Posts tagged david ryan harris
New Christmas Music – Listen to Christmas Music Online!
Dec 8th
Get ready, people. I have a truckload of new Christmas music for ya!
Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. I’m a HUGE Christmas nerd. In fact, this is the first in a series of Christmas-themed toplist posts I have planned for this season. Oh, yeah. I’m spreading Holiday Cheer. Whether ya like it or not! 
The first in the series of Christmas list posts is this one, new Christmas music. Of course, I’m taking a rather loose view of the term “new.” I’m going to adopt Stephen Merchant’s definition of “New Music,” which is – “Music you’ve not heard before.” :s)
So, here we go.
Jd Webb – Everything I Need This Christmas
Of course Jd is first! He’s my boy! Besides that, he’s also come out with the catchiest and most singable Christmas song in the history of ever.
Everything I Need This Christmas by Jd Webb
Barenaked Ladies – Elf’s Lament
It’s a Christmas song. About Organizing. How social justice-y awesome is that? ELVES UNION NOW!
The Weepies – All That I Want
This was the JC Penney commercial Christmas song last year, so you may have heard a snippet of it. I’d be willing to wager you haven’t listened to it as a SONG, though, and it’s really gorgeous.
David Ryan Harris – The Little Drummer Boy
I can’t even talk. It’s David. Just…beautiful, hilarious, touching, moving, amazing…it’ll give you goosebumps. But that was summed up when I said, “It’s David.” 
Winter Song – Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest Ingrid fan. Nothing against her, just…meh. But Sarah B? Frickin’ amazing. And the harmonies are really pretty.
Kat Parsons – She’s a Nutcracker
Just hilarious. Watch it. I’m not wrong.
Jd Webb – Mary Did You Know?
OK, I’m gonna start with Jd and end with Jd. Like I said, he’s my boy!
 | US $6.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Mar-13-2010 13:23:00 PST Buy It Now for only: US $7.95 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
That Was 90% Gravity
Mar 11th
MUSIC I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: I have a cool story. It’s been so long since I updated my blog, that I can’t believe I haven’t posted it here yet, but I haven’t, so HERE GOES!!!!!
In 1998, I bought a brilliant CD by a girl named Rebekah called “Remember to Breathe.” It never left my player for more than a day for over a year, to this day I still listen to it at least once a month.
The problem is, she never put out anything new and I could never find out anything about her aside from the fact that she did some acting (she played Sylvia in Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights). Years of googling and asking around on message boards, etc. yielded nothing.
Then, in December I went to see David Ryan Harris at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. I picked up all the postcards of the upcoming artists like I always do. One was for a girl named Rebekah Jordan. When I went to her website and listened to her songs, I realized her voice was very familiar. It was Rebekah, who I’d spent so long trying to look up!
I’ve seen her twice now, at Room 5 and at Little Temple. I talked to her briefly at Room 5, but got a chance to talk to her more extensively at Little Temple. Brandy snapped a picture of us, but it came out very dark because I was too nervous to remember which button is the flash on my own damn camera! LOL
Anyway, CHECK HER OUT, she’s amazing:
http://www.rebekahjordanmusic.com
BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION, WHICH IS ABOUT TO GET CANCELLED BECAUSE IT’S TOO SMART FOR NETWORK TV: Arrested Development. If you don’t watch Arrested Development, please start immediately. Particularly if you are a Nielson family. This show is so clever, so smart, so subtle yet simultaneously broad (yeah, I know, I wouldn’t have said it was possible either) that I honestly believe that if you don’t love it it’s only because you don’t get it. LOL. If you miss the boat now, and the show gets cancelled before you have a chance to become a rabid fan (as I know anyone who is smart enough to be reading my blog certainly would *smile*), then you will definitely be saying to yourself later, in true Gob style, “I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”
In fact, it’s gotten to the point where it scares me to bring up Arrested Development to new people. I know that if they don’t like it, I will lose all respect for them, not to mention any interest in pursuing the relationship further. Case in point, the following exerpt from an IM conversation between myself and a guy from myspace.com that was trying to chat me up:
BTW, the screenames have been changed to protect the innocent (me) and the idiot (him).
GUY: what are you up to?
ME: i’m watching the second season of arrested development on my computer again. god, i love that show
GUY: never seen it
ME: are you serious? you need to. it’s the smartest show on TV.
GUY: i watch joey
ME: yeah….they’re not really comparable
GUY: i like it
ME: ok
LATER IN THE EXCHANGE:
GUY: so what do you look for in a guy? tall?
ME: i’m not a very externally-focused person. looks are not very interesting to me. i’m more excited by ideas and passion than looks. i suppose i’m somewhat of a neo-hippie in that way.
GUY: oh, cool. yeah. me too.
(FIVE MINUTE PAUSE)
GUY: so what do you look like?
ME: was that subtle irony?
GUY: was that what?
ME: subtle irony.
GUY: i guess i don’t know what that is.
ME: which explains why you prefer Joey to AD.
GUY: AD?
ME: Nevermind.
Needless to say, he’s getting nowhere with me.
WORST DAMN MOVIE IN RECENT HISTORY: Abandon. Katie Holmes elects to play the exact same character as she played in Dawson’s Creek, except this time she’s a killer. I mean, come on…she’s “smart” (whatever), studious, comes from a disadvantaged background, guys are drawn to her, she has Daddy issues…damn, people. That is Joey Potter. Joey Potter with a big damn rock. Not to mention the fact that the male lead looks exactly like Cabrera and it distracted me.
FUNNIEST BLOOPER IN A CHRISTIAN PSUEDO-NEWS PROFILE: My mom and I were watching the 700 Club the other night (shut up!) and they did an expose…er…I mean, a profile on this youth ministry in Connecticut called “Frontline Ministries.” So when the founder is camera-talking about the origin of the name, he says (with a completely straight face), “When David wanted to get rid of Uriah, he sent him out to the frontline of the battle, where the most intense fighting was.”
Um…???? WTF? Yes, that’s the way that David ASSASSINATED Uriah, you moron! What does that have to do with your youth ministry? So unless your motto is: “Frontline Ministries – Killing Kids for Christ since 1987,” you may wanna rethink that, turbo.
But the most intensely frightening aspect of this whole anecdote, for me at least, is how many people must have seen that segment and approved it before it made air. YIKES!
BEST FREEWARE AVAILABLE TO LOAD ONTO A TREO 600: Verichat, a Trillian-like program for handhelds. The upshot? I can now IM from anywhere, my friends. Look out. Particularly ATBers, as I believe it has chat room capabilities. What what!
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: Oh, hell, I’m sick of typing. LOL I’ll check in again with real news about my life, as opposed to random pop culture observations. Like anyone cares.
Maybe I Should Drive :)
Nov 11th
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Next week, on the CRUISE (YAY YAY YAY!!!!!) I will be reading a LOT of books. God, I love to read.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Soulstice by David Ryan Harris. Oh my sweet lord, his voice is like honey. Every song on Soulstice is perfectly balanced. It has some of my favorite songs on it, too, like Pretty Girl, Good Thing, Get Your Way, and the heart-melting Sweetest Berry.
AMUSING POP CULTURE OCCURANCE: OK…was I right or was I right about Asslee Simpson? For the uninitiated, scroll down and see my earlier entry. I’d look it up, but I’m kinda fucking lazy right now. The most hilarious part of the whole Milli Vanilli/SNL snafu is how, just one month earlier, she was quoted as saying (regarding lipsynching), “I’m totally against it and offended by it. I’m going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I’d never lip-synch. It’s just not me.”
Really, Asslee? Is that right, now? Excellent. Irony and I will be over here in the corner just laughing our asses off at you.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: I have been driving. A LOT. My car is my second home.
First of all, my Joey turned 9! So I drove home for a few days to celebrate with him and take him to the Exploratorium. He and AuntieMel had a very special day together.
On Friday, I wanted to get down to Palm Springs to see Marc Acito read from his book “How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater.” I LOVE that book.
You would think that leaving Tracy at 9 am would provide enought of a window to compl,ete a (normally) 7 hour drive by 7 pm. Well, you would be wrong. Dead wrong.
The traffic was SO HORRIBLE that I didn’t make it. Not even close. I didn’t even get home to Woodland Hills until almost 9 pm. 12 hours in the car for nothing! I didn’t even make the damn reading! I was PISSED OFF to say the least. Fucking LA Traffic!
The very next day (Saturday) I took off for San Diego to see my friend Chris playing Scoop in The Heidi Chronicles. What a fabulous play! I read it in college but had never seen it before. Chris and the actor that played Susan were the standouts, IMO.
I crashed at Chris’ in San Diego, but I knew that on Sunday Marc Acito would be signing books in Palm Springs from 1:30 to 3 pm. I decided: DAMMIT!!!! TRAFFIC WILL NOT DEFEAT ME! Ev and I decided to meet up in San Bernadino and drive the rest of the way out together. A few weeks ago, I bought her a copy of Marc’s book and she loved it as well, so she was excited to meet him, too.
We made it out to Palm Springs and (after a bit of searching) located the festival (http://www.pspride.org). How spectacular!!! Drag queens, leather, costumes of all sorts…..fan-fucking-tabulous!
We found the Q Trading booth and introduced ourselves. As Marc was hugging me and I was telling him my name, he said, “Not the Melanie that’s been emailing me?” I said, “Yes, I’m the girl that’s been cyber-stalking you.” He gave me another hug and his tone totally changed – it was like we were old buddies. I think that either he must be a genuinely nice person or he’s a PR genuis, because I definitely felt special after talking with him.
He joked around about how it felt so nice to hug soft breasts after hugging hard chests all day. I think that, personally, I could get used to hugging hard chests all day. Also, he was so impressed that we drove all the way out just to meet him that he actually left his post at the signing table to walk us to the drink tent and buy us margaritas. Woo!
We took pictures and hung out for a while. Man…what a sweetheart! Believe me, I was completely committed to pimping the book before, on the strength of the book itself, but now I am ten times MORE committed knowing that, via the pimping, I will be helping out such a truly wonderful, as well as talented, person.
Anyway, BUY THE BOOK!
A Plethora of Concert Lovin’
Sep 27th
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Portofino by Frank Schaeffer. This book is so great. It’s a coming-of-age story about this kid, Calvin, who is vacationing with his fundamentalist christian missionary parents in Portofino, Italy. The seminal quote is “Most kids told lies to be special. I told lies to be normal.” It’s funny and poignant…I love it.
MOVIE I’VE RECENTLY SEEN: Shaun of the Dead. Oh my God, hilarious! I love British humor and this had the added benefit of some truly jump-worthy scares as well.
CD I HAVE BEEN SPINNING: Marc Broussard. http://www.marcbroussard.com Marc Broussard is pure sex. Pure. Sex. I think that straight guys should not even be allowed to listen to Carencro because the pure sex in their ears when those sounds start pouring out of their battery-deficient ipods just might turn them. And that would mean less boys for me. And that’s not OK. Because it’s all about me. (I know, I know…they solved the battery issue in the 5th generation. Whatever.)
GUILTY PLEASURE: Ashlee Simpson. Damn. I hate to even admit that.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, her songs are catchy. Whatever. But she did not, in point of fact, write them. Sure she has a writing credit on every song, but hell, the songwriting team Geffen hired to spruce her shit up could probably turn my blog into a hit song. It doesn’t mean I wrote said song!
She doesn’t play any instruments. That’s a problem for me in her genre of music, even if maybe it shouldn’t be. But while I don’t EXPECT pop airheads to be musicians, I DO expect rockers to be actual musicians, dammit! Is that so wrong????
She never had to pay any dues…she never had to convince a club to book her. She never had to do load in/load out. She never had to stand in front of a hostile audience that’s just waiting for the next guy and try to win them over. She never had to do any of a hundred things that people who have fought through and become seasoned have had to do, and therefore I will never admire her the way I admire the musicians I *DO* respect.
But, hell…was I playing my sister’s copy of “Autobiography” on the way to work this morning and guiltily enjoying it? Fuck me, yes I was! I hate myself a little right now. LOL
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON LATELY: Well, one major event was the David Ryan Harris show at Little Temple here in LA. Oh, man, what a night. http://www.davidryanharris.com or http://www.ifihadadime.com (lots of good downloads at that last one)
First off, I got to meet a bunch of MSMers that I’ve never met in person before. Brandy, Trudy, Cy, Pearl, Michelle, Chandler, and Richard Young (the founder of MSM, also http://www.ifihadadime.com and http://www.firstlisten.org). It was such a small, intimate show. Maybe 50 or 60 people there. The club is incredible! I thought of Cat, because I felt as if I were in the movie Love Jones. It felt, also, like being inside a Genie’s bottle. A very cool Genie who has a Vern-influenced decorating sensibility.
Also, on the celebrity front, Scotty Crowe (Mayer’s merch manager…er…tour journal writer…er…ok, let’s just call it like it is. Mayer’s bitch. was there. God, I used to have such the crush on him. He was standing about 5 feet from where I was sitting. It made it someowhat difficult to concentrate on the show. Haha. Apparently DRH is his next big project. He’s propelled Mayer to stardom and next DRH. Awesome. Randy Jackson was there. Or should I say, Randy Jackson was there, dawg. Last, but SO not least…Adrian Zmed was there. Oh, yeah, baby. TJ Hooker 4 lyfe!!!!!
I concert-called Shawna for Pretty Girl. I figured since that song is about her (in our minds, anyway! haha) she should get to hear it. The show was just great. My favorite number was “Good Thing” at the end, because it was audience participation…we got to sing and clap and sway and I felt like I was back in Tongues of Fire!
“We had a gggooooodddd thing, don’t get me wrong…” FUN!!!!!!
Last Thursday, I drove down to San Diego (well, Solana Beach, technically) to see Tristan Prettyman http://www.tristanprettyman.com and OH MY GOD she is even more beautiful in person than in her photos, which I would not have thought humanly possible. Opening for her were Pete Thurston http://www.petethurston.com and Saba http://www.sabamusic.com. They were great as well. But Mizz Trizzy blew me the fuck away. She was incredible. Between everyone’s sets, it was about 3 1/2 hours in by the time she finished and I did NOT want it to be over, even though I was tired. I wanted it to keep going on and on and on and on. WOW!
Last thing to talk about, roomie Evelyn http://www.angelfire.com/va/downeasteralexa and I had a housewarming ‘do. Well…mainly Evelyn, let’s be real. haha. Evie cooked Chicken Cacciatore with Polenta and made a fabulous Mocha Almond Torte for desert. MMMMM….. I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in a while. Amy Crego was there, she is about to leave for bootcamp in a month, she joined the MARINES if you can believe it! WOW! My summer 2002 roomie Tessa was there, and I haven’t seen her for two years. I love, love, LOVE that girl. She is an incredible human. Evie’s friend Carrie came, as well as Cliff and Cerene. Chris bailed, and you can BELIEVE there is going to be hell to pay the next time EVT sees him. She denies it, but…come on. Stacie and Pat (friends of Evelyn) dropped by after the party and we did not end up getting to bed until 4.
All in all….it’s been a GREAT week, y’all!!!!!
I Live in SoCal Now!!!
Sep 5th
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: The DaVinci Code. I know I hopped on that train kinda late, but there you have it.
AMAZING MOVIE I’VE RECENTLY SEEN: Garden State. SEE IT! I will not speak to you again until you see it. Kickass soundtrack, too.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Justin Hopkins. Great singer/songwriter. http://www.justinhopkinsmusic.com I discovered him on soundclick. Soundclick is great, a lot like the old mp3.com. You have to sort through a lot of crap on there to discover someone truly quality, but when you do, it’s worth it. Justin proves that.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: Well, there’s the whole moving drama, which I will update later on. But, in the meantime, I’ll just do a concert review to tide everyone over.
I went and saw Matty Nay (WOO!, of course!) , Howie Day (whatever), Guster (WOO!), and O.A.R. last Thursday at the Greek in LA. Beautiful outdoor venue, right in Griffith Park.
I was really there to see Matt, but LOVED seeing Guster as well.
Here’s the review I posted on Matt’s official board:
the set was rockin’ and funny…the security guard that was stationed near me was bobbing his head and laughed a few times. and when matt’s set was over, he asked me, ‘what’s his name again?’ so, new convert for sure.
lemme think…i know i had things i wanted to say, let me organize my thoughts here.
* I really dug the intro to “I Saw”
* Matt’s facial expression during the bit before “Curve of the Earth” was funny…as well as the fact that he had his middle finger up during the whole pseudo phone conversation. That was a funny visual.
* I liked the lyric, “I wasn’t lyin’ when I told you all that you could be, but it was no use ’cause you were fucking everyone else but me.” during Lost Myself.
* Matt was awesome, but the (relatively small) crowd was just NOT into it. FUCKERS.
Here’s a sort of funny realization I had at the concert, although not during matt’s set.
I had front row tickets, and the hippyish kids sitting on either side of me were each pretty rabid OAR fans. They were very unruly dancers, as well. The guy on the one side kept stepping on my foot, and about the sixth time, he turns and concert-yells in my ear, “Did that hurt?” No, moron. The laws of physics are suspended for you and it actually *doesn’t* hurt when my sandle-clad foot gets stepped on by your doc martins. several times. and then the girl on the other side of me kept trying to convince me to “get more into it.” Her campaign eventually resulted in it apparently being necessary for her to grab my wrists and try to make me dance. and, yeah…i’m not so much into the stranger-touching.
As I was walking to my car i found myself thinking “damn hippies!” Then I realized that since I am not, in fact, an old man circa 1967…that’s probably not the correct phrase for me. LOL I think the problem is that I may need to admit to myself that I’m getting too old for the front row. Or maybe just stay away from OAR concerts, I don’t know. Their fans might be a bit much for me.
New shows are on the horizon, as well:
9/11 – Ernie Halter, Highland Grounds, LA
9/18 – David Ryan Harris, Little Temple, LA
9/29 – Joss Stone, Tower Records on Sunset
10/20 – Gavin deGraw, Coach House, San Juan Capistrano (maybe)
10/22 – Gavin deGraw, HOB, Hollywood
10/26 – Ari Hest, Roxy on Sunset
Rant
Oct 15th
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Matt Nathanson. Totally talented singer/songwriter guy…not to mention a complete cutie. He’s based out of San Francisco. He’s playing at Slim’s in the city next week. Damn. I’m broke. Sucks! (Every time I say the name “Slim’s”, I think of that line from Love Jones… “Come on, slim…f*ck your man, I ain’t worried about him.” Aaaahhh….Love Jones. Hey…If Jennifer Love Hewitt married somebody named Jones, her name would be Love Jones. Heh)
WHAT I’M READING: Lake House by James Patterson
COOL WEBSITE I’VE RECENTLY DISCOVERED: http://www.daretosing.com. It is freakin’ hilarious!!!! The concept of the site is that people who think they can sing (and a handful who actually can) upload mp3’s of themselves daring to sing (or daring to suck, as the case may be). Other people then download their attempts and are able to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 and provide comments.
Oh….my…God. That’s comedy, people. An added bonus is that some of the people on there actually are talented. Jazzybagz is fantastic. Also, that site is how I originally discovered Ernie Halter (http://www.erniehalter.com), because he posted a Mayer cover which was discussed on mystupidmouth.com. But, the main function of the site, for me at least, is comic relief.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: Man, I realize that I had complete PMS the last time I wrote! The tone of almost everything on that post is complete irritation. LOL Well, I’m back to my old cheerful self.
However, before I completely exit the kingdom of bitchiness I do have to lodge a complaint. Remember in my last blog, I told about how I had emailed Five O’Clock Shadow to see if they are really breaking up? I didn’t post the email here, but I will now:
>To: focs@focs.com
>Cc:
>Subject: BREAKING UP???? NNNNOOOO!!!!!
>Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 21:13:36 -0800
>Hi there!
>You don’t know me, but I am a big fan. I heard that you are breaking
>up at the end of the year. Is this true? Is the person that I heard
>it from crazy/on drugs? Joking. I realize those two things don’t
>have to be mutually exclusive Anyway, this is so incredibly sad
>if it’s true.
>I have to bribe my inner two-year-old to do unpleasant tasks (such as
>paying bills, doing laundry and working out) and listening to your
>music is one of the major carrots I dangle for her. Trust me, if
>y’all stop putting out new tunes, it’s highly possible that I will
>turn into an out-of-shape, dirty-clothes-wearing,
>currently-in-bankruptcy-court former fan.
>Come now…I don’t think any of us wants that!
>Seriously, though, if you are breaking up, I am sad about that. You
>guys have a truly unique and quality sound that will be missed by
>many people, including myself. I only hope that you are pursuing
>solo projects so that I can still manage to drop some coin on y’all’s
>behalf. Wow…I used two apostrophes in one word. Cool.
>If you have a moment, feel free to write me back and end my misery of
>uncertainty. God knows I’d appreciate it!
>Thanks so much for your time!
>Melanie
>http://www.auntiemel.com
I felt that was, if not my finest comedic writing of all time, at least worth a small chuckle.
So, Oren tells Evie… “Yeah, one of your friends emailed me this week, and it was the most hilarious thing I’ve read all week. She said we satiated her inner two-year-old or something.” But the way she related his tone, it was more like he meant hilarious-psycho than hilarious-funny. Not to mention that the way he explained the “inner two-year-old” comment was completely out of the context of the email. I am very irritated by this. Not to mention the fact that he STILL HASN’T WRITTEN ME BACK! Way to keep in touch with the fans, man. Ridicule their emails behind their backs so they know you’ve read them, but don’t bother to respond.
So, listen…if you are reading this, dude, let me tell you something…it was MEANT TO BE FUNNY! It was not meant to be literal! My life is not actually going to fall apart if you guys break up. I was exaggerating for comic effect. But, it doesn’t really matter. I’m pretty much over you guys breaking up at this point. David Ryan Harris can “satiate” my inner two-year-old.
All the Updates That Are Fit to Print…
Oct 7th
…and some that aren’t, really.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Ernie Halter. Someone posted about him on a message board I go to, and I checked out his website. He is soooo cool! I downloaded some of his stuff, and I just can’t stop listening. The CD I burned from the mp3’s on his site is what is currently keeping me pumped up during my workouts. http://www.erniehalter.com Check him out, why don’t ya?
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Manner of Death by Stephen White
COOL MOVIE I’VE SEEN LATELY: The Fighting Temptations. The gospel music in the movie was not quite as authentic as I’d hoped….or maybe I should say, it wasn’t the style I enjoy most. I like “choir” kinda gospel music, which I thought this would be. John P. Kee. Kirk Franklin. Fred Hammond. West Angeles COGIC. Basically any choir with the word “Mass” in it. You know what I’m talking about. This was more like hip hop, R&B-style gospel. For the young people. LOL. But still very cool…a sweet story. I liked the movie overall.
COOL WEBSITE I’VE RECENTLY DISCOVERED: www.mystupidmouth.com – John Mayer message board. It’s fun. It’s a good way to get rid of some of that pesky disposable time we all hate so much. Of course, if you’re not a Mayer fan, it probably would not appeal to you as much.
RANDOM RANT: Die, John Wells!!!!! Die, bastard!!!! You are not fit to derelict Aaron Sorkin’s balls. DDDIIIIIEEEE!!!! (for more info on the reasons why I feel this way, expressed in a way that is much more clever than I have the time to come up with, see: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/story.cgi?show=4&story=5480&limit=&sort= )
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: Well, the big news is that I got a new car…finally!!! YES!!! It’s a 2003 Nissan Sentra, silver. Love it! Spending six weeks with no car was no fun. I spent an ungodly amount of time posting on various message boards and abandoning any pretense of leading a real, non-internet life.
I have rekindled my interest in exercising, however, and have been doing my Power 90 tapes and going to the gym very regularly. YAY…..endorphines! WooHoo!
Five O’Clock Shadow is breaking up!!! NNNOOOOO!!!!!!! Evie is friendly with one of the guys from the group and he told her. I don’t think it’s a secret, though, because someone alluded to it in their guestbook. I emailed them to ask if it’s true…just in case for some odd reason Oren was messing with Evie’s head or Evie was messing with mine. But I think both of those possibilities are slim like shady. I think they are history. 
David Ryan Harris is playing this Saturday night in Santa Monica…WWWWWAAAAA!!!! Dang it, every damn thing goes down in LA. I always get excited when I see concert announcements for California…but is it ever up here??? NNNOOOO!!!! This would be one major reason why I am getting my ass back to SoCal as soon as humanly possible.
I went out and voted in California’s own little Saturday Night Live skit….er….um….I mean….Recall Election. Not telling you how I voted. The point is that I *did* vote.
I replaced Eddie, who was broken. Those in the know, know. Those that don’t, don’t.
My website broke 3000 unique visitors this week! YAY!!!!!
I am currently subjecting my 2nd Graders to the non-abridged double CD version of The Phantom of the Opera while they do their seatwork under the pretense that it is appropriately creepy for the season…but really because I just want to listen to it. They are BEGGING me to bring Chuck Mangione back. Heeheehee! They love Joe Satriani, but it gets them too riled up. I can only put it on at the end of the day when I’m about to send them out the door anyway. LOL
I’m currently reading “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson” aloud to them. I forgot how awesome that book is! LOVE it! Makes me cry, makes me laugh…makes the kids do those things, too, which is important. They are having a little trouble getting used to the Realistic Fiction genre after I’ve just finished spoiling them with “The Hoboken Chicken Emergency,” “Fat Men from Space,” and “Jennifer Murdley’s Toad.” Heh. But they’ll live. The only thing I regret about teaching second is that they are too young for me to share my favorite children’s lit book, “A Wrinkle in Time,” with. AWWW!
**Note – If any spies from my school are reading this, I only read novels aloud to them for ten minutes a day and I DON’T count it as part of my sacred Houghton Mifflin minutes! God forbid I take precious time away from curriculum adoption workbook pages to share some actual literature…wouldn’t dream of it, baby!
Have I mentioned on here how much I really hate the state of the educational system today????? Nothing personal against my particular school…it’s the same all over.
I’m just gonna go ahead and end on that downer note. I can’t think of anything else to say!
Stay strong, power people!
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