More on Tommy boy...

Okay, I admit. I might be becoming a little obsessed with Tom Cruise's abduction of Katie Holmes's mind...but I just found the funniest Web site ever:

Tom Cruise is Nuts.

Make sure you scroll all the way down the first page to see:

• The Nut Poll
• The Featured Letter of the Week

And visit the link to what others have said about Tom.

Back later with something a little more substantial, okay?

More on Tommy boy...

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/07/more-on-tommy-boy.html

Observations of a Band Wife

My husband is a musician, and over the fifteen years I've known him, he's been in several cover bands in which he's played regularly or in one-off gigs, or any combination of the two.

Last Saturday night was one such "one-off" gig, in which he performed with a band known as Mass Confusion. (The band is more than aptly named, because it is composed of several members of a Catholic church choir and because they are not the least bit organized.)

The band was providing the music for a wedding reception at an affluent country club, and I arrived with the "roadie" vehicle about forty minutes after they were supposed to be finished playing--because I am an experienced band wife, I knew that there was about a snowball's chance that they would actually be finishing on time.

Right again.

Anyway, having arrived only halfway through their last set, I was able to sit and observe the partygoers. Since I didn't know anyone but the members of the band, and knew nothing about the bride and groom, I was able to watch without any preconceived notions.

I felt sorry for the bride.

She was young and attractive and trying really hard to have a good time--but for the majority of the songs I observed, her only dance partner; indeed, the only other person on the dance floor with her (other than two little children) was her father. The rest of the attendees were either sitting way in the back of the room, or clustered near the edge of the dance floor.

Usually, the bride is surrounded by family and friends for the whole reception.

Usually, the groom is somewhere in the vicinity of the bride.

I couldn't find the groom until the very last song of the set, when the band announced that it was for the bride and groom, and the bride had to call her new husband over to join her for a dance.

He was about twenty years older than she was, and he looked bored with the whole situation. Later on, after the music was over and I was helping to carry mike stands to the van (am I a great wife or what?), I saw the groom walking out to a vehicle in the parking lot with someone who looked like a buddy.

Leaving the bride alone in the reception hall. Literally. When I came back in to get something else, she was looking for him and everyone else had gone.

I don't supposed you can judge a marriage on its wedding reception, but still...I do wonder how this bodes for their future.

Observations of a Band Wife

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/07/observations-of-band-wife.html

Free Katie!

Is that a death grip or what?

I'm not one to get obsessed with celebrity gossip, although admittedly, I do find it interesting enough to keep up on the big stories.

But I have to admit a sort of morbid fascination with the "cult"-ivation of Katie Holmes. As a naive, innocent midwestern girl like her (albeit more years older than I'd want to admit), I am becoming obsessed with following the story and waiting, not for Katie's demise, but for Tom to self-destruct and set her free!

It is the classic case of an ingenuous young woman being overwhelmed by a strong-willed "hero" type guy--at least in her eyes. Blind-sided, brainwashed, enveloped.

I mean, this is straight from a book, a thriller: the girl is overwhelmed by a man she's had a long-distance crush on for years, when she gets brought into the fold, she is put under guard and not allowed to speak for herself or on her own. Is she completely brainwashed? Or is she still in that honeymoon phase?

Oh, wait, I forgot...she and Tom "will always be in [their] honeymoon phase." Good God. If she really believes that, she's a lot younger than 26.

And this creepy Jessica Rodriguez who's been sicced on her is nothing more than Tom's golden chain around his "magnificent" Katie.















The poor girl's trying to run away! Somebody help to Free Katie!

Free Katie!

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/07/free-katie.html

The Demeaning of Vin Diesel

The other day I saw the cover for the DVD The Pacifier, starring Vin Diesel as a hardened special agent who is put in charge of a cluster of children.

I was also unfortunate enough to see some of the images from the movie, and all I could think of was why?

Why, why, why?

The last time I saw him, he was looking mighty fine in XXX, and now...this? Whose idea was it to stick a big, hulky (in a good way), hunky guy in a stupid role like this?

And why on God's green earth would he agree to do it?

The only thing I can think of is he must have pissed off a woman who got back at him by manipulating or otherwise forcing him to take on this demeaning role.

Only a woman scorned could have thought up a revenge so bent on destroying the strong image Vin Diesel has cultivated.

The Demeaning of Vin Diesel

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/07/demeaning-of-vin-diesel.html

Nostalgic Reads

I was a bookworm when I was younger (not that that has changed much); when my mom would take me to the library, I would bring home a stack of 14 books and I would have them read within a few days.

Of course, I read Trixie and Nancy and Laura Ingalls, but there's a whole slew of other books that I've read and loved, and haven't forgotten. I want my children to read them, but many of them aren't available any more.

Enter eBay. I've been able to find a lot (not all) of my favorites for sale on eBay; some of them are even considered collectors items because they're out of print.

I wonder, did anyone else love these books as much as I did?

• Gorilla Adventure, Safari Adventure, Amazon Adventure, etc.; by Willard Price--a series about two brothers whose father is a zoologist. They were mysteries set in exotic locales with tons of information about animals. Now I can only find old library copies. If anyone sees a hardcover copy of Cannibal Adventure, let me know!
• The Mad Scientist's Club by Bertrand R. Brinkley. A company called Purple House Press has rereleased the two original books in the series, and then the prequel, which was never published. I was delighted to find them in hardcover, with the original illustrations.
• The Three Investigators Mystery Series, also known as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. There were two authors of the books in this series and I devoured every one of them (the books, not the authors). I have been able to acquire all of the first 22 books except for #21, The Secret of the Haunted Mirror, in the original Random House hardcovers. Seth Smolinske has a great Web site about T3I, and he reported some time ago that there is talk about making a movie with the three boys. I would love to see that!
• What the Witch Left, by Ruth Chew, and other similar titles. I remember Seven League Boots and other such magical items...and this was long before Harry Potter! I haven't had a lot of luck finding those books.

• Enid Blyton's Adventure Series about four children (Phillip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack and Bill Smugs). The Valley of Adventure, The Mountain Adventure, Circus Adventure, and others. I remember very little about these books other than Kiki the parrot!
  

• Alvin Fernald, Boy Detective, Mayor for a Day, etc., by Clifford B. Hicks
• Step to the Music, by Phyllis A. Whitney
• The Wind Blows Free (I can't remember the author's name)
• Betsy, Tacy and Tib by Lovelace
• Books by Rosamund du Jardin--these were books my mother read in the '50s and got me hooked on. Wedding in the Family was one, and there were others about prom night and so on
• How about the Sue Barton nurse mysteries? My mother is a nurse, and she also read those, and got me hooked (on Cherry Ames, too, of course), but I liked the Sue Barton stories because she had red hair!

I'm slowly building my collections back up...I don't know if my children will ever read them (I can't even get my 8.5 year old daughter to read The Little House books yet....), but I want to have them for me.

Does anyone remember any of these? Or is there a reason they are out of print?? :-)

I'd love to know what other books people read in their childhood...maybe that will jog my memory too. I was the kind of kid who walked into the library and had to have the librarian find me something I hadn't read...'cause I'd read everything already!

And if anyone does find a copy of Cannibal Adventure, let me know!

Nostalgic Reads

http://colleengleason.blogspot.com/2005/07/nostalgic-reads.html