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February 24, 2005
Clicky Clicky!
My friend Jonathan runs this incredibly informative and hilarious DVD review website. He was diagnosed with leukemia last week, and has been unable to update his site regularly as he goes through his first round of chemo. Consequently his traffic is low. So give it a click if you will. Check it out, tell a friend. There are some pretty good reviews on there.
Posted by nikl at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
Crunch Crunch
Fun Oscar's cookies.
Posted by nikl at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)
American Idol, Season 4, Girls Round 1
Heatwave is a deceptively hard song. It is all but so much yelling, and you kind of don't realize it until your a few measures in.
Tyler Perry did NOT make a movie. Lord help us all. And that folks don't just buy it on the street. Though, I bet that this is the one movie people _don't_ buy on the street. That, like with his live shows, he is able to start a groundswell of support for not purchasing bootlegs. We shall see...
Omg. She (Janay) is so terrified. It's like her voice is getting out despite the fact that she's holding it in her ass.
Black chicks who rock, rock.
Is Mikela doing Desi Arnez sings disco?
Posted by nikl at 07:08 PM | Comments (1)
February 21, 2005
American Idol, Season 4, Episode ?
I've lost count.
I remain convinced that what they hear in the studio is _very_ different from what we hear here @ home. Because Nikko? Scott just truly whooped his ass.
What is Paula wearing?
Paula: "Which makes you unique to yourself" WHAT??
Why is Constantine SO HOT.
There's something about the Jackson 5 era Michael Jackson songs that when you take them into a different range, they just don't sound quite right. No no no, no no no, no no no - oooh!
Posted by nikl at 07:08 PM | Comments (1)
February 17, 2005
St. John Day 3
Photos from day 3.
Posted by nikl at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
St. John Day 2
Photos from today's madness.
Posted by nikl at 08:32 AM | Comments (1)
February 15, 2005
Hi, Yes, Are There Any Nightclubs in St. John?
We've been here for about 45 minutes, and Randy is already killing me. He just called the front desk to ask the title above, and scared the hell out of the woman at the front desk. He just said her reaction was like "are you the homesexual blasting Kelly Clarkson from his room that I just got 3 complaints about?"
I have been reduced to a pile of tears on the floor.
There should actually be a fee to overhear Randy Meyer talk to people he's never met before on the phone. It really is something to behold. And a half.
And that is all.
Except for the photos we've taken so far, here.
Posted by nikl at 03:29 PM | Comments (2)
February 14, 2005
Happy Valentine's!
A. I got two valentine cards from my mom, one from she and my dad, and one from the cats. Yes, my mother put the cats paws in ink, and stamped them as a signature on the card.
B. I go down to the car this morning to take my mom to the airport and go to work (she and Kira are going to South Africa for 2 weeks) and there's another card in the steering wheel. It says something to the extent of "now that you are older, should we get the 'I [heart] my daughter' tatoos on our ankles or our butts?" So I say "on your butts!" and my mom looks at me like "what are you talking about?" So I hand her the card, which she's never seen. My dad picked it out and put it there all on his own.
No words.
Posted by nikl at 09:48 AM | Comments (1)
February 12, 2005
Classes For Cats?
Can I send a cat to sharing class? How to share the newspaper, how to share the laptop, how to share the bed. My guess is that if I were still in NYC I could locate these classes and actually give people money for this very thing. But in reality, we would all already know that such classes are worthless. That cats don't want to share. They just want it all. Not even "it" all. They want all of you. Which is why we love them.
Tonight we went to see Mardra and Reggie perform at the Bistro. They did many arrangements of Stevie Wonder tunes which made me quite happy. About a week ago my dad was asking me what the lyrics were to "Love's in Need of Love." He said he'd listened over and over and couldn't figure out one of the lyrics. I found it such an adorable thought - my dad, driving to and from work, listening to that song over and over, trying to figure out that lyric. Tonight, they did that song, and the smile on his face was simply priceless. During dinner, my dad told the following joke:
You've heard of Pinot Gregio, right? And Pinot Noir? Wines. Well, everyone knows that one of the draw backs of wine is that when you drink a lot you have to get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom. So they've engineered a new wine. Pinot More.
At this point I turned to my mom and reminded her that she CHOSE that man. In turn she reminded me that I'm made up of his genes.
I'm so damned blessed that I'm getting to spend this time with my parents. I'm so blessed that I want to spend this time with my parents. I'm so blessed they want to spend it with me. And it all rocks. The casbah.
Speaking of rocking, why is my computer making the sound of a small generator recently called upon to light, say, a small model train sized fake village?
Where do I get this stuff?
Posted by nikl at 12:33 AM | Comments (1)
February 11, 2005
Retro Updates
I just retro updates posts for:
- My NYC weekend
- The Arts and Education Council Awards dinner
- My skiing adventures
ps - I'm still at work, killing time before going out, and that deer is still at the piano. And it is still. Killing. Me.
Posted by nikl at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)
Baby
Dude. What is THIS? Look alike babies.
Why?
Posted by nikl at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)
Who? Me?
I really don't even need to editorialize on this.
Posted by nikl at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)
No.
Someone brought a special delivery for one of my office mates.
A life-sized foam deer.
With a Busch sign atached to its side.
And it's been placed at the piano.
Reading the sheet music for a hymn about deer.
And it's the first thing I see when I look up from my computer screen.
And it is slowly. Killing me.
Posted by nikl at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2005
Something I Miss About NYC
Love it.
Posted by nikl at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
I've Got a Secret...
Over 3000 visitors to a Washington DC arts festival picked up postcards inviting them to share a secret anonymously. And of course, it's now a website.
Posted by nikl at 01:28 PM | Comments (1)
February 09, 2005
American Idol, Season 4, Episode 8
All I have to say, is Picardy Third on AI - BRING IT!
Dude. That was the worst staged fight I ever saw. How incredibly lame.
Posted by nikl at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
Doritos
I just saw the new Doritos commercial (I already can't remember what flavor it was for). It starts off with people getting "You don't know jack" texted to their cellphones.
Dude. I got so excited. I thought, wow, finally a reason for me to leave Sprint. Someone has the ability to play You Don't Know Jack over their network with multiple players!
Then. I realized. It was just a Doritos commercial.
Lame.
Posted by nikl at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
Why?
Why is Lost SO GOOD?
Posted by nikl at 07:45 PM | Comments (2)
February 08, 2005
Feh
amazing feh.
HOWEVER, on to next season, and ROB AND AMBAH!
Hell yes.
Posted by nikl at 09:52 PM | Comments (2)
February 07, 2005
Wait - Where do I Live? What's Going On?
Last weekend was the first vacation-like trip I've taken since the move, and it was kind of odd b/c at moments, I would get confused, and think I was flying back into LGA, and then I'd remember no, I was flying back to Lambert, and then I was going to be HOME. It made me happy every time :).
This weekend I did fly into LGA. It was my first trip back to NYC since the move, and the occasion was my friend Callista's 30th Birthday party. I stayed with Lisa Friday night, and the first thing we did was eat Lemongrass. I have to say, I've sorely missed frequent good Thai food. I would have Thai for lunch sometimes 3 times a week in NYC. And Yum Yum Bangkok for dinner Monday nights had become a tradition in my last few months. It got to the point where the waiter knew my order by heart. Mmmmm... Now I want some now. NOW.
But I digress.
This is new? That I digress?
Anyway.
(I so want some Thai food right this minute.)
Where was I? Yes, Friday night. Thai food.
Saturday morning I met Kwaku for brunch, and was able to congratulate him in person on getting engaged!!! Yay!
It just so happened that my old book club was meeting that Sat afternoon, so I totally crashed it and got to see them all - and have some great discussions (on meritocracies and the concept of affirmative action for the intellectually challenged. But don't get me started). The book was In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alverez. I was actually going to try to read it in the two days between when I was there and when I found out, but alas, it was not meant to be.
After book club, I went to Callista's, and we proceeded to the liquor store where we both got $50 bottles of vodka that we planned to hide from the rest of the party. Oh, and some stuff for everyone else too.
It just so happened that my friend Laura was having her bachelorette party sat night, so I went and joined them for part 1, which just happened to be around the corner from Callista's place. I had some time to kill and walked down to my favorite fun jewelry place, Nova Ice, where I was sucked in and spent way too much $$. But my new bracelet is bad ass.
Callista's party rocked the house. I think there were about 100 people in and out over the course of the night, and an awesome time was had by all! I got a little party nazi on some people though. Callista spent a lot of time and energy putting together a playlist of her favorite songs. Some people decided they were a better DJ, and kept STOPPING SONGS HALFWAY, 3/4THS OF THE WAY THROUGH to switch to another. Like, "ABC" would be playing, and about 20 people would be dancing, and then it would just STOP. And like, Madonna would come on. HELLO?!?!? After about the 7th one, I lost my mind. I yelled at some poor girl "THAT IS NOT OK!" Her: "I'm sorry, I didn't know that would switch the song." Me: "DUDE. Just DON'T TOUCH IT." I immediately stormed to the back of the apartment (where I saw something I'm still trying to deny), got some paper, and wrote the following note:
"Hi.
The birthday girl chose every song on the playlist. If you should choose to disrespect the birthday girl's wishes and change the song, at least FADE it down and the FADE the next one up. If you don't know how to fade, I cannot help you. Step away from the computer. SLOWLY."
People may hate me, but dammit. That was not ok. I'm still a little mad about it.
Here's a photo of Callista, Lisa and I, before I went ballistic:
The rest of the the photos
I stayed uptown with Jim and Chris Sat night, and we had brunch at the Inwood diner Sun morning. Jim is in the new Broadway production of Little Women, so I had a ticket to see the matinee. (I won't go off about Broadway ticket prices again, I won't go off on Broadway ticket prices again, I won - ) Chris understudies Jim's role and another role, and we got the call while we were at breakfast that he was going on for the other role! So I got to see them both, and that ROCKED :).
After the show, I had a little gathering at O'Flaherty's where I got to see many people who rock my world and I want to move to the midwest :).
Then I proceeded to stay up all night Sunday night, and fly in Monday morning and go straight to work - again. This weekend. I am staying put.
Posted by nikl at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2005
Requiem Ossie Davis :(
Ossie Davis died today. How sad :(.
That's all I have to say about that.
Posted by nikl at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)
Pole, Meet Nicole, Nicole, Meet Pole
Last night, I backed my mom's car into a pole. A big, wooden, pole. I'm ok, though my neck will start going insane in a few hours. The car's relatively ok, minus the broken tail light, and the pushed in driver's side rear bumper.
Yay, me.
This was the culmination of a day in which it took me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work (with no traffic, it takes 30 minutes). I knew I was doomed when they mentioned 157 (the highway out of E'ville) on the traffic report (they usually only cover the major St. Louis arteries). It took me 20 minutes to get from 157 to 255 (usually 3 minutes). The fog was so think, you could barely see 10 feet in front of you. As I went up the ramp from 270 to 255, there were at least a half dozen cars off the side of the road in various states of oops. Then when I got to within a few block of my office, what is usually a 5 minute series of stop signs and stop lights turned into a police directed circus. I missed NYC cops for 20 minutes as these guys ineffectively tried to direct traffic. It was a mess.
However, at the end of that day of driving hell, I can still say that I do not miss relying on the subway.
Posted by nikl at 08:35 AM | Comments (1)
February 03, 2005
Napster Schmapster
All I have to say is GOOD FRIGGIN' LUCK. I could be wrong, but my sense is that people will remain music collectors. Renting music for 30 days? Unlike the Netflix model, where you can copy movies and therefore still build your collection, the "Napster to Go" service only lets you "rent" them, and it's based on you still having to purchase tracks to burn them to CD or to not have to renew your lease on them every 30 days.
I also have yet to see anyone take into account the level of brand loyalty involved in Apple's 70% market share (in the MP3 arena) - or with Apple products in general. People who use Apple products know they are paying more than market price and have decided, for whatever reason, that it's worth it. No amount of of offers or discounts could sway them from this decision, b/c it was not similarly motivated. I've also yet to see marketers take this into account when advertising to this group. Could it not be argued that an eyeball in this prone-to-loyalty group - if you can speak to them correctly - might be worth 2 or 3 of the general public? Kind of like vertical/behavioral targeting, only actually, better?
Posted by nikl at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
In Case You're Going To Miss The Game
Here's a breakdown of all the commercials.
I'm so mad that Apple's partnering with Pepsi. First Showtime, now Pepsi? What's the world coming to?
Posted by nikl at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2005
American Idol, Season 4, Episode 6
Personawity.
Shikiki.
Wait - did I just see the big girl from last night that sang as though she were trying to get out of a box speaking in toungues holding a yellow ticket?
Why they gott show that woman acting like that? And then fallin' out?
S. Cowell = scowl
OMG. I so want to hear what this girl is saying tonight as this episode airs. Hear what you want to hear indeed!
Posted by nikl at 07:02 PM | Comments (1)
Speak it Ben
This Ben Stein article seems to be making its way around the 'net again. It's old, but the message is clear and true. Amen.
And if you ever have the opportunity to watch the new Star Search re-runs w/ Ben, Arsenio and crazy Naomi, please do.
Posted by nikl at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2005
American Idol, Season 4, Episode 5
Ladies Love Cool James. Period.
Nice nails Jaqueline.
Now. Here's the thing. If you run a Karaoke business, it's my guess that you know a little bit about music. Popular meeting, classic music. And - this may be a stretch - but probably a little bit about American Idol. WHAT IS SHE THINKING?
Please, don't tell me your secret. Why is LL killing me. He is so playing it for all its worth.
No mimes. Ever.
Why is Ryan Seacrest in a corn field please?
WHY IS LL SO FRIGGIN HOT.
Big black girls with bad grammar, arguing. Great. And who were those people coming out of that screen door - and WHAT ARE THEY WEARING. Poor things. Just, poor. Things. But the group hug was kinda cute.
How about "I was born to sing" and "Phantom of the Opera" NEVER GO IN THE SAME SENTENCE.
Too bad there is no Magic Mountain at Disney.
Posted by nikl at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
Go Reggie, Get Busy, Go Reggie, Get Busy
Last night, Reggie Thomas, my sister's father in law, was recognized by the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis. Basically because he is a bad ass. His wife, Mardra, is also hard core, and she opened the event. The emcee said it, so I'll repeat it, but whoever was in charge of decorations actually made the Khorassan Ballroom look nice. Congrats. I also got to wear my new purple suede jacket. Hell yes.
Posted by nikl at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
A Change in Locale
A plane just flew low - way too low it seemed - near my office. And I thought nothing of it. Rather, I thought a lot of the fact that I thought nothing of it, and that no one around me thought anything of it.
Had that happened in NYC, someone would have gone to the window. Someone would have made a remark out loud that it sounded like it was flying way too low. We all would have listened for the next 15 minutes to see if any other loud noises followed, if we heard any sirens. I would have checked ny1.com immediately, and probably cnn.com, nytimes.com and msnbc.com for the next 45 minutes - just to be sure.
And I wouldn't have thought anything of it. Which, I guess, leaves a lot to think about.
Posted by nikl at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)
Preach
Who says Edwardsville doesn't have celebrities? As you will see from this article the "Edwardsville Elite" have nothing on Preach.
This kills me and makes me cry, all at the same time, b/c truly, Preach rocks.
Please do not forget to read the Reader Opinions.
Posted by nikl at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)