Groundhog's Day

No, not the movie, the actual day...

This morning phil got up, stretched, scratched his wide behind and took a look outside.  Then he decided he was really tired and cold and headed back to bed.

While this really has no bearing for those in LA, where it's still summer (I had all of the windows open this weekend, it was lovely), for those of you getting pummeled by golfball sized wads of ice, or buried in several feet of snow, it means 6 more glorious weeks of the same...

But me, I will not cry.  I will wrap myself up in my furry blanket (don't get nervous, phil, it's faux fur, of course!), with some hot cocoa and reminisce about the good ole days.

The first thought this morning, on remembering it was Groundhog's Day, was not the infamous movie of the same name, but, rather, it was Oingo Boingo.  

Yeah, Oingo Boingo...

Now, for those of you familiar with the band, when thinking of them, you may automatically think of Halloween.  They were very well known for having a concert on Halloween (I attended my fair share, in costume and all), but I actually remember going to a concert on Groundhog's Day.  Now, it may have been a complete coincidence that the concert was on Groundhog's Day, however, it was billed as "The Groundhog's Day Show" and knowing Danny Elfman, I would think it was a well calculated plan to celebrate the obscure.

The world wasn't as familiar with Mr. Elfman then as they are now.  This was long before The Simpsons, Batman, or Edward Scissorhands, or Nightmare Before Christmas.  But, Boingo is where it all started, and you can hear so much of that period in his overall body of work...

In celebration of the day, here is a clip for your enjoyment.  I tried to find an earlier one, you know, one where the boys are, erm, a bit younger (and the crowd, too LOL), but alas, in the great cavernous halls of cyberspace, all I could seem to find of the old stuff were really bad copies of really bad copies of something videotaped from an onscreen replay of a bad quality beta videotape (remember those?  Of course you do...)

Happy Groundhog's day!

Jennifer Hudson - INCREDIBLE!

I had to post about Jennifer Hudson's National Anthem performance at the Super Bowl.  I know many of you are still watching the game (now it the second quarter), but if you weren't watching the game, or took the 3 minutes for the Anthem to make a last minute potty run, or to finish arranging the chips and dips, take a second during a commercial break (you're tivo-ing them anyway, right??) and watch this clip.  

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a very tough critic.  I was moved to goosebumps listening to her sing this song.  A couple more bars may have even incited a tear.  It's simply beautiful.

I was so excited to get this up here, that I've pulled a bad copy off of Youtube (gotta love youtube!).  Once I see a better copy, I will post it

Job well done, Ms. Hudson.  You executed a performance for the ages, and you've truly raised the bar...