Wednesday, February 27, 2008

SNL -- quote of the week

Since "30 Rock" isn't on and Tina Fey was the host of Saturday Night Live, I decided to do a quote of the week for SNL. And the quote goes to Tina Fey in her "Women in the News" bit during the Weekend Update. She was commenting on how people seem to have turned on the previous Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, and one of the reason is that she is a bitch. Tina says, "So, what? So am I! And so is she!" ( as she points to Amy Poehler, who gives a "what-can-you-do?" shrug) She goes on to say that "bitches get things done" and ends with this classic line: "Bitch is the new Black!"

Another skit that I loved was the "Rock of Love" parody. First of all, there has never been another show that needs to be mocked more than "Rock of Love." So to have one of the contestants be the lady who is "rockin' one leg", who brags that this is her best feature, is classic.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

movies are real life

I forgot to write something else about There Will Be Blood. I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say this movie is about oil, right? And that oil comes from wells, right? And that sometimes people go down into the wells and that there are drills involved in the process, right? Just have to make sure I don't spoil the movie for anyone (and you know who you are) who hasn't seen it yet. Anyway, there is a part of this movie when a person is down in the well and something falls down the well. When this happened, I yelled out, "Watch out!!"

(I'm not joking.)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Shoot me if I ever say I'm going to see a Paul Thomas Anderson movie again!

Does this man know how to make a movie in 2 hours or less? (Remember Magnolia? yeesh!) This one was 2 hours and 38 minutes, for a story that could (and should) easily have been told in a much shorter time. That being said, Yes, Daniel Day Lewis was great in this role. He was really evil and portrayed it so well.

Although, I just looked PTA up on IMDB and remembered that he also did Punch Drunk Love, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. And only one hour and 37 minutes, which was the perfect length.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

RIP




I lost my favorite earrings (pictured with me, here). sniff.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Foo Fighters

I went to see the Foo Fighters perform last night at Madison Square Garden. I do like them, but haven't ever bought a CD and haven't really listened to the ones I borrowed from a friend and ripped on my computer at work. At the show last night, I was thinking, "Why don't I listen to them more? They are f-ing amazing!" (Dave Grohl was cursing so much, I sort of started cursing more in my own thoughts, apparently.) The more I thought about it, the more I realized the reason is that I don't drive. I listen to music a little in the morning while I am getting ready for work. When I am listening to the radio, it's the classic rock station (therefore, I hear Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Who every day -- classic rock stations have a rotation, too, unfortunately). Then when I get to work, I often listen to CDs, but I have to listen to music a little more mellow at work which helps to get work done, rather than being a distraction (right now I'm listening to the Robert Plant/Alison Krause CD). Foo Fighters doesn't really fit into that category, and therefore, I never listen to them.

Another thing I found myself thinking was about Dave Grohl's hair. It is long and in his face most of the time, but also a little more styled than back in the Nirvana days. Since then, he had it short, so I wonder if he just grew it out from when it was short and this is how it is, or if he actually has it cut that way. These are the things I think about at concerts.

The stage was set up at the end, as usual, but they had a long runway down the center and then a round stage at the other end of the Garden. At first, this stage was covered in a black cloth, and I thought it was a trampoline (which would have been weird, right?) but that's about the size it was. They uncovered it and lowered a stage onto it with a drum kit, keyboards and several microphones. Half-way through the show, they walked down the runway and played an acoustic set from the small, round stage. The first thing DG said was, "You guys thought you had the sh**y seats, didn't you?" And we did--but we had great seats for this part of the show. My favorite part of the show, though, was when his daughter was there. DG ran down the runway and pointed, but I just thought he was pointing at the audience or something. Later, I noticed a baby crawling around on the runway. She was completely ignoring the show (i.e. her father) and was turned facing the small round stage, placing a bottle of water on it, then taking it off, then putting it back on, then taking it off. Seems rock star babies are just like non-rock star babies.

If you get the Fuse channel, the concert was recorded and is playing on that channel. I don't get that channel. F-ing Time Warner!!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Best of 2007

I usually do an annual list of my favorite things in pop culture. I have been waiting to do it this year because I still haven't seen a few of the movies that have been getting the most Oscar buzz. Well, the Oscars are next week, and I still haven't seen them. The one I want to see the most is There Will Be Blood because I am assuming that Daniel Day-Lewis is going to win the Best Actor award and I figure I should be able to weigh in on that race. The other movie that is getting all the buzz and will probably win for Best Picture is No Country for Old Men, which I also haven't seen, nor will I see it (the only thing I've heard about it is that it's really violent). I don't know about you all, but I feel this has been a weak year in movies. Remember when American Gangster was supposed to be so good and it really wasn't? Here goes anyway...

Best Movie -- Waitress (not even nominated, but my favorite of the year).
Best Actor -- Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah. Again, haven't seen a lot of the other
nominees, so I may amend this when I see Blood, but I loved this movie and thought his performance was amazing.
Best Actress -- no one stands out for me, but again, didn't see some of the big movies of the year but I'll go with Laura Linney in The Savages
Best Supporting Actor -- Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James (the one category I actually feel pretty strongly about. I thought he was great in this role).
Best Supporting Actress -- Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone
Best Original Screenplay -- I really liked both Juno and Lars and the Real Girl. I would be happy if either one won the award, but I think Juno will take it.
Best Adapted Screenplay -- Atonement
Best Director -- Jason Reitman for Juno (hey, why not?)
Best Documentary -- Sicko (I think there were probably others that were better, like No End in Sight, but I never got to them)

Some of my friends do a Top Ten movies of the year. I never get 10 on the list, but I'll do a Top Seven

1. Waitress
2. Once
3. Juno
4. In the Valley of Elah
5. Gone Baby Gone
6. Michael Clayton
7. Lars and the Real Girl


As for TV...

Drama -- "Friday Night Lights"
Comedy -- "30 Rock"
Best new show -- none! I had such high hopes for "Gossip Girl" but found it unwatchable. The other shows I thought I'd love were "Private Practice," and "Chuck" but also just never got into them. I really want to catch up on "Pushing Daisies" which I found cute but had too much on my plate (er, DVR list) to really devote myself to it.
Favorites from last year that I gave up -- "Heroes" (but will tune in in the fall for season 3) and "Grey's Anatomy"
Guilty pleasures -- "Scott Baio is 45 and Single" (I posted raves about the follow up "Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant" a few weeks ago, but must admit I'm already sick of it.)

Music...
Favorite CD -- James Morrison "Undiscovered"
Best concert -- John Mayer at Madison Sq. Garden, but a close second was John Mayer at Garden State Arts Center (for those of you not from NJ, it is now called the PNC Bank Arts enter) because the audience was so good even though the traffic was so bad (thus making me miss opening act, James Morrison). The reason I picked MSG show is because it was it was a tad onger, but really both shows were amazing. As always. Especially in front of a hometown audience.

Books...
Fiction --Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I love this book passionately. Last year, I said the author's wife's book The History of Love was my favorite of 2006. Luckily, I read that one in December 2006 and this one in January 2007, so they both win spots in my lists because it would be hard to choose between them. (but, I think she would win.)
Memoir -- The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Talk about a messed up family!!

Happy Birthday to Baby!

Sunday was my niece Maureen's birthday. She sang "Happy birthday to Baby" to herself all day. When asked what she wanted for her birthday party, she first said she wanted black party hats. Is she going to be goth as a teenager? Later, she said she wanted blue, so Valerie went with it and put on a Blue's Clues party. Always creative, she had the kids act out the whole thing, looking for clues which led to the cake, which was frosted like a Blue's pawprint. One of the clues was a box of candles, and when Maureen found it, she opened it right up and planted one right into the cake then started blowing.

Here she is licking the frosting off of the beaters. Adorable!! (taken with my camera phone... not the best photo, obviously.)


Monday, February 11, 2008

Baby, it's cold outside!

To preface the following story, you must know that this morning was one of the coldest days of the winter season, if not the coldest. When I left home, the news said it was 15 degrees out.

Okay, so, I was walking to work this morning, and I hear a guy behind me singing at the top of his lungs. Well, not really, but pretty loudly, considering he was not in the shower or in the privacy of his own home. He passed by me, smiled, and said, "Beautiful day, isn't it?" I responded with the standard NY answer, which is to comment on the weather, and said, "Yes, if you like cold." He said, "I'm a psychologist, and when people say things like that, they are really talking about their internal weather." He then repeated that it is a beautiful day and continued on his way. Clearly, this man could see inside my soul to see that I have internal cold weather!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Cupcakes LA style




When I arrived in California, I told Anne Lise that my friend, Heidi, had written down a few places for us to go in LA. When she looked at the list, she said, "uhh.... these are all food places." Yes, that pretty much says it all.

We went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffle house for lunch and then went on a mission to find Sprinkles. The box says that it is "The original cupcake bakery." I don't know how they know they are the ORIGINAL... as if they invented cupcakes, but whatever! The cupcakes are really good, and definitely give Magnolia a run for their money. I got the vanilla cupcake with milk chocolate frosting. I ate it before I could take a photo and it was, like... so good! This is the lemon coconut and it was also delicious!

When I walked into the bakery, there was this guy there that looked so familiar. I couldn't place him for the longest time, then I realized that he was "The Todd" from "Scrubs." I guess I didn't recognize him without his scrubs on. He was there with, what looked like, his parents and brother. Since Anne Lise couldn't find parking, she was driving around, so I really wanted to ask The Todd to take a picture of me in front of the store. I figured if he saw me approach with a camera, he would assume that I was going to ask for a photo with him. However, I clearly care more about cupcakes than I do about TV stars.
In addition to eating Sprinkles cupcakes, Anne Lise made some Norwegian cakes for me, and I also ate lots of cake from Esther's wedding. All decadent. Is it possible to OD on cake? I don't want to Heath Ledger.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Miracle




















This is a photo from Esther's wedding. Why did I take this photo? My job was to create a curtain to cover the mats that hang in every LDS church cultural hall. Esther and her sister bought a bolt of white fabric, with no idea how much they needed or how much was there. I eyeballed it and it appeared to have loads of fabric, so I just got to work. Esther's mom held the fabric as I pinned it into the mats. As we began the last panel and the empty bolt fell to the ground, we realized we had the EXACT amount that we needed. We both gasped loud enough that every eye turned to look at us. We tried to explain that a miracle had just taken place, but they just didn't get it and continued to stare at us. Finally, we just said, "Forget it" and everyone went back to work.

California here we come










Here are some photos from my recent trip to San Diego. Anne Lise and I drove up to LA to go to see the Dr. Phil show, then drove up through the Hollywood hills and tried to find the Walsh house in 90210. We didn't see it, but did see the sign.