Thanks to some of the folks who post at RealMac Software Support, I have been able to fix teh problem with images not loading on the site. Thanks guys! I know there will still be some inconsistencies, and there are pictures and links missing, or download files no longer there, but I will get them all back up and running as soon as possible. In the meantime, I am considering what the next step for this site will be. For now, though, I'm just thankful for getting out of the "Storm" that was this "X-Mas" blog mess (yeah, I know, how lame!).

Today has been a blog day from Hell. I've been working on a new version of the site, so today I gave it a trial run, and posted the new version. It actually looks kinda cool, so after a few adjustments, I think version 2.0 will be up and running. the problem came when i went to revert back to the old site: instead of deleting one, i got a combination of the two sites together. Can you say messed up?? I won't even go into the process I undertook to rectify the situation (I'm no technical genius, and I'm afraid the technofiles will laugh at me ) SO, I got the site back up and running, but now for some unknown reason, all the images I have loaded into posts here have disappeared. Hence, I will attempt to post a new image to go with this post in the hopes that the image will appear online once I update the site. Wish me luck.
P.S. Anyone out there who uses RapidWeaver and thinks they know what I've done to wreak such "Havok on myself, please feel free to post something in the comments for this post--thanks!

While online and perusing the iTunes Music Store's movie trailer section, I came across the teaser trailer for the new Superman Returns. Click the link or go to the vision section to see it. Go to the official site, and you can download the trailer for use at home or on your new iPod Video (if you have one).

Another little treasure from the Zip.ca archives came my way yesterday: I am Trying To Break Your Heart: A film About Wilco documents the making of Wilco's 2002 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. One of my personal favourite albums of the last ten years (and definitely on my all-time favourite list), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a rare beast: a great album sonically with a great story about it's birth/release. In a nutshell, the band were allowed to make the record on their own terms, in their own studio, with record company money. When they finally turned the record in for release, Reprise Records, the band's record company (which is owned by Time-Warner) decided that they wanted a few changes to it before releasing it. The band said no, the company said fine, and Wilco were dumped from the label, and allowed to take the record and shop it around for a company willing to release it They eventually signed on to Nonsuch Records (which is also owned by Time-Warner--the company who paid for the record and then dumped the band ultimately end up buying the record back for three times what it cost them to make it!). Along the way feelings are hurt, band members are "released" and contents in stomachs are regurgitated. It's the stuff of classic rock records, and good documentary-making. If you haven't heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, look it up. Also of interest is Mermaid Avenue volumes one and two, Wilco's collaboration with Billy Bragg on recordings of Woody Guthrie songs.
NOTE: the band photo above was taken by Sam Jones, who helped create the album art for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and was also the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.

...except for the @#$%ing mouse that has been terrorizing my house! Saturday morning I realized that there were mouse droppings on the kitchen floor, and then found a stash of the cat's food that was piled just under the piano. The mouse was eating the cat's food! What was the cat doing, watching him??? Anyway, I set the traps strategically--some of the old style, and a couple of the se new clip style traps--and lo and behold I caught one tiny, furry, dead rodent on Sunday morning in the laundry room, using the old traps. Slammed the bar right down on his neck... now I just got home tonight and checked all the traps, and one of the new "super clip traps" has been sprung... but no mouse! He better be wounded somewhere and bleeding to death in a mouse triage ER, muttering to his fellow rodents about the dangers of the "inside" world. I could make some silly comment about building better mouse traps, but I don't think I have the mental capacity for that after the pair of Caesar's I sucked back at dinner tonight (*burp *). I gotta go hunt me a mouse...
UPDATE: no sooner do I finish making this entry when I hear the sound of a SNAP! from the laundry room...Success! Another victim! But no, not quite. Seem,s that somehow Rufus has made his way into the laundry room and decided he was hungry for some cheese... stupid cat. He doesn't seem to be hurt but I hope once is enough for him to leave the trap alone next time he sneaks in there...I still am not sure how he got in!

How fitting that this is part three. I received my first three greeting cards of the season in the mail today... one from the salesman who sold me my car last summer, one from the mortgage broker who helped me buy my house, and one from my financial advisor. Who says Christmas isn't about spreading joy and good tidings to the ones you love? Or at least to the ones whose business you'd love.
P.S. For the record, since I know someone out there is thinking it: a) no, I don't send Christmas cards out, and b) yes, I do believe that you reap what you sow. Bleh!

Spread the word, tell all your friends about this blog, tell them it's amazing, link to it from your own site...help me get to 1000 hits before 2006! The campaign is on! It's [the act of just being here]'s "Hit My Blog...One More Time!" If you've just dropped in for a visit, and read the latest post, why not drop in again? Just make two hits to the the site instead of one, and maybe by December 31st I'll be able to ring in the new year with a blog that's got over a thousand hits on it. I know, small change for some people, but this has only been going since July for me, and I'm having a blast. so come on, sing it like you're Brittany Spears: "Hit My Blog...One More Time!"

If you're anti-chain mail/junk mail like I am, you'll get a kick out of this... forwarded to me and twenty of my other friends, of course

I just became the proud owner of a upright piano today. It's home used to be my friend's church in Niagara Falls, but they recently had a beautiful upright concert baby grand piano donated to them, so the old upright was obsolete. I offered to take it off his hands, and it makes a beautiful addition to my living room. As soon as I can get my hands on a camera, I'll take a few pictures. Now if I can just learn how to play it...

OK, so maybe it has nothing to do with Christmas directly, but it's unfortunate that this holiday season comes at the same time as the change in year. For most people the two events seem synonymous but I have a great deal of difficulty with it. The way I see it, you can deal with the New Year (be it January 1st, or your birthday, or the start of a new school year) in one of two ways: optimistic or pessimistic. There's either all the hope and joy that a fresh start can bring, or the doom and gloom associated with the realization that another year of your life has been flushed down the toilet. Couple either of these two extremes with "Christmas Joy" and you can see why the holidays bring a spike in suicide rates: you either drown in the fake sentimentality and spiral deeper into a depressive cycle of anger and resentment, or force yourself to be joyful and the epitome of Christmas by going hog-wild decorating, partying, and spreading cheer in a desperate attempt to hide from the public just how little cheer you have. By the end of it, you are spent--emotionally and financially, and are left with the prospect of facing the start of another year feeling numb, cold, and miserable. And all you have to show for it is left-over stuffing, and a pair of gloves a size too small that have to be returned to some out-of-the-way handwear specialty store that will only take them back for store credit. Lovely. I can't wait.

And so, with the first week of December, it begins--the dreaded holiday countdown. How many parties and functions are there to attend? How many pounds can I lose before the week of Christmas, and how many pounds will I put on after all the feasting? How many angry shoppers will I face? How many angry socialists will I have telling me that I've lost the true meaning of Christmas and have become a capitalist pig? How many times will my heart be broken by stories of Christmas miracles? How many times will I roll my eyes at someone's bleeding heart "my-cigarette-butt-set-my-Christmas-tree-on-fire-and-burned-down-all-my-uninsured-house-and-all-the-kiddies'-Christmas-gifts" stories and how many times will I mutter under my breath that someone should buy these people a smoke alarm for Christmas? How many times do I have to hear Christmas carol after Christmas carol be sung by tone-deaf, suburban housewives wearing gaudy cable-knit sweaters featuring cookie-cutter snowflakes, or reindeer, or snowmen? How many family gatherings can I ruin this year? How many times will I just wish it was all over? How many times will I wish people would just shut up about how much they hate Christmas? How many times will I remember that it only comes once a year, and tell myself to just shut up and try to enjoy it? Probably not enough times.

When I started this blog, I spent a fair bit of time looking at and reading other people's blogs, like Matt Kappenman and Calvin Carl's. Calvin has launched a brand new project that has its roots in some pretty old traditions. Here's how Calvin describes it on the project's site:

The Postage Project is a "mail art" project by me, myself, and I, Calvin Carl. I make small pieces of art that fit within any sized envelope and then send it to whoever for FREE. Receivers of mail are encouraged to send something (art, whatever) in return.

I read somewhere on his site about him secretly leaving tiny pieces of art in the mailboxes of his fellow students, just to watch their reactions and the conversations they would elicit. I really like the idea of anonymously affecting someone's day by inserting a piece of art into it. After all, isn't that what art, and life is all about? A reaction/interaction with others and the world around us? An appreciation of the creative process? An added element to our lives that gives the everyday some substance, some weight? Who doesn't like getting mail?

Last night I saw the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel musical/dancical Movin' Out. Different. I'm not a dance critic, so I really don't know what to comment on, because the entire show is a choreographed story about three guys and a couple of gals growing up in the U.S. on the eve of the Vietnam War, where one guy is killed. The boys return home and life is a struggle. Lovers are hurt, drugs are taken, bad polyester is worn... which leads us to the Eighties and Puma sweat clothes and moonwalking. All set to the sound stylings of one Mr. Billy Joel ©.
So this morning when I woke and couldn't get Joel's "Movin' Out (Anthony's Theme)" out of my head, I dusted off my vinyl and CD collection's Billy Joel selections. Yes, that's right, I LIKE BILLY JOEL. A lot, actually. Ever since my cousin and I used to air-guitar to "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" I have had a fondness for New York's piano man. Which brings me to today's musical endorsement: Glass Houses.
1980 was the year that punk and new wave started to make a big wave in the music world, and critics were falling all over themselves with superlatives. None however, seemed to be going Billy Joel's way. After a couple of successful albums with The Stranger and 52nd Street, Joel was looked upon as mainstream pop; nothing too dangerous, nothing to challenging. He hated it. Glass Houses was his bold artistic statement: more punk than pop, more rock than roll (I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean, but it sounds good doesn't it?). There's a sharp taste of bitterness in the lyrics, and an edge to the album that matches the tension of the album's cover shot. This time, the opening one-two punch, was actually a one-two-three-four-five punch--"You May Be Right," "Sometimes A Fantasy," "Don't Ask Me Why," "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me," and "All For Leyna" made for a killer A-side. Uncharacteristically for a Billy Joel album, the B-side wasn't too shabby, either (unlike Glass Houses follow-up, The Nylon Curtain).
Is it punk? Not on your life. Does it rock? You bet. If I were on a desert island, would this be one of the albums I would want to take with me? Of course. In a long, and sometimes spotty career, Glass Houses is a high-water mark for Joel. Anyone out there have a Billy Joel song/album they love/hate? Let's take a survey, shall we?