Television

To "Hey Jude," that is. I absolutely love that song. This whole halftime show is so much better than last year's obvious lip-synching by Shania Twain, and that other thing.

UPDATE: I tire of the word "dynasty."

Probably only Jonathan will appreciate this, but just now I gave in to my curiosity and typed wegotussomemedicalwaste.com into my address bar. Lo and behold, some devoted fan Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. has put some content there. Confused? Well, in a third-season episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (more at Wikipedia), a show starring (L to R) Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad,

a show I introduce people to every time I have the opportunity, the Aqua Teens have to rebuild their neighbor Carl's body. They finally get their hands on some organs -- eyeballs only -- ordered from wegotussomemedicalwaste.com.

I assume the site was created after the episode aired, after the fashion of whatbadgerseat.com but obviously not so contrived.

Rather relaxed night at a friend's apartment:

J, walking into the room: Are you guys watching Hee Haw?

M: No, this is an infomercial for Hee Haw on DVD.

WHY do the Priester's honey glazed pecans have to be so good that I eat almost the whole bag?

So yeah, that's what I've been doing today: eating, reading, knitting, watching TV, and hanging out with family and friends. Good stuff.

I don't have cable, so when I'm home, I OD on it. Not the History Channel, Discovery Channel, Learning Channel. Oh no. I watch E! and Comedy Central, and sometimes Spike TV. Today I've been indulging in Comedy Central's Mad TV marathon and E!'s year-in-review ranking specials, e.g. Top 10 Entertainers of 2004, Top 10 Celebrity Scandals, etc. I'm very pleased to see that Jamie Foxx has been getting a lot of recognition this year for playing Ray Charles in the biopic based on Charles' life. I've been a fan of Foxx for many years now; I thought he was hilarious on In Living Color, and I thought his performance in Ali was underrated.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch an episode of Most Extreme Elimination since I've been here. Pity.

I want to start the sequel meme! I mean, after the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, they released "More Dirty Dancing." After "Songs from Ally McBeal," they released Heart And Soul: New Songs From Ally McBeal Featuring Vonda Shepard. If they can do it, why can't I? :P Here are 100 more things about me:

1. I have never bought or sold anything on eBay.
2. My least favorite household chore is cleaning out the microwave.
3. My second least favorite household chore is ironing. For years I bought only clothes that didn't require ironing.
4. About twelve years ago, I wanted to be a writer for Soap Opera Digest. I mean it was my dream job. Ugh.
5. I love almond butter and jam and honey sandwiches on stone ground wheat bread.
6. I prepare and eat such sandwiches in a ritualistic manner. I put the honey on the bread first, so that it can absorb into the nooks and crannies. Then I apply thick layers of almond butter and jam. When I take a bite, the almond butter and jam ooze out from the crusts of the bread, so in between bites, I constantly run my tongue around the crusts of the bread to catch the excess, like I'm eating an ice cream cone on a hot, windy day.

I'm sitting here with Saturday Night Live in the background, and Ashlee Simpson was about to perform one of her singles (I don't know which one). She started singing, and I think either her microphone flaked out, or she just froze. Anyway, she stopped singing, stood there for a few seconds (UPDATE: Actually, I think she hopped around on one foot for a second, alternating feet), then walked off the stage. The band continued playing, and the guitarists shot each other knowing, somewhat rueful smiles. Then it cut to a commercial. Did anyone else see it? The way my apartment is arranged, I have my back to the TV when I'm on the computer, so I didn't see exactly what occurred. Did she forget the words? Was she exposed as a lip-syncher?

SECOND UPDATE: Simpson explains: apparently "the band started playing the wrong song," so she started "doing a hoedown." :? I don't follow. Couldn't she have just sung the song they were playing? That's what Judy Garland, Debbie Reynolds, Bette Midler, and a host of other truly professional stand-up broads would have done.

THIRD UPDATE: See the hoedown here, and Amy's Robot has an mpeg of the whole thing, as well as a much funnier narrative of the event than what you see here. Now that I've really gotten to watch it, I'm guessing the person running the mixer board was taken out and shot by Lorne Michaels himself.

Although I did like this show, I wanted to be "You Can't Do That on Television," "Today's Special," or "Pinwheel." I wonder if I'm a little more old school than this quiz...

You are CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL. She is a rad
chick with absolutely no fashion sense. If you
are a guy and chose this... you are gay.


Which old school Nickelodeon show are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

A big bad link roundup on CCCC complete with notes and incisive critique is coming up, I promise, but for now I simply must blog about Farscape. Charlie has declared before that I would definitely love the show, and to that end, loaned me the best of season one and season two DVDs. I have seen only five episodes, but already I love it, love it, love it, and I want to see every single episode. For some reason, they chose to put the best (most visually stunning, "emotionally satisfying") episodes on the DVDs, and as a result it lacks continuity. I MUST see all of them. Everything about the show is awesome--the premise is, Commander John Crichton, a NASA astronaut and a character with whom I'm smitten, gets shot through a wormhole and ends up on a ship which is actually a living leviathan named Moya with a group of prisoners who are trying to escape and go back home. I'll say more about it later, of course, especially since there seems to be a need for feminist analyses of Farscape, as evidenced by my referrer logs. But for now, a couple of random cool things about the show:

• Intertextuality: I'm sure I haven't picked up on most of it, but one thing that was campily cool was that when Crichton woke up on Moya and was promptly smacked around by the crew of the ship since they didn't know him or his motives, after the beating, he was about to pass out and said, "Danger, Will Robinson!" The Lost in Space theme is picked up again in the character Rygel, who is a lot like Dr. Smith.
• Feminism: There is no hierarchy on the ship as far as I can tell--it's an anarchic anti-structure in which most, if not all decisions are made by consensus. The female characters are very physically strong, morally complex, smart, and edgy.

More soon. :-)