I Love Me Some TV

I bought DVDs of the first season of Chuck and Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Even though the first season of Chuck was only last year, I had already forgotten a lot of what was going on back then. It's such a rewatchable show. I'm so glad it's been renewed for a third season, thanks to fan efforts.

Andy Richter Controls The Universe is a series that aired back in 2002. I remembered finding it very funny, but it got cancelled fairly quickly like most innovative and smart shows seem to. Anyway, I highly recommend it. I'm sure I'll be rewatching those DVDs often.

Finally, I was looking at my livejournal page, and all the keywords I had entered as interests. I think it describes me pretty well:

Aging, arrested development, books, cheers, chocolate, chuck, coffee, cooking, crosswords, dictionaries, french, grammar, montreal, monty python, movies, musicals, neuroscience, newsradio, non fiction, photography, politics, pride & prejudice, psychology, science, statistics, sudoku, teaching, technology, the colbert report, the daily show, the human brain, the office, the office fanfic, the x-files, toronto, writing

Television

I rented the season 1 DVDs of The Flight of the Conchords over the weekend. Very funny show. I noticed that one of the writers was the creator of one of my all-time favourite shows, NewsRadio so I'm not surprised it's up my comedic alley.

Oooo, Extras DVD!

David, I don't know if you still read my blog, but given that I don't have access to Hotmail (and consequently your email address) from work, I thought I would post this here to remember to tell you. Look what is coming out July 10!


Brilliant! Hopefully, my videostore will get it. At any rate, we'll need to have a viewing party because I can't wait to see it.

Movies, Movies, Movies!

I rented three movies in the last two weeks, which is some kind of record these days. How sad given that I used to watch that in one evening when I was a teen and my brother worked in a videostore (those were the days!). Anyway, I indulged in movies, which is always nice. I rented Music and Lyrics, Dreamgirls, and Catch & Release.

Music and Lyrics was cute, if very forgettable. I didn't feel much happened in the movie, which thinking back on it, is probably because the tension/conflict in the movie occurred with characters who we didn't see that much on screen like the writer ex-boyfriend or the pop singer. Still watching Hugh Grant sing cheesy 80s songs was fun and he had some good one-liners. I always enjoy Drew Barrymore so that was another plus for the movie. Would I rewatch it? Eh, wouldn't go out of my way to do so.

I always enjoy a musical so I liked Dreamgirls. The songs and music in it are fantastic and it is just an interesting storyline. I don't care much for Jamie Foxx and Beyonce though so I think that played into my not being over the moon about it. Jennifer Hudson though does a good job. Plus, my TV boyfriend pops in there for a scene so that is neat.

I really really enjoyed Catch & Release though. It is written and directed by the same screenwriter who did In Her Shoes. The movie is about copping with grief and discovering someone is not really who you thought he/she was. I am not sure how I felt about the ending, but as a whole, it just touched me a lot. I think it is worth seeing.

My friend Eve is coming to stay for the weekend to visit and find an apartment. Yay!

Movie, Movie, TV!

What is better than a movie with Colin Firth? Colin Firth singing in a movie?! It has Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan on top of it. I saw the musical Mamma Mia back in 2002, and it was highly enjoyable. This movie should be good too. That's one I'll be keeping my eye on.

We have a documentary festival in Toronto called Hot Docs. Anyway, this year, it has a very interesting documentary about Michael Moore and his ways of making movies. While I've enjoyed what Michael Moore was trying to do, let's say that I never thought what he did 1) were documentaries as much as commentaries and 2) I always suspected there was a bit more to it. Too bad it is sold out, but hopefully, it will released soon in theatres.

One last thing... I am happy to see they finally released Larry Sanders on DVD: Not Just The Best of the Larry Sanders Show. I think it aired on HBO in the US because I only was able to watch it in syndication on CTV very late at night in the late 90s. The article I linked makes me laugh a bit because they seem to say Garry Shandling appears currently very deflated and morose. Have they never seen Garry Shandling before? He was always like that as far as I am concerned! LOL Anyway, I hope I can rent that DVD set at the video store. I had encouraged the owner to buy Arrested Development once upon a time!

This Is A Post Without A Title Because It Is Full of Random Stuff...

My writing muse struck again: Wild Horses. There is something about certain songs that just inspires me. Incidentally, I wasn't listening to the original version of Wild Horses when I wrote this, but to the cover by Alicia Keys and Adam Levine (of Maroon 5). I highly recommend it. Anyway, it is just a beautiful song.

A fellow Office fan compiled the colours of Jim's shirts and Pam's cardigans across episodes just because I dared her to.(She had compiled Jim's tie patterns last week, and I was kind of joking around...) First of all, what better use of Excel is there? ;) Second, I am amazed there are some people as geeky as I, who think stats can be fun. Finally, I think I may have discovered myself some powers of persuasion that I can use for evil. LOL (Yeah, I wish.)

Rented a documentary called Stupidity last night. Eh. It felt full of filler, and for a documentary deploring the pervasiveness of stupidity, I didn't exactly it offered a lot of insight into anything.

I made some fresh salsa, and mint & shredded chicken noodles last night. So, so good.

Because YouTube is awesome as always, I found a clip of an old SNL episode with Justin Timberlake as host. I remember being surprised how good he was. It had a skit where he played Jessica Simpson. It still cracks me up...

Cheesy TV Goodness!

My friend Eve lent me her season 1 DVDs of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The special effects are totally terrible, and the plots are cheese-tastic but man, is it ever enjoyable to watch. I got the feeling I had when I used to watch it in high school. It is just popcorn TV. And man, is Dean Cain ever a dreamboat. LOL It's actually better than I remembered, but that is probably because its last season SUUUUUUCKED.

Plus, a fun game while watching old shows is to spot guest stars who have gone on to bigger and better things. Well, that might be overstating it! Most of the time, you just know them from another show. LOL Anyway, it entertains me to do this! So far, in the first 9 episodes of Lois and Clark, I've spotted Jerry Hardin (aka Deep Throat) [by the way, his daughter plays Jan on The Office, and she is totally gorgeous.], Sonny Bono, Courtney Peldon (aka the princess of fug), and Tom LaGrua (who played Remo on Caroline in The City). Yes, I totally used to watch Caroline in The City, and I loved it. I'm not sure I could explain why.

The reason I initially watched Desperate Housewives was because of residual good feelings about Teri Hatcher from Lois & Clark. My interest in Desperate Housewives quickly waned but Teri Hatcher is still in the black because of Lois & Clark. LOL

Time Flies By When You're Having Fun...

Or are marking exams. Life has been pretty darn busy recently, which is why I have been so sparse in my presence.

My friend Eve was in TO last week. The weather was total crap but we had a great time. On Saturday, we went to Insomnia for some yummy brunch (I had a lovely mimosa with grapefruit juice and French toast with a citrus batter!), and then went shopping. On Sunday, we went to see Tristram Shandy, and then, vegged with my Office DVD. The rest of the time was spent with my marking and Eve playing videogames! Hee.

This weekend, I came to Montreal for a dentist appointment and to bid my parents farewell. The 'rents are gone to France for 3 weeks. I'm sure they will have a lovely time.

I had a nice time here. Saw lots of friends, ate good food, all that lovely stuff. I don't know if I mentioned this before though, but one of my friends who I have known forever seems to want nothing to do with me anymore. It just saddens me because I don't know why. It started last summer out of the blue. Either she is mad at something that I don't know I've done or she just decided we've moved on. She doesn't return my emails or ever makes the effort to come out with me when I'm in town but then, I've talked to her on her birthday (and today) and she was all: "We should try to meet up." without my prompting it. Talk about mixed messages. Anyway, as much as it saddens me, I'm also fed up to be doing some effort when she doesn't seem to care enough to say if there is something wrong or she doesn't want to see me anymore. So yeah, I guess I'm not going to write or call anymore. 15 years of friendship down the drain. Sad.

In other totally unrelated news, Stephen Colbert was hosting the White House Correspondants' Dinner last night. The man was fearless in his jokes. President Bush was sitting 20 feet from him, and let's just say he didn't exactly spare him or the press corps. Check it out.

Awesome TV-on-DVD

I just saw that Action was released on DVD this week! I really enjoyed that show back in 1999 for about... 8 weeks. It was wickedly funny but pretty politically incorrect (there were prostitutes, lots of swearing, and killing of people, I believe! LOL) All this to say that FOX put the kibosh on it even before having aired all the episodes ordered. Damn you, FOX! I was looking on IMDb, and saw that Jim Vallely, one of the great writers of Arrested Development, as well as Will Forte were writers for Action. Awww, you guys! I loved your writing before I even knew who you were. LOL

This week, season 3 of NewsRadio is coming out on DVD as well. So so good. I am buying this for sure. I watched my S1/S2 set so much. It's so great because it is chock full of extras. Mmmm...extras.

Yes, I Am Still Alive and Kicking...

Hee. I spent time in Montreal, far, far away from the computer. It was nice to spend time just mucking around with my family. On Friday, I watched the exciting skeleton competition with my dad, and watched crime shows with my mom. We had never realized we both love real crime shows so we spent a few hours on Friday night lounging on the couch. My mom likes to say it's to train for her future as a PI/cop. LOL

I spent Saturday with my friend Eve. We went shopping, which was fun except I got a bit lost driving (Not my fault! The road has been modified recently in a neighbourhood I'm familiar with & the new signs suck badly!) and I broke the necklace I bought ohhh... about 10 seconds after buying it. Yeah, I dropped the shopping bag containing said necklace, and the string of the necklace broke. Anyway, I bought some string, and I was able to fix it. :) Then, we went out for dinner, and went to Eve's with DVDs. It was very cold (like -30 celsius cold) so staying inside (or insane as I first typed it! LOL) was a must.

We rented 2 movies, one in French and then, The Aristocrats. I believe Eve and I are unbelievably twisted because we laughed so much at that latter movie. The Aristocrats is a documentary/retelling by numerous comedians of the filthiest joke ever told. (Trust me, it is pretty much as unspeakable as it gets! Hee.) It's sort of the jazz equivalent of joke telling. The first sentence and the punchline are always the same but the riffing in between is unique to each person who tells it. Bob Saget has by far the most twisted version but my favourite tellings were probably by George Carlin, Steven Wright, Howie Mandel, and Paul Reiser. I know there were other good ones, one by a card magician who used cards to tell the joke. Eric Idle was just riffing and was hilarious. Jon Stewart was there (he was in The Daily Show's makeup chair while being interviewed) but refused to tell the joke! It was cute. Oh, and Eric Idle was funny just because he always is. Anyway, I recommend it only if you have a high tolerance for twisted humour. By the way, you may want to quit 20 minutes into it thinking there possibly be more. Stick with it, it does pick up again!

On Sunday, I did a lot of uninteresting things but then, I went to see my grandma, which is always a nice thing. My grand-maman is going to be 80 this year! Anyway, she gave my mom a big pile of trashy Quebecois star magazines (US Weekly/People-like magazines) to pass along to someone else we know. My brother and I cracked ourselves up so much thumbing through the pile. We love snark.

Monday, I went by my brother's office for some dental treatments. I have spots and bumps on my teeth due to too much fluoride growing up (took care a bit too much of my teeth growing up!) so I've had caps on my front teeth for 15+ years. They were old and needed to be replaced. Anyway, my brother removed them. He did such a good job polishing my teeth to get rid of some of the spots that I may not need new caps. Plus, my brother got me outfitted with this awesome bleaching kit, and if the spots are totally gone after that, no caps! I say wheeeee to that possibility.

Anyway, that is my life in a (long) nutshell! :) I promise not to disappear too much!

DVD hunt on Amazon: The X-Files Mythology: Vol. 1 - Abduction + Lois & Clark

I had to go check out Amazon as I am wont to do to see what wonderful books/CDs/DVDs are out there, waiting to draw me into their clutch. And what doesn't jump at me from the front page but...

The X-Files Mythology: Vol. 1 - Abduction We finally get an explanation! Errr, sort of. I'm not sure exactly what would be the lure of buying this for people who own all the boxsets already. Sure there are a few new commentaries but what hasn't been said already by people who have spent hours on message boards? I will confess I used to be one of them. LOL I only own season 1 DVDs but still... It would have gotten me all fired up and dancing-on-table excited 5 years ago. Now? Eh, not so much.

This on the other hand? Got me very excited! I used to luuuuurve Lois & Clark in all its cheesy glory. It had cool villains, a regular glass wearing guy/flying hero, very good supporting characters, and sizzling chemistry between the leads. Too bad they really ruined it towards the end. Nevertheless, the first few years rocked, and I haven't been able to see reruns of it anywhere. I shall rent them (I don't think I'd really rewatch them often) from my videostore to see it all again. Keeping my fingers crossed my videostore has bought this set. :)