Keep a song in your heart – it’s like karaoke for the voices in your head.

If you had told me a year ago that I’d enjoy going to a karaoke bar, I’d call you crazy.  I’m not a singer by any stretch.  In fact, I’ve been forced to become a spectacular whistler in order to compensate for my lacking vocal talents.  So who would have thought it.    Anyway, last night I was at a bar and they had karaoke.  I enjoy it.  I don’t often go around singing at the top of my lungs and public humiliation isn’t exactly my forte,  I’m usually quite reserved in my day to day life, but it’s such a good time I can’t help it.

Flipping through the hundreds (thousands?) of songs that were available to sing, a few strangers and myself got in depth on what warrants a good karaoke song, and a good karaoke singer.  There’s this one woman who was at this bar the few times I went over the summer.  I believe Delilah was her name.  Delilah would put her name in several times a night and this woman can sing.  She can really carry a tune.  But, nobody really got into it.  Maybe because ol’ Delilah would sing songs that weren’t exactly crowd-pleasing, and she would go up by herself -it kind of took the fun out of it.  Karaoke isn’t for professional singers.  It’s for people who are just out having a good time with their friends and don’t mind being made fun of.  

 These people, are me and my friends.

It’s tough to decide on a karaoke song to “perform” because it needs to be each of these things:

1.  Easy to sing.  No vocal acrobatics.  Remember, you aren’t a singer.  Don’t kid yourself.

2. Well known.  Either current top 40 sort of well known or an indisputable classic, so that if the crowd gets involved, they can chime in and /or clap along.  I’ve also found that pop songs from the 90’s fare well here too, probably because all the kids in their early twenties say “oh my gaawwwddd! I remember this!” and sing along with the performer.

3.  A song that you know well enough to at least try and stay on key, and a song you know well enough to get the timing right.

and 4.  A song you actually like.   

I have a few songs in mind that I think my friends and I will “perform” eventually, but I want to know, Internet: What are your favorite karaoke songs, and why?  Would you suggest any other criteria that makes something a good karaoke song?  Any suggestions?  Are you Delilah? (I’m sorry, nothing personal.)  

A Wonderful Christmas Time!

8:30AM Christmas morning -

“Mindy, Wake up! Wake up so we can open presents!….Mindy, you’re ruining Christmas!”

If that doesn’t get you out of bed, what will?  

Although, the look on my Dad’s face when he opened up the “Infared 8000 remote controlled Helicopter!” was pretty priceless too. 

And so was this…

Merry Christmas.

Love Mindy

these are a few of my favorite things

This season, I haven’t been listening to Christmas music at all.  Last Christmas, Sean made me a copy of The Beach Boys Christmas Album.  Greatest Christmas album of all time.  Inspired,  I listened to a lot of Christmas jams, and even made a mix for myself and my friends to enjoy.   Well, I enjoyed it and made them all listen to it.  

Anyway, today at work my boss has Star 99.9 on.  Connecticut’s only place for ALL your Holiday classics.  So, I’ve been listening to Christmas music all day and I’ve realized something.  It’s Christmas music that puts me in the Holiday spirit. Everyone in the songs seems to be having a Jolly Christmas Time.  Or a Wonderful Christmas time if you’re Paul McCartney.  But I felt the same as I did in November.  I felt like everyone else had been so overcome with Christmas spirit and joy, and I was feeling the same as I always do.  Which isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, I’m OK.  I just wasn’t really feeling like roasting chestnuts on a open fire.  I’m allergic to chestnuts anyway. 

So, now thanks to Star 99.9FM, I’m in the Christmas Holiday spirit, and I’ve compiled a list of my favorite things about Christmas.

• People seem to be nicer.  Say what you will about holiday shoppers, I haven’t been the mall since November.  But people at work are being very nice.  Wishing me a Merry Christmas and being way more conversational. 
• Christmas movies.  It’s A Wonderful Life.  Enough said. 
• Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon
  A Wonderful Christmas Time – Paul McCartney
  Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
  Frosty The Snowman – Fiona Apple (a version I only heard a few nights ago, and it was an accident.  Love it.)
  Little Saint Nick – Beach Boys
• My neighbors across the street always have a fire going around this time of year.  Because they live at the bottom of the hill and I live at the top, we can always smell it from my house.  If you’re over, when you get to the top of the drive way, take a deep breath.  It’s nice. 
• Presents.  The ones that people put a lot of thought into.  I enjoy giving them as much as receiving. 
• Old friends.  New friends.  Good times.  

You might think that Egg nog belongs on this list.  But, shockingly, I’ve never ever had egg nog.  We don’t have it where I come from.  Probably because it’s too warm.  Anyway, if anyone has a good recipe for it I’d appreciate the suggestion. 

Think I missed anything else?

How does it feel?

I was going to write a big long review about I’m Not There, a movie I saw on Sunday by Todd Haynes, based (somewhat) on the life of Bob Dylan.  But Jenn beat me to it, and I agree with everything she said so what’s the point? 

 The movie is good.  Complex and interesting.  Cate Blanchette is amazing and Heath Ledger is as good looking as ever. 

After I saw the movie, I knew I wanted to write about it, so I did a little research online and stumbled upon this new 3 disk compilation set of Dylan’s work.    If I didn’t already own every song on this set, I’d buy it.  I think it’s a great overview of Dylan’s work, and since it’s the most recent compilation, it includes newer songs that aren’t available on other, previously released “greatest hits.”  I highly reccomend it to the casual Dylan fan, or someone who’s looking to get into his work. 

The soundtrack for I’m Not There includes all covers of Dylan’s songs, which just aren’t very good.  Everyone is imitating Bob Dylan and nobody can do Bob Dylan except Bob Dylan.  However, the soundtrack includes the previously unreleased track of “I’m Not There” by Dylan – the only song on the album that is actually performed by him.  It’s fantastic.  I have no idea why it wasn’t released prior to this but I’m glad it finally was. 

 Now a list of my favorite Dylan songs, based on most played in my iTunes. 

• Simple Twist of Fate
• It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
• I Want You
• Most Of The Time 
• Shelter From The Storm

Most of the time I tell people, “Listen to The Beatles!”  And I mean it. 

But I’m on a Bob Dylan kick thanks to the movie, so now I’m singin’ a different tune.  Listen to Bob Dylan!

partly cloudy, with a chance of meatballs

At 12:08 last night, I turned on the TV to check out my local weather report.  I want to know what I’m in for this weekend. 

partly cloudy.  mostly sunny.  partly cloudy and so on.

Which reminded me of a conversation that I’ve had several times with several people.  All inspired by one friend who posed this question:

What is the difference between partly cloudy, and mostly sunny? 

Wouldn’t it make more sense to describe the conditions as “mostly cloudy” and “mostly sunny”.  The word “partly” means to me that a part of my sky will be cloudy, rendering the rest of it…sunny.  Mostly sunny, if you prefer.   This could just be a “glass-half-full” kind of thing.  When the meteorologist is in a good mood she’ll say “it’s mostly sunny!” and when she’s fighting with her husband and her cat just destroyed her new comforter, “it’s partly cloudy, dammit.”

My favorite weather description is “abundant sunshine.”  Besides the fact that “abundant” is a great word, it just puts a little hop in my step.  She must have been in a great mood that day. 

Tell me your thoughts.  I know it doesn’t really amount to anything and we all know what the forecast means, it’s just one of those things. 

the wireless book.

2001. Sophmore year of high school.  Honors english.  We’re given out the first books of the semester to read.  I believe it was Tess of The d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.  (There was a misprint on some of the covers, some read “Tess of the d’Ubervilles”, and we called it “Doobervilles” for the rest of the section.  You’d think, since I went to a good high school we’d have books that weren’t the publishers’ reject ones, but what can you do?)   

When our teacher was handing out the books to us she joked, “Now children, this is a book.  We used these back in my day to learn things.  You’ll notice there are no power cables or monitors.”  And my class mates made all these ridiculous jokes, “Where’s the ‘on’ switch?”, “Mine didn’t come with a keyboard – i’m confused”, “Wait a minute, so it’s…wireless?” and so on. 

Now, these jokes have become reality.  The wireless book has come into fruition. 

 (That last sentence was ridiculous)

Which brings me to the subject of this post.  E-books and my dislike for them.

Anyone who knows me well knows i’m very fussy about my books in the first place, but this isn’t an anti-technology issue; See, I use my laptop, cell phone, iPod etc. every day, I love learning about how I can utilize technology to make my life easier and i’m thankful for it.  This is just my personal opinion about the use of the e-book in place of the novel specifically. 

I understand them.  These electronic books.  There’s a definite market for them, and there’s an appeal.  You can store hundreds of books onto one handy little device, you can change the font size if you’ve got trouble seeing a smaller type,  it’s more comfortable to hold, the book won’t flap shut when you move your thumb etc.  Of course, from a publishers stand point the e-book is a godsend.  The costs to produce books has been whittled down to essentially nothing due to the creation of the  e-book reader.  If someone has a hellish commute or a long flight they can bring lots of reading material around with them in one handy package, with alot more mobility than carting around a pile of books and magazines.  

But, there’s a charm to a paperback.  The smell and feel of the paper.  The actual turning of the page.  You can see your progress as you read.  There’s a real sense of finality when you finish a book.  It has a place on your shelf, not on your hard drive.   Maybe it’s due the fact that I associate staring at a screen for hours and hours on end with working, but I really can’t ever forsee myself curling up on the couch, ”cuppa tea” in hand and getting lost in this newfangled contraption. 

In closing,

A room without books is like a body without a soul - Marcus Tullius Cicero.

And,

I trust the weakest pen more than the strongest memory – Tim Ferriss. 

Watch your souls, e-book readers. 

pursuing direction

For the longest time, I’ve always said that unless someone has a very specific idea of what they want to do for a career, people just kind of figure it out as they go along.  Get a feel for what they’re good at, what they like, what they don’t like and so on.  If they change their mind, no big deal.

At this juncture in my life, I’m thinking that I should reconsider this “see what happens” mentality.  I’m 21, in my last year of college, and I (still) have only a vague idea what I’m doing.   I know that people change career paths all the time, and that what you set out thinking is right for you in college, often times isn’t what you wind up doing for the rest of your life.  When I decided on my major, I really thought that advertising was for me.  Although I think it’s really, really interesting (and, in all honesty, something that I think I’d be quite good at), I’m doubting whether I have the persistence to do it considering how competitive the field is.  Also, considering my wide array of interests, if I’ll suffer from lacking tunnel-vision as far as what I want.  Although I like advertising, I also like marketing, public relations, publishing, journalism, and new media in general (which is currently just an interest, not something I think I can really “study”). 

It’s strange for me to be this indecisive, and so unsure of things.  Which is exactly why it’s on my mind.

I recently saw a presentation where it was said,

 ”try to have a five year plan…an idea of where you want to be”.   

I asked, “Well, what if you have no idea what you’re doing?”.  Which was kind of odd considering that a big theme of the presentation was about planning for the future and orienting yourself in one direction or another, but I was just being honest.

   “Well, what are you good at?”
   “I like writing.  And I like to think I’m good at it.”
    :::glances over at my professor, who didn’t disagree:::

     “then write, write, write.”

So i’m writing and scheming.  I think unless you really do have a set goal, you have to pursue an interest and essentially turn it into a goal.  It’s something that I’m going to have to look into.  Actively pursuing some direction instead of waiting for some epiphany that will lay everything out for me.

A few nights ago,  Sean and I were having this conversation over coffee & cupcakes and I said, 

“Ideally, I’d get paid a gargantuan amount of money to write things, listen to music and drink coffee….all after 10am so I can sleep in.” 

It’s a little ridiculous but if you have any leads, let me know. 

Or if you have any other advice for that matter.

(On a personal, unrelated note: If you’re not taking advantage of RSS feeds, do it.  And thanks to Sean for opening my eyes to the wonders of Google Reader.)

slippin’ and slidin’

Connecticut got it’s first taste of winter with snowfall on Sunday.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the fun snow where you run outside with the dog and throw a couple snow balls around and realize (too late) that you should have worn gloves, and you stay outside anyway…  It was the dangerous snow.  It was ice.  It was horrible. I was out with some friends at the time,  and after a particularly terrifying drive home involving a near-accident, a 360 degree spin in the middle of the road, and witnessing an accident at the end of my street, i’m thinking. 

 I remember when I was taking driving lessons all those (6) years ago, I didn’t learn a whole lot about driving in the snow.  Just the basic advice sort of thing; slow down for corners, avoiding hitting the brakes abruptly etc. but so much of that is kind of figuring it out for yourself.  Learning how your car handles and taking precautions before you even start the car, but I don’t think that was enough.  My Dad has taken an advanced driving course on driving in different conditions, and he never seems to have any problems.  He always makes it up the drive way.  I think everyone should take a course like this, or at least winter-driving should get more attention in regular driving school.   Now, I’m already a pretty precautious driver.  Never been in an accident, never got a speeding ticket…never even got a parking ticket now I think about it.  So, maybe i’m a little paranoid, but seeing watching people zoom past me on Rt. 15 yesterday while my heart was still pounding through my chest was really concerning to me.  4wD and snow tires doesn’t make you immortal, and people should be more careful.

I looked up some winter driving tips and I found this .  It’s your basic list of things to-do to prepare for winter driving fun. 

Better safe than sorry.