last Harry Potter movies were no exception. I thought back to when I first read the Harry Potter books, which was during senior year of high school, when I devoured the first four books in the space of about a month. And then I read those four again during the first year of college around the time the first movie came out. So while I might have been outside of the target age group for the books, I still have an attachment to the series. I was reading them during a point in my life when I was starting to become an adult so it was provided a source of nostalgia while still having a bit of a dark/adult tone to it, especially in the later novels. I cried at the end of the Deathly Hallows the book and both movies. I have to give credit to J.K. Rowling for her excellent series and while there were times when I didn't enjoy every subplot, I still enjoyed the books. And the commitment of the people behind the movies is amazing to see. While the first two movies were a little rough, they really hit their stride by the third movie (my favorite book) all the way until the end. So thanks to all those who worked on the movies, I'm sure I'll revisit them all whenever I need a little reassurance.

Trailer Round-up

I've spent a lot of time at the movie theater today (almost 5 hours). And I saw a lot of trailers:

1. Contagion: Seems like a remake of Outbreak without the monkey but more A-list stars including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow. But it does have Jennifer Ehle and Enrico Colantoni (aka Keith Mars). I might catch it on DVD in about 6 months.
   
2. Planet of Apes: Rise of Apes (I saw the trailer twice!): You know just once I would like a movie in which science did not run amok. Pass!
3. Cowboys and Aliens: I feel like a trailer for this movie is kind of unnecessary because it is all right there in the title. There are cowboys and there are aliens. Carnage ensues.
4. The Adventures of Tintin: Looks kind of interesting, but it uses that weird motion capture from The Polar Express and Beowulf. But I do enjoy the CGI cowlick on Tintin.
5. The Amazing Spiderman: I am totally in the tank for this movie. I love Andrew Garfield a ton and this movie looks pretty good. Plus, Emma Stone is a lot less annoying that Kirsten Dunst!
   
6. John Carter: Meh...looks a little like Disney is trying the whole Prince of Persia thing again.
   
7. Abduction: Taylor Lautner is some sort of asset for a shadowy government organization. It might be more believable if he didn't look like he was thirteen. On the bright side, it does feature Sigourney Weaver which is never a bad thing.
   
8. Arthur Christmas: Some sort of animated movie that has to do with Christmas. The trailer didn't really tell you anything and the animation was pretty run of the mill so it did not peak my interest at all.
   
9. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: When I saw the Bad Robot vanity card (J.J. Abrams' production company), I was hoping it was the trailer for the next Star Wars movies. Alas, this one featured Tom Cruise. The presence of Simon Pegg sucked me in a little but that Tom Cruise hurdle is a big to clear for me to want to see this movie.
   

That's right, I sat through 9 trailers (well actually 10, but one was a repeat).

Reflections of the Supremes

So I just finished Toobin's "The Nine" and I have to say that I loved it (with no concern about any suggestions that I may be turning into Trey, though Trey would probably really enjoy this book). And here is a list of things I learned in last half of Toobin's book:

- Souter was assaulted by two men while on a run in 2004. And he made it to Court the next day.

- Breyer and O'Connor were BFFs. Ginsburg and Souter were BFFs. I can only hope that friendship bracelets were exchanged.

- O'Connor is/was a Goldwater Republican. Therefore, she was definitely not BFF with G.W. Bush.

- I love this response by Goldwater after Jerry Falwell suggested that "good Christians" should be wary of O'Connor's nomination: "I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass".

- Since O'Connor left the Court, Kennedy is the new swing vote.

-Breyer found about O'Connor leaving the court by hearing about it on NPR. And Toobin made it sound like Breyer was a little heartbroken.

- Stephen Breyer had the Philly Phantic come to a dinner welcoming Alito to the Court (Alito is a huge Phillies fan). Can I tell you again that Breyer is my favorite Justice?

- Thomas really know how to hold a grudge...especially against Nina Totenburg and Harvard.

- Harry Reid might be a evil genius. He was one of the first people to suggest that G.W. Bush nominate Harriet Miers.

- The Rehnquists kind of got screwed by both Bush presidents. Two days after Nan Rehnquist died (William's wife), Bush the elder nominated Thomas to the Court. And then two days after William Rehnquist died, Bush the younger nominated Roberts to be Chief Justice (this was a clear political move, Roberts was already nominated to fill O'Connor's seat, but due to a really bad week that included the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush White House needed some positive news and Roberts was well liked by most of Congress).

- Ginsburg must have been so happy when Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

-O'Connor continues to be really interesting in her post-Court career. Since she left the Court to care for her husband (suffering from Alzheimer's), she been an advocate for Alzheimer's research (and even public sharing information about the difficulties of caring for an Alzheimer's patient) and working to educate both the youth of America and internationally about the importance of the Judicial branch.

- I think that in the end, O'Connor regretted stepping down from the Court. She left to care for her husband but he deteriorated to fast that she was really only able to take care of him for about 2 years before he entered an assisted living center.

-Stevens served in World War II. Due to his age this of course makes sense, but I had never thought about it before. He enlisted the day before Pearl Harbor and served in naval intelligence and worked on breaking Japanese codes.

Now I'm ready to start a new book. Right now it's a toss up between Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" and John Waters' "Role Models". Or possible Agatha Cristie's "Pale Horse" to coincide with the Masterpiece Mystery adaptation from last week. Any suggestions/recommendations?

Other types of Nerdiness

I've established that I am a science nerd but I have to say living so near DC has expanded my interest in policy, history, and law. Compounding this is the fact that I am reading a book about the Supreme Court that is very well written and makes the Justices relatable (even Thomas to some extent, though I still kind of hate him). So is it weird that I want to attend an oral argument when the Court is back in session?

Supreme Update

I'm continuing to plug along reading the book The Nine and I and through the end of the Clinton years. And my favorite tidbit from this section is about when a snowstorm hit DC and Rehnquist refused to delay or stop the Court proceedings and Jeeps were sent out to pick-up all the justices. Except Souter, who being a New Englander and therefore adept at driving in snow, decided that he would drive his own car and then proceeded to get his car stuck in a snowdrift. As someone who has spent a winter in Vermont, I can't say this story surprises me. A close runner-up is the fact that the other Justices call Scalia "Nino". Oh and that Scalia and O'Connor didn't get along at all.

Reading Supreme

I'm about 100 pages into Jeffrey Toobin's great book "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" and so far I am really enjoying it. I'm reading the section covering the late period of the Rehnquist court, with Breyer just getting appointed to the court. And with all things, this book is really appealing to my nerdy side and I have the opportunity to do one thing that I do a lot which is ranking the justices (I do this all the time with things I enjoy, just ask me about my Jane Austen novel rankings). Now I've also had a soft spot for Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginesburg. But after starting to read this book, Stephen Breyer might be my favorite Supreme Court justice. He was considered for Ginsburg seat but was not selected due to a disastrous interview with Bill Clinton (he was recovering from a serious bicycle crash, so please imagine a Justice on a bike). And once appointed, Toobin says he was the most optimistic justice on the court. Breyer also attended every State of the Union address out of solidarity with the other branches of the government. How can you not like someone who is optimistic in the face of a job like Supreme Court Justice and is still so enthusiastic for his job? Furthermore, Stephen Breyer played Not My Job on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. But beyond letting me pick my favorite Justice, there is a lot of interesting information about the impact of previous justices on the current justices. I really recommend it.

Waiting for it on DVD

I am an unabashed lover of renting TV shows on DVD from Netflix. One drawback of waiting for things to be released on DVD, but the advantage is that you can binge on back-to-back episodes with no waiting. Or for the even more extreme way, you can wait until the entire show is done so there you do have to deal with various hiatuses of the show throughout the year. This was/is my plan for watching the show Lost, which at some point I will do. I loved Lost during the first two seasons and then during the third season there was a lot of hiatuses throughout the season and I forgot plot points (which you really can't do for that show). The reason that I am thinking about this is that I am working my way through 2 TV shows at the same time. The first is Friends which is more for a nostalgic reason but there are parts of the show that hold up really well (i.e. the Beach episode at the beginning of Season 4 is still funny). The second show it the Battlestar Galatica reboot that SciFi made a couple years ago. I never watched it in real time but I always heard good things about it so I decided to bite the bullet and start watching it. And I have to say, so far I am really enjoying it. The show is way more emotional than I thought it would be. The casting it really good, I'm really enjoying Mary McDonnell. There is a total ringer in the cast (for me anyway) in Jamie Bamber, who I love as Matt Devlin on Law & Order:UK (and he was in the Horatio Hornblower movies on A&E, that I weirdly loved as a teenager; Ioan Grufford, I'm still in the tank for you but don't let anyone talk you into any more Fantastic Four movies). And now that I don't have cable, I'm loving Netflix more that ever!

Low Stakes Creativity

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I were at Hobby Lobby and ended up back by the paint-by-number kits. And so spurred on by generally goofiness, we decided that we should all get a paint-by-number to do together. After looking over all the options (there were a lot of animal ones), I picked out a Impressionist-like vista of a Japanese style garden/bridge. So I've spent a lot of hours over the last few weeks working on it (usually with my roommates) and yesterday, I finally finished it. And here it is:

Theater etiquette

I've been going to the AFI Silver theater for the past 3 weeks and so far everyone I've shared the movie-going experience knows to be quite in the theater and not use their phones. Apparently this is not the case at the Alamo Drafthouse which is a theater is Austin with a strict no texting/cellphone use policy. A women used her phone to text and was asked to leave the theater. She followed this up by leaving a nasty voicemail with the theater complaining about being removed from the theater. Then the Alamo Drafthouse used the voicemail as a PSA about theater etiquette. And it is awesome (though there are swearwords).

Just for Funsies

AFI

I've seen this a couple times both on DVDs and at the AFI Silver Theater and I have to say, I love this commercial. Can anyone guess which clip is my favorite? I'll give you a hint, I love Joel McCrea (I think he was a totally underrated actor who was able to seamlessly move from comedy (The More the Merrier) to drama (Foreign Correspondent)).

Thoughts on Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train was the Hitchcock movies this weekend at the AFI Silver Theater, so naturally I went to see it. I've seen the movie once, so I sort of remembered what happened (although apparently I only really remembered the first 30-40 mins). So as I was watching, I started looking at other elements beside the great cinematography. One thing I noticed was that throughout the movie Guy was almost always dressed with a white jacket and Bruno was in a black jacket, like a subtle reminder that Guy is good. And I didn't realize that a lot of the movie is genuinely funny. I never ranked this movie high on my favorite Hitchcock movies, but it improves on repeat viewing. And this made me think of when I got introduced to Hitchcock movies. I'm pretty sure the first one I saw was Psycho, which again is not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but there are definitely elements that are classic Hitchcock (like the excellent use of music and the creative shots like a character being pushed down the stairs). I'm pretty sure the next Hitchcock movie I saw was Rebecca followed by Spellbound and then I was hooked. A few years back (in grad school), I watched every Hitchcock movie available on DVD (except The Birds). I've really enjoyed going to the AFI Silver for the retrospective, and I thought that only people who enjoy Hitchcock were attending the screening. But I was proven wrong when I overheard someone saw "What's this movie? Strangers on a Train? I've never heard of it."

Silver Theater

It's starting to warm up a little here, so I thought I would escape the heat by seeing a movie. So I went to Imdb to see what the movies are showing near me and to my suprise Notorious popped up under the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs. Turns out, the theater is doing a Hitchcock retrospective until the end of August. Silver Springs is a relatively short (about 40 min) Metro ride from here, so I decided to go to the screening last night. It short, it was great. Firstly, the main theater (there are 3 screen altogether) is beautiful with an old-fashioned look to it. And the seats are really nice with really wide aisle (so it's really easy for people to get through to the seats in middle). I've never seen a Hitchcock movie with an audience before, so it was a little weird to start out but in the end enjoyable because made for a great atmosphere (including someone doing an audible gasp during Hitchcock's cameo). Since I didn't know when the retrospective started, I missed some of my favorites specifically Rebecca and Spellbound, I still can see Stage Fright and two short propaganda films Hitchcock made during the war. So I found yet another really interesting place to take people if/when they come visit me (even people with kids because they have special screenings for childcare givers with kids)!

Advantage: Osprey

Last weekend, one of my coworkers invited me to go with her to visit osprey nests in southern Maryland. For her research, she finds osprey nests and records number of eggs in the nest as well as watch the osprey hunt for fish (and takes pictures so she can determine what the species of fish the osprey are eating). We went to a state park near Mattawomen Creek (a tributary of the Anacostia and Potomic rivers) to observe the osprey. It was a beautiful day (not too sunny and not too warm) and the osprey were out in force. Now, I've never seen a life osprey before, so I was super excited to see them. They are really amazing to watch because the kind of hover in the air above the water and then dive down to catch a fish. And on top of that, I saw 2 bald eagles but multiple great blue herons. We were just about to leave when this happened:



So one of the ospreys attacked a great blue heron. It was really amazing to watch. And the state park was beautiful so if/when anyone comes to visit, I can take them there for some great bird watching.

Having a Bad Day?

And now your bad day is better.

Don't say toilet

From NPR and How to Do Everything, in honor of the Royal Wedding.

Hopping down the bunny trail

In celebration of Easter, I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The two museum share the building (that used to be the patent office), and the building is beautiful. There are three floors so I did my usual routine, which is start at the top and work my way down. The museums are split in a east/west fashion so there are signs to let you know which museum you are visiting. As you might have guessed only portraits are displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, but the portraits are from all over the world. The American Art Museum is limited to the work of American painters and occasionally, (especially during the pre-Revolutionary period), work of European painters that are American subjects or landscapes. I loved these two museums. It was smaller than the National Gallery and a little better laid out (so you could actually work you're way through the gallery without having to backtrack). As usual, I took a lot of pictures, which you can see here, and again, there are captions. There was a wide variety of American Art, from American Impressionism to American folk art (which did contain some pieces that veered toward the world of the probot, but the early 20th century folk was good). The portraits were interesting because there were short biographies of the subject of the painting. However, no pictures were allowed in my favorite exhibit because it was a temporary exhibit and thus no photographs. But, happily, you can see it online. The exhibit was called To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, which was by the folk art portion of the American Art museum. You can check out the exhibit online here. After spending about 5 hours in the museum, I headed back to my apartment to make my Easter dinner of Lemon-Garlic lamb chops, roasted potatoes, and fresh broccoli. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, full of good food, hidden eggs, and time with family.

Thoughts about a world leader

I must admit that I find Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, kind of fascinating. Late last year, I read this really good book review in the New York Review of Books (which you can read here) of the book The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB by Andrei Soldatov and Iriana Borogan. The book is about the recent Russian presidency, specifically the jockeying for position between Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (current prime minister and former president). Medvedev's first term is going to end in 2012 and it seems Putin and Medvedev can't decide who is going to run for president. When Medvedev was elected as president in 2008, it seemed (to me at least) that Medvedev was kind of a puppet to Putin (and I kind of find Putin terrifying, he was ex-KGB). So I've kind of felt sorry for him because he seemed to not have a huge amount of control of what goes on in his political life. You might wonder why I'm thinking about Dmitry Medvedev today. This is why:


I kind of think he is super awesome now because he can't resist a song with a beat.

Ocean Hall, Animal Skeletons, Ruby Slippers, and Grace Coolidge

Since the government did not shut down on Friday night, it meant that not only would I be going to work on Monday, but that my plan to go to the Smithsonian Natural History and American History museum was a go. I headed to the Metro station at about 9:45 which put me on the Mall a little after 10:30. I went first to the Natural History museum which is chock full of cool stuff. I went through the Geology, Gems & Minerals exhibit first which features volcanoes, rock formation, meteorites, a piece of Mars (which I touched), re-creation of mines, and various gems, including the Hope diamond which, it goes without saying is huge. It was start to get a little crowded of eighth-grader, families with strollers, and what seemed like every single high school senior class in the great DC area so I looked for a less popular exhibit to got through next. And I found it in the special exhibit of artifacts from Cypress which led to a small exhibit hall full of beautiful pottery from Korea. From there I went to the exhibit titled "Bones" which was an exhibit featuring reconstructed skeletons of probably 150 different animals including sea turtles, deer, bushbaby, various species of mice, toads, shrews, voles, moles, sea lampreys, crocodiles, storks, ducks, skinks, skunks, snakes, and even a small grey whale. Suffice to say this was probably my favorite exhibit mostly because I recognized some of the skeletons and I appreciated the amount of time it took to assemble each skeleton. Plus there were short discussions of skeletal development across the different species. I walked through the sneak peak of the upcoming exhibit about Egyptian mummies before going through the Insect Zoo (and reminding myself that centipedes still give me the hebby-joe-jebbies) before heading to Ocean Hall which features models of various marine life. Then it was on to the Mammal Hall before (again) getting annoyed with the huge mass of people and heading downstairs to the Birds of DC exhibit which was (shockingly) not very crowded and (not shockingly) full of various birds native to DC (including one of my favorite birds, the Red-Winged Blackbird). It was around noon, so I walked over to the American History museum, got and map, and when to the cafe for a bit to eat and plan out the order of my visit in the museum. The first exhibit I went through was called Invention at Play which was a mix of toys that focus on inventing as well as inventors taking about what toys they like to play with when they were younger (there were a lot of mentions of Legos!). Then I went through Julia Child's kitchen which was so amazing. They literally made her kitchen into a museum exhibit complete with her books (including 2 copies of the Joy of Cooking), her KitchenAid Mixer (in Cobalt Blue) right down to the magnets on her fridge (including a Magnet from King Arthur Flours!). I really enjoyed the part about the marriage between Julia and Paul. The amount of support Paul gave Julia throughout her work was amazing, it's clear that her cookbooks are a labor of love of the both of them. From there I went through Science in American Life which was full of all sorts of interesting artifacts of recent life in America including early modern lab equipment, examining the increasing popularity of various plastics in post-war life, an exhibit on the development of the birth-control pill, and life in modern cities. Then I went to the exhibit on Paper engineering which was all about pop-up books and the various types of pop-ups used, there are some amazing examples in the exhibit. And all this was only on the West part of the first floor! On the East part of the first floor, I walked through an exhibit about America and the rise of the automobile and highway system which featured lots of different cars and trains (and even a horse-drawn wagon) before heading to an exhibit that focused on American maritime pursuits. I then went to the 3rd floor to see the objects from 1939 (including Charlie McCarthy and the Ruby Slippers), Treasure of Pop Culture (which includes Kermit T. Frog and the Catsuit from Batman), and the musical instrument collection. The collection isn't very big, probably around 40 instruments, but they do have a Stradivarius quartet that are absolutely gorgeous and this amazing guitar that comes with a special case. For there I went through exhibits about Abraham Lincoln (crowded but interesting and had clothes from the Lincolns), American Presidency (which was split up into different aspects of the presidency from being commander-in-chief to the president in popular culture), and one about all wars with American involvement (the posters from World War II were my favorite but the section about World War I was surprisingly short). Then I headed to the exhibit that contains the flag that inspired the Star Spangled banner. The flag is huge with 15 stars and 15 stripes, with 1 star cut out of the flag as a souvenir (which was actually done really early in its history, there was a picture of it at the White House during the turn of the 20th century and the star is missing). The flag is stored under low light and so it gives the flag this ethereal quality because it looks like it glows. The last exhibit I went through was The First Ladies of the Smithsonian which features gowns, pictures, and stories about the First Ladies. The Inauguration gowns of recent first ladies are on permanent display (back to Mamie Eisenhower) while clothes belonging to older First Ladies are in rotation to decrease wear on the gowns (also sketches of most of gowns were displayed. The exhibit was really crowded but totally worth it because you could really see changes in fashion based on the gowns of the women. One of my two favorite were Grace Coolidge because she thoroughly embraced the flapper fashion, her Inauguration gown was a red flapper gown (not on display, just a sketch but there was another gown of hers that was a black lace flapper dress). Here is a picture of her evening dress:

My other favorite was Mamie Eisenhower mostly because I was surprised by her gowns. You don't really hear about the fashions of Mamie Eisenhower but her dresses were really beautiful; her Inauguration Gown was pink with rhinestones and her other gown on display was really beautiful red evening gown:


After that, I headed back to the Metro and back home. Again I took lots of pictures, which you can see here (and captioned this time!)

My top 3 Doctor Who episodes

Let me start by saying that it was really hard to rank these 3 episodes.

3) Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 10, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gillam)
Plot: While visiting the Musee D'Orsay to see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh, the Doctor notices a weird creature in the window of a church in one of Van Gogh's paintings. Amy and the Doctor then travel to Arles in Van Gogh's time to determine the origins of the possible alien creature and interact with Van Gogh.
Why I Love this episode: I don't think that the could have picked an artist that appeals to me more than Vincent Van Gogh. I think he is probably the first artist I learned to identify, his style is pretty obvious even to a young child. So for me, the episode is doubly great because if features not only a lot of Van Gogh paintings, but the vistas that inspired the paintings. There is this amazing scene with Amy, the Doctor, and Van Gogh in a field staring up at the sky and as Van Gogh describes his view of the world, the sky becomes "Starry Night". Amy and Van Gogh has some great interactions including a scene were Amy (a redhead) says that if she and Van Gogh every had a child, it would be the ultimate ging. But I think hands down, my favorite scene is an art historian (played by Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh was not only one of the greatest painters of all time but one the greatest men who every lived because he could turn his inner turmoil into beautiful paintings. I have never enjoyed a Bill Nighy scene so much (and I'm crying a little bit just thinking about it). This episode was written by Benjamen Curtis (who I love), who also wrote Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley.

2) The Unicorn and the Wasp
Episode 7, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble
Plot: The Doctor and Donna land in 1926 England to attend a party in a country house, which kind of sounds like a set up to a Agatha Cristie mystery. And it should because Agatha Cristie is a guest of the party, as the hostess is a fan of her work. Soon people are murdered by some alien force and the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna must unravel the mystery. A further mystery is that this house party occurs a few days before Agatha Cristie's real-life 10 days disappearance.
Why I love this Episode: Agatha Cristie and Doctor Who prove to be two great tastes that taste great together. If I wasn't sure a huge Agatha Cristie fan, I probably won't have enjoyed this episode so much, or at least appreciate the excellent way it pays homage to Agatha Cristie. The set-up and unraveling of the mystery is classic Cristie. And then, the script is chalk full of references to the titles of Cristie novels like Nemesis, N or M, Endless Night, They Do It With Mirror, Cards on the Table, A Cat Among Pigeons, Crooked House, The Moving Finger, and Murder on the Orient Express. And again, Donna proves to be the prefect foil for the Doctor (she might be my favorite companion although Amy is really good too). I think this might have been the first episode of the reboot that I made my mom watch as a way to entice her to watch the rest of the series. If you like Agatha Cristie, you should watch this episode, even if you don't watch any other episode of Doctor Who. And this episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Lodger". Gareth Roberts is a self-admitted fan of Agatha Cristie and it is really obvious in this episode.

1) Blink
Episode 10, Season 3
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Plot: In modern-day London (2007), a woman named Sally Sparrow (a pre-An Education Carey Mulligan) enter a rundown house looking for photography subjects but instead find angel statues, one holding a Yale key (that she takes) and a message from "the Doctor" behind peeling wall paper warning her to avoid the Weeping Angels. She returns with her friend Kathy to explore the house further. Kathy disappears and at the same time a man claiming to be Kathy's grandson arrives at the house with a letter for Sally from Kathy. Kathy writes that moments after entering the house, Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s Hull. She married and had a peaceful life but want Sally to take a letter from her (Kathy) to Larry, her brother, telling him about Kathy's disappearance. When Sally visits Larry at a DVD store, he shows her a hidden message from a man named the Doctor on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs. Sally then goes to a police station and meets DI Billy Shipton, who tells her that there are have been several disappearances near the rundown house and shows her a police box that was near the house. However, the police box seems to be a fake because it is not the right and it is locked. Sally leaves but then remembers the key she found and return to the police box but Billy has disappeared. She then receives a call from a much older Billy asking her to visit him in the hospital. Billy explains that saw the Weeping Angels trying to get into the police box and then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor. He was convinced to start a DVD business that allowed the Doctor to record the hidden message in the 17 DVD. Billy urges Sally to watch the message and then dies. Sally then realizes the connection of the 17 DVDs, she owns a copy of each of them. Sally rejoins Larry at the DVD store to watch the message from the Doctor. In the message, the Doctor tells them that the Weeping Angels sent the Doctor and Martha into the past and now have the TARDIS in hopes of feeding off the huge energy that the TARDIS contains. The Weeping Angels with only move when no one is looking at them, but they move to quickly, that even in the blink of an eye, they can take you. Sally and Larry are the only ones that can help the Doctor recover the TARDIS, as long as they don't blink.
Why I love this episode: This might be the most tense and excellently paced 45 minutes that I have every seen. The fact that you can't close your eyes for any amount of time is so scary and so that aspect is so effectively terrifying (the BBC ran a warning before the episode saying that this was a very scary episode and that if children watch it, they should watch it with the lights on). So much of the episode depends on the acting skill of Carey Mulligan and she does a really fantastic job. And I love the last names of Sally and Larry, Sparrow and Nightingale. This episode was written by Stephen Moffat who really understands how to pace an episode and ratchet up the tension with out going overboard.

So those are my top 3 favorite episodes. All three are actually a good episode to get introduced to Doctor Who because for most part they are stand alone episodes (with maybe the exception of Vincent and Doctor, where there is any scene with Amy that is the fallout of an incident from the previous episode, but it isn't too confusing). All these episodes are more a fusion of science fiction and a mystery/thriller and or dramatic genre. I hope if you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who yet, these posts have whetted your appetite and encourage you to explore the world of Doctor Who.

A Musical Sorbet

Just to cleanse you palette from all the Doctor Who talk, I'm going to write a little bit about band that I love: Vampire Weekend. I listened to their first album a lot when I was living in Ohio, often when I was driving up to see Rachel et al in Ann Arbor. Once I hit the exit for Ypsilanti, I could start the album and be at the house before the album was over. They got a lot a flack for sounding like they ripped off Paul Simon's Graceland (mostly based on the fact that they incorporated the African drum rhythms). Now since I'm a huge Paul Simon fan, one might think that I wouldn't want to listen to the album. But my take was, Graceland was such a great album, even an album that a diluted version of Graceland would still be great, and it is.

Doctor Who - Part 3

4) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
Episodes 8 and 9, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor arrive at planet in the future that is one giant library due to an anonymous request for help that comes to the Doctor through his psychic paper. There is not one in the library despite the computer noting that there are millions of life-forms in the library. All that is in the library at robots called Nodes that has a donated face of a human being. It warns the Doctor and Donna to count the shadows. Suddenly, the overhead lights go out one by one and the Doctor and Donna are told by a security camera others are coming. It is Dr. River Song with a team of archaeologists to find out what happened in the library. The last communication for the library was "4022 saved, no survivors". Dr. Song has knowledge of the Doctor's future and recognizes Donna's name but doesn't know Donna. The library seems to be tied to the imagination of a little girl. The little girl is under the supervision of a child psychologist, Dr. Moon. Dr. Moon tells her that the library is real and there are people in the library that need to be saved. The Doctor determines that they all are people stalked by the Vashta Nerada with are microscopic creatures that hide the shadows before completely devouring their prey. The Vashta Nerada then take control off the body of one on the team members and begins stalking the remaining group members. The Doctor attempts to send Donna to the TARDIS to be safe however something happens and she doesn't materialize properly. As the Doctor and the rest of group tries to outrun the Vashta Nerada in the space suit, the Doctor discovers a Node with Donna's face on it with the node saying "Donna Noble has been saved." Things get worse for the group when not only the possessed space suit is chasing them, but the shadows of Vashta Nerada is closing in on them.
Why I love this episode: The Vashta Narada is the most awesome name ever. Try saying to yourself, don't you just feel cooler? The fact that they hide in the shadow, to the point where a human has a second shadow, is really effective way to scare the crap out of you. This episode introduces River Song, who is a really great character. She has this whole history/future with the Doctor that is a lot of fun to try to figure out. The endings for both River and Donna are really fantastic, both sad and happy at the same time. The second episode of the story has some really got moments with Donna, that really soften her and show her as a sympathetic person that you didn't really see before this two-part episode. And it was written by Stephen Moffat (are you noticing a trend?)

5) The Lodger
Episode 11, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam)
Plot: The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS is modern day Colchester and the TARDIS immediately takes off with Amy still inside and is unable to land again. Amy and the Doctor suspect that it may have to do with a disturbance on the second floor of the apartment house that that TARDIS landed in front of before taking off. The Doctor then rents the room on the ground floor of the apartment house from a man named Craig (who is in love with his best friend). The Doctor attempts to blend in with modern day England while at the same time try to figure out what sinister happens are taking place upstairs.
Why I love this episode: Firstly, this episode is probably one of the funnier episodes in the history of the reboot. The Doctor and Amy still have really good interactions despite sharing very little screen time (they are separated throughout most of the episode and can only talk to each other). Secondly, this episode does a great job dropping little hint for the two-part season finale without being too heavy-handed as well as do a call back to previous episodes (really that last 4 episodes of season 5 are really good). The resolution of Craig's story line is fulfilling (and I read that Craig is going to be back in Season 6). And I enjoy episodes that feature the Doctor interacting with human beings because I think it really humanizes him (because from time to time, there can be a little too much hero-worship). The writer of this episode, Gareth Roberts, wrote another episode that will appear on tomorrow's entry. And the fact that the writers get such high billing in the credits (the writer usually appears right after any guest star that may be on, before the director) makes it obvious that writing is really prized by the show runner (and the BBC and subsequently the fans).

6) The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Episodes 9 and 10, Season 1
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Ecceleston)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)
Plot: Rose and the Doctor are following a metal ship through a time vortex and end up in Britain during the Blitz. As the Doctor goes to nightclub to ask for information about the metal ship, Rose spot a little boy with a gas mask up on a roof. She climbs a rope to get closer to the little boy and finds the rope is attached to a barrage balloon. At that moment, the air raid sirens go off. The Doctor go outside to look for Rose and finds that the non-functional telephone on the TARDIS is ringing. A young girl, Nancy, warns the Doctor not to answer the phone. He does anyway and hears a young boy asking "Are you my mummy?" The Doctor then follows Nancy and she and several other homeless children enter a house to eat while the family has gone to the air-raid shelter. As the children (and the Doctor) are sitting down to eat, a young boy in a gas mask starts knocking on the door and trying to get in. Nancy warns the Doctor not to touch the boy, or he will become "empty". All the children leave the house and the Doctor tells Nancy that he thinks there is a connection between the fallen metal ship and the "Empty Child". Nancy mentions a bomb that fell from the sky that wasn't a bomb and tell the Doctor to go see Dr. Constantine. The Doctor and Nancy talk about her taking care of the children due to her guilt over losing her brother Jamie in a air-raid. Meanwhile, Rose is rescued from the barrage balloon by Captain Jack who immediately determines that Rose is a time-traveler like him. He claims that he is free-lance Time Agent who has something that might interest her but she says she must first find and consult her companion. The Doctor has found the hospital and Dr. Constantine. The hospital is filled with corpses of people with gas mask on their face and identical physical marks (like a scratch on the hand). Dr. Constantine says that the first victim was discovered shortly after the bomb fell and then anyone who has been in contact with that victim has developed the same external physical symptoms including a gas mask fused to the skin. The first victim was Jamie, Nancy's brother. However, before Dr. Constantine can explain much more, he turning into a gas-masked zombie before the Doctor's eyes and asks "Are you my mummy?". Rose and Captain Jack find the Doctor and Jack explains that the metal ship was a Chula ambulance and there are only two hours before another bomb will fall and destroy the metal ship. The corpses then get up and walk towards the Doctor asking "Are you my mummy?" while the original empty child asks Nancy the same thing at an abandoned house. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack, then have to figure out what happened to the empty child before the plague spreads or a bomb drops and destroys the ship and the hospital.
Why I love this episode: I am sucker for movie/TV shows set during World War II and this episode really show what London was like during the Blitz. There is a great exchange between Rose and Nancy about how difficult it is to live during the Blitz and how Nancy can't imagine the world ever getting better and Rose assuring her that Britain wins. The Doctor and Captain Jack really play off each other well especially since they have different views about using weapons (and there is a long exchange in which Jack disparages the sonic screwdriver). I would also like to note that Stephen Moffat also wrote this set of episodes so there is a great mix of both funny moments and really emotional scenes. And the resolution of the story is surprisingly uplifting. Plus, adding Captain Jack is a really great addition as he adds a bit of much needed light-heartedness.

Doctor Who - Part 2

7) Time of Angels and Flesh & Stone
Episodes 4 and 5, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: After traveling to a museum in the future, the Doctor and Amy discover a message from River Song written on a flight recorder for a ship that crashed 12,000 years earlier. Amy and the Doctor travel back to save River before the ship crashes. The cargo of the ship is a Weeping Angel, a being that lives on energy (like electrical or human) that looks like a statue. As long as someone is looking at the statue, they can't move but anytime you look away, that Angel can move. If two Angels look at each other, they are trapped immobile forever; as a result the Angels will cover their eyes when stationary and so look like they are weeping. River Song and a team of clerics (which is more like a military unit) want to recover the weakened Angel before its proximity to the radiation of the ship will make is powerful enough to threaten the population of the planet. The is a four-second recording of the Angel that River, Amy, and the Doctor view while discussing a book written about the Angels (by an insane man) that states "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself and angel". Amy looks away from the recording and the Angel start emerging from the recording and see is trapped in the viewing room (and she looks the Angel in the eyes). Amy is able to freeze the recording at a certain part of the loop and causes the Angel to disappear. To get to the Angel statue and the ship, the team must travel through a stone labyrinth filled with stone statues called the Maze of Death. Doctor and River discover that the stone statues are slowly turning in Weeping Angel due to massive amount of radiation coming from the crashed ship. As the Doctor, River, Amy, and the clerics race toward the ship followed by the Weeping Angel, the image of the Angel is embedded in Amy's brain so she is slowing becoming a Weeping Angel and so must keep her eyes closed to slow the transformation.
Why I love these episodes: The Weeping Angels are probably the most terrifying creature/beings that has ever been on Doctor Who. The addition of River Song is great, because she knows the Doctor in various points of her/his life and they have some sort of relationship. Being able to piece their relationship together is really fun. And this episode was written by my favorite Doctor Who writer (and current show runner) Steven Moffat. I like the special effects for the Weeping Angels because instead of using CGI (which would probably be less scary), the Weeping Angels are played by women in costumes and painted to look like stone.

8) Partners in Crime
Episode 1, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor costarred together in a previous Christmas special (after season 2, before season 3), and she declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him, a decision she later regrets. As a result, Donna becomes a little bit of a conspiracy theorist in an attempt/hope to met the Doctor again. Donna and the Doctor are separately investigating Adipose Industries that markets a diet pill with the slogan "The Fat Just Walks Away". Turns out the slogan is correct, the pills use body fat to create an alien named Adipose. The pill can be altered to use the entire body to create Adipose. Donna and the Doctor work together to make sure that doesn't happen.
Why I love this episode: Donna Noble is my favorite companion (and Amy Pond is a really close second). Unlike the two previous companions, Donna has no romantic interest in the Doctor. So this episode is just hilarious and really light-hearted which is a nice change from the dark tone of the last two episodes of season 3. And the Adipose aliens are actually really cute. Plus, the guest star was the actress who was Mrs. Hurst in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Doctor Who - Part 1

9) Amy's Choice
Episode 7, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)
Plot: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory keeping moving between 2 realities. In one, it is five years into the future with Amy and Rory married and Amy is pregnant. Rory is the village doctor in their hometown of Leavenworth that has a very large elderly population. The elderly people of the village are actually aliens that can vaporize anyone with their poisoned breath. In the other reality, all three are trapped in a powerless TARDIS that is slowly traveling toward a cold star (so they are slowly freezing to death). They must choose between with world is real because if they die in the false world, they will return to the real world but they will die if the chose the wrong world.

What I Love about this Episode: I love unraveling a mystery so I was fun trying to decide which world was the real one. You get to see more interactions between Amy and Rory which is really nice. And how the whole situation gets resolved is interesting and emotional. Seeing Rory using garden tools to fend off the aliens is pretty hilarious. Plus Toby Jones!

10) School Reunion
Episode 3, Season 2
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke)
Plot: the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey are investigating strange happening at a local school. And while checking out the school, the Doctor runs into an old companion, Sarah Jane Smith who is played by Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane was a companion of the Third and Fifth Doctors). Turns out the the school administrators are aliens in disguise who are increasing the intelligence of the students and then using them to solve the Skasis Paradigm (the theory of everything).
What I love about this episode: This episodes ties the reboot Doctor Who with the original Doctor Who is a really good way without being too over the top. And it is interesting to see what happens to a Doctor's companion after he or she stops traveling with the Doctor. There are some really funny moments, and Mickey starts becoming less of a complete idiot and more competent.

Honorable Mention: Love & Monsters (a Doctor-lite episode that focuses more on a group of people who come together because of the Doctor but all members of the group blossom in each others company, plus ELO!), Eleventh Hour (a fantastic introduction to the new Doctor as well as Amy and Rory), and all Season finales (the build up during the 2 part episodes are so good, a great mixture of adventure and emotion. And in the finale of season 4, all the of Doctor's companions/allies come back which makes it like a reunion with old friends).

Delving into my nerdiness

This time last year, I was a month into my six month stay in Vermont. One by-product of my time in Vermont, is that Rachel re-introduced me to the BBC show Doctor Who. Now, I had seen all of the first season right when it came out (back in 2005, I watched it while I was quilting Rachel's giant king size quilt) and I really like it. And then I forgot about it, mostly because I think there was quite a gap between the release of the first series and the second series. But by the time I got to Vermont, Rachel had watched all the four seasons and kept encouraging me to watch the show again. So over the course of about 2 months (maybe less), I watched all the four seasons, plus all the related Christmas specials and the send-offs for David Tenant. And then Rachel and I watched the fantastic 5th season starting in April. And now, the new season (season 6) will be starting in less than a month. So I thought in honor of the new season, over the new few days, I am going to write about my 10 favorite episodes of the first 5 seasons of Doctor Who.

Sunday morning/afternoon adventure

As I am getting more confident in using the Metro system, I am trying to make trips into DC during the weekend. Last weekend I went to Pentagon City, where there is huge mall but more importantly, there is a World Market nearby (I was craving some Curly Wurlys). Based on a good suggestion from a co-worker, I decided to go to visit the National Gallery this morning (she said Sunday mornings are less crowded). And the Gallery is amazing. The Gallery has such a vast and varied collection from 15th century Dutch artists to Jasper Johns. I went through the Main floor of the West Gallery first and then stopped for lunch at the cafe that is in the concourse between the East and West Galleries and then went to the East Gallery to the see the 2 special exhibits (Gaugin and paintings of Venice) and the Modern Art (the west Gallery has most of the older paintings, through the Impressionist and immediate Post-impressionists, I think that most recent piece I saw was painted in 1939). The Gaugin exhibit was interesting but really crowded so I didn't get to be that close to the paintings. It was not very crowded in the main floor of the West Gallery, mostly because I was there right when it opened. After going through the East Gallery, my last stop was the Chester Dale Collection on the ground floor of the West Gallery. And the Chester Dale collection is great, it has lots of works/sculptures by Impressionists including Degas, Renior, Rodin, Monet, and probably my favorite Van Gogh. It's hard to pick which part was my favorite, I really liked the British/Irish/American rooms (lots of lovely landscapes, before that lots of religious paintings), the really beautiful still-life paintings ( spread out throughout a lot of the rooms), or the Chester Dale Collection. I took lots of pictures of the paintings and you can check them out here (some might be a little fuzzy, sorry about the quality).

There are about 500 ways this video is great

The excellent Darcy hair, the fact that the conga is involved, the outburst at Caroline Bingley and the freestyle dance at the end. Love it!

Doctor Who Starts April 23rd

I'm not sure I can wait that long!

Banjo and Violin

I first heard this band while watching the Australian show, Rain Shadow. The music really stuck with me, and it's not really hard to see why.

The cure for any bad day

Rules Governing What May Become An Outdated Object

If you have read more that a few entries of this blog, you may have noticed that I enjoy reading a great deal and hold books in general in high regard. I am one of those people who will tolerate less well written novels, for instance the Twilight books, in the hope that those books will inspire readers to turn to better novels (in the case of the Twilight books, Stephanie Meyers mentions Jane Austen novels and novels by the Brontes so I can hope those tween girls are turned on the better authors who are out there). A by-product of my admiration and love for books, is that I am borderline anal about the books I own or lend out. I hate cracking the spines of my books so I am really careful when I read a book for the first time. I do own several books with cracked spines (like most of the Austen and Bronte books) but those are a result of intense re-reading and searching for references for college papers. There a several books on my bookshelf that I have read that look brand new. And I make sure anyone that I lend books to know that I do not appreciate cracking the spines on my books (and don't even get me started on people that fold the cover all the way around the book, I get hives just thinking about it). Since I own so many books (we are talking multiple bookshelves that are 2 books deep), space is at a premium. So this have lead me to purchase fewer hardcover books and more paperback books and I am part of a online book-rental service that only uses paperback books. As a result, when I hear about a new book (or see it in the bookstore) I usually write down the book title (one reason to always carry something to write on and with) and look it up on Amazon later and add to my wishlist (which means that are hundreds of books in my Amazon wishlist). Then periodically I will see if certain books are in paperback yet. This of course leads to very delayed gratification/reading of a book and then I am excited about a book about 9 months after it is first published. And today was one of those days, because a books I've been dying to read but due to unwillingness to pay for a hardcover and being transient (and therefore library-less) for the better part of last year, I haven't read. This books is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In a nutshell (a very small nutshell), it is story of one of first cell lines discovered and the effects on this cell line on science as a whole as well as the family of the woman who produced the (cancerous) cells that gave rise to this cell line (HeLa cells). I heard about this book on NPR, a part of the book was presented on my beloved podcast RadioLab (in a episode about famous tumors), and the tri-fecta(for me anyway) was that it inspired an episodes in the last season of Law & Order. I am so excited to finally read this book; I just have to decide if I should buy it (and then lend it out to people who will not wrap the cover around the book) or rent it (and I am open to input).

The Wonder of Hearing the Written Word

Earlier this month, the author Brian Jacques passed away. You might not know who he was, but I assure you that there is a subset of youngish adults whose parents probably watched a lot of PBS and received a Chinaberry catalog that contained the first three of Jacques series of Redwall books. I, my sisters, and a few cousins are some of those adults. I remember my mother reading Redwall to Bridget, Lucy, and I one chapter a night and having special voices for all the characters (and I seem to recall that on most nights, we begged and pleaded for an additional chapter). And Redwall is a great series, and I encourage parents with kids that are about 8 or 9 (there are some emotional parts of the book) to get the first book and read it to their children.
There is something so comforting and slightly hypnotic about hearing a story. And I think that are a lot of people who enjoy being read to beyond their childhood years. During our last few days in Europe, Lucy and I would read to each other (again a chapter at a time) from the first Artemis Fowl book. I often enjoy listening to books on CD, especially books read by the author (shout out to David Sedaris, whose books are best experienced in an audio format).

Eavesdropping pays off

This is a conversation that I overheard on the Metro (on my way to visit Abby and Deirdre on Saturday):

Son: Mom, guess something that I need everyday at school. It's not a backpack, it's something inside me.
Mom: Your brain?
Son: Yes! What else?
Mom: Your heart?
Son: Yes! It's like you're reading my mind!

Modern Mamas and Papas

Awesome art meet Law and Order

I love these works of art based on one sentence description of episodes of Law and Order! There is this one:
It's Needlepoint!

And this one is pretty good: (with the title of Sugar Daddy Suspected of Murder)

You can check out the rest of them here.

Reflections on Musicals

It is very obvious that I love NPR and I learn a lot from the podcasts that I listen to (just ask me about the tricks/car information I learned from Click and Clack) but one of my favorite things is being introduced to new (to me anyway) music and as I've been listening to a backlog of NPR podcasts, I've been introduced (and then obsessively humming) a few songs. The first one is music from the Broadway show "Promises, Promises". Terry Gross (of Fresh Air) interviewed Sean Hayes about his role in the revival of Promises, Promises and then she interviewed Burt Bacharach and Hal David (who wrote the music and lyrics) and played clips from the original recording. And the songs are really great, there are catchy and very obviously written by Burt Bacharach. But what made me fall in love with the songs is that there were sung by Lenny Briscoe in his previous life as Broadway regular, Jerry Orbach. So I invested about $4 in a CD of the original Broadway recording and besides containing a picture of a very young Jerry Orbach, just listening to him sing (as well as the rest of the cast) is making me very happy. The other musical discovery I have made in the past week (another one from Fresh Air) from a movie called Evening Primrose that was aired once (once!) on ABC Stage 67 in November 1966 with the music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It starred Anthony Perkins and the plot is that a poet named Charles (Perkins) decides to live in a department store after hours and discovers other people living in the store as well including a woman named Ella who has lived in the store since she was six. There is a beautiful duet called "Take me to the world" in which Ella tries to convince Charles to take her out of the store and live in the real world together. The song is so beautiful and memorable; Anthony Perkins had a really nice singing voice and the harmony in excellent. The movie has just been released on DVD (after a black a white 16mm was discovered) and the movie is at the top of my Netflix queue thanks to an introduction from Fresh Air (and I purchased a version of the song on iTunes).

Look for the Liono cameo

His name is Alan

I can't decide

which one of these NPR Valentine's I like more. This one:



Or this one:



But one thing is clear, I love NPR.