Sarah Palin does Springfield

So, I went to the Sarah Palin rally today... I am most definitely NOT a supporter, but I do love a good spectacle. It was INSANE. There were so many people there it was ridiculous. I think the estimate was around 20,000 (that's a TON of people for southwest MO). I also went to the Biden rally a few weeks ago and it wasn't nearly the event that the Palin rally was. There was probably only 2,000+ people at Biden's rally.

The most bizarre moment... when Naomi Judd introduced her! How random. She went off on a diatribe about the “unrepentant liberal biased media” and acknowledged that such a statement would likely be "career suicide" (LMAO, riiiight... what career, Naomi?) but she couldn't "stand by" any longer.

Fat Hair pomade

This shit really works! (the real demo starts about 1:50)



Ok, so 25 has hit me hard... ok, not that hard, but my once ultra thick and lush hair has started to thin, but only in the front... the rest is just as thick as ever. For someone who styles the front heavily and mostly lays the rest down, this has been devastating. Good hair days have become much fewer and far between.

BUT, I recently picked up this product (samy's Fat Hair Pomade) and it REALLY works. It's amazing how it works... it penetrates the actual hair strand and causes it to expand from within, making your actual hair strands fatter. I thought it would work just by thickening up my hair like a brush pile, leaving it gunky and unkempt looking... but it doesn't! Perhaps best of all, it continues to work even if I mix in my other hair products (other pomades and spiking glue). Basically, it's f*cking awesome.

Now, as my hair continues to thin, this won't do much good, but in the interim it's allowed me to keep my juvenile, past-its-prime, spiky hairstyle, defying age and nature. Woo hoo!

Madonna - Into the Groove (Sidechains Remix)

This is why God gave us EARS and FEET.

Download link: http://www.zshare.net/audio/50113640cc0cfa0d

For once, an unofficial modern, 2000s-club-kid-friendly mix of an 80's track gets everything RIGHT. You know how most of these mixes distill these great tracks down to just a couple blips and samples of the original vocal and spend the rest of the time looping monotonous, cliche'd electro samples? This one does not. It retains all the magic of the original, but injects it with some late 2000's steroids... it's not afraid to peak at all the right epic, pop moments. Don't miss this, folks! This is why God gave us EARS and FEET.

Picked this up at a great blog with tons of downloads: http://ppelectro.blogspot.

My suckling kitties

These are my cats, Ruthie and Jake. They are siblings. Every day (usually in the middle of the night) Ruthie will blissfully suckle her brother's teats. Its weird - but what can I do? They are usually both purring throughout, so... whatev!

MJ's 50th Birthday Party

OK - so me and my best friend at work, Stephanie, have a Michael Jackson paper doll that has kept us entertained for the last 2 and a half years. Michael frequently has commentary on the goings-on of the office and migrates back and forth between our two desks, often with post-its attached detailing his thoughts on any range of topics, usually laced with various Michael-isms, of course ("shamone," "daddy," "P.Y.T.," "hee hee," "owwww!" etc...).

So, when the real Michael Jackson turned 50 in August, OF COURSE we took the opportunity to throw a celebration for our office MJ... and what a celebration it was. I even sent out invites to 4 or 5 others who are friends of MJ via Office Outlook, just to get it on everyone's calendars. We might be complete dorks but this was seriously some of the most fun I've ever had at work.

This is the full spread for the birthday... I brought in all of my MJ paraphernalia including the special surprise guest - the Thriller doll that I bought for $7 on eBay back when I was in college. MJ also got birthday cards from Holly, Deborah, Stephanie and Casey.


Casey's gift to MJ was a boys Little League baseball team. He LOVED it.

Hell yeah, Holly made cupcakes.

My US Kath & Kim Review

The US adaptation of one of my favorite TV shows of all time has arrived. NBC's "Kath & Kim" premier is now available for free download on iTunes and will debut on NBC this Thursday night.

In short: I enjoyed it. It was actually quite a bit funnier than I expected.

However - this is no Riley/Turner Kath & Kim. Here's a run-down of the differences that bothered me most...

- The true comic genius of the original lies in its subtle humor. Even though I have seen most episodes a zillion times, I still find new, funny things happening that I've never noticed before. The US version abandons that completely - if its funny (or attempting to be funny as the case may be), its obvious to the viewer. This is my primary complaint. Like the US version, the original had completely stupid characters doing completely stupid, offensive things, but the subtlety of the humor made for a surprisingly intelligent delivery. With the subtlety out the door, the US version just feels like more stupid US humor that you "get" without really paying too close attention.

- The issue of Kim's "weight" feels really forced when it's played by Selma Blair who is one of the skinniest actresses in Hollywood. Even with her twenty extra pounds, she's still stick-thin. They would have been better off leaving Kim's weight out of the storyline completely.

- They have WAY too much budget. Everything from the camera filters, set design, camera work... it robs the show of its raw feeling that made the original so fun to watch. In the original, you feel like Kath and Kim could be real people and that we are peeking in on their daily lives. In the US version, since its so much glossier, the characters are completely unbelievable, which really detracts from the enjoyability.

- The pilot gave no indication that the characters would have any classic catchphrases that carry through the series. Half the fun of Kath and Kim is the catchphrases that pop up constantly, yet never get tiring ("Look at mooooiiii," "Well I didn't bloody know!!," "toot suite," etc...).

- Selma Blair's 'Kim' is a pale imitation of the original. She has Americanized the role rather well, but her delivery feels so forced. This is best exemplified in her line "Would it make you feel better if you got up and made us some nacho s?" And it's not just Selma Blair - all the acting comes across as forced. Its as if they're stuck between imitating the original portrayals and adapting the characters for the US. I'm not sure this is the actors' faults - it holds true for all the characters, so I think it has more to do with the writing and directing.

But, at the end of the day, I am sure I will tune in weekly and I will probably laugh out loud quite a bit - the pilot had me laughing a lot, actually. But, the funniest moments were when they were doing original material (truly adapting the story). Its when they start imitating the original that they fall flat.