barn dance

if you know me/read this blog, you know i was brought up on PBS. sesame street, square one, ghostwriter and reading rainbow clips, dialogue and songs have stuck with me, even after all these years.

there's a gorgeous full moon over the city tonight - after yesterday's crazy rain storm the humidity is down and it's amazing out. when i saw the moon as i got off the subway i was reminded of a quote from a reading rainbow episode

full moon shining, shining big and bright. pushing back the shadows, holding back the night

i remembered it was from a book they read during the episode called 'barn dance' and i was thrilled to discover the entire episode, including the reading of the book, in video format online. so if you're in the mood for some childhood nostalgia, and a book that captures the mystical way the night can feel, i suggest you 'take a look'. :)

everything's right with the summer coming

usual suspects update - ceppos is in nyc for the summer (working for my old boss! yay networking!). brogiin will also be moving back to nyc this summer after she graduates from stanford law (smarty pants). diana is moving to dc after the wedding so the boy can go to georgetown law (yay east coast!) and maynard is engaged and getting married in september (weddings! i love weddings!). hooray for the usual suspects!

as for me, it's thursday but it feels like it should be friday. attempting to be productive today as i know i won't be tomorrow. our summer fridays start tomorrow though and i'm really looking forward to a relatively straightforward work summer where i don't have to start a new job or launch a website halfway through. my memorial day weekend plans include ferry friday and hanging out on cody's roof deck. i also have my move on sunday so saturday will be spent packing and prepping.

here's what's on tap for the summer:

• dartmouth graduation
• jimmy buffett in boston
• a week on the cape for the 4th of july
• diana's wedding in monterey, ca
• zana's wedding in seattle, wa
• hiking moosilauke
• a couple trips to the cape to hang out with my cousins, grandparents and puppy!
• assorted visits from vin
  

in other fun news i won tickets to the black eyed peas concert in central park in a couple thursdays. the tickets are free but you have to have tickets to get in so i entered the lottery. was psyched to be picked and fingers crossed it doesn't rain for the event! in the words of 'win a date with tad hamilton' (a movie i voluntarily saw) - "your chances go up when you fill out the application."

will leave you with a great country throw back to psych you up for the summer - 'summer's coming' by clint black

what have whales (or at&t) done for you lately?

thought this was a really well done ad

don't you know that i love my music

if you've spent any time watching the olympics you've no doubt seen that 'at&t speedskating ad with apolo anton'. and if you've seen the ad, you've probably liked the song in the commercial, which turns out to be called 'intro' by the british band 'the xx'



just ran to it and it was incredible.

if you if like that, you'll probably like my other new favorite song by 'the xx' - 'heart skipped a beat'. they sound the way lykke li would if she did a duet with a guy or how bon iver would sound if he did a duet with a girl. 'no need to come to me when i can make it all the way to you.' i'm a fan.

juror # 5

my soph summer we were given the choice of having crew practice in the morning or in the afternoon. during the school year we had morning practice on wednesdays so that people could take their labs on wednesday afternoon. that morning practice - though only once a week - was enough to put me in the camp of absolutely afternoon practice, particularly when the delights of margarita monday, wed night meetings, thursday night 'days that end in y' and assorted other 'schools out but really in for the summer' events were on the horizon.

to my utter surprise a massive and aggressive blitz war (and the '05 crew team could blitz with the best of them) commenced on the topic about when we should have practice. this was the first time I had the experience of 100 percent not understanding how someone could think anything differently than what i thought. just couldn't understand the argument for morning practice.

jury duty (delib level minus the blitz war) is the second time i've experienced this.

still at it today. should have worn the princess leia costume. but the state of ny did buy me lunch yesterday. sigh.

confessions of an advertising fan

i know most people don't like advertisements, but i really do. i like to critique them, praise them, and tell other people about my favorites. and i don't care what anyone says, even in the age of tivo and hulu, a well done advertisement captures people's attention (exhibit a: the superbowl) i just think advertising agencies have been too lazy to put much effort into them lately. senior year of high school we didn't have a 'business/law' teacher half the year and i spent most of that time watching ads on 'adcritic.com' (this was when it was still free) and i can still recall some of my favorites.

to that end, a couple ads i think are well done:

1. target christmas ads. these ads feature situations where people think the gift-giver spent too much money on their gift, and they respond as such. the best one is where the girl thinks her boyfriend spent so much on her gift that 'they're at that point in their relationship' and she doesn't know if she's ready, but all i could find is this one:

clever!

2. mcdonald's new england roast coffee ads. these are from the fall, but mcdonald's has a new blend of coffee made to target new englanders. before you start scoffing, apparently there is a particular way new englanders like their coffee - "We enjoy a light to medium blend roast of coffee here in the northeastern corridor of the States; compare that to Seattle, for example, which prefers a darker blend." these ads are, to use a buzzword, hyper-local, in that they feature new england terminology with the 'true new englander' defining everyone correctly before he can get the cup of coffee. as christine said, the accent leaves something to be desired, but a for effort.


and last but not least, a power drink commercial spoof from my sister.totally safe for work, but i'd recommend turning down the sound. it gets a little aggressive.

definitely quotable.

also - if you like ads or business or psychology, you should read 'confessions of an advertising man' by david olgivy. quick, interested read for anyone interested in the above.

pbs kid through and through

if you're a child of the 80s and all your parents let you watch growing up was educational shows on pbs, fortunately most were pretty entertaining, then you probably remember all the classic tv shows, including sesame street. everyone knows sesame street.

i love love LOVE sesame street (it's one of my interests on fb) and we have home movies of me at age 1 dancing in my highchair to the theme song when my dad sings it. i mainly like it because it's so clever - i love puns and wordplay (hi tracy jordan) and according to blink, sesame street emphasized that stuff so that adults would enjoy watching the show with their kids. ergo, i still enjoy sesame street, esp the classic ones. some of my favorite quotes, as you know all too well, are from sesame street. (asking questions is a good way of finding things out. - prairie dawn)

but you might also remember:

square one: this show might be the only time i liked math. although i was good at math up through algebra in 8th grade. and exeter math just destroyed me (alex in the desert anyone?). check out the video for a catchy tune and a primer on probability.

ghostwriter: LOVED ghostwriter. am a sucker for a serial mystery story (exhibit a: this blog). i remember being so excited for friday when we finally figured out what the answer was.

where in the world is carmen sandego: geography is fun! we even had the computer game. you know, for our ibm desktop? between this show and geo safari, i kicked ass at the geography category at trivia on wed.

bill nye the science guy: science really did rule with this show. he also had pretty catchy science-related music videos. am so going to make my kids watch this (i am my parents' child clearly)

and last but not least, reading rainbow. that show prob did more to get me where i am today than any other. was thrilled to discover yet another catchy music favorite from the show on youtube: teamwork. enjoy!


heading down to dc tonight with vin to see lingley and the gang. 75 and sunny tomorrow! yipee!

cappie, casey, frannie - oh my!

there's a lot of excitement in apt 7 today b/c 'greek' is back tonight! an excellent substitute for actually still being in college, vin and i are hooked on the drama about a group of undergrads at a school in ohio (way too sunny for ohio but okay) and the greek frats and sororities they're in and want to emulate casey and rebecca's haircuts.

so far, no luck, but still worth checking out. seasons 1 and 2 are on itunes and the abc family site.



season 3 promo above and the premiere on abc family tonight @ 8

come to the mardi gras

vin is down at mardi gras this week. she tried really hard to get me to come but it wasn't in the (tarot?) cards.

however, saw this performance of the song 'come to the mardi gras' when i was down in charleston visiting my grandparents last presidents day weekend. my grandparents don't have cable, but they get msnbc, pbs and a lot of radio stations. i guess this show is one they used to watch when my mom was growing up (circa 1976) with an ensemble cast and each show had a theme for the songs they performed. i just like the song. so vin, this is for you, though they're singing about brazil, not new orleans.

'make your sweetest dreams for two come true come to the mardi gras!'

christmas is all around us

christmas came a little late to apt 7 this year. not that we lacked spirit - there was plenty of christmas music and festive celebrating - we even got the 'tree' room spray from bath and body works - but we didn't get around to putting up the christmas lights on the terrace (it now looks like high school prom, per vin's request) until after new year's, and the christmas cards have only recently sat on top of the air condition (thanks to a good call by will). in keeping with this theme, we watched 'love actually' on sunday night b/c it seemed to be the last opportunity to do so this year.

of course i was reintroduced to one of my favorite christmas songs - 'all alone on christmas' (also from home alone 2), so am posting it here even though it's after the fact.



that being said, i kind of subscribe to this storypeople when it comes to spirit:

She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year.

nsfw

also - if you haven't seen this video yet you prob live under a rock: 'jizz in my pants'. it's from the same guys who did the 'just 2 guyz' video that i'm sure you're sick of reading about.

kind of an awkward topic, but the expressions are priceless and the lyrics are clever. (you say i'm premature, i just call it ecstasy). justin timberlake's in it too! do yourself a favor and watch it but be prepared for it to get stuck in your head not be able to sing it out loud. you have been warned.

once in awhile you get shown the light

a couple of posts ago i wrote about my depression and disappointment in where it looks like the world is heading. was googling this morning and came across this quote:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly,
now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."
--The Talmud

i think that helps a lot. it also popped up on a page that was dated december 13, 2005. today is december 13, 2008. i like that. :)

currently in love with the song 'human' by 'the killers'. not generally a huge killers fan, but i'm really liking this song. kevin sent me some others from the album, so will check those out too.

watch at your own risk

this will both crack you up and be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

pre-weekend update

i'm all squirmy!

not only do i love both songs in this clip from 'love actually' (norah jones 'turn me on' and a cover of fleetwood mac's 'songbird') but if you skip to 2:08, you'll see how i'm feeling about this weekend. =)

incidentally, the dialog is in spanish. not that it matters.



love actually is such a great movie. and it's just about time for a pre-holiday rush viewing!

there's a party in my tummy

this is a really dumb video to be posting, as its audience is not really the people who read this blog, but we've been watching/quoting this video in our office for at least two weeks now and it cracks me up every time.

i should say that one of my coworkers (i sit in an old conference room with my boss and our partner in distribution crime and we're often silly/sarcastic/snarky when we're not discussing work or current events or the latest user generated phenomenon) has a last name that is close to 'brobey' - the main character in this video, which is where our fascination came from. we're trying to convince him to be brobey for halloween, but so far no luck.

anyway, it's a pretty good beat - i can't wait for the techno remix. if anything you should watch this so you know what i'm referring to when i go 'so yummy so yummy'. ;-P

yo! gabba gabba, 'party in my tummy'

love bug

despite being a huge fan of the 'disney channel' and all that it entails (LOVE disney channel movies especially) i am against 'hannah montana'/miley cyrus (except for 'see you again') and i was against the 'jonas brothers' as well, until i saw their vma performance of 'love bug', which is currently my favorite song.



christine and i decided that we can like this song and still be against the jonas brothers. and that is my official stance.

henry the 8th i am

also, the folks at showtime were kind enough to post the premiere of the tudors second season on youtube. hottest show (not) on television and def not safe for work.



delicious

genius

'harry potter and the half-booze punch'. clay animation for a party at 7 west tonight, courtesy of my brother. pretty amusing if you're a harry potter fan, and even if you can't go to the party, the shots of the la biblio are pretty great. well done.

almost doesn't count

so the apt fell through - i suppose should not have mentally moved in until after the lease was signed. back to the drawing board. sigh. remember when our most pressing issue was how we were going to fake like we'd done the reading in our thursday morning 10a when in reality we'd pregamed meetings, walked off, finished the punch, played 4 more games at sd, and then 2 at psi u? those were the days . . .

hilarious video - highly suggest you watch it. laurak and i want to make a pong montage to this song. i love fake/spoof powerpoints. it wouldn't let me embed it, so you'll have to go to the link:

the hour's approaching to give it your best
you've got to reach your prime
that's when you need to put yourself to the test
and show us the passage of time
we're gonna need a montage
even rocky had a montage

heard from maynard that she will be in the city at the end of march for a conference. already looking forward to that. also heard from boxa who has been having urges to throw temper tantrums. i swear it has something to do with the time of the year. or the impending quarter-life crises (sp?).

walking back from basketball - it's so warm here that it was like why not walk - i saw 'mr. big' of sex and the city fame. he was chatting up a girl in hell's kitchen. maybe am destined to see the entire cast of s&tc - mulley and i saw sarah jessica parker and matthew broderick when we first moved to the city.

our next bball game is at 6:15 on valentine's day. as all of us are single, this does not pose a problem for the turnout, but as kelley said - even if all of us somehow do manage to find a date between now and then, the game is early enough to allow for a late dinner.

speaking of dates, have office drinks tomorrow which i am going to skip to go on a date with the boy. i am going to get shit for it in the office, but i'm sorry, play trumps free drinks any day. and that is what i will tell anyone who asks.

if i'm not dead by thursday

i'll be roaring friday night!

not dead yet folks. ;-P

continuing to quote movies (drink!)

what difference does it make?
the difference is, i'm in the mood to kick a little ass
- the cutting edge

current favorite song:



- 'fast car' wyclef jean featuring paul simon

rock friday kids