Lisa and Aprille came over Friday night. My original intention was to order pizza but Lisa convinced me to do something more special. Not wanting to back away from a challenge, I agreed and served my famous Olive Cheese Bread (recipe originally found on Pioneer Woman Cooks), salad with strips of steak and pre-made stuffed grape leaves. Dessert was Breyer’s Fried Ice Cream. After dinner, we watched the movie Knocked Up. I enjoyed the movie very much. It was cute although I think I might have reacted slightly different if I found myself in that situation. I’d like to think I’d act more like Natalie Wood in the movie, All the Fine Young Cannibals. (The 80’s rock group took it’s name from this movie and not vice versa). After finding herself impregnated with Robert Wagner’s bastard child, Natalie takes off on a train and meets up with the very rich, George Hamilton. Natalie seduces George Hamilton and then convinces him to marry her because she is carrying “his” child! Meanwhile, Robert Wagner, takes up playing the trumpet and finds that he has mucho talent playing “colored” music. He is suddenly thrust into the limelight with the help of Pearl Bailey. Natalie convinces George Hamilton that they should go see the famous Robert Wagner perform but they unfortunately decide to take along George Hamilton’s bitchy sister, Susan Kohner. Backstage, Robert Wagner seduces and ultimately marries bitchy Susan to get back at Natalie! Natalie eventually comes clean to George Hamilton, and tells him their beloved son is really Robert Wagner’s spawn. Unfortunately, I can’t remember how it ends. Regardless, Natalie’s trajectory agreed with me more mainly because I don’t think I could ever see myself with a man who has such brillo pad-like hair and smokes pot. Regardless, Knocked Up was a cute movie.

I had a good week. Closed some nice deals. That’s the problem with sales though, everything resets to 0 at the start of the new month. It’s very Sisyphean. My two record breaking months are behind me and I am once again back to hunting to fill my funnel.

Last night I watched an absolutely wonderful tearjerker! Enchanted Cottage with Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young. Most people know Robert Young from the TV show, Father Knows Best. Also starring was Herbert Marshall whom I loved in Trouble in Paradise (1932). Not many people know but Herbert Marshall had a wooden leg. That would be like Brad Pitt hiding a prosthetic limb. In this movie, Herbert played Dorothy and Robert’s blind concert-pianist neighbor. Dorothy was an ugly girl and Robert, a man facially scarred by a horrible accident during the war. They are lonely and decide to marry out of convenience. A funny thing happens after their wedding. They look at each other and suddenly they are transformed! Dorothy is radiant and Robert is unscarred. At first, they thought this was a permanent change brought on by the magical properties of the “Enchanted Cottage” where they lived. They were certain other people could see their new found beauty. Sadly, the public at large still viewed them as freaks as they found out in a very sad scene involving Robert’s mother and step father, Freddie. Ultimately they realized that it wasn’t the “Enchanted Cottage” that magically made them beautiful but rather their love for each other.

Yes, I burst into tears at least 7 times. It was a wonderful movie. Rent it!

At lunch I went to J.Crew and I tried on the yellow dress. It fit. It just didn’t blow me away. The quality was pretty horrific for something that costs 175.00. For that amount, I expect something more than an unlined dress that is already starting to pill. Darnit!

Rob is coming over this evening so as soon as I got home, I started cleaning. I decided to play some music as I cleaned and I pulled up the The 5.6.7.8’s on Rhapsody and you won’t believe it, as the song Baracuda came on, I lost control of myself and started to do the Go-Go Robics routine from the Pontani Sisters! It’s been years and I still remembered it!

In a previous post I stated that I was compiling a DVD for Robert of the songs he and his friend’s performed at Drummer Mike’s 40th birthday party. The problem was, I am not terribly familiar with the kind of music they perform. There was one song I had never heard before. I listened to it over and over trying desperately to figure out what in the world they were saying. Finally I decided they were singing, “Are you going down? Are you going down?” I entered that as the title of the clip and burnt the DVD. This weekend I gave Robert the DVD. After watching it, he complimented my mastery of Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. He then told me that the song is not “Are You Going Down?” but rather, “Tie Your Mother Down.” Oddly enough, I kinda thought maybe that’s what they were singing but I dismissed it as misheard lyrics– kinda like Jimi Hendrix’s “Excuse Me While I Kiss this Guy.”

Obviously this is not Robert and his friends. The lyrics in this clip are much clearer.

Why does Rob and his friends refuse to perform any Monkees’ songs? Why no Elvis? C’mon fellows! How about wearing some tight gold suits!

I can’t quite remember what spurred it but Robert said to me last night, “Sha Na Na was the f*cking SH*T!” I agreed with him and together we lamented that their variety show is not on DVD. I LOVED their show. My family watched it every week back in the late 70’s. Searching Youtube, we found that Sha Na Na is not forgotten. You can watch tons of clips from their show and old concert footage. I was obviously very young when I watched that show because I never noticed how tight Santini wore his gold pants! WOWZERS! My favorites were Bowser, Santini, Screamin’ Scott (with the piano keys on his sleeve!), Johnny Contardo who I always thought was Billy Crystal and Jocko. Here’s some youtube videos of their work….

SOME TRIVIA
Sha Na Na performed at Woodstock!
Santini’s real name is Scott Powell and after the show ended he went to medical school and he’s now an Orthopedic Surgeon! Here’s his official site.
Denny Greene is a Professor of Law at The University of Dayton School of Law.
Alan Cooper is the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies and provost of The Jewish Theological Seminary

Nathan emailed me asking if I knew how he could get a copy of Peter Wolf’s song Lights Out. My camera was sitting right next to me so I decided to record my steps of getting him the song. I then uploaded it to YouTube and sent him the link.

And kids, you may be wondering what in the world is that revolving black disk?! That my dear children is an LP record! A record is an analogue sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc. These devices were popular before Mp3s, CDs and even tapes.

Listening to this song, it made me realize what a forgotten talent Peter Wolf is! I never hear his music anymore and I practically forgot all about him, but boy does he have some great songs!

Here’s just a small sampling:

I need you tonight
Come as you are

My Eye-fi arrived today. It is easy to set up and works perfectly! As I took pictures with my camera– they just started magically popping up on my computer! No cord, no wires! Too bad it doesn’t also transfer movie files as well. That’s okay, I can always get my cable out for those instances or just use the little card reader that came with it. I am very happy– it truly is unbeliveable.

I have been putting forth lots of effort to be a better person. Each night I hang up my clothes rather than tossing them into a heap. I’ve been washing dishes after I use them and wiping the little drips of errant food that land on the kitchen counter. In the mornings I’ve been packing a lunch and making coffee so I don’t need to spend 1.69 at Dunkin’ Donuts or 5.00 at a lunch cart. This morning my father emailed me a silly picture and I was about to send a funny but slightly cruel reply. I stopped myself. I am not the type of person who makes jokes at other people’s expense. No matter how hard my dad would have laughed, I will not be a mean person.

One area where I have not been making inroads is my after work activity. I get home and immediately drop into bed and watch TV until I fall asleep. I want to do other things but I completely lack ideas or energy. At least rather than lapping the channels over and over, I watched a movie last night. It was Fellini’s City of Women. I’ve wanted to see it for some time. It stuck me as being pretty typical Fellini. Satyricon is still my favorite. I love Capucine.

As I look forward and plan for the new year, I can’t help but look back over the past year. What have I accomplished? Last year, I felt pretty good with what I achieved. New job, new relationship, new ways. This year is different. I can’t seem to come up with anything. All I can think about is work and how it was such a challenge. I felt totally consumed by stress and tension. It seemed to color everything. I couldn’t convince myself to go anywhere since I felt I needed to be present at the office. When I did take off around July 4th for a mini vacation, I broke down at a bar and cried in front of Rob. The reason for the tears? My inability to fill my sales pipeline. Yeah, sales is a tough game. I came out alright and ended up kicking major ass but it was not easy.

Things happened, I am sure of it. Well, no one died and that’s a good thing. And I got to see Jersey Boys on Broadway. I also saw Max Raabe again. Experiencing the Philadelphia Orchestra under the stars at the Mann Music Center was fun. Seeing The Iguanas AND Los Straitjackets AND Big Sandy was great. Getting our seats upgraded at the Bryan Adams and George Thorogood concert was the best.

The loss of the farm was sad. Having Lisa move out was worse. The donnavilla is so quiet without her.

I got my picture taken with Creighton and Vlad of Ghoul a Go-Go fame at Blobfest. My old Gastschwester Andrea visited.

I went rafting and met a huge man named Tiny. I survived repeated viewings of silly action movies. I loved seeing Rob perform at the Whitpain Tavern and I especially enjoyed being the musician’s girlfriend. (Heck, regardless of the last year and a half spent with Rob, having a boyfriend is still a novel concept to me. I guess it’s all the years I spent alone and the sheer amount of soul obliterating rejection that was heaped upon me but I still find it hard to believe there’s a man who willingly sticks around. And to be totally honest, I feel so very lucky and extremely grateful to have someone in my life).

And the post from last year I am most proud of? Easy! Commode-tion.