Cheney as Dr. Evil?! Clinton not on the guest list? Watch it, you’ll thank me.
more about “Jon Stewart makes me laugh.“, posted with vodpod
The Beast in 5 sentences or less January 17, 2009
1. Chicago has never played such a fantastic role in a TV series since…well…hm…
2. Patrick Swayze is at his acting best.
3. The pilot delves into some pretty deep stuff, and sets up the storyline rather well, but we may be looking at another “The Wire” here.
High School Never Ends When People Keep Showing Up On TV November 8, 2008
This week has been full of high school weirdness. As in, every where I look, I am running into people I knew from High school, or seeing them on tv, or hearing them on the radio. It’s just weird!
So I watch a lot of tv. Like a lot. An unhealthy amount that I justify by saying I work in TV. But anyway. So I am watching TV and I see Sam Witwer. This guy I went to high school with. Major player in the first season of Battlestar Gallactica. Then he appears on my favorite shows like NCIS, CSI and Bones as the same creepy character-type. He’s awesome. He’s always been awesome…first time I saw him act was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in high school, and even at 17, he was amazing. And you root for people like him to succeed. And he is. So that’s awesome.
Then I see Katie Cleary invade my CSI: NY. Sure she has one line. Sure I’ve seen her in Playboy, America’s Next Top Model Cycle 1, and that Verizon Wireless commercial where LC tells Brody he’s a pig for staring at Katie Cleary’s ass. But I was watching CSI:NY, and was like, wait, I know this girl. She went to my high school, and here she is, on the TV, in one of my favorite shows. So go her.
And then, just now, I was watching Gossip Girl, and this girl runs into the screen and kisses a boy and says her two lines, and I’m going…oh, my, god, I know this girl! It’s Christina Hogg, now going by Christina Hogue, who I was in high school musicals with. And again. It becomes, I went to high school with you, and here you are invading my Monday guilty pleasure that is Gossip Girl. So go you.
And before now, I would try to compare myself to them, and try to see who has become the most successful of all the people I went to high school with. This might have something to do with the fact that it will be 10 (!) years since high school next year, and I am always curious to see who ends up where in life. Like if the drama kids actually ended up as accountants or something. I would contemplate if I took the wrong road in life, if I should’ve stayed in LA and worked my ass off in film, and sold my soul to the Hollywood devil, would I be rich and famous with no soul in a Malibu condo…I would sit and compare my life and say, yeah, they made it to the TV, but I have an Emmy, yadda, yadda, yadda (btw, I did win an Emmy. Yay me). I would then usually feel bad for myself. Then put them down and say, whatever, at least I own a condo and have a steady paycheck with benefits…
But not now. I mean, sure, I think as humans we all want to be successful, and appreciated, and recognized now and again. But when I see these people that I went to high school with on screen, I can’t help but feel proud for them. Happy for them, even. Cause I know that’s its been 10 years since high school. I know that they have probably worked 10 hours bartending just to make the rent so they could audition for that role that just might be their break. I know they probably have cried a couple times from that business and contemplated if this is what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Who knows, maybe they are a lot stronger than most of us, and have never cared about anything else in the world, have never wanted to be anything else but actors in this world. And you know what, I am geniunely happy for them. Because now I have bragging rights when they are on screen. I get to say, “Hey, that’s so-and-so, I went to high school with them! How about that?” It might have taken them 10 years to be visible on national television, but I am sure that it is 10 years of blood, sweat and tears. Because each of these people, and every actor (who is a real actor) that I have ever met, has had the passion, the desire, the blood, the sweat and the tears to do what they love. To embody what they know. And they have that feeling that this is the one thing they were put on this earth to do. And how could I be bitter over that passion?
So to Sam Witwer, Katie Cleary, and Christina Hogue, I wish you much more success. I can’t wait to see you pop up in my shows again. And to Scott Burman, Andy Gersh and Kevin Miller…where are you?
And just today, I met a couple friends from high school for lunch in Evanston, and it was like we’d never left. In a good way. In the way that you walk into a restaurant where everyone knows your name, and you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone, and you can just sit and have a conversation and it doesnt matter that you haven’t seen these people in two or six years…it’s that kind of familiarity that I crave these days, and I can’t help but smile. So comfortable am I that I agreed to a Dublin trip in the near future with these two. So we will see what happens.
High School for me was fantastic. I didn’t know anyone the first day of freshman year, and I left knowing just about everyone. I was friends with everyone, I was that girl who everyone knew, I was the freaking homecoming junior attendant for god’s sake. But I feel like in high school, I had too much to prove, I put on too much of a facade, and no one really stopped to get to know the real me. Hell, did anyone know the real them in high school? The point of this rambling is to say that high school for me, has never gone away. I feel like the world is just one big high school. There will always be cliques. There will always be the Prom Queen, the Most Likely to Succeed, and the Loner. But no matter what, whether you went to it, loved it, or just plain loathed it, high school is one of those formative things that never seems to leave your life. At least for me.
I love how seeing people from high school on TV catapultes me to a time I thought I had it all figured out. Sometimes we learn so much from the past. Sometimes we learn that we have learned nothing at all. And sometimes, the past brings us one step closer to a future trip to Dublin.
Follow-up to EXpiration Date post October 26, 2008
Ah, how I love when TV shows someone emulate my life unintentionally. Or intentionally, since I don’t believe in coincidences.
See How I Met Your Mother’s lastest episode and share in my belief that exs’ should not be invited to weddings:
How I Met Your Mother "Shelter Island"
Another “I don’t have the Cubs to distract me so I’m writing during the news” post October 15, 2008
Since I dont have the Cubs to depress me anymore, I now have the 10 o’clock news. Which is actually more depressing. But whatever. At least I know the news now “shooting on the South Side”…”economy in turmoil”…yadda, yadda, yadda…let the distraction commence!
I am loving Fringe lately–although it does require my undivided attention which seems to be lacking lately–It’s been on my DVR for three weeks now, and I just sat down to watch one episode and ended up watching all 3 of them. Just love everything about it. The complicated storylines that always seem to be answered by the end of the show, but not without a tease for the next show…the digital location title pop-outs (I am a typography-geek at heart)…Josh Jackson and Anna Torv….I just love it all. Good thing too…they just renewed it for another season. Thank goodness–I hate watching new shows that ultimately get cancelled (see Raines, October Road, Women’s Murder Club…etc.)
I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even had time to blog. Part of me thinks that’s good. Part of me thinks it’s because I need a laptop to tote around (anyone want to buy me a MacBook Pro?), but another part of me thinks signing up for park district classes three times a week was a little overkill for this non-committer. But whatever.
In the past few weeks, I ‘ve seen Seal and BB King perform live. I’ve found out my dog might have a thyroid problem (enter Oprah joke here), and I’ve discovered that my wardrobe is not ready for the change in season. A series I work on at work has been nominated for a Chicagoland emmy, which means the red carpet is Saturday, so go me. And I am kinda hating on my apartment and neighborhood right now, but I don’t really have any reason too (although, maybe I do–see below). When I am super busy, I always complain that I have no downtime, and am constantly raccoon-eyed. When I have nothing to do, I can’t sit still and am constantly complaining that I should be doing something…and am raccoon-eyed. Is there no justice in this yin-yang universe?
So I always check this website out that chronicles the happenings around where I live. So here is a post I came across yesterday:
Breaking News: Decomposing Body Found In Uptown Sewer
I’m sorry, WHAT!?!??! Where the hell do I live!? The article in the Sun Times is sketchy, as is the actual case. Dead bodies keep showing up in my neighborhood, and it’s freaking me out. And the sick thing is, I have yoga in that park district building. Ick. I’m like on that CSI show where they find dead bodies in the sewer which was really a mob hit covered up by the fact that it was at a newly renovated kid’s park where the mobster’s daughters play. Ick. Ick. Ick. Me no likey. I need to move. Damn economy!
That’s all for this distraction. Until the next one, have a good night!
Fall Season Previews…it’s my favorite time of year! September 11, 2008
Better than mint chocolate chip and fresh crisp apples off the tree, it’s the return of the FALL TV SEASON! Horah! Hoorey! YIPPEE!
So here are some recaps, since this is only the opening week of new shows (many, including Gossip Girl, are still on my TiVo…what? It’s been a long week!)
FRINGE (Tuesday, 8pm, FOX)
Oh, to be in the head of J. J. Abrams…perhaps not a good thing. Before he brings us “Star Trek:2009″ without William Shatner, he whipped up an hour-long serial that I am calling creepy, yet intriguing…short attention spans need not apply. There is no other way to describe it except to say it is: “X-files meets The Twilight Zone, topped with a little 24 action and CSI forensics and sprinkled with a bit of Twin Peaks on top.” It’s one messed-up, intriguing, could only be classified as “that show that the guy who co-created Lost and Alias could cook up…..
WATCH IT, if only to feel like you’ve watched something of substance…even if you don’t understand it…
ANTM (Wednesday, 8pm, The CW)
Mix a trans-gender with a racist from Alaska (enter political joke here) mixed with an Asian girl with a gangsta’ complex, and you have season 11 of America’s Next Top Model. Reality show formatting at its very best.
DVR IT so you can fast-forward through the hair-pulling, sobbing-because-”like, modeling’s so much harder than I thought” montages.
BONES (Wednesday, 7pm, FOX)
Oh Brennan and Booth. The longer you two don’t sleep with each other, the better for all of us. Mix a little England (oh, how I love thee) with a little Brennan/Booth tension…add a little Angela’s ex-husband return with a little trust issue plot twist, and sprinkle a little English accents in there, and you get a fun-loving (if not quite long) 2- hour season premiere of love, loss and lust (p.s.–does everyone sleep with a co-worker on this show?! Seriously…)
WATCH IT if only for the Brennan/Booth verbal spars…and no, you won’t miss Zak…I promise…
That’s all for now folks. Lots of new shows next week so I must clear my DVR from last week. I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been anti-social (which, apparently, meant I was anti-blog too…) I know you’ve missed me, so I’m back. Ready to spew more poetics and life contemplations (let’s call them observations, shall we?) for you.
I am a Pop Tart August 26, 2008
I love pop culture. Probably because part of me likes the escapist factor of it all, and part of me likes to know what is going on in the pop culture world. I know, I am well-educated (see my USC diploma), well-written (see my yet-to-be-published novel on teenage angst), and well-read (at least I still read the newspaper every now and again…). But i just like the trashiness aspect of it all.
Anyway, here is a website for all you fellow Pop Tarts…
http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/
Here’s a fun recap about a staged version of The Hills starring Janeane Garofalo…gotta love Hollywood!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/08/draft-janeane-g.html
And…have you noticed the buses plastered with Gossip Girl naked bodies? And how the critics’ negative words have been turned around by the marketing dept? Another in the “brilliant” ad campaigns (see I Hate Sarah Marshall)…the creator, however, is non-too-thrilled with this campaign…but this is why he is the creator and not the marketing dept. I think it is sleazy and provacative, but it still gets my attention all the same. That’s why I’m a pop tart.
Here’s this interview, courtsey of www.tvtattle.com another Pop Tart staple:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/49521/
So, enjoy some Pop Tart with your morning joe. 
I. just. can’t. stop. watching. August 19, 2008
I have a confession to make, and I’m not really proud of it. But I need to purge all the same. Please do not judge when reading the next statement.
My name is Stefi, and I am addicted to The Hills.
I know, I know, I , too, tend to lose a few brain cells after I watch it, but OMG! I am obsessed. And this year’s season premiere did not disappoint.
For all you living under a rock, The Hills is the 2008 version of what The Real World did in 1990 (and if you don’t know what The Real World is, go back to your rock). And despite all its present controversy of whether or not it is “reality” (some cast members have been known to slam the door twice after a huge fight…because the lighting was bad the first take…), The Hills is a juggernaut that shouldn’t be ignored. It is showing the glamorous side of Hollywood that us mortals would never see, and reminds me, yet again, that my choice to move out of Hollywood was a good choice indeed! ( I tend to rhyme when making silly statements about my openly-evil relationship with Hollywood).
Well, I guess its other appeal might have something to do with the drama that unfolds with a cast as beautiful as it can get in Tinsletown. Put The Hills in Milwaukee, and we might have a problem. (Seriously, who dresses formal to go to dinner?)
So, Lauren is rich. She’s pretty. But the best thing is that she portrays real. She cries. Whether or not it’s on cue, no one seems to care. She deals with what every twentysomething nowadays deal with: relationships, work, falling in love and how to get by. Granted she has a 10 million dollar trust fund to fall back on, a soundtrack to her life, and the best and worst moments all captured on video tape to be played at her wedding (which will no doubt be videotaped for air), but you sympathize with her. You feel for her. And if you’re like me, you see a little bit of yourself in her…real or not.
Then there’s Audrina, who is this beautiful, somewhat shy, sympathetic character who you think is going to be the quintessential “I’m-so-pretty-but-so-insecure” brunette Barbie doll, and I’m not gonna lie, she comes off like that in the first two seasons. But now, in its fourth glorious season, we see her go one-on-one with Lo, Lauren’s roommate. Oh, a good season indeed.
Now Lo is a Joan Collins-esque bitchy yet self-assured best mate to Lauren since the sand box. Spencer and Heidi (notice you cannot talk about one without the other) really just need to stop feeding off their 15 minutes teat and get on with their lives. Perhaps stop dying their hair platinum blonde and gain a few brain cells. But I digress. There’s Whitney, who I at first hated because of her thick California Valley girl accent, but have grown to love since she seems to be the only one with a good head on her shoulders. And there is a whole host of characters to add to the drama that is all encapsulated into a 23-minute weekly. Gotta love editors.
But the fact that this controversy of “is it reality or is it staged” hasn’t wavered fans a bit because it boils down to this: The Hills is a soap opera with gorgeous scenery (please tell me how three twentysomethings who don’t really work bought a 2 bedroom plus guest house flat in Hollywood…hello daddy!), a killer soundtrack (it is MTV, after all, they do play SOME music…right?), and all the catfights and drama that come from being gorgeous and living in LA. Oh, and those boys? Mere accessories to these princesses’ palace.
The Hills is my crack because even if their entrances are faked, their stories are real. These characters are real. No one can script a show quite like this one…I mean, “I want to forgive you, and I want to forget you????” Who writes this brilliant stuff? No one can script that spontaneity. No one can write this stuff!
I take that back. You know someone, somewhere in The Hills of Hollywood has already written, submitted, and sold the rights to The Hills: The Movie.
**Side note: As much as I love seeing places I used to be and know exactly where they are shooting, watching The Hills also gives me some sick pleasure of realizing that I made the right choice to come home to Chicago. That even though I love the drama of The Hills, it is better left on the TV screen, and as easy as it is to fast-forward through MTV’s plethora of teenage contraband to get to the glamorous parts of Hollywood that I remember, it is just as easy to turn off the “staged reality”, realize I have no drama to call my own, smile at that thought, and call it a night.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’d love Lauren’s life. If only for her fashion sense, her Mercedes and her bank account. I’ve already made her mistakes in the boy department…mere accessories to the Chateau de Stefani….
Another “I’m distracted watching the Cubs but must blog” post July 29, 2008
Watching the Cubs give me a heart attack playing Milwaukee…geezus! Although they just scored, and now it is 4-3…man, at least you can say they are fighting for it!
So I got a notice in the mail about my dog barking during the day…from the Unknown Hall Neighbor who I have yet to meet, but complains a lot to the condo board and likes to leave anonymous post-its on my door threatening expulsion…see, high school doesn’t end! It annoys me to no end cause I know it is not my dog. If Ollie barks, its at a squirrel, and not this “all day” busy this person keeps insisting it is…and of course, I am the girl that just wants everyone to live in harmony, I was the one who knocked on everyone’s door when I moved in to say, hey, I’m your new neighbor, let’s be friends…only to get laughed at. And for being “pet friendly”, they sure aren’t…and it annoys me because I try to be the good neighbor…and always get screwed. Maybe I should start being the bitch, and then they’ll stop hatin’ on Ollie! Geezus, he’s a dog. Wonder how they’d complain if it was a crying kid…can you imagine? Can they even fine you for a crying kid? lol.
A lot of people are commenting to me that I should take a dance class, since I have become obsessed with dance. But now I dont know where to take it…which type to take…and really, how much is this going to cost me? In this (non) recession, I can barely make mortgage payments let alone have a “social” agenda that involves “money” (I put that in quotes because money implies actual cash…and I, like any good North Shore brat would do, only carry plastic)…I think I would do good with Swing because I love the music…and salsa, although I can’t imagine actually going to a salsa club by myself so grown men could cop a feel and disguise it as dancing…but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself…after all, who says grown men can dance?
Last week I was so busy I watched one hour of tv. ONE. This from the girl who averages 12 hours a week on a slow week…geezus. I have Mad Men to watch. Weeds to TiVo (hate to be the only one in the office who hasn’t seen it!). The Wire, apparently, to watch. Not to mention the finale of SYTYCD, My Boys, catch up on House, and still be able to watch the Cubs sweep the Brewers! Too much TV, too little time. By the time I catch up, fall season will be here!
I miss “the country” (which is what I call “up north”, which is really just the hour-away suburbs) already…I just left, but I miss the wide open spaces! The not hearing people run up and down the stairwell…the porch…the 52″ widescreen…the oven that can bake chocolate chip cookies and not set off both fire detectors…
Ok, I’m random. And thus closes another one of my “I’m distracted watching the cubs but feel the need to purge useless information from my brain cavity so I can fill it with more useless knowledge tomorrow” blog. Hope you’ve enjoyed!:)
Something new…and dance videos! July 24, 2008
o in my attempt to try something new everyday, I did something, well, new…I pulled a calf muscle swimming…I know, right? The most low-impact sport ever I pulled a muscle…went for a turn on the wall and missed the wall…but still kicked hard…anyway, I’ve been laid up for a little bit, so nothing is really new…but I thought I’d put up the five dances that are up for Emmys…three of them come from SYTYCD! I personally am still of huge fan of Mandy Moore’s “Table” dance, but something tells me that Wade Robinson will come out victorious…we’ll see! Enjoy!
So You Think You Can Dance • Routine: Transformers / ‘Fuego’ • Shane Sparks, Choreographer
So You Think You Can Dance • Routine: Hummingbird and Flower Wade Robson, Choreographer
So You Think You Can Dance • Routine: Table Mandy Moore, Choreographer
High School Musical 2 • ‘What Time Is It?’ Kenny Ortega, Charles Klapow, Bonnie Story, Choreographer
Dancing With The Stars • Routine: Mambo Julianne Hough, Choreographer
