This post is a series of posts written for my sister Natalie and my brother Michael, who are currently on multi-month missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), and for anyone else away from regular news sources. This is a quick snap-shot of current events and culture to give them an idea of all the excitement that has gone on while they are out and about.
If there are any events I’ve missed or should add, please make a note in the comments. Your help is greatly appreciated
News
Malaysia Flight 370 disappears over the ocean without a trace. While many theories and speculation have been made, there are no clear answers yet. The search continues.
Russia seeks to take over Crimea, a Ukrainian province, while Ukraine remains in political upheaval following the ouster of the president. Crimea voted to annex itself from Ukraine with a 96% vote, which many other nations doubt is legitimate. The European Union and the US are not pleased and place sanctions on Russia and several of its prominent citizens.
Senator Diane Feinstein takes the CIA to task for snooping in Senate computers while Senate staff are compiling a report on the use of torture within the CIA.
Movies
Top 7 Movies for March
- Noah
- Divergent
- Muppets Most Wanted
- Mr. Peabody & Sherman
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- 300: Rise Of An Empire
- Non-Stop (Another Liam Neeson Action Movie)
Movie Natalie will check out when she gets back: Muppets Most Wanted
Music
Top Ten Singles
- Happy by Pharrell (Last month #1)
- All of Me by John Legend (Last month #4)
- Dark Horse by Katy Perry (Last month #2)
- Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz (Last month #3)
- Let It Go by Idina Menzel
- Drunk In Love by Beyonce featuring Jay Z (Last month #5)
- Pompeii by Bastille (Last month #6)
- Team by Lorde (Last month #7)
- Counting Stars by One Republic (Same)
- The Man by Aloe Blacc (New)
Is anyone else entertained that two of the top ten songs are from children’s animated movies?
And for fun, here’s Vocal Point and Pentatonix’s versions of Happy by Pharrell:
Television
Top 10 Television Shows
| 1 | VOICE-03/17/2014 | NBC | 4.1 | 5170 | |
| 2 | VOICE-TUE-03/18/2014 | NBC | 3.6 | 4568 | |
| 3 | SCANDAL-03/20/2014 | ABC | 2.9 | 3715 | |
| 4 | How I Met Your Mother-03/17/2014 | CBS | 2.9 | 3744 | |
| 5 | BLACKLIST-03/17/2014 | NBC | 2.7 | 3416 | |
| 6 | Dancing with the Stars-03/17/2014 | P | ABC | 2.6 | 3250 |
| 7 | RESURRECTION-03/23/2014 | ABC | 2.5 | 3231 | |
| 8 | SURVIVOR-03/19/2014 | CBS | 2.5 | 3166 | |
| 9 | NCIS-03/18/2014 | CBS | 2.4 | 3102 | |
| 10 | GREY’S ANATOMY-03/20/2014 | ABC | 2.4 | 3087 |
And Other Important News: Our brother Michael left on his mission to Oklahoma.
And just for fun, here’s Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan frolicking around New York.
In other exciting news, “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them”, the Harry Potter follow-up, will be a trilogy. Warner Bros must be very excited for their bank accounts.
The L. Palmer Chronicles 
Yeah, an end to stupid cat videos!
April fools! I’m hyperaware this year.
Lol. “Warner Brothers must be very happy for their bank accounts”. Great last line to the blog.
Thoughts:
Only movie seen for this month was Grand Budapest. Pretty good, but not Anderson’s best.
Grey’s Anatomy is still on? People still watch it?
I can’t believe Let it Go is #5! How does that happen? Most downloaded? I’ve never heard it on the radio. What is the other song from an animated movie?
The music list is from Billboard’s Hot 100. Based on Youtube play by my 12 year old sister, Let It Go is super-popular.
The other song from an animated movie is Happy by Pharrell, which was for Despicable Me 2. Both are pretty great.
Happy is from despicable me 2? Lol, I saw that but don’t remember that song. My goodness…its all over the radio though.
It’s only played briefly at the beginning – and maybe at the end.
I just heard “let it go” on the radio!! I had to login and tell you because I had just said I had never heard it on the radio. Wooo!
I can totally get on board with the only 1 selfie a week idea.
It’s a good plan.
I was going to make a joke about cat-and-armadillo videos . . . until I went over to YouTube and found out there are quite a few of them!
The finds on Youtube can be infinite, and infinitely bizarre.
Maybe that could tie into the magic from your serials?
I’m not sure I want to find a tie-in to cat-and-armadillo videos!
More generally, I’ve thought about it. Over the last decade, a lot of writers in the sff field have started listing music to play while reading their works. On occasion, I’ve made allusions to songs or videos in my writing, but generally kept it low-key so as not to run afoul of copyright.
It’s too bad the one-selfie-per-week rule isn’t true. I think it would make the world a better place.
The traditionally selfieless could also set up a kind of “cap and trade” arrangement, selling the rights to his or her selfie to the monied and/or self absorbed.
I think an entire sub-industry could be built around a cap-and-trade selfie arrangement.
I think this is awesome–I mean, yes, let’s reboot and rethink this Internet thing completely. It’s spring and I need to get some fresh air. And my real cat needs some cuddles. 🙂
(Hilarious post!)