talking about crazy couples...

David Schwimmer, 38, and Kim Catrall, 48?!

Man, the entertainment gossip industry must be having a ball. Between trying to keep up with Brad & Angelina, Ben&Jen2's engagement, new couple Katie & Tom... This makes for entertaining work reading at least. :-)

UGH

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are DATING.

Okay so I do feel a little bad about bad-mouthing celebrities, but for some reason I've always thought of Joey Potter (who I HATED) as an extension of Katie Holmes herself who I subsequently am really not fond of, but wow, this kind of justifies my theory. Joey was constantly having all men fall at her feet, and now Katie Holmes is dating TOM CRUISE???? Admittedly I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise (I think he's rather creepy), but I think most people will agree that he's basically the epitomy of the hot Hollywood actor.

I gotta say, Tom, Nicole Kidman to Penelope Cruz to Katie Holmes? You're really stepping down the ladder there...

Edited to add: PICTURES.

American Idol...wtf??

So I'm not even sure why I follow American Idol since I would never listen to the music that the winner puts out, but I liked Kelly and Ruben, and I'll even admit that Fantasia was a deserving winner. This season though? I wasn't really that impressed with any of the finalists actually (my favorite was Nikko, oddly enough) but geez, how are SCOTT and ANTHONY still in it? I'm assuming that either Bo or Carrie is going to win...neither of whom is terribly interesting. I mean, Carrie's a country singer with no flexibility, and Bo claims to be a rocker, but is he really going to put out solo albums?

Oh, and was it just me or was Heather Locklear rolling her eyes when her daughter really unconvincingly said that Anthony was her favorite?

Firefly movie!

The trailer for Serenity is out! Go watch!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/serenity/

It comes out in September but Joss is previewing the (almost-finished) movie next week on 10 screens in 10 cities across the US...Ithaca is obviously not one of them. =( Neither are NYC or Philly though so I suppose I shouldn't be bitter about how I could have gone to one of them if it was on some other date.

(Still glad I'm getting out of the middle of nowhere in a month though.)

craziness

So lately I've been rewatching a lot of old Roswell episodes...and remember why and how this was, by far, my biggest television obsession to date. Yes, I will still name Buffy my favorite show of all time, because it was better on the whole, but I was really really intensely obsessed with Roswell for the three years it was on the air.

Anyway, I've been doing some reading up on the show on the web, and apparently there were a few tie-in books written that take place after the series finale. Which of course I now want to read! The first three are still available on amazon for about $7...I mean, it's a young adult book less than 300 pages long. But the final book appears to be out of print and it is selling USED for more than $200! On eBay, the last two books are currently sitting at $71.

I guess this is a sign that there are people out there more obsessed than I am. I do still really want to read those books though...hopefully I can request them from a library back home in Long Island this summer...

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (by Alexander McCall Smith)

So my last semester of college is winding down and senioritis coupled with a light workload in general has left me with a lot of free time to read apparently.

Anyway, I don't remember where I heard about this book and I didn't even really know what it was about before I borrowed it from the library, but I've always been a fan of detective stories so I thought I might like it. And I was definitely right! It's about a single woman in Botswana who opens a detective agency. Mma Ramotswe solves mysteries brought to her by the townspeople: missing children, cheating husbands, strange behavior from employees...anything that people don't necessarily want to bring to the police. They're all relatively small cases, definitely not as complex as Agatha Christies (which I also love and Mma Ramotswe mentions on several occasions), but the solutions are clever and tidy, and have more to do with just human nature rather than devious crimes.

The mystery part isn't the best part of this book though. First of all the characterizations are perfect. You can tell what kind of woman Mma Ramotswe is instantly and you can't help but like her. And the writing is really wonderful. Each case is told simply but with humor, whimsy, wistfulness...just all the right touches. I don't think I've ever read a non-historical book about Africa, and the descriptions of the landscapes and just the general culture and lifestyle there were really interesting. The author grew up in Africa but is Scottish, I think, so there's a definite British feel to the writing too.

This book has actually spawned a series (6 books now) so hopefully I get to read those soon too!

Well since GG is back...

Though it wasn't the most exciting episode, it was still nice to have my good show back on air. I'm tired of depending on The OC to make my tv happiness or stupid korean soap operas or Desperate Housewives (is it just me or does this show really bore me now?)... However, I do really enjoy the medical shows House and Grey's Anatomy...

Anyway, the only thing worth mentioning was the cuteness of Luke wanting to buy a house to have a family in WITH LORELAI OBVIOUSLY! :-) Though Dean was kind of a damper. Sheesh. Also, I asked Jen about this already, but when did Taylor take over the town meetings again? I thought that was now Jackson's position? Plus I'm glad that Lorelai does care about not hurting Emily enough to have pulled the magazine cover on her. See it's little goodnesses about this show that make me so content. :-)

More shows need to catch on to that.

concert wrap-up

Concert #1 at Ithaca College

Days Away - The opener. Not too bad but kind of forgettable...further supported by the fact that apparently I saw them last year but I didn't remember them at all.

Something Corporate - So good! They played Globes and Maps! We were crushed up near the front so it was really sweaty and hot and I was being pushed all over the place, but it wasn't like obnoxious moshing so it was okay. (Although a crowd surfer pretty much fell on me.) The most surprising thing though was the lead singer, Andrew McMahon? When I saw SoCo last May, he had shaggy blond hair that fell all over his face and dorky emo glasses. But now it's cut pretty short and dyed black, so he looked like a completely different person. Haha perhaps he has grown up a little.


Concert #2 at Cornell

The Format - The opener. We got there a little late so we only caught one song, which I actually knew and was pretty good. We were dead tired from SoCo though so we just sat in the bleachers in the back.

Taking Back Sunday - Oy. So I saw TBS two years ago when they were on tour with Saves the Day and I remember them being just plain awful. It was just a lot of noise with whiny out-of-tune screaming. I felt like the band was just so concerned with "rocking out" that they didn't realize how horrible they sounded. This time though, I thought it might actually be okay because their new album has less screaming and I actually like some of the songs. Unfortunately, I was WRONG. Taking Back Sunday still has the worst live performance EVER. Plus their lighting was incredibly irritating...constant flashing and blinding strobes. Sigh, I don't know why they have to keep touring with bands that I like...if this happens again I'm going to have to skip it. Or just miss their set...

Jimmy Eat World - We stood up for this one but stayed toward the back of the crowd. I couldn't really see anything, but I didn't care too much. And wow, maybe because this was after TBS, but they sound really good live. Like the volume was definitely up a few notches, but it still sounded amazing. I was really happy that they played For Me This is Heaven and Lucky Denver Mint and Blister from Clarity, and Kill and 23 from their new album. I probably would have been a lot more excited to see them live about two or three years ago, but I am still a JEW fan (I own basically all of their albums) so I'm really glad they came to do a show here.


So, in summary: 5 bands, 2 venues, $23, and 7 hours later, I was completely exhausted but also pretty satisfied. I love concerts!

The Time Traveler's Wife (by Audrey Niffenegger)

First of all, I feel like I should mention that over the past couple of years, I think that I've gotten less rigid and more emotional. I mean, the difference isn't that noticeable, but books and movies and TV and yes, life too, have been making me cry a lot more than I used to in high school.

This book is one of the most unique I've ever read. It's about time travel, but it is solidly a romance and definitely not science fiction. The time traveler is Henry, and his wife is Clare. Henry regularly time travels to the past (and sometimes the future) without much warning or pattern...he just disappears and ends up sometime else without any clothes or possessions. And unlike in Harry Potter, he can interact with whomever he wants...even himself...without disturbing the course of events or whatever. Clare has been visited by the adult Henry (already married to Clare in his time) throughout her childhood. Therefore there complicated history makes for a really interesting story. The perspective of the novel switches between Henry and Clare, with each segment clearly labeled with their ages and the dates. It's a bit confusing at first, and takes awhile to get used to.

It's a pretty long novel, and because time is so important, it seems almost epic even though it really only spans about 40 years. It reminded me a lot of A.S. Byatt's Possession, which Niffenegger does quote from. I was really excited by the beginning of the novel, just because the concept was so interesting and fresh. By the middle, though, I was getting a little bored, and I felt like I still didn't really understand the characters too well. But by the end, I was crying. I usually never say things like this but the writing near the end was just so beautiful and depressing and it kind of broke my heart.

So I have to say that despite a few failings, this is definitely a very memorable book, and I actually have the urge to read it again now that I have a better handle on the timelines.

Ithaca you have redeemed yourself...a little

Well, Ithaca still sucks, but the concert scene has improved immensely. This Sunday I'm going to see Days Away and Something Corporate at Ithaca College followed by the Format, Taking Back Sunday, and Jimmy Eat World at Cornell. So a horrible situation has turned into an amazing one.

And then today it was announced that the Starting Line will be joining Snoop Dogg and the Game at Slope Day! I guess all the complaining about only having rappers at Slope Day made the committee realize they should get another act.

In other concert news, I'm going to the Get Up Kids final tour show at Webster Hall, and hopefully Mira and I will be able to get tickets for the Killers at Central Park Summerstage, both in June.

Haha, apparently when I start work this August the first thing I have to do is make a friend to go to concerts with!