wisteria

Crazy day. The local news has been predicting snow, but I assumed it was just the usual hyperbole. Well, it did start snowing a couple of hours ago, and I already have over an inch outside my front door. Cool! We hardly ever get any here, so it's always fun to see. Right now I'm watching CNN, which is freaking out over Atlanta weather as if the rest of the world gives a damn. ;) My school district dismissed an hour early, not that it made much difference to me as I took a sick day. Yup, I am definitely SICK, though I'm feeling a bit better now. This morning was awful, though. I slept for ten hours, and when I woke up I could barely move, thanks to the full-body aches and really bad congestion. I'll be over it soon, but right now I'm not having much fun.

The meteorologist on the local news said that right now all fifty states -- including Hawaii -- have snow on the ground, and that this is the first time that has ever happened, to their knowledge. Huh!

Thursday night TV was fun, if a bit dimmed from the glories of seasons past. Parks and Recreation keeps getting better and better, and I got a kick out of this interview with Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, if only for the nude photo. I was also cheered up by last night's 30 Rock, just because of the gratuitous Dean Winters appearance. I'm annoyed by NBC screwing with the scheduling so that my TiVo cut off the hysterical tag with Jon Hamm in a Jamaican accent. ( Collapse )

Though I don't have much to say about it, I also really enjoyed ( Collapse )

So I'll spend the evening recuperating while watching the Opening Ceremonies. Quite nice and understated thus far. And I'm probably the only American who doesn't mind the NBC crew talking over the Parade of Nations. Silly and obnoxious? Sure. But I often learn something from their patter. :)

I'm a very happy camper tonight, because Dean Winters is back on 30 Rock! I don't have a crush on him, per se, but dammit, he just makes me laugh. ( Collapse )

Today's linkspam:

-- Jezebel started by asking, "Are you sick of ladies on TV looking jacked up?" Then today Mo Ryan weighed in with an essay and pics of women whose faces I love.
-- She also talks about a few gay characters on TV, specifically Justin on Ugly Betty.
-- Salon asks if Portishead killed trip-hop.
-- Slate has an article about Deadliest Catch. I recorded a few episodes, but I can't quite get into it.
-- Vulture lists Jason Segel's five greatest Undeclared moments.
-- Two from Mental Floss: some cool marriage proposals, and quilts with mathematical designs.

Fandom stuff:
-- dionusia has another hilarious snark-n-squee recap.
-- bop_radar wrote an optimistic post about Piloticians.
-- abby_i posted some gorgeous Jamie pics from last weekend's con.
-- And I got into a discussion with queenofthorns about Lee's future career.

And finally, here's this week's ( Collapse )

1. I've been rewatching Conchords for the nth time. "Bret, You Got It Goin' On" still brings me great waves of delight.

2. Compiling links for last night's galacticanews update (yeah, we're finally back!) made me realize just how freakin' grateful I am that my flist knows the value of cut-tags. Yikes! There were some marvelous (non-fandom) posts over on the Gnews flist, but the impressiveness diminished when I had to hit PgDn four times.

3. Today's Mental Floss has a surprisingly challenging trivia quiz for The Office. I got 12 out of 18.

4. Mini-fandom news, while I gleefully await tonight's return of 30 Rock!
-- Sepinwall reviews the premiere, noteworthy because his paper wouldn't let him use "MILF". So we get gems like "Jack compares '(Prettiest Gal in the PTA) Island' to Shakespeare."
-- Vulture compares 30R to The Office.
-- Jezebel has a photo of the too-awesome-for-words Tina Fey on the cover of tomorrow's EntWkly, plus quotes from the article. I love this from the comments: "If I could convince Tina Fey and Tim Gunn to adopt me my life would be perfect."

5. Main fandom news, while I gleefully await tomorrow's new BSG episode!
-- Sitrep has video of Colbert's BSG shout-out.
-- dionusia, whom I love like pie, did a LOLCATS-ish picspam of the premiere. She also has an intelligent and insightful screencap review.
-- Here's a very angsty preview clip from tomorrow's episode.

And now for this week's silly screencap poll. Spoilers only for the official promo pics. ( Collapse )

Project Runway is moving from Bravo to LIFETIME?

*blinks*

And Bravo is pissed off. At least Tim and Heidi are sticking around, and the move won't happen until season six.

Mo Ryan also has clips from the new 30 Rock. I kinda love that it's titled "MILF Island". I think I should do a 30R marathon today (spring break!), after I finish my mini-marathon of Conchords. Mmm, Bret....

Tonight's episode of 30 Rock: thirty minutes of sheer, unadulterated AWESOME.

I'd quote half the episode, but I'm supposed to be writing BSG crackfic right now. Besides, all the quotes are so hysterical that they should not be hidden by spoilery cut-tags. So, I'll just repeat my mantra that I wanna be Tina Fey when I grow up, and (to borrow a bit from tonight's ep), she's my Ellen. I swear, this show gets more and more like my late, beloved Arrested Development, and I mean that in the best possible way.

My annoyance has not quite passed, but I've decided to ignore it because of many other fabulous things in life.

First up: I really enjoyed tonight's episode of The Office, much more than I have in quite a while! ( Collapse )

Today's NYTimes has a piece on 30 Rock's "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah". Just thinking about it makes me giggle. Pity it's been yanked off YouTube, or I'd link and share the hilarity. As for tonight's episode: ( Collapse )

I TiVoed the Scrubs season premiere, but I'm not all that motivated to watch. Guess I'm still too scarred from last season; this is the one show where I am an ANTI-shipper. I adore Elliot. I tolerate JD. I hate the idea of them ever hooking up. On the plus side, Sepinwall posted his list of ten classic Scrubs episodes. While I agree that Turk's "Poison" dance is magnificent (all hail Bel Biv Devoe!), my favorite from that episode is definitely The Sacred Heart Air Band performing "More Than a Feeling". Sublime.

Speaking of funny clips... nicole_anell posted more fabulous bits from The Daily Show's archive. How the hell could I have forgotten Colbert doing naughty things to a banana?

Since I've been on a Spoon kick lately, I couldn't resist rewatching Keepon dancing to "Don't You Evah". Even if you're not a fan, you should watch this little robot-thingy dancing. SO CUTE! Almost as adorable as Milky from Blur's "Coffee + TV". (I also have to pimp the video for Spoon's "The Underdog". Yay, mariachis! Single-take videos are very cool.)

Turns out last night's Bionic Woman was actually somewhat good, despite the profound lack of Katee. I'll join the others in saying that the show should just find some way to permanently turn Jaime into a Brit. Then again, all the behind-the-scenes drama makes me wonder if the show will even be around that long. Alas. The other day, Indi and I debated whether Katee should get her own show. While I'd love for her to be The Star, I'd rather her join a good ensemble drama such as Brothers & Sisters. I hate having to say, "She's great but the show sucks." ;)

PopWatch shared the new poster for Harold and Kumar 2. That is MAGNIFICENT.

Finally, in non-media news, I loved the Times' article "A Celebration of Tex-Mex, Without Apology", because you should never apologize for loving good tex-mex... even if it's horribly unhealthy. God, that photo of the cheese enchiladas (my favorite dish ever) is making me drool. Hey, Sis? When I arrive for Thanksgiving, you are required to pick me up at DFW and take me straight to Mercado Juarez, okay?

Once again, I am so very, very lethargic. I'm nervous that this is a sign that I am Getting Old, but I'd rather not think about that! ( Collapse )

Some thoughts on the week's TV: ( Collapse )

Life is good. Last weekend my Friday Night Lights DVDs arrived in the mail, and tonight I picked up the 30 Rock box set. Of course I jumped straight to "The Break-Up", which is not only hilarious, but it has Dean Winters! Whee! (My dream movie project is for him and Callum Keith Rennie to play brothers on a road-trip, ineptly robbing banks.) I've ripped two of my favorite scenes from the episode. Since I've been banned from YouTube (long story), I posted them to DailyMotion. They're way too hilarious for simple descriptions, so streaming copies are behind the cut-tags.

( Collapse )

Even though I'm not all that into High School Musical, I'm also wildly amused by the news of Vanessa Hudgens' nude photos. That link is worksafe, but you can scroll through ohnotheydidnt for the actual nude pic. Yikes! I suppose that's one way to break out of the Disney teen mold, huh? In their honor, I posted a haiku in sarmoti's comments.

Plus, some fandom-related Jamie stuff:
-- asta77 posted her exclusive interview with Jamie. ;) I especially love the baseball cap photo.
-- indigo419 found these great photos from Sunday's panel. The first one on page two is gorgeous.
-- While I was over at DailyMotion, I started posting those videos I took from Sunday's panel. Just go to my main page for the links. ETA: And here's one clip I didn't post last weekend: Jamie showing off the new hair. (Not spoilery.)

I was going to do a long post about being a hostess while entertaining out-of-town friends, plus some other life-related stuff. I'm still feeling sick, though, so I'll have to save that for another day. :)

Ah, Spring Break. My favorite part of, uh, spring. Nothing but blissful sloth until Monday morning. I had 5x7 and 8x10 digital prints made of the nephew (heretofore known as "the cutest baby in the history of babies") and set about shopping for frames. No dice! Neither Target nor Cost Plus had anything I liked, and I even swallowed my snobbiness and checked TJ Maxx, to no avail. Might try Pier1 tomorrow. Or maybe I should just wait, since Sis told me that yesterday she had TCBitHoB's photo taken with the Easter Bunny. Cute overload!

Some TV-related links for a slightly-chilly-but-blissfully-slothful Thursday:

-- Saturday night marks the premieres of America's Cutest Puppies and Adventures in Doggie Daycare. I link because everyone seems to love dogs... except me. I'm NOT a dog person (though, to be fair, I don't really like any animals except my cat.) Growing up, my sister's allergies prevented us from having any pets, so dogs have always made me uncomfortable, especially the hyper ones. Even cute puppies make me shrug. Dog lovers, feel free to unfriend me now. ;)

-- Super-sized 30 Rock tonight! With Will Arnett! *squee!* The 30R site has an amusing Celebrity Marry/Boff/Kill web game. Sepinwall wrote a great column about the show. And in honor of my beloved GOB, here's a montage of "I've made a huge mistake."

-- In other AD Alumni News, NBC.com also has a web-only episode of Andy Barker PI. I've been skipping the show, but I had to watch this one just for Amy Sedaris. Oooh.

-- Sepinwall also did a cool post asking for our favorite examples of popular music in TV shows.

-- Yet another new BSG videoblog! This one's awesome, thanks to Callis's impressions, Trucco "passed out on the ground", and Jamie wearing a metaphorical straitjacket.

-- For the flight home, I borrowed several of my sister's issues of Mental_Floss. The site itself is also a very cool read; definitely check out the blog. I really need to just get a subscription already. I also love them for linking to Men Who Knit.

-- Salon has an interesting article written by a nurse, giving her perspective on TV hospitals and especially House.

ETA: How much do I love my subject line?

I've been marathonning 30 Rock episodes today, and I thought I'd share the love -- especially to those of you who haven't tried it yet. It reminds me a lot of my beloved Arrested Development, though the humor here is more straightforward. Tina Fey's Liz is one of the few TV women with whom I actually identify; so many of her scenes feel very true-to-life, and her writing has a very female sensibility without being "girly". And oh... what could I say about Alec Baldwin? He's magnificent. If you liked any of his SNL appearances, especially Pete's Schwetty Balls, then you'll love him here. :) And for a much better-written plug, here is EW's recent review.

So, here are two of my favorite episodes:

1.03 - "Blind Date" - www.sendspace.com/file/tvjxws - ( Collapse )

1.08 - "The Break-Up" - www.sendspace.com/file/20pn32 - ( Collapse )

Two more things: Tonight's the premiere of The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Go, Danny and Oswald! Hell, I'm okay with almost anyone besides Rob and Amber. Okay, almost anyone. You can see videos at the official site, and EW.com has a helpful photo gallery. Even if you loathe reality shows, do watch TAR, if only for the gorgeous places they go, and for Phil Keoghan's hotness.

lyssie linked to this photo of Trucco from a con this weekend. WOW. I try so hard to resist, yet I am powerless against him. You can see the rest of the photos (including Aaron and Tahmoh) at the skiffy boards.

And now I'm going to curl up on the sofa and watch a few more eps. I should go outside and take advantage of our gorgeous day here in Atlanta -- 44 degrees and blinding sunshine -- but I'm feeling lazy. Maybe I'll open the blinds instead. :)