Instructions for Properly Hugging a Baby

Everyone gets those internet forwards of funny sayings and funny pictures and useless things you wish people would stop forwarding you. I try not to be too guilty of that and only pass along things that I really like, to people that I think will really appreciate it. And then sometimes, you just get gems, like one that a friend passed along last week. Enjoy.




Instructions for Properly Hugging a Baby


1. First, uh, find a baby.




2. Second, be sure that the object you found was indeed a baby by employing classic sniffing techniques.




3. Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process.




4. The 'paw slide' - simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.




5. Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute the difficult and patented 'hug, smile, and lean' so as to achieve the best photo quality.






If you don't pass this along, a dog will pee on your computer!








So now that I've technically passed this along to all of you, I am in no danger of my new Lucky plush peeing on my computer!

Virgin America misses the mark

There's a billboard that I've seen a couple times lately that definitely is not having the intended effect on me. OK, usually, ads don't work all that well with me because while I might remember the ad for whatever reason, I don't generally remember what brand name the ad is for. In this case, I made it a point to note what company the ad was for. The one time I've been to London, I flew British Airways. I can't remember if Virgin Atlantic was around yet - it probably was, because I think they've been around forever, but the tour I was on was using British Airways, which was fine because I liked them. So I've never flown Virgin Atlantic, and they now have a domestic branch called Virgin America. Well, I'm never going to be flying them.

Here's what the billboard sort of looked like. I say sort of because I'm not sure if the picture is cropped the same way. The picture is oriented vertically, but the billboard was oriented horizontally. However, the main part of the picture is definitely the same. (If you click on the picture, you can see a larger version of it.)




OK, so I guess this is going to appeal to the stunningly hot women who will look at the ad and think, "Oh, if I fly Virgin America, I can do my hair in my seat so I'll look fabulous when I get there, and in the meantime, I can flirt with the guy in the seat across the aisle". I'm not sure if it's in the billboard, but in this picture, you'll notice that you can see some weird-ass boot under a jeans pant leg, positioned to imply it's the person sitting in the seat across the aisle from her. OK, I'm assuming it's a man because of the weird-ass boot, but I suppose it could be some fashion-challenged lesbian too.

So this ad would also appeal to men and lesbians who will look at the ad and think, "Oh, if I fly Virgin America, some stunningly hot woman is going to be in some tiny little dress sitting provocatively next to me and flirting with me."

And then there's people like me, who looks at the ad and thinks, "I don't want someone using a blow dryer right next to me or right in front of me or right behind me. Like I want to hear "whirrrrrrrrrrr" for however long it takes her to do her hair. And if she's sitting next to me, she'll probably end up blowing it at me accidentally as well, and if she's using hair products (whatever amount of gel she can bring on the plane), I have to smell that at my seat too? Or some guy could bring his electric shaver to plug in, and then he'd be shaving at his seat, and I have to hear that thing, not to mention I'm sure his razor isn't going to catch every little hair it cuts off, so there's going to be hair bits flying around. Ewww."

In looking at the picture a little more closely, I also noticed that the couple in the seats behind her are making out severely - not some kind of little kiss or something but more like they'd like to join the mile-high club.

The next time I see the billboard, I'll try to see exactly how similar to the picture it is, whether they show the person in the seat across the aisle or the couple behind her, and I'll try not to crash my car doing it because the only times I've seen the billboard are when I've been on the 10 freeway.

Virgin America - I'm out.

"The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food" by Jennifer Lee

I saw this review of a new book that recently came out, and it was really the title that caught my attention, but the review makes the book sound quite intriguing. And the cover is cool too.




In addition to history and answers to general questions, Lee also apparently looks into the question of why American Jews like Chinese food so much, though I would hope most of them aren't like one particular person I knew who told me she knew a restaurant that served Chinese food like I'd never had before - and the restaurant turned out to be Panda Express. Actually, I can't remember if it was Express or Panda Inn, but you get the idea.

Lee also talks about fortune cookie writers. Friends and I have often joked that they're really prisoners who periodically slip in a "help me, I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory" note as a plea for help, so I'm curious as to what the real story is.

Here's the Amazon listing for the book.

But what I really want to know is if that's seriously her middle name/initial or if she chose it for obvious reasons.

Wood Ranch Barbeque and Grill - restaurant review

We had a group of 9 people there to celebrate a friend's birthday on Sunday night. By the time we got there, some others in our party had arrived, and they had been told that once at least half the group was there, they'd try to seat us. We waited for a little bit in the lobby area. They had signs on the entrance doors that the winds sometimes made the doors hard to open, and boy, were the winds gushing. I ended up sitting by the door, and every time it was opened, I got a blast of air. They seemed to be permament signs, so I don't know if gale force winds normally roam through Northridge.

Shortly thereafter, the hostess told our party that they had something they could offer us. They couldn't put us all at one table, but they did have two booths next to each other that they could sit us at. Since we were told that it would be quite a long wait if we all wanted to sit at the same table, we decided to go ahead with the adjacent booths. It wasn't the ideal situation, and we basically ended up getting broken into a party of 5 and a party of 4. We did a little bit of talking between tables, but it wasn't very easy, and it was already a bit loud in that section, so we didn't want to add to that by yelling between our tables.

We ended up being led to the very back of the restaurant. The restaurant wasn't very wide, but it was certainly very long. As we walked through the entire restaurant, I looked around and decided that the restaurant wasn't designed very well. Most of the seating in the restaurant was booths that sat maybe a maximum of 6 people, so they couldn't easily accommodate many parties larger than that at one time. It turned out that parallel to our two booths was a row of tables for a party of about 10, and those were the only non-booth tables I saw. There were two more booths behind us, and then it was a dead end. However, the party of 10 below us (since our booths were raised from the floor) took up most of the available walking space, so if a server or runner was either helping one of our tables or one of their tables, no other person could go past them. That made for a bottleneck between staff members a few times.

I've been to Wood Ranch before, though not that particular location. The food was as good as normal, and I pretty much order the same thing every time - 2 item combo with the tri tip (medium-rare) and babyback ribs with macaroni and cheese and an upgrade of the second side to grilled asparagus. I like the flavoring of their barbeque sauce, not too sweet, and particularly that the meat is not completely loaded down in sauce. They also have good garlic rolls that are quite tasty.

While the food was as good as I've come to expect , the service wasn't. Our server was pleasant enough, so I don't know if they were just incredibly busy that night (there were a lot of people waiting when we were waiting as well) or if she was particularly overloaded or if it was the configurations of the tables or whatever, but service was quite slow, both in terms of taking our orders and in drink refills. There were quite a few times when we had to wait some time for refills and even having to ask her for refills. At one point, my iced tea was somehow refilled wrong because I took one sip, and it tasted awful. It took a while for her to come back and then a little while more before I could get her attention, and then some time after that before she was able to bring me a new drink.

If you're going with a party of no more than 4 people and aren't seated way in the back and it's not a super-busy time, then I think this particular location might be ok. But otherwise, I probably wouldn't recommend this particular location, and I wouldn't be eager to go back. We've generally gone to the Arcadia location (at the Santa Anita Mall), and we've never had service problems there. The layout of that restaurant is also not designed as oddly as the one in Northridge.

One tangential thing I noticed about the Northridge location is that the entire complex did not look as I had expected it to. It's been many years since I'd been to that mall, and when we were driving up last night, I didn't remember it being an outdoor mall. The husband remarked that it must be some kind of newer addition. It's also certainly a lot more upscale than I recall. Nearby Wood Ranch was a Harry & David's and a Cost Plus World Market, two stores I would never have expected to see there.


Wood Ranch Barbeque & Grill
9301 Tampa Ave
Suite 226
Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 886-6464


Here's their official website for more information and locations.

Stupid Airheads Guild aka SAG

OK, I know, I'm being really unfair to the entire membership of SAG. They're not all stupid - just the people who are currently apparently in charge. The situation is similar to my issues with the Writers Guild and their recent strike. The problem wasn't with its membership. The problem was with its leadership, who decided that they needed to make a name for themselves, even if it was at the expense of their members and others in the entertainment industry. They needed to be able to say, "See, see how great we are, see what we got you?" Ummm, yeah, but you could have gotten them that a lot earlier if you'd actually negotiated during earlier discussions rather than just grandstanding.

And now, its the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild that are being stupid. The studios and networks and production companies are just ramping up production after the end of the Writers Guild strike. So the writers are done and the directors are done. SAG's contract is up June 30, the same date that the directors' old contract expires. But SAG has announced that the earliest they'd be willing to start negotiations on a new deal is April. That doesn't mean they'll actually start April 1. They just won't negotiate prior to that. I haven't yet heard a good reason for it. If they want to see what the writers' deal and the directors' deal look like, they've had plenty of time to look at both. They don't need another month for that. The three-month writers' strike has been devastating for a lot of people who work in entertainment, and the industry is not likely to tolerate yet another strike this soon, especially since I think it would be hard for SAG to explain why they can't come to a deal when the WGA and the DGA have. AFTRA (which handles talent for television and radio, whereas SAG handles talent for feature films) has a contract that also expires June 30, and historically, talks with both SAG and AFTRA happen simultaneously. However, because of SAG's insistence on not negotating before April, AFTRA is now threatening to enter into talks alone with studios and producers. SAG has been using the excuse that SAG and AFTRA have to work some things out before negotiations with the producers can happen. Ummm, ok, then why didn't y'all start THAT earlier? And why is AFTRA saying, no, really, we don't need that, we can all start talking now?

In addition to that, some very high-profile members of SAG, like George Clooney and Tom Hanks and Sally Field, are urging their leadership to start negotiations as soon as possible, but those pleas are apparently falling on deaf ears.

If SAG does go on strike, they're likely to be met with a much different tone than the WGA did. Because of the rhetoric put forth by the WGA leadership, there was quite a bit of support for their strike. In the case of SAG, though, I doubt that any kind of rhetoric, no matter how good, is going to garner much support from anyone who has already suffered because of the writers' strike. In addition, I expect it's a lot easier to support the notion that low-paid writers should be paid more for the product they create, but it's going to be harder to champion that familiar actors should be paid more than the millions they're already making. Sure, most of SAG aren't making Tom Cruise's salary, but random unknown SAG member picketing isn't going to nearly garner as much publicity as having a known face picket.

It would also be interesting to see how the WGA would handle a SAG strike. SAG members were big supporters of the writers during their strike, loudly championing their cause and even joining them on the picket lines. It often went unacknowledged that part of the reason for that was that SAG's contract was due to expire soon, and SAG was engaging in a bit of quid pro quo. If SAG goes on strike, the WGA is probably going to feel obligated to support their strike, and SAG is certain to expect the favor returned. But will writers be as eager to re-populate the picket lines when their own union has just ratified a new deal with the same companies that SAG will be issuing vitriol against? And if the high-profile SAG members' request to start negotiations earlier goes ungranted, and a strike results because there's not enough time to negotiate, would those high-profile members really be able to walk those picket lines when they know their own leadership is responsible for the strike?

A new deal can't be made if talks don't happen, and talks can't happen if only one side of the table shows up.

"The Other Boleyn Girl" and "Juno" - movie reviews

"The Other Boleyn Girl"

I had seen the one-sheet for this film but it didn't make an impression on me. It was the trailer, however, that caught my attention and made me want to see the film.

Here's a link to the trailer.

I've been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember, and I don't think it was because of my original British citizenship. For whatever reason, most things English have caught my interest with ease, particularly with regard to television shows and movies. I also love the grandeur and spectacle of some period pieces, so it's no wonder this film was calling my name. It's the story of two sisters in the time of Henry VIII, one of whom is content with a simpler life and the other of whom has much higher aspirations. In this time, however, women are treated barely above cattle, and they have almost no control over their own destinies. It can be a little disconcerting to watch as the mother of the girls makes almost no attempt to intervene, and even her brother has more say in what happens with her daughters than she does. This is a fully patriarchal society, and even moreso, one where royalty absolutely rules. It doesn't matter what the rules or laws are - what Henry wants, Henry gets, and no one, not even his queen, can stop him.

I knew that the film was based on a book, but I wasn't aware that it was a historical book. For all my Anglophile claims, I'm not actually all that knowledgeable about English history, so even though I'd of course heard of Anne Boleyn, I didn't know the complicated story behind her nor did I know all that King Henry VIII did to gain her favor nor where her eventual place in royal history ended up. The costumes are of course gorgeous, as one would expect in a period piece of this nature. I thought the film was gripping in its story and excellent in its portrayal. Acting performances all around were excellent. I've been a fan of Natalie Portman for some time now, so it was nice to see her doing something that gave her something to sink her teeth into again. Her expressions in this film were terrific. And I'm not necesarily generally a fan of either Scarlett Johansson or Kristen Scott Thomas, but both were also excellent in this film. Eric Bana was also stellar as King Henry himself, torn between his duty to his country and his unexplicable desire for Anne Boleyn.

The film made me interested enough in the story that I'm figuring on buying the book, which I've heard is quite good.

If the Academy can be reminded of this film come next year's Oscar nomination time, I can certainly see this film as a contender in many categories.


"Juno"

And speaking of Oscar contenders, I finally had a chance to see this film. I was the only one in the theatre when the movie started, but then, you wouldn't expect many people on a weekday afternoon show months after a film has been released. Two people ended up arriving about 10 minutes into the film. Oh, and warning to those seeing this film even later than me - expect spoilers ahead.

Quirky is a word that is often used to describe movies, and it's often overused, but if ever a film embodied the quintessential essence of that word, this would be the film. The film seemed jumpy in bits, not necessarily going where you think it might go, but that's pretty much what happens with Juno herself. The basic storyline of the film, an unexpected teenage pregnancy and its affects on the lives of many, isn't all that new, but the execution of that story is rather unconventional. There's not really a lot of drama involved - yes, Juno's father and stepmother aren't thrilled to hear the news, but they support her and help her through it. Juno is picked on by the kids at school, before and during the pregnancy, but her best female friend and her best male friend, Paulie, who is also incidentally the father of her child, stand behind her. Juno can't go through with a planned abortion and instead decides to give her baby up for adoption. She doesn't go through a lawyer or an agency or anything like that - she finds the prospective parents, Vanessa and Mark (played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman), through their ad in the Pennysaver, right next to ads for exotic pets. She likes their picture and after meeting with them, decides she likes them enough to give her baby to them. The extremely wealthy couple of course offer to pay all her medical bills, and there's an awkward moment when Vanessa asks what other compensation she might be looking for. Juno doesn't understand at first and is then appalled when she realizes what Vanessa is asking, and she says she doesn't want to sell her baby - she just wants it to have a good home with people who love and want it because she's not equipped to take care of a child.

Juno initially warms to Mark (with whom she discovers a shared interest in music and horror movies) more than Vanessa (who maintains a more distanced relationship), but her feelings for Vanessa change when she accidentally ends up seeing how well Vanessa interacts with her friend's young daughter. During the course of the film, the emphasis is on Vanessa's and Mark's concern that Juno will back out of the arrangement, but as the story progresses, it's actually their own situation that is in danger. Juno doesn't heed her stepmother's warning about her burgeoning friendship with Mark, which Juno insists is completely platonic, so she is devastated when Mark reveals to her that he's leaving Vanessa and getting an apartment, insinuating that now, something can happen between them. (And umm, ok, so even if he thought Juno was interested in him, what's with the 30-something guy willing to hook up with the pregnant 16-year-old who's baby he and his wife were going to adopt? Weird.) Juno is lost for a bit until she makes the decision to go ahead and let Vanessa adopt her baby after all. I loved the framed picture in the nursery of Juno's note, written on the back of a Jiffy Lube receipt. Oh, and on an unrelated note, how funny was that hamburger phone she used at home? As much as Juno knows that she made the right decision for her baby, she still suffers through the loss of giving her baby up, but she is comforted by Paulie, which whom she is now having a romantic relationship.

This is a film where nothing really extraordinary happens, but the film holds your interest nonetheless. The performances all around are terrific, from Jennifer Garner as the woman who is genuinely desperate to have a child because she has so much love to give, to Jason Bateman as the would-be father who isn't ready yet to be a real man, to Allison Janney as the stepmother who really steps up (love that scene with the ultrasound technician), to J.K. Simmons as Juno's dad who understands exactly who his daughter is, to Oscar-nominated Ellen Page as Juno herself. I did think she was very good and caught the various facets of Juno's complicated personality, though I think I would have still been surprised at the nomination had I seen the film prior to nominations being announced.

For me, the stand-out aspect of the film was in the dialogue. It was refreshingly real and casual, with quirks thrown in for each character.

I thought the music choices were a bit funky, but maybe that was just because it wasn't my type of music. However, I had previously heard Sonic Youth's version of The Carpenters' "Superstar" that's featured in this film, and I do think it's an incredible re-working of the song.

I am also amused that this little tiny film is directed by Jason Reitman, who also wrote and directed "Thank You For Smoking" - two films which are a far cry from his famous father's well-known works.

The answer is me!

Since for the next year, I will be the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything, I'm having a Phil-fest as a gift to myself.


"Wear My Hat" - I love this song, which is about the interaction that a famous singer can have with fans who are fanatical in the true sense of the word. Oftentimes, people can be invested in a celebrity's work and be knowledgeable about their personal life and then project a relationship with that celebrity, one that doesn't actually exist. I love the humour with which this story is told, and it's also a really peppy song and has great infectious music. When I saw Phil in concert singing this song, he and the rest of the band had such a great time with it, passing hats back and forth with each other, so it was so much fun to watch. The following video mixes music video footage with concert footage.





"Separate Lives" - This is one of my favorites from earlier Phil. The song is actually written by Stephen Bishop, and it's a duet by Phil and Marilyn Martin and was used in the film "White Nights". Lyrically, musically and vocally, it's an amazingly moving song. I love the recorded version, but the first time I saw this in concert, and it was staged so that Phil was singing lead alternately with two of his backup singers, one male and one female, I was blown away. Normally, it's a great song of broken love between a man and a woman, but when you add the third-party dimension to it, it just makes the story of the song that much more complex and heart-breaking. The concert footage below doesn't have the physical triangle staging that is done sometimes for this song (now if only "The Phantom of the Opera" would bring that staging back for the "Wandering Child" section of the show when Christine is at her father's grave, but I digress), but the voices are still terrific. After all, it's Phil with Amy and Arnold.





"Against All Odds" - Another one of my earlier Phil favorites, this time actually written by Phil himself. This was the title track of the film of the same name, and again, a song that I love lyrically, musically and vocally. This is the official music video which incorporates footage from the film (starring Jeff Bridges, James Woods and Rachel Ward) with footage of Phil singing.





And then we get to a blast from the past. I loved watching "Miami Vice" from the very beginning, for its story, acting and the cinematography and editing of the show. This was a Friday night ritual when I was in college. One of the things I loved most was their brilliant use of just the right music and images, not to mention that they used music and artists that I liked. The show exuded the very essence of ambience and mood. This is the segment from the pilot episode that uses "In The Air Tonight". Brilliant. I was hooked.




Hope you enjoyed that Phil-athon as much as I did!

magical memories - "Once More, With Feeling" singalong

There are moments in time that stay with you, even if they happened some time ago, even if they only lasted for a short while, but the memories are ever-present.

In 2006, we attended the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), a combination professional and fan convention which is held annually in a different city on the globe each year. I had attended Worldcon once before, many years ago, when it was being held in Anaheim, and I had gotten a little taste of the event and had a good time. The husband had never been to Worldcon before but with the con's return to Anaheim and our interests in the science fiction and fantasy genre, it seemed ideal to attend that year.

The five-day convention included numerous discussion seminars on all different topics, from movies to television to books to professional advice about how to break into the business and more. It was almost like being back in school, running off to different "classes" in different rooms at different times. Sometimes, the husband and I went to the same events. Sometimes, our interests diverged, and we went to different seminars. There were all kind of fun things that happened over the course of the five days, but the highlight for me involved the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". We had seen a little entry in the schedule for a singalong gathering of the musical episode of the show called "Once More, With Feeling" and had decided to check it out. We had gotten done with the con events a little earlier that day, so we had headed to the Disneyland Resort for dinner before going back to the hotel in search of the room where the singalong was being held. We're not necessarily big on singalongs in general, but we both love that particular episode.

We got there about 5 or 10 minutes before it was about to start, and the double-room area was packed. Pretty much all the seats were taken, so we stood against a side wall about half-way back. They were showing the episode on an overhead projector from the DVD, with the captioning on for the words. Right as they started, some people got up from seats near us and left, so we were able to get two seats together.

A singalong can often be cheesy and weird or lackluster without many participants, but I can't even completely describe how amazing that 46 (or however long the episode ran) minutes was. Sure, it helped that the lyrics were on screen, but I think most people in there knew most, if not all, the words anyway. Everyone sang the songs, and during some songs where it was a duet with a man and a woman, you could hear the voices naturally dividing, with the women singing the female part and the men singing the male part. There had been no prior discussion - it just happened that way. Also, during the show itself, people would yell out various responses to what was happening on screen, a la "Rocky Horror Picture Show", which generally sent the rest of the audience into fits of laughter.

I think part of what was amazing about this to me is that we weren't at a Buffy convention. This convention included a conglomeration of pretty much every manner of science fiction/fantasy-related interests, so it wasn't that just die-hard Buffy fans were there. In this gathering of different interests, there were enough people to create this singalong experience. It wasn't just a handful so that it seemed sparse, and it wasn't an arena full so that it seemed cavernous. It was just the right-sized room with the right number of people to have a personal group experience. Everyone was singing and laughing and having a great time sharing this moment, and the episode came to a close all too soon. I was actually kind of sad when we left, because I wanted more, but it was really just for that one episode.

Whenever I listen to the CD of that episode, and even during random moments, I think of the singalong, and it makes me smile.

status report

With all relationships, things change. Sometimes, they're purposely broken, and sometimes, people just grow apart. Sometimes, bumps arise, foreseen or not, mutually known or not. Quite some time ago, some friends and I had joked that with the constantly changing evolution of relationships, it would be quite helpful to have a status website. Each person could fill in their own squares to indicate their status with everyone else on the grid, so we would know at any given time who was in with whom and who was out. Ever since then, I've seriously thought that such a website would come in handy. Sometimes, I'm just nosy and curious. Sometimes, I'd like a clue about who I can tell about what and whom. Personally, I wouldn't particularly try to change anything because hey, if someone's mad at me or doesn't want to speak to me for whatever reason, that's their perogative. I just don't like having to guess.

my nomination for parents of the year

I heard about this story where supposedly, Lindsay Lohan gave Miley Cyrus her phone number and said to call her and they'd hang out, and immediately afterward, Miley's parents Billy Ray and Tish made her delete the number because they don't think Lindsay would be a very good influence on their 15-year-old. Miley is supposedly claiming that they're too strict with her and she wants more friends. I don't know if there have been any confirmed reports of this from completely reputable sources. Miley was on the Barbara Walters special after the Oscars, and she said that she knew Lindsay, but there was no elaboration of whether they were actually friends or if Miley just would know her from being at the same events and such. There are also reports that Lindsay bought or won a ticket to one of Miley's concerts, and they're referred to as pals. So one might think that Miley and Lindsay have had some interaction. However, if any bit of the report is true, and Billy Ray and Tish are controlling who Miley spends her time with, then good for them. Lindsay has shown that she's not responsible, and she could definitely have a detrimental effect on the development of a 15-year-old. If Miley is indeed complaining that her parents are too strict, that's fine too. That would be normal for a 15-year-old. She would want to expand her horizons and be exposed to more experiences at her age, but it would also be her parents' job to watch over her. I'm glad to hear that they have not abdicated that responsibility even though Miley is very popular and famous and makes a lot of money. Her parents are still her parents, and good for them for acting like her parents, even when they have to do things Miley doesn't like, rather than just try to be her friend. The parents of some of the troubled teens could certainly take a lesson from them.