Category: Uncategorized (Page 15 of 34)

Pushing Through Till Summertime

21 January, 2011 / Kat

The reason the Canadian pop-rock-country band Barenaked Ladies always have appealed to me is because it is so obvious we all are originally from the same region of North America. When Ed (the remaining lead singer) crooned in 1998 about “the foam on the creek is like pop and ice cream/a field full of tires that is always on fire/to light my way home” on “Light Up My Room,” I could vividly remember taking the Greyhound with my Grandma on a late 1980s summer day trip to Buffalo, and seeing both out the bus window on the way home.

Last spring, the band released their first album without co-founder Steven Page. The second song on the album, “Summertime,” is an ode to Western New York-Southern Ontario weather; a response to those not from the area who ask, “How do you put up with all the lake effect snow, wind and cold?” The answer? “We’re all pushing through till summertime.”

I have been fielding many questions in the same vein lately now that Greater Boston has been hit with three snowstorms in a month’s time. “How did you put up with weather like this?! How does your family back there handle it?” So, Bostonians, my answer and advice to you in song form. “Keep on pushing through for summertime.” May it become your winter 2011 anthem.

Summertime – Barenaked Ladies (YouTube)

Find more artists like Barenaked Ladies at Myspace Music

“The Hackneyed Line of Dreams Coming True.”

10 January, 2011 / Kat

I understand what you are trying to do, American Idol. You’re trying to do what anything on the edge of being irrelevant tries to do when they see the black hole coming – throw all the tricks to keep oblivion at bay.

Not that I ever watched American Idol. I don’t think I’ve watched a single episode in it’s enitirity. I’ve stayed away from America’s Got Talent, dropped So You Think You Can Dance after two seasons (they only had me because of my years at the little dance school on the corner), and a few days ago, only made it five minutes into Live to Dance without turning back to hockey.

That withstanding, I was getting dressed for work one recent morning when another American Idol commercial came on, the topic of which was along the hackneyed line of dreams coming true.

But wait. Who said singers are the only people with dreams of something more? Where did it become that singers, dancers, fashion designers, cooks and hair stylists were the only ones that had dreams that deserved fulfilling?

What about the millions of use who are tone deaf, have bum knees, can’t sew, can’t make anything involving something as fancy as to include cream freche, and would probably nip an ear if we tried to cut someone’s hair? Do we not have dreams that deserve fulfilling?

Now I’m not saying that we need an America’s Next Top Accountant, because that, along with many other things, would be bad TV. And I’m not saying everyone’s dreams can and should be fulfilled. No matter the number of self-help books we buy, inspirational Twitter accounts we follow, and kick-in-the-seat quote of the day calendars we keep on our desk, not everyone will find their dreams fulfilled.

I don’t think I’m saying anything but gosh, doesn’t it sometimes seem like singers are the only people that can be plucked from obscurity, put on television, and made famous?

4 For 29: Splish Splash

4 January, 2011 / Kat

To the surprise of many bartenders and my own mother, I will turn 29 years old in a week from Wednesday. This is the last birthday where I will actually acknowledge the age I am turning. After this year, I will officially turn “grumble.”

Since my birthday is so close to New Year’s, I tend not to make New Year’s resolutions, but goals tied to my birthday. I’ve settled on four goals for my 29th year, and since this year’s are actually interesting, and things I need my readers to assist with, I thought I might share them with you.

So here is the first of my 4 For 29.

The Seabreeze water slides. (Photo: Seabreeze)

1.) Learn How To Swim

When I was 10, my mother presented me with a choice to continue taking dance classes or take swimming lessons at the East High School pool. My parents couldn’t afford both, so I had to choose between the two.

I remember my mother sitting with me at our tiny kitchen table with the two typewritten registration forms in front of us. Our faux-maple round table was the place where all important family conversations took place, from “Why did the principal call me and say you refused to go to music class?” in first grade, to “Your mom and I can’t contribute any money to college,” twelve years later. Obviously, on the scale of conversations the table had seen, this was on the mild end.

“It’s important to learn how to swim,” explained my mother (who has made it a career to reason with elementary schoolers about their lunch choices, and for that, she’s deserves more shots than I could ever buy her.) “But you are a very good dancer, and I know you like that.” Continue reading

A Holiday Wish

24 December, 2010 / Kat

Saturday Night Live may be one of the only non-sports related television shows I watch, dating back to my being a little girl. I remember seeing the following clip when I was 10 or so, and not fully getting it (there may be a term in the sketch I would hope I wouldn’t know at age 10), but still finding it hysterical. Now that I’m much older, it’s still my all-time favorite SNL sketch.

So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Belated Happy Hannukah, Happy Snow, Happy Time-Off-From-Work, and enjoy Steve Martin’s “A Holiday Wish.”

Keeping The Faith: Why I Hold On To the Bills

3 December, 2010 / Kat

The glimmer of hope at the Bills-Pats game on September 26th. (Photo taken by Kat)

This is what being a Buffalo Bills fan in Boston is like.

It is going to work for sixteen Mondays every year and having your boss throw his hands in the air, sigh heavily and say, “Kat! Those Bills! So close!”

It’s your newest star wide receiver Tweeting his best Nancy Kerrigan impression (StarGames and Jerry Solomon, jump on that like a trampoline and sign him up.)

It’s your mother-in-law asking you for sixteen Sundays every year if your team lost again and asking you why you don’t root for that “Brady fella.” Continue reading