Saturday, October 30, 2010

(#36) Feeding time with TV

I love television a bit too much. I tried to narrow my favorite shows down to three and couldn't quite make that.

1. Arrested Development

By far and away the cleverest show ever shown on television. Such a travesty that the wonderfully dysfunctional Bluth family only lasted three seasons. If you've never seen this show, do yourself a favor and rent it. I promise you will fall in love after three episodes.


2. 30 Rock
I love love love this show. Written from a backstage perspective of a weekly sketch comedy show a la SNL, it's magnificently fast-paced and hilarious. A worthy successor to AD's title of Funniest Show on Television.


3. Mad Men
Y'all know I love me some Mad Men.


4. Parks and Recreation
As The Office started declining in quality, Parks and Rec did the opposite. Such a funny mockumentary about the travails of life in small government - I realize that sentence sounds a bit ridiculous, but trust me.

Friday, October 29, 2010

(#35) Act Naturally


I have two favorite movies, and they're a bit disparate.

1) Jaws (1975)
I can't say anything about this film that hasn't been said by thousands of people for over thirty years, but I will say that I love that this movie is so much more than a big shark. There's so much human emotion - love and hate and humor - at the heart of it. My two favorite scenes are the one with Brody and his son at the dinner table and of course Quint's famous Indianapolis speech.
Masterful.

2) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
So funny. So well-written. So quintessentially '80s. SO GOOD.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

(#34) Three Marlenas


Day 1 of my blogging challenge is to discuss my favorite song. Picking a favorite song, singular, is kind of impossible for me, so I'll narrow it down to three, which is still pretty darn difficult.

I've done this before but here I'll add some to the list...

1. "Baba O'Riley" by The Who

This song is the end all be all for me. The synthesizer at the beginning, followed by the piano, then Moon on the drums then Entwistle with the bass and Daltrey coming in on the vocals...such a beautiful build-up. Even from the first twenty seconds of the swirling synth line, you can tell that something big is about to happen. And happen it does - my favorite five minutes of music on this planet. This song is so sweeping and epic to me and I feel like it says something when almost forty years after its creation, it still holds that power.
Don't forget the violin at the ending. Never forget the violin at the ending.

This is probably the most amazing cover I've ever heard of this song.

2. "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones
"Aw, yeah!"
This song just sums up the dirty blues of the Stones for me. The imperfections are what makes it great; the way individual bits of the music -even Jagger's lead vocals - fade in and out add to the dazed, spinning feeling of the piece as a whole and the rollicking piano and horns complete this song that is equal parts raw, confused, and quite honestly, just plain fun. To me, this is a summer driving song, to be played loud with the windows down.

3. "House by the Sea" by Iron & Wine
If you've never heard The Shepherd's Dog in its entirety, download/buy it right now and listen to it. I'll wait.
Back? Okay. Now, if your favorite track wasn't "House by the Sea," I...really don't mind, because there are so many great songs on this album I could see how it would be difficult to pick one. But still.
This is one of the strangest pieces of music I've heard and many adjectives could be used to describe it - wistful, haunting, beautiful, complex, mysterious, etc. The way the various sounds and strings flow together paint this gorgeous blurry sepia-toned picture in my head. I know I won't do justice to describe it so if I link to it here will you promise to listen to it? Thanks.


Whew. One down, twenty-nine to go.


(#33) Thinkin' Out Loud

File this under things I say way too often - I need to be a better blogger.

I got this list from Jessica's nifty blog and think it would be a good way to achieve this goal.

Day 1 - your favorite song

Day 2 - your favorite movie

Day 3 - your favorite television program

Day 4 - your favorite book

Day 5 - your favorite quote

Day 6 - 20 of your favorite things

Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy

Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 9 - a photo you took

Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you

Day 11 - a photo of you recently

Day 12 - something you are OCD about

Day 13 - a fictional book

Day 14 - a non-fictional book

Day 15 - your dream house

Day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Day 17 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)

Day 18 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding

Day 19 - a talent of yours

Day 20 - a hobby of yours

Day 21 - a recipe

Day 22 - a website

Day 23 - a youtube video

Day 24 - where you live

Day 25 - your day, in great detail

Day 26 - your week, in great detail

Day 27 - your worst habit

Day 28 - what's in your handbag/purse

Day 29 - hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Day 30 - a dream for the future


So watch this space, kids.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

(#32) Rock of Ages


30 Rock is definitely one of my top 3 favorite shows, probably because sometimes I am Liz Lemon. I own a Slanket, I find the prospect of Night Cheese to be a wonderful thing, and one time a Whale cracker fell out of my jacket.

Obviously I need to be her for Halloween.

Monday, October 18, 2010

(#31) Mad as Rabbits


Mad Men season finale tonight! Well, technically, it's already happened, but I'm going to catch the re-airing at 1. There's been so much speculation that Roger's going to commit suicide, and I really hope the internet gods are wrong.

This is the first season I've watched as it's aired, and I have not been disappointed. My favorite episode by far was "The Suitcase," with all that Don-and-Peggy bonding. How about you?



Monday, October 11, 2010

(#30) Oh, you think I'm in control

On the search to discover good music made in the last two decades, I came across and have been subsequently obsessed with Ida Maria.

I love a girl who can write a funny song about cute boys.

The video for "Oh My God" isn't very interesting, but the song...sigh.

And...school is happening again. I should be studying for a statistics exam, but the way I see it, I'm going to do poorly anyway, so why waste my time being miserable and studying when nothing will come of it?
Awesome life philosophy, I know.

I finished The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy recently. It was a beautiful story about a set of twins from Kerala, India and how seemingly unrelated details in our lives add up to create something much more significant. I'm pretty sure I'm going to read it again soon, and I would recommend you to do the same thing!

Rambling over.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

(#29) Hello Good Morning


I really really really really really really need to get back into blogging. I started a Tumblr, but I'm not so much of a fan. The system confuses me and I'm not hip enough to try to figure it out.
I think my problem with this blog was that I felt I always had to write witty interesting posts and I'm just not witty or interesting all the time.

I don't want to quit, though, and what better way to say hi again than with a big ol' picture of Jon Hamm?
It's good to be back.