sbukophile

The Sedaris and Vowell Show

David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell were so funny this weekend!

Sedaris started off taking the piss regarding the recent criticism about his embellishments in his stories. I thought it was a great 'response' to his critics. You can't beat satire as a means to shut down the critics. He basically said 'FU' to them without really saying it. I don't know if many people knew what he was referencing during the show, but I think from all the laughter, it was still funny even to those who hadn't heard the back story.

I never knew the origin of Oneida  china, and Vowell made it amusing as only she could. In fact, prior to the show as I was waiting in line to have my two David Sedaris books signed, I was having a conversation with the woman in front of me, and saying how I love Sarah Vowell on This American Life, but hadn't been interested in her book because I'm not much of a history book reader. Oh, how I changed my mind after the show! I should have known better--of course she made history interesting!

I have to say the VIP reception was a bit disappointing. When I went to a VIP reception for Ira Glass, he actually hung around and mingled for like 30-45 minutes! People were having conversations with him, it was casual and cool. Last night was nothing like that! (Oh, and the P.S. on that is that I could not think of anything cool to say to Ira Glass, so ended up saying nothing--I just hovered around other conversations he was having and laughed at the appropriate times (I hope)--I'm sure I looked like a freak.)

The reception started at 6:30, was supposed to be until 7:30, show supposed to start at 8:00. My friend and I arrived a little late (husband was not allowed to attend with me, as he is not familiar with Sedaris and Vowell, so no chance in hell I was going to waste this on him... though maybe I would have done him a favor by introducing him to their humor? Now I'm doubting my decision... but I just envisioned him not enjoying it, because sometimes I'm surprised at the American humorists he finds funny or not.
After the show I definitely thought he would have enjoyed it. So I'm a bad wife).

We got ourselves situated with some wine, cheese, and brownies and sat chatting for a while. It must have been close to 7:30 when finally the general manager of the NPR station announced that they were here but only had a few minutes. So then awkwardly, we all moved into a kind of big circle around the two of them and people just threw out questions at them. Even Sarah Vowell said at one point, "this is awkward!" I felt bad for them. At least in Santa Barbara though, people are good at pretending that they are not star-struck, so don't act like total freaks, well, you might disagree when you see the footage (and in case you are wondering, you do not hear me talking or anything--maybe my laugh at one point, but I was strictly OFF CAMERA). Now, please don't complain about the quality of the recording, or the fact that the sound is bad--it's a friggin' digital camera, that 'happens' to take video recordings. If you wanted better sound quality, you should have pledged enough money to attend the reception yourself!

I missed catching it in my video footage, but the very first question thrown out to David, was "Is it true you are now single?" Sedaris didn't deny it. It was really funny though because then right after and even during some other parts of the questioning session, the guy who asked it would humorously shout out things like, "Back off, Bitch!" to any women who said anything like how much they admired Sedaris.

[I'm having some !@#$!%#@%^%$^ technical difficulties... trying to get the clips onto YouTube (I'm a YouTube uploading virgin)]

After Sedaris and Vowell had swiftly exited this round of dodgeball Q&A, a few of us were talking to the guy who had asked this. He said he'd heard the rumor in NYC, and he said that he noticed that Sedaris was not wearing his ring that he normally does wear. No clues on this were to be had during the show.

In part 2 of my video clip, you will see Vowell mention how awkward it was that we were all standing around, she starts to compare it to being like Joan of Arc. It's also hard to hear when Sedaris answers a question about having a laptop. Some of the funniest bits of that exchange got lost to the sound-demons--what you probably can't hear well and that I loosely paraphrase now is that Sedaris says he used to travel with a typewriter, but now after 9/11 he can't. Vowell then quips that has to be one of the weirdest casualities of 9/11. Even off the cuff, the two of them are great!

I did have my moment to chat with him when I got my 2 books signed. I think I blew it though. He wasn't mean or anything, but I just never got that, "hey, you are a kindred spirit and if I weren't famous we would totally be friends" thing as I had kind of secretly hoped would happen. I just said, "you make my family seem normal," and got a weak smile from him as he was drawing in my books. He was nice and all, and really chatty in a way that surprised me. He had some standard questions that he was asking people as he signed. I got, "Who are you here with?" and then after I said my stupid comment about my family, he asked me where I was from originally. I don't think he saw me as potential friend material.

At least it was a great show.

Rise and Shine

Once again, I'm doing this later than everyone else... but at first I thought I wouldn't do it, considering I have avoided showing my whole face on my blog. I did notice that I have shown the top half of my face, so I thought, what the hell!

Please try to ignore the need for my eyebrow maintenance--I've been growing them back from too thin (and the reverse would be said about my bod).

And we can't let the stars of my blog off the hook:

The Whoorl Interview

I jumped on the bandwagon late, then have been tardy in replying to Whoorl's interview questions. I will interview you, if you want (see below). So here is the Whoorl Interview:

1. What is your favorite article of clothing in your closet?

• My corduroy jacket--it's a staple--it can be worn with jeans or with some of my more casual work clothes. And it covers up my pudgy belly! It's been a necessity while I've been carrying around some extra poundage.

2. Do you believe in fate?

• Absolutely! I believe that fate brought my husband and I together, and I've definitely had some other experiences with it. I don't believe that fate is what it is though, I think you have to make the right choices and fate will follow, if that makes sense.

3. Jelly bellies or gummy bears?

• Gummy bears--especially if they are chocolate covered (I'm more of a chocoholic, but in a pinch will take the sugary sweets instead).

4. What commercial makes you sappy?

• I remember there have been commercials in the past that actually made me weep. But we don't have cable anymore, and I also listen to NPR so don't see or hear many commercials. A few weeks ago we were staying at a hotel though and there was a really cute commercial with puppies on it singing around campfires and such, about their fleas or lack of them. I kept calling my husband over to look when it came on. It melted my heart. Singing puppies!

5. What is the last thing you do before falling asleep?

• Snuggle into my husband's nook.

These are the "rules" if you want to play this game:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

A dog named Rooney

One of these days, we are going to get a dog (or two). After years of disagreement on what kind of dog we want, we saw a Rhodesian Ridgeback on the beach a few years ago and we both fell in love with the breed.

Over the years, we have been coming up with names for our future dogs. The top contender for what would be my dog whether male or female has been 'Rooney'.

Wayne Rooney is my favorite football player. He has been my favorite since early in his professional career when he was at Everton. I was thrilled when he was chosen as the youngest player ever to play on the England team. And just imagine my delight and relief when he was purchased by my husband's favorite team*, Manchester United! I no longer had to worry about discord in our marriage when Man Utd played against Everton!

During the 2006 World Cup, I was so disappointed when Rooney apparently stamped on a Portuguese player's nuts...

...he was not supposed to be that type of player. He's a good clean player with a lot of guts and can't be easily intimidated! And oh, can he read the game! He's just so intuitive. I love watching opposing players unsuccessfully try to intimidate or knock him down.

After seeing a lot of the replays and listening to the commentary though (as in the YouTube clip above), I now firmly believe that the ref let the Portuguese players double-team and foul Rooney for too long, he was frustrated, so he was kicking out to stay up, but he did not mean to stamp on the guy's nuts! I also blame Sven for putting him up front all by himself. Which he wouldn't have had to do if he had brought more strikers who would actually be good enough to play to THE. FUCKING. WORLD. CUP! I still don't excuse Rooney for what he did, but I do think it was unintentional. But I also HATE HATED Cristiano Ronaldo, a Man Utd teammate of Rooney's, for running to the ref and trying to get Rooney booked. And the wink (again, see the end of the YouTube video for that gem)! Ooooh, do did I hate Ronaldo (even though he's playing phenomenally well this season with Man U, he fucked with my boy)!

So, back to the point of my post. The other day we went down to the Press Room, which is the only English pub/bar in Santa Barbara. The owner, Raff, is from Manchester (from only a few villages away from the village my husband grew up in) and is of course a die-hard Man Utd fan too. Since we still refuse to subscribe to hundreds of crap channels/commercials (i.e. cable TV) just to be able to watch the football, this is where we have to go to watch any of the football live on TV Sometimes we go to our friend's house where we can watch it on the Spanish speaking channel though, but Raff subscribes to all the channels that have it, including the ones that have English commentators (there is nothing worse than listening to an American commentating on soccer--in fact, I can't stand listening to American sports commentators for ANY sport!)

So again, back to the story I really started... we walked in to watch Man Utd against Middlesborough, and there was a gorgeous dog, looked like a pit bull mixed with something else big. He was white with big ginger/brownish spots and coloring and he was so sweet and well-behaved. And then someone said his name to him, and I turned to my husband and with a pout, whispered, "I think his name is Rooney!" And there was no denying it, he really looked like Rooney.

A couple minutes later, as I was scratching around the cute dog's ears and chin, I surreptitiously looked at his ID tags, and to my utter dismay, it said 'ROONEY'.

My disappointment was huge! My husband tried to reassure me that we could still name our future dog Rooney. I was not convinced. My disappointment was almost as great as it was on that fateful day in 2006 when Rooney got sent off in the World Cup. Although we didn't know these particular people who owned this Rooney just yet, it was clear that he was a well-liked and regular visitor to the Press Room. Possibly a lot more regular than we have been. They would all think we were copying them if we named our future dog Rooney, and I would know there was another dog named Rooney before our Rooney.

It's like when George wants to name his first child Seven.

This left me disappointed the rest of the day, while my husband was upset that the score was 1-1 with fucking Middlesborough.

 

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* My husband grew up outside of the city of Manchester, and has been a Man U supporter since he was little, even having season tickets. He is NOT one of those fair weather supporters who jumps on the band wagon only after the team are successful and so well known all over the world.

Yin & Fang

Wow

Weight Loss

Ugh! Yesterday I rejoined Weight Watchers. I'm hungry today.

Why does our metabolism have to slow down? I used to be able to eat ANYTHING I wanted to! So when my metabolism started slowing down in my late-20's I wasn't used to needing to have will-power about food.

And now that I'm in my mid-30's it's even worse.

The Naughties

This is one of those times where I wish that British English and American English matched. We were watching a UK TV show the other night on DVD, called My Family. One of the actors in it is Kris Marshall who is quite funny--and if you haven't seen the movie Love Actually, you really must see it (he's in it) (Love Actually and Princess Bride are my 2 all-time favorite movies).

In England, they use the word naught  or nought for zero in some situations (and sometimes nil is used for zero as well). But in one of the My Family episodes, the character Nick (played by Marshall) says something along the lines of, "after all, we are living in the Naughties". And oh, how I wished that would work here in this country. I mean, come on, it's just so much better than saying the "Two Thousands" or the "Double 0s" and other stupid, tongue twisting terms for the current decade.

So from now on, please refer to our decade as The Naughties.

Thank you.

Caught!

I'm going to see David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell

I just called in my pledge to my local NPR station and am going to get a pair of tickets to David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell! AND... a VIP reception with them before the show!