Well, as Tiffany noted in her comment, my life revolves around television. It's true. I am not ashamed. I've watched All My Children since I was about 4 years old...actually I have probably been watching my whole life but I don't remember the first 4 years! And it seems like I've been watching Law & Order for just as long, but I believe this is only season 11, and I am 25. So, it is fitting that I give some commentary on the new Fall Season.
First is the BIG disappointment: Joan of Arcadia was cancelled. Joan was the best new show since the West Wing. All the reviews were fantastic and the actors were unbelivable. Add in the fantastic script, and it was just an amazing show. My heart was broken. CBS gave no explanation. I had never heard anything about poor ratings. Instead, they keep crappy shows like Survivor, Yes Dear, and Numbers. But enough of that. Hopefully Joan will be on DVD soon enough and I can cuddle up with the re-runs and feel whole again. Combine that with Homicide: Life On The Streets and My So-Called Life and I will be all set.
Next, is the new shows. The good ones I have found so far are: Bones (Fox), Supernatural (WB), Invasion (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), Surface (NBC), and Threshold (CBS). None as good as Joan, but all at least interesting to begin with. Surface was perhaps the biggest surprise...I expected it to be corny, but it is really good & scary. I'm a bit worried that the Sea Monster story won't withstand an entire season...it feels more like a mini-series...but I have faith because the 1st two episodes were so good. Criminal Minds & Bones are classic crime dramas, but the actors are good and so far the stories are interesting...and I always love a good psychopathic criminal. Invasion and Threshold are sprung from the 4400 well. I'm not sure they will be as good as 4400, but they could be. Threshold has great actors, like Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek), but spends a little too much effort making the lead woman sexy. (Like watching her walk away in a paper gown like she was on a runway, and constant wind blowing thru her hair) But still it's good. Supernatural is probably inspired by Buffy, it's about 2 brothers fighting evil mythological creatures to find their father and vindicate their mother. I only saw the 2nd episode, but it was enough to make me watch again. This week Nightstalker will start on ABC, keep an eye out it promises to be a good one!
Finally, the old faves! Medium is back with a bang! Hopefully her husband will be less whiny this season...but other than that it's a great show. All 3 Law & Orders had fantastic premiers! The most exciting is the return of Chris Noth on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Noth is an L&O original, he was on before Lenny Briscoe or Jack McCoy! I love him. I am a little upset that they are treating him like the new kid on the block, who doesn't deserve to be in their unit, he was putting away bad guys when these other guys were waiting tables and auditioning for toothpaste commercials! But it seems that he will shock them by staying a step ahead of the game. I can tell his character has a sadness about him, he must miss Lenny like I do. CSI Vegas & Miami are good as always, but nothing shocking. Except that Ava LaRue from All My Children is now on CSI Miami! Worlds are colliding! I am also happy to see Two and a Half Men back, that show always makes me laugh. The only disappointment is the West Wing, which has been disappointing since Aaron Sorkin left, and that isn't going to change. It's even worse to watch re-runs on Bravo, when the scripts were so great, and then watch the real thing and my heart just sinks.
An unusual surprise is DaVinci's Inquest, being shown on UPN. It's a Canadian series that has been on for years, my mom watches it because she gets Canadian channels in Buffalo. It appears that UPN is showing the series from the beginning, which is years ago! I am curious to see how this very Canadian show does on American TV. I don't know if it is showing nationally, so let me know if you have it where you are! Here it is on Tuesday at 8pm.
Well, that's all! That's the new season! Let me know what you all think about your shows!
Monday, September 26, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2005
It's Almost Here!
Well, next week at this time I will be camping out in Metro Atlanta!! How crazy is that?? Yes, less than a week until Tiffany & I begin our big adventure: The Breast Cancer 3 Days. For those of you who haven't been following along, this means we will walk 60 miles over 3 days with about 3,000 other crazy people, in an effort to wipe out breast cancer. In order to walk, we each had to raise $2100 for research into a cure. It was an extraordinary commitment, but here we are! Ready to take the plunge.
I just reached my goal yesterday, I have raised $2115. It's an amazing feeling! Some of that money was from total strangers, some from my closest friends. Tiffany is at about $1800, but she will make it! If you would like to help her, PLEASE do!! Here is her website: www.tinyurl.com/4eojq We are allowed to raise money for 4 weeks after the event, so any donations you can make through October will greatly help us out!
I am getting really excited about all this. I know it will be hard and tiring, and there will be no TV, but I just think it will be amazing. I think I will be so proud when it is over. My whole life I have been slow, weak, and fat. I always found excuses not to participate in gym, I never could play sports or swim or rollerskate, and I was like 14 before I learned to ride a bike. So when I accomplish physical things, it means a whole lot to me. At the very least, it means I am not a quitter anymore.
This also means a lot because I am doing it for my mom. Last year, her best friend Lori died from breast cancer. My mom and Lori became best friends about 13 years ago, when my mom's previous best friend Sylvia died of breast cancer. Yep, that's right...two best friends lost in 12 years. And that is not all. My mom works in a hospital that is a veritable cancer cluster. She has so many friends from work with breast cancer it is obscene. I am really bad at the sympathy thing, so I know she always thought that I didn't care, or didn't even notice. But I did. And this is my way of showing that. And truly, it is making her very happy, and that is great.
The best part of all this is that Tiffany and I are doing this together. Training for this has made us incredibly close, and she is certainly one of my best friends. So much so, that she has conversations with me completely inside her own head without even telling me about them! LOL But thankfully, I can usually sense that and figure it out. But seriously, we will never forget these three days. I don't know if either of us will ever do this again, but no matter what, this will be our first and it will be an incredible landmark in each of our lives. I have friends literally all over the country. It is hard to keep up with everyone, but we make it. We make it because with each of those people, there is something extraordinary that binds us. Something that exists in our friendship that is only between us, so that we don't need the group dynamic to bind us. I hope that, because of this event, Tiffany and I will be close forever no matter how far apart we are. And I hope she will know that when I say my place is your place, I really mean it. Needless to say, I will be taking a million pictures so we will never be able to forget it.
So, next weekend, when you are all comfy on your couches at home watching TV, think about us sleeping in tents in Atlanta and smelling the worst we have ever smelled in our lives!
I just reached my goal yesterday, I have raised $2115. It's an amazing feeling! Some of that money was from total strangers, some from my closest friends. Tiffany is at about $1800, but she will make it! If you would like to help her, PLEASE do!! Here is her website: www.tinyurl.com/4eojq We are allowed to raise money for 4 weeks after the event, so any donations you can make through October will greatly help us out!
I am getting really excited about all this. I know it will be hard and tiring, and there will be no TV, but I just think it will be amazing. I think I will be so proud when it is over. My whole life I have been slow, weak, and fat. I always found excuses not to participate in gym, I never could play sports or swim or rollerskate, and I was like 14 before I learned to ride a bike. So when I accomplish physical things, it means a whole lot to me. At the very least, it means I am not a quitter anymore.
This also means a lot because I am doing it for my mom. Last year, her best friend Lori died from breast cancer. My mom and Lori became best friends about 13 years ago, when my mom's previous best friend Sylvia died of breast cancer. Yep, that's right...two best friends lost in 12 years. And that is not all. My mom works in a hospital that is a veritable cancer cluster. She has so many friends from work with breast cancer it is obscene. I am really bad at the sympathy thing, so I know she always thought that I didn't care, or didn't even notice. But I did. And this is my way of showing that. And truly, it is making her very happy, and that is great.
The best part of all this is that Tiffany and I are doing this together. Training for this has made us incredibly close, and she is certainly one of my best friends. So much so, that she has conversations with me completely inside her own head without even telling me about them! LOL But thankfully, I can usually sense that and figure it out. But seriously, we will never forget these three days. I don't know if either of us will ever do this again, but no matter what, this will be our first and it will be an incredible landmark in each of our lives. I have friends literally all over the country. It is hard to keep up with everyone, but we make it. We make it because with each of those people, there is something extraordinary that binds us. Something that exists in our friendship that is only between us, so that we don't need the group dynamic to bind us. I hope that, because of this event, Tiffany and I will be close forever no matter how far apart we are. And I hope she will know that when I say my place is your place, I really mean it. Needless to say, I will be taking a million pictures so we will never be able to forget it.
So, next weekend, when you are all comfy on your couches at home watching TV, think about us sleeping in tents in Atlanta and smelling the worst we have ever smelled in our lives!
Thursday, September 15, 2005
I'm Afraid of Americans
So, I have been wanting to write about this for almost a week now, but I keep forgetting! Last Saturday Tiffany and I went to a training walk. It was scheduled to start at 7am, but we thought we would get there at 6:15 and get a few extra miles in before the others got there. It was a game day, but we figured that since the game didn't start until 5:30pm, if we got there at 6am we'd be gone before the crowd got there. Apparently we are completely out of the loop!
When I got there at 6:10am, our usual parking lot was PACKED! People had already set up tents all over campus! The sun wasn't even up yet!!! It was crazy! By the time we found a place to park, it was after 6:30, so we didn't get much of a head start! After we started walking around campus, seeing more and more tents and cars, people parked on sidewalks and lawns, almost exclusively driving red SUVs, I noticed something really strange. Some people had satelites!!!! They had generators powering TVs hooked up to satelites. These were people WITHOUT TICKETS!!! People who came 10-12 hours before game time, to park on the lawn, set up a tent, and watch the game ON TV!!!!! This is by far the most absurd thing I have ever seen!! Well, wait, there was also the fact that all these people were drinking already!
It really was quite a spectacle. I mean I've seen the gameday traffic. It is crazy, but I never knew how early it started. By the time we left, around 11am, all the parking lots were packed with cars and tents and alcoholics. I went home, took a shower, talked to my mom, ate lunch, did some of my homework (read about 100 pages), and went grocery shopping....all before the game started. While hundreds of people sat on campus, drank, and held onto their prime parking space that they got before the sun came up, and that they will be stuck in for a few hours after the game because of the post-game traffic.
There was at least one fatality that night: a 20 year-old boy who was a passenger in a pick-up truck that crashed about half-a-mile from my house. They never officially said that drunk driving was involved, but I think in this town, on game day, it may be assumed.
This whole phenomenon really terrifies me. Not to mention the amount of money people spend on all these endeavors. And I wondered, how many of those people had spent the past week talking about the tragedy in New Orleans and how awful it was; and then thought nothing of dropping hundreds of dollars to see a football game. If all the money that had been spent on that game (tickets, gas, hotels, food, alcohol, parking, etc.) had been gathered and donated to the Red Cross, we probably could have beat Walmart out for top donation. Scary.
When I got there at 6:10am, our usual parking lot was PACKED! People had already set up tents all over campus! The sun wasn't even up yet!!! It was crazy! By the time we found a place to park, it was after 6:30, so we didn't get much of a head start! After we started walking around campus, seeing more and more tents and cars, people parked on sidewalks and lawns, almost exclusively driving red SUVs, I noticed something really strange. Some people had satelites!!!! They had generators powering TVs hooked up to satelites. These were people WITHOUT TICKETS!!! People who came 10-12 hours before game time, to park on the lawn, set up a tent, and watch the game ON TV!!!!! This is by far the most absurd thing I have ever seen!! Well, wait, there was also the fact that all these people were drinking already!
It really was quite a spectacle. I mean I've seen the gameday traffic. It is crazy, but I never knew how early it started. By the time we left, around 11am, all the parking lots were packed with cars and tents and alcoholics. I went home, took a shower, talked to my mom, ate lunch, did some of my homework (read about 100 pages), and went grocery shopping....all before the game started. While hundreds of people sat on campus, drank, and held onto their prime parking space that they got before the sun came up, and that they will be stuck in for a few hours after the game because of the post-game traffic.
There was at least one fatality that night: a 20 year-old boy who was a passenger in a pick-up truck that crashed about half-a-mile from my house. They never officially said that drunk driving was involved, but I think in this town, on game day, it may be assumed.
This whole phenomenon really terrifies me. Not to mention the amount of money people spend on all these endeavors. And I wondered, how many of those people had spent the past week talking about the tragedy in New Orleans and how awful it was; and then thought nothing of dropping hundreds of dollars to see a football game. If all the money that had been spent on that game (tickets, gas, hotels, food, alcohol, parking, etc.) had been gathered and donated to the Red Cross, we probably could have beat Walmart out for top donation. Scary.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Why I Am So Screwed Up
My parents' house is for sale. My mom doesn't know. My sister's best friend called her in NYC and said "Are your parents moving?? Your house has a for sale sign in the front yard." That is how we found out. My sister called my dad. He said "I just put the sign out there to see if we could get a good offer. I won't sell it unless we get a good offer." Well, that clarifies things. If the house was REALLY for sale he would sell when he got a bad offer, right?? What a dumb ass. So, my mom is right now sleeping in a house that she doesn't know is for sale. I know, my sister knows, the neighbors know, Black Mike knows, and now you all know. But my mother does not know. I will tell her in the morning. Let her get one more good night's sleep. Before she goes to prison for killing her husband.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Friendships
Warning: This one is heavy.
I just watched the movie Stand By Me for, like, the millionth time. If you have not seen this movie, you need to get up right now, go to Hollywood Video, and rent it. Your experience of the 1980s is simply not complete without it. If you weren’t alive in the 1980s, you are too young to be reading strangers’ blogs. You should turn off the computer and go enjoy your youth, immediately. For those of you who have seen this movie, your memories may need a bit of a refresher.
The entire movie is narrated by the character Gordy, as an adult. The story is about 4 twelve-year-old boys: Gordy, Chris, Vern, and Teddy who go on an adventure through the woods to find a dead body. In the end, Gordy mentions that he and Chris drift away from Teddy and Vern after they start middle school. The last line of the movie is something along the lines of “I never again had friends like the friends I had when I was twelve, does anyone?” Which, of course, made me think about my friends when I was twelve.
The funny thing is, I didn’t have many friends when I was twelve. Well, I guess it wasn’t funny at the time, at least not to me. I know that the year I was twelve I met a lot of the friends that would eventually become important to me. It seems like that was about the time when a lot of new people came to town. I am pretty sure I was twelve when I met Missy and Megan, and only like 13 when I met Michelle…all of whom I am still friends with now. But really, I didn’t have any good friends at the time.
I also don’t really have friends that I just “drifted away from.” Of course there were people who moved away and were never heard from again. But usually, if I was friends with someone in the past, and I’m not anymore, there is a good reason. There is almost always some vicious, terrible story to go with those friendships…many of them would make good after-school-specials. And, that realization got me thinking even more.
Why is it that all my friendships end in a ball of flames? Am I really such a horrible bitch? Is what the magazine horoscope columns say about me true? Has being born a Pisces made me completely incapable of any productive social interaction? But, it can’t be true…because I do have some friends that I have been with for a very long time. Some of those friendships had breaks in them, but that was caused by physical distance more than anything, there weren’t big fights. So, this is what I have come up with.
When I was younger, I was even more passionate than I am now. Except my passion was less political and more personal. If I was your friend, I loved you, and if I loved you I would do anything for you. I would give you my last dime, literally. I would risk my safety, my freedom, or my life savings, if I thought it would make you even the tiniest bit happier. That is how I ended up living in my car. That is how I ended up walking alone to and from work at Blockbuster in Buffalo snow. That is how I ended up sleeping in the dressing rooms at JC Penney. That is how I ended up teaching myself how to cope with rape, over and over again. I had given away every last thing that I had, including my own soul, and absolutely nobody gave anything back. Now I know that the reason was that I was giving to the wrong people, but that wasn’t any comfort back then. It really still isn’t any comfort now. So I guess the reason those friendships ended so horribly was that I was merely a shell of a person when they ended. I had given away almost all of myself willingly, so whatever had been taken that I considered to be the “last straw,” it had to be something huge. I mean, if I forgave you for totaling my car or getting me grounded for a month, then the thing I didn’t forgive you for had to be bone-crushing. And all that has changed me. So now, I love very differently.
I have wonderful friends now. Some who have been around for a long time and some who are pretty new additions. And I do love them all. But honestly, I can’t say that I would give my last breath, or even my last dime, unless it was actually going to save their lives. I know my friends are reading this, and I hope this doesn’t make anyone angry. But the truth is, my responses have become much more proportional. Like, when I was younger, if I had $10 to my name and my best friend had $100, I would give her my last $10 so she could afford that new stereo she wanted, even though it meant I wouldn’t eat dinner that night. And, my “best friend” would have taken that $10. Now, if I had $10 left, I probably wouldn’t give it to anyone unless they were starving, and even then I might only share it. That sounds selfish and cold, and I know that. But that’s what happens I guess. I have been conditioned to fear the worst in people. Or maybe I just finally learned that nobody is gonna take care of me but me, so I have to put myself first.
I think it is a good lesson though. You can’t take care of others unless you take care of yourself, and so starting with that as your base is probably a good idea. “Put the mask on yourself before assisting others,” right? I guess that movie just made me sad because all those boys took care of each other on that trip. (Also, because I have an inexplicable soulful connection to Corey Feldman that will never die.) They fought, but they always forgave. And I think that if I had been on an adventure like that when I was that age, with the people I called “friends” then, I would have woken up alone in the woods to find my friends had eaten all my food. And that would have been okay with me, because I would have brought the food for them anyway. I guess I am jealous of people who got to have give and take friendships like that. And I wonder what I could have done differently, in the course of my life, so that fewer people would have seen me as a target, and so I would have fewer vicious memories to deal with.
I just watched the movie Stand By Me for, like, the millionth time. If you have not seen this movie, you need to get up right now, go to Hollywood Video, and rent it. Your experience of the 1980s is simply not complete without it. If you weren’t alive in the 1980s, you are too young to be reading strangers’ blogs. You should turn off the computer and go enjoy your youth, immediately. For those of you who have seen this movie, your memories may need a bit of a refresher.
The entire movie is narrated by the character Gordy, as an adult. The story is about 4 twelve-year-old boys: Gordy, Chris, Vern, and Teddy who go on an adventure through the woods to find a dead body. In the end, Gordy mentions that he and Chris drift away from Teddy and Vern after they start middle school. The last line of the movie is something along the lines of “I never again had friends like the friends I had when I was twelve, does anyone?” Which, of course, made me think about my friends when I was twelve.
The funny thing is, I didn’t have many friends when I was twelve. Well, I guess it wasn’t funny at the time, at least not to me. I know that the year I was twelve I met a lot of the friends that would eventually become important to me. It seems like that was about the time when a lot of new people came to town. I am pretty sure I was twelve when I met Missy and Megan, and only like 13 when I met Michelle…all of whom I am still friends with now. But really, I didn’t have any good friends at the time.
I also don’t really have friends that I just “drifted away from.” Of course there were people who moved away and were never heard from again. But usually, if I was friends with someone in the past, and I’m not anymore, there is a good reason. There is almost always some vicious, terrible story to go with those friendships…many of them would make good after-school-specials. And, that realization got me thinking even more.
Why is it that all my friendships end in a ball of flames? Am I really such a horrible bitch? Is what the magazine horoscope columns say about me true? Has being born a Pisces made me completely incapable of any productive social interaction? But, it can’t be true…because I do have some friends that I have been with for a very long time. Some of those friendships had breaks in them, but that was caused by physical distance more than anything, there weren’t big fights. So, this is what I have come up with.
When I was younger, I was even more passionate than I am now. Except my passion was less political and more personal. If I was your friend, I loved you, and if I loved you I would do anything for you. I would give you my last dime, literally. I would risk my safety, my freedom, or my life savings, if I thought it would make you even the tiniest bit happier. That is how I ended up living in my car. That is how I ended up walking alone to and from work at Blockbuster in Buffalo snow. That is how I ended up sleeping in the dressing rooms at JC Penney. That is how I ended up teaching myself how to cope with rape, over and over again. I had given away every last thing that I had, including my own soul, and absolutely nobody gave anything back. Now I know that the reason was that I was giving to the wrong people, but that wasn’t any comfort back then. It really still isn’t any comfort now. So I guess the reason those friendships ended so horribly was that I was merely a shell of a person when they ended. I had given away almost all of myself willingly, so whatever had been taken that I considered to be the “last straw,” it had to be something huge. I mean, if I forgave you for totaling my car or getting me grounded for a month, then the thing I didn’t forgive you for had to be bone-crushing. And all that has changed me. So now, I love very differently.
I have wonderful friends now. Some who have been around for a long time and some who are pretty new additions. And I do love them all. But honestly, I can’t say that I would give my last breath, or even my last dime, unless it was actually going to save their lives. I know my friends are reading this, and I hope this doesn’t make anyone angry. But the truth is, my responses have become much more proportional. Like, when I was younger, if I had $10 to my name and my best friend had $100, I would give her my last $10 so she could afford that new stereo she wanted, even though it meant I wouldn’t eat dinner that night. And, my “best friend” would have taken that $10. Now, if I had $10 left, I probably wouldn’t give it to anyone unless they were starving, and even then I might only share it. That sounds selfish and cold, and I know that. But that’s what happens I guess. I have been conditioned to fear the worst in people. Or maybe I just finally learned that nobody is gonna take care of me but me, so I have to put myself first.
I think it is a good lesson though. You can’t take care of others unless you take care of yourself, and so starting with that as your base is probably a good idea. “Put the mask on yourself before assisting others,” right? I guess that movie just made me sad because all those boys took care of each other on that trip. (Also, because I have an inexplicable soulful connection to Corey Feldman that will never die.) They fought, but they always forgave. And I think that if I had been on an adventure like that when I was that age, with the people I called “friends” then, I would have woken up alone in the woods to find my friends had eaten all my food. And that would have been okay with me, because I would have brought the food for them anyway. I guess I am jealous of people who got to have give and take friendships like that. And I wonder what I could have done differently, in the course of my life, so that fewer people would have seen me as a target, and so I would have fewer vicious memories to deal with.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Kanye West
So, apparently Kanye West said, on NBC, something along the lines of "Bush doesn't care about black people." Then, a DJ on a local radio station quoted him and got a whole bunch of hate mail because people thought she said it. Well, Kanye, I am here to serve, so I thought I would help a brother out!! I understand why he said what he did, but I think it's fair to say the Bush actually loves black people...let me count the ways.
1. Bush, and his daddy, love the way that black people like Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas will spit on their entire race to go sit on Bush's lap like a hood ornament so that he looks like minority lovin' free spirit.
2. Bush loves the way he can send military recruiters to the Walmart parking lot and black teens will be sucked in by their charms (along with promises of steady income and a free college education), and he loves the way those same black teens look in fatigues when he sends them off to war in "Operation Human Shield." He also loves the way the media ignores the families of the black soldiers who don't ever come home.
3. Bush loves the strength of the black people, that enables them to carry his golf clubs while he is on vacation for 1/5 of his time in office.
4. Bush loves black people for their apathy and the way that they are so easily persuaded to stay home on election days.
5. Bush loves the way black people used to sell him drugs and not tell anyone about it, in exchange for money and protection from his daddy.
If anyone out there can think of things to add to the list, please join in!! We want Kanye to know the facts, and Bush to know that there are people out here who truly understand him.
1. Bush, and his daddy, love the way that black people like Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas will spit on their entire race to go sit on Bush's lap like a hood ornament so that he looks like minority lovin' free spirit.
2. Bush loves the way he can send military recruiters to the Walmart parking lot and black teens will be sucked in by their charms (along with promises of steady income and a free college education), and he loves the way those same black teens look in fatigues when he sends them off to war in "Operation Human Shield." He also loves the way the media ignores the families of the black soldiers who don't ever come home.
3. Bush loves the strength of the black people, that enables them to carry his golf clubs while he is on vacation for 1/5 of his time in office.
4. Bush loves black people for their apathy and the way that they are so easily persuaded to stay home on election days.
5. Bush loves the way black people used to sell him drugs and not tell anyone about it, in exchange for money and protection from his daddy.
If anyone out there can think of things to add to the list, please join in!! We want Kanye to know the facts, and Bush to know that there are people out here who truly understand him.
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