Did You Know Opera Could Be This Adorable?

Thanks to Craftster and its wonder-site, I stumbled across these cuties. I heart this idea!

Hardly "Irrelevant"

Marin Alsop, the first female conductor of a major U.S. orchestra, takes the podium at 8pm tonight. After years as conductor of our very own Eugene Symphony, Alsop heads the prestigious Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Way to go, girl!

I love her comments to the press: "I think the most challenging aspect," she says, "is people's need to focus on the fact that I'm a woman. It's really entirely irrelevant to what I do."

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

But this is no "Little Engine That Could"--this is a capital-M "Might". The consequences of this study--even if the study is eventually clarified or disproven--will be shattering.

Adios, librería impresionante

Another--culturally important--casualty in the Store vs. e-Store Wars.

Halloween Came Early This Year

A host of scary things burst out of the mouths of presidents, administrations, and presidential-hopefuls recently.

Bewitched by President Bush's magical mumbo-jumbo
Republican presidential candidate (and Mormon!) Mitt Romney, July 7, 2007: "I know that it is popular today to be critical of the president. And he is not above making mistakes. But we should thank him for doing everything in his power to keep us safe. Against the objections of Democrats and even some in our own party, he pushed though the Patriot Act.* He made sure that someone was listening in when al-Qaida was calling. He made sure we were interrogating terrorists to learn how we could prevent attacks on our citizens." And then this gem from two days ago, Mitt Romney, Sept. 22, 2007: "We expect our elected officials to be good role models, not bad examples -- thank you, President Bush, for restoring personal integrity and dignity to the White House."

Rudy Giuliani spreads 9/11 over America like Cheez-Whiz on a cracker
Abandoning old ideals left and left, Rudy hopes to avoid the Kerry-esque label of "flip-flopper" by linking his changing "heart" to 9/11 and its aftermath. Most recently, Rudy thinks if he hadn't pushed gun control in NYC, maybe 9/11 wouldn't have happened. "I also think that there have been subsequent intervening events — September 11 — which cast somewhat of a different light on the Second Amendment and Second Amendment rights. It doesn't change the fundamental rights, but maybe it highlights the necessity for them more."

Speaking with a fork-ed tongue
President Bush on the "Jena-6"
"I feel strongly that there ought to be fair justice. And I just spoke out on it." Well said, sir.

President Bush on the economy
Reporter: Do you think there's a risk of a recession? How do you rate that?
Bush: You know, you need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low and being fiscally responsible with the people's money ...
--Later, in the same interview--
Reporter: Mr. President, back to your grade-point average on holding the line on taxes.
Bush: I thought you were going to talk about the actual grade-point average. I remind people that, like, when I'm with Condi, I say she's the Ph.D. and I'm the C student and just look at who's the president and who's the advisor.
Indeed, Mr. President.

How can this not come back to haunt them?
From The Examiner: As for Obama, a senior White House official said the freshman senator from Illinois was "capable" of the intellectual rigor needed to win the presidency but instead relies too heavily on his easy charm. "It's sort of like, 'that's all I need to get by,' which bespeaks sort of a condescending attitude towards the voters," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And a laziness, an intellectual laziness."

Spooktacular horrors lie ahead.

*Italics mine.

Wii-Zerd!!!!!

What better way to embrace one's thirties than with an interactive child's toy? Since opening the box, I think the Wii has only been off when we sleep (but even then I have Wii-dreams...). Friday nite was a bash with silly friends playing silly games while drinking themselves silly. Favorite games (so far):

1. Bowling--like the real thing, only without the nauseating foot smell of the bowling alley! Also, with the Wii, I've broken 200 (yes, please adulate me) whereas in reality I average a 75 (awww).
2. Boxing--my flail will make you pale! Not a lot of butterfly, but a ton of bee.
3. Raymond's Raving Rabbids--there aren't enough words: incredibly odd, addictingly creative, cutely freakish, bizarrely buoying. I never thought hucking a cow 100 meters could be so deeply fulfilling. I also enjoy slapping singing rabbits.

Tantalizing, no? C'mon over and play!

Happy Hobbit Day!

September 21, 1937, Tolkien gave the world The Hobbit. Yahoo! I'm going to celebrate by eating the way Hobbits do: second breakfast, here I come!

Heute bin ich alte

Ach, du Lieber!

I Always Suspected Musicologists Were A Terror Threat!

President Bush and his so-called Patriot Act strike again.

Did Your Momma Ever Make Popsicles From Juice When You Were A Kid?

Mine did; she would make OJ or apple juice from frozen concentrate, then pour it into ice cube trays and re-freeze. Even though the treat was ghetto, we kids looooved it, largely because Mums had these super-fun sticks to put in the "Popsicle." The sticks were plastic, multicolored animals in silly poses. My brother, Bear, always chewed the end of his stick when he was done, then would complain because he had the shortest Popsicle.

At some indistinguishable point, those sticks vanished from our routine. And like so many aspects of childhood, I had forgotten all about them and our mad dash to the freezer every day after school.

Today, however, while poking around a tiny Antiques Mall in Forest Grove, I found the sticks. There is the basset hound with its droopy cheeks as blue as Elvis' suede shoes; the roaring lion safely in his minty green cage; the corn-yellow farmer putting along in his model-T; the foppish lion tamer in all his creamy goodness; and the swash-buckling pirate, fearsome in pink. One hundred and twenty-five pennies later I could take this Piece of my Past home.

I'm going to make juice-sicles tonight:)

Hear, hear!

Musicians know their art can sometimes cost them their ears, so while this new EU directive may be good-intentioned, it is coming a few centuries too late.*

*Laugh if you will: In the 1990s, opera singers rehearsing in a Copenhagen park apparently caused a rare African okapi at the nearby zoo to collapse and die from stress. If you laughed, you're an asshole. Don't worry, I'm an asshole, too.

Luciano, addio

Requiem in pace aeternum, Pappa Bear.

Dump Humpin'

Ok, the post title is cheesy, but definitely dirty, and I needed a title as dirty as la Dump. Why, a reasonable Blatherscopian might wonder, would Zerd be dumpster-diving? Surely her life is not THAT tragic?! Rest assured, beloved Readers: Zerd continues to walk that fine line between Class and Trash that so endeared her Readers to her in the first place. Non, mes amis: I merely needed to dispose of 2.5 cubic yards of nasty black rock. And NO ONE wanted it--I couldn't give it away, I couldn't recycle it--I had to PAY to return the uggo stuff to the beautifying hand of Nature. Whilst a-dumping, a Goodwill semi pulled into the spot next to me and spewed a staggering amount of crap: old sofas, clothes, random wood knicknacks, kitchen sinks. It was as moving a sight as a mother bird pushing her younglings out of the nest for the very first time. I started to get choked up, but then I realized I was just plain choking. G*d, the stench was acute!*

*Why is the stench/pain/misery/etc. never "isosceles"? A snack for thought.

Yo-de-lay-heee-hooo

Who can resist the ululation of Nature on Labor Day? Hubbers and I sure couldn't--we had to drive our donkeys to the boonies for the sake of Love. A dear friend of ours decided to tie her knot in her ancestral home: The Big K: Klamath Falls: Hell With A Golf Course. Thankfully, some Wonder People from days of yore (aka college) were there and so we could be silly drunks together. Bride-friend looked Gee-Orgeous, and her wedding was truly American Traditional--she had it all: flower girl, fancy food, free booze (!), cloying-and-overly-long photo montage, DJ playing crappy music. Which is all lovely and fine, but it was completely impersonal. The whole shee-bang felt in no way about Bride-friend and her chosen Man-chop. It was textbook perfect, but totally unmemorable. Granted, that is my take on her wedding: what she thinks is faaaar more important.

Anyway, Hubbers and I had a really nice drive; some of our best conversations happen when neither of us can be pulled away by shiny, sparkly distractions. When we stopped for gas at Po-dunk Nowhere, we discovered that the 76 was also the local library/movie rental shoppe. It was the most bizarre juxtaposition of oil cans and books, instant cappuccino machine and books, powerbars and books, and cases of Bud and books. And the books were used (1) John Grishams, (2) Mary Higgins Clarks, (3) Janet Evanovichs, (4) Christian romance novels, and (5) Christian god-helping-you self-help tripe. They also sold T-shirts with slogans mingling pop-culture and holiness, like: Jesus died for MY SPACE in heaven. Ishy. What about being IN the world but not OF the world, you opportunistic business people hiding behind the cross?!?

Now that I am full of un-Righteous indignation, I shall go attack my yard! EEEEEEEEE!