Relayed from Dagen

nougatmachine (12:09:07 PM): man I didn't even know you were a quaker much less one who is also a kitchen wizard
Melinda167 (12:10:04 PM): haha well i'm not ACTUALLY a quaker - upenn's mascot is the quaker (haha the fighting quakers - so ironic)
nougatmachine (12:10:21 PM): lol
nougatmachine (12:10:33 PM): we may be pacifisits but boy are we ever pissed!
Melinda167 (12:10:30 PM): hahaha
Melinda167 (12:10:33 PM): exactly!
nougatmachine (12:10:55 PM): actually
nougatmachine (12:11:32 PM): I told a guy I know from college, "You know Marc, for a pacifist, you seem to get in a lot of fights" and he just said "Welllll....see, but when I do it there's not an army involved so it's okay"

Brilliant.

Note to self

Buy this.

Dylan Project

I'm just starting and yet, it has already enriched my life so much. Read his autobiography! Listen to his albums! Help me help you!

Note to self, research/acquire later:
-More Woody Guthrie
-Pete Seeger
-New Lost City Ramblers
-Ramblin' Jack Elliott
-Daniel Lamois
-Dave van Ronk
-Arlo Guthrie

My favorite songs right now:
-Remember the Mountain Bed (Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2)
-Atlantic City (Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska)
-Crips (Ratatat, self-titled - Chris Helies deserves credit for this one)
-Song to Woody (Bob Dylan, self-titled)
-I'm Slowly Turning Into You (White Stripes, Icky Thump)
-What is the Light? (Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin)

Mega-California Mix

So I've decided to do a mix of California songs, and first of all, can I say how much I love wikipedia? It has the ability to answer so many of my lingering questions to a reasonably accurate degree with just the click of a few keys. For example, awhile back, a few friends and I were discussing marathon movie nights in preparation for certain vacations, such as "Vegas Movie Night". Now typically, pre-wikipedia/the internet, we'd sit around, rack our brains, and come up with probably the most obvious ones: Fear and Loathing..., Leaving..., ... Vacation, etc. - basically anything with "Vegas" in the title. Nowaways - BOOM! Love it. Well, this feature came in handy with thinking about the California mix as well - BOOM! Note: I do not see this as laziness, but rather an incredibly economical and efficient use of time. After perusing the list, I realized that I had enough good stuff in my current music library to construct the entire mix, so here goes...

1. “California Stars" by Wilco(lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
2. "Fake Tales of San Francisco" by Arctic Monkeys
3. "California" by Rufus Wainwright
4. "Grace Cathedral Hill" by The Decemberists
5. "Do Re Mi" by Woody Guthrie
6. "Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd" by Ryan Adams
7. "Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)" by The Thrills
8. "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding
9. "Going to California" by Led Zeppelin
10. "Piazza, New York Catcher" by Belle and Sebastian
11. "California" by Low
12. "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
13. "California Dreaming" by Jose Feliciano
14. "405" by Death Cab for Cutie
15. "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash
16. "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade" by The Decemberists

Yeah, I dare someone to come up with a better California mix. Honestly, I dare you.

A few random things

1. Note to self: start downloading and listening to Podcasts to and from work. I've had several people mention their own penchants for doing this to me in the last week; I should at least look into it. Does anyone have any recommendations? If not, I'll probably just start with NPR and go from there.

2. Mark Morford's columns. I've already forwarded this recommendation to many of my lady friends, but the entire world should know about them. While they certainly are not going to appeal to everyone (warning: SUPER DUPER liberal - he writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, after all), they are funny and loaded with sarcasm. Best recent column: "Thank God You Are Not Karl Rove".

3. Cookblog with girlfriends. I've started one. Mainly I just post on it. Maybe other people don't blog (and actually, in glancing at my archives, I hardly qualify as a bonafide blogger either), but they always say they will. I'm hoping it's just a slow start and the other girls will come through. But who knows? Anyway, if you're interested in my thoughts/experiences with cooking (now that I'm all out in the "real world"), feel free to check it out here.

4. Talking shop with strangers. Do other people do this or just me? Is it interesting like I find it, or just obnoxious? So hopefully, you haven't been living under a rock recently and have noticed all of the subprime lending/housing/credit crises currently unfolding in our lovely little economy. Basically, we've screwed most of the world over by taking advantage of super low interest rates and easy credit, lent money to people who sometimes didn't even have to prove their income (low documentation loans - nice.), lent money to people who didn't even have to put up a down payment (100% loan-to-value - nice.), created all sorts of exotic loan structures (interest only, negative amortization, option ARMs - nice.), then built a whole crapload of houses because everyone was buying - some were buying second homes, first homes, investment properties, everyone was flipping properties, and in some areas, this caused HUGE home price appreciation (near 50% in one year in Phoenix). Now it's come back and bit us in the ass, just like everyone knew it would. And the funny thing is, while we certainly weren't the only ones doing this, we were definitely the biggest source of the problem, and now, the ENTIRE WORLD economy is being affected. So that's the problem, that's what my job entails knowing about. I've gotten into so many random conversations, with friends, lovers and strangers, about this that I'm wondering if they even care. It fascinates me, but do you think it fascinates them? It's a pretty dismal subject, and I tend to treat it with a little bit of sarcasm and contempt, despite the fact that foreclosure rates have skyrocketed (and I DO feel bad for homeowners who were suckered into these loans or fraudently treated - but not the ones who knowingly overextended themselves and certainly not for the sophisticated investors who took on so much risk - you knew what it was, and you're getting exactly what you deserve). I always wonder how much to keep to myself. Thoughts? Oh, and on a similar note, I hope you all have seen this.

Songs of Inspiration

Now, those who know me will know that I'm not talking spiritual inspiration, or at least not the kind of spiritual inspiration as most of the U.S. defines it. It's a bit of artistic inspiration, but not quite that either. It's an emotion with an elusive definition. What I'm talking about are songs that inspire you to action. Not even necessarily the type of action being described in the song, but action. The urge to go out and do something, be somebody, change the world in some positive manner. I have songs like this. I like to think that others do as well.

Some of mine (I'm sure there are many more, but I'll have to scan my full library at home to remember most of them):

Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
Revolution - The Beatles
Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
Banquet - Bloc Party
Ramble On - Led Zeppelin

I know there are a lot more, but I'd like to hear some of yours. Do they even exist? Is it just me? If not, please comment with yours. I'd love some extra inspiration.

Haha random printing mishap

So I e-mailed this story to some girlfriends, but decided that since I've been so lax about blogging, I should post it on here as well.

Ok, just an amusing story; this also is a great illustration of just the way things have been going for me as of late.

I needed to print out some fairly hefty documents and didn't want to waste ink. I discovered this "printing shortcuts" tab for my printer and one of the options was "fast/economical" - sounds great, I thought and eagerly checked the box. I hit "print" and resumed my work. Boy, was I unprepared for the speed this printer was going to shoot out grayscale pieces of paper at me. To illustrate, I have attached a photo (it's also essential to the story to know where my printer is located, in relation to the rest of me).

So, picture this... I'm typing briskly, expecting a slightly faster printout, getting lightning speed paper chucked right at my face, screaming in shock, then running around my apartment trying to grab all the pieces of paper, when it's clear that I am no match for my printer's speed. I hope you're laughing, because that's what I did for about five minutes while/after the 50-page document printed. Ridiculous.




Note the printer's deadly aim, illustrated above. At normal speeds, on ordinary days, the paper just rests up there, but this was no ordinary day. Gah! My life is boring. =)

They're alive!!!

Haha so I managed to NOT kill something. These flowers, when I planted them, had no buds or anything - now they're blossoming like crazy. I just had to celebrate. =)

Flight of the Conchords

I know it's gotten mixed reviews, but I love it. I don't see how anyone (especially if you're anything like me... most of you will know what that means) cannot like it.

Today's the day...

...the best hour of television (every week, by far) comes to an end. Also, happy birthday Leslie! =)

Actually I am definitely dreading the end of this series, whose characters now feel like real people in my life. There are very, very few tv shows I actually get that into, and I feel like The Sopranos is probably it for me, for my lifetime. I cannot even imagine what would surpass it. I mean, I hope something does, don't get me wrong - but given the extraordinary interplay between excellent writing, acting and directing - not to mention the seductive subject matter - I'm not sure if the roulette wheel of today's entertainment world will allow such a superb combination ever again - are we really that lucky?

Which brings me to the point of this post. I'm approximately t-minus 3 hours to the East Coast airing of the show, and I said I'd put some of my predictions up, in writing, just in case. So here goes - Melinda's thoughts to add to the hundreds (or more) of others up on the net (honestly, every single publication in this country - including both the reputable and trashy ones - have written about the end of this show):

First off, I think Tony will live - he'll end up on top and Phil Leotardo will sleep with the fishes. Given last week's precarious situation for our (anti)hero, this is most definitely a risky bet; however, given past trends in writing, in addition to public sentiment (not that that alone would be able to stop the writers), I don't really know how they'd get away with offing Tony.

Secondly, I think Sil won't wake up - I think he's done for, which is completely heartbreaking to me as he was definitely one of my favorites. I think Paulie lives. I think Junior dies. I think Carmela lives. I think there's potential for one of the kids to die (most likely AJ).

I think if there's a Judas - it's Patsy. I think there's potential for a conflict with family to bring both players out of hiding (I'm still not sure how they're going to swing that - if I were the head of either family, I wouldn't show my face anywhere!). Also, I think there will be something relevant to the fact that Patrick Paresi and Meadow are dating - that plotline has been of absolutely no consequence thus far, and they made such a stink about it the second half of this season, that I feel it'll become important.

Melfi is gone, and I don't think she'll return, at least not significantly (I think her rejection of Tony was a way to get her out of the picture so the NY-NJ war could go on without having to revisit the whole "Melfi has to go into hiding" thing from the first season. Although I (and I think all the other Sopranos fans) would LOVE if her and Tony finally got to make something out of that lingering mutual sexual attraction - but I doubt it'll happen.

Like I said, I think Carm lives, Tom and I did speculate on the reasons for her demise, should it become an HBO reality. Here are some possibilities:

NY gets ahold of one of her kids - she turns on Tony in order to save either Meadow/AJ/both - retributive strike by a Tony alliance or a nasty double-cross by New York puts Carm out of commission. Why this is unlikely: "families don't get touched, you know that" - Let's hope Phil holds it down old school - I have faith that he'll at least do that. He's a mean cocksucker, for sure (to borrow from Paulie Walnuts), but I think he respects the traditional mafia values.

Second Carmela possibility is far more likely - she gets terrified (rightly!) and goes to the Feds - I don't see Tony ever turning, so he has to take her out, Adriana La Cerva style - sends Paulie to get the job done, final scene - "Wings" wiping fresh blood of that brand new cappuchino machine.

Oh man, what were some of the other, more original ideas? I feel like I've talked to so many people about this (the show really was a cultural phenomenon) that I've at one point or another envisioned almost every possible ending (which I don't actually think is the case - my safest bet at this point is to put all my money on the writers doing something nobody expects!).

Here's one of my ideas from a google conversation with Tom:

"what if junior gets out and somehow finds phil (or phil seeks jr. out for an alliance - remember his talk about how tony fucked over his "father's brother") and then junior manages to off phil to pay back tony for all the wrong he did to him
then junior dies of old age
and tony can begin his real tenure as boss... fine\(italian for "the end" and not fine, as in "i'm fine") =)"

But there's a good chance the Junior plotline is over. Where are they hiding out currently? I never did find out - is it Junior's house? I don't know.

So I think I'm going to end it here. I could go on forever, as I'm sure the show could as well, but I think it's a bit better to stop when you're ahead and leave some issues unresolved. Here's food for thought though, lifted from a San Francisco Chronicle column:

"After every possible theory about what will bring Tony down -- some cheap mistake, unknowable moment of familial retribution or even sharp detective work by the Feds -- will it really be something so pedestrian as a turf war that does him in? It seems so ... predictably mob-like. And "The Sopranos," though often misunderstood as a whack-of-the-week mob drama, has never been about predictability."

Happy watching.

Wow.

So I did a Google Images search for "Lou Seal", the Giants mascot, to send to a friend (who also loves Arrested Development) in order to make a connection between the two, and found this, which I believe may be the most disturbing picture I've ever seen:

I don't even know what to think.

Here's the real Lou Seal (Le Seal, Lucille...):

So I'm going to go on a bit of a rave here - I love this show. I think I may be addicted. I have never seen anything this consistently funny and clever. I wish I would have watched it while it was still on the air (however that was during one of the busier times of my life). I just purchased the second season, and the number of foreshadows (can I say that?) regarding the loss of Buster's hand is ridiculous, but so subtle I definitely didn't notice the first time I watched it. Going back now makes it even funnier. Just a small sample:

Buster: I'd never thought I'd miss a hand so much.

In regard to this -

George Sr.: If I never get to touch that hand of his again...

In regard to this -

There are so many more. Brilliant!

*More substantial post later. For now, it's gloomy and I'm going to go relax with a good book.

Things to write about

I promise I'm going to update this soon. Here's a sample of what's to come:

-my 23rd birthday (mostly this should be pictures - ridiculous!)
-going back to Philly / life changes
-The Sopranos (oh how I will miss you, but I'm loving it right now)
-various visitors
-perhaps some sports talk, I haven't really decided
-potential summer vacations
-music music music

There are some other, loftier ideas floating around in my head, but I'm too afraid to commit to writing them here, in case I lose my ambition later.

Big shout out to Natasha, Laura and Chris for coming to see me in the last couple of weeks! Like I've said before, I love visitors, so the rest of you are welcome anytime. Another big shout out to Amber and Andrea for throwing me the best 23rd birthday in the history of mankind. =) And Amber, I said I'd eventually update. ;-)

Note to self

Look into more stuff by The Earlies and Built to Spill.

Concert, visit, looking forward.

So, activity in the post-move era of Melinda's life has been both ceaseless and fantastic. I'm pretty worn out, but a lot has been going on. Everything is so much easier, closer, more accessible now that I live in the city, therefore, I do not quite have the same lame excuses (JLee) as I did when I lived in Berkeley. A few things of note:



Josh Ritter concert - amazing! So utterly refreshing and full of goodness. It's hard to explain how or why, but it was. First off, get his last two albums (Hello Starling and The Animal Years) pronto, then go see him in concert, thirdly, feel great about life. Honestly, that's how it works.



Some of you will remember Jon McSparran, who recently came to visit (actually he just left) and check out West Coast law schools. It was really great seeing him again (so all of you that are worried about imposing on me, don't! I love visitors) plus we got to see and do a lot in a short time. Visitors are actually great, in that they really force me to go out and see the city, which is what I needed, being such an SF newbie. The visit included 5 straight nights of drinking (surprise surprise) and lots of sightseeing, including two days of 15 miles+ gigantic walks around the city (including up some massive hills, which my legs are currently thanking me for). I think I may plot out our routes (they were really good ones) and figure out exactly how long it was. Jon doesn't like to take pictures, but Amber did get this one at a bar:

Looking forward, my life is going to get even more hectic, I believe. Today I'm supposed to meet up with my mother's best friend for dinner. Then I'm going to Vegas next weekend with coworkers (degenerate gamblers all!). After that, I think the lovely Susannah Grossman will be in town, so I will have to make sure to bump into her at a coffee shop or watering hole or someplace. Then my sister Katie is coming to visit for 10 days, which is going to be AWESOME. She is the coolest kid on the planet, I do believe. Then I'm going back to Philly for conferences and seeing friends and family (and Ben Folds). I may include a couple days in New York City during that trip as well, so let me know if you want to meet up! After that, I haven't made any plans, but I'm sure something will come up. Actually just making this list was exhausting, so I think I may take a lie-down. Last thoughts: if you haven't watched HBO's Extras yet, do so immediately (especially season two) and Evan, I finally got out and bought Post-War - LOVING IT! I hope that you are all doing as well as I am on the beautiful day. Hugs and kisses for all!

Movin' to the cit-tay

So, my dear friend Cassandra and I found an apartment in San Francisco today. It's super fabulous and located in wonderful Pacific Heights. So, it's time to start bidding farewell to my lovely Berkeley apartment - we shared so many good times. As a tribute, I'm posting pictures of my final, finished apartment.The living room, with new properly-colored couch!

Living room #2

Kitchen - with new island.

Kitchen part 2 - complete with sunset.

Bedroom with new bookshelves. Sigh, I will miss you, Berkeley apartment.

New haircut!

These are self taken photos, obviously, but for those of you who I don't see very often - this is what my hair looks like now. I've gotten "pat benetar" a lot, but I think it's pretty darn cute. The left one is with all of my hair down and the right is with it pulled up. Comments?

Good story from PB

http://www.pgatour.com/2007/tournaments/r005/02/10/maginnes021007/index.html

p.s. Congrats to John Dagen for being the first one to name the quote from previous entry. =) Here's the gold star I promised:

"Bill Groundhog Day Ghostbustin' Ass Murray"

*If anyone can name the film that quote came from, I will offer a prize of one gold star + eternal respect

Ok, so I'm going to start this story off with a little clarification. I'm not a celebrity person - meaning, I'm not obsessed with them, I don't model my life after theirs, I'm well aware they're just people in a certain line of work with fame as a perk. However, just as there are certain business leaders or musicians or writers etc. I'm excited to meet, because they're so talented, so are there actors/actresses. Bill Murray would be one of them. I love his films; I think he's hilarious; he's just a very talented and fortunate man. He's definitely one of my favorite actors (let's do just a quick naming: The Life Aquatic, Caddyshack, Lost in Translation, What About Bob?, Stripes, Rushmore, etc. etc.).

Now, I got tickets to the AT&T Pro Am Tournament through work, as my boss plays every year, and therefore gets free tickets. I decided to go with a coworker, Amber, and her husband, Tim, and the plan was to leave San Francisco around 5:30 in order to get there for tee-offs. We left a little late, but definitely arrived pretty early in Pebble Beach. I slept the entire way though, so when we did arrive on the golf course, I looked terrible. No real makeup, disheveled hair, the works. So we start walking, look to the left, Kevin James and Ray Romano were playing, and we set off to find Bill Murray. Coincidentally, right in our path, there he was, surrounded by a group of fans seeking autographs and perhaps playful banter. He seemed in good spirits as he made casual comments about fans' choices of what he signed etc. but as soon as I walked over and stood to his right, he started mentioning that he probably should go and play golf. I was disappointed, but I'm not into harassing people in general, so bowed my head and moved to the side so he could get through. The next thing I know, I hear this "Oh my god look at you!" Bill Murray had noticed the intense shade of red comprising my hair currently and apparently was shocked (my friends said he did a double take when he saw me). Now, my hair is red, to be sure, but not that red - I think it was the juxtapositioning against the brilliant green of the golf course that added the extra shock value. Anyway, back to the story. So Bill Murray puts his hands in my hair and starts rubbing my head and tousling my hair saying, "This is fantastic! My goodness... I just want to take a clipping... I could graft it to the back of my neck..." At this point, I'm pretty much paralyzed as one of my movie idols has his hands in my hair and I'm fairly certain all I did was giggle. Eventually I get up the courage to say something, but it turned out to be the stupidest thing I could have thought of... after the skin grafting comment I meekly responded "You can have it, if you want it." He laughed and then left to go golf but I was pretty much stunned for the next few minutes. Then later, we were walking by another hole and he started coming up from behind us and I just heard, "Hey girly! Keep moving!" I turned around and saw who it was, smiled and he smiled back. It was quite the moment. So, needless to say, that pretty much made my week. I wish I could've looked a little more together though! =)

Oh, and the other cool thing about that day (besides getting to see Tom Brady, Emmitt Smith, Don Cheadle, Peter Gallagher, Andy Garcia, etc. up close) was that both Amber and I were able to get an interaction with the star of our choice. Amber is a big Kevin Costner fan (early works - say Dances with Wolves era, and of course, Field of Dreams!) so we waited for him by the 10th hole green as we watched those ahead of him play through. He's supposed to be a fairly good golfer, but he hit a woman at the 10th hole (he made it up to her by going over and giving her a hug). After the teams were finished putting, there was a walkway to the next hole, on which fans wait in order to get autographs. Amber said she was going over to get him to sign her ticket. While over there, she later reported, people were just handing him whatever to sign and not talking at all (with the exception of a few murmured "thanks"). So when KC got to her, she made sure to say that she really was a big fan. He said thanks and signed her ticket and she turned to leave, shortly hearing "Hey, wait a minute!" She turned back around to see Costner retrieving a golf ball from his pocket, initialed, and he handed it to her. She was, needless to say, thrilled.

The concensus was then that Saturday = good day! Sunday was a lot less exciting, but I did get a snazzy new haircut (I think I'll post a picture soon), give my first Penn interview (alumni volunteers interview potential candidates for admission into the university), and catch up with a GREAT old friend - the original lovely redhead, Katie Timbers. In general, things are going well. There's several other things I want to post about (including Inland Empire, David Lynch's newest, which I saw last Thursday) but I'll have to save it for another time. Hope everyone else is doing just as well! M. xoxox

Happy Groundhog Day!

Speaking of which, I'm really excited for the AT&T Pro Am Tournament in Pebble Beach next Saturday, where a friend and I will be stalking Bill Murray. =)

Not much to report, got a new computer, Vista is weird, been using my scooter, oh and do yourself a favor and get "The Animal Years" by Josh Ritter. Especially the song "Girl in the War" - amazing.

blogging

I need to work on doing it more often. If you look at the archive, 2006's total posts were about half of 2005's. If I don't work on changing that, they could continue to go down exponentially, and soon I may not have an internet presence at all! *gasp*

I'm kidding, but I am trying to do this more often, for myself mostly. I'm not even sure who still reads this (besides you lovely people who leave comments). I read some of my old blog (melindaupenn.livejournal.com) today and found it oddly reassuring (my style and way of thinking has changed dramatically from 2 years ago, or at least, more than I expected it to). I like having this written record, and although I've tried to keep a journal at least a dozen times, it always fails. For some reason, this whole internet online thing (it's just a fad, right?) makes it a lot easier.