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Please look up "tolerance" and "free speech" because you don't quite grasp the meaning
Recently, people on Twitter have started a campaign to show support for a certain reality TV show family known for their reproductive habits and their religious views. Because of some recent political touring by the parents of the family as well as one of the eldest children taking a job with the Family Research Council (an anti-gay hate group), ( Read more... ) -
Why "Christmas in the Stars" didn't make my list of bad Christmas music
I don't know if you've been fortunate enough to have heard the travesty of Star Wars memorabilia that is "Christmas in the Stars" but it's on par with the "Star Wars Holiday Special" in terms of overall horrible badness. There's one cute track on it ("What Do You Get a Wookiee for Christmas [When He Already Owns a Comb]?") but the rest of it is ( Read more... ) -
It's not over yet, not even close
Tonight my sister and I were having a quick chat over Facebook instant messaging where she told me she had been at a talk with Benedict Cumberbatch about his new movie where he plays Alan Turing. She had heard of Alan Turing in relation to computing, but she had not known about his final days, and how he committed suicide because otherwise he would ( Read more... ) -
On the front lines during the holidays
Like every year of late, there has been a push by some folks to not shop on Thanksgiving. Stores have taken to being open at midnight, then 9 p.m., and nowadays even earlier for "Black Friday" sales, even though it's still Thursday. On social media, most people I know fall into one of two camps: 1) All retail should be closed on Thanksgiving; 2) ( Read more... ) -
A little yuletide murder
Having grown up with mystery novels surrounding me, I have, of course, read many books that take place around Christmas. For some odd reason, none of them stick out in my head with a couple of exceptions.
Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod
This is the first Peter Shandy novel and is one of the better books in the series. At some point around The ( Read more... ) -
The holidays bring out the worst. In music, that is.
Yes, Thanksgiving is within spitting distance and Christmas is just around the corner. Some places I've been to are already playing Christmas music, and this year, like pretty much any year, I'm dreading hearing certain songs:
"The Christmas Shoes" by NewSong ( Read more... ) -
A period of inactivity
Last week I did something I didn't think I would be doing at this point in my life: I told SAG-AFTRA that I was no longer actively looking for union work. This does not mean that I can now take non-union work; I didn't resign from the union, I just said that I was not going to be actively looking for union work. This means I will not owe union dues ( Read more... ) -
Something stage actors will catch that others may not
I recently ran across the BBC video of "God Only Knows" that has a crapton of famous singers in it. Because I've done so much stage singing, I now notice how often people sing "choo" instead of "you" in these songs. For example, Brian Wilson sang it, "God only knows what I'd be without you..." Whereas several of the other singers (many of whom I ( Read more... ) -
Seriously, you could wish that on a 14-year-old?
My sister sent me a snippet of a review posted somewhere about "Madam Secretary" where the poster praised Tea Leoni's performance and said that he or she loved the cast with some exceptions and especially excepting Evan Roe "who I'm hoping will be soon smothered by a cat as he lays in his sleep ( Read more... ) -
When bad judgement meets Halloween costumes
I, like a lot of my friends and family, are sick of the "sexy" Halloween costumes trotted out every year for women. Someone must be buying them if they're still for sale. Still, on the bad judgement scale, it's only hovering somewhere in the middle ( Read more... )