no more bedhead

Rami? Rami?! Rami?!? Oh, please.

I can't believe that the judges picked Rami in the "run-off" to go to Bryant Park and Fashion Week. Chris' pieces were so much better.


Now, I'll grant you that Rami listened to what the judges have been telling him week after week after week - no. more. draping. But the key here is that they had to tell him that over and over again. He's gotten a free pass the whole series. He got lucky in that each week, someone else went off the deep end and got eliminated. Rami is nothing if not consistent. Consistently the same.

And then Chris got raked over the coals during the last challenge because he had two dresses that were similar. What the hell?!

In tonight's "run(way)-off", I thought Chris' collection was much better than Rami's. I liked his theme, his overall look, and I even liked the human hair (deliciously weird!). Rami's didn't grab me. Yes, they were an improvement over what he had been doing, but they didn't "wow" me. And Nina and Michael said his were more "saleable" while Chris' were "costumey". Have they ever seen the bizarre shit that comes down the runway from established designers!! They said themselves, in the avant-garde challenge, that your runway designs should be outrageous, and then you pull them back to make them saleable.

How hard would it have been to have all four of them go to Bryant Park, if they liked Rami and Chris's work so much? It's not like they didn't do that before (see Season Three).

I like Chris probably more so because he's a costume designer, he's over the top, he's funny, and he reminds me of some people I knew in college. And Rami's not bad, but...

Still, neither of their collections are as strong as Jillian's, IMHO.

Meh.

I was at a meeting last night, and Tracey had some big news. She had to leave early because she had to go to the dress rehearsal for the Democratic Presidential Debate. It seems that she had been asked to deliver the invocation! We were all excited for her, but she was just beaming!! She graciously offered to share with us her draft of the prayer, and it was really good (no surprise there).

I watched the beginning of the debate, hoping that they would televise her, but alas, they did not. Fortunately, Episcopal Cafe posted a copy of the invocation, so I get to add it here:

A Prayer for the Nation
Invocation for the Democratic Presidential Debate
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Cleveland
February 26, 2008


Shalom, Salaam, Peace be with you. Let us pray.

Gracious and loving God: we call you by many names and come to you by many paths, yet you have brought us together to this time and place. We join our voices in praising you for the majesty and beauty of this land, for the people of our nation, for the state of Ohio and its citizens, and for the city of Cleveland and those who live, work and study here. May we always be mindful stewards of your bountiful creation.

As we come together this evening, we thank you, O God, for the great diversity of our nation and its people who, throughout our history, have embodied the principles and ideals of a democratic society. We pray especially this night for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We give thanks for their willingness to stand before us and offer themselves to serve as our nation’s president. We pray that as they debate, they will exhibit the courage of their convictions, hunger for the truth, a vision of compassion, justice for all people, and civility toward one another.

And as we, your faithful people, listen, discern and cast our ballots, may we remember that this nation is too important for anything but truth, that this world is too vulnerable for anything but peace, and that your creation is too precious for anything but love.

Amen.

73% Geek

A while back all the kids at the middle school were given a paper and pencil spelling test. The top thirty spellers in each grade level (5-8) were invited to participate in Middle School Grade Level Spelling Bee during school on Tuesday. Beenie was one of those top thirty. When he was invited to participate he got the study guide and everything, but I never saw him do anything other than glance at it once or twice. So the day of the bee arrived and Beenie went off to school to a heartfelt "good luck".

When he came home I asked him how his day was. He said, very casually, "We had the spelling bee today." I said, "How was it?", to which he replied "It was good. [beat] [beat] I won." Yep, he came in first place in the 5th Grade Spelling Bee!

That meant that last night the top eight spellers from each grade level were to compete against each other in the Middle School Spelling Bee. Beenie was very excited (and this time he was showing it)! I thought the bee would last a long time as there were 32 kids from grades 5-8, and they would have to go through them all for each round (like the spelling bee on TV). I was surprised that the first round eliminated 17 kids. By round three it was down to 5. Beenie was one of those five.

One by one kids got tripped up until it was down to two. Beenie was still one of those two. It went back and forth until Beenie got tripped up. That meant:

Beenie placed second place over all in the Middle School Spelling Bee!!! And, that's as a 5th grader!

The kid who won is in 8th grade. Beenie did an amazing job! In the later rounds, he nailed these words:

• filibuster
• ominous
• democracy
• caribou
• pumpernickel

The one that tripped him up: imperative.

So they send one kid on to the regional spelling bee, and the winner of that goes on to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. Everyone was so amazed and proud of Beenie for getting so close as a fifth grader. He's got three more years to compete - if he wants to. (And his excitement and enthusiasm leads me to believe that he will.)

Congratulations, Beenie!!

Munchkin has a "magic wand" toy from one of the myriad dolls that inhabit our house. She has been running around for the last few weeks waving the wand at people and saying "I wish you a Merry Christmas." Sometimes she'll throw in "and a Happy New Year" for good measure. I thought it was cute, but kind of odd.

Today she crystallized it all for me. She needed to do something, so she handed me the wand and said "Hold my wisher."

The temperature dropped yesterday from 34 degrees to 0 degrees, with predictions that it would be negative teens for the wind chill this morning. At about 10pm, all the schools started calling off for today. Our district did, too. It was all over all the news channels, and we saw it multiple times. We checked the district website, and "no school" was posted there. This morning the stupid "Parent Broadcast" phone call (the subject of another rant at another time) came in at 6:15am saying there was no school. And yet...

Why is it not official in the house until we hear it on the radio in the morning?

Tina Turner blows Beyonce out of the water any day.

Is Jason Bateman drunk?

I once hired Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters). The only interview I ever conducted where the interviewee wanted to walk around the store while we talked.

What the hell kind of song is "I'd like to check you for ticks"?

Aretha Franklin should not be singing backup to anyone. She should be out there front and center, belting it out and letting everyone else catch up!! (And the people say "A-men".)

Alicia Keys Rocks.

Damn, Amy Winehouse can sing.

Herbie Hancock looks the same now as he did 50 years ago. Jazz's answer to Dick Clark. Herbie played "Not My Job" on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" a month or so ago, and was hysterical.

It was like Christmas all over again. Ellen got her long-held wish, and I was along for the ride. We went to see Richard Thompson at the Kent Stage last night. It was an amazing show!! He was performing "1000 Years of Popular Music".

We arrived at the theatre, found our seats, and discovered that we were in the middle of a sea of khaki pants and alpine designed sweaters. On a sea of middle aged couples. We were the youngest people there. Ok, not really. There were a couple of kids that had been dragged there by their parents, and a couple of college students (it is next to Kent State University, after all). But other than that, yep...us.

The crowd was rather annoying. It was made up of old folkies who thought they were being witty when they were yelling things at the performers. Thompson took it in good stride, but his wittiness blew them out of the water. And I suppose the piece de resistance was during several of the songs when we looked over to see these middle aged white guys bobbing their heads in time to the music. Or, not in time to the music as the case may be.

But, enough about the crowd. Richard Thompson was incredible. He came out playing a hurdy gurdy and singing a song from 1290. We jumped forward a few years, then skipped the "black death" ("...nothing musical of note. It's my pustule and I'll cry if I want to."). We ventured forward, heard a madrigal and a carol, and kept moving forward into the 1500's - 1600's - 1700's. We stopped for quite a while in the nineteenth century, and finished the first set with some Gilbert & Sullivan.

On the way, he told a joke (several actually, but this one was a joke rather than witty repartee):

• Heaven: The English greet you at the door, the French do the cooking, the Italians provide the entertainment, and the Germans organize everything.
• Hell: The French greet you at the door, the English do the cooking, the Germans provide the entertainment, and the Italians organize everything.

The second set moved forward to the 1940's and focused on a song or two per decade up to 2006. We heard songs by the Beatles, Abba, Billie Holliday, and others. My favorite was See My Friends, by the Kinks. Thompson's version was abso-freakin'-lutely amazing!! He finished with a Nelly Furtado song. In order to bring the end of the show back full circle to the beginning, they switched in the middle to Latin, and slowed it down like early church music.

For the encore, he played something from the 90's. The 1190's. A song composed by Richard I.

Here is a pretty decent sampling (albeit short) of the 1000 years of music show:


And here is one of my favorite Richard Thompson songs - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning:



All in all, it was a great show. I wish he had performed some of his own music, but that just means we'll have to go to another show!!

Sorry, wrong reference. Actually, it's even better than that. The New York Football Giants just beat the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. This is exciting because I can't stand the Patriots.

Most people think this is weird as I grew up in New England, but I didn't watch football until I went to college, so I really have no connection to the team. I started watching the Washington Redskins, and I will probably always be a Redskins fan. I became a fan near the end of the real glory days. Joe Theismann and John Riggins staging those minute left in the game, and 80 yards to go, come from behind victories, under the guidance of Joe Gibbs. The years of Art Monk and Darrell Green, who were just elected to join Riggins and Gibbs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As a Redskins fan, we were in the same division as the Giants, so I had the opportunity to see them twice a year, and even though I always rooted for the 'Skins, I have a soft spot in my heart for all the teams in the NFC East. Except for the Cowboys. Still don't like the Cowboys.

Of course, now I'm a Cleveland Browns fan. We may have to wait a while for the Super Bowl, but we did have a great year this year. (10-6)

So, anyway, I'm very happy that the Patriots lost. They were the dominant team this season, going into the game at 18-0, with a certain smugness. And they came out 18-1. Mwhahaha!! When it became apparent that they would finish 16-0, I was hoping that they would lose in the first round of the playoffs. Although, in retrospect, I think this was even better.

It was a really good game, though.

The dog is back.

I've had four blissful days, sans dog. Ellen took him to the vet on Thursday morning for "the surgery" (he's now half the dog he used to be). It was a glorious weekend, full of peace, laughter, frivolity, and harmony. Unfortunately, he had to come back home today. He's already started peeing in the living room, tearing trash out of the garbage can, jumping on top of us, and causing general mayhem. Not to mention terrorizing the cats (whether by his actions, or in their minds).

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Update: Just to clarify, the surgery didn't put the dog out for four days. He was actually done in a matter of hours. But, we had a diocesan conference from Friday night through Saturday, so the vet kept the dog. We were supposed to pick up the dog on Saturday night, but the vet had a concert to go to, so we agreed that we'd pick him up on Sunday. Still, I got all day Thursday and all day Friday, plus a couple of bonus days!