I come bearing gifts:

Carrie Underwood, "Alone" (Heart cover)
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=10MDD3LP1YFL1081FOJ7LKMKYX~~
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s47.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0A9CKZGPTVXQ01TML6ZRS6YQ8U~~
~~http://s4.youshareit.com/files/189884a9c8c737474df6054909a1806f.html~~
http://s3.youshareit.com/files/b1dccafd8c4f37f548e20f7958abc3d6.html

I don't watch American Idol, but my parents do, and I was down in the kitchen while this girl was on--turns out she's Sister Girl's favorite. This is also the performance after which Simon blurted out that she would win the whole thing and, to quote Jacob at TWOP, she and Seacrest were so stunned by this announcement that they "stared at each other blondly for a moment." I actually suspect that the fix is in for Carrie, because, as Jacob also notes, she was matched with the most awesome backup singer in the history of ever. Seriously, they sound like sisters, and it raises the song to new levels of crack goodness. Anyway, I LOVE Heart, so if it passes muster with me, it has to be a decent cover.

Talk Talk, "It's My Life" (was covered by No Doubt; this is the original)
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2YLZFGY53WDCA06GGB9V289I27~~
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s40.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2OU89N7TWO6J138GSK1XHMNBUY~~
http://s4.youshareit.com/files/aa8d33bc43264c155d38ab4040e4b402.html

I love the No Doubt cover. Shut up. A lot of people talk about how Gwen Stefani butchers this song, so I felt compelled to go dig it up. You know, like, six months later after I finally remembered to look. Again: shut up. I think part of the reason I loved the No Doubt version was the video, though--it was so great with the I Want to Live! femme fatale stuff. I mean, come on. She runs over Tony with a car, y'all. Anyway, I'm rambling on about the version of the song I'm not posting, which has to stop. The original as linked here is awesome. The end.

Eleanor McEvoy, "A Glass Unkissed"
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3IY4DP50WYCEK1JXJR13G2N6RK~~
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s47.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1IWYCVHDUPIZO39V8V6G7FNWN7~~
http://s4.youshareit.com/files/c4913376fc8c210e7cc42cdf7b35c4aa.html

Have any of y'all ever heard of her? I discovered Eleanor McEvoy, much as I discovered Sarah McLachlan before her, back when no one (that is, no one in the mainstream Top 40 audience) knew who she was and a random video ("Precious Little") aired on VH1. Only McEvoy never took off the way McLachlan did. Woe, because she is awesome. This is off a beloved and currently missing CD, the only one I own (sniff) of hers called, I think, What's Following Me? The other songs I love on the album are "Whisper a Prayer to the Moon," "My Own Sweet Bed Tonight," and "The Fire Overhead." Don't let the random McLachlan comparison throw you, either--she's got a semi-deep Irish voice, and her music's more guitar driven and a little boozier sounding. This song's kind of unusually up-tempo compared to the rest of the CD. Also--and this is not really going to make sense, but--when I hear Eleanor McEvoy I think, "She would cut a bitch," and I say this with great admiration. I do not think Sarah McLachlan would cut a bitch. It's a gut feeling, I don't know.

Alizée, "Lui ou toi" ("Him or You")
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1QV8VKDURO8CZ03777Q0JKO361~~
~~http://anonym.to/?http://s14.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3KJCCKK4EOLDK0RGI5WOHIMPTN~~
http://s4.youshareit.com/files/bd352b52decad02e19508c02673d753e.html

Have I posted this before? I can't remember. Screw it, I'm posting it again. I love it that much. And if y'all like this enough, I'll post the Lolita song.

Giant new movie pics:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Everything Is Illuminated

The Interpreter

(I have to add here that Sean Penn is one of my most un-favorite actors ever. Mostly because of his offscreen personality, but... I don't know. It's totally irrational. That said, I find myself... inexorably... drawn towards this movie. Dammit! I was actively uninterested and now Nicole has to go and look decent for the first time in years! Woe.

Also: back when I was a Spanish major/French minor/crazy in undergraduate, my mother was convinced that I was basically going to grow up to be this Nicole Kidman character: an interpreter at the UN. What I didn't have the heart to tell her is that I can't interpret for shit. I studied literary translation--that is, written as opposed to spoken. You start talking to me and I freeze up. And hell, that's just in English. So... not so much with the UN.)

Sin City

(Please note the first picture, with the blue eyes and the nnnnghsdfsklsadfjffffffffffff. I have to think that they're not done uploading pics, though, because Movieweb usually covers all the major available shots from a movie. Also, the OutNow gallery doesn't have any Sin City pics up yet, but will be awesome when it does.)

~cleolinda~

mugShots. Idea by

princess_diary, written by

teemus.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my mother continues her tradition of giving Easter baskets to her adult children. "I'm not giving you any chocolate this year," she says, "because it's not good for you and you don't need it." To which I want to say, look, I need to get through this book, and you should consider yourself fortunate that I'm not upstairs with booze in one hand, a cig in the other, and typing with my feet. Chocolate seems the least of my problems right now. So I look in this basket, and... there's Reese's peanut butter eggs, mini-Snickers, and a chocolate bunny. "I told you I didn't give you much chocolate," she says, already rewriting history. Bless.

(Finding Neverland, whee!)

So once again we had my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin over, as we do for every family event, which happens at the rate of about one a month. We're all padding around in stocking-feet watching baseball or whatever; it's extremely informal. Now, a lot times, I will end up leaning against some wall talking to one person for an hour straight at any given gathering. I dunno, it's a sickness. Anyone else who wants to join in is welcome, but--yeah. So this time it's my uncle, and he's in graphic design or advertising or something for a major bank, I forget exactly what, but he's (also) an artist, put it that way, and we started talking, and I told him about my Gaiman-esque thoughts of getting into comics or graphic novels or whatever. Clearly, anything in this vein is months off, given that I'll be tied up with galleys all summer (like, copy-editing galleys. Not pirate galleys. Although those could also be fun. ARRRRRR!), but I think it would be fun to get into after all that's out of the way.

And then at lunch my aunt asks, "So, do you guys watch Lost?" And my mom and I laughed and laaaaaaughed.