Ramblings of the Eternally Bored

Top Five On Friday @ The Music Memoirs

Top 5 "Night" songs or songs that relate to the night or evening.

1. Good Night - The Beatles

My mom used to sing this to me as a lullaby when I was tiny! ♥

"Now it's time to say good night.
Good night, sleep tight.
Now the sun turns out his light.
Good night, sleep tight."

2. Because The Night - Patti Smith

I also love Natalie Merchant's version of this.

"Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to lust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us"

3. Nightswimming - R.E.M.

I absolutely love this song. Perfect for night driving.

"Nightswimming, remembering that night.
September's coming soon, I'm pining for the moon."

4. Rainy Night In Georgia - Brook Benton

This is good, and Ray Charles also did a fine, fine version of this song.

"Neon signs a-flashin', taxi cabs and buses passin' through the night.
A distant moanin' of a train seems to play a sad refrain to the night.
A rainy night in Georgia, such a rainy night in Georgia,
Lord, I believe it's rainin' all over the world.
I feel like it's rainin' all over the world."

5. Walking After Midnight - Patsy Cline

Love Patsy. This is one of my favorites.

"I go out walking, after midnight,
out in the moonlight, just like we used to do.
I'm always walking, after midnight
searching for you."

Runners up:

The Night: Nights In White Satin / Late Lament - The Moody Blues

In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins

No More Lonely Nights - Paul McCartney & Wings

Night Fever - Bee Gees

And of course "I Love The Night Life" by Alicia Bridges.

I love the night life I got to boogie!

It is a lovely day here in Chicago. Sunny, and warming up to normal May temps.
Birds are singing, lawns are being mown in the distance, breeze lilting lazily through open windows...

It's what The Silver Platters call a Sunshine Day:
gotta get away into the sunshine day...

I especially love how Bobby breaks it down with that groovy bridge.

This week's questions have been brought to you by heartovmidnight, the letter F, & the number 5...


TV Time!

1. What's your favourite TV network?
   
2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be?
   
3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back?
   
4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show?
   
5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD?
   (sic)

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/thefridayfive/1466.html

Old sets that were used have been deleted, so please feel free to suggest some more! Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going.

I can't close my eyes and make it go away.

In fact, when I close my eyes, I see him still...
The Chinese man, sitting with a "Hello Kitty" book bag between his knees, weeping into the folded change of clothes he brought along as he waits to hear word of his missing daughter lost somewhere in the rubble of a school. It breaks my heart in pieces. It hurts my chest.

I hate this heavy feeling of sorrow and hopelessness. What good does it do? I look at the pictures of grief and worry and unspeakable sorrow, and my heart aches and I want to go to their side and hold them tightly, comfort them while their hearts break in anguish. It's overwhelming to feel this much compassion. Every day brings some new piece of news of how we suffer at the hands of nature and other elements. What can I do?

As Peter Gabriel says, "Love, I don't like to see so much pain. So much wasted, and this moment keeps slipping away."

I have very little to offer in terms of words of comfort for them, for myself.
This, too, shall pass.

Interesting article about how Pagans are joining the Quakers.

Pagans And Quakers Unite!

All this talk about launch_pad acquiring a condo got me caught up in the idea of having one for myself, especially after seeing a one-bedroom condo listed at only 74,000.00 in Oak Park. It hasn't been touched in thirty years. It has the original gold-flecked formica counter tops and pedestal sink in the bathroom. Those are pluses for me, for I appreciate the designs of the past. It's really cute, and would end up costing me about 700 dollars with assessment fees and all.

The sad part is - after serious consideration, I realize I am not ready for this, financially. Even at dirt cheap prices, even in a buyer's market, I am about as ready to move out as a nine-year-old. Well, maybe a 16-year-old. It makes me feel really bad about myself.

My mom wants to buy it as an investment, and for an opportunity for me to live on my own, and I would be responsible for the low monthly mortgage - it's hard to know what I make from month to month, being a free lance literary editor. Like this month, this would be cake. But next month? Scary. It's really a matter of a few hundred dollars extra a month. Something I don't have. So, I remain here, paying off bills and getting older, living with a terse closed-off sibling and an acerbic mother. It's not my mom's responsibility to get me a condo. My sister is terse and she shrugs it off as the most ridiculous investment known to man, and my mom is a fool to think of it.

If it was possible, would I do it? It would certainly change the dynamics of the family and the relationships therein, but I would do it if I could. It's a really cute retro never been changed in thirty years condo. Oh, well... I keep my eye on the prize: a brick two-flat.

Edit: Well, I don't feel as bad as I sounded up there. I did not want a condo anyway. I just wish I was financially solid enough to jump on a great deal when one comes across. I am disappointed that my editing business doesn't allow me freedom like I want. I won't rule it out entirely; I have to do some number crunching, see if it is at all possible. If not, no bad feelings. I'd rather stay here than go out and worry each month whether or not I can make ends meet. Meanwhile, I have debts to pay. It's pretty close. If I could work more hours at the frame place until our editing business picks up, then I'd be able to swing it, no problem, but even they are slow and my hours have been trimmed there as well.
I feel better about not getting it now that the sun is out and I don't feel depressed.

I guess it's all about perspective.

does anyone know where i can get audio clips for the movie "gummo" i'm particularly looking for a clip of the part that goes "life is beautiful. it really is. full of beauty and illusions" for a mix cd i'm making for a friend

i found a gummo audio clips cd

"Forced entry" Cheesy rape exploitation flick with bizzare camera angles and lots of grainy Vietnam footage mixed in constantly. Noisy and very grainy. About halfway through there's a rape that actually looks like a rape and not just porn like the rest of the flick. It's followed by a murder that looked surprisingly real considering the movie seemed like it was made on a budget not sufficient to buy a happy meal. Whole thing has a sort of industrial/noise music video feel. Mostly a pain to watch, but the chaos of it all got to me.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124596/

Remade 2 years later?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087282/

Who else would consider themselves a fan of Andreas Schaans's Violent Shit trilogy?  Personally they are more of a guilty pleasure for me as most of the German splatter films are, due to the fact they are very poorly made shot on VHS films.  Out of the three films my favorite is defiantly Violent Shit 3: Infantry of Doom, mainly because the effects are very good and it was not just a typical backyard production like pervious two were…plus it melds some Super8 in there and I am quite a large fan of Super8.

Tuesday Tunes @ The Music Memoirs

What's the newest song you are currently into?

Songs. Particularly the new Raconteurs album "Consolers of the Lonely". Brendan Benson and Jack White are love. As well? The Mudcrutch album is awesome. Tom Petty FTW!

What older artists have you recently discovered?

How come I've never had "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake in my life until recently?!

What do you think of "reunion tours" or "revival tours"?

I'm all for it. I just saw Van Halen for the first time ever live. I never did see them during their "Diamond Dave" led heyday or with Sammy leading them. Dave's back, still struttin' his stuff, and Eddie freakin' Van Halen is amazing. At least I saw them live. Same goes for Zeppelin. If they tour the U.S. it will be wonderful because I of course never got to see them when they were touring back in the day, and they can still be amazing, so yes. YES. Bring the reunions ON.

What new releases are on your wish list?

I don't have any at this precise moment. I've already got what I've been waiting for.

Bulgarian Idol

KEN LEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
LIBOO DIBU DOUCHOO

Funniest story to date

Obviously the kid wanted to play with an entirely different kind of box that night...

Love this video. And the Wilburys. So fookin' much.

Enjoy.

Is anyone in the mood to make me a supercool icon with red flames that says:

As a Virgo, water rules your destiny.
But you know what really rules is "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

It is my absolute favorite horoscope I ever received from The Onion.

I see the stuff you all do, and I think it's pretty cool.

Thanks in advance.

I got to my computer to look up the musical library of Bruce Springsteen. A novel I am editing names one of his albums as "Born to be Free." Now, that can be Born to Run or Born in the U.S.A. Since the scene is set in 1987, it can be either one, so I write, as a suggestion, both albums. Then I start getting soft on Bruce. I go to itunes. Before I know it, I'm buying 15 Springsteen songs, each one tickling my summer heart, giving me images of driving down to the beach with the sun on my face from my sun roof, and me and my sister are singing Born to Run at the top of our balmy lungs in the midst of a long warm wonderful timeless summer moment.

Bruce Springsteen is summer to me. Except for Nebraska; that is purely the dead of winter. That is my favorite Springsteen album. Then, Born to Run.

Good God, I can even tolerate the 9 minute-long Jungleland, saxophone and all. And God knows, unless it's jazz, saxophone has no business. Sorry, Bowie. It just sounds too much like the opening of another terrible Saturday Night Live show. Save me from myself.

Okay. Maybe I love Bruce a little bit deeper since I found out he was half-Italian. Like being half-Irish wasn't enough. I mean, look at his lyrics; he's a story teller. Gotta be Irish. And like being from Jersey isn't enough for me; he's gotta be kinda Dago, on top of it. Mysteriously, however, I despise Bon Jovi, another Jersey band. But I digress...

Bruce Springsteen is summer. It's hard to even explain, unless you have the chance to hear one of his songs from an open car window, or through an open window of a house or passing car in the middle of a long warm velvet night.

Here are the lyrics to Thunder Road. It won't make you feel summer completely, but perhaps it will help you recall the passion, the terrible urgency you felt on those long summer nights and hot idyllic summer days, wanting something, anything to happen, something that puts your coming-of-age on the map, to be forever in your book of moments like your first pang of love, your first sloppy grope, the first time drunk or high, your first serious lover, your first arrest - or near arrest - your first reckless action and consequent near-death experience, the first time it hits you that, shit, you are only getting older, and you better make the best of your life before you turn thirty and it's all fucking over (well, it looks over when you're only 19, come on...)

( Lyrics to Thunder Road )

China Suffers Strong Earthquake

Oh, my gosh, these poor people. I saw pictures of civilians and rescuers pulling students' bodies from a building. This is truly devastating. Those poor kids. 7.8 magnitude. That is a tough quake. So many injured; so many have been accounted for as dead - nearly 9,000, if not more. Good grief. Do we have money in our coffers to help them? I mean, we have to help, right?

I don't know my geography so well, so I don't really know in particular which part of China this is. I don't have any reference points.

The earthquake that hit China's southwestern province of Sichuan killed 8,533 people, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, citing the provincial government.

The epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude quake was in a mountainous region about 100 km from Sichuan's capital Chengdu, a bustling city of 10 million.

"The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley," a driver for Sichuan's seismological bureau was quoted by Xinhua as saying, as he was driving near the epicenter.

The quake hit in the middle of the school day, toppling eight schools in the region. Chemical plants and at least one hospital were also flattened, trapping many hundreds, state media said.

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy
-Spanish proverb

Heh, heh, you can take that any way you wish...

Dear Carl,

It's late. Excuse any misspellings.( My therapy session with Carl Jung and my stream-of-consciousness writing )

This could very well be a repost, but I didn't see anything about it in the memories. I apologize if it is!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QcDjM3_6nXk

This? Made my day. ♥

 These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" byLibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you own but have not read.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22  (Note to self, buy and read this.)
One Hundred Years of Solitude 
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice

Hope all the moms out there have a particularly wonderful day, (stalkingsilence notagain) however I just realized that neither of the moms on my FL actually live in the same country as I....

No matter! Happy Mother's Day!

I can't believe it. Its a Saturday and I'm not at work. I'm on what people call "vacation". The last day off I had (other than Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day) was...Labor Day. But, friends, this isn't a day, its a week! Eeek!

As you all know, I have a LOT of stress at work. I love my job, but I've never worked more and earned less. ha ha! However, its a job with a good company, a good boss, and good people.

I feel the plight of my friends looking for a job. I've been laid off 3 times in the past five years and fired once. (which is an HONOR to be fired from that barn!) I've been at my current place 2.5 years.

Unfortunately, we also had to have a reduction in force, and on 4/23, we laid off 17 people. The ecomony has taken its toll on our customer, and it has trickled down to us. Thankfully, I was not among them.

As the HR person, I had to be present after the announcement in order to field benefit questions and the like. Corporate wanted us to do it on an individual basis. I've done that before and it doesn't work. First, every individual will ask "am I the only one." In a group setting, they don't feel alone. Second, each time we call someone up, all the people staying will be thinking "am I next?" and then they'll worry all day, and not get anything done.

Not to mention, as the person doing this sad task, it takes a toll on me. I care about these people and know they live paycheck to paycheck, etc. I told corporate I'd rather be shot once than stabbed repeatedly. Meeting with person after person is just pain after pain. A group is a one shot deal. We wound up having 2 group meetings. The timing was flawless, it worked out well. There were not information leaks. While we were meeting with those leaving, the General manager was meeting with the "survivors" to encourage them and ease their fears.

As some of you know, twice a year we have an internal audit. My company has the most paperwork rules in the world! So, needless to say, terminating 17 people in one fell swoop was a lot of paperwork! In addition to all my daily duties. I work at least 10-12 hours a day plus weekends. I have 2 assistants, and they are swamped as well! I had to lay off my 3rd assistant, so now our workload has increased.

So, all this leads to....I need a freaking vacation!

So, Friday, I had to prepare to be out. I was almost done when I got an e-mail. A person we fired for policy violation over a month ago filed for unemployment, was denied, and now there is a hearing next week. So, I had to spend yesterday evening sending supporting documentation to everyone, coaching the supervisor on what happens, etc. since I won't be in attendance.

As I was about to leave at 8 p.m. last night(after arriving at 7 a.m. and taking no lunch break)an e-mail popped up about some documentation on another matter. I had to fax it by Monday. I thought about just going in on Saturday (today), but thought, nah, it won't take long.

Well, I have this ADD thing, and I kept thinking about other things needing to be done, and sent those e-mails, and while looking for this paperwork, I found other paperwork that was more interesting than what I initially was doing. Next thing I know, Elvis is calling me at 1 a.m. going "WHERE ARE YOU! YOU'RE ON VACATION! GET HOME!"

Elvis was right. But in my sidetracking and digression, I hadn't found the paperwork. (However, my office was the most organized and clean its been in months!)

As the 2nd shift manager came up at 2 a.m. to say she was locking up the building, I finally found the papers in...yes, the last place I looked...:)

This morning, I slept late for the first time in months! My sister arrived from N.C. to stay with my dad for the week so I wouldn't worry or have to make other arrangements. yay!

We are leaving Sunday morning for Daytona (Ormand Beach specifically). I hope this week will help me reboot, and my heart will stop hurting (anxiety issues).

OK, Elvis, I've clocked out.

Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! Arrivederci! Adeus! Vaarwel! Αντίο!

P.S.
Babies don't need a vacation but I still see them at the beach.
I'll go over to them and say, 'What are you doing here, you've never worked a day in your life!'.”
- Stephen Wright

My bra was so uncomfortable yesterday. When I got undressed last night I realiezed that I had worn it inside-out all day!

Narf.

The wheel bugs are thriving, and have grown quite a bit since I last took their photos on April 26th. They look like tiny roma tomatoes pulled by ants now...

Wait. No Fleur Delacour in the "Deathly Hallows" movie?!

So I take it the wedding scene is out.

W.T.F.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

This week's set was suggested by beethovenette87.

1. If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours?

2. Do you think that life has meaning?

3. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites?
(Remember childhood according to the United Nations is anywhere from 0-18 years, so this is a fairly broad span of time).

4. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb?

5. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it?




Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/thefridayfive/1466.html

Old sets that were used have been deleted, so please feel free to suggest some more! Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going.

For those of us too young to recall or even too young to be taught in school how it all came about...

enlightening article about how it all started

Once upon a time...
Sixty years ago they were preparing to fight for their lives.
The British, rulers of Palestine since 1917, were going home, leaving behind a legal system, red pillar boxes, chaos and war.
At 1600 on 14 May 1948 Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion read out its declaration of independence in a hall in Tel Aviv.
Just before midnight a Royal Navy battle cruiser carrying Britain's last high commissioner slipped out of Palestine's territorial waters.
By dawn the next day, forces from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt crossed into territory the British left behind...

...The members of kibbutz Yad Mordechai, like almost everyone else in the land that became Israel, originally had Palestinian Arab neighbours, mainly farmers whose families had worked the land for centuries.

Every year for Palestinians this anniversary is a reminder of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe. For them the last 60 years have been about dispossession and exile.

In 1948 Palestinian society collapsed under the weight of war. Starting in the last months of 1947, and going on until the early part of 1949, about 700,000 Palestinians became refugees from the land that became Israel.

Many were expelled by force or left because of the fear that they might be killed. Their property was expropriated and they were not allowed to return.

Around 4.5 million Palestinians are now registered as refugees by Unrwa, the United Nations agency that looks after them. Many Palestinians believe that Israel's success has been built on the backs of their loss.

And it's been a fucking party for the rest of the world ever since.

Gunbattles break out in Beirut

Beirut gun battle

Gunfire broke out in downtown Beirut Thursday after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said recent government actions amount to "a declaration of open war."

Here's what I want. I want no news. No internet news, no TV or radio news. I want to remain blissfully unaware of what is going on in other parts of the world, other parts of my country, state, town, etc. It's all bad news. Can't people write about something like, "Here is a bunch of Arabs and Jews, blacks and whites, gays and fundies, living together in peace and harmony. "

I know things are not one hundred percent shit in the entire world. I want to hear something positive. Tell me something good.

Here's a good story:
Jews and Arabs live side by side

To mark Israel's 60th anniversary, BBC News has travelled to the ancient port city of Jaffa where Jews and Arabs live side by side.

It is a vibrant city where money is being poured into reconstruction, but tensions still surface in what a famous artist calls a "microcosm of the Middle East".

Happy birthday, Israel.



JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel celebrated its 60th birthday with barbecues and military display on Thursday but the party was marred by an investigation that could unseat the prime minister and derail efforts toward a pe