Happy Go Your Own Day!

You should totally be reading my work blog! Sometimes we are subversive and link to the Daily Show where Jon Stewart says amazing/astute things like this (things we would never say) in response to former VP Cheney: “How does no longer electrocuting people’s testicles, because it violates everything we stand for, translate to ‘maybe if we take them to brunch, they’ll go away’? So Obama is planning for his new administration’s ‘terrorist prom’, Cheney wanted to let everyone know that his Faustian bargain had been our only refuge.”

I wrote up a couple of rebuttals to some of the things Cheney has said, using facts and reasoning instead of incisive humor like Jon Stewart. One of the few comments on the blog says, in part, “This is the stupidest website i have ever herd of… You hippies really need to get a life.” Does garnering hate-comments with poor spelling mean that I’ve arrived, in the blogosphere? Hope so.

Happy Valentine’s Day! As is my annual tradition, I have left valentine’s cards/treats in your mailboxes, (n.b. applies only to New York Office of Human Rights First), in homage to Valentine’s Day’s finest form: the elementary school card exchange. During my youth, lo those many years ago, we exchanged cards from the CVS (or even, People’s Drug, bought out by CVS circa 1990 in Maryland) festooned with Little Mermaid characters or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I bet you can find these on sale in hipster gift shops in Williamsburg, highly marked up in price and in irony and nostalgia. These days, kids must exchange cards bearing the image of Miley Cyrus and those unfortunate-looking Jonas Brothers. I buck the trends and make my own cards each year, reflecting the parts of pop culture I most wish to celebrate: Tina Fey and Buckingham Nicks, this year.

About the message adorning the Buckingham-Nicks card, “Go your own way!” Despite the fact that this is a bitter and brilliant break-up song, my intention is not to break up with you, Office. I spend several hours each day thinking about Fleetwood Mac, obvs, and turning the phrase over in my mind, I began to hear Lindsey Buckingham telling me warmly to go my own way, to find my own path, to make my own kind of music. What better sentiment to share with all of you! Go forth, Office, in your own way!

Great news! Great news I have been awaiting for like, nearly 27 years now! As you probably know, the best show ever, the Mary Tyler Moore Show was on the air for seven years, 1970-1977. The DVDs for seasons 1-4 were slowly released in the early 00’s, but then radio silence on seasons 5,6,7. At long last, it seems, the remaining seasons will be coming to DVD, BUT Fox has egregiously chosen to release them not as independent discs, but as part of a “Complete Series” set, a real blow to those of us who faithfully bought up seasons 1-4 as they came out. But, consumers are (=I am) dumb and emotional, and I totally still want this!

Winter Songs: Fleetwood Mac and Valentine’s Day? Sheesh. If you like tragic love stories/songs, you will love FM, the band that ripped apart from the inside and stayed intact only to make amazing tense songs, written for/to each other, recorded under strain with anguished collaboration. I bet John McVie cries every time he hears this song from his ex-wife, love of his life, Christine, recorded in one take, just her playing piano and singing on an empty stage, Songbird. After the glitter fades, indeed.