Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I've Moved!
I decided to move things over to a new site this weekend, so you can catch my musings here: Pop Smatterings.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Week 5: In which we learned about the Valentine's Day Jamie cooked naked
Icebergs melted, walls fell, unicorns danced in circles, bison burgers were enjoyed by all, and Alice paid Jamie a tiny bit of praise. After months of gentle wooing, Jamie has almost succeeded in endearing himself to Alice and becoming the British person she almost tolerates*. Our story began with Jamie and Rod from the radio telling stories, laughing laughs, and working in harmony at the morning show until Doug Shiels, the man in charge of the local hospital called into the radio station and offered himself up as Jamie's next quasi-adversary/eventual partner in health-making. After finding out that even more people were worried about how Huntington would appear on television**, Jamie cut to the chase, told some dude in a suit that his objections were really weird, and then told the group of worried skeptics how much money he needed.
With the money business put to the side for the rest of the episode, Jamie headed back to the schools to complete the cycle of the narrative before next week's episode. In what he thought was a risky (but I thought was pretty savvy) move, Jamie apologized to a mob of disinterested-looking, texting teenagers for taking away their french fries and told them that his success or failure was basically in their hands. In what appeared to be a response to the idea that Jamie respected them mingled with curiosity about the promise of pasta for lunch, the high schoolers were kind enough not to destroy the show. Oh, and some kids drank plain milk, the principal of the elementary school lost some weight, and everyone's skin is looking a lot better.
Product placement of the week: Last week's Green Giant product placement was a little odd, but this week's mini-ad for Green Truck worked a lot better. While it was still a little awkward because the little interview/explanation very much an advertisement, at least with Green Truck we could see it in action and actually introducing a new idea into the community. I'm pretty sure Huntingtonians were aware of frozen vegetables in the B.O. (Before Oliver) era.
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* I sort of love Alice, and mostly because she's totally a super hard sell and generally unimpressed by everyone. She seems like one of those people who doesn't let you know where you stand with her unless she has to, but who also has a legitimate problem with being malicious or the cause of anyone's downfall. I thought this was especially apparent when she was honest about how Jamie's programs were working in the school (some kids like some things better than others - fair enough), but she wasn't going to submarine the whole thing, either.
** I really had no idea that Huntingtonians being portrayed as having an obesity issue on t.v. might be a deterrent for new industry. I kind of thought that businesses that find West Virginia attractive would find it attractive regardless of how an AP wire interprets a CDC report.
With the money business put to the side for the rest of the episode, Jamie headed back to the schools to complete the cycle of the narrative before next week's episode. In what he thought was a risky (but I thought was pretty savvy) move, Jamie apologized to a mob of disinterested-looking, texting teenagers for taking away their french fries and told them that his success or failure was basically in their hands. In what appeared to be a response to the idea that Jamie respected them mingled with curiosity about the promise of pasta for lunch, the high schoolers were kind enough not to destroy the show. Oh, and some kids drank plain milk, the principal of the elementary school lost some weight, and everyone's skin is looking a lot better.
Product placement of the week: Last week's Green Giant product placement was a little odd, but this week's mini-ad for Green Truck worked a lot better. While it was still a little awkward because the little interview/explanation very much an advertisement, at least with Green Truck we could see it in action and actually introducing a new idea into the community. I'm pretty sure Huntingtonians were aware of frozen vegetables in the B.O. (Before Oliver) era.
----------------
* I sort of love Alice, and mostly because she's totally a super hard sell and generally unimpressed by everyone. She seems like one of those people who doesn't let you know where you stand with her unless she has to, but who also has a legitimate problem with being malicious or the cause of anyone's downfall. I thought this was especially apparent when she was honest about how Jamie's programs were working in the school (some kids like some things better than others - fair enough), but she wasn't going to submarine the whole thing, either.
** I really had no idea that Huntingtonians being portrayed as having an obesity issue on t.v. might be a deterrent for new industry. I kind of thought that businesses that find West Virginia attractive would find it attractive regardless of how an AP wire interprets a CDC report.
16 and Pregnant, Week 9 (Lizzie): Do we have a 2010 version of "emo" yet?
Before I can say anything - and I mean anything - about this week's episode of 16 and Pregnant, I need to get this out of my system: SERIOUSLY??????!!!!!!!! An aspiring glassblower/part-time thrift store employee named Skylar? Who cheats on you, like, the same week* you get pregnant and then cries sincere emo tears and gives you the space you need until you decide to take him back? IF WE CANNOT LEARN FROM THE 1990s, WE ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT THEM.
Ahem.
On this week's 16 and Pregnant, we learned that babies mean giving up your dreams of becoming a flutist for the Virginia Symphony, that parades are generally boring for teenagers**, and, that contrary to popular belief, the pregnancy belly-button ring does exist***. For the majority of the episode, Lizzie fluctuated between being responsible (congrats - for real- on finishing high school five months early through home school), being an entitled only child (it's a known fact that parents know nothing and teenage children are always smarter), and oddly ridiculous (Seriously, you didn't keep up with your birth control because you didn't want a pelvic exam? Yeah, I can see how having a kid is less invasive than an hour in the stirrups.).
I did like how Lizzie and Skylar were really trying hard to maintain some independence through careful budgeting and planning in the very small space of Lizzie's bedroom, but I felt as though their experience of the world didn't extend beyond those walls. When Lizzie was out with her friends at the midpoint of the episode and was bragging all about her perfect baby, her perfect life, and her perfect relationship, I couldn't help but think that she was both insufferable and hopelessly naive****. And I think I was right on both counts. While I've been worried for the past couple of weeks about the general feeling of unbearable weight at the end of recent episodes, this time I was worried about the larger context for Lizzie's behavior after the baby was born. Lizzie - while in some ways, just run-of-the-mill 18 year-old mixed with a little only child for good measure - took on a new, and very unexplained pattern of behavior when she became more and more adamant about not wanting to be physically separated from the baby (even when Skylar was holding her).
The lack of discussion about this seemed larger than the conversations about it, as did Lizzie's lack of self awareness and her immaturity, which was immune to even the most pithy attempt to permeate the thick teenage skull in 16 and Pregnant history: (to paraphrase), "I wish I had been as smart as you when I was younger. Because everything I thought I knew, I turned out to be wrong about."
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* Math is mine, not MTV's. But, seeing as Lizzie is about 8+ months pregnant when she finds out that Skylar looked up with some girl named Krista (or something) 8 months ago, I think if we use my patented "counting backwards" method, we can construct a timeline that supports my hypothesis. On another note, why was I the only person nodding "yes," in response to the question, "Do you think he would cheat on you?"
** This was puzzling. I would have thought that most teenagers had already discovered this when they realized they were too old to have candy thrown at them and too young to be publicly drunk in the name of St. Patrick/America/the Harvest. While my brother may have had a buttload of fun marching with the band in high school at town parades (I'm not sure, I haven't asked), when I was Lizzie's age, I really liked that parades meant that there was an empty house for sleeping in late and having some alone time while the rest of my family was out standing in the street.
*** Again, have these kids never heard of the '90s? Aside from learning about the existence of pregnancy belly button rings, I also learned that people still get belly button rings.
**** Most people over the age of 18 can tell you that the second you start letting a little of that "my life is so perfect business" fly, you might as well throw the shit directly into the fan yourself.
Ahem.
On this week's 16 and Pregnant, we learned that babies mean giving up your dreams of becoming a flutist for the Virginia Symphony, that parades are generally boring for teenagers**, and, that contrary to popular belief, the pregnancy belly-button ring does exist***. For the majority of the episode, Lizzie fluctuated between being responsible (congrats - for real- on finishing high school five months early through home school), being an entitled only child (it's a known fact that parents know nothing and teenage children are always smarter), and oddly ridiculous (Seriously, you didn't keep up with your birth control because you didn't want a pelvic exam? Yeah, I can see how having a kid is less invasive than an hour in the stirrups.).
I did like how Lizzie and Skylar were really trying hard to maintain some independence through careful budgeting and planning in the very small space of Lizzie's bedroom, but I felt as though their experience of the world didn't extend beyond those walls. When Lizzie was out with her friends at the midpoint of the episode and was bragging all about her perfect baby, her perfect life, and her perfect relationship, I couldn't help but think that she was both insufferable and hopelessly naive****. And I think I was right on both counts. While I've been worried for the past couple of weeks about the general feeling of unbearable weight at the end of recent episodes, this time I was worried about the larger context for Lizzie's behavior after the baby was born. Lizzie - while in some ways, just run-of-the-mill 18 year-old mixed with a little only child for good measure - took on a new, and very unexplained pattern of behavior when she became more and more adamant about not wanting to be physically separated from the baby (even when Skylar was holding her).
The lack of discussion about this seemed larger than the conversations about it, as did Lizzie's lack of self awareness and her immaturity, which was immune to even the most pithy attempt to permeate the thick teenage skull in 16 and Pregnant history: (to paraphrase), "I wish I had been as smart as you when I was younger. Because everything I thought I knew, I turned out to be wrong about."
* Math is mine, not MTV's. But, seeing as Lizzie is about 8+ months pregnant when she finds out that Skylar looked up with some girl named Krista (or something) 8 months ago, I think if we use my patented "counting backwards" method, we can construct a timeline that supports my hypothesis. On another note, why was I the only person nodding "yes," in response to the question, "Do you think he would cheat on you?"
** This was puzzling. I would have thought that most teenagers had already discovered this when they realized they were too old to have candy thrown at them and too young to be publicly drunk in the name of St. Patrick/America/the Harvest. While my brother may have had a buttload of fun marching with the band in high school at town parades (I'm not sure, I haven't asked), when I was Lizzie's age, I really liked that parades meant that there was an empty house for sleeping in late and having some alone time while the rest of my family was out standing in the street.
*** Again, have these kids never heard of the '90s? Aside from learning about the existence of pregnancy belly button rings, I also learned that people still get belly button rings.
**** Most people over the age of 18 can tell you that the second you start letting a little of that "my life is so perfect business" fly, you might as well throw the shit directly into the fan yourself.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Celebrity Apprentice, Week 5: Did Bret Make Us Feel Something Real?
This week was all about family and commitments outside of The Celebrity Apprentice: Sharon Osbourne still had the black plague (which Trump wasn't so ready to forgive), Cyndi Lauper got to meet President Obama and prove that she's not just Tenacity's lovable screw-up, Michael Johnson left the show for undisclosed reasons related to his son, Bret lost his shit over and over again because his daughter might be diabetic like him, and Goldberg showed us that he's really uncomfortable when other men cry. Okay, so that last bit didn't have anything to do with a player's attention being drawn away from the game, but in all honesty, Goldberg did look like he wanted to be anywhere else than with a sobbing Bret Michaels. We also watched Donald Trump clean the floor with all the contestants (except Maria and her major boots) in the saddest game of H-O-R-S-E ever televised (I mean, it's for charity, people! You can't even hit the rim?) while Ivanka looked on in cold disinterest. In other news, we learned that Summer and Holly are still going strong in their mean girl love fest, Selita doesn't know that her type of pretty doesn't last forever (and apparently, doesn't cloud George's vision), and Maria has been marked as the snake in the grass on team Tenacity. Over at Rock Solid, Curtis showed us he could lead (with Clyde Drexler co-starring as his personal chorus of common sense) as his team literally dissolved around him - in terms of numbers AND pools of tears*. When it came to firing time, Selita** was unmoved by the termination of her fake employment and appeared to be willing to engage only with the very unnecessary Trump elevator operator. My favorite part of the episode, however, was noting how everyone was trying to think of a new way to say "throw under the bus" without saying the actual phrase: "push off a dock," "throw under the car," "crush with my velocipede," "toss under a truck," "perambulate all over," and so on.
Unsolicited prediction: Everyone on the women's team keeps talking about how Maria's the person to watch out for, but I think Summer Sanders is the real one to keep an eye on. While she's tight with Holly, that's going to change the longer they're in this game together. We can't forget that Summer tried to get rid of BOTH Sharon and Cyndi by pretending that she forgot they had passes and good reasons for not participating. Basically, Summer tried to play it all nice girl and eliminate one player that annoys her and another player that could be a competitive obstacle. Summer's playing it cool and pretending to be - as Sharon put it "little Miss Perfect" - but this is an act a blind man can see. You can take me out for hot dog when she literally pushes Holly in front of a New York City taxi trying to out-fundraise*** her.
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* For a cool/interesting discussion of how Bret Michaels actually brought reality to The Celebrity Apprentice through his relatively raw displays of emotion this week, check out Dalton Ross's recap at Ew.com. He says it better than I ever could and, I believe, admits to being moved to tears by the increasingly complex lead singer of Poison.
** Yeah, I'll admit I learned her name. But she's gone now, so it doesn't matter.
***There have been no fundraising challenges so far this season. I think we need one, because that type of challenge tends to really bring the out the nasty.
Unsolicited prediction: Everyone on the women's team keeps talking about how Maria's the person to watch out for, but I think Summer Sanders is the real one to keep an eye on. While she's tight with Holly, that's going to change the longer they're in this game together. We can't forget that Summer tried to get rid of BOTH Sharon and Cyndi by pretending that she forgot they had passes and good reasons for not participating. Basically, Summer tried to play it all nice girl and eliminate one player that annoys her and another player that could be a competitive obstacle. Summer's playing it cool and pretending to be - as Sharon put it "little Miss Perfect" - but this is an act a blind man can see. You can take me out for hot dog when she literally pushes Holly in front of a New York City taxi trying to out-fundraise*** her.
-----------------------
* For a cool/interesting discussion of how Bret Michaels actually brought reality to The Celebrity Apprentice through his relatively raw displays of emotion this week, check out Dalton Ross's recap at Ew.com. He says it better than I ever could and, I believe, admits to being moved to tears by the increasingly complex lead singer of Poison.
** Yeah, I'll admit I learned her name. But she's gone now, so it doesn't matter.
***There have been no fundraising challenges so far this season. I think we need one, because that type of challenge tends to really bring the out the nasty.
Monday, April 12, 2010
The most perfect spring song ever?
Ever since I graduated kindergarten, I haven't really connected much to Sesame Street, but this duet by Jason Mraz and Elmo managed to put all the feelings I have on a sunny day to music.
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Week 4: All We Eat Nowadays is Beef Stir Fry
And they were cookin', cookin' in the streets...because Jamie was trying to win a bet. This week's episode* took a break from the will they/won't they tension between Alice and Jamie in the elementary school kitchen and focused on Jamie's work in the larger Huntington community. I was too young for Moonlighting, but I imagine that the chemistry between Jamie and Alice is like watching Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis all over again. While I'm glad we escaped the tedium of the permit office at town hall and spent more time capturing the magic of a Marshall University dance program flash mob, I would still like some more reality in this particular reality program. We did see Jamie promoting the Cook-a-Thon and Jamie's Kitchen through interpretive dance, the shortened format of the show doesn't allow us to actually appreciate the enormity of Jamie's task and the popular opposition he faced in Huntington. The quickened pace of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution gave us a story arc that threw up plot flags at every turn:
- Jamie grows sad and frustrated with Rod from the radio,
- Jamie attempts to win Rod over by ordinary means,
- But Jamie must resort to extraordinary means,
- And managest to win Rod over with emotional appeals and boyish British charm,
- And by Friday everyone feels good and completes a giant picture wall.
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* We also learned that it's been two months since episode one, which means that time flies when you're having fun in West Virginia. Do I have to contact Ryan Seacrest directly to get some answers about the collapsed pace of this show? Because I WILL write him a letter.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A Cyndi of Another Era
While she wasn't a major player in this week's The Celebrity Apprentice because she was in Washington, D.C. watching the president sign hate crimes legislation into law, seeing Cyndi sing a little on tonight's episode made me want to post a little tribute to her. My review of tonight's episode should be ready in a day or two. So, until then, enjoy.
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