Maude Maggart

Got back a little while ago from seeing Maude Maggart at the Plush Room. What a singer! I admit it took me about five or ten minutes to warm up to her (I have an inate dislike for cabaret singers), but once I got her, I really got her. She's got an amazing ability to really inhabit a song and phrase it and communicate it. (The one flaw in her delivery [for me] is that she doesn't quite have all the chops yet to do with a song what she wants to do with it. According to her biography on her website, though (http://www.maudemaggart.com), she's only been singing professionally since 2001. Once she really gets her talent melded with her intelligence, there'll be no stopping her. Just an amazing singer. She's not Jessica Molaskey, but she's in that league. She's Fiona Apple's sister and Brandon Maggart's daughter.

I'm a big fan of Brandon Maggart, whom I know best as having played Buddy on the early episodes of Sesame Street. He was teamed with an actor named James Catusi as "Buddy and Jim," two guys who made Laurel and Hardy look like brain surgeons. They were hilarious to my 13-year-old eyes. I only found out about her father after I got home, and I wish I'd known. I bought three of her CDs after the show and got to talk to her as I was getting them autographed. I would have mentioned her father if I'd only known. I'm slightly tempted to go back later this week (I won't, but I'm tempted), and would definitely mention him if I did.

When I started this thing, I expected I would be reviewing and critiquing movies and TV and comics and pop culture and politics, but there's been unsurprisingly little of that. Suffice it to say that I rented Sin City (meh; very comic-booky and true to the material, but too long and I'm not Miller's biggest fan) and Layer Cake (nice complicated caper-type picture, but it failed for me in the climax when one of the pivotal characters didn't pass the "who the hell is that?" test; I still don't quite know who it was). I've been reading comics, and am running hot and cold on Infinite Crisis. I admired the ideas behind it -- at least based on what they were saying at WonderCon -- but am none too pleased with the treatment of Kal-L, the original Superman (this is hopelessly geeky, I know, but I just don't give a rat's ass). I'm enjoying The Amazing Race and am looking forward to the return of The Sopranos this weekend. What else am I watching? The 24, the Apprentice, the Veronica Mars, still watching the ER (god knows why), Deal or No Deal, Justice League, and not much else (Dave, of course). I'm sure there are other shows, but I'm punchy right now, and can't imagine why I'm not in bed (it's 12:20 am). I did watch the premiere of The Unit last night, and in spite of my liking of Mamet, found it vile. If it was serious, it was replusive in its politics and if there was a tongue-in-cheek element, it went whooshing over my head.

Just saw my nemesis Scarlett Johannson in a makeup commercial, exhibiting more range than in any movie I've seen her in to date. She had a horrible lipstick on (and with her mouth, it probably took two tubes), but maybe there's hope for her otherwise.

This has been one of those long-ass weeks for me. Seems like Monday was about two weeks ago. I can't wait to work at home Friday. There's a couple of meetings at work tomorrow; one is the monthly department meeting, which can range from actually interesting to chew-my-arm-off bad. The other is the semi-regular meeting with Stephanie (my boss) and the rest of the team. I don't expect any bombshells, but you never know.

We had an Answers meeting today, and it began with my admitting I didn't know how to set up a Twiki page, which everyone looked askance at. I did my best "Dammit, I'm old!" impression by saying, "Hey, I'm 50!" Not quite (10 more days), but close enough. Then on top of that, it suddenly occurred to us that all the other surfers on the product are "new," meaning hired within the last year. If that didn't make me feel old (and it did), nothing would. These damn kids with their rock and roll . . .

Still waiting to hear about DaveCon 2005. Hope we hear soon; I'd like to make my travel plans.

Came up with a plan for Pidge's 40th birthday in 2007 tonight. I don't know if I can pull it off, but if I can, it should be memorable -- and better than that surprise party they pulled on my 40th. I've been promised there'll be no surprise party for my 50th, so I'm hopeful, but who knows.