Rave of the Day: Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent"

Susan Boyle.  Wow.  She's inspiring the world with one performance.  You've seen her audition to Britain's Got Talent right?  Again, WOW.  Just incredibly uplifting. Truly, a celebration of the human spirit, and a pure triumph. Gives me goose-bumps every time I watch it.

I think Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Scwarzbaum nailed it on the head in this article:

I'm still stuck on Susan Boyle, and still weeping...I play the YouTube clip over and over of Boyle, the frumpy, middle-aged British lady who marched out on the stage of the national TV show Britain’s Got Talent this past weekend. She bided her time through the judgmental hoots and snickers of the studio audience and judges (headed by international snickerer-in-chief Simon Cowell). She sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. And she brought a worldwide audience to their feet -- to her feet -- with the grandeur of her voice.

...Right now I'm pondering why the experience of watching and listening to Ms. Boyle makes so many viewers cry, me among them. And I think I've got a simple answer, at least for me: In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging -- the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts -- the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time.

Pretty well said, no? I'm drawn to tears because of her grace, her humility, and her quiet display of confidence in spite of being cast aside. It's the way she blossoms before our very eyes as the song goes on.  It's the fact that she has proven the audience wrong after the first note, and has them on their feet within the first three lines of the song. Watching this, you FEEL that her life-long dream is becoming reality. What an extremely powerful thing to witness, and what a gift she shares with her music.

Rave of the Day: Car Talk with Click & Clack

Car Talk with Click & Clack 

The Tappet Brothers on NPR

I love talk radio, especially when it's informative AND funny.  Car Talk is the epitome of this, and I always look forward to their weekly podcast on iTunes.  (Thanks Dad for making me listen to this with you!  I was hesitant because I have no interest in cars, but YOU WERE RIGHT and the show is soooo funny.)

The hosts are two insanely hilarious brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack.  They come complete with Boston accents, and callers try to stump them with various car problems, which they are usually able to diagnose.  Sounds boring, but trust me, it's not with these two!  No problem is too silly, and no solution is too outrageous.  These two poke fun at each other, themselves, and their callers, and it's all in good fun.

Click and Clack are even featured on Wikipedia (although, is that really any major feat?!) and the article gives a great overview of the show's features.  So go check it out if you want to find out more.  

Tune in, and you will learn about car repair, mechanic rip-off schemes, and the "names" of the Car Talk Staff, like the Snowboard Instructor, Soren Dekeester.  (Hee hee!)

Waste an hour with them today!