Like a fat kid loves Cake.

My brother Joel introduced me to the band Cake some time ago. Now by saying "introduced" I don't want to imply that I had never heard of them. It would be very difficult to have not heard of them or at least a couple of songs by them since they are fairly ubiquitous.

What I mean by "introduce" is "You need to listen to this song. In fact you should listen to all of their songs. They are quite possibly my favorite group."

This surprised me. What little brain power I ever devoted to Cake had given me the idea that they were "bubblegum" "top-40" and other various derogatory music categories. However, my brother is rarely impressed by those types of bands. So I gave them a try. I had already heard "I Will Survive" (which is probably what gave me the previous impressions I just described) and had decided I liked Gloria's version better.

Joel instead had me listen to "Long Line of Cars." This was a good choice because there is a strong brass accompaniment that is reminiscent of Oingo Boingo. I wasn't hooked, but I liked it. Awhile later I listened to the entire album "Comfort Eagle" and slowly my previous prejudices slipped away.

Now by all accounts, I should not like Cake at all. John McCrea (the band's frontman) doesn't really sing as much as he speaks the lyrics in different tones. There is little to no vibrato or sustain when he sings. It is as big a shock to me as to anyone that I actually like the way he "sings" at all. But I do. I like it alot. After pondering this dichotomy within myself, I've had to conclude that it is because it makes him very accessible as a person. As an audience, we are not in awe of his voice. He is not some high and mighty singer. He's normal - just like us. He gains our trust and we listen to what he has to say because of it.

That leads me to the second reason why I now love Cake. They sing about something else other than sex (love), drugs and rock and roll. I'm not saying that they don't sing about these things at all (or that I don't like songs about these topics - although there are few drugs songs that I enjoy), but merely that they sing about other topics as well. I've always enjoyed bands that use topics that are beyond the norm like "The Trees" from Rush and just about everything on "War" from U2 (back when U2 was considered edgy and not mundane).

The third reason I hinted at earlier. Thank you Cake for having more than guitars, keyboards and drums. Brass sections (when used appropriately) are AWESOME in the rock genre. And full orchestras - same thing. Now granted, there are quite a few other bands/singers that use orchestras, but rarely with a brass section. Its a beautiful thing that brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.

So if you're not familiar with Cake, please take another listen. I recommend the following:

• Short Skirt/Long Jacket
• Long Line of Cars
• Love You Madly
• Pretty Pink Ribbon
• Stickshifts and Safety Belts
• The Distance
• You Part the Waters
• Mr. Mastodon Farm
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle


Yes, I love them like a fat kid...well you know the rest.

Take my job. Please.

So my company has decided that within the next 6 months or so they want to rebrand every single product that we own. This in and of itself is bad enough. However, they also want to either move manufacturers or reformulate all of these products as well. As a side note, when you move to another manufacturer, your formula almost always changes.

So you would think, "Hey it makes sense that since we'll have to relabel everything anyway, let's wait until we have the formula complete and then we'll only have to create and/or change the label once."

However, since this would make sense we are doing exactly the opposite. So for every product in every country that I'm over (quite a few of which do not share labels with the other countries I'm over), I get to create and/or revise their labels twice in this next year. For the labels that are shared, these are only shared because we just got done combining several of them. So they're still looked at twice - don't you worry that they wouldn't be.

This is in addition to reviewing all of the different formulas to make sure that my countries can take them.

Oh did I mention that we're moving products from Australia to a local manufacturer but these products still have to meet AU guidelines in order to be sold there and they have to be re-registered and verified that they can get through customs without any import permit issues?

Oh yeah. We're still creating new products as well. And not easy ones to get into our countries. Difficult ones that require a lot of legal research and follow up.

This is all IN ADDITION to my normal duties and the normal problem solving that I have to do.

So my post picture is exactly how I feel every time I get an email or someone shows up at my cube.

I know what you are all thinking. No really I do. You're thinking:

"WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Suck it up white girl."

I agree.

Grace Kelly part 2

Ok. Every once in awhile a song comes along that becomes the equivalent of musical crack for me. Grace Kelly by Mika is one of them.

I love the reference to "Freddie" since the song itself is so reminiscent of Queen.
I love his high pitched voice during the chorus.
I love the lyrics.

I just love this song.

It reminds me of the first time I ever partook of Lindor chocolate in Switzerland. I realized right there and then that I needed to eat so much of it as to make myself sick so that I couldn't be bound by its tempting deliciousness. This song makes me want to listen to only it for the rest of my life. Fortunately, listening to this song over and over will help me lose weight instead of gaining it.

And by the way, Joel, Lollipop has grown on me as well. I really like that song a lot too (although not in the same "I've gotta to listen to it until I die" sort of way that is my fate with Grace Kelly.)

Please. Someone save me from myself!

Grace Kelly

This is my favorite song of the moment:

Lollipop

Mika - Lollipop lyrics