The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room (The Whole Wide Whit)

Much anticipated Ms. Whiteaker post to follow:

But first, a retraction. There is NO EXCUSE for not including the Black Key's album Brothers on my best of 2010 post. This humble apology is all I have to redeem myself.

I guess I do have an excuse actually (albeit a lame one). This album never got on rotation and I kept waiting and waiting. Then my "best friend" kept telling me over and over that she would send it and I kept waiting and waiting. Finally my man bought it for me for Valentine's Day (2011 - two months after my best of post was written).

So anyway, with deepest apologies to Dan, Patrick & all you readers, the album is amazing. Track after track: Everlasting Light, The Next Girl, Tighten Up, Howlin' For You, Ten Cent Pistol, Sinister Kid..... Just what you would expect, but better.

Check out this video, this is one you are going to want to watch. My only complaint is that it isn't a real movie.

Black Keys - Howlin' For You
Did you catch Shaun White in there? Love me some Shaun White.

Also, if you haven't seen it check out The Next Girl video - features the same dinosaur puppet who is named Frank.

I have a question. Why is the name Frank uncommon in the real world but the name of at least 10% of all fictional male characters?
Case in point, how many Franks do you know personally?
I know one - my husband.

Conversation with my stepbrother circa 2008:
Aloof relative: "I hear you have a new boyfriend."
pigeon: "Yes, that is true."
AR: "So who is this guy, what is his name?"
pigeon: "His name is Frank."
AR: "How old is he, like 60, 70?"
pigeon: "No, he is 32. Why would you say that?"
AR: "Just didn't know they still were naming people Frank."

However, half the weird, evil or quirky characters have this name.

 Pitch: Crotchety, crazy father for Larry David character... how about Frank?

"When it touches the lips, it tastes so good."

Let's go streaking. We're all streaking

Let's try the name Frank. 

Creepiest villain = Frank?

 Oh, wait there is creepier Frank.

"Lizard, am I standing in poop?"

One of my favorite characters of all time.

And last but not least:

Johnny Depp in the Tourist, introduces himself to Angelina's character:

"I'm Frank."

"That's a terrible name."

WTB, Angie? 

I happen to think that Frank is a fantastic, sexy name. Case in point:

My Frank.

So, I have more excuses. I haven't written my blog about the Ms. Whiteaker pageant yet for two reasons.

1) We were really rushing to get over there after the radio show as it started at 9pm so we did NOT want to miss the talent portion. Because my husband's truck doors do not lock and we live in the Whit and were going deeper into our wonderful neighborhood, we had to go home first to drop off our laptop and stack of records from that night's show. I asked him to grab my camera when he ran in and he forgot.

So I have no pictures and I have been patiently waiting and checking flickr and the like for some gems to show up and I have finally found them, although they are copyrighted but check them out here.

2) Because I didn't have my camera and there were several drinks consumed, I took notes on my BlackBerry for my dear readers.

2b) Said phone was LOST a few days later. That is a WHOLE nother story for another day. Happy ending = iPhone.

So this pageant is like a display of neighborhood pride. You guys probably know I really love my neighborhood. To paraphrase a contestant asked what she loved most about living in Whiteaker, this neighborhood makes me feel normal (by comparison).

We unfortunately did miss the talent portion but were in attendance for the "late" evening wear (think freakish lingerie) and the Q & A portion. There were about seven or eight lovely ladies with different levels of commitment to the competition. The place was packed. Sitting next to me was a paraplegic with quite an ingenious set up of carabiners and a Nalgene and heavy duty straws rigged up for his beers. The evening was hosted by the charming publisher of BoozeWeek, local celeb (Missoulians, think Nate Schweber status) Elliot Martinez.

The ladies were wonderfully dressed - really, check out the pictures. One had a huge papermache vagina. One had the Ninkasi logo shaved and dyed into her hair. Lots of bustiers, tutus, mohawks (real, not faux), '80s prom, lots of skin (tattoo covered skin)... it was all there.

Our mayor, Kitty Piercy, was there as a judge.

A sweet older lady asking questions like "If you could change one thing about the Whit, what would it be?"

Some of my favorite answers -
"Too much ribald activities during the day. Night is ok, but please, pants during the day."
"People leaving stuff outside their cars. And meth."

We figured that the complaint about the leaving stuff is referring to the frequent occurrence in these parts of people "cleaning" out their cars and leaving their junk on the side of the road (or in our yard as the case may be). Personally, I have never had a problem with this, since someone else always comes by and picks it up within the hour.

Another contestant suggested as an improvement to have fountains filled with free Ninaski.

After the winner was crowned, local punk band Soothsayers played and a friend of ours met us down at Sam Bond's Garage and we stayed up real late listening to records.

I haven't had what I like to refer to as a "record party" in a LONG time. Record parties cannot start before midnight and/or at least three drinks.To give you some perspective, the two ladies I last had a record party now have children. One of them has two. And I am still having record parties. Sigh.

It's my birthday today.

xo pigeon xo

I Saw You First, It Was in a Dream

Kaliméra friends, happy long weekend.
Here's what we were doing last year this time.

Sasquatch 2010

After a long, arduous debate, which btw is how I make the vast majority of all decisions, we opted to not go to Sasquatch this year. It is a little bit painful now that the time is upon us. Back in the fall, we were watching the streaming video and twitter obsessively to get the word on who would be playing.

On the pro-side we had:

GIVERS - I saw you first

Sidenote: There was another version of this song on youtube, which was nausea-inducing and the sound was worse BUT it showed the band pulling balloons out of big trash bags. Priceless. It reminded me of poorman's this feat by AF @ Coachella.

We watched Arcade Fire's Coachella performance live on youtube - it was fantastic and to be honest, I *almost* felt like I was there. Actually, we got better views and closeups, with none of the portapotties and sweat. Kind of nice. Anyway - on the encore, these big balls dropped down, hundreds of them, and they were somehow synchronized and controlled to turn patterns of different colors. I love it. Chris Milk (of Wilderness Downtown video fame), fun stuff. So what I am saying is, GIVERS, hang in! Pretty soon you could go from 800 youtube views and filling up Glad bags with balloons you blew up yourselves, to multimedia art collaborations and headlining Coachella, it could happen!

Back to the point: This band played at the WOW with Ra Ra Riot (also awesome and Sasquatch alums) and we didn't go because we are too tired and old. Big mistake.
Other pluses of 2011 lineup: Wilco, Head and the Heart, Iron and Wine (although I don't think that a festival is ideal for this at all, hence we'll see him at Crystal on Tuesday instead), Yeasayer, Cold War Kids (although we just saw them, and one member of this unit (the male member) is not so interested), Beach House(!!!), Sharon Jones and Dap-Kings, Local Natives, Matt & Kim, Deerhunter, Sleigh Bells (who would be perfect at a festival I think), Cotton Jones... Plus the couple dozen I have never heard of that would probably go on to become next year's favorites.

You'd think that would be enough to do the trick. But I am greedy. And unreasonable.

I wanted Arcade Fire. I wanted Black Keys. I wanted Ween again.

The first indication that we might not go this year came with the announcement of headliner Foo Fighters. Not really in the same class as Ween ('10) - for me anyway. Meh. Then the big names kept coming and and more meh.
Death Cab. Decemberists. Bright Eyes. Modest mouse. These bands do not excite me.
Then there was the portapotties, the trash, the lack of any vegan food, the field mice...

Oh wait, then we thought about the fact that technically - I am a student. On the quarter system.

That means next week is exam week.

And how I have COMPREHENSIVE exams in two weeks. For the (blissfully) unaware, these are tests where you are expected to demonstrate everything that you learned in the first 2 years of your PhD education and you need to pass if you want to continue in the program. you have 96 hours to complete a set of four questions. You have 10 pages to answer each question. The dreaded comps are looming large.

Then I need to get ready to teach a brand spanking new class.

It's going to be intense.

So, yeah, if you were wondering, we aren't going to the festival this year. Does this mean I am a (kind of) grown up?

Probably not, since we decided to binge locally on the Sasquatch ripple effect. Cotton Jones tonight. Maybe Cotton Jones again Saturday. Back up to Portland for Head and the Heart and Iron & Wine (aforementioned).

And stay tuned for another post this weekend about last weekend. We went to the Ms. Whiteaker pageant! And we played poker! We stayed up til 4am listening to records! Who says I am grown up?

There's No Darkness A Loomin

So if you follow me on my radioshow page or my FB page, you probably know that I was getting a little impatient about the sophomore release from Fleet Foxes.

I personally apologize to Robin Pecknold for the doubt because these guys killed it with this album. Which is probably not a good description because what they did is more like these guys met it at an art museum, took it out for coffee and ended up riding it on the handlebars of a cruiser bike while drinking red wine, eating strawberries and riding off into the sunset with this album.

It's pretty beibing good. And again I am in love. 

I usually imagine my faithful readers clicking my intro videos and using them as a sort of soundtrack to my writing, but today, I hope that you just watch the video.

Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean from Helplessness Blues

Wasn't that incredible? 

I may have mentioned this before, but Fleet Foxes were here in Portland a couple weeks ago. And as major fans, we knew about the presale and bought the tickets immediately... even though in the back of my mind I felt like "May 1st... isn't there something I am doing that day?" Then a couple days later I realized. My man is RUNNING THE MARATHON that day.

We really like this band. We (he) seriously considered whether he could get up at 5:30am, run for 26.2 miles, get in the car, drive for 2 hrs and go to the show and stand up for 3 more hours, get back in the car and drive 2 hrs to get back around 24 hours after this day began. Wisely (or not) I talked him out of it.

We sold the tickets (for face value which I am really kind of proud about because I saw them going for triple the price. I really hope my friend's research assistant had a fantastic time).  Next time we are there.

But instead it was the marathon.

Dude in the orange ended up winning. Although I have to say 

I think that if you finish the marathon, you won it.

The Eugene Marathon is really an incredible event and I am so proud that my man has been a part of it. He is incredible too. He had a PR and took over 15 minutes off his time from last year. 

There was a Will Ferrel impersonator among the spectators/supporters this year.

F said he saw this guy at four different spots along the course, which is more than I even made. The runners were (mainly) loving it. I heard one runner say "show off that gut!" I guess if you are running a marathon you are allowed to say things like that.

It turns out May 1st is quite popular for events, because as well as Fleet Foxes and the Eugene Marathon, my man's sister also was going to get married that day. But she kindly moved it to the next weekend, which meant that we got to go to Baltimore for a long weekend. 

And I got to wear a cute dress. And orange shoes.

Not to trivialize how hard it is on the feet to run a marathon, but I felt like my feet *might* have been as sore than my man's after 6 hours in those 5 1/2 inch heels. Totally worth it though.

On another note, I am going to play poker this week. Last time I played it did not end well.

I really don't like losing. 

What is Golden Pigeon?

Hey Guys.

So I was reading some other blogs today (mainly because I have 12 academic articles that I have to read and create discussion questions for that must be emailed tonight AND I have mentally committed to going for a run for the first time in a month at 3:30pm on the dot - so I am reading blogs) and I noticed that these bloggers have an information page about themselves. I thought I needed one of those about me pages. This is what came out and I thought I’d share it with you here as well as pasting it in there for your future reference:

I kind of figure you all know me pretty well already but...just in case you want to bone up on some pigeon trivia in case we ever get selected to go on a game show where they test your knowledge about your friend/family member/favorite blogger I have added this page for you.

I wish there was a show like that - instead of the Newlywed Game it could The "whatever relationship you have to this person" Game. I would totally lose that game. Because:

(Fact #1) I am not very observant.

I would need to really cram with you for us to be contenders in this game. Keep it in mind when applying to be a contestant and considering me for your partner. I would be really good though, if you could just give me a little "about you" page so I can cram at the last minute because:

I am really good at cramming (Fact #2). 

Speaking of applying for game shows – do you think that my man and I should apply for Amazing Race? I really, really think we’d have a chance.

A chance of getting on the show, of not winning. We would never, ever be able to win that show, which is why I think it would be funny to be on it for one episode. Do you think my program would give me a leave of absence for that (I’m kidding, people who work at my job with me! Completely kidding. I haven’t even printed out the 11 page application).

I used to be obsessed with the Game Show Network, or GSN as I liked (please notice the PAST tense) to call it (Fact #3).

There was this game they used to play that looked like it was filmed in the '60s where they would test who knew the man better his wife or his secretary. That is some good programming right there. The secretaries always won.

You really have everything that you need to know about me now. Recuperated game show addict. Well, since I am giving you "facts" here:

I should admit that I DVR Jeopardy and we watch it while we eat dinner on the regular (fact #4).

Yes, we watch a show where you feel compelled to blurt out the answers while eating. I just realized this is weird and semi-disgusting. 

There are some things I don't like about Jeopardy. For starters, Alex Trebek. 

 Ahh, much better. I'll never forget the anal bum cover category. 

I also have no patience for contestants who haven't learned the Jeopardy basics. First of all - you should be able to answer any question about the Big 5 Jeopardy categories. Why would you not study 1) the presidents 2) ballet, opera and/or classical music, 3) Shakespeare, 4) Geography and 5) the Bible? Now, I currently know next to nothing about all of these categories, but I sure as hell would be cramming for them before my appearance. YOU HAVE TO CRAM.

I think that if you are smart enough to be selected to be on Jeopardy, then you should be smart enough to know FOR A FACT there will be at least 3 of these categories, or some cute variation (The third thing I don't like about Jeopardy - categories like “CU” in the City – “Notice the C U in quotations, we all know what that means”) of them on any given night. Do you not know in advance that you have been selected as a contestant? 

What does Alex come steal you out of your bed at 3am and then keep you sequestered with no materials that you could use to learn about the books in the Bible, because there really is no excuse (other than the kidnapping scenario) to defend you if you miss one of those questions.

And, please, before you go on Jeopardy, think about your chatting time story, ok? Because as I understand how the chatting portion of the show works, YOU SELF REPORT some things that you think are interesting about you and Alex picks one to ask about on air. No one is calling your enemy from high school or your ex-boyfriend to find out that you "once realized I had scurvy because my gums were bleeding" or that your engagement ring cost $11. Food for thought people.

 

And DO NOT get me started on Wheel of Fortune.

Everybody Wants To Be a DJ...

Hey Guys.
So first, I have a new love. You need to hear this band.
Just like I need to listen to the album in its entirety at least 2x a day.


The Head and the Heart - Lost in My Mind

And, surprisingly, this is a good lead in to my post tonight. It's good to be a DJ. And it's even better to have friends that give you the hookup. Thanks to our great friend Tracy in Missoula, my man and I are going to see these guys next month at their sold out show in Portland opening for Iron & Wine. This deal had very little to do with DJ and a BIG bunch having a thoughtful and sweet friend calling in a favor.

This is obviously not the first time this friend has done this sort of amazing and musically related type thing for me. Um, YEAH -  that is Taj Mahal.
My poor man got stopped at the door - apparently Taj only likes to meet the ladies.

Thank you Tracy.

The other night I really pulled the DJ card/street-team card. If any of you follow this blog on FB (which I wish you all would, because I am feeling a little lonely on there), then you know that Saturday was my man's birthday and we had a potential roadblock to our big celebration plans. I'll get to it.

I got him a mandolin. He already learned to play Keep the Car Runnin'. I love my husband. Speaking of keeping the car running, the theme of the show this weekend is RUN. Because the marathon is next Sunday. Wish him luck!

So before I get to the weekend, I need to share that my ears have been ringing since Wednesday. We went to Daedelus show, who is a "steam punk DJ" that plays a "monome," a couple days earlier and it was LOUD. And visually loud. I recommend checking out the video - it's quite a show. (You know what though? If you are enjoying the Head and the Heart right now you should wait a few minutes and finish listening to it then wait a couple more - I don't want you to get too shaken up. Maybe grab a beer too). The light show was downright hypnotizing. And he's a nice guy too - manning the merch table when we came in, shaking our hands and introducing himself as Alfred.

So moving on to the weekend - We had big plans to go see the Devil Makes Three after our radio show. Well, I went to get the tickets on Monday and they had sold out, which was quite upsetting. Seeing as I had been planning to take F to celebrate, PLUS I like the band so much I was on the street team, which means that I was hopping around town with a staple gun and a roll of tape putting up posters like a college freshman. Plus promoting the show every Better Than Sleep episode for the past two months.

After trying to get the special treatment (to which I felt very entitled) from the station, the venue (WOW) and the actual band, no luck. I even tried to scalp some tickets, but they weren't even available that way.

Anyway, at 10:05pm on F's bday we decided to push our luck and go over and plead our case in person. I promised him that I would not let it ruin my night when we ultimately got turned away, possibly even angrily. We played their version of Statesboro Blues during the "three show" and I got a little upset at the idea that they would be playing four blocks from our house and we weren't going to be there.

But, guess what? Between the awesome merch guy for the band and the understanding people at WOW, we got in! And they were great. The band is always a blast, this is the third time we have seen them together and everytime the crowd seems more into it then the last. Also, the banjo man's beard is reaching full blown hillybilly length which made me feel like it had been way too long since we've seen them.

Thanks DM3 and WOW, you made our night. And thanks to the guys from my journalism class for those Patron shots afterwards... it's so rare for us to see someone we know out and about in Eugene. I forget that Patron and tequila are really two different ballgames.

And thanks KWVA and the universe for our show. Love the show.
Tune in on Saturday!

Have you ever felt superior to those around you?

Are you guys interested in movies/music/website/TV/book reviews of a rambling type? Not necessarily new (or even new to me)? Because today I think that I am introducing a new category for your reading pleasure. Pigeon Judges. And today my victim is Boys From Brazil. 

I met a professor at a conference who told me he was really into movies and I asked for a recommendation and this is what he gave me. I thought we might be on the same page because I asked him what his favorite movie of the year was and he said AND I QUOTE "Well - It wasn't the King's Speech." Although the recommender seemed to be offended when I said it was an old movie after he told me that it starred Gregory Peck. So it's from the 70s... is that really offensive?

It had Steve Guttenberg in it. SPOILER ALERT - the good thing is he died 10 minutes in. Good, classic flick. Definitely a little slow at first, but well worth the investment. 

So the movie is about Dr. Mengele (nazi dr) who has well ... I don't think I should spoil it anymore than I did with the Guttenberg fate. 

Let's just say that Archer episode made a lot more sense after this movie. 

I am working on a really nice rating system for you guys. Any suggestions? I am thinking maybe fries. Pigeons love french fries. Or am I thinking of seagulls?

Before I move on can I just comment on the "boy" from Brazil. Were they not able to find a child actor that really had blue eyes? Because if you have seen it you'll understand that was pretty integral to the plot and, really, this was a weird looking fellow. I wonder if he has done any other work. HOLD - checking IMDB...  That would be a no.

Also - not worthy of its own post, but I MUST COMMENT on Love & Other Drugs. Worst. Movie. Ever. I suspected from the opening credit notes of Two Princes by the Spin Doctors (which I incidentally had hoped I would never hear again) that I would not make it through this movie. I lasted about 15 minutes until Ann showed her boob in the room then freaked out on Jake. I repeat - Worst. Movie. Ever. And I see a lot of movies. ZERO fries. 

Thank god I didn't make it to this part. I have been pretty tolerant with Jake up until now. Donnie Darko bought him a lot of leeway with me. I tried to forget that I saw Moonlight Mile and that Prince of Egypt trailer.

But now it is OVER.

 

Gimme Little Drink...

This post is kind of about a drink. Well, it's gonna start out that way, who knows where it'll get to by the end, BUT that gives me a great excuse to share this treasure with you:

I absolutely love this video - it is so cool to see Jack White with that huge grin on his face, getting totally starstruck by the Stones. I don't think I've even seen him crack a hint of a smile before or since. It's a clip from Shine a Light, which is a great watch in its entirety, but this was really the highlight for me. Enjoy. 

How can it be, that at 31 years of age, I get the opportunity TWICE in one month for a fishbowl? For the uninitiated (and reading this blog that is probably only momma bird, though I may have told her already about at least one of these incidents), a fishbowl is a big bowl full of various liquors. If you actually see this being "mixed" it's even scarier. The Ritz used to put swedish fish in the bottom, quite a nice touch I think. Thanks Stacia). 

I have not even seen a fishbowl in about 10 years at least, but now, two times in row. In different states. 

This is what 20+ academics at marketing symposium in Nebraska do afterhours. Who would have thought it? Sorry for the poor photo quality, having only my Blackberry. I wasn't expecting such a photo op to present itself that night. I have never been to a marketing symposium/conference/consortium/etc and I may write more about it another time, but for today all I have to say is this was surprising.
And I was there! But, my friends, this was the second time.

Sidetrack: The first was in Hood River on the previously mentioned ski trip. Somehow I forgot to tell you all that we went out *a bit* after skiing. There is a fantastic brewery there Double Mountain, but it closed pretty early. We went down to "Jack's" (I put this in quotes because there was no name on the outside and no one seemed sure that was the real name) - Chinese restaurant by day, club (?) by night. They had a variation of the fishbowl never before seen which was two size choices (what?! large and extra large) served in those huge chinese family style soup bowls. And they didn't call them fishbowls, they called them Scorpions. A stranger we met tried to get us to share one with him. We politely declined. Several times.

The symposium was a great experience, but the flight back was epic (bad way). We flew from Lincoln to CHICAGO to SAN FRANCISCO to EUGENE... We had been flying for about 5 hours already when I looked to that lovely little screen that must be meant for hypnosis only because who ever looks at the progress of the plane and thinks "wow, that's further than I thought!" and we were flying RIGHT OVER LINCOLN. Thanks travel agent. And I am serious, this flight had to be booked through a travel agent. It's shocking with the value that these people add that they are in obsolescence, isn't it? Oh, and the 5 hour layover in SF was a nice touch.

I also wanted to mention that spring is in the air back in Eugene.

My massive magnolia in FULL BLOOM. Missed it last year because I was in FL.

Spring means

1) Baseball.

For the first year in forever I get to PLAY softball. I used to love to play when I was in high school, but that was a while ago. Yeah. I'm a little nervous because it's been a long time and I am playing on an established team that is a group of people who passionately and intensely work out together so we'll see how I stack up. I did have the best batting average on my team. In 1995. 

My man and I got some gloves. I couldn't believe he found his (lefty) at Goodwill. I'm pretty sure that mine belonged to a young boy in its past life. 

And just because I am talking about baseball does not mean I want to talk about the Sox and their 0-6 record. Or the Rays and their acquisition of Johnny Damon, Manny or even the returning, AK47-toting Longoria. 

Now all I can think of is It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube. Let's hope Evan never has to use his A.K.

2) Spring means winter quarter is over. The evaluations are in and I did not win any popularity contests. I don't want to go off on too much of a rant here, but can we just do away with student evaluations? In the words of a sage advisor, you can't let twenty year-olds affect your self-esteem. Evals really are just not helpful. Case in point (these are real word-for-word "feedback" I get from students):

Good: 

"I really enjoyed taking Cat's class. Her teaching style was really great for me. She is definitely very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject."

Or not so good: 

"Her expectations were completely unachievable. Although Cat's in-class teaching was somewhat satisfactory, her out of class techniques and methods were completely unfair and unable to be met" 

(This student also called me "completely irrational" which I can almost take as that she learned something about consumer behavior since I show the Dan Ariely talk Predictably Irrational. Great video, great book btw. If you have an extra 20, check it out. If not just finish up here. In fact, if she had just said predictably rather than completely as her adverb here I would have been able to laugh about it sooner.) I would like to mention to the readers that the average final grade of the class was an 84, highest I've ever given and highest allowed by the business school grade scale guidelines. 

How about this?

Cat was awesome and fun, really enjoyed the class!

Counterpoint:

She didn't seem very friendly either.

These two comments are FROM THE SAME STUDENT:

"Just an overall dissatisfaction with the professor" and "Good class and relevant material"

So are these two (different student):

"lectures can get boring" and "interesting material"

At least this quarter no one mentioned their wish that I brought donuts more often like a previous student had used his evaluation to let me know.

I have never brought donuts. 

Maybe I should?