Holy Moses--it's 2010!

It's kind of amazing that the 2000s are coming to a close already.  It feels like just yesterday I was a little sixth grader, jumping on my couch and screaming "it's the millennium it's the millennium!!!" thereby waking up my sleeping parents.  They clearly weren't too excited about that.

For me and many of my peers, for only being in our 20s our lives will now have spanned across four decades, once 2010 arrives.  And for me, the 2000s were an important decade because it's the first full decade that I actually have a complete memory of...the 90s were still a little hazy having been a toddler when they began.  I give it three months before the VH1 special "I love the 2000s" comes out, celebrating 2000 popular culture that is still too close for me to find distinct.

However, that doesn't stop bloggers, celebrities, and magazines alike from making their top 10 or 20 or 100 lists of things from the decade.  I've come across a bunch of these lists, and I thought I'd share with you my favorites:

1) Top Baby Names of the Decade:  Jamie did not make the list, but I still think it's interesting anyways.  Emma and Aiden were the most popular for girls and boys respectively, which is fascinating because I don't know any people or babies alike with those names.  Unless you count Emma (Rachel's daughter from friends, born in this decade) and Aiden (from all my children--not born in this country nor this decade).

2) 50 Best Catch phrases of the Decade:  This is by far my favorite list.  I agree with a lot of the ones they picked, but many of them are just funny quotes and not necessarily catch phrases--like the term "never nude" from Arrested Development.  Actually, I'd have to say they should probably rename the whole article "50 most memorable (and quotable) popular culture moments of the decade."  I won't reveal more, but let me tell you I wholeheartedly agree with their number one choice (which is definitely a catch phrase!)

3) 12 Things that became obsolete this Decade:  As a technologically savvy person, I enjoyed this list a lot.  From fax machines to CDs, I don't think we'll miss anything too much on this list.  And just look how far we've come! I would have added VCRS and VHS to that list...(was that this decade?  I think so...)

Dreams

My subconscious has been quite active lately.  Much more so than my real life.  I think part of the reason has to do with me watching SNL clips on continuous play (on hulu) as I fall asleep.  Usually I reserve the dreaming to my good spanish friend (hiii lola!), but for the past weeks not only have I been having very vivid dreams, but I've been remembering them too.

For much of my life, I've fallen asleep to the TV, and before I had a TV in my room, I fell asleep to music.  I can fall asleep without it, but definitely not as well.  I think it's so interesting how a person can absorb what's on the TV as their sleeping.  For example, during college--I would always watch Family Guy on Adult Swim at 1:30am as I was falling asleep.  And for anyone that's watched Adult Swim late into the night, there is some very scary and disturbing programming.  You can imagine the dreams I woke up with when I forgot to put my sleep timer on.

This past week, I had a dream that I was at a Dave Matthew's Band Concert, but either the concert was in the dark or something because none of my friends could see it.  And I was like "guys, it's Dave Matthew's Band, I know their sound,"  and I was so proud of myself for recognizing the song without knowing the song or seeing them.  And guess what...I woke up and there was a DMB clip playing on my computer! (they were on SNL recently)

But more interestingly, my dreams for the past week have involved Twitter.  For those of you who are on twitter, (and hopefully you can follow for those of you who aren't), sometimes you have a thought during the day and are like....i think my readers (aka all 15 people who follow me) would be interested to know this little tidbit.  In my dreams, I've been having these little aha moments, where I think to myself, "I must remember to post this on twitter when I wake up, it's sooo funny."  And I've actually been remembering when I wake up, but everything I've thought of is complete nonsense.  For example, I thought to post, "when I wake up my cat while he's sleeping he makes the same squeaky clicking sound as my computer does when I wake it up," or "I'm making a musical montage for the opening credits of a show by ripping up ziploc bags and taping them back together."  Like subconscious Jamie, those thoughts aren't coherent and nobody would like to read about them on twitter.  Give me some good material I can work with!

Party in the City where the Heat is on..

As I was driving home from the gym, guess what song came on the radio??  Summertime by Will Smith.  This is cruel to me for several reasons.  First, it is unbelievably freezing.  And there are several feet of snow on the ground.  Second, it reminded me of the fact that Will Smith has not come out with a new album in a very long time.  How much did you love Big Willie Style as a child?  I would like to hear some more of that.  Soo Will Smith, if you're reading this--get your butt back in the recording studio, your fans miss you! The movie thing isn't going to really work out for you anyway...

A Very Gilly Christmas

On Thursday night, Saturday Night Live presented a christmas special instead of reruns of their Thursday primetime lineup.  Good decision NBC.  The special had some of my very favorite skits/characters of all time, so here is the link to watch: http://www.hulu.com/watch/116126/saturday-night-live-snl-presents-a-very-gilly-christmas.  And here are some time frames of the skits you might want to take the time to watch:

0:00:  The show is introduced with a typical Gilly sketch, with Kristen Wiig starring in the role of Gilly.  Sorry. Yah. Uh huh. What. I love this recurring character.

17:35: Adam Sandler performing his Hanukkah song for the very first time (I'm pretty sure).  So much funnukah.

25:40: Hey babe. babe.  she looks like a rabbit. yayyyy. Have you guessed the skit yet?  It's one of my favorites.  That's right.  Two A-Holes at a Nativity Scene.  I love these recurring characters...and i don't understand with Kristen and Jason Sudeikis still on the show they don't do this skit more.

30:08: Probably one of my most favorite original christmas songs ever aired on the show. "I wish it was christmas today" with Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan.  I'm pretty sure they used to perform this every winter when they were all on together on the show.  It takes me back to my middle school/early high school days.  Highlights: Jimmy Fallon trying not to break into laughter combined with Tracy Morgan dancing with no chance of ever breaking into laughter.  I have know idea how he does it. Clearly would be a different story if he was looking in a mirror.

46:37: Probably the most well-known original christmas song ever aired on the show at this point.  It's my Dick in a Box!

58:43: Schweddy Balls.  Probably Alec Baldwin's best sketch. always a good laugh.

While these are just some of the highlights, there are many other good ones that I didn't mention.  So if you have the time, watch the whole special. You'll get a good laugh (and if anything, a good stroll down pop culture's lane).  Happy Holidays!

John Sears=Dan Scott

Don't you think it's so weird the moment I finished watching every episode of One Tree Hill the 4th Season of 90210 happens to be on SoapNet?  The ones where John Sears (aka the actor who plays Dan Scott in OTH--also known in real life as Paul Johannson) is a recurring guest star??  In both series,  Johannson plays the villain, and comes across as particularly evil playing both characters. He's super evil in OTH, like on a scale from 1 to evil, he is an evil++10583295283.  Plus, he has a fairly distinctive voice, which makes me double take the TV screen so I don't forget what show I'm watching.

In other news, the 8th season of Beverly Hills, 90210 came out on DVD and recently arrived on my doorstep via walmart.com.  Also, I decided to re-watch Dawson's Creek from start to finish.  Now I was an avid follower of the last seasons, but unfortunately, when the show started in the second half of fifth grade, I distinctly remember not being allowed to stay up late to watch.  I also wanted to stay up late to watch South Park (which also started when I was in fifth grade), and still getting the no from mom. Thanks a lot.

After I finish Dawson's Creek, what would you like to see me watch next? I will let the readers decide!

One Tree Hill

Many post entries ago, I proclaimed that I would attempt to watch the entire series of One Tree Hill after a couple of episodes on SoapNet sparked my interest in the series.  Well as of approximately 2am on Thursday, December 17, 2009, I am officially caught up.  And very much look forward to the return of the show in January 2010.

One Tree Hill debuted in the fall of 2003, when I was in my junior year of high school--and interestingly enough, the same age as the characters that I have since fallen in love with.  I never watched a single episode during this time.  Maybe it was because 7th Heaven fulfilled all my teenage drama cravings.  It's also probable that my anger over having missed the start of the OC during the summer (I was at my overnight camp for goodness sake!) which everyone was talking about carried over to the seemingly similar premise of One Tree Hill (both shows started in the same year).  I've since watched the first season of the OC (very good!) and it could not be more different than One Tree Hill.

For some reason, I'm always surprised when I find out these legendary shows have actual premises.  Like who knew Beverly Hills, 90210 had an actual premise? (it's about a pair of twins adjusting to life in LA after moving from Minnesota).  Well One Tree Hill also has a premise, and that is about two half brothers who share the same father, and the conflict that ensues over their relationship--did I mention the dad only recognizes one of the brothers as his son?  Yep, completely ignores the other one. sad day.

There is definitely something to be said about watching a series in its entirety in virtually one sitting.  It's an emotional roller coaster.   I'm not going to admit how many times I sat crying on my couch at 1:30 in the morning because I felt bad for Dan and his need for forgiveness...or when Peyton and Lucas finally get together or break up or get together or just share a beautiful moment.  I know the writers intended for the audience to feel this way, but I wonder if it actually happens unless your investment in the characters is developed in such an intense viewing experience as the one I set up for myself.

With that said, I challenge everyone to make OTH your next project.  Go out and rent the series.  Start watching it on SoapNet (they're going to start from season 1 again very soon! FYI).  There is something about this show that is just refreshing and different from all the other ones...it makes me wish i started watching it in high school.  It's the complexity of the character types, the even greater complexity of the relationships between the characters.  There's something very real about it--Brooke and Peyton's friendship (it reminds me of many of my own friendships), the volatile relationship Lucas and Nathan have with their parents, and how we deal with loss and death in our everyday lives.  There's also something very unreal and soapy about it--(we love you Nathan and  Haley--but nobody's parents let them get married in their junior year of high school)--that makes it so addictingly good.  Above all, as I've mentioned in previous posts, the show's great because of it's comparatively seamless incorporation of music--from the long musical montages at the end, to Peyton and Haley's connection with the music world, to the use of TRIC (think peach pit after dark) as a way to showcase new (and not so new) artists.  The show reflects the culture of the 2000s, while making it at the same time. It's wonderful in so many ways, and now I finally understand why it's been on the air for 7 years.

Scrub-a-dub

One of my favorite shows in the entire world is Scrubs.  I love every single aspect of the show--from the quirky character types--truly original in my opinion--to the fantastical interludes (which came first...Family Guy or Scrubs?  I don't know, but they both do it a LOT.  I think Scrubs weaves them in better...often realistically imitating my own train of thought sometimes.)

As many of you know, Season 9 of Scrubs just started this December.  I've never really heard of a show that has gone through as much as Scrubs.  Two years ago, it first it looked like it was going to be cancelled.  Then ABC bought it from NBC (i've literally never seen that done during my lifetime).  Last season, after like, a ridiculously short season, they acted as if the show was over.  I can tell you this because I cried at the Season Finale. But here we are again.  Season 9.

Before I go into my current thoughts on the new season (confusion), it is worth talking about the concept of the "spin-off."  Many shows have done it successfully (Frasier, old Melrose Place, Private Practice), while some have crashed and burned (Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Joey.  I was almost going to include Saved by the Bell: The College Years, but then I remembered, I LOVED the college years even if it wasn't on for very long.).  Most spin-offs can be recognized by their new title, a pilot episode, and most importantly, a new premise.  Season 9 has all of these things...a new title in the opening credits, "Scrubs, Med School," a new premise, which goes something like this--"our favorite old characters are med school professors until we phase them out and leave you with med school students as they struggle to make it through school."

In my opinion, it is a completely new show.  My confusion lies in the fact that while this season of Scrubs has all of the characteristics of a new show, minus a technical pilot (let me tell you, the first episode had all the awkwardness of a pilot).  It's not like ER where over time they completely replaced all the characters, because the premise of ER was always the same.  Here, they have created a spin-off (which for the most part, lets be real, are failures) and have tried to pass it off as my favorite show, thereby tainting the whole series in a way.

Now let me tell you, i am most loyal to the spin-offs of the shows I love.  I watched Joey for that whole year it was on the air just because I REALLY loved Friends. Sidenote--judging by the number of horrendous Matthew Perry movies I saw over the 10 years friends was on the air, you can see how dedicated I was to the cast (Serving Sara anyone?).  Imagine if they had made Season 11 of Friends, stuck a little "Joey" under the title in the opening credits, and proceeded to follow him out to LA to pursue his acting career.  It would be outrageous.  This is why I'm so angry about Scrubs. And while I will continue watching, because I am loyal to the show just that much, there will still be that tinge of disappointment with the creators/writers for not properly ending my favorite show before creating a brand new spin-off.

How You Know Your Favorite Primetime Drama has turned into a Daytime Soap

1) Lots of slapping. And some occasional drink throwing.

2) A character dies. And then comes back to life. (example--Dylan's dad dies in season 3 via car bomb. Oh wait, come season 9 (or 10?) he's actually in the witness protection program...alive and well!)

3) Long and drawn out Whodunit murder storylines. Note to new Melrose Place, can you tell us who killed Sydney and get Ashlee Simpson off the show already?

4) Babystealing. enough said.

5) Generic opening credits with characters posing behind generic backdrops with generic instrumental music.

6) Long musical montage at the episode's end. Does anyone else go to the bathroom during this part? I'm bored just including it on this list.

While some might be sad at that point where their favorite nightime dramas become all soapy, personally, I think it's quite entertaining. Daytime Soaps are if nothing but creative (the ones I watch anyway are on for an hour a day, 5 days a week, for like, the last bashillion years)...they have to be to keep your attention. Usually, it doesn't happen during the nightime shows until a series has been on the air for a couple seasons--which makes sense, they just have to introduce something classic, yet ridic to switch it up. But when you're fave dramas start out that way....you've got to wonder if the writers are introducing classic soapy signs so early in their career--I can't be so sure it's going to last...

TheWb.com

People--I've recently discovered a fabulous site that makes me almost as excited as hulu and fancast. Apparently it has been around for some time, but you can find tons of old shows at TheWB.com. My favorite shows like Friends, Growing Pains (they have more episodes than Fancast! EEEK!!), and my current project--One Tree Hill. They also post episodes of shows I've always wanted to watch, or might be interesting to watch--such as Buffy, Veronica Mars, and the Ben Stiller Show (random!).

This post has to be short--as the third season of One Tree Hill is only on until Dec 14. I have a lot to watch in the meantime... (but don't worry friends, I'll do it!)

p.s. I'm watching Chelsea Lately right now......i've never watched before. this woman is funny. I'd like to be her friend.

Hi best friend

Watching TV all day can get a little lonely, and really makes me miss my best friends. So I thought I'd comment on imaginary friendships instead that I would like to be a part of.

Now there are many typical types of friendships you see on TV. i've categorized my favorites into a few categories:

Type 1: Best friends who are in love with each other. If they were gay, they'd be dating. This is personally one of my favorite types of friendships--it's the Cory and Shawn friendship on Boy Meets World, and the JD-Turk friendship on Scrubs. They make their girlfriends/wives jealous, and sorry Topanga and Carla, no matter how much you cry--Shawn and JD are still going to come first. And there is really not much you can do about it. Personally, I find this type of friendship the most hilarious--mostly for the spousal jealousy as I just described, but also interestingly enough--i love shows about friends that love each other more than they fight with each other. Thus my obsession with Beverly Hills, 90210. and Friends also. they like, really never fight on that show. And both managed to stay on the air for ten years. That should be a lesson to all you conflict ridden drama shows (new melrose place).

Type 2: The Frenemies. Aka Blair and Serena, Peyton and Brooke. They love each other in the end, but often times they are the other's worst nightmare. Sometimes I like this because it makes the show more interesting, but more often than not it gets old verryyyy fast. And sometimes I get confused because I can't remember if they like each other or not from the week before. That's currently happening with Gossip Girl, so if someone wants to let me know what's going on with them--that be great.

Type 3: Friendships that are funny, but kind of lack emotional connection to each other. What comes to mind in this category include the cast of Seinfeld and it's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Now one could argue it's because the characters that make up these respective shows are rather emotionless--(REALLY emotionless in Always Sunny, I just feel like a very horrible person every time I watch), --but when you see on Grey's Anatomy how Meredith and Christina are soulmates, and that works for the show, it's kind of amazing to see how shows work when you have none of that gushy stuff. These are shows that aren't driven by emotional conflict between the characters, which I think is pretty incredible given the amount of teen soaps (and regular soaps might I add) that I manage to dedicate so much of my TV time to.

While these types of friendships work in tv land, I think they are surprisingly reflective of real life. At one point or another, I've had friendships that fit into these three categories. Where some very hilarious and emotional situations have followed. This brings me to my final point (which I KNOW you were thinking anyways)--I would make a REALLY good reality TV show.

Celebrities Tweeting About Food

Rob Kardashian: Man I could have a feast right now! Stuff crust pizza half pepperoni half pineapple/bacon is callin me! And cinnamon sticks of course!


Mindy Kaling: egg and cheese on a roll please


Taylor Swift: At the Paul O'Grady show, they give the guests baskets of tiny muffins. I may or may not have just gone on a tiny muffin binge.


Perez Hilton: Never heard of a pecan pie made with Kahlua! Sounds yummy!


Lady Gaga: Sending all my little monsters little pizzas for waiting all night for me at best buy. I hope you're hungry...eat up I love u!


you're welcome.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Unexpected References

I've recently decided that often times, my love for certain programs or TV shows is proportional to their usage of obscure or unexpected references.  It might be my love for old TV shows and movies, or my appreciation of american popular culture.  Or the general fact that we are a nostalgic society.  It's like on 30 Rock when Jack is trying to find his biological father, and after narrowing it down to three possible candidates, Liz flies all three to the studio, pulling a Mamma Mia!  Recently, two very funny references, one very obscure, one not as much, have captured my attention:

1) Last Thursday's episode of Community, Troy and Ahmed have a biology lab where they have to train their lab rat to respond to a song.  They name it Fievel, and yes, the song they used to train him was "somewhere, out there..."  While it was not only beautifully performed (you must know by now how much I love when characters break into song), it brought to the forefront one of my favorite movies as a child, "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West."  Now I'm not sure what prompted the writers to center a storyline around a not really that popular early 90s animated film, one that I had kind of forgotten about but nevertheless appreciated the reminder.  I think it's kind of genius in a way.  It probably made one of every ten people laugh.  I guess that's why they call NBC thursday night TV a night of niche audiences! (Don't quote me on that--I may have just made that up.)

2) A recent interview with Kristen Stewart on Late Night.  Jimmy Fallon was interviewing her about her co-star Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob Black the werewolf in New Moon (which I'm seeing tomorrow...eeek!).  They were discussing Taylor's transformation from a skinny little child in Twilight to a very very muscular and attractive body builder in the sequel.  I believe he gained at least 30 pounds of muscle for New Moon. Wow.  Anyways, Kristen apparently hadn't really seen him in between the movies, and therefore witnessed only the final product, in which Jimmy Fallon squeals "Sandy," in a perfect imitation of John Travolta in Grease.  Good job Jimmy, you literally captured the moment in your unexpected reference.  And made me laugh out loud. A literal LOL if you will.

To conclude, I fully acknowledge the possibility that I'm the only one who finds these moments funny.  But by explaining to you why they are funny, I hope you think they're funny too.

Ga Ga Ooh La LA

This Gossip Girl episode was very exciting for me because my favorite musical artist at the moment was on!! Yes the one and only Lady Gaga!!! And she was amazing.  If you didn't see her performance of Bad Romance, get over to the CW website and watch.  It's actually not nearly as cool as her music video (which you absolutely must youtube as well, its mandatory), but I just love that song so it's okay.  This all got me thinking about the use of music in teenage soap dramas.

One of the things I love about Beverly Hills, 90210, and as I finish my 15th episode of One Tree Hill, is how they incorporate music into their storylines.  It's not overdone--there is a little after the theme song (well, in case of One Tree Hill, it is the theme song), and some playing in the background music of certain scenes.  I think both shows integrate musical acts pretty well into their story lines with characters frequently visiting the Peach Pit After Dark and Karen's Cafe--where live music is just part of the venue.  These shows use music in such a way that when you watch an episode of 90210, you really feel like you're watching something out of the 1990s.  While the clothes and the hairstyles help for sure, it's truly the music that captures that moment in popular culture.  So when you see the characters of 90210 get psyched for Babyface or Donna Lewis performing at the after dark ("I love you, always forever...), you just think ahhh, the good ole' days.

Today, I don't think teen soaps do that so much, with Gossip Girl being the exception, for this week anyway.  In general, Gossip Girl, the new 90210, and the new Melrose Place do incorporate a fair amount of music, but it's not very mainstream for the most part.  I mean, 90210's music wasn't necessarily always bubblegum pop--they frequently used R.E.M. which definitely found success in the mainstream but appealed to other types as well.  R&B artists also visited the After Dark, so in reality, their use of music worked to appeal to many different types of people.  Today, the appeal of the music used is pretty narrow.  And, they encourage you to go download it after the show which doesn't seem so much a celebration of popular culture as product placement.  In the end, if I one day decide to re-watch Gossip Girl down the road, I'm not so sure it will feel like a snip-it of what late 2000s culture was like.

Fancast.com might be as cool or cooler than hulu

For those of you who are obsessed with hulu.com like me, you must check out fancast.com.  It's comcast's version of online viewing, and they have a LOT of great stuff.  For instance, they post episodes of my favorite CW shows, like 90210 and Melrose Place and Gossip Girl (which hulu doesn't so much), but more importantly, as I just discovered yesterday, they post episodes of one of my FAVORITE shows of all time: Growing Pains!!!!!  I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this show.  They don't play reruns on TV at all like they used to.  I swear, I've been in foreign countries and this show has come on TV, and naturally, I have stopped all the fun and ignored everyone around me to just soak in the Seaver goodness.  On Fancast, they have 13 whole episodes online, which is just great news.  In case you never experienced the greatness as a child, growing pains is about the Seavers, a long island family whose mom has recently gone back to work and the dad, a psychiatrist, moved his practice to the home so he can take care of their three kids.  And the kids are just the funniest...Kirk Cameron still melts my heart.  So if you feel the need to invest your time in some eighties greatness, I highly suggest you scoot on over to fancast.  In the meantime, I will add both Long Island and the Seavers onto my list of families I'm going to move in with (right under LA and the Walsh Family).

In other exciting news:
(1) Jake appears on Beverly Hills 90210 today.  Let the Melrose spin-off begin!
(2) Chillin with Dylan Marathon on Soapnet November 27th...enough said.

Google Whacking isn't the only Google Game

A friend of mine (who I shall not name for security purposes) posted this fun little thing she came across while doing a google search. Now I can't say for sure how the Google search engine works, but I imagine when you type in something it predicts your search terms or question based on the most common things people type.  In this particular case, I can't imagine why the most searched term is such a specific question...but as for the question, "what are capers?" is something I have definitely wondered and probably have googled at some time or another.  After my friend came across this one, I decided to experiment with some other question beginnings:

Google is one interesting indicator of human behavior, that's for sure.

Things Glee and Guts Have in Common

-Adding Glee to my lineup of TV shows was one of the best decisions I have made this fall.  Nickelodeon's "Guts" hasn't been on the air for almost 15 years.  We will say that about Glee one day.

-Both shows have quite a competitive spirit.  While on Guts, three kids are competing for a piece of the Aggrocrag, on Glee, the examples of competition are endless.  Between the boys and girls of glee club, between Mr. Schuester and Jane Lynch's character, between the cool kids and the losers.  the Glee Club itself competes with other schools, that's kinda the point of its existence.  I don't know who is going to win yet, but if I had to guess, it will be the Glee Club.  It's as obvious as the fact that the girl will never win on Guts.

-Mike O'Malley, our favorite host of Guts, has been making recurring appearances as Kurt's father on Glee.     Who knew this guy was still around, but I am very happy to see you.  You are not as old as I thought you'd be after all this time. 

-The last thing these shows have in common, is how badly I want/wanted to be on them.  My childhood dream was to climb that aggrocrag and shoot nerf arrows while on a bungee harness.  And currently, I must find a way to be on Glee.  Ever since I saw Grease 2, I have been hoping to re-experience the magic of high school kids breaking into song in a weekly televised format.  And since I wasn't alive when Grease 2 was made, Glee might be my only chance because I was meant to attend a singing high school.  For now, I'll have to settle for being on Glee in my imagination. Which isn't a bad way to go.  I had a dream I won Global Guts for America and it feels very real to this day!

When Does Donna become a real person?

For all you 90210 lovers out there, you are well aware that Tori Spelling's character, Donna Martin, has ZERO personality for the whole first season.  She pretty much just stands behind Kelly and Brenda listening to them talk, and when she does add to the conversation, you just want to be like really?  really. This scene would have been totally fine if you never spoke.

Then, somewhere in the second season she crosses over and becomes a character.  And eventually, she becomes one of my favorite characters on the show.  So for the past week or so, I've been trying to pinpoint exactly when she becomes a real person.  It could be the episode where she, Kelly, and Steve try and play the stock market, and Steve and Kelly call her stupid for wasting their money but she actually makes a lot of money. And tells them never to call her stupid again.  But I think the real episode is the one where Scott accidently kills himself and David and Donna's relationship begins.  What do you think?

And to conclude this post on Tori Spelling, I would have to say that she has downgraded to pretend status yet again.  Now I love Tori Spelling, and I think her reality show is the greatest, but I follow her on twitter and the abrevs she uses...are like that of a really old person that is trying to be cool by abbreviating but doesn't really get it.  Now I know it might be the nature of the twitter medium, but to me, less is more, not let's see how much we can fit in 120 characters until I can barely understand what you are trying to say.  Example:

bed early ROX...Get 2wtch tv!Modern Family hilar!Ariel Winter is so grwn up!She played"Little Tori"on"SO noTORIous"4 VH1.Miss doin tht shw.


What! It just took me ten minutes to translate that.  Ohhhh Donna.  

Videos of Today

Here are three I thought I'd share that I stumbled across over the past few days:

1)  I loooove Lady Gaga but I had never seen her give an interview before.  Here is one she gave with Alexa Chung and I just love her even more now: Lady Gaga

2) more Lady Gaga inspired, but this time Christopher Walken is singing, well rather reciting, his version of Poker Face.  I died like five times watching this.  Thank you Perez Hilton: Poker Face

3)Ellen scaring Taylor Swift on her show, hilarious: Ellen and Swifty

Things Simba Likes

1) Looking at the fridge
2) Meowing at the fridge
3) whipped cream
4) eating my computer
5) sitting on my keyboard
6) sitting on top of me at all times
7) licking trash can liners
8) running from ghosts
9) purring loudly
10) staring at bugs

I'm 35 and still in high school

It's not unusual for 30 year old actors to be playing high school characters.  We see it all the time in our favorite teen dramas.  I think on 90210, Andrea Zuckerman and Jim Walsh were like, 5 or 6 years apart in real life.  Yet recently, two instances have struck me as kind of odd, in terms of actors playing ages that are much younger than them.

First, you should know that I've watched like the first 6 episodes of One Tree Hill, and to my surprise I see yes, the one and only Minkus from Boy Meets World, one of my favorite shows of all time.  Now Minkus was really only on the show for maybe the first two seasons, and kind of disappeared into the "smart wing" when everyone went to high school.  He did make a guest appearance in the episode where they graduate from high school, and they were the class of 1998!  Now we flash to One Tree Hill, and let's remember, the first four seasons everyone is still in high school, and there we see Minkus, still playing a high school child practically ten years later.  WHAT!  you are old.

Second,  on last night's Gossip Girl, Blair meets her new best friend, a prostitute who is also a student at NYU.  The actress who plays her new best friend, also currently plays Jessica/Tessica/Bessica on One Life To Live, a mom who also suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (thus the three names, personalities).  I think I started seriously watching the show when I was a junior and high school, when the DID storyline was underway. In that time, I've managed to graduate from both high school and college, and I'm supposed to believe that on GG she is a college student??  On OLTL she has like a 6 year old daughter! moral of the story, you are old and i don't believe that you go to NYU.

In conclusion, I should be a casting director. the end.

Dear World, HA! Love, me

I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not

One of my favorite new shows on this season is Community.  It plays on Thursday nights at 8pm on NBC before other shows that I like in this order:

1) 30 Rock
1) The Office
2) Parks and Recreation
2) Grey's Anatomy
3) Private Practice


It's about a community college--so you know, right there, the premise is just going to be soooo funny.  The show centers around those you might see at community college--dumb people out of high school, college dropouts going back in their mid twenties, moms, old guys going back for a career change, etc.  All the characters originally connect in a spanish study group.

Joel McHale is the main character...for those who don't know he also hosts the Soup on E!  He's supposed to be the sane one on the show, the zookeeper if you will.  I think that's why TV shows of this type, and by this type I mean when all the characters are legit insane, is that you have one person that is supposed to be the reference of normal. It's like Jim and Pam on the office, Michael Bluth on Arrested Development--the show might get annoying if you don't have those normal people in there as a point of reference. but then it makes you wonder, are they actually normal because they put up with these crazy people?  They never really acknowledge just to what extent everyone is out of their minds...

But one of my favorite characters in the whole show is Chevy Chase playing the old man going back for the career change.  I just finished a book on the history of Saturday Night Live, where Chevy Chase got his start, and proceeded to watch some of the clips from the first season he was in on hulu.  He is probably just as funny on community as he was back then.  He combines physical comedy with a dickish overconfidence.  The most recent episode, the halloween special, is just the epitome of Chevy Chaseness.  I think what I like the most, especially after reading the book on SNL, was about how horrible Chevy was in real life when he would come back to host throughout the course of the show.  The writers and cast members describe him as just saying whatever rude or obnoxious thing, no matter how offensive or malicious.  I think he inserts a part of that into his character, but he's not 20 years old anymore, he looks like a grandfather. so it kind of works in a new way now, because you can't really imagine your grandfather acting like that but you kind of can...

and in order for me to convince you to watch, or just at least appreciate why I like it, I suggest you watch this 30 second clip of the end of the episode: Click Me!

Videos of the Day

Sometimes watching TV fails to entirely keep my attention, which is why watching TV online was invented.  I am so talented at doing both at the same time!  Here are some funny ones I stumbled across today:

-This is the Office's newest webisode: http://www.subtlesexuality.com/main.shtml.  It's a music video featuring some of my favorite characters from the office, and I just think it's one liners are the funniest.  it's like an SNL digital short meets destiny's child meets me and my cousins used to put on productions like this (though not as suggestive of course).

-this one is from the late show with Jimmy Fallon: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2009/10/jimmys-scary-lamp/.  I'm pretty much obsessed and have watched it like five billion times.  I love sketches that push the boundaries of sanity. 

-This video is Taylor Swift on Ellen, http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2009/10/taylor-swift-taylor-lautner-1029.php/.  I really like her music as of recent, aka cannot stop listening/belting "you belong with me" on repeat. and she's just like the most adorable person in the whole world. I'm putting her on the list of my imaginary best friends.  And Perez looooooves her a lot so therefore I do too.

Enjoy!

Things that start with K

I love the reality shows Keeping up with the Kardashians and Khole and Kourtney Take Miami for some reason. I just think they are so funny.  However, I only really watch them while I'm at the gym.  For those of my readers who are less in tune with celebrity gossip, and especially unfamiliar with those who are famous for no particular reason, the show centers around the four Kardashian siblings, their mom, their stepdad (Bruce Jenner--yes, his son Brody is on the hills, and is their step brother), and their two little half siblings.  Yesterday, I watched the True Hollywood Story on the Kardashians at the gym, and now I love them even more. Here are five reasons why:

1) Kourtney and Rob Kardashian (the oldest and the youngest of the crew) went to college.  So did I!

2) When the mom, Kris, married Bruce, they had eight children among the two of them! Then they had two more!  That's ten kids! It's like a modern Brady Bunch.  I've considered moving to LA to live with the Walsh family on 90210 for some time now, but I think the Kardashians might be more interesting...if they only have a room available for me.

3) While it might be true that the fam is famous for no reason, this isn't entirely accurate.  All the girls have their own business ventures--including owning and running a couple of boutiques.  Kim made a name of herself doing personal styling.  It makes me feel better watching them, knowing that they do real things.  Unlike me, but if it helps I'm trying really hard to do real things.

4) On true hollywood story, they showed lots of pics of them when they were younger....which is fun because I love seeing what people looked like when they were babies/toddlers.  And they were super cute! and what a coincidence, i was super cute when i was little toooo!

5) Lastly, I love them because they are all crazy in a normal kind of way. You feel as if your family is just like them, but they also seem kind of pretend.  Like if you were to write a TV show and make up characters that would predictably act according to their character's prototype--that's kind of how the show feels like.  But it's not a bad thing.  Like this one episode, Khloe had a DNA test to see if she was actually her mother's child.  I wonder too since she doesn't really look anything like the rest of the family (she has totally different coloring and is like, a foot taller)...but the test showed that she was in fact, related.  that was a pretty silly thing to do, but i feel like we've all wondered if we were adopted at some point in our life...

Soapnet 101

My favorite cable channel in the entire world is SoapNet. Contrary to popular belief, they don't just play daytime soap operas (while they do play my favorite daytime soaps--all my children and one life to live at 8pm and 9pm...and during the weekend they play the whole past week's worth of episodes!). They also play reruns of One Tree Hill, the OC, and most importantly, Beverly Hills 90210. The best part is that they play all the seasons 1-10, 2 episodes a day, 5 days a week, IN ORDER! Which I watch everyday from 11-1pm depsite the fact that I have many of the seasons on DVD. And today is VERY EXCITING because season 2 has officially begun!!!!

Season 2 of 90210 starts off during the summer...with half the characters at the Beverly Hills Beach Club and the other half in summer school...which makes me sad because it's no longer summer, yet I am still living in a summer frame of mind. Everyday I wake up late, and pretty much sit on the couch for the rest of the day. Yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. I don't know why time is moving faster in my mind when everyday is pretty much indistinguishable from the last.

My favorite part of watching 90210 is seeing now famous people when they weren't famous, and previously famous people that are no longer famous. For example, on today's episode of 90210, we see Ted from Hey Dude... if you recall is a Nick show from our childhood, that may of us had huge crushes on. I have to admit, his presence on the show made me very excited but I couldn't quite remember why I loved him so much. I guess that's what imdb is for, reuniting me with old friends that only really exist in my imagination.

In other news, I never really watched One Tree Hill when it started during high school, but I became kind of interested recently for two reasons. One, my friend Jacki made me watch the past couple episodes on my computer because she doesn't know how to use surfthechannel or fancast. Two, they play One Tree Hill at 3pm on Soapnet when I don't have anything to watch after One Life to Live (General Hospital has yet to sufficiently get me hooked). So for two days now i have attempted to watch, but they played the same episode yesterday as they did today! What's up with that! If it happens again tomorrow, I'm giving up. but maybe not because hulu has some of the episodes online: http://www.hulu.com/one-tree-hill. Watch with me!

All in all, I give Soapnet two and a half thumbs up! It would get three, but in light of the One Tree Hill mistake, in addition to the fact that the morning's episodes of 90210 are the same as the evening's, I cut half of a thumb off. It also has kind of weird original programming. But I seriously appreciate how they play my favorite daytime shows at all hours of the day, use my favorite characters from AMC and OLTL in their promos as real people, how I can watch old primetime soaps, and lastly, it gives me things to look up on IMDB! you can only check perez for updates so often ya know....