lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

I would like to thank our neighbors behind us for planting little bush/tree things at the back of their backyard so that we do not have plant little bush/tree things at the back of our backyard.
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Friday, April 22, 2005
I've started and then deleted two different blog entries today. One was about a movie from some of the "Arrested Development" folks I decided wasn't newsworthy enough (yeah, and since when has that been a requirement?), and one I realized I needed our camera for, which I then realized was in the car with Josh at work. Then I thought of another entry that I also needed the camera for, but stopped myself before I started writing that one (whew). So I just lamely write about everything I'm not writing about. And end sentences with prepositions. And start sentences with "and." (Actually, I do that one all the time -- it's one of my favorite things. I don't care if they try to teach you not to in high school.)

Butter is so better than margarine.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Why have a life when life is so much fun without one?
When you faithfully watch as many television shows as I do, you end up having to record (and/or, in our case, download) many many shows for one of the following reasons:  1)  it's on at the same time as another show; 2)  you have to be out of the house or otherwise engaged within the house in such a way that you can't pay suffiecient attention to it; 3)  you had to record last week's episode -- and maybe the week before and the week before -- and haven't yet watched it (/them).  One downfall of this system is that it can be all too easy to get spoiled about something that's going to happen (I don't mind knowing general things that are coming up, but I draw the line at major twists or surprises).  However, one perk is getting to watch several episodes in a row, without having to sit through commercials and without having to wait a week or more between episodes.  Josh and I have both found that this actually greatly enhances our viewing pleasure, and can turn what had been a great show into a ridiculously beyond-awesome show.  This is especially the case for shows that require a specific mindset ("Arrested Development," the original British "The Office") or have ongoing mysteries or weirdness that flow from one episode to another ("Lost," "Desperate Housewives," "Veronica Mars").

Just last night we finally got caught up on "Veronica Mars" with a lovelier than lovely four-episode marathon that was too good to be true.  I adore Logan and Veronica together, which is quite a feat considering how utterly hateable he was at the beginning of the season (the only other show that's managed to turn such a dispicable character into a completely loveable one is "Everwood" with their dimensionalization of Bright), and it's quite the depressing thought that there are only three new episodes before next fall.  I go cry now.

One more thing:  we finally watched the last two episodes of "Lost," culminating in The Episode (which I will not ruin in case anyone like moM still watches the show and hasn't seen what happened yet).  I, unfortunately, knew exactly what was coming -- it was kind of everywhere the day after the show aired -- so I was prepared, and had been relieved to hear that the happening was happening to one of the characters I was less attached to, but when I actually saw it found I was much more attached than I thought I was.  I bawled my little eyes out.  Well done, J.J.  I want to hurt you, but well done.

I so need my own TV column.  You guys don't care about this stuff.
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Monday, April 18, 2005
Rantastic!  Now with more "tastic!"
There is a right way and a wrong way to cover a song.  This is something I reremembered last night on the way home from Iowa as we listened to the U2 tribute album we'd just bought.  Take a fantabulous song like "Where the Streets Have No Name."  You know it's a fantabulous song, and said fantabulosity is why you wanted to cover that song for the tribute album.  Since it is so fantabulous, you want to duplicate its fantabulosity, and so you do -- note for note for note, instrument for instrument for instrument, guitar effect for guitar effect for guitar effect.  This is your fatal mistake, and many other coverers fatal mistake as well.  Broken down into as few words as possible ("Uh, yeah, and why didn't you do that sooner, Beth-Annie?"): straight covers suck.  Or, are at least pointless.  Not for the artist doing them, of course; I'm sure it's loads of fun to try to make a recording that sounds as close as possible to the original song that you adore, and probably results in a wonderful feeling of pride if you succeed.  Aren't you just so awesome?  But to everyone else, your end result is nothing more than a pale imitation of the original, and therein lies the problem:  imitation.  No one wants to hear "Where the Streets Have No Name"  sounding exactly like "Where the Streets Have No Name" except with Bono-less vocals.  Because if anyone wants to hear "Where the Streets Have No Name" sounding exactly like "Where the Streets Have No Name," they will just listen to "Where the Streets Have No Name" in all its Bonoful glory.  Your version adds nothing, and I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you.

The best covers are often of mediocre songs made brilliant by a better -- and often very different -- arrangement (see Ryan Adams' cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall," or Counting Crows' cover of The Psychedelic Furs' "The Ghost in You").  It obviously becomes more of a challenge to cover a great song because the bar is so much higher, but you will be almost guaranteed to fail unless you take a page from the Mediocre Song Coverer's Handbook:  come up with a DIFFERENT ARRANGEMENT.  So you think your cover of "Where the Streets Have No Name" will lose its oomph if you don't have that wickedsweet, echo-y, repeating guitar part?  So, keep it -- just not with the guitar.  Write an equivalent wickedsweet repeating part for the piano instead.  Want to keep the drums the same?  Have at it.  But maybe choose one section to drop all percussion entirely so you can bring it back in with a bang.  Pick a time when the U2 version quiets down and instead get louder and more intense, or vice versa.  Add an unexpected instrument somewhere: a cello, a horn, a clarinet... just do SOMETHING other than paint yourself as a Bono wannabe.

U2 already did the hard part by writing a fantabulous song for you to work with.  So, why don't you, actually?
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Friday, April 15, 2005
So, it only took 26 years...
I saw "The Phantom of the Opera" for the first time last night.  Yes, that's right.  For the first time EVER.  I knew much of the music already, of course, but the story was completely new to me, and I found it... well, a little odd.  But, then, I guess a lot of musicals are like that.  I know a lot of fans of the stage production thought the movie version -- which is what we saw -- paled in comparison, but as I don't have anything to compare it to, I thought it was fairly impressive.  I didn't like the story that much, and some of the singing left a little to be desired (the Phantom's especially), but they did quite well with what they had, as far as I'm concerned.  Although it did seriously bug me when the Phantom's mask was off toward the end and his disfiguration reached areas that had looked completely normal when he had various masks on: around his eye, mouth, and forehead (Ha!  You stupid filmmakers didn't think we'd realize that, did you?  DID you??).

My real shocker of the evening, however, came on the drive home when Josh revealed to me that the only song he knew from the musical outside of the "Phantom" medley we sang in choir in high school was the title song.  Huh???  In other words, even songs like "Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" he knew ONLY from the medly we sang in high school.  Am I way off base in thinking that at least those two songs are well known, just in general, even with people who've never seen the musical (like I was)?  Is Josh the weird one here, or am I?  (In this specific situtation, I mean, no need to pontificate on our  general weirdness as human beings.  Unless you really want to.)
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Monday, April 11, 2005
Now just give me more "Arrested Development" and I can sleep easy.
UPN just renewed the very brilliant but very struggling "Veronica Mars" for a second season. Yup, that's a ginormous sigh of relief you hear coming from my direction.
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Friday, April 08, 2005
I very muchly do not want to paint a ceiling.
So I need someone to tell me that I don't have to.  Whatever is on our walls (and ceilings) is not paint.  I know this because it does not smell like paint (they left us the remainder in an old milk jug) and because when I tried to scrub a mark off a wall before painting it, I scrubbed the stuff right off.  Paint doesn't do that.  So, whatever it is is some non-paint paint-like substance with wall texture in it, with a finish flatter than flat paint.

Now, since it scrapes off relatively easily, I'm glad we're planning to paint all the walls anyway, so I don't have to worry about that.  And since the ceilings are the ceilings, I'm not worried about those either, with the exception of one:  the full bath.  Bathrooms are supposed to have a semi-gloss/enamel paint because it handles the high humidity better, and that's what I've bought for the walls.  My question is, do I need to also paint the non-painted ceiling in the bathroom?  And keep in mind the answer I want, here.
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Thursday, April 07, 2005
Sorry, moM, I know you wish we'd bought a baby.
Yes, we finally bought a grandfather clock.  Why now?  The answer is three-fold:
1.  We just moved and will hopefully not be moving again for quite some time.
2.  Since we bought our kitchen appliances at American through the builder of our house, we got a certificate for contractor pricing on any furniture purchase in the next 60 days, which saved us an extra about 15% off of an already incredible price, and we ended up getting it for less than a third of the list price for this particular clock.
3.  Actually, the answer is two-fold.

It's being delivered in two weeks, so I'll take a picture then and post it, probably along with pictures of our by-then-finished living room.
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
This past weekend we bought something.  Besides paint.  Is it:

A.  A pool table
B.  A fireplace
C.  A piano
D.  A grandfather clock
E.  A real dining table
F.  A baby

First correct answer wins a restored 1966 Ford Mustang Converitble*.

*not an actual prize
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Monday, April 04, 2005
"All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful..."
We have boughten eight gallons of paint.  For with which to do the painting with.  Here in the house here.  That house which we have also boughten.  A bit of a few weeks back now.  So we could but do the painting and such.  So now we do.  It.  The painting.  Or I do.  It.  The painting.  For but for Josh  which is all incompetent with the brush.  As well the roller.  Results in much the work for Annie, Beth-.  Donwhill very is this style of the writing gone.  Please stop please.

The following are the names of the paint colors we bought, which are going to be used to paint everything except the three bedrooms.  You may attempt to guess what general colors they represent if you so choose.  I will give you an example:  if the color is named "Sheer Pink," you might guess that the general color is pink.  I wish you luck.

A.  Rum Runner
B.  Palisade Orchid
C.  Winding Road
D.  Old Blue Eyes
E.  Colony Green
F.  Cup of Tea
G.  Ol' Swimmin' Hole
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Friday, April 01, 2005
I updated my movies and CDs. That's all I got. At least it's something.
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