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.

a new reason for me to go to hell...

I'm walking to the coffee shop this morning, and I pass the deli and see the headlines in the tabloids about what the Post calls the East Side Butcher Killing. My first thought?

"Man, I'm so glad the writers' strike is over. This is going to make an awesome episode of Law & Order."

I'm not going to lie, I'm totally enamored with the creepy Ugly Betty Madame Alexander Dolls. I want the cloth one. The non-cloth one is borderline offensive.

for you, kieran

I'm going to start watching the Gossip Girl Revealed expanded episodes so that I can get caught up. I feel like I'm missing out.

and now it's snowing?!?!

I trekked down to Philly with Beth and Chris to see Anthony Bourdain talk and then sign his new book. We got there fairly early, so our seats for the event were fabulous, but the general cluelessness (or, as Chris put it "Phillyness") of the Free Library staff meant that Beth and I were among the last in line for the actual signing. Dork that I was, I managed to stammer out that I use him as an example in my writing class and that I think his Salon piece on being trapped in Beirut is a stellar example of a personal essay. It bears witness to something and isn't completely self-absorbed. He was "flattered." There's a bad cell phone pic (thanks, Beth! and that is not at all snarky...) and now I have an autographed copy of his new book.

I don't feel as bad about my stammering as I might have since the questions in the Q&A portion were ridiculous. I really wanted him to tear into the girl who was in her second year of culinary school and was asking him for advice on "how to break into food television." Instead, he subtly insulted her while pretending to give advice. (The gist: Don't even bother with culinary school. Look at Rachael Ray--straight from the supermarket aisle to the Food Network.) There were a couple of vegetarians who were defending their choices (Bourdain thinks it "rude" when you turn down food offered to you from people of other cultures for just about any reason) and the random 54-year-old who had to proclaim him "sexy."

He's speaking again in NYC tomorrow and I think I'm going to head over there because Michael Ruhlman will be there as well. If you've seen the No Reservations episodes about Las Vegas or Cleveland, you know this is going to be good.

And yes, our way back included a slight detour through Fishtown and other bits of North Philly, as well as a flat tire in Cherry Hill, but we got back in one piece. Beth and Chris are fine road trip companions. Plus, they know that Pat's is the correct choice in the cheesesteak wars.

this is what happens when you drink coffee at 3 pm: for Kieran

I can't really drink caffeine after noon anymore, but I made a wise exception to hang out with someone I hadn't seen in a long, long time.

I should head off to bed, but sleep is just not happening just yet. So instead, dear reader, you get a treatise on my favorite ridiculous television pleasure: Criminal Minds. I love this show. It is so cheesy, and yet it can make me queasy in a bad horror-movie way every few episodes. The best part (besides the nerdy-hot Dr. Spencer Reid) is that they cast the most random people to play the "unsubs:" James "Dawson/Cereal Box Head" Van Der Beek, Jamie "Not Funny" Kennedy, and this week, Frankie "Malcolm's No Longer in the Middle" Muniz. I'm just imagining all of them saying, "BUT I WANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY" to their agents and the rep comes back with "Here, play a serial killer on this show that your parents most certainly watch since it's on CBS: Television for Old People."

It has all these random conceits: the flirtation between Morgan and computer nerd genius Garcia, the incessant tackling of suspects, and the curmudgeonly local law enforcement who resent the FBI taking over the investigation. And now, Fat Tony is the main profiler. Brilliant!

It's not high quality television by any stretch, but it's not the worst thing to watch on a Wednesday. My dear husband points out that the scariest thing of all, more frightening than any of the horrific murders, is that its lead-in is Kid Nation.

la-da-dee, la-da-da

In honor of tonight's season premiere of Project Runway, I present you with Season One winner Jay McCarroll's version of the 1990's Crystal Waters classic, "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless):"



Praise be to MTS for sending this my way!

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:

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.

just another magic monday?

Is it a bad omen that the first thing I saw when I turned on the TV this morning was the ball going through Bill Buckner's legs? All I wanted to do was watch In the Papers on NY1.

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).

say hey!

I've become obsessed with this BP ad: the whimsical indie-rock soundtrack, adorable animated characters and the cute viral website. What does freak me out, however, is the girl flying on the toilet. Yup, singing gas pumps and driving babies are totally OK, but an aerial "comfort station" is beyond the pale:



They have "outtakes" on YouTube as well.

hey, friends who watch tv!

If you're not watching Friday Night Lights, you're doing yourself a great disservice. I don't want to hear you bitch, "whaaa, I don't like football." The show doesn't have all that much to football (even if I do refer to it as High School Football Problems, much like Criminal Minds is Serial Killer Squad in the HLM/MTB household). If you're one of those people who lamented the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks, then set your ass down on the couch Wednesdays at 8 and watch. You'll be thanking me, I swear. I just hope that it gets a second season.

situation free!

I have better things to do than finding Japanese websites which feature Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer shilling for some kind of food. But then again, I'm on this 24 kick right now.

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor (of all places) has a theory on what Bauer does the day after one of the worst days of his life. [via HQ]

why does this bother me?

I just saw a Target commercial which uses the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye." Now, I'm usually of the "BFD that a song is in a commercial" ilk, but something about this specific ad just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it's the bad pun. Everytime "Goodbye" is sung (by a breathy, female voice), the term "Goodbuy" appears on the screen. It's just cheesy. I guess I just expect more from Tar-jhay.

today is a good day

Pats win, 24's back on and I start teaching my dream class. This week is starting out in a sweet way.

(On the 24 tangent: What's up with Kumar the terrorist and his unaware buddy, Jack's "son" from Will & Grace? I'm loving this all-star cast. Yay for the return of Jack Bauer!)