Streetcorner Symphony

I can't get this "Streetcorner Symphony" song out of my head, and I actually don't want to get rid of it. I think it really captures the moment right now, or at least how I feel about it (more to come later). This is not just an election, it's a movement:

It's morning

I wake up

The taste of summer sweetness on my mind

It's a clear day

In this city

Let's go dance under the street lights

All the people in this world

Let's come together

More than ever

I can feel it

Can you feel it?

Come on over

Down to the corner

My sisters and my brothers of every different color

Can't you feel that sunshine telling you to hold tight

Things will be alright

Try to find a better life

Come on over, down to the corner

My sisters and my brothers there for one another

Come on over

Man I know you wanna let yourself go

Some people

It's a pity

They go all their lives and never know

How to love or to let love go

But it's alright now

We'll make it through this somehow

And we'll paint the perfect picture

All the colors of this world will run together more than ever

I can feel it

Can you feel it?

We may never find our reason to shine

But here and now this is our time

And I may never find the meaning of life

But for this moment I am fine

Good news, bad news

I have been sort of hooked on CNN lately, mostly because the election is almost here, but also partially because I think Anderson Cooper is adorable. Yeah, leave it to me to have a bit of a crush on a news reporter. I kind of forgot about it until recently, but I have liked him since I saw his coverage of the tsunami (2004). (More people jumped on the Cooper bandwagon after Katrina in 2005.) In the midst of those disasters, he seemed to have an intriguing mix of adventure, ruggedness and sensitivity. His studio news coverage is intelligent and thoughtful, sometimes humorous. Give that man a musical instrument and a healthy appreciation of the arts, and you basically have my ideal. Of course, I'm pretty sure he's gay (those are the rumors). Well, that figures. *sigh*

Happy Halloween!

Last year, I missed most of October and some of November because I was basically chained to my desk. It recently occured to me that this is the beginning of what I would call "toolkit season" for Kraft. Toolkits stole my soul for a month or two at a time, mostly from about mid-October to February. They are monster projects with hundreds of moving parts and seemingly impossible deadlines, and I was the project manager on all of them for our team. When we accepted the first toolkit project, no one really knew what they were, but by the end, the interactive department and I had streamlined the process. We put together a thorough process packet for the next toolkit team, because I didn't want future teams to go through the hell that I did (I guess sometimes I'm too nice). Maybe by now the leader of the group in Chicago has figured out that sr. art directors and creative directors typically manage those projects on other teams, not junior art directors. Good riddance. Mwahahaaa. (Actually, that experience could get me a job as a junior interactive project manager....)

Anyway, this year I have been trying to take advantage of my freedom to celebrate Halloween, since I kind of missed out on the ghost stories, scary movies, costumes, caramel apples, and candy last year. Chicago inspired my old school gangster/mobster costume for this year. The movie (which I love) was on tv a few times in early October, and it reminded me that I still had a costume from a dance that I did to "All That Jazz." I just added a skirt, fishnets, fedora, machine gun, and cigar! I've worn it a few times already, and it's pretty fun. [EDIT: I can legitimately call myself "Sharky" with this costume!! It can be like my alter ego. Thanks for the reminder, Eddie. ;)]

Halloween has been more of a month than a day this year. I'm going to hand out candy (the kids are so cute in their costumes!) and go to a house party on Halloween, and then I guess it will be over. I'm just hoping for a Hitchcock marathon sometime soon. Oh, and of course, it's not Halloween without (Indian) Thriller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbvP7dT3Dx0?! LOL. Happy Halloween!

McCain accepts the dance-off challenge!

Presidential Dance Off - The best home videos are here

It's raining men

I thought of another addition to my mix cd: "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls.

The forecast has been partly cloudy with a chance of...men for a while now, and lately I have been leaving my umbrella at home. :-P I'm not really sure how I feel about it, actually. I am meeting more prospects (not just some guy somewhere, but actual possibilities) than I did when I had a job, though, which is kind of weird. I mean, I'm not exactly at the top of my game right now. Maybe just the fact that I'm open to talking to these guys more than once has made the difference, but I am still treading lightly. I'm truly taking everything day by day, doing whatever I want, and my goal is just to have fun...while I still look for a job. I rarely even spend an evening at home these days. "You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future" is my new motto. It seems to be working out pretty well. Stay tuned...

Presidential dance-off?!?!

Election day is less than 2 weeks away and things are heating up. Let's all take a breather and smile for a minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHXSRZQfOWc. Oh no he didn't. That sounds like a challenge, McCain, and everyone knows that a dance-off is the only universally accepted way to settle conflicts...How did this not even occur to me before?! Either way, Obama wins (I hope), but a dance-off would be way more entertaining.

I am still eating this political stuff up, though--it's like brain food. Some of it is practically incomprehensible and drives me absolutely crazy, but that's part of what makes it so interesting. I am just beyond excited that we are getting rid of Bush, and I can only hope that the tide turns. Maryville had a presidential panel discussion with political experts tonight, and I am so glad I went! Don't worry, I'll spare you the details...in fact, after this, I will try not to write about politics at all until we have a winner. All 4 of them predicted that Obama would win, though.

Politics and religion are actually some of my favorite topics of discussion, though. I know that's dangerous, which is why I pretty much only talk about them with a few close friends...basically the people reading this blog. I do it because I am honestly trying to broaden my understanding of it. Usually I can see both sides of everything pretty easily, but not really in politics. In 2004 I desparately wanted to know why someone would vote for Bush, but I just ended up with more frustration and more questions. I exhausted that to the point where I have almost given up trying to understand the Bush/republican point of view, which is why I have been very conscious of staying out of those kinds of discussions this time. It's not worth it to enter into a discussion with someone who doesn't even attempt logic, anyway (like, "he's a muslim" doesn't count as a reason to not vote for Obama). Neither one of us will change the other person's mind, anyway, so we might as well keep the peace. I would absolutely welcome an intelligent, open-minded, even-tempered debate with someone on the other side, though...that opportunity just doesn't come up very often.

Anyway, before I cut myself off from my political rantings, I will leave you with this new little nugget from my good friend Sarah Palin (as McCain says, "the most popular governor in the US"...uh, yeah, now that she's running for VP): "They're [referring to VP] in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes." Um, wrong. Oh, this woman is already competing with Bush for the most idiotic soundbites! I mean, on August 29 she didn't know what a VP did (because she asked), but by now she should probably have that down. Keep in mind that this could be the future: http://palinaspresident.us/. Sweet dreams, friends.

Mix CD October 2008

When I had itunes...when I had a computer, I would make a mix cd every few months. It was just a collection of songs off the top of my head that I really liked or that I could relate to at the time. When I would listen to it later, I realized that it pretty accurately captured my life in that moment. Anyway, if I could make one right now, in 5 minutes, I would include these songs:
"Miss Independent" by Ne-yo
"Be Okay" by Ingrid Michaelson
"Womanizer" by Britney Spears
"What Girls Like" by Ludacris and Chris Brown
"If I Were A Boy" by Beyonce
"Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry
"Love Lockdown" by Kanye West
"The Little Things" by Colbie Caillat
"Streetcorner Symphony" by Rob Thomas
"U Want Me 2" by Sarah McLaughlin
"Let It Rock" by Kevin Rudolf f/ Lil Wayne
"Viva La Vida" by Coldplay

Some of them are just fun, but the lyrics in others really hit home with me. Interpret away.