Parenthetically Yours: Favorite Things Friday!

January 16, 2009

Favorite Things Friday!

First of all, let me start out by telling you that it's 6 outside. No, that's not a typo and I am not exaggerating for comedic effect. It's 6 degrees. So, when you live in a house that was built in 1924, well...let's just say that insulation technology has come a L-O-N-G way since the roaring 20s. Our thermostat is reading...well, it's not reading anything. It's totally pegged all the way to the left, resting somewhere below 55. My guess is that it's high-40s, low-50s in our house right now. I'm wearing snow boots, thermal underwear, lined pants, a sweater, a scarf and a winter hat. This is an intro for my favorite thing today: Drew's Brews Coffee. Drew Park roasted coffee for years at Nashville's first artisan coffee house, Bongo Java, and started roasting his own beans in 2007. He's slowly built a following around his own hand-made recipes, roasted daily in small batches. Today I'm having a cup of his Gravel Springs roast. Dark and smoky...sooooo good on this frigid morning. Mmmm...hands warming.

#2 on the list is Fred Armisan and Kristin Wiig. The time I saw Fred Armisan on SNL several years ago, his humor and delivery was so subtle that I thought, "This guy is either an idiot or a genius." Turns out, it's the latter. He can be Adam Sandler ridiculous or Andy Kaufman awkward--either one cracks me up. Kristin Wiig is the funniest girl on Saturday Night Live since Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Her characters and accents are uncanny and she's not at all afraid to look ugly for a laugh...and that makes me laugh. Suffer though the ads for a couple of my favorite sketches featuring these two.

Finally...this photo by my friend Jeremy Cowart. It's an older photo of his, but one of his most enduring. Go to his website and freak out. For this one, from his book Hope in the Dark, I'll let the picture speak it's thousand words.