Wednesday, December 30, 2009

...time passing...

I'm currently reading Anna Karenina, so clearly I have no time to be consuming any sort of other culture. Though I did manage to watch three hours of Cats 101 the other night.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

He also has a degree in history

You know what's gratifying? Following an actor, admiring his work, and then seeing an awesome article like this one, about Will Gartshore's day job--he's currently in Copenhagen on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund. I have a feeling, though, that he'll miss tomorrow's matinee. I believe all of the airports are closed for Snopocalypse '09.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Daily Show prototype

In reading the Daily Show With Jon Stewart thread at Television Without Pity, I found a YouTube clip of Jon doing stand-up in 1996.



The thing that's amazing about this video--other than the fact that it's still funny, 13 years later--is how much this is like the current Daily Show. I know it shouldn't really be that surprising; after all, Jon Stewart is obviously a very smart guy who's had these opinions for quite some time. But it's just so odd to see the young Jon giving what could almost be a current monologue; I mean, I guess I just think of him as the guy on MTV, not as someone thinking about politics. Maybe in my mind he just didn't become political until starting at TDS in 2000. Which is silly, I know. I mean, obviously there was a reason they chose him to be the host.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

No, tax-free shopping does NOT make up for it


Today's Frank & Ernest really amused me. Though I think they should've added--and I'm sure others on the East Coast will agree with me--something about having to pay the stupid tolls and getting stuck in the toll traffic. Delaware. So expensive!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Big city/small town dichotomy (plus some Austen!)

I love cheesy television movies. The only thing better is holiday-themed cheesy tv movies, so I totally thought I was in luck with The Twelve Men of Christmas, which aired on La-La-Lifetime. I mean, it has Kristin Chenoweth searching for guys to pose in a calendar! What could be better?

Well, I should've actually read the description of the movie, because then I would've found out that the movie is set in Montana. And Kristin plays a woman from New York who winds up there, a situation to which I can somewhat relate, having moved from Connecticut to Montana when I was 16. And as soon as the movie started and she arrives in Kalispell and the mayor is all, "Call me Mayor Bob!" and she's all, "Everyone here is so nice!" I knew what would happen. She'd wind up falling in love not only with the telegraphed love interest, but also with the town. No, she'd realize. New York City is too out of touch.

Scenes toward the end proved me right. The expensive real estate! Restaurants that are so hip that they don't answer the phone! Aggressive pedestrians! Who would want to live like that when they could live in Kalispell, where you have to drive hours to get to the nearest Gap? (And point. You wouldn't have to drive all the way to Billings [which is closer to 8 hours away, not 10] to get to a Gap. Spokane is maybe 4 hours away. Not great, by any means, but not quite that bad.)

And it's not that I'm saying that life in a small, Montana town is necessarily bad. It isn't. I'm just sick of movie after movie showing someone who's happy with their life in the big city until something forces them to go to a small town and then they realize What They Were Missing. Because you know what? It doesn't always happen that way. I spent 2 years in a town in Montana, happy with certain aspects (lack of humidity, good theater program at my high school, no speed limit), but frustrated with the isolation and the closed-mindedness of a number of the people.

What's that I said? Closed-mindedness? How can that be? These people are nice and welcoming of outsiders! Well, except when the attitude you get from a number of people is, "Oh, you're from the East? You must think we're idiots." And you get this attitude as a reaction to absolutely nothing. (True story. I go with my mom to set up my school schedule. The guidance counselor tells us with no provocation, "I know you're from Connecticut and think you can't get a good education here, but you can.") A lot of people in Montana don't like Easterners. They don't like Californians. There's a reason the Unabomber wound up there, people.

And yes, I have my Montana prejudices, in good part from having to move there after my sophomore year of high school. I look back now in some fondness (again, great theater program where I met a LOT of cool people), but would I rather have stayed in Connecticut? Hells yeah. And where am I now? In a suburb of DC. I got out of Montana as soon as I could and went to a college within an hour of two major cities--though in a small town. I appreciate both worlds.

I was distracted from my annoyance in the middle part of the movie, when I realized that this was some sort of Pride & Prejudice remake/homage/update/something. Kristin's character? EJ. Her assistant/coworker? Jan. Her love interest? Will. It'd didn't dawn on me until Will confesses his feelings while admitting that he's repulsed by the idea. Then it all fell into place. Particularly when they were like, "It's crazy how proud I seemed!" and "I can't believe I was so prejudiced against you!" and I remembered Will telling Jan's love interest to back off from her (for no apparent reason). I have no idea why they went this direction. It kind of worked, though it was a bit heavy at times. Though honestly, it's a cheesy, holiday-themed tv movie. Why am I surprised?