“Free at last, free at last…thank God Almighty [she’s] free at last.”

Martha went home today. No more prison food. No more communal showers. No more chain gangs. She’s out. Today Martha begins her house arrest period. I have to admit that the thought of being forced to stay home for days sounds like a reward to me!

I’ve always thought that the whole Martha Stewart thing was a fiasco. I’m not advocating lying in court or insider trading, however it seems ridiculous that she went to prison. How is it even a punishment, really? She made millions of dollars while being able to take a break from life. Sure, the conditions weren’t what she was used to but come on, this wasn’t San Quentin! She is also going to make millions more off this experience. I actually find that quite funny. I like Martha Stewart. I’ve read her magazine and watched her show and I find them highly entertaining. She’s creative and challenges others to be creative as well. What’s wrong with that? The fact that she’s a little rough around the edges actually makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

Welcome back to freedom, Martha! I’m looking forward to your prison recipes cookbook!

Its 3 and 1/2 hours until the beginning of the end. 12 seasons of NYPD Blue will come to an end with tonight’s episode. I’m not prepared for this to end. I wasn’t prepared when I wrote about this as my inaugural blog post back in January, nor am I prepared now.

NYPD Blue was our show. Mary and I looked forward to Tuesday nights with great anticipation and were always annoyed when there was a rerun or an “interrruption in regularly scheduled programming”. This was the show that we had to ourselves. Scheduled time each week to cuddle together on the couch and be entertained.

NYPD Blue was also my watercooler show. Up until last July my office was right next to Pat’s and first thing Wednesday morning we would meet to talk about the previous night’s episode. Being on the third floor has made this a little more difficult but we’ve managed to make sure to save some time during the work week to catch up on Blue.

In my opinion there has been no character in the history of television who has grown and changed so much as has the character of Andy Sipowicz. Dennis Franz and the writers crafted a character with rough edges and real problems and infused that character with a life and a passion that made you love him for who he was, and root for him each and every week. You wanted to see Sipowicz grow and succeed and find love and be happy. I’m so thankful that I jumped on board with this show fairly early on and have been able to enjoy it week after week with family and friends. Goodbye Andy Sipowicz…you will be missed.

(Kate Winslet, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cate Blanchett, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Salma Hayek)

Well, the 2005 Oscars have come and gone. I watched this year’s Academy Awards more out of interest in fashion than in content as I had only seen one of the 5 films nominated for best picture (Finding Neverland) and knew it did not stand a chance next to the other contenders. I was happy with the winners in each category. I felt Jamie Foxx deserved to win for Ray and I thought his acceptance speech was the best of the evening. I was happy for Clint Eastwood. I was thrilled that The Aviator didn’t win in all the categories that it was nominated in….mostly because I’m a LOTR fan and didn’t want it to share top honors with Peter Jackson’s masterpiece.

I enjoyed Chris Rock’s opening monologue…found it quite apropos that he swore in the first sentence that he spoke. I felt that he lost steam as the evening went on though I think this was due more to the format than to any lack of creativity on his part. Did anyone else catch his comment before Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek went up to present? Something along the lines of “you’ll really enjoy these next 4 presenters”. If you don’t get it, you’re a real boob and need to keep more abreast of situations around you.

I enjoyed the way they mixed up the presentation of awards this year but was really disappointed that they didn’t show clips from the documentaries and short animation categories. I usually see something that catches my eye and makes me want to see it and by cutting these out I think they did a disservice to the filmmakers. I can’t believe they kept the show to just over 3 hours…that in itself was a marked improvement.

The ladies pictured above were my picks for best dressed. I did think that Laura Linney looked amazing except for her hairdo. That hairstyle always reminds me of a mullet. Ziyi Zhang (House of Flying Daggers) also looked very pretty as did Charleze Theron. I thought Clive Owen and Samuel L. Jackson were the best dressed men.

What did you think? Weigh in on all your Oscar impressions.

This post is going to be all over the place so bear with me.

I was driving around today and was behind a lady in a black Chevy S-10 pickup. She was obviously a racing fan as her truck was decked out with NASCAR and Indy 500 decals as well as the requisite Dale Earnhardt “3”. Did I mention that she was “driving”? She wasn’t actually driving so much as she was multi-tasking. She had a giant brush in one hand and a bottle of hairspray in the other and both hands were dancing majestically around her head as her coiffure grew magically before my eyes. I sat mesmerized by her display, numerous stereotypes racing (no pun intended) through my head. I was thankful when she finally set me free by moving into the next lane.

Shortly after arriving home the doorbell rang. I opened the door and was greeted by 2 cutesy preteen girls with hand-made, appliqued white t-shirts bearing hip, pro-Jesus sayings. The street was filled with dozens of similarly clad girls, a few adult women, and a couple of shopping carts. The girls were from a local Baptist church and were collecting canned goods for the needy. After doing my civic duty I closed the door and reflected on how nice it was to have kids ring your doorbell and not try to sell you cookies or magazine subscriptions. They’re probably on the other side of town right now trading my canned goods for Ecstasy….

Lastly, I had to post this about librarians. I was reading Neil Gaiman’s journal today and he mentioned how much he loved librarians and linked to this article. I love librarians as well. My wife is a librarian. She’s not actually a librarian but she works in a university library so let me have my fantasies, okay? Seems the president-elect of the ALA has a low opinion of those who blog. “Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts”. Neil encourages librarians to “take your president-elect aside and suggest to him that articles like [this] don’t put him, or the profession, in the best possible light? And tell that there are some fine blogs out there, too.” I agree! Check out my links…there are some excellent and intelligent blogs out there.

I’ve been wanting to do a spotlight on Duirwaigh Gallery (pronounced “doorway”) for some time and now feels like the right time as the story of Angi Sullins and how she followed her dreams ties in to the theme of the posts of the last few days. I won’t regurgitate all the details of how Angi overcame a devastating tragedy to make her dream a reality. That can be found here in the Where We Started section. It is a very inspiring story.

I stumbled across this site when I was searching for artwork by Kinuko Y. Craft, the cover artist for one of my favourite fantasy authors, Patricia A. McKillip. The artwork featured at Duirwaigh Gallery is very fantastical in nature. Here you will find angels and mermaids, fairies and dragons, knights and fair maidens…the images of chivalry and mythology all crafted by some of the most amazing fantasy artists working today.

Angi Sullins has done what we all have the potential to do. She has taken her passion and made it a reality. She did not do it alone, nor can we, but she had the courage to rise above her tragedy and enlist the help of those whom she knew shared her vision. Duirwaigh Gallery is more than just this website as you’ll see when you read about the whole of her vision. In addition to the amazing artwork on this site there is a flash video that they made which not only serves to give a sampling of the art on this site but is actually an encouraging message to reconnect with the excitement of your youth and open the door to the creative impluse that is inside you. The music that accompanies this piece was created specifically for it and is very beautiful, celtic-style music. I would encourage you to watch THIS. Even if this type of art is not your thing I think you will understand, in light of recent posts and comments, how this video speaks to the need many of us have expressed to open the door to our dreams.

*a word of warning: mermaids and fairies generally make below minimum wage and clothing is not always a priority.