For the record, I was in a terrible mood today. Sucky terrible. More on that over on my new list blog. So I really needed a girl’s night out in a big way. Enter my ever trusty BFF Diana who said, “Come on up for a girl’s night out”.

We went to the Broadway theater, known for showing artsy, Indy films…think Sundance Film Festival. We had both heard some good things about a movie called “Once”, so we decided to give it a shot.

Wow.

I mean, Wow!!!

I love this movie. The plot: an Irish musician meets a Czech pianist and they make sweet music together. K, I just made that sound really cheesy, but it’s not. The roles are filled by two real life musicians, Glen Hansard (front man of a group called The Frames) and Marketa Irglova. They actually write and play the music. The movie stops just shy of being a musical; they don’t sing their lines or anything. But the movie follows their characters as they record a CD together, so the movie is chock-full of their incredible songs. I ordered my copy of the soundtrack as soon as I got home tonight.

For me, the premise of a romance anchored in co-writing music is completely enamoring. (Irish accents are also hot.) Glen Hansard reminds me of a red-headed, Irish Dave Matthews…mostly with the facial expressions while he sings. See it and tell me if I’m wrong. I’m not. His voice is powerful and awesome. 

As the credits rolled, I bawled my little eyes out. Not sure if it was the plot, the music, or the voices. Probably a combo of all of the above.

Great movie, and great music. The perfect remedy for a sucky terrible mood.

I can’t tell you how much I love this guy. I bought this CD a year or so ago and it disappeared in the move. I’ve been soothing myself by listening to little clips of his songs that are available on his MySpace page. Sad. But I finally broke down and repurchased the CD the other day, and it came today. *sigh* So wonderful.

Your assignment, pupils, is to go out and buy this album, Acoustacism by Kalai–and then immediately fall in love with it as I did. If you don’t love it, please lie to me or remain silent alltogether. My heart couldn’t bear a harsh word about Kalai.

Tracks you must hear: On My Mind, Divide Me

One bio written of Kalai said this (and I would agree): If Dave Mathews, Paul Simon, Ben Harper, James Taylor, John Mayer, Bill Murray (Yes, the comedian.) and Béla Fleck had a baby it would surely be this guy!

Wouldn’t you love to be me:

I got my sleepy rear out of bed at 7:45 this morning. By this point my children had already: gotten up and made their beds, gotten dressed, helped each other straighten their rooms, made themselves cereal and then rinsed their dishes in the sink, and brushed their hair and teeth.

All of this by the time I got up.

Are my children possessed? Nope. I found one of the most awesome things a mom can buy. Seriously, I know I’m going to sound like a commercial… but holy crap, this works.  I found something called Children’s Miracle Music. I can’t sing it’s praises enough. It’s a “system” that comes with two CD’s (one for morning and one for bedtime) and a dry erase board with a chart. When my kids wake up in the morning, they start the CD themselves. It guides them through their morning “points”. They get a point for making their bed, a point for getting dressed, ect. They race the music on the Cd’s, for instance: “Point number one is make your bed. You have two short songs.” When they are all finished, they record their points on the dry erase board. Once they reach 100 points, they get whatever “prize” they’ve written. (My kids generally write something like : “Go get ice cream with Dad”)

I’m telling you, everyone with kids should get this. It’s $30 and I gladly would have paid double. Each dry erase board accomodates up to eight kids. In my opinion, kids as young as three or four would be able to do this with a little parental assistance, eventually working up to doing everything themselves. My five year old can do the entire thing on her own, and my eight year old–who is at the stage where he thinks that most things are “dumb”–thinks the Cd’s are cool. It’s really quite amazing. The only draw back I have seen is that my kids eventually get a little sick of the same songs each day. But according to the site, there is new music coming out soon.

Buy this!