My Vote For Best Performance Ever On "The Voice"

Kimberly Nicole blew me away with her
performance of the song "Creep" on "The Voice"  

Regular readers of this blog know I'm a big fan of the televised singing competition show "The Voice," so of course I watched it last night.

There's a paricularly strong group of eight finalists currently, but one named Kimberly Nichole just blew me away Monday evening.

She sang one of my favorite songs, the Radiohead classic "Creep."

I know, I know. Too many people have covered that song. It's turning into a cliche.

But Nichole turned the song on its head, and turned it into one of the best performances I've seen on the show. She kind of turned the song into an epic play.

Watch what she does toward the end. The move downward is so brilliant. She made the song so complex, and totally renewed "Creep"

I'm gushing, but I'm hoping to hear a lot more from Kimberly Nichole in the future based on this video:

A Moment With Balancing Dogs

Short and to the point on this busy Tuesday.

Let's spend a moment with two border collies who perform a balancing act on their human. Don't try this at home:

All Kinds Of Animals Show Off For The Cameras

This fun little guy mugs for a GoPro camera.  

One of the nice things about everything being recorded and video'd these days is we get new looks at how animals act and have fun.

GoPro cameras seem especially good at capturing both wild animals hanging out the way they usually do.

The cameras can be left behind, so the critters aren't spooked by all those pesky humans hanging around. So the animals are chilled. It's all good.

We also get great looks at domestic animals, too, with GoPro caneras. They do show off the cameras, just like people do.

Here's a great compilation video to get you in a good, camera happy animal mood:

Obama Should Hire "Anger Translator" For The Rest Of His Term

President Obama getting help at the White
House Correspondents Association Dinner
from Luther, his "anger translator"  

At last night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, we had the usual sharp, weird, often funny political jokes bandied about in a roomful of people who really don't like each other.

It's an odd annual tradition, but it's fun and we get some good laughs from it.  

Maybe the best I've seen so far from this year's is "No Drama Obama" spicing things up a little with the help of Luther, Obama's Anger Translator.

Like him or not, Obama is not one to start yellling and screaming much like other politicians. So we had Luther, played by comedian Keegan-Michael Key, telling us what Obama really thought as he discussed the important issues of the day.

Sometimes I wish Obama acted like Luther in real life. A case is point is toward the end of the video you'll see below, when he's discussion climate change.

The President gets hotter than the increasingly torrid Earth when going on about it.

You'll see why Luther sloooowwwllly backs away.

Maybe we should draft Luther for President in 2016. Maybe more things will get done?

You be the judge by watching this really funny video:

Ice Cream Cooler Thief Gets Away With It Because Store Clerk Is Out Cold

Our Florida Man ice cream thief
flips the bird at the surveillance camera. 

Before you say anything, remember, the following happened in Florida, which explains everything.

Surveillance video shows a guy stealing an ice cream cooler at a convenience store.

It might seem hard to do, taking a whole Good Humor cooler from a convenience store. You'd think somebody would notice, after all.

But, according to the Miami Herald the store clerk, Beauvais Guisman,  was sound asleep, just inches away from where the cooler had been.

I never knew a convenience store was such a comfortable place to sleep. The things you learn!

I'm not sure what you'd do with a whole cooler of ice cream. You can only eat so much of it, after all.

But maybe the suspected thief, Dennis Norman, 25, was especially hungry.

The Miami Herald said police figured out that Norman was a frequent visitor to the nearby Zoo Gym Health Club. He'd probably worked up an appetite from all those hours in the gym.

From gym records, police caught up with Norman at his home. He'd stashed the ice cream in his own freezer, but said he couldn't remember what he did with the Good Humor cooler from the store.

He couldn't remember? A big cooler is not like a set of car keys. It's kind of hard to misplace.

Then again, Guisman, the store clerk misplaced the cooler, too. After all, he slept through the whole theft.

Guisman is probably the former store clerk now, as sleeping on the job, especially during a theft, is likely a no-no. I'm afraid Guisman is going to get very tired again and fall asleep in a bad location.

All that pavement pounding looking for a new job has got to be tiring.

Here's the fun surveillance video of the incident: (The thief flipping the bird at the surveillance camera is a nice touch)

Chinese Government Demands People Stop Hiring Strippers For Funerals

A new low in tastelessness? People are hiring
strippers in China to perform at funerals.  

Ever been do a funeral and all of a sudden strippers came out in the middle of the proceedings and did sexy, slutty pole dances?

Didn't think so.  

Unless you were in China, where apparently, this is a thing.

Apparently, families of the dearly departed hire strippers for funerals in the hopes of drawing larger crowds.

Sex sells. Even at funerals.

I know, I know. Strippers at a funeral doesn't make for an especially dignified, poignant send off to the dearly departed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the strippers would draw this big crowd I metioned, which is supposedly a harbinger of good fortune in the afterlife.

"It's to give them face,' one village explained, 'Otherwise no one would come," reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese government, though, is a party pooper, and is cracking down on these funeral strippers.

Again the Wall Street Journal is on it, saying the Ministry of Culture is working with police to stop these stripper performances.  Already one organizer of a funeral stripping troupe has been detained for 15 days and fined about $11,300 for one such performance

There are a a lot of Chinese imports here in America, but I really, really hope this is something that does not catch on. (It already has caught on in Taiwan)

I definitely don't want some pneumatic Barbie with big fake boobs in my face when I'm reflecting on the wonderful life of some friend or relative that has passed on. I mean, would you?

For once, the Chinese government and I stand in rare solidarity: No more strippers at funerals, please. Ugh.

How My Parents' Terrible Carpet Contributed To Vermont Stage Company's Brilliant "The Mountaintop"

My husband, Jeff Modereger, on the set of
"The Mountaintop" at Vermont Stage Company.  

My parents' decrepit, scary, awful, 40 year old living room carpet became part of an awesome piece of art.

My husband, Jeff Modereger, is a set and scene designer for plays, and he's the scenic designer for the Vermont Stage Company's production of "The Mountaintop" 

If you're anywhere near Burlington, Vermont between now and May 10, when "The Mountaintop" closes, you MUST go see it.

It's the best play I've seen Vermont Stage Company produce, and that's saying something. They've done some awesome work over the years.

More on this in a moment.

The wall to wall carpet in my parents' home had become a risk to them. It was frayed, and split. Tripping hazards for my mother, who is in her 80s, and my father, who turns 95 on Friday (!!)

We were visiting my parents, and Jeff looked down at the carpet and said, "This is perfect."

Um, what?

"The Mountaintop" takes place in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. In the play, Martin Luther King Jr. has just checked in. It's the night before he is to be assassinated.

The play is exclusively about the imagined interaction between MLK Jr. and a chambermaid who comes in to deliver the coffee and newspaper he'd ordered. I won't describe what happens in "The Mountaintop" beyond this, because I don't want to be a spoiler.

African Americans in the late 1960s didn't get to stay in nice hotels, and the Lorraine Motel was pretty threadbare.

My parents' carpet was certainly threadbare, and was the just right color for late 1960s cheap furnishings, the kind in the Lorraine Motel. Jeff had struggled to find a carpet for the set, and my parents' mess of a carpet was exactly perfect for "The Mountaintop."

So we struck a deal. Jeff bought the carpet from my parents, and Jeff, me, and my two sisters and their partners chipped in additional funds to buy them a new, safe carpet. Everybody wins!

Except for people with allergies. Though my mother faithfully vacuumed the carpet over the years, the carpet has 40 years worth of cat and dog dander, plus whatever the cat literally dragged in.

People on the crew for "The Mountaintop" with allergies have not been happy. Because of this issue, and the fact that a feather pillow bursts open during one scene in the play, there's a sign on door to Vermont Stage Company alerting people with allergies.

Still, I love how my parents managed to contribute in a strange but effective way to the Vermont arts scene.

Even if you do have allergies, go see "The Mountaintop" at Vermont Stage in downtown Burlington.

The playwright is Katori Hall, who certainly has a way with language. From a literary standpoint, it is one of the most well written plays I've seen, full of provocative, beautifully constructed dialogue that never gets flowery, but does get intense.

Cristina Alicea, the artistic director at Vermont Stage Company, directs the play, and paces it just perfectly so that the plot moves briskly, but not so fast that you can't catch the powerful dialogue and the expressiveness of Jolie Garrett, who plays Martin Luther King Jr and Myxolydia Tyler, who plays Camae, the chambermaid who comes into MLK's room.

Interesting fact: Garrett was born on the day MLK Jr. was laid to rest.

Tyler is especially awesome. Many of her best moments are not when she's speaking, but when she's reacting to what Martin Luther King Jr is saying. This is especially true as "The Mountaintop" builds toward its riveting climax.

Yeah, I'm gushing about "The Mountaintop." Deal with it. Better yet, go see it for yourself.  As I noted above, this production is the Vermont Stage Company at its finest.