music

Comfy, Cozy Christmas: Meet Me In St. Louis and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

A vlogger I watch recently suggested watching Meet Me In St. Louis as a Christmas movie, mainly because of the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which is sung toward the end of the movie.

I had never watched the movie because I’ve never felt like I was a big fan of Judy Garland, even though I haven’t seen her in much other than The Wizard of Oz.

I decided to give the movie a try a couple of weeks ago, though, and it turns out I don’t mind Judy as much as I thought and the movie does have a few Christmas-themed scenes (including a Christas Eve dance at the end), but it is much more than a Christmas movie.

The movie is funny, fun, warmhearted, and full of really sweet or fun songs. The dresses worn by the young women are gorgeous and it was shot in technicolor which makes all the beautiful dresses even more captivating.

The movie is a musical, which I didn’t know when I started it. I didn’t even know that this is where the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas came from. I also didn’t know this is where The Trolly Song (which I thought was just called Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolly) came from. (That’s the song my husband always sings when he pretends he’s looped out from a knock on the head or when he is super tired. I’d say when he is drinking, but he doesn’t drink enough to get that drunk. I told him this movie is where the song he sings is from and he said he thought it was from The Simpsons. Ha! I think Homer does sing part of it in an episode.)

Yes, I have been living under a rock for my entire life.

If you’ve seen this movie you can skip over the next paragraph where I share what the movie is about.

The movie follows the Smith family, primarily Esther Smith (Judy) and her siblings as they grow up in St. Louis. The movie shows a year in the life of the family and there isn’t really a deep plot to the movie other than Judy trying to catch the eye of the college boy next door — John Pruitt — and her sister trying to get married. I don’t find the lack of a plot a detriment of the movie, by the way. The majority of the movie follows the different situations the youngest girls get themselves in, as well as the love life of Esther and her sister, and it is a fun journey.

The movie takes place in 1903.

The parents, grandfather, and housemaid are really all secondary characters but still very fun additions.

The youngest sisters, played by Margaret O’Brien (Tootie) and Joan Carroll (Agnes), are absolutely hilarious. The scenes with them are the funniest scenes in the movie. There is one that takes place on Halloween that is so insanely crazy I found myself gasping at the verbal “brutality” of these kids. (Written with a laugh, just to explain.)



If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll need to watch and find out.

In addition to Judy, the movie also stars Lucille Bremmer, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, and Harry Davenport.

The musical was released in 1944 and based on a series of short stories by Sally Benson.

Her stories story first appeared in the New Yorker magazine between June 21, 1941 and May 23, 1942. The twelve installments were published under at The Kensington Stories with Kensington referring to the fictional street address of the “Smiths’s” house.

Benson sold the rights to MGM in 1942 and was hired to work on the screenplay, which was ultimately written by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe with her help.

Benson published the stories as a novel of the same name with each chapter covering one month of the year the same year the movie came out.

According to AFI.com, Benson’s story was based on her own experiences growing up in St. Louis. “Tootie” was based on Benson, while “Esther” was inspired by her older sister.

The movie, incidentally, was directed by Vincent Morelli, who married Judy a year later. That marriage is a whole crazy story for another day.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane who originally wrote it to be about celebrating Christmas during wartime. At the request of Judy, though, the lyrics were tweaked and the mood of the song was uplifted a bit. Judy, who was supposed to be 17 in the movie, is singing the song to her younger (5-year-old sister) in the movie and didn’t feel it was appropriate to sing a sad song at Christmastime to a little girl.

Meet Me In St. Louis was the second-highest grossing film that year behind the Bing Crosby movie Going My Way (the prequel to The Bells of St. Mary).

The movie produced three “standards” or songs that became very popular and well-known even years later: “The Trolley Song“, “The Boy Next Door” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas“, all written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for the film.

According to TCM.com, Meet Me in St. Louis received a very large amount of awards in 1944 and beyond. Here are some of those:

  • It was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Original Song (for “The Trolley Song”), Best Musical Score and Best Writing, Screenplay.


  • In 1989 it won an ASCAP Award for the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which they named the Most Performed Feature Film Standard.
  • The National Board of Review named it one of the top ten films of 1944.


  • In 1945 the Library of Congress selected it as one of 7 films to be the first inclusions in the library’s film collection.


  • In 2005 the American Film Institute ranked it the 10th Greatest Movie Musical of All Time.


  • In 2004 the American Film Institute ranked “The Trolley Song” from it as the 26th Greatest Movie Song of All Time.
  • In 2005 Time Magazine named it as one of the Top 100 All-Time Movies.

An interesting story I read while researching this movie was that Margaret O’Brien’s juvenile Oscar was stolen by a former maid of her family’s. The Academy gave her a replacement Oscar, but she still hoped to one day have her original Oscar returned to her. She used to search flea markets and collector auctions for it.

The story is a bit long, but the Oscar was eventually found and returned to her during a special ceremony held by the Academy.

At the time she said, “For all those people who have lost or misplaced something that was dear to them, as I have, never give up the dream of searching—never let go of the hope that you’ll find it because after all these many years, at last, my Oscar has been returned to me.”

There is plenty more information about the movie online, including on the TCM.com website: https://www.tcm.com/articles/musical/18523/meet-me-in-st-louis-1944

Have you ever seen this one?

______

Resources:

American Film Institute: https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24066

TCM.com: https://www.tcm.com/articles/musical/18523/meet-me-in-st-louis-1944

This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature hosted by me and Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you have a blog post that you would like to share as part of this annual link-up, please find out more here.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: An escape from it all if you will….Do you remember The Monkees?

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

This past week was super rough emotionally-wise for a lot of people for many reasons.

I almost didn’t write anything today because when I started to write, I felt a lot of anger and absolute rage at the callousness of people when it comes to the death of others.

I wrote an entire post full of anger and ranting. Then I deleted it all because I remembered a verse my mom has recited to me time and time again when I am angry or down about events in the world.

Paul, writing to the church of Phillipi said, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Whew. Yeah. I needed that reminder this week.

I have not been focusing on things that are just or pure or lovely at all this week.

I am going to try to change that this weekend and next week, though.

I almost wrote an entire post about the many sad events of last week, but I think today I’ll leave this space as somewhere that we can connect on the lighter, happier things. Bettie Gilbert from BettieG’s RA Seasons helped change my mind when she wrote on the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot post yesterday: “Thank you for this resting space to connect, Lisa. It really has been such an intense week full of so many prayers.”

Don’t we all need a bit of a resting space right now? Or an escape if you will?

So, just as I was sinking more into depression yesterday, I saw a post about how The Monkees aired for the first time yesterday (September 12) in 1966 and thought, “I’m going to share that on my blog instead.”

Now, I am not old enough to remember this but I did watch reruns of The Monkees on Nikelodeon on my friends’ TV in the 1980s.

I was obsessed with the show and absolutely over the moon when my brother (I believe it was him) found one of their records. Like a real record. For a record player.

I played that thing all the time.

I was probably about 8 or 9 at the time and even though my brother tried to explain they were old now, I just ignored him and skipped around the house singing their songs.

I had the biggest crush on Davy — or the young Davy. Of course, by the time I was watching him, the dude was like in his 40s or 50s. I must say that when I got much older, I realized he had aged very well.

The show was ridiculous but actually quite funny. Last night I watched one of the episodes which I found on YouTube, and it really did hold up well!

I am considering writing a full blog post on the band after I do some more research, but I can say already that I know that the band was formed for the show and their popularity and touring continued after the show ended. I also know only one band member is still alive — Micky Dolenz.

Many of their songs are still heard on the radio today —  or at least the oldies station with the most popular probably being “I’m A Believer”, written by Neil Diamond. The song was covered in 2001 by Smash Mouth and featured in the movie Shrek.

Personally, I really liked Daydream Believer and even found myself singing along to it last night. After a week from hell that left me reeling and sleeping very little, it was a healing balm to my soul.

I’ve linked it here for your enjoyment:

I found it interesting that at the end of the one full episode I found, there was an interview with the band about some “demonstrations” going on in L.A. about curfews that had been put in place for teenagers, or those under the age of 21 at least. I clipped that for you and thought I’d share it here too.

Bettie told me that when she likes to read and watch garden journals when her heart is overwhelmed.

She also wrote, “God’s nature soothes my soul.”

For Bettie and all of us, I thought I’d share the photos I took on a drive to take my husband’s truck to a mechanic in the middle of nowhere. They aren’t the best quality but I was struck with the insane beauty of the area.

 And Paul said to mediate on what is lovely, so I did that.



I hope you can focus on lovely, just, and noble things this week as you work on healing from whatever might have been hard for you this past week.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: I finally saw a black bear — right on my back porch!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 29 Comments

This past week was interesting if only for one thing that happened to me — something I knew would happen one day, but luckily it wasn’t as dramatic as I worried it would be.

I don’t have any photos, but it finally happened — I went out to my back door to get my cats in, and there was a black bear on the back porch. A black bear. Yes.  Maybe three feet away from me but luckily there was a glass door between us.
 
I thought I was seeing a reflection on my door or just a shadow, and then the shadow moved! It hopped off the porch and took off across the yard while my cat watched from the other side of the yard, apparently amused by how I gasped, slammed the door shut and locked it (because the bear was clearly going to open it again) and then tried to get Little Miss to come see it by gasping. “Bear. Bear. Little Miss. See. Come.”

It was gone before she got there, sadly.

The Husband and The Boy were both upstairs so I couldn’t call for them.

(I want to say that the bear was as big as the one on the left, but it was actually probably more like the one on the right.)

We are now investing in a ring camera so I can get a better look before any of us step out there from now on.

I did a search on Facebook in a group that focuses on bear sightings in our area to see if anyone had seen our bear and learned that bear sightings are up. One reason they are up is because the state game commission has changed the weigh-in locations for bears when they are hunted. This means hunters aren’t as interested in hunting bears. They have to drive them too far to weigh them. Since the bears aren’t being as hunted as much, there is more of them. More of them means more of them are wandering into backyards and small towns.

Hopefully, we can keep ourselves and the bears safe. In most cases bears leave as soon as they see a person and we’re lucky that black bears aren’t like their grizzly bear cousins who sometimes do attack people (but probably rarely).

This week we lost three celebrities. I’m not a huge celebrity follower but these three were connected to my childhood. When the second one passed away I told my son there would be a third and on Thursday there was.

First,  we lost Malcom-Jamal Warner who used to be on The Cosby Show. He sadly died in a drowning while on vacation and his 8-year-old daughter witnessed it. That made me flat out cry. That poor child. I can’t imagine the trauma she experienced and will experience from here on out. My heart goes out to her and his family.

Credit PEOPLE Magazine.

I have positive memories of Malcom on The Cosby Show. I know a lot of people today want to forget anything that Bill Cosby was involved with because of what he was convicted of but I can’t toss the baby out with the bathwater on that one. That show was part of my formative years and helped shape a view of black people for me that fought against the ideas that many TV shows and books focused on at the time that said that black people were only “former slaves” and “lived in poor neighborhoods” or were “members of gangs.”


The Cosby Show starred (clockwise from top left) Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, and Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable. (Credit AP)

 I didn’t even know about these stereotypes until I was much older because my parents never spoke about other races based on stereotypes, and because I watched shows like The Cosby Show. Bill was a doctor and Claire was a lawyer and they lived in a very nice house in the city and their kids were smart, pretty, and fun. That’s all I know about black families before my teen years, when others I met tried to suggest black people were inferior. I knew they weren’t because my parents taught me they weren’t and because I’d seen shows like The Cosby Show. They weren’t any different than me other than the color of their skin and the fact the Huxtables were rich and I wasn’t. I sometimes got a bit jealous of all they had but one thing I had that they had was a loving family.

I absolutely loved that about the show. There was so much love in that family. Unconditional love too.

I know Malcom was an actor but to me, he was part of my family, in some ways, back in the 1980s. It was so hard to hear of his passing, even though I hadn’t kept up with him a lot over the years. He seemed so sweet and nice when I saw interviews with him. It must have been so hard for him and the other actors to lose parts of their past because of what Bill Cosby did. The show was taken off the air and it was as if it was blacklisted in a way because of one man’s actions. Plus, finding out much of your childhood was a lie because the man you worked with was living a double life has to be very traumatic too.

In 2023, he told People magazine, “”Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture.”

The second celebrity death was Ozzy Osbourne. I’ve never been a huge Black Sabbath or Ozzy fan, persay, but I did watch The Osbournes off and on when I was younger. Despite all his drug issues and his effort to be “the prince of darkness”, Ozzy was a softy. He cared about people. He loved his family. My heart breaks that he was never able to come to know God and his love for him, as far as I know. There was a lot of trusting in self for him and his family, and that has to be a very hard way to live life. Only God knows his heart, though.

I won’t lie that I cried some looking back on videos of him and his family. I wish they all could have had more time with him.

Thursday afternoon my husband texted me to let me know that the wrestler Hulk Hogan had died. My husband has a lot more of a connection to Hulk Hogan than I do. He grew up watching him when he was a kid. I grew up seeing his toys and gear and even a match or two, but I really didn’t know much about him. I was playing with Barbie and My Little Ponies.

My husband sent me a few matches from his past to watch on YouTube last night to honor him, so I will be doing that today.

He seems like a complex person with faults, but one who a lot of people also cared about despite those faults.

The rest of my week was fairly mundane. Today I am supposed to go to my parents to take Little Miss swimming, and tomorrow we are going clothes shopping for the kids. They truly need new clothes, especially Little Miss who is growing so fast.

Next week we will be starting school a little more, easing into it, but otherwise it is another fairly mundane week planned.

How was your week last week?

This week’s encouraging verse:

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.”

Psalm 20: 1-5

Summer of Angela: The Pirates of Penzance (1983)

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments

This summer I am watching Angela Lansbury movies for the Summer of Angela. Up this week we have The Pirates of Penzance, which is a bit of a switch up from my original list. You can read more about that below, but first just a quick note —  Last week, Cat from Cat’s Wire watched Gaslight and talked about it on her blog. You can read her thoughts here. She compared the British and American movie versions and a German televised version of the original play, and I think the post is so much fun!

And now on to this week’s movie, which I switched around from my original plan. I was going to watch the TV movie, The Shell Seekers, but instead, I thought that I would watch one of Angela’s Broadway/musical performances for fun — The Pirates of Penzance with her and Kevin Kline. The movie is a reproduction of the Joseph Papp’s Broadway production.

I will tell you upfront that halfway through the movie, I had to check that I wasn’t having a fever dream. I also realized I’m very old and my ears are in even worse condition than I thought because I had no idea what was being said in any of the songs. I even tried close captioning but because I watched it for free on YouTube, it didn’t work so well.

I also couldn’t figure out what was happening most of the time.  Still, I pushed forward and ended up enjoying it in places and being utterly baffled in other places.

A description from Google:

“Frederic (Rex Smith), who has spent his formative years as a junior pirate, plans to mark his 21st birthday by breaking free from the Pirate King (Kevin Kline) and beginning his courtship of Mabel (Linda Ronstadt). But because he was born on Feb. 29, a date that only arrives every fourth year, Frederic isn’t technically 21 — and the Pirate King is still his master. Unless something gives, Frederic will soon be on a collision course with the Pirate King’s new nemesis: Mabel’s father.”

 The movie starts with the people in town coming out of church, seeing the pirate ship off shore, and locking up all their doors.

Then we are on the pirate ship with Frederic and the Pirate King and the rest of the crew celebrating Frederic’s birthday. It is after all the singing that Frederic announces that now that he is 21 he can leave the ship and his service with the Pirate King.

This is when Ruth (Angela), Frederic’s nursemaid, tells him that all those years ago when his father wanted him to apprentice with a pilot and she heard “pirate” instead.

Frederic has a strong sense of duty, which is why he stayed with the pirates and committed crimes with them all those years. But now that he is no longer bound to them, he vows that when he leaves the ship, he will fight against the pirate and the criminal acts he and his crew try to commit.

“Individually, I love you all, with affection unspeakable. But collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation.”

Frederic sees pirates as scum but if they are going to be actual pirates, he does wish they would attack people stronger than them instead of pretending they just don’t want to hurt anyone. Instead, they just don’t want to get beaten. There is also a whole song about how they won’t attack anyone who says they are an “orphan” because they are also orphans.

This word said in a British accent becomes important later in the movie when there is a whole hilarious debate about if they are saying “orphan” or “often.”

Anyhow, Ruth wants to leave with Frederic and marry him, but Frederic isn’t so sure about it. He’s never really met other women and wants to know if Ruth is attractive. The pirate and crew assure him that she is, simply because they would like to get rid of her too.

Frederic agrees to take Ruth with him but discovers, when he sees a group of women frolicking together near a small pond, that she is not actually attractive and is instead just old.

He sends Ruth away and approaches the women, who turn out to be sisters, and asks which one of them would like to marry him.

Yeah….this musical is weird.

What follows is a song where he hits an incredible note and does a little impression of Elvis.

A lot of silliness follows all this including the singing of the famous song “I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General.” That was a lot of fun. I always wondered what the song came from. The speed which the nonsense for this song is spit out is insane.

Fun is the key word for this movie. The songs are fun – though I still don’t know what they were saying in half of them. Wait. I’ve mentioned it like ten times now that I didn’t know what they were saying half the time, didn’t I? Okay, I’ll stop doing that.

Also, I did finally look up the lyrics so I could follow along. They didn’t make much more sense that way, but, hey, at least I knew what was being said.

I should note that I did read that a lot of this musical is satire and making fun of some elements of British society during the time the original comedic opera was written in 1879, which is why it seems ridiculous at times.

One thing I can say after seeing this is that Angela was so talented — it seems like there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do — acting, singing, dancing, producing, writing… wow. I’m still trying to figure out if she actually hit the high note in the one song but if she did…wow again!

I am a huge fan of some musicals — Fiddler on the Roof, Singing in the Rain, South Pacific, etc., but this one? I didn’t know what to make of it at first, and from what I am reading, that is a bit of the point of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals.

Their musicals are, I guess, nonsensical at times, and that’s what makes them fun. After reading more about the musical/movie, I understood it more, watched parts again, and liked it more than I did with my first run through.

At first, I decided I’d never watch the movie or musical again, but it grew on me on the second time around — especially Kevin Kline and his unbuttoned shirt. I mean.. his musical and acting talent.

Rex Smith (who I’d never heard of before) was amazing. The pipes on him. WOW.

The resolution on this video is not great but the singing….sheesh!



I had to look him up to see if he had been in anything else and apparently, besides his stage work, he’s most well-known for starring in a show called Street Hawke in the 1980s as well as for being a popular singer in the late 70s with his song You Take My Breath Away.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Linda Ronsdadt. I really don’t think I had a clue she sang this amazingly. I don’t know a lot about her at all so her voice totally shocked me! I thought she was just a pop singer . . . I feel embarassed I didn’t realize her range.

The Pirates of Penzance was released on Pay TV at the same time it was released in the theater, which made it a flop at the box office because theater owners boycotted it as a form of protest. Boy, if the theater owners from back then could only see what’s going on these days with movie releases!

Because of the boycott, the film ended up making less than a $1 million total during it’s entire time in the theaters.

It also received mix reviews from critics, but over the years it has become a type  of cult classic among musical theater fans.

Those who have seen it over the years, especially when they were young, hold a special place in their heart for it.

Cat Smith of Film Obsessive had this to say about Angela replacing Estelle Parsons, who was in the original Broadway production:

“The movie version of the Papp production came out in 1983. It’s pretty much the same experience as the stage. The biggest differences are some superfluous cuts to the score and the upgrading of the character Ruth. No offense to Estelle Parsons (we love her), but let’s face it—Angela Lansbury would be an upgrade of pretty much anyone.”

Of when Ruth and the Pirate King return to find Frederic she writes: “Apparently, once officially rejected by Frederic, Ruth went back to the pirates who not only welcomed her, they got her a fabulous makeover to boot. Not going to lie, my boyfriend and I have this head canon in which the Pirate King and Ruth wind up together since he knows better than to be prejudiced against a hot older woman. They do their best to frump her up for Act 1 but let’s face it—Queen Angela. Need I say more?”

(Aside: I had considered watching Angela in Sweeney Todd for this movie-watching event, but — wince — that really isn’t my type of movie/Broadway musical. Maybe I’ll watch it at some point, though.)

In past posts I have shared with Angela thought of the movie she was in, but….I couldn’t find any interviews with her about this one so I don’t have that. I do, however, have some trivia/facts.

Trivia or facts:

  • Kevin Kline won the 1981 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actor in a Musical for “The Pirates of Penzance” Broadway 1981 to 1982 production and re-created his role in this cinema movie. It was Kline’s second Tony Award after having won one for “On the Twentieth Century”. Kline also starred in the precursor New York Central Park stage production and that park production’s subsequent made-for-television movie, The Pirates of Penzance (1980).
  • Linda Ronstadt loved the musical so much when she read about it that she played the part of Mable first in Central Park and then on Broadway for $400 a week. She then played it in the movie. It was her only movie role. She was nominated for a Tony when she played it on Broadway.
  • In Act II, there is an extra song (“My Eyes Are Fully Open”) that is not originally from “The Pirates of Penzance.” It’s a modified version of a song from Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan‘s “Ruddigore”. The inclusion of this song required Kevin Kline, Dame Angela Lansbury, and Rex Smith to sing one of most dizzyingly rapid songs in the entire Gilbert and Sullivan catalogue. (source IMdB)
  • The source Broadway stage production was preceded by a 1980 Joseph Papp production of “Pirates of Penzance”, which was part of a “Shakespeare in the Park” series of free plays in New York City’s Central Park, which had the same cast of principals as the movie and the Broadway stage production (except for Ruth). (source IMdB)
  • Writer and Director Wilford Leach, with this movie, knew what kind of movie he wanted to make. Leach wanted to create an “illusion of reality” which actually was “reality askew”. Leach, according to the January-February 1983 edition of Coming Attractions Magazine, “tried to delineate a colorful and comic world that is always true to its own logic.” (source IMdB)

Have you seen this version of the musical or the musical itself anywhere?

Cat from Cat’s Wire shared her thoughts about the movie here.

Up next in my movie watching journey, I have switched things up again and have replaced the Murder She Wrote two-part movie with Please, Murder Me from 1951, starring Angela with Raymond Burr.

The rest of the list remains the same:

July 25 – The Mirror Cracked

August 1 – The Court Jester

August 8 The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 15 – A Life At Stake

August 22 – All Fall Down

August 29 – Something for Everyone

Additional resources:

The Pirates of Penzance: For Some Ridiculous Reason…

https://filmobsessive.com/film/film-analysis/film-genres/comedy-films/the-pirates-of-penzance-for-some-ridiculous-reason/

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Penzance_(film)

IBdB trivia: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086112/trivia/

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten musicians to listen to while reading that also might put you to sleep.

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

Today is a Halloween freebie so I am making a list of the top ten musicians to listen to while reading that might also put you to sleep.

  1. Diana Krall

My husband turned me on to Diana Krall and I used to play her music to help calm my son when he was a baby and to help him fall asleep. We listened to Diana up until he was probably 5 or 6 to fall asleep and he said the other day that he has a type of Pavloveyn response to her music because no matter where he is and hears it, he immediately wants a nap. I can say the same thing because one time The Husband and I were in Barnes and Noble (many years ago because we have not been to one in probably a decade) and Diana came on. I immediately looked at the comfy chair I was standing next to and considered a nap.

2. Frank Sinatra

The best album of his to listen to for reading or dreaming is The Wee Small Hours

3. Nat King Cole

Just about any Nat King Cole album will do but I love any of his albums with a lot of ballads on them for this purpose

4. Miles Davis

Kind of Blue is a good album choice for this one

5. Harry Connick Jr

Harry has some peppier albums so I stick with his more mellow tunes but one of my favorite albums of his is Red Light, Blue Light

6. Alison Krauss

You’re either going to relax or cry listening to her.

7. Rachael & Vilaray

A recent duo for me suggested to me by The Husband

8. Michael Buble

Don’t listen to his fast stuff or you will have to get up and dance and sing because his music just makes people happy. Stick to the smooth, easy going songs or albums.

9. JJ Heller

I don’t remember how I discovered JJ Heller but I listened to her lullaby album to  help Little Miss sleep and now when I hear songs from the album I burst into tears remembering those wonderful days of naptime with a newborn, infant, and toddler, cuddling and just connecting as JJ’s music played in the background.

I always imagine that heaven will just be full of those moments – reliving those special times with our children and loved ones over and over again.

10, Vince Gill

Specifically his box set These Days. This is another set of albums I listened to when The Boy was little. I love the jazz album for sleeping/reading and just every other album for anytime listening. I combined him and Allison for this clip —  love this song.

Bonus:

Elliot James Reay

I discovered this guy while looking up these videos so I am adding him as bonus.

So how about you? Do you like to listen to music while you read? What are your go to genres or musicians?
(I’d also add classical music to this list, personally, but didn’t choose any to share this time around. Maybe a future list!)

Educationally Speaking: Homeschool update. On our way to summer break and taking a more relaxed approach to learning

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments

We are on our last month of homeschooling before summer break and to say we all have summer brain is an understatement. Not even the teacher is focused all the way in on school right now. Because of our lack of focus, I have decided to dial down the strict workbook and textbook-heavy subjects for this month, but we will still be doing them twice a week.

I got to mid-April and realized I hadn’t focused as much on the arts as I need to in order to meet the requirements for the state we are in so I decided we would make May an art month. That means more lessons on artists (Monet, Cezanne, Picasso) and musicians (composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart) throughout our week and fewer lessons on math, science, and history. We will still be doing those last three subjects, just not every day.

This is a relief for Little Miss who is so dramatic when I tell her it is time for her math lesson. You would think I would have told her it is time to clean the toilets at a frat house.

She often runs and hides, pulling a blanket over her head in a homemade fort she made by turning our couch to face the wall and hanging the veil-like curtains across it.

Once she sits down and does it, however, she really doesn’t have any major issues with doing the math.

She isn’t a fan of having to write letters either so that has also been a struggle this past year. I need this summer break as much as her.

However, I have told her she will need to do some math during the summer so that she doesn’t have to jump back into it cold in August when we start up again. I’m also considering starting school a month early this year. This will allow us to take more breaks throughout the school year at times when we feel beat down by the mundane routine of daily lessons.

I have been the most relaxed about homeschooling this year than in any previous year. I have finally started to accept that homeschooling is not simply school at home. It is not bringing the traditional idea of public school into your home.

We homeschool so we can break away from a system we do not feel is conducive with the need for children to be free to focus on their passions and to learn at their own pace. Homeschooling parents bring their children home to learn for a variety of reasons, but at the core of it is that the child is not thriving or might not thrive in the traditional environment.

For us, homeschooling has offered more opportunities for learning beyond the scope of a daily lesson. It has allowed us to take a subject my child is interested in and explore it beyond one moment in time in their education. It has also allowed us to go visit or go help my parents whenever is needed, which has been invaluable to us, especially to my son who is very close to his grandfather.

Resting on my newfound acceptance that homeschooling doesn’t have to look like a traditional public school day, we started taking a much more relaxed approach to our homeschool days sometime in March. We did math and reading lessons, but history was reading historical fiction and watching videos and then simply talking about history. Math was lessons in our book but also on ABC Mouse for the youngest. The oldest does his math online so there wasn’t much of a change for him. Reading or English has been some actual lessons about parts of speech and grammar but it has also been simply reading books out loud to each other, discussing hard words when we get to them or discussing what we read.

I read a post on Facebook recently by … that reminded homeschooling parents that homeschooling can happen at any time of the day. She wrote that you don’t have to read to your child only during the day and count that as a time of learning. Read-aloud sessions can happen at night before bed while waiting in the car, or pretty much anywhere at any time.

Life lessons and skills can be taught throughout the day.

Homeschool is a 24/7 type of education that doesn’t require a desk or a book or four walls around a child. It is a constant flow of information and knowledge that can come through the everyday journey of life.

With all that being said, yesterday Little Miss and I watched videos about Mozart while she made slime. We read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle before bed for our English reading.

Today we have a homeschool gathering at the local library.

Tomorrow we will be painting in the style of Monet while watching videos about him and the other impressionists or while listening to Mozart. We will also probably read some from The Cabin Faced West for history and do a math lesson or simply go on ABC Mouse and have her play some games there related to what we’ve been learning in Math.

The Boy will be reading Fellowship of the Ring and working on a research project and also preparing some Minecraft creations for the art requirements under the homeschool guidelines for our state. Then he will go to work as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, which I see as another educational opportunity and an activity that fits in well with homeschooling.

Later in the week, we will be watching art history videos, and videos about famous composers, and I will be encouraging him to continue bass lessons at home since we are taking a month off from his formal bass lessons (which were 45 minutes away and a bit expensive for us this month).

This month, both The Boy and Little Miss will also be studying music from a book I ordered that is set to arrive today.

I am absolutely loving this freestyle type of learning that incorporates music and the arts into our academic lessons. It’s something I plan to do more of during our next school year.  

Sunday Bookends: Juggling books with my mood and tours, smells (good and bad) returning, and playing in water

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 11 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I had to abandon my plans from last week when I realized I had a couple books I agreed to read for blog tours. Luckily I have a little bit of time before the reviews need to be up, but I never know what each week is going to bring so I figured I’d better start them.

I am reading an indie book by Milla Holt called Into the Flood, which is a Christian romance. I’ll share a little bit more about it after I finish it and post a review, but it is available for sale at this time.

A description:

One mistake imploded Sonia Krogstad’s PR career, leaving her with a stack of debt and no job prospects. Out of options, she returns to her tiny hometown in the northern wilds of Norway, planning only to stay long enough to get back on her feet and prepare for her big-city comeback.

Reclusive tech genius Axel Vikhammer bought a non-profit community arts center that’s fast becoming a money pit. Closing it down is not an option, especially since it’s a refuge for the teenage daughter he only recently learned he has. With her PR background, Sonia seems the perfect hire for the job as his center’s fundraising manager.

Yet as feelings develop between the two, Axel wonders how he can trust Sonia with his business—or his heart—when her dreams don’t include his small town or him.

With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions, Sonia needs to take a leap of faith. But every time she’s done that in the past, she’s fallen flat on her face. Why should it be different now?

I’m also reading Dead Sea Rising by Jerry B. Jenkins. It is the second book in the Dead Sea Chronicles, but I didn’t realize that when I signed up for the tour. So far I am able to follow along without reading the first book. This is the first book I’ve read by Jenkins, who co-wrote the Left Behind series and is all the father of Dallas Jenkins who is writing and directing The Chosen series.

A description:

Nicole Berman is an archaeologist on the brink of a world-changing discovery. Preparing for her first dig in Jordan, she believes she has found concrete evidence of a biblical patriarch that could change history books forever. But someone doesn’t want the truth revealed. While urgently trying to connect pieces of an ancient puzzle, a dangerous enemy is out to stop her.

I’m switching between the two books and since I have a couple weeks before Dead Sea Rising needs to be finished, I am reading A Breath of French Air, the second book in the Pop Larkins series by H.E. Bates before bed each night because it’s very light and fun.

Little Miss and I are reading Ramona and Her Mom by Beverly Cleary.

The Husband is reading Noir by Christopher Moore.

The Boy is still reading War of the Worlds by HG Welles.


What’s Been Occurring

I had mentioned a few times in the last nine months, since the dreaded virus, that my smell has either remained dulled or distorted, sometimes to the point of making me physically ill. My taste had also been off and still is for some things. For the longest time most meats, anything with garlic, and many other foods tasted rancid or like burnt rubber. I don’t know how else to explain it. Also, like sweaty feet smell, if that makes any sense. There are still times that chicken, especially with skin, garlic, and tomatoes don’t taste right. This summer has also been rough because watermelon doesn’t taste sweet any longer. It tastes like squash in a way. Strawberries sometimes taste like strawberries and sometimes have what I, and others who have had their smell and taste effected by the virus, call The Covid Taste/Smell.

As for smell, things that still have the Covid Smell are sweat (sorry), gasoline, propane, chemicals, and sometimes … um…poop (like cat and dog).

This week, though, I noticed I was smelling things I couldn’t smell at all before. For the last nine months smells have been muted or I haven’t noticed them much. When someone says “oh that smells good” I say, “can’t smell it.” Of course, I had sinus issues before the dreaded virus as well, and that had also dulled my smell.

Late in the week, when I walked outside with my daughter and walked between our pine tree bushes I suddenly realized I could smell pine. A couple of days later I could smell — excuse me for sharing, but dog poop in our yard. It didn’t smell like Covid, it smelled like poop. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rejoice for that or not.

For most of my life, smells that don’t bother other people, bother me. Like perfumes or air freshners. I get headaches and sometimes my chest tightens. That hasn’t been common the last nine months but The Husband sprayed some Febreeze and it was overwhelming. I could actually smell it. Again, I don’t know if I want to rejoice that I can smell smells which bother me, but it is nice to be able to smell pine trees and freshly cut grass again.

Little Miss and I went swimming again this week at my parents. We also grocery shopped again, which I always dread and hate. Grocery shopping went wonderful but then I got to my van, which has issues with its locks and its key fobs and I accidentally locked it while trying to open the back hatch. When I went to open the hatch it was locked, as was the rest of the van. This left me standing in the parking lot with Little Miss and a cart full of groceries but no way to get home. To cut a too long story already short, I called The Husband, who called our insurance company to have someone come open it. Our insurance company apparently stinks because they called someone a half an hour away. The Husband came and traded cars with us and waited for the locksmith (or whatever he is called) and I drove home wondering why I can’t buy groceries without something weird happening.

The day before we picked up groceries, we visited our neighbor who broke her ankle a few weeks ago and is still laid up from it after spending some time in the hospital and a rehabilitation center. Our kitten walked with us to her house and when we came out after the visit, she was waiting for us and walked back home with us. Our neighbor is about five houses from ours. Our animals crack us up and I also think it is sweet that the cats, who sometimes seem like they couldn’t care less about us, apparently do.

Yesterday The Husband and The Boy borrowed my dad’s truck and picked up some firewood to help us prepare for this winter and hopefully cut down on our heating bill since we are currently struggling to pay the one we just received.

Earlier in the week, the kids had fun on the Slip N Slide and yesterday Little Miss had fun running through the sprinkler.

What We watched/are Watching

I did not watch as many movies last week, partially because I tried to read more and also because I was outside so much with Little Miss and grocery shopping and all that kind of stuff that I just didn’t have time to sit down and watch an entire movie. Not until The Boy and I watched Gladiator, which we started Thursday and finished Friday. I hadn’t seen it in years and forgot how good it was.

Last night, The Husband and I watched a Poirot movie, Murder on the Links.

This week I am returning to the Summer of Paul with a list of Paul Newman movies I hope to get through before the end of August.


What I’m Writing

I am working on Mercy’s Shore, The Shores of Mercy, whatever I’m going to call it, but this week I forgot to post Chapter 13 on Friday. I am going to make up for it this week by posting Chapter 13 on Thursday and Chapter 14 on Friday.

I guess my brain was mush from all the little weird things that seemed to happen Friday and how busy we were playing outside during the week.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

Matthew West. I don’t know if I have praised him enough on this blog, but his songs are so uplifting, so encouraging and help soothe my spirit on the most anxious days. On the days where I am really shook up and worried I turn his songs on, especially the ones on his greatest hits album. Those songs, the lyrics, all of it, help me so much.

The album is Brand New, and I really encourage you to check it out via whatever music listening service you listen to.

This song is not on that album, but it is Matthew’s latest:


Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Winter’s last blast? Remembering family. Jane Seymour with a potty mouth?

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.

What’s Been Occurring

Friday and Saturday we remembered a couple of people in our family. Friday was the tenth anniversary of the day my husband’s grandfather passed away. He was a good man and we miss him and my husband’s grandmother very much.

Yesterday was my Aunt Dianne’s birthday so Mom and I plan to make sausage balls in her memory today because she loved to make them every year for Christmas. I tried to make them for Christmas this year, but I didn’t do such a great job. I think the key might be to not make them with gluten-free Bisquick, even though that means I can’t eat them, since I can not eat the corn in the Bisquick.


I don’t actually like remembering people on the day they died. I like to remember them the way they lived and when I picture Grandpa, I picture him smiling like he was on the day of our wedding. I picture my aunt with smiles as well and I hope they are in heaven together now smiling as they wait for us to meet them someday.

I mentioned in a post last week that we had unexpected snow in the beginning of the week. Our town received about nine inches of very heavy snow which left trees broken, wires down from the weight of the trees and snow, and more than 13,000 people out of power.

Our local power company posted these photos of what they had to deal with to get to the lines they needed to fix:



I took a few photographs, but, honestly, I’m so over winter weather, I wasn’t interested in photographs of snow. I did take a few of the kids when The Boy decided to run out and build a snow Batman.

Luckily the snow melted a day or so later. Little Miss enjoyed sitting in the grass with the snow surrounding her. The grass was left from The Boy shoveling a path for the dog the first day after the storm.

Today the temperature is supposed to be almost 80 with a drop into the 40s later in the week. Yes, my sinuses are suffering.

What I’m Reading

Last week I finished Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle, a cozy Southern mystery written by Ann B. Ross.

I also finished a book by indie Christian Historical Fiction author Jenny Knipfer, which she plans to release this summer. She had asked members of her group if they would help her proof it, in addition to her editor. I will be starting an ARC of a novella by her, Violet’s Vow, this week or next as well.

I started Open Season by C.J. Box so I would have something a little different up on the reading block. The book is the first book in the Joe Picket series. This is my first crack at one of his books. We will see how it goes since it isn’t something I usually read.

Depending on my mood I may move to The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot. I am also still reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain here and there before bed.

Little Miss and I will be finishing Plum Creek this weekend and hopefully moving on to a book other than one by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The husband is reading Slow Horse by Mick Herron.

The Boy may finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sometime before the end of the century at this point, but I’m not holding out much hope.

What I’m/We’re Watching

We tried out Harry Wild, a new mystery show with Jane Seymour this week. Dr. Quinn has a wee bit of a potty mouth in this one, but we still enjoyed the premise and her acting. I told my parents she was in a new show we are watching. I said, “She’s looking pretty good for 71.” My dad said, “Oh, really, what’s that show on?”

My mom said I didn’t need to tell him.

I started rewatching As Time Goes By, one of my favorite British sitcom to try to get me through some of the down moments of the week.

I also spent way too much time watching the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial. Don’t ask why. I have no idea, other than it was a distraction from the rest of the craziness of the world. What I learned from all of that mess is that hurt people hurt people and Hollywood actors are some seriously messed up people. I also think Amber Heard is vindictive and nuts and Johnny Depp medicates his emotional pain way too much.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been listening to comedians like Chonda Pierce lately and then some worship music.

What I’m Writing

During the week I worked on Mercy’s Shore, the next book in my series.

Now It is Your Turn

What have you been reading, watching, listening to, or doing? Let me know in the comments.

Realizing TobyMac’s music has been like a soundtrack to my life

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

I ended up in a TobyMac YouTube spiral Sunday and it was amazing. It was the most relaxed and at home I had felt in awhile. It fit in perfectly with my social media detox (full disclosure – I have popped on Facebook once or twice to ask a couple questions in groups I am in and I went on Instagram to apologize to two authors for not yet reviewing their books after they had agreed to review mine. I have not, however “scrolled” any timelines and that’s been so refreshing! Oh wait – I briefly scrolled my dad’s timeline while I was eating some lunch at their house but was so horrified with the nastiness there I quickly remembered my detox and closed the iPad cover.)

Back to the real reason for this blog post: For those of you who don’t know who TobyMac is, he is a Christian rapper/singer/musician who originally started out with the Christian rockish/rap/pop band D.C. Talk.

As I listened to all those TobyMac songs Sunday a thought hit me – Toby’s music has been the soundtrack of my life since junior high school. His music has been there through the highs and the lows. It’s lifted me when I’ve been down or kept me up when I was already joyful.

I first discovered Toby around 1990 DC Talk and the album Nu Thang. I picked it up (a cassette! Gasp!) at the Christian bookstore at the local mall (two things we don’t have many of anymore) and popped it into my walkman (yes, I am that old). I listened to it the entire hour and a half drive back to our house (yes, we lived that far away from a mall). I ended up being able to catch DC Talk in concert with Michael W. Smith in Hershey, Pa. a year or so later. We were behind the stage and everything was pretty loud, but it was still a cool experience.

I was able to see DC Talk again at Creation, a Christian music festival in Pennsylvania, somewhere around 1995 when their album Jesus Freak came out.

Eventually the band took an extended hiatus and during that time TobyMac started a successful solo career. I have picked up everyone of his albums and I have liked almost every song on every single one of those albums. You know how you sometimes by an album and you think “I like all these songs except … that one.” Well, with Toby I don’t have a “that one.”

Last year his fans mourned with him when his oldest son, Truett, passed away due to a drug overdose. His son had been appearing on his albums in short vignettes or even songs since TruDog (his nickname) was about three years old. We fans were very familiar with him and in some odd way we felt like he was part of our family too.

He was 21 when he died, another victim of drug abuse in this country, which I know broke Toby’s heart. He tried so hard to bring his son back into the fold of his earthly family and the fold of Christ’s family. His broken heart was even more evident in a song he released after Truet’s funeral and in a song called The Real You that he released in an album called The Lost Demos this summer. He wrote The Real You for Truett before he died.

Most of Toby’s music is uplifting and upbeat and definitely energetic, even when he’s dealing with tough subjects.

Because I think you need to hear some positive music right now, I’m sharing some of my favorite TobyMac songs for you to listen to. Just click on one song and Youtube will do the rest and send you down a fun, spiraling path of his music. Maybe you need an encouraging word this week or maybe you simply need a song with a good beat. Either way, Toby has it for you.

*Disclaimer: I have not been compensated by TobyMac or anyone from his management. This post was written of my own free will. *wink* However, if anyone from Toby’s team ever sees this post and wants to send me some merch, I’ll take a couple T-shirt’s, one of Toby’s cool hats for my son and a pair of his cool sunglasses for me. Ha!