A few bits of news

1) THE BIRD AND THE BEE area new band I am SERIOUSLY into - they're like Bebel Gilberto meets St. Etienne with a small smidge of dub thrown in. I strongly suggest their eponymous CD:

Here are a couple tunes:
Again & Again
http://download.yousendit.com/88ACDF5B6B179994


My favorite: I Hate Camera (the chorus reminds me of Kirsty MacColl - Gah I miss her, RIP!)
http://download.yousendit.com/E074E9D442C81EAA[/url

2) I miss Sarah French!

3) Cathy has been depressed, because she's worked 18 days straight, and it looks like she may have to do 26 in a row (reminds me of when i worked for Darryl on the Lockheed Technical Plan...) Cathy's got a cold; I think part of it is stress. FYI, she never reads this.

Cathy and John D. decided to live apart - long story, and I don't know whether to say they've broken up yet or not, but it does seem that way. I can say they both have personal things they need time apart to deal with - Cathy's is partially work and partially her loss of patience with him after four and a half years of no self-improvement, goals, or motivation whatsoever. He has just finally gone to a doctor and found he was dealing with long-term depression. No shit!?! He's been failing at getting an Associates for four years. Here's the straw that broke the camel's back: he got probation from a pizza delivery job and laid in the bed in a fetal position for six days. He's 38...

The thing is and I mean this - he's great with kids, he loves Cathy, and on the rare occasion we could get him out for beers, he's fun to be around. The issue is he never starts. His 38 years seem like an unclimbable mountain to him. He thinks he's already a failure, so he never starts. He never has. Then he made a small, teeny tiny baby step he should have made years ago, and Cathy's patience is gone. It's sad - if the John of now could've visited the John of four years ago, he may have done something up to this point. I just hope he starts something NOW.

Anyway, if you see Cathy, be forewarned not to ask about the relationship.

So, anyway, Cathy is depressed and overworked and sick. So Dahly (my neighbor) made chicken gumbo and I made corn muffins, and we fed her. We also had her watch Little Miss Sunshine. (The last three movies I took her to were depressing: Children of Men, Notes on a Scandal, and Pan's Labyrinth - the last one I will probably write about here.) Anyway, Sunshine made her laugh - she stayed until the end. She needed it.

4) I looked at David's Myspace, and he's listening to Crowded House. ...Because I left the second live disc in his car! LMAO. I think he likes them! Half the music David listens to is stuff I turned him on to. BTW, David, can I have that back? I'll burn you copies of both the first and second disc.

ALSO, Crowded House have announced they are back together and finding a new drummer. They start a 12-month tour in April. Hope they come near Orlando!

5) Last week, I judged Duet Acting for a high school Thespian Contest, I actually enjoyed it. The judges I was with were fun, except we may have looked a little unprofessional the way we'd swap ballots and share comments with each other in between contestants. LMAO. At least our comments were in synch.

Also, we were picky in a good way. My big pet peeve (that the other judges shared, thank GOD!) was that some people - teachers even - were talking to each other while people were competing. GRRRRR! We told them in no uncertain terms to shut up!

And we were very involved. We pulled sponsors in, we shared insights, we disqualified students. We were not distant, authoritarian judges. I have to admit, it's the most involved I've ever done. Also, it's nice after hearing three years ago that I was the "tough judge." Even our student time keeper called me the "nice judge," hehe.

BTW, in honesty, Matty, in general, these kids were consistently better than the one we judged with you a few years ago. Sorry, but they kinda kicked ass. You should've seen the one that got judge's choice; it was really nice!

6) BTW, I am jealous David gets to judge also this weekend.

7) We are going to see the stage version of Tuesdays with Morie tonight. Color me leery of literary treacle... I think this is the last year we do a season ticket to Orlando Theatre Project. Now that Kristian Truelson, Anne Hering, Darby Ballard, Chris Jorie, and Robbie Pigot are less involved, the quality has gone down. Gone are the drop-dead productions of W;T, A Perfect Ganesh, The Beauty Queen of Leananne, and Coyote on a Fence. Now, we have History of Western Civ (it was not very intellectually engaging and unsurprising), Souvenir (a play I wanted to see with a brilliant piano player who couldn't act well - major minus since he's the protagonist), and Tuesdays with Morrie. Where are Rabbit Hole and and The Goat and Mr. Marmalade and Doubt? It's just that the quality has been sliding...

Maybe we'll move our subscription over to Mad Cow who did brilliant productions of A Lesson Before Dying, Urinetown, Sweeney Todd, and lots of others (besides less-than-stellar Dangerous Liaisons, Stop Kiss, and so on...hit or miss...)

8) I am looking forward to Marci's belly-dancing solo. I hope I can go. She is dancing to Istanbul, yay! February 10th at some Indian restaurant in Kissimmee. I also asked her if her belly dances, what does the rest of her body do? I then told her I was going to punish myself for that stupid joke by slamming my ear in a car door. But I lied.

9) I am looking forward to Joshie's birthday party, though it seems the only times we see him are at parties or when i accidentally bump into him at Barnes & Noble...

10) I have two birthday parties tomorrow. Someone is having a surprise birthday party tomorrow - he doesn't read my blog, but I cannot guarantee he doesn't search the Internet for his name, so... Also, Dan Kilponen's boyfriend Jamie Cox is throwing a birthday party for Dan tomorrow. (Not a surprise!) Jamie is a perfect Southern Gentleman - after Hurricane Charley, he grabbed his chainsaw, jumped in a truck, and came down to help saw David out even though his own house was surrounded by downed trees. He also has a Southern accent thick as molasses. Dan is from Wisconsin and has an adorable retriever puppy named Abby.