Also, I need some new TV icons. Various shows. Stat.

Because of where I live and the friends I've been lucky enough to make I get to go to TV show panels from time to time. Every single time I feel unbelievably lucky. I'm positive that at some point, someone will realize what a little imposter I am. There is no way I get to do something so cool. Some are Paley, some are TV Academy, all of them are a blast. Usually it's just not done to be a fan at these things cause that's not smooth enough for the industry, so I try to lie low, not go all fangirly, and generally play much cooler than I am (all goals that are not always met.) This means keeping the fandom to a minimum, not staring at the actors, and definitely, under no circumstances, taking pictures. I have breached this before for awful, unfocused, as they're getting up from the chairs on the fly shots, but really, no pictures. It just feels unprofessional.

But last night.

It's not even my favorite show. On right now or ever.

But um, I still broke all my rules.

I took pictures.

I woo!ed when he walked onstage.

It was a blast. And it won't happen again at the Academy or any other Paley event, probably ever, but last night, it was fun.

(And if Robert Guillaume had been up there, I'd have taken twice as many pictures.)

( My shame, it is hidden. )

Appearances or otherwise.

Just like last week, I'm back with very little to offer. Lots of memes, all from king_duncan, and far too few movie updates. AFI 100 in February is just not happening, folks. I'm too busy a little bee. It is my cross to bear.

Memes first!

TV meme:
Choose five series (no peeking before you choose them), list them, and then answer the questions behind the cut.

1. Sports Night
2. Veronica Mars
3. Doctor Who
4. Wonderfalls
5. Torchwood

( Questions and answers! )

And similar music meme:
Pick your top 10 bands and answer the questions.

1. The Old 97s
2. Spoon
3. Paul Simon
4. Iggy Pop
5. Neko Case
6. Liz Phair
7. The Pretenders
8. The Rolling Stones
9. The Beatles
10. Elvis Costello

( And away we go! )

23

AFI movie reviews... um... later. I need a cup of tea like wow.

Occasionally I do silly, frivolous, ridiculous things. This meme is one of the least outrageous and destructive of them. Feel free to skip it, though.

Also, MOM: Sorry about all the cussing. It was cut and paste, I swear.

Stolen from stepliana, because I've been comparing VMars to an abusive ex for long enough now.

The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it:
stepliana's answer, "The Black Donnellys" is pretty good. I reserve my answer until after said program premieres tomorrow night. There'll be an extremely ranty post that will link back to this one, don't worry.

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets:
Old sitcoms like "Mad About You," and "The Wonder Years," and "Benson" and "Night Court," and "Maude." There are days when I really miss those shows. ALSO, "The OC." I rewatch those discs most often of all the TV I own. In fact, if the last two discs of Dexter S1 aren't in the mailbox when I got home, I just realized what tonight's plans are.

The mysterious dark gothy one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized he really was fucking crazy:
"Damages." I broke this off before it got really crazy. My poor roommate is still caught up in it. I feel like I'm the soldier who's lucky they got killed early in the war and my poor roommate is still stuck miserable and under fire with horrible trenchfoot in the freezing rain. That's how bad this show is.

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to fuck again although you're relieved he doesn't actually live in town:
"24." I watched all of S1 in three days. Three days that I also worked 10 hour shifts. I could do nothing else until they were done. It was kinda bad. I haven't watched a single episode since. They're like crack.

The steady:
"Sports Night." Now and forever.

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with:
"The Closer." I watched a few of this season's episodes with my roommate, but I'm going to have to netflix it from the beginning to properly fall in love with this show. And the TV queue is already close to 500. So we'll see when that happens.

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't:
"House." I just can't get that excited about a procedural. Also, I don't like the deep gravelly voice Hugh Laurie uses in it, and I have issues with non-funny Hugh Laurie. As in it confuses the hell out of me.

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool guy except it's never really gone anywhere:
"Heroes." Y'all just won't shut up about it. And yes, one of you finally forced loaned me S1. So I will watch it and see.

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at him and thinking, "Him? How the hell did he land all these cool babes?":
"Lost." I hated the first four episodes. I've been told this means I have no soul, but really, it means I have more time Wednesday nights. Whatev.

The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom she keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for her except you just know it's going to end badly:
Hmm. "Supernatural." Based on how Buffy, VMars, Smallville (ongoing,) and many others limped painfully into that great night, I am worried about y'all. I see nothing but insane love and enthusiasm on my flist, and I worry that when it turns, it's gonna turn bad in a big way.

The ones you repeatedly cheat on your steady with:
Friday Night Lights, Pushing Daisies, The Office, Six Feet Under, Coupling, Wonderfalls.

Spotted on Kapgar's blog. It looked superfun so I raised my hand when he offered to interview others.

1. Most of us know that you are living out part of the dream by working at your ideal workplace. But what job title would you want there if you could have any?

Director of the Archives, technically, but 400 lb Gorilla, really. What does a 400 lb Gorilla do? Anything it wants. I'd love to spend the rest of my life researching, chonicling, and exploring Disney's interaction with modern culture and how they both inform each other constantly. I'd especially love to focus on Disneyland as a microcosm of America, really digging into its development throughout the 20th century and how it parallels and precedes America's development; and one day get to know the other Parks all over the world as well as I know Disneyland to compare and contrast. My dream vacation is a (working) world Disney tour, beginning here in Anaheim, then on to Florida, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and then back at the original Disneyland for another period to process all I've seen. I'd want a couple weeks at each stop, to really explore the settings and see how the Parks fit into and illustrate the cultures they're located in and have become a part of. In addition to running the Archives and getting to hang out with all that cool stuff all day (How much does Dave Smith enjoy his job? He wore Mr. Banks' smoking jacket to the opening night of the Mary Poppins sing-along. It's just one more reason the man is my hero.) I'd also love to guest-host VIP tours at Disneyland occasionally. I love sharing the Park with people and seeing eyes light up when they learn that someone really planned all this, every last detail, to make sure they have a magical day.

2. How did you get into blogging? Give us some details.

An old friend (actually, it's her birthday today. Happy Birthday Bel!) found lj and pestered me to get onboard. I had moved to California the year before and she spent a lot of time on the internet, so she convinced me that this was the best way to keep up with each other. I set up the journal, made one entry, and then forgot about it as I went on with my life. So technically I started blogging May 15th, 2003, but I didn't write here even semi-regularly until January of 2004. I've been checking in ever since, at first a few times a month to keep track of my life here so I can look back on it fondly when I'm old and no longer running a million miles an hour, but much more in the last year or two as I found more friends online and it became as much a way to keep in touch with everyone everyday as it is a way for me to communicate with myself in the future. Hello FutureSelf. You're pretty happy right now.

3. You are only allowed to watch one TV show for the rest of your life. It can be past or present. Fear not as they will always create new episodes just for you. What would it be? Aside from Veronica Mars (had to throw that little wrench in the works).

Sports Night, definitely. I've loved this show since the pilot aired. I wrote a ten page paper on the racial and sexual politics of Sports Night for my TV history & criticism class (and got an A.) I yelled at the TV so loudly when Gordon was wearing Casey's shirt that my suitemate rushed into the room, positive I was being attacked. Lines from this show still make me grin whenever I hear them quoted, and I will watch everything Felicity Huffman and Peter Krause are ever involved in (I already loved Robert Guillaume long before this show, from Benson. He was the first star I ever saw, in Solvang at the Mustard House restaurant, when I was four. He was with a six foot tall skinny woman in a bright red silk slip dress with (I kid you not) a red feather boa. I thought she was the most glamourous thing I'd ever seen, right behind Miss Yvonne, of course.)

4. As a kid, were you a "girlie girl" or a "tomboy"?

I was a strange mix of both. I hated being told to go play outside, because I was terrified of getting hurt or dirty; and I loved pretty clothes, some dresses in particular so much that my Mom and I got into hiding wars when I outgrew them; and my favorite games of pretend usually centered around setting up a house, taking care of babies, or anything with Barbies. But then I also loved going to baseball games with my Dad and playing catch with him in the backyard; pretending my swingset was the Millennium Falcon and I was Han Solo flying it (I usually liked to be Princess Leia but I was so convinced she couldn't fly the Falcon that I made myself switch and be Han to fly it;) and then there's school. I was always the tallest girl in school. As the biggest girl, I was often the protector for all the smaller girls. Any little boy messed with any little girl, he had to deal with me. So I suppose the poundings I handed out when necessary would make me a tomboy. But one who really liked pink and babies and hated splinters.

5. Honestly, now that you are "in the loop," did Snow White perform "favors" for the Seven Dwarves?

Well, she did keep their house clean as a whistle and their tummies full, but as far as I know, that's as far as the favors went. Wait a couple years til my pay grade gets raised and maybe I'll have more information on that subject. :)

Thanks Kapgar! That was great!

If this looks like fun to you...

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick them, and you have to answer them all.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The first part has two subparts, the second part is just one part, and the third part will be referenced and footnoted.

Hee.

1. The Riches and October Road have inspired me to create a new TV appreciation rule for myself. I will try at least three episodes of any new series before I give up on it. Cause I was ready to ditch both these pop stands til the stellar third episodes sucked me back in. If you quit either of these before the third epi, I recommend you try again. It's only 43 minutes.

For "The Riches," it probably has something to do with Eddie's general attraction (cause I am drawn to anything he's in like gravity draws lead down to the ground,) but for "October Road" I think it has more to do with them dropping the annoying cliches and this little coincidence:



SEPARATED AT BIRTH.

I am now only uncomfortable during this show whenever the boys lip sync, which unfortunately, is still pretty often. If they could just quit that, I could actually admit I like this in public, instead of just to you people here.

2. I am the queen of fancy coffee drinks. THE QUEEN I TELL YOU. Due to my wondrous sense of noblesse oblige, I am willing to share my newest recipe with you all.

Take one 8oz. cup (Because the 16 oz. won't fit in the machine.)
Put it in the machine.
Push the button for Cappuccino.
Sniff the good smells.
Empty the 8oz. cup into your 16oz. cup.
Put the 8oz. cup back into the machine.
Push the button for Hot Chocolate (with milk.)
Sniff the really good smells.
Empty the 8oz. cup into your 16oz. cup.
Very carefully carry this full to the brim cup back to your desk.
Fin.

3. More progress on the 30 in 30 goal!

5. Millions-- I wanted to see this movie when it came out because I loved Danny Boyle's earlier movies, especially The Moneybag Trilogy. Even though this is a movie about the sweetest kid who's ever lived (not even kidding) it's still very much a Danny Boyle movie, complete with physical danger, a menacing stranger in black, and a bag full of money. HEE. Can this man do anything else? I don't think so. And do I care? No, I don't. It's well paced, it's beautiful to look at, the characters are a joy to get to know, and I have a feeling I'll be watching this one again and often. Highly recommended.
4.5 wags

6. Flannel Pajamas-- I've got mixed feelings about this one. I loved the lead actor's performance, and this is the most I've liked Julianne Nicholson since The Love Letter. But I really didn't like her character after a certain point in the movie. And since I felt like the movie really didn't want me to take sides, I was bothered, because I was totally on the guy's side. And then in the making of featurette, one of the actresses said she liked working on the film so much because none of these characters were apologizing for who they were. 'Scuse me? The poor guy spent most of second half of the movie apologizing for living and everything under the sun. I must have missed something big because I don't know what went wrong (or what the trippy last five minutes of the movie meant,) but other than that I really enjoyed this non-three act traditional look at the life of a relationship.
4 wags