Nothing says Passover quite like the pleasant aroma — not just the scent but the aroma — of Manischewitz Coffee Cake permeating every inch of my apartment. It’s the best thing about this holiday. I baked the cake yesterday morning, and today when I woke up, I could still smell it. Mmmmmmmmm…
So I feel like I’d be remiss (and I know I’d hear it from at least one of my readers) if I didn’t acknowlege that today is Jennifer Garner (ahem) Affleck’s 34th birthday. You may know that I’m a bit of a fan of Mrs. Affleck’s, so I wish her nothing but the best as she begins another year with us. And incidentally, though I never saw the last five episodes of Alias, I couldn’t be more excited for its return this Wednesday night at 8 p.m. So again, happy birthday, Jen! I hope we can celebrate together sometime soon — maybe one of the upcoming times you come to Boston to show off your beautiful baby, visit with Ben’s mother, and go to a Sox game with your husband. Let me know.
Here in Massachusetts it’s Patriot’s Day, which means we have a parade down Boylston Street to celebrate Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi.
No, seriously, it’s a day to celebrate Paul Revere and those kinds of patriots. And more importantly, it’s the day of the Boston Marathon and an 11 a.m. Red Sox game — and another day off from work for me.
No complaints there.
I love Patriots Day; it’s one of my top 5 days of the year. Continue reading
One thing I’ve been wondering lately, and I hope it’s not offensive to be posting this today, is when the showing of The Ten Commandments on TV became an Easter tradition.
The film tells the story of Passover and is all about the plight of the Jews in Egypt. There’s no mention of Jesus or resurrection, or anything else that has to do with Easter, as far as I know.
And I acknowledge that non-Jews consider the Old Testament to be holy texts, and that the Ten Commandments themselves are relevant to other religions, but what about The Ten Commandments movie relates to Easter?
Why doesn’t it air more intentionally closer to the time of Passover, when it would be more appropriate? Continue reading
Last night’s American Idol was supposed to be good. It was all Queen songs. I was actually looking forward to it all day, embarrassing as that is to admit. (I really don’t have any shame, do I?) And there were some good performances, namely Elliott Yamin’s “Somebody to Love” and Paris Bennett’s “The Show Must Go On” (mostly). And Kellie Pickler surprised me with her not half-bad cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But otherwise, the show was pretty embarrassing, as it’s been for the past three weeks.
What’s happened to this season of Idol? Didn’t it start out so well? Weren’t there more great performers? Where did they all go? Chris Daughtry has fallen so far so fast that it’s hard to imagine he’s still a front runner to win. (The guy needs more range. Seriously.) Kellie’s dumb blonde thing was fun at first, but now it’s clear she’s just a moron. And Bucky? What is he still doing there? But the biggest offense this season has been Ace, who had one good performance — of George Michael’s “Father Figure” — during the semifinal round and has somehow been able to coast along until now. As bad as some of the other folks are, Ace is out-classed and out-performed on a weekly basis. I’m hoping his embarrassing cover of “We Will Rock You” will be his final performance on the show. (Talk about poor song choice, especially if that’s the song they make you sing after you’ve just been kicked off.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ace has to go.
So who am I rooting for? Well, at this point, none of them. However, if I had to pick someone to cheer for, I’d have to say it would be Elliott Yamin. I think he’s got the best voice of them all, even if he looks nothing like a pop star.
This story is a couple days old now, but last week, an employee in a Norfolk, Mass., jail showed Brokeback Mountain to the inmates. When the “by-the-book warden” caught wind of what movie was being shown, he ordered it be turned off immediately. Politics aside, here’s my real problem with this: they turned off the movie with just 10 minutes to go. Now, I don’t care what movie they were watching. You don’t turn a movie off so close to the end. I mean, sure, I’m all for punishing criminals, and I didn’t exactly think Brokeback ended sooooo well (though I did see it twice and liked it), but still … show the whole movie and then reprimand this employee. Turning off a movie so close to the end is just not cool.
When Friends with Money begins, you’re inclined to sympathize with Olivia, who is the only single member in a group of four women friends, three of whom are rich.
Olivia goes from one dead-end career to another (presently, she’s a maid) and one dead-end relationship to another. She’s so directionless and inert that her friends, when discussing which valuable cause they’re giving their money to, joke that they should give it to her.
In fact, the only real thing she has going for her is that she’s played by Jennifer Aniston.
Friends with Money would therefore have you hate Olivia’s friends because they are all so self-involved with their own lives, and the seeming glory of having a spouse and a house and kids and money, that they are completely oblivious to how unhappy Olivia is.
One of their spouses even says, “She doesn’t look unhappy.”
Well, one of the great things about this movie is that you come to see that the friends are not ignoring Olivia’s predicament at all. Instead, they each have significant problems of their own, from crumbling marriages to anger and resentment.
Thus, you have equal sympathy for all four of the women, and the film becomes a true ensemble piece about what defines happiness and success and friendship. Continue reading
Went to Stop & Shop and Shaw’s yesterday to stock up on Passover food (the holiday starts Wednesday night).
It’s one of those necessary evils that I tend to postpone until the last minute every year.
Why? It’s not that I am anti-Passover or anything, nor is it that I am a procrastinator (well, alright, maybe I am a procrastinator). It’s that the whole buying of Passover food experience just rubs me the wrong way. Continue reading
Alright, so this post is a little similar in theme to yesterday’s, but I thought it was funny enough to post.
A guy named Andy Carvin decided to go to Logan Airport last weekend when Jill Carroll was landing in town and then document the experience.
However, Carroll bypassed the terminal and was whisked away right from the tarmac, leaving a number of disappointed journalists to just wait around pointlessly.
Still, Carvin was there to file a report, and that’s exactly what he did. If you’ve got enough bandwidth, you can watch it here.
Here’s a good challenge: Can you find Eva Longoria using the satellite functionality of Google Maps?
Apparently, Maxim magazine, in celebration of its 100th issue, has blown up its cover from January 2005 — the one that had Eva on it — put it in the desert somewhere near Las Vegas (specifically, it’s just outside Primm, near the California state line), and if you’re that good, you can actually see it. Continue reading
Martin's Musings 