Presented without comment...

Presented without comment...

Pop Culture Bits and Pieces

A round-up of different blogs and online essays regarding "entertainment" that I've read over the past week.

A discussion on the sexiness of the latest Superman’s chest hair:

Favorite part? From writer Kyle Buchanan – “With that beard and that flannel and that Crossfit-jacked hairy chest, I expected Superman to eschew his usual secret identity at the Daily Planet and start a new life as Portland’s hottest artisanal-beer brewer.”  Hee hee hee

Oh, and BTdubs – don’t believe any negative reviews you read about Man of Steel. It was great! Very serious sure, but so well done. And it goes without saying – Henry Cavill is F*CKING HOT. Holy crap is he good looking in this movie!

Essay by NPR’s awesome Linda Holmes on the absence of women in films
I feel lucky to be rounding out my week by balancing the testosterone of "Man of Steel" with some estrogen from Frances, Ha.

And finally, a whole crapload of News about Musical Theater! -

NPH is bringing “Hedwig” to Broadway:
Everyone, including most importantly, creators John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, seems to be ecstatic about Neil Patrick Harris bringing the iconic role of Hedwig to Broadway finally in 2014.

I…I just…um…FOLKS, I don’t get it. I LOVE NPH! He’s basically perfect at everything but…HEDWIG? No. Obviously I’m keeping an open mind and I wish him and the rest of the cast all the best, but I just cannot see Harris doing Hedwig justice. No offense. Again, I flove him! Don’t tell NPH I said anything mean about him!

Soul Doctor continues its course for a summer Broadway opening:

Along with “Matilda”, “Soul Doctor” is something that intrigues me enough to want to buy a plane ticket to NYC in August. August! I must be crazy.

Frozen cast keeps getting better:

You guys? I haven’t been THIS excited about an animated movie in years. Why can’t this be a live action show on Broadway?

Holy crap! They’re actually trying to do an “Air Supply” musical you guys. Ugh, with Constantine.

YES

Is it weird that I'd like to trade places with a 9-month old cat named Choupette?

2012 Oscar Death Race - It's The FINAL COUNTDOWN!

di da du du, di da du doot doot...

As the last days of the Oscar Death Race wind down, I am very proud to report that as of this writing I have seen 58 of this year's 61 Academy Award nominated films. FIFTY-EIGHT!!! And I only have 2 Oscar categories left to complete.
Back in January when the nominations came out, I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to get even close to 50 movies under my belt. But in just one month's time I have been able to see 28 movies. I don't know if people should be impressed or horrified by that statistic.

As I feared, the Foreign Language Film category has been my undoing. Israel's "Footnote" is supposedly opening this weekend in Seattle so I may be able to knock off another one before Sunday's ceremony, but it's not looking good. The other foreign entry I'm missing is a Belgian film called Bullhead which I have heard neither hide nor hare about whether it will ever show up in one of the art theaters here.
Finally, the other category that I haven't completed is Animated Feature. Damn you Chico & Rita! [Ed. note - I just got an email from a friend that Chico is supposedly available on Amazon on Demand. I will be checking this out tonight.]
So technically, annoying Belgian films aside, I could possibly complete the Death Race this weekend. I don't know if it's more annoying to be one film shy or to be 30.

I'm a film buff and glorified "movie dork", so I know this endeavor sounds crazy or ridiculous to most people. But just as I felt last year, doing the race has exposed me to some great films that I possibly wouldn't have seen or given a chance otherwise.
Last year's diamond was the Australian thriller Animal Kingdom, this year I think it might be the animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Sigh...It was so good you guys.

And my favorite of the 61 nominated films you ask? Hmm, that's tough. It's probably a 3-way tie between Hugo, War Horse, and Pina.

What the hell you guys?!!

Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner called off their engagement! After only 3 months. Well, to be truthful they've been friends forever and have dated off and on since their divorces from Richie Sambora and Kristina Wagner respectively.
So are they just putting the wedding on hold, or are they really splitsville? I was really pulling for them as a couple. Maybe Heather got angry that Jack wasn't singing "All I Need" to her every morning? That's what I would demand if he were my boyfriend.

Remember the 80s when Jack Wagner looked like this?

He made the mullet WERQ people!

Some thoughts on "Abduction"

Or should I say ABduction, because Taylor Lautner's chest was out of control in this movie. I know it's cliche and totally pervy for someone my age, old enough to be his mother, to have inappropriate lustful thoughts about Taylor Lautner, but damn he truly is a beautiful specimen of man.

I saw this film on Sunday with a 15 year old teenage girl who appropriately gushed all over Lautner and the movie. She loved it, and if that's the producers' target audience I think they should do well.
And while I was entertained for the 90 minutes, I did have SERIOUS issues with the ridiculous timeline it followed, and I had a hard time ignoring the inconsistencies.So allow me to rant a little.

The folks in this movie live in nice suburban Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh. I was actually really excited to see a movie set in this part of the country; I've got family in that area and it really is a great place to live and it was nice to see Pittsburgh get exposure, instead of NYC or even Philadelphia.
Without getting too spoilerish, here's the sequence of events that set off our story of two teens on the run from the CIA and Russian terrorists:

• Sometime around 6 or 7 in the evening (assumed because it's after school and around dinner time but only sort of dark out) Lautner and Lily Collins' characters fight Russians and watch Lautner's house blow up. They take off on a motorcycle to a hospital to have a cut on Lily's arm patched up.
• Shenanigans ensue at the hospital, but they were there long enough to get her arm fixed, for him to call 911 and get freaked out by the CIA and then Sigourney Weaver hustles our teens out in her BMW (which by the way was a HUGE sponsor of this movie). I'll be generous and say that this whole post-house explosion hospital stuff only took an hour but either way, when Sigourney drives off with our teens, it's at least 8pm. As she drives them towards the edge of town Weaver instructs them to get their asses to a secret apartment in Arlington, VA and lay low. 
• Sigourney's car is followed and attacked but the kids jump out in time and start running through the woods. They camp and sleep at the base of a tree. They wake the next morning. Even if we're supposed to believe it's early, at least 9 hours has passed. 
• The kids then hitch a ride in a 18-wheeler to Arlington; which is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and even if that truck was hauling ass, there's no way that they're making that drive in under 4 hours. So we're now talking a minimum of them being on the run for 13 hours.A minimum.
• Once in VA they take time to shop for new clothes, shower and change in the apartment and Lautner finds clues about his parents. Again, there's no way they could have done all of this in less than 2 hours, but I'll suspend my disbelief and give them only an hour. But we're definitely talking about the middle of day 2 at this point.
• The kids find a clue and have to go to a cemetery. Here's where my young companion and I disagreed; I said that the film infers that they drove (in a BMW natch) back to Pittsburgh to go to this cemetery; the teen thinks that the grave was somewhere in Arlington. Either way, afterwards they figure out they have to ditch the car and get to Nebraska, so they arrange a meeting with their high school friend back in Pittsburgh, who gives them fake IDs so that they can continue their journey. Now, either way these kids drove back to damn Pittsburgh from Virginia. Even if Taylor drove 90 mph in the BMW the whole way, it's still taking them a couple of hours at least.
• The kids then get on an Amtrak train that's magically leaving right away from Pittsburgh to Omaha. Uh huh. One of the Russian bad dudes gets on the train too, and they only manage to make it to Cincinnati before the Russian tries to kill them and instead gets thrown off the train by Taylor, which alerts the CIA and they stop the train and capture Taylor and Lily. Here's one of the main ways the makers of this movie messed up. The train scenes are made to look like they've only been on the train a short time. It would've made more sense for them to have made it to Cleveland, which is near Pittsburgh, rather than Cincinnati which is clear across Ohio in the SW corner, hours away by train.

Once the CIA captures our teen heroes, head agent Alfred Molina utters the line that sent me in a tizzy in the first place - "You guys have been on the run for 22 hours". WHAT?!! Seriously? No fucking way all of this running around and traveling on trains and in automobiles has only taken 22 damn hours! WTF?!
Gah! and don't get me started about the fact that Taylor and Lily then steal a truck and drive BACK TO PITTSBURGH (It would've taken a good 5 hours to drive this!), meet up again with their friend who gets them (last minute VIP) tickets to a Pirates game, where they pull off the climax battle with the head Russian dude, all before dusk. I was seething in my chair.
Of course my teen niece thought I was being ridiculous and told me to "take a chill pill" (um, do they still say this outside of 1987?) but I can't let it go.

Whatever, did I mention that Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins are very pretty?

If anyone out there sees Terrence Malick, punch him in the face for me...

Or Sean Penn. Or even, sigh...my beloved Brad Pitt; would you at least give Brad a little slap on the head for me? Because that's the minimum for what I feel I'm owed after spending 2 hrs 18 min enduring The Tree Of Life. Jeezus. Where should I start with this irksome, self-indulgent, weirdo piece of crap?

Okay, let's start with its writer/director Terrence Malick. I like a lot of his films. Badlands is great, and Days of Heaven is in my top 10 movies of all time. I even liked The New World! In other words, for years I have been a Malick apologist, and have defended his weirdo artistic vision. But damn if I can do it now for Tree of Life.

You guys, it's so bad. It's confusing, with a non-linear narrative that makes no sense. It's too silent in places. Sean Penn is annoying. This film is distractingly abstract and so self-indulgent that it makes me angry.

It all started out so promising. Well sort of. For months and months I had seen the posters and the trailers for the movie. Half of me was filled with giddy anticipation - Brad Pitt and Terrence Malick together at last! - the other half was filled with dread because the trailer seemed a little wacky. But I held on to hope. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes while it polarized the Cannes audience (standing ovation and booing?). It garnered a 87% on Rotten Tomatoes which is the 2nd highest rating for any Malick film on the site (just under Days of Heaven) which I saw as a good sign. 

Critics seemed to love it. David Edelstein gave a really interesting and positive review of it for NPR. Then came  Roger Ebert's review where he glowed about it, comparing it to the brillance and boldness of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I almost always agree with Ebert; if he could love it so much then I was bound to. Right? Wrong. So wrong.

The movie begins with someone whispering quotes from the Book of Job in the bible. There's a lot of whispering in this film; characters whisper questions like "how can I get close to you?" and "where were you when I laid the foundation..." , that are I guess directed towards God? Or no, maybe God is speaking through this character to another character? I don't know. All I do know is that the first 15 minutes of this movie starts out sort of promising, although a little confusing right out of the gate with Malick jumping all over time as we first see little kids playing in late 50s Texas with their parents, then cut to the mother some years later getting a telegram that her 19 yr old son has died. For a few minutes it seems like we might be going somewhere as the parents, played by Pitt and Jessica Chastain, are shown dealing with their grief. Then we cut to present day(?) where Sean Penn has bad dreams? We see Penn in a big glass skyscraper where he rides the glass elevator a lot and is having trouble concentrating at his work as an architect(?) because maybe his mother just died? Because he and his wife/girlfriend who shares his ultra modern house are both wearing black suits like they're going to a funeral and although she never says a word, she's giving him a look that is annoyed yet tinged with sadness and sympathy. Or something. Keep in mind, throughout these first few scenes there's not really any dialog and almost no exposition, so you have to guess a lot.

And then Malick loses his ever-lovin' gawdamm mind. For the next 20 minutes, Malick shares his vision of Creation. There's a dramatization of the Big Bang, and the beginnings of life on Earth. Volcanoes erupt; microbes form and squiggle around; oceans crash. Then come the DINOSAURS. Yes, you read that correctly. All through this absurdity there's mostly classical music blaring, occasionally broken up by a character's voice asking various goofy existential questions, or complete silence. It was at this point that I thought I might be having a stroke because I couldn't compute the things displaying before me on the screen. But I then looked around at my friend Cathie and several other theater patrons and realized we were all watching the same thing. The couple behind us took off, muttering that they were going to demand their money back, but at that point I was almost more fascinated to see what other craziness was in store rather than caring about when the story would get back on track.

But a "story" never really emerged. After all of the cosmos/creation crap we're dropped straight into the birth of Jack O'Brien in 1950s Waco, TX. We're shown him growing up through early adolescence struggling with his father and being a normal shitty pre-teen, as his mother gives birth to two more brothers (whose names we never know I don't think). In fact, Jack O'Brien is the only full name we ever hear. Pitt and Chastain are Mother and Father, or Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien is shown to be a sad, ambitious, and stern man who sees himself as a failed musician and inventor, always looking to strike it rich. He's a brutal disiplinarian with the 3 boys, and has weird rules about respect and what the kids (and his wife) should do or say. Every so often the film jumps from 1950s Waco to modern day Sean Penn as "adult Jack". Sean Penn at work and on his dumb elevator; Sean Penn lighting votives in his ultra modern house; Sean Penn at the beach, walking in the desert, walking over rocks, and seeing a bunch of dead(?) people, until finally he walks through a doorway and sees his whole family from back when they were in the 50s and is filled with a sense of peace? We are to assume that these jaunts are all in his brain. I don't know.

You may think that all of what I just wrote was way too spoilerish. It isn't. I don't think I'm conveying how weird and vacant this movie is. NOTHING HAPPENS in it. There is no story to thread any of the scenes together. I could throw out at you a bunch of words - BLUE, CAR, ROCKY, SHOE, EYEBROW, DOG, UNDERPANTS; adjectives and nouns chosen at random, and it would make just as much sense as what I've shared in the previous paragraphs.

We are led to believe that the middle O'brien child, the blondest one who has an affinity for music and plays guitar, is the one that dies. But maybe it was the youngest one who doesn't have one single line in the whole film. Was the dead brother sick? Was it an accident? Was it Vietnam (the time period would be right)? If so, why was it just a regular Western Union guy delivering the news without any gravitas and not someone from the armed forces? Does Jack feel responsible for his brother's death? He seems to because he's haunted by it lo those many years later. But nothing is ever said. There are about 160 other questions that are never answered either. But it gives me a headache to think about them.

This movie experience has shaken me to my core. I was led astray by people I trusted and I'm upset about it. But I'm telling myself that if I hadn't seen The Tree of Life, I wouldn't have been able to rant about it here and warn all of you good people.

Seriously Malick, you not only owe me the $10 for the ticket, but I get to land one good punch somewhere on your body.

Dissecting SIFF 2011 - Part 1

I'm really late with these posts. By like almost 2 weeks. In fact, I had every intention of posting same-day reviews of each film that I saw during the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), but obviously I was too lazy for that.

This year I saw 21 movies during the 3 week long festival. And unlike previous years, I didn't have to cram these viewings into weekends where I force myself to see 4 movies in one day. Because I was out on FMLA recovering from surgery, I had a lot of free time on my hands. And sitting in a movie theater was easy to do and didn't require a lot of exertion that would bust my stitches open.
Anyway, this was an interesting SIFF for me because I didn't see many films from Spain. I usually end up seeing at least 4 Spanish films (I guess I like them?) but this year I only saw two. In fact, this was the first SIFF where I ended up seeing more American films than foreign films. A definite first. And I saw a lot of comedies which I usually avoid at SIFF.
Here's the first rundown of what I saw this year. I'm throwing it out randomly but also sort of in viewing date order.

First, I'll lump together the documentaries that I saw, all produced from the United States:

Page One: Documentarian Andrew Rossi set up his cameras for one year inside the New York Times’ newsroom, with unprecedented access and insight into the paper’s operations. The doc show not only how new media is impacting the Times, but also how the paper reports on its own industry’s demise is a frank way. Everyone in the theater with me LOVED this film but I kind of didn't feeel that it was that great. Maybe I was just in a bad mood.

The Interrupters: From the guy that did Hoop Dreams, this doc told the story of inner city and gang violence in Chicago; focusing on three kids who are trying to make a difference. I won't lie, I cried like a baby in parts of this. Really well done, but you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it I think.

Being Elmo: I saw this documentary on the last day of the festival, at the last minute, literally deciding to go 10 minutes before the show started because I happen to be driving by the theater it was showing in on my way home from dinner. I had purposely avoided the other showings that the film had had because I really really really hate Elmo. But you know what? I'm sort of in love with Kevin Clash, Elmo's famed "Muppeteer". The movie is an in-depth portrait of Clash and how he came to be one of  the most famous puppeteers of all time. Charming.

• High Road U.S. - Matt Walsh is one of my favorite comedians. And I really wish he had acted in this film that he acted and directed. I really enjoyed the story and a lot of the performances, but there were part of it where it was really obvious that the dialogue was entirely improvised. Someone like Rob Riggle or Ed Helms is going to kill it, but other actors made some of the scenes really drag. Newcomer Zach Woods was kind of awesome as the 16 yr old kid that is one of the centers of the film.
• Womb Germany - Oh boy. This movie was so messed up. I mean it was well crafted; but such a mind-fuck. Starring an entirely British cast, including Eva Green (Casino Royale) and Matt Smith (Dr. Who), if there was any SIFF film this year that I definitely would NOT see again it would be this one. Again, it was well acted and beautifully shot, but boy is the story creepy.
• Crying Out Canada (Quebec) - This was the first of two films I saw at SIFF out of Quebec, and dang, it's right what they say about the Quebecquois being radically different from the rest of Canada. This is a film about MEN, and men's EMOTIONS, and it is dark. So dark. It's about 3 generations of men who are struggling with various problems, including the protagonist Jo (dad, the middle generation) who is newly widowed and not handling it well, resulting in him committing a series of petty crimes that his adult son and his father try and cover up for him. I really liked the performances of the actors that played the son (Patrick Hivon) and the grampa (Jean Lapointe) and elements of the story are good, but I just couldn't get past how bleak everything was; and I think it was supposed to be a comedy?
• Beginners U.S. - This was probably the most high profile of the movies I saw this year at SIFF. And this is one of the first to have a major distributor and already be out in theaters. See this film if/when it comes to your town. I loved it. It stars Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer as a father (Hal) and son (Oliver) dealing with death, illness, and love. The story is told through two intertwining stories: in the present day, Oliver meets Anna, an alluring French actress who captivates him and gives him a way to heal from the recent and devastating loss of  father, which has happened soon after losing his mother to cancer. As Oliver grows closer to Anna, he is still hung up on the deep emotions that erupted when, at age 75, shortly after the death of his wife, Oliver’s dad Hal came out of the closet. The second story we see in flashback as Hal, disregarding his advanced years and a diagnosis of terminal cancer, gleefully embraces his senior bon vivant lifestyle; hitting the clubs, buying a new wardrobe, and, dating a man half his age. Throughout the film, these two narratives subtly illuminate each other, as Oliver strives to learn from his father’s profound lessons on hope, courage, and love. Did I forget to mention that there's also an adorable dog in the movie? A couple of other things - Christopher Plummer is still just as charming and great looking at age 82 as he's ever been. I didn't think it was possible for Goran Visnjic to be unattractive, but he is in this film as Hal's boyfriend. Also, coincidentally Visnjic and Plummer are both going to be in the upcoming US version of The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo which I'm very excited about. Finally, Ewan McGregor and director Mike Mills were at the SIFF screening of Beginners that I went to. McGregor is hot in person y'all.
• Natural Selection U.S. - This was a funny and entertaining movie, even if it didn't resonate with me that much or surprise me in any way. It stars comedian Rachael Harris as a Linda, a Christian housewife who is struggling to get pregnant who after her husband suffers a stroke, finds out about a secret adult son that her husband fathered. He asks her to track down his this son, a mullet-haired, drug-addled, escape convict named Raymond. The movie turns into a wacky road movie as Linda and Raymond travel back to grant Abe’s final wish. They form a bizarre relationship that changes them both dramatically. Natural Selection took the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at this year’s SXSW. And Matt O'Leary as Raymond was kind of a revelation.
• Jucy Australia -  Oh god, I loved this movie. Director Louise Alton tells a warm-hearted story set in Brisbane about BFFs Jackie and Lucy, (played by newcomers Cindy Nelson and Francesca Gasteen, real-life best friends who created the characters together), aka Jucy. The friendship is chronicled set against a story about them auditioning and putting on a production of Jane Eyre with their local community theater. You guys, this movie is like "AbFab" meets "Muriel's Wedding" for the new millenium. So charming and relatable and fun. I really hope it gets a wide distribution because everyone should get a chance to see it.

"Does this ad make me look fat?"

So you know that Yoplait yogurt commercial that shows the lady at the office agonizing over whether she should enjoy a piece of raspberry cheesecake or not, by justifying what she'll do to compensate for the extra calories? It's a funny and effective piece of advertising, right?
Well evidently some overly sensitive wackadoos concerned people over at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) think that the ad sends a very dangerous message so they've demanded that the ad be pulled off the air, and Yoplait agreed. Sigh...really?
NEDA (which is of course based out of Seattle, #1 city for passive-aggression) has said "a commercial showing a thin person anxiously doing mental gymnastics in order to justify eating dessert—and then denying herself the treat because she wants to be even thinner—could reinforce the idea that such deliberations are healthy and normal".
But...but I think that is normal. Look, this country has a shit-ton of people who are obese and just as many more who are dieting or have lost weight but still find it a daily struggle to maintain their efforts. People have arguments and conversations with themselves all the time regarding whether or not to eat that chocolate chip cookie or have that second helping of lasagne. That's why the ad works! I don't understand NEDA's position on this at all. If we have to calibrate all food advertising to cater to the emotional stability of people with eating disorders, then should we even had any ads at all for food?

Am I being insensitive? Whatever. None of this controversy even addressed my problem with the Yoplait ad. What kind of office do these people work in where they have co-workers bringing in gourmet, fancy, delicious looking raspberry cheesecake for everyone to enjoy? I want to work there!

Some thoughts about "Insidious"

So I saw Insidious this past weekend. It came in #3 at the box office its opening weekend and I guess that's okay but I don't know if they'll be able to sustain it.
The movie was okay. It was a little more cliched and much more of a Poltergeist rip-off than I expected, but for a "scary movie" it was enjoyable. I guess I thought it would be scarier; I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to horror films, and I only jumped like twice in the theater.

Some thoughts (good and bad) that went through my head during and after the movie:

• What was the purpose of Rose Byrne's character being a songwriter? It had NO connection to the story at all. Of all the "work from home" professions they could think of why this one? The one song they showed her writing and singing was really lame.
• And while we're talking about it, if you're going to have one of your leads be a songwriter, and her character's husband is played by Patrick Wilson, an actor with a BEAUTIFUL voice who has been nominated for TWO Tony awards for his singing? Don't have said character played by Patrick Wilson "act" tone-deaf and feign a horrible singing voice. It's insulting to Patrick and his fans. And my ears.
• Rose Byrne's character is named "Renai". Ugh. What is the purpose of this whacked out spelling. Renee. Geez.
• I did find it odd but kind of awesome and fairly realistic that when they showed Byrne and Wilson getting ready for bed, they were dressed and doing things like real adult people. Wearing old t-shirts and boxers as pjs and Patrick putting eye cream on for his wrinkles and concerned about his thinning and graying hair.
• What is up with Barbara Hershey playing super creepy moms these days? And there was strangely no chemistry between her and Patrick Wilson. They barely acted like they knew each other, much less were supposed to be mother and son. Everytime he said 'Mom' I was shocked that he was talking to Hershey.
• Could've done without the lame "Geek Squad" paranormal activity ghostbuster dudes, who were supposed to be comedy relief?
• Who is taking care of Renai and Josh's two other kids if Grandma Barbara is at the house fighting demons?!
• SPOILER ALERT - I get that they geared the ending for a sequel but damn, did they have to leave so many unanswered questions? Was the black/red faced demon defeated? Was the old lady demon at the end the same one we learned of earlier in the film?
• Why was the black/red faced demon shown in, what can only be described as his boudoir, prancing around like Buffalo Bill. I mean seriously, why do movies these days make demons act so fey?
• Why wasn't it scarier?

Okay, I'll admit, this was a scary fucking scene.



Sometimes people are awesome - Hot guys from history edition

As my close friends know, I pretty much hate people. But sometimes they can come up with creative and hilarious things like this website.

God bless 'em, I think I just found my new favorite thing.

American Idol - Top 13 Performances

I mentioned already last week that I only care about two of this season's American Idol finalists right?

Make that one.

Photo credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX

Seriously y'all, I kind of am in love with Casey Abrams. I can't explain it.

American Idol Season 10 - The Final Baker's Dozen

After last season's horror, I had kind of decided that I was through with American Idol. But then came the new judges (I'm an unabashed fan of both J. Lo and Steven Tyler), and although I didn't watch the audition episodes I heard they were a lot better, actually showing people who could sing etc. And they made other changes too like adding online voting. And then came Hollywood Week which is when I would typically start my AI season viewing, and somehow I just got sucked into the machine again.
Then came the top 24 performances this week. I loved the fact that they were being so brutal and not prolonging the torture by cutting 12 folks right away this week to come up with the finalists. But I was so disappointed in the actual 24 people that I felt totally let down. Seriously there were barely 4 performances total that I liked for the week. Last night the finalists were revealed - 10 chosen by America (aka dumbass tween girls and creepy old men) and two 3 chosen as "wild cards" by the judges. I'm non-plussed by the results. There's only a couple of people to root for and there aren't enough people for me to hate (although you're on notice James Durbin and Scotty McTeery). I am firmly on Team Casey and Team Thia who share no common denominator other than they're awesome. And that Stefano kid is okay; also his mother works in my office so I feel like I kind of have to cheer for him. But I won't be wasting valuable DVR space on this show. I think I'll be catching the performances online the next day and maybe throwing some votes Thia's and Casey's way on americanidol.com

Television in Review - 2011 Grammy Awards

It's been years since I've actually watched the live Grammy telecast all the way through. But last night, hopped up on cold medicine and in a sated food coma from a delicious roast chicken meal prepared by my friend John, I was in just the right mood and position to watch the show. All 3 and a half hours of it! And here are some of the random thoughts that I came away with.

• Almost 85 minutes in and they had only given one award out for best Pop Album. It was disconcerting, but gave the message loud and clear that the night's telecast would be about the performances and not about the awards (most of which ended up being given out earlier in the day).
• Suprises of the night:

Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year and denying Lady Antebellum the top 3 sweep

Esperanza Spalding winning Best New Artist and denying the Bieber dominance. I love her and didn't even know she was nominated in this category. When her name was announced, the shock on everyone's faces was awesome!

• It's official. Katy Perry has won. I kind of love her now. Damn it.

• I still don't really get the Bruno Mars thing. But after last night's incredible performance with Janelle Monae and B.O.B., I'm starting to see the appeal.

• As much as I loathe Bob Dylan "singing" live, I enjoyed the hell out of the performance he did with Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers. Mostly because it contained more Sons and Brothers than Dylan.

• Cee Lo Green dressed like a 1975 Elton John and singing Muppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow in a cat suit and killer pumps) makes anything better.

• Lady Gaga is a fawking nut but she sure can write a catchy song. And knows her audience. But seriously I don't get the continuing comparison to Madonna or understand why people think this new song copies her?

 

UPDATE on Things that blew my mind

Last week, I posted about my shock at finding out that radio personality Jesse Thorn isn't even 30 years old yet.
Well, this week came an even bigger shock - I know Jesse Thorn's mother! Our mothers were very close friends back in the 1970s. In fact, I have a picture of Jesse Thorn's mom hanging in the entry way of my house!
The story of how I discovered this crazy small-world coincidence is kind of funny.
I'm a little behind on my Jordan, Jesse, Go! podcast listening, so it was only yesterday morning that I began listening to episode #159 with Nick Adams from a couple of weeks ago. About 5 minutes in, the guys started talking about Wesley Snipes and my mind immediately went to a story that my aunt Claudia (my mom's best friend) told me about meeting him once.
No sooner was that thought bubble floating around in my head, when Jesse Thorn started talking about his aunt Claudia, his mother's best friend, and the story he told was the same as mine!!!

Anyway, I screamed out loud as he continued talking about Claudia and it all came to me - OMFG, Jesse MOTHERF*CKIN' Thorn is the son of my mom's friend Judy! I don't know why I've never connected this. I've always heard about Judy's kid being on the radio, but for some reason I thought he was some DJ in San Francisco.  And because until just recently I thought that Jesse Thorn was in his late 30s, and I knew Judy's son to be in his late 20s, there was no way for my brain to put two and two together.

It's definitely been the best thing that's happened to me all week. I look forward to reconnecting with Judy. I feel like my mom is orchestrating this whole thing from above. Thanks mommy!

Things Blowing My Mind - for the week of January 10, 2011

I love America's Radio Sweetheart Jesse Thorn and regularly listen to a number of MaximumFun.org podcasts featuring him including Jordan Jesse Go, The Sound of Young America, and Judge John Hodgman. And even though I've seen Jesse Thorn in person, I recalled him looking like a younger version of Peter Sagal from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I thought he was a tall man with short dark hair who was in his late 30s.
But then I listened to him on a podcast relate a story about his stepmother where he was talking about being in 4th grade in like 1990 and I was like WTF?!!

Jesse Thorn looks like this -

Totally different than I thought or recall when I saw him at Bumbershoot in 2008. And he's only 29 fucking years old. Jeezus, I'm old.

I know I'm the only person on Earth who is shocked by, or who even cares about this revelation, but it was truly something that blew my mind. And kind of ruined my fantasy if I'm being honest.

REALLY?!!!

What the hell?! Is this what we've come to Washington state leaders? "WashYourHandsIngTon"?!!!!!? I'm embarrassed for us all.

Am I a bad Indian?

Okay, confession time - I don't find the term "American Indian" offensive.

As someone who can claim full heritage in more than two first nation tribes in the United States, I know I should probably care more about the argument over the political correctness of this name, but I just don't. And while I'm confessing here, I'll just go ahead and come clean that I also don't find any of this country's sports teams with Native American-themed mascots offensive either. These are shameful opinions for the daughter of two prominent AIM activists to have and share with the world.
I think it's sort of ridiculous that the NCAA has spent an enormous amount of time and money implementing their 2005 rule that colleges can't have Native American mascots; or that several colleges have wasted even more time and money choosing to fight this rule in court. The University of North Dakota is the latest school to lose their case for keeping their "Fighting Sioux" mascot. They were the last of the colleges to still be fighting the regulation (their case has been going on for almost 2 years). They have to come up with a new mascot and officially get rid of everything with the Sioux figure head and logo by next June.
Of the two Dakota Sioux tribes, the Spirit Lake tribal council has been overwhelmingly supportive of the university keeping the "Fighting" mascot; it's the Standing Rock tribe that opposes it and refused to budge. UND officials were hoping that they'd get to be grandfathered in with an exception like Florida State was when the Seminole nation (including my card-carrying AIM activist father) voted unanimously to allow FSU to keep its mascot and logo.
Redskins, Indians, Warriors. People wearing wigs and headdresses, or braiding their hair into a pig-tail on each side of their head and wearing a headband.

Young men wearing fringed outfits as they jump around on their playing fields and cheer their teams. Plastic tomahawks. Fake war cries, with people slapping the palms of their hands against their mouths and making aiyee ahh sounds. NONE of this bothers me. Does that make me a horrible person?
Do you think even less of me when I tell you that I just ordered a University of North Dakota "Fighting Sioux" hoodie while they're still available?

Here We Go!!

I'm participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month contest, aka NaNoWriMo. The goal is to complete a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Yes, that's right - write a novel in just 30 days!
If it sounds daunting, it is. But I'm going into this thinking about writing 1,500 to 2,000 words a day and trying to tell a somewhat coherent story; I'm not attempting to write the next great American novel by November 30.
So far so good; I've written about 2,000 words today. I have a basic idea of the story I want to tell but I know that this has to be my focus for the rest of this week or this enterprise will go nowhere fast. I've started a story framework outline to help, so we'll see what happens. I'll try to update everyone on my progress here.

Wish me luck!