The tiny part of my heart that is not shriveled up and black loves this wedding entrance so much. Makes me feel like I’m not such a freak for wanting to march out of the church to Jason Mraz’s “Butterfly,” which ends with joyous repetitions of the phrase “You’ve got it all, you’ve got it all, you’ve got it all.” Anyway, I know that I would love to attend a wedding like this, and as much as I might play it cool, I’d probably have a blast if I could be one of the dancers.
Note: In order to forestall any claims of Pepsi Blue-ness in this post, I will not link to anything.
I’m a sucker for marketing. I understand what advertising and commercials are for, and I actually try to limit my exposure to them, because they’re often so insidious, and I prefer to be completely aware of what I’m absorbing. Still, when I saw the ads for Pepsi Throwback, I was intrigued. Not because the low-budget kitschiness of the commercials, but because I’ve always wanted to drink soda that was sweetened with real sugar, instead of corn syrup. I have friends who can’t wait until Passover, because then they stock up on the Kosher for Passover Coke products that are sweetened with real sugar, and their descriptions of their joyful sodagasms have always made me a little jealous.
That being said, I just don’t get it. This Pepsi tastes to me almost exactly like regular corn-syrup Pepsi. If I hadn’t bought it myself, I wouldn’t even be convinced that this is a different product. It’s not bad, but it’s not amazing. I was kind of giving up soda before this, and this hasn’t really made me rethink my plan. What is good about this stuff, though, is that it is seemingly impossible to spill. I have a bad habit of upsetting my soda cans, and I’ve already knocked over two cans of this stuff, and even though both cans were at least a third full, only drops of soda spilled. Drops!!!! If for no reason other than this, this stuff should stick around forever, so that klutzes like me can enjoy soda like the normal people do.
Thursday was a friend’s birthday, and so last night I treated him to dinner and a movie. I told him that he could pick whatever movie he wanted to see, and I wouldn’t make any sort of jokes about it or be a bad sport at all, but despite having been given carte blanche, his first choice, 500 Days of Summer, was something that I would really have enjoyed seeing. Unfortunately, it isn’t playing anywhere in NJ, so he had to pick another movie. He said he wanted to see I Love You Beth Cooper, but that he couldn’t do that to me. Since I still don’t really have any idea what that is, I was sort of like, “Whatever, thanks,” but it really can’t be worse than some of the other movies he’s gotten me to see, such as Hot Rod. Two years later, and I still shudder when I think of that horrible excuse for a film.
He decided that he wanted to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’ve never read the books, but I have seen the whole or parts of the previous movies in this series, and have have never really minded the experience. I wasn’t expecting much, but I quite enjoyed the movie. I haven’t seen the previous movies recently, but this was much, much better. The was believable teen-romance angst, and a level of violence that I had not anticipated at all. The only thing that kept bugging me was how easily Harry & Co. gave up searching for the identity of the Half-Blood Prince or the meaning of his name. I think that I am eventually going to read the books, so I’ll check to see if this part of the story plays out the same way in the novels. To revive an old tradition of mine, here’s an excerpt from a couple of reviews that most closely mirror my thoughts on this film.
The strangest thing about the new Harry Potter movie is not that it’s unusually good, which it is, but that it unequivocally illustrates just how poorly we’ve been served by the previous five instalments in the franchise. — Kevin Maher, The Times Online
Harry Potter is getting darker, angrier, distinctly more wicked. It has an edge. Scary Potter? — Gary Wolcott, Tri-City Herald
I have no idea why, but I’m so happy today. It’s not the usual, “It’s a Friday and I don’t have to work” kind of deal. I’m just really really happy. I actually caught myself singing “La la la” and skipping down the hall from my room to the living room. I know that’s abnormal, but there you go. I did just finish a really interesting book (nonfiction even!), and that always excites me. The book is entitled The Unlikely Disciple and written by Kevin Roose, a young journalist from Brown University who spends a semester at Liberty University. I appreciated the nuanced view; it wasn’t LOLXtians at all. I finished that much quicker than I expected to (nonfiction tends to languish in piles until I can’t take the guilt anymore and just return them, unread, to the library), so maybe I’ll start on my Newsweek Top 100 books challenge earlier than I though. I believe that I shall ease myself into it by rereading Pride and Prejudice tomorrow while I’m at work.
This afternoon, though, I’m going to hang out with my parents, and just generally enjoy this lovely day!
Although I’m trying to do better about managing my money, and am making an effort to say “no” in situtations where I previously would have offered a wholehearted “yes,” I still like to have to option to get things, should I really need or want to. I have belonged to Gilt Group and Ideeli for about a year now, and now I joined Rue La La and HauteLook. You may ask yourself why somebody who is trying to practice more self-control is doing this to herself, and I don’t necessarily have a great answer. I know that I like my options, and that I try to get the most for my money when I do buy things.
So, anyway, all of these clubs are private, but in scouring the interwebz, I was able to secure invitations for all of them in a matter of minutes. Since I always live to save people the bother of searching the Internet, if you’re interested in joining any of these clubs, you may use my refererral links below, or visit any of them and use my email address, nicole[at]nonsenseuponstilts[dot]com (replacing the brackets and words with the usual email symbols and punctuation) as your referral. And, yes, I do get a credit if you join under my name and then make a purchase (from $10 to $25, depending on the web site). Happy shopping!
Beyond the Rack – Please use the following code: NNWF60BB2B3
Yes, you’re right; I should be stoned for that horrible pun. Still, I can’t hide how happy I am that Project Runway will be coming back to the airwaves on August 20th. Today Lifetime put up their Project Runway web site and introduced this season’s contestants. I try not to put too much stock in the pre-airing bios and such, but a couple of people already seem like they’re going to be difficult. And not just difficult, but reality-tv difficult, which involves visible efforts and obvious attempts to coin a catchphrase. Below are my picks for the three people most likely to make me want to hurl footwear at the tv, based mostly on photos.
1) Malvin Vien – Look at that hair and those dead eyes and tell me that he’s not going to be a problem. Go ahead, I dare you.
2) Logan Neitzel – He just looks like he’s going to be a pain in the ass.
3) Qristyl Frazier – I refuse to believe that this is how her name was spelled at birth, and I am angry with her for doing this to my eyes.
And I just realized that my Project Runway category was mysteriously eaten in the move over from WordPress.com, so I guess I’ll spend my evening re-categorizing old posts.
My buddy, Sarah Palin, has decided to step down from her post as governor of Alaska. Initially, people thought that this might be to give her time to get her act together, so that she could run for president in 2012. And, seriously: how sweet would that be? With Palin as the Republican nominee, Obama could introduce Hookers and Blow Tuesdays in the Oval Office and still beat her handily.
The timing of this announcement can only be called curious; much like Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s announcement of their divorce immediately prior to Thanksgiving, Ms. Palin’s July 3 press conference seems like nothing so much as an attempt to dodge as much of the media as possible during this holiday break. The Mudflats, a web site from Alaska that I visited a few times during the presidential election, linked to a transcript of Ms. Palin’s speech and provided some speculation as to why she would step down as governor (rhymes with “skimbezzlement”).
I wonder, too, if this has anything to do with the tell-all book about Ms. Palin that is being written by Steve Schmidt, her former campaign strategist (and the guy who picked her to run with John McCain; do we really trust his judgment anymore??); Gawker had a juicy tidbit from it the other day, and if the rest of it is as forehead-slappingly stupid as this bit, no wonder the woman wants out before publication. Gawker also speculates as to why the Alaska governor decided to resign her post.
Doing a quick look around the tubes and twitter, it seems that trouble with the IRS is the most prevalent theory. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Jason Mraz has been my favorite musician since 2003. I have followed him all over the Northern Hemisphere, and so far I’ve seen him twice in 2009; I already have tickets to two other shows later in the year. Now, however, I feel like I may have another favorite musician, and I’m not sure that Mraz is still #1 in my head. Ingrid Michaelson’s music has been in my head ever since I first heard it, and everything that I hear just makes me like her more. Her use of harmony is especially attractive to me, but I love her songwriting skills, too. I just think that a lot of what she says speaks to me more than Mraz. She uses clever turns of phrase, maybe not as often as he does, but I just get what she’s saying. I have played “The Chain” and “Keep Breathing” over and over, and they’re now the top two songs in my collection, in terms of play count. There are six songs from that cd, Be Okay, in my top 25.
But I don’t really want to choose. I want my great musical loves to love one another. If these two reproduced, they’d have a really cute kid who would probably throw tantrums in perfect pitch. Ingrid opened up for Jason last year, and here’s a video of them doing one of her songs, then one of his.
“Today was a Good Day” by Ice Cube is one of my favorite old skool rap songs. I can hear it any time and be transported to the days when I watched Video Music Box after school. Here is a really cute flow chart that maps the whole song.
I thought that something was missing from the news that Project Runway could go ahead on Bravo, but I didn’t know what. And then Heidi Klum and Seal announced that they were expecting their fourth child and I was like, oh yeah…
It’s just not a good season of Project Runway if Heidi isn’t sporting those insane maternity outfits and knee-high boots!
And now Project Runway’s disputed sixth season has a Lifetime premiere date of August 20. Can’t wait!
Awesome, Jason Mraz, Seriously Random, Things I like | Nicole | 
July 25, 2009 9:31 am | 
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