12/18/09 UPDATE:  Welcome People of Finland! I am not sure what’s going on in Finland these days, but I am getting lots of site traffic for Upstairs, Downstairs from the land of Sibelius. Please leave a comment or two. I would love to hear from you. Why so much interest in Upstairs, Downstairs?

My recent reading of Ivy Compton Burnett’s Manservant and Maidservant made me think more than once about the fabulous Upstairs Downstairs. They aren’t all that related, but there were hints here and there.  I was trolling around the Interwebs when I stumbled on this story and photo from the Evening Standard. It was great to see the picture below from 2007 with some of the cast members. I think the most amazing thing is how well Jean Marsh (number 8) looks. March played Rose on the show and was one of the show’s creators along with Eileen Atkins. Not only does she look really good full stop, but she is actually the oldest person in the photo. If I look that good at 73 I will be very happy. And if she has had work done she has a very good plastic surgeon. (I also just noticed at IMDB that she did an episode of Love Boat. That would be fascinating to see.)

I have heard some rumors online that they are going to remake UD with Jean Marsh’s involvement. Since the 1970s’ sets and film quality are a bit lacking by today’s standards, I would love to see that. But I am not sure how I feel about other actors playing any of the roles. But then again, who am I kidding. This would be great to see.

Go here for a “where are they now” update.

Even in a Levi’s commercial Walt Whitman is a genius. Normally I don’t watch commercials. I end up fast forwarding through all that noise. But last night I was in the kitchen when this Levi’s commercial came on. I was stunned to hear the insistent words of Walt Whitman calling from the other room.

It sounds stupid, but this Levi’s commercial was a transcendent moment for me. I feel Whitman’s poetry deeply. To me it represents the best of what humans can be and what these United States can be. It may be a commercial to sell jeans, but frankly I think the montage in the commercial actually catches the lust and energy, and the youth and promise in Whitman’s poetry. I don’t care if it was created to sell, sell, sell. We could use more Whitman in popular culture.

Hearing “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” performed in this commercial sent me to iTunes to try and find a recording of Whitman’s poetry. In general I have very little interest in audio books, but I do like some spoken word recordings. Unfortunately, most of the Whitman available on iTunes is truly abysmal. I could read his poems better than the people who made these recordings. Then I came across this fabulous 1957 recording. As I sampled the tracks I realized that the “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” on this recording is the same as the Levis commercial. What a happy discovery. Thanks Levi’s.

And it turns out there is another one, that, if we are to believe the Interwebs, is actually the voice of Whitman on an old wax cylinder.

I just got an email today from Penguin UK noting that this incredible box of 100 postcards is finally available. Since Penguin UK won’t let me order off of their site, I headed right on over to The Book Depository to order mine. And, let me tell you, it can’t arrive soon enough. Hmm, I could get on a plane at 5:00 tonight, arrive at Heathrow by 6:00 am tomorrow head into London to buy the “book” and get back to Heathrow in time to get the 4:00 plane home.  Let’s see, that fare right now would be $2,046, plus the cost of the Heathrow Express, plus the cost of the book…or maybe I could just pay $19.95 and wait for my delivery from The Book Depository.

Confessions of a Shopaholic is the worst excuse for a movie I have seen in a long, long, time. I even had very, very, low expectations, yet it is way worse than I thought it would be.

So, to all of you visiting for the first time, I say Welcome. And don’t forget to leave me a comment or two. Sometimes I get tired of the sound of my own voice–not often, but it does happen.  You can find lots of stuff on MyPorch, I have lots of travel pictures (Europe, Australia, Africa, the US, Canada), a few political rants, lots of stuff about books, some musical musings, and a whole lot of hyperbole.  Feel free to take me down a notch or two.

By the way, no comment from me on Blogging Around the States would be complete without mentioning that half a million American citizens living here in Washington DC have NO voting representation in Congress. American citizens in the rest of the US have two Senators and one Representative you can write to, call, email, etc., we have NONE. The reason those patriots dumped all that tea into Boston Harbor 200+ years ago was over taxation without representation. Well the Potomac is polluted enough so we won’t dump anytning more into it, but you get my point.

The reason we went on a trip to Belgium and The Netherlands so close on the heels of our trip to France and Switzerland, was that my good friend Ron was turning 40. His partner Barry wanted to surprise him. So a few days before his birthday we appeared. And Ron was surprised.

Here are some blurry pictures of the party. The quality of the photos not only protect the guilty, but look a bit like Gerhard Richter paintings if you ask me.

For those of you that put your name in for my bookmark giveaway, instead of just giving away 6 of them, I have enough for everyone who entered. If you haven’t already, shoot me an email with your mailing address. Congratulations to:

Lezlie at Books ‘N Border Collies
Sarah at what we have here is a failure to communicate
Christine at Booktumbling
Denise at M. Denise C.
Nan at Letters From a Hill Farm
Booklogged at A Reader’s Journal
Ti at Book Chatter
Framed at Framed and Booked (and many others)
Esperanza
Deniz

I am no expert at using Blogger. But I am exceptionally happy that they now offer an “extra large” option for posting pictures. If I had unlimited amounts of time I would go back to older posts and make all the pictues XL. Hopefully you will all enjoy the bigger pics.

Say what you will about Mika. Blah, blah, blah. I love his music. His new album is just as catchy and fun as his first one.

I am traveling right now in a non-English speaking land watching the Booker Prize award ceremony being televised live on the BBC. This is astounding to me. I didn’t know they did this. In the US you are lucky to read about a book prize in the newspaper let alone see it on TV. But the Brits cover it live!

Hilary Mantel won.

See y’all later. No doubt there will be big parties, burning cars in the streets, babies conceived in drunken revelry…