avablog

…100 hula hoops on a sequin-covered majorette. The drinking game goes as follows: Half a drink every time someone in the room (including you) says, “I could do that;” full drink every time someone falls down or otherwise hurts him/herself on stage. Everyone chugs when Simon makes a contestant cry and/or swear, vomit. Engage…. UPDATE:  […]

[Read more →]

That’s what I need. I’d like a method to tell how much Scientology is mixed up in the media I consume (you got chocolate in my peanut butter). Surely there’s an easy way to tally this. Is the leading lady “clear?” Is the director an operating thetan? We could assign a point total according to […]

[Read more →]

on the list of the greatest things about an iPod is the fact that it can drop a song through your earholes completely out of the blue that courses through your body like a bad case of Dengue fever.  But in a good way.  I don’t claim any understanding of the algorithm that runs the […]

[Read more →]

This morning Leah stood in line next to George Lucas at one of the local coffee shops. Turns out he’s in town to visit with University of Iowa Professor Nancy Andreasen, whose research centers mainly on the relationship between creativity and mental disorder. One can only deduce from these facts that Nancy is trying to […]

[Read more →]

This past Saturday evening we attended a birthday party for our friend Dawn. This event is surely the highlight of the annual social calendar for our small group of friends and acquaintances. Over the years Dawn has managed to cultivate a number of interesting, smart, funny, and attractive people in her cadre of pals (thankfully, […]

[Read more →]

No, not one of those afternoons; it’s one where everything goes right. I finally got VNC set up on my mom’s wireless iBook, which was a test run for our friend Jude’s computer when she gets her new MacBook Pro next month.  It took some doing and some help from Greg (as usual), but it’s […]

[Read more →]

I’m pretty sure last night was the last night of Leah’s birthday celebration.  I’ll have to check with her to make sure.  If it was, it was a nice way to end the festivities. We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie.  We hadn’t made any reservations anywhere, but we figured […]

[Read more →]

Tonight the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show begins in New York. I love this show.  I love it because I really enjoy dogs a lot, and it fascinates me to see the way these animals seem to revel in all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the judging.  I hate to anthropomorphize these great dogs, but […]

[Read more →]

…is our “Learning at Lunch” series.  Today I attended a live piano recital featuring works by Chopin, Copland, Bach, and Rachmaninov.  Free.  In one of our upstairs event rooms.  Man, was it good.

[Read more →]

Wow. I lucked out last night and caught Prince’s first performance on SNL. That guy is amazing. I didn’t recognize the song, so I assume it’s off the upcoming 3121. I don’t remember ever seeing a live performance like that on SNL. For anyone who doubts the guy’s musicianship (and I don’t think there are […]

[Read more →]

My friend Betsy and I sometimes trade music recommendations, as we have a mutual appreciation of Jazz (she can actually perform it, while I can only sit back and listen). The latest album she’s brought to my attention is the soundtrack for Good Night, and Good Luck, which features the silky vocal stylings of Dianne […]

[Read more →]

As magnicifent an experience as having a child is, the whole process really makes you appreciate your downtime. The couple hours between Ava’s bed time and our bed time are really exquisite little pieces of the day when Leah and I most often plop down in front of the tube to indulge in some trashy […]

[Read more →]

As mentioned below, I wasn’t as impressed with Brokeback Mountain as the rest of the world seemed to be. The one thing that did impress me, however, was Michelle Williams, who I am pleased to see has been nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress.  Given her screen time and the performances of […]

[Read more →]

You may have read the post below about Steve Martin. Pretty bland. Nothing terribly provocative. So tonight we get a phone call from the Dove Foundation. Of course we don’t answer it, since it screams “solicitor.” But I’m curious, so I Google them. From their site: THE DOVE FOUNDATION is a non-profit organization established to […]

[Read more →]

I just saw — again — the trailer for The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin. Look: Even if you can’t bring yourself to say that The Jerk was one of the most influential comedies of the last 50 years, you can at least concede that Steve Martin deserves better than he’s had in his last […]

[Read more →]

The family headed up to Madison this past weekend to visit Aunt Rachel (“Rashe”) and Uncle Kevin (we’re still working on that one). Aunt Rachel came up with some cool activities for Ava.  On Saturday we went to the Madison Children’s Museum and had a great time playing with the different musical instruments and watching […]

[Read more →]

Leah and I saw Brokeback Mountain a while back. It was O.K. Leah enjoyed it quite a bit. I tried to go into the theater with an open mind, not so much because I had a problem with the relatively graphic depictions of rump ridin’ (see? I’m down with gay cowboy slang), but because the […]

[Read more →]

when it hits, you feel no pain. I was waiting for Leah this morning while she fetched her morning joe from her favorite coffee shop.  I had the iPod plugged in and was flipping through my shuffle of 1,937 songs. It’s an amazing thing, music, the way it infuses meaning into whatever’s going on outside […]

[Read more →]

Huge, huge entertainment industry news.  Keep an eye on how this changes the face of Apple’s video content offerings at the iTunes music store.

[Read more →]

I was browsing my Webalizer logs this morning like I do every day and was surprised to see that my mention of Steve Carrell’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes was a pretty hot search topic. So this post doesn’t come across as too blatant a hit-whoring tactic, I will say that I’m consistently amazed […]

[Read more →]