Who Wore It Better?

Sommer's totally right, this is a much better way to do this post. So, who wore my dress from a year and a half ago better, me or this kind of famous chick who wore it this month? Please vote in the comments.

Exhibit A Exhibit B What this says about her, or me, or anything at all I'm not sure. But I just thought I'd share.

Buffy Comic!

Why haven't I read anything about this from you other bloggers and buffyfiles? Am I the only one who ordered it? I read a freaking comic and I want to talk about it! Seeing those characters and their dialogue paterns again was so very much awesome. And I laughed quite a few times. Did anybody else read this thing?

Dear Mr. Henderson

You can expect to be hearing from me soon. So far the vet bills are at about $1,130. I accept cash or check.

Thanks to Kyle for the tip.

I Love

• Harry Potter
• Friday Night Lights
• My upcoming trip to Vegas (t-minus 22 hours and counting)
• The Office
• DCist Music writers (and all DCists, but, this has been a particularly good music week)
• Tom's photoshopping skillz
• Sunshine
• Lollipops
• Rainbows
  

Sowaila the Beautiful

She's come a long way, baby. From the JMHS SGA to one of Paper Magazine's most beautiful people of 2007. And let me tell ya -- that picture doesn't even do her justice. Congrats my lovely!

Mottrams: Bringing Crafty Drinking Our Way Since 199... something

These just may change your life.

Playlist I'm Fairly Certain Will Improve Your Day

Nothing new or exciting here, but based on recent experiments I've conducted, I feel safe in saying that if you listen to the following songs -- preferably in order -- you'll start having a great day. Immediately. Not because they're necessarily happy go lucky songs, but because they're awesome. Very awesome.

• Beirut, "Postcards from Italy"
• The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"
• Spoon, "Everything Hits at Once"
• Panda Bear, "Eyelashes"
• The National, "Fake Empire"
• Aqueduct, "Heart Design"
• Band of Horses, "Weed Party"
• Modest Mouse, "Satin in a Coffin"
• The Walkmen, "Don't Be Long"
• Bob Dylan, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"
• Brendan Benson, "Metarie"
• Cold War Kids, "Rubidoux"
• Death from Above 1979, "Black History Month" remix
• French Kicks, "One More Time"
• Ryan Adams, "Is This It"
• The Specials, "Concrete Jungle"
• Spoon, "Lines in the Suit"
• Benjy Ferree, "Leaving the Nest"
• David Vandervelde, "Nothin' No"
  
• The The, "This is the Day"
  

Who likes drinking?

It's a beautiful day! That makes me want to simultaneously be outside and drink beer and/or margaritas. Who's with me? Call your friend Amanda if you want to share a beverage this evening.

NRCOF

My Three Stars piece on New Rock Church of Fire is up on DCist. Go give it a gander. Believe it or not, the interview you see there is a lot shorter than the actual discussion we had. I left out the parts about a homeless person singing Dio "Holy Diver" and a few other anecdotes. I think probably my favorite quote comes from Trae: "But a song like that, you can fuck up as much as you want and it’s fine – you just have to do it really loud."

Weekends Are Just Great

This one was no exception. I kicked it off by interviewing the fellas from New Rock Church of Fire for a Three Stars piece that will run tomorrow on DCist. It was a "crazy gnarly" good time. Then Anna, Dan and I convened at my place and headed on out to H Street to catch The Walkmen (as predicted) at the Rock & Roll Hotel with Jenna, Liz and Alyssa. I hadn't been there yet for a show -- it's a good venue. It's a bit cramped and the sight lines aren't all that great -- I was having trouble seeing over people, and I know that if my view's blocked, most of my friends have just paid $15 to stare at the back of some dude's tshirt. But the sound was quite good and The Walkmen delivered, as they tend to do. Alyssa was in rare form and quite proud of her howl-at-the-moon tactics that seemed to bring about the second encore. And when I'm starting to worry that those smiles of recognition from the guys in the band are going to turn into paranoid glances of "what the heck is this chick doing back here again?," I see things like this that make me feel far less batty.

Saturday involved a hangover and weird errands, but Saturday night involved the Galaxy Hut, so naturally, it was awesome. Nelson's band, Son of Grommit, and New Rock Church of Fire played, and made use of the projection screen. Nelson's set featured a walk around Meridian Park with an inexplicable break in of me at a bar, pointing and talking in a very animated fashion. NRCOF chose to use the work of another artist, and projected their favorite movie -- T2. Oh, and there was lots of beer and fun and stuff.

Sunday I went to the new Modernism exhibit at the Corcoran. I liked the exhibit a lot, but I have a lot of conflicting feelings about Modern art. But that just made the exhibit and the following discussion of it over sushi all the more fun. Oh, and I ate fish for all three meals on Sunday (lox bagel, sushi, grilled salmon). Not for any particular reason, but I just thought it was weird so I should share.

Do you ever dream about really bizarre and insignificant stuff?

Like a full-night's dream about putting on eyeliner?

Update on Le Stink

He's doing a-ok! I get to take him home tonight. They've still got one more round of "rechecking his kidney values," but they think all is well on the Stinker front. Poor little fella's been on IV fluids for days now, and we get to explore the exciting world of me giving him sub-cu fluids when we get home. I can't wait for that. But he's back to healthy and things are looking good, so the evil pet food can not claim another victim here. Which makes me one happy momma.

I caved

After all this I finally joined facebook. Be my friend or something? I'm still figuring all this fanciness out.

Right, and....

Me: why did you text me Train lyrics last night?
Alyssa: because we were talking about richmond and hairstyles

True stories from the court room

My friend, the prosecutor, about to charge a woman with prostitution.

Woman: If I suck your dick, will you let me go?
Lawyer Friend: Your honor, the people reject that offer and request to move to trial.

Roll out the welcome mat

Well, the meeting in NY was great. Met and worked with tons of great people and had a generally wonderful time. Until, that is, I was endlessly waiting for my luggage tonight and called my mom to find out that Stinker got some of that bad food and was in the hospital. He should be fine -- his badjoojoo levels were much lower than the cats who were really sick or dying, so after a couple days of IV fluids and vet-watch, he should come back gangbusters. But I'm still a sad momma. Whose luggage did not make it back from NY.

Big s t r e t c h in the big city

I'm off to NY for work for a few days. Tomorrow night if you're lookin' for something to do, head to Galaxy Hut and check out the always charming Reed as he woos the crowd with his surf rock stylings on the guitar and vox, and of course, his luminous hair. Sorry I'm gonna miss it buddy.

I suppose I should be out drinking beer somewhere

But instead I'm at home watching lots and lots of basketball. There's something really satisfying about Maryland and Duke both being out of the tourny and UVA still being in.

Also, the reenactments on the history channel are hilariously awful. I was watching parts of this special on the Irish mafia, and had to stop.

Love it

How did I go so long before hearing the term "crackberry." Just heard someone say, "yeah, he's checking emails all day on his crackberry."

Blogging Brief

1. Say it aint so! This gives me hope. And let me just take this moment to say, f*@# the Pussycat Dolls.
2. UVA! UVA! GO HOOS GO!
3. This weather blows.
4. Do your coworkers ever burst into your office singing showtunes? Mine do.

OK seriously

Am still totes stoned on zyrtec. Coworkers repeatedly calling me out on being off kilter. Or maybe this is just what it feels like to not have allergies? Do you people feel high all the time?

A crack in the case

Given his choice for this morning's DCist post, I peg Matt Bourque as the Mystery Valentines Day Stalker.

Stay with me now

First, sad that PopCandy beat me to the Buffy joke here.

Yuked that up with Big White Mike, who then informed me that he's been shopping around to get us some autographed James Marsters photos. No, really. That lead to:

I want to get: JM55; but its discontinued

So I am going with:JM73

But maybe one of the "check me out, I'm a bad ass" pics: JM62 or JM56

let me know what you think. We could totally get matching ones. awesome....

Then he tells me he wants to get them personalized. Which leads here.

Which leads to me, laughing at my desk, all drugged up on zyrtec reading:

Spike: If every vampire who said he was at the Crucifixion was actually there it would've been like Woodstock. I was at Woodstock. I fed off a flower person and I spent six hours watching my hand move.

Moral of the story: everyone who never watched Buffy should totally start. And get some zyrtec, cause I'm having a blast right now.

Batman & Space Ghost: Part II

Remember this? And this? The guys at my office brought their halloween costumes back in, worked in the light sabres, and made this:

Damn Paparazzi

Follow me everywhere.

OK, so

When did people besides Tyler (and people in our group of friends by extension), start saying "totes"? I've read it on no less than three blogs today. Evidence:

Did this seep into pop culture via some other avenue that I'm unaware of? Because for the past several months I've heard it in one small bubble, and one small bubble only.

Arm, thy name is Pin Cushion

So, the allergist. Wow, now that's loads of fun! About thirty suringes full of allergins pumped into your arm to see what you react to. Not really all that bad, but not exactly my idea of a good time. Not shockingly, I reacted to pollins, molds and cats! Oh, and apparently, I have exema? Exema? Which is an allergic reaction? I've never noticed any sort of skin issues, but it was immediately apparent to these doctors and nurses, by taking one look at my i-thought-it-was-baby-butt-smooth arm. Who knew? Awesomely though, I've now got some treatments under way that seem like they might actually work. So, here's to good health!

And also, this:
me: http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1703
kail: the sad part is that I've said something to that effect in the shower

Bursting my pre-teen bubble

Holy crap, what happened to Eddie Furlong?

Has anybody else been watching The Dresden Files?

I'm enjoying it! It's got a sort of Angel feel to it.

Weekend Wrap Up

First of all, it's 2pm and I'm still sitting in bed. About half of this weekend was dedicated to sleep, and that was awesome.

When I wasn't cycling through rem, I had a pretty good one, and recorded just about all of it on Flickr.

First, the weird. As I left work Friday, making a mad dash for home because I'd worked late and wanted to get to DCist Exposed as quickly as possible, I witnessed one of the stranger car accidents I've ever seen. Well, I didn't actually see the accident, but rather, the aftermath. The car that ran into the other was trying to drive away without any sort of exchange of information. The other driver: not happy about that. She stood in front of the car trying to excape to get her to stop. But, well, that wasn't good enough for the escaping car, who ran into the girl to get her to move. The girl, not happy about that either. So she jumped up on the woman's hood to get her to stop. Word of advice: if someone's willing to run into your legs, they're probably not going to stop because you're sitting on their vehicle. And, she didn't. As I'm reaching for my phone to call the police, a circle of cars formed a wall around the woman to get her to stop driving away with a woman on her car. The conversation I had with the 911 operator was pretty hilarious. I don't know how it all turned out because I wasn't in the d-line that closed in on them and drove past before things got even crazier, but boy, that was nuts.

I ran home, quickly changed and threw an overnight bag together, and jetted into the city for the aforementioned photo show. Holy. Crap. What an amazing success. We're estimating 500-600 people came to the reception, and about half the photos were sold. I got the pleasant surprises of Jenna and her coworkers, Nelson & Jess, and Maureen and Jen showing up to check out the exhibit. I of course hung out with all the wonderful DCist folks and various other bloggy types who are always a delight. Pictures here.

Then! It was up to Baltimore and Ottobar, armed with awesome landmark-laden directions from Hemal's friend. Alyssa and I went up to see The Walkmen (the first of three upcoming shows) along with Devin & Liz and the oh-so-wonderful, why don't I hang out with him more often, Dan! The show was fantastic -- they played six new songs, most of which had horns, all of which are awesome. "I lost you" is quickly becoming a Walkmen favorite for me. They played three or four songs off of A Hundred Miles Off, and then a bunch of older songs like Blizzard of 96 and Look Out the Window that I've never seen them play live. Pretty much the only standard they played was The Rat. (Pictures here.) We ran into various Walkmen before and after, so got to chat briefly with Pete, Walt, Ham and Paul, which is always a pleasure. After Ottobar closed down and kicked us out (don't worry, I snuck out my nearly full bourbon by sticking it down my shirt. classy.), we went over to Devin's and hung out, and I was reunited with miss Luna Bojangles! I haven't seen Jenna and Liz's dog in oh so long, and it was glorious. I got face licks and everything. After I drowned myself in blueberry vodka and soda (??), we made our way back to Dan's awesome apartment. That place is fantastic.

I'm going to break the paragraph here just cause that one seemed really long. So, after we woke up Saturday, tip toed around Yoshi's crazy ass, made a Mii Stretch and played Wii tennis, we got some good greasy food, made our way back to VA and I opened all the windows and slept all. day. long. I stirred in the evening, and made my way over to my mom's house, where I scanned old family photos (i'm really adorable, you should check those out) and she fed me shrimp tacos and gooey chocolate deserts. So pretty much the best night possible. And now, I've managed to sleep like rip van winkle and am thinking I should go make myself a nice little Sunday. CVS, PetSmart, maybe even Bed Bath & Beyond!

What I learned from the news today

Everyone's a hypocrite.

Victory!

This little pyggy went to the black cat and got herself a pair of dplan tickets for the Friday night show! And the one for her brother, well, he was willing to give it up to a bigger fan because, as I've been told, he's just that kind of guy. And then I had the wherewithal to guess the number 7, which allowed me to beat out Kanishka in our head-to-head battle for the spare ticket. I guess you could call it superpowers.

Yes yes yes yes yes!

Now, how to quiet those pangs of guilt over not finding a ticket for Tyler.... YET!

P.S. Thank you G.!

Sisters?

Minka Kelly (aka, Laila from Friday Night Lights) and Erinn Hayes (aka Allison from The Winner) -- sisters put up for adoption that never knew each other or what? They look exactly alike! With a few years in between.

Remember in the movie, when the penguin's in the hot air balloon?

When I was a kid, I love, love, loved Alvin & The Chipmunks. Would it be weird to say that Alvin may have been my first crush? I know he's a cartoon, and not human and all, but come on -- dude was super fly. The Chipmunks/Chipettes album was in heavy rotation on my fisher-price record player, and I had a standing date with the gang every Saturday morning.

This could potentially be quite awesome. Or not.

Help a sister out

If you're going to be waiting in line tonight for DPlan tickets, and your 4 ticket limit isn't already all spoken for, please, please, please think of me, your favorite blogger with too many spaces in her blog's title. I've been sick all week and just don't think waiting in line in the cold for hours is a good idea for my personal health. So pretty, pretty please, buy me a ticket if your'e there and have the bandwidth to spare. But I really, really, really, really, really want to go. I <3 DPlan, and will <3 you forever as a result.

Oh, and if you happen to have two spaces to fill on your ticket limit, think of me, and my friend Tyler, who I feel safe in calling the World's Biggest Dismemberment Plan Fan. He lives in Richmond, and therefore can't make it up here to go wait in line.

The place to be: DCist Exposed

Tomorrow night, join this city's most fabulous, most talented photographers at the Warehouse for DCist Exposed. For those of you who don't read DCist, everyday we use the work of tons of extremely talented local photographers via our DCist flickr pool. We decided to bring their amazing work out of the ether and onto a wall, and out of it was born DCist Exposed. Heather's put a ton of work into this and from what I've seen so far, it's going to be fantastic.

If you can't make it to the opening reception, be sure to take a look at the show sometime over the next week. I was there as photographers dropped off their work last night, and what I saw was incredibly impressive.

No luck

I scored no tickets to dplan's second night, or to the stooges. Booo hissssss. If anybody's got a spare for either of those shows, I'll give you hugs and kisses and bake you cookies and pay you money if you wanna share!

Dayquil as truth serum?

Ya know what's hard about being heavily medicated at work? Faking it. Feigning interest or amusement in or by office humor. Pretending like I want to be here. But most importantly, it's denying my ability to slap on a happy face and push through those "I'm right on top of that Rose!" moments. I can normally take my notes, take my assignment and leave a meeting without any sign of my inner "this assignment might kinda suck" thoughts showing. This week I've been called out several times. Whoops.

Still Cruiseazy after all these years

So, yesterday my boss sent me home early from work, for I was looking feverish and tired. I went home, settled in on the couch, and decided to watch Mission Impossible III on demand. I'd been told that it was actually quite enjoyable by several people, so, why not? And, it was! Action, crazy and not at all feasible plotlines, pretty people, great! And Tom Cruise only made me uncomfortable a couple of times! I'd started to think maybe, just maybe, he's not so bad after all.

Then today, I read this. Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwweeeeee. Yes, definitely just as bad, after all.

What to make of this?

I just got two different voicemails from two different people telling me that certain songs came on the radio that reminded them of me.

1. "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
2. "Kissed By a Rose on a Grave" by Seal

Sometimes it's really nice to live near your parents

Like when your mom calls on Sunday to say, "Hello my spawn, could I take you out to lunch?" Or when you're sick as a dog and your dad brings you soup and spicy foods (so that you may taste something, anything). I'm currently enjoying the leftovers and greatly appreciating the extra spiciness of this thai food, cause that's the biggest delight my taste buds have had in a couple days.

Dammit

So, Spoon -- one of my top two favorite bands, and a band I've never seen live -- is comign to Baltimore. On a night I can't go. Dammit dammit shit fuck shit. I just wanna spoon. Is that so much to ask?

It'll hurt if I swallow

So, in good news, my cough seems to be gone or at least going. In bad news, I seem to have gotten a fancy, new cold or something to take its place. Awesome! So, I'm home sick today, trying to work up the energy to go to cvs and buy a new stockpile of cold medicine. My life is truly glamorous.

Also, just watched last night's BSG. So add emotional exhaustion to my list of maladies. Holy crap! Frak me!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I've got two tickets to sell for Sunday night's Grizzly Bear/Beach House show at the Black Cat. My press passes came through after buying, so, who wants to come? It'll be fun and awesome. I mean, come on -- fun AND awesome!! How can you turn that down? For the low low price of whatever the tickets cost, which I think was like ten each.

Think of it less as a cough and more as a purr

So, after a month of having this ridiculous deep cough, I finally decided to go to the doctor. When it dawned on her that I come in with bronchitis once every 3 months or so, she started probing around and decided the following: I've developed allergy-induced asthma because of my cat.

Her prescription: "You have definitely got to get rid of your cat."

My response: "Well, I'm not doing that. Can I take allergy medicine?"

What I'd really like to have said: "Excuse me, but FUCK THAT! Stinker is a living, breathing creature that I love and am responsible for. I'm not going to just "give him up," doctor. If one of your kids was stressing you out and that stress was causing high blood pressure, would you get rid of your kids? I think not. I've seen the commercials about the domestic tranquility that Zyrtec can pour over a family with cat allergies. I've seen them! Find another answer, DOCTOR!"

I am not happy. She gave me some antibiotics and an inhaler and some claritin, so we'll see how this cocktail fairs. All I can say for certain is that I will not be living without my four legged friend anytime in the near future, and that's a fact. I will not be denied my Stinker. I will not!

Stop! In the name of misogyny!

I've been on a bit of a girl group kick lately. Nothin puts a spring in your step on an otherwise bland morning like a little number from The Crystals. But as I've been listening to this stuff more and more, I can't get over how downtrodden these women are, or at least, how downtrodden Phil Spector makes them out to be. Let's take a look, shall we?

Things start out mildy pathetic with The Chiffons' "One Fine Day." A hopeless crush that seems to be the single point of focus for this poor woman. "One fine day you'll look at me and you'll know our love was meant to be." Slightly psycho, and a little sad. I suggest moving on.

Moving on. Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" is one of the saddest, most maddening things I've ever listened to. So, it's your birthday. Your boyfriend, Johnny, not only avoids you beforehand when you're looking for him, but shows up at your birthday party with some other chick (Judy, that skank), in his ring (!), where they proceed to dance and canoodle right in front of your face. What would a sane person do? Kick them out! Kick Johnny in the daddy place and never speak to him again! But no. Little miss Lesley instead cries and longs to dance with Johnny again someday.

Laura Sessions Stepp: take note. The Shirelles released "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" in 1960. Hook up culture has been around for a long time, lady. And, I just kind of have to point out, that light in his eyes -- it's probably not the "light of love." If you're doin what it sounds like you're doin, it's probably a whole different kind of light.

Now, though there were other offenders, as discussed above, the queens of begging, pleading and generally having no sense of self worth were Diana Ross & The Supremes. Holy crap!

"Baby please don't leave me... now that I've surrendered so helplessly, you wanna leave me." So, once the thrill of the chase is gone, he's out the door and you're guffawing and hickuping at him to get him to stay. Poor thing.

There doesn't seem to be a real standard of good treatment for these poor ladies. "Oh how I need ya... but all ya do is treat me bad. Break my heart and leave me sad. Tell me what did I do wrong to make you stay away so long." You're a dick, but it's totally gotta be my fault. Can I fix it? How can I fix it?

And not only do you not have to be interested in these girls, or nice to them, you can cheat on them and not even try to hid it and they'll keep on loving you! "Baby I'm aware of where you go, each time you leave my door... I watch you walk down the street, knowing your other love you'll meet."

At this point, they've been heartbroken a lot, but still define themselves by the love of a man. "How many heartaches must I stand before I find the love to let me live again. Right now the only thing that keeps me hangin on, when I feel my strength is almost gone, I remember mama said, 'you can't hurry love.'" Just wait for it. You'll find a man and therefore have a reason to live, eventually.

They go and find some balls with "You Keep Me Hangin On" -- at least they're pissed and not putting up with it anymore. But whoops, "Love Child" -- too late! And then, there's the anthem of eternal hope to reuinte with your baby dady in "Someday We'll Be Together."

Now, I'm not saying that talking about our lovely lady lumps is a good thing necessarily, but we've come a long way. Those songs were catchy as hell, but those beehives must have done a number on self confidence.

In Loving Memory

As the first Thursday after The O.C.'s ending, let's just pretned I wrote this and call it a day.