Go Green!

It's finally trendy to be green. I don't care what the vehicle is that forces people to pay attention to our environment. As long as the masses are on board with ways each of us can help fix our planet's problems, I approve.

I was home early from work one Friday and caught Oprah's "Green Show" (don't roll your eyes!). In honor of Earth Day (April 22) she hosted an entire show outlining simple things every household can do to create big results. Oprah's request was for every person in her multi-million viewer audience to adopt just one the tips outlined in the show. Here's a selection of the ideas presented:

• Matt Damon presented a tip to stop your junk mail -- you know the stuff that clogs your old-fashioned mailboxes yet costs our planet 100,000,000 trees and wastes 28 billion gallons of water each year to produce. Green Dimes is a company that, for a dime-a-day ($36/year), will take care of most of the junk mail for you, plus plant a tree each month. Matt was so impressed with the company, he joined its board.
• BITS Ltd. smart power strips. Even after turning off a computer, TV, DVD player, cable box, etc., power continues to flow into the equipment. This power strip ($32.99) stops the energy from being wasted -- and in the end will $AVE you money. For more information visit http://www.bitsltd.net/.
• Choose a reusable water bottle. When you buy one liter of water at the store, you're actually buying about six liters of water. When manufacturers make plastic bottles, it takes five liters of water to cool the plastic.
• Reduce your use of paper napkins by just one a day! We use 2,200 napkins a year, per person on average. Six a day. If everyone gave up one napkin a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper waste a year. You'll notice now, just how many napkins you use . . .
• Choose not to receive a receipt at the ATM.
• Finally, change a light bulb! If we each replaced just one standard light bulb in our homes with a Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL) -- which you will start to see on store shelves everywhere -- it would be like reducing carbon emissions from 800,000 cars. These are not the fluorescent lights you might be familiar with -- you know, the flickering, buzzing thing over your desk at work -- the new and improved bulbs give off much more pleasant light and can be adapted to dimmers. They cost about $6 but you'll see immediate results in your power bill if you go CFL.

I'm not asking you to trade in your SUV (unless you're the asshole driving the Hummer) or install solar panels on every square inch of your home (like Ed Begley, Jr.) but it would be monumental if we all adopted just one "green" habit, making that action a part of our daily lives. Once that one thing becomes habit, we add another, and together take gradual and immediate steps to help save our planet from human destruction.

Fresh off the Boat

I've been exposed to a boatload of new albums and artists over the last few weeks. My head spins as I try to decide what I want to listen to at any given time. So many new possibilities!

I absolutely have to talk about Armchair Apocrypha from Andrew Bird. Of the gig of music I brought back from New York this album has quickly become one of my favorites -- of all time. I got hooked on Andrew Bird last summer while doing my "research" for Bonnaroo. I didn't truly appreciate his first album, A Mysterious Production of Eggs, until after hearing and seeing him live. And, now, he's released Armchair -- and it's perfect and lovely and I want to tuck it away and keep it all for myself but you people have got to hear this! I find it's best when experienced through headphones so as to ensure you will catch every little delicious note. Take a listen to "Dark Matter" and "Heretics" for a taste. The whistling alone is worth your buck. Trust me. It's good.

Here's a sampling of tracks, plucked lovingly from the load of music I recently acquired, that I've had on repeat. I wish I could post the mp3s, but you know, then the fascists might come and take me away . . .

• "Fake Empire" from The National's new album Boxer. Another great National track is "Murder Me Rachael" from Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers.

• "Amsterdam" from the Peter, Bjorn and John album Writer's Block.

• "Maybe You Can Owe Me" from Australian ensemble Architecture in Helsinki. This song is from their second album In Case We Die.

• I know I wrote about the new Modest Mouse album several weeks ago, but I feel like the track "Dashboard" deserves a second mention. I've had this CD in my car for last few weeks and each time I get in I play "Dashboard" first. It's upbeat and fun and I can't get enough. This is probably why it was released as their first single. It's definitely radio friendly.

Er, do people still listen to FM radio? Maybe people outside Richmond . . .

No shame in begging

Richmond readers. I'm putting these show dates out there just in case one of you'd like to put your life in my hands for a drive north into DC to take in the delicious, ear pleasing, experience that is Andrew Bird or the lovely, stage filling presence of Arcade Fire. Anybody, anybody? There will be snacks . . .

Andrew Bird
Sunday, May 20
9:30 Club

Arcade Fire
Friday, May 4 -- SOLD OUT (updated as of 5/1/07)
D.A.R. Constitution Hall

Nothing gets a girl wet like a calalily centerpience

Whoa! It's been a crazy, strange two weeks. The highlight of which was a long Easter weekend in New York. I'm so lucky to have a great friend living there who can show me the city his way. Especially since I never have much desire to do the things tourists do when in New York -- a double-decker bus tour might just give me an aneurysm -- and this shocks people. What?! You don't have a plan? No list of required things to do and see? SHOCKING! Nope. I'd rather wander and see what comes up next. I didn't care what we did because I knew we'd have a good time. But, ok, so we did go to The Museum of Natural History -- following a detour through East Harlem and coffee in the park with the pigeons and dog walkers.

My host/bar guide Kyle, is better than any Zagat guide. As he thoroughly enjoys eating, drinking and getting merry we trusted his every suggestion and were never led astray. I especially enjoyed my wet burrito at Florencia 13 in Greenwich Village -- and the tequila shots from the table next to us because we were from Richmond. Avoiding the crush of tourists, we were having a great time just hanging out in bars -- comfy, sit and hang out for hours, bars -- chatting, laughing and entertaining each other with stories over our happy hour(s) beers.

Which brings me to the last bar of the weekend. I have no idea where it is, or what it's called. There's no sign, just a wooden door, and inside was the tastiest cocktail I've ever had. A tart, tangy, perfect little vodka gimlet -- it was so perfect that I immediately felt under dressed and wished that I was wearing a flirty black dress and red heels while sipping my drink on a little banquet. I'm planning a return trip just to have a chance to do that cocktail again the right way.

And to wrap up the weekend, my flight came into Richmond just an hour before the Sopranos and Entourage premieres on HBO. Oh, Johnny "Drama" how I missed you and your innuendo driven one-liners. Sunday nights weren't the same without you.

It's showtime again

My friend Kathrin and I drove* to Norfolk on Sunday night for the Decemberists at the Norva. The show was a bit rocky at first but then it exploded into exactly what I wanted the show to be. The encore performance of The Mariner's Revenge Song was fun and bursting with accordion, over a cello, over a tom-tom and a mandolin -- the sounds were intertwined like only the Decemberists can do it. The song stretched on, telling a story with voices mimicking characters and the effectiveness of the music matching the mood grabbed you. And, I took all this in completely sober -- er, well, after 1 beer, but clear in mind. And, that's the sort of show I wanted from them. Something that could take you away for a few hours.

Best part of the experience was that the band was having a fantastic time -- with a push-up contest of sorts between the bass player and percusionist -- they were joking and enjoying each other's company. The, er, worst part were the blonde concert whores that slipped into the crowd, directly in front of Kathrin and me, just minutes after the lights went down. And then, they danced. Like Widespread-is-in-town-dancing. It took a head push and elbow nudges for them to get the hint they were way too close - like head to nose, too close. Oh, but to have been on whatever it was they were on would have made for an entirely different show.

*Oh, and when I said drove, I really meant careened, like a rolling death wagon, out of the City of Norfolk. I sent an email to Kathrin apologizing today for my erratic, yet calm as a cucumber driving. There was a lane about to end and I was completely oblivious to it until I was forcing a minivan to put on their brakes to avoid me, careening into their lane as mine so abruptly ended. It was like a scene from National Lampoon's Summer Vacation when Clark Griswald obliviously flies off the highway into the streets of some midwestern city with his sleeping family in the backseat and ends up parked in a spot at their hotel safe and sound. Strangely, people willingly get into my car with me.

My name is Beaze and I am a shop-at-home-aholic.

It's official -- I have a problem. My home shopping adventures continue. Tonight, 10 minutes ago in fact, I bought a sunhat on QVC. A sunhat. Am I really 65? Is it time for AARP to start sending me mail? While I rushed to get online to snag my hat before they sold out, a 68 year old woman called in with a testimonial. She'd worn the hat on a recent river cruise down the Danube. I just bought an elderly woman's cruising hat. Bring on the shuffleboard and gin . . .

. . . and the fine time that is Bonnaroo. Where men wear skirts, women wear paint and the fair of skin, like myself wear the hat that will cover the largest area possible so as to keep as cool as possible in the June heat of Tennessee. I've always wanted one of the bonnets my grandmother would wear in the fields on the family farm. Dear Lord, I think this problem is bigger than I orignially thought. Did I just say, wear in the fields?

I must be channeling Gone With the Wind again. I sometimes forget that the O'Hara family is not my own and I was not raised on their cotton plantation, Tara, or with their neighbor's, the Wilkes' of Twelve Oaks. Though my Mother did name our home Tara Oaks. Yes, there's a sign too.

Gone With the Wind was quoted in my house like the Bible is in others. There were quotes for every occasion. For example,

"asking ain't gettin' " or

"I's going to Atlanta wit you and goin I is!" and the ever popular,

"you can always tell a lady by her hands."

These are beyond the famous lines of --"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Which in fact were not the last words of the film, as many think. The final words, spoken by the film's heroine Scarlett O'Hara were actually:

" . . . afterall, tomorrow is another day."

This was my Mother's favorite. It was a sort of catchall for things. You didn't do well on that test -- tomorrow's another day. Your team lost. The cat ran away. Tomorrow's another day.

But, now, as much as I seem to push away from a lot of her, that has become part of me, I find that this connection is one I come back to. I own the movie -- love it in fact. Watch it, just to have it on and hear the dialogue that reminds me so much of growing up. And, in the end, as corny as it all seemed, the message resonates. Tomorrow is another day. An opportunity to start over. A second chance.
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And that, people, is how a home shopping network Daily Special can bring you back around to something completely unexpected. Ya'll should send me a therapy bill because if you stuck by me through that revelation, you deserve your hour fee.