New Spain Hotel by Frank Gerhy

Elciego Hotel is a bust. I am all for unique architecture, but this building blurs the line between interesting and grotesque. I am sure that the engineering is the prettiest part, it looks like a clumsy first attempt to awe and aspire. It fails. Tim Burton could've done a better job. As I look at it, it looks like a heap of scrap metal left on a beach, though does connect seriously to the last year of storm damage. Perhaps it just needs to be placed along the gulf coast to get the proper perspective from passersby.

Bad Hair Life

Jay Manuel needs someone to tell him that his hair looks bad. I find it hard to believe that everyone follows his fashion advice while he has that look on his head. It reminds me of the inside of my uncle's Volkswagon bug from the 70's. Shame, he has great eyes and a decent figure, but the hair has got to go...please.

Tornado Watch

The cutuest thing ever happened today, my 8 year-old son saw the tornado warning on the TV and packed a Tornado Survival trashbag ful of his favorite robot, his dad's sneakers, and various other "important" items that we should take into the basement with us in case a tornado actually struck us here in South Jersey. It was amazing, I have to unpack the bag tomorrow, I have no idea what else is in there, but it is sure to be full of more laughs.

The Emmy Award Fashion Watch

Katherine Heigl must have either burst a breast or either that- those waterballoons the stars use to prop up their cleaveage sprung a leak in the heat. When Ryan Seacrest was interviewing her I couldn't help but notice that her right breast looked funky. Part of it was falling down. She was absolutely gorgeous and her dress was amazing, but the breast was an issue that was unavoidable since her breasts are on the level of Seacrest's eyes.
Later I saw a noticeable wet spot beneath it as she made her way along the carpet. It was a shame to mar such an outfit, it reminded me of the story my mom used to tell us about stuffing our bras. I came home after school one day when I was in 5th grade. I had "borrowed" my sister's bra and stuffed it with socks. My girlfriends were all very developed, and I of course never even saw breast tissue until I was 17. Well, turns out my teacher (I hated my teacher that year) called my mother to tell her that I had developed unusually fast between breakfast and lunch time in school and that my breasts were extremely crooked.

My mom shared her own embarrasing moment of her life: when she was 14 her "falsies" floated out of her bathing suit in the pool at her cousin's house and were wrapped around her neck. The moral of the story is, girls, if you don't have em, don't fake em, it never works out. These days, in the time of exploding, leaking, and deflating saline and silicone breasts, it is important to listen to your mother's wisdom.

Beauty and the Beast

Behind the Scenes / Between the Shows

Expectations of the School Year

I asked my kids today what they hoped for the new school year. I was interested in what they had to say. My son said he hoped that he didn't get in trouble for no reason in the after-school program and My daughter said " You just don't know the reason, there is always a reason." He said, "Sometimes, people talk to me and when I answer back, I get in trouble." I feel for him.
My daughter wishes that the popular people in school find out that they are the mean ones and that they stop being mean. This sparked a whole conversation about whether or not the "popular" kids even knew they were popular. Apparently, some do. One boy told my daughter not to talk to him because he was more popular than her, or something along those lines. I am confused by this, after all this time, kids still have the same problems, we can fly to other planets, but we cannot rid the world of the "popular" kids. I gave her the best advice I had, which was not much... I told her that if everyone keeps trying to hang out with the popular kids and keeps focusing on them, then they are part of the problem. If kids pretended the "popular" kids were invisible, then they would be. I figure, as long as you have your own crew, which most kids do, than you are popular with them. So essentially, everyone is popular with someone, unless they are a total head case, or they smell bad.

Latest Read

I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was amazing. It tells the story of WWII and the Holocaust from the persepctive of Death, who is touched by one young girl as he claims his souls from all around her. Many books and narratives have explored the side of the Germans and their inability to work against a system that could not be stopped, but Zusak brings a humanity and a clarity that others lack. One young girl loses her mother and brother in one day, but retains the capacity to love deeply. Liesal, that is the character's name, is an inspiring protagonist, who could fight against everything horrible, including Hitler, but she could not stand against the personified death. Zusak's imagery of death's struggle to keep up with the body counts of Hamburg and too retain some soul himself as he undertakes his enourmous task, is a point of view that one would think would be distasteful. However, the relationship between Death and his "victims" is almost as beautiful as it is sad. Although Death does not get emotional, between the blithe descriptions of the taking of lives, "his" examination of their individuality reveals an immortal's pain.