"Charlie Brown, this tree needs you!"

I used to decorate for Christmas and hadn't for years until last year, when I bought this tree from UrbanOutfitters.com. It's a replica of the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas special. Though I vaguely remembered the story line, somehow seeing this tree melted the edges of my scroogy holiday heart. It was also the only sort of tree I could fit in my apartment. I love the dang thing!

Since then, I have become (happily) reacquainted with the story:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas features Charlie Brown's search for meaning in the Christmas holiday. He starts the special seeking to understand why he always ends up depressed around the holidays. On the advice of Lucy, he gets involved in directing a school play about the Nativity. When he loses control of the production because of the cast members' refusal to listen to him, he is given the lesser responsibility of finding a Christmas tree for the play.

Instead of buying a "big, shiny, aluminum" artificial tree as he was instructed to do by Lucy, he chooses a pitiful little tree, which happens (somewhat symbolically) to be the only real tree on the lot. This makes him the target of laughter and derision by all except Linus. Charlie Brown cries out in abject desperation, wondering if anyone understands what Christmas is all about.

Meanwhile, Snoopy has decorated his famous doghouse with colorful flashing lights and other baubles, and won first prize in a decorating contest. Charlie Brown takes the decorations and puts a single ornament on his tree, which promptly collapses under the weight. ("I killed it! Augghh! Everything I touch gets ruined!") He flees in despair.

Having heard Linus's explanation of what Christmas is all about, the other kids realize they have been too hard on Charlie Brown, and fix his tree up into a brilliant Christmas display using the rest of Snoopy's decorations. Charlie Brown returns to find the whole gang gathered around his tree. In a rare moment of happiness, he joins the crew in singing the Christmas carol " Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas>

<http://www.urbanoutfitters.com>>

Happy Holidays!

Get out your dictionary...

Test and/or improve your vocabulary and help end world hunger at the same time? Heck yeah!

http://freerice.com/

Let's Get Sirius

I got Sirius Satellite Radio three weeks ago and haven't looked back. I love it, love it, love it! The DJs don't hog airtime, there is a huge range of music for any mood you're in and news from all over the globe! The initial investment is a bit pricey, but you'll forget the price tag and that your local radio stations even exist after the first day.

Okay, okay. I still listen to my local NPR station when I'm in the shower, but that's it!

My current favorite Sirius channels are:

**Whatever Radio/Alexis and Jennifer -- Martha Stewart (ha, ha) Channel 112

**Howard Stern -- Channel 100

**Faction -- Mix of Rock, Hip-Hop and Punk -- Channel 28

**Left of Center -- Indie/College Radio -- Channel 26

**Coffee House -- Acoustic/Singer/Songwriters -- Channel 30

**Chill -- Smooth Electronic -- Channel 35

**Spa 73 -- New Age -- Channel 73

**BackSpin -- Old Skool Rap -- Channel 43

Pandora's Box

The Music Genome Project rocks! Try not to get too addicted...

http://feeds.pandora.com/feeds/people/npwest/stations.xml?max=10

Too much caffeine IS possible

Have you ever wondered how much caffeine it would take to off yourself? The authors of this website have:



http://www.energyfiend.com/

What a Waste of Oxygen

Destroy yourself, loser, but why did you have to do this to your pets?

http://perezhilton.com/?p=4223

(of course it's true if its in the gossip rags)

So how killer does this sound?

http://www.herbsvodka.com

Separated at Birth?

This just in:

I was riding the green line (B) line from Government Center today when it stopped not once, but TWICE for about 3 minutes or so, because it was AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! I shared a rare, brief laugh with my fellow T-riders after asking, "Wait, the green line has a schedule?"

You are a true (or honorary) Bostonian if you can appreciate the irony here...

what's wrong with people?

In my graduate school class today we were studying the Boston school desegregation case(Morgan v. Hennigan, 1974). Yeah, busing may not have been the best decision on the part of the judge (W. Arthur Garrity) to solve the problem of school inequality and segregation, but it's no excuse for the embarrasingly racist behavior of Boston citizens. I mean REALLY! Last time I checked, everyone's blood ran red...

El Jaleo, John Singer Sargent, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum


This is currently my favorite painting. I dropped in to see it last Wednesday and it was as intense as I remembered it. This huge oil painting is at the end of a darkly lit mock cloister on the first floor of the museum which is decorated with cathedral tracery pieces and glazed blue and gold tiles. I had been thinking about this painting a lot after seeing a copy on the outside of a tapas restaurant in Brookline, MA:





I can't quite put my finger on why this painting has been on my mind. Maybe it's because I've been thinking more about becoming better-versed in Spanish and traveling to places like Argentina and Spain. Or perhaps it's just that Sargent has done such an amazing job capturing the passion, emotion and mystery behind flamenco. Maybe still, it's just an amazing painting that draws out the dramatic interplay of darkenss and light. Whatever it is, it has my wheels turning...

4 more 411: http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/El_Jaleo.htm

Note to self:

Bitter and sweet are just two sides of the same coin. As a former professional cook, this has special meaning; to balance flavors out, you may need a little sweetness to balance out the bitterness or mellowness to balance out harshness. The result is a harmonious whole that hits all the right notes. What works with cooking food also works in our every day lives. We take the good with the bad, the pretty with the ugly and whatever else is thrown at us and, hopefully make a harmonious whole. This blog's purpose is to remind myself (and, perhaps, others) of that fact.