Barack Obama and the Voice of God

I came across this great Time Magazine article, Barack Obama and the Voice of God, while studying up on my my new, emerging passion, voice over narration.

You know voice overs, you just don't know you know.  Actually, you hear them 50 million times a day  - virtually every TV commercial, radio promo, continuity spiel between TV shows, public service announcement, documentary, telephone on-hold or interactive or voicemail system.  Every cartoon character, stuffed toy that speaks or makes a funny noise, video game character, company training video and audiobook, ALL use professional artists to voice the script.

They're like air, you never notice how ubiquitous voiceovers are until you start paying attention.  Well, I love to read and my job is already to talk, so I think this would be a natural transition for me.  Now, just to get some training and coaching so I actually know what I'm doing!

Anyway, back to my original point... this is one of those articles that points out something that you never ever realized was case, but afterward wonder how you could have missed it!  "God" is African-American.  He used to be British, but that's so last century!  So, is it so much of surprise that Barack Obama actually won the Presidency?  If "God" can be black, why not the most well-known man on the planet?

Funny... Ouch!

My favorite Laugh Out Loud moment from the Emmy's yesterday - Ricky Gervais presenting one of the awards starts naming well-known actor troublemakers.  He comes to Mel Gibson's name and catches himself... "I'm not gonna have a go at him.  He's been through a lot.... Not as much as the Jews, to be fair."

Hahahaha!  Classic delivery.  That got my donkey laugh going, the one I have to cover my mouth for because it startles me just a little :-)

Friday Pearls

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

To Be Loved That Way

I'm watching Four Weddings and a Funeral for what must be the seventh or eighth time and I'm still in love with it, for so many reasons.

1. Hugh Grant in the early 90's was the ultimate leading man.  What was there not to like?  Cute British guy, slightly bumbling like we all (American girls) imagined cute British boys to be.  And that accent!  This was before the "incident" of course.
2. Romance, romance, romance.
3. With English accents!
4. Even though I can't stand her now (she's the worst part of the movie for me), Andie McDowell was one of my first role models for the whole American girl living abroad idea.
5. I love the idea of such a disparate but fun group of friends.  
6. Gorgeous wedding locations - village churches, Scottish castles... loved them all.
7. Weddings.  Like so many other girls, I still wish it would happen for me.
8. It's actually been awhile since I last watched it and doing it for the first time while living in Ireland gives it a whole other resonance.  There's actually a sense of familiarity now for the landscapes, the city locations, the characterizations.  And, yes, the accents!  Less exotic, but fun in a different way.
9. Great soundtrack.  I especially like Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet.  Mostly because of it's fantastic cover and co-starring role in another of my favorite movies, Love Actually.  Again with the Hugh Grant!
10. Finally, what for me is one of the most poignant scenes of any movie I've seen.  Matthew's reading of W.H. Auden's poem, Funeral Blues, at Gareth's funeral.  Isn't that what we all want, to be loved like that?

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

"Stop All The Clocks"

Friday Pearls

Nothing is so strong as gentleness
And nothing is so gentle as real strength
- Ralph W. Southland (Criminal Minds, Series 5: Exit Wounds)

Differing Mindsets

Ever received that email forward giving a list of cultural references for incoming college students?  The one that immediately makes you feel old and decrepit because it shows just how different these young 'uns are?  How different their lives have been.  They have drastically different assumptions, worries, obsessions, shock levels and jokes.

Well, apparently the original list has a pedigree; it's based in academia.  Who knew?  The Beloit College Mindset List has been put out by two officials there for the past twelve years, designed to alert faculty there to their students' cultural touchstones and help them avoid dated references.  We've all been there.  You make a joke, reference somebody famous, give a funny tagline and... the silence has crickets, it's so loud!

Anyway, the new list has just been put out for the incoming class of 2014.  !!!  It's certainly interesting, but actually the points it makes are so far beyond my own cultural touchstones that it loses some of it's impact.  So I checked back on the list, to the very first list for the class of 2002.  Now THAT made an impact! 

Read on and let me know if it's as disorienting for you as it was for me. 

1. The people starting college this fall [1998] across the nation were born in 1980.
2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
3. They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
4. Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
5. There has only been one Pope. They can only remember one other president.
6. They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
7. They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them, not a movie.
8. They are too young to remember the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up.
9. Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
10. They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
11. Bottle caps have not always been screw off, but have always been plastic. They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.
12. Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
13. The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
14. They have never owned a record player.
15. They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of "Pong."
16. Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
17. There have always been red M&Ms, and blue ones are not new. What do you mean there used to be beige ones?
18. They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they've never heard or seen one.
19. The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old.
20. As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
21. They have always had an answering machine.
22. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black & white TV.
23. They have always had cable.
24. There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta is.
25. They cannot fathom what it was like not having a remote control.
26. They were born the year Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
27. Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them.
28. "The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.
29. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
30. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
31. They have never seen Larry Bird play, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a football player.
32. They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
33. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI and WWII or even the Civil War.
34. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
35. They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
36. They don't know who Mork was, or where he was from.
37. They never heard the terms "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"
38. They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
39. The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.
40. Michael Jackson has always been white.
41. Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are all places, not music groups.
42. McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
43. There has always been MTV, and it has always included non-musical shows.

Another Reason To Miss Target

I'm attending a potluck meet up of Americans tomorrow with the theme of Mexican food.  We're all so excited because, Mexican food here?  Not good. 

While shopping for ingredients to the cucumber salad and the avocado and goat cheese dip I'm making, I had a brainstorm... margaritas!  Woohoo!!  What would make Mexican food even better?  Tequilaaaah. 

Unfortunately, I quickly came up on another roadblock placed by Rip-Off Ireland.  One pint-sized bottle of tequila = 35 euro!  What??? 

I soooo miss the Margarita Bucket mix from Tar-gay!  Add a bottle, freeze to slushiness in the (full-sized) freezer, and voila!  Good times.

Friday Pearls

This week's quotes are given in honour of Jamaica's Independence Day today.  Happy 48th Birthday Jamaica!

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.
- Moshe Dayan