Fall TV, So Far- Thursday Nights

We are a couple of weeks into the Fall TV season and I think I am ready to weigh in on it.

So far we are managing with Hulu Plus and appointment TV. I have not been able to catch Pan Am yet, it's on Hulu Plus but only available via computer. Community is the same, but I have been making a point to sit down and watch that on Thursday nights. In fact, last night we rushed home from running some errands so we could catch Community. That never would have happened when we had the DVR, and I would have preferred to take my time and not get my sandwich to go last night.

Let's start with Thursday nights, we stick with NBC:

Community has been good so far this season, not great but I am sure it will pick up the pace as the season progresses. I, along with so many others on the internet, was thrilled when the show referenced it's version of Doctor Who, Inspector Space Time. It was inevitable that a show that is so aware of pop culture would dip a toe into the Whoniverse, and I was impressed with the way they did it. What better show to fill the gap in Abed's world then one that has 782 + episodes and 32 seasons? The internet has run with the concept of Inspector Space Time and has begun to create cannon for the series. For those not familiar with epic fandoms such as Doctor Who or Harry Potter I direct you to the Wikipedia.org entry for canon.

Parks and Recreation had been one of the shows that I have always "watched" but while doing something else. This season I am putting distractions aside and actually paying attention. What I have watched so far, I have enjoyed. I love Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope and I am willing to forgive Adam Scott for leaving Party Down for his role as Ben Wyatt. I can't wait to watch Leslie's campaign for city council.

I watch The Office, but I have never been a super fan. That said, I do not like James Spader's character Robert California. I think the build up to who would be the new boss was such a waste of time when they pull a switcheroo like they did, why even bother? I don't read any internet commentary about The Office, but even I could tell you that one of the current cast members was going to ultimately end up being the boss. I am enjoying Andy Bernard in the role, but the first few episode have bored me. I think blaming that on the lack of Steve Carrell is a cop out, most of my favorite story lines in past haven't even included Michael Scott. Where are those great secondary story lines this season?

I tweeted the other night that I was going to boycott Whitney because I was annoyed by the commercials from over the summer. I did eventually watch the first episode on Hulu and I think my earlier assessment was correct. I was not impressed. Whitney annoys me. The characters are too one dimensional. I gave it two episodes and I am out, which obviously means this show will continue for ten seasons.

That took longer than I expected, so I will continue my reviews of the non-Thursday night shows in another post. I promise I will begin to be more positive!

Is This Crafty?

I am not really a crafty person, but I do like to do crafts on occasion. Most of what I do is imperfect, that's the kind of non-crafter I am.

Kevbo recently started reading A Song of Ice and Fire and has been using my Kindle to do so. We have  talked about getting another Kindle for awhile, and I decided that since that series was going to be a fairly epic undertaking now was the time.

I didn't really want to shell out the money for a cover for this new Kindle right away, so I decided to see if I could make one myself. As with most good ideas, wine was involved.

My supplies included:

One Glass of Merlot
2 Sheets of Felt, one sheet for the outer layer, and one for the inner. I used grey for the outer and purple for the inner.
Embroidery Floss

The ribbon and black felt are for another project I worked on and will probably
post a tutorial for in the future.

Start by hacking a good sized chunk of cardboard out of the box from your dishwasher, which has been conveniently waiting for a year on your front porch to be put to some use. This should probably happen prior to opening the bottle of wine.

Measure your Kindle and cut two pieces from the cardboard of the approximate size. Use the only ruler in your house, a souvenir from Seabreeze Amusement Park that your husband got sometime around 1987.

 

Cut the outer layer of felt into two pieces, you will want it to be slightly larger than your piece of cardboard. You can just eyeball it, as you can see this felt piece was the perfect size and only needed to be cut in half.

 

Do the same with the inner piece of felt.

 

Sandwich the pieces of felt and cardboard. 

 

The order should go: outer layer, cardboard, inner layer, inner layer, cardboard, outer layer.

 

Use the embroidery floss to "anchor" the cardboard where you want it to sit within the felt. Four anchors total: top, bottom and each side. 

 

Try to take a picture of your complicated anchoring process and fail to keep your giant head out of the shot.

 

Use whatever stitch you feel comfortable with to close up the bottom and two sides stopping about  two inches from the top. I think this might be called a pillow stitch, but I can't find any reference to it online to give a better explanation of it.

 

Forget to see if your Kindle actually fits into your case and check when you are about half way through stitching.

 

When you get to the top, continue your stitches going through only two layers of felt. This is your opening.

 

When you have stitched all the way around pull out your anchor stitches.

Admire your handi-work, and it cost less than $3, spend the money saved on more wine for future crafting sessions.

Fall 2011 TV Schedule

The Fall TV season is just days away, can you feel the excitement? I love the anticipation of a whole new season of shows; the optimism of how great everything is going to be before any of it actually disappoints you.

Here is what I plan on watching:

Tuesday 9/13

• 9pm, CW- Ringer

This is going to be one of those shows that I will watch because nothing else is on at the same time. I like Sarah Michelle Gellar (or is it Prinze, didn't she officially change her name recently?) but, the premise really doesn't intrigue me. Since other shows I want to see are in the same time slot later on in the season I am only giving this one a single episode to reel me in.

Wednesday 9/14

• 10pm, NBC- Up All Night

Another show that I will watch because it has no competition at the moment. I am not sure I will enjoy Will Arnett as anything but a douche but I love Maya Rudolph so I will give it a try.

Monday 9/19

• 8pm, CBS- How I Met Your Mother
• 9:30, CBS- 2 Broke Girls
• 10pm, ???- CONFLICT!

This night is going to be the true test of life after DVR. In the past I have watched/DVRd Castle and Hawaii 5-0, both at 10pm, plus I really want to see The Playboy Club. I am hoping that The Playboy Club and Castle end up on Hulu Plus, and I will watch Hawaii 5-0 live. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Tuesday 9/20

• 8pm, Fox- Glee
• 9pm, Fox- New Girl
• 10pm, ABC- Body of Proof

I am so excited about New Girl, I love Zooey Deschanel.  I started watching Body of Proof over the summer while in reruns and have really enjoyed it thus far so I am throwing it on my schedule for the fall.

Wednesday 9/21

• 8pm, ABC- The Middle
• 9pm, ABC- Modern Family
• 10pm, ABC- Revenge

I am looking forward to this night, I love The Middle and Modern Family. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all time favorite stories, and Revenge's take on the archetype really piques my interest.

Thursday 9/22

• 8pm, NBC- Community
• 8:30pm, NBC- Parks and Recreation
• 9pm, NBC- The Office

The first casualty of the Fall 2011 TV season for me is going to be The Big Bang Theory. CBS doesn't contribute to Hulu Plus and I much prefer Community, so I am going to have to give up on Sheldon, Penny and the rest. I'll have to wait for reruns. 

Sunday 9/25

• 10pm, ABC- Pan Am

Another Mad Men knockoff, along with The Playboy Club, but what can I say? I am a sucker for these retro dramas and I am hoping good things for this one.

Monday 9/26

• 8pm, Fox- Terra Nova

Please Fox, put this on Hulu Plus. I don't want to skip How I Met Your Mother for it, but I really think this show is going to be entertaining.

In putting this together I am really beginning to miss having the DVR. I liked that we weren't slaves to our TV and could watch our favorite shows when it suited us. Since this will be our first "live" season with Hulu Plus, I am really hoping that it surprises me with content. 

30 Minutes or Less

We actually went to see this movie last Wednesday, but I have been putting off reviewing it for a week now. I considered going back and seeing it again since my reaction to it was so drastically different from Kevbo's.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Nick, a pizza delivery boy who lives with his best friend Chet, played by Aziz Ansari. Nick is secretly in love with Chet's twin sister Katie, Greek's Dilshad Vadsaria. Danny McBride is Dwayne, an unemployed man child who still lives at home and dreams of opening his own tanning salon/brothel with his best friend Travis, please go back to stand up Nick Swardson.

The plot revolves around Dwayne planning to have his father murdered so he can inherit what remains of his lottery winnings. He needs $100,000 for the hit and in order to avoid being implicated in his father's murder Dwayne comes up with the plan to strap a bomb to some other loser and force them to come up with the money. That other loser is Nick the pizza delivery boy. Hilarity ensues. Actually, hilarity ensues if you are Kevbo, to me the comedy seemed forced and just plain not funny.  I did not believe Jesse Eisenberg as the down on his luck pizza delivery boy and I was annoyed by Aziz Ansari as the sidekick. Danny McBride and Nick Swardson were equally unfunny.

I really wanted to love this movie, maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it. I can't recommend that anyone pays money to see this in a theater but, I certainly plan on having a few beers and watching it again at some point in the future. There is nothing wrong with a movie being more watchable while drinking. I just wish more theaters offered alcohol.

Mission Icefly Part 2

If you followed my previous post about Mission Icefly then you will be interested to learn I received another package from the Human Preservation Project today:

I chose the wrong camera app on my phone for these
photos, please forgive the border.

This one included a pack of 5 Gum, Swerve flavor. It's described as "a tangy to sweet tropical" on the package. A tangy to sweet tropical what, I do not know. Also included was a "Test Subject" ID badge, and a slip of paper with the Icefly logo and the message "When the senses are properly aligned, they act as a beacon to new ideas, new discoveries and new experiences. A NEW PATH AWAITS".

The ID badge has a QR code on the back but, it does not appear to be a complete QR code as my QR reader does not recognize it.

I haven't been keeping up with this, so I don't know where things stand at the moment. I am planning on checking out some of the message boards I followed in my previous post to see what the people there have figured out.

So, what do you think? Is this just an incredibly elaborate promotion by Wrigley for a new flavor of 5 gum? Or are they just part of something larger?

Let's Kill Hitler

Do you watch Doctor Who? You should. How many other shows out there have an upcoming episode with a title as awesome as "Let's Kill Hitler"?

A preview for the second half of this year's episodes was released at Comic Con.



Let's. Kill. Hitler. It reminds me of Abyss & Apex's Wikihistory, which is a must read.

So, I am trying to decide if Kevbo and I should dress as Amy Pond and Eleven for Halloween this year. What do you think? Has Doctor Who finally become mainstream enough for people to actually "get" who we are?

Has anyone else started planning their Halloween costumes yet, or is that just me?

The Hunger Games

Have you read The Hunger Games yet?

If the answer is no, please step away from your computer screen immediately and don't return until you have finished the trilogy. I mean it. Suzanne Collins' dystopian trilogy is some of the best Young Adult fiction of recent years. Even if the thought of reading a YA series makes your skin crawl, please just drop any preconceived notions of the genre and read these books. I promise you that this is very different from The Babysitter's Club and other YA novels of yore.

Now, if you have read the series and are eagerly awaiting the movies like me, how awesome is this animated movie poster that was recently released?

Edit: I removed the poster since the auto-play was annoying me and taxing my ancient computer, if you would like to see it, check out the official press release.

Saaaaaaay Whaaaaaaaat? I told you it was awesome!

If you liked that you have got to see this fan created video.


Via The Mary Sue

I hope the official movies live up to this.

Is it March yet?

Really Adam Sandler, Really?

I know I am a little late to the game on this but I really have to go on the record and say that Adam Sandler's new movie Jack & Jill is going to be awful. The trailer is cringe inducing so I can't imagine the movie would be any less so.

This makes me sad. I used to love Adam Sandler, I owned all of his comedy CDs at one point and I can distinctly remember finding him pee my pants funny the first time I was ever allowed to stay up late enough to watch Saturday Night Live.

It's no surprise though, especially after Grown Ups, but at one point his career seemed to be maturing. How great were Click and Reign on Me? Now all he seems to play is the schlumpy but successful husband with 2.5 kids. Awful, Awful, Awful.

Friends With Benefits

Last night we went to a pre screening for Friends With Benefits. I have to say I had very low expectations going in. I, along with plenty of other people, assumed it would be the same movie as the Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman romantic comedy No Strings Attached, which was even originally titled Friends With Benefits. But, I love romantic comedies so I was willing to give this one a shot.

Friends With Benefits is the story of Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) a hot shot art director for an independent website who travels to NYC where he is being headhunted for the position of Art Director at GQ. Jamie (Mila Kunis) is the headhunter assigned to woo him into accepting the position. Dylan and Jamie have both recently gone through ridiculous break ups, we are treated to cameos by Emma Stone and Andy Samberg as their respective exes, and have each sworn to remain emotionally unattached, ala George Clooney. After becoming good friends the two decide to pursue a physical relationship.

Predictably both characters are damaged; Jamie has daddy issues and Dylan's father (Richard Jenkins) is suffering from Alzheimer's. While Jamie's issues are fairly cliche and not really developed within the story, the inclusion of Dylan's father adds a bittersweet aspect to the film which  helped to ground it in reality just a bit more than your typical romantic comedy. Mr. Harper's condition is not used for comedic relief and the difficulties with a slowly deteriorating memory are showcased in a very relatable manner. Jamie's issues stem from a flighty mom (Patricia Clarkson) who doesn't remember who Jamie's father is. Jamie is your stereotypical quirky emotionally damaged pixie who will break into a building to watch the stars from the rooftop. We've all seen this character before in Garden State and 100 Days of Summer.

This film is very self aware and witty. Much of Jamie and Dylan's interactions involve discussing how life isn't what romantic comedies set you up to think it will be like. There is even a movie within the movie, starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones, showcasing every rom-com cliche you can imagine. This is one of those movies that assumes the viewer is fairly well versed on current pop culture with constant references to music, movies and art that are very "of the moment". The dialogue felt raw enough to be believable without falling into the raunchy for the sake of being raunchy hole.

If you like watching very attractive people in sex scenes than this is the film for you. Seriously, so many sex scenes between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. I will not be rewatching this movie with my mom any time soon. I don't recall there being any real nudity, just plenty of implied nudity and with two stars this attractive who minds? Plus, you get to see Justin Timberlake's "O" face, again.

Now, if I had to choose between Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached I would probably go with Friends With Benefits but that's just because it is more recent in my memory. In reality I don't have to choose, I would recommend both! Friends With Benefits is a solid romantic comedy that is worth the price of a ticket at the theater.

Life Without Cable

Hi, my name is Sara and it has been approximately one month since I have given up cable. I am struggling. Sometimes, I sit and fantasize about what I would be watching if I still had cable. 

Every summer my husband, Kevbo*, and I discuss canceling cable on a trial basis.  Every summer my addiction wins out and we keep it. This summer we actually followed through. Handing over the DVR box was painful, but I'm doing my best to cope with our new cable free reality.

When I say I am addicted to TV, I am not exaggerating. Until Kevbo and I moved in together I fell asleep every night with the TV on. In high school my TV was my alarm clock. I read books with the TV on, even though I obviously have no idea what is playing. I get easily distracted by small noises; the house settling, car doors closing outside or my cat walking up the stairs are all likely to grab my attention. But, when I have the TV playing in the background I am able to ignore all the small noises and I can concentrate on my task. 

When we canceled cable we figured we would be able to subsidize our viewing with Hulu Plus and Netflix streaming. So far we are doing fine with these options during "active" TV viewing time; with the exception of no longer watching The Daily Show before bed we hardly miss cable. Unfortunately, it's the "inactive" cable watching that I am fiending for. For some reason we still get Bravo and the Disney Channel so I have been inactively viewing plenty of Flipping Out, Real Housewives of Wherever, Wizards of Waverly Place and Shake It Up. But, it's just not cutting it. My inactive viewing choices need a certain something that I haven't been able to replicate to my satisfaction without cable.

Seriously, this is what my life has become.

I am going to continue to work on this addiction, but I don't think I will ever be able to actually give cable up permanently. The siren song of the fall season is too strong and I predict that we will be reupping come September.

Am I alone in my constant need for background noise, or are there other addicts like me out there?

In other news we have free passes to see Friends with Benefits tomorrow night, I hope to have a review up by Friday so check back!

*No, his name isn't really Kevbo, that's obviously a nickname.

Mission Icefly

A few weeks back I heard about a viral marketing event that occurred at Bonnaroo this year. During Primus' set the sky was filled with hundreds (thousands?) of blinking blue lights that slowly came to earth. You can see a video here. They ended up being paper helicopters with blue LEDs and a QR code that sent people to Mission Icefly.

I was intrigued, because I like pretty, sparkly and blue, so I immediately signed up to be a "Test Subject" and promptly forgot until I received this in today's mail:

It took me a minute to recall having signed up, but once I did I became less leery of the random black envelope and ripped it open to discover:

My own personal blinking LED helicopter thingy. Interesting...

I did a bit more investigating this afternoon and the Mission Icefly website has been updated with some cities and the following information:

ATTENTION TEST SUBJECTS: Starting at 00:00:00:00:000 we will need one volunteer in each of the listed locations to follow a signal.

Details:
• Bring a mobile phone with you (standard text messaging rates apply)
• You will need to use your online user name from TestSubjectsNeeded.com during the mission (register here in advance)
• Only one package available per location (first come, first served) 

Unfortunately I am not in any of the listed cities, and the countdown ends today, so I will have to sit near my computer and hope that I haven't signed myself up for some bizarre alien experiments. I will be following this thread at unfiction to learn of my possible fate.

Most people tend to believe this is for Wrigley's 5ive brand of gum, so I am guessing I will be fine and in no more harm than a stick of gum could cause.

Update 4pm:

At 3pm the countdown ended and the page became this:

with creepy looping video of a blurry screen and mixed up audio with garbled dialogue and music.

That is, if you could get it to load, apparently the traffic to the site was more than anticipated. Eventually the video/audio version got taken down and a black screen with Orlando and New York City as links to PDFs appeared.

Orlando

NYC

The NYC location was found first and yielded a black envelope containing a key and further directions.

No word yet on when the other cities PDFs will become viewable.

Update 4:30pm

The website was updated just now, Orlando is crossed off and NYC is credited as being found. Chicago, Boston, and Nashville now have PDFs.

The fellow who found the NYC package has added unwrapping photos on yfrog here. It's a black wooden box with "Human Preservation Project" stenciled in white on the lid. Inside is a metal and glass Icefly in a bell jar. Very interesting. I am thinking that the glass Icefly lights up.

Just as I was finishing this update the page was changed again, it now lists all locations, though not all PDFs are available.

Update 5:30pm

Video has been added back to the site and parts of the audio are now comprehendible. I was able to hear "We experience every second...through our selves....who and what we are is..." 

Information on the drops has slowed to a crawl. The Mission Icefly Flickr stream has photos of most of the finders and their Iceflys.

Some people are speculating that as more Iceflys are found, more of the video message becomes unscrambled. For now I am done with the minute to minute checking in, it's getting close to dinner time! I can't wait to come back and see what it all ends up being about! 

Update 10:30pm

Once all the Iceflys were found the official Twitter account for Mission Icefly tweeted:

Within the completely unlocked video single frames revealed that the full, ungarbled video was now posted at survivalcode.com/thegenesis. I first found this website on Twitter and have to admit that I had no clue how it applied to the rescue site when I first visited it, just that is was being tweeted with  #missionicefly.

Love that it features Terry O'Quinn. But now there is a new 14 day countdown....maybe I wont forget between now and then.

Also, check out survivalcode.com. You may still be able to sign up.

So, a little disappointed that the mystery hasn't been solved, but over the course of the day I went from semi interested because they sent me a pretty, flashy, blue thing to seriously now I need to know what this means, and oh yeah will it include more swag please k thanks. 

Bad Teacher

I was lucky enough to score a free pass to go see Bad Teacher this evening. I will go into more detail regarding getting promotional screening passes in a post later on. I love free screenings since they help feed my film addiction for, that's right, FREE! Who doesn't like that?

So, Bad Teacher, not neccesarily a movie I would have shelled out $9 plus to see but, there are very few movies I wouldn't go to if I don't have to pay. By now I am sure you have seen the previews, Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey a teacher who hates teaching but wants a sugar daddy and some new boobs to catch him with. Enter Justin Timberlake as Scott Delacorte a substitute teacher who happens to also be the heir to a luxury watch fortune. The cast includes Jason Segel, John Micheal Higgins, Phyllis Smith, Eric Stonestreet, Thomas Lennon and a surprise (to me at least) appearance by Molly Shannon.

If you enjoyed Diaz in 2002's The Sweetest Thing, then you will appreciate her in Bad Teacher. She plays a similarly raunchy character, although Elizabeth Halsey is much less likeable than Christina Walters. That was my biggest issue with Bad Teacher.  I could not muster any sympathy for Eizabeth Halsey and spent most of the movie trying to figure out how the filmmakers would redeem her character. This is such a rare occurrence in a film with a female lead that I had to step back and think of how I would have felt if given the exact same scenarios with the lead being played by a male. I didn't second guess the lack of character depth while watching The Hangover 2, so why should I let it bother me in Bad Teacher? Even Bridesmaids, which was billed as The Hangover with female leads, spent some time developing the characters.

This is a movie that earned it's R rating. There are boobies and there is swearing and neither tries to not be in your face about it. I personally enjoy gutter mouth Cameron Diaz but some of the dialogue was obviously raunchy for the sake of being raunchy. As far as the situational comedy aspects, this is not a movie that places it's lead in uncomfortable situations for your enjoyment so those of you out there who can't bring yourselves to watch movies in that vein- have no fear!

If you are going to this movie for Justin Timberlake alone, I would advise you to just wait for it to come out on Netflix. This is not a role that allows him to test his acting ability and his screen time is much less than you would expect. You do however get to see his "O" face, and in retrospect that could actually be worth the price of the ticket- but it may not be quite what you are expecting ::wink, wink::. Phyllis Smith plays a role not that much different than Phyllis on The Office, but it's a niche she fills very well. Eric Stonestreet has a small-ish role playing the exact opposite of his character Cameron on The Middle and does well with the limited material. Jason Segel as gym teacher Russell brings a much needed "everyman" character to the otherwise unrelatable cast.

There are no surprises in this story, Elizabeth Halsey's situation predictably progresses and the end wraps everything up in a neat little bow. Overall, I would say wait and watch this one on Netflix.