Eleanor Rigby

My Rigby!

Skip's Summer Anthem

Despite desperately wanting to be good at Jeopardy or 'Trivial Pursuit,' I'm really no good at either. While I do possess a fairly capacious cognizance of pointless pop culture facts, my areas of expertise seem to be bound between designer perfumes of the world, John Cusack movies, high school friends' home phone numbers and Oldies songs....And, if I'm being honest, the latter would be my strongest subject by far.

Countless hours of my childhood were spent absorbing Magic 104.3's perky playlists in the car and systematically recording the station's songs on my hot pink cassette deck, complete with grey webbing shoulder strap (wait, maybe it was Fabs' tape player...hmmm...). Something about the spirited, innocent songs stuck in my head more powerfully than the rules of Four Square and the trick to trigonometry. To this day, I can name an Oldies tune having heard just 3 notes.

It's no wonder then that my new favorite summer album is the eponymous release from the former singer of Blue Merle (lovely show at The Independent, sigh, a few years back), Pictures and Sound. The album is overflowing with soothing, laid-back tunes reminiscent of Herman's Hermits and The Push Stars all at the same time. Indeed, the simplistic, infectious optimism of 'It's You' has me constantly smiling and twitching in my seat.

I've listened to it so many times already, I swear I can hear Dick Biondi in the sneaky silence between songs.

Ode to a Clothes Steamer

A serpentine beauty saved my life...
(and suggested I was a more productive wife)
Before a reluctant slave to the hateful iron,
A friends' gift of steam kept me from crying!

A simple tap conducts a hissing smoke dance,
Blessed relief for stacks of agitated pants!
With effort that is really no effort at all,
Wrinkle-free shirts make Tim stand tall.

Clothing indecision early every morning...
Outfits no longer need prior evening warning.
With 7am steam sessions to look our best,
The ironing panics have been put to rest!

Hard Knocks

There are several reasons I look forward to August; the alluring temptation of new Fall television in those rarely seen commercials (thank you, Tivo), the deliciously fat September fashion issues of my favorite magazines to pour over, clip and covet, and the new season of HBO's football documentary, Hard Knocks (which precludes and hints at football's seasonal spectacle to come).

While I have always, and sometimes embarrassingly, been a big fan of mass market television entertainment (i.e. The Office, Friends, 90210, and most sheepishly, American Idol), HBO's sports centered drama has it all...comedy, histrionics, tears, torture, big muscles, and a deep throated, theatrical narrative that belies the ridiculous sums of money all these men are actually playing for...It's basically amazing.

Dear readers, please, please, please watch this show! It will make you love the sport as much as I do....and, by the way, T. O. is totally crazy...in a good way.

PS- Hi, Ben.

For Your Eduation; Part II

A few more quotation nuggets for your reading pleasure...

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Winston Churchill

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." Mark Twain

"Common sense is not so common." Voltaire

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." George Eliot

"All who joy would win must share it. Happiness was born a Twin." Lord Byron

"A friend to all is a friend to none." Aristotle

"Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something." Henry David Thoreau

"Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires." Francois de La Rochefoucauld


More quotes at BrainyQuote.com.

Skip Loves Beignet

Never before have I had so much appreciation for the film Best in Show than when I was recently, auspiciously introduced to the world of professional dog breeders.

All I can tell you is that the rumors are true...it's a veritable Gorgan-ish, haphazard existence entirely consumed by dogs and "their breeding." Sanity makes way for show dogs. Literally, these people are crazy.

However, as I, myself, teeter on the precipice of puppy-numbing lunacy (i.e. spending all my clothes money on organic toys, intelligent toys, retro leashes, cute crates, crate covers, clickers, fire hydrant dog tags, nutrious treats, etc. before even welcoming darling Rigby into my home), I have a certain modicum of empathy for these dog obsessed folk. In fact, I've become rather taken with one Frenchie breeder's puppy preoccupation with her up-and-coming French Bulldog show dog, Beignet.

Seriously, never will you experience such tragic, dog infatuation combined with incomprehensible fascination until you have viewed Beignet's cinematic masterpieces. They are brilliant and intoxicating. They are addictive and adorable. They include slow-motion-Beignet-running sequences that will make you weep! You simply must watch them (soundtrack included).

Click here and scroll down to view Beignet in action.

Haunting Harmonies

I'm absolutely obsessed with the haunting harmonies of Wild Sweet Orange's official debut album, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy. The Gorey-esque title alone is enough to make me weak with the promise of plaintive music within.

Indeed, the single 'Ten Dead Dogs' not only fulfills the album's woeful word, but goes further to reveal the lyrical poetry of the band's honey-tongued (and clearly cheeky) lead singer, Preston Lovinggood. There's just something about the eerie hymn-like songs that keeps me listening on repeat (surprise, surprise).

Buy the album at iTunes.