Being a US Citizen living outside the USA I get alot of interesting and sometimes StRAngE questions/comments on the USA from people in other countries. Thought I'd share some of them with you.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Day late and a dollar short

You know, one of the perils of living and travelling a lot overseas instead of staying in the USA is I always seem to be finding out about music, musicians, hits, hotties, and delicious divas waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy after everyone else.

Anastacia is the F**KING BOMB! She's been doing her thing for years already... Here we are in 2008 (2550 on the Buddhist calendar) and she's been putting out major league hot sh*t albums (can I still use the word album?) since 2000.

I know I've blogged about her before but she FREAKIN' ROCKS! She was a part of Divas Las Vegas and absolutely ooooooooozed sexuality, sensuality, unique style, all-around hotness, and vocal power every time she stepped onto the stage. But you know what? It was in FREAKIN' 2002!!! I'm 6 whole years behind the curve on this! WTF?

Check out this line up...

Celine Dion (Vomitus Divatius),
SHAKIRA! (Hispanicus Seductivus),
ANASTACIA (Oozingus Sexius),
Cher (Sultrius Oldchickus),
Stevie Nix (Wowus! Shestillalivus?),
Dixie Chicks (Whous Caresus?)

Okay so I'm being a bit hard on Celine. I liked her back when her first album (there's that word again) came out - what an amazing vocal talent! But then got kinda ticked off when she started hitting the charts after that using other peoples music. She was hitting the top 40 doing covers of other artists songs and I hated it... what a waste of a voice, and what a cheap-assed way to sell albums. Then came Titanic and the major massive male-only power vomiting. I got so sick of that song I'd get heaves everytime I heard a flute. Then everything you heard from her was a sappy love story ballad... blech. I like the occassional ballad, but c'mon! Do something, anything different once in a while... please?

Then I saw a clip of Divas Las Vegas 2002.

Celine Dion, Anastacia, and Shakira were made to work together!!! Their voices all have such great range, power, and that weird-but-cool warping back-of-the-throat totally unique vocalese style.

And strangely enough... I didn't vomit! Celine and Anastacia did a f**king awesome cover of AC/DC's "Rock me all night long"! Yeah... I know. Weird right? Celine Dion doing AC/DC!!! I said it before I'll say it again... WTF? She even admitted in backstage interview that AC/DC was her favorite rock band. Cool. I have newfound respect for her. I'm not running out to buy her albums, but I did buy a copy of Divas Las Vegas. :-)

And Anastacia? Babe you need to get yourself back into the USA market. We need more of you over here. The Europeans have had you long enough, time to come home... and I need to pay attention more to current music trends!

If you folks are interested check out the following two clips from the Divas Las Vegas 2002 show.

1. Shakira doing an incredible cover of Elvis's "Always on my mind"

2. Anastacia and Celine's cool cover of "Shook me all night long"

3. Anastacia Anastacia Anastacia! Compilation vid of her best songs over the years

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Sense & Sensibility

For any of you guys who have never been married, or have not been involved in a serious relationship with a woman... YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS STUFF!!!

9 WORDS WOMEN USE

1. Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

2. Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3. Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

4. Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

5. Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)

6. That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7. Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome.

8. Whatever: Is a women's way of saying #!@* YOU!

9. Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to #3.

...and if I owned a restaurant, I'd have this sign hanging at every entrance...

Seems sensible to me. :-)

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Monday, January 14, 2008

TAG, I'm it!

Curses! I've been tagged!

Here are the rules:
1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here we go with my 8 random factoids...

1. I hate being tagged. I'm such a sporadic blogger that I wind up feeling guilty if the person tagging me did it a week ago, but I don't find out because I haven't blogged in that length of time. Sorry.

2. My favorite sandwich is a banana sandwich. Banana, peanut butter, mayo, on whole wheat. Sometimes lightly toasted or do the whole thing just slightly warmed. AND must use crunchy peanut butter! YUMMY!!

3. I hate liver and I hate eggplant. Probably the only two food items that I simply can't stand. I'm not real fond of eating any kind of internal organ, but liver is simply disgusting - it's the texture that gets me.... blech!!! And eggplant is just plain yucky. I've eaten bugs, yak, llama, aligator, emu, zebra, giraffe, and all kinds of weird things (living in Asia will do that to you), but nothing grosses me out as much as liver and eggplant.

4. I'm a Dr. Pepper adict. No big surprise there. Somehow I managed to live 3.5 years in Thailand without Dr. Pepper. However, the first thing I did after arriving in the USA and stepping off the plane was walk straight to the nearest convenience store and buying myself a big bottl of DP!!! Now I'm happily drinking it buy the case again. :-)

5. I smoked marijuana once about 17 years ago. Hated it. It was thoroughly disgusting and made me violently ill. Yes I inhaled. It's the only controlled substance I've ever tried.

6. I have an opinion on pretty much everything. I just have the good manners (and good sense) to keep most of them to myself.

7. I hate spiders with a passion! Worst nightmare I ever had in my life involved spiders. Lots and lots and LOTS of spiders! ----brrrrrrrrrr---- gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!

8. I've had quite a few paranormal experiences. Some bizarre, some uplifting and inspirational, and at least 1 which was extremely unpleasant and left a lasting impression.

Now I'm supposed to list 8 people I want to "Tag" so they will also perform this exercise and bare their own deepest darkest secrets to the blogosphere. Problem is, most of my bloggy friends were listed by the person who tagged me. Except for...

1. Palola <--- blogs
2. Dr. Pineapple <--- blogs
3. Silicone Nitride Balls <--- dude! u haven't blogged in like a year!!
4. Zaphod Beeblebrox <---- doesn't blog
5. Stephen Hawking <--- doesn't blog
6. Mark Twain <--- doesn't blog
7. Darth Vader <--- doesn't blog
8. Siddharta Buddha <--- doesn't blog

I really need to meet more bloggy people!!!

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