SINGING!!

MUSICAL JUDGEMENTS:

I wish to say a few things about all the popular singing contests. I have watched The Voice and I have watched America's Got Talent. I have not watched American Idol, dunno why.

Since watching these I have also watched X Factor UK, Australia and some other countries all on the Internet and really enjoyed those very much.

I listened to some oldies such as “Who's Loving You Now” and some new songs that I had never heard but liked very much such as “Listen”, “Say Something” and “Fix you now”. Whew. Then I listened to the original artists on line. Sometimes the original was better sometimes I liked the new version better.

My favorite parts of all of these contests were the initial auditions.  There was a preproduction purity of the songs, they hadn't been tarted up yet and some have been breathtakingly good, chills,thrills and goose flesh.
 
The judging of all of these contests are limited to celebrities who may or may not have actual musical talent or training. When the celebrities have chosen or been assigned their talents, they wear themselves out praising their candidates repeatedly, well except for Mel B, Howard Stern and Simon Cowell. What I would like to point out is that no one cites any educator of musical standards from Julliard (spelling) or some other prestigious facility to point out what is missing. This would lend some much needed verisimilitude to the proceedings. 

That way I would achieve a feeling of judgemental superiority similar to that when watching the Olympics. After a few views I can pretty accurately call a perfect dive and deduct a tenth of a point for a teeny tiny splash. 
 
The differences in the audience participation is marked. The Brits cheerfully roar for their favorites, they go along with the “joke” acts and boo off the really bad ones. The Americans cheer ANYthing. Tsk. The Australians moan over the singers stories. It is all quite wonderful.

Now, I am beginning to think I have attained a more educated ear or I am suffering some limited range hearing deficit/impairment. Why you ask? Well, the last few songs on The Voice were off for more than one or two songs. They were slightly off, slightly flat, slightly sour, slightly not singing the actual song. There were only TWO singers that gave me the shivers. 
 
Production values: The Voice apparently does not believe in spot lights, the stage is so dark with only occasional mood lighting that the electricians may actually be on strike. The audience screams entirely too much, use your ears people, you will enjoy it much more. On one of the most recent X Factors UK, one of the singers did a “Devil” number and they spray painted him GOLD he looked like he had escaped Gold Finger. He sang beautifully but really 
spray paint??

Good news? The Taste is coming next week on ABC, those cranky chefs will choose their teams to cook superb dishes. Wheeeee!!

Jade collections, The Exploratorium and inexact memories.

 

Many years ago I and a girl friend visited the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. This is a beautiful rotunda like building. After the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was anxious to show the world that it had risen from the ashes. So in 1910, business and civic leaders gathered to discuss making San Francisco the site of the century’s first great world’s fair — a grand exposition that would honor the completion of the Panama Canal. In just two hours, they raised $4 million — and beat out competitors New Orleans and Washington, D.C., to host the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. 
 
The building has had many uses over the years but the year I visited it it was called The Exploratium. It was designed by Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) who was a particle physicist,(his big brother was Robert Oppenheimer), cattle rancher, professor of physics at the University of Colorado and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1969. In fact the place was used to death because when I visited it close to when it opened all the exhibits were .. um..well used.

Back to the Exploratorium: the building was outfitted with science and physics experiments that appealed to many ages but mostly teenagers. There was one exhibit where you could stand on one side of the room and whisper to someone standing hundreds of feet away. The acoustics were so good you could clearly hear the whispered conversation. The place employed young people explaining and demonstrating the experiments to viewers. It was so much fun. If I were rich, I would put a similar Exploratorium in one of the empty downtown buildings, hire local kids to run it and charge a modest admission. I am pretty sure it would be a fun busy place.

Another time I think about 1970 or so, my family was visiting. My Mom, my mother-in-law, my sisters and there may have been others, went to Golden Gate Park. The de Young museum was displaying the private jade collection of an American politician or diplomat (his name I cannot remember, Help!) which was mammoth, impressive and beautiful. 

 There was also a show for one of the Wyeth's, Andrew maybe. We gawked at those paintings. We walked and trudged a lot and gawked some more at the paintings. My absolute favorite was one of a pond in summer. It was a very large painting so that if you stood close enough you lost the edges of the painting and gazed down into that pond. It was clear, shallow not more than three feet deep. You could see minnows and shadows of them flitting through the waters. You could plainly see the pond bottom littered with some smooth rounded stones. I don't know if I am remembering this but I could swear there were water skippers on the top of the water, maybe even dragon flies. It was peaceful. I wanted a print of that picture so badly, I would have paid genuine money if the museum had been offering the print for sale but I didn't think about those kinds of things until years later. I am not even sure it was a Wyeth, dang it. I have never found it on the vast Internet.

I had a flashback to another pond located in the central Idaho meadow lands. Dad had decided that we would all go camping in the 56 Pontiac station wagon (white with a red stripe). So off we went. No tent. We all slept in the station wagon; Mom and Dad, me, Richard, Phillip, Ellen, Gale and Carla. Jim was not born yet. It felt miserably cold that night and we got up the next morning for breakfast. I and my brothers went off into the woods to gather wood. Mom took pictures on the Brownie wind up camera. The picture of a huge armful of wood I was staggering back to camp with turned out to be a few feeble sticks of kindling. Mom went to rinse out the battered aluminum coffee pot in the stream. We heard a scream! Mom had dropped the percolator innards into the freezing cold glacier fresh stream. She was not going to freeze her lady bits to retrieve the insides of the coffee pot so she made cowboy coffee that morning. The young trout eagerly nosed the coffee pot inner structures and laughed their trouty selves silly at the humans peculiar camping habits. 
 
Now at this point, my siblings will point out that:

1. it was not the 56 Pontiac station wagon,
   
2. one or more of the little sisters had not been born yet and
   
3. some smart ass will point out that we were camped near Cascade just for clarity you understand.
   
4. And MAYBE someone will actually remember the name of the famous American jade collector. C'mon cudgel your brains!! cuz mine are compromised and NOTHING I put in the search engine popped up anything useful....sigh...
   

A few words

FERGUSON, MO:


First of all, shooting down 18 year old Michael Brown was bad, if my brother were killed in such a manner I would not believe much of what actually happened. I don't care if he was the size of a a city bus, he was still my brother. 
 
The department only had ONE taser. That is like Barney Fife leaving his bullet in his pocket.

The August riot was handled badly, the run up to the Grand Jury verdict could have been handled with more care amongst the community I think the Church leaders gave it their best shot. I think the Grand Jury did the best they could. 
 
Cop reaction:

1. Give the angry people a legitimate target, encourage them to burn and trash a condemned house somewhere....and clean up the mess.
   
2. Furnish a used cop car to be smashed, trashed, rolled over and set on fire. Tickets one dollar each...and clean up the mess.
   

Crowd Control:

Instead of military vehicles, I would suggest a huge flock of sheep to be driven down the streets into the crowd. HUGE. FLOCK. OF. SHEEP. THOUSANDS. OF. SHEEP.

This would provide distraction, slippery footing, an occasional head butt to someones behind and do not forget the benefits of all that fertilizer. Additionally if anyone got hungry, nothing better than barbecued mutton over the coals of that burning condemned house somewhere. 

Oh yeah a water cannon would be helpful to...clean up the mess.

Go Pack Your Socks.

Some topics to think about.

The run for President should be done without money. Without. Money. The sitting President should not be allowed to campaign for members of his/her party. I don't campaign for members of my party, not Avon, not Tupperware, nuthin'. The President should do the business of the country. State Dinners are allowed and other countries must take turns visiting. One year they visit us, next year we visit them. 
 
The television networks should refuse to cover ANY political ANYTHING...unless the candidate has qualified by voting for or against a bill.

 All politicians should be assigned a mandatory committee called “Show up for Congress EVERY DAY.”

All politicians must pay their taxes in order to stay in office.
Congress must go pick up trash. Really. 
 
All law schools must consist of 50% nonwhite students and 50% women. Now we can bitch about ALL LAWYERS EQUALLY.

All politicians should be required to commute to work other than by plane. Take a cross country trip, get in touch with your people and I would stay away from using the campaign bus, too. And Senators and Representatives from Hawaii and Alaska, better take the Ferry or a tramp steamer. 

Now go pack your socks. By. Your. Self.

Been cooking again....

I watched Giada DeLaurentis make her Mom's vegetarian meatloaf so today I decided to go shopping for ingredients. I have everything assembled. I did not get fresh spinach because it was FIVE BUCKS for a 4 or 5 cup plastic bucket as opposed to a frozen spinach packet and I don't have to chop it. 
 
Step one: Cook one cup of lentils because I could not find CANNED lentils. Who cans lentils!?!?!

Step two: Cook two cups brown rice.

Step three: Reserve everything and cook it tomorrow.

Step four: drag out blender, cut in half one pint of cherry tomatoes. Eat three. Throw in blender, also add three chopped green onions, three tablespoons chopped garlic, salt, pepper, bunch a fresh basil, blend to leave bits of tomatoes recognizable. Set aside.

Step five: Saute one small chopped onion, one medium shredded carrot, one stalk of celery until tender. Add 10 ounces chopped spinach, add one cup frozen corn. Add 15 ounces of cooked lentils, add two cups cooked brown rice.
 
Step six: Add half of the cherry tomato/basil sauce, add one cup mozzarella cheese shredded, add three beaten eggs, salt and pepper to taste.

Step seven: Pour into baking dish, top with slices of fresh tomato, one cup mozzarella cheese and the remaining cherry tomato/basal sauce. Bake 350 for 35 minutes, let cool 15 minutes, slice and serve.

Step eight: Husband sampled and pronounced that he really liked it. He can't help it, he was raised vegetarian and does not think lentils taste like dirt. 
 
Step nine: Clean all the dishes involved in this. Rest and repent.

November 11th, 11th hour.

Poppies row on row....

Today I am posting a picture of some of the poppy installation done in honor of the English killed in WWI. They are beautiful. I wonder what will happen to them afterwards? Maybe sell them for charity? I would dearly love to purchase one in honor of my father who served in WWII. Frankly I would love to have a vase full of them. I have a lovely white ceramic vase stored in the attic that I would love to fill with the poppies. Dr. Rawlinson, our family doctor back home, would often be heard reciting In Flanders Field where poppies grow, between the crosses row on row. He also liked Gilbert and Sullivan.

Jeez I hate it when I get this close to the edge!!!

Last night I dreamt that I had purchased a small trailer, hitched it up to my car, took Charlie who was very young and started driving.


Pulled off somewhere at night and went up and found a parking spot. When I got up the next morning I evidently started to set up the trailer inside. There was a kitchen/bathroom up front the back had a couch/bed area which was divided by two curtains of sparkly blue stones which pulled down from the ceiling. About then I looked outside the window in the bedroom and noticed that I could look straight down! For a long, long ways. I marveled that I had not gone off the side while parking in the night. I immediately went outside to see exactly where we were. Perched on the side of a freaking mountain with construction going on all around us. I pulled Charles back from the window cautioning him to stay inside. The car was no longer hitched to the trailer, no idea where it was parked. I looked around and there was a man working on a large piece of equipment nearby and I asked him if he moved trailers. No, he didn't. Eventually I saw a woman and asked about moving the trailer and she said she was busy she was moving to Cascade the next day. (Cascade Idaho so I presumed I was somewhere in Idaho mountains...). Then I woke up, grateful that I was not parked on top of a mountain some damn where.

Looking up terms in Dream interpretation site:


To see a trailer in your dream suggests that you are feeling overburdened. You carry more weight on your shoulders than you need to. The dream may also indicate that you are more of a follower than a leader.
 
To see your son in your dream signifies your ideal, hopes, potential, and the youthful part of yourself.

To dream that you are lost suggests that you have lost your direction in life or that you have lost sight of your goals. You may be feeling worried and insecure about the path you are taking in life. If you try to call for help, then it means that you are trying to reach out for support. You are looking for someone to lean on. 
 
To see mountains in your dream signify many major obstacles and challenges that you have to overcome. If you are on top of the mountain, then it indicates that you have achieved and realized your goals. You have recognized your full potential. Alternatively, mountains denote a higher realm of consciousness, knowledge, and spiritual truth.

In summary: I am following my ideal, calling for help but have achieved my full potential. Well isn't that depressing.

What was your strangest interview question?

10 Weird job interview questions: And how I would answer them...

1. If you could get rid of one state in the USA, which one was it?
   Um.....(stalling for time) None because Florida is going underwater due to global warming so question answered.
   
   
2. How many cows in Canada?
   Just enough.
   
   
3. A penguin with a sombrero just entered the room – what does he tell us and why is it here?
   The penguin is part of a self-guided tour from Mexico and they are lost, lost, lost.
   
   
4. My wife and I are going on vacation – where would you recommend us to go?
   You to the golf course, your wife to the largest shopping mall in the world.
   
   
5. What is your favorite song? Perform it for us.
   Right now I am being haunted by “Say Something” and here are your ear plugs.
   
   
6. Did you ever steal a pen from your workplace?
   No because they were crappy pens. I had to order mine from Amazon.com.
   
   
7. Choose two celebrities that will be your parents.
   Mother Teresa and Albert Einstein, go figure.
   
   
8. If you were a kitchen utensil, what was it?
   A very sharp knife.......Think multi-tasking..don't ask.
   
   
9. If you could be someone else – who would you choose to be?
   ….I'm still thinking...
   
   
10. From 1 to 10 how would you rate me as an interviewer?
    I would rate you as a 5, I never give high or low scores on quantitative questions.