Oh, Paula

I watched the first season of American Idol, but then lost track of the show for a while.

I haven't watched the show more than a handful of times in the past few years, but Tony Kornheiser talks about Idol pretty often, so I know about it through him. It's an odd lens through which to view a show, but it's not that different from listening to talk radio about a sport you never watch. Still, I should check out the show every once in a while, but when I have plenty of PTI, MXC, and The Soup to watch, as well as lots of work to do, there really isn't time.

The New Yorker has an article about what Paula Abdul does to the English language. It's a must-read for anyone who watches Idol or is a Paula fan or anti-fan.

Soundtrack

• Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

Music Monday: A Jones by any Other Name

Some musicians have pseudonyms that are so subtle that many people don't even realize they are stage names. Here are a few of my favorite real names of famous musicians.

Declan McManus


David Jones


Okay, this next one is not a subtle pseudonyn, but I like it anyway.

Faroukh Bulsara

Web Stuff Friday: Braid Few Stuffy

Internet Anagram Server is good, clean word fun. Just plug in any phrase and it cranks out anagrams galore.
A Reston Kid Rambles = A Bad Timer Snorkels

Untangle is a pretty darn cool game, but hard as heck.

The voice actors from Spongebob do Casablanca, Singing in the Rain

Half Right Obama on SNL

When Saturday Night Live had Fred Armisen (a white actor) portray Barack Obama in a recent sketch, they took quite a bit of heat. Here are some brief ramblings on this:

First of all, Obama is half white and half african-american. It seems to me that anyone who is at least half white would be just as good a match as anyone who is at least half african-american or black (see this post for a discussion about the distinction between "black" and "african-american.") I suspect that black people who are irate about this are folks who are trying to associate themselves with Obama because he is hot. They want Obama to be one of them.

If SNL had Kenan Thompson (the only black man on the cast) play Obama, that would be the height of affirmative action. He'd only have gotten the job because he is black. He does not seem to have anything close to the right look for the role. Isn't Maya Rudolph still in the cast? She has the advantage of being half black and half white. Maybe she could have done it. Regardless, racial match is less important than finding the person who does the best job of portraying the character. My black brothers need to get irate about stuff that actually matters, and not the casting decisions of a satirical comedy show.

Anyway, it's interesting that this skit has the media thinking harder about how they treat the candidates. It also has us talking more about race. All fun stuff.

Quite the Scare

A few days ago, my brother-in-law-in-law (Mrs. Kid's sister's husband) woke up with chest pains that didn't go away as quickly as heartburn should. When he and his wife (my sister-in-law) went to the nearby hospital, a blood test revealed elevated enzyme levels that indicate he had had a heart attack. He is 33.

The same day, they did an angiogram and found a major (over 90%) blockage in a major vessel (the circumflex coronary artery.) They installed an arterial stent and all is well. He will be on meds for the rest of his life, but he's ok. The cool part is that he watched most of the procedures while they were happening. Whacky.

I know SIL, so I asked her to not turn BILIL into a tofu-eating vegan (she's vegetarian while he is pretty carnivorous.) She replied that he should at least not eat so much sauteed foi gras. Apparently, he:

1. often skips breakfast and/or lunch, and then has a massive dinner at a restaurant,
   
2. doesn't exercise enough,
   
3. smokes a half pack of cigarettes a day.

I know he works way too hard at his high-powered job, so the first two didn't surprise me. As a matter of fact, I used to do that sort of thing all the time when I was in grad school, then every once in a while as an adult. The last part really surprised me. I knew he used to smoke when he was in college, but didn't know that he still smoked so much.

Anyway, I really feel for BILIL. Not just because of the pain he has endured or because of the scare he just had, but mostly because of the big pile of grief his wife will give him for the rest of his life. His lifestyle is going to have to change and she is going to beat him until he makes these changes happen. I'm glad he's fine (he was working again four days later), but I'll miss the man who could put away massive amounts of food in a single sitting.

The Day

• Workout: crunches and push-ups
  
• Music: Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars, Etta James, Elvis Costello, Royksopp
  

After an Epic Battle, Peace

This is the most difficult post I have ever written, but not for the reason you might think after you read the next four words: My sister died yesterday.

So, why is this difficult for me to write about? It isn't because writing brings up memories and pain that I'd rather not stir. On the contrary, I find writing to be a helpful exercise, so this is really quite therapeutic. The difficulty comes when I try to abide by one of her requests. As I was talking with my sister about her ability to make doom-saying doctors look silly (by living years longer than they expected), she admonished me to not make her girls think she was some sort of super woman. This puts a major constraint on my natural tendency to tell her story as I saw it. As a matter of fact, the first draft of this post was titled "My Sister Kicked Butt," but I shelved that version in favor of this.

My sister was a cheerleader and homecoming princess in high school, then an economics major and president of the student body at Wellesley College. She then went on to get an MBA at Harvard and then put her financial skills to work as a corporate financier, then as President and COO of a health services company. In this first act of her life, she kicked major butt. Along the way, she ran in the NYC Marathon, had two beautiful daughters, and impressed everyone she knew with her intelligence, work ethic, and personal strength.

Act 2 begins when she is diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 (when her girls were 3 and 1.5.) I won't go into all the details of her treatments, but suffice it to say that she endured numerous treatments including chemo, radiation, and surgery, but also highly experimental treatments (such as 3 times with a gamma knife and a very experimental trial with autologous bone marrow transplant). On more than one occasion, doctors gave her a short time to live, but she outlived these dire predictions over and over again. Anyone who knew her only after 1993 knew she was a good person, a great mother, and a determined fighter.

Anyway, she was an incredible woman and my first evidence for this is the number and quality of her friends from college, grad school, business, and neighborhoods who have been absolutely devoted to helping her and her girls. The support her friends have provided is absolutely amazing and speaks to the quality of my sister's character over the years. The other evidence is her girls. Their mother was very unhealthy for most of their lives, but they have come through it. They are both smart, kind kids who are headed in the right direction. They were the reason for her perseverance over these past years. Everything she did from the treatments to making doctor after doctor look silly was for her girls. I am so proud of them and of her.

My Girl Kid got her middle name from my sister and I am hopeful that along with the name comes some of my sister's brains, strength, and determination. I hope that Girl Kid is a better driver (my sister was a weapon behind the wheel), but aside from that I hope Girl Kid can channel my sister's spirit.

OK. That's it. I could go on and on and on about her, but will keep it short. This post is so incredibly inadequate, but it's all I can do in a short space and without making her out to be a super woman. She is finally enjoying well-deserved rest after an incredible battle and I am happy for her. Her legacy lives on in all of us who knew her, but especially in her girls.

The Day

• Workout: short run
  
• Music: Led Zep, Michael Jackson, Booker T. & The MG's, Vince Guaraldi Trio
  

Music Monday: Cheesy Ukulele All Stars

I love when a musical artist covers a song in a different mode than the original. Weird Al is great, but I am talking about the complete opposite. Al keeps the music the same, but changes the lyrics. I prefer keeping the lyrics the same and changing the style of the music. Richard Cheese and Easy Star All Stars have been favorites of mine for a while, but I recently found Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Here are descriptions of their shticks and a video for each.

Richard Cheese: He does pop songs in a cheesy, Vegas lounge lizard mode. One of the fun parts is that you can actually hear the lyrics clearly. He is really funny. I have a few of his albums.

Baby Got Back


Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: Needless to say, it's all about the ukes. They do some really creative, fun stuff. Other songs include a fun medley and the theme to Shaft.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


Easy Star All-Stars: This is dub style reggae version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. It syncs up with the original (and thus with The Wizard of Oz) perfectly.

Money


Note: My sister passed away today after a long battle with cancer. I will write about Marla at some point this week, but don't want to rush some junk out there.

The Day

• Workout: crunches and push-ups
• Music: Led Zep