Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)

Last night we met Katie & Rollum in Hillsboro Village to see Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) at The Belcourt. It was a one night only screening & man, was it the place to be. Music Row must have been dark last night because, I swear, every musician, producer & engineer in town was at that screening.

Of the four of us, I knew the least about Harry Nilsson. Obviously, I'm familiar with a lot of his songs, but I knew little to nothing about him personally. This is one of the better documentaries that I've seen. It does a good job telling Harry's story & conveying what he was going through at various points in his life. It was very emotional, especially at the end. Most people walked out wiping their eyes.

Here's the blurb from Netflix:

Brilliant, mysterious singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson cut an indefinable path across the 1960s pop-cultural landscape, garnering such fans as John Lennon and Randy Newman. This discerning documentary lays bare the vast extent of Nilsson's influence. Along with rare archival material -- including home movies and audio clips -- anecdotes from Jon Voight, Van Dyke Parks and other scene makers spotlight the highs and lows of a mercurial career.

This documentary is from 2006, but for some reason, it's been really hard to find/watch. I overheard numerous, "I've been trying to see this for years," from the crowd.

According to Netflix, it releases on DVD 10/26/10. I loved it & highly recommend it. Here's the official trailer:

Weekend Wrap Up

Working 9 to 5... Dolly Parton & Lily Tomlin, pre-race

Dolly (sans costume) & Lily crossing the finish line

Friday:

My Aunt Becky, her daughter/my cousin Caitlin & Becky's BFF, Dana were in town from Oklahoma, so they stopped by on Friday afternoon to visit & see our house (see above).

Saturday:
Carolyn & I headed to Gap to use our Groupons. We both needed new jeans & Gap was running a 40% off denim sale, so we hit big. We essentially spent a good hour trying on every style of jeans they have. It was ridiculous, but we both left with a new pair of jeans. And I went down a size! Go, me!

Later in the day, John & I drove to the Gulch to meet Jessica & Brian for the Halloween in the Gulch 5K. Jessica & I went with our 9 to 5 theme. I was Dolly Parton & she was Lily Tomlin. We also met our friend Ashlee there, who was Slave Leia from Return of the Jedi. The course kind of sucked. The beginning of the race was running down Charlotte Pk from 12th to 6th, which was an almost un-run-up-able hill. Then it immediately went into another huge, blocks-long hill. The whole first half of the race was uphill. It kind of sucked. But whatever, we just did it for the costumes anyway. I finished 30th (out of 62) in my age group & 142nd (out of 448) overall at an 11.43 minute mile. Not bad, not awesome.

Post-race, we all went to Las Maracas where Jessica & I devoured margaritas & nachos. I was supposed to go to Family Wash with John, but by the time we got back home & I de-Dollyed, I was exhausted. So I went to bed & John went back to East Nashville sans Dolly.

Sunday:
Since I went to bed at like 8:30 on Sat night, I was up bright & early on Sun, so I decided to watch a movie while I drank my coffee. I put in I Am Love. OMG, ya'll. Seriously, omg. This movie is so good! I loved it. I think a lot of you saw it when it was at The Belcourt recently. Ladies, watch this movie. Guys, meh, probably not so much.

Later, we stopped by Mike & Chrissi's & hung out for awhile. John tried to teach their dogs how to howl. Little Annie almost had it. Big Ike, not so much.

Halloween in the Gulch 5K photostream here.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Ingredients (x 2)

Shred chicken with fork

Mix sour cream & soup

Place chicken in casserole dish

Pour sour cream/soup mixture over chicken

Chicken covered in sour cream/soup mixture

Crush Ritz crackers

Sprinkle crushed Ritz over sour cream/soup mixture

Melt butter

Ritz over sour cream/soup mixture

Melted butter

Pour melted butter over Ritz crackers

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

Voila!

Dieters, take heed, this recipe is probably not for you. On the other hand, those seeking warmth & comfort from a down-home Southern casserole, you're welcome. The healthy thing to do, would be to serve this with a side salad, or some kind of vegetable, but I usually serve it with Velveeta shells & cheese. That's how I roll.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

(my grandmother's recipe)

Ingredients:

*2 cups shredded chicken

1 cup sour cream

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 stick butter

2 tbsp poppy seeds

1 1/2 stacks of Ritz crackers

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Shred chicken & place in bottom of 8x8 (square) casserole dish

Mix sour cream & soup in a bowl & pour over chicken

Crush Ritz crackers & sprinkle over sour cream/soup mixture

Melt butter, then pour over Ritz crackers

Sprinkle poppy seeds on top of everything

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes

*I got lazy & bought canned chicken (GASP!). I used the 12.5 oz can of Tyson Premium White Chunk Chicken, FYI.

You'll notice there are double the amount of ingredients in the picture than listed in the recipe. That's because I doubled this today - half for us, half for Mister Cathope. Delish!

An Open Letter To Comcast

Dear Comcast,

I hate you. I have always hated you. I have allowed you into my home over the years out of a basic necessity for national news & an unabashed love of reality tv. No more. When your bastard child, Digital Switch, hit West Nashville last night & rendered my beloved TiVo box useless, I cried, I yelled, I threw the remote. You see, for years I have enjoyed the happy marriage of cable tv & TiVo. I've bathed in the glory of being to able to record and watch multiple channels simultaneously (I watch A LOT of tv), but no longer. As of last night, I can only watch the channel that TiVo is recording. So when TiVo, just trying to do his job, tried to record Project Runway, The Office & The Real Housewives of DC Reunion, you & your aforementioned bastard child, Digital Switch, stepped in & shit all over it. Hell hath no fury like a woman denied her Thursday night reality tv. Comcast, consider yourself cancelled. Hulu, mama's coming.

Sincerely,
TBM

Homicide, The Book I Wish I Could Kill

John & I have never seen The Wire, which is ridiculous since John is from right outside of Baltimore. We were talking about watching it when John's friend Jon insisted that we read Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets first. So John read it, loved it & passed it to me. I sat on it for months, but finally picked it up. I've been reading it for about a month & a half & am only on page 216, which is incredibly slow for me.

I just can't get into it. For one thing, it's the mass market paperback version. I hate books this size. Hate! Every time I complain about it (which is often), John mocks me by shouting, "It's just too small!" But seriously, it is too small. Against John's better judgment, he concurred that it's probably not a "girl's book," which of course pissed me off & fueled me to keep reading it, which in hindsight, may have been his plan all along. Touche.

But I can't keep reading it. It's so slow! And there are too many characters. And cases. It's impossible to keep up. John insists that I'm not supposed to try & keep the characters or the cases straight, that it's about the camaraderie between the detectives, but my brain doesn't work this way. My brain wants to retain all of the details. In an effort to drive my point home, I went to Amazon to see if anyone else had trouble reading this book.

Here are snippets of my favorite reviews:

• Oh, I'll finish it on some night when I've read & reread all the other books in the house.
• Incredibly boring, I only read 2/3 of it.
• The book was something of a chore to read.
• Book is verbose & meandering at times.

It's rare that I give up on a book, but I think I'm going to set this one down & just start watching the series. I can't keep reading it, especially when I have so many other books at home that I'd rather be reading. Sorry Homicide, better luck next time.

Weekend Wrap Up

Note John's addition to Monday night.....

Busted! Caught Linda sleeping on her new dog bed.

Friday:

Nada. Stayed home, cleaned, made meal plan/shopping list (see above) & worked on clearing out my Tivo, which is at maximum capacity due to my ridiculous lack of spare time right now.

Saturday:
Had my ladyscaping tended to at The Wax Pot Studio, hit the holy trinity of grocery stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's & Publix), came home & made pesto chicken meatballs for book swap. A few months ago, I didn't think we'd be able to have our annual Halloween party, so I offered to host the October book swap as an excuse to pull out all of my Halloween decorations, etc. Since then, two things happened: 1) the Halloween obligation went away, meaning we could have our Halloween party afterall & 2) I found out the comps (the test I have to take to graduate) is on November 5th, which means in addition to the class I'm in, I'm also in a study group that meets three times a week. I have no life/spare time this month. But I powered through, cleaned my house within an inch of it's life, decorated & cooked.

Sunday:
Typical Sunday for the most part. Met Jessica, ran 4 miles through Long Hunter State Park, then we went to Panera to meet our classmate Emily & study for the comps. Post marathon study session, ran to Target, made hot corn dip & drove to Smyrna, where Katie was hosting a surprise birthday party for Rollum. We all parked down the street, so when he walked in from work, talking away on his cell phone, we all jumped out & yelled "Surprise!" & he was actually surprised. It was awesome.

Halloween Costume Quandary

2009: Ghoulia Child (& "Tape Monster")

2007: Lana Clarkson (& Phil Spector)

2006: Babe-raham Lincoln


2005: Alien Bride (& astronaut husband)

2004: Murder Victim (obvi)

I'm having a hard time thinking of a Halloween costume this year. Jessica & I are running the Halloween in the Gulch 5K next Saturday & we're going as Dolly Parton & Lily Tomlin from Nine to Five (see above).

But I still need a costume for our Halloween party later in the month. I have a long history of being scary/dead on Halloween. I can't explain it. I think it's due to my combined love of horror movies & make-up. As a child, I went with whatever would scare my sister & it just carried over into adulthood.

My favorite thing is to take a celebrity & zombie-fy their name, i.e., Ghoulia Child. I thought about keeping with the Dolly Parton/Nine to Five theme, but changing it to Zombie Parton. I don't know though. I also thought about Sorority Ghoul (instead of girl), but I feel like there's something better out there. I just have to apply myself.

I'll report back. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the costume parade of Halloweens past....