I'm not sure I quite understand the Food Network's current ad for its holiday programming. Along with lots of happy, smiling people, there's a be-antlered dog thinking of a gift-wrapped (or decorated) bone while waving about a massive boner. I mean, this dog is
hung and the lipstick is wagging in time to the music. Don't be telling me they didn't notice!
I just caught an edited version of the Food Network commercial mentioned below. The dog's dignity appears to have been saved (though, Fido knows, he could've been proud) by a tasteful placement of the network logo. Right on the money-maker, so to speak.
Ah, Thanksgiving, four blissful days of sitting around at home chastising myself for not spending the precious time off more wisely.
I didn’t write a novel, make much headway in the (very good) book I’ve been reading (very slowly), nor get the work I’d been intending to tackle taken care of (that comes next). However, I did: see two movies (
Callas Forever—not an Earth-shattering film but that hardly matters because it stars the most beautiful and elegant woman in the world: Fanny Ardant—and
Kinsey, which seemed to me to be a pretty standard biopic, but I loved Liam Neeson’s wardrobe; that bow-tied professorial look is my dream style); eat a fabulous meal in outstanding company; and, possibly most exciting of all, I made my selections for my Best of 2004 CDs. (I spared myself some aggravation and went the
T-dash-D double CD route this year—though, wait, he went
triple last year, didn’t he?)
In the last couple of years, I’ve started to wonder if I buy and listen to new CDs just for the sake of the end-of-year compilation, so all-consuming is the process of selection and ordering. (Yes, this is just the third time I’ve done one, but it feels like a longstanding tradition by this point.)
My taste took an unexpected direction this year—very folky, inspired in part by a group I first heard at the beginning of 2004,
Warsaw Village Band. Like some cheeses and
alcoholic spirits, a good deal of their appeal is that they seem slightly “off.” As I was picking out my favorite tunes, I was astonished to realize how many involved pipes or horns of some kind—though, trust me, I would still cross the road at the sight of a busker with bagpipes. In my youth, I couldn’t stand the taste of olives—when I first went to Spain I couldn’t enjoy the most basic of tapas—and then, without warning, something happened to my taste buds, and now olives are one of my favorite foods. I suppose it’s the same with music, and right now the drone of the chanter or the animal-like sounds of traditional horns like the
alboka actively appeal to me.
If you want to take a squint at the track-listing, click
here. One note: Almost all these albums came out in the U.S. in 2004, but I came to some of them late, so there are a couple of 2003 releases in there. There’s also an old song that represents my
summer stay in my home town: “Hallelujah,” by The Happy Mondays.
1) He recently turned down an offer to direct
Harry Potter 5; 2) His original choice for the role of Amélie was … Emily Watson!
On last night’s
Las Vegas, Ed asked Mike and Danny if they’d seen
The Godfather. “Sure, 17 times. It’s my favorite movie,” mugged Mike. If that’s so, how come he didn’t notice he was speaking to James Caan, the guy who played Sonny?
PS: You too can
dress in the slutty style of the women of
Las Vegas.
