So last week my oldest daughter’s school they had a read with your bear thing. The kids got to bring in a teddy bear and read a story with it. My daughter forgot a bear that day but was told she could do so again a few days later. Since that moment last week, she’s had a new best friend. This bear comes and goes with her everywhere now including bed.They have become inseparable.
See…
Seems normal right? Well there’s something you can’t hear from this picture. This bear has one of those little button thingy doo-hickies in it that plays a sound when you press it. Instead of a ferocious roar though, this was a record your own. On it is something that is odd and a little tough for me to hear. It is a recording of my parents saying I love you to their grand child. Both parents. My Dad’s voice is there and it was done about a year before he died. So I am thankful the battery, or whatever keeps it going, still works because 5 years later it is still very clear. I can hear the total joy in his voice as he says his 2 lines before my mom says hers. Lately, I’ve been hearing it quite a lot too. She plays it a lot and each time I hear it, I miss my Dad. I don’t now how long it will last and I’ll be paranoid to change the batteries in case the recording lives because of the batteries. Her sister has a bear too, but alas, only her grandma can be heard on it.
She loves to listen to it. A lot.
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Sorry to all you blizzard snow storm folks. It only rained here a lot for about 2 hours today. Hard to have snow when its 75 degrees F outside!
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Three days ago I got an email informing Mr. Ben Folds will be bringing his “Ben Folds and his piano” show here to my hometown next month. If you’ve been here for a while you’ll know I absolutely LOVE Mr. Folds. What’s even cooler than that is a REALLY old friend/neighbor from junior high found and connected with me on Facebook about a month ago. I heard a rumor she worked at the same venue as Mr. Folds and I asked if she could get me to meet him. No word on that yet, but she came through in as big a way as possible. She reserved tickets for myself, my wife, my best friend, and his girlfriend to sit in the very small reserved seating area of the venue gratis. Totally unnecessary but yet completely appreciated.
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Last night I got to go see my team in person. I only get 2 chances per year and this year was the first in a while I got to go to both games. This was a weeknight, so the kids stayed home and my brother in law joined me. It was a good guys night out and we had fun aside from my team losing their 6th in a row. What was really cool, besides our 4th row seats for $43 was what happened after the pre-game warm-up. I always like to be there for the pre-game skate and hang out next to the glass and take cool pictures and see the players up close. As it was ending, one of my team’s players, Bruno Gervais(#8) motioned to me from the ice and then proceeded to pass me a puck over the glass. Cool.
So I guess it’s something called doppelganger week. Which is good because I really don’t have any meaningful content for you right now. Nothing perky anyway. Somewhere someone said this week would be where you post pics of yourself as a celebrity look alike. People have always said I look like Tobey Maguire, especially after Spiderman came out. That’s cool I guess, but according to this handy dandy Internet tool, I look more like women than men, and not even Tobey!
See that? I cannot say I’m too unhappy with those results, because I love Reese. She is totally on my “list.” Alicia was on that list back in the Aerosmith videos, but what ever happened to her anyway? Seeing Leo in there so high is encouraging because I could probably make another “list” based just on his ex and current girlfriends. The Mustafa guy though? I think not….I am way too pale. Funny though this list is all the people generally referred to as the pretty people. Something I am usually not associated with.
**Other Notes**
Ben Folds is coming to Orlando next month. The show is “Ben Folds and his piano” and I was so excited, I may have overreacted and no, I will not share how.
Tomorrow night, I get to go see my Islanders try to end a 5 game losing streak in person. Just seeing my team I person is enough, but a win would be nice.
Sunday I was hoping to do a cajun themed super bowl gathering, but the wife said no. She said that would require cleaning and she’s not interested in doing that. Too bad…I think it would be fun. Geaux Saints!
Last night was “music’s biggest night” with the Grammy awards. It’s one of the few and only music awards I will watch. Come to think of it, it’s one of the only awards shows I watch period. I like that they focus on the performers and not so much the trophy distribution. That’s boring, especially when music is involved. I also respect that the awards are given based on voting members of the academy. You become a voting member by being credited creatively or technically on produced music. Getting on the list is probably skewed by sales figures, but at least it doesn’t determine who actually wins unlike most others.
Anyway,I have to say in list night’s telecast, the performances overall fell flat. Most were poor song choices and the execution fell flat. Lady Gaga opened with her usual artistic interpretation and it was the best of the night. The overall theme seemed to be to mix in another song with your own and she did it best with Elton John in a dueling piano setup. Beyonce doing Alanis? Flat. Beyonce is hardly a scorned woman. Should have brought Alanis out to sell it. I would like to see future performers not try too hard to “blow it up.” Just be themselves and do what got them on the stage in the first place.
The whole Michael Jackson tribute, was insanely disappointing. Somehow, MTV totally did this better. Aside from the kids speaking, I expected much more than Celine Dion and Smokey Robinson.
As for the winners, everyone will have their own opinions skewed to their personal preferences. In the big album of the year, I actually own 3 of the 5. I’m not surprised or disappointed Taylor Swift won. It’s one of the 3 I own. It’s a good album, but I don’t know if it was better than the others. It’s hard to compare crossover country to R&B to Adult Contemporary to Dance to Pop. It was a well put together record and is good top to bottom. So I’m not disappointed or surprised that she won. It was worthy.
Black Eyed Peas should not have won est Pop Vocal Album though. No one that uses an auto-tune should be eligible for anything that has the word vocal and not the word electronic in it. Sorry. Oddly enough Lady Gaga won the electronic dance album yet she sings all her own tracks and never lip syncs in concert. Seems backwards to me.
Also, I just REALLY hope the voting members don’t use sales as a key element to deciding who wins. I have my doubts in the whole process, but one can hope something is still pure.
2010 is shaping up to be a slow year in terms of new music releases based on some initial lists I’ve seen. Not much to look forward to up front, but I guess we’ll see. Thanks to my sister’s strong recommendation I decided to give another Train record a chance. I like the band and I like lead singer Pat Monahan but after Drops of Jupiter, they failed to really deliver for me. The new record though, titled “Save Me, San Francisco” is a brilliant release. Top to bottom the songs are well put together with endearing lyrics and just enough snag in the hooks to make it stick for a long time. I really like this record. I highly suggest you pick it up.
Sadly, I think their commercial popularity ship has sailed and we won’t see them on the list of next year’s Grammy nominees. Too bad, this is great stuff.
