"Full to the point of discomfort" Friday
Famous people's birthdays:
Rock musician Donald "Duck" Dunn (Booker T. & the MG's) is 65.
(This man is a great bass player and also uttered one of my favorite lines in "The Blues Brothers"..."He could turn goat piss into gasoline.")
Well, I hope everyone's over their tryptophan buzz. I'm struggling with mine, I'll tell ya. Oh well...we had a great Thankgsiving. MUCH better than last year's, believe me. If you want to read about the Thanksgiving from Hell '05, click here. (One point that isn't mentioned in the linked post - the daughter of the arguing hubby/wife refused to eat anything but pasta stars and chocolate Dove candies. I wanted to throw her out the window. I still do - she is a very unpleasant child.)
D and I went to a fellow parishoner's house, and stuffed our faces along with several other folks. Surprisingly, I didn't eat much dessert - only one piece of pumpkin pie. But the food buzz remained. Oh baby.
Wedding plans are slowly gelling as well...I think the hardest part will be rounding up addresses for all of D's relatives - he comes from a big family, and his stepmom is one of 13 kids. WOW. I'm not sure how we're going to do this on a shoestring, but we'll die trying.
So enough of my blather...here's some other points of interest I thought I'd share.
Black Friday is upon us as well...on the way out to work, D and I saw the SEA of cars in the parking lot of our neighborhood shopping center. We have a Circuit City there, which I think was the cause of the plethora of autos...sheesh.
I hate shopping during this time of year - I'd rather get a root canal while my toenails are being pulled out by rusty plyers. There are ways to equip yourself for this day, apparently. You can click here for the full article. ABC News' website has been kind enough to publish a Black Friday checklist, so in the spirit of Christmas cheer, I think I'll create corresponding items for the list as well. It's the least I could do.
(Well, technically, that's not true. I COULD go home and go take a nap...that's considerably less than using my gray matter to create items for a list. But you get the idea...)
OK...here we go...
1. ABC News sez: Print out store price-matching policies
Sudiegirl's option? Steal the pricing guns from shelf stockers at every store you go
to, then program your OWN prices. That's real savings!
2. ABC News sez: Write down what you're buying in advance
Sudiegirl's option: That's too much work. Just be a sheep like everyone
else...lemmings have more fun as they're diving off the cliff, you know!
3. ABC News sez: Keep a copy of the real-world Black Friday print circulars
Sudiegirl's option: Draw your own. Nothing says "responsible consumer" like a
JCPenney's flyer drawn with crayon and magic marker...also promotes the
wonder of art at holiday time.
4. ABC News sez: Know the Store Hours
Sudiegirl's option: Improvise...when in doubt, just drive over to the mall, bring a
sleeping bag, a pillow and your teddy bear and camp out. Long underwear and
some food to keep the fires burning are also recommended. Who knows...you
might be on the news and you can show off your home-made JCPenney's flyer for
all the world to see. Either that, or some cop will take you to jail and you can
have a free breakfast.
5. ABC News sez: Reality Check
Sudiegirl's option: Reality Checks are for weenies. Take the risk, man! Who
cares if you spend more at Wal-Mart than you could buying it off of a cold,
impersonal website. It's the thrill of the hunt, baby, yeah!!!
6. ABC News sez: Read the fine print
Sudiegirl's option: Feh. Skip it. Fine print is for the faint-of-heart, not courageous
shoppers! We take risks, man...we live on the edge.
7. ABC News sez: Research the deals you want ahead of time.
Sudiegirl's option: What? And miss the Macy's parade? No thanks. I prefer to see
whether Snoopy's gonna get caught in the electrical wires.
8. ABC News sez: Study the leaked circulars
Sudiegirl's option: I don't want to study anything that's leaking...I'll get wet! Duh!
9. ABC News sez: Comparison shop
Sudiegirl's option: Does that include buying my dream items off the back of a
flatbead truck from a guy named Iggy? Cool!
10. ABC News lists the following as necessities if you're going to camp out to get a good
spot in line for Christmas:
Chair
Friends/Family — They can snag vouchers and hold your spot in line for
bathroom breaks.
Coat, mittens, gloves, hot cocoa thermos, hot pockets, hot tamales, whatever
you need to stand outside in the cold for hours.
Sudiegirl's additional suggestions:
Deck of cards
(you can start a game of poker, and if you're good, you can beat the pants off
everyone else and take their money, therefore eliminating the need of a
money-saving voucher - dice will also help with that if you can figure out the
rules for craps)
Baseball bat
(in case anyone tries to take anything; bonus - you don't need a license for it
like you would a firearm)
mp3 files/mp3 player/speakers
(the file would consist of someone saying, "Hey! Toys R Us forgot to lock their
door!", thus causing everyone to rush to the other side of the shopping center
and making you - SURPRISE - first in line! Huzzah!)
(BTW, if others have more suggestions for this list, please note them in the comments)
The rest of the article lists where you might find the best deals for some "dream items" this Christmas. Very helpful.
So throughout the holiday season, it is my MISSION, my QUEST, to help out with holiday hints whenever appropriate. If you gentle readers have hints as well, please feel free to contribute.
After all, I do live to give.
Finally, I wanted to note the passings of two women in the music world.
You can find Anita O'Day's obit here. I admit, I didn't know much about her until I started working for a jazz radio station. She really worked with some greats - Nat King Cole, Gene Krupa and Billy May to name a few - but I was really surprised at her nickname - "Jezebel of Jazz".
Wow.
She struggled with addictions to heroin and alcohol, she was in jail a few times, bad luck with men, etc. She'd been performing since her teens and probably could have given ol' Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton lessons on how to be a "bad girl".
And yet she still kept singing.
I'm sure there are some recordings and performances of O'Day's that were lackluster, but it still makes a person wonder how performers can DO what they do even when under the influence. Hell, if I've got a good buzz on, my pitch is all over the place. I couldn't sing on key if my life depended on it. How does that WORK?
But she kicked the alcohol habit (which hung around longer than the heroin) and did one last recording in 2000.
Here's to you, Ms. O'Day.
Next...
Betty Comden was one of the screenwriters for "Singin' In The
Rain" and thus, was partially responsible for my favorite line in that flick..."I am a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament...it says so...right there..." uttered by Jean Hagen in her own inimitable way.
But Comden and her writing partner (Adolph Green) were responsible for the books/lyrics of several Broadway shows, and co-wrote one of my favorite tunes, which was also the first "jazz" tune I took a solo turn with (vocally) in high school.
"Just in Time" was the song...we did a choral arrangement of it when I was a sophomore, and I had a short solo within the song. However, it was a lot like a "vocalese" (meaning words matched with a transcribed instrumental solo, usually from a live, improvised performance). It was fun to sing, and it awakened something in me - that MAYBE...just maybe, I could do something like this for a living. My vocal teacher kind of scoffed (he really didn't approve of anything that wasn't opera oriented), but I'm really glad I didn't listen.
Our big band now has a great arrangement of that tune that I get to sing from time to time, and I'm glad I didn't give up on singing the type of music I enjoy. Otherwise, I'd never get to pretend I was Ella Fitzgerald.
So thank you, Betty Comden, for these two gifts. You've given many more to audiences, but these two are the ones I treasure most.
BTW, today's tunes are an Anita O'Day recording of "Johnny One Note" and Ella Fitzgerald singing "Just In Time".
Enjoy!
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