Raves (Nov. 2009)

Sherpas – Target has this sweatshirt right now called the Sherpa. Its basically just a hooded sweatshirt, but with extra-fuzzy lining. It's like, crazy comfortable. I bought two. They are getting me through these harsh days of San Diego autumn, where the temperature has been know to drop below 60°!

Mad Men finale – [[[Spoiler Alert]]] Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce!?!?! Great finale. I read a news story about a year ago where some guys who actually worked on Madison Ave. in the ‘60s said that Sterling Cooper, the ad agency on Mad Men, was kind of behind the times – the anti-Semitism, sexism, that was all on its way out by then. Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner said that’s the point: Sterling Coop is supposed to be a dinosaur. And now, two weeks after the Kennedy Assassination, it’s all changing. Just like America! Can’t wait for ’64.

Hot Chocolate at Twiggs – I’ve lived in my neighborhood for about 3 years now, and I just last night discovered that a coffee shop in the corner makes AMAZING hot chocolate. I highly recommend everyone in San Diego give it a try.

Scott Pilgrim – I’m not hip at all when it comes to comics (or anything, really) so I might be waaaaay behind the times on this, but a friend of mine introduced me to the Scott Pilgrim books recently and I love them. They’re this quirky little story about a guy from Toronto whose life is pretty mundane, except when it’s occasionally like a video game. You need to read it to understand. They're making a movie out of it though, so you can be cool and know things before other people!

Weddings I’m not in – I’ve been a bridesmaid 4 times in 3 years. I’m always honored, but I’m also always out like $700 bucks. (Airfare, dawg. Airfare). So it was lovely to just be a guest at a friend’s (local) wedding Saturday night. Everyone should get married and let me just come!

Andrew Bird – Singer/songwriter Andrew Bird doesn’t have anything new out (unless you count his album "Noble Beast," which arrived in January) but I’ve been listening to him a lot lately. I’ve been sick, and something about his dulcet tenor and pitch-perfect whistling has made the hurting stop, just a little bit. Bless you, Mr. Bird.

Note: Red is on vaca until later this week. I’ll try to get you guys through the next few days. Tell her how much you miss her in the comments.

Item: New version of iTunes actually worth downloading!

Every few weeks or so, iTunes alerts me that it has a new version that I simply MUST download. I usually put this off until my iTunes crashes, at which point I bite the bullet and wait 15 minutes for this "new" version - that's exactly like the old one -to start taking up space on my hardrive.

The latest version actually looked a little different, and I noticed that when I plug in my iPod it doesn't immediately go to my iPod, which was a pleasant change, but other than that, I wasn't too impressed.

Until!

Not my iTunes library, though New Order is kinda cool, I guess, as far as "Band's that Started Because the Original Band's Lead Singer Died" go

Until last night when the boyfriend asked me a question about a Lemonheads CD he'd just uploaded. He said he had to fill in all the info for it, because the program didn't recognize the album. It just listed the songs as "Track 01," "Track 02," etc., he typed in the names, but it didn't appear to have uploaded.


But honestly, I stopped listening after he said he'd filled in "all" the information. See, as you may know, when iTunes doesn't recognize an album, and only lists the songs by track number, you usually couldn't put all the information in yourself. You could fill in the song title under the "Name" column, but you couldn't put the artist in under the "Artist" column. It wouldn't let you. A little while back, they started allowing you to put the album name in its appropriate column, but the "Artist" column remained inpenetrable. But there, right in front of me, in the "Artist" column, it said Lemonheads right on down the line, reportedly by the boyfriend's own hand.


This was a revelation! I started going back and properly naming all my albums that had been labeled with all their info (song title, artist and album) in the space reserved for the song name. Suddenly, there was no more confining unrecognized albums to playlists on my iPod to make them easier to find! My copy of Born to Run can live amongst the other Bruce Springsteens albums! Merriweather Post Pavilion can be with the other Animal Collectives! Oh, glorious day!


Now, there is a slight chance that you've been able label a song's title, artist and album for a while now, and I'm just an idiot. In which case ... leave me alone, I might have sinus polyps!


But if I'm right, you've gotta get this new version of iTunes for all your illegal pirate CDs ... I mean, er, all your older CDs that iTunes doesn't recognize. A new day is upon us!!!

You take it out, Donaghy!

Next year, everyone's favorite Raging Liberal Who Makes a Living Portraying a Raging Conservative is hosting everyone's favorite Public Relations Exercise Disguised As An Art Showcase.

You guess it - Alec Baldwin is hosting the Oscars!

Well, co-hosting, along with hosting veteran and all around funny guy Steve Martin. Should make for a fun show.

Fun with Google

As I've whined about a million times before, I have really bad allergies. The kind of allergies that give you nasty headaches, nauseau, and the inability to eat avocados. They've been so bad for the last few weeks that I've decided its finally time to listen to my doctor and get a CT scan of my sinuses to check for polyps.

So, like any hip young female of the 21st Century who has minor claustrophia, I started typing "How long does a CT scan last" into my Google toolbar. But I got distracted by the suggestions Google started giving me once I'd typed in "How long ..." They were, in order:

- How long does weed stay in your system?
- How long does alcohol to stay in your system?
- How long does it take to get a passport?
- How long does it take to get pregant?
- How long to boil corn on the cob?
- How long to boil and egg?
- How long does sperm live?

Anyone who doesn't think we need serious education reform in this country clearly doesn't have allergies.

My Terrible Pumpkin

Hope you all had a lovely Halloween. The cast of Mad Men were a hit in my 'hood and were joined by a Pirate, Cougar Hunter, Beer Wench, Walter from The Big Lebowski, Norv Turner and Mrs. Mia Wallace, among others. A rousing good time was had by all. And here now, as promised, is the ugliest pumpkin in history. It was so bad, people used it as an ashtray. Thanks a lot friends and people I just met!

I guess it's not THAT bad, but the nose is just retarded.

This (mostly) Just In...

It's Friday! And tomorrow is Halloween! Life. Is. Good. Some other things enhancing it at the moment...

Subtle Sexuality! - New webisodes from The Office feature my potential BFF Kelly Kapoor (seriously, I wish she was real) and The New Pam (aka Erin) singing a Lady Gaga-esque ode to Ryan called "Male Prima Donna." It's totally rad and will be stuck in my head for the entire day.

That's a Dealbreaker Ladies! - While we're on the subject of faux websites, here's one for Liz Lemon's dealbreaker book. Sadly, it's kind of lame.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Prequel! - I liked PP&Z, but I thought it was, oddly enough, a little too faithful to the original. This prequel is in the style of Jane Austen, but includes all original material...which sounds more up my alley.

Happy Halloween! - As Liz mentioned yesterday, we're having a party and it will be, as I'm sure you can imagine, totally awesome...especially now that we've received your fantastic song ideas. (However, it may be slightly hindered by my carved pumpkin which is, for the record, the worst carved pumpkin in the history of ever. The seeds I roasted are delicious, though.) Wish you could be there, but since you can't, tell us all about your costumes in the comments. Be safe! Don't give away the Reese's!

There's gotta be more to life than "The Monster Mash"

Red and I are throwing a Halloween party this weekend (we're gonna look super '60s sexy as the cast of Mad Men) and we're at the point in our planning where we're thinking about the music.

As always, we need your help: What are some good, creepy Halloween party songs? Obviously there's "Thriller," and probably a lot of stuff my Metallica and Slayer, but we're trying to think outside the box here.

Ideas in the comments section, please!

Beer of the Month

Since there are so many beer lovers around these parts, I thought I'd start a "beer of the month club," if you will, where we tell you about an awesome beer we've discovered and you respond by telling us how awesome Dogfish Head is compared to that beer. Sound like fun? Good. Here goes...

This past Friday, I met some friends at a new bar in the cool part of town (aside: "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" came on the jukebox at one point and I was singing along (natch) and I made eye contact with a dude at the next table and he was singing along, too. He came over and gave me a high-five and said, "I think we're the only people in here who know this song" and that made me really sad) and had a Bootlegger's Black Phoenix. OMFG was it delicious. It's an American Stout with coffee and chipotle pepper! Chipotle, people. Simply genius. I could not get enough (and considering it's a limited edition, that really sucks). However, I've since discovered several brewers make something similar so there is hope.

I'm still dreaming about it's deliciousness this very second. Liz, wanna grab a beer tonight after band practice?

My graphic design skillz are sick!!!

What you got?

Too soon?

For those of you not dedicated enough to order tickets in advance, or too Grandma to go see a movie at midnight on a school night, you can stream the Michael Jackson movie "This is It" LIVE right here tonight at 7:30 Eastern/4:30 Pacific.

For those of you who don't really care .... I call BS because everyone cares about MJ now that he's dead!

Shamoh!

This (mostly) Just In...

Peggy Olsen Marries Fred Armisen - Okay, fine. Elizabeth Moss married Fred Armisen. Why's everybody always gotta remind me Mad Men is, in fact, only a TV show? Geez!

(Pssst...those of you who live in my alternate universe...How do you think Pete and Duck will feel about this?!)

Ricky Gervais to Host the Golden Globes! - Ricky is always amazing. Always. I dare you to name one thing he's not absolutely terrific in. Go ahead...I'll wait...you've got nothing, amirite?

Boom! Roasted!

(I may be misusing that phrase)

Smarter, Younger Wife = Happier Marriage - Some study by the stupid British claims men should marry women at least 5 years younger than themselves to stave off divorce. Great. Just what dudes my age need...further reasons to date co-eds. Though! It does say men should date women smarter than themselves (I love that the article uses Jay-Z and Beyonce as the prime example here and says, "Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z.") So, yeah, stop being intimidated by smart women, you dummies!

(Sorry! I don't know why I'm being so mean today. I really do love you.)

Andrew Lloyd Webber has Cancer - Anyone who knows me, knows I love the musicals (in fact, I was singing Jesus Christ Superstar on my way to work this morning), and ALW is the king, so here's hoping he beats this thing! Get well soon, m'Lord!