The Scot's Have Talent!

Man! I have never seen anyone own a song like Susan Boyle when she performed on Britian's Got Talent. If you haven't had a chance to see her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables check it out here on Youtube. When you learn more about her background and her promise to her dying mother (ensue violins), you really understand that the song means something to her and she has an attachment to those lyrics. She FEELS that song. The emotion, I think, is key to any great performance. The pipes don't hurt either in Susan's case, but man, did she own that song.

Radio Lab

I recently moved away from the city to OC-land. However, I am still "working" in the city and so spend many of my days commuting via public transportation. As many have told me, I've been given the "gift of time". I [more aptly, I think] consider it a curse, since I can't really do experiments or go for a jog on the train. It's a staggering loss of two hours. But I have discovered a gem of a radio show that helps me pass time, keeps me amused and entertained, and teaches me a little something too. It's WNYC's RadioLab program. I love it so much, I listen to it even when I'm not on the train. Sometimes I jog with it playing. I would start with the "Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters" show, but they're all really very good. I do recommend that you listen to the full episodes though (about one hour) and not the short, in between-seasons podcasts they put out. Those just leave you wanting more and they're not produced to be as complete a story as the full episodes. If you do get a chance to listen to them, let me know what you think.

P.S. I have also read about four books (including one that was almost 1000 pages), caught up on my lab notebook, heard many new albums and napped on the train. So maybe it is the gift of time, just not the kind of time I would have preferred.