Archive for the 'In the News' Category

September 14, 2009 | In the News,Life in General

I heard the news about Patrick Swayze on the way home from work today.

How sad is this?

And why does 57 sound so young?

My own father is 64–65?–and survived a bout of prostate cancer. He got lucky.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen DIRTY DANCING. Seriously. I couldn’t. I’ve seen it so many times. I saw it twice in the movie theater, watched it when it came on the cable channels, watched it when it came on the regular channels (I hate it when they don’t know where to put the commercial breaks) and TOTALLY DID THE SNOOPY DANCE when the sequel came out.

I was so there. And loved it. Saw it twice in the movie theater, watched it when it came on…well, you know the routine.

Both movies are in my movie collection.

I owned the Dirty Dancing soundtrack for a while.

I had a poster of Patrick, as Johnny Castle, on my wall. And damn did he look fine. Dressed all in black, reclining on one side…

In reading this article about him, they listed some of the movies he’d been in and, ironically, I’ve seen them all. Even a few they didn’t mention.

DIRTY DANCING will always be my favorite. And ROAD HOUSE will always be Mr. Maul’s. Although he’d never admit it. Or the embarrassing fact that he and his BF have seen it so many times they can now quote movie lines.

And whenever I hear “Unchained Melody” (I really love that song), I think of that scene from GHOST. I mean, really, who hasn’t?

It also mentioned in the article that he danced with the Joffrey Ballet. For those of you unfamiliar with the dance world, the Joffrey is to ballet what Juliard is to music. In all the stuff I’ve read about Patrick, this is something I never knew about him. I just knew that he was great dancer and it was obvious he’d had some kind of ballet training. Amazingly cool that he played football, but wanted to dance.

Rest in peace, Patrick. I hope you’re teaching those angels how to tango.

Technorati Tags: Patrick Swayze, DIRTY DANCING, ROAD HOUSE, Unchained Melody, GHOST, Joffrey Ballet, Juliard

July 24, 2009 | In the News,Life in General,Random Thoughts

It’s reading stories like THIS that made me want to self-publish in the first place. And the main reason why I’m still on the fence about the series.

June 25, 2009 | In the News,Life in General,Music Queue

Michael Jackson is dead.

I’m still finding this hard to believe. Funny how you think someone will live forever.

I can’t say that I was ever a huge fan (my sister was, though), nor did I buy any of his albums, but I loved his music. All the songs that he put out, from the time he was young, to the popular ones in the 80′s.

My Dad taught me how to moonwalk on the kitchen floor when I was young.

When I was in middle school, my Dad had gotten us tickets to see him in concert…but it never happened. He ended up cancelling for some reason. Don’t remember why. My sister was devastated. I imagine all the people who’d bought tickets for his upcoming concert will be devastated, too. I wonder how much they paid?

Despite the scandals, Michael was a fabulous entertainer. He had great songs and outstanding dance moves.

Rest in peace, Michael. You will be deeply missed.

He had a lot of great songs, but I think I’ll always be partial to “Man in the Mirror.”

What’s your favorite Michael Jackson song?

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror.”

June 16, 2009 | Book Stuff,In the News,Life in General,Random Thoughts,The 4-1-1 on Me

Saw this article about the meaning of dreams in the Yahoo headlines today.

It’s kind of a long article, but here are some highlights:

A recent study by Walker and his colleagues examined how rest – specifically, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – influences our ability to read emotions in other people’s faces. In the small analysis of 36 adults, volunteers were asked to interpret the facial expressions of people in photographs, following either a 60- or 90-minute nap during the day or with no nap. Participants who had reached REM sleep (when dreaming most frequently occurs) during their nap were better able to identify expressions of positive emotions like happiness in other people, compared with participants who did not achieve REM sleep or did not nap at all. Those volunteers were more sensitive to negative expressions, including anger and fear.

….REM sleep appears to not only improve our ability to identify positive emotions in others; it may also round out the sharp angles of our own emotional experiences. Walker suggests that one function of REM sleep – dreaming, in particular – is to allow the brain to sift through that day’s events, process any negative emotion attached to them, then strip it away from the memories. He likens the process to applying a “nocturnal soothing balm.” REM sleep, he says, “tries to ameliorate the sharp emotional chips and dents that life gives you along the way.”

That palliative safety-valve quality of sleep may be hampered when we fail to reach REM sleep or when REM sleep is disrupted, Walker says. “If you don’t let go of the emotion, what results is a constant state of anxiety,” he says.

The theory is consistent with new research conducted by Rebecca Bernert, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Florida State University who specializes in the relationship between sleep and suicidal thoughts and behaviors…

In her study of 82 men and women between the ages of 18 and 66 who were admitted into a mental-health hospital for emergency psychiatric evaluation, Bernert discovered that the presence of severe and frequent nightmares or insomnia was a strong predictor of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. More than half of the study participants had attempted suicide at least once in the past, and the 17% of the study group who had made an attempt within the previous month had dramatically higher scores in nightmare frequency and intensity than the rest. Bernert found that the relationship between nightmares or insomnia and suicide persisted, even when researchers controlled for other factors like depression…

I found this article to be highly interesting. There are times when I can’t seem to shut off my mind and I never achieve the “nocturnal soothing balm” they talk about in the article. Most of the time I do dream, and they’re vivid. So much so that I can describe them the next day, even though it would be in snippets. It’s never a full story, just long segments that jump around.

I also tend to see dreams as a sign. A reoccurring dream I kept having stopped after I wrote about it (Dance Jam Productions). I’m currently having another reoccurring dream that I’m definitely going to have to get out of my head sooner or later.

Another thing I’ve discovered about myself is that I tend to dream about the product of my environment. And by this, I mean if I watch–or read–something before I go to bed, chances are I’ll dream about it. Whether I’m putting myself in that same scenario or it’s the same scenario, different outcome.

There’s been a lot of death and near deaths in my family over the years, so sometimes I’ll dream about that: how I’ll react at a family member’s funeral, what people will do/say at my funeral, etc. If something happened at work, or between me and Mr. Maul, my mind will re-create the scene and I’ll have my this-is-what-I-wanted-to-say/do moment.

The mind is a really interesting mechanism and the ability to dream…how amazing is that?

So this inquiring mind wants to know…do you remember your dreams when you wake up or do you forget them?

Technorati Tags: Dance Jam Productions

June 12, 2009 | Boob Tube,In the News,Life in General

I saw this on Yahoo headlines today: Boy Hit By Meteorite.

Reading this article made me think of one of my favorite shows, SMALLVILLE, and how Mr. Maul stopped watching it because for a while, they were doing “Freak of the Week” type episodes. The fallout from Clark’s plunge to Earth was bringing a lot of kryptonite-infused baddies out of the woodwork.

Better keep an eye on that kid. He might start developing some latent supernatural ability.

Wouldn’t that be interesting if that really happened? I sense a story…

Technorati Tags: Boy Hit By Meteorite, SMALLVILLE