This week I worked a lot less. They hired new people so my long hours are probably endangered until it gets more into Annual Curriculum time. I was scheduled until 5 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but on Tuesday they told me to leave at 4 and Wednesday they told me to leave at 12. My paycheck won't be as big, but free time is always nice.
I had two packages arrive. One was a new adapter for my laptop, and one was the MoTab's new Christmas album, Glad Christmas Tidings with David Archuleta. I like their new tradition of a new Christmas album every year. Their 2007, 2008, and 2009 albums were especially fantastic. I wouldn't ordinarily listen to it early, but it arrived with a defect. The little circle that keeps the CD in place is broken so it was rattling around in the case, so I need to listen to it to make sure it works. I'm listening to it now, and so far it seems fine. Buying an album from Amazon gives you a free download, so I downloaded "Into the Ocean" by Blue October, but then I found out that the promotional credit wasn't added yet, so I had payed for that. So when the promotional credit was actually added, I downloaded "Hair" by Lady Gaga. (Don't judge me!)
This week I set up my Super Nintendo for the first time since being home from my mission. It's kind of fun, but my mission gave me a new perspective on life. Video games are a complete waste of time. I made a rule not to watch TV unless I was doing something productive while watching (e.g. exercising or cleaning). I made no such rule with video games, simply because video games require your full attention. Now, I suppose in some situations video games could have their positive aspects. Some Wii and Kinect games involve physical activity. It can be a good way to socialize. But holed up in my room, working out my thumbs and my eyes while rooms go uncleaned, decorations go un-put-up, books go unread, and countless other things go undone, it's not good. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately), I can tell that the Super Nintendo is aging.
Yesterday I had a mission reunion. We had our own session at the Draper temple, followed by a barbecue at our mission president's house. I went with my old companion Elder Love. I liked it more than the previous reunions that just was mingling in a church gym. I had two other companions there--Elder Warren, who was my roommate for winter semester, and Elder LaPratt, whom I didn't talk to because he is pure evil. I think we mutually ignored each other. Which is good because I might have said something I regretted. I probably really wouldn't have--but I kind of like to think that I would tell him off for his evilness and hypocrisy.
This week is looking to be an ordinary week--except that I turn 23 on Thursday and there is general conference this coming weekend!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
A pillowcase full of trick-or-treat memories.
Remember in the summer when I made a blog post where I tried to remember as many details as possible about every Fourth of July in my life? Well, it's that time of year where I try to remember all the Halloweens I've experienced. Just like the Independence Day post, to keep it simple, I'm not going to try to remember anything but October 31. When Halloween falls on Sunday, the most Halloweeny adventures occur on the day before--but I'm not going to write about those days. I'm sticking just to the holiday itself. I'll try to write down as many details as I can remember.
2010--I went to my family ward, wearing my jack-o-lantern-covered tie, but skipped the singles ward because my cousin Quin was being ordained a priest. We were waiting at their church near the bishop's (?) office to go in. My ex-uncle Wayne was there. He was shocked to see me because he hadn't seen me since I'd been home from my mission. He asked my mom about her grandsons. When we went into the office, someone in the ward (the bishop?) was making a silly comment about Joey being there. My grandpa and I were among the ones to stand in the circle for the ordination. Afterward, Wayne took Quin to his car to give him a framed quote or something by President Monson. Then we went to my aunt's house for lasagna. When we were there, my grandma remarked that Wayne had been friendly to my mom. She said that he shook my grandpa's hand, but completely ignored her. My grandpa said, "That's because you're the Wicked Witch of the West," but he said it affectionately, as though he were proud of her. If I recall correctly, there were lots of paper cups, and I wanted a Halloween one. I was sitting at the table with Jesse, Lisa, and Peter. The conversation turned to Chancey. Jesse told me how much he liked a comment I had made on Chancey's Facebook status that said, "If I'm not mistaken, and I'm usually not, energy drinks are worse for you than soda." He liked that I said, "and I'm usually not." I explained that I was inspired by a quote from The Nativity Story where one of the wisemen says, "If I am right, and I usually am..." We talked about his money, and Lisa said he should save his money to buy a baby. Peter and Jesse remarked about that being a strange thing to say, but she explained that she meant he should save up money for the baby his girlfriend was having. I remember at one point Joey said something about working and making money, and after he left, Jesse or Peter said something about how much he loves money. Chancey came home and put an enormous portion of lasagna on his plate. Quin was unhappy about that and Sue said if he put that much on the plate, he needed to actually eat it. Chancey was having difficulties talking to his girlfriend Nicole, and said to me something about that is why you don't have kids. Quin said, "No, that's why you wait until you're married." Chancey said something about how no, it should be never. My niece Allie went across the street to play with friends. Quin was watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. As it ended and Jack and Sally embraced and Zero flew up into the sky, my mom said "Aww" in the way she usually says "And they lived happily ever after." Then Quin was channel surfing and I noticed that the guide on the TV showed one channel showing episodes of The Addams Family, but then I realized that I don't watch TV on Sundays. One of the things he stopped on was a Halloween episode of iCarly, which I thought was a strange show for a sixteen-year-old, but what do I know? When we left, Allie was saying Chancey had been mad because his uncle wouldn't talk to him. We realized that he had said "Nicole" but she heard "my uncle." She told us she liked a girlfriend he had had who went on a mission. That evening I watched The Munsters' Revenge (I make exceptions to my no-TV-on-Sunday rule for my holiday shows) but I didn't pay much attention because I was filling out a new planner. When I decorated the page for Thanksgiving, I didn't have a brown colored pencil, so I used red, orange, and yellow. I colored the time blocks lightly with those colors, and thought it made it look like Pez.
2009--I got up and did the usual studying and such, but as was somewhat typical, my companion, Elder Tamblyn, slept in sick. Twice in the day he got up and dressed and when we were about to say the prayer to leave, he announced that he was feeling sick again. So what did I do all day while he slept? All I remember was carving the pumpkin I hadn't been able to carve on P-day. This is what it looked like:
I put some salt on the seeds and baked them in the oven. In the evening, some members (the Watkins?) dropped off chicken noodle soup for us for dinner. Then we went to the stake center where there was a trunk or treat going on. There was one guy there who was "dressed" as a brown recluse--paper limbs sticking off his side and a paper violin shape on his back. But we weren't there for the trunk or treat; we were there to teach Mallary, an investigator, with her friend Mike from Boise. We couldn't get our key to work, so we taught her on the lawn. Then she went home to get ready for the Lewis-Clark singles branch Halloween party, which we were also attending. We waited until someone with a working key showed up--I believe that was Cecilia Safsten, the activities committee chair. We helped her blow up orange and black balloons, which they just threw all over the gym floor. Then the members of the branch showed up. Sena Busch (or is it Bush?) was dressed as a Ravenclaw (Elder Tamblyn didn't know what that was!), Mallary and Meagan (Clark?) were pirates, and Brent Howie was a gangster with multiple layers of sagging pants. One of the track kids had a kid's alligator costume on with spandex underneath. There was a table of snacks, such as cheese and crackers and apple cider. There was a pumpkin carving contest. I ended up working with Meagan and Whitney (Whitney is a boy, by the way). I told them about my missionary pumpkin. So they decided to go with that. But they didn't actually carve it; they just scraped off the outer part to make a picture. They made it a headshot of a missionary, instead of the simple iconic one I did. It was actually pretty ugly. Someone turned on a playlist of which the first song was "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I realized that it would be just a month before I could watch (and listen to) that. President Landeen asked us elders to pick the best costumes. I liked Brent, Meagan, and Sena, and he seemed surprised we didn't pick the alligator. It was approaching our curfew time, and Elder Tamblyn asked if we could stay later. I said I didn't think that would be prudent. We went home, and we were setting our clocks back. Then I realized that he asked to do that because setting the time back made it like it was an hour earlier. I still thought it was wise for us to have left on time.
2008--On this Friday morning, Elder Love and I went to the house of Christol, an investigator, where her foul-mouthed three-year-old Edward was dressed up as a dinosaur. I wanted to take a picture, but then I realized my camera was on video--so I got a short video of him instead. (Unfortunately I don't have this. I sent memory cards home several times on my mission. This is the only one that is still lost.) [We were walking home and a woman in a nun's habit drove by. I can't remember if I saw her or if Elder Love just told me he did. He waved at her, and started laughing hysterically because he said she waved back and then got a really weird look on her face. We wondered if she was a real nun or in a costume.] During our lunch break I wanted to buy a pumpkin to carve that evening, so we went to Ritzville's Harvest Foods grocery store, but they didn't have any pumpkins! We left to pick up the Airway Heights elders for our district meeting that night. [On the way out of Ritzville we saw another nun-clad woman, and we figured it was unlikely for us to see two nuns in one day, so at least one of them had to have been a costume, and probably both of them were.] We stopped in the small town of Harrington and tracted a street. We met a female pastor (her husband was a pastor too), had an awkward approach with a man outside, and met the principal of the local high school who said she was impressed with the Mormon kids at the school. We also met a woman we had met a few weeks earlier at a members' home in Davenport, the Jeskes. She remembered that since I was new in the area, Sister Jeske hadn't known my name. I think the last house on the street had a wolf blanket in the window, or something like that. I wanted to stop at the Walmart in Airway Heights to get a pumpkin (since I couldn't get one in Ritzville), but when we picked up the other elders, the member they lived with, Sister Drees, offered us a pumpkin. I felt guilty for taking it, but it meant we didn't need to stop at a store. Then we drove to Cheney. I remember the Children's Songbook CD being on and Elder Colton said, "What is this!?" and then he said that he liked the song "Teacher, Do You Love Me" with the little kid who couldn't say his r's. We wanted to go to one restaurant but ended up going to a Mexican restaurant with the rest of the district. At dinner I switched Elder Love's and my nametag since we were wearing the same tie so that we could be each other for Halloween. We went to the Cheney institute for our evening district meeting. [The closing hymn was #121, "I'm a Pilgrim, I'm a Stranger." Sister Lyman said she didn't really know it, and she didn't play it very well, so we only sang the first verse. Too bad that only the third verse of that song actually has any uplifting message.] After the meeting, everyone just played games. I was disappointed because that was what we did every P-day--they were doing nothing Halloween related! So I went into the kitchen and pulled out a baking sheet and carved my pumpkin. It was a very simple design--I remember one of the singles ward members from Cheney (Tyler Marsden?) commenting on that and I was slightly offended. I took pictures (again on the missing memory card) and then wanted to see it lit up. I didn't have a candle, so I thought I'd try the cell phone. I went into the bathroom, put the pumpkin on the floor, turned the lights off, put the cell phone in, and took pictures. At first I had the flash on, so that defeated the purpose. When I turned it off, the phone was just too dim for my camera to really pick up. We took the Airway Heights elders back to their house, but it was late, and we knew we'd go over miles if we went back to Ritzville, so we decided to stay the night there. [On our way back, Elder Colton talked about how hard it was to sing that "pilgrim song," and asked who picked it. I didn't say anything, but he figured out it was me.] Sister Drees had a box of candy by the door--so we all helped ourselves.
2007--I was wearing my orange "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt, and I decided to finish up the Halloween ceramic I had started in 2001. I ended up splattering a little bit of black paint on my shirt. Since it was my favorite shirt, I soaked it in a sink to try to remove the paint. (The paint is still on the shirt to this day.) So instead of my Halloween shirt, I wore my vampire costume. I did finish the ceramic, and put it up on a bookshelf downstairs. I had to pick up my niece from her preschool, so I walked up there in my costume. When the kids got out, one girl shouted out "A vampire!" but Allie ran up to me and hugged me and kept saying, "It's just my uncle." Her teacher, "Miss Sue" Palmer, said, "Allie likes that vampire." We walked home, me in my vampire costume and her in her Ariel costume, and David Christensen drove by and waved to us. A little later, Susanne took pictures of us on the front step. I didn't look at the camera and looked at Allie instead. I was hoping she would get a picture of my Jack Skellington white pumpkin. That afternoon, my mom, sister, and niece went to the ward trunk or treat, but since I don't believe in those things, I stayed home. I made a caramel apple with those caramel sheets that are just meant to be molded around the apple. I think I had problems with the stick. I remember watching a group of trick-or-treaters, even though it was still bright outside, since it was the first year with the later Daylight Savings Time change. Our home teacher Brother Ulmer brought me something to read in preparation for my mission. I went trick-or-treating with Allie and Susanne. One of our stops was Miss Sue's, and she told her husband Roy that I had shown up dressed like that in front of all the preschool kids. He asked me if the suit was one I was going to take on my mission. I told him no. Our lost stop was a house we didn't know, but we liked the candy corn light on their porch. Nan didn't realize how late it was. She took Allie home and I watched The Munsters' Revenge. It seems that we also had pumpkin-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.
2006--I remember sitting in my calculus lab and my friend Latecia Pope was dressed up as a manga or anime character. I remember wishing I had worn my vampire costume instead of my "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. After school we went to Chuck-a-Rama to comfort my dad. Many of the employees had costumes of sorts; I think Angie Vilchez was Luigi. After dinner we drove by a house that had Jack Skellington and Sally in inflatable form. Then I went trick-or-treating with Allie and Susanne. This is what we looked like:
Susanne had to wear those goggles because she had just had Lasik done and she had to wear them when she went outside. But they kept fogging up on her. I remember stopping at her friend Shan's house, then the Palmers', then the Millards'. Sister Millard remarked how sad it was that she heard that my dad's mom died. Nan told her it was really sad because it was the only house my dad ever grew up in. I'm sure I would have watched The Munsters' Revenge but I don't know when.
2005--I had the day off from school. I wore my orange glasses with the faulty prescription so my vision was a little skewed all day. I remember riding in the Suburban which Nan was driving and being by the train tracks and it beeping at us because it needed gas. We were going to clear out our family's storage unit. My parents told me they were getting rid of my beautiful heirloom flocked Christmas tree. If I got rid of it, I could have my sister's smaller tree and keep it after my mission, but if I kept the flocked tree, they would get rid of it when I went on my mission and then I would have no tree at all. I remember sitting in the Suburban at DI when they unloaded the tree and I was really sad and my mom started crying because she could tell I was so sad. It sounds so silly now but I was really, really sad. I'm still sad about it. Anyway, I was a little shocked when I found out that night that they weren't taking two-year-old Allie trick-or-treating. So I decided to take her myself. I put on my ghost sheet and carried her in her witch costume. I'd walked a small distance before I realized her hat fell off. So I retraced my steps and found it and decided that I couldn't see well enough in my costume, even though it had eyeholes, so I'd only wear it at doorsteps. We stopped at the Joneses', the Trosts', the Christensens', and the Clarks'. I was a little disappointed that so many people knew who I was under the sheet.
2004--This was a Sunday. I remember that evening the Craigs dropped off some goodies because our family had just switched to a new phone company, one they'd introduced us to. My parents were watching Pollyanna but I didn't care to watch it. I remember being down in the family room to turn the Halloween lights on. Then there was a fireside at the Morleys' house with the stake patriarch who had given me my blessing about two months previously. When I got to the house I was impressed with the jack-o-lantern that was vomiting its own innards. That's a bit cliché now, but it was the first time I'd ever seen it. The patriarch asked for everyone who'd received a blessing from him to say their name. I was first, and at first I just said, "Mark," then clarified "Mark Melville." I was expecting him to remember me since it was recent, but he didn't. So then I felt dumb that I had initially just given a first name when everyone else, such as David Oder, gave their full name the first time. Afterward we went to the kitchen where there were Halloween sugar cookies. I remember talking with Chalei Simmons about how excited I was that the next day was November, my second-favorite month, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. She seemed surprised that Christmas wasn't my favorite, but I explained that part of why Thanksgiving is so great is because when it's over it starts Christmastime.
2003--There was snow on the ground this Halloween. It was a Friday with no school. I think I watched the audio commentary on The Nightmare Before Christmas in the morning and then I was picked up by Laura Ulmer to go practice for the play I was in, Evil Doings at Queen Toots' Tomb. After practice I remember sitting in the commons area looking at the grey sky. We had a big bowl of Tootsie Roll products to give to trick-or-treaters. We had a pipe leak that evening and damaged some old paper Halloween decorations that were in a tote in the laundry room. I remember our home teacher Brother Taylor stopping by on that snowy evening to help. I watched Frankenweenie. Then I donned my Charlie Brown ghost costume (you know--with all the holes) and stopped at the Andersons'.
2002--I had elected not to officially celebrate Halloween this year, since I would not be in the country on Halloween night. I remember getting ready for my grandparents to take us to the airport. I had already packed my spray deodorant, so I had to put on the stick deodorant that was in the drawer, which turned out to be bad later. I was wearing my orange "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. I remember at the airport, they had little organ sounds playing and I thought it was for Halloween. My mom had a bag full of tons of bottles of hand sanitizer and there was a problem with it looking suspicious. When we were sitting in the Salt Lake airport to wait for our plane, there were missionaries sitting near a nearby terminal. I remember watching a girl walk through the airport in a Jeannie (from I Dream of Jeannie) costume. As we were flying in to our layover in San Francisco, I could see the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember looking at a small gift shop in the airport and they had a toy model of the airport. Before boarding our flight, we were sitting, talking with the other Davis County couple who were picking up their son from the same mission. They told us they had too many kids to take them along. They talked about how one of their sons had shaggy hair, and his part in the primary program talked about being groomed properly, and he thought it was hilarious. My mom brought up that I had mentioned wanting to dye my hair red. Where we were sitting was near a staircase (or escalator?) that went down to our gate. Shortly before boarding I went down there by myself and got really nervous thinking about the long flight to Taiwan ahead of us, so I came back up. Then we all went down to the gate. There was a scrolling marquee that talked about something being "DURY FREE" instead of "duty free." Then we boarded. There were lots of Taiwanese people. I remember one older woman looked very chimp-like, and I thought that was proof of evolution. They had lots of movies to choose from. Ice Age was one of them, but I opted not to watch it because I had missed the beginning. I watched the map that showed our progress and how long we still had to go. I had to keep the window closed because the sun was reflecting off the ocean. At some point in our flight we flew over the International Dateline so it was no longer October 31.
2001--I remember very little about this Halloween, except for staying home finishing up my apron for my TLC class. It was my first year not trick-or-treating. At some point after 9:00 a trick-or-treater came to the door. My mom told me he looked like he was in sixth grade and I remarked that that was pretty late for someone his age.
2000--There was a lot I remember having to do with the sixth-grade Halloween talent show (such as one of the teachers insisting I wear a mask in the picture :( ), but I can't remember what (or if it) took place on Halloween itself, so I'll just forget it. I was Charlie Brown for Halloween--a Charlie Brown shirt, black pants, a baseball cap, and a plush dog. After dropping me off from school, Laura Ulmer took my picture. That night I went trick-or-treating with my friend David Christensen, who was wearing a white robe/toga and a leaf crown on his head. When we stopped at my own house, my mom called him "Caesar Augustus" but he corrected her, "Julius Caesar."
1999--Thankfully this Halloween was a Sunday, so I don't have to write about my ridiculous costume this year. I remember my dad waking me up telling me I had to get dressed for my brother's ordination that morning. I didn't realize I had to get dressed up for it. My aunt and Chancey and Jesse had come for it. After the ordination, my aunt remarked how my brother would be able to say he got the Melchizedek Priesthood on Halloween. I remember the Thompsons eating some of the leftover trick-or-treat candy my mom gave them. I went to take a shower. Outside my bedroom door I had a Halloween doorbell that said, "Happy Halloween, Hahahahahaha!" and I remember being in the bathroom and hearing it go off. I was even more OCD then than I am now and I was getting really mad because they knew I wasn't in my room. I remember yelling at Jesse and Chancey from the bathroom to stop and Jesse was blaming it on Chancey, but his laughter gave away the fact that he was lying--but I still believed him at first.
1998--I was Wallace this year from Wallace and Gromit--bald head, green vest, red tie, and plush dog. I went trick-or-treating with David Christensen and his family, and I remember feeling a little sad I wasn't trick-or-treating with my mom. (I don't think she was sad.) There was a guy on Constitution Way who asked what I was supposed to be. Wayne Christensen took us up to Eaglewood to trick-or-treat. We were driving through a P.U.D. and he told us what it was, and I said we should just call it a pud.
1997--There was a new addition to the sixth-grade Halloween talent show this year, a song about a monster in the tub. Afterward we had library time and Jaydon Bean was quoting "There's something yucky in the tub, mommy," because we all thought it was so funny. I was a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Morgan Smith was a swamp monster. That night I was watching my weekly TGIF which had Halloween-themed episodes that night. The only one I remember was You Wish. One of the props was a plastic eerie scythe, which I was excited about because I had seen several of them at school that day. The episode involved monsters coming to life, and the mummy was defeated by the genie putting a loose end of his wrapping in the garbage disposal and turning it on. He disappeared--apparently there was nothing but wrapping.
1996--I was the Grim Reaper for Halloween. At the costume parade, I remember seeing three people dressed as Santa Claus, one of whom had brought his dog dressed as a reindeer. There was another Grim-reaper, who said, "Beware the scythe!"
1995--I was a mummy for Halloween, so for all of the costume parade, I held my arms out in front of me. I remember at one point we were walking outside the school where there were no people, and I was relieved to be able to put my arms down. That night we were carving our jack-o-lantern. I had no problem at that time with holidays overlapping, so I said I wanted a turkey pumpkin. So our jack-o-lantern was a turkey.
1994--I think the beard to my costume didn't work quite right, so I was a beardless Santa Claus. I showed up to David Christensen's house before school, and his mom had to stop at Winegar's to pick some stuff up. I remember sitting in the parking lot saying it was Smith's. Chantelle corrected me that it was Winegar's. I knew it was Winegar's, but I liked to joke it was Smith's because they had very similar logos--red ovals with white writing. In kindergarten that day we made brown pom-pom spiders (I actually still have mine). We saw the sixth-grade talent show and I thought "Monster Mash" was like the greatest song ever. I went home and it seems like they were rearranging the furniture downstairs. I decided to play the lava game on the furniture, playing with my pom-pom spider and telling my mom all about how much I liked "Monster Mash." [We went to my grandparents' that night. I only remember this because I remember that on the way back, a house in their neighborhood had a jack-o-lantern lampshade in the window. Since that time, I've wanted a jack-o-lantern lampshade.] I have another Halloween-time memory about sitting in a hot car and fanning myself with a paper skull and discovering that fanning yourself doesn't work when you're only surrounded by hot air--this seems like it took place on Halloween, but the details I remember don't all add up.
Earlier Halloweens--The only earlier Halloween memory I can really recall is wearing a ladybug costume and trick-or-treating with my mom. An older kid saw me and said, "A little ladybug!" I talked to my mom about it because I thought he was making fun of me, but she said he wasn't making fun of me. But if this was 1993, then it probably wasn't actually Halloween, because Halloween would have been a Sunday that year.
2010--I went to my family ward, wearing my jack-o-lantern-covered tie, but skipped the singles ward because my cousin Quin was being ordained a priest. We were waiting at their church near the bishop's (?) office to go in. My ex-uncle Wayne was there. He was shocked to see me because he hadn't seen me since I'd been home from my mission. He asked my mom about her grandsons. When we went into the office, someone in the ward (the bishop?) was making a silly comment about Joey being there. My grandpa and I were among the ones to stand in the circle for the ordination. Afterward, Wayne took Quin to his car to give him a framed quote or something by President Monson. Then we went to my aunt's house for lasagna. When we were there, my grandma remarked that Wayne had been friendly to my mom. She said that he shook my grandpa's hand, but completely ignored her. My grandpa said, "That's because you're the Wicked Witch of the West," but he said it affectionately, as though he were proud of her. If I recall correctly, there were lots of paper cups, and I wanted a Halloween one. I was sitting at the table with Jesse, Lisa, and Peter. The conversation turned to Chancey. Jesse told me how much he liked a comment I had made on Chancey's Facebook status that said, "If I'm not mistaken, and I'm usually not, energy drinks are worse for you than soda." He liked that I said, "and I'm usually not." I explained that I was inspired by a quote from The Nativity Story where one of the wisemen says, "If I am right, and I usually am..." We talked about his money, and Lisa said he should save his money to buy a baby. Peter and Jesse remarked about that being a strange thing to say, but she explained that she meant he should save up money for the baby his girlfriend was having. I remember at one point Joey said something about working and making money, and after he left, Jesse or Peter said something about how much he loves money. Chancey came home and put an enormous portion of lasagna on his plate. Quin was unhappy about that and Sue said if he put that much on the plate, he needed to actually eat it. Chancey was having difficulties talking to his girlfriend Nicole, and said to me something about that is why you don't have kids. Quin said, "No, that's why you wait until you're married." Chancey said something about how no, it should be never. My niece Allie went across the street to play with friends. Quin was watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. As it ended and Jack and Sally embraced and Zero flew up into the sky, my mom said "Aww" in the way she usually says "And they lived happily ever after." Then Quin was channel surfing and I noticed that the guide on the TV showed one channel showing episodes of The Addams Family, but then I realized that I don't watch TV on Sundays. One of the things he stopped on was a Halloween episode of iCarly, which I thought was a strange show for a sixteen-year-old, but what do I know? When we left, Allie was saying Chancey had been mad because his uncle wouldn't talk to him. We realized that he had said "Nicole" but she heard "my uncle." She told us she liked a girlfriend he had had who went on a mission. That evening I watched The Munsters' Revenge (I make exceptions to my no-TV-on-Sunday rule for my holiday shows) but I didn't pay much attention because I was filling out a new planner. When I decorated the page for Thanksgiving, I didn't have a brown colored pencil, so I used red, orange, and yellow. I colored the time blocks lightly with those colors, and thought it made it look like Pez.
2009--I got up and did the usual studying and such, but as was somewhat typical, my companion, Elder Tamblyn, slept in sick. Twice in the day he got up and dressed and when we were about to say the prayer to leave, he announced that he was feeling sick again. So what did I do all day while he slept? All I remember was carving the pumpkin I hadn't been able to carve on P-day. This is what it looked like:
I put some salt on the seeds and baked them in the oven. In the evening, some members (the Watkins?) dropped off chicken noodle soup for us for dinner. Then we went to the stake center where there was a trunk or treat going on. There was one guy there who was "dressed" as a brown recluse--paper limbs sticking off his side and a paper violin shape on his back. But we weren't there for the trunk or treat; we were there to teach Mallary, an investigator, with her friend Mike from Boise. We couldn't get our key to work, so we taught her on the lawn. Then she went home to get ready for the Lewis-Clark singles branch Halloween party, which we were also attending. We waited until someone with a working key showed up--I believe that was Cecilia Safsten, the activities committee chair. We helped her blow up orange and black balloons, which they just threw all over the gym floor. Then the members of the branch showed up. Sena Busch (or is it Bush?) was dressed as a Ravenclaw (Elder Tamblyn didn't know what that was!), Mallary and Meagan (Clark?) were pirates, and Brent Howie was a gangster with multiple layers of sagging pants. One of the track kids had a kid's alligator costume on with spandex underneath. There was a table of snacks, such as cheese and crackers and apple cider. There was a pumpkin carving contest. I ended up working with Meagan and Whitney (Whitney is a boy, by the way). I told them about my missionary pumpkin. So they decided to go with that. But they didn't actually carve it; they just scraped off the outer part to make a picture. They made it a headshot of a missionary, instead of the simple iconic one I did. It was actually pretty ugly. Someone turned on a playlist of which the first song was "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I realized that it would be just a month before I could watch (and listen to) that. President Landeen asked us elders to pick the best costumes. I liked Brent, Meagan, and Sena, and he seemed surprised we didn't pick the alligator. It was approaching our curfew time, and Elder Tamblyn asked if we could stay later. I said I didn't think that would be prudent. We went home, and we were setting our clocks back. Then I realized that he asked to do that because setting the time back made it like it was an hour earlier. I still thought it was wise for us to have left on time.
2008--On this Friday morning, Elder Love and I went to the house of Christol, an investigator, where her foul-mouthed three-year-old Edward was dressed up as a dinosaur. I wanted to take a picture, but then I realized my camera was on video--so I got a short video of him instead. (Unfortunately I don't have this. I sent memory cards home several times on my mission. This is the only one that is still lost.) [We were walking home and a woman in a nun's habit drove by. I can't remember if I saw her or if Elder Love just told me he did. He waved at her, and started laughing hysterically because he said she waved back and then got a really weird look on her face. We wondered if she was a real nun or in a costume.] During our lunch break I wanted to buy a pumpkin to carve that evening, so we went to Ritzville's Harvest Foods grocery store, but they didn't have any pumpkins! We left to pick up the Airway Heights elders for our district meeting that night. [On the way out of Ritzville we saw another nun-clad woman, and we figured it was unlikely for us to see two nuns in one day, so at least one of them had to have been a costume, and probably both of them were.] We stopped in the small town of Harrington and tracted a street. We met a female pastor (her husband was a pastor too), had an awkward approach with a man outside, and met the principal of the local high school who said she was impressed with the Mormon kids at the school. We also met a woman we had met a few weeks earlier at a members' home in Davenport, the Jeskes. She remembered that since I was new in the area, Sister Jeske hadn't known my name. I think the last house on the street had a wolf blanket in the window, or something like that. I wanted to stop at the Walmart in Airway Heights to get a pumpkin (since I couldn't get one in Ritzville), but when we picked up the other elders, the member they lived with, Sister Drees, offered us a pumpkin. I felt guilty for taking it, but it meant we didn't need to stop at a store. Then we drove to Cheney. I remember the Children's Songbook CD being on and Elder Colton said, "What is this!?" and then he said that he liked the song "Teacher, Do You Love Me" with the little kid who couldn't say his r's. We wanted to go to one restaurant but ended up going to a Mexican restaurant with the rest of the district. At dinner I switched Elder Love's and my nametag since we were wearing the same tie so that we could be each other for Halloween. We went to the Cheney institute for our evening district meeting. [The closing hymn was #121, "I'm a Pilgrim, I'm a Stranger." Sister Lyman said she didn't really know it, and she didn't play it very well, so we only sang the first verse. Too bad that only the third verse of that song actually has any uplifting message.] After the meeting, everyone just played games. I was disappointed because that was what we did every P-day--they were doing nothing Halloween related! So I went into the kitchen and pulled out a baking sheet and carved my pumpkin. It was a very simple design--I remember one of the singles ward members from Cheney (Tyler Marsden?) commenting on that and I was slightly offended. I took pictures (again on the missing memory card) and then wanted to see it lit up. I didn't have a candle, so I thought I'd try the cell phone. I went into the bathroom, put the pumpkin on the floor, turned the lights off, put the cell phone in, and took pictures. At first I had the flash on, so that defeated the purpose. When I turned it off, the phone was just too dim for my camera to really pick up. We took the Airway Heights elders back to their house, but it was late, and we knew we'd go over miles if we went back to Ritzville, so we decided to stay the night there. [On our way back, Elder Colton talked about how hard it was to sing that "pilgrim song," and asked who picked it. I didn't say anything, but he figured out it was me.] Sister Drees had a box of candy by the door--so we all helped ourselves.
2007--I was wearing my orange "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt, and I decided to finish up the Halloween ceramic I had started in 2001. I ended up splattering a little bit of black paint on my shirt. Since it was my favorite shirt, I soaked it in a sink to try to remove the paint. (The paint is still on the shirt to this day.) So instead of my Halloween shirt, I wore my vampire costume. I did finish the ceramic, and put it up on a bookshelf downstairs. I had to pick up my niece from her preschool, so I walked up there in my costume. When the kids got out, one girl shouted out "A vampire!" but Allie ran up to me and hugged me and kept saying, "It's just my uncle." Her teacher, "Miss Sue" Palmer, said, "Allie likes that vampire." We walked home, me in my vampire costume and her in her Ariel costume, and David Christensen drove by and waved to us. A little later, Susanne took pictures of us on the front step. I didn't look at the camera and looked at Allie instead. I was hoping she would get a picture of my Jack Skellington white pumpkin. That afternoon, my mom, sister, and niece went to the ward trunk or treat, but since I don't believe in those things, I stayed home. I made a caramel apple with those caramel sheets that are just meant to be molded around the apple. I think I had problems with the stick. I remember watching a group of trick-or-treaters, even though it was still bright outside, since it was the first year with the later Daylight Savings Time change. Our home teacher Brother Ulmer brought me something to read in preparation for my mission. I went trick-or-treating with Allie and Susanne. One of our stops was Miss Sue's, and she told her husband Roy that I had shown up dressed like that in front of all the preschool kids. He asked me if the suit was one I was going to take on my mission. I told him no. Our lost stop was a house we didn't know, but we liked the candy corn light on their porch. Nan didn't realize how late it was. She took Allie home and I watched The Munsters' Revenge. It seems that we also had pumpkin-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.
2006--I remember sitting in my calculus lab and my friend Latecia Pope was dressed up as a manga or anime character. I remember wishing I had worn my vampire costume instead of my "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. After school we went to Chuck-a-Rama to comfort my dad. Many of the employees had costumes of sorts; I think Angie Vilchez was Luigi. After dinner we drove by a house that had Jack Skellington and Sally in inflatable form. Then I went trick-or-treating with Allie and Susanne. This is what we looked like:
Susanne had to wear those goggles because she had just had Lasik done and she had to wear them when she went outside. But they kept fogging up on her. I remember stopping at her friend Shan's house, then the Palmers', then the Millards'. Sister Millard remarked how sad it was that she heard that my dad's mom died. Nan told her it was really sad because it was the only house my dad ever grew up in. I'm sure I would have watched The Munsters' Revenge but I don't know when.
2005--I had the day off from school. I wore my orange glasses with the faulty prescription so my vision was a little skewed all day. I remember riding in the Suburban which Nan was driving and being by the train tracks and it beeping at us because it needed gas. We were going to clear out our family's storage unit. My parents told me they were getting rid of my beautiful heirloom flocked Christmas tree. If I got rid of it, I could have my sister's smaller tree and keep it after my mission, but if I kept the flocked tree, they would get rid of it when I went on my mission and then I would have no tree at all. I remember sitting in the Suburban at DI when they unloaded the tree and I was really sad and my mom started crying because she could tell I was so sad. It sounds so silly now but I was really, really sad. I'm still sad about it. Anyway, I was a little shocked when I found out that night that they weren't taking two-year-old Allie trick-or-treating. So I decided to take her myself. I put on my ghost sheet and carried her in her witch costume. I'd walked a small distance before I realized her hat fell off. So I retraced my steps and found it and decided that I couldn't see well enough in my costume, even though it had eyeholes, so I'd only wear it at doorsteps. We stopped at the Joneses', the Trosts', the Christensens', and the Clarks'. I was a little disappointed that so many people knew who I was under the sheet.
2004--This was a Sunday. I remember that evening the Craigs dropped off some goodies because our family had just switched to a new phone company, one they'd introduced us to. My parents were watching Pollyanna but I didn't care to watch it. I remember being down in the family room to turn the Halloween lights on. Then there was a fireside at the Morleys' house with the stake patriarch who had given me my blessing about two months previously. When I got to the house I was impressed with the jack-o-lantern that was vomiting its own innards. That's a bit cliché now, but it was the first time I'd ever seen it. The patriarch asked for everyone who'd received a blessing from him to say their name. I was first, and at first I just said, "Mark," then clarified "Mark Melville." I was expecting him to remember me since it was recent, but he didn't. So then I felt dumb that I had initially just given a first name when everyone else, such as David Oder, gave their full name the first time. Afterward we went to the kitchen where there were Halloween sugar cookies. I remember talking with Chalei Simmons about how excited I was that the next day was November, my second-favorite month, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. She seemed surprised that Christmas wasn't my favorite, but I explained that part of why Thanksgiving is so great is because when it's over it starts Christmastime.
2003--There was snow on the ground this Halloween. It was a Friday with no school. I think I watched the audio commentary on The Nightmare Before Christmas in the morning and then I was picked up by Laura Ulmer to go practice for the play I was in, Evil Doings at Queen Toots' Tomb. After practice I remember sitting in the commons area looking at the grey sky. We had a big bowl of Tootsie Roll products to give to trick-or-treaters. We had a pipe leak that evening and damaged some old paper Halloween decorations that were in a tote in the laundry room. I remember our home teacher Brother Taylor stopping by on that snowy evening to help. I watched Frankenweenie. Then I donned my Charlie Brown ghost costume (you know--with all the holes) and stopped at the Andersons'.
2002--I had elected not to officially celebrate Halloween this year, since I would not be in the country on Halloween night. I remember getting ready for my grandparents to take us to the airport. I had already packed my spray deodorant, so I had to put on the stick deodorant that was in the drawer, which turned out to be bad later. I was wearing my orange "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. I remember at the airport, they had little organ sounds playing and I thought it was for Halloween. My mom had a bag full of tons of bottles of hand sanitizer and there was a problem with it looking suspicious. When we were sitting in the Salt Lake airport to wait for our plane, there were missionaries sitting near a nearby terminal. I remember watching a girl walk through the airport in a Jeannie (from I Dream of Jeannie) costume. As we were flying in to our layover in San Francisco, I could see the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember looking at a small gift shop in the airport and they had a toy model of the airport. Before boarding our flight, we were sitting, talking with the other Davis County couple who were picking up their son from the same mission. They told us they had too many kids to take them along. They talked about how one of their sons had shaggy hair, and his part in the primary program talked about being groomed properly, and he thought it was hilarious. My mom brought up that I had mentioned wanting to dye my hair red. Where we were sitting was near a staircase (or escalator?) that went down to our gate. Shortly before boarding I went down there by myself and got really nervous thinking about the long flight to Taiwan ahead of us, so I came back up. Then we all went down to the gate. There was a scrolling marquee that talked about something being "DURY FREE" instead of "duty free." Then we boarded. There were lots of Taiwanese people. I remember one older woman looked very chimp-like, and I thought that was proof of evolution. They had lots of movies to choose from. Ice Age was one of them, but I opted not to watch it because I had missed the beginning. I watched the map that showed our progress and how long we still had to go. I had to keep the window closed because the sun was reflecting off the ocean. At some point in our flight we flew over the International Dateline so it was no longer October 31.
2001--I remember very little about this Halloween, except for staying home finishing up my apron for my TLC class. It was my first year not trick-or-treating. At some point after 9:00 a trick-or-treater came to the door. My mom told me he looked like he was in sixth grade and I remarked that that was pretty late for someone his age.
2000--There was a lot I remember having to do with the sixth-grade Halloween talent show (such as one of the teachers insisting I wear a mask in the picture :( ), but I can't remember what (or if it) took place on Halloween itself, so I'll just forget it. I was Charlie Brown for Halloween--a Charlie Brown shirt, black pants, a baseball cap, and a plush dog. After dropping me off from school, Laura Ulmer took my picture. That night I went trick-or-treating with my friend David Christensen, who was wearing a white robe/toga and a leaf crown on his head. When we stopped at my own house, my mom called him "Caesar Augustus" but he corrected her, "Julius Caesar."
1999--Thankfully this Halloween was a Sunday, so I don't have to write about my ridiculous costume this year. I remember my dad waking me up telling me I had to get dressed for my brother's ordination that morning. I didn't realize I had to get dressed up for it. My aunt and Chancey and Jesse had come for it. After the ordination, my aunt remarked how my brother would be able to say he got the Melchizedek Priesthood on Halloween. I remember the Thompsons eating some of the leftover trick-or-treat candy my mom gave them. I went to take a shower. Outside my bedroom door I had a Halloween doorbell that said, "Happy Halloween, Hahahahahaha!" and I remember being in the bathroom and hearing it go off. I was even more OCD then than I am now and I was getting really mad because they knew I wasn't in my room. I remember yelling at Jesse and Chancey from the bathroom to stop and Jesse was blaming it on Chancey, but his laughter gave away the fact that he was lying--but I still believed him at first.
1998--I was Wallace this year from Wallace and Gromit--bald head, green vest, red tie, and plush dog. I went trick-or-treating with David Christensen and his family, and I remember feeling a little sad I wasn't trick-or-treating with my mom. (I don't think she was sad.) There was a guy on Constitution Way who asked what I was supposed to be. Wayne Christensen took us up to Eaglewood to trick-or-treat. We were driving through a P.U.D. and he told us what it was, and I said we should just call it a pud.
1997--There was a new addition to the sixth-grade Halloween talent show this year, a song about a monster in the tub. Afterward we had library time and Jaydon Bean was quoting "There's something yucky in the tub, mommy," because we all thought it was so funny. I was a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Morgan Smith was a swamp monster. That night I was watching my weekly TGIF which had Halloween-themed episodes that night. The only one I remember was You Wish. One of the props was a plastic eerie scythe, which I was excited about because I had seen several of them at school that day. The episode involved monsters coming to life, and the mummy was defeated by the genie putting a loose end of his wrapping in the garbage disposal and turning it on. He disappeared--apparently there was nothing but wrapping.
1996--I was the Grim Reaper for Halloween. At the costume parade, I remember seeing three people dressed as Santa Claus, one of whom had brought his dog dressed as a reindeer. There was another Grim-reaper, who said, "Beware the scythe!"
1995--I was a mummy for Halloween, so for all of the costume parade, I held my arms out in front of me. I remember at one point we were walking outside the school where there were no people, and I was relieved to be able to put my arms down. That night we were carving our jack-o-lantern. I had no problem at that time with holidays overlapping, so I said I wanted a turkey pumpkin. So our jack-o-lantern was a turkey.
1994--I think the beard to my costume didn't work quite right, so I was a beardless Santa Claus. I showed up to David Christensen's house before school, and his mom had to stop at Winegar's to pick some stuff up. I remember sitting in the parking lot saying it was Smith's. Chantelle corrected me that it was Winegar's. I knew it was Winegar's, but I liked to joke it was Smith's because they had very similar logos--red ovals with white writing. In kindergarten that day we made brown pom-pom spiders (I actually still have mine). We saw the sixth-grade talent show and I thought "Monster Mash" was like the greatest song ever. I went home and it seems like they were rearranging the furniture downstairs. I decided to play the lava game on the furniture, playing with my pom-pom spider and telling my mom all about how much I liked "Monster Mash." [We went to my grandparents' that night. I only remember this because I remember that on the way back, a house in their neighborhood had a jack-o-lantern lampshade in the window. Since that time, I've wanted a jack-o-lantern lampshade.] I have another Halloween-time memory about sitting in a hot car and fanning myself with a paper skull and discovering that fanning yourself doesn't work when you're only surrounded by hot air--this seems like it took place on Halloween, but the details I remember don't all add up.
Earlier Halloweens--The only earlier Halloween memory I can really recall is wearing a ladybug costume and trick-or-treating with my mom. An older kid saw me and said, "A little ladybug!" I talked to my mom about it because I thought he was making fun of me, but she said he wasn't making fun of me. But if this was 1993, then it probably wasn't actually Halloween, because Halloween would have been a Sunday that year.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Cinnamon and blue
I worked a lot this week. On Friday I worked 10 and a half hours--all of it overtime. I'm going to have a pretty nice paycheck. I start work at 7:00 a.m. each day, and I think the earliest I got off this week was 4:30 p.m. The latest was Wednesday, when I got off around 7 or 7:30. Because this is such an awesome job, they got donuts for those of us who stayed so late on Wednesday, and I could actually eat some, since they had fall sprinkles on them and I started the Halloween season on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, my two coworkers who had also stuck around all day and I were stuffing envelopes. When we send off envelopes, we put them in different color totes, depending on the kind of order it is--distribution store and urgent orders in red totes, international orders in blue totes, and normal orders in yellow totes. One of my coworkers, Michelle, went to get a tote. When she came back, she said, "We're sendin' 'em in blue." I misheard her, and thought she said "synonym," but then I realized that didn't make sense, so I determined she must have said "We're cinnamon and blue," cinnamon meaning red. Since many of my coworkers were decked out all week for the rivalry, I thought she was referring to our shirts--she was wearing a red SUU shirt, and I was wearing--wait, I was wearing a black shirt. Then she said, "'Cause I couldn't find any yellow totes." Then I realized she was talking about the totes. I didn't actually see her bring the tote over, so I thought she had a blue one and a red one. After a minute I said, "Why did you say cinnamon instead of red?" She was really confused, and asked if I was talking to her, or the other coworker, Cameron. When I realized what happened, I couldn't stop laughing to explain myself.
The next day, Cameron was on break, drinking a Gatorade. I said to him, "A Gatorade drinker, I see." He replied, "This is actually Gatorade, but it might as well be Hi-C." He thought I had said, "Is that Gatorade or Hi-C?"
I've always had a tendency of mishearing things, which sometimes leads to hilarity.
I'm not into the rivalry, but I can see when people like one school over another. What irks me is when fellow Mormons say, even jokingly, that BYU is the devil's school or that BYU fans are sinners. I don't mind if Mormons like the U more than the Y. But these religious comments make no sense. How can you say them when
On Wednesday evening, my two coworkers who had also stuck around all day and I were stuffing envelopes. When we send off envelopes, we put them in different color totes, depending on the kind of order it is--distribution store and urgent orders in red totes, international orders in blue totes, and normal orders in yellow totes. One of my coworkers, Michelle, went to get a tote. When she came back, she said, "We're sendin' 'em in blue." I misheard her, and thought she said "synonym," but then I realized that didn't make sense, so I determined she must have said "We're cinnamon and blue," cinnamon meaning red. Since many of my coworkers were decked out all week for the rivalry, I thought she was referring to our shirts--she was wearing a red SUU shirt, and I was wearing--wait, I was wearing a black shirt. Then she said, "'Cause I couldn't find any yellow totes." Then I realized she was talking about the totes. I didn't actually see her bring the tote over, so I thought she had a blue one and a red one. After a minute I said, "Why did you say cinnamon instead of red?" She was really confused, and asked if I was talking to her, or the other coworker, Cameron. When I realized what happened, I couldn't stop laughing to explain myself.
The next day, Cameron was on break, drinking a Gatorade. I said to him, "A Gatorade drinker, I see." He replied, "This is actually Gatorade, but it might as well be Hi-C." He thought I had said, "Is that Gatorade or Hi-C?"
I've always had a tendency of mishearing things, which sometimes leads to hilarity.
- My first mission president's wife always sounded like a commercial for Zicam. On one occasion, my companion was telling me he wrote a letter the mission president saying, "I have a cold that Zicam can't fix." When he told me this story, I thought he said, "I have a cold that Zion's Camp can't fix."
- Once at my job at BYU, some of my coworkers were pushing a cart of tables. I asked them where they were taking them. One responded, "To the west annex." I thought she said, "I hate wearing spandex." I thought they had just ignored my question, and I was confused because I didn't see her wearing any spandex. But I didn't want to pry any further by asking any more questions. Later I realized that I heard west as wearing sp, and annex as andex.
- I was riding with my BYU boss on a work vehicle from the ball park to the fieldhouse. He said he had a stump in his truck that he needed to throw away, that we would be getting to take to the dumpster at the ball park. I thought he said he had a skunk.
- Once I was sitting between two girls in my astronomy class and had engaged in a conversation with both of them. One girl asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to be an editor. Then she started telling me about how her sister had done the editing minor, and so on. The second girl said, "Wait, what did you say you wanted to do?" I repeated that I wanted to be an editor. The second girl said, "Oh, I thought you said you wanted to be a janitor!"
- At the end of spring term, I went to a test review for one of my classes, the day before the final. This review made me realize how much I didn't know, so after the review, I said to one of my classmates, "I'm feeling worse about this after coming." She said, "You're feeling worse about the Second Coming?"
I'm not into the rivalry, but I can see when people like one school over another. What irks me is when fellow Mormons say, even jokingly, that BYU is the devil's school or that BYU fans are sinners. I don't mind if Mormons like the U more than the Y. But these religious comments make no sense. How can you say them when
- Book of Mormon, New Testament, and Doctrine and Covenants classes are required at BYU?
- Not only religion classes, but math classes, linguistics classes, and science classes begin with prayers?
- The positive relationship between religion and evolution can be openly discussed, instead of the entirely atheistic views of science?
- THE SAME ORGANIZATION YOU PAY YOUR TITHING TO RUNS THE UNIVERSITY?
Saturday, September 17, 2011
A Spoonful of...Something
On Thursday night, my mom, sister, niece, and I all went to see the touring Broadway production of Mary Poppins. I have often thought they should make Mary Poppins into a stage musical, and then a couple of years ago I found out that they had. Mary Poppins is an amazing movie. Even though it's popular, I still think it's underappreciated.
Most movies are different from their stage counterparts. This play is very different from the movie. The basic premise is the same, but there are some significant changes. Mary Poppins is more conceited. Jane and Michael are brattier. George Banks is more domineering. Winifred Banks takes a more central role and is more subservient--there's no suffragette in her.
George's problems with the bank are not a result of Michael yelling "Give me back my money!" and causing a run on the bank, but they are a result of a seemingly foolish investment that turns out to be the right thing to do.
I thought there was a rather pointless plot element. Toward the end of the first act, Mary Poppins leaves--flying with her umbrella, of course. (I found this method of travel used strangely on stage. When she first arrived, they just showed a small, blue silhouette go across the set, and jumped right to her presence in the Banks' living room. I think this made it a lot less dramatic.) She tells Bert that the children will have to get through this period on their own. Then in the second act, Mrs. Banks finds George's nanny, one Miss Andrew, "the holy terror," and invites her to their home. The kids can't stand her because she is incredibly mean, so they run away. Then they fly a kite with Bert, and their kite catches on the returning Mary Poppins. So Mary takes them back to the house, and sets Miss Andrew's pet lark free. Then she and Miss Andrew get in a big fight--Miss Andrew prefers to discipline with "treacle and brimstone" while Mary Poppins prefers a "spoonful of sugar." Then, at the climax of this argument, a giant cage (like the one that housed the bird) comes out of the closet, and Miss Andrew ends up inside it. Then the closet door closes, and when it is opened again, there is no sign of the cage or Miss Andrew. There was all this fuss about Mary Poppins leaving, but she wasn't gone for very long, and the incident with Miss Andrew didn't do much for the plot.
I didn't think any of the new songs were spectacular. I thought much of the new material was rather gimmicky. For example, there was one song, "Playing the Game," that had all the toys come to life, complaining about being abused by the children. I can just imagine the writers sitting in a meeting--What's something ELSE we can add? How about living toys! And then they made it happen, for no good reason--the song was mediocre, and it contributed nothing to the plot.
I did like new settings of some of the original material. For example, "A Spoonful of Sugar" was set to clean up after a disaster in the kitchen. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was a word the children and Mary Poppins created while visiting an ancient woman who sold conversations, words, and gingerbread stars. And "Feed the Birds" was presented in a context that was actually meaningful.
I did NOT like the new setting for "Jolly Holiday." The whole scene seemed like a big mess to me. What was most offsetting and distracting was the nude statues come to life, in what might be the most diabolically hideous costumes ever to hit the stage. This was still early on in the play, so I was thinking at that point that the musical was a FAIL. But it redeemed itself, for the most part.
The songs they added weren't any better than the ones they took out. George sang a different song when he came home in the beginning--and this song was the same one the (not-so-)elderly bankers sang, instead of the one they sing in the movie. There was no "I Love to Laugh" scene (which honestly could be considered a little gimmicky itself). And one of the most upbeat songs from the movie, "Sister Suffragettes," is sadly missing.
My mom got the tickets for $44 a piece at a discount. They weren't even very good seats. Was the play worth that much? Definitely not. Maybe half that.
And it paled in comparison to the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, you need to see it. Like, right now. Go get in your car and rent it. Actually, you better buy it. You won't regret it.
Most movies are different from their stage counterparts. This play is very different from the movie. The basic premise is the same, but there are some significant changes. Mary Poppins is more conceited. Jane and Michael are brattier. George Banks is more domineering. Winifred Banks takes a more central role and is more subservient--there's no suffragette in her.
George's problems with the bank are not a result of Michael yelling "Give me back my money!" and causing a run on the bank, but they are a result of a seemingly foolish investment that turns out to be the right thing to do.
I thought there was a rather pointless plot element. Toward the end of the first act, Mary Poppins leaves--flying with her umbrella, of course. (I found this method of travel used strangely on stage. When she first arrived, they just showed a small, blue silhouette go across the set, and jumped right to her presence in the Banks' living room. I think this made it a lot less dramatic.) She tells Bert that the children will have to get through this period on their own. Then in the second act, Mrs. Banks finds George's nanny, one Miss Andrew, "the holy terror," and invites her to their home. The kids can't stand her because she is incredibly mean, so they run away. Then they fly a kite with Bert, and their kite catches on the returning Mary Poppins. So Mary takes them back to the house, and sets Miss Andrew's pet lark free. Then she and Miss Andrew get in a big fight--Miss Andrew prefers to discipline with "treacle and brimstone" while Mary Poppins prefers a "spoonful of sugar." Then, at the climax of this argument, a giant cage (like the one that housed the bird) comes out of the closet, and Miss Andrew ends up inside it. Then the closet door closes, and when it is opened again, there is no sign of the cage or Miss Andrew. There was all this fuss about Mary Poppins leaving, but she wasn't gone for very long, and the incident with Miss Andrew didn't do much for the plot.
I didn't think any of the new songs were spectacular. I thought much of the new material was rather gimmicky. For example, there was one song, "Playing the Game," that had all the toys come to life, complaining about being abused by the children. I can just imagine the writers sitting in a meeting--What's something ELSE we can add? How about living toys! And then they made it happen, for no good reason--the song was mediocre, and it contributed nothing to the plot.
I did like new settings of some of the original material. For example, "A Spoonful of Sugar" was set to clean up after a disaster in the kitchen. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was a word the children and Mary Poppins created while visiting an ancient woman who sold conversations, words, and gingerbread stars. And "Feed the Birds" was presented in a context that was actually meaningful.
I did NOT like the new setting for "Jolly Holiday." The whole scene seemed like a big mess to me. What was most offsetting and distracting was the nude statues come to life, in what might be the most diabolically hideous costumes ever to hit the stage. This was still early on in the play, so I was thinking at that point that the musical was a FAIL. But it redeemed itself, for the most part.
The songs they added weren't any better than the ones they took out. George sang a different song when he came home in the beginning--and this song was the same one the (not-so-)elderly bankers sang, instead of the one they sing in the movie. There was no "I Love to Laugh" scene (which honestly could be considered a little gimmicky itself). And one of the most upbeat songs from the movie, "Sister Suffragettes," is sadly missing.
My mom got the tickets for $44 a piece at a discount. They weren't even very good seats. Was the play worth that much? Definitely not. Maybe half that.
And it paled in comparison to the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, you need to see it. Like, right now. Go get in your car and rent it. Actually, you better buy it. You won't regret it.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Every time we see the 11 in 9/11, we see two Towers.
There's a lot I could write about this week, having gone to This Is the Place park and having fed the missionaries on Labor Day, working long hours, and going camping in Fillmore this weekend.
But with church, a CES fireside, my grandparents visiting for fresh peach pie, and having to be at work at 7:00 tomorrow morning, I don't have time.
However, Labor Days, missionaries, historical sites, Fillmore Canyon, cemeteries, and long work hours come and go. But ten-year anniversaries don't, and I think I'd forever regret it if I didn't say something about 9/11.
I found my old journal for my entry of September 11, 2001. I rarely wrote in my journal then; my previous entry was March 17, 00, and my next entry was Sunday, January 6, 2002. (Which makes me realize I need to start writing in my current journal again.) Anyway, I knew it would be a significant day, so I wrote on that day. (I was really bad about spaces. I'll type my entry as it appears, except that I'll put in spaces. I knew where they belonged. You just couldn't tell that I put them there.)
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001
Today was the "second Pearl Harbor". Terrorists, most likely from th Middle East, got on a plane, killed the crew, and crashed into a World Trading Center tower. Several others were smashed into, and so was part of the pentagon. In the Middle East people were cheering.
I was not quite thirteen, early on in my seventh grade school year. I don't remember what my first two periods were (gym and Spanish?), but my third period was pre-algebra with Mrs. Sorensen. Mrs. Sorensen also taught eighth-grade U.S. history, so we talked about what was going on. That was the first I had heard of it. That was still early on, so there were all the rumors flying around; one girl kept insisting a high school had also been bombed. My fourth period science teacher, Mr. Brower, just turned on the news. That's all we did all period. I think I was walking home from the bus stop, and some neighbors, the Craigs, picked me up and took me home and asked if I had heard what happened. Of course I had. I think I was the first one home, so I opened up the Deseret News (it was still an afternoon paper then) and saw the headline "AMERICA UNDER ATTACK!" with the picture of the smoking towers.
I don't remember what I felt then. This week, there have been lots of stories about people who lost family members in it. These stories are so heart-wrenching. I feel so fortunate and blessed that I haven't had to go through any of that. I even feel guilty--why should I be spared when others have to go through such hard times? I know that's ridiculous, but that's how I feel.
I remember that all the major news stations showed nothing but news for at least three days straight. Which meant I couldn't watch The Simpsons.
I remember there was a sudden increase in patriotism. Suddenly people had red, white, and blue decorations up all the time. There were flag-colored Christmas lights. There were patriotic candies--red, white, and blue M&Ms, star-shaped Peeps with red and blue pieces, and others. Many of these candies continued to be made for the Fourth of July for years after, but most are no longer made. I was even more OCD then than I am now, and I had strange rules that if I saw a holiday decoration up before I started the holiday season, I would bump up the day I started. There were so many patriotic decorations that in 2002 I decorated for the Fourth of July in early April. (For 2003 I realized that was excessive and waited until Memorial Day, which I've done ever since--plus I don't go by that silly rule anymore.)
My brother David was on his mission in Taiwan. When we finally got his letter (this was before missionary email), he said he had heard about it. But I remember after he got home he finally got to see the footage, and it wasn't what he had expected (in a bad way).
Now, Osama is dead. We still have a long way for Islam to be welcomed, but I think it's better than it was. I'd like to think we're on our way to world peace. But that, of course, would be the biggest case of denial ever.
Why can't everyone just play nice?
But with church, a CES fireside, my grandparents visiting for fresh peach pie, and having to be at work at 7:00 tomorrow morning, I don't have time.
However, Labor Days, missionaries, historical sites, Fillmore Canyon, cemeteries, and long work hours come and go. But ten-year anniversaries don't, and I think I'd forever regret it if I didn't say something about 9/11.
I found my old journal for my entry of September 11, 2001. I rarely wrote in my journal then; my previous entry was March 17, 00, and my next entry was Sunday, January 6, 2002. (Which makes me realize I need to start writing in my current journal again.) Anyway, I knew it would be a significant day, so I wrote on that day. (I was really bad about spaces. I'll type my entry as it appears, except that I'll put in spaces. I knew where they belonged. You just couldn't tell that I put them there.)
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001
Today was the "second Pearl Harbor". Terrorists, most likely from th Middle East, got on a plane, killed the crew, and crashed into a World Trading Center tower. Several others were smashed into, and so was part of the pentagon. In the Middle East people were cheering.
I was not quite thirteen, early on in my seventh grade school year. I don't remember what my first two periods were (gym and Spanish?), but my third period was pre-algebra with Mrs. Sorensen. Mrs. Sorensen also taught eighth-grade U.S. history, so we talked about what was going on. That was the first I had heard of it. That was still early on, so there were all the rumors flying around; one girl kept insisting a high school had also been bombed. My fourth period science teacher, Mr. Brower, just turned on the news. That's all we did all period. I think I was walking home from the bus stop, and some neighbors, the Craigs, picked me up and took me home and asked if I had heard what happened. Of course I had. I think I was the first one home, so I opened up the Deseret News (it was still an afternoon paper then) and saw the headline "AMERICA UNDER ATTACK!" with the picture of the smoking towers.
I don't remember what I felt then. This week, there have been lots of stories about people who lost family members in it. These stories are so heart-wrenching. I feel so fortunate and blessed that I haven't had to go through any of that. I even feel guilty--why should I be spared when others have to go through such hard times? I know that's ridiculous, but that's how I feel.
I remember that all the major news stations showed nothing but news for at least three days straight. Which meant I couldn't watch The Simpsons.
I remember there was a sudden increase in patriotism. Suddenly people had red, white, and blue decorations up all the time. There were flag-colored Christmas lights. There were patriotic candies--red, white, and blue M&Ms, star-shaped Peeps with red and blue pieces, and others. Many of these candies continued to be made for the Fourth of July for years after, but most are no longer made. I was even more OCD then than I am now, and I had strange rules that if I saw a holiday decoration up before I started the holiday season, I would bump up the day I started. There were so many patriotic decorations that in 2002 I decorated for the Fourth of July in early April. (For 2003 I realized that was excessive and waited until Memorial Day, which I've done ever since--plus I don't go by that silly rule anymore.)
My brother David was on his mission in Taiwan. When we finally got his letter (this was before missionary email), he said he had heard about it. But I remember after he got home he finally got to see the footage, and it wasn't what he had expected (in a bad way).
Now, Osama is dead. We still have a long way for Islam to be welcomed, but I think it's better than it was. I'd like to think we're on our way to world peace. But that, of course, would be the biggest case of denial ever.
Why can't everyone just play nice?
Sunday, September 4, 2011
What's New?
It seems a lot of new things occurred this week.
- I'm most excited for a new month. I always have this perception that once September arrives, everything will be better. I'm always disappointed come September 1, but a lot of good stuff does come in September. On the 15th, I officially get to start thinking about Halloween (yes, that is a mite early, and yes, it is completely arbitrary), and on the 29th, I turn 23. This month we also have the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and we also get 9/10/11. This month also starts fall. I believe that meteorological fall started on the first--which is also how I count it--but astronomical fall starts in a few weeks. I love fall, changing leaves, and cooler temperatures.
- I have several new coworkers. On Thursday we had a meeting, and they told us that they're hiring fifteen new people in the next month! It sounds like there will be a lot more people this year than there were last year for Annual Curriculum. Which means I won't have to stay so late :) but I also won't get as much money :( .
- My last post mentioned lovestrong., my new Christina Perri CD.
- Yesterday I bought new running shoes. I bought some in March and I can tell they're wearing out. I got two pairs for $93 at Famous Footwear. I think Famous is like Kohl's--expensive as it is, but they give you a lot of good deals. One pair is just like the pair I already have (except orange and black instead of green and grey) and the other one is a different kind--the cashier said her husband loves them. I'm excited to go running this week; I only got two full runs in this past week. I tried for a third day but I started coughing up acid reflux, which has never happened to me before while running.
Friday, September 2, 2011
I turn my music up
This week I have been listening to a new album I bought this week. After hearing Christina Perri's songs "Jar of Hearts" and "Arms" on the radio, I decided to buy her CD, lovestrong. It's pleasant enough, although I have the feeling that it's one of those albums that if I listen to it too much, I will get bored with it.
I added the songs on the CD (minus the first one, which has some mildly objectionable words in it) to my Windows Media Player playlist, "All (listenable) music." My favorite way to listen to music is on shuffle--the more variety the better. I have a lot of holiday music on my computer, and I don't like listening to it out of season (in part because that dilutes the seasonal feeling). So I made the playlist so that I can easily move holiday music in and out. It also allows me more control to take out music I don't like hearing in a shuffle setting.
So what is in my playlist? I will tell you, according to how many songs of the various musicians I have. (Please note that there is some discrepancy between what music I would like to have, and what I actually have.) This is how it stands at this moment, but it changes periodically.
Cherie Call, 64 songs. I wrote a blog post about Cherie Call last month. I have all seven of her albums but I only listen to six of them because one is a Christmas album. Her first album isn't very good, but I listen to it anyway.
Vince Guaraldi, 42 songs. Since fifth grade, I have loved the Peanuts franchise. Not only do you get the comic-strip brilliance of Charles Schulz, you get the jazzy genius of Vince Guaraldi, who did the music for fifteen Charlie Brown specials from A Charlie Brown Christmas to It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, as well as the feature length film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I believe that I have every available musical cue from the specials. What I like about this is that it gives me a lot of holiday music; I'm pretty sure I have all but two musical pieces from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. But of course I don't listen to that when it's not in season.
Coldplay, 39 songs. I hadn't (knowingly) heard of Coldplay until my birthday in 2007, one day short of two months before I left on my mission. My sister got me their premiere album Parachutes. I liked it, but I did find it a little bland at times. I associate this album with that time. Early tracks like "Don't Panic" and "Spies" make me think of driving home from Walmart on October evenings, while the final track, "Everything's Not Lost," makes me think of November days when I was scared out of my mind to leave. These feelings are being diluted the more I listen to the songs, but they still come up.
On my mission, once I was with another companionship (long story there) and my companion and another elder were changing the CD in the car. For the brief moment between CDs, the radio came on, and the song happened to be "Viva la Vida," right at the line "my missionaries in a foreign field." I had never heard the song before, so I said, "Did that just say missionaries!?" When I came home, I remembered that incident when I heard the song on the radio. I really liked it, so last New Year's Eve I bought the Viva la Vida album, which also came with a bonus EP Prospekt's March (sort of a sequel album). I really like this album, much more than Parachutes. In July I was in an FYE (For Your Entertainment) store in Orem, just to browse, but there was a sale of "buy one used item, get one used item half off." I found a Vince Guaraldi CD that I was unlikely to get elsewhere, so I also decided to buy the Coldplay album A Rush of Blood to the Head. I like that one too--more than Parachutes but less than Viva la Vida. I really like their new single "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," so I think I might get their new album when it comes out in October.
The Beatles, 25 songs. I got the 1 album my sophomore year of high school. It's pretty much the soundtrack of those awkward three years. My senior year I got the LOVE album for Christmas. I had both of these in my playlist but I removed LOVE because I was getting Beatled out and because it's not meant for listening to on shuffle. Interesting that both of these aren't actually original Beatles albums.
Michelle Tumes, 25 songs. She is an Australian Christian singer. A popular song among missionaries is "Healing Waters," and Michelle Tumes's album Listen floats around as a million burned copies. Once my companion and I were in a Christian bookstore, and I ended up buying The Very Best of Michelle Tumes. Most of my companions liked it like I did, although there were a few songs that were a little raucous for missionaries, but I can listen to them now. When I went back up last year, I decided to buy Listen. But Amazon didn't have it, and their sellers that were selling it new had it at ridiculously high prices. So I had to get it used. This made me realize that despite her popularity among Mormon missionaries, she's not that popular. Which is sad because she's a good singer.
Owl City, 24 songs. I first heard "Fireflies" on the way home from a fossil excavation last summer. The girl I was riding with had lots of songs on her iPod. I instantly fell in love with it and got excited whenever I heard it after that. It took me a while to find out who sang it, but I was content when I found out. In February this year, I bought Ocean Eyes and really liked it.
One day this past spring, I was thinking about modern music and musicians--Katy Perry's Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top, Bruno Mars's immoral lazy days, and such--and comparing them with Owl City, who lists "God," "optimism," and "G-rated movies" under his interests. I thought, "This is the kind of musician we should support." So I preordered his latest album, All Things Bright and Beautiful. It arrived the last day of spring classes, and I listened to it on my way home for that weekend before summer semester. I like it even more than Ocean Eyes. I don't understand it--I like all of his songs, yet "Fireflies" is the only one I've ever heard on the radio (excluding Pandora), although I've heard "Vanilla Twilight" in the grocery store and "Alligator Sky" in Kohl's.
The Monkees, 24 songs. I got a Monkees CD in my stocking on Christmas morning in 2004. I thought, "Why on Earth did Santa get me this?" but I listened to it and was pleasantly surprised. For my birthday in 2005 I got The Best of the Monkees which is what resides in my playlist, minus the theme song, which is just terrible. When Media Play closed down that year I bought their first album, which is just full of 1960s rock-and-roll cheesiness.
When I came home from my mission, after a week or two I was excited to listen to the music I'd missed the last two years. So I put on my Best of the Monkees--and was surprised. I couldn't believe I liked them so much in high school! Now I find them best in small doses.
Taylor Swift, 14 songs. Last Christmas I threw around a bunch of artists that my parents could get me for a gift. I think Taylor was the only one my mom heard of or remembered. I like her, but I honestly don't understand why she's so wildly popular. I don't think she's really contributed much that's unique to the music world, except for bridging the gap between country and pop music, and Lady Antebellum and some others have also done that.
I would like her more if she didn't have such a one-track mind. All of her songs have a very teenage-girl feel to them. I realize she started out as a teenage girl--but that's no excuse for her now!
Jarrett Burns, 12 songs. Jarrett Burns is or was a BYU student. I had a musician roommate who was playing in a friend's band at his EP release concert, and Jarrett Burns also performed. (This was at the Sammy's restaurant in Provo.) I'd been home from my mission six months, and I thought Jarrett Burns was good enough to be on the radio. Now that I've actually listened to the radio, I'm not sure I totally think he's as good as I originally thought, but I still think some songs are great and he has great potential as an artist.
Christina Perri, 11 songs. I had seen her album--plenty of copies--at the Target in Orem, but when I went back a few weeks later, I didn't see it anymore. I bought it at Smith's Marketplace last week, and when I put it on my computer, the info Windows Media Player found said the genre was folk. Maybe that's why I couldn't find it at Target--I was looking in the pop section. Then I played "Arms" for my mom, and saying how much I liked her sound. She said, "She sounds like a folk singer." I never would have made the connection, although many of her songs do remind me a little bit of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Briana McCurdy, 10 songs. She was a girl in my ward this past school year. She graduated from BYU last year in media music, and I home taught her. She put out an album this spring, so to be a supportive home teacher, I bought it. I think she has potential.
Danny Elfman (Corpse Bride soundtrack), 5 songs. I think Corpse Bride has some of the most beautiful background music ever. I had the whole soundtrack in my playlist, but I felt like it didn't really fit in that setting, so I took out everything but "Victor's Piano Solo" and the four jazz bonus tracks.
Lady Gaga, 2 songs. One Saturday morning in February, I was driving on I-15 to come home for the weekend, listening to the radio. The commercial break had just ended, so I was surprised when another commercial came on so soon. "It doesn't matter if you love him," it said, "or capital H-I-M." Shortly I realized it wasn't a commercial, but a song. A very strange song. Did she just say, "You're Lebanese, you're Orient"? When the My 99.5 voice said, "Born This Way. Lady Gaga," I thought, "That explains why it was so weird." The more I heard this song, the more it got stuck in my head. I think it's been stuck in my head ever since March. The more it was stuck in my head, the more I realized I kind of liked it. So I finally gave in and paid for my first ever download (all other downloads had been free). I might not agree 100% with all the lyrics, but I like the overall theme--"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are." My second download ever that I paid for was "The Edge of Glory." But I would never buy a Lady Gaga album. I think she's one of the most talented contemporary musicians, so why does she have to spoil her talent by singing inappropriate things?
Jessie Clark, 2 songs. Jessie Clark now goes by Jessie Clark Funk, but the album I bought, Clay in His Hands, was before she was married. I bought it at the Families Forever Bookstore in Lewiston, Idaho. I associate it with summer afternoon drives between Lewiston and Lapwai, the Indian reservation, although these feelings have been diluted. I had all of the tracks in my playlist, but I have reduced it to just the first two, "New Jerusalem" and "Clay in His Hands."
John Mayer, 1 song. Following some Amazon purchases last year, I got three free downloads. When I decided to redeem the downloads, it was Valentine's Day night, so I was excited when I found a song called "St. Patrick's Day." It isn't actually a St. Patrick's Day song (which means I keep it in my playlist year round), but it is holiday-related, which is my kind of thing. Do I like John Mayer? Well, I know he sings some less-than-appropriate things ("Your Body is a Wonderland"), and yet his music is really mild and laid back. There are lots of musicians like that. Why would I pick a dirty mild musician over a clean one?
Nik Day, 1 song. Nik Day was my roommate's friend who was releasing his EP at the concert mentioned with Jarrett Burns. I bought his CD to be polite--after all, it was his show. I had all five songs on my playlist, but there were four I just couldn't stand, so they got the boot.
"Various Artists," 1 song. When I got a Vince Guaraldi CD from Amazon this year, I got a free download. I really like the hymns in the hymnbook (I could write an entire post just about hymns) and I like to get to know them. The Church has made CDs and MP3s of recordings of all 341 of them, but they are horrible. Like, I really don't know how they could possibly make them so bad. They should have just had the MoTab sing. Then they would be good. Anyway, I would like to find legitimate recordings of all the hymns, so I got hymn #3, "Now Let Us Rejoice" from the Home Teachers soundtrack. But my hymn recording goal won't get very far--I can't find a single, solitary recording of hymn #4, "Truth Eternal," except for the abysmal Church-sanctioned recording.
Michael Franti, 1 song. I first heard "Say Hey (I Love You)" on that same post-fossil-excavation ride mentioned above. I have heard it other times on the radio and on Pandora. Strangely, one of my strongest memories of hearing it is traipsing around Salt Lake last October on a day I had three job interviews, one of which I ended up getting (and is the one I have now). When I ordered Owl City's All Things Bright and Beautiful on Amazon, I got another free download, and this was the winner.
I'm always up for new suggestions on good music!
I added the songs on the CD (minus the first one, which has some mildly objectionable words in it) to my Windows Media Player playlist, "All (listenable) music." My favorite way to listen to music is on shuffle--the more variety the better. I have a lot of holiday music on my computer, and I don't like listening to it out of season (in part because that dilutes the seasonal feeling). So I made the playlist so that I can easily move holiday music in and out. It also allows me more control to take out music I don't like hearing in a shuffle setting.
So what is in my playlist? I will tell you, according to how many songs of the various musicians I have. (Please note that there is some discrepancy between what music I would like to have, and what I actually have.) This is how it stands at this moment, but it changes periodically.
Cherie Call, 64 songs. I wrote a blog post about Cherie Call last month. I have all seven of her albums but I only listen to six of them because one is a Christmas album. Her first album isn't very good, but I listen to it anyway.
Vince Guaraldi, 42 songs. Since fifth grade, I have loved the Peanuts franchise. Not only do you get the comic-strip brilliance of Charles Schulz, you get the jazzy genius of Vince Guaraldi, who did the music for fifteen Charlie Brown specials from A Charlie Brown Christmas to It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, as well as the feature length film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I believe that I have every available musical cue from the specials. What I like about this is that it gives me a lot of holiday music; I'm pretty sure I have all but two musical pieces from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. But of course I don't listen to that when it's not in season.
Coldplay, 39 songs. I hadn't (knowingly) heard of Coldplay until my birthday in 2007, one day short of two months before I left on my mission. My sister got me their premiere album Parachutes. I liked it, but I did find it a little bland at times. I associate this album with that time. Early tracks like "Don't Panic" and "Spies" make me think of driving home from Walmart on October evenings, while the final track, "Everything's Not Lost," makes me think of November days when I was scared out of my mind to leave. These feelings are being diluted the more I listen to the songs, but they still come up.
On my mission, once I was with another companionship (long story there) and my companion and another elder were changing the CD in the car. For the brief moment between CDs, the radio came on, and the song happened to be "Viva la Vida," right at the line "my missionaries in a foreign field." I had never heard the song before, so I said, "Did that just say missionaries!?" When I came home, I remembered that incident when I heard the song on the radio. I really liked it, so last New Year's Eve I bought the Viva la Vida album, which also came with a bonus EP Prospekt's March (sort of a sequel album). I really like this album, much more than Parachutes. In July I was in an FYE (For Your Entertainment) store in Orem, just to browse, but there was a sale of "buy one used item, get one used item half off." I found a Vince Guaraldi CD that I was unlikely to get elsewhere, so I also decided to buy the Coldplay album A Rush of Blood to the Head. I like that one too--more than Parachutes but less than Viva la Vida. I really like their new single "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," so I think I might get their new album when it comes out in October.
The Beatles, 25 songs. I got the 1 album my sophomore year of high school. It's pretty much the soundtrack of those awkward three years. My senior year I got the LOVE album for Christmas. I had both of these in my playlist but I removed LOVE because I was getting Beatled out and because it's not meant for listening to on shuffle. Interesting that both of these aren't actually original Beatles albums.
Michelle Tumes, 25 songs. She is an Australian Christian singer. A popular song among missionaries is "Healing Waters," and Michelle Tumes's album Listen floats around as a million burned copies. Once my companion and I were in a Christian bookstore, and I ended up buying The Very Best of Michelle Tumes. Most of my companions liked it like I did, although there were a few songs that were a little raucous for missionaries, but I can listen to them now. When I went back up last year, I decided to buy Listen. But Amazon didn't have it, and their sellers that were selling it new had it at ridiculously high prices. So I had to get it used. This made me realize that despite her popularity among Mormon missionaries, she's not that popular. Which is sad because she's a good singer.
Owl City, 24 songs. I first heard "Fireflies" on the way home from a fossil excavation last summer. The girl I was riding with had lots of songs on her iPod. I instantly fell in love with it and got excited whenever I heard it after that. It took me a while to find out who sang it, but I was content when I found out. In February this year, I bought Ocean Eyes and really liked it.
One day this past spring, I was thinking about modern music and musicians--Katy Perry's Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top, Bruno Mars's immoral lazy days, and such--and comparing them with Owl City, who lists "God," "optimism," and "G-rated movies" under his interests. I thought, "This is the kind of musician we should support." So I preordered his latest album, All Things Bright and Beautiful. It arrived the last day of spring classes, and I listened to it on my way home for that weekend before summer semester. I like it even more than Ocean Eyes. I don't understand it--I like all of his songs, yet "Fireflies" is the only one I've ever heard on the radio (excluding Pandora), although I've heard "Vanilla Twilight" in the grocery store and "Alligator Sky" in Kohl's.
The Monkees, 24 songs. I got a Monkees CD in my stocking on Christmas morning in 2004. I thought, "Why on Earth did Santa get me this?" but I listened to it and was pleasantly surprised. For my birthday in 2005 I got The Best of the Monkees which is what resides in my playlist, minus the theme song, which is just terrible. When Media Play closed down that year I bought their first album, which is just full of 1960s rock-and-roll cheesiness.
When I came home from my mission, after a week or two I was excited to listen to the music I'd missed the last two years. So I put on my Best of the Monkees--and was surprised. I couldn't believe I liked them so much in high school! Now I find them best in small doses.
Taylor Swift, 14 songs. Last Christmas I threw around a bunch of artists that my parents could get me for a gift. I think Taylor was the only one my mom heard of or remembered. I like her, but I honestly don't understand why she's so wildly popular. I don't think she's really contributed much that's unique to the music world, except for bridging the gap between country and pop music, and Lady Antebellum and some others have also done that.
I would like her more if she didn't have such a one-track mind. All of her songs have a very teenage-girl feel to them. I realize she started out as a teenage girl--but that's no excuse for her now!
Jarrett Burns, 12 songs. Jarrett Burns is or was a BYU student. I had a musician roommate who was playing in a friend's band at his EP release concert, and Jarrett Burns also performed. (This was at the Sammy's restaurant in Provo.) I'd been home from my mission six months, and I thought Jarrett Burns was good enough to be on the radio. Now that I've actually listened to the radio, I'm not sure I totally think he's as good as I originally thought, but I still think some songs are great and he has great potential as an artist.
Christina Perri, 11 songs. I had seen her album--plenty of copies--at the Target in Orem, but when I went back a few weeks later, I didn't see it anymore. I bought it at Smith's Marketplace last week, and when I put it on my computer, the info Windows Media Player found said the genre was folk. Maybe that's why I couldn't find it at Target--I was looking in the pop section. Then I played "Arms" for my mom, and saying how much I liked her sound. She said, "She sounds like a folk singer." I never would have made the connection, although many of her songs do remind me a little bit of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Briana McCurdy, 10 songs. She was a girl in my ward this past school year. She graduated from BYU last year in media music, and I home taught her. She put out an album this spring, so to be a supportive home teacher, I bought it. I think she has potential.
Danny Elfman (Corpse Bride soundtrack), 5 songs. I think Corpse Bride has some of the most beautiful background music ever. I had the whole soundtrack in my playlist, but I felt like it didn't really fit in that setting, so I took out everything but "Victor's Piano Solo" and the four jazz bonus tracks.
Lady Gaga, 2 songs. One Saturday morning in February, I was driving on I-15 to come home for the weekend, listening to the radio. The commercial break had just ended, so I was surprised when another commercial came on so soon. "It doesn't matter if you love him," it said, "or capital H-I-M." Shortly I realized it wasn't a commercial, but a song. A very strange song. Did she just say, "You're Lebanese, you're Orient"? When the My 99.5 voice said, "Born This Way. Lady Gaga," I thought, "That explains why it was so weird." The more I heard this song, the more it got stuck in my head. I think it's been stuck in my head ever since March. The more it was stuck in my head, the more I realized I kind of liked it. So I finally gave in and paid for my first ever download (all other downloads had been free). I might not agree 100% with all the lyrics, but I like the overall theme--"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are." My second download ever that I paid for was "The Edge of Glory." But I would never buy a Lady Gaga album. I think she's one of the most talented contemporary musicians, so why does she have to spoil her talent by singing inappropriate things?
Jessie Clark, 2 songs. Jessie Clark now goes by Jessie Clark Funk, but the album I bought, Clay in His Hands, was before she was married. I bought it at the Families Forever Bookstore in Lewiston, Idaho. I associate it with summer afternoon drives between Lewiston and Lapwai, the Indian reservation, although these feelings have been diluted. I had all of the tracks in my playlist, but I have reduced it to just the first two, "New Jerusalem" and "Clay in His Hands."
John Mayer, 1 song. Following some Amazon purchases last year, I got three free downloads. When I decided to redeem the downloads, it was Valentine's Day night, so I was excited when I found a song called "St. Patrick's Day." It isn't actually a St. Patrick's Day song (which means I keep it in my playlist year round), but it is holiday-related, which is my kind of thing. Do I like John Mayer? Well, I know he sings some less-than-appropriate things ("Your Body is a Wonderland"), and yet his music is really mild and laid back. There are lots of musicians like that. Why would I pick a dirty mild musician over a clean one?
Nik Day, 1 song. Nik Day was my roommate's friend who was releasing his EP at the concert mentioned with Jarrett Burns. I bought his CD to be polite--after all, it was his show. I had all five songs on my playlist, but there were four I just couldn't stand, so they got the boot.
"Various Artists," 1 song. When I got a Vince Guaraldi CD from Amazon this year, I got a free download. I really like the hymns in the hymnbook (I could write an entire post just about hymns) and I like to get to know them. The Church has made CDs and MP3s of recordings of all 341 of them, but they are horrible. Like, I really don't know how they could possibly make them so bad. They should have just had the MoTab sing. Then they would be good. Anyway, I would like to find legitimate recordings of all the hymns, so I got hymn #3, "Now Let Us Rejoice" from the Home Teachers soundtrack. But my hymn recording goal won't get very far--I can't find a single, solitary recording of hymn #4, "Truth Eternal," except for the abysmal Church-sanctioned recording.
Michael Franti, 1 song. I first heard "Say Hey (I Love You)" on that same post-fossil-excavation ride mentioned above. I have heard it other times on the radio and on Pandora. Strangely, one of my strongest memories of hearing it is traipsing around Salt Lake last October on a day I had three job interviews, one of which I ended up getting (and is the one I have now). When I ordered Owl City's All Things Bright and Beautiful on Amazon, I got another free download, and this was the winner.
I'm always up for new suggestions on good music!
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