Hit Me Baby One More Time

NBC - that stands for "No Britney Content" and for the network which will be airing the American version of "Hit Me Baby 1 More Time" - the reality show on which faded pop stars compete for a chance to regain their former glory for a moment. I talk about my love for TV here quite often but don't often post about it and that must change. Also, given how many great sites out there that had fab recaps of this seasons shows, there was no point in me jumping when the season was half over. So, to practice my recapping skills and to tide you over the summer, I will watch bad TV so you don't have to!

Join me, won't you starting after the debut this Thursday, June 2. Welcome all fans of cheesy reality television - especially Heather Hamilton fans - I know you visited, so if any of you liked what you saw and came back for more and you're jonesing since Heather wrapped up her cheeky Apprentice recaps - I look forward to you joining me on this journey.

Modern Sin

This blog post title says it all: "If thou shalt not covet, I'm going to hell." Yeah, me too.

I dragged my mom to the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend in Menlo Park last Sunday so we could tour the latest modern architectural prefab object of lust from the genius brain and heart of architect Michelle Kaufmann. It (the Breezehouse) was so much better than I had even dreamed.

Edited to add interior pictures link.

I've lusted after Ms. Kaufmann's first offering, the Glidehouse, ever since I read about its debut at last year's Celebration Weekend. I carried the article with me from Philadelphia to the Bay Area when I moved back here last year. As I drove around with my real estate agent looking for a home, I drove the poor man nuts as I would ask him to quickly stop in front of vacant lots as we drove around. Inevitably the empty lots would cost as much as buying a house. Plus, my agent couldn't understand my dream - he told me that he used to sell modular houses in the 60's and that he could hook me up if I really just wanted a modular home. I couldn't put into the right words that it wasn't just any modular house - it was this modular house.

Now that I've seen the Breezehouse I must have one. Someday. Someway. I don't know when, where or how - but I will.

Happy Birthday to Zoe

Today is Zoe's 11th birthday. She looks good for her girlish 77 human years. Feel free to wish her well in the comments, and I promise to pass your kind words along.

It also happens to be Zoe's human's birthday (Wag - that's me)! I am, as my grandmother would always say, as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.

And the Wonderful Musical Baton Continues to Twirl

Wow, I feel like I'm a real blogger now - I'm doing a meme and everything! Elisa was passed the baton by Elliott (I was at that Clinton speech at Cornell last year too - it really is a small world) and now she's passed it to me, among others. I got some link love (and was introduced to some cool new blogs), I am in any way inhabiting the same blog atmosphere as Elisa and Jory (and very indirectly, Scoble, via Elliott) so I must be arriving! O.K., enough of my basking in my self-made specialness - onto the Musical Baton!

Total volume of music files on my computer: 12 GB but this stat is somewhat misleading. This is not indicative of my music collection as I have yet to get a real MP3 player (theoretically I could listen on my PDA) or make a concerted effort to rip, store and catalog my music collection. Combination of being lazy and an early adopter/technophobe - I'll explain that one in another post. But, kickin' it old skool - I actually own something like 1,500 vinyl LPs, 200-300 vinyl 45s, and 400 or so CDs.

Last CD I bought: Devils & Dust by Bruce Springsteen, of course.

Song playing right now: Theme song to "All My Children" Sad but true - TV is more my background noise than music these days. However, the idea of getting an iPod or other such device and getting my digital music act together has been seeping into my consciousness of late and perhaps one day, in the not too distant future, I'll have a true "Now Playing."

Update: "One Life to Live" is playing Strangelove by Depeche Mode - awesome! Perfect!

Five songs I listen to alot these days:
1. God is Not Sleeping - Phil Roy
(Next four are from TV commercials that catch my attention and make me dance around when they come on)
2. Pump It - Black Eyed Peas (Best Buy)
3. Callin' Out - Lyrics Born (Diet Coke with Adrien Brody - "Bounce" and Tower Records "Funk")
4. Starry-Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold (Diet Coke with roller skates - "Sparkle")
5. Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz (iTunes & iPod with roller skates)

And when I get with my digital music future those songs are at the top of the list of songs to add.

And now I pass the baton to:

• Heather Hamilton
  
• Ethan "Effern" Johnson
• Jennifer Hanen
• Jeneane Sessum
  
• Nichelle Stephens
  

My disclaimer is that I've never been in direct contact with any of these bloggers. However, they all have interesting blogs that I enjoy reading and that I highly recommend, I suspect they'll be game, and I'll be interested to find out what they are listening to if they decide to play.

Update: It occurs to me that most of my dear readers don't blog and many would have fantastically fascinating answers - so friends - send me an email with your answer and I'll publish it here for you.

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

It's a weird and wonderful thing when your family played an important role in the history of America. My great-great-great grandparents were William and Ellen Craft who made a daring escape from slavery by disguising Ellen as a white man and with William posing as her slave, they boarded a train and simply left. That's the extreme digest version. You can read their story in their memoir Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.

A recent edition of their book features and introduction by Professor Barbara McCaskill, an associate professor of English at the University of Georgia. This academic year Professor McCaskill has been a Radcliffe Institute Fellow. Recently, the Radcliffe Institute hosted a presentation by Dr. McCaskill of her research on the Crafts. The presentation was held near Stanford so since Dr. McCaskill has been in correspondence with my sister and knew that there was a good-sized pocket of Craft descendents in the bay area, we were invited to be her guests at the presentation.

The idea of meeting someone who studies your family (in fact, that someone studies your family) is a little strange. Meeting Barbara, however, was a blast. Her energy and enthusiasm for my (our) history was charming. It was truly enjoyable meeting Barbara and she's been adopted into the family. It was also quite fascinating to hear the historical context and richness that she added to a story that, for us, is a family story that's been passed down for generations and is quite personal. Certainly we understand the historical importance but it was interesting to hear more detail about how the Craft's journey and subsequent activism intersected with and influenced the abolitionist movement, notions of women and blacks, and post-slavery communities among other things.

Also of note was the terrific hospitality of the Radcliffe Institute. The presentation was well organized and we had a wonderful time chatting with our hosts and several alumnae of Radcliffe at dinner afterwards.

Blog Discoveries

I've added some blogs to my list of reads on the right and I want to alert you to them if you don't already know. My post on hip-hop feminism got picked up on Technorati and sent some curious folks my way. I clicked on some of the other posts under that tag and found some interesting reading. Also, BlogHer has introduced me to some of the women I've added and I am very much looking forward to hopefully meeting them at the conference.

blackfeminism.org is "a community web log about race & gender" which, you might of guessed from reading here, are subjects and the intersection of which I am interested. If you are too, I encourage you to check out this blog.

Jeneane Sessum is on the advisory board of BlogHer and has a blog that is so open, honest and authentic that I was sucked in after my first look and "allied" was immediately added to my blog feeds. I encourage you to go check out what's on Jeneane's mind today.

Nichelle Stephens will be moderating the "Brown Bloggers Go West" session at BlogHer. Check out her "Nichelle Newsletter" where she will entertain you with her saucy wit and tales of life in NYC.

Lynne d Johnson had a post on her blog "A Day In A Life" with follow up and excellent links post Chicago's Feminism and Hip Hop conference. Lynne proposed and will be hosting a "Room of Her Own" session at BlogHer to discuss feminist hip hop bloggers. Man, I don't know how I'm going to navigate that conference because I want to go to every session. Sigh.

My New Blog

OK - it's been a shamefully long time since my last post. Check out what I've been up to though... birthing a new blog (the marketing one I keep mentioning) and website to market my marketing skills (though, of course, Kimley did the heavy lifting here.)

A Comment So Good...

...it should be a post. My sister and her partner cared for Zoe and Gracie while I jaunted off to Phoenix for the weekend. My sister's comment on my Crazy Dogs post is juicy enough to be a Zoe Tale and a bonus guest Backyard Babies Tale, too! Enjoy...

Hmmm, I baby-sat these dogs this weekend and had a similar experience. Our "killer kitty" Zena was allowed to meet the dogs while we prayed that she wouldn't rip them to threads. As she puffed up to three times her normal size and prowled the living room, Gracie sat (on top of Zoe's monogramed pocket)and watched the kitty show with her usual tongue hanging curiosity. Several attempts to get a whiff of the kitty landed Gracie stern warning swats to the backside by Zena. Through all of the commotion, Zoe slept under a blanket.

Hours later, Zoe emerged from under my partners blanket on the couch to see Zena making another attempt at patrolling her living room (which had been invaded by nuisance pups). This time Zoe felt the need to exert her considerable three pounds of muscle. Zoe got so worked up that Zena puffed to four times her normal size and we had to quarantine her again.

Needless to say, the cat meets dog experiment didn't work so well. We decided to keep Zena closed off in the west wing until the doggies were returned home.

Curiously, our porch kitty (known as Mama kitty) who is one of the "backyard babies" that we feed, acted much like puddin' head cat. She paid little attention to the dogs as they went in and out for walks and they paid little attention to her. At one point, Zoe even sat between me and the cat on the top of the stairs. Mama kitty and Zoe were less than a foot apart and Zoe pretended she wasn't there. Mama kitty, on the other hand, seemed slightly offended and did her best to scooch a few more inches away without giving up her coveted sun spot.

The moral of the story. Who the hell knows what goes on in the heads of these critters? Making it up is the fun part.

I'm Back - Sort Of

Hi - I've not posted in a while but just wanted to let y'all know that I'm still here. Just running around to Bruce shows and suffering from allergies that, as one blogger put it, make one pray for death. Anyhoo, lots of news to come. See you further on up the road!