The Boob Tube

I had a completely delightful tv watching experience on Tuesday night. Glee was back and I really enjoyed the episode (no, the show isn't perfect but it still makes me chuckle and Darren Criss' It's Not Unusual was terrific.) After that, there was a half hour of Zooey Deschenel playing a version of herself and even though the previews for The New Girl basically revealed the entire episode, I still found it enchanting. Finally, Raising Hope was messed-up funny as usual.

I was not as lucky last night. Sure, Survivor was good and I got really into the immunity challenge when Ozzy's team came from behind to win, but MY GOD, there is one contestant who is probably the most reprehensible character I've ever seen.

His name is Brandon Hantz. He is the nephew of Russell Hantz, who is known as a villain on the show. He is 19 years old, married and, of course, a "good Christian". Honestly, I have no idea why these "good Christians" keep coming on a show that basically forces your to treat people poorly. Oh yeah, 1 million dollars! I mean, I get it. In order to win you may have to do some things that, in the real world, would be horrible. But it is a game. So many of them don't seem to understand that.

Anyway, this Brandon person is such a Christian that he decides he needs to get rid of an attractive, strong woman who is an asset at camp and in challenges. Not because she is a threat, but because she flaunts her body (no more than anyone else on the show and less than most) and he is a married man. What? That's your problem, dude. Not hers. She hasn't been flirting with him (which is probably the problem) or anyone for that matter.

Thank goodness for the awesome editing of this show. Whenever they have voice-over of Brandon complaining about this girl, they show multiple clips of him leering at her! He's just so skeezy. I really can't stand it.

As if that weren't enough, I then flipped to Lifetime to watch Project Runway only to find it had been preempted by a marathon of Dance Mom's. I was so annoyed. Yeah, I watched a couple hours of Dance Mom's. So what? I didn't even realize until this morning that Runway isn't on until tonight and that I had missed ANTM! ARGH!

Aunt Pittypatt at German Fest

Today I went to the German American Festival with some friends of mine. I was excited to get out after my incredibly boring Labor Day Weekend. I wanted to make sure I did it right. I looked at the weather (it was supposedly 74degrees) and decided to dress in jeans, a short sleeved blouse and my Hannover sweatshirt I got in Germany. Appropriate, no?

We got there around 2:30 and I almost immediately went to get a sausage with cole slaw and potato salad. Everything was going well, I enjoyed my food and the four of us were just standing around and talking for a while.

I noticed that it was getting really warm. My face was seriously "glowing" (not sweating, glistening) but I was trying to play it cool. Rather quickly, my brain went a bit fuzzy around the edges, I felt lightheaded and couldn't quite figure out why. I thought it would pass, but it didn't. Instead, everyone I was with seemed to float away like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Luckily, our party had one chair which was being occupied by a sweater and a purse. I had the fortitude to say (probably a bit weakly) "Kathryn, I think I need to sit down or I'll..."

The next thing I knew, I felt vice-grip like fingers in my arm, I was sitting in the chair, and everyone was saying "Sara, Sara, are you okay?" My understanding is that when I stopped speaking I kind of hunched over the table where we were standing. Kathryn thought I was demonstrating what I would do if I didn't sit down, but then quickly realized we had passed beyond the demonstration state right into the actual doing! She said it was just a matter of a few seconds, but that my eyes were open the whole time. Totally creepy! Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I'm sure it was a result of the heat and possible dehydration (although I had a bottle of water earlier in the day).

In the end, I felt better almost immediately and I got some water to drink. All I can say is that it was the strangest sensation, and thank goodness my friends were there to help me!

Flightmare Part 2

Have you ever noticed how, in the movies of the 50s and 60s, when people are disembarking from a plane, it is always nice an sunny out? I'm thinking of movies like "Daddy Longlegs" and "The Parent Trap". Back then they didn't have these big planes with the connecting bridge so you just walk from gate to cabin without stepping outside. Well, that's how the planes in Erie roll.

This would all be fine if it weren't for the torrential downpour that greeted us in Philadelphia! we had to run, with our bags, from the steps of our airplane to the airport. It was probably at least a 30 yard dash. The two of us were drenched and the airport was about 10 degrees below freezing!

In Philly, they have all the small planes come into Gate F, but if you are transferring to a larger plane (as we were) you have to go to one of the other gates. We were headed for Gate B. Unfortunately, in order to get there (unless you want to go through security again) you have to take a bus. So, it was out into the elements for us once more!

I'll spare my dear readers all the gory details. Suffice it to say that, after at least one further gate change and a delay, it turned out that our flight to Charlotte wasn't going to make it in time for our final connection to Jacksonville.

Again we waited in line, this time to find out how we would get to our destination. We were given the option of just delaying our flight to Jacksonville until 6:45pm (awesome!) Fortunately we had a Plan B...get us to Wilmington. They did book us on a flight to Wilmington leaving, of course, from Gate F!

There was much scrambling to get my car rental reservation moved from Jacksonville to Wilmington and, after a quick bite, we made our way back to the small plane area. It was probably ridiculous to think that we would leave on time for this flight, I guess, because when our boarding time was near, we heard otherwise. A woman, speaking English but doing so as if she had a mouthful of marbles, informed us that our plane was ready, we were just wanting a crew. About an hour later Marbles told us that we had a plane, a crew and a lightning storm that would not be safe for the ground workers. Another half hour and they were getting us onto the plane.

We finally arrived in Wilmington and headed straight for the Budget car rental. A man, looking suspiciously like my mother's long-lost cousin, brusquely greeted us and asked for our confirmation number. I tried to explain our situation as I pulled out my laptop to get the confirmation number I had emailed to me when I made the change. That took too long for him so he deigned to look it up based on my last name. He found the reservation, but when we asked if we could return it to Jacksonville rather than Wilmington he told us we would need to step aside to make a new reservation!

I figured it would be fine to just say "screw it" and return the car to Wilmington and get a ride when we were leaving. However, when he saw my Driver's License, he asked me if it was my current address. I (stupidly) answered honestly that it wasn't and he told me he couldn't rent me a car. He directed us to the next desk down and said they would probably do it.

We shuffled ourselves to the next desk down where the woman was happy to rent me a 16 passenger van! We shuffled again. Finally, at Alamo we met with some aid. The manager was there training a new staff member and he rented us a car AND allowed us to return it to Jacksonville without charging us the exorbitant 1 way fee.

It was at least 4pm at this point, and we had suffered through a good 12 hours of grueling travel. I'm pretty sure we could have driven it in about the same mount of time (Google Maps claims it would take 12.5 hours) with much fewer headaches! In the end, we were safe and sound and we did wind up having a really nice time on our vacation within a vacation!

Flightmare Part 1

I have recently been informed that it has been about "36 years" since my last post. My calculations are slightly more conservative, but I understand the sentiment. Obviously my tidbits are greatly missed by the public and who am I to deprive the world of my genius?

Last Thursday I flew (with my mother) to visit family in Wilmington, NC. It was sort of a mini vacation within a vacation. We were flying out of Erie, PA at the ungodly hour of 5am. That meant we had to be up and on the road to the airport around 4am. I had gotten in at 12am from a night out howling and my brother woke me at about 4 to get going. We had to drive to pick up my mother, but when we got there the house was pitch black. We went inside and realized that the alarm didn't go off! Even so, we were on the road fairly quickly and 30 minutes later, arrived for our flight.

Most of my readership has visited the Erie International Airport, Tom Ridge Field and you know that it is approximately the size of an anemic Kmart. There are two check in desks, one magazine stand, and one diner-type restaurant. There is also only one line to go through security and 3 gates. Now, I have never had to wait in line behind more than two or three people at security. However, this time there was a line about 10 people deep with approximately 8 TSA staff on hand staring at one screen. Honestly, it would have been quicker for each staffer to select a passenger for a complete pat-down and bag search. Meanwhile, they are announcing our flight (you can see the gate from the security line) and final boarding. Finally, my mother gets through security (after having her hands swabbed) and I quickly follow. I am waiting for my duffle bag to come out on the conveyor belt but security holds me up. I tell my mom to go on without me, I'm sure it will just be a minute while they swipe it for explosives. I suspect there isn't much opportunity for racial profiling at the EIA so they must resort to actually picking passengers at random.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just a matter of a routine swab. Something suspicious had actually shown up on the monitor. The agent was very nice when he asked me to step to the side while he went through my bags. He searched my bags and they went through the scanner two more times before he discovered a pair of scissors that were within the regulations so I could board with them.

In the meantime, according to my mother, she was told that she must board the plane. She let everyone she passed know that her daughter was "just getting her bags checked" and asked if they could hold the plane. They told her no so she morphed from a rational woman to a hysterical person in a matter of seconds. She said that she was crying and calling my father (who, oddly, has very little influence with the TSA) and she stood in the doorway to the plane, sticking her head out, waiting for me to arrive.

When I heard that, I thought she was probably lucky not to be kicked off the flight herself. They did hold the plane and I got on. We flew to Philadelphia without further incident but that is not to say that the headaches of the day were over.

To Be Continued...

Have you heard about this Marriage Vow pact that an organization in Iowa is asking Republican presidential candidates to sign? It contains the usual stuff about remaining faithful to your spouse and doing everything in your power to block all sorts of unions that don't fit the "one man, one woman" mold.

That isn't the controversial part though, this is:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African- American baby born after the election of the USA‟s first African-American President

It seems to be indicating that an African-American child born into slavery had a more stable home life than one born in the last 3 years.

What a horrible thing to say! The majority of the controversy, from what I've heard, revolves around the reference to slavery. While that's terrible, it totally ignores the fact that it is entirely misleading. The same statement would be true during any presidential administration since the 1960s, not just the Obama administration. (The article being referenced was written in 2005, years before Obama was elected) It would also be true of pretty much any race in the U.S.A. A white child, Asian, Indian, etc. were all more likely to be raised in a two-parent household in 1860 than in the last 50 years.

I'll give you two guesses as to which candidates did sign.

Of course it was Santorum and Bachman. Both signed the pledge before the above-mentioned passage was removed.

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The Way it Should Be

I left my Fortress of Solitude this morning at 9:30ish. My cat-minions needed food (they go through it like it's food or something1). I got into Pet Smart just a few minutes after it opened at 10am. The place was a busy as I had ever seen it! Who knew Sunday morning was the time to do all your pet shopping?

Anyway, when I got into line, there was one guy checking out, two guys waiting in line in front of me, then two women after me. The cashier called for a "backup cashier". Now, in my experience, when the additional cashier shows up, the line generally breaks in half and moves over to the second register, maintaining the original line-up.

Before we got a chance to do that, in fact, before the new teller even showed up, the last lady in line hops right over to the second register! I thought that was fairly bold, but I didn't mind too much because now there was just one guy checking out and another in front of me. I knew I didn't have long to wait.

The line hopper then has the nerve to interrupt my cashier as she's finishing up with a transaction to ask her if she can call the additional person again (because the line-hopper has "some place to be"). My cashier does, then up goes the guy in front of me. He has some sort of fish issue and is sent to the fish department. So I'm up! And the new cashier still hasn't showed! By the time I'm out of there, the new cashier is checking the woman out. She probably didn't even make it out of there before the woman behind me. I know it isn't kind, but I couldn't help but have a smile on my face as I walked out of the shop.

Red Line Hero

No, I didn't stand up to a flash mob on the train today. What I did was so much better.

About 4 stops from home, a couple and their young child got on the train. As they sat down, the mother next to me facing forward and the father holding the child on the other side of the aisle facing backwards, the little boy began to scream and sob.

I'm not good a guessing age, but I think he must have been around 3 years old. The screaming went on and on until we reached the next stops while Mom and Dad tried to calm him down. I figured he must be terrified of the train. Finally, as we got moving again, I understood the problem. The kid wanted to be by a window, not seated in the aisle! Having a window seat myself, the power to give it away, and an intense disdain for ill-behaved children, I offered my seat to the mom. Rather than gratefully accepting, she said "I don't want you to have to do that" (of course, she moved her legs so I could get up). I told her I was off in two stops and the father said "she probably just doesn't want to hear him screaming anymore." Right on the nose, Papa Bear.

Once the family was re-configured according to their little brat's desires, he shut up, thank God. In my head I imagined all the other passengers applauding my actions (that didn't happen in reality, but it would not have been out of place in this situation). My good deed for the day is now accomplished, but I sure hope those people spare the rest of the world the ear-peircing shrieks of their child in the future.

What Would Lisbeth Do?

The trailer and poster for the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo have been released with quite a bit of fanfare. In the trailer, the cast looks good, the mood seems appropriate, but there is absolutely no dialogue and the accompanying music seems a questionable choice.

It is more of a teaser, I guess, than a trailer. I just find it strange. What is stranger, however is the movie poster

What is up with this? I read that you can actually visit the movie's website and enter your age and see the picture without Daniel Craig's arm covering Rooney Mara's breasts. Really? That's necessary? Isn't the objectification of women exactly what these books didn't do? I feel like if Lisbeth Salander was a real person, she would find a way to hack into the computers of the people who log in to view the topless photo. I don't think there is anything really wrong with it (I assume the movie will show a lot of nakedness) it is just so seedy.

Maybe this is just sour grapes...why is Rooney topless, but Daniel's amazing torso is covered in at least two layers of clothing?

Someday

This is the most awful thing I have seen in ages. Seriously, I don't think it could be more ridiculous if it were actually planned as a joke. Don't look away.

Baba's Got a Brand New Bag!

My BFF's brother just opened a screen-printing shop in Oakland California. It is super exciting and I really hope he and his partner have great success. They have a blog and I saw a nice canvas bag that I could order.

Johnny was the oldest kid in the neighborhood, even so he would often play our games and come to our parties (usually dressed as the scariest monster so my little brother was too frightened to come downstairs). Things changed when he got his first set of wheels, a skateboard. His freedom was absolute and he wasn't around any more to play "bumper cars" and eat the sweet william (and have to puke it up afterwards).

As we got older, his pants got wider until the point when I'm pretty sure my friend and I could have fit in together, one in each leg! He got piercings and his hair and sideburns got longer, but he still said "hello" to my parents in public so we knew he was still a good kid.

I haven't seen him in years, but I can only imagine that Johnny has remained a good kid. I wish him the best of luck as an entrepreneur.

Oh yeah, and I LOVE my new bag!

It even came with some bonus stickers

Howl

I am not a poetry fan. I don't really care to try and winkle out the meaning of a string of seemingly unrelated words and phrases. I know all poetry isn't like that. Some is very straightforward, but I typically don't care for that either. I guess I just prefer a narrative story in prose. I do consider this to be a shortcoming of mine, but I can't help myself.

Every once in a while, I will see or hear something that piques my interest in a poet. Usually it is a movie about the writer. I liked the movie Bright Star about John Keats, and Edge of Love (which was really less about Dylan Thomas than it was about the two women he loved). These movies were entertaining and interesting, but they were much more about the poet than the poetry.

The same cannot be said about Howl. In fact, this is truly a movie about a poem and the controversy its publication created. James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg and the film flashes between interviews with Ginsberg, portions of the obscenity trial, and a reading of the poem with animation. I've never seen anything like it.

Macho

Today a co-worker announced to me that Macho Man Randy Savage died. Even though I hadn't even thought of Macho Man in about 20 years, this saddened me. MM was never my favorite wrestler, I was much more of a Jake the Snake or Brutus the Barber girl. But still, his death reminded me of the WWF and going to the Erie Civic Center with my father, brother and great-grandfather.

Only in the 80's and early 90's could this man have been described as "Macho". Sure, he was muscular by any standard, but macho? The Village People might disagree, but that would just prove my point. Maybe it was all tongue-in-cheek, but I suspect not. If it was, I don't think wrestling fans were in on the joke.

No matter what, his untimely death (in what I understand was a car accident) at 58 is a sad event for his family, friends and fans. So snap into a Slim-jim and shout out a loud "Ohhh Yeahhh" for this unabashedly macho man.

The Death of Bin Laden

When my alarm clock woke me this morning the first thing I heard was "and news about the death of Osama Bin Laden". I was definitely groggy, but the import of the announcement did not fail to reach me. However, rather than feelings of elation, my reaction was more like "okay". Admittedly there was never much of a chance of me exulting in the death of anyone or anything, but I would have expected a more visceral reaction.

That reaction didn't come until much later in the day when I was exposed to countless jokes, "boot up his ass" type Facebook posts, and scenes of celebrating (read: rioting) in the streets from New York City to State College, PA and beyond. I do not presume to question the reactions of those who lost loved ones on September 11, or the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I suspect that those people were largely absent from the festivities, and while they may have felt that a sort of justice had been served, Bin Laden's death did nothing to bring back those who died before.

The fact remains that killing Bin Laden does nothing to dampen the spirit of Muslim extremists. In fact, he is now a martyr for their cause and they will probably believe that he is enjoying all the benefits of martyrdom in the afterlife. A far more fitting punishment would have been forcing him to live through the mercy of the United States and die a sick old man tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity.

I do not know what happened last night, if there was a choice between life and death, but I do know that how we react to this event is an indication of the state of our society. I believe we would do well to treat it with solemnity and circumspection otherwise we become what he and his followers believe us to be.

ANTM All Stars!

I heard a rumor that next cycle of America's Next Top Model will be an All-Star show. This both thrills and frightens me. It seems a bit unfair since most of the awesome contestants were from the earlier cycles and those were a good 5-7 years ago. That's like 20-30 model years! This puts the best personalities at a distinct disadvantage since they are far too old to begin a modeling career now if the exposure from their cycle of ANTM didn't pan out.

If I ruled the world (or the CW) these would be my picks for the contestants:

For the "Drama (aka crazy, but so entertaining)":

Jade- (Cycle 6) that beautiful bi-racial butterfly. She always had something to say.

"Posing with an elephant, it's like posing with an ancient dinosaur. And elephants are in the dinosaur family."

Natasha- (Cycle 8) the Russian mail-order bride. "What it do, Shawtie?"

Dominique- (Cycle 10) hopefully sans mom-hair. Seriously, this woman looks like she's 40, and this isn't even a photo showing the missing molar!

Lisa- (Cycle 9) the sweet "dancer". I loved how annoyed Tyra got when Lisa compared her exotic dancing to modeling.

For the "Should have gone further (or should have won)"

Ann-(Cycle 3) my girl from Erie! and she brings the drama. You best be cleaning up your nasty dishes or Ann may just knife them. That's what I call "Respieto".

Claire- (Cycle 10) she went way to early (after they dressed her up as Minnie Pearl). She wasn't long for ANTM after the crazy face-plant she did in that stupid gowns-in water-on glass-shot from below.

April- (Cycle 2) one of those who was too smart for the competition. She's probably a Brain Surgeon by now, but her photos were gorgeous.

Elyse- (Cycle 1) already a real model so no chance of returning, but awesome nonetheless. Her rant agains every single girl in the house was hilarious and true. She really should have won. I thought I'd die when Robyn and her fellow crusaders forced Elyse to pray with them.

Kim- (Cycle 5) no way would Tyra have her back but I don't think her career is suffering. Best fight ever over a granola bar.

I also think there needs to be a comeback for Janice Dickinson and Benny Ninja. Oh yeah, and Sutan should come back as Raja and teach the girls a thing or two about makeup and runway walking.

What do you think? Did I miss any of your favorite characters? Who would you like to see on ANTM All-stars?

Lumpuckaroo

I was all set to write about my big Girl's Thursday Night Out but I got hit hard by a terrible head cold and couldn't really think or do anything. Really, it began at 2:30am on Thursday. I woke up with a tickle in my throat and I couldn't sleep. I took some of my brother's left over allergy medicine and went back to bed. That day at work, I was just miserable and could tell it was only going to get worse. Undaunted, I went out with my friends from work. First to a Tapas restaurant (where I insisted they serve me my portions so I wouldn't infect them) and then on to the movie theater for a screening of Water For Elephants.

It was a great deal. For just $20 we got a ticket for the movie with drinks and appetizers beforehand and a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com. I already spent my gift certificate on the A Song of Ice and Fire book series.

We had a good time at the screening and the movie wasn't bad. It was pretty true to the book and the sets and costumes were pretty great. I really do prefer Robert Pattison when he isn't just acting sulky and sparkly.

It was a fun evening and I was even home before 11pm (meaning I could get to bed at a reasonable time). I even took some Nyquil, but I doubt I slept more than 2 hours the whole night. Miserable. I called in sick on Good Friday and felt terrible about doing that since things are so busy. I figured it would probably be better for me to miss one day than for me to infect everyone else so we were all out sick!

This is making for a yucky Easter Weekend and I probably won't be leaving my apartment again until Monday morning.

For all of you who aren't stuffed up and coughing...Happy Easter!

Reuben

I'm in this Lunch Club at work and every three weeks or so I'm responsible for bringing in lunch for myself and 8 co-workers. We have been doing it for almost six months and I love that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I don't have to worry about packing some boring frozen meal. The only problem is that when its my turn, I am always stumped about what to bring.

I've done chickpea curry, Greek chicken with orzo, ham pie, and assorted chicken salads and sandwiches. This time around, my parents sent me a recipe for a reuben loaf. I think my dad was concerned that I wouldn't know what to do about folding over the ends. I decided to take a picture of it and post it so he can rest assured (or tell me what I did wrong).

The reuben is really tasty and I hope my lunch club likes it.

Rueben Loaf

1 loaf frozen bread dough-defrosted

¼ cup Thousand Island dressing

6 oz. thinly sliced corned beef

¼ lb. Swiss cheese

1- 8 oz. can sauerkraut (well drained)

1 egg white beaten

caraway seed – optional

on greased baking sheet roll dough to 14 x 10 inches

Spread dressing down the center third of dough

Top with layers of corned beef, cheese and sauerkraut

Cut inch-wide strips along the sides of filling out to dough edges

Alternating sides, fold strips at an angle across filling (looks like a braid)

Brush with egg white; sprinkle with caraway seed

Bake at 400° for 25 min. or until done

Cool slightly; serve warm; refrigerate leftovers: reheat to serve.

Winter's Bone

I watched Winter's Bone over the weekend. I was a little disappointed. I don't think my feeling of ennui has anything to do with anything, except that it was a bit over-hyped. It was a very dark look at a group of very dark people. What a way to live. I guess I know that there are the rural poor out there and that many of them turn to things like cooking meth to survive, but wow, that was depressing. It made me wish someone would call child protective services. Those kids needed a meal, a bath, and a real bed. They also needed to not have their relatives beat up their older sister. Even the "good guys" were more than mildly unpleasant.

I was happy to notice 3 character actors from the HBO series Deadwood pop up as various unwashed characters. I guess someone watched Deadwood and thought "gee, those people look like dirty meth heads." Whoever thought that was a bit of a casting genius.

I promised myself that I wouldn't get into another Hunger Games movie post, but it is relevant because this was Jennifer Lawrence's defining role and the one that her supporters point to when trying to persuade us doubting Thomases that she can be Katniss. I certainly won't deny that she did a good job in this movie. There was quite a bit of talking through her gritted teeth, some hunting for survival, and a good amount of beat-down taking. All of that is necessary for a Katniss, certainly. It is as if they were just looking for taciturnity and the ability to look beat-up in a movie and said "There! We can cast her!" I mean, she has basically played the part already, just on a much smaller scale. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Seeing the movie has left me no more or less comforted about what is to come from our Katniss.

My greatest takeaway from this is that I am so glad I have my family and not that one!

Another Hunger Games Post

I know I haven't written in a while and that is mostly because I haven't had anything to say. A number of my latest posts have been about the upcoming Hunger Games movie and my thoughts on casting. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I am more than a little disappointed in the choices for Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.

I am definitely not one of those people who think that an actor has to look exactly like his or her character in real life. I do think that they have to be believable once we see them on screen. Who knows, maybe makeup and lighting will be such that I can totally forget Jennifer Lawrence is in her 20s and the exact opposite of petite, olive skinned, and dark haired. I accepted her casting and figured the choice had been made based on her outstanding audition, previous work and the fact that casting older allows for a better shooting schedule. It also made the casting of my personal favorite, Hunter Parrish, as Peeta a greater likelihood since he is also in his 20s. Unfortunately, they did not go that route. Instead, they cast Josh Hutcherson (the exact opposite of Peeta in stature and coloring) another good actor, but one who is and looks significantly younger than Jennifer. I would have been okay with Josh if they had likewise gone with a younger and smaller Katniss.

I honestly cannot think of any good reason for the filmmakers to do this. Everything I have read of the reactions of fans has skewed negative. I guess we will wait and see, but so far you can color me unimpressed.

Marigold

In flipping though the channels today I happened upon an exquisite little film called Marigold. It stars the incomparable Ali Larter (of the whipped cream bikini) as an American actress who finds herself acting in a Bollywood musical. Against all odds, this is not a comedy. It seems to take itself very seriously despite including scenes like this:

Tan Man , Marigold - Hindi Song - Ali Larter @ Yahoo! Video

As luck would have it, I was going to an Indian restaurant today with a friend. What I didn't realize was that the name of the restaurant was Marigold. I can say that my experience was much more satisfactory at the restaurant than it was watching the movie. I can only hope, however, that the name of the restaurant was chosen because the owners are huge fans of Ali Larter.

Uptown Downstairs Abbey

If you are like me and adored the first season of Downton Abby, this will just kill you.

So very funny.

If you haven't seen Downton Abby, you really must watch it. It is funny and juicy, and you feel smarter for having seen it (but really it is just a soap opera). A good thing to offset the hours you spend watching America's Next Top Model or Jersey Shore.