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žena:\zhay'na\ means woman in czech moon:\moon\ honors the power, cycles and light reflected throughout our lives |
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crabbiness-b-gone |
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small pillar (right) - 2"x3", burns up to 30 hours
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About This Candle I have met very few people who haven't laughed over, and needed, this candle. Most especially me. :) Scented with a soothing blend of rain and peppermint, this bestselling candle features the classic quote by Cher from the movie Moonstruck. —Carla Blazek, creator, zena moon |
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Customer Feedback
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Our Recommended Books, Music & Movies to Banish Crabbiness zena moon sells books, CDs and DVDs in association with Amazon.com. To order, click on the item's title or image, then add it to your Amazon shopping cart. Orders are then filled and shipped by Amazon. Send us your recommendations for this page--we may post them here.
Last updated 3/24/2005
1. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
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From Amazon.com: Whether by nature or by nurture, Ma and Pa Sedaris certainly knew something about raising funny kids. Amy Sedaris has built a cult following for her Comedy Central character Jerri Blank, and David, the more famous of the two siblings, continues to spin his personal history into comedic gold. A good chunk of the material in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim debuted in other media outlets, such as The New Yorker, but Sedaris's brilliantly written essays deserve repeat reads.
Based on the author's descriptions, nearly every member of his family is funny, although some (like sister Tiffany, perhaps) in a tragic way. In "The Change in Me," Sedaris remembers that his mother was good at imitating people when it helped drive home her point. High-voiced, lovably plain-spoken brother Paul (aka The Rooster, Silly P) has long been a favorite character for Sedaris readers, though Paul's story takes on a serious note when his wife has a difficult pregnancy. The author doesn't shy away from embarrassing moments in his own life, either, including a childhood poker game that strays into strange, psychological territory. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim provides more evidence that he is a great humorist, memoirist, and raconteur, and readers are lucky to have the opportunity to know him (and his clan) so well. His funny family feels like our own. Perhaps they are luckier still not to know him personally.
2. Jenny and the Jaws of Life: Short Stories
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From Amazon.com: First published in 1987, this debut collection of morbidly funny stories has been given a well-deserved second life. Willett is a marvelous philosopher and humanist, even when writing about subjects that beg for a knee-jerk reaction. In "Resume," a run-of-the-mill man gives God a quick rundown of his life. He cheated on his wife once, but notes that he "cried once on someone else's account" while watching a televised unfolding of American POWs returning to Washington and asks God to consider granting immortality in return for nothing, just as "a fresh approach." "Under the Bed" is narrated by a woman who was beaten and raped in her own home. She says the rapist "measurably improved the quality of my life," because she no longer lives in fear of the unknown. In "Mr. Lazenbee," a sixth grader manipulates her school's new campaign to teach children about "touches that feel good" and "touches that feel funny" by pointing fingers at an easy neighborhood target. Willett is alive to the absurd in American culture and the tragicomic struggle for dignity that we often lose. "My mother is dying. My husband's mistress has myasthenia gravis. My younger daughter just gave all of her trust money to the Church of the Famous Maker.... I can't sleep, and I'm not so much depressed as humiliated, both by slapstick catastrophe and by the minute tragedy of my wasted talents," laments Willett's funniest subject, an advice columnist who has an existential crisis in epistolary form. Though some of Willett's observations are predictable, the best of these stories still seem ahead of their time.
3. Eat Mangoes Naked : Finding Pleasure Everywhere and Dancing With the Pits
From Amazon.com: With her distinctive mix of brightly colored jacket art and handwritten text, SARK offers another fanciful yet thoughtful guide to life. Heavier on the whimsy than her last book, Transformation Soup, which focused on healing, this one exudes her characteristic outlook on life's continuous difficulty and people's "splendid imperfections." Retaining a light, positive and humorous tone, even when she discusses death, SARK advocates finding pleasure in every situation, while admitting that, as for many people, "the struggle still feels more comfortable to me than the pleasure." In the spirit of teaching what she most needs to learn, she reminds readers that "our spirits are in need of pleasure, like our bodies need vitamins, or oxygen, or water." Based on this ethic of joy, SARK demonstrates what might be gained from painful experiences, other people, mistakes, change, nature, ordinary things around the house and imaginary or vicarious adventures. She uses anecdotes from her own and others' lives to illustrate how "pleasure responds to invitation," showing up when and where we may least expect it, if we are open to receiving it. As always, SARK's simple artwork and scribbled text make readers feel like they've received a secret note from their best friend in the middle of a tedious class.
1. Musicology Original Release Date: 2004
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From Amazon.com: After a decade and a half of only making records that tickled his own eccentric fancy, Prince has returned with a rather high-minded agenda to educate listeners in the science of music--or at least take them back to school--make that old school, bragging on the title track that "We got a Ph.D. in advanced body movin'." But his braggadocio is not without merit. The Purple One has reconnected with that deep vein of funk after experimenting with his splendid and messy excesses since the cusp of the nineties, and turned out his best album since 1987's Sign 'O' the Times. Lean and minimal but with pronounced airtight grooves, the musician once again fuses the spiritual with the carnal, but has turned down the heat quite a bit since becoming a Jehovah's Witness. Instead of a dirty mind, Prince extols the joys of wedded bliss (he married Manuela Testolini on New Year's Eve 2001) on the slow, seductive "Call My Name," displays a sardonic sense of humor when he skewers his old 80s rival Michael Jackson on "Life 'O' The Party" (My voice is getting higher/I ain't never had my nose done), and shows a rather tart and anxious social conscience throughout the disc; most eloquently articulated on the arch and acerbic "Mr. Man" where he not only references the gospel but the U.S. Constitution. "Cinnamon Girl," which borrows its title from Neil Young's infamous 70s anthem comes closest to the inscrutable musician's former high water marks, and shows that Prince well-deservedly is able to reclaim his thorny crown.
Original Release Date: 2000
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From Amazon.com: This first CD by Pepe & The Bottle Blondes is the most wonderfully eclectic mix of Latin, swing and show tunes I've heard in a long time. Every cut is a delight and eminently danceable. Pepe's voice is amazingly rich -- seemingly able to handle everything from deep baratones to high C's; and he's backed up expertly by the three Bottle Blondes. In addition, he's managed to put together an incredible mix of masterful musicians from percussion to horns to flutes to classical guitar. The compositions are tight and well-conceived. Highly recommended!
3. Cosmic Thing Original Release Date: 1989
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From Amazon.com: Nirvana made a lot of things irrelevant when Nevermind was released in 1991. Among the most unfortunate casualties caught inside the blast radius were the B-52's. Just two years prior, they had released their very first mainstream breakthrough album, Cosmic Thing. This album was featherweight, sun-kissed, playfully pansexual and, most importantly, danceable. Tracks like "Love Shack" and "Roam" reminded us there could be fun without responsibility. Alternately kitschy and lazy (I still insist that "Deadbeat Club" was a slacker anthem long before Beck's "Loser") Cosmic Thing took the B-52's signature Trekkie-camp sensibility and slowed it down just enough to click on MTV and portable radios wonderfully. And let's be honest, anyway: would you rather road-trip to Kurt's sad refrain of "Well, whatever, nevermind" or Fred Schneider belting out, "The whole shack shimmies!!" at the top of his lungs?
(1998) ~ DVD
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From Amazon.com: After the tight plotting and quirky intensity of Fargo, this casually amusing follow-up from the prolifically inventive Coen (Ethan and Joel) brothers seems like a bit of a lark, and the result was a box-office disappointment. The good news is, The Big Lebowski is every bit a Coen movie, and its lazy plot is part of its laidback charm. After all, how many movies can claim as their hero a pot-bellied, pot-smoking loser named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who spends most of his time bowling and getting stoned? And where else could you find a hairnetted Latino bowler named Jesus (John Turturro) who sports dazzling purple footgear, or an erotic artist (Julianne Moore) whose creativity consists of covering her naked body in paint, flying through the air in a leather harness, and splatting herself against a giant canvas? Who else but the Coens would think of showing you a camera view from inside the holes of a bowling ball, or an elaborate Busby Berkely-styled musical dream sequence involving a Viking goddess and giant bowling pins? The plot--which finds Lebowski involved in a kidnapping scheme after he's mistaken for a rich guy with the same name--is almost beside the point. What counts here is a steady cascade of hilarious dialogue, great work from Coen regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, and the kind of cinematic ingenuity that puts the Coens in a class all their own. Be sure to watch with snacks in hand, because The Big Lebowski might give you a giddy case of the munchies.
(1987) ~ DVD
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From Amazon.com: A corrosively funny, semiautobiographical account by writer-director Bruce Robinson (How to Get Ahead in Advertising) about a couple of destitute roommates, young actors living in drunken squalor in 1969, the twilight days of swingin' London. Withnail (the astounding Richard E. Grant in a definitive performance) is a kind of depraved, modern-day Oscar Wilde, but without the money or the manners. The "I" of the title is the younger and more impressionable Marwood (Paul McGann), who stands somewhat in awe of his scandalous, demented, hysterical pal. While on a miserable holiday in the bitterly cold and damp countryside, they stay with wealthy, corpulent "Uncle Monty" (Richard Griffiths), who takes quite a liking to young Marwood, much to his consternation. Though not well known in the United States, Withnail and I has a major cult following in England. It's uproariously funny in a peculiarly British way, and the acting is absolutely scintillating. (Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert said Griffiths's was the best performance by an actor in a British film since Denholm Elliott in A Room with a View.) This one's a real treat for the caustic at heart.
(1997) ~ DVD
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From Amazon.com: Hit man Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack) is in an awkward situation. Several of them, actually. He's attending his high school reunion on an assignment; he's got a rival hit man (Dan Aykroyd) on his tail; and he's going to have to explain to his old girlfriend (Minnie Driver) why he stood her up on prom night. This amiable black comedy, co-written by Cusack and directed by Jonathan Demme protégé George Armitage (Miami Blues), has the feel of Demme's Something Wild and Married to the Mob--which is to say its humor is dark and brightly colored at the same time. Cusack and Driver are utterly charming--as is the leading man's sister, Joan, who plays his secretary. (Ms. Cusack received an Oscar nomination for her next role, in In & Out.) Alan Arkin is also very funny as Martin's psychiatrist. | |||||||||
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