Tag: music

My favorite diversions of 2010

the Tall Girl # # # #

I know it’s a bit late to write any kind of 2010 wrap-up, but I’ve been sick (holiday germs, how festive!) so I’m only just managing to do it now. Better late than never, right?

2010 could have been better, but at least there was fun to be had along the way. Here are a few of the things that made my year merry and bright.

TELEVISION
I continued largely shunning broadcast TV in favor of on-demand entertainment; I like the convenience and I enjoy immersing myself in a show, watching an entire season in a couple of weeks. Plus I feel safer waiting until a program has at least a couple of seasons under its belt before I tune in, because the networks have an annoying tendency to cancel anything I embrace. (Leverage is the rare exception. Well, that and Doctor Who, but that show is dead to me since David Tennant left.) 2010 was no different; I fell in love with 3 shows and 2 of them were canceled. Better Off Ted made me laugh and reminded me how absurd corporate life can be, while Stargate Universe occasionally made me cry and captured my imagination with the dark drama of their outer-space journey. While both were canceled, Mythbusters at least seems bulletproof, which is great because where else can you find humor, science, and absurdity all rolled into a single package? Luckily, Netflix has a huge selection of Mythbusters episodes available for instant viewing, so they’ll be keeping me entertained well into 2011.

BOOKS
I didn’t read many new books in 2010, but I did find a few standout titles worth sharing. Sophie Kinsella was back with a fun installment of the Shopaholic series called Mini Shopaholic, with the result that “‘Muffin! Muffin Starbucks!” and “Taxiiiiiiiiii!” are now regularly quoted in conversation. I also got my hands on the audio version of Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett, which turned out to be quite a gem; of course, it was almost guaranteed to be entertaining, given that it has Susan, Death, an Igor, the History Monks, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and some deranged Auditors. If you’re a fan of Terry Pratchett, you should definitely check it out. On a more serious note, I found the novel Intelligence by Susan Hasler to be highly compelling; it’s a must-read if you’re at all interested in a real-life glimpse of the CIA’s counter-terrorism department.

MUSIC
For whatever reason, I only listened to a few new artists in 2010, but I’d recommend all of them. I became very interested in string music and fell in love with Zoe Keating (who writes her own compositions for cello) and the Vitamin String Quartet (which does string versions of popular songs). And I discovered the music of Leverage’s Christian Kane; I’m not a real country music fan, but his album has definite crossover appeal and I frequently found his songs looping in my head. Also, Breathe by Alexi Murdoch rivals Kane’s The House Rules for my favorite song of the year.

INTERNET
Squidoo became my new toy of 2010, and it probably deserves a post all to itself… but the abbreviated version is that it’s an article platform and I’ve enjoyed using it to write about people, places and things that I admire or enjoy. (Some of the links in this post go to articles I’ve published on Squidoo.)

So those are my entertainment recommendations for 2010 in a nutshell! Where I have a review or article about a product on Squidoo, I’ve linked to it so you can read my thoughts in more detail. I hope this post will lead you to discover some new favorite things for yourself… Happy New Year!

Random Updates from Miss Cranky Pants

the Tall Girl # # # # #

Hi friends! I’m way too tired & cranky to do any more work this afternoon — the project I’m wading through has pretty much sapped the life out of me for today — so I figured I’d do something semi-productive and write a blog update. I’ve been meaning to put out some news for at least a week now but never quite got around to it. So here’s some random stuff about my life at the moment.

Grandma is doing surprisingly well. Despite the lung doctor’s pronouncement that she has two to three months to live, we’re still not seeing any change in her condition. Of course, that may not mean anything, but we’ll take whatever good news we can find. I’m particularly relieved since we’re almost out of September and (dare I say it?) no hurricane threats yet this year! Once we hit October, the threat level goes way down, so I’m feeling pretty secure that we won’t have to evacuate this season. Last year’s evacuation ahead of Gustav was just grueling — by far the worst I’ve ever been through — so it’s a huge blessing to think we won’t have to do that again any time soon.

Overall, I’m doing better health-wise. The new medicine is working, and between that and higher quality vitamins, I’m feeling better, being more productive, and not needing quite so much sleep. As a result, I’m watching a lot less TV and reading more — both big goals of mine for this year. (I’m currently reading The Black Company by Glen Cook and being pretty darn impressed by his attention to detail.) I’m trying to start easing into creative writing again but haven’t made much progress yet; I did some short fiction exercises one day last week and never got back to it. I guess that would have been a good thing to do instead of this blog entry, wouldn’t it? Oh well. Maybe another day.

The choir situation has improved. I’m much less frustrated with our new director and I’m no longer thinking about quitting. So that’s good. Which is not to say that I’m totally happy — we’re taking part in a choral concert next month and we still don’t know what our second selection is going to be; our original choice got scratched because we don’t have enough time to learn it. Oh, and I don’t really like the piece we’ve been rehearsing so far. But you can’t have everything, and I’m mostly managing not to get too worked up when things don’t go quite right.

I have a new toy: an adorable faux-leather storage ottoman I ordered online from Wal-Mart. It’s actually really nice and a steal for $35 + tax. (The picture is from their website, since I’m feeling lazy.) So now I have someplace to prop my feet up when I’m reading! (I’m convinced that I’d read more if I had a comfier reading setup.) And having the storage compartment is just great — clutter drives me nuts, and this way I can hide all DVDs and CDs in the ottoman and still have them close at hand. Win-win!

Hmm… what else? Oh, I’m in love with a cute little Italian greyhound named Phoebe. Her owners post videos of her on YouTube and I’m vicariously satisfying my desire for a dog by watching their baby. I think this video is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0n_QtWO4r8

And, while I’ve never been a fan of country music, Christian Kane is starting to make me reconsider. I heard a couple of his songs this week and love The House Rules. You can hear it on his MySpace page if you like: http://www.myspace.com/christiankane

Okay, I think that’s about as interesting as I can be today. Further bulletins as events warrant or as the mood strikes.

Noooooooo!!!!!!!!

the Tall Girl #

Got some very bad news last night: our choir director, David Cortello, is leaving us in July to pursue a Masters degree in music composition at LSU. David is easily the most talented director I’ve ever had, not to mention being lots of fun. I’m so disappointed that he’s moving on to pursue a new passion. And of course, I’m wondering how this will affect our choir (which I adore). Our pastor said they’re planning a nationwide search for a replacement. Still… whoever comes next is going to have awfully big shoes to fill.