Category Archives: media madness

Idol thoughts

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Yep, sucked in.

I missed the beginning of the show, so I didn’t see Creepy Phil’s (TM Eden) performance. I didn’t see all of Jordin’s performance either, but I did check it out on YouTube yesterday.

Wow. That girl can sing. “A Broken Wing” just might be my very favorite Martina McBride song. I always cringe when people try to sing it, because they nearly always screw it up. Jordin most certainly did not.

I thought Melinda was fantastic as well, singing “Trouble is a Woman.” I’m pretty out of touch with the country scene these days, so I didn’t know the song, but she did great. She also looked good. (I hear there have been some issues with her looking too old.)

My thoughts on most everyone else=meh.

I didn’t think Sanjaya was awful, but he was pretty boring. Chris, I thought, was awful. I don’t think you should be allowed to do a song by last year’s contestants/winner. I dunno…it just seems wrong.

I think all the boys should go. They’re just, eh. I think the final two should be Jordin and Melinda.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Watching, watching, watching

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Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of watching. Reading will pick up a bit once the semester winds down!

I’m not sure I’m going to hit everything I’ve watched recently. I’ll encourage Rand to refresh my memory if necessary!

On DVD

Stranger than Fiction…it got tepid reviews, but I have to say that I rather enjoyed it. The story was clever, it was told well, it had a satisfying ending, and Maggie Gyllenhall was adorable.

The Passion of the Christ…I told Rand I’d watch it if he’d skip the Jesus beatings for me. He’d seen it when it came out, I hadn’t. It was very, very Catholic. Many images were exact replicas of the Stations of the Cross that you see hanging on the walls of Catholic churches, except the movie images were bloodier. There were moments worth seeing, but I still thought it was mostly gratuitous and not really necessary. Give me Jesus Christ Superstar any day.

Shaun of the Dead…I loved this movie! I loved the way it played with your expectations. I loved that it was both genuinely funny and genuinely scary. I loved the way Shaun went from being a hapless loser to being a hero. Yeah, there were a couple of moments when I had to turn my head, but overall, I just adored it.

Let’s Go to Prison…I wouldn’t have seen this if hadn’t been made by Bob Odenkirk, who I know is funny. I enjoyed it. It was subversive and subtle and indeed very funny. Will Arnett was pretty much Will Arnett, but he does it well.

At the movies

Grindhouse…Actually went to the theater! I really enjoyed the first feature, Planet Terror, which was directed by Robert Rodriguez. It was great fun. It starred Freddy Rodriguez and Naveen Andrews (yum!) for one, and Robert Rodriguez really kept his sense of humor about him. I’d watch this movie again. The fake trailers were hilarious.

And then there was Death Proof. Sigh. I’m not a Quentin Tarentino fan to begin with, but I think he’s become more insufferable, if that’s possible. His movie was deadly serious, and not really all that good. I was bored. I was bored during a dramatic car chase that had a girl clinging to the hood of one of the cars. Tarentino’s dialogue wasn’t even very good. It was tedious and pointless. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t funny. He’s obviously in love with the sound of his words. I’m not.

On TV

Ooh, these last few episodes of Lost have been fantastic. I’m completely riveted! I’m back into waiting on the edge of my seat to see what happens next.

Rand and I have watched all 6 episodes of Andy Barker, PI and found it quite fun. I knew, though, not to get attached. It’s already gone buh-bye.

Looking forward

New Heroes next week. Yay!

Saw a trailer for 1408. Stephen King + John Cusack = GOLD! 🙂 Well, that is if they don’t screw it up. And given that neither William Goldman (Misery) nor Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) is involved, well, the odds are pretty good that it’ll be screwed up. But I’m in anyway.

Hot Fuzz, from the same guys who brought us Shaun, also looks promising.

Busy, busy

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I have a lot of things I want to write about. I also have a bunch of essays I need to read before tomorrow. Bleah.

A fun (if tiring!) weekend was had…both Ookla shows were lots of fun. My parents were in town for the Nietzsche’s show and got to see Rand in action for the first time. They seemed to enjoy it. They also liked Greg Klyma, which didn’t surprise me a bit!

Rand and I have stepped up our Netflix viewing, so I have several movies to report on…among them The Passion of the Christ, Stranger than Fiction, Let’s Go To Prison, ummm….I’m drawing a blank. But there have been a bunch in the past couple of weeks.

I wrote about this at Required Reading over the weekend, but I’ve joined a fun little site called goodreads. Check out my profile here and be my friend! 🙂

Country night on Idol

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Ah, if it weren’t for blogs, I wouldn’t even know it was happening…but now I think I might have to watch.

Why? Because Martina McBride is the vocal coach for country week, and she is ten kinds of amazing. I heart her.

It’ll probably suck. I’ll probably watch it anyway. Thank heavens for tivo.

Big Ookla weekend

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I know there were at least a couple of people who wanted to make it to the last show and couldn’t, so I just wanted to remind you about this weekend’s Ookla events. 🙂

The band will be in Rochester tonight at the California Brew Haus–the show is scheduled to start at 9.

Tomorrow, they’ll be playing an early set at Nietzsche’s along with Greg Klyma and Tom Bianchi. Show starts at 7 and should be over by 10, as Big Leg Emma is scheduled to take the back stage at 10.

Hope to see you there!

Disturbed about Disturbia

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So I was watching TV earlier today, and I saw a promo for the movie Disturbia. Plot synopsis:

A teenager on house arrest starts to spy on his neighbors. He spies on a pretty girl neighbor who gets caught up in his spying, and they begin to suspect that one of their neighbors is a (gasp!) serial killer.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s pretty much the plot of Rear Window. Which is what came to mind when I saw the promo, so I headed to IMDb to check it out. There’s a snarky debate going on in the comments section about whether it’s a remake or an homage, or whether everyone should just shut up and get over it already.

I headed over to the official site, and saw that the screenwriter had this to say:

“One night, as I was driving home from my sister’s place, this idea just popped into my head–a story about a kid who is stuck in his house and begins to notice bizarre things happening across the way. He eventually comes to suspect that his neighbor is a serial killer.”

Uh huh. And you’ve never seen Rear Window.

It’s not that I’m opposed to remakes on principle…yeah, they’re rarely as good as the original, and they’re usually about Hollywood types making a quick buck instead of coming up with something original, but whatever. I only have a problem when a writer pretends the idea was original when it clearly was not.

People adapt screenplays all the time. There’s a whole category for it in the Oscars, after all. But taking someone else’s idea and pretending it was your own? That’s just wrong.

Children will listen

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So, Into the Woods.

I’d never seen or heard Into the Woods before the weekend. I was vaguely aware of the basic story, and I think the melodies of a couple of the songs had worked their way into my consciousness at some point, as they sounded somewhat familiar.

As I mentioned, my cousin Scott (a sophomore!) got one of the leads in the musical this year. He played The Baker (which you might say is the lead, given that he was the last one out for curtain call), and he did an absolutely outstanding job. His voice, his acting, his comic timing…all great. I was very, very impressed.

me and scott

That blur of fuzzy yellow hair behind us is Rapunzel, who was also fantastic. Really, I don’t have anything bad to say about any of the kids who were in the show. They did a terrific job.

I loved the first act of this show…the way the stories are tied together is pretty clever, the music is good, and it’s generally fun. Act 1 ends on a nice, upbeat note…and then comes Act 2.

Man, is Act 2 dark. Princes are cheating on their wives, bakers wives are cheating on their husbands, characters are dying all over the place, being squashed by the giant and whatnot.  Eep.

But that said, the finale song “Children Will Listen” is lovely, and brought a tear or two to my eye. (and really, it’s not a musical unless I’ve shed some tears…)

Anyway, I say “bravo!” to the cast and crew of Into the Woods, St. Marys Area High School, March 2007. And I make a mental note to see more musicals. 🙂

Ookla pimpage

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Hey, I almost forgot…I told Rand I’d mention this on the blog today!

Ookla spent some time in the studio remixing and remastering their CD Less Than Art, which has been out-of-print for quite some time. It was quite worth the effort, because it sounds fantastic! You can hear a couple of the tracks on Ookla’s myspace page.

For more Ookla-related news, check randland. (gasp! he actually posted!)

Finally, for those of you who missed the February show, or for those who are dying for another, the guys have three (count ’em, three!) shows coming up in April.

On April 13, they’ll be at the California Brew Haus in Rochester. On the 14th, they’ll be at Nietzsche’s with Greg Klyma and Tom Bianchi (Greg and Tom are great musicians and all-around awesome guys. You can’t go wrong here!).

Then, on April 27, they’ll be back at Nietzsche’s. Details are at the myspace page, and I would guess on the Ookla website as well.

Busy day

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eyebrows

I was way past due for an eyebrow wax, so I called Chez Ann this morning…I like them because they use the “sugaring” technique. I don’t know what the technical difference is, but I can tell you that it’s much less irritating than wax.

shopping bags

Then I went to Wegman’s to pick up a few necessities, and I just had to grab a couple of these resuable shopping bags.

basil plant

I would so love to have an herb garden. I can’t really do it right now, but I did pick up one of these little basil plants (2 for $5!). Mmmm…fresh basil. It’s on the kitchen windowsill, and it’ll need a proper pot.

turtle brownies

Finally, I made brownies. These were box brownies, but I added chopped pecans and caramel topping. Voila! Turtle brownies.

This afternoon, I’ve been enjoying music from Pandora, grading papers, and doing laundry. Ooh, excitement! Hope you’re all having a lovely day. 🙂

Reading, watching, listening

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Reading: Mostly student work these days…other than that, I managed to do a read-through of my NaNoWriMo novel. I wrote a bit about it at my writing blog, if you care about that sort of thing.

I also skimmed a bunch of grammar-type books to write this month’s Absolute Blank article over at TC. I began reading Spunk & Bite, which you can see along with all the others in our Amazon Store.

I read the first issue of the new Buffy comic, which I did enjoy, but I’m not sure I have the patience for monthly comics. Then again, do I have the patience to wait until it’s collected? Hmmm…

I have a bunch of things I’m looking forward to reading, like Laurie Halse Anderson’s new book Twisted, which was released today.

Watching: I think Lost is the only current show w/new episodes that I’m currently watching. It’s been fantastic lately, if I do say so.

Rand and I finished the second season of MASH last night. (How many more seasons is Frank on? Gah.) Toward the end of the second season, there was an episode that had to be groundbreaking television in 1974, dealing with a gay soldier. I was impressed.

Over the weekend, we saw Catch and Release at the dollar fifty movies. I liked it okay, and cried a bit at the end, but there were a few too many distracting plot holes for me to love it. The movie stars Jennifer Garner as Gray, a woman whose fiance has died just before their wedding. The question I had to keep asking myself was “doesn’t she have any friends? Or family?” It’s possible, I guess, that the answer to those questions is no, but that was never explained. I’m just pretty sure that if my fiance died, my family and friends would be there. I’m just sayin’.

Jen cries like no one else out there, and Kevin Smith was indeed as great as everyone said. Oh, and Timothy Olyphant (of Deadwood) is hawt.

I also watched Mean Girls…Rand had never seen it. 🙂 Oh, and I almost forgot…we watched The Full Monty, which I had seen before, but Rand just bought on DVD.

Listening: At present, I’m listening to KT Tunstall’s Eye to the Telescope, which I finally purchased from iTunes. I *heart* iTunes. And having an iPod. (I like the album quite a bit, too!)

As always, any recommendations are welcome. 🙂