me & my cultured self

Ah, yes…. What have I been up to? Well, being the east-sider that I am now, last week I went to an orchestra concert AND the opera.

Yeah, ya heard me.

The orch concert was amazing; there's nothing quite like hearing a full orchestra live in a great hall. That was Wed night. Then, Sat night, I went to see La Bohème at Playhouse Square downtown. Just us gals went; there were supposed to be 6 ladies, but 2 had to back out.

By the time the lights went up for the 2nd intermission, I was just bawling. We had to go out to get tissues b/c 2 of us were just in tears. Thank goodness for waterproof mascara, no?

Tomorrow night, one of my fabulous friends arranged for all of us to go see John Caparulo at Playhouse Square. My friends are really the best! We are going to be in the 2nd row for a show that's being taped to dvd for Comedy Central?!?!!? Are you kiddin me? I just love my friends.

Not for that, per se, but b/c they really are great. I've been a Ms. Cranky-Pissy-pants lately, & they've dealt with me accordingly.

I'm also excited that we're going to Bricco before the show. They just opened it up here, across the street from Playhouse Square, & I was there just last Sat after the girls & I left the opera. It's totally fab, so I can't wait!

stupid crackerjack crackhead

So, TIoP just posted that MSNBC finally canceled that stupid Cracker-Jack Crack-head's show.

Thank GOD for small favors, huh? You remember Tucker Carlson, don't cha? Here's the post where I got super-mad at him:

Hate Crime Nation

And here's my post just after that to self-promote:

Pimping my Old Gay Posts

Appeal granted for Davis

Hey, remember Troy Davis?

I posted about him 1st HERE, & then an update HERE.

Well, it looks like the Supreme Court has finally granted him an appeal. They will be hearing his case.

I know I haven't posted much lately, but I don't also want to post just for the sake of saying I've posted. I really do this to get out my thoughts, & right now I've got a bunch of stuff running through my head that I'm trying to make heads & tails of.

So, I'll be back soon, my pretties.

milestones

I don’t have anything new to say; nothing exciting to shared has happened yet today. BUT, ppl who know me know how much I tend to ramble; & I’d like to announce that I left a voicemail today that was only 58 SECONDS long!

Cool, huh? I know I also left a 3 min voicemail for our IT dude, but that’s b/c I had to explain something in detail for a report I need. But 58 secs! That could be a record for me.

mixed market

Dude, my girl just sent me this email about this site, Mixed Market.com. Apparently, if you shop (uh, like I breathe) at any of the stores they're affiliated w/, a percentage (I think 20%?) goes to certain charities.

Netflix is one of the companies; & I know my ppl are huge NetFlix ppl. I shop through Amazon like once a week (lately once every two weeks); so I'll be shoppin via MixedMarket for my books.

It's super-simple too. Just bookmark Mixed Market.com then, whenever you wanna buy something, just click on the store name through that website. It re-directs you to Amazon, or whereever, but it knows that you came through Mixed Market, so it'll donate a percentage of whatever you pay (the amount you pay wouldn't change) to a charity.

Here's a list of all the stores that are affiliated w/ 'em.
Here's a list of the charities they run to. At the site w/ all the charities, you can click on any charity to go directly to their website & learn a little more about it.

Kewl, huh? Thanks, Steph, for sharing & carin! Remember folks, only YOU can prevent forest fires!

bring on the grants!!!

This is fantabulous news! If there's a new method that would keep the commie-conservatives all happy-like, then there's no longer a reason to block all the cha-ching-age!

If you don't want to read the article, it's about how the super-smart, good-guy biologists have figured out a way to get isolate & get a stem cell at only 2 days! Thereby keeping all the other healthy cells (actually called blastomeres, at this stage) so that the embryo doesn’t die. Before they couldn't extract until later on, when there were 150 stem cells present, & so the embryo became a dead-bryo.

What this means to me is that we may have a cure to cancer in my lifetime! Yes, I’m a “glass half full” type of a gal. Don’t try to burst my bubbly.

Bring on the research grants. Ain’t no one vetoing this; there’s no longer a reason to.

Related articles:
NY Times | BBC News | UK's Daily Mail | Reuters

da pumpkins are back, baby!

Guess what?!? The pumpkins are reuniting!!! I'm completely stoked about this.

If you go to their site, they don't have anything up, but a brief message that says that they're in the studio right now.

It still looks super cool, though.

photo friday #1: Remarkable

This is the back of Isaiah Zagar's studio/residence on South Street in Philly. It says (if you click on either pic to zoom in) "Art is the Center of the Real World". The pic below is a close up of the writing; you can click on that to zoom in & see the detail too.

He is just this incredibly remarkable mosaic artist there; & there was this time when they were going to tear down his work.

Literally, they were going to bring a bulldozer & demolish the "Magic Garden" in the middle of the night. It was the most incredible thing, how all these ppl (w/in & waaay outside the community) banded together to save it.

Injunctions were filed, US gov’t hurdles were… um… hurdled. Just all kinds of crazy stuff, take my word for it. Or you can look it up yourself if you don’t believe me.

I think this fulfills this week’s topic of “remarkable”. And I knew that this or any shots of Isaiah’s work could be used (& trust me, I’ve got at least 100 shots of his stuff); my only prob was trying to figure out which one to use.

I’ve joined in on PhotoFriday; mainly b/c I love to take pics w/ my digicam. I love my cam. Now, here’s the thing: they post the subject for PhotoFridays on every Friday. Chances are, I won’t be able to take a pic (or find a pic I’ve taken from my archives) on that very same day. So, sometime that week, I’ll post it. So, now you know why you may see PhotoFridays on Mondays or Wednesdays. Don’t discriminate, yo!

OH-- & click here to see other PhotoFriday participants' pics.