Tonight, we sat down to watch something on Charter's (ugh!) Starz "On Demand," (it was finally working, after another few hours of "E5218: System Unavailable..." messages). So, for those of you that aren't familiar with the menu system: for the first couple levels, while you're drilling down through various options, they've got promos for other movies you can "rent" playing on the top half of the screen. Then, after you get to a certain level, the promo video disappears, but the audio keeps going. (OK, now this is for everyone again, whether you're familiar with the menu system or not.) So, after I selected our movie, Bewitched, it came up to the Bewitched info screen, where you can read a little bit about the plot, watch the preview, or play the movie. As soon as I get there, I heard the audio for a "Pride & Prejudice" promo in the background: "you have bewitched me, body and soul."
Another possible interesting connection with this movie follows. I worked another event for the Casino Night people today. It was a long event, and since it was on the other side of town, I borrowed my Mom's vehicle to get me there so my family wouldn't be without our truck the whole day, (my Mom has another vehicle). When the event was over, I returned my Mom's truck to her garage and walked home. On the way, I was struck by, not one, but two of these very interesting trees, the same kind, in front of two different houses about 1.5-2 blocks apart. The trees blossomed with large white petals, with purple highlights... Aw, screw it! Why go to all the trouble of trying to describe it, when I could just throw on my pants and shoes, go out into the rain at 1:00 AM, walk a couple blocks to one of the houses, grab a few of the many petals that have fallen from the tree on to their lawn, bring them back home and take a picture of them? That's not weird or anything, is it? So, having done that now, can anyone identify this tree? (That's a quarter in the upper left-hand corner. I know, Wikipedia says not to use coins for reference, but I couldn't find a ruler at the moment.) It really is a beautiful looking tree, though I must say this is far too early for it to be losing so many of it's blossoms. Perhaps it's related to the storm we had today? OK, so back to the point of the story: I was struck by the tree on the walk home, it's beauty, as well as the number of petals it had lost. So, as Bewitched is starting, and the scene opens on Isabel, (Nicole Kidman), walking up to the house she is going to buy, the wind is blowing flower petals all around her. At first, I thought they looked like the same petals, though on reflection, I think they were not. However, at the end of the movie, (I won't go into specifics and spoil anything), we hear her twitch her nose from behind closed doors and a tree grows in her front yard. Now that tree, I felt reasonably certain, was the same type of tree. Can anyone confirm or deny this? TIA.
Oh! And, hmmm...
UPDATE(s):
20060505 - It looks as if we have a winner on the flower identification. It appears to be a Magnolia. Thanks, Rob! Now I'm still waiting to see if anyone can confirm whether or not that was a Magnolia tree at the end...
Went to Bowl-A-Vard Friday evening to help celebrate Gertie's thirty(-eth...it rhymes...) b-day. I got there a little later than others due to another commitment. Anyway, when I got there, I heard Incubus' "Drive" playing on the juke, (awesome song, of course). I found hcff who proceeded to tell me "I was just saying 'I wish you were here,'" (coincidentally, another great Incubus song, though I do not believe it was hcff's intent to make the connection, and I myself didn't do so until just now). (OK, perhaps I'm taking some liberties with the exact quote, but certainly the basic premise was the same. And I might not be taking liberties -- I can't remember the exact quote!) Anyway, the reason that he was thinking of me during that song is because at a previous company, (not bureau), Christmas party, complete with Karaoke, I had found the courage (too late) to sing a(nother -- we rocked da house, mjl) song and had requested "Drive." When I told him about the request, he was jazzed, and was willing to go up and sing it with me. However, I had submitted my request too late, and was never called. Oh well, we later sang it in his car once, but it's not the same without the crowd, is it?
So the connection? Song plays, he wishes I was there to hear it, in I come. Get it?
Tonight, when we turned on the TV to watch Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi Network, it wasn't on yet. They were in the middle of playing "Thir13en Ghosts," so we watched the end of that. Then, later on, when I sat down at the puter and started iTunes to look at my Library, I happened to catch a glimpse of a song, "Thir13teen" by Type O Negative. Add to this the interesting fact that, prior to tonight's post, I have published 13 observations/connections posts, (not counting my Welcome, which wasn't really an observation/connection post). (Admittedly, this would be much more cool if this post actually was the 13th post.)
hcff was at a gaming convention this past weekend, (see the "Little Wars" entries in his April archive). Saturday, whilst playing a game with a guy named "Dieter," (apparently a bit of a jerk), hcff used the expression "harsh my mellow," a righteous phrase to be sure, but admittedly not something you hear every day, (unless you're hAd). Then Monday night, after returning home, he heard it used by Neil Patrick Harris on "How I Met Your Mother," (CBS), and then again Tuesday night on "Teachers," (NBC). That's two different references on two shows on two networks over two nights. (I'm not making any connection on the number two here, just making the point that it was disparate circumstances.)
Last week Thursday, I was walking up from our "computer lab" at work to our main building - a distance of half a mile or so. While making that trek, I saw a woman I know who is a teacher at the day care I used to go to. She was walking my way. When she saw me, we waved and stopped briefly to chat. I then noticed her shirt and was amazed to see it said "Arizona" across the top of it. What made this amazing, (to me, at least - I don't think she was that impressed), was the fact that I had picked out and worn my own Arizona T-shirt that morning; a shirt I hadn't worn in probably a year or so, evidenced by the fact that a co-worker, CL, joked with me about getting a "new shirt" when I got to the main building a few minutes later.
Then, on Friday, mjl was cleaning up some old pictures on her computer and laughing at them while I was on the phone. She relented to "show" a couple of them to me. They were of a bureau Christmas party at work from Christmas, 2002. It was an interesting one, (actually, the last bureau Christmas party we had at this stinkin' Hell-hole -- but I digress...). There was Karaoke and faerie dust, (story for another time), a-plenty. She also had a picture I was in from the next day. Once again, I was quite bemused to find that I had worn my "Many Faces of SpongeBob..." T-shirt on that "day after"; again, the very shirt I had picked out and worn that Friday. And again, it had probably been months, (half a year or more), since I had last worn that shirt.
Tonight after work, I went to CM's school to watch his Ultimate Frisbee team play their 2nd game. (They didn't win, but they had a good time trying.) Anyway, when the game was over, JL and I talked to some of the other parents that we've known for a long time. One of the Moms introduced us to a Dad of one of the kids on the team. After the Dad had left, she told us that he's a very good mandolin player. Of course, my mind immediately went to Bruce Hornsby and the Range and their single "Mandolin Rain":
Listen to the mandolin rain Listen to the music on the lake Listen to my heart break every time she runs away
(Sorry...I don't do links to lyrics pages because those sites are notoriously terrible with pop-ups!)
Anyway, some 10-15 minutes or so later, we had rounded up CM and were on our way home. A few minutes after we got on the road, I turned on the radio. It was already tuned to WMGN, Magic 98 from when JL had driven to the game, and I'll be darned if "Every Little Kiss" by Bruce Hornsby et al wasn't playing! I kind of startled everyone in the car when I first heard it and let out a shout, because I initially thought it was "Mandolin Rain," but I was none too disappointed when I found out it was a different BH song! That's still very cool!
'Richard Burgi' Connection, (or 'Fun With Dick...')
Sunday night the family rented Fun With Dick and Jane. The guy that played the neighbor, Joe, with the voice-activated car looked familiar to me, though I couldn't quite place from where. Alas, when the credits rolled, I forgot to get his name.
Next, my son, (CM), and I decided to watch some Seinfeld episodes from the DVD collection. We were on the last disc of season 5, and I was asking him how far he'd gotten into it with me.
"Did you see 'The Hamptons,'" I asked, "with the 'shrinkage' and the ugly baby?"
He had seen it in syndication, it was determined, though not on the DVD. He hadn't seen it's successor, The Opposite either.
"Wait a minute!" I thought to myself, grabbing my laptop for a quick IMDb search. "What are you doing?" CM asked. "I'm checking something out," I answered. "If I find what I think I'm going to find, it will be pretty cool.
Sure enough, Richard Burgi, that played neighbor Joe Cleeman in "Fun With Dick and Jane," was also Doctor Ben Feffa in the Seinfeld episode, "The Hamptons". (Yes, he's been in a lot of other things, but nothing that applied so directly to the moment.)
An observation from hcff, (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, hcff):
"overnights" went to get some steaks for dinner last week, Friday. Then, that evening, they discussed plans for an upcoming anniversary trip to New York. Later, as they were getting dinner ready, they noticed that the steaks she had purchased were New York Strip. Hmmm... "New York Trip" ... "New York Strip" ... ? (You can see her reference to it here.) Add to this the fact that they had recently received an e-mail from a steakhouse they had eaten at when on their honeymoon in Washington DC and had talked about how they would like to eat there when they went to New York. Interesting connections...
Alright, hcff, I know I may have missed some of the detail, as it's been a few days since we first talked about this. Want to expand at all?
Alright, mjl recently got back from a trip to Costa Rica. Sounds like she had a great time. While she was telling me about some of her experiences, we discovered a couple odd coincidences.
This is note-worthy because this past Christmas, when my MIL's, (MIL, not to be confused with mjl from above), company brought them, (and their families), to a local "googol-plex" theatre for free movies, we had 2 to choose from: CL or HP. I went to see CL with my youngest, while everyone else went to see HP.
One night while down there, she was forced to dance on a small stage to a certain song by a group called Right Said Fred.
I won't mention the circumstances, or the song by name, but let's just say that at almost the same time, I was posting about that very song, (and a couple others), on m.r.b., and finding a "snippet" of the song to listen to. Now this is made even more interesting by the fact that overnights was posting about the same TV show from work at almost the exact same time. (See her #66 here.) She even commented on the coincidence at the "m.r.b." link above.
JL and I went to Kessenich's this afternoon to get some kitchen supplies. While there, we talked about, and even looked at, these magnetic knife holders that mount on the wall, and then hold on to your knives through through the age-old power of magnetism(e). Then, tonight, (Saturday), we watched Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, (again). Early on in the movie, while Gromit is preparing food in the kitchen, he reaches for a knife and pulls one off of just such a magnetic device.
I haven't heard talk of churros in a long time. Then, this evening, (Friday), I saw a commercial with Danica Patrick where she keeps beating smart-ass kids at a racing video game. She then beats an "adult" guy who asks her if she wants to get some churros. She tells him no, (in some manner), and he leaves.
But wait! That's not the end of the story...
Later, I watched Herbie Fully Loaded, where Michael Keaton's character references getting a churro, ("Hey, I sprung for the churros").
Nothing...nothing...nothing... Then, BAM! - twice in one night!
I have often thought, or discussed with others, the idea that we are more attuned to certain words, concepts, whatever, after we've experienced them once in a recent time frame. But whether or not there's any relevance to this kind of experience, I still find it intriguing.
I was talking to a friend, AJ, this afternoon who's taking an acting class at a local college this semester. She has to do a monologue next week and is going to be reading the part of this wife who is confronting her husband while he is seated before her. Oh, did I mention that he is bound and gagged? Anyway, AJ read her part before the class Thursday afternoon for practice. Once done, the professor explained to her that this "snippet" she had been given was actually from a comedy and urged her to have fun with it; to be silly. As AJ thought about how this character might act, she thought of Michael Richards' character, Kramer, on Seinfeld, in the episode, "The Trip (Part 1)." That's the one where Kramer, out in California, sees Fred Savage at a restaurant and approaches him to give him a copy of a script, or "treatment," he had been working on. (The more he tries to play it cool with Mr. Savage, the more he winds up looking like a bumbling idiot.) So anyway, as AJ and I are talking about the episode, I have to recall the word "treatment" that Kramer uses, (remember that). AJ goes on to tell me that her professor told her he was thinking more like Robert De Niro's character in a movie with Jerry Lewis, though she couldn't remember the name of the movie offhand. So I went to IMDb, searched for Jerry Lewis, and started naming off his movies. After I passed "The King of Comedy" (1983) at number 14, (AJ said, "that's the one"), I was amused to see the #24 entry for Mr. Lewis was called "Silent Treatment" (1968). Eh? Treatment? As in the "treatment" Kramer gave to Fred Savage (and others) in the Seinfeld episode?
I already told this story to DJ who, (on the surface), was not terribly impressed. Basically, he said that Jerry Lewis has been in a lot of movies, so to have a discussion about a word that also happens to be a word in the title of one of his movies, was not that big of a stretch. He said he would have been more impressed if "Silent Treatment" had been the actual movie that AJ's professor was thinking of. I agree, that would have been even more impressive, but I think the situation is pretty cool as it is. However, now as I write this, I have a rebuttal for DJ. If it is his contention that Jerry Lewis has been in a significant number of movies so as to make this coincidence less spectacular, then what are the odds that the movie used to distinguish this Jerry Lewis from others in my search, (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Jerry+Lewis), should be the very movie that D's professor was talking about? Eh? Any way you slice it, I think we've got an interesting observation here...
I went to the library last night and checked out some CDs, including Barenaked Ladies' "Everything to Everyone". One of the tracks was "Another Postcard," which includes such lyrics as:
You can't imagine so many monkeys in the daily mail All of them coming anonymously so they leave no trail I never thought I'd have an admirer from overseas But someone is sending me stationary filled with chimpanzees.
...
[Chorus] Another postcard with chimpanzees And every one is addressed to me.
So after playing it for hcff on the ride in to work this morning, it was still on my mind when we went for coffee at Ancora. So, as I'm singing, "another postcard with chimpanzees...," hcff and I look at the Isthmus that PS is reading and see the headline "Chimps Are Chumps."
Tonight I was watching Psychic At Large on Sci-Fi Network. If you've ever seen the show, you know she usually starts out her readings by asking people, "is there someone with an 'S' in their name in your life?" Then they (invariably) say "yes," at which point she guesses another letter, and then, usually, the complete name. Well tonight, as I started watching part of the episode, I thought, "now who would she contact for me?" Well, the first person that came to mind was my Grandma Anne, who died around a year ago. Well the very next person Char spoke to was a saleswoman in a clothing store. Char started out by asking her the usual questions:
"Is there a person with an 'A' in their name in your life?" "Yes," came the response. "Is the next letter in their name an 'N'?" she asked? "Yes," the saleswoman repeated.
Well, it turned out the person Char was speaking of was an "Anthony," but I hope you can see my point...
My son and I were watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? on ABC Family yesterday when they played a game called "Questionable Impressions." In this game, the four players had to speak only in questions while doing impressions of someone. If they didn't speak in the form of a question, (or if Drew Carey didn't like their impression), they would get buzzed out. For some reason, we had the closed captions on on the TV, and when Ryan Stiles came out at one point, the captions erroneously said "[imitating Rich Little]..."
For my first, "non-Welcome" post, please see my antecedent cross-over post. I'd move it over here, but there are already a couple comments, and I don't want to lose those.
Considering I have said I wasn't going to be able to dedicate much time to blogging, and considering the fact that my friends would tell you I never update my original blog, or comment on theirs, why in the world would I start a second?!?
It's simple, really.
Imagination has little to no bounds, does it? Or at least, one might say it has the potential for being boundless. It is imagination that has put men on the moon, and given us so many other accomplishments, far too many to mention. Yet so often, we seem unable, or unwilling, to truly tap into the limitless expanse of our imaginations, instead plodding along, day after day like automatons.
We get up. We get ready for work or school. We go to work or school. We come home. We eat dinner. We go to sleep. Etc., etc., etc.
Yet occasionally we see something out of the ordinary. Something that breaks up our monotony. C&C Music Factory said "it's the things that make you go hmmmm..." "Things" such as the feeling of déjà vu, inexplicable coincidences and other interesting patterns or ironies. Sometimes it might be something real minor, like how meaning can change drastically based on individual perspective or interpretation.
I like these things. I like to note them, analyze them and share them. In The Matrix, Trinity explains to Neo that déjà vu signified a "glitch in the Matrix". Well, glitch or not, it makes for cool reflections.
So what was I saying about "imagination"? Well, I think we find that some of these "hmmmm things" force us to stretch our imaginations a little bit. Perhaps some of them warrant a lot of stretching.
(Incidentally, I know that "twilight" is misspelled...that was intentional... "Twilit-zoned" just didn't seem to look as cool. Plus, then "twlight" becomes "twighlit" with no more, no less characters.)
Aw, screw it! Why go to all the trouble of trying to describe it, when I could just throw on my pants and shoes, go out into the rain at 1:00 AM, walk a couple blocks to one of the houses, grab a few of the many petals that have fallen from the tree on to their lawn, bring them back home and take a picture of them? That's not weird or anything, is it? So, having done that now, can anyone identify this tree? (That's a quarter in the upper left-hand corner. I know, Wikipedia says not to use coins for reference, but I couldn't find a ruler at the moment.) It really is a beautiful looking tree, though I must say this is far too early for it to be losing so many of it's blossoms. Perhaps it's related to the storm we had today? OK, so back to the point of the story: I was struck by the tree on the walk home, it's beauty, as well as the number of petals it had lost. So, as Bewitched is starting, and the scene opens on Isabel, (Nicole Kidman), walking up to the house she is going to buy, the wind is blowing flower petals all around her. At first, I thought they looked like the same petals, though on reflection, I think they were not. However, at the end of the movie, (I won't go into specifics and spoil anything), we hear her twitch her nose from behind closed doors and a tree grows in her front yard. Now that tree, I felt reasonably certain, was the same type of tree. Can anyone confirm or deny this? TIA.
Aw, screw it! Why go to all the trouble of trying to describe it, when I could just throw on my pants and shoes, go out into the rain at 1:00 AM, walk a couple blocks to one of the houses, grab a few of the many petals that have fallen from the tree on to their lawn, bring them back home and take a picture of them? That's not weird or anything, is it? So, having done that now, can anyone identify this tree? (That's a quarter in the upper left-hand corner. I know, Wikipedia says not to use coins for reference, but I couldn't find a ruler at the moment.) It really is a beautiful looking tree, though I must say this is far too early for it to be losing so many of it's blossoms. Perhaps it's related to the storm we had today? OK, so back to the point of the story: I was struck by the tree on the walk home, it's beauty, as well as the number of petals it had lost. So, as Bewitched is starting, and the scene opens on Isabel, (Nicole Kidman), walking up to the house she is going to buy, the wind is blowing flower petals all around her. At first, I thought they looked like the same petals, though on reflection, I think they were not. However, at the end of the movie, (I won't go into specifics and spoil anything), we hear her twitch her nose from behind closed doors and a tree grows in her front yard. Now that tree, I felt reasonably certain, was the same type of tree. Can anyone confirm or deny this? TIA.
