The Season of Imported Television
Tonight on NBC is the season premiere of The Office, an American spinoff of Ricky Gervais’ UK original (definitely worth checking out if you have a soft spot for British humor. If you’re not sure, check out Monty Python or John Oliver.) We’re having a little shindig to celebrate the beginning of another few great weeks of television programming. How amazing is it that this is the first time I’m hosting an event? By myself, I mean. Not as part of an organization. Incredible.
In October, NBC’s introducing another American version of another sitcom, this one Australian and non-work related: Kath & Kim. I haven’t seen any episodes of the original, but it seems to have a decent audience approval record. Plus, I’m (embarrassed?) to say I’m a relatively big fan of Selma Blair. Does anyone else remember the show (all of what seemed like 4 episodes) of Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane? Yeah, didn’t think so. I get the same response when I ask people if they remember MTV’s Sifl and Olly or the Disney Channel’s Flash Forward (think High School Musical, only with Canadian actors who were not preoccupied with looking glamorous and no music).
And to top off this ode to NBC, 30 Rock also resumes in October. I was one of the millions who didn’t tune in to watch the Emmy’s, but I fully appreciated the wit and charm of 30 Rock even before the nominations were in.
What do these show preferences reveal about me? I have a short attention span when it comes to television. I want to laugh at something that makes me think first. I also tend to stay away from drama. Although I appreciate the corporate commercial value of hour-long segments that explore the oh-so-complicated world of over-developed tweens and the opportunity for aspiring bands to showcase their otherwise uninspiring tracks, I find it hard to unearth any benefits I would receive as an over-sold member of the audience. On the other hand, corny slapstick humor and predictable punch lines followed by fake audience laughter tracks don’t do it for me either. If the writers have included pauses in the script to allow for the audience to laugh, I’m out. I’m also not impressed when multiple sitcoms use the same set so it looks like four different fictional families live in the same house on different days of the week. I also have little patience for shows that broadcast the lifestyles of individuals we would never truly want to emulate. Lastly, my references to shows like Sifl and Olly and Flash Forward reveal way too much about the little-known shows I used to watch that no one else cared about (or even heard about).
A random list of shows I’ve been known to TiVo:
- The Rachel Maddow Show. She’s smart! She’s articulate! She’s ridiculously liberal! And most of her comments are twinged with a tone that matches her smirk which says, “Can you believe this sh*t? C’mon, really!?”)
- The Cho Show. The fabulous Margaret. ‘Nuff said.
- Family Guy. I wasn’t allowed to watch The Simpsons growing up. Can you believe that? So I’m a late bloomer when it comes to animated forms of social commentary. (Since The Simpsons were out of the question, you can imagine South Park was out of bounds.)
- Project Runway. Here I must note: after season 3, it’s been mostly all downhill, with the exception of Christian Siriano’s designs.
- House. Because a good television repertoire includes one medical drama and one legal/crime drama and I can’t stand non-original ER episodes and I can’t stand Grey’s Anatomy even more.
- Law and Order: SVU. My one legal/crime drama.
- Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Just because.
- Almost anything on Food Network. Yes.
And as a last attempt to revive the television watching of my past, here goes…
Mickey Mouse Tracks! Donald’s Quack Attack! Duck Tales! Talespin! Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers! Looney Tunes! Tiny Toon Adventures! Animaniacs! Salute Your Shorts! The Adventures of Pete and Pete! Small Wonder! Boy Meets World! Clarissa Explains it All! Blossom! All That! Family Matters! Fully House! Saved By The Bell! The Fresh Prince of Bel Air! …and so many other great shows.
Breaking News: McCain Pulls Out Of Presidential Race
There’s only one explanation for the ongoing idiocy that is the McCain/Palin campaign: He’s not really up for the job anymore, but he can’t exactly pull out of the race – so his campaign is doing everything possible in the race’s remaining days to get everyone who’s not a die-hard party loyalist to vote for Obama. The people running McCain’s campaign have been, in the past, very good at getting what they want in their respective non-election-related roles. Why else would otherwise clever and crafty people allow their campaign to disintegrate so badly so quickly? Times are bad, and I think the McCain/Palin campaign are doing everything to take advantage of the various national crises to make themselves seem utterly unelectable.
We’ll have a generation of Democratic leadership until times get good again. After a generation of steady jobs, manageable mortgages, accessible health care and better education, people will forget how bad the Bush presidency was for the nation. Then the idiocy will resume once again. It’s the circle of [political] life. Don’t believe it? FDR was president for 12 years after the Hoover disaster. Then people went for Ike/Nixon. No wonder the Democratic party typically seems weak: they’re usually elected to clean up the mess left behind and their time runs out before they can make anything new happen.
Can’t Get No…
Sleep.
I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in over two weeks. Which is insane. I’m the queen of falling asleep in the middle of my own sentences. I’m famous for being as immobile as a rock, sleeping in the same position all night long. And I haven’t been able to sleep all the way through the night in over 15 days. A bit frustrating. Understatement.
A sampling of what’s been waking me up:
- feeling the air move across my face from the ceiling fan
- someone in a honda civic blasting (and I mean blasting) Polish pop music at 2 am waiting for someone who either doesn’t know their ride has arrived (who goes anywhere at 2 am on a Monday night??) or just doesn’t care about making their ride (and everyone else hearing their music) wait for over 45 minutes.
- the tow truck driver who doesn’t know how to operate his truck at 4 am, who was probably assigned this shift because it takes him so long to remove a vehicle with an expired registration. Beep, beep, beep….*crunch* revvvv, revvv, *scraaaaaaape* Beep, beep, beep… *lights flashing flashing flashing flashing*
- multiple ambulances and fire trucks rushing to and fro
- pillows that have all-of-a-sudden become uncomfortable
- tummy cramps/sore lower back
- the truck hauling away the full construction dumpster across the street at 5 am (Note: our street is technically two-way, but really only wide enough for 1 moving car + the parked cars along the curb. The construction project needs to hurry up and finish already.)
- the truck bringing in the empty construction dumpster across the street at 6 am (Note: ANY truck, be it UPS, USPS, PeaPod, tow truck, service truck, excessively large construction guy’s excessively large Ford F250, and ESPECIALLY anything running on diesel like moving trucks, food service trucks, delivery trucks, etc. sound incredibly amplified on our small street at the floor height of our apartment. I HATE trucks. You can hear them coming, hear them idling right out front, and smell them lingering even after they leave. And it seems like they never leave.)
- …and last, but most importantly, Doug’s got a cold. He almost never gets sick, and he had a slight fever last night. We think he’s over the worst of it, but still. So I’m making him take meds for rest while I’m sleeping on the couch so he can take over the whole bed.
All this lack of good sleep is making me perpetually grumpy. Being grumpy exacerbates all the other issues going on: the internet being slow, stupid politics, the crappy economy, the upstairs neighbor playing DDR (feels like freshman year in the dorms at Cal), the apartment getting messy again as soon as I clean it, the laundry machines not working the way they’re supposed to, and it’s gotten humid again recently. All this bitching means I’ll never be fit to be a parent because I just can’t handle…life. So be it. Do they make “Get Out Of Annoying Life Circumstances” cards?
I wonder what’s really keeping me awake. Sure, things have been waking me up, but I wasn’t so easily woken up before.
Cold and Damp
Apparently, the dryers in this building have only one setting: Almost dry. Permanent Press? Almost dry. Normal Temp? Almost dry. Makes me wonder why I spend the time and money to put my clothes in the dryer when they don’t come out completely dry. This is going to suck in the winter.
Unfinished Business
Ghost Town was a delightful film. The middle parts of the movie had me laughing more than I had in recent days, and some dialog about “the Chinese” was especially hilarious.
One detail I wasn’t impressed with was Gwen’s character: the metropolitan woman who works at a museum/art gallery. Maybe it’s just me, but I think there are too many of those in tv shows and movies and I don’t understand why story writers don’t come up with more diverse career paths for women who are supposed to be beautiful, intelligent, and successful. A few prominent examples:
Gwen – Ghost Town
Charlotte York – Sex and the City
Tess Ocean – Ocean’s 11, 12, 13
I guess it’s a simple way to craft a character with expertise without casting them as a lawyer, doctor, or crime scene investigator. Oh, how lovely it would be to be one of those people recognized for “being good at what they do.”
Little Disturbances
Grace Paley’s stories in The Little Disturbances of Man explore the lives of men and women as they cope with/engage in their (dysfunctional?) relationships. A great piece of work.
This morning, around 4:30 am, a pair of shouting voices woke me from my sore-muscle-plagued sleep. “Shut up! Just SHUT UP!” “I can’t even LISTEN to you anymore!” “LALALALALA! Quit your whining!” It lasted over two hours. In the course of those two hours, the female voice dissipated until all I heard was the guy shouting intermittently. Aside from the occasional bursts demonstrating the pair’s inadequate conflict resolution skills, the rest of the argument was relatively inaudible, so I have no idea what the fracas was about. Nor do I care. But the outburst jarred me awake and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from (although I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from my building, but most likely across or down the street somewhere).
I can’t imagine getting so angry at 4:30 in the morning. What kinds of conflicts manifest themselves as shouting matches before sunrise? Say it wasn’t an early morning fight for these people, but a really late-night one. With pubs around here closing at 2 am and most people in a drunken stupor by 3, it’s hard to figure why, an hour and half after even the most belligerent drunks have passed out, these two people were going at it with such gusto. This is after factoring in the “Thursdays are the new Fridays” phenomenon.
There are no words that can describe adequately how much I abhor the sound of angry people shouting. This morning’s episode put my whole day in lousy funk. When it finally quieted down sometime between 6:30 and 7, I tried to make up for interrupted/lost sleep, and finally gave up around 9 with a pounding headache (barometric pressure bobbing up and down again). The day went downhill from there.
On a happier note, a friend of mine is celebrating her birthday tonight and I still intend to have a good time. *insert endorsements for Sudafed and Pepcid AC*
SSR
In elementary and middle school, my teachers subscribed to the Sustained Silent Reading model, which promotes the idea that kids can learn to read faster and better if given the opportunity to enjoy literary material of their choice without the pressures of reading-related evaluation procedures. I don’t know if it helped me read any faster, but it got me in the habit of reading everyday.
With so much reading material available in the form of magazines, online publications, and the nutrition panel on my cereal box, I’ve been neglecting my local public library. A couple of months ago, I was devouring several books a week in addition to various magazines in their entirety. A new combination of factors has mysteriously transformed my reading pattern into one that’s a lot less structured, and I think my google reader is partially to blame.
So, beginning tonight, I’m toting the concept of going back to books. Time to get lost in a new novel!
New Territory
I’m slowly learning to embrace the internet in a new way. The Internet: Not Just for Research and Shopping! As I come across new thingamabobs and fancier doohickies, I can’t help but migrate towards what (I think) serves me better. Hence the migration to WordPress and the new widgets on abrayeh.com.
The quest to find online pleasantries continues:
I can’t help but feel giddy upon discovering that there’s so much fun “stuff” out there…
