18: A song that you wish you heard on the radio.

The Gregory Brothers, best known for Auto-tune the News, and other accidental singers, are pretty awesome and hilarious.  The dude who creates all the beats and tunes in order to songify unintentioal singers, is Micheal Gregory and he has a number of very poppy/sweet songs that I very much enjoy!  I chose this one because it is both a melancholy song set to a happy tune and there is clapping involved.  I’m a sucker for clapping.

17: A song that you hear often on the radio

I cannot be more happy that Adele has hit it big in the states, but I hear ‘Rolling in the Deep’ all the freaking time on all the radio stations.  I do like this song (clapping!) and I think her success is great, but I would love the powers that be to move on to another song of hers.

16: A song that you used to love but now hate.

Middle school was a time of bad emotional music, most of which I either regret or like purly for nostalgic reasons.  Some was genuinly good, but for the most part, it was a rough period in my personal music journey.  Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden is a prime example. (I Knew I Loved You came in a close second, perhaps even a tie.  I have much to repent for…)

21: A song that you listen to when you’re happy

I love songs that are kind of melancholy but set to a happy/dancey tune. Future Bible Heroes mix it up a bit with ‘I’m Lonely and I Love it’.

20: A song that you listen to when you’re angry.

I can’t really think of any song in particular I go to when I’m angry, but if I had to choose, I’d go with Q-Tip’s ‘You.’  It’s a good “I’m pissed, but moving on” song.

19 : A song from your favorite album

I have several favorite artists and albums and songs.  But an album I’ve been listening to non stop lately is Neko Case’s Blacklisted.  I love all of these songs, so it was difficult to choose, so here is what I went with ‘Deep Red Bells.’  It’s one I very much like to sing along to.

24: A song that you want to play at your funeral

I think I’d like my funeral to be a joyous occasion and would want people to remember me through dance.  Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” is both awesome and more appropriate for the setting than you would imagine…

23: A song that you want to play at your wedding

I am a fan of the standards and it’s tough to get more classic standard than George and Ira Gershwin’s ‘Our Love is Here to Stay.’ It is timeless and sums up what a life together should be without being too sappy.

22 : A song that you listen to when you’re sad

I somehow wasn’t really aware of either Nico nor the Velvet Underground for sometime (meaning until The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack).  It’s not that I hadn’t heard their music, I just wasn’t aware that I had heard it before.  So, at the age of about 16 I found ‘These Days,’ and what better time to hear this song than when you are 16?  It had a profound effect on me – there were many a nighttime drive along listening to this song on repeat.  That kind of angst is kept at a minimum now, 10 years later (oh my goodness has it been that long?) but it’s still there when I’m sad.

27: A song that you wish you could play.

Specifically the drums on Interpol’s song ‘Evil.’  A great song in general, but those drums are just killer. I’m also a fan of the bass, and the video.  It’s weird just the way I like.

26: A song that you can play on an instrument.

I never really had serious music lessons.  I remember Emily and I teaching ourselves how to play this on her piano when we were quite young at her house.  I hadn’t even seen the movie yet, and wouldn’t until sophomore year in college.   This seems odd since I have a deep love for Julie Andrews, and nuns.

25:  A song that makes you laugh.

There are lots of funny songs by They Might Be Giants, The Magnetic Fields, and various musicals to choose from, but none get me quite like DJ Assault.  This is most certainly not safe for work, and possibly not for where ever you may be in general.  Though this song is not as bad as most, it always makes me laugh.  Thank you to Emily, Jean and Avery for finding this gem and sharing it with the rest of us!

So, for the next 10 days before I leave, you will get 3 songs a day from the famed Facebook game “30 Day Music Challenge.”  I have decided to blog this because, 1. I sometimes need to remember there are other parts of the Internet beyond Facebook. 2. Not all the songs are appropriate for all of the people I’m friends with on Facebook. 3. I just want to start blogging again and this seems like a good way to kick start it.  Here we go!

Looking at the list, I’ve decided to do this backwards. (Who starts with their favorite song?  That is way too loaded a question.) So, instead:

30: Your favorite song at this time last year .

I had visited friends in NYC who were on a Beyonce kick (frankly it’s a life long kick) and I got on board immediately with ‘Diva’. Beyonce is Beyonce, and that is all that needs to be said here.

29: A song from your childhood.

I remember sitting on my eldest sister’s bed as she played me ‘Spider’ by They Might Be Giants (on the album Apollo 18).  It was the first song I heard of theres.  I was 11, and my life would never be the same.  Unfortunately the only videos for this song online are fan made and more than weird/disturbing, so I give you a different TMBG song that is also near and dear to my heart, “We Want a Rock’ off of the album, Flood:

28: A song that makes you feel guilty.

I’m not sure what this means.  It could mean a song that is a guilt trip, or one that I associate with a guilty memory or a guilty pleasure.  There is already a guilty pleasure one (#13), so I guess it’s not that.  Making up my own criteria, I’ve decided to change this to “a song that makes you feel dumb.”  This happens most often when I hear a song, enjoy it and then tell people about it only to later find out it’s a cover.  Not the end of the world, but I feel like I should know these things.  This happening to me on Glee a few weeks ago (adding an extra layer of feeling of dumb).  They did a whole (rather good) episode based on the Fleetwood Mac album, Rumors.  Not only have I never listened to Rumors, when this song was sung, I had no idea it was a Fleetwood Mac song.  I know their general hits – I have the Best Of… compilation – but clearly I need to bone up on my 70s era music history.

I know this version of Songbird from ‘Love Actually.’  It is a very nice song sung very well, and I still like it, but now when I hear it I feel a little dumb that Glee outsmarted me.

Tomorrow I will read all of Mockingjay, so tonight I will enjoy some light entertainment in the form of dancing in film, mostly American with a dash of Australian.

First we have the Amazingly talented and popular Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1930s:

Then the fabulous Gene Kelly and Donold O’Conor being quite funny in the 1950s:

And then (if I’m not mistaken, please tell me if I am!) there is kind of a hiatus for dancing in film that didn’t originate on broadway until about Dirty Dancing in 87, though it’s set in the early 60s when movie musicals were a fad.  In this case only Mr. Swayze was anything close to a professional dancer.

Then there was an Australian film in 1992, Baz Luhrmann’s first, lighter masterpeice, Stricktly Ballroom.  One of my favorite all time films!  There’s no singing, just dancing.  Here is the beginning stages of hiring rather accomplished dancers as actors who really can’t act all that well.  This practice is really exemplified in Center Stage, where dancers are doing what they do best in a more modern and American setting.  (I say “modern” but when I looked up the film, it’s already 10 years old. the only acrtor/dancer who has moved on was Zoe Saldana)

Strictly Ball room dancing:

Center Stage dancing:

So, since 2000 is not modern, lets go to the continuation of this practice of dancers turned actors with the Step Up films.  Specifically in 2008 for Step up 2 the Streets.  You might have noticed the 3rd installment, Step up 3D is out now, but since I haven’ seen it, we will stick with the second one.  So here is a very modern dance sequence/climax:

All in all I like that the Step Up franchise is trying to do it’s part to bring dancing back to the silver screen.  We have America’s Best Dance Crew, but I like to know more about the dancers be it fiction or nonfiction.  i’ll take a documentary!

I know I missed all Bollywood which has never given up on the movie musical/dance number.  There is just way too much to cover since that is just about all they do.

I apologize for those not into dancing, but perhaps you should give it a chance because it just makes life better!

Here is one of his cartoons that encompasses his work:

Here you can see the quintessential mechanism that uses several complex steps to complete one simple task.  These Rube Goldberg Machines can be found in the game, Mouse Trap, the film, Peewee’s Big Adventure, in OK Go‘s new video for “This Too Shall Pass” and, where I first fell in love with it, at the Franklin Institute here in Philadelphia. It looked something like this:

I bring this up, because my favorite informational YouTube channel, Rocketboom, has dedicated an entire episode to him, and it made me think about how these Rube Goldberg machines have followed me throughout my life, from the first time i stood mesmerized in front of one.

Here are the videos of the machines I mentioned above, enjoy! Let me know of any that you’ve seen in the comments!

We’ll start these off with the Rocketboom video for some background:

Mouse Trap:

Peewee’s Big Adventure:

OK Go

Not only was it the first science fiction show I was exposed to (set brilliantly “20 minutes into the future”) but the character Max Headroom was also used on a math show for kids on PBS called Square One.

I bring all of this up because now the short-lived original series “Max Headroom” is now on DVD!

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“Max Headroom: The Complete Series: Matt Frewer turns in the best performance of his career as a former reporter whose mind is copied into a computer after an accident. He becomes the sarcastic on-screen Max Headroom.

The late-’80s series is set in a world with 4,000 TV channels where the networks rule. Only Max can help keep a check on them, with help from a handful of supporters. This whole examination of TV’s place in the world is fascinating and made better by Frewer’s memorable shoulders-up performance. (Grade: A-minus)

Only 14 episodes were produced, but the show remains one of the most innovative and creative TV offerings.”

My parents have a tape of the original pilot with the original commercials (talk about an artifact), but I also have acquired, thanks to my mother’s support of my nerdiness and her love of yard sales, what seemed to be the same pilot but with a british cast, except the main character who remained Matt Frewer.

Though, it turns out, I have it backwards.  According to Wikipedia, “Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future is a 1985 cyberpunk television movie created by Chrysalis Visual Programming Ltd. for Channel 4 in the UK to provide a back story for Max Headroom, a computer generated TV host. An American television series, Max Headroom, was later developed from the original film.”

This makes more sense to me.  Being the avid Doctor Who fan that I am and growing up in the US, I can say that this depiction of a dystopian future would be more likely to thrive in the UK.  In the UK, theories like Evolution and The Big Bang are accepted as truths, so the idea of science and technology moving us forward while at the same time possessing a healthy fear of it destroying our way of life makes for, what i consider to be, good television.

Generally, the US doesn’t really like the idea of a dystopian future.  We like our television to be an escape from our daily woes, not to add to our worries of the future.  I won’t go too far down this rabbit hole or I’ll end up writing forever.  So instead, I will leave you with part 1 of “Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future” and Part 1 of the pilot for the American “Max Headroom” and you can judge for yourselves.  Let me know what you think in the comments!:

Note the young Jeffrey Tambor:

First by Will Ferrell:

Second by Dame Judi Dench

obviously one is more sophisticated than the other, but there is one i like more.  take a wild guess as to which one.

My new years resolution is to invest in myself.  I have done this mainly by not only joining a gym (the cheapest one around) and to hire a personal trainer.  I think this is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  There is so much about the human body that I have either forgotten or just never knew.  But, this is not a cheap thing, so to balance out this money investment, I have also found some free ways to keep myself in check.  I will share three of my favorite sites that are free and helpful in both physical and fiscal ways.

1. Livestrong.com’s MyPlate:

This site not only helps keep track of your food intake and daily fitness, it also helps keep track of your overall progress with weight charts, size charts and daily/weekly/monthly “Recommended Daily Allowances”.  There is a gold membership you can sign up for, but I have not done that because their free service is just the right amount of help I need. It just helps me remember everything I’ve already eaten so I wont go for that extra piece of food.

The best part, I find, is the calorie status bar that resets daily.  It is linked to the weight and height you entered and the option you chose to loose, gain or stay at the same weight.  so as your weight changes, your calories allowance changes.  This was a good day sorry it’s hard to read, but you get the gist:

2. FitSugar.com: “Fitness, Health & Well-being”

This blog came to me from the ever fabulous Melissa.  She would share posts through Google Reader (Oh, how I love my Google Reader) and I got so into it that I just subscribed myself.

They have posts that cover general good habits, suggestions for better health, celebrity fitness news and, my favorite, links to articles at other websites. FitSugar in general covers all sorts of topics from food to fitness to history.  I have gotten good tips from them that often come up in my training sessions like the benefits of interval training, to pushup variations, to general motivation.

3. Mint.com

This is going to sound crazy, but this was the biggest wake up call of my whole new lifestyle.  Actually budgeting my funds is key to everything else.  The whole ecosystem of my life is based upon my financial status.  I can’t go to the trainer, I can’t got to the gym, I can’t pay my overdue fees at the library, I can’t travel to see my friends.  This all equals a very unhappy Charlotte.

So with thanks to Sister Sarah and to the wonderful Collettos, I now have Mint in my life.

Here is a video that explains it better than I can.  This video is a year old now, so some of the site looks a bit more modern, but the concept is the same. Overall it made me take a long hard look at what I was actually spending and what I needed to real in so I can handle the debt I have

Honorable mention: A site I found through FitSugar – habitfordge.com claims that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so they help you keep track by emailing you everyday to ask if you have been doing whatever it is that you told them you should be doing.  It’s worth a gander.

For some piece of mind, there are sites that you can help the world at for free!

The Free Rice game, The Hunger/Breast Cancer / Child Health / Literacy / Rain Forest / Pet Rescue Site.com.

And I would be remiss if I did not, again, plug Heather and Michael Colletto who are working with the SOLD project in Thailand to help prevent child prostitution.  Please consider supporting them with some of the money you save through Mint.com! This is an instance where every little bit absolutely helps!