a99kitten's Musings

OMG! Saw this announced today! I haven’t bought my new, remastered CD set yet and now look – it paid off!! (see my excited CD blog here: https://a99kitten.com/?p=1147 This is perfect for me!

Limited Edition USB Stick – Contains Entire Digitally Remastered Catalogue
(BEA48315)

Release Date 12/8/09

Limited Quantity Subject to Vendor Allotment. Due to the overwhelming success of the Beatles Apple USB drive, we are unable to guarantee your order will be filled. TheBeatles.com is working closely with EMI to secure additional supply. We will fill the orders on a first come, first serve basis. Note the order will not be charged until the time of delivery and you may cancel your order up until December 4th.

Following the 9.9.09 debut of the digitally re-mastered catalogue on CD, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are pleased to announce the worldwide release of a limited edition of 30,000 Beatles Stereo USB apples on December 8th.

This unique, apple-shaped USB drive is loaded with the re-mastered audio for The Bealtes’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK art, rare photos and expanded liner notes. A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and the 16GB USB’s audio contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats, fully compatible with PC and Mac.

Albums:

-Please Please Me

-With The Beatles

-A Hard Day’s Night

-Beatles For Sale

-Help!

-Rubber Soul

-Revolver

-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

-Magical Mystery Tour

-Yellow Submarine

-The White Album

-Abbey Road

-Let It Be

-Past Masters

The Beatles Apple :)

Of course I pre-ordered it today!! Now, I have no idea if my order will be fulfilled. 30,000 sounds like such a small number considering how many Beatles fans there are. But I’m hoping most of them bought the CD set as soon as it came out :)

I’d be so, so sad if not fulfilled :( But I am going to keep positive thoughts that this awesome apple will indeed be mine in December!

So Please, Please Me and HELP! me by keeping all of your fingers (and toes) crossed fo me! :)

I seriously need to build my Halloween costume around these:

PINK boots!!! Not something I could wear around normally, unless I gave up my day job to work as a stripper. But for Halloween? Perfect! Now what could I be that would be work appropriate(ish)? Hmmm….

Last year I didn’t dress up :( The year before I was an Eskimo girl with my 2 huskies – they are very key to my costume :)

Eskimo and her sled dogs

That was a cute costume that was also comfy. Will definitely need to recycle and wear again.

The year before I was Little Red Riding Hood (see – the huskies are key!)

Red 2006

I didn’t like that costume as much (or that picture – look like a frackin’ undead Red!) But it did go well with my little wolves :) And I cannot find a single picture of me with them in that costume. What the heck? I know we took some. It was fun to walk around in that costume with the buds. *Pretty much* everyone got the reference. It’s too big for me now (HA!) but the costume is really great movie-like quality. I need to find the name of that manufacturer and check out their other costumes.

A few years ago I was Jeannie.

brunette Jeannie :)

That’s a very comfy costume to wear actually but it was FREEZING that year so going outside = bad! Plus it’s too big for me now too! (double-HA!) I do like comfy costumes though. Nothing that will make me hot, with a big rubber head/mask, be itchy, stuff like that.

I have always wanted to be Slave Leia but husband’s head would explode if I wore that anywhere. I told him that I WILL wear it to Comic-Con one year (while I’m still able to pull it off!) – even if only for a couple hours. But obviously not a work-appropriate costume.

I have the white Leia dress from Star Wars. But that whole costume is really the hair. and not sure I can get that to how I want it so it looks good. And I don’t think I should *really* use Cinnabons since then the huskies would want to eat my head! :)

Last year I found a cute Indiana Jones-girl costume. And a cute Batgirl so maybe I’ll look for those. I’ve always wanted to be Wonder Woman but the costumes for that are always yucky. You’d think they would make a good one since she is SUCH a popular character.

I can’t think of any other good ones that would go with the huskies. I have always wanted to get them some sheep costumes made. So they can be wolves in sheep’s clothing :) And then I could go as Little Bo Beep :) THAT would be cute!!!

I have never dressed them up except for the 1 year I got them each to sit for a millisecond while I got pictures of them in a Darth Vader costume.

Darth Angelus

Darth Storm

I went through almost a whole bag of liver biscotti to get them to sit long enough to put the costume on and take those pics. They said quite clearly that they are not clowns for our amusement :)

The year before I did put an angel halo on Angelus and devil horns on Storm. Storm shook his off and chewed them :) I can’t find those pics though…my guess is Storm found a way to delete those too :)

If I recycle, I will be the Eskimo girl again I think. This picture always me laugh because we were being inappropriate with the fuzzy popsicle (?) that came with my costume :)

Girls are funny :)

I could get a little toy sled for the buds or something to make it different! Oh well..who knows. I better get on it though. Only a little more than 3 weeks to go!

I missed Comic-Con this year :( Kevin Smith is there every year and is always a great panel to sit in for. Here he rants about Twilight (pro!) and it makes a heck of a lot of sense! So HA to all you judgey-judgersons out there :)  Favorite line is re: Spock, Chewbacca, geeks :) Hehehehe

I found out about this clip because of this Vanity Fair interview:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/09/kevin-smith.html#share-1000000000175205

He is definitely a funny guy. Crude but funny.

I have loved the Beatles since I was a kid. My Dad would play the 8-tracks in the car and the albums at home over and over and over….I think I know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. And it’s subconsciously because if you asked me what the lyrics were to a song, I’d likely be “huh?” But then the song comes on and I start singing along.

I used to search out and read all of the books on their history. I saw Hard Day’s Night, Help and Yellow Submarine numerous times. I used to wish I was older (what girl does that??) so that I could have been around when the Beatles first came over and were so big. I do have to say I’m pretty glad now that I’m not older :)

I used to beg my parents to take me to flea markets to look for old original albums. Or old 60s Beatles paraphernalia. I had a decent amount of stuff. Unfortunately, when I moved out to CA and left it at home in boxes, my Mom got rid of it. Sigh…

Paul was always my favorite. My Dad always preferred Lennon. We’d debate this all the time. He said Lennon was a genius. I contested that yes, definitely weirder and artier, but Paul’s songs were songs you will hum to yourself forever. And frankly, they were happier. Now, they did write their songs as Lennon/McCartney but you could always tell who was the main writer of the songs. But I do believe they chemistry worked wonders. I did like to read stories about their friendship. I liked to imagine that while they had their issues later (looking right at you Yoko) they really did love each like brothers. And brothers do fight. Sad that they never seemed to fix that before John was killed.

I can remember when John Lennon was murdered. Both of my parents were very upset. I can remember they both cried. We watched all of the news coverage and I remember being pretty sad too. Seemed like such a waste for someone who could offer music to the world (even if he was a dirty hippie!) to be taken away by such a pathetic loser. Boggles my mind that he even comes up for parole. Surely there is a big Beatles fan in prison…

It was sad when George Harrison died. He always seemed like a gentle soul. The “shy” Beatle. But at least he had much more time. I don’t know much about Ringo after the Beatles and he liked to stop and smell the roses. Oh…and Caveman :) I know that people used to call him the ugly Beatle and he married a hot Bond girl so…yeah…

I’ve seen Paul McCartney live twice and will happily pay to see him again. They were the best shows I’ve seen live. I loved his SuperBowl performance. I love watching him whenever he plays. His latest David Letterman appearance was great. You can see that he really just enjoys what he is doing. Must be why he can still do it so well at 67 years old! he is also a genius businessman and that is something I respect very much. We will ignore the Heather Mills/no pre-nup thing…blinded by love, blah, blah. He got a beautiful little girl out of it.

So yes, I do want the new remastered box set. Very, very, very much so. Who wants to chip in? :)

I am finally watching “True Blood”. I say finally because I normally watch all vampire related stuff. I did Tivo True Blood when it first ran last year but I lost some of the eps and didn’t want to start watching half-way through the season. Plus a friend of mine told me that I might not like it anyway.

But so many people I know in real life or follow on twitter watch and talk about it. And remember, I do love vampire stuff :) Plus a friend recently gave me the Sookie Stackhouse series to read once I finished the Twilight series (which I just did last week!) Although I am inserting a few non-vampires books in between! :)

So I set my Tivo AGAIN to record Season 2 when it started again. And then I bought the first season on DVD and figured vacation was a perfect time to catch up!

I just finished Ep 4. So far I do like it. I like that Sookie has her own “power” and doesn’t need to always be saved by Bill. And I love her friend Tara – she cracks me up! I like Bill so far. But I will have to say Angel and Edward Cullen are both way hotter :)

It was a cloudy and chilly day here today (very strange for Tahoe summers!) so between being sleepy from a late Saturday night and looking at a chilly outside, we weren’t jazzed about any outdoor activities. Staying inside wrapped in a blankie sounded very nice.  And a movie sounded good…but what? We narrowed it down to The Breakfast Club, Wall Street or Less Than Zero. My friend Helen had not seen ANY of them?!?!?! Such classics! She said she thinks she saw pieces of Wall Street in Econ Class but feel asleep in that class. :)

We decided on The Breakfast Club. A classic. And really – you need to see this movie at least once in your life. I can recite the dialogue for most of the movie. Not quite like I can for the original Star Wars trilogy but pretty close. I cannot count the times I have seen this movie. And I remember the first time very clearly – at a theater in Burbank. I loved the movie and can remember identifying/associating the characters with my friends as I watched it

Yes, I actually did have friends that fit these characters almost perfectly. I know the point of the movie is to see a little of each of these characters in you. That everyone has all or some of these (or other) qualities inside. And can’t just be put into 1 box. But sometimes the label fits too.

My friend Siouxie (yes, spelled like the “and the Banshees) fit the Basketcase almost perfectly. Not 100% but 90% at least. She definitely had a little of the Princess in her too…like when she would beg to do my eye make-up so that I would wear more than just lip gloss! She did like to wear that black sh** though ;-) I have never worn much make-up and my girlfriends have always tried to get me to wear more. And Siouxie was always the chief instigator of that. I still don’t wear that much makeup most days but did learn and appreciate how to wear more eye make-up and I owe that pretty much to her. I think she still likes to imagine herself the Basketcase even now but she is a ridiculously well-rounded, responsible and sane grown-up :)

My crush Jason was Andrew Clark to a T. Even Emilio’s twin in looks.  I remember being out at the movies with him and being asked by girls if he *was* Emilio. Imagine the head inflating that occurs in a 17-yr old boy from that…I think he even had that exact same jeans/tank/sweatshirt outfit that Andrew/Emilio wore and he did wrestle in high school.  I wonder what he is doing now…

Donny was Bender. Actually, I think I knew a few Benders.  And Brains too. All my girlfriends loved Bender/Judd Nelson the most. I always thought this was strange. In no way did I see that. I’m sure this made my parents quite happy though :)

Me? Well…not entirely sure it’s that easy. But I did have Claire’s exact outfit :) Diamond studs even…from my Dad as a Christmas gift. LOVED those boots. I searched high and low for those! My skirt was suede.  Not sure if hers was? And I do still wear a lot of pink and brown as a favorite color combo. I have some Brain/Geek in me too. Probably much more obvious on the geek side :) But I never tried any drugs or went along with people because of peer pressure.  I guess maybe that was a teeny part of the Basketcase in me :)

I don’t think your heart dies when you grow up.  I do think you grow more cynical. But this isn’t always a bad thing. Not everyone is the world is deserving of your trust, or friendship. Even if you have an interesting few hours or interactions with them.  I liken it to taking your dog to the dog park.  They might not get along with all the dogs there.  Their tales start to twitch and hackles stand up. And that’s ok. Some dogs (or people) just smell wrong :)

My favorite song from a great soundtrack and one of my favorite scenes of the movie:

While watching the movie today, my husband told me this was his least favorite of the brat pack/teen movies. WHAT?! He said he didn’t identify with the characters at all as his school didn’t really have these same “types”. I counter that he just didn’t know them. Or see them that way. He went to high school in San Diego and hung out with the surfers. So he probably saw a fair amount of Spicollis :) but every school has a Brain, Athlete, Basketcase, Princess and Criminal…

Now I want to go dancing! :)

Ok, so my friend Lydia and I were critiquing this video while we were in the Juniors section of Macy’s yesterday. I was buying some tank tops, the salesgirl was hopelessly retarded, it was taking forever…and so were started watching the LOUD music and videos they pipe in….

We were making fun of the video as they were playing it as it sounded (before we turned around and saw it) like some Usher-ish music…(not typically my cup of tea) and we turned around and saw the video and it’s a teeny-tiny white kid! So then I instantly thought of him as my little brother or something and the little girls in the video who were hitting on him were instantly little dirty whores! (I’m protective of my little brother..)

By the end of the video we were humming the tune even though I HATE this kind of music. DOH!!! Same thing happened with Twilight…went with Lydia to make fun of it and we were in love with Edward in like..10 minutes. Sonofa…

Here is the video…and it turns out he seems to be a protegee of Usher as Usher appears in the video so I wasn’t all that off…

At the end of the day…it was hysterical that Lydia and I had so much fun giggling at this (and really, the little kid is adorable…) :)

Finished a good husky walk this AM! Just me and Angelus since Storm is on light duty. We walked along 2 beaches for just about 2 hours. He got LOTS of sniffing and peeing on things in :) Got to say hi to a few dogs but pretty quiet out until the end of the walk (why I LOVE Sunday mornings – everyone ie either at church or hungover so it’s quiet :) )

Yesterday on our walk at Surfer’s Beach there was a huge school (or pod or herd – they all work – I looked it up!) of dolphins. So many that the area they were in and jumping in and out of the water was black. Then today, in almost the same area, there were tons of sea lions jumping in and out of the water and honking (they way they talk) and pelicans dive bombing the water. So obviously there are a bunch of fish out there creating it a yummy smorgasbord. Of course, this then creates it a cafeteria for Mr. Great White who likes to frequent NorCal coasts (they closed the water portion of the beach at Stinson Beach last week after 2 were spotted.)

But then maybe some of the jerk tourists who come and leave their trash on our beautiful beaches will venture into the water today and not be able to swim as fast as the seals… :) Here are a couple pics of the water but you can barely make out the seals (look for the little gray heads in the water!) There were so many jumping in and out but with a husky on an extendoleash and trying to get a good pic at the right moment was tough – especially with the just a phone camera.

Seals and pelicans

pelicans and seals

Got home and took Stormy out for a short walk. His tail was waggin’! Husband left to go to Monterey so Storm was left home alone – he hates that. He was happy to go out, sniff stuff and pee on some trees. But he gets tired and hot quickly with his Cushing’s. Will be great for him to get on a medication that fixes that and he feels better. Although he will never enjoy long walks like his brother does. Angelus is a crazy outdoors maniac!

Now I’m home and time to make my todo list for the day. I have so many items that I want to get done flying through my head – we will see how much I can actually get done. Getting them in list form will be helpful. The sun looks like it is trying to break through the fog so if it does, I might have to break for some PTH (prime tanning hours.)

While I write my TODO, I have the GAC Top 20 Countdown on. I had CMT’s on yesterday am :) Pretty song I had not heard before by a group I have never heard of…”I Get That All The Time” by Due West:

Ok…list-making time….

I finally finished reading the Entertainment Weekly mag featuring vampires. I must admit, I wanted to buy it to see where Angel/Angelus and Edward Cullen placed :) But I have loved vampires much longer than I have been familiar with these 2 characters.

I was first really intrigued by vampires after seeing the 1979 version of  “Dracula” starring Frank Langella. I remember seeing that movie with my Mom and just thinking vampires were the *coolest* ever. I didn’t go to public school. I had a private tutor (my Dad did not like the local public schools) and so I was allowed 1 period of my study for a subject of my choosing. So I chose vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. I was already kinda there with so much Arthurian reading and delving into Merlin,Morgan Le Fey and paganism. So just one or two more steps…I read every book I could find. I was such a regular at the library.

Although, in looking back, it does seem strange that neither my parents or my tutor thought this troubling. I guess since I had excellent grades, never caused any trouble, did all of my chores voluntarily and didn’t wear black – I could safely study the pagan arts and creatures of the night without causing any adult worry :)

I was quite annoyed by EW’s assertion (or the story’s author’s assertion anyway) that the first “sexy” vampire was Tom Cruise’s portrayal of LeStat.  Langella was HOT in this role. By far sexier and certainly before LeStat was ever even created. This entire movie is GREAT. Sir Laurence Olivier plays Dr. Van Helsing. And Frank Langella as the Count – awesome. And very creepy parts too. I *highly* recommend watching this version.

Frank Langella's Dracula

I read Interview With a Vampire before the movie was cast and enjoyed it. But when I heard Tom was cast as LeStat I was mortified. And I actually LOVE Tom Cruise – especially back then!  But I simply could not see him as LeStat. He was Maverick.  And Maverick-like characters. Completely different characters from LeStat.

Now, I really liked this book. But I didn’t love this book. Louis is a frackin’ whiner and I simply could not deal with his constant whine, whine, whine. LeStat was a welcome distraction to his whining for sure! And when I saw the movie I was taken aback by how much I loved Cruise’s LeStat. He definitely made the movie fun. And did not have to have a creepy movie kiss with kiddie Kristen Dunst (heebie-jeebies…). Good for him going against type and showing the nay-sayers (me included!) that he could rock the role.

I did NOT like Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” at all. And not because of Keanu Reeves. I just thought it was a boring, overly pretentious movie. And I liked the book, like the director and all the actors. Just the movie as a whole practically put me to sleep and I’m not that hard to please in the movie-watching department. How Gary Oldman ended up on the EW Top Vampire list (#10??) and not Frank Langella is mind-boggling. I like Gary Oldman…but not as Dracula in this movie.

And Gary’s vamp (#10) was ahead of Kiefer (#14) in Lost Boys?? Kiefer’s David was excellent. That movie ruled! Obviously completely different version but thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, jumpy/scary and funny. The Coreys simply couldn’t do better (and so they seriously took a digger to avoid any kind of comparison obviously.) Dianne Wiest was excellent as the clueless Mom. Plus *great* soundtrack. I will always watch this if I come across it on TV.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) – meh. I can remember I only really cared to see it because Luke “Dylan McKay” Perry was in it! However, Buffy the series – I loved from Episode 1. Still love it. When I’m flipping through the channels and come across a rerun – I will absolutely watch it. My favorite character was Angel/Angelus. Yes – he is absolutely physically hot (met David Boreanz at SD Comic Con – RAWR!! and very sweet in real life too!) But Angel was also tortured and bad but good and just awesome :) I was so sad when he left Sunnydale but watched every single episode of Angel (more than once) and feel they did a better job with the Angel series than Buffy after Angel left Buffy. The writing was darker, more grown-up but they also kept a dark humor to it. One of my favorite episodes was “Smile Time.”

My Angel puppet from the "Smile Time" episode

And of course whenever Angelus took over and came out to play…he was great when he was being the ultimate baddie (and yes, where I got my dog’s name from.)

Sure, they lost it a bit during the whole Conner/Cordelia and Jasmine story lines but still – always loved the show. Buffy went downhill with Angel leaving, then Dawn arriving, Buffy turned into a whore, died, came back and then fell for Spike?? No. Eww. No offense to Spike – great character – but as a BAD guy!!! He and Drusilla were awesome together! Second vampire with a soul who Buffy falls for – no, yuck. Cheap, blonde imitation of Angel at that point. But was sad to see Buffy end. And was VERY sad when Angel ended. Much darker series ender…I just recently found out they have made some graphic novels as a follow up to that ending. I need to get on reading those (into my never-ending stack of reading!) But now with both off the air…there were no more vamps :(

We did have the Blade movies (first movie was good but the others – meh) and the Underworld series which I liked. But again – the first one I loved and the rest – ok. Although I did just read a rumor today that Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is returning in #4 (she was not in #3.) Notice though having said meh to the movies…I did see them :) What can I say – I love the vampire/werewolf story.

And to really capture the apparent epic battle between vampires and werewolves comes Twilight. And yes, I fell for Edward Cullen’s charms :) The author definitely hit a nerve in the girl market with these. She writes teen-angst very well. Edward is written as the perfect soul mate. Oh sure, there is one small issue – he’s a vampire – but whatever. True love conquers all, right?! :) I made fun of this movie when I saw the ad for it and heard all the commotion for it on TV. They (the cast) came to a mall in San Francisco to promote it before it came out and he (Robert Pattinson) was nearly trampled to death (according to the news.) I remember thinking “Are you kidding?” But then a friend and I saw it on a lark – and I think we were swooning in about 10 minutes :) Such suckers for the idealized romantic hero. So then I bought the books and am now a proud member of Team Edward. hehehe…

But now that I am almost done with Book 4 of the Twilight series and have to wait for each of the next 3 movies to come out, I will start watching True Blood and reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Not sure how I will like it. I saw about 10 minutes of an ep and didn’t like it when it first aired on HBO last year. But everyone I know loves it so I bought the Season 1 DVD set and will give it as try. But none of the guys are very cute :( At least in the pictures I see of them – I want my vamps hot! ;)

Plus the EW article had a couple other book suggestions that I will check out (maybe once I get a Kindle!?) namely the “Blue Bloods” series by Melissa de le Cruz (probably my next one) and “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Plus the CW has a new Twilight rip-off/copy coming this season called The Vampire Diaries (starts Sept 10 – set your DVR!) Who knows, it could be entertaining :) At least worth watching the first couple…

Our company has an office in Romania…aka Transylvania. I’d like to go there sometime. Prince Vlad “the Impaler” Tepes’ castle is big tourist attraction. You know, because why wouldn’t it be? :) Many more vampire tales elsewhere but can you find and go into those castles? And it’s where the name Dracula started so I think a fun visit!

All the newer tales have definitely changed up the vampire (and werewolf) lore though. So no matter how many books, legends, historical tales, and movies you consume on the subject, you can’t be sure you know everything. Because then they come along and sparkle in the sun on ya!

But at least I can say I was way ahead of this fangy fad :)