The Relevance of Puppets

Avenue Q made it to our little corner of the world a couple weeks ago, so Jon and I splurged on tickets. I couldn't pass up the opportunity considering this is one of the few productions on my "must see" list.

In junior high/high school, I had a love affair with the music from "Les Miserables," "Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," and "Miss Saigon." I got to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" on stage in Detroit and...haters gonna hate...got to see a scantily clad Donnie Osmond in the flesh (though I had little appreciation for it at the time).

While I still like listening to the music, and I'd go see "Les Miz" or "Phantom" in a heartbeat if it came to the area, many of the things I liked then lack relevance for me. "Avenue Q," on the other hand, was all sorts of relevant to my life. I hated that feeling of being out of college, yet not in a career and having no idea what the heck I was going to do. I've been broke (still am at times), I've been lonely, I've found comfort in the internet (though maybe not in the same way Trekkie Monster finds comfort in the internet),  and I've had that feeling that I'm "less" because I failed to live up to someone's expectations.

While the play is done in good, raunchy fun, it also makes valid points about life, and even though I'm past alot of the angst reflected in the show, it still reminded me that I'm not alone in what I went through and what I still sometimes go through. Alot of people have those times, and they don't really stop once you're out of your 20s.

Hard times come and go, and "Avenue Q" reminds us that the things we're going through are really and truly "just for now."

For the Love (or Lust) of Words

The inspiration for today's post came from a caller on one of my favorite podcasts, The Savage Lovecast. This podcast talks about sexuality in all its various forms, including fetishes. The caller today from the podcast (it was an old podcast since I'm still catching up), had a fetish for words. Certain long, not often used words gave her an erotic thrill, and she enjoyed it when her lover read to her from the dictionary and gave her prompts to find new words.

Weird or not, I can understand the love of  good words. Now I don't always use them. In fact, I often go for quantity over quality because I tend to write like I talk (at least in the first draft). That doesn't mean I don't love the way certain words come together and flow off the tongue. I've always assumed this was something that writers and readers do, but thinking about it now, that thinking was a little narrow minded on my part.

Anyone can love words. It's this love that makes certain poems and lyrics appealing. It's what fuels many of us to quote movies and TV shows over and over again. Words are everything we are, yet because they're always there, we sometimes forget to appreciate them. It isn't until we hear a striking word or phrase that we remember just how beautiful words can be.

In the movie Donnie Darko, Drew Barrymore's character talks about how "cellar door" is perceived to be one of the most beautiful word combinations ever made. The lyrics of Tori Amos strike me as powerful and beautiful and memorable. Even single words can be lovely: zaftig, questionable, farther, and luminescent are all favorites of mine.

Not all of us take our love of words to the next level like the caller on the podcast, but "weird" or not (and in my world, "weird" is a very subjective descriptor), I find it oddly beautiful that someone out there can feel the beauty of our language so strongly. Or any language for that matter.

Whoo...now that I mention it, I feel the need to go read a book.

In This Moment

In This Moment...

I'm both relieved and concerned for friends,
I'm sad about not going to Tulsa,
I'm creeped out by people driving past cafe windows and peering in,
I'm annoyed by fast food brought into a bookstore cafe both because the smell bothers me and because I think it's poor social etiquette,
I'm overwhelmed by the pictures I still have to organize,
I'm procrastinating doing the writing I need to do,
and I'm wanting to groove to Kings of Leon but realize that doing so in public would cause people to question my sanity.

ALF

Sick

I was sick for two days. In that time, I did nothing except watch TV, and not even the TV I said I was going to blog about. I still haven’t watched the season premiere of The Amazing Race, and I was going to watch Glee and Flash Forward and never got around to doing that either. C’est la vie. I could have read three books, knitted two hats and watched half my Netflix queue if I’d been feeling up to it. Slight exaggeration, but let’s face it…when you’re sick, nothing sounds good.


I did watch “Wire in the Blood” and am now in Season 5 (I think). This stands as one of my favorite shows. I can’t get into American crime dramas, but this import has me hooked. Dr. Tony Hill could very well be the second love of my life besides my fiancé. Creepy as it sounds, I am truly a fan of his character. A few reviews have said that the show is better than the books, but I’m curious to read the books too.

I also watched “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler and give it high marks for cuteness and all around Adam Sandler funniness. This was followed by “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” I love this movie. I remember being young, probably junior high, and going with my aunt to see it in the theater. My mom bought it for me on VHS when it came out. Somewhere along the way, I lost that VHS (my mom might actually still have it, come to think of it). The movie is currently on Netflix and I was surprised to see a few things I didn’t remember from the original.

Now that the sickness has begun to make itself absent (still a little yucky but able to function) I’m hoping to catch up on my blogging. Of course my blogs are generally erratic anyway, but I’m trying to be routine, I really am. Tonight we’re going to see Zombieland, courtesy of free pre-screening passes, and if it’s good enough (or bad enough) I might just have something to say about it.

Waiting on the Move

I’ve always been one of those “I’ll do it when…” type people. I managed to overcome this tendency over the past year by actually baking and cooking in a house with a crummy kitchen and roommates. However, now that we’re in transition phase and getting ready to move, I’ve become a lump again and am currently in my mindset of planning to do a million things once we’re in our new apartment.

Okay, so I haven’t been a total lump. I’ve been knitting and crocheting. Current projects include scarves for my nephews and a set of washrags for the new place. So far they’re coming out pretty well. Once I get the chance, I’ll take some pics and upload them.

Other things I want to do, besides thrift shopping for the new place and decorating, include trying my hand at jewelry making. After my earrings a few weeks ago, I’d like to try some other things, and I’m sure there’s no shortage of blogs to look at for help in getting started. The internet is a wonderful thing.

I’m also going to try Bento, the art of making cute little serving size portions of food porn. The serving size thing will be nice for portion control, and I just want to try something new and different. It’s not something I have to stick with if I don’t like it. I managed to find a few relatively cheap Bento boxes online, but I think I’m going to invest in some cheap Tupperware first to see how that goes. Being a picky, non exotic type of eater, I doubt if I’ll be doing anything really traditional. In fact, I have visions of meatloaf and salad Bento in my head, or anything else Americanized and suited to my tastes. I do think it will help me expand my snack horizons a little bit.

We’re also trying our hand at going green in our quest to be frugal. While we’re not big on recycling for various reasons, we are trying to reduce and re-use/repurpose as much as possible. I’d love to start a small garden at the new place, though it’ll probably just be an herb garden in the kitchen. We have some furniture projects and several other things to try once we’re roommate free.

I’m hoping to get more use out of this blog, so bear with me. We’re almost there!