Hey Slate, your new Surfergirl column, which you describe as, "a new Slate feature that is not so much a TV column as one watcher's online diary, a dispatch from the wilds of American pop culture," is nothing but a ripoff of Salon's excellent TV coverage by Heather Havrilesky.

I don't know what pisses me off more, that they're blatantly ripping off Salon or that I no longer have a job where I watch TV and write about it. Academia doesn't count.

ECC vs. UCC

This Salon article on Unequally Cool Couples should be required reading for some of my friends. There are many friends of mine in relationships with wonderful people, but I have had a few pals date some "duds." It's nice to know that I'm not the only judgmental one. As one person interviewed said, "Are you kidding? We make a sport out of judging." True, true. The truth is, we know our friends are fabulous, and they deserve significant others that reflect that fact.

rock and roll and beauty tips

The fabulous Death Cab for Cutie finally have a website. In addition to the typical news and tour dates, the site includes journal entries from each member of the band. My favorite has to be Chris Walla's, which features a treatise on comparing the merits of the beauty and hair product lines of Lush and Kiehl's.It's nice to know that someone else has thick-yet-fine hair. I would follow Walla's recommendation and get the Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo from Lush, but I just spent a fortune today on coloring my hair. It's all about the color-treated hair shampoo for heathalouise from now on.

i love a rainy night

I just got back from pop quiz, where our team, the "flag hags" (happy Flag Day, everyone!) did quite poorly. I have a Pernice Brothers song in my head, and I'm thinking about the season premiere of Six Feet Under (which featured said Pernice Bros. song and is the reason I have it in my head.) Man, that shit is depressing, as my dear friend Ruby noted.

I was super-ambitious today, sending out resumes to temp agencies, cleaning the living room and kitchen, doing laundry and buying tickets for The Long Winters and the Decemberists tomorrow night. I also grabbed a ticket for John Vanderslice and Pedro the Lion on Saturday. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the Barsuk artists.

There's a thunderstorm moving through Center City, I'm a little bit drunk, and I couldn't be happier despite contemplating that depressing episode of Six Feet Under.

new look

I messed around and decided on this fun new template. I love the dots! In other, less fluffy news, our wedding date is set. May 21, 2005 will be the date of the Mike and Heather nuptials. Woohoo!

pop culture roundup

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a while. It's not really as if I've been doing anything "important," but I have been consuming a ton of music, movies and books. Now you have to suffer through my opinions.

First, I saw the Deathray Davies two(?) weeks ago. There were maybe 30 people in the club, but they still brought the rock. The best part had to be when John Dufilho jumped into the audience and pushed the crowd closer to the stage. It was such a fabulously ballsy move. I am such a geek for bands from Texas.

Mike and I rented the first season of the Canadian TV series The Newsroom last weekend. It's from 1996-7, and it's what The Office would be if it took place in a, ahem, newsroom. Mike noted that it reminded him of the short-lived Al Franken show Lateline (which had a brilliant episode in which the anchor mistakenly reports Buddy Hackett's death, complete with singalong from The Music Man.) The Newsroom was clever, complete with great running jokes about muffins and BMWs, and a bizarre 3-part Fellini-inspired season finale. Apparently CBC ran a new season of the show this year; I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Mike, Jason, Josh R. and I went to see the Thermals and the Hold Steady on Tuesday at the Khyber. The show rocked, and now I need to get both bands' albums. I haven't been to a show strictly on recommendations of friends in a long time, and it was refreshing to be rocked by surprise.

I finished reading A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks, and it was ultimately disappointing. While it is incredibly interesting that Dylan scrapped most of the New York sessions and used an anonymous band of Minneapolis session men who remain uncredited to this day, I don't want to read 200 pages of them complaining about their lack of recognition. It also features way too much hyperbolic "little did they know, they were making history" language that ultimately makes the reader roll his or her eyes. Also, I'm pissed that the author dogs "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts." It's my favorite Dylan song, ridiculous as that may sound.

And finally, what the fuck is up with those dumbass KFC oven roasted chicken ads? I hate the girl with trucker hat that says "Oven Roasted in '04." Who is going to wear that? And that fucking "I'm a drive-thru diva" jingle plays in my head for the rest of the day when I hear it. Damn catchy jingles...