Salad and Breaking Bad

Sometimes I eat at home. Most times, if I'm at home, I'm watching something on my computer. In this instance the thing I ate was a Romaine salad with the left over pickled tomatoes from Village Whiskey, smoked salmon, hearty black olives and a truffle lemon vinaigrette. I enjoyed this salad while watching Breaking Bad, which I resisted enjoying for quite some time and yet continue to watch because it is pretty compelling stuff. It's just that sometimes I can't deal with watching such total misery, and that show is chock full of just that.

Things That Happen

So yesterday the man who played Omar Little on the Wire (real name unimportant...though it should matter b/c he's a fine actor...but nevermind about that) turned up in the same office as my dear friend L. She let me know of this turn of events and I encouraged her to say any number of things to him and to get a photograph. Upon more reflection I decided that what really needed to happen was that he hold a sign up that said 'hi Caroline.' Because it's all about me. Then I thought that there was an even better sign he could potentially hold ... and so I made it and emailed it to L. I'll let you decide whether this image, which L. emailed to me late last night, is the real thing or just a phantom event that never took place. Either way, we can conclude that L. is awesome and that Omar loves me. A good way to start a day:)

Kentucky Derby Observation

Calvin Borrel says 'baby' or 'sweetie' in every sentence.

Reasons I Love Friday Night Lights

So, I haven't really written about books read or movies viewed as of late. At this point it's difficult to even think about doing a roundup, as I have been logging a lot of quality time watching things (I am currently reading the Secret Garden as well). But I did want to check in and just touch on a few things I love about Friday Night Lights (FriNiLi). First, there is the character of Tim Riggins. So dreamy. So troubled.
Also, in the latest season there have been, in two separate episodes, shout outs to the Heartless Bastards (Matt and Julie go see them in one episode, and one of their latest songs is featured in the most recent episode), which is pretty great because I like their sound, man.
Also? Wallace from The Wire is on the show, and while I kind of wish his story line wasn't so typical, it's neat to see the actor all growned up.

Also? It is snowing and snowing and snowing here. Lots of snow. Our deck has accumulated quite the pile, at least a foot and a half with our own snow drifts. What to do with such a snowy day. What to do. What to do.

Dynex Vampire

If you live in Philadelphia and you're looking for a television, I have coworkers looking to sell their Dynex.

Pizza for Television Time

Last Wednesday A., C. and M. came over for a Lost party. This consisted of a pizza from Luigi's Pizza Fresca, the newest episode of Lost, beer and wild conjectures. Good times were had by all.

Movies and Books, Oh My

I won tickets to see a sneak preview of Duplicity a few weeks back. The tickets were care of Philebrity. L. came along. This movie was like Oceans 11 only without as many funny guys. The method of story telling, of giving the viewer one set of information, then rewinding and filling them in...well, it was done one too many times for my taste. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen did good jobs of acting...Roberts is definitely older now, I was sort of surprised by how they didn't hide some of the signs of this (not that they should exactly, just that I would have expected they might). But the movie went on too long, and though the acting was good, I didn't really care about any of them. Never good.

Last night I watched What Happens In Vegas. It was entirely predictable. Cameron Diaz is buff as hell, as is Ashton Kutcher. There were a few laughs, no tears.
Terry Gross loves Richard Price, so I figured I should give one of his books a spin. It was a mystery, but not in that formulaic sense exactly...transcending that in favor of themes of redemption, or something. I need to be quiet.
This movie made me decide that Michael Cera is probably gay.
I love cheese. I love eating cheese with other people. I really wanted to like this movie. But it was like the first 2/3 of the movie was going one way, then all of a sudden the movie was pretty much over but completely different. I like Bonnie Hunt.
This movie was ridiculous.
This movie was not good either.
Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle really reenforced my not-so-secret desire to live in the country with a spouse and children and animals, which was totally not the point of the book. It also made me very aware of how the choices I make in my eating could be better, and certain steps I could take to be at least a little better. I don't think I have the capacity to be as strenuously local as Kingsolver's family was (especially with my new found love of grapefruit) but I'm hoping to do right by the city's local farmer's markets this summer...and maybe get better at making huge batches of things then freezing them for later in the year.
This movie was entertaining.
Here is a passage from Jasper FForde's The Big Over Easy. He is clever. Really, really clever.

"Dog Walkers Face Body-Finding Ban

Citizens who find a corpse while walking their dog may be fined if proposed legislation is made law, it was disclosed yesterday. The new measures, part of the Criminal Narrative Improvement Bill, have been drafted to avoid investigations looking cliched once they reach the docudrama stage. Other offenses covered by the act will be motorists declaiming in a huffy tone, "Why don't you cathc burglars/real criminals for a change?" when caught speeding, if there is a documentary crew in attendance. Civil liberatarians, motorist groups and dog walkers are said to be "outraged.""

Oh Jodi Picoult and the tangled webs of point of view and terrible things and court room drama and teenage occult you weave. She's good at it. Whatever.
James Macavoy is cute, but it's clear that he is short. How short is the question I'd like answered. How short?
Relatively entertaining...not really in terms of story, but in terms of individual actors' performances.
Craig Ferguson's Between the Bridge and the River was surprising. I don't know what I expected from a Scottish late night talk show host, but this wasn't it. The book definitely has a Tom Robbins feel to it, but with a Scottish twist?
Oh man, I finished the third season of The Wire and I feel a little empty inside.

Pizza c/o Luigi's Pizza Fresca

Last Wednesday M. and A. came by to watch Lost. We ate pizza beforehand, half of which had mushrooms on it, half of which did not. It was delicious. Upscale pizzza? No. But above average? Yes. Good job Luigi's Pizza Fresca...and good job Lost for managing to pull me back in, just when I thought I was going to get out.

Giant, Enormous, Who Cares What I Do, Media Post

Okay, so, I may eat a lot but I do at least one other thing on a regular basis, and that would be consume media like it's cheesecake. What? I don't even know, cheesecake is pretty rich so you wouldn't want to consume a lot of it...though it is also tasty. Whatever. In no particular order, what I have seen or read or listened to in the last few months:

For the last two years or so I've been listening to Terry Gross' Fresh Air in podcast form. And through this medium I have heard far more about how awesome The Wire is than I can stand. So, last week, I finally started watching it. And Terry was right. I'm hooked, even though I know that no good will come of any one in the first three episodes I've watched (it's like, nine million years ago, when I watched OZ...I had no idea what the show was about and it was brutal and terrible and I just couldn't stop for three seasons worth of DVDs).
I had some down time during my NYC weekend (ie time between people where I walk around aimlessly and end up buying books at a Barnes and Noble in Park Slope and beginning to read one of said books in a Dunkin Donuts). I bought three books, with a bonus gift certificate card from my work (Huckleberry is right, my job is quite nice). The first read was started in New York and completed last night: Steve Martin's Born Standing Up. The hype this book received, in a number of places (Terry Gross being one of them), almost guaranteed that I wouldn't be as 'wowed' by the book. It was, however, a good and interesting read...just not as open or honest as I think people enjoyed saying it was. But then, I struggle with how to write about my life three years ago when I was equally unfamous and unsuccessful, I have no idea what it would be like to write about 30 years back in my life during a time when I was super-duper-crazy good at what I was doing.
The fourth season of Nip/Tuck is a farce. A complete and utter farce. So ridiculous. But they seemed to know it. And that kind of almost made it okay.
I had high hopes for Be Kind Rewind. Unfortunately these hopes were generally left hanging. I blame Michel Gondry.
I have liked Beck for years. I remember a friend once telling me, around the time of Mutations, that Beck smoked crack...and I a) believed him and b) was really disappointed in Beck. Now I think that Beck didn't smoke crack but is a scientologist, and I don't care. Modern Guilt makes me happy, Guero made me happy, Sea Changes made me sad etc, etc, the dude is okay with me.
I rejoined Netflix, which I cancelled during the great unemployment of late 2007/early 2008. Becoming Jane is silly. But damn, I wish James Macavoy wanted to leave his Irish family to starve in order to marry and love me. Oh well.
Simple Life by Ruth Porter. This is a book my father gave my mother and me for Christmas, mainly because somehow, at some point, years ago, they met or something. Reading this book was like reading my own writing, only worse. By this I mean that this story, a story I would never tell, clearly was assuming that the reader wanted to fill in blanks of personality and nuance. Maybe that's not it at all. It may be that it reminded me of my own writing in the way the narrator would explain what someone was feeling/thinking in a way that made my skin crawl. No. It's that her main character was as fundamentally weak as my own novel's primary protagonist. And that there was a lot of exposition. I don't know. I may be being harsh. I did finish the book. Though I didn't cry or laugh at any point. Nor will I ever need to read it again.
I've enjoyed Hawksley Workman's music since my sophomore year of college. Treeful of Starling, his maybe latest album is different than his earlier works while keeping the best parts. The guy can sing. And I agree: a moth is not a butterfly.
This album of Hawksley Workman's needs a few more listenings before I decide what I think...but I know I like two songs. A kind of overdone but rockier album?
I never read How To Eat Fried Worms. Having seen the movie, I do not feel the need to ever read the book.
I started reading Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father before he was elected. It was a slow read, but not because of my displeasure with the prose or lack of interest in the subject. Reading this book I felt like I was reading the story and opinions of someone not thinking about becoming a president in the future. Any person who writes a book has an agenda; this book's agenda was not necessarily propoganda. What? I liked this book.
I can't lie. I liked this movie a little. It was over the top and impossible but, for god's sake, Kevin Klein was in it for an incredibly short three to five minutes of film! Maybe longer? One guy (not Kevin Klein) sharing three possible stories, all ending in Abigail Breslin as his daughter. A 'who done it' of the mother variety.
I think I watched this movie on too small a television screen. I imagine it would have moved me if it was a movie theater screen and sound system delivering the audio visuals. The way Christian Bale speaks in his Batman suit, what's up with that?
I like this album. I listen to and enjoy it, and if I were to be walking somewhere it might make my step a little more sprightly.
Another silly movie. Hilary Swank, I don't know, she just can't do romantic dramedy with the right tone. Gerard Butler, on the other hand, does a pretty good job of being a complete dreamboat of an Irish dead husband.
I think I might like Kid A. or Ok Computer the most.
This is good walk around on a day in winter that feels like the fall, as the weather changes into a storm. People with umbrellas but no rain walking weatherl. Ominous skies and the like.
T. and C. had Vampire Weekend in their car sometimes while I was in Indiana. But I don't think I really ever listened to the full album. Or maybe I did, but thought it was just a few songs? Whatever. This music makes me smile. I like the tempos.
I'm also going to watch Lost tonight. Hopefully get my bearings and figure out what it's all about (ha).

Themes Continued

I've been sort of passively watching Gossip Girl off and on since it went on air last year. Lately I've become a little more regular in my watching...switching less back and forth between How I Met Your mother and it (I just watch HIMYM later on hulu) and staying on the CW. Today one of my coworkers initiated this conversation, and I finally understood one element behind my choice...
cw (coworker) says:
are you in love with chuck bass even more now?
cc says:
um, oh my god, that pale skin
cc says:
that hatred fire pain in his eyes
cw says:
and his stumbling
cc says:
his grabbing blair's arm and looking all cried out
cc says:
sigh
cw says:
i hope he doesn't jump off the roof
cw says:
that would really kill the show for me
cc says:
i bet there's a porch right below it, or something
cc says:
i wouldn't really watch it without chuck bass
cw says:
no me either
cc says:
wow, the sheer truth of that statement kind of amazes me...like i sit through all the rest of it just for him. (this is what I like to call a telepiphany)
cc says:
i wonder if that's how girls felt when they watched 21 jump street (just waiting for Johnny Depp to appear)
cw says:
haha, i have no idea what that is
cc says:
you are so young
cc says:
Here's what I don't get. Why is it that Chuck Bass is so strangely appealing? I mean, he's not a good person.
cc says:
Would you actually, in real life, want to hang out with/kiss/etc a guy like that?
cw says:
but he secretly is
cc says:
but not really.
cw says:
he burned the lily thing
cc says:
Is it that small bit of goodness it?
cw says:
because he wanted a family
cw says:
he is only bad because his dad was evil
cc says:
That maybe I, or you, or girls, like to think about how that spark of goodness could be directed at them...thus who cares how bad he is to everybody else?
cw says:
although in real life these guys are always bad
cc says:
Exactly.
cw says:
and then girls will go for them and try to tame their baddness
cc says:
They're not bad/good.
cc says:
They're bad.
cw says:
but they are always bad and then girls swoon and love them, and try to to love the mean out of them
cw says:
basically boys are dumb
cc says:
and we'd like them to be cruel
cc says:
but not to us
cw says:
but we can't help but fall in love with chuck bass even if we have the foresight to know he is bad
cc says:
he is so bad.
cc says:
i just want to hug him
cc says:
and have him buy me something pretty
cc says:
and drink too much
cc says:
and then go to strip club in Cabo
cw says:
and buy bottle service
cc says:
!
cw says:
and take me in his limo
cc says:
and pick out his purple striped suits' ties and handkerchiefs
cw says:
indeed.

Inspector Love

Oh Man. I have, a number of times, declared my love of British mysteries. Lynley? Oh yeah. Morse? I grew up on that guy. Poirot? I've never seen such a waxed mustache in my life. For the last two Mondays I have been lucky enough to watch Mystery! and I've enjoyed a whole new Inspector...one Inspector Lewis. And now? Oh man. Oh man! New Foyle's War people! Foyle's War. And who knew Alan Cumming was the new host of Mystery!? Well, I didn't...until two weeks ago...now I do. He's got his own style but I will always have a soft spot for Vincent Price...and Diana Rigg.

Oh man. I'm watching it right now.

I Now Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Sandwich/An Open Letter to the Cast of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

After work today I called up L. and asked if she might like to take a little iced beverage walk with me. I had a nice upscale version of sweet tea c/o Starbucks, L. had iced coffee. Then we walked to Logan Square (which is a circle). There we saw something unexpected...not entirely unexpected, actually, since I had seen signs near my office about filming happening...except that it said it was happening tomorrow, not today. So. Yeah. We ran into the cast of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (a show I actually watched a fair amount of last summer c/o dvds) do some promo shots (or something) for their upcoming season (maybe, I'm just guessing). You might note that Danny Devito is a cast member of this show.
I might note that he definitely acknowledged L (and by proxy me) in between these photographs. L. and I agree that this may be, in part, because he's kind of short and she's kind of short...but it may also have to do with the fact that L. was looking cute and, forgive me, even I wasn't looking half bad...but probably it was the short thing. Here he did a little dance and pointing number...for whose benefit, I don't know.
Here they are walking. Amazing how they walk, so natural, like they don't even care or nothin'. Except they have to do it a few times, so you have to assume that someone cares a little about how they walk.
I might add that while I watched the show I might have commented to myself about the respective cute-ness of the male leads. One in particular, of course. Cough. Tall guy. Cough, cough.

L. and I then continued our walk. Then we turned back and figured we might as well see if the filming was still going on. It was. So we sat on a bench at a distance. Then all the cast members made their way to somewhere else (I'm thinking vans?) and passed right smack by us. L. and I strongly considered asking Danny Devito if I could take a picture of the two of them...but we chickened out...but he did say, directly to us, as he was walking by: "I don't know why I'm leaving." I interpret this to be a flirtation on the part of Danny Devito...or just friendliness...or a nice mix of the two. L. says that Glenn Howerton smiled in our general direction...I was too busy trying not to look at him to notice.

An open letter to the cast of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:

Hey remember when you were filming at Logan Square today and L. and I stood and watched you for a few minutes then left...then came back, sat on a bench talked about things other than you (that's true we really did have a unrelated conversation), wished to talk to you and chickened out? Um, can we have a do-over? I'll buy you a limoncello Danny Devito? I'll buy you a beer/water/soda pop remainder of cast? Think about it...we can take a photograph and if we eat something together it'll be on my blog and won't that just be the bee's knees? Yes, I think it will be!

I Read Books and Watch Stuff/Business Has Nothing To Do With Personal Feelings

At the moment I'm reading The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle. I find that I hate it when I can't find an image of a book that has the same cover as the physical book I'm reading...this is an example. I have not decided what I think about the book. I like the beginning, telling a story through snapshots...but then things slow down, the main character falls in love with the wrong guy numerous times (the same guy)...and seems to be heading for some serious melt down stuff. But I'm still reading it.

I like mysteries. I like the south. So it's no surprise that I like Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series. But, secretly, I'm obsessed with Deborah's love life...how the same man was in love with her for, like, ever and how, eventually, she figured it out and now they're all happy and shit. I eat it up. I eat it up with a small dainty spoon and a large, large bowl.

Yesterday I finished reading Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief. I've read at least one other book by Coupland (Microserfs) but I think I may have read at least one other (?). This book was a bit hard to get through. Between the conceit of all the characters writing letters to each other, frequent excerpts of one character's novel (purposefully bad, I think, but...um...still painful to read). Eh. I wouldn't bother.

I watched The Savages a few days back. I liked it well enough. All the actors were good and, considering the subject matter, it was pretty funny.

Before my trip to Philadelphia my mother and I went to Tullahoma for a little shopping for shoes attempt (which was, come to think of it, very successful). We also went to Big Lots to look for something, I forget what. In the checkout line they had all these movies. Included was Can't Hardly Wait...for $2.99...I don't care what you haters say, this movie is great. I bought it. And then I watched it. I also bought The Squid and the Whale, also for $2.99. But I haven't broken the seal on that sucker yet.

The Girls by Lori Lansen is the story of two sisters. They are conjoined at the head twins. They live in a small town in Canada. The story is told from the perspective of both sisters writing separate journals, slowly telling the stories of their shared life. Decent.

I found Northanger Abbey tiresome. The heroine is so clueless, so often, that it loses its charm to constantly be hoping she's going to get some balls and brains and get married. But, of course, she does.

Since my secondary return to Tennessee my parents and I have been watching a lot of Jeeves and Wooster. Once I'm settled into my new location and work life, I plan on writing an essay about my severe obsession with British television series (mini and not) and trying to figure out the 'why' of it. The 'why' of Jeeves and Wooster, in short form, is that it's funny. Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry both do excellent jobs as their characters and P.G. (D?) Wodehouse's stories (I assume each episode is equal to one of the books) are chock full of Britishy wonders.

I also read both of Julia Glass' novels. Three Junes, her first, I liked very much. This guy didn't, at all. The Whole World Over I liked too, perhaps more. Though I must admit the way everybody's life is aesthetically pleasing if not dysfuntional gets a little harder to believe...everywhere these people go, almost even ground zero, is somehow pretty...I find myself (with that notable exception) the settings these characters live in would make you wish you lived there too. The guy wouldn't like it either, I wouldn't think.

I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell a few days back. I read it in a three day period of time partially because I did, occasionally, stop myself from 'devouring' it...not literally, I eat many things but not books. This a book I could have taught in my class back at SAIC...an experience I don't think I fully wrote about. It's the kind of literary science fiction that I especially enjoy. I found the characters extremely well written, for the most part. The story was both intellectually stimulating and emotionally effective. The story itself 'unfolds' in two different time periods, both set in the future. There is love, there are aliens. Oh and much rumination on the nature of faith and the love of God. And a space ship. The best I could tell people who don't like those aspects of a story would be something like this: Yes, there are aliens and spaceships. But the worlds in which they exist are fascinating in their lack of 'science fictiony aspects'. People still watch baseball and wear shorts. Slums are still slums. But, if you really have a problem with conjecture about our society in 70 years, well, there's nothing I can do.
I think I've read more things and I've watched a fair amount of television. But nothing worth talking about, I don't think.