Are you in the market for a new home? Well, if you're willing to do a bit of digging, you may be able to buy Mister Rogers' home! (Or at least, a home in the Mr. Rogers style.) That's exactly what blogger TL of the Nieghborhood Archive did. He now owns an exact replica of Mister Rogers' television home - that is, the tiny model one you see at the beginning of his TV show! Okay, so it's a bit small, and unfurnished. You will probably have to put in your own plumbing and electicity lines as well. But how cool. I urge you to read his post about how he found and restored the home. It's much funnier than this post.Speaking of Mister Rogers, now is the time for all die-hard Mr. Rogers video collectors to shell out the big bucks and buy some copies of their favorite episodes, most of which are being made available on home video for the first time from the Fred Rogers company. Most of the episodes are only available as downloads to your computer or iPod, but some are available as DVDs. TL has a link to a page where you can pick out the exact episodes you want. This is a real treat for "old school" Mr. Rogers fans who want to peek at the older episodes again. It's almost like the "Noggin" revolution of 1999-2000. Old school PBS rules!
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HOW TO DISAPPEAR: I have a great excuse for not keeping up with the blogging. This is a long story, but for the moment I do not have a working Internet connection. And this very long moment has lasted for several months now. So now I'm without live TV or the Web. I'm missing the Web a bit more. What I miss most is the ability to get information quickly. That's probably the best luxury the Web has to offer us, and the reason why sites like Google and Wikipedia have been so successful.
It also may be the reason why within the past two months, no less than four local stores/companies have decided to close up shop. The stores have one thing in common - they sell CDs and DVDs. At one going out of business sale, there was a DVD set of the old "Superman" TV show "on sale" at 20% off. When I did a search for the same item on Amazon.com, I found that its normal price on Amazon was the same as the sale price at the store. There you have it - the reason why the store went out of business. If the Web offers items at a lower price, why buy it at the store? I'm losing four favorite shopping haunts. Obviously, the Internet is not completely to blame - but when so many similar businesses leave the scene, you can't deny its impact.
So if I don't immediately answer your messages, there's a good reason for it. I do have computer access, so I can occasionally check in to see how things are going. It sucks, I know. I won't bore you with the details (too late, I know), but I'm going through some bumps in the road of life. But I'll get through this. So thanks, dude, for letting me borrow your computer so I can do this post.
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POKER FACE: One of the stores going out of business is a local Borders, which is the one that had the mix and burn station where you could burn your own music CDs. Darn it, we finally get this awesome technology, and now it's out of my reach! :) Again, you can look at the Web and say that music can be downloaded from home, so why go to the store to do it? A good point - well, what about folks like ME who don't have Web access, huh? Sigh. The Internet has revolutionized the music business, both in good ways and bad.
But I digress. I wanted to give you another playlist of songs from one of my Borders albums that you may enjoy looking at. At the time I mentioned Lady Gaga in a post last year, I was more familiar with her image than her music. But a local radio station has been playing some of her "hits", and I must admit to enjoying much of what I've heard, as this song list will show. This is one of my favorite "Borders albums."
1. Poker Face - Lady Gaga
2. Wonderful Woman - The Smiths
3. Hearts Courageous - Azure Fields
4. Boa Constrictor- Marylee
5. Haven't met you yet - Michael Buble
6. Come Harvest Time - Steve Amerson
7. Love Never Dies - From the musical
8. Alejandro - Lady Gaga
9. Hi Friend - Bob McGrath
10. A smile connects us - Kermit the Frog
11. Paparrazzi - Lady Gaga
12. Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
13. Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson
14. Jenny Dreamed of Trains - John Denver
15. Bigmouth Strikes Again (Live) - Morrissey
This album is fun to listen to. At times quiet, at times rocking. It's almost exactly an hour long, making it a good fit for a recording. But I don't think the cursing in "Paparazzi" is necessary. It's there to try to sell records to sheltered teenagers who think that cursing is so grown-up and will make them cool. Couldn't she have sung, "Snap snap to that crap on the radio?" It means the same thing, and it almost rhymes!
