Halloween Parade

Today we are having special treats for handicapped children. So everyone has brought in candy, juice boxes, stickers, granola, chips, cookies, and donuts to give out when the children come by.

One treat, however, has taken the cake! (and quite literally, because it is a cake) And I really don't have much else to say about it....

How Bob Sees Halloween

Pagans. An ancient earth based goddess worship dating back thousands of years from whom most current world religions retain some traditions, or Goth kids at Newbury Comic who hate their parents? Discuss.

I had the opportunity in college to be a P.U.G. Pagan until graduation. And like my saffic L.U.G. sisters, I got completely into the idea of being a little different. Wicca was to me something new, something a tad taboo, and for someone not quite ready to come out of the closet, saying I was “different-pagan” was a lot easier than saying “different-gay.” Except don’t be a gay pagan. That’s just dumb.

But, don’t get me wrong. Wicca is more than just listening to Enya, reading Tarot cards and pretending you can kick ass at Ouija boards. It’s a beautiful religion with a simple reverence for nature and the Earth. The crystal knick knacks and collection of tumbled semi-precious stones come later. I always found it funny that to really get into one of the world’s oldest religions you to buy books under “New Age” and purchase clothes and religious artifacts at Hot Topics.

The one thing I did take from studying Wicca is that trying to be different is really just embracing what everyone has in common. I compared a Catholic Mass to a Pagan circle, and honestly, kids, it was very similar. Candles, Incense, memorization prayer, and hot sex on the alter…See my point? My pagan friends and I could have easily crossed the street at college to St. Joseph’s and switch “Earth Mother” for “Virgin Mary” and “Son of Earth Mother who’s half god, half mortal who dies and is reborn (Bacchus/Dionysus/etc)” for “Jesus.” (Just a comparison, please don’t be offended)

So Halloween can be All Saints Day, and it can also be Samhein. Go ahead and celebrate both. Ask your Pagan friend to borrow their cape. Ask your Christian friend for a piece a candy. And heck, you can both borrow some eyeliner for a night on the town. Just don’t get pink eye.

just hanging around....

Guest Fun Fact!

Kathy's Fun Fact of the Day!

Brought to you today by Natalie!

Did you know the average American consumes 6,000 calories during the winter holidays?

Mantlescape

This post is specifically for Katie, but the rest of you can enjoy it as well!

Stay tuned for more mantlescapes as the holidays approach!

Spooooky

You can find fantastic Halloween displays right in your own backyard (or in this case Bob, Peter, and Bryan's own backyard).

On the way to do laundry last night, look at the scene we discovered--right on Tremont Street!


The display was equipped with a fog machine and music! I wonder if they will add anything for tomorrow night!

Kathy is just making stuff up now....

Did you know that on average, $2.64 worth of grapes can make a $20 bottle of wine?

Love,

Kathy

Halloween Treats

Tasty cookies made by Peter's mother:

Musical Mondays: Wicked according to Bob

As I explained last week, I will be trying out some new segments on the blog. Today, in accordance with Musical Mondays, I'm introducing the new segment, "How Bob Sees It." Bob, a true man-about-town, has some amazing experiences and opinions that need to be shared. And I am proud to support Bob&Co. on the blog.

Musical Mondays: Wicked in Boston

Bob:
I had the experience of seeing Wicked twice last week. Once on Thursday with Peter, and once Friday with my cousin Denise. She had never been, while Peter has seen it a few times. The last time I saw Wicked was about 2 years ago in NYC.

Now, I’m not a Broadway expert (we’ll leave that to Adam). I thought that the Boston version of the show was very good. I still got goose bumps during Defying Gravity, and No Good Deed. The people around me gasped in awe about the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow. But, I found myself continually comparing it to Broadway.

Now, the question is, should I? Am I allowed to compare a national tour to the original cast? I’d never seen two version of the same show. No, wait, actually I saw Rent on Broadway, but not with the original cast. Every time someone asked me if I like it, I kept saying, “Yes, but it didn’t compare to the original.”

I don’t think they can. Ever. Broadway seems to be bigger, and the original cast usually sets the standards for how you picture the show. Especially if you listen to the CD about 100 times before you see it. So, in my mind I kept playing the Broadway version.

By itself, not compared to the Broadway version, I thought the show was good. Not amazing. I felt that Elphaba kept holding herself back. I could see (well, hear) that she was able to belt it out, but I kept seeing her hold back. Glinda was awesome. She actually acted better than Chenoweth I think. She had such emotion in the opening of the second act, that she actually spoke some of the song when she was on the verge of crying. Now, I didn’t get the amazing song delivery, but I did get a good character. I didn’t get either with Elphaba. The cast was great, the scenery was everything I remembered. And Thursday and Friday’s performances were almost exactly the same.

So to compare. Broadway will probably always kick Boston’s ass…but for the saving of about $50 a ticket, and being able to walk home, you can’t do better. Although, I can do without middle aged housewives from Peabody wearing large witch’s hats in the lobby. Please.

Halloween Memories

I was home over the weekend and dug through some old photo albums....

Halloween Movies

OK. Here's the deal. If you haven't seen the movie, the Worst Witch, you haven't seen anything. I've included a couple of clips. It's CLASSIC HALLOWEEN.

"you're sure you know how to play Terror Tag?"


"My sister is taking all the fun outta being bad!"



"Has anybody seen my tambourine?"


I love Hocus Pocus, too. Here is my favorite clip:


And finally...When I was a freshman in college, my friend Mark had the DVD of Nightmare Before Christmas (he no longer has it...but thats a long story). So one of the special features is listening to the movie in French. Here is the opening song, "This is Halloween," in French!

Kathy pulls through with ANOTHER fact!

Not to be outdone by my two gigantic posts today, Kathy presents her 3rd fact of the week!


Fun Fact of the Day!

Did you know many shampoos, mostly dandruff shampoos contain Formaldehyde?

Most commercial shampoos contain formaldehyde as a preservative. To disguise the presence of formaldehyde it is listed in the ingredients as Quanternium-15. This substance can be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and poisonous to the entire system.

Decorating Like Adam: Halloweens Times

I've been thinking about the format of the blog, and I think more segments may make things really fun! Like, I know everyone waits for Fashion Friday, and that makes it fun! And then I know I have to come up with things to write about and that makes it fun for me!

With the holidays times coming, there will be lots of decorating to do. So I'd like to introduce a new segment called "Decorating Like Adam." This segment takes its inspiration from a few previous occasions when I created interactive presents for my friend and co-worker Jean and provided her a booklet with step-by-step instructions for creating decorative arrangements in her own home. I like the idea of spreading my ideas throughout the homes of America (and beyond...some guy from Chile is watching the video blogs....).

So to kick off the segment and keeping things close to the segment's roots, I am presenting for Halloween GLITTER PUMPKINS by Kelly. Kelly is Jean's daughter. I have never met Kelly. I've met all of Jean's other kids, but never Kelly. Kelly and I seem to be a lot alike. And I think if we ever do actually meet, the space-time continuum could be completely disrupted. (like in Back to the Future)

So we've never met, but we're a lot alike, so its ok that I didn't actually make these pumpkins. I like them so much that I want to share them with all of you. And I don't even know how she makes them but I've included directions below imagining how I would make them. The fun part about Decorating Like Adam (a lot like Martha Stewart's empire) is that the instructions make everything seem easy and fun, when in actuality it is VERY HARD to be crafty.

MAKING GLITTER PUMPKINS
1. Grow small pumpkins, perfectly shaped
2. Buy buckets of glitter (appropriate fall colors, i.e. orange, copper, gold, black)
3. Create a brushable paste to coat the pumpkins with glue
4. Create a harness to use to lower pumpkins into buckets of glitter (AVOID FINGERPRINTS!)
5. Paint the pumpkins with the glue paste
6. Lower pumpkins into bucket of glitter using harness
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 if you want to glitterize the pumpkin stems
8. Remove pumpkins from glitter bucket and let stand. (CONTINUE AVOIDING FINGERPRINTS!)
9. Enjoy your glitter pumpkins!

FF: Costumes (The Halloween Blogs Begin!)

The blog is back! To update you: I've just signed on a new contributor to the blog....stay tuned for his first post! Thank you again to Kathy for providing numerous facts this week. Kathy also shot footage for a "Cooking with Ryan" video blog--I'm hoping to begin airing 1 video blog per week. But its tough work!

I thought for the Fashion Friday before Halloween we could discuss costumes. I feel like this blog would be way better if I had pictures to go along with my costume descriptions.... maybe I can come up with some old photos before next Wednesday as a special Halloween treat!

Halloween is not even close to being my favorite holiday. My favorite part of Halloween is not dressing up in a costume--it is the decorating! I like carving pumpkins and setting up a scary display so that trick-or-treaters have something fun to look at when the front door opens. However, this is not called Decorating Friday, so I have to talk about costumes.

The earliest costume I can remember is Oscar the Grouch. It was one of the those plastic children's costume. And I remember having to go to around to other people's houses, like my grandfather's house in Wellesley, so that everyone could see me.

In kindergarten I was a bat. I had just had surgery, so Halloween was like my big return to class. And at Jaworek Elementary the big thing was that the kindergarteners paraded around through all the other classes. The bat costume was cool--it was like this nylon cape thing with a hood-type piece with bat ears. I wore a red sweater underneath to stand for blood!

I remember throughout my childhood that I was a mummy one year, I think I was a skeleton once, I think in seventh grade I was a doctor (it was easy to get all the accessories because my mother worked in a hospital).

Freshman year of college I went to a party at Harvard for Halloween and I was a cowboy. Lucy bought me a cowskin (is that what you call it?) and a cowboy hat from the Garment District. I don't think either of them fit me. Later I had Kristen Johnson wear the vest in Big Spender in a show I did.

Senior year I went to a Theatre Party....I didn't really know what to go as, but Christopher was going as a hot Harry Potter and he thought I could go as Dumbledore, Harry's Bitch. So since I already had a huge cloak with moons and stars on it (thanks to Mark) I decided that would be a good idea. Who knew that year's later JK Rowling would agree with my choice in Halloween costumes by announcing that Dumbledore was gay!

I think the most recent costume I had was a Gynecologist. I found scrubs at Newbury Comics that said "Gynecologist" on it and I bought a box of rubber gloves and lube. Every time I went into a new room at the party I would snap of 1 pair of gloves and put on another. It was amusing. (or more likely, I found it amusing) The party was in Arlington so I ended up staying over. I thought someone would be taking me back towards my place in the morning, but when I woke up NO ONE WAS LEFT IN THE HOUSE! I felt like Kevin in Home Alone! So I had to walk....I figured, "Oh, it can't be too far to Harvard Square." Well, IT WAS! I made it to Davis Square (Thank God I had another shirt to put on over the Gynecologist shirt....)

I've got nothing....

Thank god Kathy is here to provide some content for the blog! Here is ANOTHER Kathy's Fun? Fact for you. And stay tuned for new material coming soon to the blog!

Kathy's

Environmental Fact of the Day!

Did you know the average American generates 47 pounds of Carbon Dioxide a day!

To help imagine how much CO2 that actually is... if you were to fill balloons with 47 pounds of CO2, the balloons would fill your living room! This is how much each American generates each day!

Kathy's Morbid Facts

Did you know elephants enjoy a good brew?

Elephants in north-east India raided a village this week for beer. The villagers make home brewed rice beer, which the elephants love. Well sadly these elephants had too much to drink. They got drunk and started ransacking the village. They pulled up an electric poll and four of the elephants were killed.

Thanks Kathy

http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/hangman.swf

Musical Mondays: Dorothy Loudon

This weekend I revisited my iTunes playlist on my home computer. I think its fun sometimes to order the songs by play count and see what's on top. These are my top five songs:

In Buddy Eyes (from Follies the Concert) Barbara Cook
Fifty Percent (from Broadway's Leading Ladies) Dorothy Loudon
Liasons (A Little Night Music)
Three Bedroom House (from Batboy)
Defying Gravity (from Wicked)

The first non-musical song if you order my songs by play count is "Believe" by Fantasia.....

Mostly these songs are on top because I had a playlist that I listened to before bed a few years ago and most of these songs were on the list twice (accidentally). So they got double the play time.

Anyway....so today's lesson is on Dorothy Loudon, possibly one of the most crazy performers ever. She was the original Miss Hannigan in Annie. Originally I thought Carol Burnett was so good in the movie....but after seeing a few YouTube clips of the original, I'm rethinking that.

Watch these clips. There are a lot of them...but they are worth it. This woman is amazing!

Apple Blog

Fashion Friday....shoes

Discuss....

example of skinny jeans?

Kathy's Fun Fact of the Day is Back!

Did you know that out of the more than 40 million dogs in the U.S., 25,300,500 can perform at least one trick!?!? The most common trick is, SIT!

Cooking with Adam Video Blog 1

I have no idea if anyone else will enjoy this.... but here it is!

Thank you for your patience as Adam's Blog experiences some minor technical difficulties.

Musical Mondays: Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd

So the other day Peter sent me an email asking me what my top 5 musicals would be. This is the list I sent him:

sound of music
phantom of the opera
lion king
les mis
sweeney todd

Peter did not agree with me. His list and reasons for not including my musicals are as follows:

Interesting choices...
Sound of Music-haven't seen the stage version to judge
Phantom-yes
Lion King-visually stunning but the music doesn't qualify it
Les Mis-Most definately
Sweeney Todd- No

My pics:
Phantom
Les Mis
Miss Saigon
Not sure on these last two but:
Jesus Christ Superstar
Secret Garden

I bring all of this up because yesterday we saw a preview for the movie version of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp. It looks good enough to go see. I am not happy with the current stage version of the show (even though Stephen Sondheim wanted a very intimate staged version of the show when it first came out--Hal Prince had other ideas...). My favorite version of the show is the concert version with Patti LuPone playing a much different Mrs. Lovett than her performance in the Broadway show. I include Sweeney Todd on my list of greatest musicals because the music for Sweeney is amazing--it is "classic" Sondheim. Sweeney Todd was also the musical that made me stop listening to Wicked. (since I like to listen to things on loop....I was listening to Wicked and then heard Sweeney, stopped listening to Wicked, and then started to listen to Sweeney).

Well, anyway, thats enough on musicals for today.

The End.

FF: Maine Fashion

Its great to be back. Although Maine was amazing, I was happy to wake up in my own bed (and even more happy to discover that no one had decided to hit my car overnight).

Yesterday (in Maine) I got so bored that I decided to examine the fashion of some of the people at my event. I encountered an amazing specimen to gawk at throughout the day. The woman was a real-life version of Ursula the Seawitch from Disney's Little Mermaid (see previous posts for my obsession and fascination with all things Ursula). Guest photographer David Ooter captured some amazing shots of this creature in action (thanks iPhone). Throughout the day we actually exchanged words (although it was mostly joking) because she tried to take over the table I was at. She did, however, compliment me on my eyes (or whatever she was saying I managed to turn into a compliment about my eyes, causing people around us to turn and smile). "Do you want to go to graduate school.....all I need is.... YOUR VOICE."




















The following photo summarizes my experience in Maine. We found this on the side of the road. Doesn't it look electrocuted?

so far in Maine....

This morning I was woken up at about 6am by two men talking in the hotel hallway. My room is directly across from the pool and vending machines, so it has been very noisy. I was not quite awake when they began talking but this is the part of the conversation I did hear:

Man with Asian accent: "I was able to do everything I wanted to in my life except for one thing. I never got to be an altar boy...."

Last night I ate D'Angelo's for dinner after driving around searching specifically for a D'Angelo's! Then, I rented Hairspray (the new one) on the hotel's movie channel. It was ridiculously expensive to rent the movie, but I did it in anyway since I'm stuck here in Maine.

Yesterday when I arrived in Maine, I stopped at McDonald's to go to the restroom and grab a snack. I sat down in the restaurant in a booth and tried to google my next stop with my iPhone. When I looked up, an old woman was staring at me from the next booth. Like bizarrely staring. I went back to my iPhone. Five minutes later she says, "Its very cold out today." And I say, "oh yes, its nice that its finally fall." Then a few more minutes go by and she says "I just can't wait for spring." Then I smile and say, "well, we've got a long wait for spring." And she says, "I just hope we don't get a lot of snow!" (why does she live in Maine if she doesn't like snow.... I think most people in New England say "I hope it doesn't snow" but there is something inside everyone that gets excited when it does happen--this is more of a winter blog, I'll save this topic).

So then she starts swatting at a fly and tells me that she wishes she had a fly swatter. She has a McDonald's employee come over and asks for a hot cup of water.... she has a tea bag in her pocket. I'm not getting a good signal for the iPhone, so I decide its time to go. I wish her a good day and head out.

Ahhhh Maine. (which, by the way, features signs like: "Maine: "Vacationland" and "Maine: The Way Life Should Be.")

on the road again...

Its not easy being on the road sometimes....

MY CAR WAS HIT AGAIN!

AGAIN!

It was no where near as serious as the last hit, but come on! I just got a brand new rear bumper and now it has been scratched! And the scratch is big...I am not overreacting.

I even have been trying to park away from other cars to prevent this from happening. I can't win. I've decided I'm going to begin hitting other cars now because I have nothing to lose. Watch out BMWs and Mercedes in Beacon Hill!

Today I'm headed to Maine. Stay tuned for all the excitement!

New Segment: Cooking with Adam

This weekend I took on a large cooking project with one of my best friends: Denning! The weather on Sunday was not very good for sailing (the original plan), so instead Denning and I decided to make a Sunday dinner.

The menu consisted of mega ribeye steaks!










And since Denning is so smart, she informed me that the best way to make a steak and the way that all the restaurants do it, is to sear the meat and then roast it in the oven. Searing requires you to cook at very high temperatures, thus creating massive amounts of smoke. So much smoke that the fire alarm in Denning's building went off. She lives in a dorm with freshman college students and boy were they pissed! One poor girl was in the shower when the alarm went off and ran outside in just a towel. But as we all learned in the Medeiros Fire, its best to get out as fast as you can!

We also made a fall tart consisting of apples, butternut squash, onions, and blue cheese. It was good.










I had a craving for onion rings so we pulled out Ina's recipe for buttermilk battered cornmeal onion rings.










It was a good meal!

The Theme Song Video REMASTERED

I had Peter add a couple of other drawings and re-edited it. Its fun. watch it! Go on!

Fashion Friday and other news

And to think I didn't really know how I was going to follow up the Blog Song Entry.....

This morning as I was walking up to my building, I did a double-take--the boy in front of me was wearing a navy blue sweater with a blue button-down shirt underneath. That's fine (except that its going to be in the mid-80's today). The top was not the problem. So we've got navy blue sweater, blue shirt THEN black pants and brown shoes!

COME ON! Maybe he got dressed in the dark....This outfit obviously reminded me of Ryan's continued insistence on wearing a pair of brown pants with black shoes and a black belt. Is this ok? It doesn't look horrible I guess. What do other people think?

In other news...
KEEP WATCHING THE THEME SONG VIDEO!

Happy Birthday Patrick!

(caught by the paparazzi last year at Courtside)

I was shopping last night trying to find something Pee-Wee Herman related for Patrick's present, but I couldn't find anything. Remember those Pee-Wee Herman dolls? When you pulled the string he screamed or told you today's secret word? Well, they don't sell them anymore. So the search will continue for something else fun to get!

the song

I love you all. Please comment the hell out of this. Thanks Nick.

Love,
Adam

its coming.

Bob&Co on the road part 2: leaf peeping in NH

After crossing into the border of New Hampshire, we stopped at a lovely Chinese Restaurant for lunch. There were zero point zero zero people besides us in the restaurant, so it was a little awkward since it was so quiet. But just the service nearly rivaled Chef Chang's House in water refills. Also, I have never seen a restaurant computer system so hi-tech before (see below).















At the beginning of the scenic tour we stopped near so waterfalls. Bob, Marco, and Peter jumped from rock to rock like little water nymphs....






Peter demonstrated how to call wild animals. AND IT WORKED! Look at the wild gazelle that trots by as Peter does his call:



All in all, it was a wonderful nature retreat. Stayed tuned to see where Bob&Co travels to for their next outing. (Natick Collection maybe?)

Love Bob&Co

Bob&Co on the road part 1: a story with pictures and eventually videos

Bob&Co's fall outing took place last weekend. The tour of a little known state called New Hampshire began VERY early as Peter pulled up in an enormous bus. The bus fit 9 of us very comfortably and probably could have fit 2 or 3 more!










I gave Bob 15 seconds to explain why we were going on this trip:



Marco was still very concerned with the closing of Avalon:



The ride to see leaves lasted maybe 2 hours. During that ride, Bob and Jeremy spent the time shocking each other:

Musical Monday: Blog Theme Premiere

I held off writing anything today in the hopes that my new blog song would be emailed to me. Nick is in the final stages of producing the song. IT IS UNBELIEVABLE. You will want the song for your ipod or iphone ;-)

I haven't received the mp3 yet.... so the waiting continues....

Also, I'm having a lot of trouble with the files my camera uses when it takes video and iMovie. iMovie will not recognize the mpg files so I cannot use them. How frustrating!