Ten Movies You Own
[1] Leaving Las Vegas
[2] Stealing Beauty
[3] Everyone Says I Love You
[4] This is the Sea
[5] Before Sunrise
[6] Heavy
[7] Swingers
[8] Jerry Maguire
[9] The Sweet Hereafter
[10] Amelie

Ten CDs You Own
[1] Waiting For My Rocket
To Come - Jason Mraz
[2] Live from Union Chapel - Damien Rice
[3] Intergalactic Sonic 7's - Ash
[4] Indestrucable Joy - Erin O'Hara
[5] Urban Hymns - The Verve
[6] Little Lights - Kate Rusby
[7] Collection - The Rankin Family
[8] The Long Black Veil - The Chieftains
[9] Live in Paris - Diana Krall
[10] Stealing Beauty - Soundtrack

Five Men You'd Like To Shag or Wish You Were
[1] John Mayer
[2] Nicolas Cage
[3] Paul Rudd
[4] Johnny Depp
[5] Stuart Townsend

Five Women You'd Like To Shag or Wish You Were
[1] Angelina Jolie
[2] Norah Jones
[3] Liv Tyler
[4] Scarlett Johansson
[5] Katie Holmes

Last 2 Movies You Have Seen In The Theaters
[1] Pirates of the Caribbean
[2] Tomb Raider 2

Two Recent Movies You Want To See
[1] Dirty Pretty Things
[2] Thirteen

Five Bands You Have Seen In Concert
[1] Radiohead
[2] The Saw Doctors
[3] Ash
[4] Metallica
[5] Dixie Chicks

Five Bands You Want To See Really Badly!
[1] U2
[2] Damien Rice
[3] Diana Krall
[4] Coldplay
[5] Erin O'Hara

Name All of the Countries You Have Been In
America
England
Ireland

Top 5 Places You'd Like To Live
[1] Dublin
[2] Paris
[3] Tuscany
[4] Florida
[5] New York

Top 3 Dream Jobs
[1] Author
[2] Singer
[3] DJ

Five Stores You Could Spend A Million Dollars At
[1] FYE
[2] Barnes & Noble
[3] Best Buy
[4] Borders
[5] Wal Mart

Ten Books You Can't Live Without
[1] A Sort of Homecoming - Robert Cremins
[2] Hood - Emma Donoghue
[3] The Anatomy School - Bernard MacLaverty
[4] High Ground - John McGahern
[5] The Dead School - Patrick McCabe
[6] Eureka Street - Robert MacLiam Wilson
[7] Empire State - Colin Bateman
[8] High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
[9] The Bridge Across Forever - Richard Bach
[10] Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Yesterday was a productive day - I washed dishes, vacummed and dusted, took out trash, made dinner, transfered some music from cd to md.' I removed the shopping links from this page, bringing some of my favorites links from blog 2. I read Financial Peace by David Ramsey and learned about the debt snowball menthod. It seems so simple but I'd never thought about it before. You pay as much as you can off the smallest debt, and when that's paid off you apply the money you were paying for it to the next biggest debt, and so on. Recently, I'd only been thinking of not incurring any more debt, but now I can actually see a way out within a couple of years if we sacrifice certain luxuries. I'm excited.

Financially, it's been a horrific month, and I'm not exaggerating. Over $300 in bank fees for insuficient funds. Talk about a wake up call. I redid our budget plan, properly this time, allowing for occasional expenses like car repairs, clothes and vacation. I cleaned out my wallet of credit cards and deleted them from all the online stores I frequent. I've got $100 in cash for groceries, so I can't exceed that amount by using plastic. Debt has been making us miserable, and it's time for me to stop the impulse buying I've been doing. It's simply not worth the anxiety. Vic and I were actually worried about running out of toilet paper this week with no means to buy more. But today's payday. I started balancing the checkbook from scratch and organized our income and spending for the next 2 months. There will be no more NSF fees, no late fees. We will use cash as much as possible. We have one open credit card for our vacation and then that's being paid off too. It's actually kind of a relief to have a plan, to not feel controlled by money. I just need a mistress to whip me if I'm tempted to risk it all for cds or books I don't need. Anyone?

Another fun part of this week was my doctor's appointment. She advised me to discontinue my alcohol consumption and to lower my cholesterol. Which is good because we can save money by not buying beer and by buying less meat and dairy produce. Yay!

I didn't get to see the Madonna and Britney thing properly. Gawd, last year I sat though the damn VMAs and I think the opening act was Simon and Garfunkel. But obviously we won't be increasing our cable line-up in the near future, so I'll have to make do with photos and blurry video files. That was so freaking hot!

There's going to be a who wants to marry my dad reunion show on Monday! Am I the only one excited about this?!

Work has been boring as hell this week. I know that's not something I should complain about. But sheesh, I like being able to read at work, but 7 hours a day is a bit much. This week I've been reading Keeper by Greg Rucka, Hard Candy by Andrew Vachss, A painted House by John Grisham, and Third and Indiana by Steve Lopez, all pretty good.

I've continued my mix cd making fad, which may be ending soon as I'm running out of blank cds. Anyway, I made 2 love mixes for the workmate who's getting married, one jazzy/instrumental, the other a little more contemporary. I also made some new TV Music mixes - music from TV shows including The OC, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, Cold Feet, Dawson's Creek, and Once and Again. Speaking of which, I'd love to see the new movie Thirteen starring Evan Rachel Wood, but it doesn't appear to be playing in WV. I got to the library again at last this week, and borrowed a Marilyn Monroe video collection, the Bloody Sunday DVD & Startup.com, along with many cds - Standing in the Shadows of Morown, Itzhak Perlman's Cinema Serenade, and others by Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Charlie Haden and Wynton Marsalis.

Movies... May started out promising - Angela Bettis and Jeremy Sisto are cute, crazy girl meets crazy guy and all that. But



***spoiler alert***



it got a little too crazy, what with the blood and the sleeping with dead animals and eye gouging and all. I'm usually not easily shocked - gore has it's place in movies, but what's the point here? Maybe I'm just not cultured enough to appreciate the nuances of blind children being mutilated.

Moving on, House of a 1000 Corpses was good clean fun. Like a cross between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wrong Turn and Natural Born Killers. Baby was hot. And this is one of the best uses of DVD format I've seen - the interactive menu and director commentary were fascinating. Not to mention 'Tiny Fucked a Stump.' Rated R - for strong sadistic violence/gore, sexuality and language. Enjoy!

I've been reading the West Virginia radio message board, and a local station is being congratulated for including Ronan Keating's Lovin Each Day as a 'Best New Music' selection. Surely the end of the world is nigh.

No? Okay.

I discovered a disturbing coincidence at work this week. The employees were shuffled aorund again to different cubicles, and I ended up near a woman I haven't talked to much. She started talking about her husband and his name sounded familiar. I asked where he worked. He's the cab driver who, on my one drunken night out this year, charged me at the beginning of my trip and the end (hence conning me out of $30).

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are playing in Charleston next weekend. Should we go? Also next weekend is the wedding of our adorable new bilingual lady at work - Maribel. I have of course created my usual cheap and personal gift, a mix cd of love songs. Vic and I are unsure whether we'll go or not because it'd be a 90 minute drive. And usually, whenever we make plans for Saturdays, we break 'em cos it's such a damn relief to be home and away from people.

I know when you're having debt problems, an additonal credit card shouldn't seem like a good idea. But I'm very relieved we got approved for one this weekend. Just to know we shouldn't be in this situation again where we can't afford to buy even food or gas for several days. And Vic and I seriously need a vacation.

I wrote a reply to my mom, and sent my family a package last week - just a book and some mixtapes, but it makes me feel good to send them something. I really wish I didn't feel this homesick, because I remember the utter regret I felt on our last visit - that we'd wasted $1000 for what was mostly a miserable time. I know this sounds heartless I wish I could go without letting my family know. I'd love to just be able to stay in Dublin for a few days, maybe visit Edinburgh, without the regurgitation of bad memories and emotions.

I'd almost forgotten to mention the good news about my raise. I started working for this company 2 years ago with the promise of monthly pay evaluations. This was soon changed to seasonal, then annual evaluations, bringing my hourly salary from $7 to a generous $7.43 per hour. Well, this year our company managed to get rid of several of it's undesirable employees - you know, the ones who aren't like the rest of us or who say what they think. And there've been rumours that the money saved by this reduced number of employees would result in everyone's hourly rate being made equal at $9 an hour. Because the lucky folk that got to work there before George W fucked up the county have been making that all along. So imagine my exhilheration as the raise-related memo was handed out Monday.

Hmmm... corporate profits down... restrictive telemarketing regulations... legal fees... lobby groups... decided to eliminate the 2003 employee annual salary increases... it is with your patience, resilience and commitment... blah fucking blah.

Thanks a lot, big brain.

Vic has asked me to explain my love for what she calls elevator music. Actually, it's mostly music from the Great American Songbooks, but anyway, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, right? Let's dance then.
I think you have to really be exposed to a certain genre of music to appreciate it. I used to dislike both celtic and jazz music, but then I actually listened to it and appreciated it. The songs I listen to have witty, poignant lyrics, memorable melodies, and have been performed by a wide variety of artists, including many of the greatest voices of the last century. Instead of listening to particular artists or groups, I've recently been appreciating individual songs, and the varied performances of such. Because how a performer sings the song can sometimes change it's effect. Frank Sinatra can make 'Imagination' feel like an upbeat hopeful song, while Chet Baker transforms it into a mournful air. Janis Joplin's Summertime can make your heart break, Louis Armstrong's can make it soar. Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan have such different takes on 'Thay Can't Take That Away from Me' that the song hardly seems the same. Over The Rainbow has been given many sounds - by Rufus Wainwright, Eva Cassidy, Aretha Franklin, Chet Baker, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
GAS music is not the only kind I love, it's just my current preference. In times of trouble, it's nice to be able to fall back on the old familiars, to remember a simpler time when Porgy loved Bess, and Fred & Ginger danced cheek to cheek.

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song."
~Louis Armstrong

What I've been enjoying or hating lately in...

-Music

I'm loving Frank Sinatra's earlier music - the Tommy Dorsey collaberations. Songs like Imagination & I'll Be Seeing You. I don't like his later tribute to those days - some of the same songs with an annoying brassier sound on the 'I Remember Tommy' cd.

Today I added several pages of my mix tape/cd track listings to my website - I think they're a good indication of the music I've been enjoying lately.

Good news for BMG music club members. This month, they'll be offering a free cd (even shipping is free) with any purchase over $5 - it's a rare Damien Rice promo - Live at Union Chapel. Even if you don't like the music, the disc is selling for $20 on ebay.


-Movies


They was a typical horror flick. Jason Goes to Hell was barely watchable. And gross.
Narc was excellent - the strenght of style and script elevating it far above the similar recent dirty cop movie Dark Blue.
Dracula 2000 was entertaining enough.
The Auteur Theory was a good movie, with many hilarious scenes. But overall, a little tedious.
I was disappointed with 'Ararat' - I guess Egoyan should stick to adapting (The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia's Journey) other people's material instead of wrting his own. Mychael Danna's score is amazing though.

-TV

Nothing new. My obsession with Paradise Hotel is growing - both Vic and I have dreamed about the show.

-Books

Free Fall by Robert Crais - enjoyable light-hearted detective fiction, and Blue Belle by Andrew Vachss - enjoyable hard-hearted detective fiction. That was my 3rd Vachss novel. I have 3 more to read before I need to obsessively search for the remaining 6 in the Burke series. I'm also reading High Ground by John McGahern. I can barely describe how much I'm enjoying these stories. They fill me with joy and sorrow and make me very homesick. I believe McGahern may be better than William Trevor, and look forward to reading his novels.

-Internet

Obsessively searching for music at bmg & secondspin.com.


-Lust

Vic. More money. An unlimited supply of books & music, and of beer& chocolate without the whole weight gain side effect.
Angelina Jolie, Norah Jones, Katie Holmes, that chick on the OC, Virginie Ledoyen, Lisa Marie Presley, Elizabeth Hurley, Jamie Pressly, Kelly Brooke, Mandy Moore, Alicia silverstone, Liv Tyler, Eliza Dushku, Kari Wuhrer, Sophie Marceau, Vanessa Paradis, Natalie Portman, Domonique Swain, Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron, Kiera Knightly. I'd like to say that I'm appalled by Rolling Stone advertising the Olsen twins as America's favorite fantasy, but some of those pictures are hot.


-Life

The whole local random shootings thing is a little unnerving. I'm tired of politics and of 'news.' I just wanna stay home with Vic and kitty and books and music and movies and food. I enjoyed making mix cds this weekend. Worried about not being able to afford vacation.

It's been a while since I updated. Life in general has been good. The worst I can say about work is that it's been boring. Vic and I have been as close as ever, probably thanks to me not being as much a bitch as I used to be. I'm feeling a little homesick tonight, mostly because watching a movie set in Paris reminded me of how much different European cities are, how alive. I miss walking in Dublin at night, the sounds, sights, smells. Wind and music and buses and pedestrians. Charleston by comparison, is dead. I dreamed of Ireland last night. One of those vivid dreams after which you wake up surprised it's not real. But then I thought oh well, I got to go to Ireland and it didn't cost $500 and the experience was more pleasant than it would be in reality.

My mother wrote me a letter last week. It was the most honest she's ever been with me. Apologising for my "rotten childhood," lamenting the fact that she didn't abandon us when she planned to 15 years ago, urging me to "talk to someone" instead of taking medication for depression. I need to reply. I would tell her I'm glad she didn't leave, that my father was a more negative influence on me than she was. If I was in Ireland now, I'd be medicating myself on alcohol and ecstasy, talking even less than I do now, dying inside.

That's more than enough seriousness from me. Time for some distraction. This week I've been enjoying...

-Music

I finally found a Sinatra CD I like. I'd gotten a cheap hits collection last year which I don't listen to much. But I love his 'Sinatra and Strings' album. Powerful performances and great arrangements of songs like Stardust, That's All, Misty and It Might As well Be Spring. Vic would say I'm descending into elevator music hell, but I like it here :) I've also been listening to Orna's cd The Very Thought of You, to Norah Jones and Eva Cassidy and Damien Rice and Jeff Buckley. I've been listening to soundtracks including Howard Shore's music for The Two Towers, Elliot Goldenthal's for The Butcher Boy and In Dreams, Mychael Danna's for Lilies, Craig Armstrong's for Plunkett & MacLeane. Last night I listened to Jerry Goldsmith's music for The Omen, while the TV was on mute. It was fitting music for the limited facial expressions of Freddie Prinze Junior in 'Boys and Girls.'

-Movies

Venus Beauty Institute was okay, not the quirky happy movie I'd expected from audrey Tautou, but apparently it was her first movie.
The Quiet American was an interesting movie set in 50's Vietnam. I don't usually like Michael Caine but he was okay in this. Brendan Fraser has a rare opportunity to do some good acting too.
Dark Blue was good, not nearly as good as it could have been. It's like a cross between Training Day and LA Confidential but doesn't have the power of either. Basically, it gives you no reason to care for the characters. Kurt Russell was good though, and it also starred Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and Felicity's Scott Speedman.
Lone Star State is a Bedford Falls production. I thought it was an enjoyable farce but some might just find it annoying.
I saw Jaws for the first time. Damn, I ain't goin near the ocean this year!
Laurel Canyon was the best I've seen lately. Great cast, great directing, nice story.
Tomb Raider 2 was better than the first but that's not saying much. It was like a nonsensical cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones. Thankfully, Angelina can make any move worth watching. Except for Gone in 60 Seconds.
Final Destination 2 was as good or bad as you might expect it to be, depending on whether you like crap horror movies.

-TV

A steady diet of sitcom reruns - Seinfeld, Will & Grace; and reality shows - Who Wants to Marry My Dad? & Paradise Hotel; with a sprinkling of Colin Farrell's talk show appearences.

-Books

A lot. Not many people seeking employment in the telemarketing industry recently which gives me a lot of time to read. In recent weeks I read No Witnesses by Ridley Pearson, Strega by Andrew Vachss, Portrait in Sepia by Isabele Allende, The Face by Dean Koontz, The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy, Pay it Forward by Catherine Hyde Pearce, The Fire Gospels by Mike Magnuson and Breakfast in Babylon by Emer Martin. All of which were good but especially the last two.

-Internet

Lots of music browsing, and a little buying from bmgmusicservice.com - including the Elliot Goldenthal score for Frida and the Jason Mraz cd.