SkyWatch Friday Five

Special Halloween Eve Edition!

The skies were almost orange that morning – but I LOVE those clouds. I tried to take some pictures of a full moon, which seemed more appropriate for this weekend, but they just didn’t turn out. Going to have to play with the settings & figure out how to get a good one.

And how about the Friday Five portion of this post? It’s not as fun as last year’s - but it’s still pretty good!

1. Halloween Head – Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
2. Dr. Bones – Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
3. The Invisible Man – Queen
4. Speak of the Devil – Chris Isaak
5. I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & the Sunshine Band

And one more thing…  leave that no-account Oogie-Boogie out of this!

Day of Passing Playlist

(via SoulPancake;)

“Amazing tradition. They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can’t come.” — Jeff Goldblum (as Michael Gold in The Big Chill)

Eight college friends search for lost ideals following the death of their mate Alex in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, and brilliantly setting the stage is Kasdan’s iconic opening scene, where JoBeth Williams (as Karen Bowens) starts playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Stones on a booming church organ. Each of the characters knowingly smiles at the first chords of the song. And a minute later, Mick Jagger’s rendition joins the soundtrack. In an instant, you’re thinking about love and life, memories and friendships, as well as your own death. So, thinking about the group of people that will likely come together over you one day, what songs sum up your life and would bring smiles to those left behind?

List 5 songs you would add to the playlist for your funeral.

Okay, so it’s kind of a dark, depressing subject. But it is Halloween week after all.  So here is my list:

1. Iron & Wine – the Trapeze Swinger
2. U2 – Love Rescue Me
3. Lyle Lovett – Don’t Cry a Tear
4. Norah Jones – The Long Day is Over
5. Louis Armstrong – What a Wonderful World

SkyWatch Friday Five

I thought this morning I would combine SkyWatch Friday with Friday Five, which I haven’t done in a while. The songs in this case are inspired by the picture; a gorgeous sunrise that I was watching in my rear-view mirror on my way to work Tuesday morning.

1. Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning – Cowboy Junkies
2. Sunrise – Norah Jones
3. Morning Has Broken – Cat Stevens
4. Sunshine – G. Love (with Jack Johnson & Zach Gill)
5. Why Does the Sun Really Shine – They Might Be Giants (the answer song to their own original, scientifically incorrect, Why Does the Sun Shine)

Have a great weekend!

Handlebars of Doom

Halloween is nearly upon us, so it’s time once again to revisit the topic I know EVERYONE has been waiting for… Mustachioed Costume ideas!

Between my original list of ten last year, the seven runners-up & the approximately 23 left in the comments, you would think that the proverbial soup-strainer well would run dry. But you would be so wrong!

So start growing your nose-neighbor and check out these ten additions for 2009;

Brenden Ryan: Maybe I’m a little partial to Brenden because I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but his was a great story for 2009. He started out the season as a utility infielder and ended up as an every-day shortstop for the division champion team. In case you didn’t know, the starting pitching staff along with a handful of other team members decided to grow mustaches at the same time for some reason. It lasted a while, but Brenden was the only one that kept it up after everyone else reached for their razors. And oh what a glorious ‘stache it was! So glorious in fact that Ryan was nominated for the 2009 Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year by the American Mustache Institute.

Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III: Another great story for 2009, as well as another nominee for the Robert Goulet award, Sully was the U.S. Airways pilot that famously landed his Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after being hit by a flock of Canada Geese.

Gabe Kaplan: Go ahead – you know you want to sing the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter. Doesn’t everyone?

Gene Shalit: I can’t believe Shalit wasn’t mentioned at all last year. Gene has been the film and book critic for NBC’s The Today Show for nearly as long as I’ve been alive. I mean, that’s not just a mustache. That thing is a work of art!

And speaking of the news, what about John Stossel? According to his Wikipedia entry, John is a consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author, libertarian columnist, and former 20/20 co-anchor. But it says absolutely nothing about his hairy upper lip. What’s up with that?

Dale Earnhardt: I am not a Nascar fan by any stretch of the imagination, but the impact of Earnhardt’s tragic death was not lost on me. His legacy will live on forever, and I’m not just talking about his driving. That mustache should be in the hall of fame!

Paul Teutul, Sr.: Not just the founder of Orange County Choppers & star of the reality show American Chopper, but also the proud owner of one of the most magnificent & giant cookie-dusters of all time!

Glenn Hughes: better known as “the biker” from the 70’s disco group the Village People. I realize of course that it would take a very specific kind of guy to pull this off as a costume, but just think of how awesome it would be! There were other members of the Village People that sported whiskers, namely the construction worker & the cowboy, but none were ever as impressive as the biker.

John Waters: The eccentric filmmaker of such wonderful works as Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and Serial Mom, as well as cult favorites like Pink Flamingoes, still sports his trademark pencil-thin mustache that is simply “Divine”. (Get it? Divine? HA! I crack myself up.)

Daniel Day-Lewis as “Bill the Butcher”: He’s a phenomenal actor, and probably the best part of Gangs of New York. But oh what a wonderful lip-sweater!

SkyWatch Friday

Light, feathery Cirrus clouds as seen from a third floor hospital window last weekend – where we have spent entirely too much time lately with my Father-in-law.

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

Tomorrow, the movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book Where the Wild Things Are opens in theaters.

Our house is torn.

On one hand, it looks awesome! Spike Jonze appears to have done a great job capturing the spirit of the book. And the monsters look like updated versions of Sid and Marty Krofft characters combined with Jim Henson’s creatures in the Dark Crystal, not to mention remaining very true to Sendak’s original drawings.

It’s safe to say that it’s receiving mixed reviews. But out of the 46 compiled by Rotten Tomatoes, 63% are positive. Most of the negative comments say something about whether or not Sendak’s nine sentence picture book was substantial enough to merit a feature length film.

Which brings us to the other hand…

One of the things that my wife is passionate about is children’s literature and how important it is for parents to read to their kids. We both have claimed for years that Where the Wild Things Are ranks high on both of our lists of favorite children’s books. We have bought it for friends that were expecting and own multiple copies ourselves. It is simply a wonderful book.

Yes, it is only nine sentences long. Yes, it is classified as a “picture book”. But the story is deep and nuanced, dealing with topics that hadn’t really been touched previously in the medium. What’s not spelled out on the pages is just as important, if not more so, than what is. It’s about how children deal with difficult situations, anger, and the reality that life isn’t always rosy. How sometimes we deal with our emotions by escaping into fantasy and our imaginations. But at the end of the day we have to come home to the warm embrace of someone who loves us.

It is always difficult when someone wants to take something so beloved by so many, and update it for a younger and more modern audience. People like us are adamant that these things don’t really need updating. The next generation simply needs to be exposed to it in the same way that we were. The book itself is a brilliant work of art and shouldn’t be perverted by making it into something that it was never intended to be for the sake of making another buck.

I understand these arguments and for the most part agree with them. But every time I see a preview or a trailer for the movie adaptation, my heart beats a little bit faster and I can’t fight the desire to see it.

Like I said before, it looks awesome!

Now, convincing my strong-willed, traditionalist, Kindergarten teaching wife to see it with me is a whole other story!

SkyWatch Friday

I took these while driving home from work a few weeks ago. They’re nice to look at right now because today is our second dark, dreary, rainy day in a row.

Post-it Note Portrait

Via Soul Pancake:

“In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what’s going on, but it’s representative.” —Annie Leibovitz

It's one of those days

Here at SoulPancake, we like the idea of using the little things we have at our disposal to unleash creative magic. So, instead of using Post-it notes to write passive-aggressive notes about how the staff kitchen’s microwave needs cleaning, let’s get artsy.

1. Grab a Post-it note.
2. Draw, cut out, stencil, sketch or paint your self-portrait.
3. Snap a picture and paste a link below.

Hoth Dogs

Okay, I admit it! Not only do I periodically peruse the website Animals With Lightsabers, but recently I also submitted one that I photoshopped myself. (Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!) And today, it made it on the site!

I borrowed the picture of Apollo and Higgins from a coworker because of how well it lent itself to the subject. (And because it’s a really cute picture!)

Apollo had to be the Sith (non-geek translation: bad guy), because a true Jedi would never sneak up behind their opponent like that.

And besides, their owner says that Higgins always wins anyway.

The Best God Joke Ever

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump.  I said, “Don’t do it!”

He said, “Nobody loves me.”

I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”

He said, “A Christian.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Protestant or Catholic?”

He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “ME, TOO! What franchise?”

He said, “Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

~~ Emo Phillips

Voted best Religious Joke of all time in 2005 by Ship of Fools.