The Real World is Real Again

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If you liked The Real World back in its early years, you might consider checking out the current season. If you are like me you stopped watching this show years ago when the “characters” became helplessly one-dimensional and cared only about booze and hooking up. No matter what kind of projects or obstacles MTV threw at them, they seemed incapable of having anything to say about anything other than the aforementioned booze and hooking up. In the early seasons the characters had something more going on in their lives and their minds than just being on the show. Some held jobs, most had hobbies or some kind of interests or expertise that went beyond getting into the entertainment industry. At some point the characters or the producers decided that trashy and brainless was the way to go. There were so many low points over the past 20 years that it is hard to choose a nadir. I couldn’t pinpoint when it got bad, but it stayed bad for a long time.

How about the lame group that lived in Paris and were supposed to help update a travel guide but prefered the hottub in their suburban home over the glories of the City of Light? Or the Las Vegas cast who were so trashy they might have made even Vegas blush?

But this season in Brooklyn, it almost feels like it is 20 years ago. Yes, there is still much in the way of immaturity, drunkenness, and hormonal outbursts, but the cast overall seems to have much more nuance and humanity than the program has shown us in a long time. Trust me they are not all paragons of intellect and virtue and there is plenty of needless drama. But there is also a lot of heart. The season must be more than half way over and still none of the cast members have hooked up with each other (or with anyone for that matter). Cast members buck the stereotypes in many ways–like the gay guy who seems intent on being the insensitive guy of the group, while the straight Iraq war vet has a heart the size of a tank. Even the pranks pulled on the show and the reactions to them seem endearing compared to the booze fests of seasons gone by.

I am not saying this is a brilliant show, it never was, but if you liked the old Real World you just might like this new one. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way, after writing post here, I came across this assessment of the current season.

Boy the Oscars were bad

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It is amazing how the entertainment capital of the world can make such a bad Oscar telecast. Hugh Jackman was okay and brought a certain kind of old fashion charm to the show, but the rest of it was terrible. The worst part about any Oscar show is when talented (and not so talented) actors are asked to read banal introductions to awards. They are almost universally insipid, saccharine and cringe-worthy. Well this year they seemingly decided to increase those hideously little intros ten-fold. Instead of showing us clips of the nominees’ performances they had five previous winners in each category recite some treacle that is worthy of a eulogy and seemed downright creepy with the still live honoree on camera having to listen to these lengthy monologues. Just bloody awful.

And anytime they showed any kind of montage, they seemed unwilling to actually show us a full screen version. When they did their little tribute to film scores they showed more of the stage orchestra than they did of the films they accompanied. In some cases it was hard to even tell what movie they were referring to. At one point John commented on how it seemed as if the director and producers hate the movies. What else would explain there unwillingness to let the work speak for itself.

Overall, I think the awards went to the right folks. Although I liked Slumdogs a lot, I think The Reader may have been a better pick for Best Picture. However, I am pleased as punch that Kate Winslet won for the same movie. She gave a great performance and she has gone too long, and given too many other great performances to not have won one.

In terms of Best Picture, I liked The Reader much more than I thought I would and I disagree with those who think that the movie did too much to exonerate Winslet’s characters. I don’t think the film let anyone off the hook. Not Hanna, not the German people, not Ralph Fiennes character, no one comes out smelling like roses. It did an effective job portraying a situation that can have no happy ending or even meaningful resolution.

I thought Slumdog Millionaire probably placed second. I sobbed like a baby at the end. Not because the hero gets his true love, but because of the intense depictions of conditions in the slums of India. To think that people live in such dire circumstance all around the world and even to a certain degree in the U.S. is truly overwhelming.

Milk and Frost/Nixon were both excellent movies and were well executed, but as bio-pics I have a hard time thinking they are Oscar-worthy as films. Sean Penn definitely deserved his Best Actor win for the role of Harvey Milk and Frank Langella certainly deserved one for his portrayal as Nixon.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Eh. I enjoyed much more than I thought I would, but then again I was dreading having to go see it. The more I think about it the less I like the film. It had some redeeming qualities but overall it was a little too Forest Gumpy for my tastes.

Cruising for People Who Think They Would Hate It

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(Pictures aren’t too good, we were too relaxed to take good pictures.)

For years I thought that going on a cruise would be a horrible experience. Between Kathie Lee Gifford’s old Carnival Cruise commercials and an aversion to most group activities, I just couldn’t imagine ever wanting to go on one. During my year-long experiment as a vacation planner in 2008 I learned a lot about the cruise industry, what kinds of of cruise lines are out there, what the ships are like, where they go, what they cost, etc. The more I learned, the more I was drawn to going on one, if nothing else just to see what it was like. Of course I also have a healthy fascination with all modes of transportation so the prospect of getting on a giant ship was rather appealing.

So last week we took the plunge and went on a 7-day eastern Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Solstice and we had a blast. Lest you think we have sold out and turned in our independent traveller cards, here is how we survived (and loved) our cruise experience.

How to not make friends:
John and I travel very well together. We like to do many of the same things, our aesthetic sensibilities are similar and we really enjoy each other’s company. We also have a healthy fear of being forced into conversations or social situations with people we may not particularly care for. I am sure there were plenty of folks on board our ship with whom we would have had a great time. But 7-days is not enough time to weed through 2,800 guests to find the ones who might be simpatico with us. Our undiscussed strategy was to keep to ourselves as much as possible. Our category of cabin had its own dining room that was a lot smaller than the main dining room so it was easier to get a two-top than it would have been in the big room. If you do end up having to share a table with people you don’t know, you might want to try going for a really big table. With more people at the table your chances of getting along with someone increase or at the very least it makes it easier to ignore unsavory elements seated at your table. But there are other options as well for keeping to yourselves. Most ships have specialty restaurants where you can reserve a table for two, you can eat at the buffet and choose your own table, or you can order 24-hour room service (at no additional charge).

We did have a few pleasant interactions with other guests here and there, and the staff were all very friendly, but we pretty much kept to ourselves. Although our ship was huge there were plenty of places to get away from the crowds.

How to not get sick:
These are huge ships with lots of motion stabilizers, but I got news for you: they still move enough to induce motion sickness. We had fairly calm seas but still felt enough motion on the ship that we started to get a little sick. Thankfully Dramamine came to the rescue. The “less drowsy” version was particularly helpful. With the help of those little pills we managed to avoid any real discomfort. We saw plenty of people wearing the little patches behind their ears as well. Next time I am going to try those (but will still have my Dramamine just in case).

How to increase your chances of liking your experience:
It’s all about the ship. I repeat, it is all about the ship. While cruise ships go to fabulous destinations all over the world, I think the way to approach it (especially for first time cruisers) is to try and get on a ship that you like enough that it doesn’t matter where it is going. I chose the Solstice because it has a great spa, Celebrity is known for better than average food, and because the ship was practically brand new. Coming into service just last month, the Solstice still had that new ship smell. Everything was in perfect order, brand spanking new, and had all of the latest in cruising comfort. In particular:
  • Ship Design. The decor of the ship was much more subdued and sophisticated than your average cruise ship. Lots of blues and neutral colors with typical cruise ship garishness kept to a minimum. And our cabin was really comfortable. With a better bed than many hotels and a verandah that was perfectly sized for two of us. For seven days we had a ocean front view and a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy it.

  • The Art Collection. They actually had a real art collection throughout the ship. This was perhaps the biggest surprise for us. We don’t expect to see “real” art in most hotels let alone on a cruise ship. Images in the cabins and cabin hallways were kind of abstract photo prints, but in the more public areas the Solstice was chock-a-block with wonderful art by Hirst, Dine, Bleckner, Hockney, Rauschenberg, Sugimoto, Nils-Udo, to name just a few. They also had a “gallery” with your typical terrible tourist, more money than taste, art for sale. That that is easily ignored.

  • The Spa. As I have already mentioned the Solstice had a really fantastic Elemis spa. All of the staff and treatments were great, the spaces were beautiful and peaceful. A Persian Garden for relaxing in the steam or just looking out at the passing ocean, a relaxation room looking out the front of the ship for lounging after a really great massage, and a fitness center that was big and well-equipped.

  • The Activities. In addition to all of the typical cruise ship activities the Solstice also had a hot glass show with glass blowers from the Corning Museum of Glass giving daily demonstrations, and an actual lawn for croquet and bocce ball. On top of that there is all kinds of entertainment, some of it kind of cheesy (and avoidable) but some of the musical ensembles that rotate throughout the ship were really enjoyable. I almost got John out on the dance floor.

  • The Food. Celebrity has better than average food. With tons of options. You will never go hungry on a cruise. Thank god for the fitness center. Our only complaint was desserts. In general they were too refined. You know how sometimes the fancier a dessert looks the less it tastes like anything. That was kind of what was going on here. On the other hand they did have a gelato bar with easily some of the best gelato I have had outside of Italy.
How to not feel like a tourist:
This was our first time to the Caribbean (if you don’t count our trip to fabulous Bermuda, which is not in the Caribbean, so why did you bring it up) so we really didn’t know what to expect. If you don’t know your destinations it is best to have some kind of plan before heading ashore. Most of these small islands cater to the giant ships that dock on their shores. This usually means lots of shops that cater to tourists. Not terribly pleasant unless you are into that kind of thing. In most cases it is best to choose one of the shore excursions offered through your cruise line. You may still feel like a tourist, but they can at least get you away from the worst of the touristy bits, depending on what you choose. In San Juan we just walked around the old city and looked at the forts. This was actually kind of fun. It is at least a port that exists for more than just the cruise ships that pull up. St. Martaan is a bit of an armpit. Thankfully we took a shore excursion to Orient Beach which gave us the chance to enjoy the beach without worrying about how to get there or the hassle of renting chairs and umbrellas. The rest of the island we kind of explored on our own, but man, wasn’t much to write home about. Tortola we played with a Dolphin and didn’t get to see much else. In Haiti we went on a crazy zip line that started 500 feet above the beach and whizzed over the water. You can also check out CruiseCritic.com to get more info on ports of call so you can make the most of your time ashore. Bottom line though, it really is about the ship and maybe getting a taste of places that you might want to visit in the future.

Holy Moly!

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I just made the mistake of looking at my IRA balances. Thank god I am 20 years away from retirement. My accounts have gone down almost 50%. Egadz, the only thing that actually made money for the year was the cash in our savings account.

I know it shouldn’t bother me. Plenty of time to make up for lost value. Sigh. I need a Suze Orman pep talk.

Esoteric Television: Dial M for Music (and W for The Womenfolk)

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(Photo courtesy of the Womenfolk’s MySpace page)

After Christmas we spent a long weekend in New York. Not being in the mood to shop I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon at the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio or something like that). It isn’t a regular museum, they show various TV programs in various parts of the building, but the real focus is the library where you can look up just about any show you can think of, request it, and watch it.

My mission was to see if I could find any television appearances of The Womenfolk. The few video clips that have been on the Internet were a great chance to see the ladies sing (for the first time for those of us who were born too late), but both have been removed and I was hoping to find more. I had a list of shows and show numbers from imdb.com or some other online dbase. Unfortunately the show numbers weren’t helpful in the Paley Center’s catalog where they use show dates not episode numbers. I wasn’t able to find the episodes of Ed Sullivan and Red Skelton and other shows on which they appeared.

The only thing I managed to track down was an episode of the show “Dial M for Music”. Featuring the CBS Orchestra and hosted by some priest (?!). This particular episode focused on folk music. The “Irish” tenor Richard Hayman sang Danny Boy (which I hate) and a really rather nice version of “I’m Just a Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger”. Ralph Curtis played the harmonica on Deep River with the orchestra which I loved. He also added a nice touch to Hayman’s version of Wayfarin’ Stranger.

But the real stars of the show were The Womenfolk. Taped in 1966 (I think) the group was one short for this performance, missing Jean Amos who I believe had left the group by that time. The performances are pretty satisfying, I can only imagine how nice it would have been if all five had still been singing.

In total The Womenfolk did five songs: The Maybe Song, Young Man, Last Thing on my Mind, Love Come a’Tricklin’ Down, and something that sounded like Bonnie Heedin (Highland?) Laddie. The ladies were definitely not lip syncing (I wonder if they ever did?), only three of them were playing guitar (Leni Ashmore Sorensen did not), and there was no additional accompaniment. At least I don’t think the CBS orchestra joined in with them. It was fascinating to watch, to see/hear what each of the individual voices sounded like. It actually would have been cool if Ralph Curtis would have joined them with his harmonica on Last Thing on My Mind. Joyce James also encouraged the very clean-cut, young audience to join in on Love Come a’Tricklin’ Down.

I know I have waxed rhapsodic about The Womenfolk on many occasions, but I must say, as I sat at the Paley Center watching this one show over and over I was again reminded of how much I love this group. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment. I was happy to be seeing the footage, but a little sad that I could only find the one show when I know they did a lot more television. Hopefully I will be able to see more in the future.

For those who haven’t seen the original tribute to The Womenfolk, click here.

2008 Reading Wrap Up

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I read 11 fewer books in 2008 than I did in 2007. I don’t like that trend. I intend to improve upon that in the coming year. With good (book reading) friends in town for the last 10 days I have managed to acquire through gift and purchase about 30 books. Add this to the stack already in my commodious night stand and I have plenty of fodder for the coming months.

But what of the books for 2008? I was surprised to learn a few months ago that my sister was using my book list on the left column of MyPorch for reading ideas. Not a bad idea, except that my list makes no distinctions about whether or not the books were any good. So I thought I would give you a few of my favorites for the year.

I read almost no non-fiction, but the last book of the year Richistan, was a fascinating, quick read about the lives of the rich in America. Written by Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank, it is an amazing tale of excess, the gap between us and them, and the wannabes at all points of the economic spectrum. It also describes a world that may be involuntarily resetting itself as the economy continues to sour.

Looking back at my list for the year I see a lot of titles that I really didn’t care for especially in the first half of the year, but there were some good ones.

Favorite books of the year (in no particular order):

  • The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (wrote a post on this one previously).
  • The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Not a typical choice for me, lots of action, but a really great read.
  • Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. Woman decides to make all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (over 500 of them) in 365 days.
  • The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain. A bit of a coming of age tale tied in with a mysterious disappearance set in Paris.
  • Hudson River Bracketed by Edith Wharton. Not Wharton’s best but a great story nonetheless.
  • Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico. A 1950s London cleaning lady saves up her money for several years so she can go to Paris and buy a Dior gown. Not much meat to the book but a delightful story.
  • My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler. Raunchy, laugh out loud humor.

Signs of the times

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I am a reasonably intelligent human being who has used public transportation all over the world. So why did I feel like such an imbecile trying to navigate Atlanta’s MARTA? Jet lag perhaps? (You know the time difference between DC and Atlanta is so huge.) No, I think it had something to do with the god-awful signage the brilliant folks at MARTA have decided to put up and perhaps even more because of the god-awful signs they haven’t put up. As you can see from the map above, there are only two lines that make up the MARTA system. Shouldn’t be hard should it? But it was. The London underground is infinitely more complex but it’s superior signage makes it nearly impossible to get lost or even confused on that system. Yet MARTA had me cussing out loud as I changed trains and stepped onto a platform completely void of any kind of information that would have indicated that I was in the right place. The screeching Mariah Carey Christmas music did nothing to improve my mood. Don’t get me wrong, other metro systems have poor signage, but none as worthless as the stuff in Atlanta.

Love at First Bite

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We were in Atlanta this past weekend staying with friends. Happily they took us to a really lovely restaurant (gastro-pub? bistro?) called Cakes & Ale in Decatur. This is the kind of place I wish we had in DC. (Who knows, maybe we do. Although most places in DC seem too crowded, too corporate, too pricey, or too bad.) But at Cakes & Ale all is right with the world. It is a comfortable space, low noise, with really tasty food. The wine list was a little short, but the Oregon Pinot Noir we had darn good (Maysara, Jamsheed Reserve, Willamette Valley, Oregon-2005).

Right off the bat things were really tasty. They put those thin, cracker-like bread sticks on the table which I normally don’t like. But these particular babies were delicious. For starters we had an antipasti plate which was really set off by these amazing pickled cherries, Arancini–little deep fried balls of rice and cheese, and my personal favorite, roasted pork belly with farro, bacon, pecans and kohlrabi slaw. The pork belly was crunchy and melt in your mouth at the same time and the farro was perfectly cooked. I think everyone at the table (except for the vegetarian) coveted the pork belly. I don’t really remember what everyone else had for a main, I think there was gnocchi on the table, but I do remember my delicious cavatelli with sausage and short ribs.

Decatur is too far below the Mason Dixon Line for my taste, but if I had to live in the ATL, Cakes & Ale would be high on my list of favorite places.

Safari: Kenya November 2008

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John and I in two different hemispheres–literally!

We had the great opportunity to go on the trip of lifetime a few weeks ago. We joined a group of of 7 travel agents (like me) and their companions (like John) for a week long safari with Abercrombie & Kent. We saw and experienced so much in a week it was unbelievable. We had wonderful weather and a great time with our group.

If you plan to go on a safari, take my advice, don’t economize. This is one trip that has enough bumps (literal and figurative) that you should do everything you can to smooth them out. If you have to cut corners on your next 10 vacations to do your African safari the right way, I say do it. A&K did a fantastic job and was worth every penny.

Instead of being in a hotel or run of the mill lodge, we were in permanent tented camps that combined a great deal of comfort with the feeling of being out in the wilderness. The hot water bottle in the bed at night, comfy beds and linens, hot showers and flush toilets, and wake up calls that consisted of coffee and hot chocolate delivered to our tent was a great way to see Kenya.

As you will see from the following pictures, we also saw lots and lots of wildlife. This is just a fraction of the 1500 or so pictures we took.