Duh

Dear Burn Notice,

You cannot have a character played by Lucy Lawless and expect the audience to believe that she is some sweet mother who is suffering because her son was kidnapped. Lucy Lawless is visual shorthand for AWESOME ASSKICKING WOMAN. How is it possible that the casting people didn’t know this??? I was looking for the gun pretty much from her first scene.

Thank you, though, for putting Lucy Lawless and Bruce Campbell back together again. The fake emotional stuff between Evelyn and Michael made me, for the first time, understand exactly how this show could be on the USA Network, but the healthy dose of scary scary hitwoman made me remember why I love it so.

Your fan,
Nicole

I love corrupting my nephew. He’s been walking around the house singing, “Tacos and mojitos. Cerveza, por favor. ¿Dónde está la biblioteca?”

Love. It!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9NFkB_GUDQ]

I’m really disturbed by how hard I laughed at this Fark thread.

NBC is rocking my world right now

AAH! This week’s Chuck and Life were so excellent, I almost cannot even stand it. I’ve loved Life all along, and so I was surprised when I recently realized that I may actually prefer Chuck to it right now. Of course, that’s like saying I can’t decide between filet mignon and broiled lobster, and really, the one that I choose at any given moment has more to do with my mood than with the object’s innate awesomeness.

I’m really happy that NBC is giving these fine shows a chance, and hopes that it will continue to do so. How good have these programs been lately? TOO GOOD. They have great drama, interesting situations, humor, and not a little moral ambiguity. They don’t tell the audience what to feel, and seem to think that we’ll be smart enough on our own to come to our own decisions (Do you hear that, Heroes??), which I greatly appreciate. I think that maybe in terms of acting chops, Damian Lewis and Yvonne Strahovsky have an advantage over their counterparts (Zachary Levi and Sarah Shahi), but again, when things are this good, quantification isn’t necessary.

I’m just worried about how I am going to be expected to last until freaking February. These shows are really really really really good, and I am going to miss them so much.

Jeez

I go away for a few days and WordPress goes and changes everything…including my avatar, which was formerly a photo of my adorable nephew. Weird. I’m still angry with the Mets right now, and do not prefer to have their logo represent me on WordPress.

I haven’t been doing too much lately. Except for knitting. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. And frogging. I’m never so OCD as when I’m knitting, and then I get this perfectionist streak that is completely at odds with the fact that I still don’t pay as much attention as I should to what I’m making. That’s because I need to watch something when I’m knitting.

Recently, I’ve seen 27 Dresses, Enchanted, Step Up (I’m a bit ashamed about that one), and I started Made of Honor, but I find the pratfalls a bit much and haven’t yet resumed from Dempsey’s second face plant in a single scene. I finished up the third and final season of Veronica Mars, and I’ve now moved on to Cupid, which I just learned is on youtube. How awesome. I remember loving that show, but the details are blurry at this point. I’m pleased that it’s as smart and funny as I remember, and that the wardrobe and hair isn’t so dated as to be a total distraction. I’ve also been really into Chuck lately, and it’s gotten so good that I even watch it before Gossip Girl! Heroes is still stupid, but not as single-mindedly moronic as it was earlier in the season, so I’ve resumed watching it on Monday, instead of allowing several episodes to pile up and then watching them all at once.

I’m about to be single single again (as opposed to mostly single), so that should leave me even more time to 1) make socks and 2) not make any of the Christmas presents I intended to knit.

I cannot believe how quickly summer/autumn happened, and that it will be winter in just a couple of weeks.

I’d rather have pretty dresses

I love the look of Tracy Reese and Alice + Olivia dresses. They have bold prints, youthful cuts, and just look like so much fun. So why do they look so wrong on me? I’ve tried on several dresses by both designers, and while they have all fit beautifully, they just don’t look good on me. I don’t feel like myself in them. Maybe they’re too au courant? I look better in simple things, and I feel uncomfortable in anything that feels to trendy. I think that discomfort comes through, when I wear things I feel fall into this category. These dresses are on the higher end of what I would pay for dresses, but they’re so cute. Over the last several months, the majority of dresses that I have fallen in love with strictly from pictures have turned out to be from these designers. It’s not that I like the expense; I’d love it if these things were much less expensive. Of course, I’d love it more if they’d just look good on me.

Some good news!

I was worried about Life’s prospects when I heard that NBC had canceled My Own Worst Enemy and Lipstick Jungle, but apparently I wasn’t paying enough attention to the news coming down the wire. Before axing those two shows, NBC had already given Life a full-season order. Awesom! Let’s hope the show can do well enough in its timeslot to come back for a third season! I love Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi to bits, and want their show to succeed!

I’m enjoying a lot of things this season, but many of the things I don’t like all fall into one category: romance. I don’t know if this show just doesn’t need it at all, or if I just think all its attempts up until now have been pretty unconvincing. I don’t believe that Charlie should have anything to do with Jennifer, his ex-wife. At the very least, she is just one more person who wasn’t there for him when he needed her. Also, I kind of suspect her of being evil and somehow related to what happened to Charlie (although she did warn him when that teacher posed as a reporter and asked her questions about Charlie). Anyhow, just going on what we know up until this point, I do not think it’s realistic to believe that Charlie’s remarried ex-wife has his best interest at heart, or that anything between the two of them is going to end well.

Also, I think that Reese should stay 100 feet away from Tidwell at all times. 1) The man looks like he does not bathe (Dear Donal Logue: please make your character less vile); 2) He is her boss and that cannot be a good idea; 3) He is ridiculous (the tics, the rudeness, the stunning callousness); 4) Sarah Shahi is as hot as the fire of a thousand suns, and should be with a similarly awesome guy (what’s Bradley Cooper doing these days? A little Alias reunion would be sweet).

Finally, what the hell is going on with Ted and Olivia, Charlie’s dad’s fiancée? I will admit that Christina Hendricks and her impressive bosom are pretty sweet, but what is this storyline all about? We know nothing about Charlie’s dad, and haven’t even met him yet, but we’ve seen said missing father’s intended how many times now? Okay, so Charlie is avoiding her. But wouldn’t that make her even less likely to come around? You can’t change the mind of somebody you can’t pin down. But then what’s the story with Ted? I guess a romance between these two is not entirely implausible, seeing as she obviously has a thing for old dudes, but because I don’t understand Olivia, the whole thing seems suspect. I guess I can understand why Ted just come out with, “Hey Charlie, I kissed your dad’s fiancée during that earthquake,” but why would he have neglected to mention her presence at all? And lied about how the pencil got out of his hand. Was Ted always this bad at lying? Maybe that’s why he ended up in prison. Plus, even if I did finally understand and maybe support a Ted-Olivia, Christina Hendricks is kicking ass and taking names over at Mad Men, and how often could we really expect her to show up on Life?

I’m a miss Capucine!

Voilà deux vidéos de Capucine, une jolie petite fille francaise qui a gagné beaucoup d’adoration sur l’Internet par raconter une histoire originale tres amusante…wait! This is my English blog. So sorry. Anyway, here are two videos of Capucine, the adorable little French girl whose convoluted story of lions, mammoths, animal suicide and heaven rejection is currently tearing up the Internet. The first video is of said story, and the second is of her showing off her newly acquired English. Although her story is hilarious (and good for practicing my French), I actually prefer the second video, because her English version of Frère Jacques sounds like my nephew’s attempts at the French version: the first verse is more or less coherent, but the second is a mishmash of confused Franglais and is just hilarious. Then, just when you think that the song has slipped completely out of their grasp, they reel it back in with a triumphant “ding dang dong!” This video reminds me that I need to record Satanski’s attempt at this song, as all of my other blackmail material is getting old.

[vimeo 2113477]

[vimeo 1876895]

Sydney Tamiia Poitier: I love you, but I hate your…

In this, the first ever edition of “I love you, but I hate your…”, I will tackle the conundrum of people I like doing or participating in things I hate. Our inaugural subject is Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

Sydney Tamiia Poitier, I love you, but I hate your show.

There are a lot of things to love about this actress:

• She basically has the easiest job ever of mooching off her father’s fame, due to having his name and all.
• She’s gorgeous, successful, and has boobs and hips!
• She was on two of the best shows ever to appear on television: Veronica Mars and Joan of Arcadia!!
• Her initials are the same as the Stone Temple Pilots, a fabulously awesome band.

There are at least as many things to hate about her show:

• She’s appearing in a remake of Knight Rider. My childhood weeps.
• Life is up against this show, and is not necessarily expected to emerge the victor.
• I’m scared of a world where the 2008 version of Knight Rider is a ratings juggernaut.
• Why are people still interested in a program about a talking, crime-fighting car? This show makes me think less of people.
• Thinking about her means that I think about Knight Rider, which means I think about David Hasselhoff. Please, don’t make me think about the Hoff.

Help create the next Barack Obama

You can help set in motion the events that could produce the next Barack Obama. How? For the low, low amount of $10, you can donate to Nothing But Nets, an organization that provides refugee children in Africa with an anti-malarial net that protect them from deadly disease. But what does that have to do with Barack Obama, you ask? Well, with that net, some nice young African man or woman can stay alive long enough to attend school, come to the United States to further his or her education, and marry some American person. Then, in four and a half decades, that offspring could become our next commander-in-chief. So, as you can see, the real winner here is us. If you’d like to donate through my team (which isn’t even a real team, but I’ve always liked signing up for stuff), click here. If you’d like to start your own team, you can do that, too. Please at least check out the Nothing But Nets web site, if you’d like more information or if you’re thinking about giving.