A Christmas Music Post

The motherboard on my computer has decided to stop working, so let me just briefly share a Christmas video with you because I am in the mood for Christmas music this year:

Coldplay - Christmas Lights





I like the fiddling Elvises in the background.

Bond Theme Songs

Years and years ago my roommate had a party at our house, and someone left a CD of Bond theme songs there. We had no idea who left it, and she even asked the people who attended the party if it were theirs. Nobody claimed it. I still have no idea who left it at the house, but I've certainly enjoyed listening to it. For all of you who do not have that CD, you may not be familiar with the songs, but I am. Anyway, enjoy the listing from best to worst! Thanks, again, Cash and Tino!

Bond Theme Songs

1. James Bond Theme by John Barry Orchestra originating in Dr. No but continuing in all subsequent movies
2. You Know My Name by Chris Cornell from Casino Royale
3. Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney and the Wings from Live and Let Die
4. Tomorrow Never Dies by Sheryl Crow from Tomorrow Never Dies
5. We Have All the Time In the World by Louis Armstrong and the John Barry Orchestra from On Her Majesty's Secret Service
6. The Living Daylights by a-ha from The Living Daylights
7. Another Way to Die by Jack White and Alicia Keys from Quantum of Solace
8. Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey from Diamonds Are Forever
9. A View to a Kill by Duran Duran from A View to a Kill
10. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Shirley Bassey from Thunderball
11. Nobody Does it Better by Carly Simon from The Spy Who Loved Me
12. You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra from You Only Live Twice
13. From Russia With Love by Matt Monro from From Russia With Love
14. Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey from Goldfinger
15. The World is Not Enough by Garbage from The World is Not Enough
16. GoldenEye by Tina Turner from GoldenEye
17. Die Another Day by Madonna from Die Another Day
18. All Time High by Rita Coolidge from Octopussy
19. For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton from For Your Eyes Only
20. The Man with the Golden Gun by Lulu from The Man With the Golden Gun
21. Moonraker by Shirley Bassey from Moonraker
22. Licence to Kill by Gladys Knight from Licence to Kill
23. Thunderball by Tom Jones from Thunderball

Happy December!

So, I've been putting together a playlist of some Christmas (and/or Hanukkah) music that I enjoy. For your convenience, I put it down there on the sidebar. I noticed that it's hard to see the link to the standalone player, so I will link it right here for you. (Here is the one for my other music.) As always, it's a work in progress, so it may change a little throughout the month. I hope you enjoy it! And, a special thanks to Cash for the introduction to a few of these songs.

Relationship Month: The Mix CD

Back in the 80s when my family lived in Illinois, my sisters (I think) and I got into a phase where we would take our tape players and try to record songs off the radio to make a mix tape for our own listening enjoyment. It was actually a little hard to get the song perfectly at the beginning and to cut it off before Joe Schmoe or Jane Schmane the DJs started talking over the music. I actually still have access to my favorite one that we made.

Well, now a delightful thing for me to do with friends or other acquaintances is to share music. I'm not talking about piracy or anything, but I am talking about listening to the tunes that they like to listen to. I like to hear what people listen to in their cars. I actually am lazy, and I like other people to provide me with choice music for my listening pleasure, so it's great for me to listen to their tunes.

So today, my beloved friends/readers, I am going to attempt to bond with you by providing for you a "mix CD." Except, it's not a CD. It's a playlist. And, I haven't totally finished it. So, please, scroll down on my sidebar here, and press that play button on the playlist that I have added to the sidebar. I hope that you enjoy a little bit of "Cardine's Mix" brought to you because Tearese made a playlist, and I liked it! xoxoxo

STT 2007 #5: Mama Mia!

Okay, so I'm totally going to crank these posts out. I have a lot of them to make. Don't feel pressure to read them all because, really, these are for me, and I'm not quite sure if you actually care what I thought about all of this theatre stuff, anyway. Hopefully I'll make some real posts soon.

Early in July, actually, I went with my friend Felicity and her friend Grace to Mama Mia! I have to first say something about the other audience members. First, we had a couple there who had just gotten married. They looked to be in their 50's or so, and I'm guessing that it was neither of their first marriages. They ended up in some box seats after much of the audience applauded them when they entered the theatre. In addition, there was a bachelorette party in front of us. There were about 15 girls there, and if I had to guess their ages, I would say that they were probably around 18 or 20-years old. They were young. And then behind us, we had some folks from the U.K. These people were excited to be there. Before the musical began, they were already partying out to the ABBA songs (sorry I don't know how to type a backwards 'B'). Their partying continued throughout the first act, and after intermission, they had moved to the back of the theatre so that they were more free to stand up and dance in addition to their singing-along with the songs (much to the relief of Felicity).

As I opened the playbill, I started to recognize people, which I thought was weird. The first person, Carol Linnea Johnson looked mighty familiar to me, and I decided that she was previously a part of the USF. And I was right. It said so in her bio. I am sure that I recognized her because she acted for the USF when I worked there, so I probably saw her walk by a lot. And, I suppose that I also saw her in the shows, as well. Anyway. She was Donna.

And then, THEN, upon deeper inspection, I found some other people I recognized. Don Burroughs and Mark Dancewicz. I have no proof because I don't purchase the USF Souvenir Programs, but I'm pretty sure that they were in some of the plays for USF, as well. Actually, I only think that Mark was Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." But still. USF people. There may have been more, but I'm too lazy to look over it and really figure it out.

What I liked about "Mama Mia!": the stage. The stage was sooooo cooooool. I admired it practically the whole time. If I wasn't interested in the dialogue that was going on, I would just look at the pretty colors and the extreme awesomeness of the scenery and the stage. Two thumbs up to the scenery people. I also enjoyed the fun-ness of the play. It was obviously supposed to be fun, and it was. It kind of reminded me of a sugar-high, where all you really want to do at the end of the musical is jump around or dance. I was able to contain it all, but the U.K. people did all of the jumping and dancing for me.

The costumes were okay. The person introducing the play warned that if you are offended by tight spandex or have heart problems that you should leave. I didn't leave, and I was neither offended nor having heart problems. Of course, I am a girl, and there were (thankfully) no males in spandex. At least, nothing I can remember; I may have blocked it if there were. The groovy spandex that I think they were referring to was groovy, indeed.

The storyline wasn't too compelling to me. The entire musical seemed like it was written just so they could throw in the ABBA music. It actually may have been. It's not that it's not entertaining (because it is), but I'm merely saying that any message that the writer may have tried to have was completely lost on me. SPOILER ALERT! At the end the daughter who has been planning on getting married decides that she doesn't want to get married even though she wants to be with her fiance' for ever after, but then the mom decides to suddenly elope and get married to the guy that she had loved years ago. It just doesn't really make that much sense to me. I wasn't sure where the decision was made on whether to get married or not. Is it only if you're old? Maybe I'm just thinking too much about this one. Maybe it was just a story with the music of ABBA. No message; just a story. With ABBA music.

Also, have you ever been around people who are clearly flirting with each other and are trying to hook up? And, have you ever felt like you were invading upon a moment that they were having that perhaps would have been better if they were having this moment behind closed doors (or at least without you)? Well, that's kind of how part of this show was to me. I felt like I was kind of a third wheel watching people have their moment. It's the sort of moment where you think that yelling "Get a room!" might be appropriate. I am not interested in and don't fully appreciate that sort of entertainment. But maybe that's just me.

The songs were, of course, quite great. I'm sure ABBA sales are way, way up from this musical. They really have some great songs. I remember a period in my life when it was all about ABBA Gold. Anyway, the participants did a great job singing them. It was like I was at an ABBA concert, without ABBA and with a storyline. There was one time, however, when Carol hit a really loud, really long note, and I almost died from eardrum breakage. Looking around, I quickly noted that I seemed to be the only one who was bothered at all by the occurrence. So, for whatever reason, that note was really, really bad for me, but not for anyone else. Maybe I'm a teen wolf... who isn't a teen... or a wolf... just someone with hearing issues.

The only other thing I have to mention about this experience is that I got a beverage at some deli place in Mandalay Bay. It tasted like how I imagine urine tastes, but I can't be sure, having never tasted urine before. I was unable to have more than two sips of it. Also, I can't remember what beverage I ordered. It was either water or lemonade, and the weird thing is that they left to go get my drink, and it took five minutes or something. So, it was already shifty. Either way, it was vomitous.

Result: Mama Mia! is fun. Beverage: really, really bad. (And I was really, really thirsty.)

Because Vicki Vale Was Cool

Do you remember the 80's? To be more specific: do you remember the late 80's? I do.

The year was 1989. That year brought us such great musical artists as, New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, and Martika. And who can forget such hits (even if you want to) as Eternal Flame, Listen to Your Heart, Right Here Waiting, Wind Beneath My Wings, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and Look Away? I know that you're humming those songs to yourself right now.

In 1989 I began junior high. My art teacher had one of those cool CD players, and she had what appeared to be only one CD. It was Milli Vanilli. I can sing the entire album because we listened to that, and only that, every single day (Okay, I admit that my friend Andi gave me their cassette, so I had it, too. Come to think of it, I may still have that tape.). My project in art was a clay cheerleader. What can I say? I was obsessed with the tool that made those stringy things, and pom-poms were the only things besides hair that I could think of to make with it.

Speaking of projects, in shop class, I made such joyous things as a gigantic wooden paper clip and a bridge made mostly from popsicle sticks. We also had a project that was building a rocket that we could shoot off and would jettison a part that would parachute down to the ground. Anyway, I wanted to make mine cooler than everyone else's, so I splatter-painted it. I actually ran into a splatter-painting site on the web through someone's blog. Was it yours? Well, I created this beauty (with some Paint tweakage):


...and it is rad. It is.

Now, 1989 was also a fantastic year for movies. It brought us such beauties as Look Who's Talking, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Back to the Future II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Dead Poets Society, The Abyss, and Batman. For some reason, Batman was soooo cool to me. I've probably written about this before, but my sister and I went with some neighborhood friends to the movie. It was an adventure. One of our friends started collecting all of the trading cards. I thought that Vicki Vale was cool. I started wearing my hair like her.

Yes, I employed the small side-braid style. I was so cool because Vicki Vale was so cool (even though, let's face it, I was so un-cool). I wore my hair in this manner for most of my sixth grade year. Towards the end of the year, I decided that I was done with said hairstyle. But, I noticed that other girls in my class started wearing their hair that way, too. So then I felt like I was especially cool because I had started a trend (somehow I started it, even though I had actually copied it from Vicki).

Ah, 1989. That was a great year. That year was the birth of my Simpsons-watching. The pop-culture from that era was very ... rare. I am sure that you can look back to that time period with some fondness. I admit that there were some very awkward moments in there for me. I was, afterall, a pre-teen. That's a very hard time for girls sometimes. What do you remember from that year?

*This edit is for cash: