Blast from the Past

Trashley got married at the end of February, resulting in a massive reunion of my high school girlfriends. Here’s a picture of me with two of the standouts – Cori and Sarah.

Now, for the fun part

Below is a picture of us the day we graduated from [Park Senior] high school. Sarah’s second from the left; Cori is far right, and I am to the left of Cori.

We grew up pretty nicely, huh? This is seven years ago, as of this June.

CLASS OF 2001!!!

You Know You Can’t Resist John Travolta in Wranglers

I am having WAY too much fun on YouTube tonight.

Ok, so I’ll completely unashamedly admit that Urban Cowboy is one of my all-time absolute favorite movies. It stems back to a memory, but in all honesty, it’s a feel-good, great old country music, John-Travolta-at-his-finest-post-Grease-and-pre-Pulp-Fiction, awesome soundtrack 1980s cowboy movie.

This song is one of those it’s-the-reason-I-buy-the-soundtrack songs:

Sad Songs and Waltzes

Speaking of kickass cover songs, check out this one. “Sad Songs and Waltzes” was originally recorded by Willie Nelson (I think). Cake covered it a few years back, and then I heard Los Dos Bros cover it really well when they opened last weekend for What Made Milwaukee Famous and Louis XIV at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown.

Disclaimer: These are not the actual and endorsed videos, but they’re what I found when I searched song titles and artists on YouTube. Make do.

Willie Nelson:

I acknowledge that this isn’t really a “video,” but you have GOT to admit – that caricature is pretty awesome.

Cake (this is actually a really funny and clever little animated gem!):

I Fought the Law

Talk about a song that can stand the test of time. This is one of my ALL-TIME favorite songs, sliced and diced a few different ways – it’s come a long way, baby.

The Original Version
Written by Sonny Curtis and performed by The Crickets (post-Buddy Holly):

(My apologies for the lack of video, but these poppies/petunias are awfully pretty, aren’t they?)

Bobby Fuller 4:

The Clash:

Green Day (live version) – btw, I still think that Green Day should do an entire album covering The Clash songs…:

Social Distortion (I love Mike Ness’s voice/sound):

According to Wikipedia:
Cover versions of “I Fought the Law” have also been performed and/or recorded by Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Social Distortion, Mike Ness, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, Green Day, The Ramones, Grateful Dead, Stray Cats, Mary’s Danish, Mano Negra, the Big Dirty Band, Nonstop Body/Lolita No. 18, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Sex Pistols, Attaque 77, Die Toten Hosen, Status Quo, Nanci Griffith and numerous other artists. For the 2003 film, Intermission, Colin Farrell recorded a version of the song, singing it in the guise of his character in the film.

Frank Abagnale, Jr.

“Catch Me if You Can” was on TV tonight. Think that’s at all correlated with the fact that “Frank Abagnale, Jr.” showed up #4 on Google Trend’s Top 10 Trends tonight?

The Start of My Local To-Do List

Things I Decided I’m Going to Do, Even If I Have to Do them Myself:
- See at least one 1930s comedy showing at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis on Mondays between now and 4/28. I REALLY think that A Philadelphia Story should be one of the picks, but ah well, I’ll have to make do with other Cary Grant goodness.
- do the museum thing around here, especially when it’s free
- check out local bands – LIVE – instead of just their MySpace pages
- MN ROLLERGIRLS?!
- Join/Start a book club
- Join/Start a wine club
- Join/Start a book/wine club

The New Snood

Earth Hour

So I participated in Earth Hour. We all went over to Will’s to watch the Gopher hockey game (if you can call it that – they got spanked). About 20 to 8pm CST, we shut off every light and the only thing on was the TV (because the point wasn’t total darkness, just turning off everything unused). I even waited until 9pm to get up and pee so I could turn on the light in the bathroom.

For those of you unaware, Earth Hour is this movement started in Australia last year that spread globally this year. At 8pm (whatever your time zone), lights are turned off everywhere for an hour. The point is a 24-hour conscious effort to drastically reduce energy and make a global impact. That’s my take anyway.

I’m interested to see what kind of impact this had and who else participated. Did you?

The biggest thing I guess I got out of it is just how easy it is to make those kinds of conscious decisions. I came home tonight to a bottle of wine and the intent to catch up on local pubs (magazines, not bars) and a little bit of writing. I’m streaming The Current through my laptop instead of playing it on my monster record player (which I’m sure the upstairs neighbors also appreciate); I only have one light on in the house and it’s the little star lantern in the living room.

I can do this. Go green without going nuts.

Cinderella

What’s the moral of the Cinderella story? You know… the fairy tale, fairy godmother, wicked stepsisters, Prince Charming, the singing mice? What’s the whole point of all that?

It turns out, that depends on who you ask.

Steph asked me this (apparently loaded, since I could tell she was getting at something) question this evening. The conversation was prompted by this ad (or at least one in this campaign):

Steph: What do you think is the moral of the whole Cinderella story?
Doni: (Thinking…) Hmmm… Cinderella, fancy ball, wicked stepsisters, falls in love with Prince Charming… I dunno, I guess true love? That there’s someone out there for everyone?
Steph: (obviously having made her point) THANK YOU! Guys think that’s about underdogs.

At this point, the guys overheard our conversation and jumped in explaining the sports analogy about underdogs and “Cinderella stories.” I always thought a “Cinderella story” was a serendipitous romance story. I mean, I (we) get the analogy and how they’ve made it a sports thing, but that just shows the rift between men and women. Who knew it applied to the interpretation of fairy tales??? I always thought those were pretty universal.

I wonder what they think of Snow White…

Pearls Before Swine – 3.29.08

Yet another reason this is my favorite comic: