Elvis Redux

I was only peripherally aware of the neon yellow tshirts that said "Vote For Lee."  When conversing with a true Idol fan I could only say "I don't watch American Idol".  Even when The Girl's soccer team was invited to the "Lee Comes Home" event, and got to sit in the VIP section, I was non-plussed and more concerned about how 2-3 moms were going to chaperone 20 girls in a crowd of 40,000.

I can tell you that I am now plussed.  I am very, very plussed. 

Yes, there was massive pandemonium as we made our way through the crush of people holding their tickets above their heads, trying to get the coveted VIP area wristbands.  The crowd consisted of cougars, cubs and cub-ettes....and chaperones.

The Girl is a cub-ette.  

She did things like this:

The cubs held signs up that said "Lee, make a baby with me!"*

American Idol was filming the crowd with a swinging boom camera, and, of course, they focused on the VIP areas which means some cougars, cubs and cub-ettes  will be on TV tonight.  This chaperone will not....she has bad knees and spent the 3 hour wait mostly sitting down and keeping track of the cub-ettes, who were decorating poster boards, dancing around, writing "heart Lee" on their hands with Sharpies and screaming anytime a) the boom camera swooped down and b) they thought Lee was coming out.

He made his way through the Very VIP section, protected by 6 policemen who made a cocoon for him to walk in.
He was crying as he walked up to the stage.
He tried to compose himself while the Idol producer whispered into his ear and told him where the cameras were.

He was humble.

He was overwhelmed.

40,000 people screaming for him.

The newspaper talked about his troubled past.  How the paint store didn't have a job open when he went there to get one, but they hired him anyway and he was the best at getting stain colors just right and how hard it is to mix 'n match stain.
MTV was filming at the paint store when I went there to get The Girl a VOTE FOR LEE tshirt.

And then he sang.

From the heart.

In between crying and composing.  He sang .

Give him a listen.

Buy his music.

VOTE FOR LEE tonight.

On American Idol.

*FSA  (Future Skanks of America)

Fino

I watched Broken Embraces yesterday and it, like almost all of Pedro Almodovar's movies, was beautifully acted, art directed and written.  Following up on my "city giddiness" a few weeks ago, I smiled when I got that I-wish-I-was-in-Europe feeling during a scene where a scooter zooms by the characters.

One of my dear friends taught me the phrase "fino" when we were in college.  It means fine, but she and her family used it to mean fine as in cashmere, not mohair.  Sterling, not stainless.

She is Cuban and for those of you who know me and Him, you know of His theory as to his origins etc.  Pretty much everything about our friend is fino and I thought fino when the gravely ill father in the movie shuffles out of the hospital entrance and his suit is topstiched.  That's fino.  The worried mother, outside, waiting for the taxi had on a smart shirt/skirt combo that looked like a dress, with sensible heels, PEARLS (for you, CR).  She is so fino!

Penelope Cruz's character, the daughter, races over to the hospital in a fitted Balanciaga-ish grey suit and sleeps in a Hanro tanktop.  So, so, so, so fino!

The film's palette was the beige, red, black and orange of Joan Miro. 

I want to go back to Spain...and this movie is in my all-time top 25.

And this movie, The Baader Meinhof Complex, was stunning and it's in my all-time top 10!

OK, now it's time for "church", which, in my family, means CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.

Happy Mother's Day.

A Civilized Response

I can't say anything other than I loved this article about this woman in the NY Times yesterday.

Today's Daily Double

"Gotta share.....gotta share!"*

I read an interesting article on a parent's search for a kindergarten that did not assign homework and let kindergarteners play (because that is their work - thank you, Montessori.)

This was my favorite paragraph:

"I came late to motherhood, so I had plenty of time to ponder friends’ mania for souped-up childhood learning. How was it that the same couples who piously proclaimed that 3½-year-old Junior was not “developmentally ready” to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards? What was the rush? Did that better prepare kids to learn? How did 5 become the new 7, anyway?"

Now that we're in the thick of the ridiculousness that is "my kid is taking more high school AP courses than your kid," it seems that Grade 9 is the new Grade 11 with lots of $80 a pop AP testing going on to discern what's in a 14.5 year old's mind that might qualify as college credit.

So we've gone from Doogie Howser's to faux-college-credit earners?

After watching friends and family take 4.5 - 5 years to complete their state university educations, because classes were so full that they had to go in the summer or an extra semester here and there, I've decided that it's all a bit of a sham and that AP credits are only useful when you are going to a state university and the credit gets you out of a basic requirement class that is always full when you try to get into it.

The Boy, who did not test into freshman AP courses, but aced the regular curriculum this year so he's going the AP route next year, is starting to feel a bit of sting from his friends that are off taking the $80 tests this spring. I witnessed a joking, but slightly stinging exchange between him and a friend in the 'high' math class. After the friend was out of the car, The Boy vented a bit about it and his vent contained the phrase "I engage in higher-level thinking" and he went on to share how well he did on an impromptu in-class essay assignment earlier in the week.

I was smug mama the rest of the ride home - he gets it and he's going to be just fine.

In the same article (here's the double) I clicked on the photo credit and discovered the photography of Julie Blackmon and I love it! I hope you'll enjoy it too.

*Singin' In The Rain is in my head