Martinis and Mini Skirts

Dionne Warwick came to town this week for a rare concert appearance. I could not have been happier. Some of you may be saying at this point, "have I reached the wrong blog?" No you have not. My taste in music varies greatly. We had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Warwick for the first time about six years ago. Her concert appearance back then was at a venue in Galveston. The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston is a great place to see concerts since it's a very small theatre allowing for great views wherever you sit. Our tickets back then were included with a package deal that included several opera recitals and a Greater Tuna show. BTW, the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston is THE place to see Greater Tuna shows. Anyway, six years ago we went to see Ms. Warwick not really expecting too much. Boy were we mistaken. This lady can work a crowd. So when we saw that she was playing a concert date last week in nearby Stafford Texas (I won't even go into all I could say about Stafford, only to say if you didn't see the sign saying you were leaving Houston you would not know you have crossed over into Stafford). The concert was on a Thursday night (work nights are not the greatest for going out) so we did not immediately buy tickets since we had looked online and seen that there were plenty of seats left about a week prior to the show (such a shame, those tickets should have been snapped up when they went on sale). We waited to see how tired we were on Thursday after work. As it turned out we were both feeling pretty good so we ate a quick dinner and drove the 30 minutes to the Stafford Centre and bought tickets right before show time.

What a fantastic night! The show actually started with a singing impersonator. At first I was saying to myself "oh God this is going to be cheesy". He actually turned out to very good, with his best impression being that of Frank Sinatra signing New York New York. What made it so good was he sang it as if the song were being played in a jukebox and the record kept skipping. I swear this guy sounded exactly like a skipping record. The whole cheesy aspect of the impersonator added to the already 60s feel to the evening. I was being transported back to 1960s Vegas via song.

Dionne came out after a brief intermission. She was accompanied by two keyboardists, a pianist, base player, drummer and a percussionist who played a variety of instruments from bongo drums to tambourines. Her set included songs from her heyday in the 60s, a few Brazilian numbers (she lives in Brazil) and a gospel tune. Everything was flawless. She sounded perfect, her voice taking the audience back to a simpler time when the world just needed Love, Sweet Love. My favorites included Walk On By, Do you Know The Way To San Jose, and I'll Never Love This Way Again. By the end of the concert we were fully involved in the moment, signing along as encouraged by her and tapping toes to the beat. This was one classy evening and a great escape from the work week. I would encourage anyone to leave your preconceived notions at home and go see her if you ever get a chance.

Counting the minutes

Madonna's new CD "Hard Candy" comes out April 29th. I can't wait! "Loves her" as Paris Hilton would say. The first single "4 minutes" is fabulous. The duet with Justin Timberlake is as fun as they get and the video is equally entertaining.

I understand this is the last CD she will release under her current label. She apparently has signed a huge deal to release several more CDs under a new label and she is also going to tour again. I can only hope she comes back to Houston. I saw her here when she began her Blond Ambition tour. It amuses me that Joel Osteen now preaches from the very same building that Madonna once writhed around on stage, faking masturbation while surrounded by men wearing over sized cone bras.

Anyway, I've had my CD pre-ordered on Amazon for some time now and I've already downloaded the song and video from iTunes. The end of April can't get here fast enough.

My Hero!!

I absolutely love Margaret Cho. I can't say enough good things about her. I love her foul mouth, I love her politics, I love her humor, I love her abrasiveness, but mostly I love that she pisses off the people that I tend to hate the most.

I'm very disappointed that she does not have a date in Houston for her current tour. She previewed the show at the Laugh Stop a few month's ago but I declined to buy tickets for fear that it would ruin seeing the show when it came to town. Now I wish I had gone. Perhaps she will add some dates in Houston in the future.

Blast From The Past

I was recently looking for something in the back of my closet and came upon a game of Pente. For those of you not familiar with this board game, it was popular in the 70's. That is when someone gave the game to me as a present. I have always loved playing it even though sometimes years will go by when I don't play a single game. It's like a long lost friend every time I find the game.

The game consists of a board divided into small squares and two or four sets of small, glass beads. The object of the game is to get 5 of your beads in a row or capture 5 pairs of your opponents beads.

Anyway, after I found the game in the closet and not having anyone to play with I of course did the next logical thing and searched the net. Bingo Pente.org was found. I love this site. There is a group of regulars and some novices. The online game can be played two ways. One way is to play live against an opponent or against the computer using a java window. The other method is called a turn-based game where each player logs in whenever they feel like it and makes a move. I like both ways, especially since the java method won't work through the firewall at my job.

It's a very easy game to play and the people on the site seem willing to entertain questions from beginners. There is also a lot of online help available. Check it out.

FindaDeath.com has new forum

I think it was my friend Karen that turned me on to this little site but I'm not sure. Anyway FindaDeath.com now has a forum. I like forums. I usually don't sign up, instead I prefer to lurk. You might want to check the site out. It's really maintained very well and not as ghoulish as the name implies.

Sorry for the delay

It's been a very long time since I last posted. In fact it has been so long that when I logged into Blogger they had changed the entire log in procedure.
I promise to try to be better at posting more often. The whole reason that I decided to update my site right now is because I have been on hold with a company on the phone so long that I ran through every bookmarked website I have in my favorites and this was the last one. I've been on hold about 30 or 40 minutes and now it has become a test of will....oh my god they answered the phone while I was typing this sentence. So a 40 minute wait was handled in a 30 second conversation. Well I'm glad that is over. OK gotta go. See you soon. P.S. love the new spellcheck feature.

A Fitting End?

I hated this man. I was so pleased when he was convicted, and I was looking forward to his sentencing this fall. Lay ruined thousands of lives with his greed and lies. I wonder how many innocent victims died of heart attacks as a result of his evil?
While talking about his demise, the first reactions from friends and family were interesting. Not one person expressed any condolences for him or his family. Actually, there were two typical reactions. Upon hearing of his death, people either asked "did he kill himself?" or "they better check that body to make sure it is really him". I think that sums up the situation pretty well.
I still feel cheated out of the pleasure I would have had watching him being carted off to jail. Although, there is always Skilling.

Delay Announces Resignation From House

I could not be happier. Former bug man and current indicted criminal is doing the right thing and vacating the office that he has abused for two decades. It's about time the trash was taken out in Washington.

There ought to be a law...

Grand Imam Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi of al-Azhar University, the world's highest Sunni Muslim seat of learning(whatever) said the Danish prime minister must apologize for the drawings(if you don't know about the drawings, you must be living under a rock) and further demanded that the world's religious leaders meet to write a law that "condemns insulting any religion, including the Holy Scriptures and the prophets." He said the United Nations should impose the law on all countries.
I have an idea, let's just do away with any form of free-thought. Better yet, let's outlaw sarcasm. Now there's an idea I could get behind.

...and I thought baptists were scary

Apparently no one is allowed to draw caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad without causing mass protests and global embassy burnings.
This blog could go so many ways. I could take the "violence is never the answer" route. Or maybe the "what are they so pissed off about" route. Perhaps the "I'm mad 'cus I don't have the same civil liberties as most others but you don't see me burning down Pat Robertson's house" route. I could get really bigoted and go down the "if you would take some anger management classes and stop beating your wife and making her wear that ridiculous shrouded outfit in 102 degree weather" route. There is also the "I've seen gay Jesus, black Jesus(closer to the truth, deal), lounge singer Jesus, Jesus having sex and ice skating Jesus but I don't remember an embassy being burned down as a result" road.
But the truth for me is "The world would be a much better place without any religion." That's a direct quote from someone I met at a dinner party several years ago and I totally agreed with her. I can hear the gasps now. I'm not suggesting the immediate outlaw of all religion, just suggesting a wish that the concept of religion had never occurred to mankind. That's my opinion. Get over it.