Other

Once again my fellow Minnesotans did not disappoint in their creative and artistic endeavors. Saw lots of great stuff. These are just a few (chosen mainly for their humor).

In the Fine Arts Building: “Rama Llama Ding Dong”

In the Creative Activities Building: The Hula Hamster Band with guest DJ M.C. Hamster

In the Horticulture/Agriculture Building: a tree house carved from beeswax

Seed art diarama

…and a closeup

More seed art…

…and another closeup

Awesome entry in the scarecrow contest!

Fun was had, mini donuts and fried cheese curds were eaten, and I’m plum worn out.  Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Fascinating video on the effect reintroduced wolves had on the Yellowstone landscape:

My newest website went live a couple of weeks ago.

Check it out at therapyforme.net!

I’ve become addicted to the Chinese drama Palace.  Here’s a rather general synopsis:

Qingchuan (Yang Mi) is a 21st century girl who’s in love with Chinese history. In a bizarre stroke of luck(?), this history buff is magically transported to the time of the fabled Qing Dynasty (early 1700s AD). Qingchuan quickly finds herself in the throes of palatial politics, including a love triangle (or maybe a rhombus) among not one, not two, but three princes: Yinreng (Zong Fengyan), the foolish crown prince, Yinzhen (Mickey He), the ambitious fourth prince, and Yinsi (Feng Shao Feng), the eighth prince. Qingchuan has got all the textbook facts straight, but in the midst of darkness and turmoil, she quickly realizes that history is not at all the fairy tale she imagined it to be.

Along with offering a glimpse into the history, society, and culture of the period, Palace also provides a lot of humor.  Add in a wonderful cast (particularly the heroine Yang Mi) and I give it a definite thumbs up.

The 35 episodes (each about 40 minutes long) can be watched for free online on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/palace). They are in Mandarin with English subtitles.

The below trailer is cheesy and quite a bit less cerebral than the series, but its the best I could find with English translation:

Most popular girls names by state from 1960 to 2012:

Graphic by Reuben Fischer-Baum via The Atlantic. See the Social Security office website for more baby name stats.

My newest website just went live last week. I think it’s pretty.

Check it out at http://www.litzsinger.org and give me your feedback.

So I’ve been trying to watch what I eat and not snack all the time.

Tuesday afternoon I got up from my desk chair and started towards the kitchen to get a snack and thought to myself,”You know, you aren’t really hungry. You don’t need a snack. Ignore the craving.” So I immediately spun around to return to my chair but tripped and lost my balance and fell HARD. And I mean hard!

The unlucky corner

The good thing is I didn’t fall flat on my face. The bad thing is that instead I was stopped by the force of my jaw hitting the corner of my Expedit. Wow, that hurt. I am very lucky I didn’t break my jaw or some teeth.

I do have a nice big bruise along my jaw line and a lot of swelling, along with a fetching impression of the corner of the Expedit— seriously, there is a 90° angle now impressed into my jaw.

But I was not the only one to come out with battle scars: the Expedit now has a rounded corner.

So the moral of the story is clear: while it is healthiest to resist snacking, vacillation is the real enemy. Also: beware of unwieldy footwear:

I was honored to be a bridesmaid for my friend Cindy in her recent wedding.

The bachelorette party was at the Renaissance Festival. I felt compelled to make a costume. I think you could fit several small children in each sleeve…

The wedding was this past Saturday.  Isn’t the bride beautiful?

Congratulations to Cindy and Joe!

I’ve been attending the Deanna Durbin film series at the historic Heights Theater. I had never heard of her before, but she was extremely famous in the late 30s and early 40s, and apparently saved Universal Studios from bankruptcy. She quit show business in the late 40s and retired to France where she still lives.

I find her just delightful!

Below is a clip from 1941’s It Started with Eve. The premise: a man’s dying father (played by Charles Laughton) wants to meet his new fiancée, but she is unavailable, so he substitutes a hat-check girl (played by Deanna Durbin). When the father unexpectedly recovers, mayhem ensues with the son trying to juggle his fiancee and the hat-check girl without his father finding about the ruse. Meanwhile the hat-check girl is trying to stay in their lives long enough to meet a family friend who is a famous musician.