Oh Happy Day....

Surely you didn't think I had no thoughts about the inauguration! Of course I do. But they are many, and you have a busy life. And I REALLY need to give you all some movie recommendations. So, in case you MISSED the inauguration, I will provide you some links to get you caught up and highlight my favorite moments for you.

THE PLACE for all things Obama, including his Inaugural Address:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

NYT Article that pretty much sums up most of my feelings about that address, accompanied by a sweet photo of the Bushes flying away as the folks lining the steps of the Capitol watch:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21assess.html?_r=2&hp

TIME Magazine's Photo Essay of the Events (for the non-readers out there, LOL):

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1872698_1827514,00.html

So, the inauguration itself-I was BLOWN AWAY by the images of the crowd. I definitely would have been claustrophobic! So what is this with Dick Cheney in a wheelchair because he hurt himself moving furniture or something? YEAH RIGHT. Um, like any of us believe that the VP of the US is moving his own furniture? Nice try. Don't know what is wrong with him, but not surprised at all that he chose to be a little less than truthful about it.

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before how much I love that Obama was a Constitutional Law professor for many years. It showed yesterday when Justice Roberts flubbed the oath of office, and Obama KNEW he did and clearly did not know what to do about it! Such a human moment-then, Roberts realized he'd transposed the words and corrected himself, but by that time Obama had already rearranged the words in HIS head and still said it the wrong way. LOL. Thank goodness that oath is just ceremonial!

Also-HOW CUTE are the First Daughters? Little Sasha will be entertaining us quite a bit, I predict. She gave her dad the thumbs up right before he took the Oath of Office. And Malia is a girl after my own heart-never saw her without that camera in her hand! At one point when everyone had to stand, VP Biden was in front of her and she could not get her shot-she handed him the camera and made him take the photo, and ALSO inspected the photo when he handed her the camera back to make sure he got it! LOL. Love these girls-so poised and adorable.

The ADDRESS: I thought it was very, very good. Loved that George had to sit there and listen to Obama tell him he had failed to make tough choices (since George thinks that was his strong suit). I loved the part about our spirit being stronger than that of terrorists (THAT is the statement I wish I head heard post 9/11) and also the part about greatness having to be earned; and how power neither protects us nor entitles us. Overall, I think his remarks were pragmatic and hopeful, and I hope he can pull it off!

Since I am addicted to this type of stuff, you know I also watched coverage of the Balls last night. Can I tell you how much I LOVED Michelle's dress. If you read my Golden Globes fashion review, you know that Michelle covered a couple of trends with her dress by a young, relatively unknown fashion designer-a one shouldered, Ivory, flowing chiffon gown with little flower appliques and some silver sparkle. I would totally wear this dress-crazy feminine, yet modern, youthful and elegant, and no First Lady has ever worn anything like it. I've seen mixed reviews on the dress, but I say SCORE. The best photos I have found are here (not easy to photograph the detail in a white dress!) and also shows up close on the gown and up close of the accessories.

http://www.celebitchy.com/32019/inaugural_fashion_michelle_obamas_jason_wu_dress/

(If you go to this site, the pics are down at the bottom of the page-there are a couple at the top, but a whole bunch of great ones if you scroll down)

Anyway, glad that this new time for America is finally here.

Golden Globe Goodness!

OK, I admit it, I am an awards show junkie. I love the speeches, the fancy dresses, and rolling my eyes at self-important celebrities crazy red-carpet interviews. So, I spent about 5 hours yesterday in front of the tv watching the show and red-carpet arrivals. It actually motivated me to clean my house because I was trying to get a list of chores done before it came on. Whatever works!

Before I get to the best part-the DRESSES-I must comment on Kate Winslet finally winning something! Seriously, I feel like she's nominated all the time, but never wins. I was afraid she was going to be the Susan Lucci of movie actresses or something. Anyway, after she won that first one for Best Supporting Actress, I just had this weird feeling that she would win the Best Actress one too. And she did! And she forgot Angelina Jolie! AWESOME. And, Tina Fey and 30 Rock continued to, well, Rock, winning Best Comedy and acting awards for Tina and Alec Baldwin. Best speeches of the night came from Tina telling all her online haters to suck it (Oh-and those haters are real people-I totally assumed she just made it up off the cuff-read all about it here: http://gawker.com/5129103/meet-the-haters-tina-fey-told-off), and then Tracy Morgan accepting for the show...you know, in the spirit of post-racial America. I'm sure you can You-Tube either clip if you missed it. I'm too lazy to do it for you.

And, while not a huge fan of either, kind of fun to see Bad-Boys-Gone-Good as a theme, with both Mickey Rourke and Colin Farrell cleaning up their acts and winning awards for acting and not being trainwrecks. Sobriety for the win!

So....on to the pretty! I could probably make this pretty lengthy, so I will try and reign it in. I'll pick a couple of trends and show you my fave/least fave from each trend. Here's a link to Popsugar which has a pretty comprehensive photo gallery of the evening if you want to see for yourself ones that I may mention but not upload a photo for (again, lazy, lo siento):

http://www.popsugar.com/2684431

BASIC BLACK

As usual, lots of ladies opted for slimming, always classy black. Kate Winslet, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Renee Zellweger, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey. You know, I would REALLY love for Tina Fey to NOT wear a black dress to an awards show for once. Love her, but why is she even bothering to wear different dress? Why not the same one over and over? Like a funeral dress!

OK, best black for me has to go to Kate Winslet here. Its just so classic and her hair and makeup were also perfect. Since she won, twice, she'll have to keep looking at these pics over and over for awhile, so its a good thing she looked good.

Worst black? Definitely Renee Zellweger! Tina gets a pass for laziness ONLY because Renee goofed up! What on earth is this? Renee usually does better.....tsk, tsk. PRETTY IN PURPLE

Lots of purple gowns, in various shades. Hayden Panettiere from Heroes, Olivia Wilde from House, Anna Paquin from True Blood, Rumer Willis of Demi and Bruce, all chose lovely shades of purple from lilac to deep grape. None of them were all that great to me, but Hayden's dress was VERY unflattering-it smooshed her chest and the straight neckline really did nothing for her. And it made her look short (so did Anna Paquin's dress). They both need to call Reese Witherspoon (who was not there-for shame)for style tips-both are petite and a little bit athletic in body types. If Hayden had picked, say, a knee-length fitted cocktail dress in the same shade, with a strapless sweetheart neckline, I think it would have been much better. Anna's wasn't as bad, but I wish she'd done something a little more daring, she's young and her dress was kind of old.

SHADES OF PALE

Pale shades of White, Cream, Pale Pink, Pale Gray, and Nude tones dominated the red carpet. Sandra Bullock, Kate Beckinsale, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Demi Moore, Eva Mendes, that girl from Momma Mia (the daughter, not Meryl Streep), Miley Cyrus, America Ferrara, etc. Lots of pretty dresses for sure, but I was a little under-dazzled by the lack of color. Hoping that they are saving it for the Oscars.

I think my Fave Pale Dress girl was Sandra Bullock. You don't see her much anymore, and she looked very nice.

Worst? This is bad, but I really thought Eva Mendes looked like she was wearing a very fancily-folded napkin. Just didn't do it for me!
WORST HAIR-Drew Barrymore. ACK! Lovely dress, pretty makeup, all distracted by whatever is on her head.
BLUE RIBBON.....blue was also one of the few shades on the red carpet....Mary Louise Parker, who is on one of my favorite shows, Weeds, looked really pretty with natural flowing hair and a bright blue dress which looked awesome against her pale skin and dark hair.

January Jones of Mad Men-also AMAZING in a sky blue number-it was like nothing else on the red carpet and again, great color choice to go with her hair and skin. And it had POCKETS! Cool.Best that didn't fit into any of my other categories....Eva Longoria in a red number that had the coolest scalloped neckline. Don't really like her, but you have to admit she's got confidence!

Worst that didn't fit into any other categories.....Christina Applegate. Yellow, strapless, ball-gowney number. Love her, kept thinking she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and could not get past that.

Go Preds!

See, that's me, trying to look on the bright side after the Titans blew having the best record in the NFL this season, first week bye in the playoffs, AND home field advantage when they lost to arch-enemy the Ravens on Saturday. That's right, arch-enemy. Nearly this exact same scenario played out a few years ago when we lost to the Ravens in the playoffs. Only at that point, they didn't have half of our old players. LOL. I really had to think about it when someone would say Samari Rolle or Derrick Mason and remember that they are NOT on our team anymore!

But, alas, 3 turnovers do not a playoff game win. So, back to the drawing board. There's always next year? (me. bright side. one more time.)

The Holidays are Almost Over

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! There are so many traditions that I love at this time of year. Mostly, getting lots of days off work. :)

My best friend and I started cooking Christmas dinner for our families the year after we graduated college, and each year we have a different theme. This year was Italian, so we made lasagna, fettucine alfredo, salad, cheese/garlic bread, and green beans and cheesecake....YUM YUM for the TUM TUM as my friend Vanessa likes to say!

We also go see the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life" on the big screen as the local art-house theater shows it every year. I have to say, every year I enjoy it more and more, and apparently it is catching on as when we used to go, there would be like ten people in the theater, and this year it was packed! Good for the Belcourt, but the annoying people texting in front of us were killing me! Anyway, I LOVE this movie, I love the moment where Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed's characters see each other at the party for the first time as "grown-ups" and Donna Reed looks so resplendent and who wouldn't fall in love with her? And the scene where they are talking on the phone together and the tension between them is CRAZY-I just love it. If you have not seen this movie, go now to Netflix and put it in your queue. Or I will let you borrow it. But you have to see it.

Did I mention lots of days off work? So today I am back for a three-day work week but I had three days off last week and two this week and I have watched all kinds of TV marathons-Some in the form of my own DVDs, some scheduled on tv.....I love watching TV shows in marathon format!

And even though the Titans lost yesterday-like, ugly lost-it didn't matter in the grand scheme and we might end up playing the Colts again if they beat the Broncos next week, and we will exact our revenge. It always comes around.....look at what happened to the Jets!

Also trying to get caught up on the photography website and blog....will be working on that this week. Since I only have one job now, I will be looking to kick up the photo biz a notch so if you have any photography needs, or have friends looking for a photographer, spread the word. If not, check out my website anyway.....

Merry Christmas Titans fans! (and everyone else too)

It was an early Christmas present yesterday for Titans fans, as our team beat the Steelers, securing home-field advantage for the playoffs. We also got a nice stocking stuffer since Brett Favre and the Jets, who handed us our first loss of the season, lost to Seattle and might not even make the playoffs. AWWWW. So sad. Don't mess with the Titans!

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081222/SPORTS01/812220323

Also if you are looking for something to get you in the Christmas spirit, perhaps while sitting at your desk avoiding doing your actual work as I like to do, NPR has a diverse playlist of Christmas music-they are calling it "Jingle Jams" and you can stream it on a continuous loop. It should help you feel festive!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97778347

OUCH!

It is a gloomy, rainy day here in Nashville, one of those days where we've already seen the hi temp and its all downhill from here. And there is an Ice Advisory, so by the time we're all ready to drive home from work its going to be sleeting and turning to ice....fabulous. Can I just tell you I am over the rain, cold, and gloom that hung around most of last week and looks to be more of the same this week? It HURTS me. Please sunshine, come back!

Anyway, Titans lost for the 2nd time to the freakin' TEXANS, but they deserved it because they all played like poop. Hopefully its a good kick in the you-know-where and they'll get it together in time to play the Steelers. Bad news is we may have lost Albert Haynesworth and we're already down Kyle Vanden Bosch, so we really have to be in the game next week. Everyone is blaming Fisher for going for it instead of kicking the field goal near the end of the game, but come on. We would not have had to rely on that kind of risk-taking call anyway had we played a better game for, oh, the first 3 quarters.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081215/SPORTS01/812150341

In political news, most are focusing on that crazy Governor from Illinois, and whether or not he'll step down today (in a word: NO). I never trust anyone named Rod. Just a helpful suggestion, Illinois. But I'm actually more amused by two other stories in the political news arena.

First, I am sure you've all seen the video of GWB ducking (pretty good reflexes, George!) as an Iraqi reporter throws shoes at him and calls him a dog (apparently that is the Iraqi version of giving him the finger). That's pretty amusing in and of itself. But the BEST part of this is when George tells the media that he's not insulted, and he thinks the guy just wanted to be on TV. Once again, GWB has no idea why loads of people, here and abroad, are disgusted with him, and proves his lack of self awareness, which, you know, is part of the disgust.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/BushLegacy/story?id=6460837&page=1

Second, John McCain was on This Week yesterday and totally threw Sarah Palin under the bus, saying while it was a pleasure to know her (KISS OFF!) there are a lot of good governors out there (QUALIFIED!) that will be shaping the future of the Republican party and he would not necessarily support her for President in the future (OVER HIS DEAD BODY!). He also defended Obama in relation to Governor-gate by refusing to join the criticisms of the RNC and said we should be talking about the economy instead.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/14/mccain.senate/index.html

Things I Hate...OK Just One Thing.

I have never been able to stomach that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show. I can't really get through an episode without being in tears, and I guess my social work background comes out because I always wonder what happens AFTER the family gets this great house-can they afford the mortgage? What about the electricity for all those fancy flat screen TVs and stuff? IS that really going to cure their cancer or help the blind dad see again? If someone really wanted to help the family, why not offer to pay their medical bills or something-why give them a fancy house and stuff they don't really need? It may make them feel good for awhile, but what happens when the camera crew leaves and the bills keep coming? We all know that more "Stuff" doesn't really solve your problems, it usually seems to create more....so lo and behold a headline on People Magazine's website about a family now unable to pay the mortgage on their dream house and has lots of medical bills too. I just get frustrated that the line of thinking on how to make someone's life easier or better is to give them nice things and a new house....and then leave them to deal with the aftermath, not to mention the new standard of living they will be accustomed to which they clearly would not have been able to enjoy otherwise. Now, I know in some cases they make wide hallways for wheelchair bound folks, and that is legitimate. But tearing down a whole house to do it? Probably not necessary. I'd rather see a show use mege-bucks to pay off someone's medical bills, assist folks who can't pay their bills due to catastrophic events, send kids with cancer to Disneyland or something.

I can't help it, the whole premise of this show has always bugged me, and now I feel justified knowing that I was right-the good times may not last for these families, and who's going to help them when they don't?

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20245129,00.html