Concert Reviews

During these busy couple of days, between Halloween parties, depositions, and work, I managed to attend two concerts. On Sunday night, I saw Bruce Springsteen with my sister Kerry at the TD Banknorth Garden. On this tour, the Boss is playing solo and acoustic, featuring songs from his Devils & Dust album. He performed a couple of old favorites, but mostly stuck to the bluesy, folksy stuff from his solo career, and entertained the audience with anecdotes about his childhood and career as a rock musician. In this setting, it's easy to see why Bruce was once tagged "the new Bob Dylan". Even though he must be in his mid-fifties by now, the Boss still looks great, and can certainly captivate a whole arena, even without the E Street Band behind him.

And now for something completely different....

Last night, I went to the Dresden Dolls show at Avalon, and punk cabaret rules on Halloween. The crowd was freaky, and MJ and I blended in; she went as a wicked queen and I was a zombie flapper. Jon and Heather also went goth for the occasion. There were several acts throughout the evening, including three opening bands, a choreographed zombie dance routine, and some scary ballet dancers. One of the opening bands, Devotchka, were really good- they were dressed like a skeleton mariachi band and played fun, crazy music with a whole range of instruments, including a tuba. Unfortunately, I am suffering a nasty cold, and I only got to hear a few songs by the Dresden Dolls before I headed home to bed. For a full review, check out Jon's excellent write-up of the show.

Halloween photos

are starting to come in. Here's one of Nikki and me. Jon has linked to a bunch he took; you may have to log in to Snapfish to see them. More to come once Maria downloads the hundred or two she took.

My niece Nora is too young to attend rowdy parties, but she definitely would have won an award for Cutest Costume:

Happy Halloween

Here's a scare for all of you who spent time in South Bend:

The grocery store where it's Halloween every day, at least according to the font. Scaaaaary Martin's, scaaaaaary Martin's.

List #11...Things I Found In My Apartment This Morning

1. pitchfork
2. blonde wig
3. umbrella
4. scarf
5. paintbrush
6. Eppendorf tubes

Halloween Party Report

Last night, Maria and I threw a Halloween party, and if parties can be judged by the relative messiness of the apartment the next morning (we assessed the situation and determined that the best option would be to move out), then this one was a huge success. The costumes were fabulous- I'll post some pictures later. Some of my favorites included The Incredibles, a mailman, substitute teacher, MBTA worker, Lara Croft, the girl from The Ring, tequila bottle, Rainbow Brite, and all sorts of pimps and hos. MJ did a great job with the decorations; the gruesome scene in the bathroom was a crowd pleaser. In addition to the costumes, some party highlights were the Latin dance party in the kitchen, the "J.R. Smells" birthday cake, and watching the random hookups unfold (Mailman with Yankees player, etc..). Don't get any wise ideas, though, this little Viking went to bed alone.

Friday Photo

"We, the Optimists, have presented this award with the hope that one day, this girl will no longer be quite so awkward. We're very optimistic about her chances. In fact, her future's so bright, she's gotta wear abnormally large eyeglasses."

p.s. Happy birthday, Big Al!

Technical difficulties

Dammit! Blogger won't let me upload photos and I have a fantastic picture to post today for the Friday Photo. Check back later. In the meantime, please put yourself on my map, it would make me oh so happy.

Harriet, we hardly knew ya

Harriet Miers withdraws as a Supreme Court nominee. Eyeliner sales plummet nationwide.

Halloween costumes

Past costumes:
Witch, nerd, punk rocker, dinosaur, playing card, Casper the Friendly Ghost, hobo, Cutter (from Breaking Away), Beatrix Kiddo, one half of a two-person horse, slutty vampire.

Best costume (mine): The front half of the horse- I had a blast. Ern, however, played the rear half of the horse, and her experience was not nearly as enjoyable.

Worst costume (mine): Last year, I went as Beatrix Kiddo, Uma Thurman's character from Kill Bill. I ordered a yellow jumpsuit online, and that shit was tight! Not tight as in "cool", tight as in "oh my goodness, this is borderline obscene, I think you can see my ovaries." Since I had already spent the money, I wore it anyways, despite the fact that I ended up looking more like Lance Armstrong than Uma Thurman. After the party, I slipped on some wet leaves and bit it big time, ripping the costume and getting blood all over it. So, if I wear it again, I can either be Uma Thurman after the fight scene, or Lance Armstrong after a bike wreck.

Best costume (someone else's): This guy's website describes a bunch of really spectacular costumes he made. I liked Jenga and California the best.

Present costume: I will not divulge my own costume until Saturday (MJ and I are throwing a party, so I don't want to ruin the surprise). Hint: it involves battle axes and pillaging.

Worst idea for a costume: The deposition for the lawsuit I'm in (long story involving a car accident and me being sued for $72,000) is next Monday, October 31. Spooky. Maria thinks that I should go in costume, and suggested I go as a Drunk Driver. I'm thinking more along the lines of Sexy Cop.

Where are you?

Hey, readers, put yourself on the map! The Divine Comedy of Errors map from Frappr. Cool, huh? I stole the idea from Brigita.

List #10....Things I Think Are Funny

1. Mullets
2. People falling
3. Typos (especially Whole Word Typos, like when the typo actually causes the formation of a different and incorrect word) Ahhh...I love a good typo.
4. When someone mispronounces something- for example, when Home Depot opened in Framingahm it had a sign in front of it that said Welcome Home Depot and my friend Kevin read it out loud as "Welcome home, Depot!" This happened like 10 years ago and I still think it's hilarious.
5. Kurt Vonnegut novels
6. Nerdy science jokes. I recently saw a t-shirt that said "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
7. I told Maria that if I ever get married, right at the part of the ceremony when the groom kisses the bride, and everyone is all happy and "Aren't weddings beautiful?", I want her to yell "GET A ROOM!" in an obnoxious voice. I think that would be extremely funny.
8. I think if I ever saw someone in a Chinese restaurant go up to the buffet, stick their face in the lo mein, and start chowing down as if it were a food trough, that would be the funniest thing I ever saw.

Creepy singing racist twins

This is the creepiest story I've read in a long time. Ew, just look at them, little bleach blonde Aryan Children of the Corn slut princesses. Don't they look slutty to you? Even though they're only thirteen? It must be the bleach job. Or the blatant racism, which tends to make people look trashy. I hope something bad happens to them.
Addendum: Okay, I suppose I shouldn't wish them ill but instead hope that something good happens to them, like someone un-brainwashes them, or at the very least gives them a copy of American History X to watch.

Mysterious stranger

A couple of days ago, I received an email from a girl who got my name and email address off the departmental website. She's considering applying to the graduate program that I'm in and wants to talk to a student to get the inside scoop, and I think she probably chose me because my boss is a fairly big name (in the world of bacterial toxins, at least), and she mentioned him in the email. I thought the it was a little bit weird to get a email from a stranger who wants to meet you and discuss your graduate school experience, but not weird enough to not agree to it, so we're meeting up for coffee after work today. Now, if my life were a romantic comedy, she would be a guy, and we'd get off to a bad start, like I'd spill my coffee on him and he'd get mad and act rude until he realized that I was the person he was meeting, and we'd hate each other for a while but later we'd discover that what we thought was mutual dislike was, in fact, mutual attraction. If my life were a British mystery novel, she would be the illegitimate daughter of my boss who is plotting to avenge his abandonment of her mother by poisoning him using...bacterial toxins! However, my life is neither of these things, so she's probably just a girl who wants to find out if she should apply to my program or not.

Where's Pat?

My friend Pat Ryan, a.k.a Pat My Ryan, quit his job and is traveling around the world. Excuse me for a moment while I drool with envy....Anyways, he's started a blog in which to track his travels. Here's the link.

Hurricane names

During this stormy season, all of the 2005 names have already been used, so the most recent storm is named Alpha. I wondered why they skipped from Wilma straight to Alpha. What about Xavier, Yolanda, and Zachary? There are plenty of names that begin with X,Y, and Z. Show some creativity, hurricane namers. However, there seems to be a strict format that dictates the naming of storms, explained on this website. No Hurricane Eileens anytime soon.

Straaiiight from the heart

I don't know if this radio commercial is local or national, so some of you may be spared from its atrociousness, but that Belden Jewlers commercial is, like, the worst ever. It features some Luther Vandross sound-alike singing "I love her so, blah blah blah, straaaaaaaight from the heart" and it is omnipresent, played all the time on all the of radio stations I listen to. Most of these are alternative to hard rock stations (WFNX, WAAF, WBCN), whose listeners I assume simultaneously cringe when they hear the Luther-like wailing and attempt to change the station, rather than contemplate buying an expensive piece of jewelry for a loved one. Belden's advertising department needs to get their market research on and stick to running that commercial during David Alan Boucher's Bedtime Magic.

Movie and book reviews

Last night, I rented Gosford Park, a movie about a week long pheasant shooting party at an upperclass country home in England, set in 1932. The movie follows two plot lines, that of the elite, and that of their servants, and emphasizes the dichotomy between the two classes. It gets a bit Agatha Christie when the host of the party turns up dead, stabbed in the chest after being poisoned. I won't spoil it by telling you who did it. I liked it, even though it dragged a bit in the middle, and I had trouble keeping track of all of the characters (those white folk all look alike). Clive Owen is in it, and in spite of him playing such a skeeve in Closer (or perhaps because of it), I think he's right sexy.

I finished two books this week. The first was Rosario Tijeras, a novel by the Colombian author Jorge Franco Ramos. The story centers around three young people caught up in the money and violence of the drug-fueled world of Medellin, Colombia during the 1980s. Rosario Tijeras is a beautiful girl from a poor neighborhood, whose lifestyle is financed by "los duros de los duros," the dangerous leaders of the drug cartels. The story is narrated by her boyfriend's best friend, who, like the boyfriend, gets drawn in to Rosario's dangerous world because of his attraction to her. It's the first book I've read in Spanish, and it was much easier for me to understand than I thought it would be, probably because Colombian Spanish is very similar to the Nicaraguan Spanish I learned. I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to seeing the movie if/when it comes to the Boston area.

The second book I read was Shopgirl, by Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin. The main character is a girl named Mirabelle who works at the glove counter at a department store in Los Angeles, and begins a relationship with a rich, older businessman. When I found out it was written by Steve Martin the actor/comedian and not some other Steve Martin, I expected it to be lighthearted and goofy, and it wasn't. It wasn't bad, but in general, I prefer books where I can relate to the characters (because I'm egocentric like that), and in this book, none of the main characters had anything remotely in common with me. The main character is a beautiful, shy, lonely artist who suffers from depression, and she's kind of boring to read about. At least Rosario Tijeras went around killing people and breaking hearts. Some of the details were a bit off, like her financial trouble and the fact that she lives alone in a one bedroom apartment that costs her $500 a month. Obviously, Mr. Martin in a little out-of-touch with rental prices, because I'm sure even the crappiest of crap one bedroom apartment in L.A. costs way more than $500 a month. I know it's a picky complaint, but aren't editors supposed to catch those sort of errors? Shopgirl is being made into a movie as well, and guess who's playing the rich, older businessman? Bingo.

20 miles

Whew. This morning, I did my 20 mile training run, the longest distance I'll run before the actual marathon. Carolina and I met at Copley and ran along Route 30 all the way to my parents' house in Framingham. It was rough, but we made it, and although my legs are quite stiff right now (and will likely be even more so tomorrow), I am pleased with our performance. The route was nice- I plotted the exact mileage using this handy pedometer link from Google maps. Along the way, we saw a some nice fall foliage, a lot of rich people's house, several garage sales, and a strangely high number of single gloves. Socks, I could understand, but who loses just one glove? (I mean, besides O.J.). Apparently, a lot of people do. We also saw my father drive by, but he didn't see us, which might have been a good thing, because had he slowed down I might have been tempted to try to hitch a ride.

Friday Photo

Busy, but never too busy for the Friday Photo. I decided to post this one despite the finger in the corner of the photo, just so everyone can witness the magnificent splendor of the Pink Fanny Pack.

33

I am a big fan of Larry Bird fan. However, not quite as big a fan as this guy.