by turns

Invaluable Acting Advice

From the show Extras, Ian McKellen gives some expert acting advice. It's fascinating. This is the kind of thing you'd see on The Actor's Studio.

Seven Things

I keep wanting to blog about pilgrimage but it's hard to know where to start. And by the time we get Amia down for bed I've been too tired. Hmph. Soon. But in the meantime, I've been tagged to talk about seven random things so that I can do. Here go...

1. My current job incorporates pretty much everything I feel I've been called to do in life--education/teaching, research, writing.
2. I used to be a guard in a juvenile detention center. I had to search people and their rooms, escort them to court, lock them in their "rooms", and shackle them. Yeah. Weird. I did that until I was able to teach there, which was what I really wanted to do, and I loved doing.
3. I am literally in awe of the writing on West Wing and Deadwood. I'd almost go so far as to say it's delicious to watch them.
4. Rugby is my favorite sport to watch.
5. Like Katie H., I'm also inexplicably fascinated by this whole drama with Paris Hilton and jail.
6. The two times I've come closest to dying (as far as I know) were both in water--once while scuba diving and once after jumping off a bridge.
7. My year in South Dakota completely changed my conception of what I think of as reality and what's possible. Having an eagle materialize out of nowhere and feeling it's wings on your leg will do that.

You're it!-Suzanne, Kim, Nathonius, Liz, Dad, and...um...George Bush.

2 Cool Sites

I just found two sites that have been a great help.

One was in the New York Times the other day. It's called Farecast and it helps you find cheap tickets. It searches for cheap tickets, including the airlines and places like Orbitz and Expedia, but what's new is that they collect data on rates and give you an idea of where the price will likely be. So if the price is likely to go up in 7 days they recommend that you buy now, or if historically the price has gone down between certain routes in a certain time period they suggest that you wait until a certain time, along with an estimate of how confident they are in the projected price. They also have a cool thing called Fareguard.

And the other site is a tax withholding calculator from Kiplinger's. If you're like most people you probably got a refund from your taxes. When you get a refund that's more than several hundred dollars it probably means that you need to adjust your withholding on your W-4. The reason is because if you have a large refund coming to you, essentially you've given the government an interest free loan. It's better to have that money going into your paycheck throughout the year, where you can invest, save, or you know, do something fun with it. This calculator is a quick and easy way to get an estimate of how much you should be withholding. It's a good idea to go to the "easy to use" IRS calculator they just put up to get an official  estimate afterwards (you'll need your most recent tax return). Adjusting our withholding is one way we're going to pay for pre-school in the Fall.

What These Eyes Have Seen

I haven't been wanting to post lately because I've been so excited about the books I'm reading and the movies I'm seeing. Here's a couple things that stand out:

• Bookless in Baghdad by Shash Thoroor (sp?)--a collection of essays by one of the premier writers of Indian literature who also happens to work in the communications office of the UN. A lot of interesting stuff about literature, nationality/ism, identity, and global politics.
• Thumbsucker--Interesting cast, including Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Keanu Reeves, and a lot of unknowns. It's a coming of age story but one that really focusses on the family. It showed me the second greatest gift parents can potentially offer their kids.
• A Sense of Place--series of interviews with travel writers, from Bill Bryson to Paul Theroux to Isabel Allende. Showed me a lot about their humanity, why they travel and write, and what they hope to do with their writing.
• Deadwood Season 2--The first season was so revolutionary this season had a lot to live up to. I thought it was great. Explores the period of time in which Deadwood was being fought over as to who would annex it, Montana or Yankton.
• The New World--One of my favorite movies this year. Pocahontas finding God. One of the most meditative movies I've ever seen. And the portrayal of native peoples was fascinating--the director consulted with native people from all over the state of Virginia and said, I'm going to tell half through the story through my eyes as a Westerner, and I need you to tell the other half through your eyes.
• Travels with a Tangerine--a modern day scholar follows the travels of Ibn Battutah, the Middle Ages' greatest traveler who traveled over 75,000 (3 times what Marco Polo claimed to have traveled) miles, using every possible means of conveyance, and worked as a judge, cleric, carpenter, cook, advisor for sultans, and helped begin revolutions, among a ton of other things. Went from Africa to eastern Europe and wrote about all of it. At the very beginning of this book.
• An Evening Among Headhunters--A guy travels to the South Pacific, all over the Amazon, and northern North America. Hikes through the only frontier east of the Mississippi, in Maine, eats raw seal eye in Nunavut, and lives to tell the tail.
• Genghis Blues--Documentary about the only westerner to teach himself Tuvan throat singing, compete in the annual competition, and actually do pretty well. He was blind and learned this kind of singing, where three notes are produced at the same time, and then mixes it with traditional blues! Imagine..."my lady left me..(and then this funky didgeridoo style singing all set to electric guitar).
• I'm about to begin Syriana and I'm psyched. I've been waiting for it for a long time.

And two I couldn't quite finish but still appreciate...

• Selected Non Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges--One of my favorite authors, an Argentine who's unbelievably erudite and writes short literary pieces that explore everything from the nature of the soul to the existence, or not, of time. This book was essays and lectures. I could appreciate the amazing quality of writing and profundity of thought, but I wasn't feeling it. Just not where I'm at right now.
• Junebug--Erik Unterscheutz convinced me of the beautiful portrayals in this movie, and I had to agree. The acting was amazing and the cinematography was awesome. I just didn't enjoy watching it. I'd recommend it, but I won't watch it with you :)

Thank God for the Victorians

I just read an article in the Smithsonian about how for much of the past several hundred years in Europe the use of forks was banned by the Church. Guess the reason. Yep, something to do with the devil. Although I think no one knows why for sure, the article said. So for all those years all of our ancestor's sticking needs were provided by knives with points on the end. Those who dared to flaunt the ways of the Church and use hell-related eating utensils, such as one princess who smuggled them into her castle, risked earthly damnation. When this princess died in some gruesome manner a high ranking Church official was heard to declare, "she got what she deserved" (that's the rough translation). It wasn't until the Victorians, God bless 'em, decided that sticking food with knives and bringing the combination perilously close to one's mouth/tongue was a bit "barbarous" that the "Fork Revolution" (my term) upended centuries of damnable table manners. The Victorians, en masse, heroically cried, "Let there be rounded edges to these knives!", and, "The devil be damned! Let them use forks...whilst eating their cake". Problem is they went crazy with their new found freedom and came up with a fork for every possible thing you can eat--salad, steak, lemons, oysters, fish, beans, every variety of fruit or vegetable, etc. Someone actually counted several hundred kinds of forks that could be used in one multi-course meal. Thankfully, the times have sobered a bit and we now have only several from which to choose. And I don't think sporks are counted in the official tally although perhaps they should.

True story.

Dilemma

So
I got $3 left on an iTunes gift card. Who should I check out!? Here's what I got so far:

• White Stripes
• Dizzee Rascal
• Black Flag covers with Rollins and Chuck D. (what else do you need, really)
• NIN
• Gustavo Santaolalla
• Talk Talk
• and a Zack de la Rocha single

I'm really looking for new stuff. I'm thinking about Sufjan Stevens but don't know where to start. Any suggestions?

Thank you iTunes!

These are the songs I've been listening to since Spring came:

St. Judy's Comet/Paul Simon- I wish I could write lullabyes like this.

Sleeps With Butterflies/Tori Amos- The melody, like so many of hers, is so beautiful and is like velcro in your mind. I can't make out the words but probably wouldn't understand them if I did.

Crazy Faith/Alison Krauss & Union Station- That voice.

New Favorite/Alison Krauss & Union Station

It Doesn't Matter/Alison Krauss & Union Station

Find My Way Back to My Heart/Alison Krauss & Union Station

Monk Theme-/eff Beal- I think this theme song to the show Monk was one of the best fitting soundtracks to any show ever. Why they changed it for Randy Newman I'll never know.

Indian War Whoop/John Hartford- Old timey music from O Brother Where Art Thou?

Anamiyamosta/Valencia- I made up this title and artist name. I can't remember for the life of me who it is.

Human Nature/Michael Jackson- That's right. From the Thriller album. The pop album that Mozart would have made were he still alive.

Jane Says (live)/Jane's Addiction- Loving the steel drums.

ABC/Jackson Five-So much soul for such a little person!

Musicology/Prince- So laid back and funky.

I Know/Dionne Farris- She does know what I'm doin'.

Every Little Thing She Does/Police- I feel this way about both Suzanne and Amia.

American Woman/The Guess Who- Like a time travel machine.

Walking Contradiction/Green Day- I always liked a lot of their lyrics.

By the by, the little link above Yo-Yo Ma is to an iMix I created on iTunes of some of my favorite hip-hop. That was fun to make.