A little magic from a Yo-Yo Ma favorite of mine from his first Silk Road album.   For a little more magic, try this clip from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the fight scene in the bamboo with some Yo-Yo Ma playing in the background. 

It has been a long couple of weeks, and I need a break this morning.  Not just a break from the news, but an all out break.  Which means I’ll likely spend my day playing with The Peanut and Mr. ReddHedd, watching some movies or reading a great travel or fiction book and just escaping everything for a little while.  Or maybe we’ll have a marathon Mr. Potatohead session.  Who knows — but definitely something fun.

Sometimes, you need to just get away.

And if I’m feeling that way at the end of the week, odds are several of you are feeling it, too.  Seems like every time we turn around another scandal or five has popped up out of the weeds.  And I, for one, need a little downtime from it.  So, I’m looking for some good movie recommendations for my netflix queue.  Seen anything amazing lately?  A good foreign film or maybe some great, scene-chewing science fiction?  (We just bought the sequel to the SciFi channel Dune series because we hadn’t seen it yet.  Will let you know if it lives up to the first one in terms of effects and dialogue.)  Or some funny, quirky, yet light romantic comedy that has had you quoting goofy lines with your friends?

How about books?  I whizzed through the latest Harry Potter in a day and a half (with a high school reunion, a blog, and a four year old…so yes, I was a bit keen to know the ending), and now I’m trying to figure out what to pick up next from the to read pile.  Any recommendations?

How about cooking — what have you been nourishing yourself with lately?  We’ve been eating lots of fresh veggies, since it is the season here with the market fresh bins bursting out with flavor ripe off the vine.  Any new salad or side dish or soup?  A good all-purpose bruschetta?  A new favorite cookbook that you can’t believe you ever cooked without?

What’s new on your mp3 player?

Let’s just kick back and practice a little weekend escape this morning.  Coffee’s fresh, and the birdfeeder is full.  So pull up a chair…

PS — One more bonus YouTube find this morning.  Igor Stravinsky directing his own Lullaby and Final Hymn from the Firebird Suite in London.  You have to love watching a composer conduct his own work, don’t you?  And Bob Geiger has the Saturday toons up and running…