Monday, February 24, 2014

Proving I'm Not A Cultural Troglodyte - Or Maybe I Am

One of my resolutions this year is to write more personal entries in this thing.  I thought I would start out with an impossibly long entry about recent movies, tv and books.  Woo-hoo! (DISCLAIMER: I GO TO MUSEUMS AND CONCERTS, I SWEAR!)

Movies:

We saw "Dallas Buyer's Club."  So incredibly sad...we both knew we would cry like babies, and we did.  Matthew McCounaghey was astounding.  He conveyed so much with his eyes, and his body moved like a wary snake, curving and curling.  Jared Leto was more or less a standard character (bitchy drag queen to camp up the proceedings).  He brought more to it than was in the role.  Jennifer Garner's character was woefully unwritten.  She mostly sat around with sad face until there was the obligatory "stick it to the man" scene.

As for TV:

"Breaking Bad" - we're in the second half of Season Two and it is fucking amazing in every conceivable way.  I'm glad we're watching it the way we are: having watched the last eight episodes and then going back to the beginning.  Even though there are fewer surprises, there are still surprises aplenty, and knowing what's going to happen gives some of the drama extra heft.  The writing, acting and directing never cease to be top-notch. I'm wondering if it slows down S3-4 before it picks up again.

"The Walking Dead" - I love this show.  Because it's zombies and Carl and Michonne and Daryl and zombies and it's not the Governor and Andrea.  The last episode "Claimed" had me on the edge of my couch.  (Although Abraham's hair reminds me of "I Love Lucy".)  I have to DVR it and watch it after Jeff goes to bed.  This makes it extra fun because I'm sitting alone in the dark, and I can zip through the commercials.  I have a wild hope that Lizzie will throw baby Judith to a walker and Carol shoots Lizzie in the head.  The way Andrew Lincoln says "Korrl" never fails to crack me up.  Check out these "Previously On The Walking Dead" videos because they're funny as fuck.  I'm twelve.

"The Big Bang Theory" - one of the three shows I appointment watch, if you include TWD.  The other, of course, is "Supernatural".  Jeff and I gasped when Sheldon and Amy kissed.  With it being on every channel all of the time, we watch one episode a day several days a week. From the way my husband gets upset when Sheldon encounters Evil Wil Wheaton, I suspect Jeff identifies with Sheldon.  Oh God, I hope not.  He didn't like watching "Monk" because I'd be snickering and saying, "That's like you."

"The Crazy Ones" - I was enjoying this a lot, but now every episode has a Very Special Moment between Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar.  "You're the reason I'm alive" or some shit.  Also, James Volk is really funny, but Hamish Linklater (who is also hilarious) is getting a lot of the best material.  So it's off the DVR.

RIP "The Michael J. Fox Show".  But honestly, the Parkinsons seriously wrecked Fox's comic timing.  The rest of the show was funny in a meh kind of way.

I don't watch any scripted dramas, which is probably my loss.  I went through my syndicated "NCIS" phase but lost interest.  I watch old movies instead.  God bless you, TCM.  And the Sundance channel, now that the Independent Film Channel has COMMERCIALS!  GODDAMN YOU! DIE DIE DIE.

"Supernatural" - this is my major guilty pleasure.  I really love it and can't wait for each episode.  Even though I know it's not as good as it used to be, it doesn't have the "House" Best Show on TV to Complete and Utter Shit trajectory that made me so insane.  I also love writing the reviews because they're fun, but I worry that I'm wasting my time.  And when I find myself pondering the similar emotional journeys of Gadreel and Sam, that's when it becomes worrisome.

"Hoarding: Buried Alive" - my other guilty pleasure.  I love watching people living in garbage and freaking out when it has to be thrown away.  I feel their pain.  Don't ask.  I only admit to having a bag from the Container Store that says "Happiness is an organized closet" and I feel ashamed by an inanimate object.

Books:

Finished Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, a gift from a friend.  It's a memoir of an obsessive football fan in love with Arsenal, one of Britain's worst teams.  As a woman married to a Mets fans, I understand.  Even though I don't know nearly as much about football as my friend,  the parts about being a crazed fan hit the mark.  I'm hoping my husband reads the book.  There's one section that I can't find where Hornby talks about not going to parties, dinners, family events because of football.  It's so perfect.  Recently we were talking about an event in June.  I wanted to check when the finale of SPN S9 was, first!  (May)

Then I picked up The Most of S.J. Perelman. The binding came off my copy years ago, and then I found another 1950s hardcover in our laundry room!  S.J. Perelman is one of the greatest comic writers in the US.  As a kid, my older sister would read it to me.  I never really "got" Robert Benchley, he seemed so tame. Besides, how can you not worship a writer who names a butler Strabismus?  So I've been giggling my way through it, even though I'm supposed to be reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  Which was lent to me by my mother and has thus become the source of ceaseless nagging.

Phew!

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