crazyrandomnotes & miscellaneous oddments

This is how I figured out that "Flathead" by the Fratellis was the mystery song I was smitten with...

I happened to be in Borders (more on that later) and I was at a listening station checking out the Peter, Bjorn, & John CD and it occurred to me that Borders tends to feature very "buzz worthy" indie type music at their listening stations. Which is exactly the sort of category that mystery song fell into. SO.. I went from listening station to listening station in the POP section, listening to the songs featured on the stickers on the front of the CDs. And that is how I sleuthed it out...
Mucho clever , no??

En route to Borders I was following this ginormo blue Dodge truck that was adorned with a bumper sticker that read--

Jesus loves you!
Everyone else thinks you're an ASSHOLE

WOW. Ouch! Quite a wake up call. I didn't realize everybody felt that way. Y'know, one's bumper sticker is like their proclamation to the WORLD (or at least to all of rush hour traffic). What does it say about one if that is his /her chosen proclamation??? Methinks it sez you're kinda assholish (oh no, NO! Not YOU..this dude with the crass bumper sticker) Another perturbing thing I spied while in traffic-- this lady driving a minivan with her dog on her lap. I mean it sure wasn't of Marmaduke or Clifford proportions, was just a little Lhasa Apso or something like that but..hey... still not safe driving practices there, ma'am. I considered, for uno momento, doing a citizen's arrest, but opted to just let her go with a disapproving glare.

So I hadn't been to Borders in a looong while...mostly on account of my being destitute. But the Borders Rewards folks sent me an email insisting "Use your $16.49 Holiday Rewards balance now!!" I don't need much convincing to go shopping, but there's the fact that I believe the grossly misguided Borders honchos are doing away with the Holiday Rewards aspect of the Rewards program (looking less rewarding with every program alteration) so I was EXTRA motivated by a sense of "use-it-or-lose-it" urgency. I figured..spend approx 20 buck at Borders...NO PROBLEMO. But it was the weirdest thing...I couldn't get enthusiastic about buying anything. And-unprecedented phenomenon--I walked out empty handed. Could it be that my materialism has atrophied from disuse?? Perish the thought!! I'm going to chalk it up to excessive pressure to perform brought on by the aforementioned "use-it-or-lose-it" urgency. You know what I almost bought?? Christy --the entire series on DVD. Yes, yes I AM that dorky. But it really wasn't shame-of-dorkiness that barred me from making this DVD purchase... it's just that it's rare that I can bring myself to buy TV shows on DVD. Seems unlikely, as I am rather a fan of the boob tube, but it's just that I have it ingrained in my noggin that TV is supposed to be a free commodity. Oh well, yeah, I have heard that some people pay monthly for cable (but that has not been my experience). I especially couldn't buy DVDs of a series like, saaaay, Seinfeld that I happen to know is playing in syndication 300 times daily on any given channel. Well I have bought TV show DVDs before..a few... I have bought sets of Sesame Street (an Old School SS boxed set) , the Electric Co, & Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (all those utterly unavoidable--because I love them so) and I've bought some PeeWee's Playhouse DVDs (2 of 'em...that was because I adore that show and because Hollywood Video had broken up the set and was selling individual 3 episode DVDs amongst their very reasonable previewed DVD selections) also I own Season 1 of Mork & Mindy (I have no good explanation for that. Temporary insanity??) But really, all that said, I truly DO have an aversion to buying TV shows on DVD. So that prevented me from putting my $16.49 in holiday rewards moolah toward Christy. Today though, I have a feeling that I will eventually end up owning that anyways. I really loved that show. I don't really remember all that specifically why...I just did. A few things that do stick out in my mind...

* Tyne Daly was on that show and her character was constantly saying "thee " and "thou" and it came off really redunkulous. Miss Alice (that was the character name... it's all coming back to me now) probably had some important things to say , but probably nobody could get past her doofy Biblical English to pay attention (possibly why she had to hire on Christy)

*Lovely scenery (actually shot on location in the Smoky Mtn area of TN)

*characters had such folksy oddball names-- Ruby Mae, Fairlight, Zady, Little Burl, etc, etc...

*and most importantly, watching this show was when I first recognized the allure of the Scottish brogue. The crux of the show (at least to me) was Christy having to choose between this nice but chronically bland minister who was head-over-heels for her and a SCOTTISH doc who was head-over-heels for her . I need not tell you that I was rooting for Dr MacNeil. Probably if they'd had Dr MacNeil played by a trained raccoon I would've rooted for him...as long as they dubbed in that hubba-hubba Scottish brogue. Mmmm.