here comes the cold
break out the winter coat
and find a love to call your own...
winter definitely brings out my tendency to want to curl up and hibernate and never leave my bed, alternating with the occasional super strong desire to go out and dance and drink and do something... of course, i usually get those spurts in the middle of the night when no one is available to do anything and nothing is open. so, overwhelmingly, i just want to stay in pajamas, hide in blankets, and watch mindless tv. this means that nothing gets done like it should in regards to cleaning or running errands, i treat myself like crap because i eat nothing but junk and don't eat regularly and get no exercise at all, and it all makes me kind of sad.
of course, i get down and start thinking about all the negative stuff instead of on the fact that things are overall good for me. i'm not emo so i'm not trying to be all mopey, whoa is me - but just to let it all out so i can try and move past it and focus on the good things during christmas this week:
christmas and new years especially makes me wish that i had someone to share the holidays with and buy a special present for and hold hands with while we walk in the cold to see the lights at the zoo. it seems like i don't know how to meet these people and anyone i meet that i think is cool, is unavailable or unaware of who i am. i'm so happy for those around me who have found great boyfriends, fiancees, and even husbands - it just sucks that it's not me. in high school, it never really mattered because none of my friends really had boyfriends and i was in such an all girls environment that i never noticed. but now, i get older and older and my friends have paired up and are starting to have babies (and not like, 'i got knocked up in high school' kind of babies - married couples having their first child). and i feel left behind. i have to remind myself that i'm still pretty damn young. i know that. i also know that i can't imagine being married right now at this point in my life and i don't want kids yet but like i was saying, just having someone to hold hands with and kiss occasionally would be nice.
sometimes i get frustrated that i'm paying back thousands of dollars for a college education that while i really enjoyed getting it, seems to be getting me nowhere. i have a bachelor's degree yet i can't find any kind of reliable employment. my parents are suggesting that i try to get a job at meijer. seriously. like, working with 15 year olds at meijer when i have a college degree. i just get super frustrated that it means nothing and that this economy sucks so much... i mean, i've been to different stores and interacted with representatives with companies and been treated like shit by some of those people and it pisses me off that those fuck heads have jobs and i don't. i don't like it. i don't understand it.
as pretty as the snow and ice can be, i hate driving in it. i hate trying to get my car out of my parking space and i'm unable to do it because there's so much snow and ice plowed up behind my vehicle. i don't like feeling scared to drive because there's random patches of black ice everywhere and everyone forgets how to drive in the winter and decides to act like idiots. i don't like that the inside of my car freezes up and takes forever to get warm. i don't like my nose being cold constantly. but i don't know if i could ever live somewhere where seasons didn't change so ... i don't know.
I wish that things had worked out for me in chicago this year. i get really bummed about that sometimes. i hear about cool things that are going on or i'll watch a movie set in the city and i'll think about how i would still be there if things had gone differently. i think about what i want to do and where i want to go from here and i just feel like i'm without a plan. it's depressing.
so....
yeah. i try not to focus on that but you know, sometimes, you have to let it out in order to try and let it go, i guess. just one of those nights where i needed to vent.
regardless of all the negative in this post, let me say: merry christmas. :)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
if i wasn't such a dork, i'd be really awesome
The staff at Family Video now greets me by name. Instead of just shouting "Hi!" when I walk in like everyone else, they say, "Hi Melissa!" Why? Well, there's the obvious that I'm a regular customer. But more specifically, on Friday night, I decided to watch Bowling for Columbine, which was one of the freebies they give you in the middle of the week when you rent a new release. I've never seen it and I recently watched Sicko, which I found interesting and saddening and outraging all at the same time so I figured it was worth looking into. It's one of those DVD's where one side is special features and the other is the actual movie so when I put in the disc and it told me to flip the disc over to watch the movie, I followed directions. However, my DVD player wasn't reading it and kept saying "No Disc". So, I ejected the disc, took it out, blew on it, and put it back in. When it went back in, my DVD player made the loudest, strangest noise I've ever heard and I gasped and laughed and literally asked out loud, to myself, "What was that?!" It wasn't reading again and so I pressed eject. The tray comes out - no DVD. The DVD disappeared. My DVD player ate the disc. Needless to say, I was laughing hysterically at this because it was comical. I did some investigation and could see that the disc had somehow gotten sucked up and was at the very top of the DVD player, stuck and not ejecting. Instead of breaking my player and Family Video's DVD by trying to get the disc out myself, I just unplugged my player, stuck it in my tote bag, and drove up the street to the video store. I explained what happened and the manager was there and very kindly took apart my DVD player, without breaking it, and got the disc out safely, and put the player back together again. So, yes, now I am greeted my name and questioned as to where my DVD player is when I enter the store.
On Saturday night, my family and I had a game night to celebrate my stepmom's birthday. We played Scattegories, Apples to Apples, and Yahtzee. During Scattegories, one of the categories was sports and our letter was G. Linda decided to write "Girl's Lacrosse". We all challenged that answer and the reasoning Kate gave was the best: "Saying Girl's Lacrosse is like writing Girl Owl for animal." So, any other answer that we all felt was pushing it was challenged by simply saying, "Girl Owl". Good times.
I saw Fall Out Boy yesterday with the Harley, which was a really fun show. I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as I did. I guess I've seen a couple of live TV performances they've done where I was not impressed with Patrick Stump's vocals but in the concert setting, it was all good. (Here's the last song of the night, courtesy of someone with much better seats than we had):
It was definitely a good venue for them and a lot of fun. Of course, sitting in front of us were some girls and their trailer trash mom that I wanted to kick but I restrained myself. The mom decided that the rules didn't apply to her and started smoking indoors, which was just all sorts of classy. And the girls kept screaming and hugging each other... and crying... over Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, one of the opening bands. I personally wasn't such a fan of them - the lead singer did have very long, luxurious hair though. But a bit too screamy for my tastes. I liked The Academy Is... the other opener because they were more pop/rock and they were cute little skinny boys. haha.
On the way home, we heard the most amazing version of the 12 Days of Christmas that I've ever heard, by Taking Back Sunday:
In unrelated, stream of conscious thoughts:
*Brody Jenner makes me want to vomit and shows on MTV where people are competing to be friends with him or Paris Hilton make me so sad for human kind.
*MTV programming, like the above, is always a big question mark to me. Lately, they've been showing movies randomly - like Tommy Boy, Dangerous Minds, and Rudy. Totally not music related in any way. I do enjoy the endless hours of Made and True Life, though. Now, I'm watching a Made where this kid wants to be a model. He looks like Isaac Hanson, circa 1997, except with more defined ringlets in his hair. Poor guy is only 5'7", has braces, and like I said, looks a lot like Isaac Hanson during his awkward years and they're putting him up against actual male models. Like Abercrombie and Fitch kind of guys. Oh, Made. He's got heart.
*How was Meryl Streep nominated for a Golden Globe for Mamma Mia? Not going to lie, I enjoyed myself watching it but it was one of those things where the whole time, I was saying, "This is ridiculous! Meryl Streep is an Oscar winner and she's doing this?"
*Jim Carrey's new movie is almost exactly like Liar, Liar. Except instead of always telling the truth, he just always says yes. I mean, I'll probably go see it and I'm not saying it won't be funny, I'm just saying that it's really similar.
*During the holiday season, 13 ABC runs these unintentionally hilarious "Holiday Moments", where local elementary and high school choirs come on and sing corny Christmas songs. They sporadically pop up, except over the weekend, I caught an hour straight of nothing but "Sounds of the Season", as they called it. There were two separate songs about Christmas donkies. I couldn't make that up. I just love hearing how off key these people can get and watching the little kids scream their songs and feeling sorry for horribly unfortunate acne ridden teenagers and kids you know don't want to be in choir but are forced to be there... It's entertaining and painful, all at once.
*It kind of bothers me when a movie's trailer has funny lines that aren't in the actual movie. I understand that the people who cut together the trailer/preview are not the same people that actually make the movie and that a lot of time passes between when those previews are made and when the movie gets released so I understand how it happens, it just kind of bugs me when it happens. Especially when I've seen a trailer so much that I know the lines in it and then I go see the movie and those scenes apparently got cut. Like, in the trailer for Pineapple Express, there's a moment where James Franco asks Seth Rogen if he wants to go see Phantom and Seth says, ".... of the opera??" and it cracked me up and it wasn't in the movie. I went and saw Four Christmases and there were quite a few moments in the trailer that didn't make it into the movie (i.e. "You left me in the jump jump to die!").
P.S. Remember how in the TRL finale post I was so proud of Jesse Camp for not OD-ing and I was very hopeful that there had been some kind of rehab intervention? Yeah, not so much - here's a video that the papparazzi got of him clearly talking to a dealer, trying to score drugs over the phone, right in front of the cameras. ::sigh::
So, to summarize: Jesse Camp is still obviously doing some hardcore drugs, I need more of a social life, and on the douche vs. cute emo guy fine line, Pete Wentz has fallen into the cute zone (for now) after charming the pants off of me at the 89x show.
Happy December to all. :)
On Saturday night, my family and I had a game night to celebrate my stepmom's birthday. We played Scattegories, Apples to Apples, and Yahtzee. During Scattegories, one of the categories was sports and our letter was G. Linda decided to write "Girl's Lacrosse". We all challenged that answer and the reasoning Kate gave was the best: "Saying Girl's Lacrosse is like writing Girl Owl for animal." So, any other answer that we all felt was pushing it was challenged by simply saying, "Girl Owl". Good times.
I saw Fall Out Boy yesterday with the Harley, which was a really fun show. I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as I did. I guess I've seen a couple of live TV performances they've done where I was not impressed with Patrick Stump's vocals but in the concert setting, it was all good. (Here's the last song of the night, courtesy of someone with much better seats than we had):
It was definitely a good venue for them and a lot of fun. Of course, sitting in front of us were some girls and their trailer trash mom that I wanted to kick but I restrained myself. The mom decided that the rules didn't apply to her and started smoking indoors, which was just all sorts of classy. And the girls kept screaming and hugging each other... and crying... over Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, one of the opening bands. I personally wasn't such a fan of them - the lead singer did have very long, luxurious hair though. But a bit too screamy for my tastes. I liked The Academy Is... the other opener because they were more pop/rock and they were cute little skinny boys. haha.
On the way home, we heard the most amazing version of the 12 Days of Christmas that I've ever heard, by Taking Back Sunday:
In unrelated, stream of conscious thoughts:
*Brody Jenner makes me want to vomit and shows on MTV where people are competing to be friends with him or Paris Hilton make me so sad for human kind.
*MTV programming, like the above, is always a big question mark to me. Lately, they've been showing movies randomly - like Tommy Boy, Dangerous Minds, and Rudy. Totally not music related in any way. I do enjoy the endless hours of Made and True Life, though. Now, I'm watching a Made where this kid wants to be a model. He looks like Isaac Hanson, circa 1997, except with more defined ringlets in his hair. Poor guy is only 5'7", has braces, and like I said, looks a lot like Isaac Hanson during his awkward years and they're putting him up against actual male models. Like Abercrombie and Fitch kind of guys. Oh, Made. He's got heart.
*How was Meryl Streep nominated for a Golden Globe for Mamma Mia? Not going to lie, I enjoyed myself watching it but it was one of those things where the whole time, I was saying, "This is ridiculous! Meryl Streep is an Oscar winner and she's doing this?"
*Jim Carrey's new movie is almost exactly like Liar, Liar. Except instead of always telling the truth, he just always says yes. I mean, I'll probably go see it and I'm not saying it won't be funny, I'm just saying that it's really similar.
*During the holiday season, 13 ABC runs these unintentionally hilarious "Holiday Moments", where local elementary and high school choirs come on and sing corny Christmas songs. They sporadically pop up, except over the weekend, I caught an hour straight of nothing but "Sounds of the Season", as they called it. There were two separate songs about Christmas donkies. I couldn't make that up. I just love hearing how off key these people can get and watching the little kids scream their songs and feeling sorry for horribly unfortunate acne ridden teenagers and kids you know don't want to be in choir but are forced to be there... It's entertaining and painful, all at once.
*It kind of bothers me when a movie's trailer has funny lines that aren't in the actual movie. I understand that the people who cut together the trailer/preview are not the same people that actually make the movie and that a lot of time passes between when those previews are made and when the movie gets released so I understand how it happens, it just kind of bugs me when it happens. Especially when I've seen a trailer so much that I know the lines in it and then I go see the movie and those scenes apparently got cut. Like, in the trailer for Pineapple Express, there's a moment where James Franco asks Seth Rogen if he wants to go see Phantom and Seth says, ".... of the opera??" and it cracked me up and it wasn't in the movie. I went and saw Four Christmases and there were quite a few moments in the trailer that didn't make it into the movie (i.e. "You left me in the jump jump to die!").
P.S. Remember how in the TRL finale post I was so proud of Jesse Camp for not OD-ing and I was very hopeful that there had been some kind of rehab intervention? Yeah, not so much - here's a video that the papparazzi got of him clearly talking to a dealer, trying to score drugs over the phone, right in front of the cameras. ::sigh::
So, to summarize: Jesse Camp is still obviously doing some hardcore drugs, I need more of a social life, and on the douche vs. cute emo guy fine line, Pete Wentz has fallen into the cute zone (for now) after charming the pants off of me at the 89x show.
Happy December to all. :)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
last call
I feel like I've previously made some judgmental comments about Carson Daly's late night show... To be honest, what I had seen of it before was not good. It just wasn't. It's been on for 5 years and every show I had seen during that time was full of the awkward. And I say that speaking as someone who, as previously discussed, was obsessive about Carson Daly while in junior high and high school. I really respect the man and know that he can be very entertaining. I think the major problem can be pinpointed to the fact that 'they' (whoever they are - Carson, the producers, the network) tried to make the show too much like every other late night talk show. They gave Carson a monologue and jokes and they tried to have sketches but let's face it - Carson's not a comedian. What separates him from every other talk show host is the fact that they are all comedians, with a history of stand up and improv - Carson is not. Trying to make him conform to that mold was ridiculous and it made the show painful.
Last night, I stayed up and watched his show for the first time in a few months. Good news to report - things are heading in the right direction. I really enjoyed watching the show. Here's why:
1) They chopped out the painful opening monologue, jokes, animated credits - all of the bullshit.
2) The show is now just 1/2 hour instead of the full hour. It didn't feel like it dragged so there was no time for any lame filler material.
3) Carson got right down to interviewing just one actor guest and had fun doing so, making it more of a conversation and less of a typical talk show cutesy chat.
4) Before the musical performer (the amazing Joshua Radin), they showed a little black and white mini-doc they had put together about the Hotel Cafe, this venue in LA that's really been home to a lot of singer/songwriters, including Joshua Radin. It was very interesting and well done. It made Last Call stand out from any other late night show.
5) Joshua got to perform and sit down and talk to Carson afterwards. It's very rare for a musical performer, that's not Justin Timberlake or Madonna or something, to get to sit down and talk, as well as perform. I think it's great.
I feel like this is a great format and just wish it had the opportunity to reach more people. Being on at 1:30 a.m. on weeknights (or even later in some markets, where they show repeats of Maury or Jerry Springer after Conan) is just crazy. If I were making decisions about what to do with this show, I would offer the following suggestions:
1) Take it off NBC all together. I know that's a downgrade because being on a network show is the dream and all but seriously, I think that Last Call needs to find it's niche audience, which could be accomplished by moving it to a network like Bravo or even E! Bravo does not have a weekly late night talk show as a part of it's line up right now so it would stand out and offer a nice break from the reality programming. They could put him on at 11 or 12 every night and it would make his show stand out. As for E!, I could see Last Call being a nice pairing with Chelsea Lately. Chelsea can handle the comedy and Carson can handle the music.
2) Speaking of music, let the show become more focused on solely being about the musical talent. I think Carson's bread and butter, his roots, and his knowledge lies in music and being able to relate and discuss his passion for it with artists. If Last Call could become a great place to see a mini concert every night, it would make it unique. The mini-doc about the Hotel Cafe was amazing - why not do that for other artists and their history or other cool venues around the country? That would allow the show to feature well known musicians, as well as continue to be a good place to break new artists and give people the chance to make their TV debut.
3) If the idea of stepping away from NBC doesn't sound appealing, how about instead of making a weekly late night show, make one amazing Saturday late night show? I think that NBC has wasted it's programming time by allowing infomercials and crap to air directly after SNL every Saturday night. I don't understand how they think that most people are going to stay up until 2 a.m. during weeknights to watch Conan and Carson but throw on commercials the minute SNL is done at 1 a.m. on a Saturday. You already have a lead in audience from SNL that is awake, you have additional people coming home from the bars around that time - people are more likely to stay up late on a Saturday to watch a cool, music show than they will be to watch a tepid talk show on a Tuesday night. They could promote whatever musical guests were going to be on that week along with the SNL promos during the week and it could become a unique kind of show that I know I would be interested in watching.
Not that my opinion on the matter means anything because I clearly have no power over anything that happens in show business. I'm in Toledo. I have no say. Just saying that's what I would do, if I were making the decisions. I think it'd be better for the show, better for the network, and better for the audience.
But what do I know? I just work at a used car dealership. ;) Back to life, back to reality....
Last night, I stayed up and watched his show for the first time in a few months. Good news to report - things are heading in the right direction. I really enjoyed watching the show. Here's why:
1) They chopped out the painful opening monologue, jokes, animated credits - all of the bullshit.
2) The show is now just 1/2 hour instead of the full hour. It didn't feel like it dragged so there was no time for any lame filler material.
3) Carson got right down to interviewing just one actor guest and had fun doing so, making it more of a conversation and less of a typical talk show cutesy chat.
4) Before the musical performer (the amazing Joshua Radin), they showed a little black and white mini-doc they had put together about the Hotel Cafe, this venue in LA that's really been home to a lot of singer/songwriters, including Joshua Radin. It was very interesting and well done. It made Last Call stand out from any other late night show.
5) Joshua got to perform and sit down and talk to Carson afterwards. It's very rare for a musical performer, that's not Justin Timberlake or Madonna or something, to get to sit down and talk, as well as perform. I think it's great.
I feel like this is a great format and just wish it had the opportunity to reach more people. Being on at 1:30 a.m. on weeknights (or even later in some markets, where they show repeats of Maury or Jerry Springer after Conan) is just crazy. If I were making decisions about what to do with this show, I would offer the following suggestions:
1) Take it off NBC all together. I know that's a downgrade because being on a network show is the dream and all but seriously, I think that Last Call needs to find it's niche audience, which could be accomplished by moving it to a network like Bravo or even E! Bravo does not have a weekly late night talk show as a part of it's line up right now so it would stand out and offer a nice break from the reality programming. They could put him on at 11 or 12 every night and it would make his show stand out. As for E!, I could see Last Call being a nice pairing with Chelsea Lately. Chelsea can handle the comedy and Carson can handle the music.
2) Speaking of music, let the show become more focused on solely being about the musical talent. I think Carson's bread and butter, his roots, and his knowledge lies in music and being able to relate and discuss his passion for it with artists. If Last Call could become a great place to see a mini concert every night, it would make it unique. The mini-doc about the Hotel Cafe was amazing - why not do that for other artists and their history or other cool venues around the country? That would allow the show to feature well known musicians, as well as continue to be a good place to break new artists and give people the chance to make their TV debut.
3) If the idea of stepping away from NBC doesn't sound appealing, how about instead of making a weekly late night show, make one amazing Saturday late night show? I think that NBC has wasted it's programming time by allowing infomercials and crap to air directly after SNL every Saturday night. I don't understand how they think that most people are going to stay up until 2 a.m. during weeknights to watch Conan and Carson but throw on commercials the minute SNL is done at 1 a.m. on a Saturday. You already have a lead in audience from SNL that is awake, you have additional people coming home from the bars around that time - people are more likely to stay up late on a Saturday to watch a cool, music show than they will be to watch a tepid talk show on a Tuesday night. They could promote whatever musical guests were going to be on that week along with the SNL promos during the week and it could become a unique kind of show that I know I would be interested in watching.
Not that my opinion on the matter means anything because I clearly have no power over anything that happens in show business. I'm in Toledo. I have no say. Just saying that's what I would do, if I were making the decisions. I think it'd be better for the show, better for the network, and better for the audience.
But what do I know? I just work at a used car dealership. ;) Back to life, back to reality....
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