Slackin' Again

Thanks for stoppin' by.

I promise to do an update by next week.

A 2 year old in the house can sure keep you jumpin'.

Getaway

I've not done an update on this blog in a long time ..... only excuse: life in general. This posting was to go on our regular blog about life with our daughter, but it merits being posted here do to it's content. Enjoy .....





The time came when HomeDaddy required a day off from his appointed duties serving The Empress. MamaBe also desired some ‘alone’ time in the presence of royalty. It was decided that HD would go to the beach while MB remained behind in their humble abode just out the back door of Disney.

After signing off some paperwork at the attorney’s office for the young one’s Florida Birth Certificate, it was off to New Smyrna Beach, a somewhat sleepy beach town about 10 miles south of Daytona Beach. Around this time, it tends to liven up a bit with the overflow of spring breakers, and HomeDaddy found out that he was just on the edge of the revelers making their full blown presence known. The annual event would be in total swing by next weekend.

HD had been suffering from a bulging disc (to match his bulging waistline) for some time, and felt quite good on Friday, after checking in at his oceanfront room (not really as glamorous as it sounds), so a short walk up the beach seemed perfectly in order. Then it hit …. Shots of pain up and down the right leg from the hip to the ankle and back. Turning around to start back, he realizes that he’s gone farther than he should have and limps, gimps and staggers his way south as the last ray of light disappears behind another slinky dink motel marring what once was a pristine natural beach. He sits down and comes to the realization that his trek along the ocean would be a lot longer than originally planned. No more cars on the beach …. Can’t hitchhike back. Limp, gimp, stagger. Finally, the lights of the flickering neon sign came into view …. HD was never so glad to see The Surf High Motel. Back in the bare bones room: “Bartender. A round of Tylenol 3 for everyone!” The snores could be heard out on A1A sounding like a beached sea monster.

Next morning, after trying to stretch out the stiffness, it was off to the nearest Starbucks. A sad fact: not one was to be found between NSB and Daytona. This town is so laid back that residents haven’t the foggiest what a Double MachoCappoFrappoLatto is. It would be totally out of character for a Starbucks to occupy a storefront on Flagler Avenue, a 4 block street with several bars, musty eateries, trendy beach shoppes and rental offices. My favorite dive is The Breakers, located directly on the beach with an open air seating area overlooking all the activity at Oceanside. I avoided my usual basket of fried clams for an ahi tuna salad which hit the spot when accompanied by a $5.00 Blue Moon draft. The entertainment on the beach at spring break brought back memories of college days as I tried to remember if I had a memory back then.

The pain returned to my leg and back around mid-afternoon, so a lounge next to the pool with a book sounded like a good thing. “The Smokers Over 65 Convention” must have been in town. Their smoke, complimented by odors of sunscreen, sweat, and cheap cologne gently wafting my way on an occasional sea breeze made for an aromatic as well as visual feast. I then remembered why I am drawn to the beach – walking and swimming. With my leg on the fritz, it made it impossible to participate in my favorite pastimes and caused me to look at the scene at poolside. I don’t want this to be me in a few years. It caused me to miss dearly my 2 year old daughter and super-woman wife and reflect on the necessity to maintain my health in order to be there when they need me.
I thought “Gee. Sure glad I had the ahi instead of the fried nasties.” Well, it was a start.

A tuna sub for dinner, followed by a Tylenol 3 chaser and it was lights out at 9. I missed the gleaming of the dawn’s early light over the ocean as it was a difficult night with pain and opted to take off early for home in the Magic Kingdom. MamaBe and The Empress were at church (bad HomeDaddy played hookie – I’m gonna die and go to hell – wait – different dogma) and it wasn’t long before being greeted to the shrill screams of “Daddy! Daddy!” It was music to my ears.

This week: more physical therapy and a look at what I’m putting in my pie hole. I need to be around for the important stuff…….

Happy Valentine's Day ..... What? No Magpies?!?!?!

On the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar, don't forget to look carefully at the summer sky. You'll find the Cowherd (a bright star in the constellation Aquila, west of the Milky Way) and the Weaving Maid (the star Vega, east of the Milky Way) appear closer together than at any other time of the year. Chinese believe the stars are lovers who are permitted to meet by the queen of Heaven once a year. That day falls on the double seventh (Qixi in Chinese), which is China's own Valentine's Day.Most Chinese remember being told a romantic tragedy when they were children on the double seventh. In the legend, the cowherd and the Weaving Maid will meet on a bridge of magpies across the Milky Way once a year. Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.

Change

I had some fun on obamame.com

Sarah Brightman - The "What the Hell?" Tour Stops in Orlando

Sarah Brightman is an enigma, a sort of riddle without a punchline or a mystery that has no outcome. To define her would be like trying to find explain Cirque du Soleil or even Cher. I have a real love/hate thing with her music and performances. Here is an incredibly talented woman who can sing opera or pop (popera) and go from one to the other effortlessly, yet she insists on larding her albums with songs using a whispy voice that requires that she push so much air to produce the undesirable sound, that her head must spin for lack of oxygen. This annoyance is quite evident in her 2 latest CDs, “Symphony’ and “A Winter Symphony”.

On the tune “Fleur du Mal” (from “Symphony”) you can hear her inhaling as if gasping (not just a polite breath) to make it to the end of some of the phrases. Yet, she is able to give a credible performance using both pop and opera on several of the other songs on the album. Take “Canto Della Terra” – she starts off the piece in that weak little cherub head voice and then soars into a trained ‘classical’ interpretation opposite Andrea Bocelli. The effect is stunning! Yet she continues to use that chirpy little bird voice on too many of her songs, especially on her “A Winter Symphony” CD. Any hint of vocal substance is missing from this cold and dreary project which includes “throwaways” for the sake of meeting production deadlines. Arrangements are bland and uninteresting.
Yet, in the past, she could take me off the floor with her high-ceilinged vocal interpretations. Her combination of light and airy with classic vocal performance is evident on such tunes as “Anytime, Anywhere”, “Il Mio Cuore Va’, “Figlio Perduto”, and of course “Time to Say Goodbye”. It is a palatable mix.

********
Knowing that she would be covering songs from “my many previous albums”, I went to see her at the new UCF Arena on her latest “Symphony” tour. The show would better have been titled “What the Hell?” The evening’s proceedings began with a lengthly prerecorded music wash with accompanying light ballets and flickers as the diva set herself in place at the head of a long runway protruding from the stage into the audience.

When the lights came up, THIS is what we saw .....

My first “What the Hell?” moment. Did she have a fight with her patio screens while she was storing them up for winter? Is she afraid of being attacked by killer bees? All I could think was …. You guessed it …. “What the Hell?” Several dancing members of her entourage appeared and undraped the mess, revealing Ms Brightman dressed in a red gown. It was my wish at this point that she just sing in the very nice dress. Not to happen. She made it through several tunes from her latest effort, dancers appeared and did a few choreographed wiggles and kicks, the lights went down and Ms Brightman appeared to be ‘suspended’ in a water ballet scene as she sang “Hijo de la Luna”. Don’t call lockdown on me – our diva du jour was actually laying on the floor of the stage being photographed and projected on the screen just above the stage. It was a great effect and the audience appreciated the technology.

Her costumes were just downright goofy. In a duet with tenor Mario Frangoulis, she wore this little number from the Marie Antoinette/Ringling Brothers Collection. Frangoulis just about blew her off the stage with his amazing chops and I don’t know how he kept a straight face while singing with her. It was quite bizarre. See my review of a Frangoulis concert here ….. scroll down to "Tampa Concert Report by a Fan".

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My heartfelt apologies for the steep ticket prices.

It takes big bucks to make a woman look this cheap."

And then there was this item from the What the Hell? Collection. Oy!

"Hello. My name is Sarah Brightman.

Is this the casting call for the Fellini movie?"

About that time, I wanted to yell “Just put on a nice dress and just sing, for crying out loud!”

So she did.

……. And Frangoulis joined her again for The Phantom of the Opera, the high point in the show. But alas, weird became the new black. A guy in a rabbit head, the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland popped out from a trap door in the floor and chased each other about and before we knew it, there was Ms Brightman, suspended on a stationary bicycle as a somewhat demented Little Red Riding Hood (keep in mind – this babe is 48 years old) peddling away, doing a rap number with Tchkovsky’s “Nutcracker” being chased by holographic wolves projected on a scrim. I’m not making this up. At first, I thought the beer that I had at intermission had distorted my brain's eye, but my wife, who was not partaking of the $6.00 beverage selection, backed me up on what I saw. SB is proud to announce that all of the ideas for her shows come out of her imagination. I Googled it --- she has had no recent head wounds.

But, I am still quite the Sarah Brightman fan, for which I should probably see a shrink. Her purists will say “Oh, but that’s just our Sarah. She is so MANY different things.” Baloney! She’s quite the nutjob and she is one talented gal. If she does half the show without an overdose of the creepies, it’s still worth the ticket.

See you on the "It's All About Me" tour, Sarah.

Beware of the Doghouse

Guys,
As of today, we have 16 days to get it right ......
Is there really a guy out there who does that "AbCerciser" routine to his wife? Good luck!

I'm Really Slackin' On This Blog