New Indiana Jones Movie Poster

It is finally here, the release of the new “Indiana Jones” Movie Poster: “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. I never thought Spielberg would get around filming another Indiana Jones movie. I am really looking forward to this movie since the 3rd Indiana Jones movie was released when I was in high school. I love the style in the films, the characters, the humor and the action. Harrison Ford is perfect as Indiana Jones and it will be interesting to see an older version of his beloved character in this new film. I once wanted to decorate my den in “Indiana Jones Style”, but eventually gave up the idea after find out how hard it is to collect WWII memorabilia, archeology items and all the antiques you would need. But I still dream about it sometimes. I did manage to pull into my den an Egyptian theme, so the idea is there a little bit. You can imagine how excited I am, so I am posting a copy of one of the new posters here on my blog:

What is Christmas like at your house?

What kind of tree do you have?
I have an artificial tree that is white. It is pre-lit with white lights. We also string colored lights on it. Then we hang only blue balls all over along with our regular Christmas decorations. My decorations are very unique. I collect Krinkles, which add a whimsicle touch. I also have a dragon ornament collection and hand stitched ornament collections. Next we drape silver beads as garland all around the tree from top to bottom and a star on the top. I don’t have tinsel because my two chihuahuas would probably eat it and I heard it isn’t too good for little dogs to eat that stuff.

What is your favorite Christmas themed movie? I like “A Nightmare before Christmas”, “Elf” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I enjoy “A Muppet Christmas Carol” too. That looks like a curious combination doesn’t it?

What is your favorite Christmas time food? I like apple pie with ice cream, but I know some people don’t consider this a Christmas food, but it’s really the only time we eat apple pie in my family. I like pumpkin pie too with real whipped cream. Cool whip has hydrogenated oils in it, so I try to stay away from it, even though I do like it. I like all kinds of Christmas cookies, like sugar cookies, pumpkin butterscotch drops, which are a big favorite in my family, and orange cranberry drops, which are my specialty. Everything I just wrote down was a dessert. Is that a bad thing?

Do you use wrapping paper or gift bags? I use gift bags mostly, or when ever I can because you can use them over. Also, you don’t have to deal with cutting, and all the tape. They are simple and re-usable, and less wasteful, which just makes sense to me. Sometimes you have a gift that comes in a big box and in that case I do just wrap the box with paper, but that’s about it.

Do you have a nativity scene in your house? I do. I really like my scene. I put it on my server in my dining room and it really makes that corner of the room look festive. I like looking at it because it makes me remember what Christmas is really about and I don’t get so wrapped up in the commercial side of everything. I enjoy looking at other people’s nativity scenes in their homes because each one has such a different style. They are fun.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? I love Sleigh Ride, the instrumental version. I love the Nutcracker Ballet, and Handel’s Messiah. I love any Christmas songs sung by Pery Como, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Give me the old crooners any day over the popular Christmas music of the day!

The Police: Concert Review from Phoenix , AZ

Attending a POLICE concert was something that I just can’t quite seem to put into the right words yet. I never ever thought I would get to attend such an event, considering they broke up when I was yet too young to go to a concert, therefore crushing my young dreams along with their break up in the 1980’s. Considering I was so young when the POLICE was first introduced to me, via MTV and the radio, I always dreamed of going to see them in a huge arena concert when I was old enough, never thinking they would break up before I was old enough to attend. I watched old POLICE concerts on VH1 in college, thinking how fantastic it would have been to be there at see them perform live. What does it feel like now? I just can’t say. Seeing the POLICE perform live in concert was on my “List of things to do before I die”, but I had accepted that like most things on my list, I would never get to do that one.

In college my dad got me tickets to attend a Sting concert in Phoenix after I tearfully begged him over the phone. He ended up getting me 5 tickets, 7th row. Wow! It was fantastic. I will always be very grateful for my dad doing that for me. I had never asked for tickets to see anything before. One thing about the concert I noticed though, when Sting sang his POLICE songs during his concert, that was when everyone stood up and screamed, those songs were the ones everyone wanted to hear the most. Not that his solo hits were not fantastic, but they were not as beloved by the fans as his POLICE songs. I am sure it must have been a point of great frustration for him to know that at every concert they only screamed for his POLICE songs. However, this experience made the wish to see the POLICE in concert even more then before, but seeing Sting perform these songs in his regular solo concerts would be the closest I ever came to the real thing, or so I thought.

As we entered the arena, after parking in a seedy basement parking garage near by, we were first greeted by several radio station stands blearing POLICE songs from their speakers. We rode the large elevator up to the top of the arena. My dear friend Davina had gotten me tickets on the upper right side of the arena, which turned out to be great seats. I really don’t think there were any bad seats in the house, because the stage was set up well and the monitors and sound system was fantastic, but I am getting ahead of myself. We began milling our way around and weaving through the crowds to get to our side of the arena. I could hear the pre-show going. I thought Sting was singing, but then I didn’t recognize any of the songs, so I thought I was just hearing things. The pre-show band was named Fiction Plane, but I knew nothing about them except they were English. We finally arrived at our seats, which were really hard to find in the dark. We listened to the pre-band. I thought, they must be modeling themselves from the POLICE because they had a lead singer who also played the bass in their trio, and at times I thought the lead singer had some of Sting’s moves down. Fictions Plane’s music made me think that if the POLICE were young, making new music today, that they might sound a little like this band. I soon realized after we were seated that my ears were hurting due to the amazing sound system that made your chest vibrate to every note. It was a thrilling feeling, but my ears were screaming at me. I had already given my husband my green ear plugs, which he promptly lost one of. What were us old folks going to do now? I was sure that when the POLICE came out it would be even louder. If I only had a napkin or cotton or something to shove in my ears, that would solve our problem. No napkins in my purse, nothing. Wait, a tampon has cotton in it. I promptly broke one open and ripped it into perfect ear plug sized pieces and put them in my ears. I gave my husband one for his ear that had lost it’s ear plug. I smiled thinking about later telling him he had tampon cotton in his ear. It was such a relief. My ears were happy now. I guess this is what I get for being old at a concert. The band was good. I think the audience really got into their hit, “Two Sisters” which really does remind me of the POLICE style. Every one was really enjoying things, until the last song which was filled with the F-word over and over and over. It was a bit much for me. I enjoyed the days when swear words were not considered appropriate for bands to add in their songs. It pretty much put a damper on things. I was even considering buying Fiction Plane’s album when I got home, until that point. I looked over at my husband who rolled his eyes and mouthed, “too bad they had to do that, I liked them.” I realize that swear words are used to make an emotional response, but I rather admire the bands that can get their point across with out having to resort to that kind of crude verbiage. After the concert Davina informed me that Fiction Plane is Joe Sumner’s band, who is Sting’s son, I recalled thinking his voice, moves, and bass playing resembled his father’s.

When the POLICE finally came out to play after the technicians set up the stage after the pre-show, it was to a stadium completely full of people. I looked around and I really didn’t see any empty seats. The stage was set in an oval and it was 360, so even the people who would normally be behind the stage could see pretty well. From where I was the stage looked pretty tiny, but when the show started they fired up the monitors, which I was directly across from and you could see the smallest freckle on Stings face. It was crystal clear and amazing. The giant speakers were also directly across from me and from the first chords of “Message in a Bottle”, which started out with a gong note from Stewart Copeland, you could feel every chord and beat of music go right through your bones. It was the best feeling in the world. Stings voice was perfection, clear as crystal from the first note of the concert to the last. His bass guitar was so old and beat up, the finish was completely warn off and you can see this in the picture below. From the girl sitting next to me who was in college, to the 50 year old couples seated in front of me, we all sang the words to every song. I have never been to a concert where everyone knew the words and was singing along. I sang my little heart out too. At times Sting would ask us to sing the well known counter melodies or some, “Yo, yo, yo, yooo” in the song sets. We ate it up. Sting would walk around the stage and when he came on our side he would wave and the spot lights would show the audience and we would scream our hearts out. Andy Summer’s guitar solos were amazing and Sting usually went to the side of the stage so that Andy could have the lime light. Stewart Copeland was incredable from the first beat of that gong. At one point he broke his drum stick and in between 8th notes he swaped out sticks and thew his other one behind the stage some place. He ran from gongs, to simbols and back to his drum set in flying motion with more energy then I could imagine he had. How old are these guys? You couldn’t tell they were not yong men again. My favorite songs were: “Message in a bottle”, “Walking on the moon”, and “Walking in your footsteps.” The best song in my opinion was “Wrapped around your finger” which was just pure magic everywhere. During “Invisible sun” they had pictures from the Iraq war play in the background of their faces singing live. It was a very powerful message. During "King of Pain" I think Sting got a little annoyed with the audience because we were not singing his counter meldoy loud enough, but I think that is because we forgot the words. Actually I have never figured out what they are saying on that line anway. It was still one of my favorite POLICE songs reguardless. Sting once swore never to sing that song again, but I was glad he did for us. "Roxanne" was a little funky compaired to the original, but not nearly as jazz oriented as when he played it in his solo concerts. I was pleased with what they did with it. They also had two encores and we were still begging for more songs at the end. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my little dream came true and I got to see the amazing band perform live.


Here is the play list: (I was a little bummed they left out Synchornicity I though.)

The Set List: Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don’t Stand So Close
Driven To Tears
The Bed’s Too Big Without You
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can’t Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

Inspiration

I was recently watching Oprah’s show on TV. It is not a common practice of mine to watch that talk show, but I believe I was meant to see this short episode where Laurie David was on talking about the environment and what we can do to take better care of our world. I can’t explain what happened, but I got inspired. All it took for me was to learn one thing and that thing changed my life. I can’t say many things I see on TV have changed my life for the better. What I learned was that “one” person can actually make a difference when it comes to the environment. I used to think that it didn’t matter. Why put in the effort? The problem is too large. What can just one person do? I found out I was thinking wrong. One person can make a difference. My perspective on life has changed. What we do right now will affect the next seven generations on this planet. It really does matter. We should take care of what has been entrusted to us, for as long as we are here. I can no longer use the excuse that it doesn’t really matter. Everyone can make a difference, but if they don’t, then you can.


Laurie David is the wife of Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. She says they’ve made small environmental changes in their home that anyone can follow. “One thing about helping the environment is it’s not about being perfect,” Laurie says. “I’m not perfect—I don’t bike to work and I don’t read by candlelight—but it’s about doing something. Everybody doing a little bit in their day-to-day lives to make a difference. And it does make a difference.” I just love that quote. Laurie says there are some simple changes anyone can do to help the environment: “Listen to the statistic from the EPA report,” Laurie says. “If every American household changed five regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, it would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.” I have already started converting to these bulbs before I saw the show, but that is because I work at an electric company and I know that the conservation of electricity is imperative. People just think that electricity is their given right, but it is not. It must be conserved or lost.

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. “Listen to the statistic from the EPA report,” Laurie says. “If every American household changed five regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, it would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.” I have already started converting to these bulbs before I saw the show, but that is because I work at an electric company and I know that the conservation of electricity is imperative. People just think that electricity is their given right, but it is not. It must be conserved or lost.

Bring your own bag. If you bring clothes to the dry cleaners, bring along a garment bag instead of having them wrap your cleaned clothes in plastic. Also, these plastic bags are known to have suffocated small children and animals, so I always try to not use them. They are just plain dangerous. Also, use your own bags at the grocery store. Just pick up a few canvas bags and you would be surprised how much more can fit into them and how much easier they are to carry then the paper or plastic you get normally. Also, there are places that recycle the plastic bags, so look for those opportunities.


Unplug appliances when you’re not using them, even though you may think they’re off. “For example, when you take your phone off, if the charger’s still in the wall, it’s sucking energy and that’s costing us money and costing us emissions,” Laurie says. “Everything needs to be pulled out of the wall: your coffee maker, your toaster, your hairdryer.” These being another electricity issue made me relate to it even more. My company recommends that you unplug everything when not in use as well. The best example I use when explaining this to consumers is think about your remote control on your TV set. That light and sensor stays lit all day when you are at work not using the TV, so that when you come home you can just pick up your remote and turn on your TV. You would be surprised how much electricity this uses when you are not even there. The same thing goes for cell phone chargers, etc. Just unplug and save on your electric bill as well as save the environment. It is easy. Buy toilet paper made from post-consumer waste paper—that’s recycled paper!

Plant a tree. “Trees are like natural air filters: They absorb the carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air. The average person is responsible for emitting 94 pounds of carbon dioxide every day. It takes at least four trees to offset the carbon dioxide you personally generate in a one-month period. If you want to do something about that, log onto www.americanforests.org There, you can buy a tree and they will plant it for you.”

Don’t use disposable diapers. “Americans throw away 49 million diapers every single day. But what happens after the garbage truck takes them away? The diapers end up in landfills and could take 500 years to decompose. Styrofoam takes 2,000 years to decompose. And plastic bottles—such as all of those water and soda bottles—will never decompose. So what does that mean for global warming? Landfills emit toxins such as methane and carbon dioxide, which just so happen to be the two main greenhouse gases that some scientists say cause global warming.