Alive in Wonderland

Send in the clowns, really I'm fine

(I snapped this photo from the second row.)

I bet you never thought you'd see this picture on my blog! That's a clown from the Ringling Brothers Circus"Zing Zang Zoom" that's coming to Orange County in two weeks. 

My family and I went to a sneak peek show this weekend and I was fine with the clowns, really I was.  Seeing my kids busting up over their pratfalls and wacky antics smoothed over any weirdness I felt towards clowns. Kids can do that to you--make you brave.  

That's not a fake smile, I was totally fine standing right in between two heavily made-up, wig donning, giant shoe wearing, checkered nosed clowns.  

And speaking of their shoes, I had to clear one thing up while I was there. As you might know Larry, my husband, is a big guy--huge--and along with that comes some pretty big feet--size 16.  So I just had to know, does Larry really have "clown feet" as we all enjoy call them?  I mean, whose shoes are bigger--Larry or a real live clown? 

(Larry's is the shoe on the right.)

So, I guess that settles it.  

Bustin' Down the Door and The Surfer's Code: Awesome, even if you don't surf

This post is mostly about surfing.  I don't surf and never have, but I grew up in Huntington Beach immersed in the sport and attitude of surfing.  But, when Shaun Tomson, one of the greatest surfers who ever paddled out to catch a wave, walked into our cafe in Carpenteria 8 years ago, I didn't know who he was. 

Shaun and his wife Carla were friendly, gracious, loyal customers.  They would come in with their son, Mathew, sometimes and I would watch them sharing a meal and talking warmly to each other.  I was so saddened when I heard the news of their son's tragic death.  

I mean, really devastated.  

During the time we knew the Tomsons Larry and I were trying desperately to get pregnant, but with no success.  If you've ever struggled with infertility you know, it's pretty much all you can think about.  Babies are flippin' everywhere. Every women you see is pregnant.  Every family you lay eyes on is happy and contented.  

To me, the picture of their family, and especially Carla's tenderness toward her son, were inspiration to keep trying.  She would say things to me like "You're going to be a great mom" or give me the thumbs up when I would hold a customer's baby.  It was what I needed at that time in my life. It's not like we were all chummy or anything-- just casual acquaintances. But, their family was important to me in a way they probably didn't even know.

You know how it is, once we sold our cafe, I got pregnant (finally), and we moved back to OC, I didn't really think about them much...until I heard about Mathew.  I sent Carla a card, but I don't know if she ever received it.  

❃❃❃❃❃❃❃

The other night Larry and I watched "Busting Down The Door," a surf documentary about how Shaun Tomson, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, and Mark Richards ignited a surf movement in the mid-'70s that has made surfing the professional sport it is today.  Even if you don't surf and know nothing about it, I would still recommend seeing it.    ( Watch the trailer here)  

The love these guys have for surfing, the tenacity they showed as young men pursuing their passion, and the hardships they have overcome, makes this documentary powerful with some intensely personal moments.  

Yes, it does have some pretty bitchin' surf sequences that will make you hit the person next to you a million times to say, "Did you see that?"  It also will give you a heavy dose of retro '70s surf culture: Lighting Bolt surfboards and puka shells, that sort of thing.

In the last scene of the movie they show the three of them today--Shaun, Rabbit and MR--walking out to surf together again.  As they each ride a wave they cut seamlessly to video of them riding back in the '70s--chills, you'll get chills watching it.  

❃❃❃❃❃❃❃

This is The Surfer's Code, written by Shaun Tomson.  Now that you know a little of his story, you'll see it is meaningful to anyone, not just a surfer.

Surfer's Code:

I will never turn my back on the ocean

I will always paddle back out

I will take the drop with commitment

I will know that there will always be another wave

I will realize that all surfers are joined by one ocean

I will paddle around the impact zone

I will never fight a rip tide

I will watch out for other surfers after a big set

I will pass on my stoke to a non-surfer

I will ride, and not paddle in to shore

I will catch a wave every day, even in my mind

I will honor the sport of kings

❃❃❃❃❃❃

Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire"

 plays at the beginning of "Bustin' Down The Door."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Things that make you go Eww

I spotted this at the cosmetic counter of Bloomingdales over the holidays. The Benefit's Justine Case Overnighter Kit is for that quaint "unexpected sleepover." 

Um, ewww!  

Never before has trampy tried so hard to be clever, cutesy, and efficient. The idea is you can pack this little kit in your Juicy bag (just guessing) and "just in case" you find someone really, really special and have an overnighter this "mini beautifying kit" will have everything you need in the morning to have you looking just as good to the guy as you did the night before--alrighty.

Here's the write-up of what's inside, though I can see some obvious omissions that would make the kit more...how can I say?...practical. Benefits has taken the pun-product name to a tragic degree.  It's getting to the point where descriptions hold zero clues to what the product is:

Product details (my notes in pink.)

exclusive (this is the ONLY time the word 'exclusive' will be used in relation to the "overnighter" situation)  hanky panky thong... seductively lacy in currant & black. (pay no attention to the random use of an ellipses...)                                                                                       

• california kissin': 2.50 g Net wt. 0.09 oz (no clue what this is...need  to cross reference with Benefits' dictionary.)
• eyecon: 2.50 g Net wt. 0.09 oz (guessing eye something or other...)
• benetint: 2.50 ml / 0.08 US fl oz (I use this. It's very good...)
• some kind-a gorgeous: 2.20 g Net wt. 0.08 oz (just can't figure out what "kina-a gorgeous"... just SOME kind...)

For only $35 this charming kit could be all yours.  It's a sad irony that is about the same amount as your co-pay for the antibiotics you will need after your "sleepover." 

The 10 all-time best make out songs, ever **

**Sort of. 

When I started to compile this list I thought it would be easy.  "The 10 all-time best make out songs, ever?"  No problem.   But, then, after firmly placing three songs on the list, the task became overwhelming to me. The gravity and importance of the chore became more than I could handle alone.

So I reached out--like most people do in time of need--to my friends on Facebook.  I asked my friends there to help me pick songs.  Then I asked my friends on Twitter to join in with their choices.

It became tragically clear to me after about twenty comments that none of my friends on either of the networks have had a proper make out session since 1991, or even before that time.  Not one song from the last decade and a half was offered--even by me.  Leaving me with a list of songs that could easily be a mixed tape made for you by your 11th-grade boyfriend (or girlfriend). 

This list is a generation thing--made-up of memories from a time when the words and music seemed like they were created just for us.  

So for me and my generation (35-45ish) this is the list I compiled with your help--thanks.  

1.) Led Zeppelin "Kashmir"

2.) Roxy Music  "More than this"

3.) Mazzy Star "Fade into you"

4.) When in Rome "The promise"

5.) Barry White "Never gonna give you up"

6.) Peter Gabriel "In your eyes"

7.) ELO "Telephone"

8.) Style Council "You're the best thing that ever happened"

9.) Squeeze "Tempted"

10.) Rod Stewart "Tonight's the night"

Click on this lovely arrow below to listen to all the songs.

I already see some obvious omissions and kind of regret ever taking this on...Ah,ha! I forgot "Take me on!" See!

Christian the Lion

If you haven't heard the story or watched the video about Christian the Lion, get ready to be totally blown away. Especially if you're an animal lover.

Briefly, these two hippies men bought a baby cub from Harrods Department Store in London in 1969 and brought it home to live with them.

Well, just like that waterbed your parents bought in 1969, this too turned out to be not such a great idea. Within a year their cute little cub, Christian, weighed 189 lbs, probably wasn't housebroken, and couldn't live in the city any longer.

They release Christian the Lion in Africa and then returned to see him a year later. This is their story, told by those wise old sages YouTube and Aerosmith.

Isn't that remarkable? I think so, too. What they didn't show in the video is all of them sitting down for afternoon tea and biscuits later that day. Just kidding.

Why we Twitter (part 2)

Foolery kicks it off with this: My hair is now long enough to stuff into a banana clip. I have nearly perfected my trashiness; now to go learn how to smoke heavily.

@Foolery Learning to smoke (heavily) WHILE folding your laundry, with hair in banana clip, that would be perfection

@suzbroughton Yeah, and @halushki just reminded me to go to the Wal-Mart to get stirrup pants. Maybe maternity ones, to hide my smokes in.

@Foolery But wouldn't be able to see the stirrups because you have your big white athletic sock on & pushed down to your Reeboks (w/velcro).

@suzbroughton Jeez, it's like you're hiding behind my mirrored closet door when I get dressed in the morning. Down to the pink Reeboks, Suz!

@Foolery I KNOW! Now, put down that Mountain Dew, turn off "Cheaters," and crawl into your sheet-less bed.

@suzbroughton Sheets! What kind of elitist do you think I am?

And there my friends who don't Twitter, is the perfect reason to start.

Monty Python + Emily Bronte = Something I have to share

Thanks to Hanan from Grow-a-Brain for sending me this clip. He knows about my immense love and adoration for all things Emily Bronte and Monte Python. Thanks for paying attention Hanan.

Finally, rain today

One of my favorite artists on Etsy (and elsewhere): Matte Stephens.

Please forgive me Mac

I'm firmly a Mac girl, but this ad/sketch/reality show for Microsoft's Vista (boo) starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates got my eyes' to stray...if only for long enough to post this. I can't help it. I just miss Seinfeld so much and it was right there in front of me. I'm only human.

"You're in my seat funny man." So funny.

Coming to grips with the travesty of 70's music videos...now go enjoy Weekend America

Hall & Oats, She's gone

I don't think they are high purely on consolation...

Thanks John Moe at Monkey Disaster for ruining this song--and possibly every song by H & O--for me, forever.

John is the new host of one of my media staples, Weekend America. It's a weekly two-hour radio program that is crammed with absorbing stories, listener clips, and good music. Weekend America podcasts are available FREE at iTunes, so there is really no excuse not to listen...except if you're too peeved about the whole Hall & Oats thing.

He's also a McSweeney's luminary. See his collection of stories: Pop Songs Correspondences.

"Yearbook Yourself"...equally as frightening as your actual yearbook picture

Me, 1954.

"I miss my iPod."

Me, 1964

"I know shorthand."

Me, 1984

"You WISH you had my Camero"

Me, 1994

"Am I still smiling?"

Thanks Krissy for introducing me to Yearbook Yourself.

Go there = kill an hour.

"Even though you don't love me anymore, I made you this mixed tape"

Ahhh, the mixed tape.

It's meticulously meaningful, but ultimately tragic life was spent traveling from car to bedroom to walkman back to car, off to college, lent to roommate... only to be eventually tossed out by your new boyfriend who didn't "appreciate" you still listening to it or abandoned for the shiny wonder that was your first CD.

Countless hours were spent in the 80's and early 90's tediously listening to lyrics of songs that would "say exactly the way I was feeling" to a cruel, callous, obviously black-hearted ex.

How many hours pouring over lyrics like...

When the wheel of fortune broke, you fell to me
Out of grey skies to change my misery
The vacant spot, your beating heart took its place
But now I watch smoke leave my lips and fill an empty room

For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad coloured, mocking shadows

Yeah! "Sad coloured, mocking shadows..." you tell her Paul Weller! (Oh, that rhymes!)

I still have two of my old mixed tapes. A Bob Dylan one, made by my old friend Paul. The only reason I keep it is there's a song on it I can't identify. The only trace of writing on it left is just "Dylan" scrawled across the top. (Dylan fan? "We met at the station, heard the mission bells ring. She said "I know what you're thinkn'"...Any clue?)

The other? Random 80's--Captain Sensible, Tin Tin, Ultravox, Joy Division, and for some reason only the creator understood, Olivia Newton John. Just can't part with it.

I miss the mixed tape. Surely searching iTunes, downloading a playlist, designing the graphics for a CD label, typing out the song titles and giving it to your targeted listener doesn't have the same effect as a mixed tape made in the dark of one's bedroom.

Hunched over a stereo, fast forwarding past the "happy songs" to the more desired melancholy tunes, the mixer chose carefully when to press that red "record" button. Just one more thing those kids today will never have the pleasure of experiencing--like really badly acted, heavily smoke-machined, sketchy concepted (pretty sure that's not a word) 80's videos. Poor things.

What was my point to this? Oh, that's right. I found these from Wishing Fish, "Mixed Tape USB Stick". All the look and angst of a mixed tape, but the (cheating) ease of iTunes.

If you know me, there are probably a few of these in your future. Especially if you done me wrong...

Related links:
Marcy wrote today, cassettes are now hard to come by "Shopping for a dinasour."
This website on "Art of the Mix"
Mixed tape everything on Etsy.

It's a Mad, Mad, "Mad Men" world or at least that's what everyone says

I have already professed my devotion to "Pop Waffle," the only celebrity news I can muster-up the interest to watch--aside from The Soup (watch "iPhone 3G") , of course. But when the latest episode showed up in my subscriber line on YouTube, I knew I had to parade it in front of you once more. It features the series "Mad Men" which my dear blog friend at "Doehle Bread" has appeared in as an extra. (Read her post here about her time on the set.)

I am a television commitment-phobe. It scares me to swear my devotion to any one TV series--just look what has happened to those poor souls that are forever devoted to "Lost." That's all they can talk about. It's all very overwhelming to me. American Idol? Meerkat Manor? Scrubs? We had our time together, but I just can't make the leap in to a full-blown relationship with any of them.

...now that I've said that, I have started to watch this season of "Mad Men" because of Jessica and because it's splashed everywhere that it is the best show on TV. I just hope it doesn't get all clingy and possessive.

Here is the latest Pop Waffle "Not watching Mad Men, that's just Ludacris."

Entertain yourself while I'm away

I am still knee deep in boxes. My internet is going to be turned off tonight--yikes. Here are three of my favorite comedians to keep you entertained until I am back, which will probably be on Saturday if Cox did me a solid and hooked me up at the new house.

Gary Gulman

Orny Adams

Brian Regan

Mr. Zero knew

Just hired the movers and it made me think of this scene from "When Harry Met Sally."

(RIP Bruno Kirby)

Today I'm going to talk about Spinal Tap today

Rumor has it this scene from the film Pink Floyd in Pompeii...

Was the inspiration for this scene in "This Is Spinal Tap."

After watching Pink Floyd in Pompeii in it's entirety (which was magnificent) I could see the influence of Spinal Tap. I love it when Nick Mason asked for the center piece of the pie and off camera someone says, "We only have those round pies." So funny.

Some other Spinal Tap things: The Official This is Spinal Tap website, ; Nigel explains to National Geographic how Stonehenge was built ; Another Pink Floyd moment ; Spinal Tap reunited to fight global warming ; Memorable quotes; The orginal trailer; and Lego Spinal Tap singing, "Tonight I'm going to rock you tonight."

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." Genius!

I'm just not getting it...Sex and the City

I'm not trying to be difficult, or mean, or even snarky, but I just don't get the allure of Sex and the City. I have tried! Really, I have watch maybe 4 episodes, maybe a few more and that was just about all I could take.

I am being completely serious when I ask, what do you like about it? Some girls who I love and admire think the show is spetacular and are gearing up for the premiere.

The SATC girls don't ever seem to talk about anything interesting or even clever. Everyone talks about how they hope Carrie marries "Big," but he seems like an enormous jerk to me. Didn't he cheat several times on his wife and Carrie? Is this the idea of romance now? It reminds me of when "9 1/2 weeks" came out and every guy I knew thought that smoking, mumbling and treating girls mean was what girls wanted (ala Mickey Rourke--some still are under that tragic false impression.)

I like shoes. I liked living in a big city. I like my girlfriends. I like complicated relationships. I like female columnists. I like chattering away at lunch. I just don't like Sex and the City. Please tell me what it is you like about it?

On a side note: I do like Sarah Jessica Parker, I read an interview with her and saw her on Letterman recently and she seems to be an intelligent, witty and grounded person. I like that she isn't perfect and shuns all things botoxy and silicone.

Let's talk Pop Waffle

Oh, YouTube and your maniacal ways...You have again, lured me in to another spaz-fest of watching videos made genius by your own particular genre...huh? Don't worry, I don't even know what that means...

I have found still another favorite on YouTube--Pop Waffle.

I just about did a spit-take on this one, set to the tune of Alanis Morissette's Ironic.

Pop Waffle is right (smart Pop Waffle)--see definition of irony here. While all the events listed are sad, frustrating or just plain inconsequential they aren't truly ironic. These videos on the other hand--pure hilarity.

The Flickr! challenge...can't back down from a challenge now can I?

Jessica from Doehle Bread started it..oh, then Nannette from Girl Friday had to be all "Me too!" and do one of her own...not to be outdone by anyone, Nik from Prose & Converse had to beat me to it...I can't be the ONLY one not to do it...so here is my Flickr! challenge.

They say you should:
1. Go to flickr
2. Type your answer to each question in the “search” box.
3. Using only the first page, pick an image.
4. Copy and paste the picture to your blog.
5. Enjoy! Then take the challenge, knowing full well it won't be as good as ours, but giving it your best shot.

2. What is your favorite food?

Grilled cheese, but lookie there, sushi runs a close second!

Facebook in real life

Facebook in real life. Yep! This is about right. Thanks Miss Cellania.