noenvynofear

I suppose you could say that I am a semi-closeted Glee fan.  I don’t like to readily admit that I watch the show because it is a bit high schoolish and subtracts from the sophistication I feel watching shows like Mad Men brings me.  But I do watch Glee regularly.  I love Chris Colfer’s portrayal of Kurt and his singing voice.  I love the clash between the toddleresque and simultaneously octagenarian Rachel Berry & the Cheerios, Quinn & Santana.  I love the sharp tongued and sharp witted Sue Sylvester that no one but Jane Lynch could embody.   Glee is fun and silly for the most part, relying heavily on a suspension of reality so that we can believe that in this world, Brittany can be a high school junior and still believe in Santa Claus and that Puck could be attracted to the formidable Lauren Zizes.

That suspension of reality is asking a lot this season though.  The story lines have gone beyond just silly and frankly onto completely unbelievable and awkwardly uncomfortable.  For starters, what happened between Mercedes & Mr. Shue?  They started the season at each other’s throats, for no apparent reason (other than the fact that from episode 1, Mr. Shue has been in a really bad mood) , and their fights culminated in Mercedes defecting to the new Glee club, the Troubletones, led by Shelby Corcoran - aka Rachel Berry’s mom, the former leader of Vocal Adrenaline & the adoptive mother of Quinn & Puck’s baby girl Beth.  Wow.  That is a lot for one character to shoulder. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Idina Menzel.  She is an amazing actress and vocalist.  But her story line really wrapped at the end of season one.  She is only back now to advance Quinn’s storyline of wanting her baby back (which is ridiculous on so many levels) and to advance the story line of Sugar Motta, the girl faking autism to get away with anything she wants.  That storyline needs to be stopped in it’s tracks.  For starters, it is far too realistic.  I can think of many children whose parents let them get away with all kinds of bratty behaviors because they believe there is something wrong with the child.  Secondly, it is just not entertaining - it’s annoying.  Ryan Murphy, Glee’s creator, said season 3 would be about reconnecting with the original characters and advancing their storylines in their senior year.  Sugar Motta just makes me want to turn off the television.

And then there are the musical numbers.  The music in the most recent episode (Pot O’Gold) was the best of the season so far, but that isn’t saying very much.  A Katy Perry song and a Kermit the Frog ballad were the most viable of the five songs.  I have religiously downloaded the music from Glee over the first two seasons - I even prefer some of the Glee covers to the original songs - but this season I haven’t downloaded a single song.  I suppose this could be attributed to the lack of artists willing to let their songs be used for Glee, but there is a ton of music out there.  Surely there are better options available than what we’ve been getting.

Not everything is bad this season though.  Coach Beiste is back for another season and is being expertly played by Dot-Marie Jones.  Burt Hummel is also back and standing up to Sue Sylvester (hey, someone had to) and Blaine is a full member of New Directions, providing some tension for male lead with Finn (which really at this point is the only interesting and viable storyline going on).  Plus, according to the rumor mill Chord Overstreet is going to reprise his role as Sam Evans and I for one would still love to see a Sam-Mercedes romance played out like the show hinted at in the season 2 finale.   Glee needs to get back to it’s roots - that balance of silly, believability, drama, serious topics and great music that has made Glee a powerhouse show for the last two years.   I can’t give up on the show yet and hopefully the month long hiatus will prove helpful to plot lines and musical numbers because I sure do miss my weekly dose of pure Glee.

Halloween has come and gone.  I carved 10 pumpkins and gave out candy to bunches of Trick or Treaters.  I was even nice and gave candy to the high school kids who weren’t in costumes and were using duffel bags to hold their candy.  I have to say, last night after turning out the porch light and turning on the TV, I was shocked at how many Christmas commercials were already on.  I swear I had not seen these earlier in the day, but there they were.  Jingle bells were jingling at full force and toy wishlists were growing right before my eyes.

Even though I am a staunch traditionalist and separatist about my holidays and believe that the Christmas season does not start until noon on Thanksgiving Day when Santa arrives in Herald Square, I am going to have to put that aside for one day so that I can talk about Christmas music.  Yes, Christmas music.  On October 24th, the band She & Him, made up of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward released their first Christmas album, “A Very She & Him Christmas.”  I downloaded it on the 24th (hey, it was on sale at Amazon!) but I refused to let myself listen to it until after Halloween.  Well, it is after Halloween.

Now, I usually do not buy holiday albums from current pop artists.  They tend to feel over done, over produced and like the artists might as well have recorded the songs in their Nikes because there are so many runs.  That’s not what Christmas music is about; it is about warmth and happiness, jolliness and cheer.  It should be impossible to be angry while listening to Christmas music and it should not make you want to break your speakers so you no longer have to listen to it (I’m looking at you and your Busta Rimes version of “Little Drummer Boy,” Bieber…).  I am a traditionalist.  Christmas is reserved for the Time Life Treasury of Christmas music, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Tchaikovsky, Perry Como, Vince Guaraldi, Gayla Peevey, Nat King Cole, Gene Autry and for a little whimsey The Chipmunks, Ralph & Red & Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  A little Barry Manillo is acceptable and there are some Hallmark compilations I don’t find nauseating. Over the years I’ve let in a few pop acts - Hanson, Charlotte Church, James Taylor, the Glee cast, Michael Buble & Josh Groban - but they all have something in common: they stick to the music as it was intended to be.

That being said, She & Him have created a fantastically traditional Christmas album.  Zooey Deschanel’s voice is like silk.  It is quirky and unusual, like her, and yet feels comforting.  She doesn’t over do it, there are no great runs or embellishments, just her raw voice not over powered by the instrumental accompaniment or auto-tune.  The album is much more She than Him, with M. Ward taking the lead on only one song, but it is still delightful.   As with any album there are some tracks that are better than others. “The Christmas Waltz” is particularly delightful the way it has been slowed down.  This is not a song I generally care for, but this version is divine and conjures images of sitting by a roaring fire wrapped in a blanket.  “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” & “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” are also must haves and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

I’ll admit, I was turned off to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” for many years after Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey butchered it on their holiday special, but I got back into it last year when Glee released a whimsical version featuring two male artists, Chris Colfer and Darren Criss.  This is the song that Zoeey Deschanel is perhaps best known for from the 2003 movie “Elf” and this version is delightful.  The roles are reversed with M. Ward taking the traditionally female line and Zooey taking the traditionally male line.  It works though - the result, while unexpected, is a beautiful blend of these two artists unique voices.

Some songs do fall a bit flat - Sleigh Ride has been slowed down and Silver Bells is a little too drab, but over all this is a solid album that will be in my highly select Christmas rotation for many years.

Track Listing

1. The Christmas Waltz
2. Christmas Day
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
4. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
5. Christmas Wish
6. Sleigh Ride
7. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
8. Silver Bells
9. Baby, It’s Cold Outside
10. Blue Christmas
11. Little St. Nick
12. The Christmas Song

Cold air finally descended on Atlanta this week and I’m not talking relatively cool air, I’m talking break-out-the-scarves-and-turn-on-the-heat cold air.  There is absolutely nothing better.  All of my neighbors have started decorating for Halloween with pumpkins and skeletons and even some orange strings of lights.  My front steps are full of pumpkins, courtesy of 3 for $10 large pumpkins and 6 for $10 small pumpkins at Whole Foods and my maple trees are turning a delightfully firey shade of red orange.

Perfect maple trees outside my house.

Yes, autumn is visibly here.  So why does walking through Macy’s make you feel like Christmas is tomorrow?

I suppose Macy’s isn’t the only store being prematurely holly and jolly, but they do seem to be one of the biggest offenders.  For starters, the Pink Pig ride has arrived and is completely built atop the Lenox Square parking deck (sources tell me construction began around September 26th).  Signs inside advertise that the ride will run October 30 - January 2.  I’m sorry, but isn’t the Pink Pig a Christmas attraction?  The first year it came back to Lenox and I rode it, I remember it being a tiny little train ride through a fake winter wonderland of frosted trees and candy canes.  Why must it open the day before Halloween?  Then of course Macy’s itself is completely decorated for Christmas.  Wreaths, garland, lights, bows, and reminders to Believe are all over the store.  Specialty holiday items, like Spode china and holiday themed jammies are stacked high on tables so you don’t miss them.  The home department is completely jolly - no blanket or table cloth is without a sprig of holly.

Bloomingdales is the same way. Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn were thankfully still mostly fall themed with Thanksgiving table ideas at the front of the store, but Christmas was creeping in.  Displays of ornaments and reindeer plates were being brought out.  Hollister was even blasting Christmas music out into the mall.  Christmas music! Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas music.  I can’t wait until it is the right time of year to turn it on and listen to it 24/7 until the 26th of December (and usually until January).  But Christmas music in October?  Christmas commercials are even starting to invade television with reminders to layaway your Christmas presents at various stores and reminders that Christmas gift catalogs will soon be setting up camp in your mailbox (Incidently I’ve already received Christmas / holiday catalogs from Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Eddie Bauer & LL Bean).

It is still October and October is for Halloween and pumpkins.  Scary goblins, witches, skeletons, gourds, and creepy, slimy things.  There should be Jack o’Lanterns, leaves and rustic colors, not jingle bells and twinkly lights.  When did it become en vogue to completely skip over two fall holidays and just dive into Christmas? At least let me have Halloween and then we can talk about the Christmas season (which, I should point out does not technically start until Thanksgiving morning…at least for me).

Let’s remember which season it actually is and enjoy it!

11 pumpkins, all waiting for Pumpking Carving Palooza 2011, which will occur on October 30-31st.

We are well into October now, which means that I have broken out the sweaters and scarves and been reduced to turning the air conditioning on in the house just so that I can wear them.  It is October and it shouldn’t be 80 degrees or even 75 degrees out, but I guess that is what I get for living in Atlanta.

There are so many great things about October.  The (slightly) cooler weather, fall festivals (like the upcoming Scottish Festival out at Stone Mountain),  Pumpkin Spice Lattes, the most amazing scented candles coming back to Bath & Body Works, ghost tours, fresh apples, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, repeat watchings of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” & Halloween.

Yes, I love Halloween.  As I’ve said before, the dressing up and begging for candy aspect really does not appeal to me.  I like the decorations - hanging up spider webs, skeletons, fake bugs and spiders, and of course putting pumpkins everywhere and carving them up.  Since I was little I have had a love affair with pumpkin carving. Some years it was literal torture to know that through all of October a pumpkin just waiting to be carved was sitting in our house and I couldn’t touch it until a day or two before Halloween, otherwise it would go rotten. My sister thought it was gross to scoop out the pumpkin guts, which worked out well for me since I loved it.  As a kid there was nothing better to me than throwing a tank top on and being up to my shoulders in pumpkin goo. I also love designing the faces.  When I was a kid, after I’d gotten to scoop out the goo, my dad would always do the knife work.

Helping Dad carve the pumpkin in 1990 at the ripe old age of 2.

Back in the days when my dad would wield the knife, the faces were all fairly geometric.  Straight lines usually, the occasional crazy eye.  My sister and I always got some input, but being the engineer that he is, my dad usually had a plan already in place.  As I got older, the pumpkin carving fell more to me because I was the one who really enjoyed it.  I would still scrape out the pumpkin innards and design the face by myself, but Dad still did the actual carving. Eventually I took over the whole operation.

One of my first attempts at solo pumpkin carving.  Not the most imaginative face, but pretty good for a 14 year old.

Unfortunately, pumpkin carving has traditionally been a pricey hobby.  I remember years when the price of pumpkins was so high, we didn’t get one at all.  Not so anymore.  Sure, the grocery store and plant nurseries still charge a whopping 6-10 dollars for a large pumpkin (the only kind worth getting, in my opinion), but a few years ago I discovered the Whole Foods Market sold their pumpkins for cheap.  The price used to be 2 pumpkins for $13, then the next year it was an even better 3 pumpkins for $13.  This year has been the best of all: 3 pumpkins for $10 dollars.  That averages out to a little over $3 a pumpkin, which is pretty good considering Publix and Pike Nursery both wanted $6 for one pumpkin.  Plus at Whole Foods, they just stack up all their pumpkins outside to choose from.  There are no size restrictions on their deal: if it’s an orange pumpkin, it qualifies (WF also has white pumpkins that are a bit pricier, only 2 for $13.)

So of course I stock up on the biggest pumpkins I can find in their patch.  I remember one year I found a pumpkin in their patch that I affectionately named “Big Bertha” because she weighed in at a whopping 36 pounds.  Since the deal was so good this year, I decided to get 6 of the biggest pumpkins they had (and really, if the price is going to be the same for all of the pumpkins, I might as well get my money’s worth).  So now that I have the pumpkins, in a few weeks they are going to need faces.  I put a lot of thought into my pumpkin faces, especially now that I live in a neighborhood that actually gets Trick-or-Treaters.  For years my sister and I were the only Trick-or-Treaters in our neighborhood and to this day my parents house gets 2, maybe 3 knocks on their door on Halloween night.

Not so in Decatur.  The streets are teeming with children every Halloween.  Last year I bought two HUGE bags of candy from Sam’s Club and was out of candy by 8pm that night.  I’ve found that the children actually do appreciate a nicely carved pumpkin with a goofy or scary face on it and the parents seem to enjoy as well.  The last few years I’ve gotten several compliments on my pumpkin carving.  So I like to start thinking about and sketching out faces a few weeks before hand.  The face will probably change between now and the actual carving (which won’t happen until the 30th or 31st) but as a person who likes to have everything planned out, it’s best to start early.

I try to make faces that every other pumpkin in the neighborhood won’t have, but that still adhere to the spirit of Halloween.  I don’t go in for carving celebrities or characters into pumpkins, though I do think that those can be nice.  No, I go for the somewhat traditional two eyes, a nose and a mouth faces.  Sometimes I even get crazy and add eyebrows.  So here are the six preliminary sketches:

The first three.  I usually try to go for a mix of scary and whimsical, simple but unexpected.

The next three. Still scary and whimsical.

Since I have an even number of pumpkins, I tried to have three scary faces and three whimsical / fun faces, but I think I ended up with four scary faces.  Ah well.  After all, ‘tis the season to be scary.

Sometimes things just happen.  Somethings these things are bad, like say, planning to go to graduate school for a program you are reeeeeeally excited for and finding out three days before classes start that the program director has completely changed the program into something you have no interest in.  That, I can say from experience, is definitely a bad thing.

Sometimes though, good things just happen.  I’m not talking life-altering-earth-shatteringly good things (though, those are fun).  No, I’m talking everyday incidentals that just make you happy.  This afternoon my sister and I were headed with a trunk full of books to the Brandeis book donation box that happens to be located in a shopping center with a bunch of other stores.  While driving around to the drop box, we noticed that a shoe store that we both have had luck at was open and my sister wanted to stop in and look for a new pair of work shoes.  Okay, sure.  Why not?  I was helping her search the aisles for a pair of work-suitable black flats when there they were.  A beautiful pair of zebra print and burgundy peep toe heels on sale for only $30.  I hadn’t even been thinking about buying shoes, but there they were and at that price I could not say no.  Sometimes things just happen.  Sometimes a pair of shoes you never expected to buy stumbles into your life and just makes you smile every time you look at them.

Look at these.  These are works of art.  They should be in the Louvre.

Happy first day of Fall!  Fall is hands down my favorite season.  For starters, the weather is perfect.  The days are cool, but not frosty and the nights are crisp and scarf worthy.  The hazy Atlanta smog goes by the wayside and bright blue skies and fluffy marshmallow clouds.  Sure there are the occasional rainy days, but who doesn’t love a good, soft Fall rain? Rainy fall days are perfect excuses to open the windows a crack and smell the earthy combo of water and leaves while indulging in a cup of coffee and a book.

I’m also a huge fan of Fall colors.  I love the warm oranges, yellows and reds that pop up in the leaves and plants.  There is nothing better to me than the day the two maple trees outside my house get that first hint of firey orange.  Then the stores begin to get in their burgundy and yellow colored mums and pumpkins and gourds of all colors.  That is how you know Fall has truly arrived. 

Fall is the time of year when you can get outside.  During the summer, I don’t want to go anywhere.  The combination of heat and humidity that Atlanta can bring in July and August (and some unfortunate years into September) is brutal and seems to get worse every year.  During the summer I tend to stay indoors.  Even though I am a good southern girl, the heat just wilts me.  Once the cool air hits, I love being outside - going for walks, hitting parks, festivals, pumpkin farms, orchards.  I even love taking my book or notebook out to the front steps and just sitting there or perhaps walking up to Starbucks and indulging in a Pumpkin Spice latte (or 2 or 3).

Speaking of festivals, it is time for a little shameless promotion.  I am blessed to go to a fantastic church, Rock Spring Presbyterian, that boasts it’s own in-house bluegrass band, Hicks with Picks.  Last year the Hick’s held the first annual Bluegrass Festival which was full of food, fun, fellowship and good bluegrass music.  Since last year was the first annual, it only stands to reason that this year is the second annual Bluegrass Festival and it is happening this Saturday (Sept. 24).  So if you are looking for something fun (and free!) to do this weekend, you should check out the awesome flyer and then come down to RSPC and check out the festival!

Aside from festivals and being outdoors during Fall, my absolute favorite thing about the season is the decorations.  I’m talking about the real, natural decorations.  Pumpkins, gourds, squashes, hay bales, horns of plenty, orb spiders and their giant webs, bunches of wheat, Indian corn, acorns and other nuts in their shells, fresh apples.  What could be better? It’s unfortunate that pumpkins and gourds are so expensive, other wise I would fill the house with them.  I already tend to go overboard on pumpkins for Halloween.  I love Halloween.  I’m not interested in the dressing up and going door to door begging for candy aspect, but I love decorating the house for Halloween - hanging spider webs, putting fake spiders and bugs everywhere, laying out some fake skulls and blood red candles and carving pumpkins.  These last few years I’ve tended to buy four large (the larger the better) carving pumpkins from Whole Foods.  I love scooping out the innards (even though it gives some people the heeby jeebies) and working on four unique faces, then lighting them up.  It’s as much for me as it is for the little candy beggars that come to the door.

Fall has so many things to look forward to - so many that I haven’t even mentioned half of them here!  Even though it is still pushing 80 degrees here in Atlanta, I know that soon the temperatures will creep back down into the 70s and then the 60s and all will be right.

Happy Fall!