Dancing with the Abbies

As you might have noticed, I have a paper to finish this morning, and am procrastinating like a mofo.

Oh those backwards Canadians!

Did the lack of US-style medical care kill Natasha Richardson?

No, probably not.

But without a doubt, the lack of Canadian-style medical care certainly killed Deamonte Driver and who knows how many other Americans.

So STFU. And mebbe DIAF.

Childhood

When I watched this movie trailer I was seized with such an immediate nostalgia and longing for my own late 70s/early 80s childhood that I teared up a little. It looks awesome!

Home again!

Yay! Now I'm gorging on non-hospital food and am going to sleep for 29
hours.

Living it up

I think Abbie is starting to appreciate all the attention a little *too*
much.

Still in hospital

But feeling much better. Probably will be here at least for the
weekend. Thank you for all the well wishes.

My Abbie.

In the Pediatric ICU. No words.

Music history test tonight

I really don't have a head for this stuff. I don't know my ostinato from my oratorio, my concertos from my cantatas.

In honor of my lackluster effort in studying for this, here's some of the music pieces I'm supposed to know.

Dido's Lament, sung by Jessye Norman. This brought me to tears when we listened to it in class. I'm such a girl.


Vivaldi's Spring, which makes me think of the scene in every rom-com ever made where they girl is about to marry the wrong guy at the beginning of the movie, and this is the music they have playing at the wedding.


Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which makes me think of foofy, beautiful people in wigs and amazing clothes taking way too long getting ready for a fun night out partying.


I also need to know some Bach, whom I find way too organized. Fugues trigger my latent OCD. Wish me luck.

Kids Movies

So, as much as I love Kung Fu Panda, I'm tired of watching it over and over again. I decided to reach back to my childhood memories and make Abbie watch movies I liked as a kid. Recently we tried Annie and The Black Stallion, two movies I loved loved loved as a kid. Annie she adored, mostly I think because it's easy to replace "Annie" in the song lyrics for "Abbie." (In fact, she's been running around all week going, "Lets go to the mov-ies, Abbie, yooooou and meeee!") The Black Stallion I think she got bored with. Might be better for older kids.


And honestly, watching Annieagain after all these years, I kind of think the child Vanessa unconsciously absorbed a lot of this movie. I was watching it going, hmm...scrappy street urchin who hates chores and likes going to the movies? Dude, this movie is totally about me. And do I secretly want her big red cardigan? Yes, I do.

Also, it's stuck in my head, now it's stuck in yours!


Definitely some jokes in this one I didn't get as a kid.

Carol Burnett brings the hilarity. "I guess I'll never know the feeling, of running fingers through your HAIR!" Lol.

Also, no 80s movie is complete without racist stereotypes. Check out Punjab and the Asp.

Isn't that the dude from the 7up commercial?

Anyway, blogtopia, I thought I'd ask, any long-forgotten childhood movies you think deserve a rediscovering at Casa Vanessa?

Go watch this rightnow!

Sita Sings the Blues is available for free online in it's entirety.

You must check this movie out. It's, I think, the best movie I've seen in a bit. Here's Roger Ebert talking about it.

Really, it's that awesome. And free. Just go watch it already.

Was it just me

Or was the Oscar ceremony this year...entertaining?



It starts out all...oh god, he's gonna sing, this is gonna suck, but by the end you're totally with it, "I am a Slumdog, I am a Wrestler, I'll rent The Reader, I am WOLVERIIIINNNNEEEE!"

I also liked the Pineapple Express skit. "Dude, why is there a film crew in my living room. No look, it's Janusz Kaminski!" Lulz.

Friday Random Ten

The "I aced my Dinosaurs test, so why the hell not?" Edition.

1. It's True That We Love One Another - The White Stripes
2. Thursday - Morphine
3. Cloud My Tongue - Amos, Tori
4. Little Man - Waits, Tom
5. Everybody's Happy Nowadays - The Buzzcocks
6. In The Morning Of The Magicians - The Flaming Lips
7. Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
8. Close To You - Ethyl Meatplow
9. Faerie Queen - Alexander, Heather
10. Anarchy In The U.K. - Sex Pistols

And because that last one was a little cliche, we'll go to eleven.

11. What Would I Know - The Datsuns

Oh, The Dautsuns were playing the Launchpad when my friend, whom shall go unnamed but you know who you are, got me good and kicked out after harassing the bartender. Good times.

All I want are some fucking shoes that fucking fit!

Apparently I have two pot roasts at the end of my legs of such unimaginable enormity that no low-cost shoe designer would ever deign to make affordable shoes in my size, lest I be the only person who buys them.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or are my feet really that wide?

Happy Darwin Day!

I'm going to ignore for now how woefully behind in my studying I am and celebrate Darwin Day with a bunch of cool science timewasters.

Check out this cool video from SEED magazine.

eLucy lets you compare the bones of A. afarensis with H. sapiens and P. troglodytus.

Sneezing iguanas of the Galapagos!

I'm not embarrassed to say that the arthropods of the Burgess Shale have always given me the heebie-jeebies. Is it weird to have a phobia of extinct animals?

Neat clicky-zoomy deep time timeline thing from pbs.org.

Also from pbs.org: the website for the most recent episode of NOVA, which is about the Dover Intelligent Design vs. Evolution trial.

I'll add more if I find cool stuff.

Please Don't Divorce Us

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

I pretty much started crying .02 seconds into this video. What the hell is wrong with people who would actively seek to destroy the happiness in this video?

Although, I might add, this is the sort of thing you probably want to release *before* the passing of something like Proposition 8.