Social Media Truth: So/Me Outs the Good

(via Olga and USAT Pop Candy)

So this girl posts a video of herself sniffling while she watches the Wall-E trailer. No big deal.

What's cool is what Pixar did when they found out - because it's the essence of social medial. Simple, basic, genius.

Amazing employee relations to surprise their people with the girl they'd all seen who genuinely loved their work so much. And great press, both product for Wall-E and corporate for Pixar (Her blog, Metafilter, local news, and now Pop Candy).

And it cost them maybe a grand to bring her to their party? Just a small nice thing, paying off for them because it deserves to.

I keep saying this: social media outs the good.

It's so simple. If you're good stuff, social media shows that off. And if you've been trying to pass with a fake front, that will come out too.

Exhilarating - or terrifying - depending on who you are. Karma is like that.

C'mon Get Happy

This afternoon I was grouchy.

But then a lot of things cheered me up.

...

Wow. Am I a storyteller or what?

Anyway, I thought I'd borrow a page from Karen and list my happy things. But the thing is, when I do that, I notice that the things that cheer me up are a little weird:

• Smelling the hyacinths mixed in with the daffodil beds as I walked out the door from work.
  
• Still seeing afternoon light even though it was after seven.
• Adorable neighbors saying hello as I got home.
  
• Unfreezing the DVD player after I was afraid it had eaten the putrid Ryan Reynolds DVD out of spite.
• Learning that I am to be the recipient of the Best Bridesmaid Gift Ever, the Ryan Reynolds Box Set, a threat/promise on which Maria cannot renege even if it has to be made with a shoebox and Scotch tape and a Sharpie.
  
• Turning on the TV to see Andy pitching (yes, of course the TV was left on YES).
  
• Realizing I don't need to make or decorate any more cookies for a little while.
• Watching Jon Stewart talk about being bitter, elitist and from western Pennsylvania.
• Making rice and beans for supper.
• Bailing on working out in favor of curling up for a geriatrically early bedtime.

Yeah, it's geeky, but it's that kind of night. You cheer up however you can in this world.

Weekly Roundup: Girl Stuff

• A lovely few minutes on women's shoes in narrated photos from Paris fashion shows. What I mostly notice is how prevalent black opaque tights are. (via)
• Star Wars as explained by a three-year-old girl. She's right: the shiny guy always worries. (via)
• What is it about My Little Ponies lately? They're everywhere.

Hi from Chicago, where I'm here, had a hysterical night that ended up here, and am working from here. Yesterday I went for a run along the lake and am so glad I did, because today it's too foggy to even see the lake. Today? Work, catching up, History Channel documentary on the 1968 election, IM, and yoga.

Weekly Roundup: President's Day Edition

This has nothing to do with President's Day... apart from that being my excuse for posting Monday, not Sunday. Long weekend, you know.

Also, no fun links. Lazy long weekend, you know.

And it's hard to make it a recap, either, because this weekend was a whole lot of things. But altogether one of the best in a long time.

So instead: here's some random nonsense that I've been up to.

One: I'm officially in a state championship tournament. (Because I am (officially) out of my mind.) And as of four hours ago, I'll be doing something completely new at it. (I'm terrified.) It's exciting. (I want to throw up.) It'll be fun. (Maybe. But mostly terrifying.) I can't wait. (For it to be over.)

Two, and completely different: the 2008 season is out at the SToNJ:

• Comedy of Errors starts April 30
• Amadeus starts May 28
  
• The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) starts at St. E's Greek amphitheatre June 18 (yes, the Reduced Shakespeare Company's play - and one of the coolest spaces ever)
• King Lear starts July 2 (with Daniel Davis as Lear)
• Private Lives starts Aug 6
• Streetcar Named Desire starts Sep 10
• Romeo & Juliet starts Oct 15
• (and the Christmas show, TBD)

Same as last year... I subscribe, so if you'll be in the area, tell me. Tickets are roundabout $35 again. It's an amazing company.

Three, lastly, and still differenter yet: as Karen points out, watching the original "Casino Royale" was like being on six kinds of drugs at once. And then watching an awful nonsensical movie. From the inside of a Surrealist painting. Upside down.

Even the synopsis is completely incoherent. It was... there are no words. It was jaw-droppingly jaw-dropping.

If you can enlighten us, please do. If not, please don't ever watch it. Because I love you.

Weekly Roundup: Because I Owe You One

• Quite a few friends have lost phones recently and made me remember how important it is to have a contact backup. I use Verizon's Backup Assistant.
• I got a Traveler IQ of 100 - that's through level 8 with 252965 points and a smug Naval aviator scoffing over my shoulder. How about you?
• Check out Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art.
• Most kids want to be a doctor or a teacher or a fireman when they grow up. I wanted to be a Thundercat. (I didn’t. As you may have noticed.) But I loved finding these outtakes ten years later. And re-finding them ten years after that.
• My new favorite artist is Elliott Puckette. I'm not usually a big abstract fan, but I love her work.

You Know a Movie Is Bad

When it makes you physically uncomfortable - like you want to squirm away from it as soon as possible.

When just the ads have that effect on you... well.

Bits and Pieces

So sometimes, I write something down fast and save it as a draft blog so I won't forget it. And then I'll pick it up again later and write something totally scintillating and hysterical and incisive.

Right? Well. Sometimes. Or, I'll realize I have rather a lot of those lying around and I should probably start fresh.

So, in a fit of housecleaning, here they all are. Some of them are probably years old. It's pretty embarrassing, and I come off looking like a complete schizophrenic. Whatever. Fresh start. Think of them as a peek into my curly little head. I offer no explanation, no elaboration, no elucidation. Go for it.

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Best movie kisses

• Kyra Sedgwick and John Travolta in the kitchen in Phenomenon even though I don't like him, or even that movie
• Lucia Muniz and Colin Firth in the restaurant in Love Actually but really just the whole movie
• Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan on the stairs in The Thomas Crown Affair but yeah, the whole movie too
• Franka Potente and Matt Damon in the bathroom in The Bourne Identity, "
• Angeline Jolie and Brad Pitt in the rain in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "
  
• Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden at the end of Pride & Prejudice
  

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Passive Aggressive Notes

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• You know you're Catholic when you misread a sign for "Quilt Shop" as "Guilt Shop."
• You can order cell phone wallpaper from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• How much is our emerging "Perez Hilton working out of a coffee shop" lifestyle just a return - or at least an attempt to fit our 21st century careers back - to our old-fashioned "cafe in the plaza" European lifestyles of centuries ago?
• Best thing someone's said to me recently: "Good luck with your artistry" - when I didn't think I was being particularly artistic.
  
• People who have achieved world domination, based on a recent unscientific sampling: Justin Timberlake, Chuck Taylor, Bob Marley, and whoever invented Crocs.
  

************

Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
The Dark Is Rising series -
The Chronicles of Narnia series - C.S. Lewis
Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Secret Garden
The Little Princess
The Anne of Green Gables series and everything by L.M. Montgomery
The Four-Story Mistake
Bridge to Terabithia

************

It was a never-ending story... with no luck dragon.

************

The way you smile when you look at me
The way my hand feels in yours
The way your shoulders fill out your t-shirt
The way your jeans sit on your hips
The way you talk to a little kid
Whether you hold the door for me
If you can make me feel like I can dance

************

Truth number one: mornings come too early.
Truth number two: apart from once or twice a year, I don't drink anything caffeinated.

So how do I wake up? Really loud, really, really, really cheesy music.

Why - you ask - which songs? Because I must do this as well! Help me!

Certainly, I reply. And I'm not just doing this because I'm low on ideas for posts, either. Nope. It's just that the people catching me singing at the top of my lungs and bopping around? They're missing out. And they? They could be you. So yup. I'm all about the public service. Not at all about the desperate for content. Nope. Not here.

And fortunately, for you, I am also connoisseur of the cheesy music.

Buckcherry, Crazy Bitch. Especially good for when you still have hoarse sleepy voice.
Gia Farrell, Hit Me Up. For when you feel like a penguin. And who doesn't.
Dutch featuring Crystal Waters, My Time.
Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend.
Las Ketchup, Asereje. Only if you can do the hand jive.
Going Out of My Head, Fatboy Slim. The combination of the guitar riff and the Kaoss pad distortion is truly ideal for seeing how loud your speakers get.

************

I am one of Hallmark's best customers.

I'm a dork. You knew this. But I love the idea of somebody I like opening something that makes them happy.

In my defense, I do hate all that other Hallmark tchotchke crap. And I don't own a card organizer or anything, I promise. But yeah. I'm a soppy girly goofball. I know.

All of which to explain that I really loved these ideas on... alternative greeting cards.

• Under-communicated sentiments from the fabulous finslippy, one of my favorite new places
  

• From the Bittersweet Collection

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I hate finding street parking, but I love parallel parking.
I'm more of a morning person than a night person, but I hate getting up.
I hate Pennsylvania, but a lot of people I love live all over that darn state.

Hope nothing you're served is anything like a Squirrel Melt.

http://www.jeremybroomfield.com/

Trading Spaces. Frank and Ty, after eating dog biscuits:
Frank: Do you have the urge to chase a cat now?
Ty: I always have the urge to chase the cat, if you know what I mean.

• The 60s: Flinstones hawking Winstons.
• The 70s: 7-11.
• The 80s: Madonna for Pepsi.
  

Justin and Britney duet

"The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" - which I never read, just saw on "Reading Rainbow." I can hear Levar Burton reading it out loud in my head.

I can't find the Polaroid commercial where the kids (including Tobey Maguire, apparently) make a family-tree poster for their grandparents. YouTube failed me.

************

First concert
The very first Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden, December of I think 1995. Not sure - maybe 1994. Bon Jovi, Green Day, Melissa Etheridge, Indigo Girls, and a few other bands. And I met my first lesbians that night.

First album
The California Raisins, "I Heard it on the Grapevine." I got it for Christmas with a My First Sony Walkman. I was 10, so I remember being a little embarrassed because I felt that I was too old for a goofy red kid Walkman.

My first Sony
Originally uploaded by rogiro

I guess it was just underpaid singers doing Motown covers, but it's why I still love "Dancing in the Streets". I also got New Kids on the Block "Hangin' Tough" that year. O, the shame.

**********

Step Up

Oh my God, it was so cheesy. It was so predictable. It was so trite. It was so cliched and goofy and it was...



It was so good I may watch it again right now.

Kerrin's Weekly Roundup

Things That Made Me Happy This Weekend

• Getting my belt
• Wonderfully spoiling shopping with the equally wonderful Kerrin herself
  
• Having my car all nice and shiny clean
• Finding out that Medina has reopened
• Breaking in my KitchenAid Professional
• Finishing a movie with no emergencies intervening

Things to Look At

• Where the Hell is Matt? Because this is the life I want.
  
• Cats by Knitemare Because, Matt, this is the cat I was talking about.
• 365 Portraits Because it's a great idea.
• Roxik Pictaps Because I can’t describe it except that it’s sort of like if you could make a Nintendo scene, but all you need to know is that it’s unbelievably addictive. And it’s a lot like Ze Frank, from whom came this and the link above it.
  
• A selection of the top web videos Because it's handy for when you’re bored.
  
• Including this one, which is simultaneously hysterical and disturbing.
• And this one, which is just about as exactly the opposite as possible.

(In passing, isn't it odd that nobody's thought of an awkward hybrid word for "web video clip" yet? Something that sounds as ugly as "blog"?)

Things That Baffle Me

• How it is possible for my father to excitedly share the most minute details of arcane baseball information (Like how many days it is until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Or how XM is currently replaying the entire play-by-play of Game 5 of the 2000 World Series. Etc.) yet be blind to the irony of totally belittling anyone who has any interest in other, similarly niche, interests. Like, for example, the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Either way, you're paying way too much attention to something that exists entirely to be a spectacle.
  
• How so many people will stand in so long a line for so long a time at Starbucks. If you’re drinking the coffee to get you moving faster, why don’t you just save half an hour and not get coffee? Although I do like that they’re promoting Corinne Bailey Rae and Lily Allen.
  
• Why the lead singer of KISS chose to exhibit his paintings at the Short Hills Mall on Saturday afternoon. Just... incongruous.

Classics

Due to one to many sales, I am the not-very-proud owner of an increasing, and increasingly cheesy, DVD collection.

As my friend told me today, "Casablanca is never going to be in the $5 rack."

So I'm making myself a list of Classic Films I Love And Must Buy.

Here's what I've got so far. (With help from the AFI list of the best of the century.)

• Casablanca
• Gone With the Wind
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Wizard of Oz
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Twelve Angry Men
• The Indiana Jones trilogy
  

Also, Classics I Really Want To See:

• Doctor Zhivago
• The Graduate
• West Side Story
• Rear Window
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• The Third Man (because it's on a photo in my office)
  
• Bringing Up Baby

Any suggestions?

Something Happened on the Way to Heaven

Great big thanks to my cousin's away message for getting Phil Collins stuck in my head all day today.

Dammit, Pat.

I'm hoping that this will pass the curse on, like "Time Is on My Side" in "Fallen".

...You can run, and you can hide,
But I'm not leaving 'less you come with me...

Kerrin's Weekly Roundup

• The "Bridge to Terabithia" movie is coming out and, like GFY Jess, I want to know what the fuck Disney did to it. That isn't the story I read. And Leslie looks like a cross between Punky Brewster and Keira Knightley. And there's a video. Which is all very Disney but it just hasn't got anything to do with the story. So I'm sad. (And, possibly, old and crotchety.)
  

• Also on books, it's been a million years since I've read a new one. I'm rereading Emma, which is always lovely, but any suggestions for something different?

• If you like The Office, go watch God, Inc.
  

• If, hypothetically, you find white crystals on the shelf next to your perfume, and you're pretty sure you haven't been sprinkling either sugar or cocaine around, exactly how long has it been since you dusted, and do you have another personality with a much wilder life?

• If, equally hypothetically, you want to have a discussion about a tapas bar, it helps to enunciate very clearly. Particularly at work.
  

• Here's a new Internet meme: your first Amazon. Mine was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, on September 29 1998. And again I realize, I'm old.
  

• In that same vein, birthday thoughts predominate. What am I going to do with myself to celebrate? Better yet, what are YOU going to do with myself to celebrate? Stay tuned.

Kerrin's Weekly Roundup

• Handbag.com is considering the Least Sexy Men of the Year. (Because, you know.... they're just not Sac.) Their (Brit-centric) nominations are Pete Doherty, Russell Brand, Tom Cruise, Kevin Federline, Jude Law, Callum Best, Paul Danan, James Blunt, Brendan Cole and Peter Andre. To which I say: Pete Doherty. Yuck. He's winning (losing?) with 36% of the vote. I'd also have included Dr. Phil, the naked fat guy from Borat, Borat and John Mayer.

• I don't want to spoil "The Departed", but I don't like sitting through two hours of movie only to have the screenwriters give up on finding a resolution and just finding the shortest way to wind things up. The acting was great (if you don't mind Jack Nicholson gnawing on the scenery, even when he isn't actually pretending to be a rat) and it was just really good all through... till all the air just went out of it. But if you get how I'm supposed to care about the ending, let me know.
  

• And, because I've totally run out of things to say, here's a random picture for you. Home sweet home - it's the Pope Library.
  

Kerrin's Weekly Roundup: Tiny, Shiny and Pretty

• Movies I watch in a normal month: maybe one. Movies watched in the last three days: over five (The Queen, very good; Little Miss Sunshine, of whose indie-angstyness I was skeptical but which was actually also quite good; Crash, incredible but really intense; Dreamgirls, very very good if you know it's going to be a full-on musical, and now I want the soundtrack; a little part of The Guardian, nothing special but then when has the presence of Kevin Costner meant much else; and Mean Girls, on now) With one business trip, I might actually be able to have an opinion this Oscar season.
  

• Favorite new immigrants: Victoria and David Beckham. I think it's pretty sad that he's basically washing up over here, but since it's an awfully lucrative washing-up, I don't feel too bad. And this means more U.S. coverage of them, which, yay, they are so pretty!

• Favorite email this week: from Matt, which read only, "Girl news:" and provided a link to the pretty, pretty new iPhone. (Or whatever they'll call it, I don't care about Apple's fight with Cisco.) He knows me well.
  

• And since I am such a sucker for tiny, shiny, pretty things, here's another one out of CES: an MP3 player about the size of oh, say, maybe a wristwatch face. I am totally sucked in to the iTunes cult, so I'm not too envious - and I honestly don't understand what a USB bracelet would do exactly, but again: tiny, shiny, pretty? Good.
  

• Oooh, and speaking of tiny, shiny and pretty, here's yet another reason to get a Mini.

Worst Dressed

Oooh, Blackwell's annual worst-dressed list is out!

Blackwell strikes again: young celebs on list
Associated Press

Dubbed "style-free and fashion deprived," Britney Spears and Paris Hilton tied for the No. 1 spot on Mr. Blackwell's 47th annual "Worst Dressed" list released yesterday.

"Two peas in an overexposed pod," Blackwell said of the skimpy attire worn by the two celebutantes (Brit isn’t a celebutante at all; who wrote this article? Starlet, maybe.) he called the "Screamgirls."

Some of Blackwell's nastiest words were reserved for Camilla Parker-Bowles, the wife of Britain's Prince Charles, who finished No. 2 on the list.

"The Duchess of Dowdy strikes again," wrote Blackwell. "In feathered hats that were once the rage, she resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic age. A royal wreck." (Aw, poor Camilla. It took her three decades to get her man. Leave her alone. She keeps her hair feathered because Charles likes it – how cute is that?)

Blackwell, no longer an active designer but still an acid-tongued critic of celebrity fashion, scolded actress Lindsay Lohan, No. 3, for turning "from adorable to deplorable." (No arguments here.)

He called Christina Aguilera a "dazzling singer" but added that she "puts good taste through the wardrobe wringer. All crass and no class." (I disagree completely. Exhibit A.)

He referred to Mariah Carey as "Mariah the fashion pariah ... the queen of catastrophic kitsch," and American Idol judge Paula Abdul as "a fallen fashion idol." (He's shooting fish in a barrel, here.)

He said actress Sharon Stone resembles "an over-the-hill Cruella De Ville," and Tori Spelling embodies "down and out in Beverly Hills." (Ditto.)

Grey's Anatomy star Sandra Oh was faulted for too many beads and bangles. "She's layered lunacy from head to toe," Blackwell said. (Bah. She is a gorgeous woman.)

Meryl Streep, who starred in the fashion-themed movie The Devil Wears Prada, came in at No. 10 on the annual dis-list.

"From Streep you could weep," Blackwell said. "Her beauty of a career cannot be denied, but that beast of a wardrobe is pure mother of the bride."

On a kinder note, Blackwell offered his 10 "fabulous fashion independents": actresses Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie and Helen Mirren, singers Barbra Streisand and Beyonce, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Princess Charlotte of Monaco, model Heidi Klum and actresses Katie Holmes and Marcia Cross. (Kate, Angelina, Helen Mirren – love, love, love them!)

Vote Early, Vote Often

Please go here and vote for Karen's movie to win an audience award! It's the first one in the second category: "Shortsheeted."

(And then you can also watch it here!)

Naughty, Naughty

What is this? You have not seen Borat? You did not go for the first time with your entire company? You did not go for the second time with your biggest client?

Then clearly, you, unlike me, lead a normal life full of sense and logic and propriety.

I'm kinda glad I'm not you.

Anyway, to keep you till you do go, look at this clip of Sacha Baron Cohen - unusually out of character on the Daily Show, way back in the day.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Jon Stewart. Mmmmm. Geek crush.

Edited to add: Upon further reflection - by which I mean upon remembering that Sacha Baron Cohen is, in fact, Borat - I wish to retract the above statement. With a shudder.

Good God. Never underestimate the power of a posh Oxbridge accent and a well-cut suit to cause temporary amnesia.

I've Got to Rent a Kid

Cause I don't think I can go see "Happy Feet" by myself without looking really weird.

But come on... dancing penguins? How can you not want to see that?

(...or the real-life version here.)

Always Funny

This was brought on partly by Matt telling a story about a spider in an airplane, and partly by Karen asking about funny movies.

A sense of humor is a must ... particularly for my life. Here's a collage of mine. If none of these work for you, we are probably not friends.

Enjoy. And add your own in the comments.

The "Scat Man" scene from "Nothing to Lose" (and possibly the rest of the movie, but I've never seen it)

"The Daily Show"

Amanda Bynes

Eddie Izzard

"So I Married an Axe Murderer"

Mystery Science Theater 3000