frasier clips

So, I recently discovered that I can find almost every episode of Frasier on YouTube, and I’ve been completely obsessed with the show for the last few weeks.

I remember watching the show sometimes during high school, but it wasn’t until college that I really started to enjoy it.  One night, in particular, I saw the episode called “The Seal Who Came to Dinner” (from Season 6), and thinking to myself, “Gee, this show is hilarious! I ought to watch it more.”  I did watch it a bit more after that–but nowadays I just can’t get enough of it.  I love re-runs.

 

musical monday: tool

I recently asked my colleague Jack Harrell for advice about classic/heavy-metal rock.  I am working on a story–for Jack’s class, incidentally–in which I knew that the main character listens to classic rock music, but I wasn’t sure what, so I asked Jack for some thoughts about it.  He offered me a different CD first, which I liked just fine.  But when I returned it the next day and asked whether he could recommend any good heavy metal, he thought for a moment and then lent me Lateralus by Tool.

Wow.

Jack later told me that he calls Tool “the thinking man’s heavy metal.”  I like that classification.  He also mentioned one day that he doesn’t usually tell his students that he listens to Tool, since apparently some of their early stuff is … kind of … well, questionable.  But Lateralus is incredible.  My favorite song from the album is probably the first, “The Grudge.”  I’m including the lyrics below.

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.

Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip it to the lonesome end.
Saturn ascends, comes round again.
Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what you will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Wear the grudge like a crown. Desperate to control.
Unable to forgive. And we’re sinking deeper.

Defining, confining, sinking deeper. Controlling, defining, and we’re sinking
deeper.

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Let’s you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.

Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone to
Consume you till you choose to let this go.
Choose to let this go.

Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated
anchor.
Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges
into gold.

Let go.

I am also throwing in a YouTube video of “The Grudge,” so that you can hear it–because it’s really just not as good without the music.

 

musical monday: muse ‘time is running out’

Some time ago, I posted something about how much I love the song “Time is Running Out” by Muse–and the music video of it.  I recently learned, though, that the US version of the music video is a little different from the UK one.  Less pseudo-nudity, basically.  And, in my book, that’s a good thing.  So, this week’s Musical Monday post is … well, that video.

I honestly can’t say why I love this video so much, but I sure do!  Something about it just makes me wanna go out and conquer the world.

 

musical monday: hem

Mega-thanks to Ellie for introducing me to these guys.

I have been listening to a lot of Hem lately, especially while I write, and I have been loving them. One website I saw referred to them as “country-politan,” and I think that’s an apt description. They have a very mellow sound, with roots in Country music, but with a more up-to-date take on it. I love their cover of “Tennessee Waltz.”

 

hi, gang!

So, just a quick update about my life.  Here’s what’s going on:

This past Monday and Wednesday I rode a horse for the first and second times in my entire life–and I did it bareback!  Not bad, eh?  I’m taking a horse class through BYU-Idaho, and I’ve been loving it so far.  Next week we’re going to start using saddles.

Also this past week (and still this weekend) I’ve been moving back into my parents’ house.  Since Februrary I’ve been living with a girl named Jennifer I met at church.   She owned her own house, and I rented a room from her for a nice, small rate each month.  But now her brother and his family are moving here from California, and Jennifer has decided to rent the entire house out to them, so we are both moving in with our parents.  I’m not overly thrilled about it (especially since it’s in the middle the semester), but it’s fine.  I like my parents, they’re nice to me and feed and house me for free, so what do I have to complain about?

I have also been writing more lately, and I just love it!  I find writing invigorating, especially when I get something done–even just a rough draft–and it motivates me to accomplish more in other areas of my life.  In addition to the horse class I mentioned earlier, I am also taking a Creative Writing class on fiction, which scares the daylights out of me but also motivates me to get things started and finished.  Which, really, was the whole point in the first place.  I am anxious to hear back from my first-string readers (you know who you are!) and then start revising things.

Finally, I just got the first disc of the first season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from Netflix yesterday and watched it last night (mostly) while I packed my books onto shelves in Mom and Dad’s house.  Pretty entertaining stuff.  I will definitely be continuing this foray in Joss Whedon-land.

 

musical monday: sweeney todd

First off, my apologies for not posting anything last week.  But it was the first day of classes last Monday, and I had family visiting during the weekend right before that, so those things took precedence.  No worries, though, because today I’m back!

This week’s Musical Monday is about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a classic (if gruesome) musical by Stephen Sondheim.  I’ve been listening to it again during the last week, so I thought I’d share my love here on my blog.

This is kind of a tricky musical that arouses many and varied responses in its listeners/viewers.  I first watched it when I was a student at BYU, shortly after coming home from a mission.  It wasn’t a BYU production, however, and I’ve often wondered whether the university would be willing to produce it.

 

musical monday: george gershwin

Certainly one of my favorite composers of all time is George Gershwin.  I know, big surprise.  I especially love his popular songs, with the lyrics of his brother Ira–one of the greatest lyricists of all time, in my opinion.  Here, in no particular order, are ten of my favorite Gershwin songs:

1. Slap That Bass I had never heard this song until I worked as the assistant stage manager for our high school musical during my senior year, when we performed Crazy for You.  As it turns out, it was originally performed in a classic Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film from 1937, Shall We Dance.  It’s one of my favorites now, with its upbeat rhythm and lyrics.  It’s one of those songs that make me happy about life in general.
2. They All Laughed My favorite version is Bing Crosby’s recording, with his mellow voice and casual phrasing.  I also just love the lyrics and the happy-go-lucky-yet-victorious tone they set.
3. Summertime Of course, the definitive version here is by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.  Enough said.
4. They Can’t Take That Away from Me This is one my all-time favorite performances by Fred Astaire.  Again, the tone of the lyrics is just wonderful–sort of “I’m sad that we’re breaking up, but I don’t regret the time we spent together, and I appreciate that you’ll always be part of me in the memories we’ve shared.”
5. Nice Work If You Can Get It Again, I had never heard this one until Crazy for You in my senior year.  I relate to the lyrics very well, as do a lot of people, I think.
6. But Not For Me I actually think the best version I’ve heard of this song is Jodi Benson’s performance in the original Broadway cast of Crazy for You (Jodi Benson also did the voice of Ariel in the Disney movie The Little Mermaid).  It’s very Broadway-ish, but I love her intonation and phrasing.
7. Love Walked In I really like what they did with this song in the movie Rhapsody in Blue, a 1945 biopic of Gershwin’s life, which is almost entirely inaccurate, but interesting nonetheless.  During one scene, George is pleased to see his current love-interest in his apartment, having thought that they were through.  But she has come to visit him again, and he happily sits at his piano (back to the door, and the girl) and plays her this new song he’s just written: “Love walked right in and drove the shadows away; love walked right in and brought me sunniest day.”  And as he’s playing, the girl slips out of the apartment–turns out she had just come to tell him goodbye and couldn’t face it when he was so happy.  I appreciate the irony of her walking out while he sings about love walking in.  Anyway, my favorite version is by Kenny Baker, who sang for a few years on Jack Benny’s radio program.
8. The Man I Love Perhaps my all-time favorite Gershwin song, I especially love the version by Sarah Vaughan.  My favorite part is the oh-so-hopeful bridge: “Maybe I will meet him Sunday, maybe Monday, maybe not; still, I’m sure to meet him one day–maybe Tuesday will be my good-news day.”
9. S’Wonderful This is one of the best twitterpation songs ever written, and I love to sing with it when I have a new crush.  The Count Basie-Joe Williams version is the best I’ve heard.
10. Our Love Is Here To Stay Another of my favorite love songs of all time.  Who wouldn’t want to think that their love will still be going strong long after Gibraltar and the Rockies had crumbled?  I prefer the Nat “King” Cole version, although Shirley Horn’s performance is also a classic.

 

musical monday: coldplay

As promised, today a new “Musical Monday.”

I have been loving Coldplay’s latest single, “Viva La Vida” (lyrics).  The last day of the summer semester, I heard it about three times on the radio driving to work, and it still wasn’t enough.  I ended up looking it up on YouTube to watch/listen to about five different live performances of it.

Then, while I was in Kansas a few weeks ago for a friend’s wedding, someone gave me this song and I was able to listen to it over and over on my iPod.  The lyrics fascinate me, and I would love for the band to explain the meaning from their point of view.  Flying home from Kansas, I decided that it was all about Death, personified, and how our modern society has greatly marginalized Death’s tyranny in our world.  However, my friend Ellie and her husband think that each verse is about a different person: one about Christ, another about John the Baptist, etc.  I’d love to hear other interpretations if you’ve got one to add.

I also recently learned that Coldplay is my niece’s favorite band of all, and that they are coming to play in Salt Lake this fall–right where my niece lives.  I hope she gets to go, and I just may buy a ticket myself.

(Check out Coldplay’s official website.)

 

repenting

So, I’m repenting.

I have really slacked off during the past few months, especially since the Summer semester got over at BYU-I. It’s been like an extended vacation, but it turns out that I really don’t like it. It keeps me lazy and unproductive, and that just depresses me in the long-run.

But today I went running and then finished my other exercises (a few strength exercises for my back and ankles, as well as some push-ups and sit-ups, which are pretty pathetic at this point). And I feel great! I tend to forget just how wonderful I feel when I really work out, so I’m enjoying this feeling tonight. I did go running once last week, but it wasn’t very good, and I didn’t feel very motivated afterward to continue it. After this, though, I’m ready. I’ve adopted a new workout program, and I’m really excited for it–even though it’s going to require some really early rising, and that’s going to be rough for a while.

I also have been writing more regularly, and I find it very energizing. I have to admit that I’m deeply indebted to my good friends, who have all been very supportive of my desire to start writing for real–and especially to Ellie, who has helped me find all kinds of great hints and tips from writing magazines and such. The whole thing is really scary prospect for me and feels highly vulnerable, but I do love it as well.

In addition to these two steps, I have also started attending my singles branch again (they were starting to wonder whether I was still alive, even, after I’ve missed so many weeks there from illness or going out of town or visiting other wards), and I am also reviving my blog. I don’t have many readers, but they are important to me, and really you’re all the reason I even started this blog in the first place–so that I could keep my loved-ones posted about what’s going on in my life, even while I’m too far away to be able to talk regularly. So, starting today, you can expect at least two posts each week: one for Musical Monday and one for some miscellaneous discussion about my life.

(Oh yeah, and I’m totally obsessed with Betsy Brannon Green lately. She’s an LDS suspense author, and I just love her books. The suspense plots are decent–she’s no Agatha Christie, but she does keep you thinking about the mystery through the whole book–and the romance plot that inevitably weaves into the story is usually top-notch. Such a fun writer! I’m eagerly awaiting the second installment in her Duty series, which comes out this October.  Check out her website and her page at Deseret Book.)

 

feng shui

I randomly got looking at information on About.com today about Feng Shui.  I normally avoid About.com at all costs, and I don’t even remember how I stumbled on the Feng Shui page, but I found it really interesting.  Here is some of my personal Feng Shui information:

My Feng Shui element is Earth (others are Fire, Wood, Metal, and Water); this means that my Feng Shui colors are light yellow, sandy or earthy colors, and light brown.  My Kua number is 2, which is part of the West Group; this means that my best directions are West, North-West, South-West, and North-East.  In other words, I should try to face these directions when I sleep, eat, and work, and in the placement of the main doors in my home and office and of the furniture in these places.

I’ve never particularly believed in Feng Shui, but there’s a part of me that figures, “What the heck? It can’t hurt anything.”  I think I’ll rearrange my bedroom later today, moving my bed to a position more conducive to creating good Chi.

How To Calculate Your Kua Number

For Male

Take the last two digits of your year of birth and add them together. Keep adding till you get a single number. Deduct this from 10 if you were born before 2000, and from 9 for those born in the year 2000 or later. This gives your Kua number. 

For Female

Take the last two digits of your year of birth and add them together. Keep adding till you get a single number. Add 5 to this number if you were born before 2000, add 6 for those born in the year 2000 or later. If the result is a two-digit number, keep adding till get a single number. This is your Kua number.

(from World of Feng Shui on the Web)