Gotta cut loose, footloose

In my first life (or, well, until I turned ten), I was a dancer. Not a particularly good one, mind you, but I did my best.  I no longer harbor dreams of dancing with Baryshnikov on the Metropolitan Opera House stage, but I do still like to shake my tailfeathers now and again, usually within the confines of my living room, and occasionally while watching the "Shake and Shimmy Edition" DVD of Hairspray. (They teach you the choreography! It's awesome!  I'll do "Ladies' Choice" right now, if you want to see it.)


Anyway, if you like dancing and/or dance-related movies, as I do, then I bet you'll like this.







After two viewings I've identified clips from:


Flashdance
Dirty Dancing
White Nights
Footloose
Saturday Night Fever
Singin' in the Rain (and several other Gene Kelly-related clips)
Step Up
Step Up 2: The Streets
Mary Poppins
Kill Bill
West Side Story
Moulin Rouge
Jay and Silent Bob
A movie featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, John Travolta, and terrible 80s leotards, which I've identified as a film called Perfect
American Pie
Grease
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Billy Elliot
What I think is Titanic
Strictly Ballroom
Phantom of the Opera
Something with Michael Jackson
High School Musical
Happy Feet
Save the Last Dance
Honey
Mamma Mia!
What I think is The Mask of Zorro
Coyote Ugly
Austin Powers
A Knight's Tale


Most surprising? The recent Steve Carell-starring remake of Get Smart.
Most surprising omission: Where the heck is Center Stage?!


There are a number of clips I couldn't identify, but take a look, folks. What did I miss?

Let's talk about babies!

Apparently many women experience this thing where they have a sort of, I don't know, yearning for a baby.  Like they see babies and feel their biological clocks ticking or whatever.  While I would like children someday, I do not have that Baby Need.  


Show me a golden retriever, however, or any commercial involving dogs, and I immediately start googling animal shelters.  I want every big dog I see, all the time.  I nearly ran a red light on Monday because I was distracted by a pair of Great Danes walking down Wisconsin Ave.  And I cannot get enough of this commercial, which I tried to embed, but it's showing up ginormous: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krBOmq7c4BI&feature=player_embedded


I LOVE IT.  Anyway. To recap: I want a dog now.  I want babies later.  


But then today, I did this: 

That's Emma, brand new daughter of my dear friends Ryan and Becky.  She was born yesterday at noon, and I went to the hospital over my lunch break today to visit.  And I tell ya what, I could hold her all day long.  I considered smuggling her out in my purse, though I would've been caught, because the nurses check visitors' bags on the way out.


So I've amended my previous statement: I want a dog now, but I am available to snuggle or otherwise entertain your baby any time.  Dogs, too.  You know where to find me.

Gleek!

It's a rare occasion when I miss Glee in its regularly-aired time slot, and not only because it's my #1 Appointment Television program (how else will I have my Glee quote-of-the-week ready for Facebook the next day? People depend on me!).  No, the problem is that once I've missed it, I can barely accomplish anything the next day until I've seen it.  Plus, I have to institute a personal media blackout in the intervening hours so as not to spoil any key twists or plot points.  (Imagine having glimpsed Brittany's hilarious lobster headpiece before seeing it in action on the Gaga episode.  Inconceivable!)  And then I count down the hours until lunch, when I can hunker down in my office and get my fix on Hulu.

All this is to say that I missed Glee last night because I was at the opera (Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas), which reminds me that I still need to write about Opera Ball, which was the weekend before last at the Russian Embassy.  And holy vodka and caviar, Batmansky!  It was ah-mazing.

So anyway....more to come!  Probably next week when I've returned from Pittsburgh and cousin C's graduation.

Daunted

These are next on my to-read list.  I am slightly freaked out by their sheer size, especially the top one. Neither qualifies as light reading.(Ha! Ha! See what i did there?)

Friday ramblings

On my way to work this morning, I discovered a few things:

1) Summer is here. Well, ish. It’s here today, at least, with the HUMIDITY and the elusive smell of sewage. I got dressed in my nice, lightweight pink dress and thought, “Eh. Too summery.” And I changed. Into jeans and a black shirt. UNWISE, this was. On the upside, I have gotten several compliments on my hair. Thanks, humidity, for the curl.

2) “The piping plover, a small sandy-colored bird, is endangered and can be seen on Nantucket.” I learned this following my regular morning coffee run, and by “regular” I mean “second day in a row,” and by “coffee” I mean “apple juice and biscotti.” Anyway, my juice bottle informed me this fact about the piping plover. Also, that a piping plover exists. Google then informed me that the piping plover is damned cute. To wit:

Cheerio there! I am cute and fluffy and endangered.

3) …

…

… there was another thing, but I have forgotten it.

Anyhoo, Monday commences The Month of Nothing, inasmuch as I have no trips or visitors (EDITED TO ADD: except Uncle Chris!) booked during June. So far my plans for the month include a) haircut hair trim (or possibly cut, if the attempt to grow it out fails. Which it may).

AH HAH! That was number three.

3) I may not make it to the end of the summer without cutting my hair off. Because of the HOT and the HUMID and other such things.

Right. So. Plans include a) hair trim, b) getting bridesmaid dress tailored (which I have been putting off), c) reading copious numbers of books, and d) seeing how long I can go without putting my window AC unit in.

I know. You WISH your life was this exciting.

And then we lived long and prospered

It’s possible that I’ve been watching too much TV, because I have had two very odd dreams in the last week.

The first was on Saturday night, and all I remember is that it featured Meredith from Grey’s Anatomy, Chuck from Gossip Girl, and Mia from One Tree Hill. I remember nothing about this, except that I was aware of how odd it was that my subconscious should form a scenario with these three characters, particularly as I have not watched the latter two shows in at least a year. And if you know anything about them--the shows and the characters--they have absolutely nothing in common. Also, Mia is, like, not even a regular on One Tree Hill.

Anyway. So that was weird. Last night’s dream, however, I remember in detail.

(cue wavy, fog-like atmosphere of dream sequence)

I am at the beach (Edisto) and am sitting alone at the bar at the Sunset Grill nursing a pink lemonade. It is in a martini glass with an umbrella, which, in the dream, seems totally normal. Anyway, I strike up a conversation with a handsome young fellow named Chris. In the course of the conversation, I learn that he is from California and he is an actor.

“What kind of actor? TV, film, theater?” I ask.
“Mostly film, but also some theater,” he replies.
“Would I have seen you in anything?”
…and the conversation continues, until it suddenly hits me.
“Oh. You’re Chris Pine!”

And then we got married and, because of the lack of flights from Los Angeles to Tri-Cities Regional Airport, Chris Pine chartered a plane to bring various stars and Hollywood-types to our wedding. And I moved to California, where I worked for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Maestro Gustavo Dudamel became a close family friend and came over for the fabulous dinner parties that we hosted in our Hollywood Hills bungalow.

Here’s why this is weird: Chris Pine is an actual actor, and he is about to play Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movie. According to IMDB, the only thing I have ever seen him in is The Princess Diaries 2 (WHICH I ONLY WATCHED BECAUSE OF JULIE ANDREWS, thankyouverymuch). He had a rather big role in that movie, but still.

Um, okay. Where in the world galaxy did THAT come from?