Winter Awakening

Although considered by many to be the dead of winter I have a soft spot in my heart for this, the second month of the Julien calendar year for many reasons. It is unique for the number of it's days, the home of Black History month, many VIPs (former presidents, a few friends and myself) were born in this month, the promise of another memorable baseball season looms in the form of spring training and New Orleans Mardi Gras and Rio de Janiero's carnivale is celebrated. Also, for the past several years the Oscars, the grandaddy of all awards shows, celebrates excellence in movie making. This past Sunday the 81st ceremony took place and some people questioned going ahead with such a lavish affair in the midst of our national economic woes. I for one was not one of those people. Whenever a nation is experiencing negative circumstances, such as a recession, it's citizens tend to crave escapism. Our many forms of entertainment usually benefit from hard times. None more so than movie attendance. So far the movie industry has profitted more from the movies that have been released in this, the early part of 2009, than any other year at the same time. This is quite a feat because usually the winter doldrum months have been known to be the movie release graveyard aka releasing less than spectacular movies before the ones later in the year that people are actually looking forward to seeing. This was probably an added reason why Hollywood was in full celebration mode.
Is it such a bad thing to enjoy watching Tinseltown's annual glorified high school prom? Many people think the highlight of these awards are the various fashions that are put on display. While I have grown to enjoy that aspect of the Oscars, I actually anticipate more the revelation of who the winners will be. Would Queen Actress Meryl Streep receive her first win since 1983 (sadly no), would Indian fairy tale Slumdog Millionaire sweep with wins as expected (yes), would back from the almost dead actor Mickey Roarke get the ultimate comeback prize (no), would Robert Downey Jr.'s Tropic Thunder Vietnam era soldier upset and win over Heath Ledger's twisted Joker (again no), would Clint Eastwood come out of nowhere and win Best Actor even though he was not even nominated, just because he's Clint? (thankfully no) These questions had to be answered and as the world watched it was a good time to be had by all.

What is the Definition of Soul?

I love listening to music like many people do. Something occurred to me as I was listening to my tunes one night. It's kind of interesting how many acclaimed music artists from the United Kingdom have soulful singing voices. I think it is kind of funny how British people can speak with their signature accents and then sound like Black Americans when they sing. I know many drift toward an R&B sound out of a deep respect for roots music like the blues and famous American artists like Aretha Franklin and B.B. King and that's cool. There are probably some people I haven't heard of and many that have yet to be discovered but these names come to mind as examples of my observation and are some of my favorites. Dusty Springfield in the 1960s was one of the first singers to gain stardom for an R&B tinged sound. Follow Dusty up with Annie Lennox, George Micheal, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Adele. Throw in three singers (Van Morrison, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker) who fall into this category but who I think are technically Welsh, which I think is different from being a Brit. A related topic is how some people seem to lose their accents if they can sing in English. No matter who the person is or where they are from, as long as the music is good I'll be listening.

Haiku for You

Lately, it has been exceptionally rainy where I live. That has me thinking of a haiku poem that I composed in elementary school. It goes a little something like this:

The rain is so wet

That raincoats have to be worn,

so look out for rain

Haiku is probably the easiest type of poetry to write. Do you agree?

Election Day

I don't know about anyone else but I felt particulary good on this November 4th. It was an unseasonably sunny, warm November day in Massachusetts and that just added to the positivity in the air. One thing I was worried about was typical Fall weather (rainy, cloudy, blustery) that made you not want to get out of bed much less go to a polling place and wait in line. I made sure to cast my vote and whatever the outcome of the election it will make history for better of for worse and the citizens of this country will definitely get an executive change from what we have had in Washington for too long. I just hope this doesn't become a drawn out affair with story after story of people alleging that measures were taken to nullify their votes and please don't let Florida become the major battleground state again. With that being said I can almost guarantee that there is a long night ahead. At least tomorrow we can look forward to no more negative, repetitive campaign ads.

I'm All About the Hockey Now

My new thing that is interesting me is HOCKEY, of all things. Upon being invited to a fantasy hockey league I've begun to follow it more closely. Add to this the ability to watch live games on the internet and you have a fan in the making. Besides the occassional Bruins game, this has not been my regular behavior. My fandom has been helped by watching a rather exciting game last night. The teams were the San Jose Sharks vs. the Philly Flyers. They ended up having to have a shootout to determine the winner after the game stayed tied at 6 goals. The speed and intensity of the game rivals the NFL in my opionion and there is plenty of superior athleticism on display. Here's to a great hockey season and a first place win for my fantasy team.

I didn't think that I would ever start a blog, but with the urging of my friend Mike, now I start. I will use this page to offer my thoughts on various subjects-some serious, some not. For now though I will direct you to my current YouTube clip featuring Angelina Jolie.