Freakynameics

The controversialFreakonomics~A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything arrived in the mail today. I have not read it yet but I scanned through it and found lists of "Low End/High End" White Girl/Boy Names. Girl's with names like Brandy, Britany, Tonya, Heather,Taylor, Samantha, and Courtney are the Low-enders AS WELL as boys named Cody, Travis, Tyler, Justin, and Brandon.

The "High-enders" with High-Education parents were named Katherine, Lucienne, Marie-Claire, Glynnis, Adair, Beatrix, Philippa, Neeka, Atara, Rotem, and Waverly. The boys, Dov, Akiva, Yannick, Tor, Ansel, Guillaume, Zev, Calder, Finnegan, Kia and Harper.

The only High-ender name I have ever seen was actually today on someone's high-brow blog....hehehehe!... Philippa. Maybe all these Finngans, Ataras and Tors are all living on the East coast....I'm assuming. I want to meet a Zev!

meme challenge 15

This week [Oct 24th] we are talking music. Maybe music that you don't normally talk about. Yep, guilty pleasures. Those musical loves that would surprise us that you like. [or they don't have to be guilty you could just pick unique groups].


Let's see.... I love everything.
1.Old western/country/bluegrass/folk music. (Pre-70's) I think everyone loves Patsy Cline. I also love Johnny Cash too.
2. Middle eastern music/instruments
3. I like Indian music too and watch Bollywood movies sometimes.
4. Brit-pop
5. 60's jazz
6. Opera
7. Irish folk music
8. Mariachi bands
9. Gothic
10. Lounge.... I like it all

~Dia de Muertos~Hollywood Forever Cemetery~ Oct. 29th~

UPDATE Loved it! It was a five star LA event. There were so many beautiful alters there. One was dedicated to Rosa Parks, several for American soilders who were killed in Iraq, Johnny Ramone, Jane Mansfield (there was a screen playing her movies above her plot w/ a skeleton in a blond wig and her skeleton poodle.) There were many family alters including a few pets. Every corner of the cemetery had some kind little play, dance or musical performance. On the main stage
bands played,(I missed Lila Downs last year :() poets talked. One said, "Don't ever forget your heritage and those who came before you. Don't ever forget where you came from."

Around the stage there were food booths. All kinds of food and drinks. The margarita stand was the longest. I had fried quesadillas with chili on top. There were tables set up around the pond with floating candles and flowers. Every table had a fresh flowers. There were ribbons and huge flower arrangements everywhere. Inside the mausoleum there was a art exhibit with a costumed lady singing folkish Spanish songs. There was also a long row of booths of artists selling their work. I'm thinking about setting up a booth their next yearbut I also want an alter space. I better start on all my memorial SB albums NOW!




Boose, B.B.Q., spooky movies, and music.....I'm there

I joined four book clubs AGAIN! One Spirit, Book of the Month, The Literary Guild, and the History BC. Receiving books in the mail is like getting a crack fix for me! I'll even put them back in the box so I can take them out again after I smell them, feel them, check out how many chapters and pages they have. I have soooo many books to read and finish as it is but I still keep piling them up in storage. This all began back in high school in the late 80's. But back then I never paid for them. That included free music from Columbia House and the "other one", I can't recall the music club name. I received tons of free fashion magazines and cigarettes as a teenager! There were coffee makers, coffee, makeup from Cosmetique, and pasta (I think I joined some pasta club.) I hoarded all my freebies/cheap crap in my bedroom so my dad wouldnt find them. Like a dummy I would experiment late at night smoking the cigs without knowing how to inhale, sticking my head out of my bedroom window blowing out smoke. Fortunately it never became a habit. Maybe it was my asthma or the ocean breeze steps away from my house!
Since I lived at the beach every summer I had a friend that would come squat over at my house and she too would start ordering the "freebies". We would stay up till 6am drinking coffee, watching videos, smoking, tearing out pics from magazines, reading, and crank calling people. I remember crank calling a particular classmate of mine I was jealous of who was a late 80's, one hit wonder/mickey mouseclub muskateer. Boy, I was really enraged when I opened up one of my freebie magazines (Rolling Stone) to see her at George Michael's party with George Harrison's arm around her! But I was also elated that Rolling Stone misspelled her name. She eventually flatlined in the 90's turning to drugs and bulemia. She might be wanting to make another comeback but I don't think Columbia is interested anymore. I sort of feel sorry for her now. She still has a fanclub in Chile though. Soooooo, the only thing different now is I order my coffee from Hawaii~ Lion Coffee Kona gold. Order my books usually from Amazon and subscribe to SBing magazines.....and occasionally smoke flavored tobacco from a hookah.

Leave Napolean alone!

Tonight we had a little bit of bear drama. My new naive neighbors called the police on (my :P) harmless bear Napolean. The police officers were making a spectacle with their flashlights and megaphones and fortunately he escaped into my mini forest that leads up to the canyon. Napolean is a little large and intimidating but wouldn't hurt a fly. The officers even disturbed the deer and their new babies/fawn. How annoying! Gonna have to have a talk w/the new neighbors 2morrow.

All Creatures Great and Small

I enjoy looking at the little animals over at the UK scrappers gallery. They make me think of James Harriot who I loved growing up as a kid. Next week I'll be babysitting my friend's King Charles Spaniel,"Amigo". I hope he's ready for his photo session. Let's see now... the credits! The first Oscar goes to...
Family Val-EWES created by "scrapdolly"

Natural Beauty by "maisydaisy"
Ceilidh by "scrapscot"
Purrffect LO by "craftycaz"
BRAVO! BRAVO!

What's your faith? Quiz from Beliefnet

Your results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
1. Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (98%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
4. Reform Judaism (94%)
5. Jainism (93%)
6. Liberal Quakers (91%)
7. Theravada Buddhism (90%)
8. New Age (87%)
9. Sikhism (87%)
10. Hinduism (79%)
11. Bahá'í Faith (76%)
12. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (70%)
13. Orthodox Judaism (68%)
14. Taoism (68%)
15. New Thought (66%)
16. Islam (61%)
17. Scientology (59%)
18. Secular Humanism (55%)
19. Orthodox Quaker (53%)
20. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (45%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (40%)
22. Jehovah's Witness (35%)
23. Nontheist (31%)
24. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
25. Seventh Day Adventist (25%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (18%)
27. Roman Catholic (18%)

As Day of the Dead gets nearer I think of who I'm going to include in my alter. This is my Psych professor, Dr. Glenda who was murdered over a year ago by one of her graduate students. She was only 36 and found decapitated in her new home on Valentine's Day. She was found stabbed to death in her torso area in her kitchen, her head found in the fireplace. The murderer who was also in his 30's commited suicide that night by running in front of a big rig truck completely in the nude. I remember him too, walking around campus because he was so tall and bald. He was scary looking with a larger than normal forehead, always serious looking. Who would have known? She was one of those very kind and sweet people too, not phony at all. I walked by her dark, vacant home a few weeks ago around 10pm and heard loud banging coming from her front window. It really creeped me out but my mind just tells me that maybe someone was inside the house screwing with me for gawking.