Originally I joined LiveJournal as a way to keep up with my sister, who was doing an internship overseas, and LJ's linked friend blogs system was going to be easier than e-mail. That was a little over four years ago; my sister has since returned home and gotten her master's degree and works for a national company in her field. She hasn't updated that blog since then, but I hung around -- because I bumped into and met some really interesting people on here, both those also here in Chicagoland and those at points hither and yon from the Heartland of America. A few I have met in person, and a few not--or, as I like to think of it, not yet. Some are no longer here on LJ, some are still here on LJ but we no longer communicate--which is perfectly fine, by the way, so not a fan of the drama. Some of the groups here are fantastic, from blackfolk , "THE CNN of the black community," to the inspired lunacy of ihasatardis, the Doctor Who Cat Macros group (and especially its spinoff dietennant! I await the future; will there be a diesmith??!).

I'm not leaving or anything, but I did want to take a moment and reflect, here on LJ's birthday, about LJ. It's not perfect, and I've had my own deep disagreements and disappointments with the service... but it still works. I'm still here!

OK, if you've seen the Doctor Who Easter Special, Planet of the Dead, you should check out this wacky spoof from my darling Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre!

LJ User bengillis made the most luscious banner as well as a bunch of JB user icons!!

On Sunday (March 8 2009), the featured story in the Show section of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper was "When the Stars Aligned at Joliet West," about how a 1983 production of Oliver! at Joliet West High School (in America, "high school" is where you attend school from ages 13 to 17) included in its cast three future stars: comedian Andy Dick, Rent founding cast member Anthony Rapp, and JOHN!

See a much larger version of the picture that is my icon -- John Barrowman, circa 1983! -- that was posted by the story's writer, Misha Davenport, over on Facebook --
For you "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" fans


Read the story at the Chicago Sun-Times web site, at:

When the stars aligned at Joliet West
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/people/1465717,SHO-Sunday-school08.article
A SCHOOL PRODUCTION OF 'OLIVER!' in 1983 brought together three teens with fame in their future, in a city that's 'certainly not an epicenter of theater'

Whatever you call him -- The Rock, Dwayne -- he was HILARIOUS on "Saturday Night Live" last night. They didn't use him as much as they could have, I thought, which I can't recall ever thinking about a SNL host before (every other sketch was yet another MacGruber sketch; what's that all about--?).  Anyway, there was an Obama sketch that had its moments...

Looking through my brother's CD collection, I kept finding CDs by a band named Anggun. I had not a clue who they were or who they were supposed to be. With such a strange name and knowing my brother's tastes in music, my best guess was that they were some German industrial electronica band, making strange noises to an angry pulsing beat.

Yeah. Well, way, way off! Watching the World Music Awards I found out that Anggun was not a band but a person, with a voice anything but electronical--!

Here's Laurent Wolf's big 2008 international club hit, "No Stress," featuring vocals by the lovely and talented Anggun...





NOTE: There's actually two versions of the song. It originally featured vocals by Eric Carter and then a version was made with Anggun. But Carter's and Anggun's voices are so similar the two versions are nearly indistinguishable, as you can hear, just barely, in this mash-up version of both put together by Arief Romire on YouTube.

The World Music Awards were on weeks ago, and here's one of the bands I found out about watching it. I would have posted this earlier, but I couldn't find a cut of this video that I liked until now (YouTube versions won't allow embedding, plus the versions on US web sites cut out the Halo videogame footage at the beginning). This one's from a European web site.

Here's the duo Madcon from Norway (yes, Norway!), with their song, "Beggin'" -- which is a remake of an old Four Seasons tune -- doin' it up 70s movie style...

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September's newest song and music video...

Thank you for entering Outguess Ebert!

Name: Valsadie
Email Address: valsadie@gmail.com

Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke
Best Actress: Kate Winslet
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams
Best Director: Gus Van Sant
Best Original Screenplay: "WALL-E"
Best Documentary: "Trouble The Water"
Best Animated Film: "WALL-E"

Tie Break Film: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Tie Break Number: 8

==========================

They all pretty much go against conventional wisdom.

But then so do the Oscar voters--!

New to the playlist for this year is Eartha Kitt's tribute single of "God Bless' the Child" for Rev. King and U2's triumphant performance of "Pride (In the Name of Love)" at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday for the We Are One concert for President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

(And Bono corrected his original lyric of "Early morning" to "Early evening"--!)

(And yes, I cried.)

Link to YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=77CEE1242E6222AA

How cold is it?

It's so cold in Chicago that when my breath fogged up my glasses, that moisture condensation didn't eventually clear up, like it would in other temperatures, it froze on my lenses, blinding me! I had to take my glasses off and gently chisel the ice off so I could see again--!

I really thought Ricardo Montalban was indestructible. I'm sure many people agreed! R.I.P. Mr. Montalban, a true gentleman.

Mr. Montalban's death cuts straight across my flist -- Montalban was the recognizable English-language voice for Claudius in a dubbed version of Hamlet originally filmed for German television that was given the MST: 3K treatment.

Montalban was perhaps best known for his TV work, for his Chrysler Cordoba commercials famously extolling the "rich, Corinthian leather" and his portrayal of Khan on the original "Star Trek" TV series -- plus his bravura performance in his return to the role in the second "Star Trek" film, which was subtitled "The Wrath of Khan" -- and of course Mr. Roarke in "Fantasy Island." One role he played well -- well, frankly he played all his roles well, whether they deserved it or not -- but which has probably been forgotten was the smooth, mysterious villian in the 1974 made-for-TV "Wonder Woman" movie which starred Cathy Lee Crosby. I remember watching it on TV back then and I think it served as my introduction to Montalban. The movie bugged me because it got everything wrong about Wonder Woman -- the outfit was wrong, and why was the famously brunette Wonder Woman being played by a blonde?? -- but once the camera pulled back and revealed Ricardo Montalban, I knew that I was looking at a real star, someone with grace and presence. As I would see him in other roles through the years and in some of his earlier films, I would never think anything different.

January 12, 2009 would have been my late brother Aaron's 39th birthday.  Read the new entry from our Mom on his blog at Uppity-Negro.com.

From Stella Foster's December 30, 2008 column in the Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com/news/foster/1354016,CST-NWS-stella30.article

( It's purrrrrr-fect! )

Not a clue ( who this bloke is! )