TV being deep and stuff

This is a quote from Castle, believe it or not.

"...Whatever is next, I don't want to have to compromise my priorities to get there, and I never want to be guilty of leaving behind what matters most."

Things to think about...

Now, the actual Saddest Song in the World

The local classical station played Madama Butterfly the other night, which reminded me that I wanted to post this.  To paraphrase, Cio-Cio-San is about to commit ritual suicide when her son walks into the room. She tells him that she is dying so he can go to America with his father, and asks him to remember her. The hunky guy in the T-shirt and hipster facial hair (Pinkerton, the child's father, AKA a grade-A slimeball) is none other than Placido Domingo.  This is not normally staged this way--usually Pinkerton, his wife and the consul Sharpless walk in after the fact--but this production has some modern elements (note hunky Placido's T-shirt).







On a note unrelated to seppuku or extreme melodrama, my nephew was born on Saturday morning!  It is still extremely strange to think of BJ as being a father.  In the one picture I have seen of him holding baby Colin, he has him in the classic two-arm, "I have never held a baby before, and I am so scared I am going to drop him" pose.  Obviously he has held babies before, but it always cracks me up when people hold babies like that.  It's usually men, but not always.  Anyway, I am knitting another Baby Bobbi Bear for Colin (many thanks to a friend who loaned me a copy of her pattern, since my copy seems to have walked off!).  Photos when it's done!  In the meantime, here's the sweater I knit for him back in October (Springtime Baby Cardi):

And while I'm discussing cardigans, Rosina is really loving the little Shalom Cardigan I made her, with sleeves added.  It's almost too warm here to wear such a bulky sweater--not that I'm complaining--but we will have a few more chilly mornings.

Grown-up things

Oh, Veronica Mars series finale, you are so damn unsatisfying!! I suppose I'm lucky that this is my first time watching; the movie DVD will be on its way to me in a few days, but most had to wait seven years for it. And now I see that there are novelizations... And here I was expecting to have to resort to fanfic!

In other news, Rosina's school is out for Spring Break this week, so I'll be working from home, just like in the old days. There are a few fun things on the horizon, but I also need to renew my license (and replace a fairly good picture from EIGHT YEARS AGO with a new one--that is just cruel) and spend waaay too much money on an interior door panel for my car. Like, more than three car payments' worth. Or two-and-a-half months of preschool tuition. Ugh, the last six months have been really expensive...

Centennial

Today would have been Sister Rosetta Tharpe's 100th birthday!  Below are two examples of why everyone should know her name:

WHAT. WAS. THAT. Basically, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page learned everything they know about the guitar from her.

I love this. She was primarily a gospel artist, but had a secular phase where she palled around with Cab Calloway and the like. This is a super hot song with dirty lyrics and some damn amazing dancing.  

If you'd like to see more, I recommend her PBS American Masters special--it should be available on the PBS website, and I think it's even on YouTube. 

Thank goodness.

In case you hadn't heard, the Marvin Gaye plagiarism case was decided the other day.  I know this will probably not be the end of it, and that the fines are a drop in the bucket to these people, but I am still pissed that this was even in question.  They SO OBVIOUSLY stole the bass line and rhythm from "Got to Give it Up".  The parts they stole are the main reason "Blurred Lines" gets stuck in my head, despite its rapey lyrics.  At least I can switch songs in my head!






In completely unrelated musical news, I read Deborah Voigt's autobiography over the weekend. It was okay, though I wish she had talked more about technique and less about her abusive relationships and addictions...her book, though!  It did make it seem like she was just born with a fully-formed Wagnerian voice--which is obviously not true!  I'm sure she worked her butt off.  I just wish there had been more details!  There was a decent amount of dish about other singers, which is always fun.  My two favorite anecdotes are her description of getting groped by Bill Clinton (I KNOW) during a photo at a backstage meet-and-greet, while still at her heavier weight (OF COURSE), and the late-night phone call she got from Pavarotti to get details about her bariatric surgery.  Just really damn hilarious.

Speaking of being overweight:  I don't think I ever mentioned here that The Mystery of the Premature Perimenopause was solved.  I will delve into more detail at some point (tomorrow?), but the short answer is:  it wasn't actually perimenopause, but unpleasant side effects from my IBS medication!  In the last five months, I've lost about 15 of the ~33 pounds I gained over 18 months on that stuff.  I can't tell a difference yet (COME ON ALREADY!!), but I would like to be able to get back into my old capri pants by the time I can wear them! 

Ah, bummer.

I like this song, but I don't love this video.  And now that I've heard her stripped-down performance for NPR, I don't love her voice, either.  Too bad!  I would have LOVED this song when I was 15.  Along with most of the other angsty girls.

In other news, my daughter's friend asked me if I "had a baby in my tummy" today.  (Probably time to get rid of this shirt!  But seriously, it does actually have gathers in the stomach region--plus it's too short.  It would've been a fine maternity shirt if it were longer.)  When I said no, she asked why I was fat.  (I may not even be paraphrasing.)  I told her that some people are fat and some are skinny, and that it's no big deal.  I was definitely not offended--she's barely four, and was just curious, plus I know I do not in actuality look pregnant--but I'm really glad her mother wasn't right there to hear!  Can you imagine how mortifying that would be?!?  I would want to sink into the earth.

The Saddest Song in the World, Part 2

Let's see if this actually works... The Blogger app has never been great, and it's apparently going to be a dick about posting videos--and despite the fact that they're all one big happy Google family now (all hail the almighty Google), YouTube doesn't have a direct share to Blogger on their app. Huzzah for dated interfaces... (Aaannddd...nope. Editing this on Safari, which is ridiculous. I may need to resort to email posts.  Maybe it would work with Google Plus? I gave up on that a while ago, when I grudgingly acknowledged that Facebook is a necessary evil.) 

Anyway, this is the second candidate for Saddest Song in the World. It was so sad that Joan freaking Baez decided to cover it. And I checked that: this is a Dar Williams original--in case your ears deceived you!  It was topical, as I mentioned, because damn, we had a rough February!  There were no keys freezing in ponds, but it was thirty degrees below normal. We have daffodils and seasonable temperatures at the moment, but jeez, it snowed TWO WEEKS AGO. Nuts.

(It would be remiss of me not to mention that my grandfather also died two weeks ago.  It sucks, and he will be fondly remembered by just about everyone he met--even if they'd just drunk his wine--but he hadn't been himself in so many years, and he was really suffering those last few weeks. Rosina and I got to see him in early February, luckily on a good day, so at least we got to cheer him up. I will never smell Old Spice without thinking of him. All this said, his death is not why I'm posting sad songs!)

The Saddest Song in the World, Part 1

As I contemplated my blog recently, many months after my last post, I realized what I was really in the mood for was making a mix tape.  Yes, an update is due--though the few of you who read here know plenty about my life--but I remembered how much fun I had making mix tapes.  All the ridiculous attention paid to artwork and song order... I think the last one I made was for Mark when we first started dating, with many of the songs downloaded from Napster (!!!)--like when it was free and questionably legal--and a preponderance of Foo Fighters.  And while I could certainly make dozens of YouTube playlists, maybe it's just cool to drop in a video or two.  (Don't I do that a lot here, anyway?)

This came on the radio the other day, and it really is one of only a few songs outside of Puccini that could possibly make me cry.  (Another, which has been extremely topical, will follow later/tomorrow.)  This video is extremely '90s, but I think the song still really stands up.  (Other than the fact that it's certainly harder nowadays to get an abortion in North Carolina...but that is a topic for another day!)