I love shuffle for this

Granted leaving my entire music library on random provides for some awkward moments like when a book on tape comes on and totally ruins the flow.

BUT, it's all worth it for when I'm reminded of gems like Dirrty which I inexplicably removed from my main playlist at some point in the past decade.

That's right, this song came out in 2002.  I'll never forget, this CD will always make me think of Jenny. I bought Christina and she bought Beyonce and then we traded copies.  I miss those days, and I miss this Christina too.

Although I did love Burlesque...

love song #4 and biking on south beach

I seem to vaguely remember these "seasons" of which she sings about.  But when you spend your first Monday in February here:

You forget that it's actually winter in some places.

Oh you want a panoramic shot to really get the idea?

"Blue skies sunshine, white sands by the mile."

some sick jamz

I'd like some more of this from Christina please.  This song never gets old.

Joel came over to hang out at my place before we went to the beach all afternoon yesterday.  Since we were home I of course had to play DJ, which led to many an eye roll from Joel.  Sure, your instinct might be to laugh off certain hits from your childhood but I suggest giving them a chance again.  I agree, Chumbawumba will never be cool again no matter how much Heather wants it to be, but some hits from the 90s were hits for a reason.

Like this:




I put lyrics from this song as my facebook status yesterday and, judging by the lackluster response, nobody appreciates this amazing song.  Perhaps watching the video will refresh your memory?

I love how fresh she looks, how timeless and beautiful, and then she has to muck it up with those hideous sketchers.  I mean really?  All the other dancers are wearing white shoes and she's wearing those?  It had to be a choice by somebody.  I also don't like that one cojo looking back up dancer who seems a little too chummy with Britney.  I guess because he was in the hit me baby one more time video he thinks they are bf4e?  I don't care for it, I also don't like him because he always reminded me of somebody I went to middle school with who shall remain nameless here.  You can totally email me if you want to know who though.

What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss songs from your past.  You might be forgetting about a gem like this:

it all makes so much sense

Madonna - Music - More Music Videos

Jon was looking at stuff about my birthday and found that the #1 song at the time of my birth was Madonna's "Like a Virgin".  What's even weirder is that she was 27 when she did this song!!!!

When I watch the video I can't help but think about how that's what was going on in the world when I was brought in to it.  

The more I think about it the more I feel like all the pieces are falling in to place.  

and then I remember this:

and my mind is blown.

the life

I think I've realized my calling in life; to have and entertain guests.  Not that I haven't always enjoyed having friends stay with me, but having guests in Florida is 1000x more fun than having guests in nyc.

Besides the fact that your guests don't have to sleep in your bed with you when they visit in Florida, it's way more fun to do 'entertain your out of town guest' activities down here.  In nyc you basically do a lot of walking around and looking at things, with the occasional stop for a bite to eat or something to drink.  Down here it's taking a drive by the beach and getting out to walk for pleasure, or having a bite to eat at home by the pool, as we did yesterday.

Jon and I had grand plans of kayaking and botanic gardens that were quickly tossed out the window when Scott uncovered the pool.  This picture sums up how the rest of our day went, save for a brief respite to gorge ourselves on a hotdog cookout.

After our day of heavy eating, drinking, and sunning, we did the only thing that seemed appropriate to do.  We went to the dollar theater and saw Burlesque.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Cher.  Neither Jon nor Scott had seen it yet so it was fun to hear their reactions to the different parts.  Well, Jon's anyways, Scott was pretty much entranced by Christina the entire time.

Upon getting home from the movie Scott passed out leaving Jon and I to play this in to the wee (no pun intended) hours of the morning.  I'm amazed we were able to get up this morning in time to do the last minute errands we needed to do before I took him to the airport.  I was sad to see him go, especially now that I know that Meghan's not going to be able to come down this weekend either.  Now it's back to the same old same old, which brings me to my original point.  If it hadn't been for Jon being here I doubt we would have had a cookout and I probably would have felt guilty about laying by the pool doing nothing all day, but since I was entertaining a guest it was like I was working.  Of course I did neglect my blog, which Dan was quick to point out, but it was all for a good cause.  And now I will have to go back to posting day after day with pictures of the sunset and my musings on time and space because I have nothing else going on in my life.

So come visit please!  We've still got grapefruits on the trees and the pool is starting to warm up, now is the time to plan your beach getaway!  

i wish i were friends with Mandy Moore

I have loved mandy moore since the first time I heard this:




I think somebody put this song on a mix cd for me because she drives a beetle in the music video but she had me as soon as I heard her little mid song love letter break.  Specifically, "love always, Mandy".

I feel it was unfair that she got lumped in with the whole britney christina gang.  For one, she looks like she's 12 years old whereas the rest of those girls all looked like they were 18, and for two, she's clearly got more cleverness inside her.  You can tell as she got older and started doing her own things like this:




besides the other movies she did that were more mainstream.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I was not expecting Britney to be in a movie with an accidental miscarriage at the end, but that still doesn't compare to starring opposite Macaulay Culkin.

Furthermore, I've only found more and more reasons to love Mandy Moore in the past few years.  She kind of fell off the radar mostly, but then pops up every now and then with things like this:




Which is fantastic.  I love her sensible flats.

If you're not familiar with any of her more recent stuff it's pretty fantastic, totally different from her early stuff.  This is one of my favorite songs, probably of all time.  I just think it's so beautiful and emotional and sweet and I find so many things to relate to in it every time I hear it:




I just feel like if I were friends with Mandy Moore we'd get along really well.  I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed.

windows

First of all let me say that all I could think while I looked at the bergdorf windows was, "GAGA OOH LA LA"


I don't know if it's just that i'm conditioned to see crazy outfits and think gaga or if there actually is a relationship but it's all I could think.

Anyways, the point is, Laura is in town for business/her birthday and today she had the whole day to herself.  I met up with her for a really nice breakfast, followed by a walk through Central Park on our way to see the windows.

I'm really really glad that we could do this, seeing the windows is one of my favorite favorite things to do in NY.  One of my favorite things in the world is when somebody with an incredible creative vision is given the opportunity to make that vision come to life.  It's why I will defend The Lion King on broadway to the death, because I just think it's incredible to see what Julie Taymor was able to do when given a blank check.

And that's what the windows remind me of.  I can't imagine what it would be like to be given this little nook on 5th ave and told that you can do whatever you want with it.  And to be given the most amazing couture gowns to work with too?  Outrageous.

I know the pictures are kinda hard to see, I was limited to snapping shots in between obnoxious people standing in my way.

There was a whole map theme at Bergdorf's, this handsome guy was made completely from shredded maps!

Though we actually did walk all over looking at windows I only really took pictures of Bergdorf's, mostly because they are always my favorite.  A lot of the other stores on 5th do themed windows that are hit or miss, but Bergdorf's always just does fantastical magical over the top windows that are impossible to not impress.

I would love to meet one of the designers and get to pick their brain about every step of the process.  I'd love to see their original vision compared to the final result.  I'd love to ask them about how much liberty they were given and how much they were expected to color in the lines.  I wonder if they're given free reign to pick the AMAZING dresses that they use or if they are given the dresses and told to build the window around it.

So many questions!!!

I think this window was my favorite:

Because it's amazing, and also because it immediately made me think of this which I would LOVE to see.  It also gave me a christina aguilera vibe, circa her back to basics album.

I did take a picture of this window at Barney's because it filled Laura with the rage of a thousand suns:

Barney's did a whole food theme to their windows this year and featured these gross caricatures of food network personalities.  Laura found issue with the fact that Sandra Lee was featured so prominently, even after I explained that she's the new first lady of New York.  She felt that it wasn't justification enough.

"She is not a food celebrity, she opens cans of soup"

I don't care what Laura says, I still love Sandra Lee.  Anybody who plans a child's birthday party around drinking is A-OK in my book.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to packing.

Burlesque

source

My sister took me on dream date last week that ended in seeing this.  And let me tell you, it was good, I highly recommend.

It has the Dreamgirls thing where Christina is pretty stiff when she's just doing lines, or just dancing, but as soon as she starts "performing" you remember why they cast her in the first place.

And then there's Cher.  omg.  Before going in I had the thought in the back of my head that it was so wild that Cher won an Oscar, but then I remembered why.  She is brilliantly amazing.  She has that Mariska quality of being able to take mediocre writing and make it believable.  Then to see her interacting with all the other amazing actors in it was super fun as well.

My sister has already been to see it again.  I feel the same way, so if anybody wants to go, just send me a smoke signal.

Follow up

http://popdirt.com/mariah-carey-responds-to-christina-aguileras-gq-diss/48432/

posting about Mariah has caused a flood of delightful stories to find their way to my inbox. This is a recent article about how Mariah responded to Christina drinking the haterade and dissing her.

This is why I love Mariah, she's too good.