It's Friday. Thank god. :collapses: I am going to par-tay tomorrow night, yay! I could use a drink or three. I've never read so much boring, droning, tedious crap in my entire life, and it's all been stuffed into one week. Enough complaining, though.

Oops, sorry I didn't see this sooner! Was out of town (again!) last week. Aw jeez, that's SO lame about Pacino's awkward lines. If I were De Niro, I think I would have ad-libbed a little at that point..."Hey, hold on a sec, how old do you think I am, exactly? You're no spring chicken yourself, pal!" Good grief. Oh, oh - Pagey's Gibson, YES! That is exactly what I'm talking about, hehehe! I've been watching Flesh and the Devil with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert on YouTube (I'm about halfway through). This is the first silent film I've ever seen (besides bits and pieces of Charlie Chaplin movies). It's definitely a different experience, but worth it, like you said. What are your favorites? Oh - and the original reason I came here was to gush about L.A. Confidential. I FINALLY saw it after all these years, and it was awesome! Definitely one of my new favorite movies. The characters were great, and I just love noir (classic or retro...this obviously being retro). Cool story...nothing really complicated, but the way it unfolded kept you on your toes anyway. Having now seen this and A Beautiful Mind, I finally get the hype about Russell Crowe. I think I'll watch it again tomorrow. Right now I'm either going to finish watching Captain Blood with Errol Flynn or Key Largo. Hmm.

Went to Palm Springs this weekend, that was fun!! I got my tap shoes on Monday, that was fun, too! Although kind of difficult...I think I tried on like 5 pairs, oops. Oh well, I think I finally got the right size/style in the end, even if I drove the saleslady crazy. Tomorrow's the big day, yikes! Ew, I have to go to school tomorrow, too. I think. One of my classes was cancelled, but I can't remember if that was tomorrow or Friday. And hey, that makes me happy, too!

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue - André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra It's got Rhapsody in Blue (obviously), the American in Paris Ballet, and the three Piano Concertos in F. Good stuff! I love Gershwin.

Aw man, that is such a bummer about Righteous Kill. I mean, we all knew it would suck (except Messrs. De Niro and Pacino, apparently), but ugh, it's still a bummer. I love the heck out of those two, and I didn't think there was anything in the world that could keep me away from seeing a movie with both of them in it, but here I am, saying that I'll wait until it comes out on DVD. Thanks a lot, Avnet. Despite that, I am somewhere in the clouds right now as I have been continuing on the path to complete Gene Kelly obsession by watching Anchors Aweigh. You know, there are lots of inanimate objects that, for whatever reason, have sex appeal in their own right, like Ferraris, saxophones, high heels, etc. I never thought of a telephone as one of those things, but holy mother of mercy, do I think so now! Watching Gene do his thang with that phone... Hot. Damn. Yeah, I think I've pretty much made it to the level of "totally obsessed." :goes to take cold shower:

Oh cool! Sounds like she's having fun! And thanks, I'll definitely enjoy it! Violin sounds like a good choice! Or guitar...that would probably less hard on the ol' ears while she's just getting started, but either one is worth it in the end. And beginning violin players aren't half as bad as someone squeaking and honking on a clarinet - trust me, that'll take your hearing down a few decibels, lol! I know piano isn't your first choice, but I have to talk it up a little, sorry. It was my first instrument, and by having the notes all laid out in a row, I think it definitely helped me to get a better grasp on musical theory and which notes were where. Guitar was harder at first because the same note is at different positions on the guitar, which makes it a little harder to remember where all those notes are, but eh, it's not impossible. It's probably easier if you get started with it at a young age, too. Just had to throw in my 2 cents about it. Good to see somebody else start dance lessons, heh! How did she like it?

Jack Lemmon made me happy today, hehe! I finally watched The Apartment, now it's my new favorite movie. He cracks me up...I love the spaghetti-through-the-tennis racket scene, and his opera singing talent, lol. Man, I can't believe that came out in 1960 - that's pretty bad-ass for that point in time!

Thanks! Yeah, I can't wait! I'm so glad there is such a thing as adult dance classes (I wasn't sure when I first started thinking about it), because as life "cuts into my playtime" (as Ronniedawg's son would put it, hehe), I really need to get more exercise. At the same time, however, since time is so precious, I don't want to spend it doing the ol' one-two one-two aerobics rigmarole at the gym. This way I'm having fun AND getting exercise - doesn't get any better than that! Yeah, I bet an adult hip hop class would be great exercise - it moves fast! Is that what your daughter does? She definitely has my respect, then...I tried that for like two weeks when I was a kid, but I couldn't keep up. Hip hop dancers amaze me.

I found a tap class (and it's cheap)! I am nuts! I haven't danced at all since 6th grade, and I haven't tap danced since...pre-school? This should be interesting... I'm so excited, though! I've been threatening to take some kind of dance lessons for a while now, and I'm finally going to do it. Woohoo!

You know who I friggin' love? Gene Kelly. What a cool guy. I got sick on vacation a couple of weeks ago, so I stayed in the hotel room and watched TCM, which was having a Gene Kelly marathon of sorts. I watched the last half of An American in Paris, all of On the Town, and the first half of Singin' in the Rain (it got really late and I was dying, unfortunately; otherwise I definitely would've finished it - that was the first time I'd ever seen it!). I REALLY liked what I saw of An American in Paris. I need to rent that, like, tomorrow. Yeah, it's still a little cheesy in places, but there are some parts that totally transcend that and, well, move into the realm of art, in my opinion. It's like the Fantasia of musicals (at least from what I saw). Way cool.

Yeah, I like The Hold Steady, too...or at least the one song I've heard from them. I gotta listen to the rest of their album. Right now I really like Murder by Death. I guess they're somewhere between punk and rockabilly (is that what psychobilly is? I've never quite figured that out), but with more of an Old West or spaghetti western feel (there's a song dedicated to Ennio Morricone, so there you go) than the usual '50s throwback thing. I like the singer. He sounds like Johnny Cash, but not TOO much like Johnny Cash; he's got his own thing going there, too. Random sidenote: I see that both of those bands are on Vagrant Records, weirdly enough, and I have to say that I'm impressed. Back in the day (like 5 years ago), Vagrant was all crap like Alkaline Trio, Saves the Day, Dashboard Confessional, etc. I mean, they still have those bands, but now they actually have some decent stuff, too.

I just finished reading Twilight a week ago. Gag. This is honestly a really popular series? Man, the post-Potter world really is depressing. I kind of want to read the second book just to see if anything ever finally happens, but the characters are so one-dimensional that I'm not sure I'll care if anything remotely interesting does come up. Plus, the author's writing "style" gives me a pain.

My homeboy Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon represent, wut wut!) won the Pepsi 500 in Fontana yesterday, yay! Turning into a shameless NASCAR fan makes me happy too, hee hee. I'm such a redneck... It's kind of fun, though. No more Busch/Edwards drama this time, though, bummer. I don't like either one of them, so I don't mind if they go at it with each other; it's not like I'm losing any respect for them. Kyle's a twit, Carl's a two-faced phony. I'd probably side with Kyle, though. Carl reminds me too much of one of my high school English teachers. She never stopped smiling, but man, somehow she was one of the meanest teachers I ever had! She could, in so many words, tell the whole class that our opinions weren't worth a crap, all the while never breaking out of that sugary tone of voice she had. Uh, what was I talking about again?

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (or something like that) Murder by Death - Red of Tooth and Claw Back Door Slam - Roll away (thanks, guys!) Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne I need some Johnny Cash... Oh, and don't let me forget to download some Hank Williams for my dad.

My friends. They crack me up. Everybody's got their requisite wannabe gangsta photo up on their MySpace, right? It's become so prevalent that even the ironic ones with little blond girls "representin'" aren't really very funny anymore, but leave it to my friends to go and put the humor back into these pics. So, the two of them are posing inside of a liquor store, holding up Magnum 40 ounces and throwin' up some sort of retarded, non-existent "signs"...the usual shenanigans. Except there's one problem: my one friend has a Dale Earnhardt Jr. shirt on. Bwahahaha. So now, instead of looking like a couple of gangsta hos about to rip off some forties in South Central, they look like two rednecks in Riverside getting ready to tank up for the Daytona 500. Classic.

I friggin' LOVE that song!!! I just bought a Chuck Berry "best of" CD a couple weeks ago, and I've been listening to Nadine nonstop. Great song. I'm listening to On the Hunt by Lynyrd Skynyrd (yep, them again). I love, love, love this song, but what the heck is up with the production? This is on the same album as the awesomely engineered Saturday Night Special, but on this song the vocals are turned way the heck down and Ronnie sounds like he was singing inside of a closet. What gives? Time to dig up the LS thread again, since I just got the Street Survivors deluxe thingy, too...there's an interesting comparison in production techniques.

That looks totally cool, but honestly, I am such a huge weenie. I'd probably pee my pants if I went in there, lol. If I could stomach it, it does look like it would be a blast, though. I'd love to go to New Orleans sometime just for the hell of it...it'd be neat to go during Halloween, too; the French Quarter seems like it would have the perfect atmosphere for it. I love your food, too. New Orleans is definitely on my "must see before I die/move out of the country/become a permanent couch potato" list.

I did the Jack the Ripper tour in London, and I've been to a haunted house here in San Diego. Neither one was very scary. I'd say go for it. Though maybe I wouldn't spend the night...that would be just a tad weird.

I'm reading Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins. I'm not making much headway... I bought it before the school year was over, so I was all excited to finally be able to make some progress on it when finals were over, but so far I've read about...3 pages. D'oh! It's not that it's boring; I'm just lazy.

No prob, I know exactly what you mean! I went to school dances with some real dorks (probably because I was one, too, heh). This guy's in a different league.

Hey, I finally got around to trying a Jack & Coke last night! Good stuff!! My drink of choice recently has been rum and Coke, which is pretty good, but after trying JD, I definitely like it better. The JD cuts the sweetness of the Coke more and makes it more...refreshing, I guess? Whereas the rum seems to amplify the Coke flavor and make it a little on the cloying side. Does that make any sense at all? I love being a girl...I can have a Jack and Coke one minute and a strawberry daiquiri the next, and no one will give me any crap about it.

I got a hug and a kiss on the cheek from the cutest freakin' guy on the planet last night!!! AHHHH!!!!! Man, I've had a crush on him since forever...I want to high-five my 16-year-old self because I can't believe that I actually talked to him after all these years, lol!

All right! Just bought my ticket for Skynyrd and Hank Jr. So the next three concerts I will be attending are: Agent 51 and Pivit (my all-time favorite local bands) Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams, Jr. Radiohead Not bad...not bad at all! What I thought was going to be a lame summer is actually turning out to be really frickin' awesome!

Matchbox - Carl Perkins

I'll Make Love to You Anytime - J.J. Cale