Donald Driver wins Dancing with the Stars and the whole state celebrates!
Archive for the 'tv!' Category
Sarayu and I are not the only ones that noticed the fun that is/was ‘Best Friends Forever.’ Thanks to the GAOOG for pointing this article out to me. It makes me feel both gratified and sad.
I realize this blog has been a bit babycentric as of late and I’m sorry for that but, hey, I had a baby. Did you know that? Well, I did. It’s true. I swear! I’m going to switch gears for a minute, though, to talk about one of my favorite topics: tv. I have been watching an exceptional amount of tv lately. I don’t have much of an attention span for other activities that can be done with an eight-week old baby such as, say, reading. You know what? I’m not even going to defend myself against any judgment you may have about this. I love television and I watch a lot of it. There, I said it.
There has been a lot of buzz about the new HBO show ‘Girls.’ I read about it in US Weekly, as well as The New York Times Magazine. Terry sent me an article about it from The Washington Post. I wanted to like the show but the truth is, having seen two episodes, I just don’t. I feel bad about this, but it’s true. I appreciate that the Times and Post writers highlighted its exceptional difference to current women-centered shows like The New Girl and Whitney – two shows I also don’t particularly like or watch (though I have seen). Shows like The New Girl and Whitney have little, if anything, to say about how women live or feel or think, though I don’t think they’re attempting to, either. ‘Girls,’ on the other hand, seems to be a sincere attempt to say something. I guess I’m just not sure I like what it’s saying. For starters, the sex scenes make me more than a little uncomfortable — frankly, they scare me a bit. I know I can be a prude, but watching an early 20s woman voluntarily participating in sex acts she pretty clearly has no interest in makes me uneasy and sad. I’m certain this is deliberate, of course, but I don’t particularly enjoy feeling uneasy and sad. Then there’s the whole privileged business. I know the economy stinks and I feel for anyone unemployed, particularly the country’s youth who may not have much of a shot at economic prosperity, but I find it two parts ridiculous and three parts obscene that the lead character, Hannah, doesn’t even seem to attempt to obtain a paying job. In fact, it seems as though she thinks such a thing is beneath her. “What??” you ask. “Yes, it’s true” I say. “She is a 24-year old woman, two years out of college, living in New York City on her parents’ dime. Or, more accurately, thousands.” You see, Hannah wants to be a writer (don’t we all?) and has an internship that she continues to hope (after two years) will turn into a paying gig. It seems, though, that Hannah can’t be bothered to also get a job in, say, retail or the restaurant industry to pay at least her electric bill. The Washington Post blames my repulsion to paycheck-averse Hannah on my age. You see, I’m over 35 so I just don’t get it. Maybe that’s true; I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure my 25-year old hard-working cousin, Maggie, would be confused by Hannah’s lack of employment and find it off-putting, as well. But although I find the sex obnoxious and the privileged status of the lead annoying, neither of these are reasons for me to condemn the show. And I don’t condemn it but, as I said, I don’t really like it. And why not? Because I haven’t found it particularly funny. I smiled or snorted knowingly (yes, I can snort knowingly) a time or two during the episodes I saw, but I didn’t find the show to be funny or clever overall. I just didn’t laugh. Or at least not laugh laugh.
You know what show did make me smile and laugh? NBC’s ‘Best Friends Forever.’ This apparently little-watched gem has, according to Sarayu, already been canceled. It’s too bad and I’m genuinely sad about it because I was really looking forward to seeing where it was going to go. The show stars its own writers (move over, Whitney!) Lennon and Jessica as, you guessed it, BFFs. The series starts with Jessica and Lennon Skype-ing when FedEx comes to Jessica’s door to deliver surprise divorce papers. Ouch. Jessica then promptly moves in with Lennon and her boyfriend in their cute Brooklyn apartment and the adventures begin. This show totally nailed the rapid-fire, inside joke-laden banter that often occurs between two women who have been great friends forever. TV and the movies so rarely get female friendships right. Too often writers make the relationships too heavy, drama-soaked and tear-stained. It’s almost as if women can’t have friendships on the big or little screen unless they’re held together by some great tragedy. Or they can have friendships a la Sex and the City, but this means each woman is a particular ‘type’ and no one woman may step into another’s territory lest the viewer get confused. In ‘BFF,’ though, we are given two smart, pretty, funny women who were close friends before tragedy hit (hey, they were Skype-ing about bikini waxes). The divorce gets the two friends back together, but not for drunken talk about what went wrong or who was at fault but instead for daytime viewing of ‘Steel Magnolias’ and debating whether Shelby would have had that baby if she’d really known what was in store for her. Lennon and Jessica are different people, but they aren’t so different that I could imagine anyone ever saying, “Oh, you’re such a Lennon with Jessica undertones” or whatever the kids say about SATC characters (see ‘Girls,’ Episode 2). I’m not saying BFF was the best show ever, but it was the best new show I’d seen in awhile and I wanted to get to know my new friends better.
Ok, I have no idea. But what I would say so far is to be prepared for anything. And I don’t really mean that baby-wise, though obviously that fits, too. I mean it more in, all bets seem to be off in terms of others’ behavior. Because it’s a given (or so I thought) that you never just invite yourself over to an acquaintance’s house, I thought it would be a given that you don’t invite yourself over to an acquaintance who just had a newborn’s house. Apparently, though, this is not the case. We have already had at least four friends/acquaintances invite themselves over. Three of the four have never been to our house before, nor do they know where we live. They’re all nice people, of course, but this time with Baby Girl is so precious and I’m just not ready to share it with folks we aren’t super close to. I really hope I don’t sound like a total ass, but I don’t understand why anyone who isn’t family or a bestie would think it’s ok to invite yourself over to see someone’s baby. It seems to me this stage of Mollyhood should be limited to visits from family and friends who are like family. Or, at the very least, people who know where we live. Rule of thumb, I say: if you need directions, you shouldn’t ask to come over to hold a new baby.
That said, I have loved and appreciated all of the great support we have gotten from our family and good friends in the past months and days and hours and minutes. And that very much includes you, Dear Reader; specifically, the long-time readers of this blog. I appreciate more than ever those of you who have been with me through the sad, sad pumpkin and were so understanding, consoling and kind to me then, and have stayed with me and been so loving and generous and supportive as I have expelled a new person into this world. I hope you know how much you mean to me, to all three, sorry Grace, four of us. Thank you.
PS- Yesterday was the birthday of Greatest Actress of Our Generation, so a big happy birthday to GAOG from all of us at Life & Puppies. GAOG has been busy hobnobbing with A-listers (who else?), observing heart surgeries and trying on sleek black dresses to wear in her new pilot. Stay tuned for more info on her upcoming project: Chelsea General!
Variations on a theme, No. 646246918471
Published September 22, 2011 life and pups , local , tv! 6 CommentsAt the risk of overemphasizing HGTV and my thoughts thereon, let me just follow-up on my last post. I caught another episode of Property Brothers last night and guess what? The couple bought the more expensive of the two houses! Damnit. At least this time, the renovation included a master bedroom, a meditation room and a living room. Moreover, the master bedroom was turned into an en suite number and Carpenter Brother constructed some sort of custom wall for the living room. All of this plus fixes to major structural problems to the house made the reno seem slightly more impressive than the previous episodes I’ve seen. I’d still like a show with a total overhaul, though.
Moving on … Last weekend, when we probably should have been fighting at Fighting Bob Fest, Aaron & Gracie & I decided to enjoy the beautiful fall day by taking a walk down to campus. We soon found ourselves outside the stock pavilion (after passing a woman who gleefully called Grace a “Heinz 57 dog”) and in the presence of more than a dozen cows.
I was so excited to snap pics of Gracie with the cows. I was pretty sure she would not be excited about this and I was right. I honestly, and embarrassingly, had not considered how the cows would feel about our experiment, so I cannot say I was surprised by them but, had I actually consider their thoughts or feelings, I would have guessed they would, you know, exhibit cow-like indifference. I have to say, although I don’t have a lot of experience around cows (Cow Attack on the Wisconsin Rover 1994 notwithstanding), I dare say these cows were more than intrigued by Baby Puppy. These cows were fascinated with her! The cows would move in sync with each other to follow her movements. UW cows love Gracie!
I started worrying about myself a little bit, thinking, “Am I one of those horribly clueless people they always scared us to death about at camp? One of those mothers that puts jam on her (human) baby’s face so she can get a *cute* pic of the bear licking her baby’s nose?” I was pretty sure these cows were, you know, vegetarians not at all interested in eating my dog, but I admit I worried myself for a second. I’m sure some people would say that putting your dog in a cow photo shoot is weird regardless of danger.
I’m very grateful that those people do not read this blog.
life and puppies 