parks and recreation

“He’s a tourist. He takes vacations in people’s lives, takes pictures, puts ’em in a scrapbook and moves on. All he’s interested in are stories.”

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department of Pawnee, Indiana. Another faux documentary set in a small town, featuring sad sad people that are unknowingly funny in their sadness. It’s like The Office, with a female lead. It works. I’m watching Season 2 now.

how i met your mother

I just finished Season 5 and I love it and I want more.

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But then of course we can’t have more MORE, sooner or later the writers have to sit down and write that scene where Ted finally meets his future wife and we can finally see her face.

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While clicking through links online I saw this little tidbit: Before “How I Met Your Mother” (2005) started, Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Radnor had already acted together, as lovers in a Los Angeles production of the Jon Robin Baitz play “The Paris Letter”.

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Ooh.

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I WANT TO SEE THAT PLAY.

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Also watching: Lost (Season 2 – I know, I KNOW), Dollhouse, Mad Men, The Sopranos (I’m so late), Big Bang Theory, Fringe. Whenever a re-run of Frasier or Everybody Loves Raymond is on, I sit down and watch. I used to follow Two and a Half Men, maybe I’ll borrow a DVD from someone. Also, House and Boston Legal and 30 Rock. The Wire was really good but my DVD died, so I wasn’t even able to finish Season 1. CSI is entertaining, but CSI: Miami and New York are laaaaaame.

I’ll revisit Will and Grace soon – I miss that show.

What are you watching?

lost

Photo from here.

The series is nearing it’s end and I’ve only just finished the first season. Late viewer is late, oh my. I’ve always wanted to see it after the first-season hype, but by the time I found the time (daming time) to see it the bad reviews are already trickling in. Apparently, the plane crash survivors got off the island at some point – then they went back? WHAT? But anyway. First season. So Season 1’s final episode was underwhelming (That’s the smoke monster? That’s it?), so I have a lot of questions, so I find the doctor’s life story boring, so I’m wondering what Michelle Rodriguez is doing in this scene, so the cast members execute perfect blocking every time they have to look over there – but my God, it’s riveting. It makes good TV, no doubt. I will forever love those flashback scenes featuring Locke and Sun, and that scene where they figure out that the message has been repeating itself for 16 years, and Jin’s back story left me teary-eyed. I will watch Season 2 of course. I want to know what’s in that hatch they just blew up.

(NO SPOILERS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.)

mini-reviews, 6

First, second, third, fourth

and fifth

Okaaaaaaaay, go!

Up

up

I hate the people at Pixar because they’re sickening geniuses. They can make anything work, anything at all. An old man who flies off with his entire house? Using balloons? Done, they say, and guess what? We’ll make you cry, too. Damn them. Amazing how they are able to hide the real story of this animated masterpiece and still be able to show an effective film trailer. The opening montage, sans dialogue, is very poetic, a beauty. Even Partly Cloudy, the short film that precedes it, is a treat!

I hate the people at Pixar, oh I really do. I abhor them.

Bedtime Stories – I knew that was Lucy Lawless! I knew it! I love you, Xena!

Nice, warm, family film. I love it, except for the overload of cheesiness in the end. Eh, it’s a Disney film, what did I expect right.

I Love You, Man – Jason Segel nails it as the sunshiny Sydney. Awkwardness on top of awkwardness on top of awkwardness. The “You’re a whore, Peter” confrontation scene made me laugh. Fun.

Akane-iro Ni Somaru Saka – Funny enough adult animated Japanese series, but feels to me as if it simply ran out of time. On to Skip Beat!, then, which seems more promising.

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A Really Random Life Share – Last night I was in Greenbelt with a female friend. We were sitting near the glass wall inside Starbucks. Outside was a foreigner, a male Caucasian. While my friend and I were talking, this guy knocked on the glass, pointed at the two of us, and gave us a thumb’s-up. He did it twice, maybe just in case we didn’t see him the first time. What the fuck.

(Unless he’s a proud gay man who was just showing his approval of what he thought was a loving, lesbian relationship. Then I suppose the interruption was cool.)

(Nah, I didn’t think so, too.)

august’s end

What shone through all the clouds of ideology was my parents’ simple belief that children are an end, not a means. My parents did not have children to add more footsoldiers to the cause.

My liberalism would come to be a different creature, one admixed with the history that I now study, spiced with the knowledge that the world is a fallen place, not suitable for utopian schemes. That’s an easy thing to see when you’ve met some utopians.

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imageDBThe passages are from Mark Oppenheimer’s excellent, excellent essay, At August’s End, wherein he talks of his days spent as a boy in leftist summer camps. I admire this essay for its honesty.

I initially approached Sleepaway: Writings About Summer Camp warily – I’ve never been to summer camp, and I thought it was a boring subject for an anthology. But with contributors like Margaret Atwood, Sharon Olds, David Sedaris, and here, Oppenheimer, it appears that the book is going to be an interesting read.

Special thanks to Andrea for letting me borrow the book. Hope you’re feeling better now. :)

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In other news, with Big Bang Theory and Fringe out of the way (I can’t wait for September), I am now watching – get this – a Japanese cartoon series. The introductory episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is absolutely insane. (“What’s with this pan-up?” “And so, to change scenes, we’ll just have a shot of the sky.”) One of the characters is a waitress from the future (don’t ask), who tries to do some Sailor Moon-like hand-and-feet choreography, but often fails because she cannot balance on one foot.

This is not what the series is about, but more po-mo anime please!

dr. cooper gets nominated

The Emmy nominations have been announced, and as usual 30 Rock has nominations coming out of the wazoo.

Oh, and the lovely Jim Parsons gets a nod for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

dtglf

The Big Bang TheoryCBSChuck Lorre Productions, Inc. in association with Warner Bros. Television
Jim Parsons, as Sheldon Cooper

Photo from World Icons LJ

I’m a happy fangirl. :) He’s up against the likes of Alec Baldwin, Tony Shalhoub, and Steve Carell, but I’ll root for Parsons this year. It’ll be fun to see him fumble through an acceptance speech, if he wins.

Now shut up and let’s watch this interview.

Extra: Jim Parsons in one scene of Garden State. I’ve seen the film, but of course I don’t remember him.