MissMeliss | July 12, 2010
I’ve been listening to a lot of John Boutte’ lately, partly because I just like his music, but also because his vocals have this really warm, earthy quality that wraps around my brain and makes me smile, even when I’m feeling kind of bitchy and anti-social. While he does write and perform a lot of [...]
MissMeliss | June 3, 2010
I finally ran out of DVR’d episodes of Treme to watch – I actually had to resort to On Demand for the last couple, because our DVR chose not to catch a couple of episodes – and, looking for something new, found another HBO series, MasterClass. If the title doesn’t make it obvious, it’s a [...]
MissMeliss | April 19, 2010
I’ve seen the original cast of RENT, and of course I saw the movie, but when HBO ran the video of the cast that closed the show in 2008, I was hooked on THAT cast. Maybe because it was a new cast, and they hadn’t lived those characters, but were able to approach them purely [...]
MissMeliss | April 13, 2010
I’ve never been to New Orleans. It’s one of the things I want to do before we move to Southern Florida. From DFW, it’s not that expensive to fly there…and I’m sure I would love it. It’s one of those places that really does live in one’s imagination as much as it lives on the [...]
MissMeliss | April 5, 2010
I haven’t done a “Musical Monday” in a while, but my friend Deb pointed out this video from Laura Bell Bundy, whose work I was initially introduced to when she originated the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: the Musical. I’m not a particular fan of country, but she’s such an effervescent performer, and [...]
MissMeliss | October 30, 2009
Years ago, I was flipping channels late one Halloween night. Or maybe it was New Year’s Eve. But I think it was Halloween. Anyway, I found a Penn & Teller performance, broadcast from Vegas, and their musical guests were the very cool a capella group Rockapella, whom people a bit younger than me (because I’m [...]
MissMeliss | October 30, 2009
As part of my personal Robert Englund film festival, and because I like good horror no matter who is in it, I’ve been watching the web series Fear Clinic this week. It’s about a creepy doctor/mad scientist type, Dr. Andover (Englund) who runs a clinic where people with extreme phobias are forced to confront their [...]
MissMeliss | October 29, 2009
Despite the fact that I felt like I’d been to see about Orange NJ dental implants and had dental surgery without novocain, I forced myself to go to choir practice tonight, and I’m glad I did, because one of the songs we’re working on is Harry Belafonte’s “Turn the World Around.” I’m not going to [...]
MissMeliss | October 24, 2009
I’m tutoring a friend’s son in English Lit this year, which has meant re-reading a bunch of classics, and not-so-classic books too, with a more analytical intention than I generally use when devouring fiction. It’s been good. Inspiring, even. We began with Poe, because if anyone can get you excited about language it’s Old Edgar, [...]
MissMeliss | September 18, 2009
Dear Readers, My mother is trying to sell her house in Mexico – that’s it in the video above. If you could all please visit the video, rate it, and leave a comment so we can drive traffic to it, I would love you forever. Well, I’ll love most of you forever, anyway. But it’s [...]
The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish.
— , Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers
