Oh no, you didn't!

I may or may not watch The Young & the Restless...and if I do, it's only because I may or may not have been watching since I was 10 years old...with not much advancement in the storylines... Anyway, here's a quote I found disturbing:

Abby (who has aged 8 years in the past 4 months): "No offense, Uncle Jack, but watching you go through my financial statement is only slightly less boring than that AWFUL concert thing you made me sit through last week."

Jack: "That concert thing was the Chicago Symphony playing Ravel..."

A new saying?

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Limo, limo, limo."

Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, April 29, 2008

I guess I don't have to practice anymore!

Knowing oboe rep makes you sexy

Every oboist has seen the Superbowl Commercial with the oboe-playing football player. But have you seen Victor Newman talk about his passion for music?? (And am I the only one who watches daytime tv? Not so much these days, but I still watch Young & the Restless on DVR.)

Set-up: Victor has started dating (read: sleeping with) his daughter's friend Sabrina, who is an international (is she supposed to be French?) art expert; Victor has hired her as his art consultant... (The whole thing is pretty creepy, but this scene was HILARIOUS.)

Victor: Art inspires you the way music inspires me. [Blog author's note: Since when?] Do you know Bellini?

Sabrina: (Giggles.) It's so sexy to hear you talk about music. Yes, Bellini. He's a genius. Do you know his oboe concerto?

Victor: In E-flat Major? Yes, beautiful.

Sabrina: And his operas...Norma is my absolute favourite.

Me: (Laughing hysterically.)

You shall not make for yourself an idol...

OK, I agree with Patty. I don't think I'll watch American Idol anymore this year. They're just bad! I didn't watch the boys perform yesterday, but the girls were bad, and last week the boys were worse. I liked two out of the ten tonight. Carly and Brooke were the only ones I didn't want to fast-forward through. Thank you, DVR. Maybe I'll check in a few weeks from now to see how they're all doing. I just can't sit, and sift, through the junk.

I really thought it was a joke!

An oboe-playing football player! The ad is called Mr. Oboe.
I can only imagine every oboist watching the Superbowl (10 or 12 of us?) leaning forward and saying, "Oh my goodness. Is this for real?" I did.

Of course, we are watching 20 minutes behind on DVR, so as I logged on to blog about it, I notice that Patty beat me to the blogging punch. She agreed though--best ad ever! (Better than Alex Klein on Geico? Well, yes. If Alex played the oboe on that commercial, he might have beat out Mr. Oboe.)

Discovering music

How do you spend your Saturday mornings? Before Harry, I slept in. Babies don't seem to know the difference between weekdays and weekends. (Not that it matters to me--I don't work in the mornings...I still slept in though.) Harry and I were up at 7:30am (at least he doesn't get up for the day at 6am!), and while I was writing a few emails, I thought I'd see if he'd be interested in some cartoons. He's recently started to notice the TV. My ideal programming for my two-month-old does not include Young and the Restless. I'd prefer his first words not to be, "I'm Victor Newman and I will destroy you. You got that?"

Little Einsteins was on (I don't think it's any relation to "Baby Einstein", but I could be wrong), and Harry seemed interested in the music and bright moving objects on the screen. I was fascinated with their use of music! Art of the day? African masks. Composer of the day? Bedrich Smetana! Piece of music? The Moldau! There was even a line said by the kids, "Yay, Smetana!" Not something I expected to see when I turned on the tv. We just watched 20 min. and turned it off. Like my friend Rachel, I'd rather not sit in front of the tv all day with Harry. (Although I could, and would, easily do that pre-baby!)

Go, Smetana! Go Disney Channel!

(Oboe) News to me

I just saw a Geico commercial with ALEX KLEIN! He was the "real person" who had a celebrity next to him (the sounds effect guy from Police Academy) to "tell his story". I was thinking "Alex Klein should be the celebrity!!!!!"...alas, how many people would recognize AK? It may have been my imagination, but I swear there was a little twinkle in his eye as he did the commercial. Was he just having fun while making it? or was he thinking, "I'm more famous than you think I am!" (or, "I'm more talented than this sounds effect guy!")

Batting 400

Happy 400th post to me! (And I don't know if "Batting 400" is good, bad, or impossible.)

I'm idolizing tonight.

1) Melinda--flawless, as usual.
2) Blake--pitchy in both songs, but still interesting.
3) La Kisha--going home this week? Second song was better, but I'm getting bored.
4) Jordin--she's 17?? Fantastic!

Idol flaming reeds

Huh?

Watched American Idol--partially while making Engish horn reeds. And now the Flames are playing.

Ah.

OK, first up, American Idol. My new strategy is to vote for everyone except Sanjaya. Poor kid. I thought the best performers this week were Jordin and Melinda. They got five votes each from me. Everyone else (except Sanjaya) got three votes each. Probably not enough to save Phil or Chris. I thought even La Kisha could be in trouble tonight.

Rrrrreeeeeds. Here's what the three Idol judges might say about my reeds:

Randy: "Dog, the purple reed was just [inhale on] sheee, I don't know, dude. It's a little weak, a little weak. The rose reed was just alright for me. A little pitchy at times, but you stepped up at the end."

Paula: "First of all, let me just say you look beautiful tonight. I could just use more range and really show us why you're in this competition. You know I love you."

Simon: "I don't know what reeds this audience were listening to. They look old, from the staple to the thread to the ratty tips, and they sound old too. It wasn't horrible, but I'm not jumping out of my chair. You've got to do better than that if you want to stay in this competition." (He might later add to that last sentence "...and if you want to beat Sanjaya.")

Flames--yes I'm watching the game--no they're not losing. They're not winning either though. Perhaps because I'm trying to work on my laptop at the same time and I'm only half paying attention. End of the first: 0-0 The boys are playing much better tonight, but they need to score!

Amazing what??

Grrr...I hate 60 Minutes. The show is good. I hate that when any sporting event goes long, 60 Minutes goes long, and my recording of the Amazing Race gets cut off half an hour into it. I repeat, grrr... Didn't see who was eliminated. Have to go to the CBS website. Don't tell me!

Reed Thread Vote time! I forgot I needed to make reeds last night, so I had to make my own decision (gasp!) and go for dark purple. I'm videotaping my embouchure as part of my lecture-document (no pressure there...no pun intended!), and I thought a dark colour would be better than a variegated or bright coloured thread. My spool is empty again though, so it's your turn to vote!

I'm feeling "blue"...your choices:

Aqua
Periwinkle
Turquoise

Vote now! Voting ends Wednesday at midnight...just because.

Idol and Other Entertainment

*Spoiler alert*

Hmmm.

Hmmm.

Who watched American Idol tonight? I had a big "X" next to Jared and Sanjaya for the guys, and Haley and Antonella for the girls. The two shockers were Sanjaya beating Sundance, who I've never particularly liked anyway but he's way better than this kid, and Haley beating Sabrina. What?!

Here's my theory re. Haley over Sabrina. The meaner the judges are to a contestant, the more sympathy they get from television viewers. Think Kevin from last season. How did he last so long? ("Thstarry, Thstarry night!") So Simon tells Haley he doesn't even know her name, and she wins over a much more talented Sabrina. Hmmm.

OK, I'm tired of talking about this already. I wouldn't make a great entertainment reporter.

In other entertainment, I just finished reading Alexander McCall Smith's "2&1/2 Pillars of Wisdom", which was delightful, and oh my goodness, if you click here, you might be as shocked as me to discover its price as a used book on Amazon. Why so expensive? Should I sell my copy?! We picked it up for free at a book exchange! Then there's a separate listing with cheaper prices. Oh well, there goes my fortune. Anyway, it's a great intellectually funny read. I only wish I could read Spanish, Portugese, German and Latin. I understood the French jokes. (Not to scare you off--there were just a few italicized "witty" remarks made by the pompous main character--very Frasier Crane.)

I just started Anne Tyler's "Digging to America". I have high hopes for this one. It's about the entwined lives of two families who have adopted baby girls from Korea and meet each other for the first time at the airport. (That's where I've read to so far.)

The other fabulous books I'm reading:

Barbara Conable's books on the Alexander Technique, The Inner Game of Music, Evelyn Rothwell's Oboe Technique...can you tell these might be for my lecture-document?

Sigh. To read purely for pleasure again...and to watch tv with no guilt whatsoever!

Not so literal

We stayed in last night and watched a movie with our friend Rachel. After the movie finished ("My Super Ex-Girlfriend"--light and ok) and Rachel went home, Dave and I kept the TV on and saw the beginning of a show, I think on TLC, called "Outrageous Proposals." Part of the proposal for the first guy was him asking his girlfriend's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage. AWK-ward! They were totally not cool with this, but seeing as there were cameras there, they couldn't very well say no, right? It took about four attempts (from what they showed on tv--could've been more) for them to finally give their blessing. Dave really felt for the guy.

The funniest part of this scene was the dad saying, "I just want someone who will literally love my daughter to death."

...

?!

And nobody said anything about this? OK, maybe he meant it in the "til death parts us" sort of way, but it really came out wrong. What surprised me was that his wife didn't even blink at that sentence. I can see why the future son-in-law might have kept his mouth shut, especially with the hard time he was having convincing them he just wanted to be part of the family.

For the rest of the evening, Dave and I tried to outdo each other with incorrectly used "literally" phrases. (E.g. "I love you so much, I could literally eat you up!...and I think I will!" or "I love you so much, I literally want to rip the heart out of your chest and hold it next to mine.") We're a little goofy sometimes.

So, for future notice: do not say things like "I was so surprised, my eyes literally popped out of their sockets!" or "His fever was so high, he was literally burning up." (...unless of course, tragically, he does, literally burn up.)

Take note.

Late dinner and the wiz

The Wizard of Oz is on TV, possibly my favourite movie of all time. I got home an hour ago and popped a chicken casserole into the oven. It's a late dinner for us. Dave won't be home until 10pm anyway. Juries Sunday through Tuesday--and the students think they have it bad! Poor professors! (I say that as I no longer have to play juries...nerve-racking!)

Christmas letter update: Finished! I'll probably post it on the blog a little closer to Christmas. We're mailing it to fewer people this year, opting for emails instead. Like our friends Rachel and Kedron said, most people just throw out the cards, and less than half of the people we send them to return the gesture. Too cynical? For the most part, I still send it year after year to old friends, and it's a little sad when I don't hear anything back. I don't need a Christmas card...I'm just trying to stay in touch. Making the sad decision to cut someone from our list is like saying goodbye to those friendships. I guess that's why I kept sending the cards...I didn't want to say goodbye.

Ahhh..."Somewhere Over the Rainbow"...mmmm...that makes me happier.