Category Archives: TVTVTV

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Enough food to feed a third world country and that’s what I’m eating for every meal. Just STARVING lately but presumably due to STRESS.

Making: Absofuckinglutely nothing. Made a little progress on Ame’s friendship star beginning of last week. Since then: nuttin’, honey.

Reading: Dad’s and my March challenge short stories “The Complete Stories” by David Malouf which are breathtakingly good. Best short stories I’ve EVER read? I’m thinking so.

Watching: LOST which is fucking rocking my world. And other shows that really aren’t as good: Jericho (OK, not great); New Amsterdam (really kinda bad but the dude is so watchable, what can a lonely girl do?); How I Met Your Mother (I do not call last night’s episode returning with a bang, sorry kids) and some DVDs to help me out during the 2008 CD Reorganization Project, I’ll try to pop in and tell you about them before I take off. Have had many plans to go to U2 3D over the past few weeks. All have fallen through. I hope it’s still playing when I get home!

Listening: Obsessively to Jesse Malin “Glitter in the Gutter” which is in CONSTANT rotation, I just can’t stop playing it. Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago” and Matt Costa “Unfamiliar Faces” are close seconds. Also getting to know the new Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks. A bit rougher/less produced than Malin but pretty damn good. Have been introducing other slackers to Nada Surf “Get Lucky”, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (self titled) (FUN!), Mike Doughty “Golden Delicious” and Missy Higgins “On a Clear Night”. Going to see The Raveonettes tonight although I haven’t gotten through the entire new album yet; everytime I start listening something else gets in the fucking way!

and p.s. thanks to Fuel/Friends and the LaBlogotheque Concert à Emporter of Stephen Malkmus, this morning I am listening to Reckoning (yes, that’s R.E.M. to you young’uns) which has not been listened to full on…in many years. So many good songs on this album.

Random TV Items

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All from Ask Ausiello.
April 14 begins six more (new) episodes of Bones.
April 21 begins five more (new) episdoes of Gossip Girl.
And “Tim Riggins” will be “Gambit” in the Wolverine X-Men spinoff.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Potbelly turkey on skinny wheat, no cheese, just a little mayo. How can a plain turkey sandwich be so stinkin’ good? Also chocolates from Moonstruck in Portland (thanks to Melanie) and Charles Chocolates in San Fran (thanks to Silvia). Because it’s everyone’s goal that I be the fattest girl in the world.

Making: Very very weak attempts at the daisy-stitch handwarmers I told Amanda I’d make her. Ugh, what an annoying pattern, the K3tog, yo, K3tog into the same 3 stitches was way too annoying on wooden needles — talk about hand cramps! Will try again with addis. Lots of THINKING about the quilting I want to get done in the next few weeks, but given I was just out of town for a few days, nothing done on that front.

Reading: Dad’s and my February challenge book “The Good Soldier Svejk” by Jaroslav Hasek (Svejk pronounced Shvayk). It’s hilarious. Total farce. Along the lines of Tristam Shandy. With a few random other things thrown in here and there, particularly in airports, but those are all finished now.

Watching: The same movies over and over (hello Juno, I’ve seen you before. A few times.) with yay! a few fresh episodes of TV (Bros&Sis, Terminator, Jericho, Lost, Eli Stone) thrown in. It’s almost like a season in full swing. Almost!

Listening: For several weeks, all I listened to were the new albums from Nada Surf, Missy Higgins and Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set. Now I’ve got a few others thrown in including the beautiful Bon Iver (oh did you just hear my heart break?) released yesterday, just for me I like to pretend; a new Mike Doughty, because you can never go wrong with Mike Doughty; the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, based in Chicago, not Britain; live sneak peeks of tunes off the upcoming Counting Crows double album… There’s a lot going on all of a sudden.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Making: Shower gifts. Self portraits (damn you, 365 flickr project, you are killing me).

Reading: After reading the same two books for the first three weeks of the month (“Tree of Smoke” by Denis Johnson and “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A.S. Byatt ), I’m now in a flurry of finishing, those plus some others thrown in. I haven’t written any January reads up yet, but you can always view the current year’s list to know what’s going on. Just finished the Johnson on my way to work today so tonight it’ll be pick out a new book time. Yay! (Either that, or wait until tomorrow when I have time to go to the bookstore and pick up the new Pat Barker.)

Watching: I finished “catching up” with How I Met Your Mother on my majorly delayed in every direction plane rides this weekend, whipping through the end of season 2 and all that’s been shown of season 3 so far (this strike cannot end soon enough!). While Barney cracks me the fuck up (and damn, nice abs, boy), I think Marshall is my favorite character. And I haven’t seen ANY new movies because instead I just keep going with people to see Juno (their first times, my second, and third, and fourth) again and again.

Listening: Over and over again to Sea Wolf “Leaves in the River”, as I have been since mid-December. Also Matt Costa “Unfamiliar Faces”; he has a real sense of fun and joy (and quirkiness) in his tunes. Cat Power “Jukebox” although I like the first three-four songs the best and I usually move on after that. Bought some new stuff in San Fran but haven’t listened yet…

TV: Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles

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I’m not feeling quite as enthusiastic toward this show as I was last week…as the longer you watch, the more it seems they have dumbed down the terminators. As my dad points out, clearly they don’t program them to “look both ways before crossing the street” as both Eps 1 and 2 featured a terminator/car collision, virtually identical shots. And as each episode has progressed, all the way through 3, Summer Glau’s character becomes more and more mechanical, actually the opposite direction you would expect her to be going given how much time she’s spending with the humans.

In the first episode, she / her character was credibly passing as a fellow student (as well as the bad dude terminator who appeared credibly human while taking attendance up until calling on John…but since then is complete machine). In Ep 3, every (somehwat bizarre or “non human”) thing she does is followed by her staring blankly at the humans around her. Way to blend in, not. Why is her ability to modify her terminatorish behavior to appear more human actually decreasing?

Liked seeing the soft side of Sarah / just burns down Andy’s dreams and all the work of his past three (or was it five? can’t remember) years instead of killing him. Of course, he has no idea he’s getting off easy. But didn’t really like the subplot at the school / with the mysterious painting slowly revealing the suicide girl’s presumed indiscretions. Also note the new cute girl John keeps bumping into. Should we assume she’s actually human? 🙂 Like the leads, like the acting, but it’s not really that good. Still…better than Bionic Woman was and that’s really the “compare” I’ve been using in my head for this show.

I’m missing TV something fierce.

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No I’m not so thrilled with having nothing to watch and therefore spending more time reading/pondering/being a deep person or what have you. I already do plenty of reading even when I am watching TV every night!!! Jackhats.

Anyway, while I am missing it severely I suddenly felt motivated to post to the TV blog. So there you go.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Making: Shower gifts. Hats. Dreams.

Reading: “Tree of Smoke” by Denis Johnson (because a) of fridaysixpm’s comments about it (scroll down to 11/15, I can’t seem to link directly) and b) I did some intensive studying of Vietnam history in several different courses in college. a million years ago and c) oh yeah it just won a big prize) and “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A.S. Byatt (because it’s our challenge book for January). The first is big and thick and sprawling and very much a boy book in the particular way that I mean that (and here is where I thought I would link to a review of a W.E.B. Griffin book I read in 2006, “Semper Fi” but which apparently I never wrote up. Although I distinctly remember doing so. Let’s just say there is a limited female point of view in books about war, or soldiers, or armies, or Vietnam, because historically very few females have gone to war. I’m not being sexist, I’m being realistic.). The second is an odd mix; some really good stories and some bizarre, or boring, or “after school special” “lessons”-type ones.

Watching: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which started last night and continues tonight in a two-night premiere. I love it which means most everyone else probably hated it and thought it was lame and twisted the story and left out important stuff and blah blah blah. Girls kicking ass = Good. Summer Glau = Good. Lena Heady = Good. Also glad to see new episodes of a few things in the past week (Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, FNL, NUMB3RS, Brothers & Sisters) but continuing to mourn the lack of fresh TV. As it goes, so goes my life.

Listening: Really still listening to stuff bought in December. Sea Wolf, Lupe Fiasco, the Avett Brothers. And the soundtrack to Juno. Listening to that a lot. This has not really been a music-buying month for me so far, but I think that’s generally the January norm.

Recent DadReactions

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Big Screen: I Am Legend. Similar to how I felt. Good job by Will Smith but the ending sucked. And Dad also felt it was very derivative. The “ghoulie” types = copied straight from The Descent (one of his faves last year!). The “medicine becomes infection wipes out population and turns them into ghouls” = copied straight from 28 Days Later (and then Weeks also) . [Yes, we know this was a book a long time ago. But given what Carla’s told me about the book, it is pretty different than the movie.]

Big Screen: Juno. He LOVED it. Smart and sweet. Really thought the lead actress was excellent. Liked the parents a lot. Thoughtful and moving.

Readin’: “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” ed. by A.S. Byatt (For our challenge. He’s ahead of me because he already owned the book and I had to wait for it to be delivered!) Really really strange selection of stories. Some good ones (the Kipling story is GREAT! [man I can’t wait to read it. Haven’t read Kipling since I wrote my Master’s Thesis (on “Kim”)]) but some that are just bizarre (and not enjoyable). Thinks we should read the V.S. Pritchett-edited Oxford collection as our last month of the challenge; in comparison, he thought that was a great collection/selection when he read it (which was why he had picked up this one).

TV: The Office. I gave him season 1 for xmas and said I’d pick up the rest if he liked it. Two episodes in, it was obvious it was a go, so we quick picked up the next two. I had watched these either on TV or on iTunes whereas he is watching the DVDs. a) He LOVES it. Says if he had nothing else to do, he would already be done because he just can’t get enough. b) He said the DVD extras are AWESOME and some are basically like an extra episode (20 minutes long!). [Crap, now I’m going to have to get the DVDs for myself!] c) General comments: Hilarious. Really enjoying it. Loves the Pam/Jim thing. Loves Dwight! d) Is already halfway through Season 2. Yay!