"The smell of cakes and pies is absolutely everywhere..."

No updates in a while because I haven't had anything to say, really.  Nothing I can put up into the internet ether, anyway.  I recently told a friend that we needed new words to describe our feelings, since "frustrated" and "over it" weren't cutting it anymore.  Like we should make up some sort of code so we could actually get the angry feelings effectively off our chests.  Unfortunately, I can't.  So... slartibartfast.

That being said, I would like to wish everyone who might see this Happy Holidays!  I hope you have a great, relaxing, fun winter time.  I'd like to leave you with a little number from one of my favorite holiday movies.  I hope you all feel just like The Pumpkin King this year :)

Who's the big winner?

Jeskuh's the big winner!

Lately, I find myself to be something of a super duper contest enter-er.  (Enter-er is a word... right?)  I have won a random amount of stuff, including but not limited to a Charles David shoe bag, an audio version of a Sherlock Holmes novel, a Tinkerbell DVD, and a JMU homecoming shirt.  I also tend to give most of these away, because while I am glad to win them, others will enjoy them more (or the shirt is too big for me!).  I enter to win lots and LOTS of books from all the YA book blogs I follow, but I hadn't been successful.

UNTIL... I found out an old friend from HS runs a YA blog.  And she was having a super fun giveaway for the book Nevermore by Kelly Creagh.  I knew nothing about it, but it sounded pretty fun, I'm always looking for new things to read, and the giveaway included an Edgar Allan Poe "action" figure.  Being a Richmond girl at heart, a little Poe always reminds me of home.  And also opiates.

Anyway,  I put my name in the proverbial hat, thinking nothing would come of it.  But, I think we all know how this story ends.

Yeah, I totally won.

Which, as you can tell by the cheesy grin on my face, is so awesome.

(Also, this is the 4th of a 5 pic photo shoot Hubs did using the iPhone to capture the moment.  In the others, I look like the rejected dwarves CrazyEyes, Unprepared, Hungry, and Blurry.)

The entire prize pack seen to the left includes the aforementioned autographed Nevermore (with a super eyeliner-y wearing dude that looks kind of like Peter Petrelli), the Poe figure, some purple pens (which makes sense once you start reading the book), a black feather for Raven-y purposes or poking your husband in the face, and some autographed bookmarks.

In general, I am way pleased.  I feel like I never win, but odds are, eventually, it's your turn to win.  Fun fact is that I chided Friend to go ahead and send me the prize anyway, so it's extra hilarious that I won.  Hubs cannot even look at the book without laughing, because he's a terrible person like that and because he's a historical purist, so he takes issue with some of the Poe tales mentioned in this novel.  However, I am about 10 chapters in, and I'm a big fan.  It's got good mystery surrounding it, the characters are believable, and it's entertaining.  All I can ask for.

I'd like to thank Susan and Wastepaper Prose for having the contest, for pretending to be shocked when I won, and for finding me on Twitter so I could win.  Yay!

Busy busy JBS!

Happy December!  I can't believe how fast this year is going.  Blah blah blah!  I have had so many ideas lately of blog topics, but they all tend to get lost in my brain at some point before I get to a computer, and then when I get home, it's all "ooh, Bejeweled Blitz!" or "ooh, knitting!" or "ooh, Navy Seals!" and it's a fail.  Therefore, I haven't updated in a while.  So, here's what I've been up to:
*went to see Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the more and more I think about it.  We went to see it at midnight here in town, and the place was just crawling with college students.  Almost everyone was dressed in costume, either as a Hogwarts student, a Death Eater, or... a house elf.  It was pretty bizarre.  Saw our friend's name in the credits for his visual effects work, which was awesome.  Is it July yet??
*went to in-laws for Thanksgiving, which was super fun.  The actual T-Day was delicious and relaxing, up until the dog decided to take a little neighborhood excursion all by her lonesome at dusk.  Not so good when you're a BLACK LAB, mutt.  She was found quickly and successfully, only to start being barfy a few hours later.  Dog decided to eat... something unknown on her trip... it was gross.  On Friday, Hubs, Hubs' BFF, SIL, and I stayed up not so late (though it felt REALLY late) playing King's Court and opening champagne with knives (note: everything about this video cracks me up bc this is EXACTLY what we did) and (they were) drinking 4Loko.  The next morning, Hubs' BFF stated that no 4Loko would ever pass his lips again.  That's probably a good plan.
*Wednesday, Hubs and I made the trek to Richmond to see Dashboard Confessional (my choice!).  10 years ago, he released his first album, The Swiss Army Romance.  He played the entire thing, just him and his guitar like the good old days.  Then, he played a few other gems, and personally, I loved it.  Singing along with Chris and everyone else in the crowd made me feel 19 all over again.  Love.

Now, just looking forward to the holidays.  Possibly time to relax.  Possibly time to run around with arms waving.  Possibly going to stand arms akimbo, left foot forward.

"I asked her her name, she said blah-blah-blah"

If you have never screamed this song at the top of your lungs on a late nght of drinking with your buddies, I challenge you to do that this weekend.  It's so much fun.  I love how Jimmy Fallon is carving out a niche for himself as SUPER DUPER RANDOM.

"No regrets, just love."

This will be my earworm until 2011.  I love Darren Criss and his super cute eyebrows.  Though... Blaine?  Really?  No.  Not really.

Twitter Rockstar

I have a plan to write an entire entry about my recent trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I need The Hubs to post his pics from the trip before I can do that.  I took all my pics on an iPhone, and he's got a nice Canon SLR so... he wins.  Be on the lookout.

Lately, Twitter has been really showing me why I like it.  Granted, I understand why others aren't really into it (like... why do I care what you eat for lunch and how often you use the bathroom?), but seriously, I think it's super fun.  Below are three instances of why.

*On vacation, a meme started called #moviesinmypants.  Basically, much like the Fortune Cookie Game, you take a movie title, and you add "In My Pants" to the end of it.  We used this meme to help us pass the time while waiting in lines to ride some of the rides.  It was very lucky that this was so popular and it lasted the entire time we were in Florida.  We all got really into it, and I MAY have lost a few followers by tweeting too much.  But, hey, if they don't think it's funny, we probably shouldn't be friends anyway.  With help from Bro, SIL, and Hubs, we came up with these gems:
-Can't Hardly Wait In My Pants
-The Wrath of Khan In My Pants
-The Undiscovered Country In My Pants
-First Contact In My Pants
-The Search for Spock In My Pants (obviously, we went on a Star Trek tangent for a while)
-The Third Man In My Pants
-Chitty Chitty Bang Bang In My Pants

*Yesterday, it became official that the first Real World alum has made it to Congress.  Congrats to Sean Duffy, the former lumberjack from the Boston season.  One of my favorite recappers from TWoP who goes by the handle of Couch Baron posted something about Rep. Duffy, and it reminded me of the Boston intro where Sean very hilariously (to me) yelled, "MonTAAAna!" to his castmate with that name.  So, I asked him jokingly how easy it would be to find that sound byte.  Well, it got found (albeit in a roundabout way but still FOUND at around 1:52).  This started a wave of RW nostalgia that brought me to Montana & Vaj's break up video, which immediately made me feel 16 again.  In a good way.

*AND, finally, speaking of feeling 16 again, there's a new hashtag making the rounds: #tweetyour16yearoldself.  I've seen some great ones (especially the one for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) and so I threw out my own: "you should really see him now.  he's not worth it."  I like it- it's short, to the point, and it's very meaningful and hilarious to me.  AND, it got retweeted by a total stranger, which I think is awesome.  Why?  Because something that should only matter to me means something to someone else.  Even when you're alone, you're not alone.

And... isn't that the whole point of Twitter?

"Anything can happen on Halloween..."

I am so dang excited to leave tomorrow to go on our mini-vacay to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Yes, we are technically going to Universal Studios Orlando, but eh.  For me, it's all about Hogsmeade, baby.  We're kicking it off by seeing Muse tonight, which will be epic.

So, to celebrate the awesomeness that will be the next week of my life (and the last week of my 28th year) and to commemorate the Rocky Horror Glee Show from last night, please enjoy this video of Tim Curry being awesomer than you.  And me.  And everyone.

"I know the risk, but I have to know her."

When I first about The Vampire Diaries show on the CW, I was not really excited.  It had the look of another ridiculous vampire thing (which I love, but didn't know how CW would handle that), the lead girl only had Degrassi to her resume (not very promising as far as quality of acting goes, though good for a marathon of cheese on a rainy day), and the man vamp guy portrayed one of my least favorite characters in the first season of The O.C.  However, I watched the first few episodes, and I was really, really pleased.

Then I "became" a huge snob, and I decided to let go of it due to the fact that it's not broadcast in HD in our area.  I know, I know, my wallet's too small for my fifties and my diamond shoes fit too tight, but still.  The visual of the show is so dang dark, it's hard to watch in standard def.

I have been literally devouring the first season over the past few days, and I'm almost caught up to current 2nd season shenenigans.  There's no way for me to watch this show live, since my TV Dance Card is already full at 8 pm on Thursday, but me + TVD + the interwebs = best math ever.  Either way, I think the show is great.  It's just the right amount of cheesy teenage goodness without being irritating, and it's actually mostly well-written and well-acted, even for the reservations I already mentioned.  I do think that all these modern-day romantic vampire leads really owe everything to Joss, though.  Angel was around long before Stefan and Edward, both paper- and plot-wise.  I'm also glad I can read Cindy's TWoP recaps.  She used to do HIMYM and Lost recaps, and so I missed her snark in my life.

However, in my binge, I had what I think is a super idea.  A quick Google search shows me I'm not the first person to think of this concept, BUT I don't see it on that list, so I'm going with original.  It's The Vampire Diaries Drinking Game.  The rules are simple: drink whenever someone mentions "145 years" or "1864," and you will be tanked in NO time.  Bonus drink if a Salvatore is shirtless ;)

National Coming Out Day

I have been watching countless "It Gets Better" videos for weeks now, but none has given me so much hope as this one from the Youth Pride Chorus.  Maybe it's the use of music that's getting to me, but it just fills my heart with love. 

Just know that it does get better, whether you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or even straight.  I have faith that we can live in a world that doesn't judge people for being WHO THEY ARE.  So... don't be afraid to be yourself.  There's no other you.

Dear Paramore, I love Brand New Eyes all over again.

If God's the game that you're playing
Well, we must get more acquainted
Because it has to be so lonely
To be the only one who's holy

It's just my humble opinion
But it's one that I believe in
You don't deserve a point of view
If the only thing you see is you

"Just might feel like singing autumn song..."

After last night's Glee hilariously titled "Grilled Cheesus," I wanted to write about how I loved their take on religion, on how interesting it was to see many characters openly claim that they are atheists.  However, I don't want to get into any kind of deep, philosophical conversation about that right now.  Plus, I've heard somewhere before that you should never talk about religion or politics... but I think that's only when drunk.  Eh, whatever, it still works.

Instead, I want to discuss something that's come to my attention in the past week or so.  Here in VA, the temperatures have cooled tremendously, taking us from balmy humid monster temps one week, to wearing jackets, scarves, and long sleeves the next.  My FB and Twitters blew up with people complaining about the cold, the dreariness, the sad fall taking away the happy shiny summer.

Frankly, I couldn't be more excited.

I am not a summer lover.  In fact, I kind of hate it.  I hate sweating, I don't tan (thanks, Polish genes!), I'm super pale from the non-tanning, I don't like the beach, I hate wearing bathing suits, etc. etc.  Granted, I can vacation at the beach, especially if family/friends are going, but it's not something I would choose for myself.

However, I love the fall.  I love the smells, the food, the activities, the reemergence of weather and seasons, the leaves changing to beautiful bright shades, the boot wearing, the sweaters, the everything.  A vacation I would choose for myself would be European, culture-filled romps of museums and food and sight-seeing, with no summery heat to ruin the walk, especially if it fell around my November b'day.  There would be nary a bathing suit in sight.
So I read all these complainer messages about the Departure of The Hotness, and all I can think is, Good Riddance!  Bring on the pumpkin lattes!  Bring on the changing leaves!  Bring on the football, and the cider, and the arm warmers, and the knitting!  Bring it on, Autumn!

Maybe that's why I enjoyed that year in Rhode Island so much...

Best Week Ever (Is Coming Soon).

I'm fairly certain that the week of October 24th will be my best week ever of 2010.  Why is this?  Let me explain.
*Oct 24- Birthday of one of my best friends.  We will certainly celebrate in style, of that I am sure.  Even if "in style" means eating a basket full of fried pickles.  That's style to me.
*Oct 26- Glee's Rocky Horror themed episode.  Granted, this may anger a lot of people.  I'm not one of them.  I love Glee, I love Rocky Horror, I love this night.  I'm really looking forward to "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)," which is my fave RHPS song.  I don't care who sings it.  Yay.
*Oct 27- MUSE!  Yay!  Also, who's opening for Muse?  METRIC.  SUPER YAY.
*Oct 28- We leave for Florida to spend a long weekend at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  True, there are other parks at Universal.  I've seen all those before.  I'm eating breakfast at Three Broomsticks.  That immediately means I'm cooler than you.

Seriously... the days can't go by fast enough!

Not on Rex Manning Day!

According to an invitation I received on Facebook (which you KNOW makes it official), today is Rex Manning Day, aka the day that the cinematic gem "Empire Records" was released (straight... to... video) 15  years ago.  Therefore, I have been quoting this movie all day.  It's always been one of my favorites, for a really, REALLY long time, and it's one of those movies I could watch whenever it's on, over and over.  So, in honor of nostalgia, here you go!  Two of my most favorite parts of the film.

"All this breathing in, never breathing out..."

While looking around on FB earlier, I discovered a little gem.  The title of it is "15 Albums That Changed My Life."  It's not supposed to be what you think are the best albums you've ever heard; it's what you think are the 15 most important albums to your life.  Apparently, I'm supposed to post this on FB as a note and tag 15 of my friends.  Instead, I thought I'd just post it here.  I wanted to add little blurbs about why they were so important to my life, but it seems more interesting to me to just list them and let you think/judge me as you want (even though I've linked to videos of my favorite tracks from the albums or songs that I think are the most powerful).  You can reciprocate if you feel so inclined, because I always find these kinds of things to be a fun exercise in learning more about people.

And now I present, in no particular order:

1. Ben Folds Five- Whatever and Ever Amen
2. Dave Matthews Band- Under the Table and Dreaming
3. The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4. Save Ferris- Modified
5. Radiohead- OK Computer
6. Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American
7. Florence + the Machine- Lungs
8. Girl Talk- Feed the Animals (this video is Greg talking about how he makes a mashup, LOVE it)
9. Rilo Kiley- More Adventurous
10. Motion City Soundtrack- Even If It Kills Me
11. Tori Amos- Under the Pink
12. Weezer- Blue Album
13. Green Day- Dookie (this video changed my taste in music in 3 short minutes.)
14. The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow
15. Smashing Pumpkins- Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness

(can you tell I'm a child of the 90's??)
(UPDATE: I edited this on December 31, 2013 so all the links would work.  You're welcome.)

So... this happened yesterday.

Awesome.  I love my Dukes.
(photo courtesy of Johanna F. Klein)

May we have an Awesome Blossom, please? Extra Awesome?

In honor of Labor Day, I'm having a marathon of The Office.  You know... because they labor in their Scranton office... and also, Pam had that baby that one time...  TBS had the idea, and I missed the Office Olympics episode to meet my passing-through parents for lunch.  Thus, today is being sponsored by the second season of The Office.  Right now, Agent Michael Scarn is selling some paper to county employee Tim Meadows.

Also, I have recently purchased a new Wii "game" called Gold's Gym Dance Workout.  It's kicking my lilly-white ASS.  I think it's probably close to a Zumba light, but in general, I'm a fan.  I swear I've already lost a pound, and it's been three days.  I'm seriously trying to keep up with this and not bail like I usually do, but when I see results, it makes me WANT to keep it up.  Plus, it's kind of fun :)  It makes me want to look into ACTUAL Zumba.  I think I need to be a little more "fit" though.

HEE. Dwigt.

"Everybody cut, everybody cut..."

Thank you, EW Popwatch, for giving me the video I will be watching all day.  Dancing?  Movies?  Love.  Or maybe it's just all those scenes of Gregory Hines and Mikhal Baryshnikov.  Or Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly in their Moses Supposes scene.  Or Dirty Dancing.  Or the gratuitous use of Kenny Loggins music.  Or THE TIME WARP.

Nah, it's White Nights.

60-Second Emmys.

That's what the Hubs said last nite while giggling and celebrating the One Minute of Emmys, and I'm pretty sure that officially makes him nerdier than me once again, so... hooray for that action.  Also, I didn't post my Emmy predictions because I had a busy weekend, but I sure am glad I forgot.  I picked TERRIBLY this year, but I'm kind of glad about that.  My terrible picks means that LOTS and LOTS of first time winners took home prizes, and while they weren't the people I wanted, it's still pretty sweet to see.  Also, I might have to start watching Modern Family... and I don't know how to feel about that yet.  More on that later.

However, since this is running through my brain this morning, and since it cracked me up so bad last night, please enjoy this FABULOUS intro from last night.  Loves.

Acceptance is the first step.

As I sit here, anxiously checking the tracking on my order from Amazon that I have been waiting on for what feels like a GAZILLION YEARS, a certain thought comes to me.  Something I've been trying to deny for a long time, but I feel that I can't anymore.

I've become a bigger geek than my husband.

See, it all started almost exactly 10 years ago, when I met a redheaded tuba player wearing a Ben Folds Five shirt, and I thought, "THAT BOY will be my friend."  I didn't TELL that boy that he would be my friend; I just assumed he knew.  Either way, those mind beams worked, and he became my best male confidant and my favorite concert buddy.  I found out that he had a lifelong attachment to Peanuts comics, a sincere love for almost all things Batman (except don't ask him about Joel Schmacher...), and a constant need to ALWAYS leave the TV on either Discovery or History Channel.  He was in a comedy troupe in college that actually ended up getting kinda famous for some REALLY HILARIOUS stuff (not that I have any reason to promote that or anything), and he loves playing some video games, especially ones like Halo or Batman or FIFA Soccer.  He actually watches and enjoys soccer.

Me, I've always know that I'm a nerd.  It's not something I really try to hide.  I mean, I met my nerdy husband in college marching band, for Sousa's sake.  However, I've always taken a little comfort in the fact that, though I love him dearly and he is truly my very best friend in the world, my husband is nerdier than me.

Except, I'm the one who loves Harry Potter.  Which led me to Twilight.  And then cue Buffy.  Which led to Angel.  Which led to Buffy Season 8.  Which led to Firefly.  Which led to Serenity.  Which led to me wanting to get the Firefly comics, but he says no.  Which led to reading more YA books, involving plots of the paranormal or fantasy or sci-fi persuasion (though, there were some other connections to this that I didn't mention).  Then, I notice that I'm the one making him look at Comic-Con pictures, telling him what cosplay and steampunk mean.

Finally, what has pretty much decided that I have lost my long battle against Dorkiest Person In The House, I became the initiator for us seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (he didn't mind if we saw it, but he preferred Inception).  Of course, I freakin' loved like every dang second of it.  So I went out and got the soundtrack.  And beg my friend to go with me to see it a second time.  After she stopped hysterically laughing, of course, I go onto Amazon and order the entire Scott Pilgrim graphic novel set.  Which is what I've been tracking.  (And, to those who have seen the movie, I understand the irony.  Or coincidence.  Whatever, I get it.) 

My name is Jessica, and I'm a huge, huge geek.

It's not called gym-nice-tics.

I just finished watching Stick It, and, while it is definitely NO Bring It On, I did laugh at one part.  Please enjoy this clip while I think of funny things to blog about.

"So I hit him in the tray with my face."

So, there's about two hours until Psych starts, and I didn't know what to do to spend my time until then.  Twiddling my thumbs was out, as that is hugely boring, and I have been reading all of the Princess Diaries books pretty crazily lately, but the storm and my general tiredness was keeping me from wanting to read.  It's times like this when I turn on the TV and hope for a Law & Order SVU marathon (especially if it's the one with the homeless vampire that cuts off hoo-hoo dillies, because that one is hilarious).

Alas, no L&O, BUT score: America's Sweethearts!

America's Sweethearts is one of those movies that I watch whenever it's on.  I've seen it about a million times over the years, and I never seem to tire of it.  In fact, I still laugh out loud at certain parts.  I'm a super huge John Cusack fan, which is of course how I came upon this film (via my dad, who is a super huge Julia Roberts fan).  I really don't know how this movie didn't do MUCH better at the box office than it did, with its all-star cast.  However, I love it-- I love Cusack, I love CZ-J, I love Julia (especially when she goes on her rant about CZ-J's character during her breakfast), I definitely LOVE Hank Azaria with every second he is on the screen (especially if he says "junket").

So, it got me thinking-- do you have movies like this?  Not guilty pleasure, secret shameful movies that you only watch when no one else is around or with a certain group of people that you know won't make fun of you later (like Bring it On or Center Stage or Mamma Mia!), but a movie that you just LIKE.  It's not Oscar-worthy, it's not going to fix the economy or bring any new ideas into the world, but it just makes you happy.  For me, it's definitely this one.

Seriously, what IS this?

One of my all-time favorite blogs is the amazing and hilarious Cake Wrecks.  So many terrible cakes, so many new things to laugh at.  Mohawked babies riding carrots?  It's been done.  Total and complete misunderstandings of what people ask for?  DONE.  Tom Selleck's chest hair?  Yeah... done.

SO, this week, the creators posted many cakes with... shall we say, random tidbits on them that don't quite make sense.  Jen & John posted this entry to the tune of "What's This?" from one of my all-time favorite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Then, they posted a version of themselves plus another friend singing along to the blog entry.

Then, this happened.  This is your warning: it's like magic.


Happy Saturday, everyone!

Psych-Outs: Dule Hill Warms My Heart

Psych-Outs: "Fresh-to-death and always bringin the funny ... the latest Psych-Outs!"

If you know what is good for you, you will click on that and watch Dule Hill dance his A OFF. It's so great, so so so great. Could seriously watch it all dang day.

My Life Is Average.

Not a lot going on right now.  Got back this weekend from Big Brooklyn Bouncy House Party, and it was a rockin' good time.  I only hurt myself KIND of bad, rather than a lot of bad.  Turns out, inflatable water slides are only slides when water is added.  Without water, they're just inflatable hang out spots that force you to tumble down them at alarming rates until you find out where the flat stones in the yard are located with your shoulder and possibly your legs.  Not that anything like that happened...

Mostly, I'm looking forward to this afternoon.  There will be a farmer's market in the lobby of my office building, which is (sadly) exciting for me.  I can buy some fresh fruits and veggies.  I know it's not really exciting at all, but it is to me.  And this girl.  Though... doesn't seem like it takes a lot for her...

Also, this weekend, it's girls' weekend 2010!  We are... doing the same thing we did last year!  Which is, wine tasting.  VA wines are actually pretty freakin' good (at least around the area I live), so I'm looking forward to it.  We're going to try to go to some we didn't hit last year.  If you'd like to know how I feel about this, click here. 

Heeeeeeeee.

No Sleep Til...

We're heading out to New York today (in just a few hours, actually), and I'm pretty stoked.  It's my sister-in-law's birthday (Hubs's sister, not Brother's Wife, in case you CARE!), and she will be the big and scary 3-0.  Also, for those nerds like me, this weekend is also when the fabled Harry Potter would turn the big 3-0.  Yes, that's right: my sister-in-law and Harry Potter have the same birthday!  Why do I care?  Why am I excited about this?  Have you READ this blog before?  If not, here's a brief overview: I'm a huge, huge dork.  The end.

Back to SIL's birthday. She lives in Brooklyn, and she has made claims that she wants to have a moon bounce at her party. At her place in Brooklyn. In the backyard. Now, I haven't been to her new place yet, but... how is this possible? I don't even know. However, if she's got to pick one, I hope it's this one (pictured left).


Right?  How awesome would that be?  It's like a clown castle that no children should ever play in.  It's terrifying and whimsical at the same time.  Or perhaps just terrifying.  Either way, if you find yourself wandering the city this weekend and see a giant wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, come on down and have a few beers with me :)  I'll be the one hopping in the moon bounce.

"Bunch of skulls, Bunch. Of Skulls..."

Like last year, Hubs and I were able to score some tickets to Virgin Mobile FreeFest.  The tickets are totally free, which rules, and that makes whatever acts you see worth it, even if they suck.  Last year's experience was something to behold, a few of the highlights being:

*Seeing Weezer, even though it was far from our first Weezer experience.  Again, IT WAS FREE.  FREE WEEZER.

*People watching!  All types of people come out to this event, from fans of the music to people who decided free = fun, to drunk frat guys w/o shirts trying to drink a full pitcher of beer each.  The latter is kind of the best, because they are SO EXCITED when you first see them, only to look like sunburned death 4 hours later.

*The Karaoke booth.  Oh, wow.  My favorite duo: two guys "singing" Possum Kingdom by the Toadies.  It's one of my ab fave songs of the 90's, and they... did not really do so well.  Lots of yelling, LOTS of laughter from both the crowd AND the performers.

*Franz Ferdinand.  They were the last band we saw (having no urge to see Blink-182 at all), and it was a lovely way to end such a long day.  They sounded tight and fresh, and it was perfect to stand in the evening breeze after sweating our dancin' butts off to...

*GIRL TALK.  Freakin' amazing in all ways.  No other way to describe it.  We danced and danced and danced until we could barely stand.  EVERYONE was going nutso.  I made "friends" with a girl because I skanked with her to a sample of 1901, our friends Migs & Shani actually got MY HUSBAND to do some dancing, which is near impossible, and it was just awesome.  The title of this entry comes from our craziness during the set, where there were RANDOM IMAGES blasted on the screens on either side of the stage.  Migs and I took to yelling out whatever showed on the screens, including but not limited to "there goes the earth, there goes the moon!" "toilet!" "sunglasses!"  In general, if you EVER get a chance to see Girl Talk, run DO NOT WALK as fast as you can to get there.

This year's FreeFest looks to entertain me almost as much, if for no other reason than to see JIMMY EAT WORLD.

YAY!  They have only been one of my most favorite bands since college, and I have never been able to see them live.  Granted, it probably won't be the greatest venue in which to see them, but I'm not picky right now.

I'm also looking forward to The Temper Trap, Yeasayer, Matt & Kim, Joan Jett (I hear she LOVES rock and roll), and even a little Pavement.  Either way, WTG Richard Branson.

How hot is it?

Apparently, the hottest year ON RECORD.

I'm not even joking.  This is what I heard on the radio this morning.  This not-so-startling-to-me announcement was made after the DJ told me there would be a heat index of somewhere between 105 and 110 tomorrow.  ONE HUNDRED AND TEN DEGREES.  Just in case this is not completely understood, I will be INSIDE tomorrow.  ALL DAY.  I am not even planning on checking the mail (though, I just ordered some super cute stuff from Shana Logic, and I reeeeeally want it to get here already!) or anything.  I will simply be hiding out from the sunshine.

I am not surprised by this knowledge that it is the hottest year ever on record, though.  Lately, I have been thinking back on summers of the past, and I do not remember EVER being this hot and sweaty all the time.  Seriously, it's out of control.  I was started to get worried about myself, like my body was falling apart.  But, no, it's not me.  It's just the world falling apart instead.  What does disturb me is that the above article states that temperatures like this will become the norm as the climate changes.  Well... that sucks.

Al Gore is gonna be impossible to live with after this.

I'm back, yo!

I have returned!  I had a wonderful, awesome, relaxing, hilarious vacation in St. Louis with an old friend.  We go way, way back.  Back to the days when we pretty much created the concept of Frenemies.  After a few epic fights, we discovered that we could pretty much rule the world as friends.  And then we totally did.  At least in our own minds.  Either way, lots of old stories thrown out to laugh at, lots of awesome movies watched, lots of hugs and kisses received from her two little bits, and lots of Sonic slushes drank :)  Only downer was that I didn't get to see THIS cool lady because of logistical crap (stemming from me not having a car), and that was pretty lamesauce.

More specific info to come, especially about the City Museum which is one of the coolest places I have EVAH been, but until then, please enjoy this little bit that makes me smile.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

...if you have an addiction to television.  That's right, it's not just any old Thursday.  It's Emmy Nomination Thursday!  Woooooooo!  Can you dig it?

Alright, I'm not posting my guesses for who will win yet (I'll do that once we get closer to the event on August 29), but I'll give you my quick, knee-jerk reactions to the nomination list.  Here goes.
*GLEE!  Lots of noms for Glee, but the ones that make me happiest are Lea Michele, Jane Lynch [obvi], Mike O'Malley, and Chris Colfer.  Oh oh, Chris Colfer.  Love him in a way that's not even right.  I knew he was getting a nod when this happened.  Holy crap, it's amazing.  He just OWNS it, makes it his own, makes you forget about Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters.  LOVE IT.  I also love the Mike O'Malley nod because I think his role on Glee is one that is so important in times like these.  This man, while obviously uncomfortable with his son's homosexuality, could not love his son any more than he does.  He FIGHTS for Kurt, shows his love as well as says it.  The great American public needs to see that there is nothing wrong with acceptance, even when you don't have understanding.

*I am so OVER Tony Shaloub, it ain't even funny anymore.  Thank Zombie Jesus there's no more Monk so hopefully he can STOP being in this category and taking away perfectly good nominations for people like Joel McHale.  And, while we're on the subject...

*Where's the love for Community???  Nothing?  NOTHING?  Have these people been watching the same show I have?  Did they NOT see the Paintball??  I mean... wow.  Just... speechless with passing anger.  And... it's passing...

*Okay, so.  I'm also excited that, while HIMYM irritated me this year, NPH got another Supporting Actor shot as well as an Outstanding Guest Actor nod for his Bryan Ryan role on Glee.  I listened to him singing "Dream On" in the car this morning, and while I don't think that's particularly Emmy-worthy, he wails on those high notes.  Like, wails.  [Sorry, couldn't resist...]

*CONAN!  Heeeeeeee.  I am really, really, REALLY anti-Leno.  I still refuse to watch it.  I always change the channel when he comes on, and I have since his stupid 10 pm travesty was on before he came back like a little whiny McWhiner.  I won't even watch it if my favorite stars would be on there.  I don't care if the guests are John Cusack and Lauren Graham and Paul Rudd and the musical guests are The Beatles from the 1960's who arrived via DeLorean.  DON'T CARE.  NOT WATCHING.  Conan's team was nominated not just for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, but ALSO in the Outstanding Writing category.  I usually root for the Daily Show to win the Writing category because we met one of the writers a few years back and it's fun to see him on TV, but sorry buddy.  I'm all Team Coco this year.

*I'm also glad that 30 Rock didn't get a million zillion nominations this year.  I know that people find the show to be high-larious, and I myself have been compared to Tina Fey more times than I can shake a stick at [God forbid a woman with straight brown hair wear glasses, but it beats the previous Lisa Loeb reference], but I've never really been entertained by 30 Rock.  I feel like it was made for people like me too, people who watch a lot of TV and see it as art and know its ins and outs and therefore can make fun of it.

That's all I got for now.  When I get to August, you'll get some predictions.  Also, on Saturday, I'll be heading out of town to visit my friend in St. Louis! Woo!  So I might not post next week, or they'll be short.  Yay!

Heeeee!

In honor of the fact that my co-worker just bought this shirt for her 6 month old daughter which cracks me up and now this song is stuck in my head [as it is every time I think about Seth Green], I present you with a little morning 80's rap.


UPDATE: This is my 100th post!  Such a milestone!  And I got Rev Run to share it with me!

"I've chosen my life- now I want to start living it."

I went to see Eclipse on the day it came out, at a theater in town.  This was kind of a gamble, considering that theaters here are not nice.  We do not have any nice stadium-seating, non-sticky-floor places to choose from here.  For that, you gotta drive to Richmond or Frederickburg.  Or possibly Culpeper...  Yet, even in those "nicer" theaters, we've had some issues before where there's been drunk 18-year-olds that snuck in a flask or a Twilight mom who got snippy with me and I almost had to go Wayne Brady on her.  On top of that, Eclipse was my #2 fave of the series after my first read-through, and I didn't want this to be all camped out and silly like Twilight the Movie aka Who Farted?

I shouldn't have worried.

The movie was pretty great, as far as Twilight movies go.  It was entertaining, it was suspenseful, it touched on the important parts of the plot and included some of my favorite parts of the book without messing them up.  In general, as I tweeted out that night, what has two thumbs and loves Eclipse?  This girl.

However, I said it about New Moon, and I'll say it again.  To me, these movies really force the Team Jacob mentality.  Personally, I'm a big fan of Edward Cullen.  I think he's an amazingly interesting character for our generation, and [yeah, this is dumb but meh] I also think he's kinda dreamy.  However, the more I seem to talk to people about this, the more I find that I'm kind of out here alone.  One of the arguments I hear is that Edward is too controlling and Jacob is so much sweeter, and my sister-in-law claims that she dislikes Edward more with each read.  Frankly, I find Jacob to be kind of a jerk.  He's pushy and arrogant (and 17, but still), and he irritates me.

The issue for me is that with each read, I find myself becoming more tired of Bella.  Why is she so helpless?  Why is she always crying and complaining?  Why is she always playing the victim?  Honey, do you SEE what you HAVE?  Good grief, it's annoying.

I've got to wrap this up, but in general, solid B+ to Eclipse the movie.  Better acting, better writing (somewhat...), better movie.  Now it's time to wait for the final installments and the "little teeth-baby."

SERIOUSLY want to get some ARC of Beautiful Darkness.

If you watch this video, I could potentially win some books, one of which would  be Beautiful Darkness.  It doesn't come out until October, and I really wanna read it!  Also, stay tuned later for my Eclipse "review" aka me saying "Squee!  Love it!"

"No."

I quote Ron Donald, caught red-handed with poo shoe.  Starz has decided to cancel Party Down.  You'd think at this point in my life, with all the cancellations I've had to deal with, I'd find a better way to handle this.  Alas, no.  Just like Arrested Development and Pushing Daisies before it, one of my favorite shows is now in the TV ether.

I've been watching all the videos uploaded by Stupid Starz that I can see on YouTube, and while I wish I could post the video of the cast acting out the play from Steve Guttenberg's Birthday, it's not there.  However, in complaining about this tragedy on Twitter, I found out that I'm in good company.  Chuck Klosterman, the hilarious author of one of my faves Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs says, "The fact that Starz just canceled PARTY DOWN makes me want to blow up my TV, followed by the entire state of California."  Dan Harmon, writer and creator of fave show [thankfully STILL ON THE AIR] Community simply says, "BOO."

I agree, funny dudes.  BOO.

Who likes stuff?

Okay, my new favorite thing to do is follow and read fashion blogs and YA book review blogs.  I especially love the fashion ones because I find out where all the good sales are, and these ladies are so cute and so fashionable and it makes me want to dress nicer.  Case in point: reading of these blogs made me buy a super cute pleated skirt from the Gap that is not on their website or I would link to it, and today I am wearing it to work!  White legs and all!  (Also, this skirt is a size 6 and it totally fits me so comfortably that I couldn't pass it up for real.)  Either way, these kinds of blogs have lots of giveaways, so don't be surprised if you occasionally see one of those "Hey, Look at This Contest!" post.

So... hey!  Look at this contest!

Johnny Cash & Michael Jackson, we apologize.

When I heard the news that Johnny Cash died on September 12, 2003 (via a call from my cousin telling me that John Ritter died randomly and also "some guy named Johnny Cash?"), I immediately called my brother, who got me into Cash.  My bro said quietly, "I think I killed him."  After my response of "huuum-na?" he explained to me that the previous day (Sept. 11), he wore a black suit, black shirt, and black tie to work, and one of his students called him The Man In Black.  He admitted he'd never been called that before, which according to him, caused Johnny Cash to die.  It wasn't, you know, the diabetes and years of hard livin' or anything.

Fast forward to June 25, 2009.  I was at work at the Worst Law Firm Ever, and my GBF (who I miss more than life!) peeked over the cube wall and say, "Dude, Farrah Fawcett died!"  We had a moment of sadness, and we pressed on through the day.  After work, he and I were on the way back to my place (to get dinner and drop him off in DC), and we started talking about that Celebrities Die in Threes urban myth.  My theory is that each celebrity that passes has to be more famous than the one that died before, and the third one is the biggest star of them all.  Since Ed McMahon had also died earlier that week, we knew a third was coming, and we knew it had to be bigger than Farrah Fawcett.  Very nonchalantly, I threw into the ether, "It's gonna have to be like Michael Jackson or something!"

Unbeknownst to me, Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital about an hour before.

We walked in the door, and Hubs asked if we heard the news.  Confused as to why Hubs has suddenly taken an interest in Farrah Fawcett, I replied that we had.  Then, we glanced at the TV to find that, officially, MJ had been pronounced dead.  I slapped my forehead and yelled, "Oh crap!  I killed Michael Jackson!"

Maybe the craziness runs in the family.  Maybe we just don't have the proper brain filter during these trying times.  Maybe this is the most ridiculous story I have.  All I know is that, in times of celebrity death crisis, my brother and I still think we have to take the blame.

Spider-man And His Amazing Vuvuzela

My brother is a big fan of Spider-man, ever since before he could read.  In fact, Spider-man pretty much taught him to read.  As children, we would always watch VHS copies of Spider-man and His Amazing Friends, a cartoon about Spidey and his two friends Ice-Man and Firestar.  Even as a small child, I thought he should have had better friends whose powers didn't cancel each other out all the time, but... I wasn't Stan Lee, was I?

I find myself thinking of one particular episode lately, since the World Cup is always, always, always on the TV in my house.  Vuvuzelas = SWARM.

I'm a Slayer; Ask Me How.

I know I've been really Buffy-tastic lately, but I really wanted to post this since the atrocious LOGO list this past weekend.  It started a ground swell of anger for TV bloggers and TV twitter-ers (what a ridiculous word!) after the list made its rounds on the interwebs.  As previously stated, I'm somewhat of  TWoP stalker, and I follow the tweets & blog of one Joe R. who was kind enough to retweet my original call of blasphemy!  He asked that his blog readers send him their own personal top 10.  As I tried to figure that out, I found that I wanted to explain why said 10 were my favorites.  SO, for those of you still reading past "Buffy-tastic," here are my own personal top 10 (plus 3 honorable mentions for personal reasons).

10. Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest

This should be kind of self-explanatory, but this is the beginning, the one where it all started.  It's a pretty great series beginning, and it sucks you in (sadly, no pun intended!).  It effectively introduces the core of characters that we will grow to love over the course of the series, and they are so cute in their youngness!  ESPECIALLY baby Angel, who appears all stalker-y out of the darkness right into Buffy's heart.  Anyone who watches this knows that Angel is the original Edward Cullen.  It also establishes the Big Bad of S1 as The Master, who is one ugly motherShutYourMouth of a vamp, and begins the whole "High School As Hell" analogy that Joss was going for.  Ain't that the truth!

9. The Wish
Cordy tells new friend Anya that she wishes Buffy had  never come to Sunnydale, and unbeknownst to her, Anya sets the plan into motion as she's a demon.  It's a really dark look into what life would have been like had Buffy never come to that Hellmouth.  The entire town's been overtaken by vamps, The Master completed the Harvest [the one Buffy stopped in the very beginning], and now almost all of her friends are on the wrong side of the line.  This is one of my favorites because, right before the curse is reversed, all of the main characters are killed off during an epic battle.  You know that the characters don't feel the impact of the loss during the fight, since they are alternative versions of the characters the audience knows, but the AUDIENCE feels the loss.  Seeing Angel, Willow, and Xander turn to dust is pretty jarring, regardless of the fact that it didn't happen.  Plus, Buffy's face scar is pretty awesome.

8. The Zeppo
This is for fans of the Xander, which I am.  He's awkward, he has hot girl friends that see him permanently in the Friend Zone, he's got no powers to speak of, and he feels useless.  So, he abounds on what should be a B-plot that becomes the A-plot.  Meanwhile, his friends are dealing with the apocalypse that you never even see.  Fave part: Buffy and Angel having ANOTHER deep discussion about their epic love and why he shouldn't risk himself to save them and blah blah blah, and Xander interrupts all awkward and hilarious.  I feel like this is a love letter to people like me, who love TV as an art form and a hobby.

7. Band Candy
2 reasons: seeing Ripper come to life (bonus: hearing Anthony Head's real accent), and the actual title of the episode.  My inner Band Geek heart swells.  That says it all.

6. The Prom (Season 3)
I've already talked about this, so I won't go into it.  However, can't watch the end without tearing up!  Freakin' Jonathan and his Class Protector speech...

5. Graduation Day 1 & 2

Just epic.  The climax of Season 3 ends with a giant amazing fight that involves the entire senior class.  Of course, after the Class Protector thing, they aren't going to argue with Buffy when she tells them to hide stakes, knives, axes, and arrows under their robes.  Mostly, it goes back to that same nostalgia I feel as myself a member of the Class of 1999.  My graduation was soooo boring, especially compared to this.  I wish we could have had awesome weapons under our robes rather than white dresses and Silly String.


4. Hush
Joss is widely know for his witty and pop culture laden dialogue, and this episode was written to specifically show that his talent is quite beyond his wordiness.  The Gentlemen are coming, and they are about as creepy as possible, and they will steal your voices.  Much of the episode is music only, while the Scoobies figure out WTF to do.  Favorite scene, without question, is Giles and his silent slideshow.

3. Once More With Feeling
IT'S A FRIGGIN' MUSICAL.  To boot, it's catchy as hell.  So catchy that I used to listen to a playlist of it on YouTube until I bought the album off Amazon.  The plot is, the Monster of the Week (a demon named Sweet) is summoned, and he causes everyone in Sunnydale to sing their feelings.  It's a good turning point in the series, and it's a particularly bright spot in a bleak, weaker Season 6.  Most everyone has pretty average voices, except Giles who sounds so delicious and pleasant.  If you ever see me singing to myself, it's probably this.

2. Surprise/Innocence

I know I've said it before, but I'm totally Team Angel, and this is why.  It's Buffy's birthday, and she wants to celebrate by hanging with her Vampire with a Soul boyfriend and keeping things low key.  Unfortunately, Spike & Dru disagree, and they set a plot into motion that eventually leads to Angel leaving to keep All Evil from breaking loose.  THAT plan fails, and Buffy and Angel end up back at his place, which leads to some sweet bow-chicka-wow-wow.  HOWever, Angel's soul curse is such that, if he has one moment of pure happiness (i.e. making love to the one woman he's loved in over two hundred years), he loses said soul and becomes an evil and awesome douche.  For the rest of Season 2, Angelus is the Big Bad, and he wears eyeliner and leather pants and talks a LOT about hilarious crap.  It's awesome, awesome stuff with the action AND the sad love story, and it ultimately leads to the really great (at #11, I swear) finale of Season 2 and also Willow's Witchy Ways.  This incident defines their relationship for the entirety of the series, and it's also a personal joke between my husband and I (because our sense of humor peaked at age 13).  I've read this somewhere before, but guys always turn into such jerks afterwards...

1. The Body

There is not enough I can say about this episode.  This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, not just of Buffy but of any TV ever, and it's heart-breaking.  Writing, acting, everything is perfect.  Buffy's mother had been suffering from a brain tumor for the first part of the 5th season, and she had just had a operation and was given a clean bill of health.  Our Slayer had spent the last few years protecting her mother from various demons and monster and creepy crawlies, only to lose her to an aneurysm that she never saw coming.  Every single time I watch it, I cry so so many times, the trigger being when Buffy rushes to her mother's body and screams in her face to get her to react (see the pic from EW.com on the left).  Our girl is always so calm and collected, always the fighter, but this is far too much for her.  Again, I simply can't say enough about this, because no matter what I say, it doesn't do it justice.



HMs: School Hard, Pangs, Storyteller (SH because it's when Spike was AWESOME, Pangs for the "you made a bear!", Storyteller for "we are as Gods!")

Big Bad John.

Jimmy Dean died on Sunday, very randomly and also very suddenly according to his wife.  He and Donna have lived in Varina, the area where I grew up, for a long time, and they were the biggest local celebrities our little side of Richmond had ever seen.  It wouldn't be strange to see them out at (the now defunct) Ukrop's for groceries or other places around town.  While I was in school, they had a "Dean's List" program where students were given savings bonds for keeping the GPA high or raising it from one semester to the next.  They also helped out the school by buying new band uniforms, and he honored the top 30 seniors in a class by taking them on his yacht for a day (or, in my case, having them over for an afternoon party)and drawing a name from his cowboy hat to give one of us a car (sadly, I did not win).

I have many Jimmy Dean stories that I love to tell.  In fact, all of my Jimmy Dean stories are in my repertoire that I whip out at parties or other times when the mood strikes.  Each one is a little bit different (though they all end with a quippy punchline), but each of them is pretty hilarious.  There's a great one where, while visiting his house during the Top 30 Seniors Party, I won lots of quarters from his in-house slot machine, and he came up behind me, draped an arm on my shoulders, and said, "I hope you don't think I'm gonna let you take that home with you!" There's another fun one from my freshman year, when my brother's friend asked him during an assembly how much his belt buckle cost, and Jimmy called him a smartass in front of the entire student body, faculty, and visting parents.  There's my second favorite from when our Madrigal chorus sang as carollers for his holiday party, and he told our director (AND I quote) that she couldn't find her fanny if all 10 of her fingers were flashlights.

However, my favorite Jimmy Dean moment happened after I'd left high school, after I hadn't won the car, after I'd been gone from Varina for a while.  It was my cousin's 21st birthday, and she was working at the local CVS pharmacy.  I had decided that I was going to surprise her at work by ambushing her and singing Happy Birthday.  The pharmacy is located in the back of the store and my mole told me she was at the register, so I chose my inconspicuous aisle, leapt out from around a blind corner, and started belting it out.

Turns out, she was currently ringing up Mr. Jimmy Dean, clad in jeans and a Varina sweatshirt.

She was so, so embarrassed, judging by the horrified look on her face, and I probably should have been too.  I do admit, I got a little flustered by my celebrity audience, but I didn't miss a beat.  I kept singing, did a little birthday softshoe, and the line of people gave me nice smiles and applause.  Cousin told Jimmy that it was indeed her birthday, and that I (her cousin) just wanted to tease her.  Jimmy asked her how she was, and when she replied, he laughed heartily and quipped, "Oh honey, I've got underpants older than you!"

Happy birthday indeed.

That being said, he was a lovely man who did many wonderfully nice things for our fledgling community while being very genuine and respectful, and I know we're all a bit sadder now that he's gone.  Thank you, Sausage King.

I'm really wanting some Beautiful Darkness.

Looks like there's a contest going on to win an ARC of Beautiful Darkness.  I loved Beautiful Creatures, and I'm hoping to win.  Therefore:

Check out The Here. The Now. and The Books!

Look at the prizes!

I hope I win!

Blasphemy!

The LOGO network has been running a Buffy fan favorite countdown this weekend, as voted by fans all last month.  I saw commercials for this, but I didn't vote because... well, I didn't.  However, I gotta say, this has got to be the craziest, most nonsensical fan countdown ever and I'm having a really hard time believing it.

First off, the main thing that bugs me is that "The Body," one of the best episodes not only of Buffy but of TELEVISION ever, was at number 13.  This is widely known to be the tip top of writing and acting of the show, and yet it doesn't even break the top TEN?  That's so ridiculous, I can't even begin to explain it.

Secondly, there are two types of Buffy fans- Team Angel and Team Spike.  I get the feeling that the voters of this countdown are all on Team Spike, and (obviously, if you've ever read any of my previous posts) I am definitely Team Angel.  Some of my favorite episodes, most of which involve Angel, are either very low or not even on the list.  Things like the epic second part of "Graduation Day" and the beautiful "Innocence" and the previously-mentioned-in-this-blog "The Prom" are all below #15.  And now, I'm watching "Gone" which is #12, and it's one where The Trio [of Nerds] turn her invisible, and it's pretty much 42 minutes of amateur sight gags.  Uh... WHA?  How is Spike doing it with invisible Buffy BETTER than... well, all of the other episodes I mentioned?

Answer: it's not.

In other words, Logo, Boo you whore.

Try any banker, bum, or barber.

Due to ridiciously sneaky sickness and the aftermath of it (i.e. three solid days of sleeping), I have been a slacker of the blog.  Today.. well, it's kind of no exception.  Nothing new to add to the world, no quippy lines to drop, no new lingo to think up.

However, I just found this on the Twitter, posted by Angel Cohn who writes for Television Without Pity (I'm kind of a TWoP stalker, by which kind of = totes).  It puts together two things I am a fan of: Lady Gaga and Newsies.  Come on, Newsies?  NEWSIES?  It's my favorite forever.  It's how I fell in love with Christian Bale before all the Batman hype.  (Actually, if you haven't, check out Empire of the Sun to see a young CB acting his butt off.  I was impressed and moved by his performance at the ripe old age of 13.)

At times, this little mash-up seems forced, but when it gels, it's perfection.  LOVE.

Give up the funk.

So... no rounds done on the future Sock Puppet last night.  Why?  Because I decided to get margaritas with co-workers instead.  Therefore, as much as I want to finish the sock(s), I feel I should be making friends too.  We still don't really have that many people we hang out with in town, except for my favorite Katie, so it's good to get out and be ridiculous sometimes.  I forgive myself for not knitting when I got home.  And you should too, you judgers!

Okay, so I have been very vocal about my love for Glee and how it is, to quote a sparkly vamp [and a Mormon housewife], my very own brand of heroin.  I hear what people say about how ridiculous it is and how it makes no sense and how nothing that happens could logically or realistically HAPPEN, and I just brush it off.  I know it's out of control, but I don't really care.

However, last night's penultimate Funk left me... well, in a funk.  I have been able to ignore the gaping plotline holes for a while, but there were too many that grated me last night.  Why did Jesse go back to Vocal Adrenaline when TWO WEEKS AGO he and Rachel were back together?  And, last week, he wasn't even THERE, so... did they break up?  I mean, all it would take is one line of THROW AWAY dialogue to say, "oh, yeah, Jesse won't return my calls, it's so bizarre."  And then, when he was back in VA this week, the viewer would say, "OH, remember last week?  How he disappeared?  Turns out, it's because he's a d-bag!  I got it!"  But, no.  Inexplicably back to the enemy.  Not really into that.  From what I'm reading on the interwebs, I'm not the only one feeling this way.

And yet, I find myself wishing that Glee would do more fantasy-like sequences a la "Loser."  While I thought that was a supah random choice for a song, I thoroughly enjoyed their zombie-like faces as they wandered through Sheets-n-Things.  It reminded me of what Six Feet Under used to do that never failed to entertain me.  Plus, if they did more fantasy sequences like this, it would make the Assignment of the Week angle disappear, or hopefully it would.  I like that there's a theme every week, but it seems forced to make these kids have weekly "assignments" and then they sing their "assigned" songs.  I think it would be better to have a weekly theme, and maybe the entire group sings a theme-y song together (like last night's Give Up the Funk), but the Glee kids could have theme-related fantasy numbers. 

I would really like that, alright, Ryan Murphy?  Look into it and get back to me.

Bonus: in looking up that video of Claire, I found what is my top #1 favorite series finale ever.  Enjoy! (um... spoiler alert warning if you've never seen the SFU finale...)

June... already!

The theme of this blog is supposedly TV and knitting.  I tend to sit more in the TV chair than the knitting throne because I've been kind of lazy, and it takes no dexterity to watch TV, unless you're trying to do a work-out video or something, at which point you have made me tired.  So, I thought I'd go old school and actually talk about those two things today!  Side note: whenever I read the descriptor of what this blog is, I think "knitting and TV" to the tune of Blur.

Knitting: I'm still knitting that sock.  That same sock.  Not the other one in the set.  The SAME ONE.  It's my first sock, and it's been kind of tough to find a method I like.  I should have just bought one small circular needle and knit a tube like nobody's beezneees.  However, I tried DPNs, then Magic Loop, and both made me want to go HRKJHSEJSHKGJFGIOIES.  So, I've been doing this on 2 circulars, and it's kind of pokey sometimes, but it's been working.  My problem is that, since it's been so stinkin' hot outside, my hands get sweaty and then the needles get a little slippery, and then a stitch falls, and then I get angry and harumph a lot.  Mostly, I just need to get this crap done and quit being such a whiny baby about it.  10 rounds before the end of the day!  That's my goal...

TV: Season finales have all occurred except for Glee, which is next week, and Party Down, which is... some time... soon.  Now is the time when I should knit more because I won't have as much to watch.  Actually, summer is the time when I decide to add a new show to my Netflix or watch that series I own and love on DVD.  I know I should watch Firefly, since I'm a fan of the Whedon and the Fillion, but I couldn't get into that first episode.  Maybe I should pay attention more?  I'm sure.  I was also thinking of watching Lost again, all the way through from start to finish.  I think we have most of the episodes still saved on the DVR, or I'm sure by the time I'm ready for Season 6, it'll be out on DVD. 

As far as new summer shows, sometimes we watch the silly crap like WIPEOUT or Real Housewives of NJ (I need my drama fix!), sometimes we give new shows a chance, but for me, summer = PSYCH.  Hooray!  I'm even more excited having seen these pictures just posted where Dule Hill is DANCING.  I lurve Gus.  Summer also means True Blood.  There have been some leaked photos of this new season, and seeing them makes me have the urge to re-read the 3rd book.  I know there has to be some lead-up to the 4th book (which is my favorite, I think...), but I can't remember what it is!

I want a donut.