Over the weekend I caught The Soup and was surprised and happy to see Keith Olbermann making a cameo. He actually made fun of the whole thing on Countdown last night too. Anyway, here’s the clip from The Soup:
Fun weekend
July 29, 2008 at 12:43 am (Personal)
Tags: New York, Obama, Personal, shopping
I had a fabulous weekend in New York for my birthday. When I got in Saturday afternoon, I did some shopping at Macy’s. Of course, in that Macy’s, the plus sizes are on the 7th floor. I guess that goes to show the lengths they’ll go to to keep people that aren’t model size from the general public. Their plus size department, though, is so huge and nice so it’s worth the adventures on the escalator. I did end up getting some clothes. Afterwards I hopped the subway to Union Square area. All over Union Square people are selling Obama memorabilia. I love that his candidacy has generated so much enthusiasm. I keep thinking that, even if things don’t work out (and God, please let Obama win!!), this has been such a memorable campaign and it’s great seeing people this excited about a candidate. So, anyway, I strolled over to Strand bookstore and got myself mesmerized with the $1 book racks. Of course at the end I ended up putting back most of the $1 books, except ones for my friend’s 1 year old son, and got the more expensive ones…I got A TV Guide to Life: How I Learned Everything I Needed to Know From Watching Television and Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope.
My friend then met up with me there and we had dinner at an Indian restaurant and had dessert at Max Brenner. We finished up the night by seeing the film Mamma Mia! at the AMC in Times Square. The film was fantastic…great music, sexy Pierce Brosnan, and of course Meryl Streep played a great part.
And Sunday we got up late and met my other friend for brunch at the Tick Tock Diner and did a whole buncha shopping in mid-town. I have to finish with a little story about the Bolt bus. This was my third time, I think, taking the Bolt bus and I have yet to be disappointed. On the way back I was really impressed, even though we did get stuck in tons of traffic out of New York and I missed my train (and had to take a cab home…damn bad Sunday Septa schedules). Some guy thought he was on the bus to Boston (how the driver or he didn’t realize this is beyond me) and realized his mistake when we started crossing the bridge. The driver had some Bolt associate meet us at the first rest stop in NJ and drive him back to the Bolt stop. Now that’s some great service!
I will leave with a clip of Abba:
On turning 29
July 26, 2008 at 12:10 pm (Personal)
Tags: age, Personal
I turn 29 today, one year till I turn 30. I didn’t think I’d be one to care that much about ages, but this year I’m getting a bit introspective, which I suppose is natural with a milestone birthday a year away.
Most of my college friends seem to be settled in careers and/or settling with partners. I’m not doing any of these things and I know that these days it’s common for 30-somethings to still be in transition, but I guess I grew up having certain expectations for my age. I know I have accomplished quite a bit, but I still don’t see it as enough.
Sigh, I will stop at there. Next weekend, if I don’t have to work, I was thinking of having a Sex & The City marathon. I did just get the last part of season 6 from Amazon. I think watching that will help me.
In tribute, here’s an episode of Friends that’s appropriate for this morning…it’s where they all recall their 30th birthday.
The annoying end of Will & Grace
July 25, 2008 at 3:01 pm (Entertainment)
Tags: TV, Will & Grace
Ok, I promised myself no more TV blogging this week, but what the hell. When I go into work late I end up watching sitcoms on Lifetime most of the morning while I’m doing stuff around the apartment. So…right now they are showing what I think is the last season of Will & Grace. Now, I really do love so much about Will & Grace and I still contend that the Karen/Jack storylines are so much more entertaining than the Will and Grace storylines. But of course since I love the show so much I do care about Will and Grace. I started getting bothered by the show when they brought in Harry Connick, Jr. as Leo. I couldn’t stand Leo’s character and didn’t like his relationship with Grace at all.
So, around then I really watched the show primarily for the Karen and Jack’s stories. I really had no feelings one way or another about Vince, the cop Will ended up marrying, but I was happy they finally let Will have a long term boyfriend after all these seasons. That was one of my issues the series too.
Anyway, right now they’re showing an episode of W&G where Grace is pregnant and having Will help her with her Lamaze class.
Of all the series finales, in my mind, I think Will & Grace had one of the worst. The Jack & Karen stories ended good and funny, as expected. Then I hated that Grace took Leo back after he did all that cheating on her. But I found it extremely unrealistic that Will & Grace went 20 years without talking at all. As for their kids meeting at college and falling in love…that was a little too unrealistic for me too.
It really made me upset that such a generally good show went out in such a bad way. Boo!!
A good Jack, Rosario & Karen moment:
Egg on my/your face
July 25, 2008 at 2:42 pm (Language)
Tags: Frasier, Language, linguistics
I have started hearing the idiom, “egg on my [your] face” more and more often. I never really knew what it meant, but this morning I did a quick search on it to find the meaning and possible origin of the phrase.
I did find my answer. As for the meaning or implication:
It often implies that you have made a serious mistake, but more strictly it indicates that something you have done (or some turn of events) has left you looking extremely embarrassed or foolish.
About the phrase’s history, the World Wide Words website, a site that traces word/phrase origins mentions a few possible roots:
It feels like one of those expressions that have been around for ever, but the evidence suggest that it’s an American expression from the middle of last century (its first known appearance was in an American television series about 1951). It’s possible, though, that it is somewhat older, though I haven’t been able to find it in my large collection of out-of-copyright e-texts, which suggests it is more recent than the 1920s.
I know of two possibilities for where it came from. My assumption to start with was that it was a comment on a minor social gaffe at a meal, when poor manners or sloppy eating left egg around your mouth. The late John Ciardi, however, suggested an origin in the lower and more rowdy kind of theatrical performance, in which an incompetent actor would have been pelted with eggs and forced off the stage.
The full origin can be found at the link above.
Also, if you recall the theme song of Frasier, there’s a part where he sings about scrambled eggs being all over his face…so, I always find origins like this interesting.
Seeking Happily Ever After
July 25, 2008 at 12:33 am (Film)
Tags: documentary, Sex & The City, single
I came across an interesting sounding documentary while looking at the Feministing blog today. I think I stumbled upon it somewhere else a few weeks ago, but I took some time to peruse the website today. Being an almost 30 single woman myself, it especially piqued my interest. From the Seeking Happily Ever After website’s summary:
There are more single women in their 30s today (by choice) than at any other time in history, according to a recent US Census. Why now? Are women redefining happily ever after? Filmmakers Kerry David and Michelle Cove decided to find out. They went underneath the bubbly surface of Sex and the City to talk to hundreds of single women and find out what’s really going on.
The documentary has interviews with single women over 30, discussing both their happiness and even their struggles with their position. No longer is the Cinderella story considered what every little girl wants.
They have a nice little preview video on YouTube:
Flashback
July 22, 2008 at 11:46 pm (Music)
Tags: 90s, grunge, iPod, Music, nostalgia
I have about 13,000 songs on my iPod and usually people are shocked to hear that, but I really love my music and listen to pretty much everything. I am probably what you would call a music geek.
So, occasionally a certain song will come up and my mind will automatically flashback to the time when the song meant a whole lot to me or was the soundtrack to whatever was going on in my life. Today that song was Here and Now by Letters to Cleo. This wasn’t super popular, but reminds me of my high school years and just the whole atmosphere that was my life in the early 90s. These days I wish I had those problems I had then…back then I thought my petty little issues were going to be the end of my world, but now I’d love it if my only problems were how to get a certain guy friend to see me as more than that and wondering if I’d find a place to fit in. Anyway, today when this song came on I played it at least 3 times…it takes me right back to that place since, as I recall, I played it over and over when I was that age. I did find a video of it on YouTube. I love YouTube for having so many quirky videos like this easily available.
And eek! I found the video of Beavis & Butthead making fun of it. 🙂 Their making fun of it was still funny to watch for someone that loved the song. Ah, the good ol’ days when B&B was considered such a “dangerous” show. 🙂
Estelle Getty, RIP
July 22, 2008 at 11:32 pm (Entertainment)
Tags: 80s, Golden Girls, memorial, TV
I was sorry today to hear about the passing of Estelle Getty, best known for playing Sophia on the Golden Girls. She played such a great part on the show and, luckily, the show has become part of TV history and we will probably be able to enjoy reruns of Golden Girls for many years to come. So, here’s to you, Estelle, and may you rest in peace knowing that you had such an important impact on the world.
Here are some great Sophia moments:
Larry Mendte melodrama
July 21, 2008 at 11:49 pm (Entertainment, Local, Personal)
Tags: news, Personal, Philadelphia, television
I have been following the story about Larry Mendte with a moderate amount of interest. I don’t usually get into these types of Philadelphia stories that they beat into the ground, especially considering all the problems in this city that will take forever to resolve. Michael Nutter’s doing a great job and I still say I’m so proud of our city for voting him in. But…my discussion about the troubles in Philadelphia can be put off for another blog.
Back to Larry Mendte, though…of all the newscasters in Philly, he’s one that I’ve always felt a certain fondness towards, moreso since I officially moved here. Larry and his wife, Fox news anchor Dawn Stensland, live in Chestnut Hill and on several occasions I’ve seen him come into Starbucks. He’s always seemed like a generally good guy. My friend H worked with him, too. After graduating college, she got a job at NBC-10 through an internship she had there, and told me about what a rough time she had with the majority of her co-workers at the station, including one of the weekend anchors that really treated her like crap. She said, though, of all the anchors there, Larry Mendte and John Bolaris were among the nicest ones. Larry always made people laugh and was always telling jokes about Dawn’s absent-mindedness. So, knowing what I know of Larry and the fact he was a bright spot for my friend during one of her more difficult times, I was very disappointed to hear of these allegations against Larry. Now that Larry has been convicted and will likely be go behind bars for these charges, I’m still not going to be quick to jump down his throat. What he did was certainly wrong and he should get some punishment, but I hope he eventually comes out of this learning a good lesson and maybe gets back into the media in some form.
High Fidelity
July 20, 2008 at 11:51 pm (Film)
Tags: Film, Jack Black, Music
Today I finally got around to watching High Fidelity all the way through. I generally like John Cusak and dig his characters. He played the brooding, introspective Rob here that recalls all his past relationships and wonders where everything went wrong. I really wasn’t wild about the character of Laura, who he ended up getting into this spiral over, but I enjoyed following the story of him getting to this point.
I especially loved the record store Rob owned and he and his friends’ obsession talking about music and talking so geekily about different artists. Jack Black gave a great performance, playing a wacky character he’s generally good at playing. The general soundtrack to the film went along well with the whole story.
Pish Posh Etc. 