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Lizabeth's Journal

lizabeth
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09/11/2007 11:44 #41048

fantasy hockey, anyone?
Category: fake hockey
It's that time of year again... (e:john) and (e:jbeatty) and some other folks and I have a fantasy hockey league on Yahoo. Our league name is Lake Effect. :)

If any of you are interested in joining us this year, we'd love to have you. Just send me a message and I'll give you the league ID # and password.

09/08/2007 13:50 #41005

zomg!
Category: music
Y'all! The best band of all time (ok, ok, my favorite band of all time) is coming to Buffalo! You must go see them!

They Might Be Giants
Buffalo, NY at Town Ballroom
Fri. Nov. 16 (8 PM)
Tickets on sale Sept. 8 (that's today!)

They haven't announced any FL dates yet, and of course 11/16 is a mere five days before I'll be in Buffalo for a visit... argh.

But 11/16 is also the day before (e:carolinian) 's birthday, so someone should take him to this show as his b-day present! :D


james - 09/18/07 11:39
oh ya! He was on a bunch of early Hello EPs. I will have to look up "Drink Me"

If you like I can burn his first CD and his Dewanatron extravaganza for you... OH! And I can put the various bootlegs I have of him as well.
lizabeth - 09/12/07 15:15
"The Operating Theater" is the one I found, and it was like finding a tiny bit of buried treasure. "Where They Belong" is such a great song, as is "Cadavers," and the title track is so good... really, the whole album is worthwhile. He has a nice voice, too.

Thank you for all the info and links - I will have to check them out. Wasn't he in Drink Me? I looked him up on the All Music Guide :::link::: , but they only list him as having "worked with" them... I swear he was on their Hello club EP, though. I will have to investigate further...
james - 09/11/07 12:57
He has three albums out

Tells the Story - his first, and probably like the one you have

The Operating Theater - his second, it has a ton of great songs like Cadavers, Where They Belong, Solomon Gruny. Great album!

Dewanatron - he and his cousin like to make music machines. Check them out at www.Dewanatron.com

Also, look him up on youtube. He did a series of political campaign songs on New York public access infront of a hallucinogenic background while wearing a crazy colored suit. It is wonderful.

I am a huge Dewan fan, if you can't tell, and I am glad you spent that dollar ^_^
lizabeth - 09/11/07 11:38
@ tinypliny - yes, they are those people (but they've done so much more than that, too!)

@ james - I have seen them well over a dozen times, and their shows are always so much fun. I've never seen Brian Dewan, but I did find one of his CDs in the $1 bin at a record store here, and I'll tell you, that was one of the best dollars I've ever spent.

@ jenks - I do think The National are on my ever-growing list of bands I need to check out someday...
tinypliny - 09/09/07 14:37
I vaguely remembered something. Aren't these the people who sang the title song for that Malcolm sitcom?
james - 09/08/07 20:17
I have seen them live half a dozen times and OH!! They put on the best damn show.

I hope Brian Dewan opens for them again.
jenks - 09/08/07 17:26
no no no no, the REAL best band of all time (The National) is coming to buffalo- not toronto, not new york, BUFFALO. They just added the date yesterday. 10/9 at the Tralf. I'm sure I'll have to work, but I'm SO going.

(tmbg are fun, too, though. :) )
carolinian - 09/08/07 16:17
Yeah, what she said!
drew - 09/08/07 14:20
TMBG = awesome

09/07/2007 01:58 #40981

quandary, resolved
Category: miscellany
Ok, thanks for all the input, everyone! Y'all pretty much said what I was leaning toward, anyway, which is: of course I'm going to do the reading, K is one of my best friends on earth. Even if we are not super-close anymore, we have a lot of History together, and now is not the time for me to get my panties in a bunch. (And to clarify, for those who asked - I'm not a bridesmaid, I'd just be doing a reading. K is only having one bridesmaid, and it is not me, and I am fine with that.) I can ignore Satana (my nickname for S - it rhymes with her real name, and is so revealing of her personality, I think) for as long as it takes. I've got mad acting skillz - I can fake-smile to beat anyone.

So K e-mailed me what I'd be reading - here it is:

[box]Song of Songs 2:8-10.14.16; 8:6-7

Hark! my lover-here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.

My lover speaks; he says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!
"O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely."
My lover belongs to me and I to him;
He says to me:
"Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
The word of the Lord. [/box]

I will admit frankly that this sort of makes me want to gag (but hey, if it makes K happy...). As (e:carolinian) can attest, I am about the least romantic person on the face of the planet - traditional ideas of "romance" generally make me want to retch. I've got enough acting training that I'll be able to get this out with a straight face, but I will be inwardly rolling my eyes while comparing my lover to an African herd animal. In practical terms, I can tell you already the part I will trip over - it's the "nor floods sweep it away" bit. I'm gonna go all Elmer Fudd and say "fwoods sleep," I just know it.
lauren - 09/07/07 11:02
Hehe, anything that starts with "Hark!" and refers to a man as a gazelle makes me giggle.
ladycroft - 09/07/07 05:49
Song of Songs is actually not even in some versions of Bible. It's a love poem, so it should be fun to read! I was guessing it would be Corinthians 13, it seems I heard that everytime.
tinypliny - 09/07/07 04:29
That sounds like one of the Operas of Henry Purcell. If you like Baroque music, you might get through this - just imagine that you are the prima soprano. :)

08/31/2007 01:54 #40848

a minor quandary
Category: miscellany
A friend of mine (let's refer to her as "K") is getting married in October. She's asked me to read a Bible verse during the ceremony - one of three verses that will be read by three different friends of hers. One of the other friends (I'll call her "S") is this girl I simply cannot stand. I have disliked her pretty much since the day I met her. She has the world's most annoying laugh (it sounds like she is fake-laughing, but that is her real laugh). She is a minister, and I have no clue how she can lead a congregation or counsel anyone when she is so judgmental, petty, and self-centered. She is married to this total jerk (also a minister, sad to say) who once made fun of me, to my face, in front of a bunch of people when I was drunk because he thought I wouldn't notice. And, horrifyingly enough, I hear these two wretched people have spawned, so there will be a small child in the mix, too (I really don't like kids very much). I was hoping to avoid any real contact with these people for the duration of the celebration, but if I agree to read a verse, that won't be possible. I'll probably even have to sit next to them during the ceremony.

What do I do? I don't want to leave K casting about for someone else to do this reading (she was the maid of honor in my wedding - I don't want to leave her hanging). I certainly don't want S to be in this wedding while I sit on the sidelines. But at the same time, I want this to be a pleasant experience, and I want to be able to enjoy myself, and I'm afraid I might not be able to do that if I can't stop thinking about smacking S's asshole husband in his smug face.

Other factors to consider: I'm not afraid of public speaking, but it has been a while since I've had to do it, and this is going to be a pretty big wedding. I'm not Christian, so the thought of reading from the Bible doesn't exactly thrill me (and no, I don't get to choose the verse, and no, I don't have the option of reading something else instead). If I'm not in the wedding, then I can go to a hockey game (Kings v. Bruins) instead of attending the rehearsal dinner. Just a thought. Your opinions and comments, please.

Well, I have another post I want to make, but until I can find a way to get my pics onto my mom's computer, or to get my computer hooked up to my mom's internet, it will have to wait.

metalpeter - 08/31/07 17:46
ok (e:jenks) said kinda what I wanted to say:
"What do I do? I don't want to leave K casting about for someone else to do this reading (she was the maid of honor in my wedding - I don't want to leave her hanging). I certainly don't want S to be in this wedding while I sit on the sidelines. But at the same time, I want this to be a pleasant experience, and I want to be able to enjoy myself, and I'm afraid I might not be able to do that if I can't stop thinking about smacking S's asshole husband in his smug face." Basicly you need to tell you friend this but in the wording of talking to her. You want to tell her that you are a good friend and that you are honored but that you can't stand the other girl and that she is evil and you are afraid that if you are around her you might not be able to restrain your self from doing something that would ruin the wedding. That is much better then getting there and the chick is a bitch and you get disrespected and you stab her with a steak knife or something like that. If you are honest with your friend she might suggest something or make sure that you two are not near each other.
jenks - 08/31/07 13:56
is it worth telling your friend that you hate the other readers? Probably not... but that's one possibility... just be like "you're my friend and I'm honored to be in your wedding and I really want to... but i hate that chick!" not that she should change her whole wedding for you, but maybe you can at least not sit next to her or something. B/c really just doing one reading is pretty quick- it's not like you're standing at the altar and fake-smiling at her the whole time. (is it??)
jim - 08/31/07 13:38
jbeatty! Hush :)
jbeatty - 08/31/07 13:37
Go to the hockey game!
jim - 08/31/07 11:30
Also, for your other concern, I'll tell you that during my mother's funeral mass I read a passage from the Bible that my Dad picked out. I didn't believe a single word of it, but my Mother did and my Father did, and so... something I would have thought I'd never do on principle became something I wouldn't think of refusing.

And so - on a much happier occasion - you are reading this for your friend, you are being there for your friend! That's all you need to worry about, and worth bending for. You'll have nothing to regret after it's over.
jim - 08/31/07 11:25
I'd look at it as the sort of sacrifice that you have just have to make. At least it is one brief part of the day! You can ignore them during the reception :)
lauren - 08/31/07 11:22
I agree with Drew. This is your friend's wedding day, perhaps one of the most important days in her life, and she has asked you to be apart of it. It should be an honor and to turn it down based on your dislike of someone would be silly and you would probably regret it.
drew - 08/31/07 09:34
Just go. Obviously she's a friend, and sometimes you have to put up with an annoying friend's friends. Besides, its here wedding day. She gets to be the princess on her wedding day.

As for the reading, I would ask to see it in advance. My guess is that she chose a reading that is pretty non-offensive, and in my book, reading from a book does not imply an endorsement of the whole thing.

It's not THAT hard to ignore somebody if you really want to.
libertad - 08/31/07 09:07
your in a jam
ladycroft - 08/31/07 07:36
can you clarify one thing: you were asked to read a verse...just as a reader, or are you also a bridesmaid? i think this would be my deciding factor. it's hard for most people to read publicly but then most people aren't really paying attention at weddings so don't sweat too much. like tiny said, if she's a very close friend, and you're a bridesmaid, it's best to just go with it and avoid the devil spawn as best you can. but i'm guessing she IS a very close friend if she was your maid of honor!
tinypliny - 08/31/07 02:33
I can think of three approaches to this dilemma. If you love this friend, and think you could do anything in this world for her to be happy on her special day, then you could try some plastic smiling, pointed ignoring and general acting. :) If this friend doesn't fall into the "I would-do-anything-for-her category", dump the wedding and go to the hockey game. You could also choose to take it to the next level if you especially hate the ministerial duo and are comfortable/familiar enough with your friend. Spill the beans and get rid of *them*.

Whatever you decide to do, remember that life is short, the main objective is to have fun - by hook or by crook!!



08/26/2007 21:51 #40748

small things
Category: miscellany
We don't have a TV at home right now - got rid of our crappy ancient set when we left Syracuse, and we haven't replaced it yet. We're not really TV watchers, so the only time we miss it is when we want to watch a DVD and we have to pull out my husband's laptop and set it on the coffee table... Anyway, when I'm home visiting my mom and Nana is about the only time I see TV anymore. TV, especially when you haven't watched it in a while, is truly terrifying.

But I did watch an episode of Globe Trekker today, just for (e:jbeatty) (who totally loves that show and wants to be on it - someone help him make a demo reel already, he'd be great).

BTW - when did my husband get an account at this site?? I know he did it just to be able to comment on (e:jbeatty) 's blog, but still. You'd think he could have at least told me. Oh, this is him: (e:john)

This trip I've been finding some weird connections between me and my grandparents... I found an old notebook of my maternal grandfather's, and it's just crammed with little scribblings and notes and lists - and I've got a ton of little notebooks and scraps of paper - ok, I need to pause this right now because my grandmother is driving me CRAZY and if I don't type about what a pain in the ASS she is, I will kill her, and the murder of a 92-year-old lady never looks good on one's permanent record. She is telling me now that I should be a dentist. "DENTIST!" she just yelled. And she is going on about how you probably don't need to go to school as long to be a dentist as to be a doctor (like she has any clue!), and I just want to throttle her. She can't go more than half an hour without telling me all about what I should do with my life in great detail. And as she is getting old and senile, most of the time now she is just running her mouth without a clue as to what she's saying. It'll be funny when she gets a little crazier, but now it's just frustrating and annoying to have to hear.

But I digress - I was talking about my grandfather and how I've totally got his OCD and it manifests itself in the same ways (particularly notebook-keeping and list-making). I feel a little bad, tho', that I can't read anything he wrote - it's all in Chinese. He's got shelves full of books (all taking up space in my mom's house, right now) that none of us can read - all this great Chinese literature... I wish I'd learned to read it when I was little. I'm trying to pick it up, now, but I need to learn Spanish first, and it's not easy.

Now that I've bitched about Nana, let me just say she is an awesome grandmother when she isn't annoying the crap out of me. She is still living independently at 92, she is the life of any party (you look at old pictures of get-togethers with their circle of friends, and Nana is the one on the floor, rolling with laughter), and she is always a snazzy dresser. I have almost nothing at all in common with her - except - we are both total shoe-oholics. Together, our shoe collections could probably put Imelda Marcos's to shame. She got - ok, wait, I have to interrupt this again - I found Rushmore on TV, so I had it on. She just came in and asked to change it because "I like things with people (in them)" - because Rushmore isn't about people at all. She is now flipping channels and has stopped on the CW and the Pussycat Dolls audition. I don't believe in God, but right now I'm am begging him for the strength to keep myself from killing her. Now she's stopped on Desperate Housewives. I'm sure it's a great show, but I am so not in the mood for it right now, and anyway, Rushmore is better. Like I said - nothing in common but the shoe thing.

Speaking of shoes, there's this pair in the girls' section at Target that I totally want to get. I'm lucky to have small enough feet that I can shop in the kids' shoes section if they've got sizes up to kids' 4.5 or 5, and these particular shoes come in size 5. They're brown maryjanes and they've got about a 1.5-inch chunky heel, and they are so way cute. Do I need them? Well, that depends on your definition of need... :D

I don't know how much coverage the Michael Vick thing is getting up there - I know it's kind of a big story elsewhere, but it's a BIG story here, since Vick is a hometown son. I didn't realize this, but he actually graduated from the same high school as my dad (though obviously years and years apart). It's seriously crazy what-all he did. So unbelievable that shit like that still goes on in this day and age. That's just one of many reasons I think humanity is doomed.

And on that cheery note (which is where most of my trains of thought eventually end up, honestly), I'm going back to Desperate Housewives (yep, it sucked me in).

jenks - 08/26/07 23:05
your husband gets points in my book for listing dark&stormy as his fave drink.

And I hope mike vick rots in hell. Where pitbulls attack him forever and ever.
jbeatty - 08/26/07 22:45
Globetrekker is the freaking greatest show on earth! Dude your Grandma is definitely the life of the party. I'll never forget the stuff she said to me at your wedding.