What it is reader! It's a new year and I still kvetch endlessly and watch a lot of TV. And kvetch about TV. Season 2 of Downton Abbey starts tonight and I am bananas excited about it. Have you seen Season 1 yet? You MUST! Lay in some supplies and power through all seven episodes in a row on Netflix. You'll be so glad you did. Who knew a PBS show about the aristocracy in England would become so damn popular? Read Salon's Irin Carmon's take on it here and former SF Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman's (now writing for The Hollywood Reporter) review here. I'm in good company with my love for Downton.
On the literature front, I now own a Kindle, which is possibly the best $79 I have ever spent. Yes, the version with ads. Which are connected to my location but somehow not to my buying history on Amazon. Hence, the omnipresent ads for Mercedes of Oakland and various local body waxing emporiums. Talk about ad click-throughs that will never, ever happen.
I finally understand the difference between The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, which I had been confusing for months. So not the same thing, but both worth reading. Admittedly Game of Thrones is not so much up my alley due to my well-documented dislike of fantasy. I won't lie, I skipped a lot of it. There's only so much swordplay, wench this, m'lady that that Professional Critic can take. But since each volume is seventy million pages it seems like I'm still getting the main points. I look forward to seeing it and catching the movie version of The Hunger Games, even though the trailers don't look super promising. I'm not sure if I'm feeling Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss but we shall see.
The Golden Globes are pretty soon but I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to watch this increasingly irrelevant awards show. Yes, my beloved Downton got many well-deserved nods, but American Horror Story? Is ridiculous (though Jessica Lange's nod is well-deserved.) Glee is simply terrible. No Nick Offerman? PAH, I spit on you, Golden Globes. But who am I kidding, I'll probably watch. So much kvetching fodder!
Showing posts with label I don't get it. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I don't get it. Show all posts
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday Round Up
A thrills and chills kind of weekend here at Chez PC. By thrills I mean mowing through platters of house-made salumi and pate with my favorite meat-eating pal at Adesso. The creamiest, smoothest, most happiness-making chicken liver pate, a duck version with cherries and pistachio nuts that was swoon-worthy. So tasty, so decadent. If I was the kind of a person who juice-fasted I would do it now but instead I just ate some ice cream. Thank God I'm not that kind of person because AmeriCone Dream is fucking delicious.
In chills was today's soccer/futbol World Cup. I refuse to call it the Women's World Cup because the men's game isn't called the Men's World Cup. Soundly rejecting the notion that the default for sports is men's just as I soundly reject the equally hideous "male nurse." It was a suspenseful game but as dejected as the Americans looked at the end, we all know Japan could really use a win.
KY Intense ads are playing incessantly on Hulu. It is bugging me that they are referring to a woman's orgasm as "her big moment." Winning a Nobel Peace Prize or being elected president of the United States would be a big moment, but an orgasm? I get that we have to find coy ways of saying orgasm because for some reason we can't say orgasm on television. This will all get worked out when Michelle Bachmann gets elected and outlaws pleasure.
Wilfred is an American remake of an Australian show in which the main character Ryan sees Wilfred as a crude pot-smoking man in a dog suit but everyone else sees an actual dog. It's hilarious. Elijah Wood is perfectly cast in this role, much to my relief erasing my memory of him as Frodo in that awful, ridiculous, endless fantasy torture-fest my friends made me watch. You know who you are.
Breaking Bad, Season 4. Can. Not. Wait!
In chills was today's soccer/futbol World Cup. I refuse to call it the Women's World Cup because the men's game isn't called the Men's World Cup. Soundly rejecting the notion that the default for sports is men's just as I soundly reject the equally hideous "male nurse." It was a suspenseful game but as dejected as the Americans looked at the end, we all know Japan could really use a win.
KY Intense ads are playing incessantly on Hulu. It is bugging me that they are referring to a woman's orgasm as "her big moment." Winning a Nobel Peace Prize or being elected president of the United States would be a big moment, but an orgasm? I get that we have to find coy ways of saying orgasm because for some reason we can't say orgasm on television. This will all get worked out when Michelle Bachmann gets elected and outlaws pleasure.
Wilfred is an American remake of an Australian show in which the main character Ryan sees Wilfred as a crude pot-smoking man in a dog suit but everyone else sees an actual dog. It's hilarious. Elijah Wood is perfectly cast in this role, much to my relief erasing my memory of him as Frodo in that awful, ridiculous, endless fantasy torture-fest my friends made me watch. You know who you are.
Breaking Bad, Season 4. Can. Not. Wait!
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Extreme Rain, Extreme Couponing
Item 1: This fucking rain. Enough. Already.
Item 2: Extreme Couponing. I grew up with a coupon-clipping mom who took the Sunday ritual of rifling through the circulars seriously. Scissors in hand, she would file coupons into her blue alphabetized accordion file which we were not to touch except to retrieve for her en route to the grocery store.
Extreme Couponing is nothing like this. The goal of extreme couponers is not to save a little on things you need this week but to pay as little as possible for as much as possible, whether or not you need it or can possibly use it within this millennium. Extreme Couponers strategically apply coupons, rebates and grocery store discount cards for things they don't need like bags of Nerds and fistfuls of Mentos to apply savings to things that they do need, like cases of soda, valu-paks of hot dogs and pallets of instant mashed potatoes. The goal of every Extreme Couponer is two-fold: to walk away from the grocery store with hundreds of dollars worth of items for less than $50 (less is ideal) and to grow their stockpile--a beloved collection of neatly arranged items warehoused in spare rooms, closets and garages. This show is like Hoarders cross-pollinated with off-the-grid survivalists with a sprinkling of Oprah fairy dust. The sheer determination and organization of these women made me wonder why they weren't applying their prodigious talents running global businesses instead of amassing bottles of Febreeze and Olay Body Wash, but that question is beyond the scope of this ranty post.
Item 3: The FDA issued new eating guidelines last week to address the growing obesity epidemic, called MyPlate.
Pretty straightforward, right? Much easier to look at how your plate is divided than to figure out how much 3 ounces of meat is or how many green beans are in a half cup. If you've even watched ten minutes of Extreme Couponing you'll know that no one on that show is filling half their grocery carts with fruits and vegetables and the most prominent grocery item featured on the show is soda, nowhere to be seen on MyPlate.
Check out nutritionist and food activist Marion Nestle's reaction to MyPlate but if you're not feeling clicky here's a hint of what might need to change to ensure all Americans have access to affordable fruits and vegetables to cover half their plates:
Item 2: Extreme Couponing. I grew up with a coupon-clipping mom who took the Sunday ritual of rifling through the circulars seriously. Scissors in hand, she would file coupons into her blue alphabetized accordion file which we were not to touch except to retrieve for her en route to the grocery store.
Extreme Couponing is nothing like this. The goal of extreme couponers is not to save a little on things you need this week but to pay as little as possible for as much as possible, whether or not you need it or can possibly use it within this millennium. Extreme Couponers strategically apply coupons, rebates and grocery store discount cards for things they don't need like bags of Nerds and fistfuls of Mentos to apply savings to things that they do need, like cases of soda, valu-paks of hot dogs and pallets of instant mashed potatoes. The goal of every Extreme Couponer is two-fold: to walk away from the grocery store with hundreds of dollars worth of items for less than $50 (less is ideal) and to grow their stockpile--a beloved collection of neatly arranged items warehoused in spare rooms, closets and garages. This show is like Hoarders cross-pollinated with off-the-grid survivalists with a sprinkling of Oprah fairy dust. The sheer determination and organization of these women made me wonder why they weren't applying their prodigious talents running global businesses instead of amassing bottles of Febreeze and Olay Body Wash, but that question is beyond the scope of this ranty post.
Item 3: The FDA issued new eating guidelines last week to address the growing obesity epidemic, called MyPlate.
Pretty straightforward, right? Much easier to look at how your plate is divided than to figure out how much 3 ounces of meat is or how many green beans are in a half cup. If you've even watched ten minutes of Extreme Couponing you'll know that no one on that show is filling half their grocery carts with fruits and vegetables and the most prominent grocery item featured on the show is soda, nowhere to be seen on MyPlate.
Check out nutritionist and food activist Marion Nestle's reaction to MyPlate but if you're not feeling clicky here's a hint of what might need to change to ensure all Americans have access to affordable fruits and vegetables to cover half their plates:
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Weepy Wednesday
Oh, reader. The political shit show in this country rolls on, so my love of Twitter was in full flower last night as I caught the developing hashtag #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement.
Does this phrase ring a bell? No? Allow me to enlighten: it's the response given by his office when idiot Senator Jon Kyl was called out on his Senate floor claim that abortion is "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does," when it's really 3%.
REALLY? Lying and then avoiding responsibility for lying is behavior a nursery school wouldn't tolerate. What choice did Stephen Colbert have but to launch a Twitter attack, which naturally the Twitterverse picked up gleefully?
Some of my favorites from Colbert:
Jon Kyl was sent from the future to kill Sarah Conner.
Jon Kyl developed his own line of hair care products just so he could test them on bunnies.
Jon Kyl can unhinge his jaw like a python to swallow small rodents whole.
Wait, there's more!! Some dingalings on Fox and Friends tried to convince their audience that the services offered at Planned Parenthood like breast exams and pap smears could be obtained at your neighborhood Walgreens. The normally poker-faced Colbert could barely keep it together for this absurd turn of reality:
Jesus wept. Here's a balm for your weary soul: Cute Roulette! Like Chat Roulette without the penises!
Does this phrase ring a bell? No? Allow me to enlighten: it's the response given by his office when idiot Senator Jon Kyl was called out on his Senate floor claim that abortion is "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does," when it's really 3%.
REALLY? Lying and then avoiding responsibility for lying is behavior a nursery school wouldn't tolerate. What choice did Stephen Colbert have but to launch a Twitter attack, which naturally the Twitterverse picked up gleefully?
Some of my favorites from Colbert:
Jon Kyl was sent from the future to kill Sarah Conner.
Jon Kyl developed his own line of hair care products just so he could test them on bunnies.
Jon Kyl can unhinge his jaw like a python to swallow small rodents whole.
Wait, there's more!! Some dingalings on Fox and Friends tried to convince their audience that the services offered at Planned Parenthood like breast exams and pap smears could be obtained at your neighborhood Walgreens. The normally poker-faced Colbert could barely keep it together for this absurd turn of reality:
Jesus wept. Here's a balm for your weary soul: Cute Roulette! Like Chat Roulette without the penises!
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Music Monday on the First Sunday
What it is, reader. Thanks to the Mama, a clump of my brain cells is saturated with Willow Smith's godawful Whip My Hair. How do I exterminate this evil earworm? Huff spray paint? Hit the crack pipe? I'LL DO IT.
Thankfully, all I need to do is listen to Jimmy Fallon's genius Neil Young-style cover. This is a song I could have looping through my noggin, no problem:
In the past few months I've seen Nicki Minaj all over interwebs and print media. Over the holidays the Mama and I investigated this Trinidadian hip hop artist to see what all the fuss was about. We started with Your Love. By second 38 we had both heard enough of the whiny, Auto-Tuned ballad. We proceeded to Right Through Me, whose opening "movie" was laden with so much cringe-inducing dialogue and "acting" we almost didn't make it past second 12 to the start of the music, which sadly did nothing to improve our opinion of Ms. Minaj.
At this point we were both totally stumped why Nicki Minaj was famous as a hip hop artist as there was no hip hop in sight, just a pile of steaming cheese. But we gave her one last try with Massive Attack:
Yes, the video is utterly redonk, but I thought the song was pretty good and on this last point the Mama and I finally agreed: Nicki has a pretty impressive ass.
Thankfully, all I need to do is listen to Jimmy Fallon's genius Neil Young-style cover. This is a song I could have looping through my noggin, no problem:
In the past few months I've seen Nicki Minaj all over interwebs and print media. Over the holidays the Mama and I investigated this Trinidadian hip hop artist to see what all the fuss was about. We started with Your Love. By second 38 we had both heard enough of the whiny, Auto-Tuned ballad. We proceeded to Right Through Me, whose opening "movie" was laden with so much cringe-inducing dialogue and "acting" we almost didn't make it past second 12 to the start of the music, which sadly did nothing to improve our opinion of Ms. Minaj.
At this point we were both totally stumped why Nicki Minaj was famous as a hip hop artist as there was no hip hop in sight, just a pile of steaming cheese. But we gave her one last try with Massive Attack:
Yes, the video is utterly redonk, but I thought the song was pretty good and on this last point the Mama and I finally agreed: Nicki has a pretty impressive ass.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Turkeydaze
Reader, I thought I would be writing a scathing commentary about the incessant marketing of "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday." How we can't possibly allow our gratitude to spill over into the day after Thanksgiving because what we really care about is stuff. Cheap stuff.
But then I encountered this clip and thought, this is disgusting. What in the world did black folks ever to do Sandra Lee?
But then I encountered this clip and thought, this is disgusting. What in the world did black folks ever to do Sandra Lee?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Rise and Fall of the Paycheck Fairness Act
Reader, I had not even heard of the Paycheck Fairness Act until a few days ago. Unfortunately, the bill which passed in the House of Representatives in January of 2009 was shot down by the Senate Wednesday.
Why are we still fretting about gender income disparity in 2010? This is a non-issue, right? Reader, brace yourself for this nugget of sadness:
Head, meet desk. How can it be that the gender income gap is still so large?
But, wait! We can explain these numbers, reader! It's because ladies make individual choices of flexible, family friendly work, which is naturally worth less because raising the next generation of workers is not important. Don't even get me started on how ridiculous this justification is, but it turns out the "individual choices" theory isn't even true:
From Newsweek:
If you are interested in the history of pay disparity in the US and you've taken your blood pressure pill, you can read more here.
Reader, I've got lots of bones to pick with the President, but I couldn't be more aligned with his message on Wednesday:
Can I get an amen?
Why are we still fretting about gender income disparity in 2010? This is a non-issue, right? Reader, brace yourself for this nugget of sadness:
The American Civil Liberties Union supports S.182, citing the fact that 2008 data from the United States Census Bureau showed that women earned 77 cents for each dollar earned by a man, while the corresponding ratios were 61 cents for African-American women and 52 cents for Hispanic women as compared to wages of white males.
Head, meet desk. How can it be that the gender income gap is still so large?
But, wait! We can explain these numbers, reader! It's because ladies make individual choices of flexible, family friendly work, which is naturally worth less because raising the next generation of workers is not important. Don't even get me started on how ridiculous this justification is, but it turns out the "individual choices" theory isn't even true:
From Newsweek:
Consider this survey from Catalyst, which found that female M.B.A.s who’ve made exactly the “right” life choices—no intention to have children, top-tier schools, high aspirations—still earn $4,600 less per year in their first jobs out of business school. Or U.S. Department of Education data, which separated pay by job sector to determine that whether women who go into teaching or business, social work or science—and before they’ve had the chance to cripple themselves by “life choices” (these are young, childless women we’re talking about)—they will still make roughly 20 percent less than the men they work with.
If you are interested in the history of pay disparity in the US and you've taken your blood pressure pill, you can read more here.
Reader, I've got lots of bones to pick with the President, but I couldn't be more aligned with his message on Wednesday:
I am deeply disappointed that a minority of Senators have prevented the Paycheck Fairness Act from finally being brought up for a debate and receiving a vote. This bill passed in the House almost two years ago; today, it had 58 votes to move forward, the support of the majority of Senate, and the support of the majority of Americans. As we emerge from one of the worst recessions in history, this bill would ensure that American women and their families aren’t bringing home smaller paychecks because of discrimination. It also helps businesses that pay equal wages as they struggle to compete against discriminatory competition. But a partisan minority of Senators blocked this commonsense law. Despite today’s vote, my Administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work.
Can I get an amen?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wait, Whut?
Reader, interesting news is afoot. Read on:
Jessica Simpson has announced her engagement to some football player she's been dating for seven months. A week after her ex Nick Lachey announced his engagement to his girlfriend Vanessa something or other. I get no pleasure in predicting there will be no wedding for Jessica.
As suspected since he resigned as Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel finally announced that he is indeed running for mayor of Chicago. I don't get this move at all. Any politically minded reader care to 'splain?
Please go look at the stunning creations of one Tex Saverio. He appears to be the heir of Alexander McQueen, may he rest in peace. Btw: highlight of a recent trip to Vegas was a visit to the Alexander McQueen store at the Wynn.
Gwyneth Paltrow sang "Country Strong" from her upcoming movie of the same name at the CMAs and it was real boring. No link for you, reader. Trust. Here she is guesting on Glee with "Forget You." Also boring. This whole paragraph is boring.
Jessica Simpson has announced her engagement to some football player she's been dating for seven months. A week after her ex Nick Lachey announced his engagement to his girlfriend Vanessa something or other. I get no pleasure in predicting there will be no wedding for Jessica.
As suspected since he resigned as Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel finally announced that he is indeed running for mayor of Chicago. I don't get this move at all. Any politically minded reader care to 'splain?
Please go look at the stunning creations of one Tex Saverio. He appears to be the heir of Alexander McQueen, may he rest in peace. Btw: highlight of a recent trip to Vegas was a visit to the Alexander McQueen store at the Wynn.
Gwyneth Paltrow sang "Country Strong" from her upcoming movie of the same name at the CMAs and it was real boring. No link for you, reader. Trust. Here she is guesting on Glee with "Forget You." Also boring. This whole paragraph is boring.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Music Monday: Too Old, Too White? Maybe Both.
Reader, I continue to be perplexed by the ongoing use of the phrases "say my name" and "what's my name" in hip hop and pop music. I get the sexual context, but what of it? Say my name because I'm not sure you remember it? Say my name cause I own you in this moment? Urban Dictionary entry for "say my name:"
Huh.
Rihanna has a new song, What's My Name, which might as well be called, "Saints Be Praised! I'm Getting Properly Laid!"
Really, Rihanna? That dopey looking whiny rapping Drake? This is the guy that knows how to work your body? He looks like he can scarcely breathe with his mouth closed, but ok. These things can be hard to understand from an outsider's perspective. I do like her hair quite a bit--she looks like an ass-kicking cartoon super hero. And that mesh hair bow is very Madonna Borderline, no?
a phrase that's usually said when you're having sex. boosts ego and stimulation and expressing that the sexual activity feels great. it can either be said by the passive, the active or both partners.
yes, baby yes! uhhhh! oh! say my name! say my name!
Huh.
Rihanna has a new song, What's My Name, which might as well be called, "Saints Be Praised! I'm Getting Properly Laid!"
Really, Rihanna? That dopey looking whiny rapping Drake? This is the guy that knows how to work your body? He looks like he can scarcely breathe with his mouth closed, but ok. These things can be hard to understand from an outsider's perspective. I do like her hair quite a bit--she looks like an ass-kicking cartoon super hero. And that mesh hair bow is very Madonna Borderline, no?
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