How do I love, thee, Eisley. I shall list the ways.

I love Eisley for several reasons.  First and foremost, they make fantastic music.  I can appreciate anyone who makes good music.  I love that their music is something that I could play while my little brothers are in the car with me and I wouldn't have to worry about them hearing something inappropriate.  I also love that they're from Texas (Tyler to be specific)...but that's just because I'm a Texas girl.  But beyond that, I love that they don't compromise their artistic or musical integrity by trying to put out music that sounds just like everything else on the radio.  They don't sound like anyone else I've ever heard, and they don't want to sound like anyone else.  And as a fellow musician and songwriter, I applaud that the most.  In a world where ALL mainstream music sounds exactly alike, Eisley defies the norm with graceful aplomb.  And that, more than anything else, is why I love the band.

The band won't let people embed their videos, so please click on the link below to watch the music video for a song called "Memories."

http://www.youtube.com/user/eisley#p/u/0/xewk7OgIrPU

Amoral Nation, Yellow Journalism, and Turning Spades into Hearts

Read This First

Please view the above link before you read what is written below so you know what I'm talking about and agreeing with.


I'm not one to post another person's blog entry as a link on my own site, but this one begs sharing.  And, apart from a photo including the current first lady as a classy woman, I completely agree with the statements being made here.  (I will keep my personal and political opinions about Mrs. Obama to myself and not include them in this post.) 

Regardless, I'm appalled by how disgustingly amoral our society has become, and how yellow our mainstream journalism has become.  You can't turn on a TV show anymore without someone being underdressed at least once during the episode, and you can't watch a cable network show without either nudity or some nasty sex scene.  Even kiddie shows have undercurrents and double entendre's sprinkled through them.  Kidz Bop is a HUGELY successful music series in which children singing the songs written by adults for adult audiences.  (Some remade songs on Kidz Bop albums include songs by Lady Gaga (Bad Romance, Poker Face), Katy Perry (I Kissed a Girl, Teenage Dream), Britney Spears (Toxic, Slave 4 U) and other artists who write sexually charged music.  Seriously...there is something SUPREMELY wrong with this.  The major networks (minus FOX News) are permanently jaundiced when it comes to reporting the news, and now they are feeding sexualized day-time shows to our children who are clueless to the awful things they're being subjected to.  I remember growing up the New Kids On The Block were huge, and they were singing songs called "Popsicle" and others that now, I realize were more sexualized than I could understand at the tender age of 8.  I remember in junior high singing along with songs on the radio, Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You," or Nirvana's "Sex and Candy."  (I now realize that candy is a drug, but at the time, I thought it was a peppermint or a Snicker's bar.)  But at least when I was growing up, people didn't have the audacity to have children sing those songs in order to camouflage the depravity.  If something was for grownups, it was for grownups and America (by in large) still had the moral integrity to attempt to make sure that children weren't subjected to it.  If it was a spade, we called it a spade.  We didn't turn it upside down and try to convince people it was a heart.

But not anymore, and that is what the author of the other blog is in an uproar about. 

And it's what I'm upset about as well.  Today, when we take our kids to watch a PG movie, it is likely that we will hear every cuss words other than the F-word, and maybe the word "bastard" during the movie, and it is also likely that there will be some inappropriate jokes or even some moments of people without particular layers of clothing.  Today, we turn on the radio and the songs we hear a rife with sexuality and cuss words.  Our most popular musicians are rappers or R&B artists who talk about having sex, disrespecting women and parents, doing drugs, or committing crimes. 


If you don't know what yellow journalism is, read this. 

Today, we turn our spades upside down, slap a coat of paint on them, hide the bits that display make it a spad, and show it to our children and tell them, "Hey...maybe it wasn't a heart to start with, maybe it wasn't born a heart, but it always wanted to be a heart, so we helped it out so it could look and feel like a heart. So, if you're a spade and you want to be a heart, then you're a heart, no matter what you were born as. And if you're a heart and you want to be a spade, then you're a spade, and we can take you to a special doctor who knows how to make you a spade."

By the way...a spade is still a spade, no matter how hard you squint your eyes and wish it were a heart.

The Devil Wears Prada

Rewatched the movie last night.  I forgot how stinking hilarious it is.  Especially Emily Blunt's ridiculous character "Emily."  Every scene she was in, she stole the show.  I'm dissappointed, though, because I wanted to show a clip of my favorite "Emily" moment, and there is absolutely NADA on youtube.  Just a couple of poor quality trailers and a few deleted scenes.  I can't even find images on google of the scene I want.  Oh well...the movie is great fun.  Really hilarious.  And, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt TOTALLY steal the show.

Wherefore art thou, Gnomeo?

I am super excited to go watch this in theaters.  And, it's tame enough that i can actually take my little brothers.

Current Ten Favorite Movies

Some are old, some are new.  Some are little independent films almost nobody has seen, and some are widely-known or might even be huge blockbusters.  Regardless, here are my current top ten favorite movies.  At some point, I will do a list of what I would term a "best movies," speaking of the movie quality or the plot or acting.  Not all the movies on this top 10 list will be movies nominated for Oscars or any other award.  so...without further ado: (in no particular order)



What's not to love about the movie adaptation of the most famous and longest-running broadway musical of all time?  It's so good, and the cast is phenomenal.  But why do I really LOVE it?  It is SO unbelievably romantic.


This is a rugby movie, and it came out two or three years before Invictus, (which I have seen, and thought was good).  I hate pitting the two movies against each other because the undercurrents and themes in the movies are VASTLY different, but I prefer Forever Strong over Invictus.  It is heartfelt and beautiful, and you watch the main character find himself and transform from being an arrogant, selfish, talented player into a strong, compassionate, caring leader.  And you still get to watch guys knock the snot out of each other on the playing field.  What's not to love?



Every girl went gaga over Ryan Gosling in The Notebook.  (I've liked him since The Mickey Mouse Club.)  He's played a variety of characters, but there is something about this movie, and this character that sets him apart.  I love the whole thing from start to finish.  There's not a single moment of this movie that isn't wonderful.  But, mostly, I love how the community surrounds and supports Lars through the difficulty he's trying to process.  It's a beautiful picture of unconditional love and support for someone who is struggling.


I know it's already made my previous "Top ten sports movies for kids" list, but this is absolutely, unequivocably my favorite sports movie of all time.  I know it's cheesy and ridiculous, but I love it.  I have loved it since the first time I saw it some 16 years ago.  From Becky "Ice Box" O'Shea running boys down on her go cart, to Spike referring to himself in 3rd person, to Johnny "holding a pound of Aunt Betty's Nut Butter," to the "Annexation of Puerto Rico."  It's complete and utter fun from top to bottom...and I doubt it's place as #1 sports movie will ever be supplanted.



Yes, it's a foreign film.  Yes, it's completely in Chinese, and you have to read the subtitles.  But this movie is brilliant and breath-taking.  The cinematography is breath-taking.  The fight scenes are balletic rather than gruesome.  The story is wondeful.  And the acting is phenomenal.  The entire movie feels like watching a painter with his pallet and brush in hand, filling his canvas with color and shape.  It is entrancing and beautiful. 


These friends trek across the country, and break into George Lucas' mansion so they can watch Star Wars Episode 1 before it comes out in theaters, because one of them is sick and may not make it to the premiere.  Hilarity and ridiculousness ensue.  It's a completely outrageous love offering to science fiction in general, but specifically to Star Wars.  And, to boot, the movie is full of cameos and appearances by Carrie Fischer (Princess Leia), William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Ray Park (Darth Maul), Seth Rogen, and Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob).\


Do I have to explain myself on this one?  Based on (arguably) the best romantic novel ever written, and certainly, the best known and most lauded of Jane Austen's work, the film is a gem.  Keira received an Oscar nomination for her role.  McFadyen was a brilliant Darcy.  Plus, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, and Carey Mulligan (who has since been nominated for an Oscar, herself), as the other Bennet sisters.  And top it of with Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn and the colorful Mamma and Pappa, and Dame Judy Dench as the Baroness.  Can a girl ask for anything more?  It's wonderful.  Purely wonderful.


I have never watched a better bio-pic of a musician in my entire life.  Seriously.  This outdoes everything I've ever watched about a real musician.  Possibly the only thing that comes close is The Coal Miner's Daughter, the bio-pic of Loretta Lynn.  Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash is brilliant.  Ginnifer Goodwin as his first wife was wonderful.  And, the you have Reese Witherspoon in her Oscar-winning role of June Carter Cash.  PLUS...Reese and Joaquin did their own singing.  Come on!  FANTASTIC!



In 2003 a sci-fi series about gun-slinging cowboys in space showing on Fox, was canned.  It was called Firefly.  Its fans were in an uproar, and show creater, Joss Whedon (he created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) came up with a plan to give the fans an appropriate ending to the series.  The result came in 2005: Serenity.  I saw the movie before I saw the TV series, and loved it immediately.  Then I purchased the series box set and watch the series and rewatched the movie.  I never grow tired of it.  It's innovative and fun, and the storyline is brilliant.  Plus, the cast includes Nathan Fillion (from ABC's Castle), Morena Baccarin (ABC's V) Adam Baldwin (NBC's Chuck) and Summer Glau (Fox's Sarah Connor Chronicles and now NBC's The Cape). 


This is my most recent addition to the top ten list.  I only watched it a couple weeks ago.  And, it would be fair right now to say that it is probaby my current favorite movie.  After watching it I was so intrigued by the life of Queen Victoria, I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a biography about her life and the life of her husband, Prince Albert.  Emily Blunt gives the performance of her career (so far), as the young princess-turned queen (and earned a Golden Globe nomination for it last year).  The movie is beautifully shot, and splendidly acted by all, including Blunt, Rupert Friend (as Albert), Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, and Paul Bettany, with a few wonderful scenes with Jim Broadbent (as William IV) which are like the sprinkles on top of the perfect ice cream sundae.  I could probably write an entire blog solely on The Young Victoria and perhaps I owe it to myself and the movie to do so.  But suffice it to say I haven't watched such a pleasing movie in probably six to eight months.  The last time I felt this way was when I watched a little movie with Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, and Carey Mulligan called The Greatest, and if I had eleven spots on this list, it would make the cut.

Greater Things are Yet to Come

Crime and Punishment

I finally did it!  After two long, arduous months of reading before bed, I have finished the beast that is Crime and Punishment.  And i must say that, although it is the quintessential paranoid, schizophrenic Russian novel, I actually enjoyed it.  Once I was able to decypher who people were.  For example: the main character, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, and his sister Avdotya Romanovna, and his friend, Sofya Semyonevna Marmeladov, and so on.  Russian names are very difficult to keep straight in your head - especially with all the pet names they have that sometimes make absolutely no sense whatsoever.  then again...I'm not really sure how we English-speakers go from Richard to Dick or Henry to Hank - but apparently there's some method to that madness. 

Anyway, I digress.  The story is very complex and the characters are layered - they aren't caricatures.  They have depth and they resonate.  the character arcs are good, and even the most despicable characters have some sort of redemptive quality in them.  The plot is intricate and intriguing (once you get past the first two or three chapters) and very dark.  Like I said above, the book is driven by paranoia and mental instability, so if you can't deal with that, you might want to steer clear.

bottom line, if you don't mind dedicating two months of your life to a book that requires a team of oxen to plow through, you'll enjoy this novel.  And, if it gets too heavy, don't be afraid to put it down for a few days and read something a little lighter and easier.  Then come back to it, because I believe it's worth the work.