MONTHLY REVIEW: August

Whew, this was a hot one here at Zonino! and by "hot" we mean HAWT!

MUSIC

We kicked off the month with a week-long tribute to country singer, and living legend, Gary Allan and our top seven favorite songs.

We also fell in love with the debut single, "Jenny", from sibling country group The Harters.

Collaboration album, Willie and the Wheel, had our toes tappin' and swingin' to the sounds of Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel.

Australian duo, The Veronicas, had us rushing for the disco ball and beggin the DJ to play "Take Me On The Floor" one more time!

If you're in the Bay Area, be sure to party the night away with, Hottub - three of the craziest intergalactic girls you'll ever meet!

BOOK

Futuristic and apocalyptic page turner The Children of Men, by British author P.D. James kept our attention in made us image a world slowly dying out be means of infertility and paranoia.

MOVIE

We were clearly nostalgic this month, especially for the classics. Revisit Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for a good old fashioned chill.

If you're still looking back, check out the new John Dillinger biopic starring Johnny Depp, Public Enemies.

Or try a little culture, both urban and French, with the winner of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, Entre les Murs (The Class).

RECIPE

Indulge yourself with some of Margie's Fudge or try a glass of Calimocho...best not served together, though!

Need something more refreshing on this hot end-of-the-summer August day? Try out our sugar-free smoothie tip!

WEB

For when you need to feel better about yourself and be reminded that no matter how badly your mistake was, others have messed up far worse, there's Failblog!

Inspired by one of our two favorites over at College Humor, Straight Cash Homey Dot Net is an hilarious distraction from the daily grind.

Need something a little more mentally stimulating but still brain candy? Check out Listverse and learn something to impress that twit in the next cubicle who always telling you about the scariest skin diseases of all time or ranking the best James Dean movies ever made.

But when you need legitimately real-world information, turn to Politifact.

YOUTUBE

Smile and sing along to the daffy melodies of quirky duo Garfunkel & Oates.

Learn some Facebook Manners with Alice and Timmy in this humorous throw-back video.

And you know your parking skills aren't this good!

I wonder if gymnast and stuntman Damien Walters could do it? Probably...

TV

Have you seen the advertising genius in Wordlock's new campaign?

APPAREL

Need some great kicks for a wedding, party, to vacuum in? These come recommended.

WORD

Not only is my kid's first grade teacher loquacious, but she uses such saccharine language that it makes me want to puke.

RECIPE: Sweet Sugarfree Smoothie

A cool and healthy treat, the fruit smoothie is the perfect summer refresher! Or at least it should be. Think of this "recipe" as more of a tip since the nature of smoothie making is so flexible in and of itself.

Often times, people can negate the healthy nature of a smoothie by overdoing the amount of sugar added to the blender. A better alternative? Add a slice or two of fresh pineapple. The fruit has a sweetening quality without overpowering any of the other flavors or fruit you include. In fact, if you limit yourself to one or two slices, you probably won't taste it at all and you won't need any sugar!

Sergio del Limonar

WORD: Saccharine

Originally from the Greek word "sakkharon" referring to sugar, this adjective is used to describe something sweet or sugary.

I had to teach this word recently as my students were learning about different types of carbohydrates, including monosaccharides (single sugars) and polysaccharides (complex sugars). I then came across this gem of a sentence in Entertainment Weekly discussing the fascination and guilty pleasure that is Celine Dion which stated that her "lyrics [are] packed with enough saccharine sentiment to warrant an FDA warning label."

As Celine would say, "Touché!"

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Hottub

A year ago I was visiting a friend living in San Francisco. One eventful evening we stumbled upon a band neither of us had ever heard of in club that she didn't know existed in a neighborhood she and her friend had only heard of. (You get an idea of how the night went.)

Regardless, the band was by and far the best thing of the night. Hottub, is a funky rockin' girl band with three members, who go by the names CoCo, Ambr33zy, and Loli Pop. These girls have some of the most bitingly fantastic lyrics I've ever heard (check out "Fifteen" and "Manb***h") and deliver them all in costumes inspired simultaneously by 1980's Madonna, "Saturday Night Fever," and Spandex.

This weekend I'll be heading back out to San Fran and we've got tickets to see the girls - on purpose this time! If you're in the area, you should come! If you're not, definitely check these party-gals out!

Buzzy

MUSIC: "Take Me On The Floor"

I love it when I'm out at a party somewhere - heck, sometimes in a Target store truth be known - and I hear a song I suddenly can't live without. I was at a bar with a couple friends last weekend when I was hypnotically dragged to the dance floor by this amazing electro-pop gem by TheVeronicas called "Take Me On The Dance Floor."

I'm not generally a fan of anything closely resembling a techno beat, but the Australian duo has crafted something special here. Lyrics that are borderline trashy with a rhythm that makes it okay to say "what? I like the beat" as you shake it all over, under the disco ball lights. Needless to say, I downloaded this one the second I got home and have pretty much set it on repeat ever since. Dance party to go with your morning shower? Yes, please!

Buzzy

YOUTUBE: Damien Walters

Somebody get this guy his own action movie franchise right now. Go! Seriously, Jackie Chan is too old and everyone else uses stunt doubles or computer graphics to help their action sequences.

With a little research it turns out the Damien Walters is a gymnast from England who was a world class competition tumbler and trampoliner. After this video hit Youtube, he has indeed gotten offers from Hollywood and has appeared as a stuntman in a couple films. I think the next step is get him his own movie. So what if he can't act?!? How many movies did Jean-Claude Van Damme make*?

Sergio del Limónar

*According to the good people at IMDB, Van Damme made 41. That's 40 too many.

MOVIE: Public Enemies

Growing up in the midwest and having relatives in both St. Paul, MN, and Chicago, I've been exposed to the history and lore of the gangsters from the 1930's. Capone, Dillinger, Nelson, the Barkers, etc. all came up from time to time either in school or around the cities on various tours and such. (My mother even bought a couch from a lady who lived in an apartment building that Dillinger had lived in for a time.)

For those reasons, I had been wanted to see the new Johnny Depp movie, Public Enemies, about the last years of John Dillinger's life, for some time. I was not disappointed. At one point in the film Dillinger asks the lead detective in charge of his capture, Melvin Purvis, played by Christian Bale, if he's ever watched anyone die and then goes on to say that its all in the eyes. The director, Michael Mann, seems to take his cues from that same mantra; using many facial close-ups and letting the eyes tell the story, Public Enemies is a histoy lesson and a work of art.

People who need to be reminded that Depp is one of the finest actors alive today and can indeed act without covering himself in make-up and over the top costumes, need to see this movie. Aside from Depp and Bale, Billy Cudrup is fantastic as FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, and French actress and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard is astounding as Dillinger's girlfriend, Billie Frechette.

I'm glad I added this to my list of movies to see and even more glad I got around to doing it. Add it to your list!

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Little Kid Parallel Parking

Happy Monday! Let this Zonino! of a cute kid with some skillz (yes, with a "z") better than half the fools in my neighborhood. Heck, who am I kidding? His parking ability dominates mine! If he weren't still practically in diapers I'd hire him to be my personal valet.

Buzzy

TV: Wordlock Ad

You know those combination locks with letters instead of numbers. I suppose they think people will be more likely to remember their combinations if it is a word rather than a series of numbers. I never got the logic since, although there are indeed potentially thousands of possible "codes" to use, a word seems less secure than a random number set.

Even so, this advertisement by one of these products, evidently called Wordlock, has made me concede that for the moment they are pretty Zonino! The ad is awesome because it plays right to the truth - the inner middle schooler in all of us.

Sergio del Limónar

APPAREL: BCBGeneration "Ariel" Shoe

One of my best friends from way back in high school is jumping the broom today and gettin' hitched. Oh, also, she loves the shoes she chose to wear for the ceremony and said they were totally Zonino! worthy.

She told me that the leather square peep toed kicks with 3-3/4 inch covered heels are really comfortable and that even though she was wearing them around the house "for practice," she might have to keep them on. If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!

Sergio del Limonar

BOOK: The Children of Men

Written in the not too distant past of the early 1990's, British author P.D. James has crafted a frightening novel set in the not too distant future. The book is frightening, not in a Stephen King-like way, but in a realistic human nature kind that causes the reader to question our own vulnerability.

The Children of Men begins in the year 2021 with the murder of the youngest person alive on the planet, a 25 year old Argentinian. The world of 2021 has not had a human birth since the mid-nineties when, inexplicably, all men became sterile. Since this point the world has slowly crawled into a cycle of hysteria. Borders have been closed, mandatory monthly fertility testing has become law, towns slowly shut down do to lack of citizens as the old die, and an entire generation does not know what a crying baby sounds like.

Theo is a history professor at a local University in Oxford, England, where the story takes place. He is divorced after a painful marriage made more so after the loss of his only child, who was born in one of the last years leading up to the age of infertility. His simple life is thrown for a loop when a small group of dissenters approach him with a proposition that he, for a variety of reasons, is not able to reject.

Even though I had seen the movie, staring Clive Owen and Julian Moore, by the same name back in 2006, I enjoyed the book just as much and I'd recommend both. There is a lot different from the book to the film but I understand why the changes were made and, in the end, I think the cinematic version stayed faithful to the spirit of the novel.

Buzzy

DRINK: Calimocho

Calimocho, sometimes known as Vino con Cola, is a drink introduced to me by friends who studied abroad in Spain during college. Simple to make, this drink may sound disgusting but don't knock it until you've tried it!

Mix equal parts red wine and a cola drink (Coca Cola works best) into a wine glass and enjoy! This Spanish treat can be served with or without ice and rimming the glass with sugar is an added sweetener for those who are so inclined!

Sergio del Limonar

WEB: Listverse

I accidentally stumbled on this site while looking for something else and at first thought nothing of it. The more I snooped around, the more I liked what I found. Listverse is a site made up completely of Top Ten Lists. From Incredible Funguses and Most Popular Recreational Drugs (I wonder if there should have been a crossover?) to Bizarre Items Owned By Michael Jackson and Failed McDonald's Products (the McLobster!?!) you will surely find something enlightening on this site!

For example, did you you that the IT guy at work is calling you an idiot if he tells you, “The fault was a PICNIC.” what he really means is there is a Problem In Chair – Not In Computer. (Top 10 Codes You Aren't Meant To Know) Or how about the "fear of dinner conversation has a name - deipnophobia. (Top 10 More Bizarre Phobias)

Updated regularly, this is a great website to bookmark for those slow days when you want to waste time but not turn your brain to mush. I wonder what the phobia for that is...

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Facebook Manners And You

Inspired by the black and white newsreels of the 1950's, this parody, entitled Facebook Manners and You, allows Alice and Timmy to show us all the proper etiquette for being in a relationship on Facebook, "the electronic friendship generator."

After coming home and checking her "computing machine," Alice discovers her boyfriend, Timmy, isn't the guy she thought he was. Between changing relationships statuses with telling the other person, posting embarrassing photos, and becoming friends with all of you significant other's friends (in this case everyone from Sandra Dee and June Cleever to Doreen Sanderson and Elly May Clampett), Alice and Timmy show us how to not make some potentially horrible relationship mistakes!

Some of the best advice comes from the narrator though: No one is going to date you if you get frown lines, Alice! I mean, really, who would want "to be pals with a 'grodey-jody' like Timmy" anyways?!?

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Willie and the Wheel

Collaboration albums often seem to crash and burn in horrid self-indulgence or ill-advised production. Every so often, however, two artists come together to create something that not only works, but becomes ear-candy; music the listener can not get enough of. The joining of country great Willie Nelson with veteran "western swing" band Asleep at the Wheel is no exception to the later.

The album, appropriately titled Willie and the Wheel, combines the joyful sounds of what I imagine a small tonk honky-tonk dance hall to be like with the age old gravely voice that has made Nelson a living icon. If anyone ever thought Willie was nearing the end of his professional singing life need only choose three random tracks off this album to be convinced otherwise. Along with the swinging fiddles, Nelson's vocals and spirit are alive and well!

All the tracks spring to life with true country authenticity; nothing on this album feels "phoned in." However, some stand out favorite tracks of mine are the lead-off "Hesitation Blues," the smile-inducing "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None O' This Jelly Roll," and the charmingly sassy "I'm Sitting On Top of the World" with great give and take vocals between Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel's own Elizabeth McQueen. Vince McGill also makes an appearance in the rocking "South."

Sergio del Limónar

WEB: Politifact

With the myriad news (and "news") sources available to us today, it is no wonder people become either jaded with current events or megaphones of misinformation. With the abundance of television, radio, print, and online methods of accessing the business of the world, it is important to remember that even media is a business as well and may or may not be equally reliable.

But how to sift through fact, fiction, and half-truths? There may not be a full-proof way, but the website Politifact can help. This fact-checking political-based website, run in part by the St. Petersburg Times, is a way to educate and evaluate, with legitimate reasoning, coming from the country's talking heads.

With easy to use tabs, one can zero in on major politicians like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and John Boehner. It is also possible to keep track of who has "flip-flopped" on an issue and by how much by using the Flip-O-Meter or what the score-card is on various Obama promises and policies using the Obama-Meter.

This is a great website for the politically-unsavvy or those just really wanting to be able to shut up that one windbag of a guy at the next office party.

Sergio del Limónar

MOVIE: Entre Les Murs (The Class)

As a teacher, I am sometimes frustrated with the portrayal of classroom life in movies. Entre Les Murs (literally "Between the Walls") is probably the first film I've seen where all the interactions, dialogue, and situations are accurately represented.

"The Class," as it is know in English, is a French production directed by Laurent Cantet and the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Set at a diverse inner city public high school in Paris, the story follows an academic year in French teacher François Marin's classroom. Played by novelist and actor François Bégaudeau, he is a caring but challenging teacher, who tries to be sympathetic to the tough lives of his students while, at the same time, pushing them to learn and achieve. The students, many who do not consider themselves "French" and therefore see no merit in learning the formalities of the language, often challenge him back and, as we all do, François occasionally reaches a breaking point.

What I liked about this movie, aside from the realism of classroom life, was how it shows the sometimes daily punishment for little pay many educators put up with for and from the kids they want to help. Another remarkable thing about the film is that, although it is scripted, the "students" are not trained actors and the movie feels almost more like a documentary than anything else. The faculty meetings also could not be more accurately executed.

In true "French film" style the story wanders around a bit and there are obviously subtitles so reading is required, especially with the amount of slang used by some of the characters, but the experience is worth it, in a bittersweet way.

Sergio del Limonar

WEB: Straight Cash Homey Dot Net

Brought to you by the one of the geniuses behind the Jake & Amir webisodes we Zoninoed back in June, comes Straight Cash Homey Dot Net.

This site has a similar premise to that of Cake Wrecks in that readers send in pictures on a common theme and then we collectively laugh at them. In this case it is an "international ridiculous jersey scavenger hunt." The entire site is dedicated to sightings of people wearing sports jerseys of players that were too terrible to warrant a uniform in the first place or, in some cases, never actually made the team!

The jersey's are great but the captions may be even better. Updated almost daily, this is a site to add to your bookmarked pages.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Jenny"

If the debut single, "Jenny," from new country family band, The Harters, is any sign, they are destined to be huge! Siblings Leslie, Michael, and Scott Harter have crafted a song about young forbidden love a la Romeo & Juliet but with a sheriff father and a "reckless rebel boy from Tennessee." The heart-pounding tempo is the kind that causes accidental speeding tickets and combined with the mixing of male and female voices, "Jenny" is one of those near-perfect songs in any genre!

Sergio del Limónar

WORD: Loquacious

A friend facebooked me and used the word "loquacious." Given the context my guess to what it meant was correct but I thought it's use deserved a Zonino! so here we go...

Loquacious is an adjective used to describe someone who is overly talkative or perhaps just very wordy in their speech.

Heidi doesn't like to text message her friends because she feels she is too loquacious to be limited to a set number of letters.

I hate asking my colleague, Al, a question because his answers are usually way to loquacious than the answer requires them to be.

Sergio del Limónar

MOVIE: And Then There Were None

We need to start re-watching the "blockbusters" on the 1940's and 50's. It's amazing how many current movie story-lines and techniques have been be done before.

Based on Agatha Christie's play, Ten Little Indians, which I now want to read, And Then There Were None is a high suspence mystery film with what I can only assume was an all-star cast of 1945.

The story centers on ten strangers, all alone at a mansion on an island, who recieve an ominous recording accusing them all of murder. One by one, a sort of vigilante justice is enacted on the ten paranoid guests of the island. As the number of survivors dwindles, suspisions and accusations as to who the murder is rise, until there is only one.

The great thing about this story is how the viewer is just about as "in the dark" as the characters whose lives are in peril. Black and white films have never seemed so appropriate.

Sergio del Limonar

YOUTUBE: Garfunkel & Oates

Right at this moment I have two heroes: Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome - also know as Garfunkel & Oates. Just search any of these monikers on YouTube and you'll find a plethora of genuinely clever and humors musical stylings. After a little perusing, these are some favorites, although they all have their smile-inducing moments.

There seems to be something in the water where I work; there are five pregnant women right now and two other recently popped babies out in the last six months. I'm just thankful I don't own a uterus. I'm also thankful that none of the fine ladies with growing bellies are "smug" like the subjects of the hilarious song, Pregnant Women Are Smug. But you know you know some that are!

You hear the first few bars of song on the radio, some far corner of your brain recognizes it, your heart starts get excited because you haven't heard this song since high school...and then you realize that you hated that song in high school. And for good reason. Bubble gum just a little too sticky, lyrics just trying too hard to be deep, phoned-in emotion - it's all there! I feel like Worst Song Medley could have gone on for a couple dozen more tunes, but I think the girls hit on some of the best ones, of the worst, that is. (Seriously, what does "the fireflies dance silver moon sparkling" really mean?)

I can't handle the randomness in this one. Show me a better ending to song, I dare you! Or songs that contain the lyrics "I wouldn't touch you dick if I were poisoned, and the antidote was in your sperm" like the all-too-true ditty Self Esteem.

And finally, one more to keep you busy for a few more minutes. I feel like One Night Stand would both get a standing ovation and a little jealously out of fellow parody musician Pat McCurdy. These girls are just cuter!


Sergio del Limónar

WEB: Fail Blog

Maybe it's my unrequited urge as a teacher to yell out "Fail!" when ever I come across unsatisfactory work. I've found I have more tact than that, however, there have been the occasional presentation I wish I could turn into an episode of the "Gong Show" or, at the very least, have a giant shepherd's hook to yank the sub-par efforts out of the way.

This website, Fail blog, does just what my sickest educationally minded fantasies wish they could do - find and photograph things that deserve the "F" they have coming to them. Signs, news clips, headlines, web postings, and random photography of horribly misguided or ironic things are all fair game on Fail blog.

Although most of the posts are of high quality in the head-shaking department, the site allows visitors to rate each post for how bad it truly does "fail" as well as easily post to Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and a number of other social networking sites.

I just played this one from mid-April a couple times in a row. Definitely worthy of the shepherd's hook.

Sergio del Limónar

PS: Did anyone else know that "shepherd" was spelled with an "h"? (the second one) Fail for me, I guess!

RECIPE: Margie's Fudge

My mother has been on a fudge-making kick as of late and on a recent visit I had the confectionary pleasure of enjoying plenty of her creations. (I mean, it's right there in a pan on the counter ever time I wandered through the kitchen - what was I supposed to do?)

ingredients:

-2 1/2 cups of sugar
-3/4 cup of butter
-2/3 cup condensed milk
-package of semi-sweet chocolate pieces* (size of package depends on how chocolately one wants it)
-1 tspn vanilla
-1 cup of marshmallow creme (my mother claims this to be the secret ingredient! shhh!)

what to do:

1) combine sugar, butter, and milk into a sauce pan
2) bring to a boil stirring constantly
3) after 4 minutes of boiling, remove from heat
4) stir in chocolate pieces* until melted
5) add marshmallow creme and vanilla and beat until blended together
6) pour mixture into a 13 x 9 inch pan and cool

* can substitute 1/2 cup of peanut butter

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 7

NOTE: This is the seventh and last in a special week-long series.

For the last song in Gary Allan is Zonino! Week, get ready to rock hard. Off Allan's most recent album, 2007's Living Hard comes "Wrecking Ball."

I had high hopes that this would become a single and, since it did not, it honorably becomes the Zonino! off this album. In "Wrecking Ball," Allan wails at what has to be the top of his vocal register about how some woman is a wrecking ball since she is making him a wreck. Sounds logical to me!

Allan professes that "she's a tornado, I'm the trailer house, that girl's a hurricane, in a dress" as she proceeds to proverbially knock him down or blow him over, whichever analogy you prefer. This is definitely one of my favorite rocking-out-in-my-car Gary Allan songs.

And, so sadly ends Gary Allan Week here at Zonino! There are plenty more songs worth checking out of this great artist but these seven are sure to get you hooked on the good stuff.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 6

NOTE: This is the sixth in a special week-long series.

One of Gary Allan's most personal albums, Tough All Over dealt with the death of his wife, who committed suicide after battling depression. The song "Life Ain't Always Beautiful," co-written by Allan, Tommy Lee James, and one of my favorite voices in music, Cyndi Thomson, addresses this loss.

Emotional and sung with as much truth as one in this situation can muster, Allan's voice almost cracks with honesty as he sings "some days I miss your smile, I get tired of walking all these lonely miles." Trying to find the silver lining to horrible life events is never easy, but Allan offers hope as he convinces himself that although life is not always beautiful, "it's a beautiful ride." Truer words have rarely been spoken with such courage.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 5

NOTE: This is the fifth in a special week-long series.

Since we're on a roll with the story-songs, one of the great ones comes from Tuesday's Smoke Rings In The Dark. "Sorry" has a 60's rock vibe complete with all of Allan's traditional grit. The song starts with the singer getting dumped with a simple "sorry" from his lover. Fortunately this song has a happy ending with the jilted man able to return the word when she eventually comes crawling back.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 4

NOTE: This is the fourth in a special week-long series.

"She was cool, she was hot, she was smoking a lot at the end of the bar." So begins the dramatic events of Gary Allan's "He Can't Quit Her" off his 2005 album, Tough All Over.

A desperate man gets hooked, not on drugs or gambling, but on the misperceived love of a prostitute. The songs does a beautiful job of likening the doomed man's obsession with the call girl to other addictions. Allan sings "she's like needle to a junkie, like whiskey to a drunk, she's like poker to a gambler, like a bullet in a gun." Unfortunately, the last phrase here offers a little foreshadowing that the green-eyed monster eventually costs the horn-dog his life.

The song captures perfectly the hopeless want and need the lonely guy feels and, as awful an ending to his life as it is, the imagery the song and Allan's vocals display are the stuff of country magic.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 3

NOTE: This is the third in a special week-long series.

Although the title track of Gary Allan's 1999 album, Smoke Rings In The Dark is a classic, another standout track that got no radio airplay is the tragically honest and thoughtful "Don't Tell Mama."

The song tells the story of a man who witnesses a car drive drunkenly off the road. When the driver of the crashed vehicle is found "lying in the grass, among the steel and glass, with an empty whiskey bottle by his side" his dying wish is to not let his mother know he died because he had been drinking. Now, one might think it was for selfish face-saving reasons, but it's because he knows that "her soul would never rest...[if she knew he] met the Lord with whiskey on [his] breath."

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 2

NOTE: This is the second in a special week-long series.

Yesterday Gary Allan's See If I Care was mentioned to kick off Gary Allan is Zonino! Week. Today, another song from the same album gets the spotlight.

"Drinkin' Dark Whiskey" is a bluesy rocker about the perils of listening to what the whiskey bottle might cost you. "It loosens your tongue but it never tells the truth," Allan sings. Ain't that the truth?!?

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 1

NOTE: This is the first in a special week-long series.

Every time I go on a road trip, I always get a little excited to actually play DJ and revisit the relatively recent past of listening to a whole CD and not being able to flip easily through a playlist with an infinite number of songs.
On a recent excursion, I rediscovered one of my favorite country singers, Gary Allan. Labeled as "California Country" by many in the music business, his version of country music rocks a little differently, and is, at times, on the grittier sounding side. Regardless, Allan's music speaks volumes to his talent as a performer and, at times, songwriter.

The first song I want to recommend for those new to Mr. Allan's music is off his 2003 album, See If I Care, called "Songs About Rain." This radio hit is about the desire to erase the memory of an old flame that is now married by listening to something happy. Alas, this unlucky guy must put up with sad songs "about rain." Classic tragic country by a master in tragic country songs.

Sergio del Limónar