Friday, May 29, 2009

Young @ Heart (A Documentary)



This 2008 documentary blew me away!

"Coldplay, the Clash and Jimi Hendrix will never sound the same once you've heard the Young@Heart chorus, a group of Massachusetts senior citizens who thrill audiences worldwide with their unusual -- and unusually poignant -- covers of rock songs. Stephen Walker's humane and heartwarming documentary, which premiered at Sundance in 2008, follows the elderly ensemble as they prepare their new show."

These seniors have the most drive and heart!

May we all stay forever young!

p.s. Pause the playlist on the bottom of the page to hear the video.

http://whoseroleisitanyway.blogspot.com/

Thursday, May 28, 2009

V-Word Thursday

Back by somewhat popular demand (;) is V-word Day. For those new to the concept, when you see the v-word below, what is the first thing that pops in your mind?

V-word is:


boopy
For me, it's the Betty Boop attitude in walk and talk.
Bette Midler is boopy. :))

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

More Dates Added To Leonard Cohen's World Tour



Leonard Cohen has announced that he will be adding over 30 European dates to his world tour. He will be making stops in Madrid, Monaco, Dublin, Liverpool and several other cities across Europe.


European Tour Dates


July 1, 2009 - Köln/Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
July 2, 2009 - Berlin, Germany @ O2 Arena

July 4, 2009 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Sport Palais

July 6, 2009 - Nantes, France @ Zenith

July 7, 2009 - Paris, France @ Bercy

July 9, 2009 - Toulouse, France @ Zenith

July 11, 2009 - Weybridge, UK @ Mercedes Benz World

July 14, 2009 - Liverpool, UK @ Arena

July 16, 2009 - Langesund, Norway @ Langesund Festival


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Super Comments Award



What a sight for sore eyes upon my return, MZ! Thank you so, Mama Zen , for the lovely award. The closest I'll probably come to a Panda as well!


I'd like to share this award with all who visit as I hold each of your comments dear and precious.


Thank you again, MZ! :))



Thursday, May 21, 2009

WEIRD or HELPFUL?

(CNN) -- Your husband, an avid gamer and techie, dies of a heart attack, leaving his vast online life ­-- one you don't know much about ­-- in limbo. Eternal Space lets loved ones create customized online gravesites and memorial pages.

His accounts, to which you don't know the passwords, go idle. His e-mails go unanswered, his online multiplayer games go on without him and bidders on his eBay items don't know why they can't get an answer from the seller. Web site domains that he has purchased, some of which are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,­ will expire, and you may never know.

It's a scenario that's becoming more likely as we spend more of our lives online. And it's raising more questions about what happens to our online lives after we log off for the final time. The
answer, until recently, was nothing. But now, as online usage increases and social-media sites soar in popularity, more companies are popping up to try and fill that void created in your digital life after death.

Jeremy Toeman, founder of the site Legacy Locker, wondered what would happen to his online life if the plane he was on crashed. While his will leaves everything to his wife, including all of his digital assets, Toeman realized how difficult it would be for her to access his accounts.

"My GoDaddy account would belong to her, but it doesn't solve the practical reality of how she would get access to it," he said. He experienced a similar scenario after his grandmother died, and he tried to get the password for her e-mail account -- only to give up because of the hassle. So Toeman built his company to change all that. Legacy Locker allows users to set up a kind of online will, with beneficiaries that would receive the customer's account information and passwords after they die.

"We know it's a hard thing to think about -- to get people to face mortality. We know it's kind of morbid, but for those who live their entire lives online, it's also very real."

A Legacy Locker account costs $29.99 a year. Users can set up their accounts at http://www.legacylocker.com/ to specify who gets access to their posthumous online information, along with "legacy letters," or messages, that can be sent to loved ones.

If someone contacts Legacy Locker to report a client's death, the service will send the customer four e-mails in 48 hours. If there's no response, Legacy Locker will then contact the people the client listed as verifiers in the event of his or her death. Even then, the service would not release digital assets without examining a copy of the customer's death certificate, Toeman said.

Eddie Lopez is the kind of tech-savvy guy for which a service such as Legacy Locker was made. The St. Paul, Minnesota, man has three online banking accounts, a PayPal account, domain names, Web-hosting accounts, multiple e-mail addresses and many social-networking accounts.

"I do think this is something people should be really considering these days," Lopez told CNN when asked about services such as Legacy Locker. He wants to hire a service to handle his digital assets but is concerned about privacy.

"Although I'm glad there's people breaking ground in this area, I don't think I would jump at the first opportunity to sign up," Lopez said. "My concerns are turning over such an exhaustive list of user names and passwords to a single business. That's one-stop shopping for any hacker to get access to just about every detail of my life."

Lopez would prefer to entrust half of his digital-security information to a service such as Legacy Locker and the other half to family members, so that each side's information would be useless without the other's.

"I hope Legacy Locker and similar services can address these privacy-security concerns with some real-world solutions," he said. "I just don't feel comfortable turning over my digital life -- built over 15 years -- to a kind promise."

Legacy Locker isn't the only new company helping techies plan for death in the digital age. AssetLock (formerly YouDeparted.com) offers a "secure safe deposit box" for digital copies of documents, wishes, letters and e-mails. Deathswitch and Slightly Morbid also offer similar services in a variety of prices and packages, depending on how many accounts are involved.

Not all of these services deal with online assets. There's also a growing trend towards giving all aspects of death --­ the grieving process, the funeral, the memorial and even the grave site --­ a digital makeover.

FindaGrave.com claims to have cemetery records for 32 million people in its searchable database, while EternalSpace.com offers a new spin on the traditional grave site by offering virtual memorial pages ­full of videos, pictures and tributes.

On Eternal Space, loved ones can choose from different headstones and bucolic landscape backgrounds -- the mountain lake is a popular option -- to create a customized online grave site. Loved ones can add "tribute gifts" such as roses, candles, stuffed animals and other items, while mourners can access photos and videos in a "Memory Book" and leave remembrances of their own.

Jay Goss, president of Eternal Space, is trying to bring the funeral experience to anyone who can access the Web. In that way, he hopes to provide a gathering place, and a voice, for mourners who may not be able to attend the real-life memorial service.

"It'd be the equivalent of a funeral where everyone can attend and everyone can spend 30 minutes behind the podium," Goss said. "It gives everyone a chance to put a 360-degree wrapper on the life the person lived and celebrate that life from how every person knew them."
Eternal Space's virtual memorial sites are currently only being offered through select funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums. Goss' hope is that the site will help allow the deceased's memory to be "eternally" passed on.

"All of these stories and videos are being left, in essence, to this Eternal Space Web site so that everyone can share, not just that day, not the days after, but the weeks after and years after," he said.

Some funeral-industry professionals believe these online memorials and virtual grave sites provide a valuable service.

"Assuming the site is handled with respect, virtual memorials respond to a basic human need to remember our deceased family, friends and colleagues," said Robert M. Fells, general counsel for the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. "Based on our members' feedback, I'd have to say that virtual memorial sites are gaining popularity with the public as a very practical alternative to being present at the grave site," he added. "There's nothing 'weird' about them as far as we have seen."

"There are funeral homes out there that will help families create virtual memorials, but ... we've also seen Facebook and MySpace profiles of deceased persons being turned into memorials," agreed Jessica Koth, spokesperson for the National Funeral Directors Association. "Consumers have become increasingly comfortable with expressing their grief online."

"While not a replacement for a funeral, online memorialization can help people work through their grief after the funeral," she added. "We've all become accustomed to communicating and expressing ourselves electronically -- via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter. Expressing one's grief online is an outgrowth of what's happening in other areas of our lives."

Sunday, May 17, 2009

SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: Ode to Leonard Cohen



A thousand kisses deep


on Boogy Street


with the Sisters of Mercy and Suzanne,


we'll be meeting not at the Chelsea Hotel


but at Radio City Music Hall,


dancing to the end of love.
Hallelujah!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

V-Word Saturday

Those v-words! The comment Open Sesames. If you love words as much as I do and have an overactive imagination, you just can't help but conjure up whacky but creative images. Are you gaim?

What is the first thing that pops in your mind when you see:


funisti


For me, it's an Italian dish tickling my endorphins!

Friday, May 15, 2009

With your love waves





With the help of your love waves,


we came through!


Thank you!



Love, Petra xo




Sunday, May 3, 2009

Thank you!




Hello my dear friends,


Your well wishes were so very much appreciated and comforting. My father recovered well, but my mother will be going into heart rehabilitation for the week, so still won't have time to visit or post. Again, I wanted to say thank you, mes amis.


Love, Petra xo