My Favorite Playlist

We have over 4500 songs on our iPod, 750 of which are by Bob Dylan and what seems like a couple hundred by Johnny Cash when it's set to shuffle. It also contains Russian pronunciations for Stravinsky's Les Noces, as well as a whole album of traditional songs played by the "stalagpipe" organ at Luray Caverns. I love having our entire music library in my purse at all times, but it can make it difficult to search for the songs I want to hear most often when I'm driving. There are some whole albums I listen to on a regular basis, like the Soundtrack from Once, but I really love to mix it up. And as you can imagine, I love to make playlists. I've got playlists of old mixed tapes and CDs, as well as new ones like "Songs About the 50 States" and "Songs From House, M.D." Here is the best of the best:

• Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon and Garfunkel
• I Wonder - Chris Isaak
• Shenandoah - Hayley Westerna
• I'm in Love with a Girl - Big Star
• Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver
• Secret Heart - Feist
• Dreams - The Cranberries
• Iowa (Traveling Ill) - Dar Williams
• Passing Afternoon - Iron & Wine
• Find the River - REM
• The Nearness of You - Norah Jones
• Fields of Gold - Sting
• Wise Up - Aimee Mann
• The Water is Wide - James Taylor
• I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll - Gillian Welch
• The Beauty in Ugly - Jason Mraz
• Nanci - Toad the Wet Sprocket
• Our Town - Iris DeMent
• As You Turn to Go - The 6ths
• When You Say Nothing At All - Allison Krauss & Union Station
• Yellow - Coldplay
• Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
• New Slang - The Shins
• It's Not Easy Being Green - Kermit the Frog
  

I Heart Halloween

One of my all-time favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the only Halloween episodes of the series (because in the Buffyverse, it's the one night of the year vampires stay home and don't make trouble). But this particular night, a chaos-worshipping warlock casts a spell to change people into the costumes they chose for themselves from his costume shop.

Shy Willow attempts a sexy look but ends up covering herself in a ghost sheet. Xander, who struggles with his relative lack of strength and ability, goes with tough soldier guy. Unfortunately, Buffy decides to dress up as an 18th-century noblewoman because she wanted to be more like the women Angel (her 200-year-old vampire-with-a-soul boyfriend) used to date when he was human.

So when children turn into real monsters and violence erupts, the Slayer is helpless. She faints at the sight of a car and refuses to fight because she is a proper lady, meant only to look pretty until she gets a husband to take care of her. Roles reversed, Willow the ghost and Xander the soldier have to take charge. Not only is Buffy of no help in reversing the spell, but they now have to protect her from the vampires who learn she is without her powers and plan to take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill her.

The lesson isn't to be careful what you wish for. It is about being yourself. The hardest thing I've had to do in my life is to become comfortable in my own skin. Sometimes a costume helps us explore aspects of our personalities that we usually keep hidden - either because we are stuck in a rut or are afraid of embarassment. Buffy's tale reminds us that living behind a mask is dangerous not just because it can stifle our true selves but because it can actually turn us into someone we're not.

As we were going through boxes preparing to decorate for Halloween, I found some of my favorite costumes and made a little display by the front door to remind me of the fun I had making and/or wearing them. At Top: Native American costume my mother made when I was little, part of a set she made for the whole family. Beside it is a roll of masking tape that says, "Batman," in homage to a costume Mark's mom made for him. Bottom Left: The Shoveler and Blue Raja from Mystery Men. Dobby was Mr. Furious (no costume, we just made him really really mad). Bottom Center: Scully and Mulder from The X-Files. I am extra proud of the fake FBI badges I made in Photoshop. Bottom Right: Harry, Hermione, and Dobby the house elf from Harry Potter. And yes, that is first and last time we make the dog dress up.

Movie Matchups II

DOUBLE FEATURES
Fairytales for Grownups: The Princess Bride and Enchanted
Cutie Pie Robots: Short Circuit and Wall-E
Drew Berrymore and Adam Sandler: The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates
Gender Roles in English Theatre: Shakespeare in Love and Stage Beauty
Sex Toys: Lars and the Real Girl (Clean, trust me) and Secretary (Not so clean)

TRIPLE FEATURES
Hugh Grant: Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary, Two Weeks Notice
Mockumentaries: Wating for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind
Charlie Kaufman: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Bio-fiction: Immortal Beloved, Finding Neverland, Becoming Jane
Meg Ryan and Nora Ephron: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail

MARATHONS
Dance: Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Billy Elliot, Center Stage
Spielberg: E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Amistad, Schindler's List
Superheroes: Mystery Men, Spiderman 2, The Incredibles, Batman Begins
Light Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing, 10 Things I Hate About You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, She's the Man
Food: Mystic Pizza, Chocolat, Pieces of April, Waitress

Fantasy TV Lineup

PRIMETIME
Mon - Northern Exposure, Pickett Fences, West Wing
Tue - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly
Wed - Smallville, Bones, House
Thu - Ugly Betty, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock
Fri - Wonderfalls, Joan of Arcadia, Veroncia Mars
Sat - Ballykissangel, Da Ali G Show, The Office (BBC),
Six Feet Under
Sun - Grey’s Anatomy, Alias, Lost

Bedtime
The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Sex and the City, Coupling (BBC), The X-Files
Asleeptime
The Dead Zone, Wonder Years, Wings,
Designing Women, Murphy Brown
Morningtime
Clean Sweep, Mythbusters, Movie & a Makeover
Daytime
Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Felicity
Dinnertime
Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, That 70s Show, Scrubs, Will and Grace
Wintertime
Kyle XY, Psych, Monk
Summertime
Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, Rescue Me

Giveitsometime
Samantha Who?, How I Met Your Mother, Pushing Daisies, Life

Some Favorite Books of My Youth

While making book gift baskets for some friends' children, Mark and I reminisced about our own reading as children. Our lists were pretty different, since I was a voracious reader of novels and he of baseball cards. But we both started with the same book...

The Monster at the End of the Book by Grover

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
  
• Who hasn't ever read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson? My husband.


• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh


• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg


• Bridge to Terabitha by Katherine Paterson
  
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes


• Book fair gems such as Will I Ever Dance Again? and Six Months to Live by Lurlene McDaniel


• Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, especially Masque of the Red Death
  and Fall of the House of Usher


• Chain Letter and Weekend by Christopher Pike


• Misery and The Stand by Stephen King


• A contraband copy of Forever by Judy Blume


• Once in a Lifetime by Danielle Steel

Favorite Individual TV Characters

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Top:
Josh Lyman - The West Wing
Carrie Bradshaw - Sex and the City
Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars
Middle:
Dr. Greg House - House, M.D.
Liz Lemon - 30 Rock
Sawyer Ford - Lost
Betty Suarez - Ugly Betty
Bottom:
Dr. Temperance Brennan - Bones
Niles Crane - Frasier
Willow Rosenberg - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chris Stevens - Northern Exposure

Movie Matchups I

DOUBLE FEATURES

Cyrano de Bergerac: Roxanne and The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Bob Dylan: Masked and Anonymous and I'm Not There

Before they were leading ladies: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Little Women

POTUS: Dave and The American President

Babs: The Way We Were and The Mirror Has Two Faces

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TRIPLE FEATURES

Nick Hornby: High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch

Comic Capers: Trapped in Paradise, Bottle Rocket, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Baz Luhrmann: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge

Brat Pack: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink

Young Johnny Depp: Who's Eating Glibert Grape, Edward Scissorhands, Benny and Joon

MARATHONS

Geniuses: Real Genius, Little Man Tate, Good Will Hunting, The Royal Tenenbaums

Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, The Jane Austen Book Club

Classic Musicals: The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Grease, Annie

Epic Award Winners: The Godfather, Gandhi, Braveheart, Titanic

Disney and Pixar: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Toy Story