I think my grandmothers used to send us Easter cards? I'm not sure. My one grandmother was very religious, and the other really liked sending greeting cards, so that's no guarantee that it's a normal practice.

Yeah, I'll definitely get an Easter card from my one grandmother. She loves to send cards! (Although is pretty much blind now, so I got a birthday card at Valentine's day....)

Oh, yeah, I meant today that RDJ sounds awesome. I like the attitude even more than the costume (which is pretty perfect for the pics I've seen of RDJ at Comic-con and whatnot)

That sounds like a lot, ita. I did so much less than that and have already taken a nap.

Did any of you guys become infatuated with certain music after the age of 30 (a different music than what you already loved by age 25)? I would love to hear your experiences.

I got into chillout music in my early thirties, while I was in Philly. (Bec had been loaned a CD of Christian chillout music at her church, I liked a couple of utnes and decided to go looking for some less denominational stuff.)

I became a MCR fan in 2007-ish, and the only thing different between now and my teen/twenties music fandom is that I have the disposable income so I can go to out-of-state concerts and buy limited edition merch.

Oh yes, you guys turned me onto Danger Days, which I likely would otherwise have passed over. It's now one of my favourite albums, and one of the few that I'll often listen to on my iPhone as a whole album rather than part of the mix. (Others include: Beatles albums, especially from Help to Revolver; and the Gorallaz' Plastic Beach.)

I've been thinking about this a lot - that we tend to set our lifetime musical taste on what we liked/listened to in the teen and early adult years - and how some people never want to hear new music (or are constantly comparing it to what they grew up with) after the age of 35 or so. I've seen so much evidence of this among friends and family and it's led to interesting discussions.

I've been thinking much the same thing of late. (For me that means Eighties music.) Incidentally, the neuroscientist Robert Kapolsky has suggested getting into new kinds of music as a good way to help keep one's mental faculties from deteriorating as we get older.

My grandmother used to send us cards for everything. Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, you name it. She was Hallmark's target market.

Yeah, actually my aunt does it, too. It's nice, really!

Looks like Jeremy Renner isn't so much an arm man, himself: [link]

but at least my hair is short again

Did you get the fade?

and the Gorallaz' Plastic Beach.)

An underrated album!

Here, have a lovely ukelele cover of "Melancholy Hill."

My SIL just reported the following conversation between my eldest nephew and a friend:

Nephew: I can't wait for my facial hair to come in.

Friend: We shouldn't have to wait much longer.

Nephew: well I already have some it is just blonde.

He's 10. My nephew is a pre-tween. How can that wee lump born just the other day be talking about facial hair?

Incidentally, the neuroscientist has suggested getting into new kinds of music as a good way to help keep one's mental faculties from deteriorating as we get older.

Excellent.

In the last decade I've discovered all sorts of cool music from iTunes, eMusic, music blogs, friends etc.

Did you know music can be addictive? In that it triggers some of the same pleasure centers as some drugs do (I can't remember the specifics). For me personally, I think new (to me) music is addictive. I usually have some album or band I'm obsessing about that brings me a lot of pleasure to listen to, but eventually that pleasure will start to wear off and I need to find more new music for my fix. Did I mention I have about 22,000 songs in iTunes?

eta: some of my current obsessions:

• Tame Impala
• Django Django
• Bat for Lashes
• Foxygen

I discovered opera in my 30s, and started buying Maria Callas CDs. I made myself stop when I started tracking down variant versions of Tosca, because my budget can't sustain that kind of obsession--though I much prefer the version of Mario's interrogation from the live performance at La Scala over the cast recording from the Met.