Everything with me has to be dramatic. Everything has to be full of emotion and drive and tragedy and catastrophe, valor and victory…in the spirit of living large. Every day I rejoice about something and I’m totally delighted and I’m the most fortunate guy on earth.— David Lee Roth, Crazy from the Heat
I read about Asmik Grigorian just now! She is a 42-years-young opera singer — soprano. Listen to her sing Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 2023. Today while cooking dinner, I will listen to her on Apple Music.
My favorite version of Madam Butterfly is by the late Malcolm McLaren, released in 1984. The vocals on the song are fantastic. Listen here.
Taylor Swift is a billionaire now and she deserves to be one. I admire her energy and total passion for creativity. Today I completed listening to all 16-tracks of The Tortured Poets Department and 15-tracks of The Anthology — two hours total. I don’t care what the reviews are. I’m almost two-times older than her, and it is soothing for me to listen to her lyrics while driving in my new, bitchen car. Her music is to be played loud so you can hear all of her words and contemplate them. She is a poet and is probably always writing down her thoughts in journals or notebooks. I respect her self-assuredness and passion for her music. I don’t know all of her songs by heart like millions of her fans. My favorite album is Reputation. I also loved her film the Reputation Stadium Tour. The Tortured Poets Department is the first album to reach one billion Spotify plays in a week. I can’t imagine being so famous. More power to her. I love her.
To learn more: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department-the-anthology/
Always wear shoes that are good for running or fighting. — Joe Strummer
The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.
Do things that scare you. Do things you don’t know how to do!
Persist, even though it is difficult. Even though your heart breaks a thousand times. — Francis Weller
Art comes flying in like an angel. Sweeps me up and takes me to where I belong. — Tracey Emin
I could feel the current of his life flow into my fingers and up my arm and travel into the muscle of my heart. — Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Two things can be true at the same time. — Sean, Charleston, North Carolina. A comment about The New York Times article “The Deep Joy of Squirreling It All Away” by Margaret Renkl, February 12, 2024.
Movement is a gift…Don’t feel like you can walk 10,000 steps today? Walk 5,000 instead. Always remember ones simple thing: something is better than nothing. — Jane Fonda/Instagram post
It’s amazing what you can find out about a person if you’re interested.” — Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
“Nothing should be noticed.” — Bunny Mellon
In Linda Ronstadt’s book, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, she shares her family’s Tucson Mexican Sonoran food recipes. In her Jackie Ronstadt’s Tunapeños recipe, you put tuna salad in large jalapeño halves. You don’t cook the jalapeño – you eat them raw with the tuna salad in them. They are really tasty and a good way to eat tuna salad instead of using bread. I don’t wear gloves to clean jalapeños (I did wash my hands when I was done pulling out the membranes and seeds). After I ate them, I watched “Physical” on Netflix and a couple hours later went to bed. In the middle of the night all 10 of my hand digits started stinging in pain like you wouldn’t believe. It was an interesting sensation. It would sting like hell, go away, and come back. The pain was almost unbearable. I was fascinated with the sensation; never felt anything like it before in the middle of the night. I kept sleeping best I could. I eventually got up to use the restroom, washed my hands again, and the stinging stopped. Next time I will use gloves. Has this delayed jalapeño reaction ever happened to you?
Don’t worry about the future, whether it be something good, or not so good, you’ll meet whatever happens in the same way you have before ~ you’ll wait, you’ll listen, you’ll think, you’ll learn, you’ll grow, but you’ll never give up! — Susan Branch
I used to love playing with my Barbie doll. I was open-minded and hopeful about the “Barbie” movie and looked forward to seeing it. I was very shocked at how mind-numbing, bad, and chaotic the movie “Barbie” was and how very let down I was while watching it. I anticipated the movie would be educational, uplifting, and fun in a “Peewee Herman” kinda way. I liked the production design, although the visuals looked cheap in an uncool, hokey way. I appreciate how campy the acting was, but no one should be nominated for an Oscar. I always appreciate learning about patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism—and movies that educate about it. I thought “Barbie’s” message about patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism would be more intelligently communicated. I thought we would learn about it in a classy and not mean-spirited way. Not only is the movie insulting for adults, if I had a child, I would be sure to NOT take them to this movie.
I felt embarrassed and extremely disappointed while watching the movie and stopped watching it 2/3 of the way through. I am shocked that the movie made over one billion dollars. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach are laughing all the way to the bank. Greta said she experienced huge amounts of self-doubt over her creative choices. Good intuition!
“Barbie” was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less. — GK Chesterton
“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” — Maya Angelou
Merry Christmas 2023 to my followers from Critic Housewife!
“I’ve always said there’s no such thing as a former wife,” he explained. “Once in your life, a wife never leaves. — Willie Nelson
I'm a Critic and a Housewife 