Buddhism This is at the fake Grauman's Chinese Theater, behind the big Sorcerer's Apprentice hat. They have a motley collection of cement hand prints, the coolest being Samuel Jackson.
	Los Tres Caballeros I did take a few people pics on the last day. Here the boys are staring at a tv that draws characters slowly, trying to guess who it will be. Disney has a lot of simple, silly things that are impossible to look away from.
	Toy Story Parade Float I love these little three-eyed guys. They make an appearance in the Midway Mania game/ride, too. You can toss rings onto them.
	I'm King of the Balloon! We were about to be very disappointed by our Puck's meal; well, half of us. Yummy calamari with curry mustard!
	Dumbo This balloon thing is pretty freaky. One of the many imposing globular things that Disney keeps building to mesmerize the world.

	Bolt This year's drawing at the Animation Studios was Bolt. We voted, because the instructor didn't want ANYone in the class to repeat themselves. As you know the Disnerds take the class over and over.
	Tower of Terror balcony The final day was perhaps my favorite, as we spent it at Hollywood Studios (which everyone persisted in calling MGM all the time), and I got to take non-touristy photos with the camera. I don't like being photographed, and I don't really like photos of people as much as I do landscape scenes.
	Manhattan The backlot section of MGM is the craziest, part of the whole fake-movie-set ambiance. I love these forced-perspective buildings.
	San Francisco Is Jimmy Stewart saving Kim Novak as I watch, under the Golden Gate?
	the Hollywood tower Juxtapositions, that's what happens when scaled simulacra of real things bump into each other along the borders of one Disney stall to the next. World Showcase? A beautiful homage to a multicultural world, or a series of stalls exploiting other cultures for profit? I can't really ride the Tower of Terror, but I like all the illusive aspects of it, and the Twilight Zone tie-in.

So Amazon is having this promotion since Christmas of over 800 albums in various genres for $5.00 MP3 downloads. Since I"ve perfected my method of printing my own album covers, I was willing to try and get two albums for $10. These are the two I chose, from R&B and Rock respectively.

	Chrisette Michelle she's a soul diva with a sort of Billie Holiday/Erykah Badu sort of voice. In fact, Mr. Right sounds almost exactly like a Lauren Hill song, down to the retro backing vocals and seventies production. But since Hill's gone loopy, why not let someone who still wants to sing take over?
	Tim Buckley I love his son Jeff Buckley, and I'd heard a few songs by Tim over the years. It was down to this or a Big Star album, but I'm glad I picked this one. It's very free-form and improv, but someone with a voice as good as either Buckley pere ou fils can get away with anything.
	Mylie and Gaga No words for this, except I think it was after their audience with Queen Elizabeth? Who's really wearing the wildest costume?

	Penelope Peaches This film isn't as consciously art directed as some Almodovar movies, though everyone does look great, and the film-within-the-film is very high chroma. The rich guy's painting collection has a lot of symbolic import.
	Penelope Mateo One great thing about Almodovar is he spends a lot of times in cars with characters driving around Spain. It's not just the cities and the picturesque spots, but weird places like windmill farms and desert scrub-land and an oddly isolated "wind-sculpture" that plays a role near this vacation spot in Southern Spain, Famara.
	Penelope Espresso A little Audrey Hepburn, a little Mary Cassatt, and a whole lot of mod. He's sort of making fun of his own "Women on the Verge" with this one scene that we see in several versions.
	Penelope Marilyn Marilyn Monroe, or Lady Ga Ga? It doesn't matter who got there first anymore, does it?

Any Penelope Cruz fan who wants to see her in a good movie with a director who knows how to capture her talent should run to the new Pedro Almodovar movie instead of the horror show of Nine. The trust between the two of them is palpable in every frame, and she's not even the main character.

No, I know, it's supposedly all about Avatar right now, but I think I'll wait for the video game on that one. "Unobtainium?" Really?

Instead, we went to this on my birthday, and it was a lot of fun:



Don't be fooled by the ads that make it look like a CGI cousin to the hideous League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's Guy Ritchie, so it's much more about shirtless boxing, actually, especially while insulting your opponent in his native French. The female roles are developed as well, with a wise fiance for Watson and McAdams as a wiley Catwoman type to Sherlock's Batman. In a good way.

It made $65 mil, so I'm guessing the sequel is imminent. They didn't even telegraph it in the story: they basically flat out said, hey, now we've got .... The End? Which is fine if the movie's good, laughable if it's not. But Ritchie is all about steel balls, anyway.

top video game of 2009 My first rail shooter, ya'll! WHAT UP WI' DAT?

Worst Movie of the Year:

NINE



Proof that not-even Judi Dench can save a tone-deaf, miscast, horribly unimaginative staging of a remake of an adaptation of a stylish but self-indulgent autobiography from forty-five years ago, and that Daniel Day Lewis is no Marcello Mastroianni.

But youtube the Kate Hudson number in a few days, "Cinema Italiano," staged like a 60s variety show.  It's the only good 5 minutes in the film, nobody was as stunned as me. Girl can sing and dance!

and Nicole. Oh, oh, oh .... Nicole? She's supposed to be the embodiment of Venus for all Italian men, but ....



Just ... no, Nicole, it's too late. Performance, fine, but what a travesty to force Kidman to channel Bardot, or Cardinale, or Eckberg ... let's just say it's a stretch at this point.

I made sculptures out of my candy wrappings waiting for this one to end.

At work we try to have regular staff art shows, and I participate in one or so a year. I'm in the winter one, and people have been very kind about my new paintings.

Art at 625 I took these photos too late in the day, after the natural light from the overhead skylight had faded, so they're grainy. Which is a big flaw for digital photos, but then I photoshopped them as best I could. All week colleagues have been commenting about the "op art effects" of my new paintings, which partially blend into the wall. Totally unplanned.

Concordia 2009 In this one I'm thinking about syncopated music, jazz counterpoint, and things like drums, keyboards, xylophones of course.

Neptunus 2009 This one was inspired by a landscape scene I witnessed as the sun was setting.

Green Christmas I have a tradition of taking over a whiteboard at work, and I have followers who request me to update it. This is in honor of a coworker who was laid off this year, and who loves Original Trek more than even me.

I'm back into Dollhouse after some weeks away, it's fun to have these double-episode blasts from december.

This is a hot picture. Joss falls in love with all his stars.

	Xmas Vanitas A little Mexican tin art always enhances the Christmas spirit, I say.
	Sixties Tree It's been two years since the aluminum tree escaped out of the box, but yay no pine needles to vacuum in 2010!!!
	Angel Star Kevin's still amazed at how quickly I made this. Cut out paper and acrylic gel, and we have an Angel ornament for the ages!

Yesterday at Best Buy I was buying DVDs. New Harry Potter and something wretched for Kev. And the cashier was all "I can only take credit cards, any CREDIT CARD purchases." I had a gift card, which I held up, and he nodded.

"Now will this cover the whole purchase, sir?" No, it wouldn't. Exasperated sigh. "But you'll be doing the rest on a card, right," since I was already over there and so potentially wasting his time.

"Of course," I said, and he smiled. Officially not his 100th problem of the day. Happy Christmas!

Top 5 Singles according to my iTunes playcount (sort of) of 2009

	Pangaea by the Church Digging around for new cds by old bands on the net, I started seeing great reviews for the latest by the Church, their Untitled #23. Which I guess is really their 23rd studio album. This was my favorite song, but the whole album is as shimmery and enveloping as their earliest stuff from the 1980s.
	Lucid Dreams by Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand is tricky. Their first album reminded me of Scotland after our trip there. Their second one I bought as an annoying dual disc that is basically unplayable. And their third one iTunes pressured me to download in advance (for cheap). But this song, which starts off rock but ends up disco (and disco maxi-single at that!) is great fun. I want to be at a party where they're the band!
	Paranoid by Kanye West The only other Kanye music I have in iTunes are songs he produced for others. And Gold Digger got on my last nerve with its epic sexism. But this song had Rihanna in the video, and was from his album about having a broken heart. Literally in the top 5 play count of my ipod for the year.
	Lisztomania by Phoenix I caught these guys on a Saturday Night Live that only partially recorded, and I ended up saving it for months just to play their two songs (sorry, Seth Rogan). It took me months to realize I already knew them, as thefatrooster had given me their earlier song on a compilation, the more dancey "Everything is Everything." But on SNL they were jangle-pop of the highest order, and the album wasn't a disappointment.
	Hysteric by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz is my favorite new album of the year, easily eclipsing slight disappointments like Mew and Silversun Pickups. Karen's performances of "Heads Will Roll" all over the latenight talkshow landscape were stellar and cool, and I keep fixating on a different song from the album as my favorite. But this is apparently the one I played the most.
	The Fear by Lily Allen Honorable Mention to Lily Allen: this song didn't tempt me to buy the album (as all the above tracks did, except I'm still thinking about the Kanye), and she has a lot of competition on the "crazy girl diva" front from Rihanna, Beyonce, La Gaga, and Shakira. But she wins, maybe just for the line "I look in the Sun and I look in the Mirror, 'cuz everyone knows that's how you get famous" which is UK-specific humor and much more witty than "Feeling abused like a coffee machine in an office."
	Hello It's Me by Joe Pernice Best Cover Song: I've actually never heard a bad cover of this song, there are several amazing R&B versions (who knew Todd Rundgren was a soul all-star?), but just the charm of Joe Pernice of the Pernice Bros. recording a "soundtrack" to a book he wrote about his life in music is pretty great, and this cover is as sensitive and heart-tugging as you'd demand. Still need to read the book and hear the rest of the soundtrack, but we buy singles again, don't we?

I didn't pay as much attention to Kristin Hersh's online music this year as last, but she's released another album's worth of material on http://kristinhersh.cashmusic.org, which is free by donation and a way to actually connect with an idol if you're a fan, as she answers her own emails.

"The wine we drink through the eyes
The moon pours down at night in waves,
And a flood tide overflows
The silent horizon."

My affection for early 20th century Expressionist music is exploding this December for some reason. I'm fascinated by Bluebeard's Castle, by Wozzek, and adding Naxos CDs like crazy to my wishlist.

Would that I could afford this party at the Gardner Museum; they're playing Pierrot Lunaire on New Year's Eve for the full moon! Pricy, though.

http://connect.gardnermuseum.org/site/PageServer?pagename=newsletter_contemporary

Hey, wow, and it looks like Björk performed it back in the 1990s?! WTF?

http://lostsongs.bjorkish.net/pierrotlunaire/





Next year is getting off to an eerie start already!

Some kind soul has provided the service of splicing both She-Wolf and the best parody into a split screen. It makes the parody even more effective; and doesn't alter the original in the slightest. I mean, what could touch that priceless Loba?


Also, Lady Gaga keeps making me buy her new singles. Those shoes would make Kelly murder someone!

This is a meal I make when Kevin is away (like all things seafood). I guess it's really just glorified tuna sandwiches, but it's very filling and is one of the many things I make that remind me of childhood. I didn't take pictures of the ones I made yesterday, but this is close to how mine look:



There's so many different recipes as to how to do them; people use mayonnaise, potatoes, lemon juice, Cream of Mushroom soup mix, panko ... you basically need some fresh, sharp flavors; something oily; some crunch. My grandmom used to use oats, as she would for meatloaf. Here's mine:

1 can salmon (seperate the filets, remove the bones, reserve the liquid)
2 slices your preferred bread, pulsed to crumbs (don't toast, you need the moisture)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup instant potato flakes (or leftover instant or mashed potatoes)
dry seasonings (garlic, onion powder, paprika, parsley, dill, your own preference)

Mix up all of the above with a fork. Include the can liquid, or add lemon juice or mayo (a tbl or 2). You want a soft but not goopy texture.

Form into patties (I use a large wooden spoon to shape), and press onto a sizzling (not smoking) frying pan (I use half butter/crisco, dollops of each). You'll need to replinish the oil as you fry, but you don't need even more than 1/4 inch coating the pan at any one time.

I turn mine over twice, so they get 4 minutes per side, eventually.

Makes about 7 or 8, and I ate most of them myself over the course of the day.

Serve with fake Thousand Island Dressing (equal parts Mayo, mustard, ketchup and worcestershire sauce) or your favorite creamy seafood dip.

 

In comfort food news, used CD stores still apparently exist. Look what I scored at Cheapo Records in Central Square today:



Gotta love that eighties synth-line. And the back-up singers are straight from disco records. Did he hire the Pointer Sisters or something?

Of course, I also bought this again, so now I have a backup copy I guess?



But at least I realized I already have this and took it off my Amazon wish list. I've gone senile when it comes to Grandpa's Favorite Albums!
Help Grandpa, kids!



Man, remember Prince in the 1980s, touring the South, like this?:



And you wonder why we loved him?

You might have thought that the Pussycat Dolls were destroying the power of "Jai Ho" when they mangled it into a bubblegum hiphop song, but as kev_bot pointed out when I told him about the translated lyrics I found today, it maybe wasn't so much of a stretch.

(IT ROCKS!,IT ROCKS!,IT ROCKS!,OH IT ROCKS!)
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)

(NIGHT AFTER NIGHT I TRULY DIED..)

(SPENT THE NIGHTS DANCING ON HOT COALS..)
(I BLEW AWAY THE SLEEP IN MY EYES..)
(I BURNT MY FINGERS TRYING TO TOUCH THE STARS..)
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)
(Dance! Dance!)

(TASTE IT, O TASTE IT, THE NIGHT IS HONEY, TASTE IT)
(KEEP MY HEART, IT IS THE LAST LIMIT, YEAH KEEP IT)
(DARK, THIS EYELINER OF YOURS, IS LIKE A MAGICAL SPELL)



 

The eyeliner line is sort of interesting. Sounds like forbidden flirting! The Oscar performance was one of the most sincerely exuberant moments I ever remember seeing since I started watching them in the 1970s.

It comes up a lot on the Soundtrack Genre in my nano. I never saw the movie.

Waitaminute, why didn't she release this song first from the new album? It's not actually a laughable travesty like "She-Wolf."

Shakira on Saturday Night Live


I'm going to end up buying this album, aren't I? She's like a hot mess, and she's not apologizing for it!

Yayy, one by a girl that doesn't try to compete with Shakira's sexuality. Because that would be impossible.




"If you don't like this, try Hips Don't Lie!"

The braces are super-adorable.

Jamie Oliver, stop inventing things!



Apparently it's not one of those laundry balls that you throw in and it makes suds.