Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Olivia

My mom is my source of Public Media news, as she has her finger on the pulse of the goings-on of that area of the world. Case in point: she broke the news to me of Mr. Rogers dying in college and Carl Kassell retiring a few weeks ago.

When I came into work this morning, she informed me that Alaina Reed-Amini had passed away at age 63 of breast cancer. People roughly my age will remember her as Gordon's sister Olivia on Sesame Street. Definitely loved her on that show... and not gonna lie, if I ever have a child named Olivia in my future she will be about 72% named after this character.

So it's been real, Alaina. Here are some videos for you. The first is her signing Sing with Linda on Sesame Street:



And the second is her singing with David on Sesame Street about... well, singing. So kind of meta.

Don't Let Me Wait Too Long by The Russians with special guests Brian King and Corin Ashley

Last Friday, Ricky and I checked a very good show at TT's that featured The Corin Ashley Quartet, The Russians, and The Figgs. It was a freezing cold night in Boston, and the club brought in a lot of that chill, but the acts were warm and inviting.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm a fan of both Corin Ashley and Scott Janovitz, frontman of The Russians. You may also remember him as half of the frontment for The High Holidays, which I raved about last February.

My friend Brian also sat in on both Corin Ashley Quartet and The Russians as their keyboardist and delivered the goods yet again. I know I'm biased, but I really think he'll be a force in the Boston music scene in the years to come, whether as a writer or a performer.

Anyways, one of the many highlights of the night was a cover The Russians and Corin did of George Harrison's Don't Let Me Wait Too Long. Scott channels his inner George for sure, and it's a great song:

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The end of a 7 1/2 year old era?

The Dell and my desk from college, circa 2005. Things that are no longer around in that picture: my printer, that pencil sharpener, that lei, that monitor...


Last night, my poor little Dell computer may or may not have (to use technical terms) shit the bed.

I was watching tv and knitting when I decided to check my email. I got up from the couch to go to the computer and the menu bar was missing. Thinking it was formatting, I restarted the computer. When this happened, and then the following 100 times I tried restarting the computer, I got a scary blue screen with scary error messages. I panicked a lot, texted my technically minded friends, and then went to bed rather teary-eyed.

It's not that I am particularly attached to my Dell. I got it my freshman year of college (2002). It's always had viruses. It's killed not one but two CD drives. It's loud. It's slow. It's heavy.

But it's my computer, and my only one, and I really can't afford to drop $500+ on a new tower. Oh, and did I mention it has all my music and pictures on it from 2002? Yeah, that too.

It's also strange to think that this giant, heavy mess of a thing that I've been carrying around with me might be breathing its final breaths. We've lived in four dorms together, my parents' house, Medford, and two places in Salem. It's seen me through my BA, countless break ups, all-nighters, jam sessions, and bill paying. And now it could just be a heap of useless metal.

Brian is taking a look at it on Thursday (because everyone needs a Brian in their life) and I'm hoping the prognosis is good. Or at least "you can keep using it until July or August when you can afford a new one", but I'm not sure.

Think good thoughts for Lil Dell...