(pictured: Stacy Haiduk posing with the infamous kitty cat made famous by Y and R)

(update to this post: I just read this little snippet and totally agree...what a waste of Stacy Haiduk's talent on Y&R, which I'm shamefully still watching if only for the amazing job she's doing with such a sorry storyline!)

Back in 1983 "Patty Williams (Abbott)" was a character on the soap "The Young and The Restless"...an actress named Andrea Evans (whom I ended up writing a gushing fan letter to and receiving a friendly reply from) played her with all the unhinged madness you'd expect in a woman who (after discovering she's married to a manwhore*) walks into her husband's office one day intending to kill herself only to shoot him instead.

Her passion was the exact opposite of the "on the verge of womanhood" innocence Lilibet Stern (her predecessor) had given the same role just two years earlier when she had yet to marry Jack Abbott and looked like she should be out on a farm somewhere milking cows while also possibly posing for a calendar of some sort...yet both Evans and Stern knew "Patty Williams" was a very unbalanced woman and let that show wonderfully in their performances.

I had completely forgotten about all of this until last Thursday when, sick in bed with a bad cold, I was flipping through the tv and landed on "The Young and The Restless." It had been years since I'd watched the soap. Andrea Evans had long ago gone on to other roles..."Patty" having run away in the wake of her disastrous divorce, never to be heard from again...until, last Thursday, that is.

The actress now playing her (Stacy Haiduk) is to be commended for doing her best with a character that the writers (for unknown reasons? maybe to get creative juices flowing again?) seemed to have randomly pulled out of the water so many years later.

If not for the insanely insipid (and very much 'been there, done that') "plastic surgery double" plot device used to re-introduce Patty's character, there might be some potential in re-exploring a character that was once so vulnerable in misguided love. (But seriously...I love how only on soaps does facial plastic surgery come with a new voice, an extra foot in height and a new body.)

But whatever talent Haiduk has (and she does have it, especially in oddly touching scenes where her character's only confidantes are a small kitty cat and her brother played by a very bewildered and often sobbing Paul Williams, one of the few Y&R originals still left) is lost in a sea of cliched soap opera theatrics and doppelganger impossibilities.



*"manwhore" is a slang word for the male equivalent of well...you can imagine...let's just say Jack was never a man known for keeping his pants on very long!:)

When I was in high school Otra Vez by Miami Sound Machine was one of my favorite albums. I remember finding it in a record store one day and absolutely going crazy (silently, of course, I was always silent when I screamed back then) because it was so hard to find their early 80s Spanish only records anywhere, much less at the local Sam Goody. That album made me so happy and later (way after that year of school was over) I was still dancing away to the sounds on my Sony Cassette Walkman.

I just always wanted to dance like a fool when I heard their upbeat songs. I didn't care that I didn't know one word of Spanish. I knew what the spirit of the songs was and that was all that mattered to me.

I really don't think about Miami Sound Machine that much anymore...but tonight I popped in this album by Los Amigos Invisibles and I felt that same happy goofy way again...I just discovered them, like three hours ago, and all I can is: wow! I want to dance around the living room like crazy, but I live in an apartment and it's getting late and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, but: oh     my     gosh...did I saw wow?

Miami Sound Machine what? This is even better than those bittersweet sounds I can almost hear right now.

If you don't believe me listen to "Mentiras" right now!!

The dance floor isn't there no more,
But my body's still movin'.
Tell me, do you know,
Where are we to go, when our world is so confusing?  
from the Apples in Stereo album "Travellers in Space and Time" 


Amazon is offering a brand new Apples in Stereo song free at their digital download store..."Dance Floor" is one toe-tapping, whimsical sounding infectious puff of pop; you won't be able to resist the beats or the words!: (for all of the words to this amazing song, click here) I'm not usually one for nostalgia, but "Dance Floor" sure makes it sound appealing and bittersweet.




(I accidentally hit the picture twice, but I like the song so so much I'm leaving both images up! It's that good!)

 And this one (also free!) called "Angel Underneath" reminds me of something Tom Waits would do (with all the song's quirky warm toughness):




Okay, this one is not free, but it's so oddly addictive and contains a Family Guy/ Stewie ("let's have a sexy party")  reference I couldn't resist; the image on the single cover is very disturbing (I think) and I'm not sure I feel that comfortable posting it, yet I can't help but think Jeffree Star is trying to say something here and not be offensive:




But by all means, please avoid one of the other free downloads of the day..."Woop Woop (That Means Your Phone is Ringing")...absolutely, positively horrible! Well, maybe not horrible...it's just that it sounds like a joke. I listened to the rest of the album and it pretty much all sounds like this:

The 2010 Beehouse Records Spring Sampler is another awesome freebie from the Amazon MP3 store!!! It's perfect (if you have an "aux" button in your car to connect your player or if you burn this to a cd once you go to the Amazon store) for a nice breezy easy day driving around in your car! I love it!

Super best tracks include: "Breaking Skin" and "More" by Duplex (never heard of this group before, but I'll be checking them out regularly from now!) plus "So Long Blues" by Tall Tales and The Silver Lining, "Everything and Nothing at All" by The Spires (they sound like She Wants Revenge) and "Charlie, Sky and Jupiter" by Sparkles in the Milk.

 And if you like Josh Rouse there is a good chance you'll love  the wonderful "Brother Bird" by Franklin for Short.

This album is full of mellow, fun and sunny sounds...even the sad is upbeat at times!:)

One of my favorites of all time ("How Deep Is Your Love?" by the Bee Gees) has been covered in very recent years by some musicians who truly get the beauty and underlying sorrow of the song.

The bird and the bee featured "How Deep is Your Love?" on their Please Clap Your Hands EP back in 2007. It is one of the few bird and the bee songs that sounds so vulnerable, heartfelt and honest. It's not that their other material isn't beautiful or that it's full of falsehoods...just that this song is completely free of their (almost) trademark teasing sound (where you're not quite sure if Inara George is mocking you or not.)

The Bad Plus (featuring the amazing voice of Wendy Lewis!!) is completely unconventional, meshing contemporary wayward jazz sounds with the vocalist's lovely, lovely voice. When their cover opens everything is a bit jarring, but soon the song settles into its odd rhythm and gets to the heart of the matter.

Though I will always love the original version the most, both covers got me to listen to the lyrics, not just hear them (Barry Gibb is amazing and I adore him, but he's not the easiest singer to understand.) Taking in the covers slowly I thought for the first time that this song applies to any couple who has ever faced outside pressures...especially from people (i.e. society) who don't think they belong together.


We belong to you and me  (a line from "How Deep") pretty much sums up all that matters when two people are in love with each other...nothing else matters, no one else has the right to judge them.

(Of course, this is my just two cents, but it's how I feel...)