If I were a product spokesperson....I most certainly would endorse this:
It glows in the dark!!
Not only is it a stylish accoutrement to my kitchen, but it has all this scientific stuff to fancy your whimsy:
OMG - Cool!?! Right?
Although I'm not a product endorser, nor do I get paid to say wonderful things about this product (bummer), if you want to be as Cool as I am, http://www.keurig.com/.
My life as an accordionist began in my early teens in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
At the time, my grandmother's and my hero of choice, naturally was Myron Floren. Myron was in our house every Sunday courtesy of the "The Lawrence Welk Show," entertaining us with polkas, waltzes and schottisches which 
showcased his accordion skills with a handsome smile. He was sort of the ambassador of the accordion and really the only gig in town if you aspired to make a career of it - at least in the States.
Today, however, as my musical tastes have matured, I squeal with delight over the music of Astor Piazzolla, the man responsible for "nuevo tango." His music surrounds my soul, captures my imagination and physically moves me so much that I am honestly sometimes overwhelmed. He pushes the instrument to its limits and shows the depths of emotion an accordion/bandoneon can muster.
It should be noted that Mister Piazzolla plays the bandoneón, which is different from the accordion in that it has buttons on both sides and the action of pulling out produces different tones than pushing in. Most of his music, of course, is transcribed for many different instruments.
As an introduction, I present a few favorites from his repertoire, beginning with probably his most commercially heard piece, Libertango, which was later recorded with lyrics by Grace Jones in the early 80's as "I've Seen That Face Before"
Libertango - Yo-Yo Ma
I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) - Grace Jones
Piazzolla's music has been transcribed for guitar, guitar trio, piano, and cello. Just a quick search of Astor Piazzolla on Youtube.com provides a wealth of transcriptions and adaptions of this man's wonderful tango/jazz/classical fusion.
I leave you with this. A performance of "Adios Nonino" (written for his father) performed at the royal wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima Zorreguieta.
This is probably the most incredible performance of this piece I have ever seen. It makes my heart melt and it's obvious that Princess Maxima "gets it."
Enjoy...
Okay - here's my Achilles heel on Blogging...
I'm not sure I really get it...
There - I've said it!?!
I do enjoy reading others' blogs though. I find them amusing, informative and if it's someone I know, it keeps me abreast of their goings on.
My challenge with blogging is twofold:
I don't feel like a blog is really a personal diary of things going on with me. I know I'm writing for an audience or at least someone, somewhere will view or read a sentence or try and find my e-mail address for marketing/spam purposes - so I write differently than I would to myself. It's an innate thing. I have often found blogs (Live Journal for example) that are personal in nature to be rather manipulative to the reader.
So writing about myself is difficult in a public forum - at least for me.
Secondly, I'm a ruminator!!!
My therapist has proudly made this pronouncement and I wear this title with pride and dignity. Being a ruminator isn't really a bad thing, but it can hamper me from getting things done or moving on.
So when I think about writing in my blog, I ruminate about what I should write. And then about why I should write. Then I write it all in my head and then ruminate about it for a couple more days. Of course the rumination then leads to the "Well that's not interesting enough" phase and I'm off to another subject to ruminate about yet again. The cycle repeats and has repeated for the last 30 years. I'm very accustomed to it actually. 
I think....I think hard...
Sometimes I wish I could hardly think...
I've continued to obsess all things Eurovision and have some closing comments.
Hat's off to this year's production team and the host country, Serbia, for such a wonderful show. The staging, lighting effects, and camera gymnastics make for an eye candy production. Kudos to the LED designer and programmer - with a back wall full of LED lights, every song and singer had a new and interesting backdrop tailored to his/her or their song stylings. Bravo!!!
If you have three hours to kill and would like to view this year's final production in European HD, I highly recommend downloading the Octoshape viewer and watching it here... Eurovision 2008 High Quality Finale. It really is good TV in the Ed Sullivan/Variety Hour vein. The last hour or so is the tabulation of votes and introduces a host from each voting country.
Although the controversy surrounding the voting has been quelled by this year's Eurovision TV Director, Sietse Bakker, I still don't think Russia's entry was the best - I just didn't care for Dima Bilan, himself - even if his song was produced by Timbaland. I really thought Ani Lorak's Shady Lady was a far more universally appealling sound and better produced. The whole skater/violinist thing that was included just seemed odd, at best, to me. And, well, I just didn't like the song at all.
After watching the entire show, another entry that I am certain fell prey to political standing rather than actual talent was Israel's entry. Boaz sings this entry by Dana International with heartfelt honesty and command. I can't take my eyes off of him. And the song, itself, is well constructed and quite beautiful. It certainly deserved more than the ninth place it recieved.
Another mention should be made of the group from Turkey. An admireable band, Mor ve Ötesi, their entry, "Deli" has a catchy hook and a lead singer worth watching...I very much liked this performance as well.
Perhaps no Abba was born out of this year's competition and perhaps it has fallen just a tad bit further away from it's origins and delightfully comic European ways (although it's opening production on Finale Night leads me to believe that it's European artistic tastes are alive and flourishing), I will look forward to next year's showcase of stars and dimwits in eager anticipation of a nearly lost Star.
p.s. Ani Lorak accepted me as a friend on Facebook...her career should be catapulting soon!!
