Jacquie's Journal

A Music Meme

I saw this on the Alarming Female's Blog and thought it would be an interesting exercise.

INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Put your music player on shuffle. 2. Press forward for each question. 3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. 

How does the world see me?

Speak To Me/Breathe - Pink Floyd

Will I have a happy life?

Jig-a-jig  - East of Eden  (I am happy when I am dancing!)

What do my friends think of me?

Midnight Show - The Killers ( at least it wasn't Le Freak (Chic)!)

What is some good advice for me?

All These Things I Have Done - The Killers

How will I be remembered?

Atomic '98/Tall Paul Remix - Blondie

What’s my current theme song?

New Lace Sleeves - Elvis Costello ( I am knitting long lacy fingerless mittens - does that count?)

What do others think is my current theme song?

Back It Up - Nils Lofgren

What will they play at my funeral?

Sunday Girl - Blondie

What type of women/men do I like?

Careless Whisper - George Michael

How’s my love life?

Express Yourself - Madonna

After that I got Jiggy Wit' It (Will Smith) and then Ship Building (Elvis Costello)

Definitely some appropriate answers for some - interpret them how you will!

Snow Patrol

Oh No!  She's not still banging on about snow is she! I can hear you all yelling.  Well we do still have snow on the ground - and I am sure there is more to come before the Spring is over, but that is not my subject for today.  Today I am talking about the band "Snow Patrol" who played at The Great SaltAir by the Great Salt Lake last night along with OK GO of the famous treadmill video.  SaltAir itself which was built originally so that Victorian Salt Lake Citizens could pretend they were at the seaside is a fascinating place, and has come into its own more recently as a concert venue.

OKGO were great (didn't bring the treadmills with them, but they did play that song).  Snow Patrol were really good too, though to be honest I couldn't tell you what they played.  I don't know them very well - it's Gary who likes them really - but I think I will get some of their stuff onto my ipod now.

SaltAir is just a great big room really with the stage at one end and a balcony all round upstairs.  It's General Admission which means all standing and of course it's really crowded and everyone pushes to the front.   Last time we were there we didn't take any extra cash so we couldn't go upstairs.  Upstairs is a "private club", a Utah phenomenon which is somewhere where you can buy alcoholic beverages without food and only over 21's are admitted.  It cost $5.00 for parties of up to five to join and you have to show ID to show proof of age and you get a hand stamp and a wrist band to wear.  This time we were better prepared and thought that not only would we be able to get a beer, but we might be able to see better too.  No such luck!  Unless you were right at the front of the balcony on the sides or positioned so you could see between people at the back, you couldn't see a thing and all in all you are probably better off downstairs wedged in with everyone else unless you get there really early and can claim a prime spot!

During the songs I don't know at these events, I find my mind wandering on to such topics as how they could arrange it so everyone can see properly - my solution involves everyone standing in height order with the shortest at the front, and to achieve that everyone would have to go through a series of gates of decreasing height to know where in the room you would have to stand.  I know this might mean you can't be with the people you came with - but it's the perfect opportunity to make new friends with people the same height as you and you can arrange to come with them next time if you don't like being lonely!

Another topic that often springs to mind is what would happen if the band were playing at the  resonant note of the  building and it fell down round us (as some believe happened to the Walls of Jericho)?  Not such a jolly thought I know - but it could happen!

A good evening generally, and we were home by midnight, and I was up in time to go to Pilates with Lucy this morning.

Incommunicado, but Communicado Alright Again Now!

Sorry for the break. We are now safely home and normal service has been resumed!  The hotel in Boston needed you to pay for Internet service and I was too tired and busy to make paying worthwhile, and it was the weekend so Gary didn't feel inclined to deal with work email.

So where were we?  I meant to add in the last post that on Friday night we didn't have any shows booked or anything.  I am afraid Broadway is totally lost on me - as I may have mentioned before I absolutely loathe musicals -  I would rather they got on with the plot instead of bursting pointlessly into song every five minutes.  It's lucky real life isn't like that or we'd never get anything done.

So anyway we wanted to do something and Gary was looking through the magazine that came with the hotel room and found a Hip Hop show that was in a theater just across the road and started in 20 minutes.  We went straight there, and there were officially no seats left but we were told to hang on til the last minute to see if anything opened up.  At the last minute there suddenly were two seats available (we think they might have been the ones reserved for VIPs who turn up at the last minute expecting tickets).  The show was good, featuring dancing, Djing and beat boxers, and a guy who drummed very skillfully on plastic buckets (Note no singing was involved!).  Afterwards we ate very well at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

The next morning we got a cab to Penn St Station again and caught the Boston bound train.  The autumn colours along the way were spectacular. 

We enjoyed staying at the Hyatt Regency in the Financial District of Boston.   The bed was really comfy and  (I hope other hotels follow this lead) instead of sachets of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel, they had dispensers in the shower.  It must save heaps on packaging, and guests can only use what they need so there is less wastage.  It must be cheaper for them to bulk buy the stuff too in huge bottles, after the initial outlay for the dispensers and having them installed.

During the afternoon we took a stroll around the city.  There seemed to be something going on on the common so we went to investigate.  It turned out to be a pumpkin festival where they were trying to beat the world Record for the number of jack-o-lanterns in one place.  They hoped to beat 28,000 and when we walked through they were up to 22,000+.  I hope they made it.   Actually I see from this CNN article that they well and truly did!  Good Job, Boston!

This is a tiny sample - there were pumpkins as far as the eye could see!

This was a whole wall o' pumpkins each with a heart carved in it.

Later on we ate at a Malaysian restaurant and I had the chance to taste Rambutans for the first time in years.  When we lived in Singapore in the mid-60s the rambutan man used to come round on his bicycle and we would eat them fresh.  They are a bit like lychee to look at - white with a centre stone, but they taste different and grow in a spiky case - a bit like a conker but with soft spikes.  They tasted wonderfulm, but I am sorry to say not nearly as wonderful as when they have been freshly picked.

In the evening we saw the Blue Man Group.  We have seen them before in Las Vegas a few years ago and it was great to see them again.  This time the theater was much smaller and although it was essentially the same show as in Las Vegas, it was much more close up and personal.  I would recommend this show to anyone.  It is a mixture of sketches (some involving members of the audience) which are very funny, and music (no singing!!!).  Just the way they looked at each other kept me in stitches the whole time.  I would go again in a heartbeat.

On Sunday Morning we picked up a rental car, and I will tell you about the next phase of our tour tomorrow.  In the meantime see if you can guess what the post will be entitled???!!!

The Full Monty

Last night we went to see The Full Monty musical at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City.  As you may know from my favourites list The Full Monty is one of my favourite movies and part of its appeal is that it is set in Sheffield and based very much on Sheffield culture.  I have watched it over and over.   Those who have read my 100s lists will also know that I hate musicals.  So why (well apart from the obvious!) did I want to travel 30 miles through one of the worst snow storms we have have had this year to see an Americanized/Musicalized version of it, and a local version of the Broadway musical to boot - I could so easily have been disappointed.  It would have been very easy for a lot, even the whole point (OK "points") of the story, to get lost in the translation.

Well I wasn't disappointed.  I like live performances and this theatre is very small so we were quite close to the stage.  It was set in Buffalo, NY,  but the characters were one for one equivalents to their British counterparts in their situations, and most of the main scenes were just as they were in the movie and done very well.  I was quite prepared for the basic premise to be the same but the characters and situations to be different, and I think that would have been good too.  The music was great, and the songs helped to convey the characters' feelings that they probably would not have got across in the dialogue. ( I think it may just be Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that I can't cope with).  Of course, the humor was different, but that was necessary - a guy from Buffalo would never say "nout so queer as folk" in any context - the expression was used in Sheffield long before the word "queer" had any other "connotations".

I know you all want to know what happened at the very, very end.  Well, yes they did  - but it's amazing what you can do with lighting these days.

Before we went to the theatre we had a very nice dinner at Le Bistro, and our kind server even saved my leftovers for me to collect afterwards.  Our intention was to go back after the show for dessert and coffee, but unfortunately they stopped serving just before we got there.  We had coffee at the Java Cow which used to be a Starbucks, instead and then headed home.   Luckily the snow had stopped by then and the snowploughs (snowplows) had done their job so driving  wasn't too bad.  A wonderful evening out!

My Olympic challenge is driving me nuts.  I have not been able to concentrate very well this week, and I realised during another bout of insomnia that I had not only cast on the wrong number of stitches in the first place, but I had miscalculated the placing of the diagonal cable section runs across the front.  I guess I am the Chris Witty of the Knitting Olympics, but I will not be the Michelle Qwan.  I have started again and I am nearly up to where I got to the first time round, and I still hope to get it done.  It's snowing again today, so that's the only excuse I need to do nothing but sit by the fire and knit.

Any keen philatelist will already know that a new 63 cent stamp is being issued that features a photo of Bryce Canyon, one of Utah's wonderful National Parks.  It is one of those places where you just cannot believe your eyes - it is so beautiful!  The picture was taken by Tom Till.

Many Happy (Tax) Returns!

We did our US Tax return today - or at least we got Terry, our lady at H&R Block, to do them for us, and we got a very nice refund from both state and federal taxes.  We are huge procrastinators with most things, but with our tax return we always manage to get it done just as soon as we have received all the information we need.  Last year we ended up having to pay a load extra, but this year as I am not working we will get some back.

Apparently there was a 2.1 earthquake very close to us last night, but we didn't notice.  It was centred about 5 miles away, but the first we knew was hearing it on the news this afternoon.  They are not expecting it to lead to any more seismic activity, but of course we are all supposed to be prepared for a big one - water, food, radio, flashlight, etc, but we are not I am afraid.

I have volunteered to beta test PodFitness.  The company producing it, Power Music, is based here in Salt Lake City and one of my favourite instructors works for them.  They also produce special CDs for all types of group fitness classes.  I haven't heard whether they will need me yet, but it should be fun if they do.

One of my erstwhile favourite novelists is publishing a new book next month, but I am not going to tell you who because I am so mad with him I don't want to give him any publicity.  He is using 9/11 as a plot point and I get really irate with people who use other people's misery to make money - if they donate the proceeds then fine - if it is their own misery then it sometimes OK to milk it for all it's worth, they probably deserve it, but this is not the case here.  I will not be buying this book, or borrowing it from the library, or even telling people about it.

I am working on another calculator to work out the even spacing of increases across a row, such as when transferring between the ribbing and main stitch areas of a sweater.  I know there are other calculators for this out there, but I need the challenge.  I have got a bit bogged down with it and made it more complicated that I think it really needs to be, but I will probably finish it tomorrow.  It's good to get my head round a little bit of programming now and again - it really gets the brain cells working.