Monday, September 22, 2008

Stuff for a Monday

So much to say, so little time. When I'm not back at work I'm rushing to get dinner ready and then it's helping my daughter with her homework (in junior kindergarten?? Has the world gone COMPLETELY crazy??) and then getting the duo to bed and then working on Lost. Uh... wait, is there TV I'm supposed to be watching??

Heroes is on RIGHT NOW and I'm working on the Lost book. Argh. Here's hoping I can watch it soon. I'm behind on Gossip Girl, but last week's ep TOTALLY rocked. Loved it. I love Chuck Bass as much as I hated Edward in Twilight, and yet they're both jerks. Maybe it's because Chuck doesn't hide the fact he's a dick, and Edward's dickishness is something we're not supposed to notice.

I've seen the first episode of The Shield, and it's brilliant. (K, you must watch so we can discuss!) LOVE this show.

The Emmys were last night, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a new guard stepping up. 30 Rock won best comedy, which is great, Mad Men won best drama... I just finished season 1 and am beginning season 2, and I really love it. Connor Peter is a bit of a caricature, but that's what makes him funny. I still love how enamoured he was of the chip and dip in season one -- "The chips go here and in the middle it's this sour cream concoction with little dried onion bits, and you DIP the chip in!" I said to my husband that I MUST find a chip dip holder that is that horrific-looking. I can't imagine a world where chip dip didn't exist. Good god.

I'm actually pretty happy with most of the awards last night, with the exception of one MAJOR one. Gabriel Byrne did not win for In Treatment. The man carried -- CARRIED -- 43 half-hours of a show in a single season, and was in virtually every scene. And he's absolutely brilliant in every scene. He ran the gamut of emotions in this show and I don't think I've ever seen a performance like his in a single season. If he HAD to lose, I would have accepted Michael C. Hall for Dexter, but he didn't win, either. It went to Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad. I haven't seen it, and now I need to check it out because that better be one helluva groundbreaking performance to take down those two men. It just seems impossible.

Michael Emerson didn't win it for Lost, which sucks, but it went to Zeljko Ivanek for Damages, and I must admit, he's pretty freakin' amazing in that. (And hey, he's Juliet's bastard husband, and the guy's a character actor legend, so I'll let him have it without bitching too much.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times let Aaron Sorkin take over her column today and imagine a meeting between Barack Obama and Jed Bartlet. The result is pretty funny, even for the way over the top writing of Aaron Sorkin:

OBAMA They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?


It's REALLY funny stuff. Read the entire thing here. (Thanks to CJ for the link!)

Speaking of the election, if you've seen the Sarah Palin interview on ABC that sparked Tina Fey's impression of her, you'll love this straight parody of the interview (even better, watch the Palin interview right before it and you'll see that they're playing the parody really close and not making much up).



I read with my jaw sort of on the floor today the news that Jamie-Lynn Spears' baby daddy took pictures of her with the new baby, and in one pic she's breastfeeding it and you can see part of her left breast. When the guy took the pics to Wal-Mart to get them developed, an employee looked through them, saw the pic of the boobie, and immediately tried to sell it to the papers. It's gone missing, and an investigation is underway saying if that is published it's tantamount to child porn because of Jamie-Lynn's age (I am SO not making this up). Which led me to this thought: What's worse, the fact a low-life photo developer tried to pawn off pictures of a new mother while she was simply trying to feed her baby, or the fact that Mr. Jamie-Lynn Spears TOOK HIS PICTURES TO WAL-MART to get them developed???

Dude: GET A DIGITAL CAMERA.

UPDATE: I'm being told it was a memory card that he took to Wal-Mart, which actually doesn't change my shock at his stupidity. Did he really need to save money on processing those photos? Couldn't he have found a more discreet retailer, a photo developer to the stars or something? You can't tell me Jennifer Garner is taking her baby pics to Wal-Mart for developing.

8 comments:

Ryan said...

I had quite an interesting TV night tonight; a few friends introduced me to three shows I had not yet seen:

The first was Gossip Girl, which my friends had been saying I would love because they say I am a male version of Blair (um...compliment?). I thought it was very entertaining.

The second was a series on TLC called Jon and Kate Plus 8, which I think is a docu-series about a couple who had twins and then sextuplets. As the oldest of eight children myself, I could empathize with their hectic - and often hilarious - situations.

The third was The Hills. Yeah. :\

Crissy Calhoun said...

apparently it was a digital camera, and Casey took the memory card in to get prints. why do i know that?

this week's gossip girl is even MORE glorious than last week's. and to tide you over, some of the GG characters (read: fans of GG) are Twittering:
http://twitter.com/serena_vdw

K J Gillenwater said...

Bryan Cranston deserved that Emmy. He is brilliant on that show. Trust me. You have to watch it. I was very happy to see that his hard work got recognized.

Chris in NF said...

Wow, Heroes just blew my mind last night. Peter Petrelli is actually an android?? Parkman makes out with a scorpion?? Hiro marries Nikki (much to Ando's jealousy!)? But seriously, it was the Lost-crossover with Locke appearing in Mohinder's lab, stealing his research ... do you think the Island has anything to do with the heroes' powers????*

Hope you get a chance to see it soon. ;-)


*One of these things is true.

Anonymous said...

heroes was awesome ... but unfortunately, having not seen an episode in 10 months, having not had access to a trusty guidebook to help me along, having not enjoyed the second season enough to buy the DVD ... i was totally, utterly, well, *lost*. (no pun intended.)

this week's GG was meh compared to last week's blackout blackmail fest. one thing that KILLED me though is how the TWOP recapper mocks lord marcus's shockingly bad british accent (it makes me cringe):

Lord Marcus walks in on Blair and Chuck making out; he pulls at her dress insistently. He is stricken, or simply feels like watching for an interminable British amount of time, before he speaks up: "Bleh?"

hahahahahahaha!

Emilia said...

Although I haven't seen Breaking Bad, I do enjoy Brian Cranston. I can't forgive them for not giving the Emmy to Michael Emerson. I just can't. I was pleased to see Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey win, though.

BTW, Ryan, I love Jon & Kate Plus 8!

Wawa said...

I have actually been told my photographer friend that for some unknown reason, Walmart has the REALLY good processing machines. Professional quality unlike what they have even at a lot of camera special stores. She said if you are desperate for pictures quick, Walmart is the best place to go. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it??

Nikki Stafford said...

Ryan: TOTAL compliment. Can I call you Queen R? ;) I've seen Jon and Kate Plus 8 a couple of times, and I find the mom very shrill, but it's very entertaining, especially when the mom says something and the dad does that exaggerated eye roll of his. That kills me every time.

Crissy: Loved GG this week once again. They're taking things back to the beginning and we can watch it all unfold again. I'm all for that.

Chris: Just watched Heroes and will post on it soon!

fb: LOL!! That is priceless.

Wawa: It must depend on the WalMart. I've taken pics to a couple of different Walmarts to get them processed, and the photos were complete crap. Pixelated, not straight on the machine (seriously you could see lopsided white marks at the top). Take the same memory stick to Black's and it's like a professional photographer processed them by hand. The difference is night and day.

But maybe your friend has found the golden Walmart! ;)