Off My Game

First it was that super catchy "Doing things is what I like to do. Yes!" commercial for Dunkin' Donuts. I thought that perhaps it was the funniest commercial I'd ever seen, and surely the catchiest. Can't get the damn song out of my head, not that I care to. Then it was the Fritalian ad, truly hilarious. Clever, right on the money, and again, can't get this jungle out of my head, which, really, is fine by me. Even Max picked up on something at the end of that commercial, "Hey! That's John Goodman!" Which it is. Bravo, Max. Good ears.

But it wasn't until I was cruising around on the interwebs tonight when I read TOTALLY BY CHANCE in some random article that all of the music for this genius ad campaign is by my beloved They Might Be Giants! I totally missed it, never even occurred to me. I can only blame Samson for depleting me of all of the necessary energy used to make these kinds of associations. Or to resist impulse purchases at the grocery store. That's his fault, too.

Check out all of their wicked awesome jingles here. Especially Alarm Clock Catastrophe and Get Your 8 Year Old Out of That Tree. Genius!

ps. I love TMBG. We all know that. But they have some pretty stiff competition if they want to knock my current number one commercial out of the winner's circle.

Licky Boom Boom Down

No Law and Order for me tonight. Not even the Sharks/Canucks game in HD. Why? VH1 is running the Top 100 Songs of the Nineties. Ahem.

You knew Informer would be up there. Mamma Said Knock You Out, no duh. But Cannonball? That was a pleasant surprise.

So why am I blogging instead of watching Top 100 Songs of the Nineties, entries 43-1? Even I have to pee sometimes, and the computer room is situated between the couch and the bathroom.

Why didn't I roll my eyes when Color Me Badd came on and turn to the hockey game instead? Can't. Stop. Watching. Commercials are only for getting more Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches and making sure that my baby is still breathing.

In da House

I'm loving the Fall TV bonanza. Some of the new shows are just really, really enjoyable (Pushing Daisies, Life), and the return of last season's shows is like seeing old friends again (House--Hugh Laurie, swoon--The Office). And since pretty much all I can do is sit, reclining, on the couch and ask Max to bring me ice cream, massive quantities of Tivo are right up my alley.

And nothing goes better with Tivo than a dog head in your lap. Except two heads. And a kitty.

Flight of the Conchords: the Bowie Episode

The jury's still way out on Flight of the Conchords. I liked the first couple of episodes OK, but lost interest pretty quickly, especially with the whole moving back the US thing. I had other things on my mind besides TV (shocking!). But I happened to catch the episode where one of the characters, Bret (half of the New Zealand folk duo on whose fictional lives the show is based), is having body image issues, and gets visited by David Bowie in his dreams who gives him deliciously cryptic advice. Bowie is expertly played by the actor who plays Jermaine, the other half of the duo. Behold:



Deliciously freaky, man.

Electric Youth

Does anybody remember this kick ass TV show?



Wow, I loved that show. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade, and like any 4th or 5th grader, I was really into the whole lip-syncing and making up dances kind of thing. This show had everything: lip syncing, choreography, teenagers--perfect for the all-important 10-year-old demographic.

Everyone who knows our engagement story will not be surprised to know that we've considered incorporating some choreographed lip syncing into our wedding ceremony, specifically Michael Jackson's Thriller. When the story of your proposal involves zombie armies and general living deadness (zombie armies and general living deadness that can shake their undead booties, mind you), it's only natural to bring it when it comes to the wedding. Sadly, we're not the only ones with awesome ideas like this.



(Thanks, Laura!)

Of course, ours would be much better. But our wedding's going to be so small that everyone would have to join in, including the dogs and the rabbi, for it to have any real impact. I'm not writing the choreographed lip syncing wedding segment off altogether, but maybe something a little more duet-friendly. Like (I've Had) The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing, or Tonight, I Celebrate My Love by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson. You can't loose with a name like Peabo.

See what I mean?

This is what I was talking about in that last post when I said The Sarah Silverman Program was simultaneously funny and uncomfortable:



Ha ha! Ow!

Kinda Sorta Maybe A Little Bit Funny

Has anyone been watching the Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central? I downloaded the first episode with my dwindling store credit from Itunes a few days ago, and I honestly don't know what to think. I like Sarah Silverman, and I certainly tend to like underdog comics (think David Cross, H. Jon Benjamin, or Kids in the Hall). And don't get me wrong, I laughed, like, a lot. But I also felt sort of unsettled and confused. Of course, that's probably the point.

There are lots of ways to feel sort of unsettled and confused. Like this gem from a few years ago, now made readily available by You Tube:



Heck yeah! I think it was Dana who originally shared this with me, back when she was big into sending items for sale on Craig's List to her co-workers while using the email address of another co-worker as the sender's email address...hilarity ensued.

"Hey, Joe."
"Yeah?"
"Why did you send me this vase?"
"What?"
"Seriously dude, why did you send me this vase?"
"What?"
"..."

Priceless.

Six Degrees of Scott Baio

Annie was on TV last night, and boy did I enjoy the hell out of that movie. Such memories! My girl scout troop performed a stunning dance number to Hard-Knock Life back in the 5th grade talent show. In 7th grade, it was our junior high school musical--the same year I learned that "set crew" is junior high school-ese for "not cool or talented enough for the cast." Good times.

I hadn't seen the movie in ages, and I felt as though I was reuniting with old friends every time there was a scene with the core orphans, Duffy, Kate, Pepper and Molly. But one of the orphans looked much more familiar than a supporting orphan role should. So I whistled to my trusty internet connection, and hi ho, Broadband! Away! IMDB was useless because none of the lesser orphan actresses had pictures to identify them. But Google came through, providing me with an Annie fan site which explained why that orphan in the purple dress seemed so damn familiar: she was April Lerman, the actress who played Lila Pembroke on the superior first season of Charles In Charge! That theme song still brings tears to my eyes. I loved Charles. He was the first of what would be many (many) pop culture obsessions (cough-cough paulmccartney cough-cough theymightbegiants cough-cough).

Man, I loved that show. Man, I loved Scott Baio. And I was honestly sad when the Pembrokes moved away at the end of the first season and were replaced by mediocre sit-com family the Powells. I'm pretty sure my entire love affair existed in the realm of Sunday afternoon re-runs, sandwiched between agonizing episodes of Small Wonder and Out of This World. What better way to unwind after a long weekend of organizing my day-glo socks and hanging out at the mall in my acid-washed denim skirt. Yikes.

And, for good measure, let's not forget Bugsy Malone.

It had a battery behind it, and wires.

I don't watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force anymore. I'm more of a Venture Brothers and Sea Lab 2021 kind of a gal. But I may have to start watching it again after this hilarity.

"They told reporters they would answer questions only about hair."

Baby, you and me got a TV kind of love

Surprise! It rained this weekend! To be fair, even if it hadn't rained, we still would have spent the whole weekend indoors catching up on Tivo. It's been a long couple of weeks for both of us, and we sorely needed some downtime. All that Tivo led to the following compilation:

My favorite TV couples of all times, in the sense that they make me feel warm and fuzzy all over




1. Jim and Pam from The Office. Jim and Pam! I know I am hardly alone on this one.



2. Willow and Oz from Buffy. They may be a fleeting favorite, but I just love them right now.



3. The whole cast of How I Met Your Mother (second appearance for Allyson Hannigan on this list). It's not just Lilly and Marshall or just Ted and Robin, and it's definitely not without Barney. It's the whole group that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.



4. Eric and Donna from That 70's Show. I want to be friends with them.



5. Joey and Dawson from Dawson's Creek, but only when they're not actually a couple.



6. CJ and Danny on The West Wing. Smart, sophisticated warm fuzziness.

You may say to yourself, "But wait! Surely a DeGrassi TNG couple made the illusive list. Paige and Spinner? Paige and Alex? Liberty and JT?" Well, as much as I love the Canadian teenaged dramas--and you know I do--I haven't found the warm fuzzy coupleness from the Great White North that I have from American network TV. And DeGrassi provides so much more than just hormones. After all, they go there.

Itsy Bitsy Etsy

If you're anything like me, you like to buy things. You probably like to buy things online, too. And you like to buy things for other people, especially when you realize that all of the knitting projects you thought you could finish by December will remain--unmade--on your yarn shelf.

Have no fear! My friend Liz and her new Etsy store to the rescue!

If you're anything like me, you have also recently discovered the joyous wonder of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm digging the love match between Seth "he's-as-cute-as-he-is-short" Green and Allyson Hannigan's goofy-smart-Jewish-witch character (before she comes out of the closet and before she's a witch).

If you're anything like me, you like pop. Here's a poppy new song from an Australian band called The Grates that I saw on Pop Scene, the Irish music video show. Pop! If it's got hand clapping and harmonies and you can't not jump around when you here it, it counts as pop, right?

Sit, Too Much Tongue. Good dog.

The USA network captured pretty much my undivided attention this weekend with their epic (series? mini-series?) show, Into the West. Basically, a bunch of pioneers and a bunch of Lakota are born, fall in love, kill, and die. And lots of stuff happens along the way. It's sort of like Deadwood if it were rated G. Or at least PG. And it's directed by Steven Spielberg, so there are lots of emotional gazes, lots of big sweeping movements with the cameras and the music. And the Lakota have really fun names, such as "Loved by the Buffalo," "Thunder Heart Woman," and "Runs with Foxes." Of course, when a Virginian marries a Lakota woman and they have a daughter, her names is "My Great Light," which becomes "Margaret" around the white folk. Clever!

As the series moved along (3 two-hour episodes over the holiday weekend), my human, feline and canine roommates all got much more interesting names. Over the course of 72 hours, Ozzy was known as "Rolls in Grass," "Barks at Air," "Hogs the Bed," and "Trembles with Fear" (this last name was due to the fireworks, which, to him, apparently signify the end of days.).

Nanna was mostly "Runs with Toy," where "toy" was substituted with "ball," "duck," "moose," etc. At times, however, she became "Lover of No One," "Knee Licker," and "One Who Begs Incessantly."

Miru was known as "Sleeps on Laundry" and "Hunter of Postcards" (he's taken to carrying around pieces of mail at night, and screaming about it as if he'd just caught Osama bin Laden.).

Milhouse is now "Dances with Flies" and "Makes Great Stink." We'll leave that one alone.

Luckily for me, I referred to Max most of the weekend as "Brings me Beer" and "Friend of BBQ."

The whole situation was dangerously similar to that time that I kept referring to President Bush as President Bartlett. So much wishful thinking.

Home sweet home

Four and half hours early for my flight home...honestly, sitting at the airport is better than spending another minute in the hotel. I'd lie by the pool in the sun, but I don't think my skin could take yet another sunburn, and I seem to be more or less immune to sunscreen. Besides, this is one step closer to home, one step closer to my own bed, one step closer to my own shower, one step closer to Cecil B DeCouch (AKA Patsy Recline) and my pirate's booty of TiVo-ed shows--including, but not limited to: the new season of the 4400, Hit Me Baby One More Time where washed-up pop stars and one-hit-wonders fro the 80's compete for the adoration of the home audience, a la American Idol, countless episodes of The Venture Brothers... Ah, I can already feel my brain preparing to go into hibernate mode.

Of course, Dulles airport is also one step closer to my precious and precocious 4-legged friends, those furballs who own most of the available real estate on my heart. (Technically, I'm also one step closer to Max, but he's still in London for another week, and I'm trying very hard not to focus on that.)

Unless there's a free wireless hotspot here (doubt it), I won't be posting this until I'm actually back in my apartment, and chances are my computer will be the last thing I want to deal with once I get there. So hopefully, when my hundreds of eager fans are reading this, I'll be fast asleep with an Oz at my head and a Nanna at my feet, TV softly glowing in the background...

Two great tastes that taste great together

The following list is comprised of pairs of things that go together very well indeed. Why, you ask? Why not?

Magnum, P.I. and Tropicana pizza
(that's pizza with curry, bananas, ham, and mushrooms):
This combination is best experience when laying on a mattress on the floor of your--or a friend's--dorm room, watching re-runs of Magnum--with Swedish subtitles if at all possible--and sharing the above mentioned Swedish junk food delicacy. (I'm not kidding, There are dozens of weird Swedish pizza toppings and combinations, including, but not limited to, fried eggs and prawns. There's an interesting blog post about it here and here.)

Chocolate and Cheese:
Acceptable variations include:
1. Hostess cupcakes and EZ Cheese
2. Convenience store brownies and the spready cheese from Handi-Snacks cheese n' crackers
3. Ritz Bitz cheese sandwich crackers and chocolate frosting from a can

Knitting and Network Crime Dramas:
If you're not a knitter, you may substitute needle point, crosstitch, pant-leg-hemming, crocheting, or any other form of hand-help fiber arts. Recommended combinations:
1. Law & Order: Criminal Intent & a ribbed, grass green scarf
2. CSI Miami & and a turquoise remote control cozy
3. Las Vegas (well I think it's a crime drama) and a tangerine faux-letterman dog sweater

Marc Summers and Gary Sinise:
'Cause I said so.

13 days...and counting

For those of you awaiting the DVD release of the first season of one of THE best TV shows ever made (no, not Sabrina, the Teenage Witch--although Melissa Joan Hart is right up there among my favorites, the series has yet to be released on DVD. But perhaps this is something we can change...), you'll be pleased to know that less than 2 weeks time must pass before Home Movies Season One ships. My paper chain grows shorter each day.



I love this shot. Me and my trusty LC-A, tinting the world pink. Or green. Or whichever color we dang well please. Just try and stop us! We'll smear peanut butter on your car windows.

The new kid on the block

Mmmm, toasty...they got a pepper bar! (If you never saw that wonderful commercial, you can play it in this article. Wonderful.)

Guilty pleasures. So very guilty.

First of all, I hope everyone had a pleasant and productive Talk Like A Pirate Day yesterday. I know I did. I must have said "aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" like 57 times.

Actually, I spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon on the couch. I like to devote a bit of time each weekend to catching up on the week's animated series that I have Tivo'd. These consist mostly of half-hour gems from the Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block of cartoons. Goodies like The Family Guy (once cancelled by Fox, it has enjoyed such success on Adult Swim that it has now been uncancelled), Futurama (score another one for Fox), and my absolute all time favoritist show ever, Home Movies (also recently cancelled, and I say it's a CRIME against humanity). Of course, once the new season of The Simpsons starts, we'll add that sucker to the list as well. Oh, and the one weekly show with actual actors as opposed to cartoons in it that makes the cut: Arrested Development (you go, Fox!). Hey, congrats on that Emmy, guys!

But the real story here is what came about as I was preparing to watch the aforementioned parade of quirky and intelligent animation. When I turn the TV on, there's this guide screen with which I'm sure you're all familiar (it accompanies any sort or digital cable or satellite service subscription in order to make your viewing time more enjoyable and productive.). So the guide is tuned to somewhere near the lower 200's, where the only things worth watching are Court TV and Fox Sports Net (when it's hockey season...don't even get me started on that right now.). But apparently there's also a channel dedicated to soap operas, and apparently, for certain shows, they run all 5 of the previous week's episodes on Sunday afternoon. Back to back.



Not many people know that I used to watch Days of Our Lives. It was a long time ago, back in the glory days of the late nineties. I was a senior in college, and the stress of school just pushed me over the edge! I found solace in the 3 pm time slot on NBC, and soon became hooked. I had to keep watching, had to find out if Sammy would be found innocent--she had been jailed for the murder of Franco, for which she had been framed by her ex-mother-in-law, of course. Of course. I simply had to know if things would ever be OK between Bo and Hope, despite that dang Billie Reed and her delusional love for Bo. I HAD TO KNOW what Stefano had been using John Black and Hope for when he had them brainwashed for all those years in Europe! Of course, after college ended, and the real world began, I ended my 6 month love affair with Days (it doesn't take long to get super addicted, believe you me.), and soon forgot all about Victor's coma and Nicole's fake marriage to Lucas. I forgot all about Roman's undying love for Marlena, and Marlena's undying love for John Black, and John Black's undying love for his eyebrows.

Until yesterday.

One week's worth of episodes may not seem like much, but it was enough to keep me on the couch--well, at least in vicinity of the TV in the living room--for five hours yesterday. Of course, my boyfriend is out of town. He would never stand for the monopolization of the only TV in our apartment by these particular fictional characters in this particular fictional town (now video games, that's another story...). And I wouldn't do that to him, not unless he really deserved it. I haven't set my Tivo to record Days of Our Lives. Yet. I still relish my freedom from daytime drama. But I have a feeling that this guilty pleasure may be back every now and again. Just to say hi.