hot april night

I kind of hate American Idol, but I'm loving that tonight is Neil Diamond tonight. You know I'm DVRing that.

world's shortest retirement

"No Hate In '08" is my motto for this year, but seriously, I just don't get music writing these days. People are getting all het up about ridiculous stuff. (Oooh, a guy wrote the Women In Music essay for Pazz & Jop! Quelle horreur!) My frustration plays out in this IM convo (not our real screennames):

heathalouise: i've given up on doing music writing ever again.

heathalouise: OH WAIT I TAKE THAT BACK

heathalouise: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20174022,00.html

mts: HAHA OMG

heathalouise: dooooood

...And scene. If NKOTB can come out of retirement, perhaps so can I.

donna martin loses weight

So I'm home, watching the annual, "Hey, fattie! Lose a few!" episode of Oprah, when a Nutrisystem ad comes on with Tori Spelling. I was confused. If clavicle-wielders like Tori need to drop a few lbs., then maybe we all do.

who's up for wooly bully?

I've been meaning to write a post about the new TV season, but just haven't had time. Yes, it's a bit of a moot point right now because of the writers' strike, but Alan Sepinwall has a great column today about the ambiguous future of Chuck.

I'm especially interested in this because Chuck is my favorite new show. It has been getting a lot of Buffy comparisons, but I think it is much more similar to its executive producer's last show, The OC. (And if you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know how much I love Sandy Cohen and company.) Josh Schwartz is splitting his time between this and Gossip Girl, but I'm firmly in the Chuck camp. I think it's because there's something quintessentially '80s about the show. It seems like something I would watch with my dad on a Friday night in 6th grade. In fact, I wonder if my parents watch it. They might like it. Hmmm.

Speaking of the writers' strike, I only have some vague recollections of the 1988-89 one, but one of them is this how Moonlighting (my favorite show when I was 13) handled it:

some velvet morning when I'm straight

It's a bummer to wake up on a Monday and find out that someone the caliber of Lee Hazlewood has died. It's even more depressing that there seems to be no mention of it in the American press yet. I actually learned from MySpace. (Yes, I'm "Lee Hazlewood's" friend on MySpace.)

the last eyeroll

I realize at this point that Zach Braff is a pretty easy target, but I watched The Last Kiss on HBO last night, and I have found myself squarely in the Braff-loathing camp. Garden State was an indulgent film, but this is just so much worse. Mike and I both had the same reaction: "So, did Zach Braff wake up one day and decide that he wanted to make out with Rachel Bilson?" I still don't understand why The Former Summer Roberts had any kind of attraction to Scrubs Guy. It makes no sense. Also, just about every one of the men in this film are whiny, immature, selfish assholes. The only credit I can give is that despite the fact that the ending is predictable, at least it wasn't tied up in a bow.

Earlier in the day, we saw The Simpsons Movie. My opinion parrots that of many of my friends: it's the equivalent of a fairly decent episode, but not the best. I have a few issues with it that I don't want to get into despite them only being minorly spoilerish. I really think it's a film you need to go into knowing nothing. It did make me realize, however, that I'm going to be really upset once that show finally ends.

could have been the liquor or the music that was alright

Because I am the eternal, Olympic flame of the 1990s (^TM MTS), the first rock show that I've attended since moving back to NYC was none other than Buffalo Tom at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. It was a fun show, although I was exhausted and woozy from an impromptu happy hour earlier in the evening. They played a bunch of the "hits," but unfortunately I didn't stick around for the encore, so I have no idea if they played "Porchlight."

My favorite thing though (surprise, surprise) was noticing that Bill Janovitz was wearing a Red Sox wristband. He also razzed the audience about the misfortunes of the Yankees, which made the Masshole in me gleam with pride. There were a ton of Sox shirts and hats on those in attendance. I may just write this night off as "research" into the musical tastes of Red Sox Nation.

But yeah, the show took me back to 1993, when Big Red Letter Day was only removed from the CD player to make room for Let Me Come Over or various records by the Lemonheads and the Replacements.

(The Lemonheads are playing here on Thursday. I am sorely tempted, but there is no way in hell my husband will be willing to sit through that with me.)

it's a hell of a town

We've moved back to New York City and it's weird. I feel as if I'm still in a liminal state. We're staying in a sublet for the summer, so it doesn't really feel like home. Our "permanent" apartment won't be ready until September. So I'm in a new neighborhood in my old city, and eventually I'll move to a new apartment in my old building. Life definitely has a touch of deja vu right about now.

It is really nice, however, to know that for the most part, my life is slowly becoming settled. Mike and I are in the same city (for the most part--dude's in Miami this week for Fashion Week), and we plan to stick around here for a while. I have a really good consulting gig that has fallen into my lap, and I start teaching at the alma mater in the fall. I'm concentrating my job search on the area and am perfectly willing to slog in the adjunct trenches for a while until something more permanent comes along here in NYC.

I do miss Philly, however. For example, this little tidbit from today. I was walking out of the subway, up the stairs to the street. There was a dirty diaper (ew!) on the top step. I looked at it and my first thought was, "That's so something I would see in Philly." It was gross, but then again, so is the Broad Street Line. I miss it!

yippee ki yay

Following hot on the heels of my post celebrating the director's cut of Commando, Slate has this humorous piece on action film one-liners. This ties in with today's release of Live Free or Die Hard, a cinematic event which I would have witnessed today if I weren't packing all my crap and schlepping it to New York. Yup, today's moving day in the heathalouise/AWCR household. Brooklyn, you've been put on notice. Now who's going to watch John McClane kick some ass with me this weekend. (Dave O.....I think we need to make a plan.)

"i love it when your soldiers try to talk tough. if matrix were here, he would laugh too."

Screw the new version of the My So-Called Life DVDs, I am anxiously awaiting the director's cut of Commando. My love of this schlockfest is well-known amongst my friends. And to bring up the debate yet again, I maintain that it is superior to Predator in the Schwarzenegger oeuvre. Wanna argue against me? Bring it on in the comments.

Point 1: The villain in Commando looks like Freddie Mercury.

Counterpoint anyone?

r.i.p., comic genius

I am so bummed about the death of Charles Nelson Reilly. He was hilarious! Plus, he made The Match Game entertaining (something that my 20something self only learned through the Game Show Network, while my childhood self would be bored to tears watching that game with my grandparents).

when the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around

Q: How excited am I about a possible Police reunion?

A: Way more than I probably should be.

The Police were my favorite band in high school until they got supplanted by Jane's Addiction and the group that they originally ripped off, the Clash. I still have a soft spot for them, however. Hell, I even like some of Sting's shitty solo records (the white-boy-jazz ones especially). Of course, ticket prices for this will probably be astronomical. I know there's no way I can drag my husband along. I can only think of one other person who would be willing to go to this with me: my high school concert buddy.

S. and I went to all the dinosaur rock shows together in high school. We saw Tom Petty, Sting, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, etc. You'd think we were 40something housewives or something. But we were 17, and we had a blast. (Except for when the guy in our section at the Mellencamp show barfed all over the woman in front of him. She kept screaming, "I HAVE RIGHTS!" We moved to another section to escape the stench. And no, smartass, the "stench" was not JCM's performance. Dude rocked it.) She even came up to NYC freshman year of college to go to the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary show. She still jets around the country to see Springsteen. I think I'm going to have to e-mail her and make a plan. After all, we're pretty much in the dinosaur rock demographic at this point.

(And yes, this show will probably be mediocre. But I'll still go.)