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!"