What Struck Me

Just hangin’ out. Havin’ cocktails, surfing the net.

We watched The Departed last night. I know it’s gotten great reviews, it’s the favorite to win the Oscar tomorrow night, but… it’s so damn long! About a half hour too long. At the end I wondered what happened to that movie we were watching where Jack is talking to that little kid… oh yeah, same movie!

It was ok, though. I can see why my husband and son gave it 4 stars. Just not my thing.

Might watch Little Miss Sunshine tonight, but Nick wants to see a movie too and it’s rated R, so we’ll probably find something different. I guess I can’t complain- it’s been years since I’ve seen even one nominated film before the Academy Awards!

This American Life is coming to Showtime on March 22.(quicktime link)

Love this show on NPR.

Seems like lots of bloggers are writing about the Super Bowl*, so I may as well join the fray. We had a mini-party, just the four of us, but it was fun. I made hot wings, make-your-own-pizzas, chips n dip. I didn’t really care who won, so I was rooting for me to be entertained. The first half didn’t disappoint, but by the second half I was flipping through a stack of catalogs I’ve been meaning to look at. Pat was snoozing. Tim was in bed and Nick even went to bed by 9:30 (they were all tired from a scout overnighter on the USS Mass. battleship.)

Prince was better than expected. I was a fan back in the day, but I’m pretty cynical about come-backs. But he’s a damn good guitarist and that always wins me over. Also he played a Foo Fighters song! (Speaking of come-backs, I’m kinda excited to see the Police reunite on the Grammys, maybe I’m getting less cynical?)

The commercials were mostly eh. The Sheryl Crow hair color ad had me wanting the throw something at the tv. I liked the Doritos ads, and the Carlos Mencia Bud ads. The CareerBuilders ads were mostly funny. I have to watch the Emerald Nuts ad with Robert Goulet again, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe. And the ad with Letterman and Oprah made me laugh, but then I had to explain the back story to Pat so that made it seem pretty lame. And that GoDaddy ad had me considering moving my domain registrations elsewhere. Blech.

*I’m too lazy to link to them, but I guess not too lazy to write this footnote…

Before I had a Tivo someone told me that the way I watched TV would change forever, and I laughed.

But she was so right. I haven’t watched a stupid HGTV show on redecorating in over a month.

So last night I watched, via the Tivo, Friday Night Lights, a couple episodes of The Daily Show, Ugly Betty, & 30 Rock.

Friday Night Lights- Getting way too predictable, no surprises. I momentarily smiled when Tim’s dad showed up at the game but then I smacked my head because of course Tim’s dad showed up at the game, that’s TV drama writing 101. But, it works I guess.

Daily Show (episodes from earlier in the week)- Stewart’s Cheney/The Penguin imitation just cracks me up. and his explanation of the Scooter Libby trial was dead-on. Biden did a decent job covering his ass after saying stupid things about Obama (love that he spent the day in phone calls with “Obama, Jesse, and Al.”) But, of course, Biden is doomed, since he had to spend the first day of his campaign doing damage control instead of impressing anyone. And the astrophysics dude from the Museum of Natural History is always fun to watch, based on what he said I now realize we’re just silly putty made with stardust. Cool.

Ugly Betty- Wow, Alex/Alexis didn’t waste any time. Good thing this show doesn’t pretend to be based in any reality because I’m pretty sure Fashion Week in NYC has better security than that. I was momentarily skeeved when Daniel was leering at his brother, ew. I did so want Daniel’s friend to hook up with her, though! Hey, still might happen…

30 Rock I love this show. Tiny Fey getting beat up by Isabella Rossellini over Alec Baldwin? And Jane Krakowski: “You can’t be the princess, you’re not blonde. You can be Snow White.” Which sounds sadly familiar to brunettes everywhere.

Anyone else watch this stuff?

Yvonne De Carlo has passed. Most remember her best as Lily Munster, but I also loved her role as the mama in the great 1980 horror pic Silent Scream. Don’t remember it? It was right around the height of Rocky Horror Picture Show madness and my group of friends kind of adopted Silent Scream as our cult movie, yelling back at the screen, particularly during the Avery Schreiber scenes (”crrrrrrunch!”)

Please, someone else (besides you, Pat) must remember it!

Need a stress reliever? Try this: cityrag: 50 Greatest Cartoons. They’ve got links to all the greats. I’m watching Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century right now. I’m partial to Looney Tunes but there’s plenty of other great stuff, too, including classics I’d heard of but never seen (Gerald McBoing-Boing!). Have fun!

(via boing boing, of course!)