Don't question the quality of free music

I live in the downtown part of my town, and every Saturday there's a farmers market, and from 10 to 11, live music. Which means that I'm woken up every Saturday by music. It's not bad, really, and it keeps me from sleeping in too late. (I make up for this by napping later.) So naturally this morning, I woke up and heard music. I realized that the group was playing "Got to Get You Into My Life" by the Beatles. Only...they were not doing such a great job of it. They were, in fact, doing a pretty horrible job of it. I'd say the singer consistently forgot maybe 50% of the lyrics. If you don't know the lyrics, don't sing the song!

As I got up and wandered around the apartment, I continued to listen. I could hear enough to make out the songs and some of the words, but not all of them. I'm still not sure whether they were doing Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" or a parody of it. The singer consistently sang, "I lied, lied, lied!" in the chorus, and he didn't have a lot of the other lyrics right, but he had enough right to really make me question what he was doing.

I'm not even going to mention the Michael Jackson medley.

While it has been interesting, I can't say I'm disappointed that this was the last week of live music on Saturday mornings. I look forward to uninterrupted sleeping in...3 weeks. Which is the next time I'll be able to sleep in, unimpeded, on a Saturday morning.

Drop dead awesome

A new show that I'm enjoying that hasn't gotten much press at all is Drop Dead Diva, which airs Sunday nights on Lifetime. (Tonight, of course, I'll be watching the Emmys, but that's why God made DVRs.) The premise is totally insane--a wannabe model (Deb) dies in a car accident, but winds up in body of a woman (Jane) who stepped in front of a bullet for her boss. The twist (as if the entire premise weren't twist enough) is that Jane is plus-sized. How does a wannabe model live life in a woman who wears a size 16?

And one of the things I love about the show is how they handle that. Deb's best friend knows that it's Deb in Jane's body, and at first tried to get Deb/Jane to lose weight...but D/J isn't worrying about it. She's having that morning donut. It's great to see. And the topic comes up in different ways. For instance, last week D/J sued a couture store for not carrying a chichi dress in her size. Jane would never have entered the store, knowing that they would never carry a dress her size. Deb just assumed that she'd be able to get the dress.

It's also fun seeing Deb mature. After dying, she wound up in sort of a waiting room, where she discovered that she was sort of morally neutral--neither a good person nor a bad person. Every now and then in an episode, we'll see that pop up. She'll see someone and think to help them...but get distracted.

However, the show does have its weak spots. Deb seems insanely not curious about Jane's life. We saw her at Jane's apartment once, but she pretty much just lives with her best friend. Even when she was going to Jane's high school reunion, she studied up on her classmates, but didn't seem to take the time to try to figure out what Jane was like (though she did wind up learning a bit). We haven't seen Jane's family contact her--and since she survived being shot, you'd think they might be around. And if Jane had any friends, they have yet to make an appearance. I understand that the show has set Jane up as a workholic, but that doesn't mean she's completely friendless. Where are these people. Why does Deb not care at all? I mean, geez, if I were in that situation, I'd totally be searching for pictures, diaries, blogs, Facebook, whatever. Who am I now? But that's not what Deb is asking.

Also, the situations in their cases are insane, but I think that's pretty par for the course when it comes to legal shows on tv.

What really makes the show work is Brooke Elliott. Margaret Cho is great as her assistant, too, but Elliott just does a fantastic job of acting the differences between Deb and Jane. It's nice seeing the confidence of Deb shine through in Jane...she's someone that I could probably take a few lessons from.

And the dream sequences are fun. (Though they may want to tone down the guest stars a bit. It's somewhat overwhelming, particularly for such a new show.)

Mediocre movies happen

I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. I love them. Quality really doesn't matter--I mean, I've seen most of the ABC Family movies, which should tell you something. And if I like one of the actors in it? I'm done. Count me in! I own the second Bridget Jones movie. I will watch The Wedding Date if TBS is playing it...which it frequently is. I saw License to Wed in the theater. I am a target audience.

So naturally I've been seeing the trailer for Love Happens a lot lately.



And...I don't get it. Is there a hook here? I guess it's that he's a self-help guru? This trailer actually gives away a lot more than the one I've seen on tv does, but it in no way makes me think that there is anything new in this movie. I like Aaron Eckhart. I like Jennifer Aniston. I love Martin Sheen and Judy Greer, but I honestly see no reason to see this movie. There's no hook to make me interested in this movie. Which almost makes me think that this might actually be good...you know, that it's more of a good character study, which just doesn't translate well into trailer format.

Or not. I have suspicions that it's just two pretty people who say they're messed up falling in love. Which, honestly, I don't need to see. Again. I think I'll pass.

They really got a hold on me

If you want to buy me a present and are trying to figure out what that should be, you can't go wrong with the 3 B's: baseball, Broadway, and Beatles. If it's related to one or any of those, you're pretty much good to go. So really, it was inevitable that I would wind up buying Beatles Rock Band. What's surprising is that I've managed to pry myself away from it and am on the computer at the moment.

Seriously, I love it. I am incredibly bad at it. The vocals I do OK on (...somehow). But guitar? Drums? Not so much. However, there's a fabulous combination of practice modes and the "Easy" (read: cannot fail) modes that make it incredibly enjoyable.

I realized years ago that I don't really have the ability to do many thing at once. I can tap dance, but can only barely add arm movements. I can't imagine trying to sing as well; I can't do that when I learn a routine to a song I already know. So playing a game that asks me to use both hands to drum, then also use the foot pedal? HAHAHAHA. Seriously, it makes me really appreciate what musicians do. I'm plugging away at the easy mode, and I can see little Video Ringo banging away on a not even particularly complicated song. It's just so impressive. And it makes me happy to see articles like this--appreciate Ringo, dammit!

I will say that I have a new goal in life. I want to be able to do this:



Ask me in a few years how that's coming.

Let my DVD go!

I got an email from the Folger inviting me to watched a taped performance of their staging of Macbeth, which was performed there last year. They're showing the video twice on Sunday, the 20th, and the DVD is available for purchase. Now, I saw that production. It was great. And I think it's awesome that it's available for purchase. The thing is, it's part of a series; namely, the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare series. This says to me that they only have DVDs of the Folger productions of Shakespeare's plays. Which, Nooooo! I would pay good money to get my hands on a DVD of their production of Arcadia, which I saw earlier this year.

The one bad thing about live theater is that you can only experience it once. It's so frustrating to know that there are videos of these shows that I would love to own but can't have. I just can't think about this anymore.

(I mean, it's not like it's a show that's on Broadway. Seeing the show on DVD isn't going to keep me from seeing it somewhere else. Trust me. Ditto the Signature production of Assassins.)

Also, whatever you do, don't blink

I'm very sad about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who--he was my first Doctor! I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about him leaving.

(And can someone tell me which ep the clip of the glowy Doctor that's being shot at is from?)

All you need is Beatles stuff

In getting ready for the release of Beatles Rock Band, VH1 and VH1 Classic are airing the Beatles Anthology, which I haven't seen since it originally aired back in...1995? 1996?

(Veering off-topic: I want Beatles Rock Band so much. I don't have any of the accessories, I don't have anyone to play it with, and I sucked when I tried Guitar Hero, but I am drooling over this thing. The commercials have me pawing at my tv screen and telling it how pretty it is. I don't care how impractical. I want it!)

Anyway, Beatles Anthology. (Which, for those of you interested, is on my Amazon Wishlist. My birthday's only 2 months away!) (Same goes for Beatles Rock Band!) It's fascinating to watch, but what's really standing out to me is how happy they seem--and I've made it through the second part. For some reason, I had these images in my mind of them not being happy with each other, particularly after they stopped touring. I don't know why the unhappy end is the part sticking in my mind, but the show has all these home movies of them goofing around, and they seem all happy and smiley with each other even when doing the "All You Need Is Love" broadcast. And I had forgotten that Ringo, Paul, and George did some of their interviews together. It's all just so...nice.

I guess maybe it's the part of me that insists on reading how the person dies when I read a biography; the breakup of the band caught my attention and the bickering is what stayed with me, not that the Beatles was four guys who had fun together. And it's so cool to watch.

(Also fun is when the interviewer asks a question, and everyone keeps deferring to each other. For example, the interviewer obviously asked whether John wrote "All You Need Is Love" specifically for the broadcast. Ringo: "I don't remember. Paul would probably know better." Paul: "That was really John's song. I don't remember. George Martin would know better than me." George Martin: "I'm not sure.")

Anyway, much like when I was rereading the Harry Potter books, all I want to do at this point is watch the Anthology and the Beatles movies (which VH1 is making all that much easier [though it's not like I don't own the DVDs of Help! and Hard Day's Night] by doing 9 days of Beatles) and read my Beatles books. That's my life, pretty much: moving from obsession to obsession.