tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30151831553309676082024-03-13T11:04:13.032-07:00psquared to the nthp²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.comBlogger218125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-72576787831254674822015-11-19T08:16:00.001-08:002015-11-19T08:32:09.641-08:00If You Ask Me...<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Looking at my Facebook feed tells me it’s been a big news
week for the worlds that overlap the ven diagram of things that appeal to LGBT
people. Some LGBTs focus on politics, some on celebrities, some on LGBT issues,
some on sex, most follow the big world news and some love zombies. In the last
six or seven days, we were one attack of the undead on a major metropolis from
hitting the LGBT news superlotto.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The thing that struck me most was that often when these stories
are of a controversial nature, my posting decreases in inverse proportion to
the vitriol invoked in the controversy. So if the issue is mildly controversial
(or one of the few things that I have a completely black and white opinion on),
I’ll chime in with my view. But the more uncivil discourse that’s occurring
around the topic, the less likely I am to add my opinion on my timeline. I make
that distinction because I may comment on someone else’s post if I can find a
way to do it without adding to the rancor and chaos that is usually present in
these threads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I thought about how I could weigh in comprehensively so I
wouldn’t have to write three or four separate posts and try to keep up with
that many comment threads. And then I thought, HEY! I have a blog. So I’m
writing it here and I’m going to copy and paste it on my timeline. For anyone
reading this, if you want to comment in some really extreme,
I-refuse-to-acknowledge-others-have-valid-opinions way, do it in the blog
comments. I basically see my Facebook timeline as my virtual living room with
me as the host. As host, my main concern is that none of the invited guests
feel threatened or violated. Obviously that’s extremely difficult when I invite
1500 people (some of whom I’ve never met) into my living room, but I do the
best I can. So all comments made on the timeline should be absent any language
or behavior that would label you a total jackass. If you are unsure about what
kinds of behavior would make you look like a total jackass, please refrain from
joining the conversation in my virtual living room and DEFINITELY refrain from
ever entering my actual living room. (TL/DR: Don’t be a jackass.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Here goes. Oh, one last thing. This is not some thoroughly researched essay about these topics. Like almost everything you read on FB, it's just my ramblings. OK. Now go.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Syrian Refugees.</b> Should we take them? Should we
not take them? I think we should, but I understand why there are people who
firmly believe we shouldn’t. Logically, I know that we always need to try to help
people in need if we can. Helping people is something most humans want to do
when there are no obstacles. In this case however, there is a big obstacle. It’s
fear. Fear of another terrorist attack in our country. Most people over the age
of 20 have a strong emotional memory of September 11, 2001. Even if they were a
little too young to know exactly what was happening, they knew bad guys came
from over there and killed a lot of people over here. It can create a fear that overrides that desire to help.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You say, everyone has
those memories and not everyone has the same level of fear about it. Right, just like everyone knows planes crash and not everyone is afraid to get on a plane.
Different people are afraid of different things. It’s always been that way and
it always will be. Telling people that their fear is evil does nothing to
assuage the fear and certainly doesn’t make them want to rethink their
position. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What should happen is that our leaders should try to be the voice of
reason rather than stoking the fire of fear, using the tragedy as just one more
weapon in their partisan war. For the record, we don’t have border patrol at
state lines so if the federal government decides to take the refugees in they’ll go
wherever they want. Of course, I don’t know why they’d want to go anywhere that
has a governor who’s such a blockhead that he doesn’t even understand how this
all works.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>2. Caitlin Jenner.</b> Well she’s got people
upset for all sorts of reasons this week. First off, some people are pissed off
that she was named Woman of the Year. Rose McGowan seems particularly incensed.
To her I say, until you acknowledge that you owe all Charmed fans a year of
their lives back for that mess you called acting in season four, just sit down
and shut up. Aside from that, can we just pump the breaks a little. Glamour
magazine is honoring her and several other women (actually many other women
since they named the US women’s soccer team as an honoree) as their women of
the year. If you’re listing women who’ve had an impact on our culture in the
last year, Caitlin certainly fits the bill. Also, it’s Glamour magazine. It’s
not like The Atlantic or Mother Jones conferred their highest honor on her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then there is the statement that she will
vote republican in the next election. Of course this is ridiculous. It’s still
doesn’t excuse people calling her Bruce or using the wrong pronouns when
referring to her in their criticisms. It does underscore what I’ve always
contended, which is hitching the LGBT wagon to someone because he or she is a
celebrity isn’t always the best idea. Someone willing to vote against the
interests of the community she allegedly advocates for is not fit to be a
spokesperson or a role model for that community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3. Charlie Sheen.</b> I have to admit I don’t know a
lot of the details of this controversy. From what I understand, he’s
HIV-positive and was being blackmailed. Now he disclosed because The Enquirer
was going to out him. The backlash seems to be coming from everywhere. There
are people making AIDS jokes, which is deplorable. Then there are the people
who seem to think he got what he deserved. What does that even mean? People who
say stupid shit like that just point out their ignorance. HIV is not AIDS and
it’s not the death sentence it was in the 80s so it would be a pretty lame
punishment to smite someone with, at least in a first-world country. But also,
what is it that he did that would make him *deserve* the pain and suffering
that people with AIDS endured back then?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Surprisingly, I’ve read not so great
statements about him from LGBT people, who really should know better.
Suggesting that he’s not really a very good face for HIV just buys into the
notion that HIV is somehow related to the character of the people who have it.
I can’t imagine anyone would suggest that he isn’t a good face for lung cancer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I’ve also read posts about how he’s a terrible person because he didn’t
disclose his status to people he had sex with. Yes, people with HIV should disclose their status to people that they are having sex with, particularly if the sex they are having poses a realistic risk. However, any HIV-positive
person who has had a drug and alcohol problem (even if they are now sober) is probably in the same boat. Drunk and high people are
not the most reliable when it comes to disclosure. Also, if you had sex with
Charlie Sheen in the last four years and didn’t think it was prudent to use
condoms, your poor decision-making skills have probably gotten you into worse
situations than this one already.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>4. Zombies.</b> As I stated above, there was no zombie
attack recently. However, I would still like to speak out on the subject. Brain-eating undead annihilate the entire human race? It’s just not realistic. Here’s
why. According to just about every film or tv show available, zombies might be
the most dangerous threat to humans civilization has ever seen. They do a
pretty good job of simulating a mass extinction event. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">These tales always
leave out an important detail. Witches, warlocks, demons and vampires all need
a human population to thrive. Vampires literally need them for sustenance. All
the others have no real purpose without them. So why would they not all be
highly motivated to work together to wipe out the zombies? You’re not going to
tell me that if the Charmed Ones could vanquish The Source (of all evil, I’m
just sayin’) that there are no witches or demons powerful enough to destroy
zombies. Vampires are pretty badass as well. Faced with starvation, I think
they’d manage to figure something out. So, zombie apocalypse? I ain't buyin' it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So there you have it. The last word on
everything important happening in the world right now. You’re welcome.</span></div>
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</script>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-75173023221331649172015-04-02T20:56:00.002-07:002015-05-05T19:59:22.101-07:00Social Media and the Culture of Outrage<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So
here we go again. Someone from nowhere says something to no one in
particular (or in this case to no one particularly important and
influential) and the internet almost breaks itself trying to ensure
she is pummeled beyond recognition.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">People
with sometimes no (or very little) prior notoriety do stupid things
that would have gone almost entirely unnoticed ten years ago and
before they can even explain or defend themselves, the internet is
hoping they die horrible deaths and/or threatening to burn their
businesses (or houses) to the ground. It's become such a phenomenon
that Jon Ronson just wrote a book about it, So You've Been Publicly
Shamed. In it he talks to victims of these shaming incidents to find
out what happened to them after. Full disclosure: I haven't read it
yet so some of what I write here might overlap.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My
understanding is that he wrote about the victims. I want to discuss
the rest of us – the perpetrators and the bystanders that allow it
to happen. Obviously, not everyone on earth is culpable in these
incidents, but the voices calling for reason and perspective are
usually few and far between, not to mention easily drowned out by the
hysteria.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes
these reactions start out jokingly. It's all fun and games until
someone steps off a plane after a ten-hour flight to Africa (Justine
Sacco) to find out she's been fired and thousands of people are
publicly wishing for her death (or worse, threatening to hasten it
for her).</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the case of Memories Pizza, some of the reaction was clever (buying
the domain legally and putting up a joke website to mock them), but
much of it was ugly. One tweet was basically a recruitment effort to
organize a mob of hysterical villagers carrying torches (KILL THE
BEAST!).</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
backlash to the backlash is already full steam ahead. This particular
incident is almost beside the point. Chances are anyone not working
in digital and social media marketing had to google Justine Sacco to
even remember who she was. Each individual event is basically a flash
flood – the damage is done incredibly quickly and, just as quickly,
the culprit disappears.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of
course, the thread running through all of these events is our culture
of outrage. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant the slight,
how mild the offense or localized the initial damage, within hours a
global movement swells to punish the evildoer. The punishment never
fits the crime.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
this most recent situation, not only did the outrage far surpass the
offense, it ended up being exactly what proponents of Religious
Freedom Restoration Acts have been alleging – religious
persecution. There was no discrimination on the part of the pizzeria.
It was purely speech. In fact, most of the outraged prefaced their
righteous indignation with the admission that the theoretical
discrimination wouldn't ever be an issue. What self-respecting gay
person would serve pizza at his wedding (“his” because in most of
these situations we either forget lesbians exist or we throw them in
as a sub-punchline to the “joke”).
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How
else can you characterize threatening to kill someone or burn down
their business simply because of a statement of a bigoted viewpoint.
It was religious persecution, plain and simple. The internet has
become a mega-hate group. And it hates everything and everyone. Even
if your transgression is simply a call for perspective or rational
behavior, the reaction is to treat you like a Nazi sympathizer.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's
the deal. We are not entitled to be outraged by everything. We are
not deputized to dole out “justice” for every perceived offense.
Several times today I saw on social media this defense of the
reaction: “They brought it on themselves. They are getting what
they deserve.”
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
only thing I can say in response is that all of us are damn lucky
that we almost never get what we deserve for the stupid things we
say.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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</script>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-49279424413075165342014-12-18T21:05:00.000-08:002015-05-05T19:59:56.417-07:00It's Christmas Time (and Time for a Carol) -- Refreshed<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Originally posted December 20, 2009</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
While there might be people on earth that love Christmas music as much as I do, I doubt that anyone loves it more. How could I not love it when it combines super cheesy (I really want to spell that word cheesey, but I always get a red line under it when I do) music and playing the same songs over and over. And since I only have about a month to get away with it, I try to take full advantage of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
This was the first post I wrote about Christmas music on this blog, almost five years ago to the day. In that post, I wrote, "I've created my 'must hear' Christmas playlist." Apparently I can and do get tired of *some* Christmas songs. This list would be drastically different if I were writing about Christmas music for the first time today. However, I'm going to leave the list intact and just update my comments. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
The list is split into categories of classic (before 1970), modern (1970-present) and TV (songs I associate mostly with Christmas specials). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Classic</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
10. <b>Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Ray Conniff</b> -- When we were kids we only had two Christmas albums: We Wish You a Merry Christmas by the Ray Conniff Singers and Holiday Singalong with Mitch by Mitch Miller and the Gang (not to be confused with Kool and the Gang). These days I mostly listen to more pop-py Christmas music, so this hasn't gotten much play the last couple years. I think it has a lot to do with the next sentence, which I wrote in 2009. The only thing that keeps it from being higher on the list is that it is done as a medley with The Little Drummer Boy, one of my least favorite Christmas songs ever. (I can't overstate how much I hate that song. I'd rather here Gilbert Godfrey sing Jolly Old St. Nicholas than hear *anyone* sing Drummer Boy.) </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Z1MoLSxS64I" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<b>9. O Little Town of Bethlehem, Sister Rosetta Tharpe</b> -- I hated this song as a kid. It was always done by a choir and it was sooooooo drab and somber. But one of the first Christmas CDs I ever bought was Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas and this was on it. It completely changed the way I felt about this song. Check it out if you haven't heard this version. That was 2009. I'm listening to it now and it's quite good, but I've basically pulled it from rotation because I always want to hear something else more than this. </span><br />
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<b>8. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Andy Williams</b> -- Obviously everyone knows this song. In my opinion, Andy Williams is the only person that should ever be allowed to sing it. Nothing to add here. There are days when I feel like Andy Williams is the only person who should be allowed to sing most Christmas music.</span><br />
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<b>7. Silver Bells, Mitch Miller</b> -- I usually prefer a solo version of a song to these "gang" -style renditions, but this was my favorite song as a kid and I can't shake it. I still get all tingly when they sing, "Soon it will be Christmas Day." If I'm being perfectly honest, since Katharine McPhee recorded her Christmas album with this song on it, I pretty much exclusively listen to that version.</span><br />
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<b>6. Ole Santa, Dinah Washington</b> -- I've never heard any other version of this song than Dinah Washington's; I couldn't even find it on youtube by anyone else but her. Doesn't matter though, because I can't see how anyone could do it better. I checked youtube again today to see if there was another version of this song. Nothing. So Dinah recorded this song in 1959 and since then no one has even tried to improve on it (or I'm the only person who likes this song at all).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<b>5. When a Child Is Born, Johnny Mathis</b> -- I have to admit, the super religious Christmas songs are not usually among my favorites. I don't know what it is about this one. Maybe it's Johnny Mathis' voice, which couldn't possibly be any smoother. Or maybe it's that the song just exudes hope. And I love the lyric, "For a spell or two, no one seems forlorn." Yeah, what I said in 2009.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<b>4. Count Your Blessings, Ray Conniff Singers</b> -- This is part of another medley on the Ray Conniff album. You have to listen to a bland rendition of Let it Snow before you get to this, but it's worth it. I think I learned to roll my eyes listening to this song because I always thought it was so corny as a kid. But as an adult, I'm pretty corny. And this song always makes me smile. It's funny how the brain works. When I bought this CD in 2009 after not listening to it for years, I was certain that Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Count Your Blessings were in the same medley. No such luck.</span><br />
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<b>3. Sleigh Ride, Mitch Miller</b> -- Maybe it's because the lyrics of this song are so dated and folksy that Mitch and the gang do it so well, but I've never heard a version of this song that I've liked even half as much as this one. That statement is probably still true, even though Kat McPhee does a version of it. They nailed the spirit of this carol.</span><br />
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<b>2. We Need a Little Christmas, Angela Lansbury</b> -- It's criminal what Lucille Ball did to this song in the movie version. Thankfully, this version is brilliant. Plus, with Christmas starting the day after Halloween now, I love the quaintness of Angela worrying that she might be rushing things one week past Thanksgiving day. This is always in the very first rotation of Christmas songs that I play on Thanksgiving night.</span><br />
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<b>1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald</b> -- Simply one of the most perfect voices in the world singing the most perfect Christmas song. Almost everyone else does this as a melancholy song. Ella brings a "que sera sera" quality to it that is just perfect (and a little ironic in that Doris Day also does this song, but doesn't even come close to this). When she sings “Someday soon we all will be together” I feel like it will really will be soon. If you haven't heard her sing it, you haven't heard Christmas music.</span><br />
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<b>10. Winter Wonderland, Eurythmics</b> -- I didn't used to love this song, but it's definitely grown on me the last several years. I must be hot and cold with this song, because I'm back to not loving it.</span><br />
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<b>9. Do They Know It's Christmas, BandAid</b> -- There's just no way I can leave this off the list. When else can you hear George Michael, Bono, Boy George and Sting all in the same song? Even though it's essential, I play it sparingly. It's kind of depressing and I'm not about the “Have yourself a maudlin little Christmas” music. I've tried a bunch of different versions and I can tell you, don't bother. If you're going to play this song, it pretty much has to be this version.</span><br />
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<b>8. Christmas in Hollis, Run DMC</b> -- If you had asked me in 1987, when A Very Special Christmas was released, I'd have told you I would never listen to this song. But more than 20 years later, it's still a mainstay in my Christmas mix. Go figure. LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. If I were going to update the list this would definitely be higher up. </span><br />
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<b>7. Step Into Christmas, Elton John</b> -- There aren't nearly enough Christmas songs with this kind of energy. Thank god I'm updating this blog because I realized this song isn't on this year's playlist and there's not a single good reason for that. It's my first episode of chair dancing tonight.</span><br />
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<b>6. Silent Night, Stevie Nicks</b> -- I used to joke that they must have thought it would be funny to have a witch singing the most sacred of Christmas songs, but the truth is you won't hear a version of this song anywhere that is more respectful of the spirit of it. It's beautiful. I've embedded the live version here.</span><br />
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<b>5. Father Christmas, The Kinks</b> -- OK. I know this is more an anti-Christmas song, but I like to think it's just a warning of what can happen in places where they call Santa something as silly as Father Christmas. Warning: don't play this one around the kiddies. Apparently The Kinks are under the delusion that Santa is fictitious.</span><br />
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<b>4. Do You Hear What I Hear, Whitney Houston</b> -- Do I even need to explain this one? I love remembering this Whitney. And they should have stopped after the first A Very Special Christmas. I don't think I've ever included a single song from any of the subsequent albums on one of my playlists.</span><br />
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<b>3. All I Want for Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey</b> -- Back in the day, I was not a Mariah Carey fan. It wasn't until about 2005 that I really started liking her. But this was always one of two exceptions I made (along with Always Be My Baby). Let's forget about what happened at Rockefeller Center this year and listen to 1996 Mariah sing this live.</span><br />
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<b>2. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), U2</b> -- If it weren't for Bono's incredible voice, I wouldn't care if I ever heard this Christmas song again. Instead, it's one of my five favorites of all time. It may have been pushed out of the top five by some newer carols, but it's probably still top ten.</span><br />
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<b>1. Merry Christmas Darling, The Carpenters</b> -- What I said about Ella Fitzgerald above applies equally here. In fact, I'll go one better. If I could only listen to one Christmas album for the rest of my life, it would be The Carpenters' A Christmas Portrait. That's what I wrote in 2009. I think now it would be a toss up with Kelly's Christmas album but it's really now this has moved into the realm of classic rather than modern.</span><br />
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I assume everyone who grew up in America is familiar with these songs and why they are essential, so I'll just list them without comment:</span><br />
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<b>6. We're a Couple of Misfits (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)</b></span><br />
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<b>5. Holly Jolly Christmas (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)</b></span><br />
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<b>4. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)</b></span><br />
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<b>3. First Toymaker to the King (Santa Claus is Coming to Town)</b></span><br />
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<b>2. Trim Up the Tree (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)</b></span><br />
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<b>1. Linus and Lucy (A Charlie Brown Christmas)</b></span><br />
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Which songs are you listening to this Christmas?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-52214430559901454752014-01-11T21:33:00.000-08:002014-06-12T19:19:17.492-07:002014 Australian Open Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I still haven't finished my music list from last year and here it is already time for the Australian Open. Since getting this posted is time sensitive I decided to procrastinate even longer on the music post in lieu of getting this done on time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm doing it completely differently for this tournament. Rather than two posts talking about the men's and women's draws, I'm stealing something that espn.com does and giving you the “power rankings” of the top players, regardless of gender. I have a couple of reasons for this. One is that I've noticed that the men's draw post gets about ten times more traffic than the post on the women's draw. This way, I get rid of something hardly anyone was reading anyway. Also, it gives me an opportunity to simply focus on the players I think are most noteworthy. I guess I have a third reason as well, which is that with Kim Clijsters retired and Venus Williams not really a factor I'm just not as interested in the women right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My rankings are completely subjective. I rank them not only on their chances of winning the tournament, but also their chances of doing very well, being part of a surprising result (good or bad) and their chances of ending up getting a lot of attention (and whether or not I find them remotely interesting). Men also get points for being hot. The player's seed is in parentheses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>15. Venus Williams (-)</b> – At this point in her career, she's not a threat to win a major. She probably won't even make it to the second week. Still, she's got as good a draw as you can ask for, not having to play any of the top three players until the semi-finals. My brain says she will lose to Sabine Lisicki in the third round, but my heart is rooting for a quarter-final against Petra Kvitova.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nzv2zoWRXZ8/UtImjo02A_I/AAAAAAAABA0/Wwr-qIDp-ac/s1600/Halep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nzv2zoWRXZ8/UtImjo02A_I/AAAAAAAABA0/Wwr-qIDp-ac/s1600/Halep.jpg" height="145" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>14. Simona Halep (11)</b> – She ended 2012 ranked number 47. She's ranked 11th now. That's good for at least a mention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>13. Tommy Haas (12)</b> – I'm pretty sure he's the oldest guy in the draw (but I didn't check everyone's birth date so I could be wrong) and I've just always liked him. It would be a hoot to see him pull off a couple of big wins. Based on his draw (Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer are the top seeds in his quarter), getting to the quarter- or semi-final isn't out of the question.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lsJhWLu84bk/UtIml5iOv5I/AAAAAAAABBo/7Vd_pk52vHQ/s1600/Stephens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lsJhWLu84bk/UtIml5iOv5I/AAAAAAAABBo/7Vd_pk52vHQ/s1600/Stephens.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>12. Sloane Stephens (13)</b> – She's the best American woman not named Serena, so there will be interest. Plus, she could get a rematch with Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round. Last year in the semi-final, Azarenka took a very suspicious injury time-out late in the second set, after she had just blown five match points trying to finish it. Azarenka most likely would have won anyway, but leaving the court for almost ten minutes was a shady move for a defending champion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>11. Grigor Dimitrov (22)</b> – I've been saying this for at least a year (and at some point I may have to face a grim reality), but I still believe Dimitrov is going to have a big result. Soon. However, considering he'll probably have to beat Juan Martin Del Potro and Rafael Nadal to do it here, it won't be now.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fl60lp4VEL0/UtImjUJo-7I/AAAAAAAABAs/4c4-6EGFerY/s1600/Ferrer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fl60lp4VEL0/UtImjUJo-7I/AAAAAAAABAs/4c4-6EGFerY/s1600/Ferrer.jpg" height="153" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>10. David Ferrer (3)</b> – Do I have to? I'm not sure why I have such an aversion to this guy. He's hot, which usually has a significant bearing on whether I like a male player. He just seems like if he ever does win a major tournament, it's going to be because everyone else beat the top seeds and he didn't have to play any. It will still count, of course, and I will give him credit. But it's not something one generally roots for to happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>9. Na Li (4)</b> – Now that I always remember in which order to write and say her name, I enjoy her a lot more. She's fun to watch, whether it's because she's playing well or because she's nailing a few forehands into the stand (unintentionally). She's also fun to listen to when she's being interviewed after the match, sometimes more so when she's been hitting forehands into the stands.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cIBthDhY3eg/UtIml8cbROI/AAAAAAAABB0/3HKNu9Vlrlc/s1600/Sharapova.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cIBthDhY3eg/UtIml8cbROI/AAAAAAAABB0/3HKNu9Vlrlc/s1600/Sharapova.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>8. Maria Sharapova (3)</b> – The good news for Sharapova (other than the news that she didn't change her name to Sugarpova like she wanted to) is that she's beaten Victoria Azarenka the last two times they played. The news that would have to be significantly better to even qualify as bad is that we're coming up on ten years since she's beaten Serena Williams. Of course, since she's already lost to her this year she's gotten that unlucky 13th loss in a row out of the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>7. Andy Murray (4)</b> – I don't know what to make of him. He missed the last quarter of the season due to back surgery. His draw isn't great. To win the tournament, he could potentially have to beat John Isner, Roger Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic in succession. It makes -my- back hurt just thinking about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>6. Roger Federer (6)</b> – Last year was probably a disappointment, but it gave him a whole season to adjust to being the underdog and the sentimental favorite. I doubt he'll win here, but it could be a very emotional and entertaining semi-final if both he and Nadal get there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>5. Juan Martin Del Potro (5)</b> – If Del Potro's going to win another major, it will probably be here – on hard courts at the beginning of the season when not everyone's in peak form. He just won the tournament in Sydney today so he's going in playing well. He's probably the one guy that could beat Nadal before the final.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4. Rafael Nadal (1)</b> – He's the number one seed and the number one player in the world, but there's no ignoring that this is the major tournament where he's had the least success. He also has a draw that might as well have been handpicked by Djokovic. He's got Murray, Del Potro and Federer in his half. Plus he has to play the number one Australian player, Bernard Tomic, in the first round. At least he doesn't have any points to defend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>3. Victoria Azarenka (2)</b> – She's the two-time defending champion. If anyone other than Serena is going to win it, it will most likely be her. But honestly I haven't disliked a top player this much since Justine Henin retired. The screeching, the attitude – I find almost everything about her unpleasant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>2. Serena Williams (1)</b> – I want to be clear that it's not gender bias that had me rank Serena number two rather than one. It's simply that I think Azarenka has a better chance of beating her than Nadal does of beating Djokovic. But I also wouldn't be surprised if she went the whole two weeks without losing a set. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qJQRKFyq-9k/UtImio5a_5I/AAAAAAAABAc/4NEJPhmcu-8/s1600/Djokovic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qJQRKFyq-9k/UtImio5a_5I/AAAAAAAABAc/4NEJPhmcu-8/s1600/Djokovic.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>1. Novak Djokovic (2)</b> – Conventional wisdom says that being one of the fittest guys on the tour is a big advantage at the end of the year. Nole just proved that true, going a ridiculous 26-0 to finish out the year after losing to Nadal at the US Open. But it has also made him virtually unbeatable in the Australian summer. He's the three-time defending champion here. It's possible he won't win, but it's more likely that he will be the first man since Roy Emerson to win the tournament four years in a row.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-55436518760491199222013-12-30T16:13:00.000-08:002014-06-12T19:19:17.497-07:00p²'s 2013 Over-Played Playlist -- Part One<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By over-played I don't mean over-played on the radio (although that may be true also). These are the songs I played over and over this year, so if you have spent time in the car with me you might think they are over-played.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Usually, I've got 20-25 songs on the list and I can knock it out in two blog posts. For a couple of reasons, the list is particularly bloated this year:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">New boyfriend – playing the same ten songs for six months will incur his wrath</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">SMASH – Katharine McPhee and (for a few episodes) Jennifer Hudson are good for a half-dozen songs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In school with people half my age – overheard people talking about songs and artists I never heard of</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, in order to make the list manageable, I'm pulling out songs sung by artists who got their start on singing competition shows like American Idol and X Factor (both here and in Britain). While I would argue that Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and One Direction have created careers far beyond those humble beginnings, I decided to include them in this list for the sake of consistency.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>15. I Got Love (Jennifer Hudson)</b> – The three episodes of Smash that had Jennifer Hudson in them were the best of the season for me. I downloaded the full version of this song, but I'm including the scene from the show in the post because it's just fun to watch her sing. I got love, love, love for J-Hud.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>14. See You Again (Carrie Underwood)</b> – She's beautiful. She's got a beautiful voice. I can't prove this one, but she seems to have a beautiful attitude. One glaring weakness – she can't play a war-time singing nun nanny well enough to please the sophisticated tastes of social media users. At least not live on television. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>13. Gone, Gone, Gone (Phillip Phillips)</b> – Sometimes, since I don't listen to the radio very often, I have no idea whether a song I like is popular or not. Often, I think I found a hidden gem only to find out it's been in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 for a few months. It was the opposite with this song. I was under the impression that this was a really big hit (it peaked at number 24). Oh well, I liked it enough to include it on the list.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>12. Laying Me Low (David Cook)</b> – I keep trying to make David Cook a thing. I'm pretty sure he's never going to be a thing. But as long as he keeps trying, so will I. There is an “official lyric video” for this song, which I imagine means they wanted to put the song on Youtube and Vevo, but didn't want to spend money making a video.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>11. Good for You (Katharine McPhee)</b> – The first of three Kat McPhee songs on the list. She allegedly has an album coming out in March 2014. Just like everything else connected to SMASH, it's pretty much a mess. Originally, they were going to record it in between seasons one and two so it could be released during season two. Apparently, that schedule was too hectic. Not that it mattered, because no one other than me and my boyfriend were watching SMASH anyway so there was no momentum to cash in on. Then it was supposed to be released in the fall. It seems she was too busy having an affair with the married director of the show to have it done in time for that either. I'm still holding out hope that there will be an album. Until then, I'm consoling myself with her songs from the show.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>10. 3000 Miles (Emblem3)</b> – I really thought these guys would win X Factor last year, but I lost interest in the whole season after the second or third live show so I don't really know how they ended up fourth. The song from their debut album that made the Billboard Hot 100 isn't on my list, but this is the first of two songs from it that did. It's the second single.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>9. Kiss You (One Direction)</b> – Best Song Ever wasn't. This is way more up my alley. I have to confess that I don't totally get the point of the boy band. I mean, I understand that teenage girls go crazy over them. But why are there almost always five of them? Rarely does more than one of them go on to any real solo success. I can only name three of The Jackson Five, maybe two Osmonds, one Backstreet Boy. On the upside, I guess they are creating jobs for guys who otherwise would be home smoking pot in their bedrooms. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>8. Original (Katharine McPhee)</b> – I seriously don't remember seeing her perform this song on the show, but I really love it. It's just what I want in a pop song and a pizza – extra cheesy.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>7. I Can't Describe (Jennifer Hudson)</b> – J-Hud has had virtually no success in terms of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With the exception of her first single, she's never even cracked the top 50. This song hasn't even charted (yet). The fact that there isn't a video for it doesn't bode well. She's got a new album coming out in the next few months. Maybe this will be the one that finally makes her a pop star.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>6. Tie it Up (Kelly Clarkson)</b> – Kelly continues to be on the same page with me, emotionally. When I was wandering around NYC all tweaked out listening to Beautiful Disaster and Addicted. She released Sober in July 2007, just in time for me to be wandering around NYC listening to it in my first 90 days clean. This year, she went and fell in love. She really needs to hire me as her social media manager so we can hang out. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>5. Spaghetti (Embem3)</b> – The version I've posted isn't my favorite (I like the album version better), but given the choice between seeing them and not, I'll always choose seeing them. The thing I love about this song is that it's EXACTLY the kind of song I expected from them based on their performances on X Factor. And not that this should matter, but they are way cuter than One Direction.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4. Caught in the Storm (Katharine McPhee)</b> – Of all the songs Kat sang during season two, this is the one I thought could have been a decent single. Unfortunately, the SMASH producers never seemed to lift a finger to promote any of the music from the show</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>3. Blown Away (Carrie Underwood)</b> – I tried to like this song when I heard it in 2012, but I just couldn't stand it. Really. Couldn't. Stand. It. Then she performed it on American Idol early this year and I fell in love with it. As much as I didn't like it before, I liked it ten times that much after. It's probably my favorite Carrie song ever now. Every time I hear it I think that they remade The Wizard of Oz, this could be its Over the Rainbow. Of course, then The New York Times (and everyone on Twitter) could claim that “Judy Garland most likely became a drug addict because she foresaw Miss Underwood's leaden portrayal of Dorothy in a dream.” It's a shame Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton owned country music this year, because I really hoped Carrie might get an award for this song or the entire album.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>2. I Can't Let Go (Jennifer Hudson)</b> – I can't figure out for the life of me why this wasn't released as a single. Just like with the song Touch Me from the first season, I don't know why they brought someone so talented on the show (in that case Ryan Tedder) and then made no attempt to capitalize on it other than for one scene of television show that was being watched by about a dozen people.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>1. Miss Movin' On (Fifth Harmony)</b> – I scoffed when Simon Cowell put these five girls together as a group on X Factor last year. Of course, I had completely forgotten that he put five random guys together on the British version of the show two years before that and the “One Direction” they went was straight to the top of the charts (that is quite possibly the worst pun I've ever written – so bad that I think I'll leave it). The girls finished third (just like the boys did), beating out Emblem 3 along the way. This song not only sounds like a Katy Perry song (and I love songs and groups that sound like something I've already heard), but the title sounds like Kelly's first single after Idol – Miss Independent. It's one of those songs that I have to listen to twice every time it comes up in the rotation. I get to the end and hit repeat (at least once).</span><br />
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<br />p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-71414750985099358132013-12-13T22:31:00.000-08:002014-12-04T11:58:50.222-08:00More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part Two<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here are ten more songs for your Christmas collection. You can hear the entire playlist here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhShYpOMENw&list=PLYKc8CUrPNlB1RciM48h7jhSSd-E1TPIL" target="_blank">The Ultimate-ish Christmas Playlist</a>.<b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Silent Night (Tamyra Gray)</b> – I know that I knew American Idol released a Christmas album in 2003 so I have no idea how I never knew this existed until last week. The Stevie Nicks version will always be the standard for me, but in just a few days this has become a big favorite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Blue Christmas (Kelly Clarkson)</b> – I never really got Elvis singing Christmas music. In fact, I'd never heard a version of this song that I liked until I heard this one. I guess it shouldn't be a shocker that Kelly could make me like it. There are 14 songs on her Wrapped in Red album and there's only one that I haven't really gotten into yet. I don't think it's the poor song's fault though; it's the song right after 4 Carats and I just keep hitting the back button so I can hear that again. Having said that, I had to take a break to do some more chair dancing to that song.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Little Altar Boy (The Carpenters)</b> – I've never even heard another version of this song. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who think Karen Carpenter is about the only person who could sing this song and not make it either sappy or creepy. If you listen to her whole body of work, she sings so many songs that should just be ridiculous but when she sings them they aren't. She had an amazing gift for sincerity that continues to amaze me 30 years later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Christmas Eve (Billy Eckstine)</b> – There are a few Christmas albums that I love almost from beginning to end. Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas is one of them. If I had to guess, there will only be one or two people who agree with me that this is a great Christmas song but I love it. “We'd be doing all right if we made each night more like Christmas Eve.” Indeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Snow Miser / Heat Miser (Dick Shawn / George S. Irving)</b> – This is one of those songs that we all remember. But we all remember it wrong. The first line isn't “I'm Mr. Snow Miser.” It's “I'm Mr. White Christmas.” For the record, I'm extremely glad that I live under the domain of the Heat Miser.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Joy to the World (Aretha Franklin)</b> – I don't think I really need to sell or justify this one. It's Aretha Franklin singing Joy to the World.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>O Holy Night (Jennifer Hudson)</b> – I don't own this because I can't find anywhere to download it. It's apparently from a Christmas special she did in 2009. I only heard it for the first time last night. I already am obsessed with it. If ever anyone needed to record a Christmas album (now that Kelly has finally done it), it's J-Hud. Every song would be an instant classic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Belinda Carlisle)</b> – Here's another one I didn't know existed until last night. For some reason it never occurred to me to google Belinda Carlisle Christmas until then. She has another song called Christmas Lullabye but I wasn't bowled over by it on first listen. I'll try again, but really she's about as synonymous with Christmas music for me as Elvis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Christmas Time (Christina Aguilera)</b> – I always like when I hear a pop singer sing a great Christmas song that I haven't heard before. I don't know if this is an original X-Tina Christmas song or if it's just one I'd never heard before. But as soon as I heard it, it went into regular holiday rotation. The video is extra awesome because she's wearing one of her trashy get-ups while she's singing it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Wrapped in Red (Kelly Clarkson)</b> – One more Kelly carol to wrap things up. Really though, just get the album. It's got at least 13 good songs on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-2OLbM2_Ymc" width="460"></iframe><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-67198427385699329162013-12-12T22:11:00.000-08:002014-12-04T11:54:42.107-08:00More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part One<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I did my first Christmas song blog post in 2009, then I didn't do another one for three years. That's just craziness. So this year, I'm going to do a two-parter. Plus, as a bonus – because Brandon asked for it – I've created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhShYpOMENw&list=PLYKc8CUrPNlB1RciM48h7jhSSd-E1TPIL" target="blank">Youtube Christmas playlist</a> with all the songs from all the posts. I may even throw a few bonus ones in there to see if you're paying attention. Part two tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Happy Holidays (Andy Williams)</b> – It's the holiday season... That one line is the most common refrain sung by my family whenever things start to get a little chaotic in December. On a good day, you might hear that belted out a dozen or more times a day by various family members. It wouldn't be the holiday season without it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Carol of the Bells (The Carpenters)</b> – I pretty much disdain on general principle any Carpenters' song that doesn't have Karen's voice attached to it, because Richard was such a control freak (by virtually all accounts) and I'm of the belief that his tyranny played into her anorexia. However, it's the holiday season... so I will acknowledge that he is an amazing pianist and I don't think I've ever once skipped this song when it has come up in the shuffle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4 Carats (Kelly Clarkson)</b> – Again, I usually loathe the sexy, breathy Christmas songs. And since this has a lot of similarities to the Christmas song I detest more than almost all the rest of them – Santa Baby – that by all logic I should hate it. But, it's Kelly (and it's the holiday season...) so none of that applies. I just listened to it five times in a row in the car on the way home and I'm listening to it as I write this. In fact, I just took a break to do a little chair dancing. It might end up making my list of favorite pop songs of the year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/INa6QixFieI" width="460"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>It's Not Christmas Without You (Katharine McPhee)</b> – Kat's Christmas album was released three years ago, but with her profile higher after she had two seasons on Smash I hoped maybe she'd get a TV Christmas special this year. I would totally have tuned in for it, and if nothing else, more people would have gotten to hear this song (which, according to Wikipedia, she co-wrote). I mean, com e on, it's the holiday season... Throw her a bone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/U1XgSio_15k" width="460"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Mistletoe (Justin Bieber)</b> – I guess I'm not the only person who thought this sounded like I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. Wikipedia says that one reviewer called it “I'm Yours goes Christmas.” Plus, I found this mashup on Youtube when I searched Jason Mraz Mistletoe. I suppose we could bash Justin for such a blatant imitation, but ya know, it's the holiday season... So let's just give him a break and chill with Shorty under the mistletoe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>The Christmas Song (Ella Fitzgerald)</b> – I don't love this song. I know the Nat King Cole version is a classic. It's been recorded by scores of singers – from Aaliyah to Dwight Yoakam. It is pretty much the quintessential Christmas song. I just don't ever really get excited about it. But hell, it's the holiday season... so here's the one version that doesn't make me wish I was somewhere with my head in a bucket of shit.*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MKG5iJb2kSY" width="420"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (The Pretenders)</b> – Until I heard the Ella Fitzgerald version in the mid-1990s, this was my absolute favorite cover of this song. It's one of the most perfectly sung Christmas songs ever. Once I hear this song, then it's the holiday season...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Bing Crosby)</b> – I can hear you saying, “Bing Crosby? Really?” And I'm sure you know what I have to say in response. It's the holiday season...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GcZAwoip5aY" width="420"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Underneath the Tree (Kelly Clarkson)</b> – It's the holiday season... so just like every other season, you can NEVER have too much Kelly Clarkson. This is an original song from her new album, Wrapped in Red, but it sounds like at least five different other Christmas songs. I can't really figure out which ones though, so any help on that would be greatly appreciated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-1223064638029113202013-12-11T21:13:00.000-08:002014-06-12T19:19:17.468-07:00Classic Christmas Comedy, Part 2<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A little more seasonal silliness to get you in the Christmas spirit.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. David Sedaris, Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family (read by Julia Sweeney) -- This is one Christmas newsletter you'll want to read to the very end.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2. Shirley Q. Liquor, The Twelve Days of Kwaanza -- Every year it come up the same time and we go through the same procedure, year after year.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JV04rj5QCzU" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">3. David Sedaris, Santaland Diaries -- 31 minutes is a long time to ask anyone to sit still listening to their computer, but you have to at least check out the shorter version (link below) to hear David Sedaris do a Billie Holliday impression. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/u5XLjG_S6eE" width="460"></iframe><br />
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<a href="http://www.npr.org/2005/12/23/5066175/sedaris-and-crumpet-the-elf-a-holiday-tradition" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2005/12/23/5066175/sedaris-and-crumpet-the-elf-a-holiday-tradition" target="_blank">Or, the shorter version if you prefer</a>.</span><br />
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<embed allowfullscreen="true" base="http://www.npr.org" height="386" src="http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=5066175&m=5066414&t=audio" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" wmode="opaque"></embed><br />
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<br />p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-7698357925097315222013-12-10T21:59:00.002-08:002014-06-12T19:19:17.551-07:00Classic Christmas Comedy, Part One<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's no secret to anyone who knows me (or reads this blog regularly) that I love Christmas. I've written posts about my favorite Christmas music, as well as one about things to do to make the holiday more fun. I even wrote one about counting your blessings. I can be very sincere and polyanna when it comes to Christmas. But really, who are we kidding? Read the rest of the blog. So tonight (and tomorrow), with no real writing involved at all, here are some of my TRULY favorite holiday stories, sketches, stand-up, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. <a href="http://cms.springboard.gorillanation.com/previews/58/video/624839/" target="_blank">Ed Grimley Gets a Visit from the Devil</a> -- I couldn't embed this one and the video quality is not top-notch. But 25 years later, I never get tired of hearing him say, "Golly that's a pain that's going to linger well into next year."</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2. Festivus -- The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dS7-jcsB_WQ" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">3. Lewis Black, Hanukkah and Christmas -- Eight days of gifts: that works well on paper.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bGxEymIe3FE" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">4. David Sedaris, Six to Eight Black Men -- For starters, Santa didn't "used to do" anything.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NYdpte1W0vk" width="460"></iframe><br />
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<br />p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-77065365473491505752013-12-09T12:57:00.000-08:002014-06-12T19:19:17.554-07:00Seven Ridiculous Things I'm Worried About Today<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tonight is the presentation for our final projects for the master's program at USC. I never wanted a master's degree before last year. Now I don't think I've ever wanted to accomplish anything more than I want this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I've practiced for this presentation. I'm totally prepared. We've been working on it all semester. All evidence points to it going fine. But my stupid brain likes to concoct all sorts of scenarios where I self-destruct. And none of the scenarios is really likely (except maybe the last two). Since my degree is in digital strategy and social media, I'll give you a Buzzfeed-style post about what's going through my head today. Here are all the ridiculous things I'm worried will happen tonight:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I'll be washing my hands in the restroom and I'll splash water all of the front of my pants, making it look like I pissed myself.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j8n0LcxKVpw/UqYtujKm-jI/AAAAAAAAA-0/pdWfuXZzDMk/s1600/piss_resize_223033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j8n0LcxKVpw/UqYtujKm-jI/AAAAAAAAA-0/pdWfuXZzDMk/s1600/piss_resize_223033.jpg" height="206" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I will actually piss myself.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nOMarqMxgqw/UqYt2OXRy4I/AAAAAAAAA_E/AsZchO5pkO4/s1600/sandler+piss.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nOMarqMxgqw/UqYt2OXRy4I/AAAAAAAAA_E/AsZchO5pkO4/s1600/sandler+piss.gif" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Since I've been sick all weekend, that I'll throw up on my shoes right before I go on stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I'll throw up on my shoes while on stage.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m3x4mAP-OV4/UqYtqU_tDqI/AAAAAAAAA-k/MJ3yt4ja6yQ/s1600/justin-bieber-vomit-throw-up-stage.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m3x4mAP-OV4/UqYtqU_tDqI/AAAAAAAAA-k/MJ3yt4ja6yQ/s1600/justin-bieber-vomit-throw-up-stage.gif" height="144" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I'll faceplant as I'm walking onto the stage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Or off of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I'll screw up what I'm saying and shout, “FUCK!”</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Suw9VyLGAeg/UqYt5-j1dpI/AAAAAAAAA_U/7z-imQ2ECBA/s1600/tom-brady.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Suw9VyLGAeg/UqYt5-j1dpI/AAAAAAAAA_U/7z-imQ2ECBA/s1600/tom-brady.gif" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That I'll introduce myself by saying, “Hi. I'm Petr and I'm an alcoholic.”</span><br />
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p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-59296245066403831142013-12-08T08:49:00.001-08:002013-12-08T11:36:45.328-08:0050 in 50<script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Improbably, considering the way I lived for several years in my 30s and early 40s, I'm going to be 50 in 50 days. Even though I've been sober for more than six years now – therefore less likely to do something that would lead to an early demise – I'm a little surprised that I've gotten so close. I never expected to live to be 50. Well, at least not from the time I was about 23.<br />
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Ask just about anyone who was gay and in his 20s in 1987 and you won't find a ton of us who expected to live this long. And you will find a lot of us who didn't. More than 25,000 people died of AIDS in the US in the 80s. I couldn't find stats on how many of them were gay, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was a lot. The original name for the disease was GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency). I remember reading an article in the paper about it in 1982 or 1983. I wasn't even 20 years old and hadn't even acknowledged to myself that I was gay, and already I was terrified of dying.<br />
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I only mention all that to explain why I, and so many other gay men my age, had no expectation of a life past 30, let alone 50. The irony, at least with regard to me, is that it wasn't until I was a few years into my 30s that I started to go off the rails. It started pretty slowly, which led to an overlapping period where my life was veering off course, but no one would have noticed. At 35, I was the development director for a non-profit organization in Philly. It was a good job and had I stayed that course, I might have ended up making a pretty decent living. But at 35 I was also just getting introduced to club drugs like ecstasy and ketamine (K).<br />
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The problem, I think, was that while I did a really good job of making sure I lived past 30, I never changed my thinking about how unlikely that was. So by the time I was 35, I really had this mentality that I was living in the bonus round. I had accomplished the biggest goal I had when I was 25.<br />
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I had a lot of fun from 35 to 38. We ran up and down the east coast to celebrate gay pride events, NYE, Tuesdays. And when we weren't traveling we just turned the spotlight on the disco ball hanging in my living room, smoked pot and watched the room spin. We came up with so many brilliant ideas in that apartment in South Philly. I wish any of us could have remembered even one of them a day later.<br />
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Of course, the more fun we had the more fun I wanted. The answer to the question of how much do I want (of anything) is always more. I always want another piece of cake. Another day off. Another bump of K.<br />
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That pursuit of more led to a string of bad decisions. For about five years it seemed like there was no problem so bad that I couldn't find an even worse solution. I know by the time I was 40 I was very keenly aware that I never expected to live that long. What I'm not sure about is whether I thought death was chasing me at that point or if I started chasing death.<br />
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Whichever the case, it only took a few more years before it was apparent that death and long prison term were waaaaaaay higher on the list of probability than good job and house with a picket fence.<br />
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So now I'm closing in on 50 and somehow death seems farther away than it has at any point in my life. I live in an awesome city, with a wonderful man and I'm about ten days away from having a master's degree from USC. I never wanted to be this old. But only because I had no idea it could be so much fun.<br />
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p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-71098362636216907532013-08-27T22:46:00.000-07:002013-08-28T07:01:31.834-07:00Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today is my sixth anniversary of getting sober. According to my app, that means I've gone 2,193 consecutive days without drinking or using drugs (unless prescribed by a doctor). At this point, it's been quite a while since I've been surprised at waking up sober in the morning. I also pretty much expect that I'm going to make it through the day and go to bed sober again. However, when these milestones come up and I get a chance to step back and look at the big picture I'm a little overwhelmed by it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's not so much that I can't believe I've been living drug-free. I did that on and off for most of my 20s. The shocking part of it is my commitment to being sober and to participating in a 12-step program. I've been on the earth for several decades now and, other than things that are absolutely mandatory, I'm not sure I've ever stuck with anything else for six consecutive years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right from the get-go I was a quitter. I ran out of kindergarten and declared I was never going back. As I recall it was something about my brothers and sisters and everyone in our neighborhood having off for some Catholic holy day, but I went to a public kindergarten so I had to go to school. I don't have the best memory of childhood events, so this might not be what happened; but it's definitely what I remember happening. It took two or three people to drag me the eight or so blocks to the school, with me kicking and screaming and crying the whole way. They finally got me into the classroom, but I was not there long. I threw my “I quit” tantrum and took off out the door. I'm fairly certain that I made it back home before my brother and sister (although for the life of me I don't remember how I could have gotten past them unseen).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That was a theme that pretty much carried through my life. I went away to college for one semester and dropped out. I took off half a year, then went back to a different college for another two and a half. Then I drove across the country and lived in the Monterrey area for two months. Then back to college in Philadelphia. I left Philly in 1988, six credits short of an undergrad degree. I finally went back to school in San Diego and transferred the credits back to Temple University to get my BA. From first class to graduation day, 12 years and three months elapsed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Most of my jobs have lasted one to four years and a few of those I stormed out, quitting in a fit of rage. A couple of those I went back to the next day, a couple I didn't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My longest relationship so far has been three-and-a-half years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I left detox after 72 hours even though they recommended I stay a week. I walked out of inpatient rehab at 11 pm the first night, against medical advice. I spent more time waiting to be admitted (eight hours) than I did in the rehab (six hours). The outpatient program I attended was a five-day-a-week program that typically lasted six months for most people. I went for a little over three months and the first two of those I only attended three days a week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You get the picture I'm sure. I did not walk into my first 12-step meeting expecting to stay sober and certainly not expecting to stay connected to the program. I envisioned a year of abstinence from alcohol and drugs and maybe going to meeting for six months or so. I figured I'd get to the middle of step four and then wander off to follow something shiny. I had no reason to think this would be any different from anything else I had ever done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">None of what happened next was part of my plan. I just started doing the things everyone else was doing. Little by little my life started changing. I think it helped that things got better really slowly. If everything had returned immediately to the way it was before, I have a feeling I may have not have kept doing the work. It took just long enough – about two-and-a-half years – for something really great to happen. That's when I moved from NYC back to Southern California. Then, when I got to San Diego I had to start completely from scratch again. It was just like it had been when I first got sober – no job, no money, no place of my own to live. I really had no choice but to stay close to the program where I knew there were people who would help me. It took me that long again to put my life back together and start to feel like I was standing on my own two feet. Before I knew it I had been sober five years and still a very active member of the 12-step fellowships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Something happened during those five years, something that probably took every day of that to get deep enough inside me to really change me. Little by little over that time, I came to realize that there is something waaaaaay bigger and more powerful than me running the show. Some people recoil from the word God or god.* But we can't communicate without words we all understand and everyone pretty much gets the gist of what is being talked about when that word is used. It happened incrementally and so gradually that I didn't even know it had occurred until last year at this time. It was in that moment to step back and look at the big picture. All of a sudden I just knew that I trusted god completely. THAT took me by surprise. The chance of that happening had never even entered my mind in 2007. Once it was real for me though, the whole game changed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This year has been all about doing things that I previously thought were beyond my capabilities. I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if I think I'm capable of doing something. I'm only responsible for doing my best. I just leave the outcome up to god. In doing that, I discovered that faith isn't a feeling. Faith is action. I do the next thing that's in front of me and I let go of the notion that I know what the outcome should be. I just keep on moving forward and I let god navigate. So far, every stop along the way has been exponentially more amazing than anything my pea brain could have imagined. I can't wait to see what's next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">*I have this tug of war with myself all the time over the capitalization of that word. I'm not trying to be disrespectful of the beliefs of others, but I don't conceive of god as having any human qualities. I can't imagine that god is a he or a she or that whatever god is gets all bent out of shape about something so silly as a capital or lowercase G.</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-39348437686697688102013-08-26T14:50:00.000-07:002015-03-31T16:50:00.854-07:00Media-crity<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was a little strange watching the VMAs this morning after all the buzz about them on Facebook last night, but the truth is that I probably wouldn't have set aside time to watch them at all if people hadn't been buzzing about them. Other than two or three minutes where Miley Cyrus was a disaster though, I'm not sure I see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty standard fare as awards shows go. Nobody cut off anyone's acceptance speech, no one showed up on stage drunk or high (where's Renee Zellweger when you need her). Hell, Justin Bieber wasn't even there to amp up the douche bag quotient. I just jotted down some observations as I went through. Upon review, there are probably way more questions than there are observations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Lady Gaga</b> – I saw comments on Facebook that went both ways, from amazing to reductive (that was the word used). I can't say I saw much to support either claim. Gaga's music and her performances are becoming fairly generic. I want to love her, I really do. I certainly don't dislike her. But I just was a little underwhelmed by the opening number (of course you'll see later that I felt similarly about the closing number).</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>One Direction</b> – They kept shouting out Brooklyn, but realistically how many people from Brooklyn were in that audience. Why is Harry chewing gum? That's his name, right? Harry. Being a 13-year-old girl musically, I love One Direction but I'd have thought they could cast better looking guys for a boy band nowadays.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Best Pop Video</b> – Selena Gomez??? Seriously? That was the fifth best song of the nominees. How is she different from Demi Lovato? Are we completely certain they aren't the same person?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Robin Thicke & Miley Cyrus</b> – It's hard to say anything that hasn't already been said. It's also weird watching it after all the commotion. It's almost anticlimactic. Almost. She has a Gene-Simmons-sized tongue. I'm a little surprised the fans reaching for her on the stage weren't pulling away by the end. And let's face it. Shouldn't Robin Thicke be taking more heat for this? They must have rehearsed this debacle and he still went out there with her. The most disturbing part of the whole thing for me was when they cut to her dancing with her hand while he was singing. Why was she even still on stage at that point?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Oh. Apparently it's the performers who are from Brooklyn.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Why can't <b>Drake and Macklemore</b> come out in their underwear with big hands rubbing on their crotches? I volunteer my big hands for the job.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Ryan Lewis</b> thanked someone named Peter (Petr?). I'm just going to assume it was me.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Who is <b>Kevin Hart</b>? </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I would not have thought <b>Jared Leto</b> could do anything to make himself unattractive, but between the hair and the get up... I'm pretty sure he shouldn't have been wearing any one of those garments, let alone all of them together.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Do we think <b>Kanye</b> was happy he wasn't the main target of ridicule for a change? Or is he sitting at home regretting not bringing North on stage dressed as a compass?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Best Female Video</b> – I'd have voted for Taylor Swift if it were the goat version of Trouble.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Best Video with a Social Message</b> – I love love love Same Love. Every time I look at Macklemore I think (first I think HOTTTTTT, but then...) PLEASE STAY SOBER.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Justin Timberlake</b> – Is there a term limit on being President of Pop? I love him as a pop star, as a host on SNL and as an actor. Attention Miley Cyrus – You can transition from child star to adult star without making a pit stop as messy almost-porn star. Just think JT and not LL. And is it just me or would most of his dance moves be super cheesy if someone else were doing them?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>'N Sync</b> – I have to admit I was hoping for something a little more Diana Ross and the Supremes, like JT knocking one of them off the stage “by accident”.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Is this the VMAs or a Justin Timberlake concert with a whole bunch of special guests?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Watching these awards shows over the last few years I've noticed that the favorite reaction shot at all of them is Taylor Swift singing along. Does she know every word to every pop song ever released?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was perfect that Jimmy Fallon shouted out Dick in a Box, which is really JT's best video ever. The uncensored version has embedding turned off, but go to Youtube and search dick in a box uncensored.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I missed half of the best songs of the summer. How is it that I don't have that <b>One Direction</b> song?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Quick, cut to Taylor Swift making some sort of nasty face at Harry Styles.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Macklemore & Ryan Lewis</b> – I can hardly ever hear this song without tearing up. OMG OMG OMG OMG JENNIFER HUDSON!!! Now I'm really gonna cry. The best part of this was somehow I didn't see anyone post about her showing up so it was a complete surprise for me.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The sound keeps going out on my recording of the show. The first minute of Gaga's video was mute. I'm used to sound dropping when someone curses, but it's going out for a minute or so at a time. Even during commercials.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Adam Lambert's</b> still a thing? I had no idea. Good for him.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Artist to Watch</b> – Poor Austin Mahone. I see the future and it's going to be a Biebercalypse. Mahomies??? Oh no.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Drake</b> – I wish I liked his music more, because he's so damn hot. But he's every bit as bland as he is hot.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Rihanna</b> has looked like she's been trapped in hell all night. She needs a box of Cheez-Its or something. That always makes me feel better when I'm bored.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Best Male Video</b> – Why does Taylor Swift always walk like she's a runway model? I keep waiting for her to get to the center of the stage and then just turn around and flounce away again. Thank god Bruno won. I may be the only person on earth that thinks Blurred Lines is a complete mess. I have no idea why anyone likes that song. Meanwhile, I loves me some Bruno.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Bruno Mars</b> – He sings about some weird shit – grenades, gorillas – but he always makes it work.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I would like to go on record as saying that I wish <b>Joseph Gordon-Levitt</b> was the one getting most of the roles James Franco gets. Nothing against Franco, I just love JGL.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Video of the Year</b> – Taylor Swift doesn't know what to do. When was the last time she was nominated for an award and didn't win? I knew JT was popular, but I didn't realize until watching this that he's like “Michael Jackson Thriller” popular.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Katy Perry</b> – So Roar is her biggest hit? How did that happen so quickly? What metric are we using to determine this? It's a decent song, but it's hardly her best. As for this finale, the Brooklyn Bridge is in the background thinking, “Bitch don't you know who I am? If you want to perform with me you better bring something better than this.”</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">According to my DVR, the show ended seven minutes early. I'm glad they didn't have it run overtime, but with all those stars there they couldn't get one more performance out of someone? I was wondering why the JT segment lasted 21 minutes. They should have let him go for 30.</span><br />
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</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-34115276788053271092013-08-25T22:24:00.000-07:002013-08-25T22:25:57.851-07:00Voices<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I've written about the drug-induced psychosis and the voices in my head a lot on this blog, but I've written about them from the perspective of remembering them a couple years after they stopped. I found something I wrote about the voices when I was still hearing them. It was really interesting for me to see what it was like in the middle of it. I'm going to share it here tonight. I hope y'all find it interesting too. I didn't put dates on anything I was writing at the time, but I think I wrote it just before I went to rehab. I'm not sure it is totally coherent and of course as was usual back then, it just sort of ends. Enjoy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Circa June 2007</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It takes so much effort to block out the voices inside my head, I often forget that I'm in the middle of a conversation with someone actually in the room. One of the most infuriating aspects of the auditory hallucinations is that it makes me look rude – which is about the worst thing in the world to me. To quote Suzanne Sugarbaker (via Li Sing from the episode of Designing Women where Suzanne takes on a foster child), “Having bad manners is worse than being poor.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">From the outside, it probably looks to most people like my life is in ruins because I'm homeless and basically penniless. In truth, it's in ruins because I've had my sense of common courtesy and etiquette stolen from me. When you feel like every thought is public and you notice every goddamned gesture, word or expression in your surrounding world, you have no choice but to know that the majority of people you meet hate you before a word is ever spoken because they misinterpreted a thought you just had or because they haven't misinterpreted it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Since I am constantly trying not to say three quarters of what I'm thinking already, that security breach can be deadly. There have been nights when I've actually been frightened for my safety because I could not keep dangerous thoughts from coming into my brain. Walking through a not-so-good neighborhood previously was not a problem, but when the two shady looking guys on the corner hear you THINK they look shady, well life gets a little more hard to manage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Add to that having grown up in a family where the phrase, “I should kick your ass” was probably used as casually as “It's dinnertime”, it's easy to get careless with semantics and phrasing. In some situations, that can lead to telepathic misunderstandings and culture clashes. Not to mention that I won't believe I'm the only person on earth who occasionally has an offensive thought about someone else. But right now I feel like I'm the only one having them broadcast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Most of the time I'm able to easily put all of this into the framework of drug addiction and paranoia in tandem, but there have been one or two times that I've been almost certain someone has known my name or some other piece of banal information that they couldn't possibly have already known (unless they could hear my thoughts).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So now I'm feeling like I'm in prison for a crime that I only thought about committing. I'm a drug addict and I need help. But if this decision to sequester myself – which I hate more than anything I've ever done – is based on bad information then I don't know how I will ever move on from it. [note: I think this is referring to my decision to go to inpatient rehab.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I do know, however, that I will move on from this issue and any things or people that have helped me create it. I have spent the last ten months walking through Manhattan with my head up even while feeling totally humiliated. I am going to keep picking myself up and going forward. But even if the thoughts and voices in my head are only my perception of what the people in my life think and feel, at least for now I have to remove them from my life so I can think for myself and learn to be an adult again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">– End –</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm not sure what I was getting at in the last paragraph. I think it was about what I thought my family and friends were saying to me in my head. Reading this now, I remember how real it all felt. Those voices were absolutely real to me. No matter how many times there was iron clad evidence that I was hallucinating, I always found some reason to believe that it was all really happening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm so grateful that some of this stuff I wrote back then still exists. In two days I will be sober for six years, but I never ever want to lose touch with what not being sober was like. I don't know why I was able to come back from that when there are so many people who can't, but I understand I've been given an amazing gift. I thank the universe every day for it.</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-12167304050032536252013-08-24T23:12:00.000-07:002013-08-25T00:03:45.925-07:00METHodology<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I stumbled across a journal tonight with a story in it that I wrote five or six years ago. I will probably tell that story here in the next day or so, but tonight I want to write about the journals I kept back then. First off, that story I came across ends in the middle of a sentence. I'm not kidding. There are five and a half pages and then it just stops mid-thought. I have no idea why I stopped writing the story. I don't even know exactly when I wrote it because it's not dated. It's handwritten in a book that I was using in the last months of my addiction and first several months of sobriety. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are three or four different books that I wrote in back then. Some of the stuff is just pages and pages of my “business” accounting. At least for part of the time, I kept meticulous – if undecipherable – records of every transaction. If you are reading this and were a participant in all those shenanigans, fear not. I not only used code names for everyone, it looks like I used different code names every month. I can't imagine what good any of that did me when I'm sure I had no idea from one week to the next who was who and what was actually happening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm soooooo glad I kept a lot of this stuff off the computer. I'm sure at the time I kept it off the computer because I figured it would be easier to lock up and hide if it were on paper, but now the beauty of it is that I get to see how my brain worked back then. So many neurons were firing at the same time that I needed to invent words to keep track of everything. Also, no idea was so good that it couldn't be made better by complicating it beyond comprehension.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Take my blog for example. It was pretty much the same as it is now, only it had these short pithy (at least I thought they were) reviews of many of the books I've read and it had a ridiculously long list of “favorite websites” that I never visited at all except the night I spent about 14 hours searching for favorite websites to put on that list. I wish I remembered some of them, but those are gone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What isn't gone (THANK GOD) is my brilliant plan for how I was going to redesign the blog and turn it into a website with several different sections covering myriad topics. For reasons that now completely escape me, I had decided that it would be like a university. Each section would be a class (I even assigned how many credits each would be worth). Oh wait. I just remembered why it was like school – because of the name. Everyone would certainly get the college theme because it was psquared2thenth.com (I kept going back and forth on whether it should be the number 2 or just to). I had a syllabus and everything. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here were the “classes” I envisioned:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Pathological Chemistry (8 credits)</b> – Now this must have been the most important section of the website because it's the only one worth eight credits, but I have no idea what I intended to include in this section. It actually makes more sense now, because I write about all the stuff that happened when I was an addict. But I certainly had no intention of writing about that stuff back then so I can't for the life of me figure out what this was about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Hyperbolic Divanometry (6 credits)</b> – This one I remember. A lot of it is lost now, but I used to write all sorts of crazy shit about Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Diana Ross and a slew of other divas. In fact, if you click on the BWH label in the left-hand column (BWH stands for Blogging While High), you will find a couple of the posts I wrote back then. I think <a href="http://psquaredtothenth.blogspot.com/2011/05/baby-mama.html" target="_blank">Baby Mama</a> is my personal favorite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Sports Psychosis (4 credits)</b> – This one's pretty boring. It was just where I was going to put all my tennis posts. The difference is, back then they were wild. I wish I still had the bizarre mindset about tennis that I had back then. I used to crack myself up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Triangulation & the Power of Me (3 credits)</b> – An entire section of the website devoted to my obsession with Charmed and my honest-to-god belief that I had a Charmed power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Etymythology & Critical Assumptiveness (6 credits)</b> – I can't even begin to figure out what the hell critical assumptiveness is, but it must have been pretty damn special for this section to be worth six credits. I do remember what Etymythology is and to tell you the truth I think it really should be a word. Whenever I look for the origin of a word, I'll usually find a dictionary or online reference that will say, “From Latin. First Known Use 1764,” Who cares? That's not what I want. I want the STORY of the origin of the word. Who coined it? How did it happen? You know, the myth of the etymology. The etymythology.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Free Eclectives (3 credits)</b> – I had a recurring post in my old blog called Eclectricity. I used it whenever I had a whole bunch of random thoughts that I couldn't turn into blog posts. I'd just throw them all on a page and post it. But for the website I wanted to expand that. I don't know what any of this means, but I listed the types of things that would go in this section: Free Radical Quotes and Random Numbers, Uncountably Infinite Tangents & Co-tangents and Irrational Proofs, Corollaries & Theorems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Co-Sines of the Apocalypse (2 credits)</b> – I wish I knew what this was about because it sounds awesome and I can't imagine why it's only worth two credits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Some sections that are on the brainstorming page but didn't make the cut for some reason: Regression Equation, Harmonic Progression, Indeterminate Expression.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That is just one of several examples of what was going on in my head circa 2006. I don't remember how much time I spent coming up with all that, but looking over how focused I was on it it's no surprise that I was often 13 to 14 hours late for wherever I was supposed to be back then.</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-86235670996173586602013-08-23T19:36:00.001-07:002014-06-12T19:18:51.120-07:00US Open 2013 -- Women's Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Back in the day, probably until about 2005 or so, women's tennis was far more interesting to me than men's tennis. I never really loved that whole Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang era. There were male players over the years that I really liked – Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker – but never as much as players like Evonne Goolagong, Tracy Austin and Steffi Graf. After Graf retired, we had a minute or two that wasn't so interesting, but then the Williams sisters showed up, Jennifer Capriati returned, Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo were in the mix. The early 2000s were filled with great players and fun tennis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Ah the good ole days. There used to be some drama about who might win a major title. Now the only drama is will Serena Williams win or lose? That's really the only question. Serena is the number one seed and she has 16 major titles. The other 31 seeded women in the draw have eight major titles combined. It would be sad if it weren't just so completely uninteresting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's not even worth breaking it down by quarter. Here's the gist:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Serena has a possible tough match in the round of 16 against Sloane Stephens. That will be fun not only because Sloane beat her earlier this year in Australia, but because they apparently don't think all that highly of each other. That's always a treat, whether it's men's or women's tennis. Other than that, there's not one player in her half of the draw that can beat her if she's playing even close to her best tennis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is a remote chance that Serena could play Venus in the quarterfinals, but it seems unlikely that Venus would win four matches in a week to get there. That's probably the saddest part of all for me. Kim Clijsters retired last year and now Venus is just about at the end of her career. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Down at the bottom of the draw it's a little more interesting. Four of the six seeded players who have won grand slam titles (besides Serena) are in the same quarter. However, two of them – Ana Ianovic and Sam Stosur – are complete head cases and not even in the top ten anymore. That leaves Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova. Azarenka just beat Serena for a title last week and Kvitova is in the final of a tournament this week. On paper, this could be interesting. In reality, Azarenka will probably wield her evil banshee powers and destroy Kvitova in straight sets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I suppose I should at least mention who I think the other two semifinalists will be. My guess is that it will be Aga Radwanska who gets beaten up by Serena and Caroline Wozniacki getting roughed up by Azarenka.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the final, it's hard to go against Serena. She's won all but four of the major finals she's played in her career. <b>Williams def Azarenka</b> in three sets.</span><br />
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p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-23008471248401580432013-08-22T22:38:00.002-07:002014-06-12T19:18:51.023-07:00US Open 2013 -- Men's Preview<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JvdLyuytA4A/Uhb1IFthP7I/AAAAAAAAA5o/giczoKT9eLY/s1600/Felpo+champ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="134" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JvdLyuytA4A/Uhb1IFthP7I/AAAAAAAAA5o/giczoKT9eLY/s200/Felpo+champ.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Juan Martin Del Potro 2009</td></tr>
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Note: Had to abandon the one word title format for tonight and tomorrow</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The US Open starts Monday. It's been nice not having a full-time job all year. I get to watch way more tennis than usual. Today we preview the men's draw, tomorrow the women's. As usual, I only list the seeded players that interest me. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pL_KBBhrVoE/UhbwcTvOWlI/AAAAAAAAA34/1iuyufb8988/s1600/Djokovic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pL_KBBhrVoE/UhbwcTvOWlI/AAAAAAAAA34/1iuyufb8988/s200/Djokovic.jpg" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Novak Djokovic</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Quarter One<br />
Seeded Players: Novak Djokovic (1), Juan Martin Del Potro (7), Tommy Haas (12), Fabio Fognini (16), Benoit Paire (24), Grigor Dimitrov (25)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I haven't even looked at the other quarters of the draw yet, but let's just call this The Hot Quarter. Youzhny is probably the least hot of the eight seeded players, but since I couldn't find a shirtless picture of him I can't make that statement with any certainty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As for the tennis, the best first-round match is likely to be <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iQRekas4x_s/Uhbwb4AAYlI/AAAAAAAAA3w/K1K3ZG9v2jk/s1600/Dimitrov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iQRekas4x_s/Uhbwb4AAYlI/AAAAAAAAA3w/K1K3ZG9v2jk/s200/Dimitrov.jpg" width="93" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grigor Dimitrov</td></tr>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
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between two unseeded players – Lleyton Hewitt and American Brian Baker. I should say it will be a good match if both of them live through it. There are a couple of orthopedic surgeons that probably own small islands thanks to these two. <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even with the top seeded Djokovic, this is a pretty wide open quarter. He could meet Dimitrov in the third round. Grigor's going to have to make a big splash at a major soon or be content with being a top 20 player for his whole career (assumes he even makes the top 20). It's not likely to happen on hard courts against Nole.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qTSnLyHqeeI/Uhbwc98xh8I/AAAAAAAAA4I/NBsBljs9BNo/s1600/Fognini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qTSnLyHqeeI/Uhbwc98xh8I/AAAAAAAAA4I/NBsBljs9BNo/s200/Fognini.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabio Fognini</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pukRBcjcE54/UhbydoeRC5I/AAAAAAAAA5U/FbmYGizH-jU/s1600/Paire+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pukRBcjcE54/UhbydoeRC5I/AAAAAAAAA5U/FbmYGizH-jU/s200/Paire+2.jpg" width="81" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benoit Paire</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If Paire and Fognini play in the third round, Logo could air it as gay soft porn. In a quarter that is riddled with hotness, these two are near the top of the list. I actually know nothing about Paire's game. Fognini won a couple of smaller tournaments right after Wimbledon, which both included wins over Tommy Haas. Unfortunately, he'd have to beat Djokovic for the first time in his career (0-5) to even have a chance of playing Haas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Speaking of Haas, he and Del Potro probably both get to the round of 16 without much problem. Delpo has already beaten Haas twice this year on hard courts. No reason to think he won't get the hat trick (showing off my knowledge of hockey lingo there). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My heart says Juan Martin over Djokovic in the quarterfinal. My head isn't fully on board, but I'm going with it anyway. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8EY-Q0ROqiI/UhbwbwThdNI/AAAAAAAAA3o/fmu1jq_I_7E/s1600/Delpo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8EY-Q0ROqiI/UhbwbwThdNI/AAAAAAAAA3o/fmu1jq_I_7E/s200/Delpo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> Winner</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Juan Martin Del Potro</b></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gt4n9yURwYs/Uhbydq1uJWI/AAAAAAAAA5g/g3zuCz-TGBY/s1600/Wawrinka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gt4n9yURwYs/Uhbydq1uJWI/AAAAAAAAA5g/g3zuCz-TGBY/s200/Wawrinka.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Stan Wawrinka</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Quarter Two<br />
Seeded Players: Andy Murray (3), Tomas Berdych (5), Stan Wawrinka (9), Andreas Seppi (20)</b></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qdpGwLu00u4/UhbwehUUKII/AAAAAAAAA4w/hGCmpE0y9fo/s1600/Seppi+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qdpGwLu00u4/UhbwehUUKII/AAAAAAAAA4w/hGCmpE0y9fo/s200/Seppi+2.jpg" width="104" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andreas Seppi</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This looks to be a pretty straightforward (if not particularly pretty) quarter. Murray hasn't had a great summer since winning Wimbledon, but he should get to the quarterfinal without too much trouble (probably beating Seppi in the fourth round). If Berdych gets past Wawrinka in the round of 16, he's got a fighting chance against Murray. He has a winning record head to head and he beat Murray earlier this month in Cincinnati. Still, Murray has gotten to the final of the last four majors he's played in, winning two of them (plus the Olympics). In a big moment, he's likely to stomp all over Berdych. I'd be surprised if Murray even loses a set in that match.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Winner</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Andy Murray</b></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eZux60pfNog/UhbwcuN5aeI/AAAAAAAAA4A/VFD_hIUe9LA/s1600/Ferrer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eZux60pfNog/UhbwcuN5aeI/AAAAAAAAA4A/VFD_hIUe9LA/s200/Ferrer.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>David Ferrer</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Quarter Three<br />
Seeded Players: David Ferrer (4), Richard Gasquet (8), Milos Raonic (10), Jerzy Janowicz (14), Janko Tipsarevic (18), Feliciano Lopez (23)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This quarter has everything. Guys willing to stay on the court for six hours at a time, guys with giant serves that can almost knock you down, a young American player with a lot of potential, a couple of super hot guys. Oh wait. It is missing one thing – even one player with a chance of wining this thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Gasquet, Raonic and Lopez are at the top of the quarter. I can <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLD5k3MFW_A/UhbweOGpl_I/AAAAAAAAA4g/8WtWpiKGijA/s1600/Lopez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLD5k3MFW_A/UhbweOGpl_I/AAAAAAAAA4g/8WtWpiKGijA/s200/Lopez.jpg" width="121" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feliciano Lopez</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
say without even going to Google that I don't think there is even one big win at a major between them. If I have to pick one of them, I'm going to say that Raonic probably gets to the quarterfinal.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SOzmhmE18Mo/UhbwfUXwtxI/AAAAAAAAA5A/QXWjvZWXBY0/s1600/Tipsarevic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SOzmhmE18Mo/UhbwfUXwtxI/AAAAAAAAA5A/QXWjvZWXBY0/s200/Tipsarevic.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Janko Tipsarevic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the bottom of the quarter we've got Ferrer, Janowicz and Tipsarevic. Ferrer got to the French Open final and he's probably the toughest mentally of the bunch, but Janowicz has a big serve and is coming off a pretty good Wimbledon, getting to the semifinals. If he stumbles against Tipsarevic in the third round, I think it's a toss up between Ferrer and Tipsarevic. But I don't think Janowicz will stumble. In fact, I think he's getting to his first US Open semifinal.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QztjJY5zRI/Uhbwd7lcIUI/AAAAAAAAA4Y/Zyc4e8THGiI/s1600/Janowicz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QztjJY5zRI/Uhbwd7lcIUI/AAAAAAAAA4Y/Zyc4e8THGiI/s200/Janowicz.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Winner</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Jerzy Janowicz</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Quarter Four<br />
Seeded Players: Rafael Nadal (2), Roger Federer (7), John Isner (13), Sam Querrey (26)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I momentarily thought about only listing Nadal and Federer here, but two things stopped me. First, I did that in my Wimbledon preview and we all know how well that turned out. Second, Isner has played very well this summer and has a legitimate chance against Nadal in the fourth round. I added Querrey to the mix because Federer hasn't played well all summer and that's who Querrey could meet in the second round. It will be interesting to see if Roger can pull it back together in New York. Here's a stat for you. Federer hasn't beaten a player in the top ten since he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. Here's another stat. Nadal now has a winning head-to-head record on hard courts against Federer (7-6), but not one of the 31 matches in their rivalry has been at the US Open. It would be a treat to finally see them play there. If they do, I suspect Nadal will extend his winning record.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--H-cs0owmPY/UhbwecXSQzI/AAAAAAAAA4o/cT7AtcFj-Tc/s1600/Nadal.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--H-cs0owmPY/UhbwecXSQzI/AAAAAAAAA4o/cT7AtcFj-Tc/s200/Nadal.jpg" width="70" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Winner: Rafael Nadal</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm going with my heart all the way to the end. <b>Del Potro</b> beats Murray in the first semifinal, while <b>Nadal</b> gets past Janowicz in the second.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Winner<br />
Del Potro</b> in four sets</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-69595869665480440432013-08-21T19:41:00.000-07:002013-08-21T19:41:14.203-07:00Lisbon<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The other day when I was writing about Disneyland I mentioned my trip to Portugal in 2001 and said I should tell that story. Today seems like as good a day as any for that. Originally, the trip was my friend's idea. It was when I was living in Philadelphia and smoking pot with the Duchess of Broad St. (not his real name) every day. When I say we smoked every day, I'm exaggerating of course. It couldn't have been more than six nights a week at most. I know that because I remember smoking pot with other people when the Duchess wasn't around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, it really just started as a story he was telling me about when he went to Portugal and there were all these people on the street trying to sell him hash, but he had been told that you couldn't trust them because they would really just sell you elephant shit. Obviously, having been forewarned, the Duchess was being extra careful; so, he ended up in a hotel room with a stranger trying to smoke elephant shit. We were friends for a reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Out of that story came a plan to go to Portugal together. We had everything all figured out. He even sent me an email with the airline information so we could both book the same flight. Then, about an hour later he backed out. I hadn't yet booked the airfare so it wasn't the end of the world, but I was definitely disappointed. I'd never been to Europe. I was really excited to go. I don't remember how it all went down now, but somehow someone talked me into going by myself. When I say I don't remember how it went down, I mean that I can't quite figure out what convinced me. I don't remember doing a whole lot of planning or prepping before I left. I know I bought a Portuguese-English phrase book. I know because in the introduction, the author gave the best description of what Portuguese sounds like. I was stumbling over the pronunciations with my friend and told him that it sounded more Slavic then Romantic. Then when we were thumbing through the intro, I read this: to many people, Portuguese sounds like a drunk Frenchman is trying to speak Spanish. Bingo! So I left Philadelphia only knowing for certain how to say thank you in Portuguese.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Next thing I know I'm in the airport in Paris trying to get my connecting flight. I don't speak French. I took four years of it in high school and another semester in college, but I didn't retain a lot. I can ask you if the nose is a part of the face (Est le nez par partie du visage?) and what's in the box (ce qu'il ya dans la boîte?), but “what gate does the flight to Lisbon leave from” was completely beyond me. On top of that, I had dollars and whatever Portugal's currency was at the time on me (a quick Google search told me that it was the escudo), but no French Francs. That meant no coffee, no croissant, no newspaper. I don't know why this brief experience in France didn't tip me off, but I went merrily and cluelessly on my way to Lisbon (once I stumbled on to the gate I was looking for).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It wasn't until I got off the plane in Lisbon that it all started to sink in. I didn't know where baggage claim was, because I didn't know the words for baggage or claim in Portuguese. Panic took over. I had a brief moment of relief when I found the luggage carousel and there was a woman standing in front of it smoking a cigarette. What a civilized country! They let us smoke in the airport. I loved it already. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Cigarette in one hand, suitcase in the other I confidently headed out to the curb. I figured even without a two year old's basic grasp of the language I could figure out what a taxicab looked like. I was right. What I didn't account for was the utter absence of words that would direct the driver as to where I was going. Of course, that hardly mattered when I realized after I crudely communicated “how much will it be” that I didn't even know how to count to ten in Portuguese and I had no idea which of these escudos I was supposed to give him in exchange for my ride to god knows where.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By the time I got to the hotel I had pretty much decided that I would be spending the next eight days in my hotel room ordering room service and hoping that whatever I ordered was actually food. There was no way I was going outside because I might as well have been on another planet. I decided to just lie down and take a nap. I woke up at 10 pm, completely refreshed. Fuck. Now what was I going to do? I certainly didn't want to sit up all night watching CNN (one of only two channels in English on the TV in my room). I went down to the hotel restaurant to see if they were still open. Of course they were. People were just starting to think about eating dinner at 10 pm in Portugal. The waiter was very kind and assured me that I could go out to the city without too much problem. I didn't really believe him, but I didn't have much choice. I had to at least try. So off I went. It was amazing. I don't know if all Europeans are this friendly, but the people in Lisbon were awesome. The only time they seem even remotely annoyed by me was when I tried to say something in Portuguese. “English please, English.” The looks on their faces let me know that I was all but physically assaulting them with my pronunciations. Other than that, it was the best trip ever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The first day out I went sight seeing to the ruins of some castle. Lisbon is literally littered with castles. There is rubble that used to be royal everywhere. At least that's how I remember it. I was wandering through when this really hot blond guy smiled and presented his camera to me, as if a gift. We took each other's picture and then went on our way. Ten minutes later I ran into him again. And then about 15 minutes after that. At this point we struck up a conversation. His name was Torsten. He was in the German Air Force, but for some reason traveling with the German Navy. This is why he was off on his own apparently. I guess the Navy boys had their own clique and it was No Air Force Allowed.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TYre4wlqnzE/UhV6EiTPMGI/AAAAAAAAA3M/HKo-BE2nUJ0/s1600/me+lisbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TYre4wlqnzE/UhV6EiTPMGI/AAAAAAAAA3M/HKo-BE2nUJ0/s320/me+lisbon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's the picture Torsten took of me</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Well, that was the German Navy's loss and my gain. We ended up spending that whole day hanging out, then we met up again for dinner that night. Same thing the next day. I don't think I've ever had that much to say to a perfect stranger before. I'm pretty sure he was straight, but none of that ever really came up. We just had a really good time hanging out and talking. (As an aside, this trip was in April of 2001; the last time I remember hearing from Torsten was on September 12, 2001 when he emailed me to say he and all his friends were thinking of us here in the US and praying for us.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After he and I went our separate ways the second night (he was leaving in the morning), I was feeling particularly confident and independent. So off I went to a gay nightclub I'd read about in one of my guidebooks. I don't remember the name. I don't remember much about it at all except this couple named Alexander and (I think) Paul. Paul spoke English, but Alexander spoke nothing but Portuguese. We started talking because they smiled at me and I wanted to find someone who could get ecstasy for me. We ended up hanging out until about 5 am (they knew where to get the ecstasy). Then they offered to give me a ride back to my hotel. Awesome. On the way, I was telling Paul (who was translating for Alexander) that I wanted to go to Sintra (to see more castles) in the morning (or I guess later that morning) but I didn't have a way out there so it probably wasn't going to happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Paul: I have to go to work in a few hours, but Alex says he'll take you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Me: Ummmm. If you won't be there, how is that going to happen? We can't communicate with each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Paul: Don't worry about that. Just be outside the hotel at 10 am and Alex will pick you up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was more than skeptical, but I figured worst case scenario I'd jump out of a speeding car somewhere in the Lisbon countryside and find my way back. Alex and I spent the whole day wandering around castles in Sintra. We had the best time. We laughed like idiots most of the day trying to get our points across. But when it came right down to it, we understand almost everything the other was trying to say. Ironically, the only word I had to get Paul to translate to Alex for me when we met up for dinner was “boyfriend”. I tried just about every gesture I could think of, but I couldn't convey that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I kept in touch with Paul and Alex for a little while after I got back home, but I knew I wasn't going to Portugal again anytime soon and they weren't coming to Philly, so eventually we lost touch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's a shame though. The two of them and Torsten are indelibly etched in my memory. It'd be cool if there was some way to say thanks again for helping me have one of the best vacations of my life in a country where I knew no one and couldn't speak the language. If anyone out there reading this knows any of them, tell them I said, “Obrigado”!!</span><br />
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p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-765411885316357322013-08-20T23:52:00.000-07:002014-06-12T19:18:51.110-07:00Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Note: The one-word title thing is starting to tax my imagination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Last night I posted the top ten songs from Disney animated films as sung by the characters in the films. Tonight it's my top ten songs from those films sung by pop singers. Some of the songs on the list are the official versions from the end credits and some are covers. They were all fun to listen to again. I might need to make a play list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>10. Beyond the Sea (Finding Nemo – Robbie Williams)</b> – This is a total cheat because it's not really a Disney song. It played over the end credits of Finding Nemo but it's originally a Bobby Darin song. It's such a great song, though, and Robbie Williams does a great job with it. So it's on the list.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>9. I've Got No Strings (Pinocchio – The Gypsy Kings)</b> – This is from Simply Mad About the Mouse. I usually hate songs sung in other languages. The Spanish version of What It Feels Like for a Girl and this song are the two exceptions. It might be because I never much cared for this in English.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>8. You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story – Randy Newman)</b> – This probably could have been on either list. It's not sung by a character, but that's because they intentionally didn't have the characters in Toy Story sing because it was a buddy movie rather than a musical. I don't even like Randy Newman, but it's virtually impossible to not like this song – especially if you've seen the movie.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>7. Colors of the Wind (Pocahontas – Vanessa Williams)</b> – Who knew when those pictures surfaced in Penthouse in 1984 that Vanessa Williams would end up having such a nice little career. Disgraced beauty queen becomes a Disney princess (sort of). I can't wait to see the movie of her life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>6. A Whole New World (Aladdin – Regina Belle / Peabo Bryson)</b> – This came just after Beauty and the Beast and before Can You Feel the Love Tonight, but it's not even in the same league. It doesn't help that Regina Belle is no Celine Dion. There is also a Nick Lachey / Jessica Simpson version on Youtube. That one's barely in a league at all.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>5. Someday My Prince Will Come (Cinderella – En Vogue)</b> – After the Supremes and before Destiny's Child, there was a minute when it seemed like En Vogue was going to be huge. Funky Divas was beginning-to-end great. They had a bunch of number one hits on the Billboard R&B chart, but then it was five years between Funky Divas and their next album, EV3. They recorded this for Simply Mad About the Mouse. I had no idea how good this song was until I heard them sing it.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4. Circle of Life (The Lion King – Jennifer Hudson)</b> – If it weren't for this performance on American Idol by J-Hud, this song would not have been on either list. She totally made me like it against my will. It's also worth watching just to see how immensely different she looked back then.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>3. Kiss the Girl (The Little Mermaid – Soul II Soul)</b> – When Disney made The Little Mermaid, they hadn't really figured out the whole “Disney song as top forty hit” thing. If they had, this probably would have been recorded by a pop star right away. Instead we had to wait for Simply Mad About the Mouse to be recorded. It was totally worth the wait. For the record, the version from the movie is also incredibly good. It almost could have been released just that way.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>2. Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast – Celine Dion / Peabo Bryson)</b> – This is one of only two songs that Celine Dion sings I can even listen to. I have to admit though, she does a brilliant job with it. Check out the video. It might not be as drastic a change as Jennifer Hudson's, but if you saw this Celine next to the current Celine, you'd probably only think they were sisters.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>1. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (The Lion King – Elton John)</b> – I had this second behind Beauty and the Beast until I listened to it. Then I remembered how ridiculously awesome this song is and how great Elton John sounds singing it. I'm going to just walk right out on the edge of this here limb and say two things: it's the best Elton John song after 1980 AND it's the best song from any Disney animated feature ever.</span><br />
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</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-63262413195213088942013-08-19T22:50:00.000-07:002013-08-19T22:50:27.004-07:00200<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tonight's post is the 200th post on psquared to the nth. [Balloons fall from the ceiling.] To celebrate, I thought I'd choose a topic I'm really passionate about – Disney music. I love it. It's really ridiculous too, because I don't generally love Broadway musicals and I typically hate movie musicals (with the exceptions of Grease and Xanadu). For some reason though, cartoon characters breaking out in song works for me. I'm going to do this post in two parts (part two tomorrow night). Tonight's list will be my favorite songs from Disney animated features – sung by the characters in the movie. Tomorrow night will be my ten favorite pop versions of songs from Disney movies. To keep it interesting, the rule is that a song can only go on one list. So you won't see the biggies on this list tonight because they will most likely be on tomorrow's list. These songs are as much about the movies as they are the songs. Enjoy!</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>10. The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers (Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day)</b> – I don't think there is any explanation necessary for why this is on the list. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>9. Someone's Waiting for You (The Rescuers)</b> – I never saw The Rescuers (even though I owned it on VHS for years). But this song was on one of my Disney CDs and it just grew on me over time. It's just simple and sweet.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>8. One Jump Ahead (Aladdin)</b> – Robin Williams was the star of Aladdin for sure. His songs, Prince Ali and Friend in Me, are way more famous and probably better by some standards that I can't appreciate. I just enjoy this one more. It helps that Aladdin is one of Disney's hottest animated characters.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>7. Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)</b> – This got nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song, but lost out to the title song from the movie both times. The thing is, Beauty and the Beast (the song) can stand on its own as a great song. Be Our Guest is a great song too, but it's not quite the same without the scene in the movie behind it. But man is that scene entertaining. Full screen it if you watch.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>6. I Wan'na Be Like You (Jungle Book)</b> – Up until the new era dawned with The Little Mermaid, music was mostly incidental in Disney animated movies (not counting Fantasia). There usually would be one song, if that. There were two big exceptions – The Aristocats and Jungle Book. The songs in the Aristocats are pretty good. But the songs in Jungle Book are awesome. Louis Prima was the voice of King Louie. I have to confess something about this song. When I was a kid, King Louie freaked me out. He was so frenetic and he had all those weird sounds coming out of his mouth. It mostly just scared me. As I got older, I learned to appreciate this song. The best part is when Phil Harris gets involved. Pure awesome.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>5. The Mob Song (Beauty and the Beast)</b> – I'm not sure I would have given this song a second listen if I weren't such a big Disney fan. I was obsessed with everything about Beauty and the Beast when it was released. I read everything I could. I listened to the demos and work tapes. Howard Ashman wrote the lyrics for this song just a few months before he died of AIDS. I don't remember exactly where I read this, but many people thought he wrote this as an allegory of the way people reacted to the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and early 90s. Listening to it after reading that completely changed the song for me.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4. Belle (Beauty and the Beast)</b> – Beauty and the Beast is definitely in the conversation when you're talking about the best Disney animated features of all time. Everything about it works together. They took a standard musical format and turned it into an amazing film that got nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. This is the third of four songs on this list (plus the one that will be on tomorrow's). It's the feature that really made Disney realize how much money there was to be made from the songs in these movies. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>3. Something There (Beauty and the Beast)</b> – This song isn't really anything other than a plot device to tell the story of Belle and the Beast realizing they may “have feelings” for each other. It's the same tune as the song Belle, but there is just something about the scene and the song that I absolutely love. I know I'm probably the cheesiest cheese ball in the world, but this is my favorite scene in the whole movie.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>2. The Bare Necessities (Jungle Book)</b> – I won't pretend to that I know how great Phil Harris was as a singer or a musician. I really have no idea. But if he was this good all the time, then he was pretty special. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>1. Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid)</b> – Under the Sea got all the attention in The Little Mermaid, but that's only my fourth favorite song from that movie. The is the movie that revived Disney as a powerhouse in the animated movie world. The three right before this one were Oliver & Company, The Great Mouse Detective and The Black Cauldron. The three after it were Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Howard Ashman & Alan Mencken were great at writing songs that brought their characters to life. This is the very best one for me. After these three minutes and two seconds, you know exactly what Ariel's about. Everything she does makes sense after you hear this. It's brilliant.</span><br />
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<br />p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-42827424908328609792013-08-18T22:37:00.001-07:002013-08-18T22:58:26.538-07:00Stuff<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We moved in to our new apartment in Los Angeles last month. My boyfriend drove all of his belongings across the country and we moved many of my belongings from the house downstairs where I was staying to the apartment about 200 yards away. Not everything was here though. We then had to drive down to San Diego to get the stuff that I had left in the attic in the house I lived in there. This is the first time since I left Brooklyn in March of 2010 that none of my stuff is in storage. I lived in one (pretty large) room in San Diego. My friend already had a fully equipped house when I got there so a lot my stuff wasn't necessary. Then I moved to LA to go to school and from January to July, it was pretty much the same deal only I had room for even less stuff. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, when we got back from San Diego that day and everything I owned was in one place AND accessible to me, it was like Christmas day. You have no idea how much fun it is to dig through boxes and find things you forgot you owned. The downside is that you also get done going through boxes and you start to realize how much stuff you've lost or, worse, thrown away for reasons you can't even begin to remember. For the last six weeks, every four or five days I will think, “Hey. Didn't I used to have...?” Then I spend about 20 minutes wondering whether I threw it away before I left Brooklyn, if it might have not made it off the moving truck when I got to San Diego, if I somehow got rid of it moving stuff from one storage spot to another or if it's here somewhere and I just missed it somehow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Mostly what I think about, though, is the ridiculous amount of money I spent when I was using meth. When I first got sober I would talk to other guys who had also been drug dealers (it's amazing how hard that is to write now) and they would talk about how they had tens of thousands of dollars stashed away somewhere and that's what they were living off of. That floored and baffled me. Money didn't just burn a hole in my pocket when I was high; it was as though it spontaneously combusted in there. When I do the math of just the things I remember I shake my head. It's good in a way though, because sometimes I wonder how on earth someone like me came up with the idea to do some of the things I did. I was broke. I was an addict. As risky and as stupid and as dangerous as it was, it was a solution to my problems at the time (and the cause of a whole lot more but that's not what I'm writing about tonight).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It seemed like every time I left the apartment, I came back with bags and bags filled with things we had to have. In fact, sometimes I didn't even need to leave the house. I'd just get online and start spending. The UPS driver had plenty of reasons to come see me (which now that I think about it is maybe why I never got caught doing some of the stupid shit I did). A lot of the spending was frivolous, but not all of it. Once my boyfriend started yelling at me because he thought I was spending too much money. He thought I was out of control (and I probably was). I didn't flinch though. I just told him point blank, “This job I have right now is not going to last forever. At some point the bottom is going to fall out and everything is going to go to shit. I'm not going to have a pension or get a severance. But I will have an apartment full of shit that either I can sell or keep so that we're not living in squalor.” And I was right. It happened just about exactly the way I predicted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">He was right too, though. I was completely out of control. I went out one day after we had moved into our new apartment because we needed a lamp. While I was out I picked up a canopy bed frame and a mattress. Then I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get sheets. $2200 later, I had to have most of the stuff delivered because even with the friend I dragged along with me we couldn't possibly have gotten the stuff into a cab and back to my apartment. If I remember correctly one of the things I bought was a full-length mirror, fully intending to walk out of the store with it. I was cold one night so I went into Macy's and bought a Calvin Klein leather jacket. I was actually notorious for buying jackets of all kinds because the temperature changed drastically while I was out. That can happen when you leave the house at 4 pm and return home at 6 am three days later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I bought a home theater system (complete with a giant sub woofer) at a Circuit City in San Diego and had it shipped back to Manhattan. It was just too good a deal to pass up. I don't even want to talk about the trip to Ikea four days after the Bed., Bath and Beyond extravaganza. I will say that we rented a car to go there and my boyfriend almost couldn't fit into the passenger seat after we loaded everything in. There was a trip to the outlet mall in Palm Springs in November of 2006 where we bought so much shit that I think the shipping charges alone were over $500.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The funny thing is that for as maniacal as I was, I essentially did exactly what I set out to do. Some (maybe even a lot) of the stuff I bought that year has been lost or discarded, but I'm sitting on that bed (which has sheets and a blanket from BBB) right now writing this post. I'm using the television I bought as the computer monitor. I cooked breakfast and dinner on the pots and pans I got in Palm Springs. I call the stuff ill-gotten gains all the time, but there's a reason I like having it around. It reminds me that even in the middle of being completely self-destructive, I wanted a life beyond that. I like knowing that I had some small hope for the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-7324094153815378822013-08-17T23:00:00.002-07:002014-06-12T19:18:51.101-07:00Belinda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The summer is almost over and I haven't seen Belinda Carlisle perform live yet. Two years ago today I got back from a trip to Atlanta and went directly to the Go-Go's concert at the Greek Theater on Belinda's birthday (which of course is today). Then last year I just happened to be in LA in June for something recovery related and I learned that she was performing at the Gay Pride festival that night. It feels like a Southern California tradition now to see Belinda in the summer. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a>I don't really have a whole lot to say tonight. I was on a road trip to San Luis Obispo today. We left at 7 am this morning, drove up, had a meeting, ate an early dinner and drove back. For me to be around people and out of the house for 15 straight hours is completely exhausting. My brain has nothing. But it's Belinda's birthday and I don't like to let that go by unacknowledged.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I've listened to a lot of Belinda songs A LOT over the years. Different songs have been my favorites at different times in my life. The three I'm going to post here tonight I must have played almost a hundred times each those last six months before I got sober.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Loneliness Game</b> – “She lies awake at night, alone in silence. She reaches for the light and waits for guidance.” Add in some sobbing and being curled up in a fetal position and you pretty much have all might nights toward the end (and even at the beginning of sobriety). This song always spoke to me because people always seemed genuinely shocked to find out I was unhappy and lonely. I'm really glad the only reason I listen to this song now is because I love her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Love Revolution</b> – I was obsessed with songs that were about turning your life around and making big changes, which was strange because I never remember consciously wanting to change anything about me. I just wanted the voices to leave me alone. This one, however, mostly had to do with the fact that boyfriend had dumped me. I thought I was so in love and could never live without him. I honestly have no idea whether I thought the song was being sung to him or to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>All God's Children</b> – I had never heard this song until the last year I was using crystal. I immediately started playing it over and over and over. When I hear it now I get really sad for that poor guy who needed to hear this song so badly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Happy birthday Belinda! Thanks for getting me through that dark, scary time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-92148458441286445722013-08-16T22:30:00.001-07:002013-08-16T22:43:10.677-07:00SBS*<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you don't count one semester at the University of Tampa when I was 17 and two months in Monterrey when I was 21, I've lived in four cities in my life – two of them two separate times. I was in Philadelphia the first 23 years of my life, San Diego for the next nine, Philadelphia for five more, New York for seven and a half (two years in Manhattan, two in Astoria, one in Manhattan and two and a half in Brooklyn), back to San Diego for almost three and now in Los Angeles since January. If nothing else, I am good at moving. You'd have an easier time keeping track of someone in witness protection than of knowing my whereabouts from one year to the next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When people go on about the number of Facebook friends I have, which isn't even a lot by Facebook standards, I point that nomadic journey out to them. When you consider the time lapse between the two times I lived in Philly and the two times I lived in San Diego, I essentially have lived in six different cities. Plus, most people in NYC will acknowledge that when you move from borough to borough (particularly when you move out of Manhattan) your circle of friends changes. Honestly, if you move from the Village to Hell's Kitchen you have to add more friends because of all the people who won't travel above 23rd St.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Then there is the whole being sober thing. If I had the inclination and the attention span, I could probably determine fairly accurately how many people on my list of friends are people I know from being in recovery. But I have neither of those things (if you read <a href="http://psquaredtothenth.blogspot.com/2013/08/sloth.html" target="_blank">Sloth</a> you already know that). So I'll just take a wild guess and say half. Probably 600 of those people I only know because I was once a crazy cracked-out mess (of course, they replace the 50 or so people I knew WHEN I was a crazy cracked-out mess that I don't know anymore). In other words, I have had the opportunity to collect a lot of friends and acquaintances over the last (let's not quantify that exactly) however many years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What's my point? Well, it's that things can look one way from the outside, feel completely different on the inside and be radically different from both of those in reality. From the outside, it appears to people that I'm incredibly outgoing and can make friends with anyone. Regardless of how many friends are on a list, or how many people have been crammed into my apartments for Christmas parties and Chocolate parties, on the inside it feels like I'm completely and totally socially inept and that I'm completely unskilled in the friend-making department.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The reality, of course, is that I'm exactly as good (and not good) at making friends as 99.5 percent of the people on this planet. The number of people who like me is pretty big. A smaller number think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. A number that is smaller than that probably think I'm the devil (or at the very least a douchebag). I am pretty certain that this is the reality because it's the reality for most human beings. We all have friends. We all have people who think were nice people. We all have people who adore us and who hate us. It's the human condition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The problem is that how it looks from the outside AND what it is like in reality are irrelevant to my malfunctioning brain. When I say my brain is malfunctioning, I'm not being self-deprecating or down on myself. I'm a recovered drug addict. The problem that caused that drug addiction centers in my thinking. Most of recovery from drug addiction is learning NOT to listen to my brain when it's telling me all the stupid shit it loves to tell me. I know full well it's lying to me. But sometimes it's such a fucking ordeal to fight with it. Sometimes it's just easier to say, “Fine. Everyone hates me. Good to know.” And not because I actually believe that, but because sometimes I don't want to have to take the actions that I'd have to take otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is my fifth time being new in a city. I know the drill. All the people who live here have routines and hobbies and habits and friends. They are all doing their thing. Just like I'll be doing after I've been here for two years or so. I am well aware that if I want friends (real friends, not just people I say hi to at meetings and talk to at school or work) I have to step right into the middle of those routines and habits and say, “Hey let's do something.” Here's the thing though. It's my fifth time being new in a city. I just have been dreading having to do that again. It's kind of exhausting to tell you the truth. I have to be out of my comfort zone. I have to do stuff sometimes when all I feel like doing is nothing. I have to put myself out there and risk running into that small number of people that thinks I'm a douchebag. It feels like it's just easier to go to Disneyland alone and share it with 1200 friends on Facebook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I want to be clear. This is not a post about no one liking me. I KNOW that's not true. I am 100 percent certain that I have friends here in LA and that if I made even a 20 percent bigger effort than I'm making my world would probably get bigger by a factor of ten. This post is about me being the problem. And about how just like a diabetic can struggle with eating right when he knows what the consequences of eating poorly are, I struggle with taking the actions that I know will improve my emotional and spiritual life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm not going to enough meetings. I'm not calling anyone. When I do go to meetings I leave and go right home rather than going to eat and socialize after. Instead of calling the several people I know love Disneyland and inviting them, I throw a half-hearted invitation up on Facebook when I know that people don't respond to those. My sponsor in San Diego told me – more than once – that you can say you want something to be certain way and really believe it, but you have to look at the evidence to find out if you're telling the truth or full of shit. I say I want to make friends and be involved in stuff in Los Angeles, but that's not what the evidence suggests. The evidence clearly shows that I want to sit in my apartment eating blackberries, watching episodes of Charmed and waiting for my boyfriend to come back from Georgia every month. I hate the evidence. It has a way of turning a perfectly good pity party into a call to action. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I probably should not have written this blog post tonight, because I'm not completely sure I'm ready to do anything different and now it's just going to suck the fun out of watching Charmed all weekend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">*I cheated with tonight's post title. I've been doing one-word titles all month. I could have come up with a true one-word title for tonight's post, but nothing I came up with would have been as appropriate as SBS, because SBS stands for Sober Bitch Slap. A sober bitch slap is when an addict is being all whiny with his first-world problems and someone steps in and gives him a dose of reality. The good news is that I've been around long enough now that I know when and how to do it to myself. Let's just hope I listen.</span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-33255538020996624292013-08-15T23:04:00.001-07:002013-08-15T23:10:26.318-07:00Disneyland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I went to Disneyland by myself today. I had never been there alone before and since I have an annual pass, I decided to see how different it would be solo. I knew it wouldn't be weird or uncomfortable. I go places by myself all the time – the beach, the movies, Portugal. Hmm. Maybe later in the month I'll blog about that trip. It's a pretty good story. I wholeheartedly recommend going to a European country alone. One of the two or three best vacations of my life. But I digress (there's a shocker).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, the going alone part was no big deal. However, I did something else – something crazy for me. I checked in on Facebook and Twitter from the Toy Story parking lot (Woody 12B) and then didn't log back onto any social media site for the rest of the day. People who know me are at this moment rubbing their eyes and rereading the previous sentence. That's right. I VOLUNTARILY went socially incommunicado (I almost wrote socially commando) for six full hours. I'd love to tell you it was because I wanted to “be present” and enjoy my day. I suppose I could tell you that; it would be a crock of shit though. I knew I had a blog post to write when I got home tonight and I didn't want everyone suffering from Disneyland Fatigue Syndrome or I'd have had to think of something different to write about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even considering the ulterior motive, it's still a bit surprising I was able to pull it off. I mean I had way better reasons (seven voices in my head) to stop doing crystal and I kept going for more than year from that point. More shocking was the fact that it wasn't even that hard. I just did it. [Editor's note: Just because I did it this once doesn't mean people can try to insist I do it for other occasions. The response to that is Bite Me.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So what is Disneyland like when there's no one to answer to and no one to share the experience with? It's kind of cool. I wouldn't do it all the time, but it was a nice change up. Here are some of the highlights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The last three times I've gone to Disneyland I've thought I'd go to Magic Kingdom first for a change and finish at California Adventure. It never happens. The line to get into MK is always (and I'm not exaggerating – although I'm horrible at estimating so maybe I am exaggerating) 20-25 times as long as the line to get into CA. I have no idea why either. CA is awesome.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">First of all, it has Carsland. If I could live in any Disney town, land or village it would definitely be Radiator Springs. No contest. I was never big on the forest so I certainly wouldn't live with the dwarfs. Plus most of the places Disney characters live are riddled with witches, ogres and other villainous cretins. Radiator Springs is pretty low key. Except for the Radiator Springs Racers. I figured as a single rider, I probably could get through the line in a half hour. Plus, the wait for Tower of Terror was only 13 minutes (not that I went on it, that's what was on the sign), so how long could the wait for the racers be? Two hours. Plus, there were so many people crowded around both the stand-by and the fast pass lines that I couldn't even get close enough to ask how long it would be for a single rider. I decided to mosey. When I have someone to talk to, I can wait as long as I have to for that ride. But alone, with no Facebook to keep me company, there was no way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Racers or no racers, CA still rocks. I headed over to Soarin' Over California. LOVE LOVE LOVE Soarin'. Nothing out of the ordinary happened there though. The real news is at the Grizzly River Run. That's another ride where you can expect to wait a while, especially on a hot day. I timidly walked up and asked the cast member if there was a single rider line for it. Yes. You get your single rider ticket and go in through the exit all the way to the very front of the line and wait for there to be an empty seat on one of the boats. Every friggin' boat has an empty seat. I waited about 47 seconds. SCORE. I ended up doing that again before I left CA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Then I did what has to be the gayest thing a gay man can do (and I'm not even going to exclude gay sex from that statement). Gay gay gay gay gay. I went on Ariel's Undersea Adventure. By myself. I love that ride. So much that I took video of each segment. Is there a word that is gayer than gay, because I think I need it right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Then I went into the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. The cool thing about being alone is you can do things that would be totally lame to even suggest if you were with someone. Redwood Creek is one of those things. But it was a nice little respite, and Shazam! There are corners in there where there is shade and quiet. There are kids 50 feet away, but I had a fabulous little moment of solitude before heading back out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After three glorious hours in CA, I decided it was time to head over to MK. If CA is a place where you can steal a minute of calm, MK is where serenity goes to die. To be tortured, disemboweled and decapitated really. Now, these are ostensibly the same people that are milling about CA not bothering a soul. In the MK, it's like an entire country of people raised by wolves. They're pushing, cutting you off, rolling their strollers over your foot. One kid (probably 16 or so) walked backwards right the hell into me. Going fast. And then turned around like he was stunned that there was some obstacle blocking his path. I wanted to just be OK with it, but my eyes had a different idea. Fortunately, I think adolescents are too self-absorbed to be affected by “the look”. But his mother saw it.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i78dqq8N9NE/Ug2-PTuasUI/AAAAAAAAA2A/uZ3ZtkmTq5I/s1600/Matterhorn+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i78dqq8N9NE/Ug2-PTuasUI/AAAAAAAAA2A/uZ3ZtkmTq5I/s200/Matterhorn+2.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">On top of the rudeness, there is no single rider line for Space Mountain. Bite me Mr. Disney. There is, however, one for the Matterhorn. So I did that instead. Then I went and had the chicken dinner at the Plaza Inn. Seriously, if you only spend money on one thing when you're at Disneyland, spend it on the chicken dinner. For 14 bucks they give you a mountain of chicken that resembles the Matterhorn, with mashed potatoes, gravy, a biscuit and green beans. I honestly don't know what the green beans are doing there. There's already way too much food and I'm certainly not filling up on vegetables when I have fried chicken sitting in front of me. I was so hungry that I scarfed the whole thing before it occurred to me to take a picture. No need to fear though. Google images to the rescue. Check this shit out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was pretty much done for after that, but I wandered around and did more of those things I would never do with other people – Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the Mickey Mouse animated shorts (Laurel and Hardy, who I'm pretty sure were real people, were in one of the cartoons), Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. All fun to do when you go to Disneyland so often that you can waste a trip on whatever you want. I finished up in the Disneyland art gallery. Then I went over to City Hall to see if I could buy a stamp. I got a postcard for my niece and nephew and I saw a mailbox there so I figured I'd mail it before I left. The mayor of Disney (or whoever works at City Hall) told me they don't sell stamps anywhere in the park. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zd485qpO73s/Ug2-NpaH7cI/AAAAAAAAA1s/qAQlOvpT7QA/s1600/Lincoln.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="129" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zd485qpO73s/Ug2-NpaH7cI/AAAAAAAAA1s/qAQlOvpT7QA/s320/Lincoln.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But there's a mailbox right there. What the hell is that for? Do people come to Disneyland with their car insurance bill (already stamped) and just drop it in the box there? So now I have to find a stamp somewhere. God knows when those poor kids will be getting their postcard. I'll probably end up hand delivering it to them.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SsmAfvWKq70/Ug2-P8MvUqI/AAAAAAAAA2I/8_v1yNI03Cs/s1600/Sprint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SsmAfvWKq70/Ug2-P8MvUqI/AAAAAAAAA2I/8_v1yNI03Cs/s200/Sprint.jpg" width="112" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One last thing. I had no intention of going onto any social media sites, but I was trying to text my boyfriend and send him some pictures and videos throughout the day. What a fruitless endeavor that was. I have no idea what Sprint did to piss Disneyland off, but I'm pretty sure I'd have better data service inside a lead box.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you got this far into the post, god bless ya. I hope you enjoy the pictures and videos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3015183155330967608.post-48453918488866188052013-08-14T23:28:00.001-07:002013-08-14T23:28:15.341-07:00APPeal<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I realized something as I was sitting around doing next to nothing today. Here I am two-thirds of the way through my master's program in digital strategy and social media, and I haven't posted anything relating to those topics yet this month. I know I posted about school, but I feel like I should at least be talking about some of this stuff that I spend all my time looking at, thinking about, learning and using. Don't worry though. I'm not writing about anything intellectual (god forbid). What I'm going to do is show you some mobile apps I love that you may or may not already know about. I'll try to stay away from the really obvious ones like Instagram. Who knows, maybe one of them will end up on your phone tomorrow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I discovered some of my favorite apps directly through school. We talked about them in class or one of my classmates showed one to me. Others came from other friends and from my “free app of the day” app, but I still found them indirectly because of school in that I wasn't all that interested in any off-beat apps people were trying to show me before I started this program. Now I must have more than a hundred apps on my phone. Fear not. I'm only going to tell you about five.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>1. Timehop</b> – One of my classmates presented a review of this app to the class. It's like it was made specifically for me. Every day, you open the app and it takes you back in time(line). What did I post on Facebook on this date last year? Two years ago? Three? OMG even four years ago today? Yup. All of those. I love seeing what idiotic things I was thinking and foisting on all my friends. I'm pretty sure it's free, but I don't remember for certain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>2. Demandar</b> – This one I got from a friend in San Diego. It's a really simple concept and pretty simple to use as well. You hold the camera up vertically and spin around slowly in a circle. About five times during the process the camera snaps a picture. Voila! A 360 degree photo view. It's awesome. This one might have been 99 cents. Totally worth it. I love love love this app.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>3. Emulsion</b> – This one's a little crazy and hard for me to describe. Basically you start with either a photo from your library (or you can take a pic directly from the app) or a blank canvas. Then you choose your brush type, the style of the spatter and the color. Then you just run your fingers over the canvas. Instant art. For someone like me, with no talent for visual art, it's a really cool way to have a little fun without feeling like I can't draw. It's essentially mobile finger painting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>4. Feedly</b> – I almost broke down and cried when I found out iGoogle is shutting down as of November 1 of this year. They have been issuing the warning since the beginning of 2012, so I've had plenty of time to get used to the idea. Still, change is traumatic for me. I don't know what's going on in the world unless it's right there on my home page when I open my web browser. Other than that, if someone doesn't share a link on Facebook I'm completely in the dark. I finally had to start hunting down another news reader. Feedly has a website AND an app. Sold. Plus I love how clean and easy the UI is. I'm still going to miss iGoogle, but at least I won't miss out on what's going on in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>5. GifBoom</b> – I don't use this one all that much, mostly because Facebook doesn't support gifs and that's where I spend most of my time. But when I do open it and start to play, I can't stop. If you've never made a gif, get this app. It's so incredibly simple you'll be giffin' up a storm in no time. If you love making gifs and haven't tried GifBoom, check it out. I had to review a whole bunch of gif-making apps for a project at my internship and this was by far my favorite one.</span><br />
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<br />p²http://www.blogger.com/profile/17000504448114915783noreply@blogger.com0