Holy good tv, Batman!

Great tv this week. One very promising series premiere, a season premiere from an old favorite, and a mid-season episode that was truly jaw-dropping.

Community- Thursdays, NBC, after The Office (8:30 Utah time)

I missed the initial premiere and didn't watch it online until last night. (Thanks insomnia!) This show is funny. Better than The Office, better than Friends... we're talking 30 Rock / Arrested Development level funny. I had just seen The Informant! (don't forget the "!") the night before, which also stars my tv boyfriend, Joel McHale. In The Informant!, it was really odd to watch McHale act. I don't know if his character was too bland, or if his tv personality (from The Soup) is too hilarious. Either way, it was hard to watch him pretend to be someone else. He's supposed to be making fun of skanks and Ryan Seacrest! Not interviewing Matt Damon. But Community did not have that problem. McHale's character is a raging douchebag with an enormous ego, no moral compass, and a ruthless sense of humor. That's not too many steps away from his "real" personality on The Soup! Perfect fit! Plus, the supporting characters are also funny and full of interesting potential. Watch this show! You can still watch it free on hulu.com!

Best line (that I can remember... it was 3 am): "If it's serious they should call it meningitis."

Survivor- Thursdays, CBS, 7 pm (Utah time)

If you don't already love this show, you probably never will. I don't think I can ever not love this show. This season, it's in Samoa. It was one of the most interesting season premieres that I've seen on this show. After a ridiculous amount of seasons (18? 19?), one player comes up with a completely new strategy for winning the game. If you watched it, you know who I'm talking about... Evil Russell (not to be confused with Leader Russell). He's secretly sabotaging his tribe (pouring out water, burning socks) in order to create stress and drive everyone to discontent. His plan to is to put his tribe on edge, sit back, and watch them destroy each other. I think this plan could work, but not with Evil Russell. He can't sit in the background. I think it's only working now because at this point in the game, everyone's strategy is "vote out anyone that isn't me." Once alliances form, and people spend a few more days together, he will be gone. (Hopefully.) Just when I thought no one could be worse than last season's Coach, the very next season proves me wrong.

Person I want to win at this point (after one episode): Betsy! (Female cop with good instincts, yellow tribe... I think)

Mad Men- Sundays, AMC 8 pm (Utah time)

I've raved about this show on here before. It is my favorite show currently on tv. This week's episode was really something. The entire series is fantastic, but this episode was a definite stand-out. I'm not sure I can really comment on it- I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it and I'm not quite done processing it just yet. I may have to watch this one again in the next couple of days.

Quote of the episode, probably quote of the season, and possibly quote of the series: “That’s life: One minute, you’re on top of the world; next minute, some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.”

If you like tv and have time to watch it, check out those shows. While my rambling recommendations may not be useful, I made them all very linky. And hyperlinks are always useful.

Irrational Fear

I like to take walks through the Salt Lake City cemetery. In fall and spring, I often see small groups of deer munching on grass. Since deer often wander down from the mountain, I wonder if mountain lions or cougars occasionally follow. I have this irrational fear that I'll be walking through the cemetery and see a cougar prowling around the headstones.

When I have this thought, I immediately look around and try to figure out what I'd do if that happened right then. If I ran, would I make it inside the little brick bathroom? Would I be too petrified to run? If I found a big stick, would I try to hit the cat in the face? If I saw it go after someone else, would I run away? I'm sure my instinct would tell me to run away, but I wondered today if that was what I should do. So I pulled out my trusty old internet and found out what to do if you see a mountain lion. Pretty much: DO NOT run away. Open up your jacket to look bigger, throw rocks, make noise, and give plenty it of room. But do not run away. The more you know!

To all of my readers

All both of you. For October, I am a guest host for a book club on my friend's blog. We are reading Mama Day, by Gloria Naylor. Holy crap, you should read this book. After I read it, I immediately bought and read Lindon Hills and Bailey's Cafe, two other fantastic books by Gloria Naylor. But Mama Day is still my favorite.

So read it by October 31, then come comment on my review over on Jessie's blog. Make me look really popular and awesome. I will post a link to it when it's up.

Look! There's lightning! And hands! How can this book not be awesome?!

Good-bye Mr. W!

Someone stole the license plate off of my car last night. When I saw it was missing, I started looking for it on the ground, because I'm sure license plates often just fall off of parked cars.

My sister Carly, self-proclaimed expert on license plate theft (among other things), informed me that it was stolen for my yellow "10" registration sticker. I kind of hope that's true, because that sticker is CRAZY GLUED to the license plate. Seriously. Getting my car registered this year was the most obnoxious series of FAIL ever. So of course, when I finally got the sticker, it wouldn't stick to the plate. Those things are usually like super magnets, once it even senses it's near the license plate, it's stuck forever. But this year, the sticker wasn't sticky. By that point, I was so frustrated, I drove to the hardware store, bought a tube of crazy glue, and poured about half of it on the back of that stupid sticker. Good luck getting THAT peeled off, license plate-stealing hooligans!

It's only $13 to replace, so it's not much more than an inconvenience. But if you see someone driving around with a 250 MRW plate, do... something. Honk at them maybe? Or glare as you pass by. That'll show 'em, I'm sure.

Whoa indeed!

Online chat with my dad, about me possibly buying a new car:

Jamie: i'd get the full incentive with the versa (if i get the manual transmission) and it starts at about 11,000.
Dad: You, driving with a clutch -- whoa!
Jamie: my car now is a clutch
Dad: oh
Jamie: you don't remember me crying while you taught me how to drive it?
Dad: that's right
Jamie: i guess it isn't burned into your memory
Dad: It's not that, it's more a matter of the memory burning away.

My dad teaching me how to drive stick? TRAUMATIC. There were tears. And yelling. And stopping at the intersection to switch seats while we drove the rest of the way home in awkward silence. (It's easy to mix up 3rd and 1st gear when it's new, okay?!) I shouldn't have reminded him, and made him teach it to me again. Amaze him with my seemingly innate ability to drive a manual transmission. Maybe heal some of that awkward trauma and gain some "best daughter ever" points (as if I need anymore).

Sunshine

After watching Slumdog Millionaire and realizing that it was directed by the same guy that made 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle), I wanted to watch other movies he had made.

So I started with Trainspotting. My first mistake was trying to eat dinner while watching the movie. I'm trying to think of the least crude way to describe the point at which I decided to turn it off, but I can't. It involves poop, and it's about ten minutes into the movie. It may be the best film ever made, but I just don't have the stomach for it.

Next Danny Boyle movie on my Netflix queue: The Beach. I was a little wary of this one. I remember seeing it advertised when it was in theaters, and specifically remembering that it looked stupid. I figured that at the very least it had Leonardo DiCaprio, so watching it couldn't be a total loss. I got through the whole movie this time, but it really bothered me. DiCaprio's character (Richard), is this spoiled rich kid in search of "meaningful life experience," but he ends up completely destroying just about everything he comes in contact with. He never seems to come away with any kind epiphany. He is responsible for the death of several people, wrecks at least two relationships, and destroys an entire society that had existed for 5 years. And at the end of it all, he's sitting in some internet cafe looking at pictures from the whole experience as if he's reminiscing about summer camp. Maybe his character's toxic superficiality was the whole point, but it didn't feel like the movie was in on it--like Richard was still the unironic hero of the movie.

So then Sunshine came in the mail, and I let it sit on the shelf for a while. I wasn't sure I was up for another Danny Boyle movie. Jill and I finally watched it a couple of nights ago. It gets a little weird at the end, but we both loved it. I love sci-fi thrillers. There were a couple of plot points I wanted explained a little more; Jill and I worked some things out in our post-movie discussion, but I think I would have liked to know if we were right. I don't need a movie to spell out every little thing, but in this case I would have liked a few more pieces of the puzzle. I'm being vague on purpose, because if you haven't seen this movie, I think you should. At least watch the trailer.



Also: When I become ruler of universe, I will decree that every movie cast Cillian Murphy, preferably as the lead. And every movie trailer must incorporate that song, somehow.

Sit on a bear

My baby brother is leaving for his mission in a little more than a month. Like all my other siblings, he inherited a silly sense of humor from our mom. When we're all together and in a certain mood (usually that mood is "bored"), our combined silliness erupts as volcano of nonsensical giggling and inside jokes. It drives my dad nuts. And probably everyone else in hearing distance.

I remember this one time we were all in the van outside my dad's work. He had to pick something up, and my mom went into the office with him, leaving all five of us kids in the car. As usual, we were playing a silly made-up game. We'd make a random statement, but switch around a couple of words. Like: "Before I go to book, I'm going to read my bed." Then we'd all laugh uproariously for a few minutes, because isn't that the most hilarious thing ever!? I'm going to eat the rest of that kitchen in the chicken. Will you clean my dollar if I pay you a room? I'm going to take my teeth and brush a shower.

So then Jake, who had to be about 6 or 7, wanted to join in. "I'm going to go home, sit on a bear..." There was contemplative pause. He'd painted himself into a pretty tight corner. "... and eat." I'm going to home, sit on a bear, and eat. BEST SENTENCE EVER. We all laughed; the game had reached a new level of awesomeness. Every sentence that followed had to include sitting on a bear, and it's been one of our many inside jokes ever since.

Another wtf moment, brought to you by ksl

I'm going to need a new tag for this. (Which is quite the process for me... my meticulous side feels the need to go through all old posts and add the new tag where applicable. Now if only that meticulous side could get me to do the effing dishes.)

So anyway. There was this fight at a Trax station in Salt Lake City yesterday. Two men got in a fight on the platform and fell in front of an oncoming Trax car. So, naturally, on ksl.com, this news event requires a ranting article about how homeless people stink.

The comments are great too. They'd make a fantastic drinking game. Every time someone blames something on illegal immigrants, take a drink. Every time someone thinks more guns would solve the problem, take a drink. Doesn't matter what the problem is, or the topic of the article. Illegal immigrants cause every problem, and more guns would solve them.

Isn't chewing gum exciting enough?

Chewing this gum does not make me feel like I'm diving into an iceberg as it melts. It's supposed to change from cold to hot in my mouth as I chew. It doesn't seem to be working, but it does taste a lot like IcyHot.

The Half-Blood Prince

Movies in 15 minutes - Harry Potter: HBP recap is up at cleolinda's blog. If you didn't see the movie and want to know what happens, or if you did see the movie and want relive it again and again, or if you are bored and want to kill 15 minutes, I recommend reading it.

I've seen the movie twice, and there are a couple of things I'd change. I'm not going to write a list of how the book was different/better than the movie OMG, because I get that movies based on books are going to be different. Unless it's Watchmen, where the only difference is the addition of awkward sexy porno music.

The most egregious difference between the movie and book was probably the "1933- The Great Depression blah blah blah bankrobbers blah blah John Dillinger" text at the beginning and then the scene where Johnny Depp gets out of a car and shoots up a prison. But then the movie theater people realized they were playing Public Enemies and switched it back to Harry Potter. Not fast enough to anger a theater full of angry Mormon families whose children were no longer pure, having been exposed to 3 whole minutes of an R-rated movie. How crude.

The most annoying actual difference between the movie and the book, in my opinion, was the blah-ification of Ginny Weasley. She's awesome in the books. She's hilarious, smart, pretty, loyal, protective, and you totally get why Harry would like her. I am grateful that we never heard anything about that stupid "chest monster," but I didn't need to see superfluous shoe-tying scenes.

The only other difference that bugged me was replacing the electric Snape/Harry confrontation after Dumbledore's death with a night-time hiking trip through the woods that ends up getting a little tense. There was supposed to be shouting! Unforgivable curse attempts! Snape totally losing it after being called a coward! But nope. It's: "Oh btw I'm the half-blood prince, bbl!" I read somewhere that JK Rowling originally wanted Tim Roth to play Snape, and I think I would have liked him better. I think Alan Rickman totally looks like Snape, but I think his performance is always a little subdued. He's supposed to be this intense, angry, desperate, remorseful man and Alan Rickman's Snape seems so disinterested and tired.

Even with those complaints, I really liked this movie. It's the only Harry Potter I wanted to see in the theater more than once. The look of the movie is gorgeous and the three main kids have a lot of good interaction. Easily my favorite out of the entire film series so far.