Put Your Records On

 

This last Saturday across our great land was “Record Store Day,” celebrated by hipsters and audiophiles alike in musty smelling shoebox sized buildings masquerading as retail establishments. 

Cactus Music even got into the spirit with live music!

 

One of my prized possessions is a record player I got several Christmases ago.  When I informed my parents it was what I wanted they seemed perplexed.  “You mean… … … like vinyl?”

It’s like the iPod version of a record player

 

One of the best things about this one is that it is completely portable and can work off batteries if needed.  It has it’s own speaker so in a pinch you don’t have to plug into anything else to listen.  I have many great memories on the screened-in porch at the Broadway house in Ann Arbor with this lil’ biscuit providing the entertainment. PLUS, I can hook it up to my computer and digitally transfer the record into mp3’s which is buh-mazing because a lot of the records I have aren’t available on CD at all.

Very appropriate, I might add, seeing as how all my friend’s Facebook wall’s in Michigan have been lighting up because of the recent snowfall there this week!

 

I’ve amassed a nice little collection since then and take any opportunity to at least peruse stores when in another city. Ann Arbor had a really great store, Encore Records, and when visiting Jeremy, Clinton, Nate or Jamison I always reserved at least three hours for Cheapo Records.   Luckily, Houston has a handful of them and I spent several hours just hopping across the city and looking at their choices. 

There are some albums that I will ALWAYS buy, and on the top of that list is anything that Martin Katz has played on.  For those of you not in the know—Martin Professor Maestro Katz, called “the gold standard of accompanists” by the New York Times, is the professor of collaborative piano at the University of Michigan.  Oh, and he’s played with basically every great opera singer of the last thirty years, written a book, and is basically a musical genius (and I’m not just throwing that word around willy-nilly). In the four years I was a student at Michigan I had the privilege of taking every one of his song classes and being conducted by him in two operas (Puccini’s La boheme and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin).  Needless to say, any chance I see one of his records I snnnnnnatch it up, and on this most recent trip I got TWO!

  

                  It’s the return of Flicka!!!!!                             Martin Katz + Stephen Sondheim= BUH-LISS!!

 

One of the other reasons I really wanted to get out on this day was that Adele was releasing a special edition remix of some songs from her album just for “Record Store Day.”  I’ve extolled my love for her before (here and here) so it should be no surprise that I was on the hunt for the disc! The first three places I visited had sold out and it was at the last stop that I was able find one—and it was their last copy!!! 

 

And, if anyone out there is making a list—though to be fair, I am still waiting on that watch—if you ever run across Astor Piazzolla records puh-lease get it for me and I’ll pay you back.  The guy who owned Encore in Ann Arbor was a big fan and would always hoard them away for himself whenever someone brought one in!

 

Artist: Corinne Bailey Rae/ Album: Corinne Bailey Rae

I Always Say Hello to a Flower

 

One of the places I wanted to make sure to get to was the United States Botanic Garden, located at the foot of the Capitol building.  Now, the laaaaaast time I went to a botanic garden was a couple of New Years ago when visiting my friends Nate and Jamison and Kyle in Minneapolis.  They have quite a lovely one there, except I find myself in a bit of horticultural trouble at one point.  One of the rooms is dedicated entirely to ferns of all shapes and sizes, and when I was standing next to one of the larger specimens I heard an awful cracking noise and a giant branch fell basically two inches away from me.  Naturally, everyone there immediately looked to me as the culprit.

I’m innocent I tells ya, INNOCENT!! (also, this was taken about two phones ago, so excuse the quality)

 

Needless to say, I did my best to stay away from any fern I came in contact with.

Look, Joseph, but don’t touch

 

The orchid room

 

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers! I refer to them as the harbingers of Spring because when I lived in Ann Arbor they were always the first to push through the snow.  Campus was littered with them, as was Plymouth road, and they always made me excited for the change of seasons

 

This is what I look like when NOT toppling over mother nature like a hyperactive lumberjack

 

Artist: Faith Prince/ Album: A Leap of Faith

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

 

I’m not sure if you’re all aware, but apparently it’s a bit cold out there.  I mean, it’s supposed to snow in Houston tonight, so, you know, I hope everyone’s alive in the north.  I’ve often been heard saying how much I enjoy the cold weather and miss the snow in Ann Arbor, and I do… but most of that is for nostalgia’s sake.  There’s something to be said for how quiet the world seams to get with a fresh dusting of snow all around, but I don’t miss trying to decide where exactly the lanes were on Plymouth road.

Whenever it gets unbearably cold I outside I usually take the opportunity to put in one of my favorite movies: Fargo.  It’s sort of a reminder to myself: “You may think it’s cold here, but at least you’re not in Fargo or Minneapolis… and being murdered in a wood chipper!”  I’ve actually felt the utter bleakness of having to chip away at a windshield encrusted with 20 carats worth of ice in a snowstorm. IT SUUUUUCKS!  Actually, the first time I ever watched this was with my friend Nate and Jamison IN Minneapolis.

 

I could wax on and on about the different things I love about this movie, but above all other things it is because of Frances McDormond’s faaaantastic performance.

“Oh… I just think I’m gonna barf!”

 

So tonight you will most likely find me snuggled up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate watching my favorite Coen bro’s film thinking to myself: “Well, I guess it’s not that bad out there…”

 

Artist: James Taylor, Natalie Cole/ Album: At Christmas

Sexy Lady

 

Once again I am poaching a topic from Jan’s blog. (At this point we should just go on and create a joint one.)  To paraphrase:

Not a fan of The New Scooby Doo's "upgrade" of Velma. Velma doesn't need (nor would she want) fringy bangs, new glasses, or a bow in her hair!

I can’t help but read this and think about my friend, Nate’s, abhorrence at what he calls the slow sexification of Strawberry Shortcake.  He loves his alliterations, that Nate. 

Let’s just take a quick look at the evolution of an American (Greetings) icon:

 The first, and still the most delicious, incarnation

 

 

Lil’ miz Shortcake actually began as a greeting card character and then grew into the children’s cartoon.  Seen here in her ‘80’s incarnation with her beloved cat, Custard

 

2002 re-launch: Taking a page pagina from Dora the Explorer it appears

 

2009’s new Strawberry: Where is Custard?! Why are you lounging like that? And most importantly, WHERE IS YOUR DIGNITY!?!?!?!?!?

 

If you keep going in this direction I fear this is your future:

 

DON’T DO IT, STRAWBERRY!!!!!!! You’re hair’s not even red any more you little tarte.  Pretty soon you’ll be sharing a jail cell with another high-profile former red-head *cough* La Lohan. *cough* (Yeah, still not fixed from the other day).  Was life in Berry Bitty City really that bad?

A few interesting side notes (as if I haven’t embarrassed myself enough):

• My favorite pet from the franchise is Marza Panda, for obvious reasons. Deal with it Apple Ducklin
• My favorite foreign version of the character is “Frangelica Dolcecuore” which I’m pretty sure translates to Strawberry Sweetheart but I also feel sounds like a really fantastic drink of the alcoholic persuasion
• Nate does a pretty fabulous impersonation of the Peculiar Purple Pie Man of Porcupine Peak (told you he liked alliteration)

 

And, although it is unfortunately too late to save other classic children's characters like Rainbow Bright and a 2011 live-action/CGI Smurfs (full disclosure, I’ll see anything with Alan Cumming, Neil Patrick Harris or Modern Family’s Sofiya Vergara), I’m still holding out hope that they’ll keep their filthy paws off my Tail Spin!

Artist: Susan Graham/ Album: At Carnegie Hall