the drawing club @ park life

must home art goodness: drawing club at park life. when shar is home, she has to check in on park life. drawing club just opened last friday and i had the pleasure to check it out wednesday. it's good stuff. bill!!! this one by isaac lin totally made me think of you. giants and phillies!

here is a trio of chi birmingham's i liked.

au naturale: lykke li - tonight

best stripped down performance: lykke li singing "tonight". my favorite lykke song performed with no fuss. in her newsletter, she writes:

And yes another thing... You might have noticed I got the nature fever. So I felt a great need to peel of all that is unnecessary and live in the moment and take away the possibility to correct my mistakes. So here is a one take totally live “take it or leave it I will survive take” of my song “Tonight”.


Lykke Li - Tonight from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

lenka @ soiled dove underground

best name for a venue: the soiled dove underground. yeah, nuff said there. even lenka agreed that it was probably the best name for a venue that she would be playing at. she is uber cute and very shar, as jac puts it.  she's prolly best known for her single "the story," which was featured on an old navy commercial.  she also was plugged on that doctor soap drama, grey's anatomy, but sadly that horrible monologue kills her song.

she had the crowd singing "i want me my money back."  though she didn't want it to be in reference to her performance.  she went through all the songs on her self-titled first album.  i was uber glad she did her cover of modest mouse's "gravity rides everything".  

the decorations on stage were super whimsical with an outdoorsy pals feel. owl and little foxes on the keyboards.  I don't know if you can tell but "lenka" was inflated in shiny balloons behind her.  i was fortunate to sit next to some friendly locals.  i find denver to be a VERY friendly city. everywhere i went, whether the santa fe art district or a small lil venue east of downtown, people were introducing themselves to me and happy to chit chat. it was refreshing.

david b. smith gallery opening

belated fltgc: i hit the david b. smith gallery on recommendation by the fine kristin. unfortunately, the gallery was closed on friday because it was setting up for its grand re-opening group show. so i did not do friday lunch time gallery crawl: mile high city edition, but i did have the best pozole at cafe sol. i was determined and come back saturday night for the opening and boy, oh boy was it worth the 2 mile trek from my hotel. BONUS: pbr was served alongside wine. classy, no?

here are just some of the pieces that caught my eye.

oliver vernon - glattbrugg #4

kris lewis - a feather in your cap

jason thielke - heart

gregory euclide - turned toward the making of moments width

why lost is the best show evah

reason why lost is the best show ever: it's not heroes. both shows tamper with time fluxes - past, present and future. lost, however, does a far superior job using the play of time in telling the overall story with show mythology intact. (tim goodman of the sf chronicle does a great description of season 5). also, the acting is so much better, leaps and bounds. okay, i haven't been watching heroes since early this season and i still haven't forgiven them for making me sit through season two to get ready for villains. so i welcome my island buddies back into my church i call tv.

best quote: "maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't go around shooting people". - hurley (in reference to sayid's hitman stint)

must dvr rewinds: is it just me or was old sun dr. shin's wife in the opening sequence with the dharma taping? and who is that ol' lady giving the 70 hours deadline? is that faraday's mom? where is jill the butcher from? was she an other? thoughts lost fans? so many old losties back again. i can't keep track of them all after all these years.

change has come

best way to celebrate our new president: obama poster yourself. paste magazine created this cool site for some post-election fun. thanks jason for clueing me in.

sharocks montauk

price of r/t ticket from flatbush to montauk: $30.50
hours on LIRR: 6
hours in montauk: 4
number of times shar stepped into a ice covered puddle: too many to count
(apparently this lake was frozen over enough to skate on. i wish i brought my skates.)
number of deer spotted: 3
number of surfers in the ocean: 5


reenacting eternal sunshine of the spotless mind: priceless

p-bingo with punch brothers @ the living room

best late night non-bingo event: punch brothers hosting p-bingo at the living room. fun indeed was had at the first, of hopefully many shows, for their new residency at the living room. i came by to support the greatest mandolin player of our generation, chris thile. we have chris of nickel creek, but the watkins remain mostly on the west coast. sigh, i miss nickel creek.

the boys were merry and full of good cheer. they came prepared with both third and fourth movements of "the blind leading the blind". (there's a good session of blb on daytrotter - second song) i thoroughly enjoyed the new material of a yet to be titled song, which had the bewitching chorus that rang, "these girls, these girls get a room behind us." banjo player noam (pickles) pikelny "sang" weezer's "hash pipe" with lyric book in hand.

the flyer, which you will see if you click on "p-bingo" above, stipulates radiohead and d'angelo material. violinist gabriel (the judge) witcher tackled d'angelo's "one mo'gin" with the help of mr. thile's backup vocals. gabe's falsetto was tribute to d'angelo's soulful voice in my book.

here is chris covering radiohead's "faust arp"

lee pace

celebrity sighting of the day: lee pace (#13). again, with most of my celeb sightings, i wasn't sure it was him until my fellow yogi asked me if it was him too. i was working at kula doing my thing. he looked older than i was expecting, but maybe it was because he came out all sweaty. he asked where to put his mat and i directed him to the shoot. ended up getting his sweat on my clean hands as i was spraying it down. he was more top of mind since i've been rewatching my wonderfalls dvds and i recently saw the fall. sad to hear the piemaker will not be returning on pushing daisies.

wanna get away

reasons to keep traveling: just look at how much isn't red. sad. you can make you own maps here.


visited 24 states (10.6%)



visited 27 states (54%)

golden globes glee and grumbles

reasons to grumble:

• wassup with asking every freakin' star of the dark knight about heath ledger?
• tom cruise get your hands of my man leo. don't taint him with your scientology.
• neil patrick harris in the most miscellaneous category - best supporting actor by an actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television. wtf? this is like three categories in one. seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?!?
• colin farrell winning best supporting for in bruges.
• more grumbles here.
  

reasons to be gleeful:

• good job colin farrel for putting in the subtle ref to your "former" struggles with every drug imaginable.
• emma thompson providing support to sally hawkins during her acceptance speech. hurrah!
• congrats to heath ledger and thank you christopher nolan for the genunine acceptance.
• awww kate calls leo her best friend. i wish i were kate. congrats on your double win. i hope they FINALLY give you your oscar.
  
• bravo ricky gervais for your monologue/presentation. good one on kate winning for playing a role in the holocaust.
• shahrukh khan presenting slumdog millionaire.
  

l to l cool j

star sighting of last night: ll cool j (#12). wha what? shar was rockin' santos last night in celebration of a ms. v and a ms. jules. q-tip was at the tables spinning the decks. lo and behold he announces that ll is in the house. apparently, he was behind me when i was shakin' it. are you sure karen?

ll was sporting shades. peeve of shar's to be wearing shades in a club. that's ridiculous. i prefer old school ll versus new school yoked ll, thus the chosen portrait to the right. rock that chain. so ll is playing the hip hop inauguration ball in dc on the 19th. if you are the crazies migrating to dc next weekend, that's an option.

ryan gosling ay

crush of the month: ryan gosling. i can't remember the last crush of the month. according to my old blog, it was last year. i think it's time to revive it for the new year. i finally watched half nelson last night. man, oh man does mr. gosling knock it out of the park. i've always been a fan of quiet, nuanced acting versus the over the top crazy performances (ie. angelina jolie, jack nicholson). he really emotes with just a subtle shift in his facial expression. it's a bare bones performance with ryan carrying the flick through and through.

i must say ryan sans beard is too mmc for me. looks like he is keeping the scruff for his new venture into musicianship.

masterpiece is back!!!

best return of a fav series: masterpiece theater. shar is uber psyched for masterpiece goodness. i grew up on these costume dramas imported from overseas. this is prolly why i have anglophile sensibilites. the new season looks promising with tonight's tess of the d'ubervilles, a new adaptation of wuthering heights, and a dickens review.

doesn't tess look familar? she's the bond gal that sadly died soaked in oil from QOS. also familiar, if you are a masterpiece geek like myself, the gentleman who plays alec was dr. zhivago in the last adaption staring one ms. kiera knightley. hans matheson plays a devilish cad after the fair tess. poor tess! she had the best comeback line - "i feel nothing for you. you are just dust and ashes." that's eff you in victorian times. i'm nervous to watch part two next week. doesn't look like a happy ending.

nfl wildcard wrap-up

most in need of a hug from shar: chad pennington. shar hearts chad and was uber happy when he beat his former team, the jets, last week. too bad he wasn't as fab this week, throwing 4 interceptions. OUCH! it's okay shar still hearts you. come here and let's hug it out.

reason shar should eat her words: arizona 30, atlanta 24. so in a post last week, shar might have said something about the cardinals being unworthy of representing the NFC west. yeeeah, they kinda came through yesterday. i was not expecting that at all. so glad pigskin pick'ems end after the regular season.

sorely missed game of the weekend: san diego versus indy. sad, sad i missed this must see match-up. i blame swoon and lbb. all i saw was LT warming up at qualcomm. heard he didn't play the second half, but it came down to OT and a 22-yard touchdown run for darren sproules. wish i saw how it all panned out.

better than expected performance: minnesota vikings. with most of their defensive line out, i was expecting brian westbrook to run wild this game. they were able to contain him for most of the game until he got that 71-yard TD in the fourth. good try vikings. shar's looking forward to next weekend's match-up between the giants and eagles.

lucinda black bear @ cake shop

live band that just gets better: lucinda black bear at cake shop. i saw this bk crew last year (wow, that's kinda crazy to type out) and they were steller. second time around, kristin was just as spectacular, but i didn't manage to grab a drum stick. chad was extra daper since i last saw him . check out the vest.

old timey dreaminess! he was actually sitting next to us upstairs preshow grabbing a brew, but his shorn faux hawk threw me off. LBB rocked it. christian's headbobbing resulted in glasses flinging moments. chad stomped out the cello. the crowd cheered, "more cello!" lbb really is ab fab live. my canadian pal julie concurs.

swoon print

best pseudo-hands on screen-printing: swoon limited prints at brooklyn museum. i joined 1stfans at the brooklyn museum to get my very own piece of this brooklyn street artist. thanks bill for the artsy tip.